This week marks the end of the fall legislative session at Queen’s Park, and what a session it’s been! That was essentially the point on Thursday when Guelph MPP and Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner held a press conference to mark the end of the session, and he did not mince words when it came to his appraisal of the first six months of the new Ontario government. Continue reading “Schreiner Looks Back at “Squandered Opportunities” at Queen’s Park This Fall”
Christmas came early for Ontario municipalities who are still struggling with reduced revenue for their transit systems. At an announcement in Brampton today, Premier Doug Ford and Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney announced phase 4 of Safe Restart Funding specifically geared to public transportation systems in 107 Ontario municipalities for this fiscal year. Continue reading “Guelph Gets More Safe Restart Funding for Transit”
Closing the door on an especially contentious negotiating period in the long, sad history of contentious negotiations between education workers and the provincial government, the deal between the Government of Ontario and 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees has been ratified. Out of the 41,559 members that voted, 30,330 – or 73 per cent – have said that they are accepting the deal. Continue reading “CUPE Education Workers Ratify New Deal with Ontario Government”
Stop the presses (not that there are many actual presses anymore), but there’s late breaking news on a Sunday night! Although most places in the province were prepared for job action at their local schools starting Monday, a literal last minute deal between the Ontario Ministry of Education and the negotiating team representing 55,000 education workers has been reached. Continue reading “The Strike is Cancelled! CUPE and ON Gov Reach Agreement!!”
You may have heard about the Government of Ontario’s Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act. Literally introduced the day after the October 24 municipal election, the legislation proposes to change significant portions of municipal planning policy to, in theory, increase the development of housing units. With the first round of feedback about the legislation coming due, the new Guelph city council will assemble to have their say. Continue reading “Emergency Council Meeting to Discuss Impact of Bill 23”
All eyes in Ontario on Friday were on the protests by education workers around the province, so what a good time to make a controversial move on a sensitive area of interest like the Greenbelt. On Friday afternoon, the Government of Ontario launched 30 days of consultation about removing 7,400 acres of land from the edge of the Greenbelt to make room more homes, which is okay, because this is technically a Greenbelt expansion. Continue reading “As Workers Strike, Ford Government Moves on the Greenbelt”
Sometimes it seemed like the honking never stopped along Woolwich Street. On Friday afternoon, as over 100 people demonstrated in front of the constituency office of Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner, almost every other car that drove by honked to show support for the local striking members of the Canadian Union of Public Employee. The takeaway message from the union is that they’ve got the support of the people. Continue reading “Big Support for Local CUPE Workers Demonstrating Outside Schreiner’s Office”
As the hours counted down on Thursday, it was clear that a job action on Friday by the education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) was inevitable despite the Government of Ontario’s attempt to stop it. Despite a lot of action around Queen’s Park Thursday, CUPE workers look to be hitting the picket lines on Friday no matter what happens in the legislature. Continue reading “CUPE Strike Ready to Go Friday As All Sides Hit Impasse”
A spooky surprise this Halloween for education workers in Ontario, especially the ones getting ready to strike this Friday. In a pre-emptive move before the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ deadline for job action this Friday, the Minister of Education has announced Monday that the Ontario government will be forcing the province’s librarians, educations and custodians back to work before they even have a chance to strike. Continue reading “Ontario Government Pre-empts Education Strike, Labour Pissed”
The ground has been broken on another new supportive housing development in Guelph. Approved last summer by council, the Shelldale Cres. project sponsored by Kindle Communities and SkyDev, a subsidiary of Skyline developers, has begun construction after a well-attended ground breaking on Wednesday that also delivered tremendous funding for the project from a variety of sources. Continue reading “Ground Broken on Kindle Communities Project, Plus New Money”
Guelph Politico 