Our City Engineer sent this letter to the editor of the Guelph Mercury in response to an inaccurate story the paper published about the Wyndham Street bridge. The article has since been removed from the newspaper’s website. You can read the letter here. And you can read the facts about the Wyndham Street bridge here. […]

Here I am on Rogers TV talking about a City Builder award I recently accepted from the Canadian Urban Institute, on behalf of the many people inside and outside City Hall who are working to make Guelph even better. (Note: one minute of the clip is cut off at the beginning.)

I have always wanted to see an accessible user guide to our local government.  Something that could be easily used by: residents who want to better understand how City Hall works people interested in running for Council to learn more about what would be expected of them members of Council and City employees to assist […]

We have received the auditor’s report for this year’s on-site verification audit of our Drinking Water Quality Management System.  In addition to having no corrective actions identified, the auditor praised our system. “The on-site verification audit was conducted June 10-12, 2014. The City of Guelph has demonstrated a strong commitment to Ontario’s Drinking Water Quality […]

At this time of year, my office usually fields a number of questions about road construction. It can seem difficult to get almost anywhere in the city without running into at least one construction zone. People wonder, is this really necessary? Do we really need this annual exercise in patience? The short answer is yes. […]

Council made great progress last night solidifying its new approach to city building, thanks to the inspired and brilliant work of Enterprise Services. Guelph Enterprise Framework First, we approved a new Guelph Enterprise Framework and Tool to strengthen Council’s decisions when making strategic capital investments.  The framework and tool will do three key things: –          Maximize the […]

Click here to read a press release from Shared Value Solutions with all the details about this public event. The City of Guelph is proud to be a sponsor, partner, and member of the planning committee for the Groundswell Conference on Groundwater Innovation. Because we rely on groundwater for our drinking water in Guelph, it is vitally […]

Public Safety Canada presented data at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual meeting that made the rounds on twitter a few days ago. It caught the attention of municipal leaders.  It showed the  increase in natural disasters in Canada and the cost to taxpayers, including the federal Disaster Financial Assistance program. Anyone in the industry […]

Over the past few months, I have noticed that some people, including the media, do not always “get” what open government is all about. Fair enough – we are breaking new ground. They often equate open government with transparency and the release of information. While open government does foster greater transparency and accountability, it’s much bigger than that. […]