A one-time grant of $600,000 be approved for 2027 as financial investment towards Guelph Storm Limited, contingent on a successful bid in securing the 2027 Memorial Cup in Guelph. That a commitment of up to $100,000 of in-kind…

6:20:09With that, we have one resolution before us. No staff report. The resolutions up there are in

6:20:15five parts for the Guelph 2027 Memorial Cup bid. And Mr. Clerk, I believe that you would like me

6:20:23to read these. Is that correct? I shall read them. Number one, that a one-time grant of $600,000

6:20:29be approved for 2027 as a financial investment towards Guelph Storm Limited contingent upon

6:20:36a successful bid in securing the 2027 Memorial Cup in Guelph. Number two, that a commitment of up

6:20:44to $100,000 of in-kind fees at Sleeman Centre associated with facility ice rental licensing

6:20:51fees and facility staff be approved for 2027 contingent on a successful bid in securing

6:20:59the 2027 Memorial Cup in Guelph. Number three, that the one-time grant of $600,000 and the

6:21:06in-kind commitment of up to $100,000 in facility costs for the Sleeman Centre be funded from the

6:21:13Municipal Accommodation Tax Reserve or MAT in 2027 if the Guelph Storm bid is successful for the

6:21:212027 Memorial Cup. Number four, that the Chief Administrative Officer be directed to include

6:21:27a letter in the bid package confirming the 2027 financial investment and in-kind commitment at

6:21:35Sleeman Centre. Number five, that the Chief Administrative Officer be directed to formalize

6:21:41and execute an agreement to the satisfaction of the city solicitor with Guelph Storm Limited

6:21:47that includes the particulars noted above and is outlined within the staff report entitled Guelph

6:21:53Storm 27 Memorial Cup bid dated July 8th 2025 and with that I know Mayor Guthrie would like to speak

6:22:01to this and move it and I believe Councillor Boussateel will second it for you. Mayor Guthrie.

6:22:07Thank you Chair and through you yes I'm happy to move this and I do like how it's come together

6:22:14including where the funding would come from so that helps I believe that this is a wonderful

6:22:20opportunity that we shouldn't pass up and I hope that we are successful in this. I've been to a

6:22:27couple of these one here and one in what you know years ago and one in another city and I mean they

6:22:33are a huge boom to the to the city and I feel like it would be a great opportunity for the Guelph

6:22:41Storm and for our entire city so I save all the best in the bid and will be rooting for

6:22:49everybody and I'm hoping that my colleagues do support it and thank you Councillor Boussateel

6:22:54for seconding I'll leave it at that thank you. Thank you Mayor Guthrie because we don't have

6:22:59a staff report I'm going to have to rely upon questions from council I have one from Councillor

6:23:05Gowler. Thank you and through you Chair I'll do staff just a confirmation. Oh we do yes oh I'm

6:23:14sorry let's see you on that. The commitment that we're making today would there be any

6:23:19financial cost to the city until we know whether we're successful or not in the bid?

6:23:25Through the chair no there would not only a financial commitment or the in-kind commitment

6:23:29if they were successful in the bid maybe a little bit of time from CAO Baker and signing a letter

6:23:35for us but okay thank you thank you thank you and Councillor Kate. Thank you through you Chair

6:23:43Alt. So to confirm so that $100,000 is recoverable? Through the chair no the ask from the Gulf Storm

6:23:55is that they would not pay up to a hundred thousand of rental fees licensing fees or facility staff

6:24:02anything above and beyond then would be at their cost per the rates and fees.

6:24:07Okay so even if they don't win the bid we're still out the 100,000.

6:24:12Through the chair no we are not because we will not have incurred those costs nor would

6:24:16they be rental for it so that also would only be incurred if they were successful in the bid.

6:24:22Okay thank you for that clarification.

6:24:26Councillor Billings had brought this up earlier with our downtown construction and the timeline

6:24:33for this how much overlap is there? Through the chair I think I can explain by saying that the

6:24:44event is primarily or generally in May so in May of 2027 and for 10 days there's some stuff on either

6:24:54side with teams coming into town and any sort of cleanup but no more than a week of events in and

6:25:02around or at the Sleeman Center primarily. Okay and how can you remind me how many hotel

6:25:14rooms they require for this bid to be successful? Through the chair the bid

6:25:22package or the current bid package talks about just over 3,500 room nights over 12 nights but

6:25:30also includes six unique hotels so there would be some hotels that are utilized outside of Guelph.

6:25:40Okay and how many projects in the past I know the MAT tax is pretty new.

