Chair Girl? Meet Table Boy.
Rabbies, work action, and identified falling objects made the news this weekend
Welcome to the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet, a twice-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 on Tuesdays and Fridays.
CUPE is the first teachers union to file a no-board report with the Ontario government. The report starts a countdown to when job action is taken be it a strike or a lockout, and according to CUPE, their locals will be taking strike votes for the next week and will announce the results on September 17. There’s no word from the other public school unions, but the Minister of Education is staying the course with an upbeat attitude. Click here for the Politico story.
A 25-year-old Guelph male was arrested Friday night for mischief endangering life because he’s accused of (checks notes) throwing a glass table from the seventh-floor balcony of an apartment building downtown. One person was hit in the arm by the falling table, but no injuries were suffered. Do we really need to have words about throwing stuff off balconies?
Guelph Police are also investigating a traffic collision on Saturday afternoon when an 89-year-old male on a mobility scooter was struck by an 86-year-old female driver. The man was taken to Guelph General with minor injuries, but this is the second time that a senior in a mobility device has bene struck by a car this year in the city. Cst. Paul Cook is looking for witnesses, and you can reach him at 519-824-1212 extension #7413 or at PCook [at] guelphpolice [dot] ca
The Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Unit found a rabies-positive bat in Rockwood last week, which is the fifth bat that has been found positive with the disease this year. The health unit reminds you that if you find a bat, don’t approach it, and if it looks sick, or is acting strangely, *definitely* don’t approach it. Instead, call the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative at 1-866-673-4781 or the Guelph Humane Society at 519-824-3091. Also, if your pet is not up-to-date on their rabies vaccines, get thee thus.
Meanwhile, there’s an election coming. For all the latest coverage of the 2019 Federal Election from the Guelph angle, you can go directly to that Politico page by clicking here.
Also in the News…
A politics professor from Western University is the latest person to throw their hat in the ring for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Ontario. Kate Graham ran as the Liberal candidate in the riding of London North Centre in 2018 but came in third place behind NDP Terence Kernaghan and PC Susan Truppe. Graham joins four other candidates including current MPPs Michael Coteau and Mitzie Hunter, former Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca, and former political staffer Alvin Tedjo. A poll done by CityNews and 680 News last month found that the Provincial Liberals are tied with the PCs for popular support.
Lisa MacLeod, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport for the Ontario government, took advantage of the stage at the Toronto International Film Festival to announce a $350,000 grant for film and television training activities at the Canadian Film Centre. Notable alums of the CFC include actor/director Sarah Polley (Away From Her), feature filmmaker Vincenzo Natali (Splice) and TV producer Stephen Williams (Lost).
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ICYMI: The latest edition of Plastic Free News, Guelph Politico’s weekly round up of environmental and climate change news is now available for you to peruse here.
The Terry Fox Run is this weekend, and a couple of years ago, Guelph Politico revisited the media coverage of when Fox ran through town on his Marathon of Hope. You can read the retrospective here.
RECAP - Planning Meeting.
Statutory Planning Meeting for Proposed Zoning Bylaw Amendment for 167 Alice St. – The application is looking to rezone a property to allow for the construction of two other single-detached dwellings on the site. Potential contamination on the property coming from an old Esso site just to the south must be dealt with too, but the only neighbourhood delegate to come to council gave the project his approval. Ward 1 Councillor Bob Bell asked that the project limit height on the new buildings to two-storeys to match the character of the area.
Statutory Public Meeting to Initiate an Official Planning Amendment for the Commercial Policy Review. – This will initiate the process of creating an OPA to cover the goals of the review, in which there are a number of changes to accelerate commercial development at key nodes, and ensure that the city has enough retail space to meet future needs. Much of the discussion focused on the proposed cap to initiate a site review of commercial space. The planning consultant for the owners of the plaza at Willow and Dawson are concerned that the OPA will affect their plans to redevelop that site, and the consultant doing the redevelopment of Stone Road Mall warned that any mall or plaza that just loses an anchor tenant like Sears or Target could trigger the 25 per cent cap. Another issue was Loblaw, who warned that the proposed minimum floor space was too big for their business plan, but Mayor Cam Guthrie said that if Loblaw thinks a new east end supermarket will be under-utilized, then they should see his inbox.
