Dean Martin 2
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OPINION: 'Guelph has become a cold and mean place in recent weeks'
GuelphToday
19I sat beside the owner of NV and the rest of the DGBA/bussinesses at the meeting and and ended up moving to a different seat. I do understand they have businesses to run and are struggling but their absolute hatred and destiné they showed they had zero compassion in their hearts. They want a solution no matter how destructive it would be to homeless. They could have pushed council for a constructive solution but chose not to. People need to remember that not all businesses downtown are members of the DGBA, only a select few. I know more and more people are boycotting the downtown. If this is your intent I would suggest that you note which ones are part of the DGBA and boycott those.
24- Dean Martin 2
Council approves controversial public space use draft bylaw
GuelphToday 12Now the city is going to be taken to court for a legal battle we're going to lose. What a waste of our taxes dollars that could have gone to solving the issue. Mayor Guthrie by failing homeless since 2014 has led to him failing the downtown and with a lawsuit has now failed all of Guelph. Councillor O'Rourke question to one delegate of "If we move them out of downtown will it remove the stigma?" is the equivalent of out of sight out of mind.
16- Dean Martin 2
Guelph's projected tax increase for 2026 currently sitting at 7.66 per cent
GuelphToday 25Mayor Cam Guthrie you "didn't want them to feel like they were under the gun,"? Really? They should 100% feel like they're under the gun! The tax payers are struggling under the gun to pay these high taxes! Maybe if you didnt push this growth mandate we wouldn't scrambling to pay for all these things in such a short amount of time making our taxes so high!
2- Dean Martin 2
Mayor Guthrie appointed to AMO’s Large Urban Caucus
GuelphToday 15Really? He already sits on the Global Convenant of Mayors the takes his focus off of Guelph and now this? We pay him a $150K a year and he takes more and more of his focus off of Guelph. He crimializes the homeless, has driven the entire Accessibilty Advisory Committee to resign because of his lack of empathy, driven taxes up so that he can swoop in with his Strong Mayor Powers to appear the hero, the list goes on. Hopefully people wisen up next municpal election.
5- Dean Martin 2
Mayor inadvertently violated code of conduct: integrity commissioner
GuelphToday 15I had question Mayor Cam Guthrie on these type of trips and recieved no response. I've also questioned him about his position on the Global Convenient of Mayors, what is entails and how much of his time is taken away from his mayoral duties to the city. His only response was "I like to multi-task." He was elected and receives full time pay to focus on the needs of Guelph, not divide his attention between us and his personal pursuits that feed his ego. Now he recieves a full time paycheque and we get a part time mayor.
4- Dean Martin 2
Guelph's projected tax increase for 2026 currently sitting at 7.66 per cent
GuelphToday 17Free transit for students and seniors Im ok with...except why is the free transit for students after 5:00pm? It should be from 8:00am to 4:00pm to help the get to school and from school.
2- Dean Martin 2
Feds pitch in $2.6M for downtown shelter expansion
GuelphToday 15We also need a muncipal election to fix these problems. Mayor Cam Guthrie and council found $16million for two self cleaning washrooms downtown but can't find additional funding to help the homeless situation? Values are definitely messed up.
1- Dean Martin 2
Mayor inadvertently violated code of conduct: integrity commissioner
GuelphToday 10Reasonable Person at the council meeting where the Publuc Spaces Bylaw was being passed Guelph Legal Aid was one of the delegations present. They forwarned Mayor Guthrie and council that other similar Public Spaces that have been challenged across Canada that the municipalities have lost every single time at both provincial and Supreme Court levels and found to be in violation of human rights. They also warned that if they continue forward that they will launch a class action lawsuit on the matter which will be very costly. Maybe you should ask the Mayor how those type of cost are budgeted for?
2- Dean Martin 2
Guelph city councillor didn't violate code of conduct: integrity commissioner
GuelphToday 9I think the ethics commission should be investigating Mayor Cam Guthrie creating a job position just to hire on a friend.
3- Dean Martin 2
Five parks identified in city’s homelessness response
GuelphToday 5The sad reality is encampents are a reality and growing. According to Guelph numbers we see approximately 25 additional people becoming homeless every month and Mayor Cam Guthrie along with councilors like Rodrigo Goller and Dominique O’Rourke have led people to believe that all homeless are drug addicts which is huge misinformation. What is proposed is to try to clean up the encampments but does'nt address the issue as their nothing in the proposal regarding housing. Mayor and council found $16million for two self cleaning washrooms but can't find money to address the housing issue. $39mil for bikes lanes, but not for housing. $115mil for a rec center ($29mil over the initial budget), but not for housing. At the public spaces bylaw meeting Dominique O’Rourke best summed up how they plan on handling the homeless issue when she suggested "if we move them out of downtown won't that remove the stigma?" which is an 'out of sight, out of mind.' approach.
