The Gift that Keeps on Giving (on Tuesday and Friday)!
It's been a long December, and it's only Day #3
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.
Health Minister Christine Elliot popped by Guelph on Friday afternoon to announce that funding for the Guelph and Area Ontario Health Team has been approved. The Government of Ontario hopes that better co-ordination between healthcare resources will be the end of hallway medicine, and the Guelph team seemed pretty excited about the possibility.
Also on Friday, there was another Fridays for Future protest in St. George’s Square, and if you missed it, there probably wasn’t anything there you haven’t already heard before, but to get 200 people out on a cold and dreary November day is an impressive feat in and of itself. It certainly says that climate change is an issue that’s not going away in 2020!
Unless something changes in the next 20 hours, there will be a one-day walk out of high school teachers in the Province of Ontario, and it will also likely close the elementary schools because Educational Assistants are part of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) union. Stayed tuned to the radio and social media on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning for up-to-date information.
Also in the News…
This is probably not the news that the Guelph Police wants people to be thinking about the day before getting their 9.8 per cent budget increase improved, but it looks like there could be a risk that the five years long, $34 million police headquarters could go over budget.
In what’s hopefully not a dark portent for the winter ahead, the City’s had to deal with two water main breaks in the last three days: one at Speedvale and the Hanlon on Saturday, and one at Eramosa Road and Meyer Drive on Monday.
In the fine tradition of the original Round Table (the King Arthur one), the gaming café The Round Table is harnessing its round table of area establishments to raise funds for area food banks. To learn how you can help, get in touch with Aron Murch at facilitator [at] lynnvander.com .
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Get the latest dine safe results in November’s second Mangez! column!
Toronto City Council voted last week to explore the possibility of using ranked ballots in the 2022 Municipal Election. The measure was passed in a close vote of 14-11.
Guelph Storm goaltender Nico Daws could become part of Team Canada as a member of this year’s World Junior Hockey team. Daws is one of four goalies invited to try-out, and even though I don’t know a lot about hockey, I know that this is a pretty big deal.
December 2 – Committee of the Whole.
In a relatively brisk affair, the final Committee meeting of the year saw a demonstration of the new data management system for local economic development, an update on the City’s implementation of the Waste Free Ontario Act updates, and there were a few questions about the year-end operating variance, which still looks on track to be about $2.2 million. This is key because there are going to be a lot of designs on that projected surplus as we head into the budget meeting today!
Check out the complete blow-by-blow of the meeting here.
December 3 – Deliberations on the Tax Supported Operating Budget, Local Boards and Shared Services Budget.
The meeting will begin at 2 pm and so will the live blog, which you will be able to follow on Guelph Politico, or on Twitter @adamadonaldson.
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 and Regular Council Meeting.
This meeting will see the decision report on one Gordon Street development, the statutory public meeting of another, and the new Commercial Build Form Standards will be discussed. Check out the agenda here. Before that, council has bumped it’s regular meeting of the month by a week, and you can check out that agenda here.
If you want to delegate on any of the items at Council, you have until 10 am on Friday December 6 to get in touch with the Clerk’s Office. Here’s how.
December 11* – Special Council Meeting – Workshop on Transportation Master Plan and the Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw.
There will be no delegations at this meeting. Though it’s open to the public, this is a council workshop.
*Council goes on Christmas Break after this meeting.
The Guelph Chamber of Commerce is having an open house this Thursday at their office at 111 Farquhar St at 4 pm.
Friday is the 30th Anniversary vigil for the “Montreal Massacre” at Gilbert MacIntryre & Son Funeral Home at 6 pm. Before that, there will be a memorial at the Thornbrough Building on the University of Guelph campus at 3:30 pm.
There’s a “Coffee Chat” with MPP Mike Schreiner at Starberry in the Market Fresh plaza 3 pm on Saturday.
In local book news, you can go to the Bookshelf on Saturday and talk to Nicola Ross, the author of the local hiking guide, the Loops & Lattes Hiking Guide.
Former Environmental Commissioner of Ontario Dianne Saxe will be in Guelph on Monday to talk about “Waste and the Climate Crisis” at 6 pm at the River Run Centre.
Coming up this week on the GuelphPoliticast, we remember the events of December 6, 1989 with Sly Castaldi and Jessica St. Peter of Guelph Wellington Women in Crisis, and we talk about the struggle to end gender-based violence and what we can all do to make that idea a reality.
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, Peter Salmon co-hosts to talk about the new Rian Johnson-directed whodunnit Knives Out, as well as studios being allowed to own theatres again, the *method* of Tom Hanks, the “Decade of the Fan,” and Cineplex’s pan for the future of movie theatres.
Then, Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU, it will be a new episode of Open Sources Guelph as Scotty Hertz returns, and so do a couple of our favourite topics as we catch up with the doings in Ottawa and Washington, plus we talk about the results of the Guelph 2020 Budget deliberations with a special guest.
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.
We’re now officially in the last month of the year, and of the decade, and you know what that means: Lists, Lists, and more LISTS! At least three!!
Speaking of end of the year, Scotty Hertz and I are recording our year end OSG shows soon, including the annual awards. Any nominees for Best Politician, Worst Politician, Dumpster Fire of Good News Story?
Most of today is going be taken up with the budget, so I’ll just note again that today is “Giving Tuesday,” so would you, or someone you know, should consider giving to journalism?
https://guelphpolitico.ca/donate/
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