PRESS RELEASE - Changes to Co-Fare Rules Between Guelph Transit and Metrolinx

Integrating transit options to make it easier to get around car-less has been one of the goals in relieving congestion in recent years, and for Go Tranist users that's involved being able to get discounts on other local transit systems with their GO tickets or Presto Cards. Called co-fare programs, Guelph Transit is one of many systems that participates along with Toronto's TTC and York Region's VIVA. But Guelph commuters be advised, there are some changes come to co-fares on Royal City buses.

#AskMayorCam on Upcoming Open Sources

It was a little over six months ago that Cam Guthrie was elected to be Mayor of the City of Guelph, but those first four months on the job haven’t been all getting settled, hand-shaking and memorizing the names of city hall staff. No, Mayor Guthrie had to get right down to work, and work with the new council, to put together a budget for 2015. No easy feat even if everyone on council has experience parsing those huge budget books, and no easy task when you’ve made a lot of promises about changing the way business is done at 1 Carden Street.

But with the budget battles behind him now, Cam Guthrie will now face an even more dangerous situation: one hour on live radio alone with Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson.

Future Shop Closes, Guelph's Store to Become Best Buy

Another shock to the retail system in Canada, and one that was quite sudden, but shoppers looking to go out and buy some computers, Blu-rays, video games or other electric what-nots at Future Shop were left disappointed. All Future Shop locations across Canada were closed this morning, about half of them will be closed forever, but the rest of them, including the Guelph location, will become Best Buys by this time next week.

Guelph Citizen Digs Into Campaign Expenses

Doing their due diligence on the money front from last fall's Municipal Election, Andy Best at the Guelph Citizen posted a breakdown of how much the current members of council spent in order to win their seats. For council candidates, the spending limit is between $16 to $18,000 depending on the ward they're running in, while there's a $82,000 limit for mayor. For the most part, the candidates didn't get near their spending limits, but the numbers, as pointed out by the Citizen, do show some interesting trends.

Results for St Paddy's Day Improved Over 2014

Perhaps because of an abundance of preparation, or perhaps because the weather was so-so, or perhaps because it was a Tuesday, the results from St. Patrick's Day in Guelph was pretty good according to the Guelph Police Service.

Busker Busting in Cambridge

With the warm weather coming, seeing musicians out on the street with their guitars and instruments, playing along for whatever pocket money passersby may have are about to become a more frequent site. Good thing the police are on the job to stop folky covers of pop songs from interrupting people's day three-and-a-half minutes at a time.

City Planning More Changes to Transit; Looking for Feedback

Four years ago when the City of Guelph revamped the entire Guelph Tranist route and schedule system it did not go exactly according to plan. Adjustments were made, Transit tried to address the whole new set of problems created by the change with some degree of success, but a lot of transit riders will agree that it's far from smooth sailing riding the bus in the Royal City. Now, Tranist thinks they may have found some answers via a ridership survey taken earlier this year. Will these new routes and new schedules be the answer to Guelph's transit woes? 

Police and University Encourage Safe Revelry on St. Patrick's Day

It's that time of the year where you drink all the green beer you can until you're green in the face, and in university towns it can represent a particular headache of the non-alcoholic variety for police and residents. Yes, Tuesday is St. Patrick's Day, and representatives of the Guelph Police Service and the University of Guelph want you to know that they are prepared to keep the revelry in hand, and make sure everyone's having a good time whether they have a little Irish in them, or a lot.

Mail I Don't Miss Getting

Making the rounds on social media today was the above photograph of a flyer sent out by Elmwood-Transcona MP Lawrence Toet to people in his riding that asked in Canada's battle against ISIS and other Islamic militants, do you agree with Toet that action must be taken, or do you disagree and think that the terrorists are victims? This, my friends, is a loaded question, but if it seems at all familiar to you, that's because it we in Guelph used to get many of the very same kind of flyers in the mail.

OPIRG Guelph Organizing Local Protest Againt Bill C-51

Guelph doesn't get out and protest in quite the same way it used to, but maybe the city's activist community were all waiting for the right cause to march against. The Guelph chapter of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group is rallying the local opposition to Bill C-51 to do the Royal City's part in the National Day of Action against the proposed anti-terror legislation. So if you're feeling particularly incredulous about the expanding power of security agencies without oversight, you now have something to do Saturday evening.

Heritage Group will Save the Petrie Building

It's not quite an eyesore, but for architectural fans and admires of the historic facades in our downtown, the disintegrating condition of the Petrie building has long been a sticking point. But good news! Today, it's been announced that Tyrcathlen Partners will be buying the building with an eye on renovating the heritage building.

Hillside Honoured by Festival and Events Ontario

Who doesn't love Hillside? The annual music festival at Guelph Lake has a great many admirers, and among them, it seems, are Festival and Events Ontario. Festivals, along with the organizers and volunteers of said festivals, were recognized Friday night as part of the FEO’s Annual Conference Let the Inspiration Flow in Niagara Falls, ON.

PRESS RELEASE - Immigration Connection Celebrates Fifth Year

Guelph Wellington Local Immigration Partnership will once again be hosting its annual Immigration Connection event a week from today at the Hanlon Convention Centre. Amongst the questions you will have is where is the Hanlon Convention Centre, because not a week goes by that someone doesn't stop at the front desk of the hotel I work at wondering where it is. (It's in the plaza at the corner of Woodlawn and the Hanlon. The same one as the Good Will, around the corner where the Three Star Cinema used to be.) And that's the one piece of information you won't get from the press release below.

PRESS RELEASE - City Assists As Brutal Winter Takes Toll on Pipes

For may home and business owners, this has been a winter of discontent as they've dealt with burst and frozen pipes thanks to the record low temperatures. As we head out the other side of of the season, it seems that the situation is dire for nearly 150 households that have no access to water, and there's an emergency bit of construction that has to be performed downtown tomorrow. So it's not over yet! Winter that is. The City of Guelph wants to put you notice that even though its March, we still have a long way to go.