Guelph Politico: June 2017

Friday, June 30, 2017

The Politico Calendar for July 2017

Summer vacation has commenced, but the political events and meetings in Guelph never end (except in August when they kind of take a break). Let the good times roll!

Twice-monthly, Guelph Politico posts the latest inspection results from the Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health Unit inspection of local restaurants, hotels, cafes, grocery stores and other businesses that handle food. We call it "Mangez!", and this column highlights the latest inspections done by WDGPH, and the results they've posted.

GUELPH POLITICAST #85 - Celebrating Celebrations of Guelph

This week's Guelph Politicast kind of shakes up the format. Typically these are interviews with people, or clips of speeches either partial or whole, but on this pod I wanted to tell you a story, and that story is a tale of Guelph as we start the countdown to the Royal City's 200th birthday in just 10 years time.

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for June 28, 2017

Tonight there are two special council meetings, as in shareholder meetings for Guelph Junction Railway and Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc. You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here to read Politico's preview of tonight's meeting. For the complete blow-by-blow of tonight's council meeting, you can follow me on Twitter, or follow along below via Storify.

Committee of the Whole Preview - What's on the Agenda for the July 4 Meeting?

It's another busy committee meeting before City Hall takes its summer vacation in August. This month, infrastructure gets the lion's share of the attention with housing, stormwater and design all coming up for discussion along with the big question of what Guelph should do for its bicentennial 10 years hence.

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for June 26, 2017

This month's regular city council meeting will deal with some committee appointments and downtown expansion. You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here to read Politico's preview of tonight's meeting. For the complete blow-by-blow of tonight's council meeting, you can follow me on Twitter, or follow along below via Storify.

VIDEO: Victoria Rd Rec Centre Re-Opens for Business

After 15 months of work, the Victoria Road Recreation Centre was officially re-opened today with the assistance of City of Guelph staff, the current Mayor Cam Guthrie, and past Mayor Norm Jary. Hundreds of area residents came out to hear the speeches, see the ribbon cutting, and check out the facilities, and now, you can too.

GUELPH POLITICAST #84 - Heather Flaherty, GM of Parks & Recreation

June is Parks and Recreation month in Ontario, and Guelph is marking the occasion with a variety of activities at its various open spaces and indoor facilities. For the last year though, the City has been one rec facility short though, but not for too much longer.

GUELPH POLITICAST #83 - Live (ish) From National Aboriginal Day

Guelph marked another National Aboriginal Day on Wednesday bringing First Nations dance, music, culture and food to Downtown Guelph in front of City Hall for all to see. A few hundred people gathered on Carden Street to see a wide swath of Indigenous traditions brought to life, a reminder that as we strive for truth and reconciliation, there's still a culture trying to thrive.

City Council Preview - What's on the Agenda for the June 28 Meeting?

Next Wednesday, we will have our second special council meeting of the month to talk about various Guelph subsidiaries including Guelph Junction Railway, Guelph Hydro, and the always controversial Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc.

Guelph Library Premieres 8 Short Films About Guelph

Much of the action at the East End Library Branch's block party to celebrate Canada 150 was, naturally, outdoors, but there was something interesting happening inside too: Eight short films about Guelph by eight local filmmakers. Covering a wide variety of topics, the shorts each show a side of Guelph - known and unknown - that highlighted the reasons why the Royal City is the place that it is.

City Council Preview - What's on the Agenda for the June 26 Meeting?

At the next council meeting, Guelph's councillors will review this month's committee decisions, appoint some people to boards, and look at expanding the borders of the City's Downtown core.

MANGEZ! Dine Safe Guide for June 1-15, 2017

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for June 13, 2017

The next phase of Guelph Hydro's future will be decided on this night! You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here to read Politico's preview of tonight's meeting. For the complete blow-by-blow of tonight's council meeting, you can follow me on Twitter, or follow along below via Storify.

LIVE BLOG: City Council Meeting for June 12, 2017

Get ready to plan at this month's planing meeting of council. You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here to read Politico's preview of tonight's meeting. For the complete blow-by-blow of tonight's council meeting, you can follow me on Twitter, or follow along below via Storify.

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." John F. Kennedy said that, and it seems a fitting reminder that our tremendous financial inequality in modern society is far from sustainable. Someone said a long time ago that you will always have the poor among you, but that doesn't mean that we have to prove him right. Though as he sit here in the year 2017, the poor is still among us, and we seem no closer to a solution.

City Council Preview - What's on the Agenda for the June 13 Meeting?

When we last left the council discussion about what to do with Guelph Hydro, the Strategies and Options Committee (SOC) was given permission to pursue the potential of merging with similar sized utilities in our area. This special council-as-shareholders meeting of the Guelph Municipal Holdings Inc. will present the results of that work so far and the potential next phases going forward.

City Council Preview - What's on the Agenda for the June 12 Meeting?

There's more than just planning scheduled for this month's planning meeting. Motions on fees, and the structure of Heritage Guelph also come forward in this, the first of two city council meetings next week.

LIVE BLOG: Committee of the Whole for June 6, 2017

Financial statements, splash pads, and the transit realignment are all on the docket for this month's committee meeting. You can click here for the amended agenda from City Hall, and you can click here to read Politico's preview of today's meeting. For the complete blow-by-blow of today's committee meeting, you can follow me on Twitter, or follow along below via Storify.

10 Interesting Factoids From Guelph150

There was a bit of controversy today with the Guelph150 banners, one of the entries being labelled taboo because the memory of the crime it references is still fresh in the heads of many Guelphites. But there's still lots of Guelph History to learn from this interesting and informative Downtown Guelph Business Association promotion, and this is only 10 of them...

Peter Julian the Latest NDP Leadership Candidate to Make Royal City Stop

About 20 people joined Peter Julian for breakfast, maybe lunch, at Breezy Corners in Downtown Guelph today. Julian follows Charlie Angus and Niki Ashton as the third leadership candidate for the NDP to make a campaign stop in Guelph, and he made a pitch to the city's strong activist spirit to lend him their support for a grassroots-driven party that hearkens back to the New Democrats own origins.

GUELPH POLITICAST #81 - Kristina Virro, Nutritionist and Psychotherapist-in-Training

You may recall the this past school year was marked with a particular sadness on the University of Guelph campus. Several students took their own lives over the course of the fall and winter semesters, leaving a campus community in mourning and searching for answers. How could so many, feel so lost and alone, and see no other alternative for themselves but to take their own lives?