City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 12 Meetings?

Your holiday gift? These are the last two city council meetings of 2023! This business is not unimportant and begins with a bit of unusual scheduling, the regular meeting of city council. After that, council will hold the monthly planning meeting, which will feature two decision reports and a new application. After that, we’ll get the biggest gift all: Three weeks off before the next city council meeting! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 12 Meetings?”

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for November 29, 2023

It’s time for the last word about the budget! You can click here for the amended agendas 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 November 29, 2023”

This Week at Council: Planning is Easy, Budget is Hard

Two meetings at council this week; one was easy and the other was somewhat harder. The easy one was the planning meetings, some straightforward applications and designations, but the hard one had to do with the budget. The added workshop meeting about finding options to reduce the budget was predictably difficult, but there’s still a few more days until a final decision has to be made. For now, here’s the recap of this week’s meetings… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Planning is Easy, Budget is Hard”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 29 Meeting?

After a solid month of hard work and preparation, the moment for hard decisions has arrived. At this special meeting of council, the horseshoe will walk though the minefields of affordability and need in order to reach a decision on the 2024-2027 multiyear budget that’s unlikely going to please anyone. Let’s lay it all out on the table with this preview of what may not actually be the final budget meeting (if a certain someone uses a “V” word). Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 29 Meeting?”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 5 Meetings?

Two big meetings back-to-back, united in the fact that there’s only one issue on each of their agendas. The final Committee of the Whole meeting of 2023 will actually look ahead to next year with a brief report, and after that, council will look to the past. Sort of. That Official Plan Amendment that was approved, sent to the Ontario government, rewritten, sent back to council and re-adapted… It’s back again! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the December 5 Meetings?”

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for November 22, 2023

Sick of the budget yet? Hope not! You can click here for the amended agendas 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 November 22, 2023”

This Week at Council: Budget Feedback

Compared to last week, council business this week was light and breezy, but still really on the serious side. This week, it was all about what you, the people, think about the proposed 2024-2027 multiyear budget, and boy were there a wide variety of thoughts. From concerns about cuts to concerns about cost to requests for some changes, there was a lot of new information to cover for the members of council. Here’s the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Budget Feedback”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 22 Meeting?

Surprise! It’s an additional meeting of city council that you didn’t know was going to happen when the month began. Per the request of council themselves, staff have prepared a list of recommendations about further cuts to the 2024-2027 multiyear budget to get the tax burden further down and thus get closer to something more affordable for Guelph residents. Still, will there be an appetite to enact any of the options? Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the November 22 Meeting?”

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for November 15, 2023

At this meeting, we will learn what you think about the budget! You can click here for the amended agendas 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 November 15, 2023”

This Week at Council: Mad Money, Madder Residents

It was a very busy 30 hours at council this week with three meetings. First up, there was Committee of the Whole with one item main item about governance. Next, a special meeting of council that determined the fate of one development, it was a big development but it was still just about the one. And then, speaking of big items, we dug into the 2024-2027 multiyear budget and it’s big tax levy increase. Here’s the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Mad Money, Madder Residents”