We’re coming up on the end of the first year of the Ford government’s second term, and it’s been a highly consequential year if you work in one of Ontario’s 444 municipalities. At times, it felt like there was an announcement every week about some change to how cities conduct oversight or run their own planning processes. It’s enough to make you ask, “what will happen next?” and last week we got the answer. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #374 – The Problem (?) With Government”
Ontario farmers are expressing their concern about the Ontario government’s latest proposal to supercharge the development of housing. It’s called Bill 97 – the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act – and while that sounds like it has nothing to do with farming, there is a caveat in the legislation that has farmers concerned. Something they say will accelerate the loss of precious farmland in Ontario. Continue reading “Farm Groups Have Concerns About Bill 97 Leading to Land Loss”
This month’s planning meeting was probably always going to be a controversial affair, but, as it turned out, making a decision about a 23-storey tower at the corner of Wyndham and Wellington is something council didn’t have to worry about… for now. Instead, council had to find a new source of friction and boy was it delivered thanks to a staff report about the Ontario government’s decision on the latest Official Amendment. Continue reading “This Week at Council: Official Plan Decision Debate Takes Over Planning Meeting”
City council is proud to present this month’s planning meeting. 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 May 9, 2023”
May’s planning meeting was all set to be a contentious affair, 23-storey contentious. But you know what? Never mind. See more details about that below, and also see details about the next building in the heritage planners’ list of buildings to save, the effects of Bill 23 on the Building Code, and, at last, a full discussion about the impacts of the provincial changes to the City’s primary planning document. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the May 9 Meeting?”
This has been an exceptionally busy week for the City of Guelph’s planning department. As the staff were getting for the final approval of the new Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw this week – the first update in nearly 30 years, remember – the Government of Ontario dropped their decision on Official Plan Amendment #80, the latest version of Guelph’s Official Plan. It never rains, but it pours! Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #369 – What’s the Deal with OPA 80?”
It’s 2019 all over again! That’s how Guelph MPP and Green Party leader Mike Schreiner described the situation at Queen’s Park during his most recent appearance on Open Sources Guelph. It’s been a very busy first few months for the new Ontario Legislature, and as we close 2022, Schreiner has notes about Bill 23, Doug Ford’s leadership style, and whether or not he’s going to change team colours. Continue reading “On OSG, Schreiner Calls Out Ford Policies as “Dangerous” and “Unnecessary””
What a year! Perhaps you don’t need to be told, but from this side of the computer it was a very busy news year indeed. For the last 11-and-a-half months it’s felt like not a day’s gone by without some major breaking news, or another new development in long-term stories as our community absorbed one challenge after another. From new maps to new councils, and from election changes to changing issues, let’s count off the Top 10 Guelph news stories for 2022! Continue reading “Top 10 Guelph News Stories for 2022”
Christmas came early for the Ministry of Education as they’ve achieved another deal with a group of education workers. The rare Sunday news comes from the Ontario Council of Educational Workers (OCEW), a collection of unions representing thousands of education workers in schools around the province, who have now reached a tentative agreement with the Ontario government after a days-long stretch of bargaining. Continue reading “ON Gov Achieves New Deal with Another Group of Education Workers”
Don’t call them New Year’s Resolutions! Having said that, with our busy election year finally out of the way, I’ve been looking at ways to bring new, better, more interesting, and better packaged political news from this site to all its dozens of readers. So below are five things that you can expect from Guelph Politico and its various appendages once we flip over the calendar to 2023. Continue reading “Things to Look Forward to With Guelph Politico in 2023”
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