Two more weeks for the stay-at-home order, no more golfing or playgrounds, checkpoints at provincial land borders, all non-essential construction halted, big box retail at 25 per cent capacity max, and no outdoor gatherings with people outside your household. Those are some of the new, more restrictive COVID-19 protection measures announced Friday, but they probably won’t be the most controversial. Continue reading “Ontario Government Closes Playgrounds, Increases Police Powers to Fight COVID”
As the province set a record for the second time this week for the most number of new COVID-19 cases in a single day, Premier Doug Ford took a beating from all opposition parties about his government’s recent action (or inaction depending on your point of view). Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner was among them, and in a statement Thursday he railed against “more game show tactics from Ford.” Continue reading “Schreiner Calls Out “Game Show Tactics” from Ford Government”
Despite progress on vaccine distribution, the Government of Ontario announced Monday afternoon that schools will not being returning to in-person learning after April Break. Premier Doug Ford, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce, and Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams made the call even though barely 24 hours ago they were talking about the opposite. Continue reading “No In-Person School Post-April Break, Says Ontario Government”
A bit of good news in a field of bad was announced on Monday by Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health: By this time on Tuesday, at least one-quarter of the residents in the region will have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Public Health has also announced that pre-registration for a vaccine shot is now open to all people in the region over the age of 16, but it comes on the worst day for new cases since the start of the pandemic. Continue reading “Public Health Opens Pre-Registration to all Adults as Local Cases Hit Record High”
Things must be getting pretty dark when the mayor has to send out a statement on Saturday night asking everyone to take it easy less than a week after the start of a new lockdown. But after days of some businesses threatening to ignore the shutdown, a protest on the same that was piggybacked by the usual anti-mask suspects, and a general sense of tiredness from COVID-19 restrictions, the mayor had to say something. Continue reading “Guthrie Says Relax as Businesses Gets Antsy About Another Lockdown”
The City of Guelph puts 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: No Walking Tours, No Grads, But You Can Still Clean and Green”
This month’s Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Board of Health meeting took place in the immediate shadow of a new stay-at-home and State of Emergency order from the Government of Ontario. In this Twitter thread covering the meeting, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Nicola Mercer and her staff explained the decision making behind the cancellation of in-person learning at area schools, and the progress of the region’s vaccination efforts. Continue reading “RECAP: Board of Health Hears Update as Pandemic Rapidly Changes Again”
After several days of sustained pressure, and an increasing number of new daily COVID-19 cases, the Government of Ontario finally bowed to the demands of doctors and public health workers around the province and issued a stay at home order. As of 12:01 am on Thursday, Ontario will be under its third state of emergency order since the start of the pandemic in a last ditch effort to get the virus, and its variants, under control. Continue reading “Submitting to Pressure, Ontario’s Going Back Under State of Emergency”
The State of the City is hosted annually by the Chamber of Commerce, a chance for businesses to network with each other, talk about what they’re doing, and then hear from the mayor about the latest selling points of the city from 1 Carden Street. This year, there was the usual positive spin, but the long shadow of COVID was everywhere, so what is the State of the City according to the mayor? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #268 – The State of Pandemic in the City”
It was the news nobody wanted to hear on an Easter Monday, everyone was going back to school on Tuesday to stay home again on Wednesday. On Monday night, the two local school boards and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health all announced their intention to cease in-person learning after Tuesday, for two weeks, as the province struggles with a rapid increase in new COVID cases from the third wave. Continue reading “Guelph Schools Stop In-person Learning as Local Infection Rate Doubles”
Guelph Politico 