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 Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.
Special Meeting of City Council – May 16.
The Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan is official complete. Although it’s likely going to be appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal, council has taken its final vote on the plan seven-years in the works, and the vote showed overwhelming support for the package presented by staff. How did we get there?
After the staff presentation of the plan, there were 10 delegates. Notably absent were any of the major developers that hold land in the area, so it fell to parkland enthusiasts and residents concerned about the potential expense of the plan to offer their notes. Some went as far as proposing that council should reconsider the whole plan, or even just delay the final vote until more work is done on those issues, and at least one delegate was concerned about whether or not there would be any new housing in the area geared to income.
Back at council there were questions to staff around road layout in Clair-Maltby and making sure that “Street A”, which will pass through portions of the moraine ribbon, will be environmentally sound. There were also some questions about the capital costs, the population figures, and whether or not the plan has allowances to get the most amount of parkland if the eventual population of the area goes above 16,000. On that last point, staff said because the development is phased, there’s always ways for the City to reconsider certain assumptions.
Council began recommending their own changes with a motion from Councillor Rodrigo Goller to make portions of “Street A” active transportation only. Staff were not in favour of this idea because emergency services asked for a north/south connection other than Gordon, and because it could create more connectivity issues in the south end. The motion failed 4-8.
Next, Goller proposed a motion to maximize the parkland totals for a potential population in Clair-Maltby of 25,000. Staff said addressing the motion could mean an additional two years of work for the plan and added that 25,000 people in Clair-Maltby is an outside figure because it would mean every single property in the area would be built to maximum density, which seems unlikely. Councillor Bob Bell framed the question as parks versus roads, which some councillors found distasteful. This motion also failed, but by a vote of 3-9.
Also on roads, Councillor Cathy Downer proposed a motion to direct the design of “Street A” to serve as a collector road so that it doesn’t accidentally become an arterial. The motion was passed quickly and unanimously.
From Ward 6 Councillor Dominique O’Rourke came a proposed motion to direct staff to look at ways make sure that when construction begins on the southern most end of the development that people coming into Guelph along Gordon are not hitting a wall of 10-storey buildings. This motion will go down in the annals of council lore for Bell’s screed about how Guelph will eventually annex land south of Maltby, which Councillor Leanne Caron called “fortune telling.” The motion was approved 8-4.
The last motion, also from O’Rourke, was a suggestion to include language about co-ordination and consultation with Puslinch directly in the future, but council decided to that such a motion might be better reserved for the next Official Plan Amendment, and the motion was withdrawn.
The full and amended Clair-Maltby Secondary Plan passed 11-1 with Bell being the notable exception. Stay turned for news about an appeal.
Click here to see the complete recap of the meeting.
The next meeting of city council is the regular meeting a week from Monday. The agenda will be posted on the City’s website sometime on Thursday afternoon.
For more information on Guelph City Council meetings, from agendas to live-tweets to recaps, you can visit that page on Guelph Politico here.
The four main parties each claimed victory after Monday’s debate, but non-partisan sources say that Green Party leader and Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner stood out for playing things cool.
A fake gun led to real charges for a man that took his realistic-looking BB gun into a downtown office building Monday.
Police officer testimony and security camera footage were the focus of the first day at the Aidan and Angus Kee trail. The brothers have been respectfully charged with second-degree murder, and unlawful act manslaughter plus accessory after the fact manslaughter in the stabbing death of Nick Tanti in February 2020.
A break in at Stone Road Mall on Sunday morning involved four suspects, $60,000 worth of product and a sledgehammer.
Waterloo Regional Police are still looking for Curtis Hesselink who may have information about the death of an 8-year-old boy found in a home near Hespeler Village in Cambridge.
Let’s preface these updates with a general word that the official numbers released do not represent the true number of COVID-19 cases, which are likely higher due to limited testing.
The new case count in our region on Tuesday was just 9, and after 41 recoveries it brings the number of total active cases down to 247. The local case count hasn’t been this low since mid-December even as we’ve now crossed 22,000 total cases since the start of the pandemic. The 7-day moving rate is now down to 57.1 per 100,000, the test positivity is 14.5 per cent, and there have also been two new fatalities to bring that total up to 163.
The current vaccination rates for eligible populations:
Region-wide: 90.5 per cent have one shot, 87.9 per cent have two shots, and 58.2 per cent have a booster.
Guelph: 92.9 per cent have one shot, 90.3 per cent have two shots, and 61.6 per cent have a booster.
Across Ontario in the last few days the new case count has been hovering around a thousand. There were 1,061 new cases on Monday and 1,028 on Tuesday, plus just 2 fatalities on Monday and then 11 on Tuesday. On the downside, the number of COVID patients in Ontario hospitals has gone up again. There were 1,345 people in hospital with the virus on Tuesday, a 10 per cent increase from Monday, but a 13 per cent decrease from last week.
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Changes are coming to the Farmers’ Market in mid-June with the addition of a Thursday afternoon market pilot.
Guelph Police reported three high-profile cases of stunt driving and speeding on Guelph roads last weekend just in time for the start of [checks notes] Canada Road Safety Week.
Former Guelph NDP candidate Aisha Jahangir is running against none other than Doug Ford himself as the NDP candidate in Etobicoke North.
The YMCA of Three Rivers and the Wellington Catholic District School Board are claiming victory when it comes to a new program that offers an alternative to typical school suspension as punishment.
Talk of doubling ODSP rates is good news for 3,000 Guelph residents “trapped in a never-ending cycle of poverty” as part of the program.
Guelph family lawyers have some doubts about a permanent place for virtual hearings.
The administrative office for the Township of Mapleton has been temporarily closed due to the high number of COVID-19 infections among staff.
This week on Open Sources Guelph, Scotty Hertz and I will be interviewing two of our local provincial election candidates. In the first half we’ve got NDP candidate James Parr who will talk about the power of youth and why the strategic vote this election is for the New Democrats. In the second half, we’ll have the incumbent candidate Mike Schreiner, who will talk about why the future is Green and why he’s got the best record to run on.
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.
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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!