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 combined team that brought the legal challenge to the Student Choice Initiative had a press conference at Queen’s Park Friday, and took a victory lap while the Ontario government tried to avoid talking about their options.
Kasper Transportation, a Thunder Bay-based private transit operator has announced that they will be launching their own route between Owen Sound and Guelph come February 2020. The City of Owen Sound will start running their own bus route as a pilot project in January thanks to the Province’s community transportation grant program, but Kasper is promising two or three trips per day versus one provided by Voyago, the City’s service.
A man ended up in Guelph General Hospital for serious but non-life threatening injuries after two men entered his house in the east end and shot him in the upper leg. Guelph Police say this was a targeted attack, and there’s no danger to the general public.
You’ve heard the expression, “It doesn’t rain, but it pours”? Well, what are we to make of the man that’s being accused of two instances of [checks notes] allegedly pouring “liquefied fecal matter” on people at York University.
Also in the News…
You can now have your say on the local trails, parks and recreation facilities. Go to the City’s website and supply your answers sometime before December 16!
Andrea Horwath and the Official Opposition NDP have announced their intention to fight Quebec’s Bill 21 by bringing forward a motion to condemn it in Ontario’s Legislature. Bill 21 is the famous law passed in the National Assembly earlier this year that bars people from wearing religious symbols while in a government job.
The Proud Boys, a far-right neo fascist organization that promotes political violence in defense of “western values” and to stop a “white genocide,” were apparently recruiting in Downtown Kitchener over the weekend. Or, at the very least, putting up some posters.
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Ward 2 Councillors James Gordon and Rodrigo Goller held a town hall at the Evergreen Seniors Centre on Saturday. You can go to Guelph Politico now and read the tweets, or watch the original live stream.
The Guelph Storm’s 10-game winning streak was snapped on Saturday with a shoot-out in Hamilton.
Applications are now open for “established Canadian muralists” to apply to paint one of two new murals on the east wall of the East Parkade facing Woolwich Street. The deadline to apply is January 8.
A Goderich media company is making a documentary about Baywatch. Yes, you just read that.
November 25 – Regular Meeting of Council.
Harm Reduction Housing Update – The evening started with delegations and there was a good mix of people concerned about the construction of container homes at 106 Beaumont Cres for harm reduction housing, and those concerned about the state of homelessness in the city. One of the most persuasive delegations seemed to be Bryan McPherson who noted that the open space at 106 Beaumont was the only “park space” in the area. He tried to make the point that the neighbourhood was already underserviced by amenities, before adding a community of people with their own unique needs.
When the debate came back to council, there was some haggling over the original motion from Councillor Rodrigo Goller with Councillor Cathy Downer and Councillor Mike Salisbury both suggesting that staff could take more time to look at the options. Councillor June Hofland said that she didn’t think the project could move forward no matter how much time they gave staff, and Deputy CAO Colleen Clack more or less agreed noting that while the City is working with the County of Wellington on their own plans for harm reduction housing, the City lacks the in-house expertise and experience to go it alone. A motion to extend the deadline from January to February failed.
Next, Councillor Mark MacKinnon made a motion to replace “106 Beaumont” with “city-wide assets” in the original Goller motion. Clack noted that a lot of the work looking at City-owned real estate assets has already been done, but there’s still a lot of consulting to do with partner agencies, and only a few of the sites on the list of under-performing assets would be appropriate for such a project. Council voted on the original motion, and it failed 5-8.
Hofland then proposed a motion that that would direct staff to support the development of social housing in the event that a viable proponent stepped forward. Downer suggested that this is what the City was already doing, but Clack noted that a strong motion from council might jumpstart some interest from the community. Downer, Goller and Councillor Bob Bell all said that they felt that Hofland’s motion was more talk and no action.
Salisbury proposed an amendment to Hofland’s motion to direct staff to investigate options and processes required to facilitate harm reduction housing and report back by January 2020. At this point, Mayor Cam Guthrie said that the next phase of his task force on homelessness will tackle this very issue, and it would behoove council to take a breather for a couple of months while the experts work on options. Salisbury’s motion was amended to bring back a report by April instead of January, and it passed.
