Guelph Politicast

GUELPH POLITICAST #446 – The Good Old Guelph (feat. Stephen Robinson & Jack Mallon)

There has been a lot of heritage news this year, and especially in the last couple of weeks. This should not be surprising because heritage staff in all municipalities have been in a mad scramble these last few years to designate as much heritage as possible before the end of this year due to Bill 23. That changed back in the spring, so it's probably a good time now to catch our breathe and look at the work done so far, and all the work that is to come.
You may recall that November’s planning meeting was super-sized over two different days, and that was largely due to two heritage matters: The proposed designation for the old conservatory on the University of Guelph campus, and the draft policy for the Heritage Conservation District at the Ontario Reformatory lands. That’s a lot of pressure to put on the heritage planning staff, but the pressure was being felt before last month’s meetings.
Back in 2022, the Ontario government passed Bill 23, which made a great many changes to municipal planning policies, including the direction to delist any properties on the heritage registry not already designated by the end of this year. Now, thankfully, our undesignated heritage assets have a reprieve until the end of 2026, but that doesn’t mean the workload is any less lighter.
Stephen Robinson and Jack Mallon, who are heritage planners at the City of Guelph, join us this week to talk about what kind of year it’s been for heritage, the status of all the heritage conservation district studies and the special controversy around the recent presentation about the OR Lands HCD. They'll also talk about public engagement, why development is not a bad word, what’s coming up in 2025, and why we maybe need to start loving architectural brutalism(?).
So let's dig into the very busy heritage file on this edition of the Guelph Politicast! 
The next scheduled meeting of Heritage Guelph is on January 13, and in the meantime you can visit the heritage planning page on the City’s website to get the lowdown on various plans and strategies. For your information, you can see the Municipal Register of Cultural Heritage Properties here, and stay tuned for future engagement opportunities on the OR Lands, Downtown and Ward West Heritage Conservation District studies.
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, 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 #496 - December 5, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're reminded that the history of this show is haunted by an orange-coloured goon in a Florida beach club. Yes, we're heading back to Mar-a-Lago this week, and we're also heading back to Queen's Park to talk about accountability, our favourite topic! For the interview, we're talking to a friend of the show about how we can help people not go hungry this Christmas and beyond.
This Thursday, December 5, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Mar-a-Largesse. Last week, President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to apply 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico as a means of stopping the flow of unauthorized border crossings and the trafficking of fentanyl, an early sign that we're going back to the unfettered chaos of 2017-2021. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a surprise visit to Mar-a-Logo to try and nip this in the bud, but apparently Trump joked about making Canada the 51st state. Do we really have to deal with this again?
Shelley Shocked. Ontario Auditor General Shelley Spence delivered her first report as AG and boy was it a banger. Essentially, her report said that the Ontario government did bad on Ontario Place redevelopment, MZOs, the addictions crisis, and unprecedented government spending. As the Ontario Legislature starts to shut down for the holiday break, and as the possibility of election still hangs in the air, we will dig into all this controversy at Queen's Park, which seems to be it's most reliable renewable resource.
The Hunger. There was another report released this week, Feed Ontario's Hunger Report. In its some 57 pages you will see a story about the incredible food insecurity crisis in Ontario as more and more people are using food banks to feed themselves. To help us talk about the highlights of the report and how we can address the increasing need being faced by food banks, we're joined by Feed Ontario's Carolyn Stewart who will tell us how we can give the gift of eating well for everyone this holiday season.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #368 - December 4, 2024 (Wicked)

