These Wicked Roads
A deadly weekend on regional streets.
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.
It was a tough weekend on the roads including tragedy in Mapleton, where five children were killed and six others were seriously injured in a two-car collision near Conestogo Lake on Friday. The OPP are now planning a safety blitz for rural intersections.
Meanwhile in Guelph, an SUV rear-ended a pick-up truck near downtown on Saturday morning, and York Road was shut down around the same time after a car flipped over. Five people went to hospital in a two-car collision in Waterloo on Friday morning, and then in London a vehicle smashed into gym injuring seven.
There are about a hundred fewer first years waiting for a spot in residence this year when compared to last year.
Waste collection might cost Wellington County 50 per cent more if they vote in favour of a new contract with Waste Management and their collection carts.
The Township of Elora says that there is no evidence that the hiccups in the downtown parking system were because of a data breach.
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Here’s last week’s Police Notes entry.
The Bench has been warned by Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health about providing food not prepared in a commercial kitchen.
Erin Mayor Michael Diehn seems to have some explaining to do with the discovery that he has a family connection to one of the numbered companies involved with the controversial Hillsburgh gravel pit rehabilitation.
A food truck that’s been operating out of a municipal parking lot in downtown Drayton for the last four years was told that they have to move because they don’t have permission to be there
Ontario’s Big City Mayors met in Waterloo and the focus was how to use the $8.8 billion Canada-Ontario Partnership to Build fund.
The infamous Banana Man was subject to a practical scourging while attending a Terror show at Toronto’s Lithuanian House last Friday. The band’s frontman insisted the banana costume be removed before the show could begin.
Even though the FIFA Fan Festival was cancelled halfway through due to bad weather, there’s still no refunds for those who had to evacuate.
Quebec has banned energy drinks for anyone under the age of 16.
On Friday, Ward 1 added its sixth and seventh candidate, and one of them is the incumbent. Dan Gibson formally filed his paper and become the sixth member of the current council to run for re-election. Dave Williams, who’s name is too generic to pin down, is also running now in Ward 1 while in Ward 4 Ali Malik is the third person to join the race there. Over the school board races, Rachid Barrima will be running to rep Guelph at the French separate school board, Conseil Scolaire Viamonde.
See the full list of nominees so far here.
The WDG Public Health respiratory illness dashboard has not been updated since March
OUTBREAKS: That an unknown respiratory illness at Eden House facility wide in the retirement home has continued all week.
Transit Detours/Notices:
REMINDER #1: Routes #3 Westmount, #10 Paisley, #11 Silvercreek, #12 Delhi, #13 Eastview, and #20 Northwest Industrial will be detoured away from their stops in St. George’s Square due to construction for the foreseeable future.
REMINDER #2: Routes #4 York, #8 Janefield, #9 Waterloo are all being detoured from stops along Wyndam Street South from until sometime in July.
REMINDER #3: Routes #1 Edinburgh College, #2 College Edinburgh and #15 College will be detoured from some stops on College and McGilvray starting until sometime in October.
The stop at Edinburgh at Floral along the #8 Janefield route will be unavailable from now until July 27.
Route #12 Delhi will be detoured from Monday June 22 till Monday July 6 because Emma Street will be closed from Metcalfe Street to Pine Street.
Upcoming Construction:
There will be crews along Victoria Road South between Arkell Road to south of Decorso Drive for line painting until the end of the week.
Coming up this week on the Guelph Politicast, we will talk to Joanne O’Meara of Royal City Science, and P. Brian Skerrett of the National Urban Park project. At city hall, there’s been a lot of discussion this term about boosting Guelph as a tourist destination, so what would help that more than the development of a new science centre, and the creation of an urban national park on the OR Lands? How can the next council make Guelph a city of attractions?
Get the latest edition of the Guelph Politicast on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, tune in to CFRU at 3 pm for another episode of End Credits. This week, Candice Lepage co-hosts as we finally catch up with the other indie horror phenomenon of the Summer of ’26, Obsessions, which is still in a theatre near you. For something completely different, we will talk about the three-decade legacy of Toy Story and the creative ups and downs of Pixar in advance of the release of Toy Story 5.
Listen to all these shows any time by subscribing to the Guelph Politicast channel on your favourite podcast app at Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
The next meeting of the Accessibility Advisory Committee is on Tuesday June 16 at 3 pm in the council committee rooms and online.
The next Downtown Construction Café is on Thursday June 18 from 9 to 11 am at Wimpy’s.
The May meeting of the Guelph Police Services Board will take place on the Police’s YouTube channel on Thursday June 18 at 1 pm.
CMHA Waterloo Wellington is partnering with the Guelph Police Service to host a free public information session for seniors and caregivers focused on fraud and elder abuse prevention on Wednesday June 17 at 10 am at the Marden Community Centre.
The Transportation Advisory Committee will be holding their monthly meeting on Thursday June 18 at 5:30 pm in the committee rooms at city hall and online.
Get your car washed and help support Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Guelph on Saturday June 20.
The United Way’s Ultimate Burger Battle Crawl is back on Saturday June 20.
Art on the Street is back again for another year on Saturday June 20.
The Guelph Black Heritage Society will be hosting Juneteenth celebrations at Heritage Hall on Sunday June 21.
There will be an open house for the new Parkland Dedication Bylaw and Acquisition Strategy at the galleria in city hall on Wednesday June 24 from 6-8 pm.
The Arts and Culture Advisory Committee will hold their next meeting on Thursday June 25 at 5 pm online and in the committee rooms at city hall. (The agenda will be posted soon on the City’s website.)
The GOOD Games are back at the University of Guelph for two days of sporting on Saturday June 27 and Sunday June 28.
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!