GUELPH POLITICAST #471 – The Year at Council So Far Part 1 (January-April)

This week Guelph city council is taking a holiday break, and perhaps understandably, because it has been a very busy year in the chambers so far. The first four months of the year brought a lot of change, a lot of drama, and some pretty big decisions that tested the fiscal and political capacity of a rapidly growing Ontario city. Now, we will pause and take stock of just how far we’ve come so far… Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #471 – The Year at Council So Far Part 1 (January-April)”

This Week at Council: Taxi Questions and More Tree Talk

Just when you thought that the debate about the Private Tree Bylaw was over, it’s not! Although there was a lot of discussion about that at Committee of the Whole earlier this month, some haggling about how big a tree needs to be to save it, there was some attempted re-calibration this week. In other news, council discussed a matter that forced them to reckon with the divide between city hall and Guelph’s disabled community. Here’s the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: Taxi Questions and More Tree Talk”

RECAP: City Council Meeting for April 23, 2025

Back at it after a week off and a holiday weekend break! 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 “RECAP: City Council Meeting for April 23, 2025”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the April 23, 2025 Meeting?

Since Committee of the Whole this month landed on April Food’s Day, we can think of the regular council meeting as a late Easter treat. The treat though is that the main focus of this meeting is on the consent agenda from the earlier Committee of the Whole meeting, but there is a new item in the form of administrative business on a grant from the provincial government. Looks like any controversy will have to be a surprise because this is the agenda! Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the April 23, 2025 Meeting?”

This Week at Council: More Drill Hall Drama, and Seeing Trees

Sparing you the April Fool’s joke (at least in the intro), we arrive at the first meeting of April. Naturally, here at the end of the first quarter, we get into some financial matters as financial staff reviewed debt and debentures. And speaking of drains on the spreadsheets, council once again dug into the question of what to do about the Drill Hall, plus there were also some questions about how many trees that council can save. Get all the details in the recap! Continue reading “This Week at Council: More Drill Hall Drama, and Seeing Trees”

RECAP: Committee of the Whole Meeting for April 1, 2025

April Fools! It’s time for this month’s Committee of the Whole 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 “RECAP: Committee of the Whole Meeting for April 1, 2025”

Committee of the Whole Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the April 1, 2025 Meeting?

April showers brings Committee of the Whole. No fooling, this meeting will have some pretty big financial implications, and some pretty small ones as well when the horseshoe tackles development debt, new development arrangements, and the final update to a tree bylaw, plus the future of the Drill Hall will be determined. Again. For the last time(?). Let’s dig into what to expect at your first council meeting on the first day of the month! Continue reading “Committee of the Whole Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the April 1, 2025 Meeting?”

This Week at Council: It Was a Gas!

It was just going to be a quick meeting, 10 minutes in and out max, but a funny thing happened between that time and when the agenda was released a few weeks ago. Mostly, a couple of councillors wanted to have their say about more provincial overreach, in this case when it comes to how Queen’s Park is looking to override the Ontario Energy Board. So did council lay the smack down, and how many of them wanted no part of it? Read on… Continue reading “This Week at Council: It Was a Gas!”

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for March 26, 2024

One more meeting for this March calendar! You can click here for the amended agendas 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 March 26, 2024”

City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the March 26 Meeting?

We come again to the end of the month and the regular council meeting. It’s been a pretty laid back month compared to last, and this meeting’s agenda fits that theme as council will revisit the very uncontroversial Committee of the Whole agenda, and then add another matter about whether not council should support the idea of subsidizing new pipelines. So let’s get into a very issues-oriented, nerds only kind of agenda. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the March 26 Meeting?”