This week on End Credits, we're not defying gravity, we're leaning into it! It's one of the biggest movies of the year, based on a stage musical and secretly the first of two parts. Oh yes, we're getting to Wicked, and speaking of things that people are looking forward to, we're going to each count off three of our most anticipated movies for the last four weeks of the year.
This Wednesday, December 4, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
Great Expectations (2024 Edition). Now that we're in December, the end of the year is inevitable, and that means our Top 5 of the Year episode is coming up very fast. So to start this week, we will look at out lists and see where the gaps are; what movies do we have to see by the end of the year? What movies are we looking forward to before the end of year? With so much to see and so little time, what are we watching in our spare time?
REVIEW: Wicked (2024). It's starting to look like the biggest movie of the year! We knew that Wicked was going to be one of the most anticipated movies of the year, but now it looks like a box office juggernaut and firmly part of the awards season discussion. The plot? The politics of Oz before Dorothy arrived and how the Wicked Witch of the West's story is more complicated than you may think. Starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, Wicked is winning over old fans and making some brand new ones, but are we among them?
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #445 – New Blue Box, Same as the Old Blue Box (feat. Cam Walsh)

As you may have heard, there are changes coming to your blue bin starting in January, and if you’re confused about what that means when you put the bin out on the curb in 2025, you’re not alone. You probably want to know what's going on, and how you should react, so due to popular demand, this podcast will ask all the questions about blue box changes you wanted to know, and some of the ones you didn’t.
Guelph has a history of making history when it comes to the blue box: We were one of the first cities to get one, and we were one of the first cities to make the transition to three streams of waste, and we were one of the first to make the transition to the new bin system. What's next is the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, which is moving the responsibility of collecting recyclables to the producers of those materials.
Starting on January 1, 2025, Waste Management Corporation of Canada (WM) will be collecting residential recycling and providing related customer service in Guelph. As you will hear today, you probably won't notice a lot of change to start, but 2025 will be a transition year for not only who collects your blue bin, but what you will be able to put inside it and who else might now get service as WM takes over for the City of Guelph.
To understand all this, we're joined by Cameron Walsh, the Division Manager of Solid Waste at the City of Guelph, who will tell you what happens on January 2 when you put your recyclables out on the curb. He will also talk about the process the City has been undertaking to facilitate these changes, what will happen over the course of 2025, the ongoing review of collection downtown, and the impacts on the City’s fiscal bottom line. Also, what will the future of waste collection in Guelph look like after 2025?
So let's dig into the blue box on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about the changes coming to the collection of recyclables next year at guelph.ca/waste, where you can also find links to the Solid Waste Master Plan, and other info. Also, if you have any questions, send emails directly to waste [at] guelph.ca. You can also download the Guelph Waste app from the App Store and Google Play, it not only sends you reminders about garbage day, but it can help you sort your waste.
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, 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 #495 - November 28, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we wish we could shake it off. It would be our wildest dream to come on the radio one week and have something normal to talk about, but we knew this was trouble when we saw it cross our newsfeeds this week. We're going to discuss what happened in Montreal last weekend, an arrest warrant for a controversial world leader, and final thoughts about the 2025 Guelph budget with one of our councillors. Hopefully, no bad blood there.
This Thursday, November 28, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Gone in Swiftie Seconds. While Justin Trudeau was dancing to Taylor Swift in Toronto, Montreal was burning down... That was the message on social media Friday night, painting the PM as out of touch, hanging out a concert as a Canadian city was under siege. Except that's not what happened. We will talk about what really happened on the streets of Montreal on Friday, how it got so overblown so fast, how Trudeau has become a useful boogeyman on the right, and how we need to start understanding why.
The Warrant Trap. The International Criminal Court last week announced that they had issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza. Many western governments have said that they won't be enforcing that warrant, but Canada is not one of them. Still, it seems pretty unlikely that Netanyahu will stand before The Hague any time soon, so what do these warrants do and can they inflict any leverage on Israel even as a ceasefire with Lebanon's been secured?
The Six Per Cent. Guelph City Council added amendments to the 2025 budget on Wednesday and thus closed the annual process. The increase for next year is just over six per cent, which isn't the four per cent Mayor Cam Guthrie wanted, but it isn't the 10 per cent he didn't want either. We talked to Ward 3 Councillor Michele Richardson just before the budget vote to get insights into the 2025 numbers, and what she thought about this complicated process going into the last meeting.
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #367 - November 27, 2024 (Gladiator II)

