59 Carden St.

Changes afoot

Posted by Magda
Changes are coming to Carden Street, but nothing yet to the area around the convent.

It's a response to long-standing complaints, largely from Carden Street merchants, about a lack of parking.

Glad I don't live in Puslinch

Posted by Magda
It took 23 minutes and 36 seconds, on average, for an ambulance to arrive to calls in Puslinch in March. That's compared to 11 minutes, 47 seconds in Guelph. The shortest time was 7 minutes, 59 seconds in Centre Wellington.

Unexpected cash

Posted by Magda
The city spent $725,000 less on ambulance service last year than it expected. They budgeted $9.2 million. The unspent money is going into a reserve fund.

A new Nestle?

Posted by Magda
I haven't seen any postcards yet, but there seems to be a concerted effort to get people commenting on McGuinty's proposed pesticide ban. It's going around the internet, offering links to the environmental registry, where comments are accepted, and points to comment on.

When a similar campaign was launched to solicit comments on Nestle's application to renew its permit for water in Aberfoyle, the province got 6,000 comments. I wonder what this campaign will net?

What they're thinking

Posted by Magda
72% of Guelph residents surveyed by city staff support sending our trash to an incinerator out of the city.
15% were opposed.

That's according to responses to almost 800 surveys the city collected at its waste management master plan open houses.

That's according to a telephone survey of 400 random residents conducted by Oraclepoll Research this spring.

Some other results from the surveys:

• 70% wanted a ban on plastic bags in the city.
• 68% said the city should divert more than 60% of its trash from landfill
• About 90% said they supported better recycling and composting in apartment buildings, the starting of a reuse centre, and accepting more materials in the blue bag
• 71% wanted more frequent curbside yard waste collection.
• 63% wanted a limit on the number of clear bags you could put out.
• 54% wanted a pay-as-you-throw system, meaning you'd pay for every bag you toss.

You can check out the survey results here.

Who to give money to?

Posted by Magda
The city will consider giving ARC industries, which offers job training to the disabled, an $80,000 grant. That's because the company doesn't qualify to have the city waive the $80,000 in development charges it paid the city for its new facility.

At the same time, councillors asked staff to come up with a policy for grant-giving, especially given the cash council put into the hospital and hospice last year.

"There are municipalities that categorically refuse to put property taxes into hospitals because they're provincially funded," Mayor Karen Farbridge said at today's committee meeting. "I could anticipate perhaps council might pass a policy in the future that might make (funding ARC industries) ineligible," she said.

"We're going to have to do a better job of reminding the province, reminding the feds they have to come to the plate," said Councillor Karl Wettstein.

Mysterious data

Posted by Magda
When city officials met with the provincial minister of environment last week, they told him that in 2004, the city diverted 54% of its trash from landfill. They said that was the highest diversion rate in the province, and that the data came from Waste Diversion Ontario.

I looked at the Waste Diversion Ontario website. I found such data for 2006, but nothing for 2004. I talked to two people there and corresponded by email with one -- their executive director -- who said they didn't publish that data for 2004. They did publish diversion rates strictly for recyclables -- so not including Guelph's composting program. Guelph's diversion rate of recyclables was 42.81% in 2004.

In my continued quest for the source of the data, I talked to the city's environment director, who gave the presentation. She told me to talk to the waste manager. He sent me back to the environment director.

He also told me to look in the city budget. There I found the city's diversion rate for 2004 was 53%.

I'm looking for the source of the data because I'm curious which municipalities had diversion rates similar to Guelph's. I'll keep digging and post here if I figure it out.

Drink up

Posted by Magda
Finance committee is considering extending summer patio hours. I'm heading there soon -- stay tuned.

Province doing chemical industry a favour

Posted by Magda
A Torstar columnist has an interesting take on the province's announcement this week that cities won't, in fact, be allowed to have pesticide rules more stringent than the province's. That's an about-face from what Premier McGuinty said on Earth day.

Star columnist Thomas Walkom writes that by overriding all municipal bylaws, the province is ensuring an upper limit, rather than a lower limit, on pesticide bans, thus ensuring the chemical industry remains in business.

Spelling it out

Posted by Magda
An entry on a provincial website makes it very clear the province's proposed pesticide legislation would override municipal bylaws.

"The proposed amendments would render inoperative a municipal by-law that addresses the use and sale of pesticides that may be used for cosmetic purposes unless the by-law was required to be made under another Act and is exempted by a regulation made under the Bill (if enacted)."

That's from the province's environmental bill of registry site, where you can go to comment on proposed bills.