All it took to put my ward on the map was an attempt by Metrolinx to expropriate land in a popular park and trail for a traction power substation (TPS) to electrify the GO train Kitchener line.
I say “put on the map” because I often feel that Ward 4 is overlooked in the pantheon of Guelph’s wards and neighbourhoods. I’ve lived there for almost 20 years, and I’ve enjoyed it mostly because of the walkability of my area. For that reason, my beef with Metrolinx has been more long-standing than the people who are now concerned about the fate of Margaret Greene Park.
I’ve watched and wondered this last year about where all of Guelph alternative transportation activists were holding up as Metrolinx built a hard border through the centre of town. No one’s going to dispute the need for safety along railway tracks, but crossing the tracks where there’s no official crossing has been a convenience for a lot of people on two feet in the west end where there are no easy routes running north and south if you don’t have a car.
No one really noticed or raised a fuss until Metrolinx decided to shut down Dublin Street, and then it became a proverbial federal case. Of course, there was advanced notice that the closure was coming because it was a city street. As we’ve seen, Metrolinx, on its own, is not so great at telling people what’s going on in their own neighbourhood.
On Thursday afternoon, residents in the area of Margaret Greene Park stretched provincial guidelines for the maximum number of people allowed at an outdoor gathering to their limit. This gathering was meant to get answers and air grievances, which all comes down to a simple matter of people demanding to know why it feels like big decisions are being made without their knowledge or input.
These are highly suspicious times. Lies and misdirection at all levels of government compound over years and decades no matter the party or political inclination of the ones in power now. Combined with the collapse of economic models supporting local news, and it’s understandable why people feel besieged by world where more and more decisions are being taken out of their hands.
It’s time to revisit one of my favourite tropes from Guelph politics, because this has been a bad week for disclosures.
Late last week, the Wellington Catholic School Board announced that board chair Marino Gazzola had deposed himself after concerns about apparently racist and/or insensitive social media posts. What were the content of those posts? Who knows? The region’s reporters have been scouring the social media posts of a retiree trying to find out where it all went wrong as the school board is apparently satisfied with vagary.
The comments and social media posts about Gazzola’s ouster reflect the confusion of a community who deserve to understand what happened. This is a man who lead the board that oversees nearly two dozen schools in our area for almost two decades, and we’re supposed to be okay with he’s gone now for reasons?
In other matters, the Central Student Association announced this week that they will not be collecting student fees for the universal bus pass for the fall semester, and likely the winter semester too. The hole that this blows in the budget for Guelph Transit is not that big; only half of the overall transit revenue comes from the Upass when you combine the fees from the fall and winter semesters.
Last month, this topic was discussed in closed session at city council, and all we were told was that the transit agreement between the city and the University of Guelph’s student governments was discussed. Surely it must have come up that the city was looking at the very real possibility that they were going to lose $7 million in bankable transit revenue for the next year?
Of course, we don’t know because this business, like so much business lately, has been done in the shadows. The police headquarters overrun, and an appointment at the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal over a high-density development in the west end that council voted against earlier this year are other examples of stuff only happening in closed meeting rooms.
City staff and council, not to mention several other local boards, services and institutions that are supposed to submit themselves for public scrutiny, have routinely given us the headline and figure that they’ve done their due diligence on transparency. It’s not enough, and people can only be pushed so far before they give up on any assumption that their leaders have the best interests of the whole in mind, and when they do, they turn to nonsense and strawmen.
Apparently, we’re meant to believe that even without the alarm raised by a few eagle-eyed activists, that there still would have been a thorough and public vetting of that TPS behind Margaret Greene Park. Sorry Metrolinx, I’m not in a trusting mood, and neither are about 100 of my neighbours.