This week on End Credits, we go on a Roman Holiday! Not the movie, but a trip backwards in time to the original Rome, the imperial one with insane emperors doing dirt and the only honour you can find is killing for sport. It's time for Gladiator II, and to bring this episode full circle, we're going to talk about the movie that inspired the other big release this week.
This Wednesday, November 27, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Peter Salmon will discuss:
The Wizard of Oz at 85! Last weekend's release of Wicked is perfectly timed consider this year marks the 85th birthday of Victor Fleming's iconic musical based on the L. Frank Baum book. A Hollywood classic by any objective measurement, Oz has been the source of many hours of enjoyment, plus many sources for urban legends and stories about a cursed production. So looking back nearly 100 years later, does The Wizard still have the magic?
REVIEW: Gladiator II (2024). "What we do in life, echoes in eternity." And if it helps, make a sequel! Nearly 25 years after the release of the original Gladiator, Ridley Scott returns to Rome where another warrior is beaten, enslaved, and turned into a Colosseum warrior looking to seize his perch for a chance at revenge. This time, your titular Gladiator is Paul Mescal, and caught between the conflicted Pedro Pascal and the duplicitous Denzel Washington we only have one question going into today's show: Are we not entertained?!
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #444 – The Ongoing Struggle at Community Living (feat. Cindy Kinnon)

Community Living Guelph Wellington has been around since 1955 providing support and services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and their families in the communities in which they live, and for the last few years they’ve faced some serious financial issues. 2024 is no exception, but might the important services of Community Living get lost in the shuffle of all the crushing need out there.
This is from an article in the Wellington Advertiser last week: “Community Living Guelph Wellington is facing a $3 million deficit in 2025 and will be closing two of its residential sites to rein in expenses.” That sounds pretty bad, but it sounds even worse when you realize that this is a dance that’s happened every fall for the last few years, and that doesn’t do a lot for the long-term sustainability of the organization.
Another detail from the Advertiser article is that Community Living’s funding has only increased four per cent in the last 30 years. If you think about issues around Ontario funding for autism programs, or the severe underfunding of payouts for everyone receiving money under the Ontario Disability Support Program, or ODSP, it’s pretty clear that there’s a crisis when it comes to supporting people with special needs in this province.
This week, we’re going to shed some light on what might be the most overlooked demographic in the area of people in need, and how we can all do better on their behalf. So we're joined by Cindy Kinnon, the executive director of Community Living Guelph Wellington, who will talk about how long they’ve been managing with a budget shortfall, and how they’ve managed to get across the fiscal finish line in the last few years, and how every one in Guelph can help them out.
So let's go inside Community Living on this week's Guelph Politicast!
You can learn more about Community Living Guelph Wellington at their website, you can follow them @clguelphwell on Facebook and Instagram, or you can get in touch with them the old fashioned way on the phone at 519-824-2480. If you’re interested in signing the petition to help support Community Living, send an email to Pam Howard at howard.march [at] outlook.com.
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, 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 #494 - November 21, 2024

This week on Open Sources Guelph, we're stuck in the middle with you. If you're feeling stuck, you're not alone and it's safe to say that the entire government apparatus at all levels seem stuck these days. This edition of a show will be a recital of being stuck, from gridlock in Ottawa to impasses at the annual international climate change summit. Our provincial government seems stuck on bail reform, while our greatest Christmas parade is just strapped... for cash.
This Thursday, November 21, at 5 pm, Scotty Hertz and Adam A. Donaldson will discuss:
Gridlock, Stalk and Barrel. Have you heard the news from Parliament Hill. You probably haven't because the place has been in a procedural gridlock for almost two months now. In the midst of a postal workers strike and a will they/won't they confidence condition in the House, it's the latest example of widespread disfunction at the federal level, and it's not like there are any serious issues that need solutions. This week, we will take a break from American political dysfunction to talk about some of our own.
Much Baku About Nothing. COP29 is being held in Baku, Azerbaijan right now, and as always there's great hope that the world's richest countries, the ones who are the source of so much carbon, might decide to take bold action to avert climate disaster. It's hard to hold out much hope with the world's biggest, loudest climate denier about to return to the White House, but it might not be as homeless as you might think. We'll look at the news coming out of COP and decide if the world might still be saved.
Bail House Rock. The Ontario government has been turning up the pressure on the federal Attorney General to reform bail and make it harder for repeat and dangerous offenders to get release until their trial. Sounds reasonable, right? Hold that phone because legal activists are saying that the issue is a system that has so many people in jail right now, they're over-populated, and a court system not well-staffed enough to process people in a Constitutionally speedy manner. So is the real problem bail after all?
The Santa Clause. This week, the organisers of the Toronto Santa Claus Parade said that without some financial help the parade won't make it to its 120th birthday next year. The Original Santa Claus Parade is the latest Canadian cultural institution to face issues with funding in this post-pandemic period, and that includes Hot Docs, Just For Laughs and the Vancouver Folk Festival, which have all been on the brink of closure in the last year. Are we doing enough to protect Canadian culture?
Open Sources is live on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca at 5 pm on Thursday.

