GUELPH POLITICAST #282 – The Future with Guelph's Exec Team

As we start reaching the potential end of the pandemic, it seems prudent to pause and ask the question, what does the future for Guelph look like? In a few months when almost everyone is vaccinated, do we go back to the way things were, or do we embrace a new normal? The logical place to start answering those questions is to ask the three people who manage City of Guelph services, and their boss.

This coming Friday, Ontario begins stage three of the economic re-opening, and although it’s a sign of renewed optimism, don’t mistake the start of stage three as the end of the pandemic. All venues will still have certain limitations depending on their size and function, masks and physical distancing are still the rule of the land, and despite great progress in vaccinations, there’s still a lot of work left to be done to make sure everyone has had two doses.

With all that in mind, there are several considerations for the future of Guelph in a post-pandemic world. Can local businesses recover, how long will it take to build transit service back to pre-pandemic levels of ridership, and what will work look like for City employees? These decisions are being made now among the managers and supervisors in various City offices, but they will all have to pass through the desktops of the four people being featured on this week’s podcast.

This week we're joined by Chief Administrative Officer Scott Stewart, and Deputy CAOs Colleen Clack-Bush, Jayne Holmes, and Trevor Lee. The combined administrative experience of this panel will be brought to bear on critical questions about the City's future from infrastructure demands, to City programs and services, to organizational details. Hopefully, the conversation will give you some context about how the City, as an organization, has survived the pandemic, and how it still plans to be, as the Community Plan says, “Future Ready.”

Let's talk about the future on this week's edition of the Guelph Politicast!

That council meeting to discuss the service rationalization review is this coming Monday. The open session begins at 4 pm, and you can find the preview of the meeting here. There are three meetings of council next week, which are the last three meetings before the summer break, and you can stay up to date with all those details here at Guelph Politico.

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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.