Archive for Local At Issue

By Sue Ricketts

Guelph Municipal Election Comments Received

The “elephant in the living room”

The province passed The Places to Grow for the Greater Golden Horseshoe in 2006. There were objections to it at the time but the province did pass it. The municipality didn’t dream it up. However, it doesn’t appear that the provincial government made provision to help with the costs of that growth. It’s wonderful that we have a plan but it is incomplete without assessing and planning for the expense of that growth and who and how it will be paid. Since a large swath of the province is expected to grow with thousands more people in every city, all the municipalities will have exactly the same problems which we have. What is not happening, is that we are not reaching out and talking with others to learn what they are planning to do to meet these goals and then publicizing them to the public. Electors are all fearing that they or more likely their children will be left carrying debt loads which are unsupportable. I believe we need to get together with others and work out the rest of the plan. That’s why it has taken our city nearly three years to not have answers to everything. It’s an enormous job while the Mayor and Council are trying to run the whole city which has many other issues at the same time.

For years the ratepayers were paying for water meters in new homes. This was finally stopped. The cost I think ( I can’t recall the exact amount) was somewhere around $300 per home. These sorts of subsidies for developers cost us in some form or another.

True but I believe that money was coming from Guelph Hydro Profits and since the City is the owner and shareholder, they used the profits to subsidize costs that would be on our heads directly otherwise.

The new library, South End Rec Centre, Wilson park and even a sidewalk in front of Arc Industries so the people attending the programs has been delayed and deferred for many years now.

All very true. I question whether a bigger library downtown is needed at all. Today, people are reading on their computers and using ebooks. I am one of them and enjoy reading this way just as much as I always have. In order to deliver ebooks we don’t need lots of building space, we need computers which can download and upload materials. Bill Gates funded a huge project to copy pictures and books from all around the world into a central database some years ago. It is still ongoing. This year more books were published as ebooks than in print. We don’t need paper and ink any more. The major newspapers and magazines are also available by subscription (cheaper than delivery) on ebooks and free on computers.

However, recreation & community centres are vital to providing places for social interaction of all kinds and should not be delayed in a ward with over 14,000 voters. That means that we have probably 20,000 people living in our ward alone – without community connections. I believe that the major disconnect and the destabilization of our neighbourhoods springs in part from our lack of community gathering places. We in the south end are perceived as not attached to Guelph and only sleep here. That’s because when we do connect, and we certainly do, we must connect in other places.

I also know that our community contains disabled and seniors and parents with small children who need to easily reach centres to meet their needs for socializing, for athletics, for entertainment and for community building.

By Sue Ricketts

     Monday night an issue comes before Council which is very contentious but something which will be coming up in many municipalities in the area in the next few years.

     The Province of Ontario has sent out a mandate to the south central part of the Province called Places to Growth. The City of Guelph is part of one of the fastest growing regions in Ontario. Within the Greater Golden Horseshoe Area (the Toronto centred economic region covering a large part of south central Ontario) Provincial projections anticipate that an additional 4 million people will be added over the next 30 years. Of this, the Province has targeted population growth to the city and surrounding county area of 125,000 more people. The current city population is approximately 115,000 while the surrounding Wellington County is 80,000.

     After many public meetings and panel discussions, city administration has encouraged us not to expand into the County and use up valuable farmlands which are needed to feed the city but to intensify our residences. That means smaller lots, far fewer single detached homes, and lots more multi-unit housing. Along with this the city has a program to build on what are called brown-fields and in-fill lots which is the best way to use urban space efficiently.

      The Monday night issue is that they have a proposal to build 22 townhouses, 42 low-rise townhouse complexes and a 4 – 6 story apartment building in some open fields between Arkell Road and Edinburgh Road. This sounds well and good as it would ease some of the student housing problems in the south end of the city. But here’s the rub. Those open fields are currently part of a wetlands designation and some years back were scheduled to be left undeveloped to help preserve the natural landscape and conditions and protect local wildlife. Now things have changed.

