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 on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings.
Don’t forget: It’s the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation!
Homecoming in Guelph saw beer bottles thrown at officers, somebody shooting fireworks at the crowd, and it resulted in $30,000 more money spent on police protection over a 17-hour period.
The Guelph General Hospital Board heard at their meeting Tuesday that 95 per cent of staff are fully vaccinated, and the remaining five per cent have until October 12 or they’ll be put on unpaid leave.
Speaking of healthcare workers, Mike Schreiner made a case to get Ontario nurses more help ahead of the return of the legislature next week.
Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Matthew Tenenbaum said that COVID-19 cases in school are going to be a reality until kids under 12 are able to start getting vaccinated.
The Government of Ontario has put the kibosh on parent and school groups who have been using rapid tests made available for workplaces through another government program to test students for asymptomatic cases of COVID.
Don’t jinx it, but the fourth wave seems to be cooling off in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph. The number of active cases is now below 100 at 98 after there were just nine new cases on Wednesday including five in Guelph alone. The long-term trends are also turning more to the positive with the 7-day moving rate of confirmed cases now at 27.9 per 100,000 even as the test positivity rate is still hovering at 2.4 per cent.
In terms of the current vaccine trends, 82.2 per cent of people in the region born in 2009 or before is now fully vaccinated, and 86.6 per cent have had one shot. In Guelph alone, 87.8 per cent of the eligible population has been fully vaccinated and 92.1 per cent have had one shot.
More good news on case counts in the rest of Ontario as, for the second day in a row, the new daily case count was under 500; there were 466 new cases on Tuesday and 495 new cases on Wednesday. Once again, more than 77 per cent of those cases were in people who are unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, or whose vaccination status is unknown. The number of active cases in now back down around 5,200.
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Did you know that there’s a rooftop garden at Stone Road Mall?
WDG Public Health has changed their self-isolation requirements so that high risks contacts who are fully vaccinated only have to isolate if they’re showing symptoms.
Suzanne Bone, the CEO of the Foundation of Guelph General Hospital Board of Directors, has announced her retirement at the end of March after over 30 years working at the General.
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge denied an application to extend the injunction against a number of protestor-led blockades to an old-growth logging site on Vancouver Island known as Fairy Creek. Judge Douglas Thompson cited “serious and substantial infringement of civil liberties, including impairment of the freedom of the press” among his justifications.
It’s not the $70 million that was up for grabs through Lotto Max on Tuesday, but a Guelph woman won a cool $100,000 through Encore.
The Guelph Public Library’s got your banned books for Banned Books Week.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, Scotty Hertz and I will talk about the last-minute apparent trade of the Two Michaels for Meng Wanzhou, and the sudden (but not surprising) resignation of Annamie Paul as the leader of the Green Party. In the back half of the show, we’ll have an interview with Ward 3 Councillor Phil Allt, who will talk about Homecoming, petitions, and Truth and Reconciliation Day.
Tune in to Open Sources Guelph later today at 5 pm on CFRU 93.3 fm!
Listen to Open Sources Guelph, as well as the Guelph Politicast and End Credits, any time by subscribing to the Guelph Politicast channel on your favourite podcast app at Apple, Stitcher, Google, and Spotify.
First, it’s Local Government Week!
REMINDER #1: You have until this Friday at 10 am to register with the clerks office as a delegate or send a correspondence for the Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday October 4. See the Politico preview of the meeting here.
The annual Mayor’s Event on Mental Health is Wednesday October 6 at 11 am, the topic is “Mental health in the wake of COVID-19.”
Guelph Police are warning everyone about a new wave of door-to-door soliciting. Do not sign any contract or other document from someone selling things at your door, and if something feels too good to be true, it probably is.
All Wellington County library branches and the Wellington County Museum and Archives are now requiring patrons to show proof of vaccination before entering.
Compass Community Services has added a new LGBTQ+ support line for youth experiencing homophobia, transphobia, or bullying due to their sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. The service will launch on October 4 and will operate seven days a week including holidays from 8 am to 10 pm.
Guelph-Wellington Paramedic Services (GWPS) will begin offering palliative care, including end of life care at home for patients, starting on October 4.
Guelph Wellington Crime Stoppers raised over $2,500 from their shredding event at Skyjack.
Work on the Macdonell Street Bridge will continue every weekend until the end of October excluding a one-week break over the Thanksgiving long weekend.
911 received 47 accidental calls during a 24-period earlier this week, and if you do accidentally call 911 do not hang up because then they have to go to the trouble of calling you back anyway.
#MomentofZen
And 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!