Tonight, we did a sod-turning for the Hanlon Creek Business. Servicing will begin next month and continue through the winter. Servicing close to the environmentally-sensitive areas will not occur until we complete addtional monitoring in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources. These are my speaking notes for the event: Good evening everyone, and thank [...]
Filed under: Healthy Environment, Jobs & the Economy | 1 Comment »
The City was voted “favourite water supplier” in the Guelph Tribune’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards. This is great news – it shows that residents recognize the quality and value of our municipal drinking water. Congratulations to Waterworks staff for their commitment to providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective drinking water to our community!
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Today I was invited to be part of a roundtable discussion organized by Minister Lisa Raitt, Natural Resources Canada. I was honoured to join energy leaders from across Canada to discuss how the Federal government might assist municipalities develop and implement community energy plans. I was asked to speak about Guelph’s experiences in implementing our community energy plan. [...]
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Filed under: A Mayor's View | Leave a Comment »
Tonight, Council received a presentation on the proposed 2010-2014 capital budget. Compared to the estimates provided in the 2009 capital budget for this period, approximately $273M of capital projects have been pushed beyond 2014 leaving a little over $200M in capital spending remaining. Stating the obvious, these are tough decisions. In the past, the current year’s capital budget met [...]
Filed under: Excellence in Municipal Governance | 2 Comments »
Today I welcomed the first group of elementary students who are visiting City Hall as part of Local Government Week. The students, a group of grade 5′s from Holy Trinity school, had a lot of great questions about how local government works. Over the next week and a half, I’ll have the chance to talk [...]
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In an earlier post I provided information on the impact of the economic downturn on city revenues. It is significant. More than an $8M decline projected for 2010. In discussions with our Chief Administrative Officer and the City Treasurer, I have requested that mitigating measures be developed for Council’s consideration that reflect the tough times we are in. I [...]
Filed under: Blog, Excellence in Municipal Governance | 1 Comment »
Today members of the Finance, Administration and Corporate Services Committee recommended to City Council a new policy to manage spending on capital projects. Our economy is changing. If we want to continue to provide diverse opportunities and a good quality of life for our community, we must rebuild the backbone of our financial management system [...]
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