By the Mail Moonlight

Four weeks later, and we're hurting the libraries now.

Welcome to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet, a thrice-a-week newsletter meant to “tip” you off about some of the important stuff going on in the Royal City. It arrives directly in your inbox now on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.

Santa Claus came to town.

Two pedestrians were hurt, one seriously, on Friday morning in a collision near Woolwich and Division. It was one of eight different collisions in 24 hours as Guelph got its first blast of winter weather for the season.

Guelph/Eramosa Township Mayor Chris White is now the Warden of Wellington County.

For the 12th time in the last 17 months, the emergency department at Louise Marshall Hospital was closed this past weekend.

Activists in KW are concerned about the fate of an encampment at 100 Victoria Street now that plans are formally underway to build the new Kitchener Central Transit Hub.

Whooping cough cases in Ontario for 2024 are now the highest they’ve been since 2007.

Patrick Brown testified to a House committee that he believes foreign interference had no impact on the Conservative leadership race that elevated Pierre Poilievre to the party’s helm.

The WDG Public Health COVID-19 dashboard says that the rate of emergency room visits from respiratory illnesses is basically unchanged week-over-week; last week it was 17.9 per cent while the week before it was 17.13 per cent. If nothing else, the number of hospital stays from COVID-19 has now gone down to four patients, though there is one additional stay caused by reparatory, which keeps the rate essentially the same. According to the wastewater signal from the University of Guelph, there was a slight 0.01 decrease in COVID-19 results at 0.26, but that’s not the highest signal, which goes to the respiratory B strain at 0.33.

OUTBREAKS: …And just like that, we’ve got more COVID-19 outbreaks. One outbreak at Homewood wrapped up, but it was immediately replaced by another and now there’s new outbreaks at Dufferin Oaks in Shelburne, the Shelburne Retirement Home and the Village of Arbour Trails. Speaking of villages, the outbreak of choice at the Village of Riverside Glen is a respiratory outbreak in the Emma unit. All these outbreaks occurred in first three days of the month.

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Here’s last week’s Police Notes entry.

The stairs at the covered bridge will be closed again this week for repairs.

The inter-library loan system for the Guelph and Wellington library systems is on hold until the end of the Canada Post strike. (No good news about that coming to an end anytime soon, btw.)

The Supreme Court of Canada says that Guelph Police were justified in using a drug dealer’s phone without a warrant due to the urgency of the situation.

Hospice Wellington is once again selling Tree of Remembrance holiday ornaments at Stone Road Mall this Christmas.

Sanguen Health wants to keep all CTSes open to work in concert with the Ontario government’s HART Hubs. Meanwhile, the Health Minister’s response about whether funding for the Hubs would be in place in time for their April launch.

After getting approval to build 271 townhouses on the site, an 11-acre vacant property in Elora is now for sale.

Waterloo Collegiate Institute was closed on Friday because there was no heat in the building.

There was controversy at a holiday market in Toronto after several people objected to a vendor selling A.I.-generated Christmas cards next to handmade goods and crafts.

The Ontario Labour Board says that the provincial government did not unlawfully lock out engineers working to rule by warning some about not coming back to work until a new collective agreement was reached.

Honourary Lieutenant-Colonel Lee Anne Quinn is not dead despite what a memorial in Trenton to fallen soldiers says.

Coming up this week on the Guelph Politicast, we’re talking to Stephen Robinson and Jack Mallon from the heritage planning department at the Cit of Guelph. It’s not the biggest planning issue, but it’s one that has a lot of attention whether you’re thinking about protecting the OR Lands or the lovely century home in your neighbourhood. With so many opinions, and so much pressure on beloved heritage assets, how are Guelph’s heritage staff managing in the middle?

Get the latest edition of the Guelph Politicast on Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, tune in to CFRU at 3 pm for another episode of End Credits. This week, Tim Phillips co-hosts as take a look at the glamour and body horror of taking an experimental drug to create a younger version of yourself to live the life you want to lead in Coralie Fargeat’s gruesome and fascinating new film, The Substance. We will also talk about some of the movie trends and film news stories that have helped us make sense of this weird, unusual year of cinema.

Listen to all these shows any time by subscribing to the Guelph Politicast channel on your favourite podcast app at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

The latest Guelph Little Theatre production, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, continues through Sunday December 15.

The Spirit of the Season will continue in Downtown Guelph through Sunday December 15.

The City is hosting a Downtown Renewal open house tonight from 6 to 8 pm at city hall.

The Waste Resource Innovation Centre Public Liaison Committee will meet virtually on Tuesday December 10 at 7 pm.

Registration for winter recreation programs starts on Wednesday December 11 at 7:30 am online, by phone and in-person at the Victoria Road and West End Community Centres.

The next virtual meeting of the Municipal Property and Building Commemorative Naming Committee will be on Wednesday December 11 a 5 pm.

The Guelph Police Services Board will meet again on Thursday December 12 at 12:30 pm. You will be able to watch it on the Guelph Police YouTube channel.

Committee of Adjustment will meet in-person in the council chambers and online on Thursday December 12 at 3 pm.

The Public Art Advisory Committee will meet again on Thursday December 12 at 5 pm in the meeting room at Guelph Civic Museum. (The agenda will be posted soon on the City’s website.)

The next Green Drinks will focus on Cycling Tourism with Vanessa Hyland at the Red Chevron Club on Thursday December 12 at 7:30 pm.

The next general meeting of the Grand River Conservation Authority is on Friday December 13 at 9:30 am at the GRCA Administration Centre and on the GRCA YouTube channel.

Sparkles in the Park will run this year at Riverside Park from Saturday December 14 till New Year’s Eve.

The next hybrid meeting of the Accessibility Advisory Committee is on Tuesday December 17 at 3 pm. (The agenda will be posted soon on the City’s website.)

The Evergreen Seniors’ Centre will host their Festive Dinnerfac on Wednesday December 18 at 11 am.

#Fair

Finally, feel free to reach out to me by email at adamadonaldson [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, GuelphPolitico.ca.