Election News and GCL Re-Ups

Birtwistle Takes Up Space

Upping the game to the next level, mayoral hopeful David Birtwistle has officially opened his campaign office. The space is in a former dollar store in the plaza at Victoria and Grange Roads, the same one that’s home to Guelph’s famous Hockey Sushi. It’s another sign that Birtwistle, a former two-term city councillor (2000-2006) means business in the race to depose Karen Farbridge for the City’s highest office. Sign spotters may recall that Birtwistle was also the first off the bench with election signage after the Canada Day long weekend. As for our current Mayor, she’ll be setting up shop in the former Alma Gallery downtown later this month. To keep up with the mayoral race, visit the candidates’ websites at http://www.davidbirtwistle.com/ for David Birtwistle and http://www.farbridgeforguelph.ca/ for Karen Farbridge.

The Rest of the Race…

The second half of July brought a proverbial flurry of new activity to the various races. Ward 1 remains, by far, the most competitive with a total of eight announced candidates running so far. Further, as of press time, I have it on good authority that there may be a ninth sometime soon. That's almost the total number of candidates running in all the other wards combined, and the remaining incumbent, Bob Bell, has still yet to announce. Meanwhile, over in Ward 2, Andrew Colwill threw his hat back into the ring. Colwill also ran in the last municipal election finishing sixth at seven per cent of the vote. Now he is the fourth person to join the race in this ward behind incumbents Vicki Beard and Ian Findley, as well as former Ward 2 councillor Ray Ferraro.

The story in the rest of the wards is mostly a tale of out with the old, back in with the old. The races in Wards 3 and 6 have remained unchanged since April, with incumbents Maggie Laidlaw and June Hofland re-upping for re-election in Ward 3 and Karl Wettstein doing the same in Ward 6. His ward mate, Christine Billings, told me earlier this summer that she usually waits until late summer/early fall to announce. Ward 4 finally joined the board with Gloria Kovach announcing her intention to run again on July 15th, and Mike Salisbury following suit on July 26th. Finally, in Ward 5, both Leanne Piper and Lise Burcher are now officially in the race.

HGCL Ready for another Go

Although extremely active in the last municipal election, not much has been heard from the Guelph Civic League in the build up to this year’s contest. Recently though, the GCL undertook a process to reinvigorate themselves, and it started with the election of a new executive. Kevin Ferraro and Sharon Lewis, both new to the Guelph Civic League, have agreed to act as co-presidents of the organization, while Annie O'Donoghue will continue to act as past president. The rest of the exec is made up of Anne Gardner as Treasurer, Clare Irwin as Secretary, Kathie Lamie as Membership / Outreach Co-ordinator, Susan Ratcliffe as Events Co-ordinator, Dave Sills as Communications Co-ordinator, and Anastasia Zavarella, Local Affairs Commissioner of the University of Guelph’s Central Student Association, as Campus Outreach Co-ordinator. “The members of the executive committee are excited about their new roles and anxious to build on the work of past executive committee members,” said a message to members of the GCL’s Facebook group. Founded in 2004, the Guelph Civic League is committed to keeping citizens informed and working towards a local democracy that is inclusive, participatory, transparent and accountable. Check out what the GCL’s got cooking by going to their website at http://www.guelphcivicleague.ca.

Report Cards and Public Urinals

Who’s Cool with GCL?

The Guelph Civic League (GCL) last week released their second annual Voting Record round-up. The civic advocacy group compiles data from councillor votes cast in the year 2008, and ranks each member of the city council according to how closely their vote aligns with the values of the GCL. Obviously, the GCL’s values lean towards the progressive, but their main goal is to help facilitate an informed and active local electorate. “The purpose of the report is to facilitate interest and to increase accessibility to council's record, often difficult to ascertain due to the sheer volume and format of the minutes of council meetings,” said a GCL statement issued with the report. “The hope is that these reports might provide a forum for discussion between residents and their council representatives.”

So who’s most inline with the ideals of the GCL? Well, Ward 5 Councillor Leanne Piper gets that honour with Ward 2 Councillor Ian Findley who tied for 86.7 per cent each. Both councillors won points for supporting a pesticide ban by-law, and for voting against the 6&7 development expansion on Woodlawn and the Hydro merger. Reversely, Ward 4 Councillor Gloria Kovach is at the top of GCL’s naughty list with 35.7 per cent while Ward 6 Councillor Christine Billings follows close behind with 42.9 per cent. Overall, council’s average is 73.4 per cent, with eight councillors scoring 80 per cent or more.

“By the 2010 election, there will be four reports in all - one for each year of this council's term in office,” says GCL, who added that their report this year involved the input of more members than ever. “A volunteer working group selected sample votes, representing GCL's community values, from each month. This list was then posted for several weeks in February. GCL's member organizations and supporters were invited to come in and indicate which of the 25 votes, were most significant to them as individuals or groups. The final 15 votes represent those chosen most frequently.”

