Innovation and Irony

So I think it’s time we get back to hard news. What do you think? Well too bad, by the time you read this I will have written it a week ago, so I’ve already made the assumption. Here we go:

Things Are About to Get Innovated

From the "Hey, maybe this will stifle some of those HST grumbles" file, comes word last week that the Government of Ontario and the City of Guelph has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in regards to the City's plan for the Guelph Innovation District. Now off the top, an MOU sounds a bit like when you tell your buddy that you'll get the next round when he buys your beer, but you say you've got to get home before it comes to that, but apparently, this is big news.

"The MOU signed today commits a portion of provincially-owned land in the district to the city’s plan to create this new, innovative employment area," said a joint press release. The City of Guelph anticipates the District will accommodate 10,000 of the 32,400 jobs projected for the City by the year 2031. "This is part of the province’s Open Ontario Plan to help create clean, green jobs and support innovation."

“Guelph residents will welcome this Memorandum of Understanding which sets out a joint vision for the future development of the provincial lands in Guelph’s York District," said our own MPP Liz Sandals. "The Guelph Innovation District plan brings together an exciting blend of green jobs, cutting edge innovation, and environmentally-friendly places to live and do business that will benefit our community for years to come.”

“Home to as many as 5000 people and 10,000 jobs, these lands will bring together the best and brightest minds to address provincial and global environmental and technological challenges," said Mayor Karen Farbridge. "As a carbon neutral LEED-Neighbourhood, this urban village will demonstrate new approaches and technologies to manage the urban environment redefining our experience of city living.”

In Ironic News…

Everybody loves bike lanes, right? Well, except for Toronto City Councillor and mayoral candidate Rob Ford who once said, “I can’t support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it’s their own fault at the end of the day.” Still, most people like bike lanes because their progressive, they help get cars off the road and they’re environmentally friendly. Which is why it’s so strange that the construction of new bike lanes should have local friends of the shrubbery upset.

There are new bike lanes being constructed along Gordon St between Stone Road and Harts Drive, but because of the narrowness of this section of road, it’ll have to be widened to accommodate the bike lanes. But in order to do that, about 20 trees will have to be cut down. “Clearly, inadequate consideration was given to preserving trees when planning the reconstruction of sidewalks and a development of a bike path,” Norah Chaloner of Guelph Urban Forest Friends wrote in an e-mail to the Guelph Mercury. “It’s another indication of the lack of regard for the importance of urban trees and canopy.”

The City countered though that they’re not taking down trees willy-nilly. “If we don’t have to cut them down, we won’t. We’re saving them if we can,” he said. “There will be further refinement (of the plans) at the time of construction (of the bike lanes).”

Not cool though says Guelph Urban Forest Friends who submitted that in the past about half of the young trees planted don’t make it past five years and it’ll take decades for new trees planted “today” to reach the same maturity as trees currently in the ground on that same stretch. Construction is due to start by the end of July and is expected to be finished by the end of the year.

Flu Shots, Trees and Signs

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

As Federal parties choose who’s going to represent them in the next Federal Election, there’s an important issue concerning the future campaign that needs action, at least according to Gloria Kovach: Too many election signs. The Ward 4 Councillor and former Federal Conservative candidate brought forth motion to city council last week to have city staff look into the possible implementation of additions to the signing by-law to reduce the number of signs that can be posted on public and private property. The move is to diminish visual pollution on the busy corners of the city where “signus eruptus” happens every elect, but Kovach also said that the move will help keep a lot of signs out of the landfills once elections are over. 

“This is not political. There is a gross amount that goes to landfill,” said Kovach, who added that while visiting other communities her time as President of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities she never witnessed a Guelph-like orgy of election signage everywhere (my words, not hers). At the meeting, Mayor Karen Farbridge said that the city has too many other, more important balls in the air to address the issue right at this moment, but Kovach found a seconder in Ward 3 Councillor Maggie Laidlaw. The motion was passed on a 7 to 6 vote. Laidlaaw said that she offered her support in order to “help level the playing field” so that new candidates can have the same shot as incumbents. We shall see what comes to pass, because there’s at least one election coming down the pipe in the next year: the 2010 Municipal election. 

