A town hall meeting for downtown businesses and building owners at Guelph City Hall on Monday was meant to highlight a rapid pace of change in the city’s centre since the new board of the Downtown Guelph Business Association took over last December. While that was informative, the members themselves still had a lot of concerns, from safety to the current status of the organization itself, and sometimes it got testy. Continue reading “Downtown Town Hall Shares Good News, Shows Divisions”
The City of Guelph, and it’s various partners and agencies, put out a lot of information on a weekly basis, and while it all ends up on the City’s website somewhere, wouldn’t it be easier to just scroll through it all on one easy-to-read article on Guelph Politico here…? Continue reading “CITY PAGES: More Funding for CHC, Laptop Re-Use, Record Breaking Funds for Hospital”
We’ve got one more month of meetings before the start of the annual summer break, and it’s going to be a pretty busy month. To kick off July, city council will be looking to the future a new strategic plan, a new e-scooter bylaw, new performance goals for paramedics, and a permanent version of the seasonal patio program. And before all that, council will have a brief in-camera talk about other business. Continue reading “Committee of the Whole Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the July 5 Meeting?”
The Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has announced the extension of Strong Mayor Powers to 26 municipalities including Guelph effective July 1st 2023. Previously only Toronto and Ottawa mayors had these powers. Continue reading “OP-ED: Strong Mayor Powers “Unacceptable”, Even as a “Tool””
After 20 years of fits and starts, approvals and renegings, several different proposals and at least three business cases, the ground was finally broken for the new main library project, which is at the heart of the Baker District Redevelopment. On the recently cleared ground of what was once the Baker Street parking lot, councillors, City senior leadership, and library board and staff members stuck their ceremonial shovels in the ground to start the project. For real. Continue reading “Pigs Fly! Ground is Finally Broken on New Main Library (and the Rest of the Baker Project)”
This was a busy week at city council and it was four meetings long. There was the usual planning meeting, which went by in a way that was largely free of controversy. Less than 24 hours later, council got together again for a triple header, first to receive the audited financial statements from the last fiscal year, and then back-to-back shareholder meetings about energy and trains respectively. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Planning and Shareholding in Four Parts”
The City of Guelph, and it’s various partners and agencies, put out a lot of information on a weekly basis, and while it all ends up on the City’s website somewhere, wouldn’t it be easier to just scroll through it all on one easy-to-read article on Guelph Politico here…? Continue reading “CITY PAGES: Firefighter Deal, Vape Feedback, and New Construction”
It’s the end of June, and this agenda certainly feels like it’s the last day of classes before summer vacation. Granted, there are still a bunch of meetings coming in July, but you’re looking for something new and exciting on this agenda, it appears that all you have is the stuff already talked about at Committee of the Whole. Can we find new controversy to exploit, or will this meeting be brief? Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the Meeting on June 27?”
This meeting is all in the 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 “LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for June 13, 2023”
It was a long afternoon and evening in June at Committee of the Whole. After a couple of months with some shorter agendas, it seemed like everything came home to roost this month with a massive agenda under the Governance service area including procedural updates, the Strategic Plan annual report and the last (?) you’ll hear from the Smart Cities Office. Also, there’s a lot of work coming soon in Downtown Guelph. Let’s recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Non-Stop Governance and Downtown’s Future”
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