Housing. It’s an easy problem to diagnosis but it’s a hard problem to solve it seems, and that has seems to have stopped the Government of Ontario from even trying. Cabinet ministers have probably been getting an earful about that this week at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, but there’s one member at Queen’s Park that still hasn’t given up, and you will never guess who… Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #Repeat – Mike’s Homes (feat. Mike Schreiner)”
It’s been a very consequential seven months of council. Meeting after meeting, the mayor and our 12 city councillors have had to dispatch some big issues, make some big decisions, and find some out of the box solutions at times. So given the stakes so far in 2024, perhaps it’s okay if council had a nice, quick and easy last meeting before the usual August summer vacation. Here’s the (brief) recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: Over and Out for the Summer”
Tonight, it’s the epic midseason finale of city council. 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 July 23, 2024”
The housing and affordability issues are massive, and to think that one action at one level of government is going to have a measurable impact is not understand that. This week at city hall, Guelph council will talk about proceeding with a tiny homes encampment, but that’s one finger in one hole of a dam that needs a lot of repairs. Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #427 – The Squeeze”
One more meeting before council takes the rest of the summer off, and in the best tradition of the last day before summer vacation, it looks like a pretty light agenda. Council will get one more chance to weigh in on the Committee of the Whole agenda, but only after a lengthy closed session with multiple topics of interest. So without further ado, let’s just get into the cliffhangers in this mid-season finale of city council. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the July 23 Meeting?”
Just a few more meetings to go before council and council watchers can enjoy summer vacation, but there’s still a lot of important stuff to wrap our heads around before that needed time off. At this month’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Wednesday there was new moves to protect heritage and make an impact on light pollution, but the big news was around whether we should take park land and use if for housing. Here’s the recap… Continue reading “This Week at Council: No Walk in the Parks”
A little later than usual, but we’re starting the month with Committee of the Whole. 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 July 3, 2024”
Our daily news is overflowing with stories about the breadth of the housing crisis, and governments are responding with new measures and funding, but these actions are based in a system that wasn’t designed to handle a problem this massive, or this complicated. This partially explains why nothing we’ve tried so far has had the impact we’ve wanted, so do we truly understand homelessness on a systemic level? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #425 – Understanding Homelessness (feat. Dr. Erin Dej)”
A lot of municipal policy is going to come to a head at July’s Committee of the Whole meeting. From demolition by neglect to light pollution to lobbying, there’s a lot to cover in what is appropriately the mid-season finale of the 2024 year at council, and that includes the biggest issue of all, the housing crisis. So for the last time before summer vacation, this is what’s on the committee agenda this month… Continue reading “Committee of the Whole Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the July 3, 2024 Meeting?”
Pomp was in the air of the courtyard at Guelph City Hall Thursday morning. The special guest was Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra, and the order to the day was celebrating Guelph’s success on housing starts in 2023. The what was a giant novelty cheque, a symbol of the very real award for Guelph starting construction on 1,287 new housing units last year, nearly $4.7 million in “reward” money! Continue reading “Calandra Touts Guelph Housing Success with Novelty Cheque (But Real Money)”
Guelph Politico 