Guelph Green(?), Party Hard and Washroom News

Guelph on Green Leader’s short list

National Green Party leader Elizabeth May is hoping the third time will be the charm in securing a seat for herself in Parliament and she may be hedging her bets on the Royal City to make it happen. May ran in Central Nova in the last Federal election in October 2008, a riding notable because at the time, and currently too, it was held by Conservative cabinet minister Peter MacKay. Before that, May ran in London-North-Centre in a by-election in Fall 2006, but lost to Liberal Glen Pearson. But Central Nova was May’s home base, although now it seems the strategy is to find somewhere she’s more electable "Now the party is convinced that our Number 1 goal is to elect me to the House of Commons. So that changes quite a lot of things,'' May told Eastern Ontario Greens and reporters at an election-preparedness briefing a few weeks ago.

Owen Sound or Vancouver Island are also strong contenders, as well as Cumberland-Colchester in Nova Scotia, which is now vacant because of the retirement of independent MP Bill Casey, a former Conservative. But Guelph is certainly an attractive choice too. Last summer, the Greens felt they had the momentum going into the by-election only to have their thunder stolen when the polls opened nationwide. Last October, local candidate Mike Nagy, on his third campaign, came in third, garnering over 21 per cent of the vote, and just 11 points shy of the winner, our current MP, Frank Valeriote. May said it comes down to the question: "Where is the greenest riding in Canada? Where is the place where people are more likely than anywhere else to say, 'We want that voice in the House of Commons?' ''

Party On Guelph

After postponing the official celebration of the opening of the new City Hall last month after the accidental death of Isabel Warren in a city washroom in a south end park, a new date has been set for the festivities: September 19th. The free, day-long celebration at 1 Carden Street will feature five stages filled with music, dance and demonstrations. The building’s historic Winter Fair Wall will serve as a backdrop for Farmer’s Market vendors, community exhibits and displays including the City’s plans for the Civic Square and water feature in front of City Hall. Also, throughout the day people will be welcome to wander through the entire first floor of new City Hall to see Council Chambers, the ServiceGuelph counter and the living wall. Guided tours will showcase accessibility features, the offices of the Mayor and City Councillors and the building’s green features including the green roof. In addition, the City will provide free transit service from 5:40 a.m. to 6 p.m. to encourage people from all over the city to join the celebration downtown.

Recommendations made for City washrooms

An independent report about city-owned public washroom facilities was completed last week, and recommendations have been proposed for each building with respect to the partition walls, privacy screens and attachments. The structural report from Gamsby and Mannerow Engineers were for the public buildings in St. George’s Park, Guelph Lake Sports Fields and Hanlon Creek Park. The inspections were meant to identify any structural deficiencies that could be an immediate safety concern, and how they can be addressed. Because of this report, the City re-opened the men’s and women’s change/washrooms in Hanlon Creek Park last Saturday, but they will continue to keep buildings in St. George’s Park and Guelph Lake Sports Fields closed until upgrades and improvements are complete.

Taxis and Other Developments

No more Taxi Stand for you!

Say goodbye to the taxi stands downtown, late-night party revellers! That is if you haven’t already. After the Guelph Polices Services Board decided to withdraw its support, the city decided to withdraw the signs that were set up at a few locations across the downtown in order to cut down on the noise in surrounding neighbourhoods between the hours of 1 am to 4 am. Now before you blame the police, the police say that you should first look in the mirror to find the guilty party. It seems that taxi drivers were avoiding the taxi stands whenever possible because of the unruly behaviour of those waiting.

“When there is a huge crowd at the stands, people jump into the street and charge towards the approaching cabs and fight with others to get into the cabs,” said the letter to city council. “As a result, neither the cab drivers nor the customers want to go into the taxicab stands as they feel they are not safe.”

The taxi stand project had begun as a one-year pilot in October 2007. Council made the choice to extend the test last July. City staff talked about installing security cameras at the stands to help mitigate bad behaviour, but with just over a month left to go in the project, the city decided to cancel it outright. So what to do? Well, police suggested an expansion of the late night bus service saying that the current late night bus that services the university and south end works well at moving large groups out of downtown. But if you live in one of the other three quadrants of Guelph, you are wholly dependent on cabs, unless you’re sober enough to use your own two feet that is.

“Even with every taxi they have on the road, it takes a couple of hours for the downtown to clear,” the letter continued. “People are forced to hang around waiting on the next available cab, which leads to the disturbances, property damage, garbage strewn about, fouling on public property, a lot of upset store owners in the central business area, and frustrated police officers who have to deal with these same issues every weekend.”

