GUELPH POLITICAST #405 – The State of the City 2023

Every year, the Guelph Chamber of Commerce hosts an event called the State of the City, and like its more famous counterpart south of the border, it’s a chance for the head of the city to lay out the challenges and priorities facing the Royal City for the next 12 months. Make no mistake, there are no shortage of challenges, but in order to unlock the future, you must first find the keys to the past. This week, we get those keys out of the drawer.

During Cam Guthrie’s time as mayor and delivering the State of the City, he usually uses some kind of gimmick like a board game, or Wordle, or a parody of The Office, but in 2023 Cam got very serious. No games, no gimmicks, just straight talk. "I need you to listen very carefully to my words today. To watch my demeanor, my body language. Listen to my tone,” he said.

You can probably guess the content before listening to the speech. Last year’s State of the City was in the immediate aftermath of the 2022 municipal election, and the sweeping changes to planning and budgeting announced in Bill 23. One year later, there are still a lot of pressures; housing prices remain high, low cost solutions remain in short supply, and the evidence of homelessness and poverty are getting harder and harder to ignore.

On this week’s edition of the podcast, we’re going back to 2023. The voice you’ll hear belongs to Mayor Guthrie as he talks about the housing crisis, NIMBYism, mental health and addictions, and the lack of Provincial help on any of this. He also took questions from people in the audience and talked about the impact of the housing crisis on students specifically, and the need for help to clean up brownfields and make them ready for redevelopment.

So let's get into the State of the City - one year ago - on this week's Guelph Politicast!

As for this year’s State of the City it’s Thursday February 8 at 7 am at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre in Guelph. The event is sold out, but you will be able to see full coverage on Guelph Politico on Thursday morning.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here, or download them on your favourite podcast app at Apple, Google, TuneIn and Spotify.

Also, when you subscribe to the Guelph Politicast channel and you will also get an episode of Open Sources Guelph every Monday, and an episode of End Credits every Friday.