How do you sum up a year in Guelph? I don’t know, but let’s try!
It’s funny to remember that near the beginning of 2023, the Ontario Liberals initiated a somewhat desperate “Draft Mike” Schreiner effort. In lieu of finding someone magnetic and accomplished from inside the red team, they looked to the green, but Schreiner ultimately decided to take no part in that.
Probably a good call because the political momentum at Queen’s Park this year seemed to belong to Schreiner alone. Not only did he help secure a second Green Party seat in the legislature, but he avoided party infighting (unlike Marit Stiles and the NDP) or corrosive political scandals that ended up undermining a year of legislation and work.
Speaking of Doug Ford, he didn’t make many friends this year. There were a couple of now famous episodes where the premier waded into Guelph-centric commentary and it blew-up in his face. The most recent example resulted in one of Ford’s favourite dismissive insults being applied to Guelph city council when he called them “a bunch of left-wing lunatics.”
This rhetorical slap in the face was enough to get Mayor Cam Guthrie off the bench. “The last couple weeks have seen some unnecessary and somewhat strained relationships with the province, particularly some commentary from the premier,” Guthrie said at a November council meeting.
It was a rare rebuke from the mayor who spent a May council meeting chastising his own colleagues for having critical notes for the Ontario government about their re-writing of the City’s Official Plan. A prophetic move as it turned out because it was just a couple of months ago that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing realized that he didn’t like the changes either.
At this point, I would like to take it easy on the mayor because it seems like some people are always looking for an opportunity these days to knock him down; he couldn’t even make music for old folks or ring some jingle bells for the Salvation Army before the holidays without someone taking the piss.
Me? I want to talk about the times that the mayor said nothing.
His radio silence in the immediate aftermath of the “Strong Mayor” announcement was deafening, especially since he was standing right there in the media studio at Queen’s Park as it happened. He was also silent about the negative connotations towards our queer community before September’s “1 Million March 4 Children” claiming that he couldn’t comment as he was out of town.
I will note that the mayor was in town for the groundbreaking of both the new main library and South End Community Centre, two things that actually happened this year! It turns out some wishes are granted even if they’re coming true 20 years late. But not all decades old wishes were answered this year because transit was hacked, and slashed, and then hacked again.
There was some good transit news in 2023 though. Those silly three-sided open-air shelters at Guelph Central Station were finally replaced with something that will actually protect you from the elements. And while we didn’t get two-way all-day GO Train service, we did get a weekday GO Bus connection to Hamilton and Waterloo, filling a long gaping hole in our regional transit service.
New transit would have certainly made it easier to sell the idea of zero parking minimums for new downtown residential projects, but that was not meant to be. The new Downtown Parking Master Plan did shave down the minimums, but not far enough for developers who are now taking the city to the Ontario Land Tribunal to appeal.
Also now at the OLT is an appeal of the new Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw. It’s the first time in 30 years that a new version of this important tool’s been passed by council, but it’s still awaiting formal adoption nearly a year after it was passed because it’s one of over dozen Guelph projects being appealed. Staff even noted this year how all this time, effort and energy being put into hearings is draining resources that could be directed to housing.
Another refresh made news this year, the new riding boundaries that will, for the first time, separate Guelph between two different ridings. Much of the southern part of Guelph will be replacing Georgetown as the urban portion of Wellington-Halton Hills, but whether you live there, or in the remaining riding of Guelph, one thing’s for certain: Lloyd Longfield won’t represent you after the next election. He’s retiring.
For a very different type of goodbye, we observed the passing of former Ward 1 Councillor Bob Bell earlier this year. Personally, I was never a fan of Bell’s, he once ran away from me at a street party in the Ward and that was kind of hurtful, but years of public service on the hot plate of municipal council is nothing to sneeze at, and it’s a shame that he passed just as he was starting to enjoy his retirement.
It was also the end for the paper version of the Guelph Mercury Tribune, cut down without warning or notice along with 60 per cent of the publisher’s workforce. That ended up including two local reporters whose coverage and influence will be missed at the local press club, but it’s another sign that many Canadian media outlets are struggling to cope in the changing media landscape, and sometimes through no fault of their own.
But if there’s a story of the year, it’s probably as familiar as the back of your hand. Every planning decision, every clash of political personality, all led back to the housing crisis. This year, our politicians at all levels fell all over themselves to find the quick and easy fix to a problem years in the making, but those were obviously elusive.
What we did do this year was make some real progress in housing. Grace Gardens opened, and so did the new Bellevue unit at Wyndham House. The Kindle Community on Shelldale is almost ready, and good progress was made at 65 Delhi Street. That’s 100 new social housing units in the space of about two years, which is nothing to sneeze at.
It’s also a reminder that, as President Kennedy once said, our problems are human made and within the ability of humans to solve them. As we enter 2024, that seems like a pretty good resolution to put your money on, so let’s see what we can do when Monday dawns.
See you in 2024.
