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.
The City of Guelph officially opened the Market Parkade, re-opened Wilson Street and the pedestrian bridge to Northumberland, and revealed all-new public art in a fabulous celebration in Market Square on Saturday. Video and images can be found here.
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark announced at AMO’s fall policy meeting Friday that the Ontario government isn’t going to force amalgamation on any Ontario municipality. Instead, they’ll all get some more money for the great efficiency hunt. Read more here.
Former Ward 2 City Councillor Sean Farrelly passed away quite suddenly Sunday at the age of 63. He served three terms on council from 1994 to 2003 back in the good ole days when council terms were three years instead of four. After his time on council, Farrelly worked for the County of Wellington and then went into business for himself as a contractor. His mother Kathleen would succeed him on city council as a representative for Ward 1 from 2007 to 2010. Farrelly is survived his wife and two children, and the flags at City Hall will be lowered to half-mast in his honour.
According to the Friends of the Guelph Public Library, the gross revenue from the annual Book Sale is $134,000! The exact take will not be known for a couple of weeks, but last year it made $118,000 and brought the 12-year total to $745,000. This year’s sale was lucky number 13.
Also in the News…
Guelph is back to zero pot shops in the near future as the proposed retail outlet that was approved for 208 Victoria Rd S has moved to a site in Cambridge. Of course, there was no retail space available in that plaza, which is also home to a childcare centre (which is a no-no), but this is the second time that Guelph has lost an expected cannabis store in the last several months.
The Supportive Recovery Room, which was one of the initiatives to come out of the Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness, was opened last week on the second floor of the Welcome In Drop In Centre.
In lieu of the annual Trick or Eat food drive, the CSA Food Bank will be holding a food drive in the University Centre Courtyard from 10 am to 2 pm on Thursday. They’ll be collecting dry goods, canned goods, and grocery story gift cards, but if you’re wondering about specific items, the Food Bank is asking for peanut butter, tuna, pasta sauce, sugar, flour, shampoo/conditioner and laundry detergent. Find out more at uoguelph.ca/wellnessatwork.
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A Tent City in Brantford held an open house on Monday. Homeless shelters in the town have been reaching capacity recently, and it’s still several weeks before the really cold weather hits. The community is trying to find creative solutions to its growing homelessness problem.
Might this be a potential solution to affordable housing and other housing needs in the city? One city councillor was certainly impressed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will meet with Governor General Julie Payette today to announce his intention to form government.
Four Canadian media outlets have received funds from Google’s News Initiative, and one of them is Village Media, which runs, among other sites, GuelphToday.com. Village Media will use the funds to create a new platform for various users to interact with each other on their websites.
In the meantime, Guelph Politico is still running on contributions from readers like you. If you would like to contribute, go to Politico’s “Donate” page and find the method that best suits you.
October 28 – Regular meeting of council.
Council barreled through the consent agent of items from Committee of the Whole. Mayor Cam Guthrie also acknowledged the passing of former three-term City Councillor Sean Farrelly, and council approved the settlement between the City of Guelph and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), Local 231, which represents Guelph’s paramedics.
October 30 – Budget Meeting, Public Delegations for Non-tax Supported Operating Budget. This is the budget that covers Court Services, Building Permits, Parking Services, Stormwater, Wastewater and Water Services. Check out the Politico preview here.
November 4 – Committee of the Whole.
The big-ticket item, quite literally, is the request by the Guelph General Hospital for $900,000 per year over five years for a total of $4.5 million in contributions to a project to expand and improve the hospital. The Emergency Room, the special care nursery, and Emergency Mental Health and Addition Services are all items looking to be renovated in order to better serve the demands of a growing city, and the Ministry of Health only covers 90 per cent of the construction costs. The hospital is also going to be raising funds to get new equipment and tech, the cost for which is not covered by the Province.
The meeting will also reveal Guelph Transit’s intentions for the five new buses they approved the purchase for last year, which includes a new route that will deliver people to the Hanlon Creek Business Park. Another bus will be used to sponsor the expansion of the Community Bus to Sundays, and another will be used to stabilize the lag time on the #99 Mainline.
Committee will also hear about potential changes to Non-Council appointed Working Groups to make them more transparent, and they will get an update about the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy’s efforts to create harm reduction housing in the city.
The rest of the agenda looks at a number of audit items, and will feature a presentation from the Integrating Youth Services Network, Guelph and Wellington County.
If you want to delegate on any of the items, at either of these meetings, you have until 10 am on Friday November 1 to get in touch with the Clerk’s Office. Here’s how.
Also coming up at City Council:
November 12 – Planning Meeting.
November 13 – Deliberations on the 2020 Capital Budget and 10-Year Forecast, and Non-tax Supported Operating Budget.
The agenda for both these meetings will be posted on the City’s website on Thursday afternoon.
November 18 – Budget Meeting, Tax Supported Operating Budget.
November 20 – Budget Meeting, Presentation of Local Boards and Shared Services Budget.
November 25 – Regular Meeting of Council.
Breaking news from the council meeting! Ward 6 reps Mark MacKinnon and Dominique O’Rourke will be holding a budget town hall at the Clair Road Emergency Centre at 7 pm on Thursday November 7.
Halloween isn’t over on Halloween! The Two Rivers Neighbourhood Group will be hosting their Pumpkin Promenade on Friday at Tytler School starting at 6:30 pm. If you want to take part, you can drop off your carved pumpkin anytime after 11:30 on Friday.
The Guelph Film Festival begins this weekend. Get schedule and ticket info here.
The Keep Your Friends Warm Rally will happen this Saturday in Market Square at noon. The goal is to advocate for the creation of a warm, safe and accessible place for our community’s must vulnerable to sleep this winter.
Guelph’s Urban Forest Friends will be talking about their efforts to increase Guelph’s Tree Canopy, and the work they plan on doing in 2020 and into the future. The presentation takes place at the Arboretum Centre on November 5 at 7:30 pm.
Don’t forget to get your tickers for the Transit Action Alliance of Guelph (TAAG) sponsored first annual Transit Summit and Town Hall on November 9. Learn more here.
The full monthly Politico Calendar will be posted later this week.
Coming up this week on the GuelphPoliticast, we catch up with Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner as he catches up with the Legislature. After a five-month break, Schreiner and all his fellow legislators got back to work at Queen’s Park this week, and Schreiner will share some initial thoughts about the first week back.
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, Vince Masson co-hosts as we review the new Netflix bio-pic Dolemite is My Name, and talk about the growing influence of China on Hollywood, the latest in the cinema vs Marvel debate, and Vince’s Top 5 of 1999.
Then, Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU, it will be a new episode of Open Sources Guelph as Scotty Hertz and I will be back live with some post-election punditry, as well as a discussion about the latest in Trump news, and the first week back at the Legislature for Ontario’s government.
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.
The first two community feedback sessions on the Dolime deal are today at 2 pm and 6 pm at City Hall. We’ll see what the public thinks of the solution, and the City’s direction, and if you want to take part, you can get more details here.
Keep an eye open on Halloween night for little ghost and goblins with these stickers:
If you can, donate some socks!
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!