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Introducing the Guelph Politico Tip Sheet, a New Newsletter (so to speak)
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.
This edition is going out to the you, one of the people who contribute to the financial health of Guelph Politico through Patreon and Paypal. If you like it, and you think someone in your contact list will like it too, people will be able to subscribe to it starting next Tuesday. If you hate it, feel free to unsubscribe.
Councillors Mark MacKinnon and Rodrigo Goller have sold their stake in the Boardroom Café to Snakes & Lattes, a chain of board game cafes that already has three locations in Toronto, and another in Tempe, Arizona. MacKinnon and Goller are giving up their downtown business so that they might avoid future conflict of interest concerns. You can read the story here.
It was not a great weekend to walk downtown threat-free. Monday’s news release from the Guelph Police Service noted one arrest of a 23-year-old male for stealing a senior’s cane and hitting him with it, before slapping a woman near the library and then going back to the senior and punching him. Then, Sunday night, a Guelph couple was threatened by a 35-year-old male with a machete who was also arrested. GPS posted the full details and the list of charges.
ICYMI: A Guelph location was chosen as one of the 42 new cannabis licences handed out in the recent Provincial lottery. Look for a new bricks-and-mortar pot shop in the downtown core to open sometime in October, and read the full story on Guelph Politico here.
Lakeside HOPE House will be hosting the local Federal candidates for a community breakfast this Wednesday morning from 9:30 to 10:30 am. It will be the public’s chance to ask questions of the candidates, get to know them better, and be able to do it with a side of eggs and bacon. Learn more about the event on Facebook here.
For all the latest coverage of the 2019 Federal Election from the Guelph angle, you can go directly to that Politico page by clicking here.
Also in the News…
Remember that this weekend changes to the Guelph Transit schedule will go into effect. Say goodbye to the #41 University-Downtown Express, and say hello to the new #59U Gordon Express. Also, the #11 Willow and the #14 Grange will now run every 30 minutes after 8:45 pm, and all the University routes will be running full-time again. Go to the Guelph Transit website for the new times and schedules.
Also, GO Transit schedules are changing due to the addition of three new trains to and from Toronto every weekday along the Kitchener line. Read more about that here.
KitchenerToday.com is reporting that the results of the Province’s regional governance review will be presented to the Ford government sometime this week. Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark said that 8,500 submissions were received and some of them we’re “very technical.” The results will likely be announced to the public later this fall.
The Wall Street Journal warns that “Amazon has increasingly evolved like a flea market. It exercises limited oversight over items listed by millions of third-party sellers, many of them anonymous, many in China, some offering scant information.” The Journal counted over 4,000 items that were mislabelled or have been banned or declared unsafe by various U.S. government agencies including toys, medications, and motorcycle helmets.
Reminder: The City of Guelph is presently looking for your feedback on a couple of key areas including the Transportation Master Plan, the Parks and Rec Master Plan, and the Community Engagement Program. Go to the City’s website and have your say.
Finally, let’s take a moment to salute the Guelph Royals, the 2019 OBA Midget AA Champions!!!!
September 3 – Committee of the Whole. Council is back in session a week from today with a very busy to-do list. The wide ranging agenda will include a plan to move Locomotive 6167, cancelling the contract to operate the Centennial Pool, which is at the end of it’s life, and calling it quits on the Brant Community Hub with no path forward and likely no money coming from the Province.
Also, Committee will decide whether to go into negotiations with the Chamber of Commerce to create a new non-profit tourism promotion entity, and the Clerk will have proposed changes to the Procedural Bylaw. If you like delegating to council, then you’ll want to pay attention to that because the Clerk is asking council to consider again a provision that will only allow people to delegate once at either Committee or Council unless new information is introduced (the definition of “new information” to be determined).
For the full breakdown of the agenda for this month’s Committee of the Whole, click here.
If you want to register as a delegate for any of these items on the Committee agenda, then you have to get in touch with the City Clerk’s office by 10 am on Friday August 30.
Also coming up at City Council:
September 9 – Planning Meeting. The agenda for September’s planning meeting of council will be released this Thursday.
September 16 – Special Council Meeting. Council will be holding a special council meeting to discuss the recent developments on the Baker Street Redevelopment starting at 6 pm. You can catch up on those developments by clicking here and here.
September 23 – Regular Council Meeting.
The students are back! This Saturday is Move-In Day at the University of Guelph, and the influx of thousands of first year students means that Gordon Street will be shut down from 7 am till 7 pm. So if you have to go to the general U of G area on Saturday, just…. Actually, it’s probably best to wait until Sunday if you have to go anywhere near the University area.
Monday is Labour Day, and that means it’s time for the Labour Day Picnic. The Guelph and District Labour Council will host in Riverside Park as hot dogs, corn and samosas are service. Scotty Hertz and his guitar will be there to serenade the working man and woman, and there’ll be crafts for the kids too. Also, bring a non-perishable food item because GDLC will be collecting for the Chalmers and CSA Food Banks.
Coming up this week on the Guelph Politicast, we mark Labour Day by talking about a workers’ issue that doesn’t get a lot of coverage, what happens when workers get injured on the job. Paul Taylor of the Injured Workers of Wellington and Dufferin Counties will be joining us to talk about the issues and challenges faced by people who get hurt at work.
Get the latest edition of the Guelph Politicast on Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, tune in to CFRU at 2 pm for another episode of End Credits. This week, it’s sadly, again, a repeat, but if you haven’t heard it, it’s new to you! Vince Masson joins to review the deeply upsetting, yet colourful, Ari Aster film Midsommar.
Then, Thursday at 5 pm on CFRU, it’s another all-new edition of Open Sources Guelph. Scotty Hertz and I will discuss the results of the G7 summit, the electability controversy about Andrew Scheer’s resurrected thoughts on same sex marriage, the GOP challengers to President Trump, and the growing conflict in Kashmir.
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.
This Friday, Guelph Politico will be launching an all-new feature called “Plastic Free News,” a weekly round up of environmental news and issues related to climate change from around the world and closer to home. Let me know what you think.
The latest editions of regular features “Mangez!” and the monthly Politico Calendar will be posted this weekend.
Guelph Politico is looking to expand live coverage of local governance, so what meetings would you like to see live tweets covering? Wellington County council? Upper Grand District School Board? Let me know!!
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!