Guelph Transit will examine the case for expanding its late-night bus service as part of 2010 city budget deliberations, a staff report said.

Ask the Experts

The Guelph Civic League is weighing in on the debate surrounding the Hanlon Creek Business Park by hosting a forum asking “What's At Stake?” at Norfolk United Church tonight at 7 pm. A panel made up of citizens groups, city staff, councillors and stakeholders will discuss the issues surrounding the development of the site in the city’s south end. Amongst the scheduled speakers are Judy Martin (Sierra Club Canada and Guelph Urban Forest Friends), James Gordon (Wellington Water Watchers), Matt Soltys (Land Is More Important Than Sprawl), Councillor Lise Burcher (Chair of Community Design and Environmental Services Committee, City of Guelph), Peter Cartwright (General Manager of Economic Development and Tourism, City of Guelph), and Lloyd Longfield (Guelph Chamber of Commerce).

Service Interruptus

The city advises patients over the next couple of weeks as departments and services move from the present locations and into the new Civic Administration Building. The move began on March 17 and will wrap on April 3 when the Mayor and Chief Administrative Officer’s offices are transferred to their new digs. For a complete schedule of the move and what departments are affected when, see the City of Guelph website at http://guelph.ca/newsroom_display.cfm?itemID=77187

Environment and Travel News

LIMITS Making an IMPACT

It appears that the actions of the environmental activist group Land Is More Important Than Sprawl (LIMITS) quest to bring attention to save the greenspace scheduled to be the future home of the Hanlon Creek Business Park is bearing fruit. Two posts made on the Ward 2 blog maintained by city councillors Ian Findlay and Vicki Beard articulated their concerns with the development project.

“I hear the argument that this development has been so long in the planning that we have to just ‘get on with it,’” says a letter writer identified as JG. “I don’t think we can threaten our futures just because we want to ‘get on’ with something, and I think that there will be a wide reaching negative reaction towards our current city government if we do not offer a public forum at a council meeting to revisit these concerns before it is too late.”

“The proposed irresponsible destruction of the natural heritage on this site is unforgivable,” adds another writer called BK. “I beg you to reconsider the future of the Hanlon Creek Business Park lands. In a better world this property should be known as the Hanlon Creek Natural Heritage Park and it would be a much more farsighted use of this land to be developed as such. The citizens of Guelph now and in the future would be much happier to live in a better world.”

Green Fighting Gets Dirty

Guelph got dragged into Green Party infighting last week when Mark Taylor, an Alberta Green who left the party’s national council after a conflict with leader Elizabeth May, wrote a fairly incendiary comment on his blog. "Money was funnelled into the riding to open two campaign offices," he wrote. "Staff was hired to run these offices. I know, from a personal contact, that requests were made of the Guelph team to turn their focus from (get out the vote) efforts in Guelph to (get out the vote) efforts in Central Nova." May has come under fire over her inability to win even one riding, including her own, in the last election. But on money matters, Elections Canada records show that May’s campaign spent significantly less than allowed under federal election rules in her riding, and May herself said that there was a "lack of focus" on winning Central Nova.

Settlement Ratified

Guelph City Council ratified the negotiated settlement between the City of Guelph and Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Locals 241 and 973 at the City Council meeting on March 9. The Guelph Public Library Board ratified the same agreement with CUPE Local 1946 at its board meeting the same night. With the 550 CUPE employees also ratifying the deal, it means that the matter is settled for these city employees. The deal contained wage and salary increases of 2.5 per cent in 2009, 2.6 per cent in 2010 and 2.75 per cent in 2011. The three year contract also contains modest benefits changes to more closely align CUPE benefits with other employee groups at the City of Guelph.

City wants to send Mitch away

The City officially sanctioned Mitch Moffit’s quest to secure the Best Job in the World last week by posting a link on their website. The contest is being sponsored by Queensland Tourism, to find someone to fill the position of caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef and be paid a handsome, six-figure salary to do it. Moffit is one of the Top 50 contests now in serious contention for the job thanks to his 60-second video, a Broadway style musical shot in Downtown Guelph last month. To throw your vote to Mitch got to http://www.islandreefjob.com/Mitchell.

Save the Date

This is just a reminder that starting on April 7, you’ll be able to access city services from offices in the new Civic Administration Building. The City’s tax payment system, and the building permits and inspection systems were moved over the March 6-9 weekend, and the moving process of other offices will take place all month long.