Since last week’s incendiary report on the state of five long term care homes in Ontario as observed by the Canadian Forces, the Province has taken over management of six long-term care homes, and now they’ve added a seventh. This new home is up the road in Kitchener where St. Mary’s Hospital is taking over Forest Heights Long Term Care, where over 200 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed. Continue reading “Province Orders Change in Management for 7th Long Term Care Home”
In his daily press briefing from Rideau Cottage Monday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada’s municipalities will be getting $2.2 billion in infrastructure money this month in a one-time payment. Cities, and the organizations that represent them, have been begging the Federal government for financial help, but this is probably not what they were thinking of exactly. Continue reading “Federal Government Offers Cities Money They Were Going to Get Anyway”
At the Upper Grand District School Board Meeting last Tuesday, a series of meetings about the budget for the 2020/2021 school year were cancelled because the board is still waiting for documents from the Ministry of Education that they need to finalize the budget. With a deadline of June 30 for the final budget to be submitted to the ministry, school boards across Ontario have 30 days to get their financial plans in order even through there are still so many questions that have to be answered. Continue reading “Upper Grand and Wellington Catholic Waiting for Key Docs to Finish 2020/21 Budget”
City council got back to some kind of business as usual in May with the announcement of a new schedule for a slate of meetings to carry us through to September. Will we be allowed to attend these meetings in person by then? Who can say? But for this month we got our COVID update, plus a planning meeting, and a regular meeting of city council. Here’s the recap from May. Continue reading “The Month at Council: COVID Continued and Back to Regular Order”
Whether it’s an event at the River Run Centre, your child’s favourite summer camp, or booking a picnic site in Riverside Park for your family reunion, when it comes to City of Guelph properties, it’s “See you in September” for local amenities and the people. City officials announced today that all scheduled programs, performances, and events at their facilities are cancelled until after Labour Day. Continue reading “City of Guelph Says No Programs, Permits, or Events Till September”
June will bring some adjustment to the new normal in our pandemic times. As promised, the Guelph Public Library will begin curbside pick-up on Monday, and speaking of promises kept, the City of Guelph is also following up on city council’s May 11 decision to create options on city streets and sidewalks to get better social distancing. Continue reading “Library Announces Curbside Pick-Up Deets and City Releases Modified Street Deets”
You may have noticed that there’s a heat wave right now. Typically, this annoyance has a solution for people without air conditioning as they can head to the mall, the library, or a rec centre to enjoy a respite from the heat. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken away that option, but there is one place in the Royal City that is looking to reclaim a space for the public to enjoy the cool once again. At least in time for the next heat wave. Continue reading “Royal City Mission Will Have Cooling Centre in Time for Next Heat Wave”
Council will hold its first planning meeting of the pandemic era. You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here for the Politico preview. For the complete blow-by-blow of today’s council meeting, you can follow along on Twitter, or follow the tweets below. You can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for May 27, 2020”
Mayor Cam Guthrie’s Task Force on Economic Recovery met virtually again on Wednesday with a focus this week on a couple of key areas. On the one hand, the Mayor is looking for local options to get more personal protective equipment, and on the other hand, there are also concerns about the mental well-being of people during this phase of the pandemic. Here’s the latest update about the task force’s activities. Continue reading “Mayor and Task Force Focus on PPE and Mental Health in Third Meeting”
The library is the ideal paradox for the present pandemic: we’re all stuck at home looking for new stuff to read and watch, which is a situation ideally suited for the library, but because of the public health emergency, it is wildly irresponsible to have people visit the library and handle various books, and other things. But good news, we will soon be able to borrow from the library again. How will they do it? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #223 – The Coming of the Curbside Library”
