It’s the end of the month again, and that means it’s time for the regular meeting of city council. It may look like a short agenda, but looks can be deceiving, and this could be a long night with the return to the topic of downtown patios. Plus, there will be an additional motion that might see our local council back the near universal request to establish province-wide universal sick days. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the March 29 Meeting?”
Times have been tough for seniors over the last year. COVID-19 has hit them especially hard, and even now with the vaccine rollout and some signs of recovery, the burden of this pandemic is still disproportionately falling on them. Seniors have a lot of concerns, so who better to hear them than Canada’s Minister of Seniors Deb Schulte, who took part in a virtual roundtable discussion with Guelph seniors’ groups Wednesday. Continue reading “Federal Minister Hears Concerns from Local Seniors”
Outside of the City of Guelph or Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, it’s hard to think of a group that’s been more entwined with the day-in/day-out issues of COVID-19 than the Guelph Family Health Team. From testing to vaccination, the Family Health Team has been in the thick of it through the pandemic, and one year later it seems timely to get some insight from behind the scenes. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #265 – COVID-19: One Year Later…”
Like how the Victoria Road Recreation Centre was once the location of the local COVID-19 assessment centre, the West End Community Centre is now a mass vaccination site. On Tuesday, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health opened the doors to their newest vaccine clinic set up in one of the two ice rinks at the rec facility on Imperial Road, part of their plan to make it easier to give out an increased number of jabs as more vaccine becomes available. Continue reading “Public Health Says They’re Ready to Scale Up on COVID Shots, Just Need More Doses”
They said not to take “hugs over masks” literally, but there was one guy on the corner soliciting hugs. They said it wasn’t an anti-mask protest, but at one point a speaker stopped everything to burn a mask before the cheering crowd. The messages were mixed, but the messaging was as plain as day. The anti-mask movement landed in St. George’s Square Sunday afternoon attracting around 50 people, mostly maskless, all eager to deflect from the reality of the situation. Continue reading “Conspiracy Theories and Science Denial on Display Downtown at “COVID is Over” Rally”
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: Pandemic News, Newcomer Help, and Snow Plow Names”
There was a lot of good news this week about the rollout of vaccines, but on Friday it was clear that there’s still some work that needs to be done to get us to the end of the pandemic. On Friday, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health announced that they are updating mask requirements to address the growing concerns of variants, while also trying to assuage doubts about the efficacy the latest vaccine. Continue reading “Public Health Changing Mask Orders, Still Promoting AstraZeneca”
Thursday will mark the one-year anniversary of the declaration of a pandemic by the World Health Organization, a declaration that will remain in place until the majority of people are vaccinated for COVID-19. That effort is proceeding carefully, but there is cause for a bit more optimism today as Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health is now taking names for the next phase of the vaccine rollout, and getting their lines jammed in the process.
Continue reading “Public Health Opens Vaccine Pre-Registration for Phase 2 Groups”
Exactly one week from today, it’s the one-year anniversary of the declaration of a state of emergency in Ontario. The days leading up to March 17, 2020 were the first test of our collective mental health, watching the number of COVID cases steadily increase until things started locking down. But the struggles didn’t end last March, and they show no signs of abating this current month even though the end of the pandemic may be near. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #264 – Step Up and Do Better”
Municipal governments, including the City of Guelph, have been keeping up the pressure against the upper levels of government, and have been demanding more fiscal assistance to combat the negative effects of COVID-19 on the local bottom line. On Thursday, the Government of Ontario opened their own pockets to offer assistance, and they challenged the Federal government to be equally generous. Continue reading “Ontario Government Announces More Money for Municipalities”
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