Adam Cloet

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Poll: Trudeau, unlike Poilievre, lacks strong support

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Canada's GDP 2015: 1.557 Trillion2023: 1.927 TrillionCanada's Debt2015: 619.3 Billion2023: 1.2 Trillion (and rapidly scaling) with 80 billion a year to service it ((that's 2k per annum per Canadian (including kids/seniors) just to cover the interest)That's all I need to see.

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Poll: Trudeau, unlike Poilievre, lacks strong support

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For clarity, PP has claimed "tough on crime" on REPEAT offenders. That is very different than south of the border where a first time offender with an ounce of green lands behind bars for years... It's the dangerous repeat offenders who commit dozens of crimes a year - they need to be locked up... PP also claims more support for social programs... Now... is any of this going to be a reality? time will tell...

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OPINION: Council readies its most disgusting attack on the homeless yet

GuelphToday

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First issue with this "opinion" piece - you're grinding council/Cam/DGBA and anyone else (who by the way NEVER said they didn't want to support shelters/services elsewhere) with this broad stroke that they're cruel to the homeless - and are influenced/owned by some sort of capitalism/elitism. That's not fair - nor productive. Cam's right (which I rarely say lol) about the essence of a downtown core. There's nothing wrong with considering the wants/needs of different stakeholders - you can consider the needs of the homeless community AND surrounding businesses/residences/safety - that's not cruel or as you call it "limousine liberalism." It's just complex decision making.Your call out of Amazon and shoppers buying behaviours shows how out of touch you are. Last time I checked downtown Guelph didn't have mass/club retailers - it's speciality retailers/bake shops/cafes/pubs/restaurants/floral/weed/service/experience businesses - Amazon doesn't compete against them.

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Two more Guelph councillors sign opposition to use of notwithstanding clause

GuelphToday

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As someone who had an office downtown for 10 years - I find your comment extremely shortsighted and ignorant. There are all types of people who have ended up homeless - I used to find early in the morning almost weekly someone sleeping in the hallway - usually a young adult going through some stuff and I'd toss them ten bucks for their breakfast... sometimes I'd smell crack in the hallways and be met with aggressive individuals (they would tape over the door lock during the day so they could sneak in at night)... and then sometimes someone with severe mental health/addictions sleeping out front of the door... If you think that business owners downtown "don't want to see the current reality," then maybe you should talk to them as you'll hear some wild stories of individuals they've had to deal with - it's safety and rights for EVERYONE... Government getting ahead of this - 100% their failure ... Business owners being blamed is nonsense.

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Poll: Trudeau, unlike Poilievre, lacks strong support

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@Corey - that's why I said "time will tell..."

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OPINION: 'Downtown Guelph isn't failing, it's asking us to show up'

GuelphToday

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I leased an office downtown from 2015–2020. In that time, property taxes rose 170% - and parking costs shot up - that’s on the City of Guelph, not the landlord. So I bought a building, because of Guelph’s “bird policy” I paid $16,000 extra to install dotted glass on the windows. These aren’t landlord issues - they're city-imposed costs on those trying to invest. Commercial leases don’t have residential protections, nor should they. They're negotiated contracts, reviewed legally. You know what you're signing.This is another idealistic narrative missing real data and feasibility - meanwhile business owners face rising costs and safety concerns. And coming from a councillor who once justified a by-law variance simply because "they were there first," we need more than sentiment - we need sound policy.Being “rooted in community” means little when people don’t feel secure. It’s time to stop sugarcoating challenges and start holding everyone - including council - accountable.

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City hall flails as they move fast and break things

GuelphToday

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For the betterment of the City - I would like to think it's time to move away from part-time council members to full-time members. From my personal experience with regards to a by-law variance (which I know wasn't a major issue, but was about the only topic of discussion of that day's meeting), not a single council member, nor the mayor did any diligence beforehand. Zero. From what I can see, most of the part-time members are more concerned about their personal causes/biases instead of utilizing any objective data from their ward residents - and that needs to stop - we need them to just manage the darn city.I could care less about the transparency of "the snow plow tracker," and more interested into the transparency of the cities workback schedules/gantt charts and the decisions made by council members (let's see who's really doing work) - you're not going to fix "moving fast and breaking things" unless proper systems/frameworks are present with a culture setup for success.

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Downtown patio season returns, with half the interest

GuelphToday

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"Asked why there’s a 50 per cent drop in participation, Jaworiwsky said she didn’t know." .... Maybe just call and ask them?

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Fireworks for personal use could be banned in Guelph

GuelphToday

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Although I think that fireworks in a dense residential area should have some regulation.... I just absolutely hate the hogwash survey's the city staff conduct... Survey participants should be completely randomized... The way in which they send these out you end up with the average respondents that are on the far side of Pro Vs Against... the other 100,000 plus residents are just too busy to care. Council is going to push the bylaw through no matter what... so why waste tax dollars on a flawed study...

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City hall flails as they move fast and break things

GuelphToday

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To be fair - I do think the current council has a lot more to deal with in 2024 then back in the 70's/early 80's... rapid population growth (with infrastructure not ideal to handle it), numerous economic hurdles, severe drug/addiction, cultural shifts... trying to high-level manage this from part-time councillors with full-time careers elsewhere isn't really setting up for success.

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Guelph mayor looks to pause new bike lane installation

GuelphToday

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While on the topic of transportation infrastructure failures in Guelph... Has anyone else noticed the city hasn't updated the collision dashboard for their "vision zero" goal? It's still incomplete from 2023... I wonder if all those millions spent on new speed limit signs has changed anything at all? It's kinda sad that they spent these resources building out this dashboard - promote it - and then do absolutely nothing with it ...