End Credits #366 - November 20, 2024 (Anora)

This week on End Credits, we learn to love. No, we're not reviewing Netflix's Hot Frosty, though that might be a hoot-and-a-half, we're doing something much more down to Earth by focusing on a candidate for "Best Film of the Year." Yes, we're reviewing Anora, and in that spirit, we're going to talk about movies featuring couples of the less-than-fairy tale variety.
This Wednesday, November 20, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:
Bad Romance. There are a lot of Hollywood movies where couples live happily ever after, but not all of them. In fact, we'll put odds that one out of every two romantic movies feature couples who never should have even thought about getting together in the first place. There's a reason why "toxic" has become a watch word in the culture. To kick things off this week, we're going to talk some of movies' baddest bad romances, so cue up the Lady Gaga!
REVIEW: Anora (2024). Sean Baker's films chronicle the ways in which working class people struggle on the margins in modern America, and he usual lands on a very specific industry: sex work. In Anora, Ani meets Vanya as she's the only performer at her strip club that speaks Russian, and thus begins a whirlwind romance that ends with the two married in a typically tacky Vegas wedding. But that's just the beginning of the story. With a star-making lead performance by Mikey Madison, we'll discuss why Anora is a strong candidate for the best film of the year.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.

GUELPH POLITICAST #443 – The Aftermath Downtown

Last week, the reality of the Public Space Use Bylaw came into effect with the formal eviction of everyone in tents from St. George’s Square. The square is clear now of tents, but the people who lived in those tents have not disappeared or found permanent homes. In fact, they’re more vulnerable than ever, and even before the eviction last week, they were hurting. This is a story about the human toll of the Public Space Use Bylaw.
The weekend before the eviction, two young people died in tents in the square, two of the increasing number of people in this community who have died from drug poisoning, or what we’ve typically in the past called an overdose. A vigil was planned for Monday night to offer a space to grieve for the friends and family of Jen, Miles and four others who have passed away in the last few weeks. Over 100 people showed up to remember.
In the midst of this expression of grief was a powerful reminder that the people who lived in a tent in St. George’s Square were not some problem to solve. They were human beings, and they had their struggles, but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t loved and that they won’t be missed. It was extremely powerful and emotional for everyone there and hopefully a reminder that these are people in need of help and support, and now, some of them are gone forever.
So on this week’s pod, you’re going to hear from some of the people who were there on Monday night, like Jacky, who’s struggled with homelessness and has since found a home in the new Shelldale project, and she will talk about her thoughts on the eviction from St. George’s Square. You will also hear from Bear and Marnie who were friends with the young people who died two weeks ago and will talk about what they left behind. And then you will hear sound from the vigil itself.
So let's hear some of the voices from downtown on this week's Guelph Politicast!
Thanks to Your Downtown Guelph Friends for facilitating the arrangement of the vigil, and thanks Jacky, Bear and Marnie. If you’d like to help folks in need Your Downtown Guelph Friends, the Royal City Mission and the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition are good places to start, whether you have extra money or supplies, or simply want to offer you time. The Wellington Guelph Drug Strategy is also fundraising to create a permanent memorial to all those who’ve died from drug poisoning, and you can learn more here.
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, 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.