On Thursday, many of Guelph’s business leaders rolled out of bed early and headed down to the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre for the State of the City address from Mayor Cam Guthrie. It was a big change from last year’s State of the City where all you had to do was roll out of bed and turn on your computer.
Aside from the whiplash of meeting in-person again after the last 24 months, the State of the City was a relatively ordinary affair. Instead of bold, election year proclamations, Guthrie phrased the next few months of council as matter of fundamentals. Getting back to basics, as it were.
Or maybe, to put it another way, getting back to normal.
The problem with the human drive to reclaim lost normalcy is that it makes us ignore the constant and unceasing drumbeat of change. Change is always happening, but we only really notice when something shocks the system, and after that, we start to frantically look for a way to get back to normal as if time is something that goes in more than one direction. (Don’t “at” me with your quantum physics theories.)
We’re seeing the result of our latest head dive back to normalcy unfold in front of us now. The lifting of mask mandates is forcing a lift in the number of COVID cases just as warmer weather arrives with spring. I can’t find a public health worker or doctor who will say, “Throw caution to the wind and go maskless in any setting,” but that’s the message being received just the same.
Why? Because from the beginning of the mandates, masking was phrased as a means to an end and not as a tool. Masks haven’t become less effective with each new wave, all that’s changed is that we don’t want to wear them anymore. Getting rid of masks means we’re getting back to normal, but the virus doesn’t care about the level of antipathy you feel towards it.
This is a long way of saying that aside from specific mentions about pandemic and post-pandemic conditions, the State of the City could have been cut and paste from just about any other year. From the platitudes about Guelph’s greatness, to kumbaya moments about sticking together and letting love for community guide us to a better tomorrow, it was all so normal.
I’m too bitter and cynical to believe in the Care Bear Stare of community togetherness, and frankly Guelph only seems good to those that Guelph has been good to. I applaud the mayor for openly admitting that homelessness wasn’t on his radar until 2019, but affordability for many people in Guelph has been an issue just as long, and yet it’s now an undiscovered county for our political leaders.
And yes, let’s celebrate the progress in addressing chronic homelessness, and the recognition that throwing all people experiencing homelessness into an emergency shelter 28 days at a time was never the solution. The more difficult piece of the housing puzzle is how to help people who might have been able to buy a house 20 years ago buy one now, with the average home price exceeding $1 million.
There was no answer for this at the State of the City, except to say the answer has to come from both public and private sectors plus all levels of government.
On transit, Guthrie took a victory lap on the (partial) delivery on a 2020 promise for free transit for youth. The purpose is to develop good transit habits early, but I wonder if this is another expression of the idea that transit is only fit for those who can’t drive. Plus, “starting them early” could refer to the bitter resentment towards a still substandard transit system and the slow rate of improvement.
The prominent mention of advocacy for a new hospital is going to do nothing but rile up the people who think we can put shovels in the ground tomorrow. Meanwhile, there will almost definitely be panic if there’s a pause in development of the new main library, even after Guthrie said that we shouldn’t panic as the city embraces the new reality of inflated construction costs.
From mentions of trust in regard to the Guelph Police Service, among whom are members that still proudly fly the 'Blue Live Matter' flag, to phrasing the solution to diversity and inclusion as a simple matter of caring more, the State of the City sounded more like a fairy tale than an honest examination of our current predicament.
Maybe that’s the point. You’re not paying a ticket for a Chamber of Commerce event to hear that Guelph’s problems are so much more complicated than platitudes and that they’re unlikely to be solved easily or in the short term.
Speaking of feel-good moments, Guthrie took time in his speech to pay tribute to medical officer of health Dr. Nicola Mercer. Well deserved to be sure, but it was up to Mercer to offer the cold water in saying the pandemic still wasn’t over. At least the chamber insisted that everyone not eating needed to still wear a mask, but as we know, reality is not the State of the City.
