Online Town Hall

This Editorial appeared in today’s Mercury – inspired in part by a comment I made on the Mercury political blog 59 Carden Street (reprinted at the bottom of this post)

Guelph is often referred to as The Royal City.

It could at least as fairly be nicknamed The Activist City. There’s a long tradition of such in the city. Broaden your interpretation of the term if necessary and then embrace some of the history of local activism – if you’re off-put by some recent tactics and actors associated with the label.

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The following letter appears in the latest issue of Ontario Nature magazine.  It was written in response to an article that appeared in the Autumn 2009.  (Ontario Nature is an umbrella organization for all naturalists groups in Ontario as well as other environmental groups.)

Unfinished Business

The Guelph Field Naturalists (GFN) would like to express our disappointment with your article “Risky Business” [Autumn 2009], which reported on the proposed Hanlon Creek Business Park (HCBP) development in Guelph.

The article is riddled with misinformation and was written in a biased manner. In addition, neither City of Guelph officials, Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) staff, the city’s Environmental Advisory Committee nor the environmental consulting firm that studied the site were cited. We suggest that, in future, your articles should be fact checked and that local affiliated members of Ontario Nature should always be contacted to provide local information.

The GFN has contributed input to the proposed HCBP for more than five years. We support the proposed HCBP development, both for its protection of natural heritage features and for one of its goals – providing local employment for Guelph citizens, [and] thereby reducing the need for commuting to other cities.

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The City of Guelph has identified vulnerable local water supply source areas in need of protection, called wellhead protection areas and intake protection zones, in compliance with the provincial Clean Water Act.

All Ontario cities, including Guelph, are required by the Act to define and map vulnerable areas around water supply sources—either a supply well, or surface water intake area—that could be affected by potential threats. These areas require extra care in order to protect water quality. Potential threats, including common commercial and residential activities that take place on properties in these vulnerable areas, are currently being evaluated and will be ranked according to criteria developed by the Ministry of the Environment (MOE).

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Like many Canadians I spoke with over the last few weeks, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons between the opening ceremonies of the Canadian Winter Olympics and the opening ceremonies of the recent summer Olympics in Beijing.

Without a question, the Beijing opening ceremonies were flawless and awe inspiring. They were a spectacle the kind of which may never have been witnessed before. The Canadian opening ceremonies were…well, not exactly flawless.

As many of you know, the fourth ‘leg’ of the Olympic cauldron didn’t work. It failed to rise up out of the floor leaving one of our torch bearers holding the bag, or more precisely, holding the torch.

In the weeks that followed I heard many people respond critically about our opening ceremonies; it wasn’t “perfect” – it “failed” – it was an “embarrassment”. I began to contemplate how well, or how poorly, our opening ceremonies portrayed our nation to the rest of the world. It wasn’t until 17 days later watching the closing ceremonies that it became apparent just how proud I am to be a Canadian.

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Last summer I hand delivered a survey to several thousand households in our neighbourhood to better understand and represent your needs at City Hall. I was grateful to receive well over 300 responses, many commenting it was the first time anyone had asked for their opinion.

Five common themes emerged that will continue to require focused attention and action. Here’s what I heard;

KEY THEMES

• Communication - residents want timely information about progress on current and emerging issues
• Employment  - job creation and economic development is critical at this time
• Control Spending / Reduce Taxes – appropriate controls and measured spending need to be in place
• Protect our Environmental – our water sources and supply need vigilant attention
• Community Safety -  more physicians are required and vandalism and speeding needs to be curtailed

THANK YOU

One of the most challenging roles for a City Councilor is to maintain a strong connection with those I serve. Thank you for your continued support.

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There has been a tremendous outpouring of support for the victims of the disaster in Haiti

Below is a list of the local events / initiative in our community where you can lend your support.

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I like Gerry Barker – I find myself waiting eagerly for his editorial column; a longstanding diatribe about local municipal politics published bi-weekly in the Mercury.

I also like Steven Colbert – Steven is a popular late night TV talk show host featured on the Comedy Network who plays an opinionated and self-righteous commentator who “unwittingly” uses a number of logical fallacies to ridicule the actions of politicians and other public figures. By taking their statements and “the facts” to the furthest (supposedly) logical conclusion, he uses irony and sarcasm to paint a twisted picture of reality.

Both of these gentlemen are gifted satirists and both of them can be very entertaining (and even enlightening) if you don’t take them too seriously.

