Say what you want about last year’s State of the City, but at least something unpredictable happened. Mayor Cam Guthrie’s announcement that he was doing a 180 on Strong Mayor Powers was bad for local democracy, but great for giving reporters and pundits something to chew on at an event that’s normally a recital of self-promotion.
When the mayor gets up in front of any big audience and talks about matters of city policy it’s worth covering, but after years of going to this event I do question how much we actually get out of it under most circumstances: A bad breakfast and networking with the same people we talk to all the time?
Before getting to the meat of the speech’s content, I want to say something to the few members of city council that attended the event on Thursday: Mayor Guthrie pantsed you in front of the Chamber of Commerce last year. He announced a major new approach to governance and gave none of you a head’s up despite seeing him in the flesh less than 12 hours beforehand. I hope, at least, you demanded to see a copy of the 2025 speech before showing up.
And one year later, it’s clear that Guthrie still does not understand what Strong Mayor Powers are and why he would need to use them:
“I recently used the Strong Mayor Powers to direct staff to provide an opportunity to hear from all members of council in March to give feedback on ideas on what we can collectively send staff away with on budget targets for the 2026 budget confirmation this fall,” he said. “Yes, ultimately at the end of the day, I will still be required to use Strong Mayor Powers to get the ball rolling with this process, but this year it will be a discussion with council first, and I’m looking forward to that.”
To be clear, Strong Mayor Powers allow the mayor to pass select bylaws with the support of only three other members of council, which is not exactly the spirit of collaboration that Guthrie tries to evoke here. It’s fine that he doesn’t regret using these powers after 18 months of rejecting them, including a unanimous motion of council to that effect, but don’t sell undemocratic powers as a positive.
One of the Strong Mayor directives announced last year was to have staff look at underused city assets that can be turned into community housing. At the time, Guthrie said that the focus was on municipally-owned parking lots, but when the initial report came back last summer it was City of Guelph parks that staff had seemed to focus on.
A full report on this is expected next month, and Guthrie used the State of the City to undermine the debate in advanced. “I really want to encourage my council colleagues to come together and embrace this moment when that report comes forward,” he said. “Do not let this moment pass us by. In supporting turning these pieces of land or assets into housing, we are doing exactly what I think the community is requesting us to do.”
Is it? Because there were at least a couple of people that seemed less than enthused about turning neighbourhood parks, even a piece of them, into housing that will still be built by for-profit developers. Obviously, we will reserve judgement until the report comes back, but if it contains a list of parks that staff say it’s okay to give away for housing, I think council is going to have a bad time, to say nothing of the mayor.
And speaking of bad times, the mayor discussed how the current Ontario government has fallen down on its commitment to cities. Guthrie explained that Guelph only got about 58 per cent of the way to the goal of building 1,500 new units last year, which was not so much due to anything Guelph did or didn’t do, but because of market factors like inflation and high interest rates. Still, there’s going to be no big cheque from the provincial government this spring.
“The city is fully focused on meeting these targets, we are, but somethings are completely out of our control, so they’re penalizing our city and 40 others by withholding those funds that are needed. It just hurt everybody else,” Guthrie said.
That message might be better received if Guthrie didn’t take every opportunity to appear as a prop mayor in Doug Ford’s routine knee-jerk announcements, like the one last December where it was declared that the Ontario government was taking out the legislative hickory stick against encampments. Of course, Ford decided to have an election instead, so who knows what will become of that.
Speaking of encampments, Guthrie said that the one in St. George’s Square was “abandoned” and “dismantled”, which is a very generous framing of what happened there in November. He also repeated the specious and unverified assertion that “most” of the people that lived there took spots in shelters, which is hardly a long-term solution even if it is true.
Guthrie also thanked the Ford government for HART Hub funding, saying, “I am hopeful that this new service model will provide dedicated supports to those who need it most.”
On the other hand, Guthrie did not acknowledge the science that shows consumption and treatment sites have a positive impact on the number of overdoses, how paramedic services are concerned about the increase in service because of the CTS closure, or the bureaucratic and procedural hoops local aid agencies had to jump through as Ford and Co. once again re-wrote policy on the fly on the back of a napkin.
Guthrie also thanked “several friends” from the University of Guelph for being in attendance at the State of the City, the same friends who are coming to council this week to appeal a bylaw in which they received everything they wanted even after council abandoned its supposed commitment to protect heritage. Friends don’t let friends tear down heritage assets that meet eight out of nine criteria and then fight their friends in court about it, but I digress.
So what is the State of the City in 2025? Confused, tired, and uninspired. But at least it came with breakfast.