Welcome to Guelph Beat

In the spring of 2008, I was wrapping up my tenure as Editor-in-Chief of the University of Guelph student paper, The Ontarion, and looking for new writing opportunities, so I responded to an ad in Echo Weekly looking for news writers. Now I had written for Echo a couple of times before, and after a lunch meeting with then-editor Ryan Farkas, we came up with the idea for "Guelph Beat," a weekly column covering news and politics in the City of Guelph. 

A lot of what I've done since has sprang from that one meeting: the By-Election Blog in 2008 that became Guelph Politico, subsequent appearances on CFRU including "Beyond the Ballot Box" and "Gang of Four," even being a quasi-expert on the robocall scandal last year. I owe a lot to my exposure in Echo, which is why when it folded in 2011, it was more than a little disappointing. 

More than that though, when Echo Weekly closed up shop, it also closed up its website. For me, what it meant was all that work, all those columns, interviews, tidbits and editorials were lost in the ether. Nearly 200 in all. So what was I to do? The solution is presented here: archive them on my own. The project took much longer than I expected. Writing an 800 word article is easy, posting and formatting some 170 articles one after the other is somewhat more time consuming (and daunting). Below are all the "Guelph Beat" articles I could find on my hard drive. Unless I'm mistaken, at least a couple of them are MIA, but for the most part, the entire collection is represented here. 

But before you dive in, allow me a moment to eulogize Echo. When I first came to Guelph, Thursday was a great day. Not because it was the day of the week for the weekly pub crawl, but because that was the day of the week when both the new Ontarion and the new Echo came out. I came from a town with one weekly newspaper, so all this regular reading material around Guelph was something akin to heaven. This probably should have been an early sign of my interest in writing and journalism, but hindsight it 20/20 as they say.

Time caught up with Echo. As the print industry took a hit around the time of the economic crash in 2008, Echo's parent company took gradual stages to reign in costs: cutting staff, moving offices, shrinking the size of the paper. As it turned out though, the more the paper cut, the less it could do. It's hard to cultivate a regional paper for the Guelph/K-W/Cambridge area when the head office for that paper is in Hamilton, and in the end, Echo Weekly died a quiet, unremarkable death in October 2011.

I miss the weekly grind of writing for Echo. I also miss the distinction of being one of the ink-stained wretches. Something was definitely lost when Echo stopped printing, and try as we might to fill the void with websites, to me at least, it just isn't the same as getting that fresh from the presses copy of Echo every Thursday morning.

So without further ado, let's take a walk down memory lane.

Negotiations and Special Guests

Union to City: No dice.

The city’s unionized workers have said forget-about-it to taking five unpaid days off in 2010 and instead temporary lay-offs may be implemented in order to save $1.2 million from this year’s budget. Both the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1189 and the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 241, which represent the city’s transit and outsider workers respectively, voted against the budget proposal by a “very clear majority,” according to CUPE 241 President Brad Kelloway. The result, according to director of human resources Mark Amorosi, is that some city services could be outright closed for five days, and that might include Guelph Transit. Exact details weren’t given, but chances are good that the disruption to city services isn’t going to be nearly as invisible to citizens as city hall had hoped. CUPE Local 973, which represents the city’s inside workers, have yet to vote on the proposal. For updates, see my blog at http://guelphpolitico.blogspot.com

Cool Deal for Family Thrift Store

Milan Lesic is undoubtedly a happy man. The businessman landed a cool $1.25 million in selling the Wyndham Street storefront that he owns that was most recently the home of Ray Mitchell’s Family Thrift Store. The final figure Lesic’s receiving for the sale was revealed last week after the deal to buy the property was officially closed. Next items up for bids are the buildings on either side of the old Family Thrift Store including the former Wyndham Arts location, which has a closure date set a few months hence. But if you were ever a patron of the Family Thrift Store and that amount seems exorbitant to you, Mitchell himself agrees. “It's funny, because the standard formula to estimate the value of a building is to multiply by ten the yearly gross rent,” said Mitchell in an online post. “In this case, the three businesses fully rented paid about $85,000 a year, so we should have paid at most less than a million. And, in this case, since two of the three stores had no working furnaces and therefore no tenants the amount should have been even less.”

City Wants you to name stuff

For your information, today’s the last day for you to be able to submit your suggestions to name new city properties. As part of a new Commemorative Naming Policy, the city wants your suggestions for what the name of six new city assets should be. These sites include the Northern Heights, Morningcrest, Conservation Estates and Westminster Woods subdivisions; a park on the former Eastview Landfill site; and the Civic Square in front of City Hall and the new Provincial Offences Court.

“Names will be reviewed by the City’s naming committee,” said a City of Guelph press release. “First consideration will be given to those names that have geographic, civic or historic significance of the neighbourhood where the asset is located. Second consideration will be given to names of individuals who have achieved at least one of the following: excellence, courage or exceptional service to the citizens of Guelph, Ontario or Canada; worked to foster equality and reduce discrimination; or risked or given his or her life to save or protect others.”

For more information, visit the city’s website at guelph.ca/parks.