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Today, Guelph’s new City Hall is officially open to the public. The new building located at 1 Carden Street is home to City departments that have, until now, been based out of five satellite locations around the city.

Just inside the front doors is ServiceGuelph, the City’s centralized customer service, makes access to information, services and resources even simpler. People can purchase transit passes, sign up for recreation programs, buy dog licenses, pay parking tickets and property taxes and more. ServiceGuelph is open Monday to Friday, 8:30a.m. to 4:30p.m. A full list of services is available at serviceguelph.

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Bravo for creating arts, culture post

By Renann Isaacs, curator, Alma Gallery, Guelph

Dear Editor – Re: “Need for cultural post debated” (Guelph Mercury, Dec. 19).

Hooray for Mike Salisbury and the six other councillors who voted in support of creating a much needed position for an arts and culture supervisor. I can’t believe Guelph has been without one.

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One of the benefits of living in the ward I represent is noticing the small things that need attention. One of those “small things” can now be crossed off my list.

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We were told that the changing regulatory environment was forcing the issue. “Merge now or risk being forced to do so at a later date”.

While I think that it is pretty unlikely that we will be forced against our will to merge I believe that the OEB will continue to create a regulatory environment so onerous that smaller utilities will ultimately have to choose between spiralling distribution rates and operational deficits of full ownership or to accept a “tax incentive” to partner with other LDC’s for survival.

This Machiavellian reality of the current provincial energy policy was certainly not the sole reason to consider a merger, it was however the context of the discussion.

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The following entry is reprinted from a memo sent out by the Mayor regarding the proposed Hydro merger.

As the Shareholder Representative on the Guelph Hydro Inc. (GHI) Board of Directors, I support the recommendation to merge Guelph Hydro Electric Systems Inc. (GHESI) with Horizon Utilities Corp. (Horizon).

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The Guelph Chamber of Commerce (representing 825 businesses in Guelph, and over 40,000 employees) has come out with their own independent analysis of the Guelph Hydro merger proposal.

The entire report can be downloaded here – Chamber of Commerce Hydro Analysis.

Excerpts from the report are reprinted below.

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Parks Planning Department is preparing to replace playground equipment in Marksam Park. Existing play equipment (swings, slides, climbers, timber edging etc.) in the park will be removed and new playground equipment which meets current Canadian safety standards will be installed as soon as possible after the removals.

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Many of you may have noticed construction equipment in Margaret Greene Park recently.

New playground equipment which meets current Canadian safety standards will be installed at a new location within the park, closer to the washroom building and the existing play equipment (swings, slides, climbers, etc.) will be removed at a later date. Additional plantings, pathways and parking will also be installed.

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It was so nice to get this email I just wanted to share it with you.

Mr. Salisbury,

I want to thank you for your help with my request for assistance in recognizing our Novice girls fastball team representing Guelph at the Quebec nationals.

I have heard from the Mayor’s office today and have they have offered assistance.

I was pleasantly surprised with your calls today and the efforts you took upon yourself which resulted in quick involvement of the Mayor’s office.

This is the second time I have sought you out, and in both instances your help was invaluable.

Once again, thank you.

Regards,
Robb Graham 

The 2008 City of Guelph Citizen Satisfaction Survey, conducted by Ipsos Reid Public Affairs is being presented at the July 28th council meeting and the results are very informative.

This type of communication is vital to the democratic process, in fact I think it is so important that I have established the “Ward 4 Survey” an online questionnaire based upon the original Ipsos Reid survey. I would like to encourage everyone to take out a couple of minutes and share your thoughts and opinions.

It will take only a couple of minutes to fill out, but will greatly improve my ability to represent your needs and priorities. Your participation and comments (both positive and critical) are requested and encouraged.

I recently received an email indicating that Rogers Cable television would be unable to televise City of Guelph council meetings in the month of July due to staffing shortages. Unfortunately there are several very significant issues coming before council in July.

While I can’t guarantee anything can be done to ensure that Guelph residents won’t be left in the dark, I made a call to Jeremy Clark, Regional Station Manager at Rogers Television and Dave Carswell at CTV to ensure that they were aware of the issues we are debating in July. Read the rest of this entry »

With the implementation of 20-minute bus service this summer, the City of Guelph will be posting fixed transit schedules with much more user information for riders.

(please note that this is only sample and that the route information is not accurate)

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