RECAP: Guthrie Tells Chamber to Just Say “No” to More Provincial Downloading at Budget Breakfast

On Thursday morning, Mayor Cam Guthrie and Chief Administrative Officer Tara Baker took part in the second annual budget breakfast with the Guelph Chamber of Commerce. If you’ve been following along, there was maybe not a lot of new information about the budget itself, but there was some new commentary from the mayor especially about provincial priorities and why the City of Guelph and other municipalities need more help from Queen’s Park. You can dig into the full recap below! Continue reading “RECAP: Guthrie Tells Chamber to Just Say “No” to More Provincial Downloading at Budget Breakfast”

RECAP: Mayor Touts City Resilience and Future Concerns at State of the City

The 2025 State of the City event at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre is one of the first big community events of the year gathering folks from the business community, area non-profits and government reps and staff. Last year, Mayor Cam Guthrie used is a platform to announce his about face on Strong Mayor Powers, so we enter this year’s speech with some questions about what he might do now…. Which are answered in this recap! Continue reading “RECAP: Mayor Touts City Resilience and Future Concerns at State of the City”

GUELPH POLITICAST #451 – The State of the City 2024

The 2025 State of the City is coming up soon – Thursday February 6 to be precise – and as we always do at this time of year, we’re going to roll the audio from the previous year’s State of the City as a refresher course. The goal is to remember where we were at the time, where the mayor wanted to take us, and where we ended up now before Mayor Cam Guthrie starts looking to the future again! Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #451 – The State of the City 2024”

GUELPH POLITICAST #447 – The Strong Mayor Year (feat. Cam Guthrie)

What do you think this year will be remembered for in the annals of Guelph history? Will it be the debate over the Public Space Use Bylaw? Was it the announced closure of the consumption and treatment site downtown? Was it when the mayor re-opened the 2025 budget to try and shave off two-thirds of the proposed levy increase? In any event, all roads lead back to one place, or rather, one person. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #447 – The Strong Mayor Year (feat. Cam Guthrie)”

This Week at Council: Heritage, Integrity and Budget in 24 Hours or Less!

Three meetings in 24 hours! It kind of sounds like a gimmick, but that’s the way the schedule shook out this past week with the continuation of the November 13 planning meeting, the regular meeting of council and then the budget confirmation meeting. There were some interesting new developments, some predictable hiccups, and at least one big surprise, and capturing it all is this week’s council recap post… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Heritage, Integrity and Budget in 24 Hours or Less!”

RECAP: City Council Meeting for November 27, 2024

The 2025 budget will reach its finale today! Or not… 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 “RECAP: City Council Meeting for November 27, 2024”

This Week at Council: The People Have Budget Thoughts Too

This week was budget delegation night, and while that’s always a busy occasion, this one was even busier. Blame the Strong Mayor Powered budget and some of the things cut or delayed, which got a great many community members very concerned about potentially lost opportunities, but before all that stuff, some unfinished business! A very special meeting of council was convened to take care of some labour matters. Here’s the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: The People Have Budget Thoughts Too”

RECAP: City Council Meeting for November 19, 2024

Two meetings in one this week! You can click here and here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here and 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 “RECAP: City Council Meeting for November 19, 2024”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 27, 2024 Meeting?

And we reach the grand finale of this year’s budget confirmation process, or we don’t. This could be the end of the budget process, but on the other hand there might be vetos and the repeal of vetos, but those are problems for another day. This day is about amendments, councillors will be able to finally have their day and amend the now confirmed 2025 budget, and that’s where the proverbial fun begins. This preview will show us where we start from… Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 27, 2024 Meeting?”

RECAP: Guthrie Finds Praise and Friction in Final Budget Town Hall

Sure, it was Friday night, but it seemed like one of the hottest ticket in town (not that there were tickets) was the final budget town hall with Mayor Cam Guthrie. The mayor wanted to share some positive feedback about his efforts in a Waterloo Region newspaper, but there were a lot of people in attendance who still have concerns about the budget from transit, to homelessness, to accessibility and oversight. For the last time this cycle, let’s dig into the recap! Continue reading “RECAP: Guthrie Finds Praise and Friction in Final Budget Town Hall”