Clean-Up On, No Grocery, and Senior Centre is Silver

OPIRG cleans up again

For 30 years now, the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) has been leading the charge to keep our local water ways clear of litter, discarded bicycles and the occasional Guelph Mercury newspaper box. “It started out of a general concern for environmental issues locally,” Marnie Eves, OPIRG’s Organizational and Research Co-ordinator explained to me in an interview last year. “At the time, clean-ups were just starting to be one of the things that could bring communities together on environment issues.”

This year’s Clean-Up takes place this Saturday beginning at 8:45 am in Royal City Park. Once the river is clean, volunteers are invited to a celebratory barbeque complete with Interactive Children's Water Activities from the Children's Water Education Council, community displays, a walk down memory lane featuring The Clean Up over 30 years and the presentation of the Bonnie McCallum Award for Unsung Environmental Hero. There’ll also be music by the Funky Mamas and some opening remarks from Mayor Karen Farbridge.

“It’s not the end product,” said Eves about the one-day event. “We really see that one day as a chance to energize people and reconnect them with the river, not to think that this is the only thing that they have to do to take care of our water system.”

Anyone interested in volunteering can do so individually or as a group. It’s recommended that you bring gloves, sun gear, water and a pair of either old shoes, boots or hip waders, although OPIRG will have some supplies available. For more information on The Speed River Clean-Up visit OPIRG’s website at www.opirgguelph.org, e-mail them at opirg@uoguelph.ca, or call their office at 519-824-2091.

East end grocery: Not yet.

City Council heard from Loblaws last week that they want to go ahead and build a larger store than previously allowed at Watson Road and Starwood Drive, but they’re going to be cool about it and not rush things said a company representative. Loblaws will be "putting off projects across Ontario while they focus on refurbishing existing stores," explained Jonathan Rodger, a representative of Zelinka Priamo planning consultants. "They want to ensure everything is good to go once they're ready to push the button."

But certain members of city council weren’t as cool with having to wait longer for Loblaws to act in the east end. "We're certainly looking forward to seeing some building as soon as possible," said Councillor Mike Salisbury. Meanwhile, Ward 1 Councillor Kathleen Farrelly, under whom the east end is represented, said the proposed store cannot come fast enough. "We are avidly waiting for this to happen and hoping you can work with the city to get this going as quickly as possible," Farrelly told the consultant.

Seniors Centre turns 25

Guelph’s Evergreen Seniors Centre is celebrating its 25^th year of operation this month with a series of celebrations coinciding with the observance of Seniors Month throughout the province of Ontario. Evergreen will be hosting over 30 activities throughout the month of June. Amongst those activities are an afternoon of music and entertainment featuring Derek Bryne on June 16 at 1 pm and a picnic barbecue at Riverside Park on June 25 at 11:30 am. The Evergreen Seniors Centre will cover the majority of the costs for both these events but a donation of $2 would be appreciated. For more information, go to the City’s website at http://guelph.ca/living.cfm?subCatID=1492&smocid=2075 or call 519-823-1291.

New City Hall Opened, and OPIRG Coup?

At Last…

The new City Hall finally, and officially, opened for business last Tuesday April 7; that is if you don’t count that big brown patch of land where the landscaping has yet to be done. Regardless of the aesthetics and the trim, the important thing is that all city services are now under one roof rather than spread out across five buildings downtown. "It’s the first stop for anyone visiting City Hall," says ServiceGuelph Supervisor, Markham Wismer. "People can purchase transit passes, sign up for recreation programs, buy dog licenses, pay parking tickets and property taxes and more." ServiceGuelph is now open Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.

And along with convenience comes some impressive Green credentials for the new building: a green roof, living wall, eco-friendly building materials and fixtures that use 30 per cent less water than a typical office building. Guelph’s City Hall is built to the LEED Silver Standard set out by the Canadian Green Building Council. Also a first, the City Hall is the first building in Guelph to be bottled-water free. For a closer look visit the City of Guelph website at http://guelph.ca/cityhall.

No-PIRG, they didn’t. Did they?

Who would have guessed that a simple Board of Directors election for a small community activism group out of the University of Guelph would generate the kind of electoral fervour not seen since Bush V. Gore. Here’s the skinny: recently the Guelph-branch of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) held elections to fill vacancies on its Board of Directors. Controversy erupted after OPIRG extended the nomination deadline after it had passed. According to OPIRG, the deadline was extended because they had not received enough nominations to fill two community member seats on the Board. However, some are accusing of OPIRG of playing partisan politics in order to keep four members of Guelph Campus Conservatives from being elected.

Now why would OPIRG, granted a left-leaning organization, want to keep out four eager and community-minded youngsters from joining their esteemed group? Well, it apparently has something to do with a Conservative conspiracy and some audio recordings, photographs and documents that were leaked from a recent Conservative Party student workshop at the University of Waterloo. Among those present at the workshop were Member of Parliament for Kitchener-Waterloo, Peter Braid and his campaign manager, Aaron Lee-Wudrick. Reportedly Lee-Wudrick can be heard on the recording saying, "If it's possible if, in one fell swoop, to take over the Board of Directors [of OPIRG], I think that it would be pretty impressive, and you'd be a hero to the Conservative movement if you can pull that off."

Two executives of the Central Student Association, External Affairs Commissioner Cailey Campbell and Local Affairs Commissioner Arden Hagedorn, believed that the four members of GCC were taking those words to heart and sent out e-mails accusing them of trying to usurp OPIRG mandate. The four young men though say that there was no hanky-panky with their decision to run for OPIRG’s Board, and that they didn’t even know about the content of the U of W workshop; they simply wanted to make OPIRG-Guelph more transparent and less partisan.

Needless to say though, that’s not the end of it. On his blog, the Christian Conservative posted a letter received through his anonymous source of the Request for Discovery filled by the four Conservative to the OPIRG-Guelph Appeals Board. Amongst the papers being requested by the appeal are minutes and notes of all Board of Directors meetings from March 19^th to 31^st; all resolutions made by the BoD both in and outside Board meetings during the same time period; and e-mails between OPIRG staff, Board, Campbell and Hagedorn. The response to this appeal was not known by deadline. For more information as it develops head to my blog at guelphpolitico.blogspot.com/