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 Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
LATE BREAKING NEWS: Speedvale Avenue West is closed between Woolwich and Edinburgh for repairs to a broken sanitary line. There are no health risks to the public and the work is expected to continue through today.
Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath was in Guelph on Thursday to announce a new policy to promote electric vehicles, but doing it here was definitely, positively not about who the current MPP is.
The Federal government has come up with some additional funding for local arts festivals, including the upcoming Hillside Homeside.
The Guelph Police Service is asking the board to approve about $7 million over 10 years to implement a permeant program for body worn cameras.
The Ontario government has issued a request for proposals to design and build a new Highway #6 interchange at Morriston that will remove the sections at-grade level, and create a safer road between Guelph and Hamilton.
The number of active cases has gone up in the region in the last few days. While on Wednesday there were just 49, on Friday the total number of active cases was 59. That may be a reflection of the new 7-day moving rate of confirmed cases, which is now 14.1 per 100,000, and that’s about two full points higher than it was at the beginning of the week. There were 12 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday.
The latest vaccination data regionally shows that we’ve sort of petered out at 79.5 per cent for people receiving one dose of a vaccination, while there have now been 57.7 per cent of people who have received two doses. In Guelph alone, 85.5 per cent of the eligible population have gotten one shot while 63.7 per cent of people have now gotten fully vaccinated.
The new daily COVID case numbers in Ontario continue to hover below 200, there were just 143 new cases on Thursday and 159 cases on Friday. There are now less than 1,500 active cases in the province, and the one-time leader in new cases provincially, Waterloo Region, was overshadowed on Friday by Grey Bruce, where there were 34 new cases compared to 25 in Waterloo and 23 in Toronto.
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Ward 2 Councillor James Gordon has just released a new album!
Rumour has it that the Bookshelf Cinema is going to re-open again sometime in mid-August.
Friends of the Guelph Public Library have announced that their big book sale is being cancelled for the second year in a row.
Wellington County OPP took 13 unsafe vehicles off the road during a two-day period earlier this week while conducting a week-long safety blitz.
An EF-2 tornado cut a five-kilometre swath of destruction across a Barrie neighbourhood on Thursday. Ten people were injured, two of them seriously, after an unknown number of houses were damaged in the 210 km/h winds.
Guelph artist Christine De Vuono carved 100 small sculptures out of bars of soap to reflect the conditions in long-term care homes during the pandemic. The series is called “For Your Own Good” and it’s in the running for the Salt Spring National Art Prize.
COVID-19 outbreaks among Olympic teams, and increased COVID case counts among the local population in Tokyo are making headlines less than a week before the start of the delayed summer games.
The Manor has evolved again, this time as a venue for local drag queens.
In a new article from researchers at NASA and the University of Hawaii, the next time the moon readjusts its orbit, or “wobbles”, in the 2030s, the result could be record flooding along the North American coastline once combined with the more glaringly obvious effects of climate change.
Special Meeting of City Council – July 19, 2 pm.
Staff will present the results and recommendations from the third-party service rationalization review. You can see the Politico preview here.
Regular Meeting of City Council – July 19, 6:30 pm.
Council will revisit items from this month’s Committee of the Whole, and will look at two information reports, one on diversity in city hall, and one on getting provincial support for IMPACT. You can see the Politico preview here.
Special Meeting of City Council – July 21, 6 pm*.
Council will receive an update on the Baker District and receive the Urban Design Master Plan. You can see the Politico preview here.
*This is the last meeting of city council before the summer break.
Committee of the Whole Meeting – September 7, 2021.
The agenda for this meeting will be posted on the City of Guelph’s website on Thursday August 26.
Planning Meeting of City Council – September 13, 6:30 pm.
The agenda for this meeting will be posted on the City of Guelph’s website on Thursday September 2.
For more information on Guelph City Council meetings, from agendas to live-tweets to recaps, you can visit that page on Guelph Politico here.
Check out a pair of big movies this weekend at the Mustang Drive-In with Space Jam: A New Legacy, and Godzilla Vs. Kong.
The Guelph Tool Library is having a garage sale and fundraiser, and it started an hour ago, at 199 Neeve Street. (Act fast, it ends at 1 pm!)
Guelph Spoken Work will have their next open mic event online tonight at 7:30 pm.
Hillside Homeside runs all weekend starting on Friday July 23.
The Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington is holding their second annual “Patio for a Purpose” fundraiser at the Italian Canadian Club starting on Tuesday August 17.
A gathering will take place to mark Overdose Awareness Day in St. George’s Square on Tuesday August 31 at 12 noon.
Myth Confirmed! Have a good weekend!!!
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!