GuelphToday received the following letter to the editor in response to a weekend story on the city not consulting with the Accessibility Advisory Committee on the recently-approved public space bylaw.
Dear Editor:
RE: City failed to consult ahead of public space use bylaw approval
Respectfully, the City of Guelph did not fail to consult with the Accessibility Advisory Committee, or the public in general, on the public space use bylaw that was just approved, by city council.
The City of Guelph never had an opportunity to fail, or to succeed, because city council did not instruct the city to develop the public space use bylaw before they approved it. The decision to bring the bylaw, in its current form, to council was the mayor's alone.
In fact, at the Aug. 28 special meeting of council, city staff told the mayor and council, in no uncertain terms, that the bylaw, in its current form, did not meet the requirements of the city’s procedural bylaws or other corporate policies, all of which follow the requirements of provincial legislation and best practices pertaining to accessibility; public consultation; administrative fairness; and human rights.
But council passed it anyways.
While I share the concerns expressed by Accessibility Committee chair Root, the responsibility falls squarely on what Adam Donaldson described in his recent column as Mayor Guthrie’s “atrocious file management” and not any misrepresentation by city staff.
While council’s passage of this bylaw was, in my view, guided by politics rather than rational decision making - in a democracy, that’s how it works, sometimes.
However, by choosing politics over process, council has effectively endorsed the mayor’s abysmal governance on this bylaw; his toxic social media campaign against the disabled, the poor and the unhoused; and the sky high expectations he's set for downtown business community.
By tossing out their own rule book in such a public forum, council has cleared an easy path to further scrutiny by the courts, the Ombudsman of Ontario, and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario.
When that scrutiny begins, one of the the first question to be asked will be “why didn't you follow your own rules, particularly when your decision making will impact the most marginalized and powerless ?”
Council, if your vote was part of a bigger political strategy, I hope the news arrives from the front very soon.
For the rest of the community, when this bill of goods comes due, as it will, no matter your viewpoint on this bylaw, please direct your concerns to the right people, the mayor and council.
As for our city staff, they seem to be doing quite well considering how many times the mayor lets them twist in the wind for his own bad governance.
If you’ve ever worked for a bureaucracy, you know all too well that the incompetence of those at the top tends to become the responsibility of those lower down. They deserve better as much as we do.
David Gibson
Guelph
