Guelph Politicast

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.

Open Sources Guelph Digest - Mikael Colville-Andersen

In this edition of the digest, Scotty Hertz talks to urban designer and urban mobility expert Mikael Colville-Andersen, host of TVO's six-part series The Life-Sized City.

End Credits #Repeat - January 31, 2024

This week on End Credits, things are sombre. Halloween is over, it’s the long dull march through November to the official start of the Christmas season, and the serious award-seeking movies are starting to come out. Speaking of which, we’re going to talk about one of those movies, Killers of the Flower Moon, and to balance things out, we’re also going to talk about some happier times on film.
This Wednesday, January 31, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss again:
The Feels. Let’s be honest, this week has been a lot. The movie we’re reviewing is kind of a downer, and with the recent deaths of Piper Laurie, Richard Roundtree, Matthew Perry and others, there’s been a lot to be sad about in the pop culture sphere. To fight against all these blue feelings on this first day of November, we’re going to talk about the uplifting power of cinema and some of our favourite feel good movies!
REVIEW: Killers of the Flower Moon (2023). In the 1920s, oil was discovered under the territory of the Osage people in Oklahoma, which made the Indigenous people there very, very, rich. And then the killings began. Martin Scorsese’s magnum opus walks similar ground he’s covered before, greedy criminals taking everything they can with brutal violence, but the scale is different as he tackles America’s original sin, the genocide of its Indigenous people. There’s so much to talk about with Killers of the Flower Moon, including the essential question: Should you see it too?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #Repeat – The Realtor’s View of the Housing Crisis

When we’re talking about the housing crisis we frequently talk to activists or government representatives. This is understandable, but there are a lot of pieces to the housing puzzle and we don’t lean on all of them equally, and in so much as we want to vilify the people who take part in the open housing market that so many of us are priced out of, we still need them if we’re going to have a hope in developing solutions to the crisis.
So where do realtors fit in? Where do they see themselves in developing solutions to this housing crisis? Do they even think about it at all? Well, one realtor definitely does, and she even wrote about it on her website. Kelly Caldwell confesses that she’s not an expert in municipal politics, but she put together an eight-point plan that even got the mayor talking about some of her ideas.
And some of Caldwell’s ideas might surprise you: Fund housing assistance programs, increase wages and introduce universal basic income (UBI), increase protections for renters, allow for something call community land trusts, and initiate reforms of the real estate industry itself. Interesting thoughts, but more broadly speaking, what is the responsibility of people working in the market to help solve the housing crisis? What is the responsibility of realtors specifically?
Caldwell previously joined us on this pod to explore these and other questions. She will talk about why she wanted to start writing about the housing crisis, and what role she sees people working in real estate playing to help solve the problem. She will also talk about whether her industry is equipped to deal with a system in crisis, and why wanting your investment in housing to pay off is about more than just greed. Plus, Caldwell will offer her advice for home buyers and sellers alike in this market, even if they don’t want to hear it.
So let’s get another view of the housing crisis on this week’s repeat edition of the Guelph Politicast!
You can find Kelly Caldwell at her website, and you can also find her blog posts there including her latest one called simply “NIMBY in Guelph”.  You can also find her contact information there if you wish to engage her services as a realtor, and you can also find her on social media @RealtorKellyCaldwell on Facebook and @kcaldwell on Twitter.
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.