Valeriote bring in Trudeau

With Parliament prorogued and nowhere to go it seems, our local MP Frank Valeriote is welcoming Member of Parliament for Papineau, PQ (and son of a former Prime Minister that needs no introduction) Justin Trudeau to the Royal City. Trudeau’s coming into town Friday to be part of Our Lady of Lourdes high school’s annual Flag Day festivities where the school will give the Liberal MP their National Leadership Award. The award’s ceremony will take place in the morning, and will be followed by an open house at the Italian Canadian Club where members of the public can meet and greet with Valeriote and Trudeau from 1:30 to 3 pm.  For more information contact Valeriote’s office at 519-837-8276 or valerf1@parl.gc.ca

Vandals, Evictions and Pollinators

Updates and Evictions

Despite grassroots support – and a cover story in last week’s Echo – it appears that Ray Mitchell’s fight to save the space he’s operated his Family Thrift Store from for 16 years, is over. After I interviewed Mitchell for last week’s cover story, he was handed a 30-day notice by his landlord Milan Lesic. Mitchell and Lesic were unable to reach an agreement on terms of a new lease; Lesic wanted six months, Mitchell wanted three-to-five years. Mitchell may be able to move his business into the building formally occupied by Wyndham Arts, but it would only be a temporary salvation. “We’re out of here at the end of the month, and I think we’re going out with a seven day music festival,” Mitchell told me last Thursday. “Rather than be negative, we’ll be positive because that makes city hall feel even worse.” The seven day festival is tentatively to be called “Thrift-stock” adds Mitchell.

Quarterly Vandalism spree hits core

Several proprietors and employees of 20 different downtown sites were greeted with delightful messages of "kill police and their families," "fight the pigs," "kill police," "we are winning," and "No 2010 Olympics on stolen native land," last weekend. The River Run Centre, Old Quebec Street mall, Knox Presbyterian Church and the law office of Hungerford, Guthrie and Berry were amongst the venues not sparred from the spree. Strong anti-police sentiments are a regular in graffiti incidents in town; several squad cars were spray-painted in April 2007. As for the anti-Olympic lobby, this follows an occurrence back in November where the McDonalds on Wellington and Gordon was vandalized to the tune of $5,000. There’s currently no evidence of a connection between the incidents, but police are still investigating.

It’s a (tentative) deal!

With three days to spare before a strike deadline, the City of Guelph reached a tentative deal with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) locals 241, 973 and 1946, who represent approximately 550 outside, inside and library employees. Details of the settlement will be available when all parties have had an opportunity to present the settlement to their respective principals for ratification. The CUPE locals have been working with out a contract since January 31 and a strike deadline of Friday, March 6 at 12:01 am was set.

Valeriote talks cars

Our local MP demonstrated again last week that he’s a man of parliamentary action, as Frank Valeriote was appointed to a committee studying the crisis in the auto industry. Five Members of Parliament will sit on the sub-committee which begins its work immediately and will report its findings and recommendations to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology by March 24, 2009. “The auto industry has been a driving force in Canada’s economy and has contributed to the vitality and prosperity of communities right across this country. Canadian families depend on the good jobs that have traditionally been associated with the auto sector,” said Valeriote in a press release. “This study is a welcome opportunity to study the industry, share information with Canadians about the industry, and draw conclusions as to the appropriate federal response to address this crisis.”

Pollinator Postponed

Last week, council formally approved a plan to turn part of the old Eastview landfill into a pollinator park, but cost issues in some aspects of the conversion may slow the process. The first phase of creating a community park on the old landfill site – which will include the creation of lit football fields (both kinds) – will cost about $1.74 million, an amount that’s already been budgeted. The remaining costs, totalling about $6.8 million, may have to be spread over five or six years. But at least the pollinator function of the park should proceed in a timely manner; the city’s planning chief, Jim Riddell, says that the non-profit group called Pollinator Guelph will handle fundraising responsibilities to install pollinator-friendly plantings without any direct cost to the city. The pollinator park project is part of a sustainability effort to combat the decline of pollinators like bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and moths

Back to Basics

For the last 12 weeks or so, the Guelph Beat has been preoccupied with the by-election and the immediately following federal election. But as of this past Tuesday, all that is over and we can get back to business as usual. (For an election wrap visit my blog at http://guelphbyelectionbeat.blogspot.com, and that’s going to be the last mention of it. Honest to blog… D’oh!)

So now it’s back to… whatever it is we did in this space before the extended edition election began. So I decided to revisit some of the press releases from the City that I only had opportunity to glance over in the midst of all the Federal action in our town. It’s actually been a fairly busy time in municipal politics, with a decision coming down on a couple of really big issues.

First, there was the September 19 announcement that the City was terminating its contract with Urbacon Buildings Group, the construction crew that was building the new city hall. With another deadline on the horizon, as well as yet another announcement of delay, the city’s solicitor suggested the move to terminate the contract on grounds of the numerous breaches committed and instead approach a bonding company to oversee completion. “I believe this will allow us to complete the project sooner and be more cost-effective,” said Guelph Chief Administrative Officer Hans Loewig. “The City is now in a better position to direct the completion of the project and firm up the move-in date.”