6:25:48How many different projects have we been able to support with it compared to

6:25:52doing it as one big bid? Through the chair yeah you're right it is new we have had one bid which

6:26:04was the the curling event that took place this year and that would have been one of the the

6:26:09largest ones that we funded through the municipal accommodation tax. Okay I'm just trying to think

6:26:16of if we do this one how many other ones will not be able to get funding what is the repercussion

6:26:23of only choosing one big project? Through the chair can't really quantify the number because

6:26:34we simply don't know what those are but as explained in the report this would deplete the

6:26:40reserve until 2030 when we would be able to start building it back up again so between

6:26:47kind of now and 2030 there wouldn't be funding for any of these other kind of one-off larger

6:26:54events that came to the city. And when would we know if the bid is successful? Through the chair

6:27:03later this year in 2025 submissions will be happening early in the fall and the Canadian

6:27:08Hockey League makes their decision pretty quick. Thank you very much. Thank you very much

6:27:14Councillor Caitlin are there any other questions on this particular issue? Councillor Billings

6:27:24and Councillor Ciarán. To you Mr Chair with respect to the reserve one of the projects is the

6:27:34wayfinding one so I was just wondering could we not pause that project or reduce the the amount of

6:27:43that project so that we wouldn't end up in a sort of a negative or deficit position with respect to

6:27:50the reserve? Through the chair that project well it's currently underway the strategy itself the

6:28:01next step would be an implementation feature of that which is something that we were going to bring

6:28:05forward for a future council decision so there is some opportunity to pause the implementation

6:28:14of that strategy. Okay I wrote it down somewhere it's in how much was it for the implementation

6:28:23of the wayfinding project? Through the chair I believe it was approximately $300,000.

6:28:29Right so so we could pause that if we if council wanted to.

6:28:37That's correct. Okay thanks. Councillor Ciarán. Yeah a lot of my questions have been addressed

6:28:46I want to go back to the hotel rooms do we know what percentage of hotel rooms that would be

6:28:51required for this size of event would be outside of the city of Guelph because if we are if we're

6:29:00going into a regional partnership I'd like to see the other municipalities who would benefit

6:29:05from the Memorial Cup also commit to funding this event if they are also beneficiaries.

6:29:16Through the chair in the report we gave a kind of a brief high-level view of the

6:29:23room night stays so typically at this time of year we have 70 occupancy so with the Memorial Cup

6:29:32coming to Guelph potentially that would probably bring us up to 100 percent. It would

6:29:39displace those visitors that would have already been coming that 70 normal occupancy but we'd see

6:29:45a potential of an additional I think it's $24,000 in municipal accommodation tax revenue

6:29:53recognizing that we split half of that with the Guelph Chamber of Commerce so we'd see an additional

6:29:58$12,000 to our MAT reserve fund because of that increase in stays so you're correct I don't know

6:30:07what other hotels I'm imagining that they'd be down the 401 in Cambridge would be benefiting from that

6:30:14and I don't know what conversations the Guelph Storm has had with any of those hoteliers or the

6:30:22Waterloo Region Tourism Organization around funding if any. You don't know what percentage of the

6:30:27total required bed nights would be accommodated outside of Guelph. Councillor Corone I believe

6:30:32that DCIO clock wishes to weigh in on this as well. Through the chair I just want to provide the

6:30:38information it is in the report and it is public that we do understand the Kitchener Rangers are

6:30:43bidding as well and so I just want to manage expectations that I don't know that we would

6:30:49certainly be in a position because there is going to be that competing bid while we recognize that

6:30:54those hotel rooms if Guelph was successful would come from the Waterloo Region we do I just wanted

6:30:59to make sure that we were clear that is our understanding that Kitchener Rangers has publicly

6:31:04said that they are bidding. Okay so if we use up all of our MAT if we commit to this and the

6:31:10MAT tax is then committed to the year 2030 how long typically if another big event comes to Guelph

6:31:19given that this is our bicentennial year I expect that our our hotels are going to be filled

6:31:25there we're going to have other potential events happening throughout the city that are going to

6:31:29attract more of a homecoming kind of events if we commit all of our MAT tax and we lose the way

6:31:39finding project or other types of events that are related to that 2027 year.

