Caton for Mayor! I absolutely agree with you. There is only so much municipalities can do - which Doug Ford consistently ignores anyway - but we need strong voices to continue to fight the government-enabled, corporate takeover of our province and communities.
Thanks Adam, well said. I love your idea for expanding GO service! Even though tongue in cheek, it actually makes a lot of sense. I have to go into Toronto on a weekday coming up, refuse to drive on the 401...a true nightmare now,...and though I've found a combo GO transit and TTC option that will work, its not the best. Let's not give DoFo a 4th term in office!!
It seems clear that the hospital erred in its interpretation of the collective agreement. Very strange, since I expect that it's fairly common to approve leaves for union duty. Is there more to this story?
That's because Charlie is principled and actually cares about people and the future of the privince. Wait til you and others that don't know about Ford's Bill 5 yet, start learning the details. This is scary...Dougie is challenging Trump to see who is the most dictatorial misfit leader of a western democracy. Stay tuned folks...
Questionable? I would say it's a heck of a lot more than that! Though yet to be proved (I'm trying to be fair here), this provides a rare insight into the backroom dealings that have so marred the current provincial government. ALL parties involved in what sounds like a very shady deal should be held to account!
RCRR- two things I'd like to say. First, it's about behaviour modification. Once ticketed, you're unlikely to go over the posted speed limit again. Second, I don't think your golfing friends speak for all of law enforcement. Several police chiefs and former chiefs support the cameras. It's become a really divisive issue, unfortunately. In my opinion the best approach is to let local municipalities decide. They can hold a referendum, host townhalls, or do whatever they need to do to decide what's best for their community. Ford should NOT be repealing this law.
I would remind folks that 57% of Guelph voters - a clear majority - re-elected Mike Schreiner, who is strongly supportive of this initiative by eMERGE and the City. So it's not accurate to paint Guelph climate change realists as a fringe minority...quite the opposite.
I'm astounded at the lack of knowledge about climate change and the need to get off of fossil fuels demonsrated by several of the commentators. If you've been listening to news, reading reports, seeing what's going on around you, you'd surely be convinced that the planet is in a climate crisis. I was happy to read that Cam Guthrie understands the importance of technologies like heat pumps. At least the majority of voters get it.
Sorry, you've got your information wrong. An air source heat pump is the best thing going. They don't rely on either sun or wind. Within a short period of time they'll be required for all new buildings. Enbridge Gas is on its way out and is desperate to survive as the fossil fuel era is coming to an end. In the past, we didn't know how detrimental greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal and hydrocarbons was to people and planet. Now, we know.
Your response is the typical red herring, thrown in to distract from the matters at hand. It has nothing to do with the article, nor the comments made. No one is questioning Ford's right to govern, nor are they ranting. This is democracy at work. Maybe you have a problem with that. And your nonsensicle comment about ranting increasing costs. Huh?
There is one person to blame for this sad state of affairs...yep, Doug Ford. To those who voted for him because you or your family has always voted conservative, I hope you've woken up to the reality that the sooner this guy leaves politics, the better for all of us. I wonder what company boards of directors await him as his next gig....
I'm not sure what you're basing your "returning to normal" comment on. Climate change is here and will only get worse - extreme heat events, rising sea levels affecting coastal areas and island nations, etc etc - unless greenhouse gas emissions are drastically reduced. This starts with getting off of the fossil fuel treadmill.
BH6, by adding the % increases together, you calculated the cumulative increase, not the compounded increase. Out of curiosity, I ran the numbers through AI (Microsoft Co-pilot), and it 'spit out' an interesting result for the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR): 2017–2021: ~2.9% CAGR (steady, modest increase)2024–2026: ~7.5% CAGR (larger increase)So the later period shows more than double the pace of compounding compared to the earlier years. Hmm, Doug Ford first became premier in June 2018, and has been premier since then. As someone else here commented, property taxes now pay for so many things, including social services, which used to and still should come from the Province through income taxes - where those who make more income pay a larger percentage in income tax, as it should be. Steep property tax increases are not welcomed by anyone, but local councils are working under huge constraints in order to provide essential services and make a great city even better.
Your math is off. I suggest you look at your property tax bills and you can do your own calculations about how much your taxes have gone up. It's likely some people don't know how to calculate a percentage increase from one year to the next. Here is a simple way to do it, using an example: let's say in 2022, your tax bill was $4,000 for the year. In 2025: your tax bill was $4,300. So the simple percent increase between 2022 and 2025 is: amount in 2025 minus the amount in 2022, divided by the amount in 2022, multiplied by 100. In the example, the result is: 4,300-4,000=300. 300 divided by 4,000=0.075. 0.075 X 100 = 7.5%. In this example, taxes increased by 7.5% between 2022 and 2025. It might be interesting to do this calculation for, say, each of the last 5 years (2020-2021, 2021-2022, etc.). I don't mean to insult anyone's math skills, just trying to be helpful.
A good article, clearly lays out the options being considered, and the context surrounding each one. It seems to me that what is being proposed by city staff has been well thought through.
Great to see culturally significant buildings being preserved. Heritage Guelph and Council are doing a great job, making often tough decisions that help to ensure there is a "cultural memory" that remains for current and future generations. Not to mention the economic benefits that often flow from conservation efforts. There is also the increasing 'homogenization' of the built form. I sometimes think that one could be plopped down in just about any shopping centre/mall, and you wouldn't know what city you're in because they all look the same. Let's do what we can do retain some of the elements of beauty and uniqueness in our growing city - and that includes innovative efforts to develop affordable infill housing that respects not only culturally significant buildings, but greenspaces as well.