This Week at Council: Community Permits and One Big Development

It’s another one of those times when city council schedules two meetings in one 24-hour period. We’ll worry about that second meeting another time, for now we’re all about planning matters, and at the first meeting on this subject this year there was a first look at a major new piece of policy, and a first look at a pretty major new development in the east end. So let’s get into all of that with this week’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Community Permits and One Big Development”

RECAP: City Council Meeting for January 22, 2025

It’s the last budget meeting of the year! Or the first. Depends on how you look at it! 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 this month’s Committee of the Whole meeting, follow the breakdown posted below, and you can also watch the City’s own live-stream of the meeting here. Continue reading “RECAP: City Council Meeting for January 22, 2025”

GUELPH POLITICAST #452 – New Year, New CAO (feat. Tara Baker)

The CAO position is the highest ranking official in local government that doesn’t have the job title of either mayor or city councillor, and it’s the only staff position at city hall that’s hired by a committee made up of the mayor and councillors. So yes, it’s a pretty important job, and it’s not like there’s any shortage of issues or needs for the new woman in charge as she enters her first full year in charge. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #452 – New Year, New CAO (feat. Tara Baker)”

RECAP: City Council Meeting for January 21, 2025

Are you ready to do some planning? 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 January 21, 2025”

This Week at Council: Back to Work!

After a long winter’s break, Guelph city council got back to business with two meetings this past week, one was entirely closed to the public but deeply impactful and the other was Committee of the Whole where some administrative stuff happened. Not irrelevant, that “stuff” included a co-ordinated plan to petition upper levels of government about the issues that matter to Guelph. But for now, what matters is this recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Back to Work!”

RECAP: Committee of the Whole Meeting for January 14, 2025

Have you missed city council recaps? They’re baaaaaaack. 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: Committee of the Whole Meeting for January 14, 2025”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the January 22, 2025 Meeting?

Just when you thought it was safe to put your calculators away… The budget process for 2025 reaches its final phase with this meeting, the presentation and approval of the local boards and shared services budget. These are agencies that are important to Guelphites offering services and programs used everyday, but they are also the budgets that councillors have the least control over. So how much more will you have to pay? Let’s find out… Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the January 22, 2025 Meeting?”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the January 21, 2025 Meeting?

Let’s start planning! For this first planning meeting of 2025, there are three big items on the agenda, one decision and two new proposals including one new piece of planning policy. From a new way to streamline planning processes, to a big new development in the east end, and a heritage demolition that might be substantially less controversial than other recent events, let’s dig into what’s being planned for planning this January. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the January 21, 2025 Meeting?”

GUELPH POLITICAST #450 – The Year at Council (September – December)

Last year was very busy for Guelph City Council, and the last four months of the year were perhaps the busiest. In fact, the business of council has gotten so busy to properly cover it all this “Year in Review” podcast now has to be done in three parts, splitting the year into three near equal sections for over two hours of combined content. So now, at the end, the final part of this trilogy. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #450 – The Year at Council (September – December)”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the January 14, 2025 Meeting?

You will never really see the first Guelph city council meeting of the year… Before Committee of the Whole, there’s going to be a special meeting of council where the horseshoe will meet entirely in-camera on one single topic. Why this special post about a meeting no one will see? Well, there’s some fairly important background on the topic you should keep in mind, and there might be some news about its future needing some context. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the January 14, 2025 Meeting?”