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.
The person that bought a signed Travis Kelce jersey that was also signed by Taylor Swift is getting a second opinion about its authenticity after they didn’t like the first answer they got.
The average price of a house in Guelph has jumped half-a-million dollars in the last decade.
A Cambridge man was caught doing 146 kilometres per hour near Speedvale and Elmira, which is only a 60 zone.
A second FunGuyz magic mushroom shop has opened in Waterloo Region, further aggravating the borderline legal situation.
A monument in an Oakville cemetery dedicated to members of the S.S. has been removed according to the Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies.
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 there number of confirmed cases is still going up and it now sits at 1,468, but the rate of infection is still slowing down. The 7-day moving rate is more than two points down at 7.15 per 100,000, and the regional wastewater signal hovers at around 0.34 while the Guelph signal is just 0.24. The number fatalities though has gone up by one in the last week, and there have now been 238 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Vaccination Rates: As of this week now 67.3 per cent of people over 80 are up-to-date on their shots, followed by 41.8 per cent of people between 60 and 79, 12.6 per cent of people between 40 and 59, and 6.1 per cent of those between 18 and 39.
OUTBREAKS: The outbreaks seem to be tapering off in the region, and we’ve now only got two facilities with COVID-19 after the outbreak was called off at St. Jospeh’s Health Centre on Friday; the two remaining COVID outbreaks are at Homewood Health Centre and the Village of Arbour Trails. Respiratory continues to be a problem at the Village of Riverside Glen and enteric persists at St. Joe’s and the Avalon Retirement Lodge in Orangeville.
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Here’s last week’s Police Notes entry.
Guelph Dance is holding a dance party fundraiser on April 5.
There’s a plan to make the Bruce Trail fully hikable by 2030.
Waterloo Regional Police have taken over the case of a body found at a waste management facility in Toronto since it’s connected to a previous investigation out this way. Homicide is not suspected.
It appears that the Ontario government has given itself new authority under the Conservation Authorities Act to be able to allow the Natural Resources Minister to issue development permits without conservation authority review.
Students at Concordia University and McGill University are set to go out on strike this week in response to that provincial government’s plan to increase tuition on out of province students.
Coming up this week on the Guelph Politicast, we’ll be joined by Haadhi Faizal who’s the founder of the advocacy group, More Transit Southern Ontario, which should be pretty self-explanatory. Transit is a big issue, especially the expansion of regional transit options, and from the lack of two-way, all-day GO Train service to the huge gaps in the bus system and the incentive to develop around transit hubs, there’s a lot to talk about, but is there any real action that shows that things are changing for the better?
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, Tim Phillips co-hosts as we dive into one of the Oscar nominees for Best International Film. We’re going to talk about the new film from the legendary Wim Wenders, a German-Japanese co-production called Perfect Days, and in other news we will head back to 1984 to talk about the legacy of the rock ‘n’ roll mockumentary This is Spinal Tap.
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.
Go stargazing in the Arboretum on Tuesday March 12 at 7 pm.
The next hybrid meeting of the Committee of Adjustment is in the council chambers and on the internet on Thursday March 14 at the special time of 3:30 pm.
Tales from the Hill is back for another month at the Guelph Civic Museum on Thursday March 14 at 6:30 pm.
The next guest at the monthly Green Drinks event is Adrian from the Guelph Coalition of Active Transportation. The drinks flow on Thursday March 14 at 7:30 pm at the Red Chevron Club.
The 100th annual College Royal festivities take place at the University of Guelph on March 16 and 17.
The Exhibition Park Neighbourhood Group is hosting their own St. Patrick’s Day festivities at Exhibition Park on Sunday March 17 from 10:30 am to 12 pm.
Check out the St. Patrick’s Day performance of Lilt of Laughter, Trace of Tears performed by Jay Wilson on Sunday March 17 at 7 pm at Red Brick Café.
The next meeting of the Waste Resource Innovation Centre Public Liaison Committee in online on Monday March 18 at 6:30 pm. (The agenda will be posted soon on the City’s website.)
There’s an open house about the next phase of improvements on York Road (the portion from Brockville to Victoria) on Tuesday March 19 from 6 to 8 pm at City Hall.
There’s an open house for the business cases to build a rail line connecting Union Station and Cambridge through Guelph on Thursday March 21 from 6 to 8 pm at City Hall. (There’s a virtual meeting on Tuesday March 19 too.)
#CaseoftheMondays
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!