Strike Averted

As Toronto faced the cold, hard, smelly truth of an outside workers’ strike, Guelph quietly settled a potential labour dispute of its own by reaching an agreement with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 231. The two parties announced last Tuesday that a tentative agreement has been reached for a three-year collective agreement, effective April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2011. The details of the deal reached with representatives of 67 full-time and 59 part-time paramedics of the Guelph-Wellington Emergency Medical Service won’t be revealed until a ratification vote on July 6.

Pee Freedom Costs Bars

In a follow-up on last week’s piece about potential installation of public urinals on a trial basis in the downtown this summer, the full council approved the staff proposal last Monday but with one addendum. In an amendment proposed by Councillor Leanne Piper, the council approved the staff recommendation, so long as downtown bars and restaurants foot the bill. Piper noted that if the project costs $1,000 per week - as staff have suggested - it would be about $50 per weekend for each business that would benefit from the urinals. That seemed reasonable to most councillors who didn’t like the idea of taxpayers footing the bill for a problem caused by late night libations sold at the establishments in question. "I'm not sure it would solve the problem and I certainly don't think the citizens should be paying for this," said Councillor Bob Bell in the Guelph Mercury.

Arts, Projects and Attendance

Everybody get artsy now

City staff have recommended to council spending $4 million to build a new arts centre in Guelph from the 2012 and the 2013 budgets. It’s not a new idea, there have been numerous discussions about making the project since 2003 when the city commissioned a feasibility study into building one. Now the idea is still in a very preliminary stage, but Ann Pappert, the city's director of community services, told the Guelph Mercury that putting it on the books, budget-wise, so that the project can move along from a mere notion to the road to reality.

And it’s a reality a lot people in town have been saying has been a long time in the making. One of them is Sally Wismer, executive director of the Guelph Arts Council. "It would be a space where the arts community could come together, a meeting space where you could drop in and see what was going on," she said adding that she sees studios that could be rented to artists, meeting rooms, rehearsal space, a gallery, a gift store and a small performance space as some of the proposed amenities. As for location, the city wants to use an existing building rather than build something new. Singer/songwriter James Gordon said that he hopes to see the current Civic Museum converted to an Arts Centre, once the new museum opens in the Loretto Convent.

City invites feedback for big projects

Speaking of the Civic Museum, an open house is being held at its current location on Dublin Street Tuesday so that members of the community can review, evaluate and give feedback about the plans and designs for the new location at the Loretto Convent. The material on display will represent the conceptual design, building renderings and site plan drawings for the main museum, Children’s Gallery, Guelph History Gallery, temporary exhibit areas, classroom and programming area, artefact and archival storage, research room, and offices. The deadline for completion of the renovations is September 1st, 2010, with construction starting exactly one year before that. The open house starts at 6:30 pm at the Museum on 6 Dublin Street.

Speaking of open houses, community members are also invited to review and discuss the conceptual design of Eastview Community Park and Pollinators’ Park at the northwest corner of Watson Pkwy N and Eastview Rd. The open house is part of the Public Consultation Process on the proposed End Use Plan for the former Eastview Landfill Site. This open house is going down in Activity Room #4 at the Evergreen Senior Centre, 683 Woolwich St. from 4 pm to 6:30 pm, also on November 25th.

Valeriote ready to receive you

Newly-elected Liberal Member of Parliament Frank Valeriote was finally sworn in during a ceremony in Centre Block on Parliament Hill last Friday. Valeriote is one of 13 new Liberal MPs that was introduced in caucus and inducted into Parliament last week, and already Valeriote is setting a high bar for himself. The former lawyer says that he intends to be as available as possible to his constituents, while being highly visible in Ottawa while the House is in session.

Now pundits will point out that anything will be an improvement over the abysmal attendance record of Valeriote’s predecessor Brenda Chamberlain. In the last session of Parliament, a month before her retirement, Chamberlain ranked 299th out of 303, or the fifth worst, in attendance, being absent a total of 33 times between January 2006 and March 2008. But Valeriote’s seat is not the only thing of Chamberlain’s that he’s taking over. Valeriote is setting up shop at 40 Cork St. E., Chamberlain’s old constituency office. The new MP says he’s ready to hear from you, so send inquiries through e-mail to valerf@parl.gc.ca or by phone at 519-837-8276.

League gets new Watchtower

Looking for the Guelph Civic League? Have you tried their new location? On November 8th, the GCL hosted an open house for their new digs at 10 Carden Street, conveniently across the road from the new Civic Administration building. In an alternative universe, the move for the progressive grassroots organization would have been ideal, had the new City Hall opened on time. But at least some people got a new office this month.