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OPINION: Was 2024 the year politics stopped working for the people?

GuelphToday

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Definition of cruel - "intentionally," causing pain or suffering to others. I think Donaldson's stretching the word "cruel" too far here. It's funny to see some anti-conservative's label that side with increasing derogatory identification the more the polls sway. I'd challenge the author who has once claimed "who cares about the economy," to determine how the heck all these social services will continue when our national debt passes our GDP this year... Maybe ask some developing country citizens what they think? Meanwhile, Argentina climbs out of the recession... We have massive public sector bloat. It's created ridiculous levels of overreach and gatekeeping. It's not "cruel," to cut if the long game is to fix the economy before it crumbles and come back with a more intelligent approach to solve the failures. Maybe the Libs have learned that budgets don't balance themselves, you can have equal opportunity or equal outcome - you can't have both, and transparency matters.

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Don't let your light shine through, recommends city staff

GuelphToday

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What a repulsive waste of taxpayer resources. Fun fact. Last fall, city council allowed a variance for an LED sign to be significantly closer to residences. When the LED sign that was installed was too bright - I discovered the city didn't even have the instruments to measure the light being emitted. I had to buy a device myself to have the matter resolved. Total incompetent disaster.

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Guelphites satisfied with quality of life despite financial pressures

GuelphToday

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A lot results left out of this article. You can see the survey questions/results on the City website. Interesting possible answers as well.. For example, the quality of life potential answers were i) don't know, ii) very poor, iii) poor, iv) good, v) very good.... what about average? Why is it poor or good and nothing in-between? ie. -52% felt the quality of life in Guelph has declined. -The NPS (net promoter score) is a -3 (which is bad)-Our quality of life benchmark is below Ontario average-Satisfaction is an overall average - residents very satisfied with parks, waste removal, water... Very dissatisfied with road/sidewalk maintenance, economic development/tourism, building and planning services, transit, and parking... -A 19% Decline of "transparency" ranking since 2022-53% of residents feel they have any influence on municipal decisionsThere are positives as well - just felt this article was a bit one-sided...

OPINION: Council readies its most disgusting attack on the homeless yet

GuelphToday

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"I fully support (undesirable project) just not in (desirable area) is textbook NIMBY-ism". - I strongly disagree with your statement. You simply can't dismiss the concerns of stakeholders - from economic to infrastructure - to safety and thorough planning. Could one make a case that urban planning has failed/excluded those who rely on social services for mental health/addictions/shelter - absolutely. But I don't think that council (at least the majority) is trying to "weaponize hared of the visibly poor, disabled" etc... If anything instead of defamatory statements - maybe ask them if not downtown - then where? When I read their statements that's the first question I had... If if they don't know yet - set a darn deadline and decision criteria and get to work.

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At council, is the Golden Rule the only rule?

GuelphToday

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I feel it's ironic for the author to previously criticize strong mayor powers as anti-democratic while also lamenting that public delegations can influence council decisions. These "rules" aren’t absolute - that’s why delegations exist. That’s democracy. And yes, property owners have rights too. The "nine heritage criteria" are subject to interpretation - council isn’t obligated to go with every staff recommendation - they ultimately take ownership of the decision over staff's recommendations when it comes to heritage designations. I'd be interested to see Donaldson explore what “deeply affordable, non-profit housing” actually means in a future piece. If net profit for builders is around 10–15%, is that enough of a discount to reach "deep affordability"? How much public funding would be required? How many units would we need to make a real impact?

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Is it time to rethink home ownership? This U of G prof says yes

GuelphToday

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It would be nice if G.T. would either a) ensure the claims of the expert source are backed up with some objectivity/research that is credibly published and/or b) have another expert source with opposing views as part of the article - instead this article is just another one dimensional fluff piece. ie.:""Ownership is often viewed as a financial move, “an instrument to gain financial wealth,” Mok said, acknowledging it can come with a sense of financial security and provide a way to pass wealth on to the next generation."" - Context? Ownership of your primary home, or that of investment properties? Historically speaking (pre 2010), homes generally appreciated at the inflation rate... and a net vs buy analysis was pretty darn close... but owning provides the security of your home improvements and not uprooting your family... And new mindset approach doesn't fix massive immigration surges when supply can't be met.Every paragraph of this article could be debated heavily.

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LETTER: It's not about encampments, it's about illegal activity

GuelphToday

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For years my opinion has been simple. Improved mental health care for those in need - of course. Allowing the system to institutionalize those with severe mental health (ie. schizophrenia) with drug addiction - yep. Some type of supportive housing - for sure…I keep hearing about “human rights,” but I haven’t heard much about “human obligations.” You can’t give out the carrot without the stick - and our legal/court system has been a complete joke for too long.

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Looks like Guelph has a Conservative Party candidate for next federal election

GuelphToday

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Perhaps there weren't any other qualified candidates at the Oct 23rd application cutoff?

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Guelph to get 8 more speed enforcement cameras, making it 12 in all

GuelphToday

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@Erin Caton... "There is no issue if you’re not breaking the law." - Wrong. The registered owner of the vehicle gets the ticket - it doesn't matter if they're driving, a passenger, or not in the vehicle at all. @Erin Caton.. "Studies upon studies show that slower speeds save lives in the event of a collision." Nearly everyone understands the basic level physics of F = m x a. However, unlike the joke of the study the city used in lowering speed limits at a significant expense, you have to prove that the overall reduction is there. Ie. Drivers take alternate routes and speed anyway, the majority of accidents happen at intersections (especially ones with no traffic measures). Almost everyone would agree traffic calming in school zones is a good thing - however - like usual - the city continues to push boundaries in the pursuit of hypothetical goals that are backed with little to no data - and at the expense of tax payers.

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