February for city council began with a stacked agenda at Committee of the Whole and loads of new information about the Chief Administrative Officer’s 2023 plan, the future of Our Food Future, and the newest iteration of the Operations campus. We also kicked off “Workshop Wednesdays” with a meeting to look at the City’s relationship with long-term care. Continue reading “This Week at Council: CAO Plan, Campus Update, and LTC Workshop”
Shall we discuss long-term care? 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 February 8, 2023”
Taking a break from some of the usual workshop discussion topics like the budget, council procedure, or the Strategic Plan, the spotlight for this workshop will be on long-term care homes. Did you know that the City Guelph oversees a long-term care home called the Elliott Community? The answer to that question is just the beginning of the story at this workshop meeting. Continue reading “City Council Preview – What’s on the Agenda for the February 8 Meeting?”
Affordability has kind of hijacked the priorities this election, but once it would have been possible to see healthcare being the number one issue of the 2022 campaign. From more funding for our overburdened hospitals, getting for-profit companies out of long-term care, and expanding coverage to mental, dental and pharma coverage, nothing throws issues of healthcare under a microscope like a global pandemic! Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #326 – Healthcare: A Pre-Election Podcast”
The pressure on Ontario’s long-term care homes has been enormous since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which is maybe why it’s understandable that there’s been three long-term care ministers in Ontario during that time period. The province’s latest Long-Term Care Minister, Markham-Stouffville MPP Paul Calandra, was in Guelph Friday night to answer some tough questions about his recently acquired portfolio. Continue reading “Calandra Says His Party is Dedicated to Best Possible Long-Term Care”
While the Government of Ontario is easing restrictions for long-term care residents as the Omicron wave seemingly abates, Ontario’s Long-Term Care Minister Paul Calandra announced that a couple of Guelph’s LTC homes are going to have to make room for a few more people. In all, nearly 200 new beds have been approved for three Guelph long-term care homes, in an announcement the mayor calls, “beyond exciting!” Continue reading “ONgov Announces Nearly 200 More Long-Term Care Beds for Guelph”
It’s a cold late Friday afternoon in January, so naturally it’s the perfect time to resign from a high-level provincial cabinet position with a minimum of attention from the media. This must have been the thinking for Rod Phillips, Ontario’s Long Term Care Minister, who posted to social media on Friday that he’s resigning from the Ontario Legislature, and is not running for re-eletion this June. Continue reading “Long-Term Care Minister Phillips Resigns, Won’t Seek Re-Election”
It made sense given the recent trend of new COVID-19 cases, not to mention the fact that there aren’t any rapid tests to be had and we’re now less than a week away from schools re-opening, but Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health was supposed to give a press conference today. Despite the growing cases, and the growing questions, the presser was delayed as Ontarians waits at least another day for pandemic insights. Continue reading “Moore COVID Update Postponed as COVID Cases Go Higher”
In the wake of growing concerns over the Omicron variant, and the increased number of COVID-19 cases, many people thought that Tuesday’s update from Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore was going to make more news than it did. Instead, Moore offered some concern about the stats, but he didn’t really change the game plan for fighting COVID, at least in the short-term. Continue reading “Moore Offers “Precautionary Measures”, No Change in Direction (For Now)”
Around a dozen protestors stood in front of the Edinburgh Road entrance to the St. Joseph’s Health Centre on Saturday over a labour issue. The issue? The long-term care home’s vaccine mandate. Several members of the protest identified themselves as personal support workers now let go from St. Joe’s because they refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Continue reading “St. Joe’s Protestors Say They’re Out of Work Because They Won’t Get Jabbed”
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