2- Dean Martin 2
Taxpayers spent more than $1 million on city council last year
GuelphToday 3I questioned Mayor Cam Guthrie about this type of thing back during his Copenhagen trip to learn about bike lanes. I asked how how much is cost the city to send himself and 4 others. His response that there was a grant that paid, he thought, $65k towards it but that there would be some expenditures submitted. When asked what those would be he refused to comment. But let's to the math. $13k each. I just double checked Expedia. Flight (business class) and a 5 star hotel is $5200.00. That leaves $1000.00/day to cover meals/entertainment/business expenses. What would be left to submit to the city for reimbursement?
3- Dean Martin 2
Reductions in rent supplement program likely to result in more area homeless
GuelphToday 2Mayor Cam Guthrie went on record in 2019 on how he failed the homeless in his first four years as Mayor. He not only continues to fail the homeless but continues to create it. He turned his back on 90 Carden St sale and instead of buying it to turn it into a low income housing project over 100 people were added to the homeless population. It's funny on things like this he is against investing $2.9mil but for the southend rec center he was willing 'today everything in his power to get it back on track' and directed an additional $29mil into that project. The rec center cost $115mill, that's alot of money that could have gone into necessary projects and kept our taxes down
- Dean Martin 2
Community invited to celebrate Bright Nights opening in downtown Guelph
GuelphToday 1I wonder how they'll enforce the bylaw?
1- Dean Martin 2
Guelph's projected tax increase for 2026 currently sitting at 7.66 per cent
GuelphToday 2Then 7am to 5pm but the focus needs to be helping them get to and from school.
- Dean Martin 2
OPINION: The struggle to get a job in Guelph is real; Let's change that
GuelphToday 1The job market in Guelph is only going to get worse and Mayor Cam Guthrie is aware of this. Here are the number published by the City of Guelph. 2023: population of 148,000 of which 102,000 are employed. Projected 2051: Population 203,000 of which 116,000 employed. Between 2023 to 2051 37% population growth but only 14% job growth. These numbers are based on Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2023 and an Information Report released by the City of Guelph.
- Dean Martin 2
Renoviction bylaw just one change being considered to address affordable housing
GuelphToday 1Guelph has always been a city of families but the Mayor and council don't believe in that anymore. These ADUs are not intended for families. These will move Guelph further away from a family based city it once was to meet a political agenda that they chose to follow. By 2051. Right now the number of employed is 106,000 and by 2051 it is expected to be 116,000. So 50% population growth but only 9.4% job growth. Sounds like a recipe for high unemployment, evictions and homelessness to me.
- Dean Martin 2
OPINION: What's the point of delegating when council doesn't listen?
GuelphTodayThe DBGA should be ashamed of themselves. I was already seated when they arrived at the Public Spaces Bylaw meeting. Their behavior was that of bullies sitting at the top of the high school bleachers making fun, tee heeing and snickering as people presented. They showed no compassion or empathy. It got to the point that Ai had to change seats I was so disgusted. Business bullies through and through.
- Dean Martin 2
Taxpayers spent more than $1 million on city council last year
GuelphTodayThe article only refers expenditures submitted. The trip to Copenhagen was cover by a $65k grant for the 5 people. Where the grant money came from he didn't say. Apparently the grant money wasn't enough to cover the all expenditures so he, and others, would have submitted expenditures that weren't covered. Those expenditures the he submitted for that trip would have been part of the $10k mentioned in the article.
- Dean Martin 2
New high school boundary focus of upcoming public info session
GuelphTodayWhile this will help a little bit to alightly aleviate the over crowding at other schools with a capacity of only 900 students the new high school is already overcrowded and it's not even built yet. :(
- Dean Martin 2
LETTER: It's not about encampments, it's about illegal activity
GuelphTodayIllegal activities have existed downtown before the encampment existed. Having worked the bar scene for many years I was challenged to many fights (including an attempted stabbing) been pushed around, dealt with occurrences of women drinks being spike, open drug use/deals (coke, MDA, Ecstasy, etc) both in the club and the streets, seeing store windows smashed and other property damage, public urination and dedication, streets brawls and other things the the DBGA members are complaining about. The biggest difference is that what is witnessed was between the hours of 11pm and 4am typically from the paying bar patrons. But that's different right? Those downtown patrons have money and the homeless don't.
- Dean Martin 2