     Over the last few years much lip-service has been paid to living sustainably and not invading and altering natural habitats. How does this square with filling in wetlands?  In the downtown area of Guelph many years ago they paved over a stream which was called Silver Creek. There are now houses, stores, apartments, factories and roadways on top of the stream-bed. It is interesting to see things coming around again to the same situations as have occurred in the past. This sort of dilemma will change the landscape of this region of Ontario forever. Yet another change made by mankind.

      Are you in agreement with this type of change? I’d enjoy hearing some opinions from residents.

By Sue Ricketts

• Neighbourhood Destabilization

The south ward of Guelph is a fairly new area of the City being mostly less than 20 years old. It is concerning that some schools may be threatened with closing down or having students bused from elsewhere because there are not enough families living in our area to support them. We can’t expect the city or business to provide services to seniors, the disabled, family health centres, entertainment, convenient shopping and dining facilities if the majority of residents are young, single, highly mobile and either have benefits from attending school or aren’t interested in them.

The south end is not made up only of people who travel outside Guelph for work either. I feel very strongly that the City’s priority should be to make this Ward more attractive to families to restore the balance normally considered as residential.

• Shared Rental housing

This is a very thorny issue, seemingly pitting residents against landlords who are trying to make a profit. First, let me make it very clear that the concern is not, nor ever has been, to stop people from renting a room or a basement to help meet the mortgage. Nor is it ever going to prevent a family from having parents live in a separate apartment within a residence. They are almost never a problem because when the owner is present in the same home they have pride in maintaining their property standards and will not permit noise, garbage, and parking bylaws to be ignored. The problem is when the landlord lives outside the neighbourhood and puts more than four people in a 3 bedroom residence. The only purpose for doing this is to make a profit, i.e. to have someone else pay for the home. It changes the dynamic of the neighbourhood because the tenants don’t know the local rules, don’t care about them and won’t be here long enough to matter.

It is important, and I will make it a high priority, to give tools to both landlords and residents to be able to have peaceful, safe and quiet living conditions for everyone so that the few “bad apples” will be weeded out. Landlords have to follow rules too and they need ways ways to make it easier to get bad tenants out of their homes before they are vandalized. I will work with the City services, University, landlords and residents to make sure that this happens.

• Lack of local, affordable and timely transportation to and from Wellington county and Waterloo Region

As everyone in South Western Ontario is aware the GTA is expanding our way. They have reached Milton and will soon be looking at expanding into Waterloo and Wellington counties. I believe that we need to get ourselves in order before that happens. To present an organized and effective structure for the over one million people affected.

I find it ironic that we have a great GO bus service station in Aberfoyle, but we have to drive a car to get there. You can’t leave your car anywhere else all day and, of course, the bus doesn’t drive through local neighbourhoods. They are building a great terminal downtown but there aren’t enough parking spots now. Even though they plan to build more parking, it still means you can’t get there from home without a car or bicycle. Since a high percentage of residents from Guelph, Cambridge and Kitchener-Waterloo work in one of the other communities, why can’t we get convenient, timely, regular and affordable transportation to the other cities? If Guelph is to be truly people friendly let’s make travelling outside the city easier. We need service to Fergus-Elora and Rockwood at a minimum.

I want to work to build fewer roads and easier, quicker and better inter-city transportation.

• More bylaw, police, fire, garbage and property standards services for Ward 6

Many of our neighbourhood problems occur because the city services are all focused on downtown or are set up to be re-active. I want to have more services for our area to help get living conditions back to normal. Regular patrols and services south of Stone Road are vital. I’ve heard quotes that half of the citizens of Guelph live south of Stone Road. If that’s true, where are the medical clinics, the theatres, the city transport etc.? Our tax dollars are just as good as anyone else’s, I think.

I would bet that such services would pay for themselves from the fines collected from those who believe that bylaws are for other people.