The Last Sam
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 now on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.
Mayor Cam Guthrie’s council colleagues were taken aback by Thursday’s announcement that he was going to start swinging Strong Mayor powers around, which is putting it nicely in some cases.
People living in tents downtown were given eviction notices last Thursday by mistake according to the Stepping Stone. Meanwhile, a community group has formed to help create a Better Tent City style project here in Guelph.
An inquest into the death of a Kitchener woman who died by suicide in the Grand Valley Institution for Women says that people with severe mental illness should not be held in prison among its 60 recommendations.
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.
In this week’s update to the WDG Public Health COVID-19 dashboard things are mostly steady. There are now 1,360 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the region, but the 7-day moving rate is only up one-third of one per cent at 13.99 per 100,000. In terms of mixed signals (so to speak), the wastewater signal regionally is only up 0.02 points to 0.19, but the Guelph one is up 0.10 points to 0.24. There have also been two additional deaths from the virus to bring that total up to 237 since the start of the pandemic.
Vaccination Rates: As of this week now 66.8 per cent of people over 80 are up-to-date on their shots, followed by 41.4 per cent of people between 60 and 79, 12.5 per cent of people between 40 and 59, and 6.1 per cent of those between 18 and 39.
OUTBREAKS: There have been an increase in the number of outbreaks in the region, even though the COVID outbreak at Duffrin Oaks in Shelburne is over as of Thursday. COVID persists at the St. Jospeh’s Health Centre, and there’s one at the Stone Lodge retirement home, and its now at Homewood Health Centre along with the Village of Riverside Glen. There’s also a respiratory outbreak at Homewood and Riverside Glen, as well as Strathcona in Mount Forest.
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Here’s last week’s Police Notes entry.
A solution has been reached at the Ontario Land Tribunal that will allow a townhouse project on Hadati Road to proceed.
Guelph broke a heat record on Friday that stood for 124 years.
The Guelph Black Heritage Society is using augmented reality to give people in the year 2024 some insight into 200 years of local Black history.
The last Sam the Record Man store, which is located in a mall in Belleville, is not closing right now, but the 84-year-old owner is having a retirement sale.
A Bowmanville brewery has been inundated with hate messages online and in phone calls for having the audacity to [checks notes] hosted an event with the Prime Minister of Canada.
Coming up this week on the Guelph Politicast, we’re going to take a break from all the zaniness happening at city council this week to look back at all the zaniness last fall in the council chambers. Well, it wasn’t really all that zany, but the events from August through December of 2023 set up a lot of the issues and decisions being made right now around the horseshow. So join us as we tell as story, a story about Guelph city council!
Get the latest edition of the Guelph Politicast on Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, tune in to CFRU at 3 pm for another episode of End Credits. This week, we will revisit the 300th episode of the show from last spring. On that auspicious occasion, the whole gang took part in a draft of the first 299 episodes of the show. We review a lot of movies, but if we were to make a team of all the great movies we’ve reviewed over the years, which one would be the all-star? Let’s re-find out.
Listen to all these shows any time by subscribing to the Guelph Politicast channel on your favourite podcast app at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
The monthly Guelph Police Services Board is Thursday February 15, at 2:30 pm. You can see the agenda here, and then tune in to the meeting on the Guelph Police YouTube page.
The Transit Advisory Committee will be meeting again on Thursday February 15 at 5:30 pm in the committee meeting rooms at City Hall. (See the Politico preview here.)
The Curiosity Carnival, a family-friendly event that promotes interest in STEM fields, is this weekend, Saturday February 17 to Monday February 19, at the MacKinnon building at the U of G.
Knights Fest, a Medieval Family Day Festival, is Monday February 19 from 10 am to 3 pm at the Guelph Youth Music Centre.
There will be a Family Day “Crafternoon” at the Art Gallery of Guelph on Monday February 19 from 1 to 4 pm.
The next hybrid meeting of the Accessibility Advisory Committee is on Tuesday February 20 at 3 pm inside City Hall and online. (The agenda will be posted soon on the City’s website.)
The City of Guelph will be hosting an open house on the Downtown Guelph Heritage Conservation District Study on Tuesday February 20 at 4:30 pm in the Marg Mackinnon Room at City Hall.
The Guelph Museums Advisory Committee will next get together on Thursday February 22 at 5:30 pm in the meeting room of the Guelph Civic Museum. (The agenda will be posted soon on the City’s website.)
Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis will be hosting a Human Trafficking Awareness Day movie screening and discussion on February 22 at 6:30 pm.
#Journalism
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!