Guelph bike lanes to be cleared of snow again after strong mayor powers used
CBC
Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie used strong mayor powers to change the 2026 and future city budgets and reinstate winter maintenance of bike lanes.
Bike lanes will once again be cleared of snow in the city, starting immediately.
It came after public outcry over the decision to close bike lanes between mid-November and mid-April in order to save $650,000.
After a break during Tuesday’s meeting, Guthrie told council he and the clerk had already signed the mayoral order, “which means it’s done, you have the bike lanes back maintained starting today.”
Guthrie said he heard from councillors as well as the public about the decision to end winter maintenance.
That included a protest held Monday night, when a group of more than 50 cyclists gathered in downtown Guelph and then rode through the streets to make people aware the bike lanes had been closed.
Tim Plunkett co-owns Speed River Cycle and co-organized Monday night’s ride. He said he felt “dismayed, I felt tricked” when it was announced the city wouldn’t do winter maintenance of bike lanes.
“We have 10 years of documents and words that say they will maintain access to bikes lanes all year round and then to pull out a line item, single it out and cut it seemed like a little bit of a punch down, a little bit of a cheap political stunt,” Plunkett said.
As part of his strong mayor budget amendment, Guthrie increased the city’s operating budget by $650,000 to reinstate the snow removal. For 2026, $300,882 will come from the city’s environment and utility contingency reserve.
That leaves $349,118 to be covered. To pay for that, the city won’t add two new bylaw officers, put less money into a reserve fund and decrease the capital budget for certain projects.
Guthrie said the situation exposed a flaw in the strong mayor powers, and that was that councillors had no way to present a notice of reconsideration.
He said he didn’t want to use his strong mayor powers in this way, but did it because he felt like enough councillors had asked him to reconsider that he had a consensus from most members.
“There has been some unity around using them in this way, and I believe that to do the right thing, I have found a way forward,” he said.
Council also voted to skip a 21-day period where they could oppose Guthrie’s use of strong mayor powers.
The federal and New Brunswick provincial governments have signed an agreement to better co-ordinate their environmental impact assessments.
Montreal police say their hate crimes unit is investigating after an Uber driver reported being threatened by a passenger with an edged weapon during a ride earlier this month, an incident the National Council of Canadian Muslims says has raised concerns about increasing Islamophobic violence.
Winnipeg’s executive policy committee voted Tuesday to approve a series of last-minute changes to the city’s 2026 budget.
Blizzard conditions are expected across much of Saskatchewan on Wednesday morning, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.
After a blast of freezing rain and brutal cold, much of Alberta is now bracing for another wintery storm that has forecasters cautioning of blizzard conditions.
A Chilliwack, B.C., mother was killed by a falling tree while visiting a local park with her kids Monday afternoon, police say.
Summerside Coun. Justin Doiron said he regularly interacts with city residents on social media.
Michael Vandell has been re-elected as chief of Deh Gáh Got’ı̨ę First Nation in N.W.T., defeating former Dehcho MLA Ronald Bonnetrouge.
A Canadian military counter-intelligence operative, accused of passing sensitive information to a foreign entity, was having conversations with a representative of Ukraine, CBC News has learned.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team has been called in to investigate an incident at the Dalhousie LRT station in which a Calgary police officer shot a man who was “acting erratically and carrying a knife.”
Around 40 people have been temporarily displaced after a building fire in O’Leary, in P.E.I.'s Prince County.
The price of the benchmark North American crude blend known as West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, slid to a four-year low on Tuesday, dipping to $55 US a barrel after starting the year off around $80.
The young man accused of being impaired and behind the wheel at the time he slammed into a Toronto family’s van, killing three children, has pleaded guilty in the case.