Open Sources Guelph #Repeat - January 25, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we grab some canned programming off the shelf. It’s a pretty busy week at city hall so we can’t really dive into the news as much as we would like to. Instead, we put a call in to a new friend and an old friend to round out our time and chat around the news. First, we will talk to someone uniquely placed in the fight against gender-based violence, and second we’ve got another Green fellow named Mike who’s having a very busy time lately too!
This Thursday, January 25, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss again:
A Man’s Work. Nest week is the 34th anniversary of the attack that killed 14 women at L’École Polytechnique in Montreal, which is now known as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. It’s an important reminder that there’s a lot left to do in the mission to eliminate gender-based violence, and this week we will talk to one of the people leading the way. Our guest is Humberto Carolo, executive director of the White Ribbon campaign, and he will explain why men need to carry their weight in this struggle.
Don’t Bore Us, Get to Morrice! It’s a pretty busy time up the road in the riding of Kitchener Centre, there’s a provincial by-election wrapping up as we’re going to air. Green Party supporters are hoping for a breakthrough, and this week we’re joined by the man who pointed the way, MP Mike Morrice. Kitchener Centre’s federal rep will join us again to talk about the federal government’s action on housing and affordability, Canada’s influence on the war between Israel and Hamas, and how he’s proved to the people in his riding that Green leadership can work for Kitchener.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #Repeat - January 24, 2024

This week on End Credits, we’re going back to school! At the end of November? Sort of. Our movie of the week takes places at a boarding school where the only magic is the power of human connection and interaction. We’re reviewing the new Alexander Payne movie called The Holdovers, which features our man of the week (pictured above) actor Paul Giamatti!
This Wednesday, November 22, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
A-Pauled. Our movie this week stars Paul Giamatti, a great actor that has been working over 30  years in the industry including movies, TV and theatre, but he’s been fairly under appreciated in his own time. Did you know Giamatti’s only ever received one Oscar nomination? You would be totally surprised what it was for if you could remember because it’s not the movie you think. Anyway, with all these thoughts about Giamatti, we will dedicate the first part of the show to Paul.
REVIEW: The Holdovers (2023). Every year, the students at Barton Academy go home for a two-week holiday, but a few unlucky kids are stuck at school. They’re called “The Holdovers”. This year, the hated classics teacher Mr. Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is supervising, but his typical Scrooge-like demeanour is going to be tested by the gifted but troubled “Holdover” Angus, and the head of the school’s cafeteria Mary, who’s trying to navigate the first Christmas after her son was killed in Vietnam. Can these three lost souls change their fate, and, more importantly, do we care?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #Repeat – The Housing Guru

As you may know, Ontario has set the goal of building 1.5 million houses by 2031, and Guelph’s share is 18,000, but there’s a difference between setting a goal and having the means to reach it. One of the people that’s been trying to promote that idea is a man named Mike Moffatt. You might have heard have him. Certainly everyone concerned about housing in Ontario has!
Dr. Mike Moffatt is the Senior Director of Policy and Innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Business, Economics and Public Policy group at the Ivey Business School at Western University. He was a special presenter at a Guelph city council meeting in February before our city council signed the housing pledge, and offered some interesting insights into the process and the challenges.
Moffatt explained to council that the 1.5 million target for Ontario is about right, but he also wondered if it was a bit on the low side too. He pointed out that Ontario’s never built more than 850,000 homes in a 10-year span. He noted that the issues with housing are multifaceted and multi-level, and that they’re issues that the municipality can’t resolve alone no matter how many legislative changes that the Government of Ontario passes.
This is where we pick things up as we revisit this podcast from last July. Moffatt will talk about whether any municipality will be able to achieve their housing pledge, and whether they’ve been set up to fail. He will also talk about the role of developers in reaching the pledge, and the role of other groups like upper levels of government and post-secondary institutions. And finally, he will discuss why the lack of mobility in the market is a big problem, and how we can address housing needs now.
So let’s talk housing with the Housing Guru on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the work of the Smart Prosperity Institute at their website. You can follow Mike Moffatt on social media at “MikePMoffatt” on Twitter to get insights daily. As for Guelph, you can watch Moffatt’s presentation at the February 28, 2023 meeting of city council, and you can follow this link to find the City of Guelph’s story map about housing in the city.
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, Stitcher, 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.

