Erin Caton

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Council to widen restrictions in controversial encampment bylaw

GuelphToday

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We just passed my motion to have a review of the shelter and housing stabilization processes by the county. The changed proposed by the mayor would leave almost no places for people to be in the city and certainly no where near resources. Adding such a huge change to an agenda with no public feedback processes, past the delegation signup and right before the lame duck period for council is a bad call.

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Conservation authorities to be consolidated under new provincial agency

GuelphToday

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Because the mandate of conservation authorities is somehow housing? We have lots of unprotected land to develop, should the Premier want to invest in actually building affordable housing. Selling off protected land to his developer buddies for more McMansions so the rich can have play space is a terrible move. We are bankrolling a corporate takeover with our taxes.

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Meet Guelph’s newest city councillor

GuelphToday

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Congratulations Katherine! That was a very tense process and there were many great candidates. I know that from your previous governance experience and having already been elected by ward 6 to represent them on the school board, that you will be a conscientious councillor. I feel you bridge some missing experience gaps as a renter and bus rider and I’m happy your voice will now add to the conversations around council decisions. It was a hard choice and I’m happy where we ended up even though the path was unexpected.

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Council puts $1.7M back into 2026 budget; increase hovers at just over 8%

GuelphToday

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Doesn’t include the Region of Waterloo taxes (they are two tier). The region is debating in December with a 4.94% start that doesn’t include the extra $20 million ask for the regional police.

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Council puts $1.7M back into 2026 budget; increase hovers at just over 8%

GuelphToday

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Doesn’t include County of Wellington taxes at 3.5%.

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

GuelphToday

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City staff are considering options on how to best address issues with parking in the no parking zones. Currently they rotate schools much like the camera placement for ticketing. Both are important regulations for pedestrian safety. It’s very easy to not speed. People want safe roads. Studies upon studies show that slower speeds save lives in the event of a collision. This is a proven method to slow drivers down. There is no issue if you’re not breaking the law.

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Council puts $1.7M back into 2026 budget; increase hovers at just over 8%

GuelphToday

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Doesn’t include the Region of Waterloo taxes (they are two tier). The region is debating in December with a 4.94% start that doesn’t include the extra $20 million ask for the regional police.

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Mayor wants property owners to be responsible for removing graffiti

GuelphToday

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Personally, I’d rather we move the renoviction bylaw forward which has been in the wings. This feels performative and we have bigger things to deal with. In a time when we just had water saving notices I don’t think it’s a good use of natural or staff resources to be power washing or harmful chemical cleaners in our water supply. Bylaw has enough to deal with and my residents have been asking for parking enforcement, not graffiti bylaws.

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Major east side development approved after decades of discussion

GuelphToday

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Plans need to be approved before those commercial tenant agreements can be finalized. I look forward to seeing who they get. The need for a grocery store was heavily emphasized in our talks with them.

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Encampments now banned in parks beside schools and daycares

GuelphToday

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We put up speed cameras to catch people who are speeding. We don’t ban everyone from driving just in case they could speed one day. There were no complaints from schools, and there were six locations where the schools border on large green spaces far from schools. We are putting tax money into solving an issue that didn’t exist and creating a new problem. We wouldn’t spend money on speed cameras if there was no speeding. I was responding to the mayor and Councillor Gibson using installing speed cameras as a reason to spend money on expanding this bylaw.

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Council puts $1.7M back into 2026 budget; increase hovers at just over 8%

GuelphToday

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Woodstock is part of Oxford County and their draft budget has a 5% increase of the regional taxes they pay on top of municipal.

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Ford government fails to reach poverty reduction target, report says

GuelphToday

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We have repeatedly asked them to raise OW and ODSP to livable wages, they keep cutting social services budgets, they fund the bare minimum for municipal transit, they haven’t properly invested in healthcare, continual cuts to education and all this has to be made up by municipalities in property taxes to avoid people dying on our streets. Spas, ridiculous tunnels, American ad campaigns and private jets though… Missing this target and making the problem worse at the same time. This is not shocking in the least.

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Parts of north end 'user-generated' trail shut down by the city

GuelphToday

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A lot of our safe biking trails are on GRCA land. They own the land and make the rules. In order to keep having trails on their land, we need to be good stewards of it.

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Two councillors want historic McQuillan's Bridge replaced rather than fixed

GuelphToday

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Not sure where Councillor Gibson got his information that demolishing a heritage structure and then building a new structure is faster than restoring the current bridge. I was told by staff directly that restoring the bridge is the fastest path to getting people off of Stone Rd.

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47-unit townhouse complex to be built in north end

GuelphToday

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Not without proper sidewalks it isn’t.

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St. George's Square redesign calls for moving fountain and self-cleaning washroom

GuelphToday

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The disability community has consistently said that car access is necessary. A multi-use area with heavy pedestrian options, bike lanes and all ability access, is great. What we are trying to do here is create a space everyone can use, not just non-disabled people.

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Council puts $1.7M back into 2026 budget; increase hovers at just over 8%

GuelphToday

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Hamilton is still in draft and won’t be final until February 2026.

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Council to discuss ending emergency overnight warming at city hall

GuelphToday

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Adam, I welcome you to volunteer at the many food support services in the downtown so you can talk to people in need directly. I question how keeping people from freezing to death is a “surrender” to anything other than humanity. Other cities have more than one shelter system so women whose abusers are in a separate space. Until after winter, there were no individual rooms at Stepping Stone for people who have mental health issues to have a calm space away from others (there’s still not enough of those beds to accommodate the scope needed). It is you who is twisting a few fragmented quotes to suit your narrative. But yes people who use drugs don’t deserve to freeze to death and we need to figure out a plan to keep all our residents alive. All people deserve to live, even if they have disabilities that are difficult to accommodate.

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Council to widen restrictions in controversial encampment bylaw

GuelphToday

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@Adam I said “almost no”, so your quote is not my claim. As this is dramatically last minute and all from the mayor, I doubt there has been any ability for staff to mock up visuals on the impact. The available tenting areas were already cut back the last time this came to council and then the maps were taken down so it’s very difficult to follow already.

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City approves ‘demoviction’ of Victoria Road apartments

GuelphToday

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This was not a city council decision. This was decided by the committee of adjustments, based on the zoning of the area. They were going by what would be legally allowed otherwise it would be struck down by the Ontario Land Tribunal. We are constrained by provincial legislation.

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