In his daily press briefing from Rideau Cottage Monday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada’s municipalities will be getting $2.2 billion in infrastructure money this month in a one-time payment. Cities, and the organizations that represent them, have been begging the Federal government for financial help, but this is probably not what they were thinking of exactly. Continue reading “Federal Government Offers Cities Money They Were Going to Get Anyway”
It’s a well-known secret that the COVID-19 pandemic is causing all kinds of complications on the bottom line of businesses and individuals, but it’s also causing streams of red ink for Canada’s cities too. The mayor’s of Ontario’s 29 biggest cities, the Large Urban Mayors’ Caucus of Ontario (LUMCO), are raising the alarm after a meeting today that they need higher levels of government to give them extra help to manage the fiscal blow from coronavirus. Continue reading “LUMCO Looks for Help to Cover COVID-19 Costs”
The members of the Large Urban Mayor’s Caucus of Ontario met again on Friday. With special guests Health Minister Christine Elliott and Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark, the LUMCO mayors heard about the Province’s response to the coronavirus, and then they offered a list of things that they would like to see in the upcoming provincial budget. Continue reading “LUMCO Makes Budget Requests of Government Ministers”
Discussion papers, sign variances, and some new policy directions are up for discussion this month in Committee. 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: Committee of the Whole Meeting for October 7, 2019”
October’s Committee of the Whole meeting will not be as busy as September’s, but it will cover a wide variety of topics including new policy, discussion papers, sign variances, and a presentation from Innovation Guelph. Continue reading “Committee of the Whole Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the October 7 Meeting?”
Just in time for the annual meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario this coming week, the City of Guelph has named the latest addition to its executive staff with Kealy Dedman being promoted as Guelph’s new Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Infrastructure, Development and Enterprise Services. Continue reading “City Engineer Gets a Promotion to the Command Level”
After weeks of advocacy and protest from mayors and city councils across Ontario, Premier Doug Ford announced this morning that cuts to childcare, public health and ambulance services funding will be stopped, at least until the end of the current fiscal year. Continue reading “Ford Government Relents, Puts Some Cuts to Municipalities On Hold”
A meeting of the Large Urban Mayor’s Caucus of Ontario (LUMCO) with Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark today in Guelph seems to have lead to nowhere in term of answering LUMCO’s concerns about funding cuts. At least that’s the impression from a LUMCO statement signed by its chair, Guelph Mayor, Cam Guthrie. Continue reading “LUMCO Still Mad After Meeting with Minister Clark”
After weeks of cuts stemming from the Provincial budget, Premier Doug Ford has decided to take a new tact for municipal finances: we’ll pay you to have auditors find cost savings! Continue reading “Ontario Government Gives Cities More Money… For Audits”
Mayor Cam Guthrie’s role as the chair of the Large Urban Mayor’s Caucus of Ontario (LUMCO) took him to Toronto Tuesday, where he stood in the press room of City Hall next to Mayor John Tory to continue the pushback against Provincial funding cuts. Continue reading “Guthrie Continues LUMCO Advocacy in Toronto”
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