Tree police make a bust (sort of) 

The City of Guelph laid 151 charges against three companies after an investigation into an incident this past summer where trees were being cut down in the Victory Rd. S. area, and no one at City Hall seemed to know about it. According to a press release, “Under the City of Guelph’s tree by-law, it is an offence to injure or destroy a tree, or cause or permit a tree to be injured or destroyed within the city,” and “If found guilty of such an offence, a person or an organization could be subject to a fine between $500 and $2,000 per offence.” The incident on June 11th, a neighbour reported that about 65 acres of trees, part of the Paris-Glat Moraine, had been cut down. So why the four month wait before charges? “We wanted to make sure we got all the evidence before we moved forward at all,” Doug Godfrey, the city’s supervisor of bylaw enforcement, told the Guelph Mercury. South Edge Ltd. And Williams and Associates Forestry and Environmental Consultants Ltd., each face 50 charges, while O.T.S. Contracting Ltd. faces 51 charges. 

Flu Shots in reserve

Hey you! Perfect health person under the age of 65 that doesn’t have a chronic health, contact with a baby, work in the health profession, and or are currently pregnant. Get out of the line for the flu shot says Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health’s medical officer of health, Dr. Nicola Mercer. Those shots are for at-risk groups only. “I have confidence the (general) population is understanding that the reason they are being turned away is because they are in a low-risk group and we’re trying to put the vaccine in the arms of people who are high-risk.” I like your optimism Doctor, but haven’t you watched the news lately? We’re all doomed! Apparently the seasonal flu shot is still available to the general public at the local flu shot clinic, for all the good it’ll do you. 

And in case you can’t tell, I’m being sarcastic.

Trees Saved, Critical Valeriote, and Washrooms Closed

A lot of time, effort and energy over the last month have been absorbed in that little snafu on the south end involving the Hanlon Creek Business Park, but that doesn’t mean time stopped through the rest of the Guelph Beat. Here’s what’s been going down in other areas of interest.

Trees Saved (without protest)

Paradoxically, as the City was fighting to mow down some trees in the Hanlon Creek Business Park site, it was fighting to keep them up in the area around Goldie Mill. Last week, the City announced that a revised plan for the parking lot at the Guelph Youth Music Centre and the Goldie Mill Park will allow for the majority of the mature trees to remain. Moreover, the changes came in consultation with area citizens through comments and input at a meeting on August 5th. The City will implement measures to minimize construction impacts on the trees adjacent to the parking lot, said a City of Guelph press release. The City is also committed to replacing any transplanted trees that do not survive, and planting new trees adjacent to the parking lot.

Valeriote Gets Critical

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff announced last week that our local MP Frank Valeriote had accepted the role of Liberal Critic for the Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. The agency, which will be based in Kitchener, had been announced in January’s Federal budget and will spend $1 billion over five years to promote new jobs and economic growth in Ontario. It was only on August 13th that Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially launched the agency along with Minister for Science and Technology, and Cambridge MP, Gary Goodyear. Valeriote’s first act as the new critic was to criticize what he called the government’s “inaction plan at work,” saying, “Southern Ontario has been waiting six long months since it was first announced in the budget to get this agency underway – the government has wasted precious time determining a site for it while thousands more jobs have been lost.”

Valeriote also talked about the sale of Nortel’s assets to Swedish film Ericsson, saying that if Goodyear and Harper really wanted to the Canadian economy a solid, they’d try and make sure those assets stayed in Canadian hands. “If Minister Goodyear is serious about Southern Ontario, he should turn his attention immediately to assisting Minister Clement with a review of the sale of Nortel’s wireless assets,” said Valeriote in a press release. “This review should exhaust all efforts to find a made-in-Canada solution involving one of Southern Ontario’s success stories, Kitchener-Waterloo’s Research-in-Motion.”

City Updates on Public Washroom Repairs

In the ongoing appraisal of public washroom facilities on city land following the death of a teenage girl earlier this summer, the City has released an update for the community. Based on the recommendations from the structural reports from Gamsby and Mannerow Engineers, the City of Guelph has contracted Action Construction Company of Kitchener for the demolition and rebuilding of the partition walls of the public change/washrooms at Guelph Lake Sports Field, Hanlon Creek Park, and St. George’s Park. The repairs began this week at Guelph Lake Sports Field and will be followed by repairs to Hanlon Creek Park and St. George’s Park with all repairs scheduled to be completed by the end of September. The City is also requesting a quote from Action for repairs to the public change/washrooms at the Norm Jary Splash Pad, and another company Group Eight Engineering Limited is performing the structural investigation work at the Larry Pearson Baseball Complex washroom facilities.