Open Sources Guelph #Repeat - January 18, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we revisit a pair of very interesting interviews we did in the last year, one about the state of making a living wage in Ontario right, and the other about the addiction crisis on our streets. Shall we talk again?
This Thursday, January 18, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss again:
Wage Match. Last weekend, the minimum wage in Ontario was increased to $16.55, which makes us the third highest in Canada, but a minimum wage is not a living wage, and depending on where you live in Ontario it’s tougher and tougher to close that gap. In fact, the living wage for Guelph is still about three dollars higher than the minimum. This week, we’re joined by Craig Pickthorne from the Ontario Living Wage Network to talk about affordability, the minimum wage hike, and the giant gap in-between.
Streets of Dire. August 31 marks Drug Poisoning Awareness Day, which used to be known as Overdose Awareness Day and the name change shows just how concerning the poisoning of the drug supply has become to those on the frontlines of the addiction crisis. This week, we will be joined by Jean Hopkins, who is the new manager of the Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy. She’s going to tell us about how the drug poisoning crisis is affecting us locally, how the community is fighting to turn the tide, and what support local advocates need to ensure the safety of people using substances.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #Repeat - January 17, 2024

This week on End Credits, we tackle the back half of “Barbenheimer”. Although it came out last summer, Oppenheimer is still making news as we count down to the Academy Awards nominations, because this movie is probably going to get a lot of them. We're going to revisit the film, and if you still have a jones for Oppenheimer adjacent material, we will have some recommendations for you.
From Wednesday, August 2, 2023, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips discussed:
The Day After Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film that covers one of the most famous events in history, and it centres on a man who has both his good and bad qualities. These are the perfect ingredients for a movie, and it’s been done in different ways with all sorts of famous historic figures and events, and it’s also been done with the invention of the atomic bomb. We’ll talk about what to watch after Oppenheimer.
REVIEW: Oppenheimer (2023). He was man plagued by terrible visions, he might have been the first rock star scientist, and without him it’s unlikely that the United States would have created the world’s first atomic bomb. J. Robert Oppenheimer was a complicated man, and so is the movie that now bares his name. Oppenheimer calls on all of Christopher Nolan’s skills as a filmmaker as he tells one man’s story spread over multiple timelines and featuring a cast of thousands, but does he overcome his mechanical prowess to find Oppy’s humanity?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #Repeat – A-Salt on the Water

The weather has been pretty good reminding us this past week that winter is dangerous, especially when driving on snowy icy streets. That’s why we salt, but the evidence is building that we salt our roads too much and it’s had a profoundly negative impact on our rivers and streams. So are we sacrificing our water quality for winter road safety, and is there a way that we can have both?
It was about two years ago that a study was released in the journal Facets that found levels of salt in rivers and streams exceeded federal exposure guidelines in 89 per cent of samples from four different watersheds in the greater Toronto area, and that one-third of the studied sites showed that one-quarter of all species are impacted. The real concerning part though was these sample were taken in the proverbial dog days of summer, late July and August.
If salt levels are hitting dangerous levels in summer, what must they look like in the winter with all the winter maintenance? Or what happens in a winter like this, where we get a winter storm, lay down salt, and then watch it wash away with a rise in temperatures, melting and then rain before starting the process all over again? Lauren Lawson, who’s an ecologist, conservation scientist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, will try and answer those questions.
Lawson joins us on this podcast episode from last March to talk about our history with road salt, why high salt levels are so dangerous to waterways and animal life, and why it’s so dangerous to human beings as well. She will also discuss why the salt levels are so surprisingly high in the summer, and whether or not the damage to the environment is reversible. And finally, she will talk about best salt management practices, and how Lawson made this problem her academic life’s work.
So let’s talk about things getting too salty out there on this week’s Guelph Politicast!
You can watch a webinar Lawson hosted for Watershed Canada here, plus you can check out this info sheet with facts and information about proper and sustainable use of road salt. You can also find the City of Guelph’s own salt management plan on the City’s website, and you can follow Lawson on Twitter and through her website.
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, Stitcher, 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.