Brownfield Redevelopment Financial Incentives for 71 Wyndham St S and Redevelopment Incentive Grant for 120 Huron Street – Councillor Dominique O’Rourke and Mayor Guthrie got some clarity on how these grants work, and what the effect on the bottom line will be.
You can scan the full recap of Monday’s meeting on Politico here.
September 16 – Special Council Meeting. So the good news is that the dire reports from July (here and here) have not come to pass, and it seems that the City took criticism of undermining the plans for the new main branch of the library to heart. Still, there are some hurdles for the project to get over, not the least of which is the impact of Bill 108 and the new limitations to building parking. Click here to read the full preview.
If you want to register as a delegate for any of these items on the Council agenda, then you have to get in touch with the City Clerk’s office by 10 am on Friday September 13.
Also coming up at City Council:
September 23 – Regular Council Meeting. The agenda for this meeting comes out on Thursday.
October 7 – Committee of the Whole. Items from the Infrastructure, Development and Enterprise agenda will be discussed.
October 16 – Planning Meeting. Special Wednesday meeting because of Thanksgiving.
Reminder: There’s a Ward 2 Town Hall with Councillors James Gordon and Rodrigo Goller at Brant Ave Public School, 64 Brant Ave, this Saturday at 1:30 pm. Check out the Facebook post here.
The United Way of Guelph Wellington is kicking off its annual campaign this Thursday morning with a pancake breakfast at Royal City Evangelical Missionary Church, 50 Quebec St, at 7:30 am. You can get tickets here, and there’s a recommended $5 donation for breakfast.
Noted Indigenous author Edmund Metatawabin will be speaking at the weekly lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Guelph on Friday September 24 at 12:15 pm to talk about his new novel Up Ghost River, and his first-hand experience with the horrors of the Residential School system. For tickets, contact Dianne Dance at dd103074 [at] gmail [dot] com or text her at 519-741-6291 by September 24. Admission is $20 at the door for those that pre-register.
Coming up this week on the GuelphPoliticast, we’re taking a trip slightly to the left of Guelph to Cambridge. There’s a lot of movie and TV production going on in Cambridge, and now they might literally be awarded for it thanks to The Handmaid’s Tale. So this week, we’ll hear about why filming in Cambridge is so hot right now with Handmaid’s Tale location manager Anne Richardson, and the Cambridge Film Office’s Devon Hogue.
Get the latest edition of the GuelphPoliticast on Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, tune in to CFRU at 2 pm for another episode of End Credits. This week we’re finally back with an all-new episode of the show, and to start the fall, Peter Salmon will be joining to review the horror sequel IT Chapter 2. Plus we’ll talk about the summer at the movies, new profiles of some of your favourite actors, and a couple of new movie trailers.
Then, Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU, it’s another all-new edition of Open Sources Guelph. Scotty Hertz and I will discuss about the harassment of politicians, the results of the Manitoba election, the cancelled Trump/Taliban talks, and we’ll preview the Federal Election (if it hasn’t already started by Thursday).
Listen to all these shows any time by subscribing to the Guelph Politicast channel on your favourite podcast app at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.
This Friday is a Friday the 13th(!) and in my side hustle as a contributor to Nightmare on Film Street, I will be counting off 13 well-known scary movies that came out on Friday the 13th.
Some Guelph Politico stories in the ether: the politics and practicalities of regional transit, the “Silver Tsunami” facing the municipal sector, and the annual commemoration of Take Back the Night.
Is there an angle or issue that you want to see covered in the Federal Election. Feel free to reach out.
And finally, feel free to reach out to be by email at adamadonaldson [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on Facebook, Twitter, and, of course, GuelphPolitico.ca!