6:31:47Just a question is if an event were to come up how how long typically in advance would we know it

6:31:52say if next week we get a big event that wants to come to Guelph in 2027 another you know curling

6:31:58event or other sporting event or major concert series we wouldn't know that yet right that's

6:32:06it's usually a year or two in advance? Through the chair I would say major sporting events are

6:32:12happening three four five years out at least in those preliminary conversations but there absolutely

6:32:17could be other sort of concert series or other larger tourism draws that maybe are thinking

6:32:24about things and haven't approached us yet calendars for bookings aren't certainly officially open

6:32:30at this point so a little bit of a hybrid other than we're hoping to fill the entire year the

6:32:37calendar year in 2027 and this is then on the outside two weeks of that process but yes does

6:32:46utilize that funding leverage. Yeah and given the previous agenda item would we be making it

6:32:53clear in our bid that our downtown is ripped up during this event? Through the chair it would

6:32:59certainly be my recommendation that the storm consider including risks and obstacles that

6:33:04could occur as a part of the event and what that mitigation strategy is. Yeah can we can we

6:33:10require it and the only reason I'm asking it in that way is that you know for successful and

6:33:16and the event does come here and we do have a downtown this is in progress it doesn't look

6:33:24good on the city of Guelph that that our reputation may not be enhanced by that as a tourism draw

6:33:31people have a negative experience so can we require that to be disclosed in any bid documents?

6:33:38Do you see your clock push? Through the chair Ms. Evans and I have had this conversation with the

6:33:43Guelph storm already in terms of their awareness it's their bid and so what they submit in the bid

6:33:50is the Guelph storms to provide. I do also want to just highlight though that as we are looking to

6:33:55mitigate construction impacts we also want to encourage people to come to our downtown core

6:34:00and so this is an opportunity to try to encourage people to come into the downtown core despite

6:34:05the construction and still eat in our restaurants and still participate in what downtown Guelph has

6:34:10to offer so we certainly have been up front with the storm they're aware of it as Ms. Evans says

6:34:16we've talked and will continue talking to them about mitigation strategies but we want to make

6:34:21sure that we are also encouraging people to come downtown for whatever large-scale events

6:34:27whether it's the bicentennial or a potential memorial cup downtown Guelph is still going

6:34:31to be open for business through 2027. Okay Mr. Chair are you hearing comments now or just questions?

6:34:40If there are no further questions I shall take comments. So I uh you know I can

6:34:48get them from you first. Okay since I have the floor I concur that I you know I come from a

6:34:54hockey family and long history of Hall of Famers and the and I I would love to see the memorial cup

6:35:01in Guelph. I am hesitant for for three reasons number one it's using our entire MAT tax and

6:35:08we've let no other organizations you know bid on on using the MAT tax. I think there might be a

6:35:16possibility of a whole other range of events that could be hosted in Guelph with the use of that tax

6:35:21and we really haven't had a public open process for others to be able to access it. My second

6:35:26concern is the downtown construction that's a big one for me so I'm not quite I'm kind of sitting

6:35:34on the fence right now but I'll I'll hear from my colleagues and then I'll cast my vote when the

6:35:38time comes but I I do have some serious concerns about making that kind of commitment.

6:35:44Councillor Caron I'm just going to seek a clarification. You stated that there was

6:35:49no other organization that had used the MAT tax and just going to staff I'm wondering

6:35:54Oh not that hadn't used it. No not that hasn't used it yet that has an opportunity to use it

6:36:00between between now and 2030. Oh okay if we use the rest of our MAT tax reserve for this event

6:36:08there won't be an opportunity for others. Okay I understand the Grand Slam of Curling I believe

6:36:14did use about 25,000 that's really the only concern. Are there other closing comments? Seeing none I

6:36:23will make some closing comments of I as a chair I'm reluctant to ask questions from the chair but

6:36:29on this I will make a couple of comments and it really relates to the fact that Guelph Storm is

6:36:35not here today and if I was not in the chair I would ask them many questions. If this is to be

6:36:41approved tonight it will come back at the end of the month and I would hope that we would have

6:36:47representatives from the Guelph Storm here to answer some of the questions I think that we have had

6:36:53some good questions asked by Councillor Caron and others that that certainly do deserve to be

6:36:59answered. If it's only symbolic I will vote against this tonight because I'm reasonably certain

6:37:05that this will be approved tonight knowing that it will come back at the end of the month and with

6:37:11that I'll leave my comments and I will go to the vote. So moving to the vote is there anybody opposed?

6:37:24I see three opposed. The motion carries. I want to thank Mayor Guthrie for bringing it forward.

6:37:33I look forward to the end of the month and hopefully with the Guelph Storm management here to

6:37:37address some concerns and I can do adjournment. There are no service area chair nor staff

6:37:45announcements at this point. I would look to someone to move adjournment. I'm going to ask

6:37:49Mayor Guthrie. I don't think he does it very often so I'm going to go to Mayor Guthrie and

6:37:54Councillor Busuttil. Is there any objection to adjournment? Thank you very much and I would

6:38:00declare that Guelph City Council are the winners of the Memorial Cup bidding.