The full motion, with Salisbury’s amendment, was passed 12-1 with a Ward 1 Councillor as the lone no vote, except this time it was Bell.
Bus Allocation – Three motions were attempted to rein in the cost of the new service. Councillor Dan Gibson tried to pass a motion that brought the cost of the proposed #19 Hanlon Creek Business Park route down by running it at peak times only, and then by only running it Monday to Friday. Both motions failed. Councillor MacKinnon then tried to pass a motion to keep three of the five new buses in spare and not to expand the Community Bus. This motion failed too. The original recommendation from staff will now have to be ratified at next week’s budget meeting.
Motion of Support for the Municipal Intervention Application in the Supreme Court of Canada Case Opposing the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act (Carbon Tax) – Councillor Leanne Piper said that a group of municipalities that have applied to be interveners on the Supreme Court of Canada challenge to the GGPPA are looking for support from other cities, but the Court has yet to rule on their intervener status, so this is a conversation to be had another day.
November 27 – Budget Meeting, Delegations for the Tax Supported Operating Budget, Local Boards and Shared Services Budget.
This is the public delegation night for the Tax Supported Operating Budget and the Local Boards and Shared Services Budget. If you have anything to say about the budget, this is your night to say it!
The meeting will begin at 6 pm and so will the live blog, which you will be able to follow on Guelph Politico, or on Twitter @adamadonaldson.
December 2 – Committee of the Whole.
In the last Committee meeting of the year, there will be a sign bylaw variance request, the update to the Waste Free Ontario Act, and the third quarter operating variance. Get all the details here.
If you want to delegate on any of the items at Committee, you have until 10 am on Friday November 29 to get in touch with the Clerk’s Office. Here’s how.
December 3 – Deliberations on the Tax Supported Operating Budget, Local Boards and Shared Services Budget.
This is decision night for the budget! The meeting will begin at 2 pm, there won’t be any delegations, just debating and voting.
Also coming up at City Council:
December 5 - Deliberations on the Tax Supported Operating Budget, Local Boards and Shared Services Budget. (If Required.)
December 9 – Planning Meeting.
This agenda will be released on Thursday afternoon.
December 11 – Special Council Meeting – Workshop on Transportation Master Plan and the Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw.
December 16* – Regular Meeting of Council.
*Council goes on Christmas Break after this meeting.
A Ward 4 town hall with Christine Billings and Mike Salisbury at the West End Rec Centre takes place at 7 pm tonight!
The Mayor’s Tree Lighting takes place this Saturday at 7 pm in Market Square.
Fridays for Future will be holding a climate strike this Friday at noon in St. George’s Square.
The 8th Annual Worlds AIDS Day Gala takes place this Saturday at the Frank Hasenfratz Centre for Excellence in Manufacturing at 7 pm. (You’ll need tickets to that though.)
Next Friday is the 30th Anniversary vigil for the “Montreal Massacre” at Gilbert MacIntryre & Son Funeral Home at 6 pm.
Coming up this week on the GuelphPoliticast, we will learn more about the proposed Integrated Youth Services Network with two of the people who are organizing it: Kate Reed, the Project Manager, and Carrie Chassels, the vice-provost of student affairs at the University of Guelph. What’s involved with the project? What will it take to make it happen? Learn all that and more…
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, it’s a solo round as I talk about my Top 10 of the Decade and review the new Martin Scorsese film The Irishman.
Then, Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU, it will be a new episode of Open Sources Guelph and since Scotty Hertz will be on assignment again, I’ll stay in studio and talk to Ward 2 Councillor Rodrigo Goller and Guelph Police Chief Gordon Cobey.
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 end of the month is this Saturday, which means part two of Mangez!, the Politico Calendar for December and the monthly council recap.
Any budget questions before next Wednesday? Let me know.
Speaking of the Youth Wellness Hub, there will be an update on the Guelph Wellington project this Friday morning at the Ariss Golf and Country Club at 7:30 am.
Next Tuesday is “Giving Tuesday,” so would you, or someone you know, should consider giving to journalism?
https://guelphpolitico.ca/donate/
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!