In meantime some city offices are in limbo because they expected to have been moved into their new digs by now. Some are currently living out of boxes, others are in need of temporary quarters. On Urbacon’s end, they’ve had a lien put on city hall, demanding that they be paid the some $12 million they say that they’re still owed for construction costs and subcontractors from July on. As for the building itself, Loewing told the Guelph Mercury on October 7 that if construction resumes by the middle of the month than it should be finished by the end of the year.

The other big issue was the proposed merger between Guelph Hydro and Horizon Utilities. The matter’s been debated for months as the pros offered by the city and Hydro met the cons of concerned Guelph residents who worried that this was back door privatization. The argument came to a close on September 28 when in a special council session, the motion to approve the merger was defeated by a vote of 8 to 5.

The issue was complex. Horizon’s current shareholders are the Cities of Hamilton and St. Catherines, Guelph would have been the third partner in the utility. The deal was endorsed by the hydro board and the Chamber of Commerce, but many community groups and private citizens were concerned about rate increases, loss of regulatory authority and possibility that Guelph customers could be paying for repairs and service in the other two municipalities. Despite assurances from hydro, the city and the Ontario Energy Board, many remained unconvinced. In fact, Councillor Kathleen Farrelly said that her negative vote was in response to “overwhelming public opinion.”

In happier news, it was announced that Ward 5 Councillor Lise Burcher would be joining the Green Municipal Funds Council - the group responsible for administering Canada's Green Municipal Fund - by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' (FCM) Board of Directors. The GMF, according to the press release, “provides loans and grants, builds capacity, and shares knowledge to support municipal governments and their partners in developing communities that are more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.”

"In my role on the Council, I plan to serve Guelph and the rest of the province by showcasing Guelph’s innovative projects to the rest of Canada, and exploring other ground-breaking opportunities for all Canadian municipalities," said Burcher about her new duties.

Still Waiting: A By-Election Non-Update

Since I’ve started working on the Guelph Beat column, I’ve kept the focus primarily on municipal politics and issues within the borders of the Royal City. But wait, I thought, isn’t there some very important Federal politics happening in Guelph? Aren’t we currently without representation in the House of Commons, waiting breathlessly for a writ of by-election to be dropped?

Ah yes, I said to myself, I do remember these things correctly.

Brenda Chamberlain’s resignation as Guelph’s Member of Parliament became official on April 7 as she stepped down after nearly 15 years of service. One month later, there’s still no sign that a by-election is forthcoming even though Canadian law deems that one must be called within six months of a vacancy; meaning that the government has until October 7 to call it.

Certainly local candidates appear ready to go anytime between then and now. As I trolled websites this past week, I found a swipe at Chamberlain and the Liberals published on Gloria Kovach’s website. Kovach is the Conservative nominee for Guelph.

“The Liberal Party wasted no time getting out of town,” the April 20 statement said. “Although responsible to maintain the constituency office, they quickly removed all indications that one continues to exist.” The message went on to say that, “No statement has been issued by the departing MP, or local party officials as to how the people of Guelph are to obtain federal government services.”

Well, either in response to Kovach’s website, or in spite of it, an announcement was made two days later that Kitchener-Centre MP Karen Redman would be acting as Guelph’s temporary representative until a new one can be elected. The constituency office on Cork St. remains open even though, yes, it no longer bares the Chamberlain name on the front or any other signing. Redman told the Guelph Tribune that new singing is not usually put up in these instances.

Still, when you walk past the old Chamberlain office, one can’t help but get the feeling of abandonment. For this reporter, when I went by the office myself the other day, I had to stop and think about what was there (and apparently still is there) previously. But what it does do is draw attention to the fact that Guelph currently has no representative in Ottawa, which makes the need for a by-election all the more apparent. Some don’t seem to see it that way though.

Ken Morgan, a candidate for Ward 6 in the last municipal election and current president of Guelph Conservatives, wrote a column for the Guelph Tribune and told Guelphites to “Have patience, Guelph will have a new MP soon enough. We've gone almost a year without one . . . and no one seemed to have noticed . . .”

Morgan also said that, “If the people calling for an immediate by-election were so concerned about Guelph not having representation in Ottawa, where have they been the past few years? Why wasn't Jack Layton standing up in the house almost one year ago demanding that Guelph MP Brenda Chamberlain step aside?”

Well Layton’s man in the Royal City is standing up now. Writing in response to Morgan, in a letter printed April 22 in the Tribune, King said, “As the NDP candidate in Guelph, I want to see a by-election called as soon as possible. Being without an MP to voice our concerns in Ottawa is, frankly, unacceptable and unnecessary. It's rather like playing hockey without a goalie.”

So far, Kovach and King’s fellow candidates, Liberal Frank Valeriote and Green Mike Nagy, have been silent as to where they stand on the immediacy of a by-election. But the smart money says don’t look for a move on any of this until September at the earliest.