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.
Another Thursday, another debate night in Guelph. Not only that, another debate night that Conservative candidate Ashish Sachan didn’t take part in. The venue this time was Centennial C.V.I. and the topic was Climate Change and the Environment. Lloyd Longfield, Aisha Jahangir, Steve Dyck, and Mark Paralovos took part, and Juanita Burnett and Kornelis Klevering were in attendance.
Was there a death blow? Not really. Both Jahangir and Longfield used their “wild card” questions to go after Dyck on Green policy, perhaps as an expression of frustration that the Greens are given deference on climate change issues. Dyck, meanwhile, used his wild card to hold Longfield to account for the Liberals inaction on the issue since they’ve been in government. Paralovos held his own, at least until he decided to be critical of Greta Thunberg and the crowd turned on him pretty quick.
You can read the full debate recap here.
Meanwhile, another debate that was supposed to happen Wednesday night was cancelled 24 hours before hand. The CSA and CUPE 1334 had organized an all-candidates meeting in the courtyard of the University Centre to take place Wednesday night, but it was cancelled either because the University administration pressured the CSA to invite the People’s Party candidate, or because the People’s Party candidate threatened to protest for not being invited. Denials have been issued across the board by everyone though. Read the Politico piece here, and check out this additional reporting from Eli Ridder at the Avro Posthere.
Meanwhile, the final list of candidates has been released from Elections Canada. This is how the ballot will look like when early voting starts next weekend, and there’s a ninth name you may have never heard of.
Remember, there’s an election coming. For all the latest coverage of the 2019 Federal Election from the Guelph angle, you can go directly to that Politico page by clicking here.
Also in the News…
The Guelph Police Service has released the final numbers from Homecoming weekend. Police responded to over 200 calls, issued over 100 summons for a variety offenses including jay walking, public urination, and having open alcohol in public. There were also 10 arrests for public intoxication, and two impaired drives stopped out of around 2,000 vehicles. The full cost of the Police effort is not yet known, but it will be brought to the Police Services Board at a future meeting.
In other Police news, a 46-year-old man was stopped downtown in the afternoon on Tuesday because he was walking around with a crossbow. It’s cool though, it turned out that he had just bought it.
The City of Guelph announced Tuesday that they have reached a deal with the owner of the Dolime quarry, just outside the city boundaries in the west end, to close the quarry, remediate the site, develop it as a residential neighbourhood and annex the 230 acres into the City proper. In this “solution,” the City will also take ownership of the water on the property, which will come under the management of Guelph Water Services. The City is now looking for public feedback, and you can get all the ins-and-outs of the story on Politico here.
That escalated quickly. Educational support workers represented by CUPE started work to rule in the Province this past Monday, but now it looks like they’ll be going on strike this coming Monday. In the event of a strike, Upper Grand District School Board schools will remain open, but ESL programs will be discontinued, all community use of school facilities will be cancelled, and there could be a withdrawal of various support services. Same goes for the Wellington Catholic District School Board too. Stay tuned…
Niska Road is finally open again! (No trucks though!!)
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The Guelph Film Festival has announced the slate of films it will be screening at this year’s festival. Farming, drag queens, Indigenous issues, and water are all topics covered by the various films, and there’s at least one world premiere in the form of Sovereign Soil, which is a Canadian film about farmers in the Yukon. Other activities in the festival will include a doc-making symposium sponsored by Ed Video and a virtual reality experience at the main Guelph Public Library. Check out the program so far here.
According to the Canadian Press, shares in Guelph-based auto parts manufacturer Linamar fell 13 per cent, or $5.47 per share, on the Toronto Stock Exchange Wednesday thanks in no small part to the ongoing General Motors strike in the United States. Linamar says it’s losing about $1 million a day as delays in production continue because of striking workers at GM plants in the U.S. Auto workers have been on strike in that country since September 16.
This year’s Halloween episode of The Simpsons is literally their 666th episode.
The power of forgiveness on display this week on a Houston courtroom.
October 7 – Committee of the Whole. Guelph’s Committee of the Whole will be meeting Monday at 2 pm, and the live blog will be up and running. Tune into the Twitter feed @adamadonaldson to follow the meeting as it unfolds or see the live-blog page on Guelph Politico when it’s posted on the day. To see what’s coming up at the meeting, check out the Politico preview of the meeting here.
October 16 – Planning Meeting. This may be a special Wednesday meeting because of the Thanksgiving holiday, but this is an otherwise ordinary Planning Meeting. There’s a final decision report on a big apartment development, an extension request for a big subdivision, a request to endorse the construction of a new house in a heritage area, and the City’s response to changes in Provincial policy. You can read the full Politico preview here.
If you want to delegate on any of the items, you have until 10 am on Friday October 11 to get in touch with the Clerk’s Office. Here’s how.
Also coming up at City Council:
October 21 – Special Council Meeting on Standard Assets/Facility Needs Assessment
October 23 – The first meeting for the 2020 Budget. Presentation and Public Delegations for the Capital Budget and Forecast.
October 28 – Regular meeting of council.
October 30 – Budget Meeting, Public Delegations for Non-tax Supported Operating Budget.
National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Parry Bellegarde will be speaking at the University of Guelph Wednesday to discuss advancing Canada’s participation in the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Bellegarde will be speaking in Room 200 of Alexander Hall at 7 pm.
The Chamber of Commerce debate with the five main party candidates will take place Wednesday at Guelph City Hall. The debate starts at 6 pm, but get their early because the gallery only holds 200.
City Hall will mark the 20th annual World Mental Health Day with Mayor Cam Guthrie hosting three speakers to talk about this year’s theme, “Preventing Suicide: Let’s talk about it.” The event takes place Thursday from 1 to 3 pm, and you can get your tickets here.
If you missed any of this weeks shows, you can listen to them all, right now or any time, by subscribing to the Guelph Politicast channel on your favourite podcast app at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify.
There is an all-candidates debate today at the Village by the Arboretum. It’s not open to the public outside of the residents of the Village, but we’ll see if we can cover it anyway…
How are Guelph’s Food Banks fairing as we countdown to Thanksgiving? I’ll probably look into that…
Be careful with your stunts to promote climate action. You don’t want to spray the wrong person with beet juice because you can’t control the firehose….
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!