The Liberals are Coming! The Liberals are Coming!
I know, I know. They're already here because it's Guelph, right?
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 first leadership debate for the Liberal Party of Ontario will be taking place in Guelph on Sunday. (You do have to be a member of the party if you want to attend in person though.)
Members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation held a one-day strike on Wednesday despite getting a stern warning from the Minister of Education. According to the teachers at GCVI, they weren’t striking for a raise, they were striking for better conditions for the kids.
Emma Rogers has been hired as the new executive director of the Children’s Foundation. Rogers has a lot of experience in the philanthropic sector in Guelph as the former director of Community Relations and Engagement at United Way Guelph Wellington Dufferin, and as a co-founder of Guelph Gives. Rogers first day on the job is December 10.
East Enders are trying again to get Loblaws to start building. A new petition has been posted to Charge.org as a way to show the grocery giant that people really, really want a store on the land they own at Starwood and Watson.
Also in the News…
Martha MacNeil is the new Chair of the Upper Grand District School. Tough gig given recent events. (See above.)
Habitat for Humanity Guelph Wellington has released their notes from the second phase of the Affordable Housing Symposium.
According to the 10th annual Canada Food Price Report, Canadian families can expect to see a nearly $500 increase to their grocery bill net year thanks to rising meat, produce and seafood prices. Fun fact: the average Canadian household spends $12,667 per year on groceries.
It was like The Dukes of Hazzard Tuesday morning at the intersection of Paisley Road and the Hanlon Parkway when two unmarked police cars were rammed in the course of stopping a suspect they were following in a stolen jeep. Despite being hit by a taser, using the jeep to crash into two different police cars, and then nearly running over an officer, the driver jumped the median and got away. (The officers let him go out of concern for safety.) Be on the look out for a south Asian male wearing an orange toque in a stolen grey Jeep Commander.
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You might have remembered reading a couple of weeks ago that a court upheld new City of Toronto rules for short-term rentals like AirBnB, except now those people that brought the challenge to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal are saying that there were legal errors in the decision because the LPAT didn’t answer the question if the new regulations will actually improve housing.
Also in Toronto, Mayor John Tory told the Canadian Club on Wednesday morning that Torontonians should expect an increase to their city building levy to a cumulative nine per cent over the next six years, beginning with a 1.5 per cent increase in 2020. The Toronto levy was introduced in 2017 and was supposed to be increased 0.5 per cent per year till 2021.
Meanwhile, in Brampton, at least one city councillor raised warnings that the City’s government was blurred the lines between church and state when it heard delegations on declaring December “Christian Heritage Month.” Wards 3 and 4 Councillor Martin Medeiros, a practicing Catholic, also said that such delegations were taking council’s focus away from, “how we improve customer service at the municipality, how we ensure finding efficiencies.”
December 3 – Deliberations on the Tax Supported Operating Budget, Local Boards and Shared Services Budget.
It was a done deal in about six hours, and here’s how we got there:
*The Budget Impacts per Ontario Regulations 284/09 and Budget Public Sector Accounting Standards Reconciliation, and the 2020 Downtown Guelph Business Association budget and levy were both passed swiftly.
*On the funding for the Guelph General Hospital, Councillor June Hofland put a motion on the floor to approve $900,000 per year for five years, and then Councillor Christine Billings proposed an amendment to spread the payments over six years instead of five, which was passed unanimously. Councillor Mark MacKinnon tried to propose an amendment to separate the capital costs from the spending on equipment saying that the ask for equipment costs was basically council contributing to a charity, but the amendment failed. The Billings-amended Hofland motion passed 12-1, adding $750,000 to the tax bill.
*The main motion was put on the floor with council quickly adding the $60,500 for the hardscaping of medians and $100,000 from the reserve budget for security cameras at the Elliott.
*MacKinnon then put forward a motion to cancel the $5 up-front fee for the new transit smart cards, and only charge the $5 for replacement cards. There were some logistical issues to the ask because people will not be required to register the smart cards, and because staff didn’t know how much it would cost. Transit GM Robin Gerus did say that the card will be free for the first 90 days after its released, so people will be able to get the card for the first three months without paying the $5 charge. The motion failed.
*Another $170,000 was added to the Affordable Housing reserve, bringing this year’s contribution up to $500,000.
*Councillor Rodrigo Goller moved to spend $150,000 from the cannabis funding from the Province on another year for the Court Support Worker and Welcoming Streets Initiative, plus $150,000 from contingency reserves for another year of funding for the Support Recovery Room. Councillor Leanne Piper had ambivalence about using the contingency reserve for the SRR, and wanted to include it in the base budget, but other councillors were concerned that such a move would send a message that the City would cover the costs, and the responsibility, in perpetuity.
*Hofland moved an additional $376,900 for another shift for the ambulance service, but council was hesitant to invest more money at this moment while awaiting provincially mandated changes to amalgamate the various services. When and how this will happen is still unknown, and the motion failed.
*On the police budget, Billings moved a $500,000 transfer from the tax rate operating contingency reserve to offset the increase, but Councillor Mike Salisbury moved to defer that vote till other options were considered, and it passed. Salisbury then moved that the 9.8 per cent increase of the police budget be phased in over two years, but most on council were sold on the justification outlined by the Police Chief and the Police Board. Salisbury’s motion failed. When council came back to Billings’ motion, Salisbury then tried to increase the transfer to $1.2 million, but that motion also failed, as did a motion to increase the transfer to $700,000. Billings original motion passed in a close 7-6 vote.
*After a break, council passed an amendment to fund a project manger position from the 100 per cent Renewable Reserve, and to defer nearly $325,000 in costs to the 2021 budget.
*MacKinnon then tried to eliminate the expansion of the community bus to save $1.177 million. Hofland made the point that this came out of the recommendation of the service review, while Guthrie pointed out the expansion would allow the community bus to stop at KidsAbility, which is something that Mayor Cam Guthrie said that he’s been pushing for. The motion failed.
*Councillor Dan Gibson moved to reduce the transfer to the infrastructure renewal reserve fund by $1.1 million. Although it would create a $10 million hole in the 10-year capital forecast, Gibson said that the City would make that up easily with additional funding from upper levels of government, or even a change in interest rates. The rest of council was reticent about stopping the City’s momentum on closing the infrastructure funding gap. The motion failed.
*On the final vote, Salisbury asked to separate 1(g) of the budget motion, which was the approval of the local boards and shared services budget; Salisbury and Billings voted against it in a 11-2 vote. The final tally was 3.6 per cent plus an additional 0.31 per cent for the hospital funding, for a total levy increase of 3.91 per cent for 2020. The budget passed 10-3 with Bell, Billings, and Gibson voting against it.
Also coming up at City Council:
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 its regular meeting of the month by a week, and you can check out that agenda here.
Both meetings 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 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.
Today 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.
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.
The commemoration of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, and the Liberal debate on Sunday are two stops for the weekend.
Also this weekend, I’m going to binge watch the new Netflix series V-Wars for a review on Nightmare on Film Street. It’s about vampires.
Speaking of monsters, look who’s teamed up. #WorstCrossoverEver.
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!