30-day budget amendment period prescribed in Ontario Regulation 530/22 Section 7 (3) be shortened and the final day for amendments be November 26th, 2025.

4:52:43Okay, so now I'm gonna ask for a 15-minute break

4:52:48as I consider whether or not I'd like to veto anything.

4:52:52Okay, so it is, it's the time.

4:52:57Let's make it two o'clock, let's make it a little bit longer.

4:53:00So at 2 p.m., we will come back

4:53:03and we will consider what the next steps

4:53:05of the process is in the budget, okay?

4:53:07Thank you.

4:53:13I'm sorry, Shanna, before we go,

4:53:16could you just tell us what we are currently at right now?

4:53:19I think it's like 3.4-ish or something.

4:53:24Yes, we are at 3.36% plus the hospital levy.

4:53:29So, and that's 11?

4:53:31Point 11, yep.

4:53:32Yeah, so 3.47.

4:53:35That's right, yes.

4:53:36But I think it's appropriate, Council,

4:53:38that we separate the hospital levy out, that is separate.

4:53:43Would you say 3.?

4:53:443.36.

4:53:453.36, okay, thank you.

4:53:47So let's come back here at 2 o'clock, okay?

4:53:48Can I just meet with the clerk

4:53:50and the executive team in the back room for a second?

4:53:52Thank you.

5:04:22Mic test, mic test, audio mic test, mic test, mic test.

5:15:51Okay, just seeing if Councillor Blings is here online.

5:16:11Okay, everyone, I have decided not to veto anything.

5:16:14And I'm just gonna give you my reasons why.

5:16:17I like to break things down into those buckets of value

5:16:25and affordability.

5:16:27I've said it many times.

5:16:28So I just wanna give you the numbers

5:16:32because I actually drilled down a little bit, okay?

5:16:34So 100RE is 31 cents a month

5:16:41or the average assessed home here in Guelph.

5:16:44Is there value in that?

5:16:46I think there is.

5:16:49The transit expansion is 78 cents per month

5:16:55for the average assessed home in Guelph.

5:16:58And is there value in that?

5:17:00Yes, I think there is.

5:17:04Especially on the transit one, I will just say,

5:17:07I should have maybe said this earlier,

5:17:11is that there is the reference to Conestoga College.

5:17:17But, and it was mentioned earlier in another meeting,

5:17:20but I forgot too about the expansion

5:17:22of the Medical Imaging Center

5:17:25that's there too from the hospital.

5:17:28So all the other benefits too, I'm not discounting those,

5:17:31but there is that there.

5:17:35I thought Councillor Downer made a really good point

5:17:38at our intentions night about this route

5:17:42that like if we don't sort of commit

5:17:46to putting something in here as an enhancement now

5:17:50for 2026, it's gonna be much harder moving into 2027.

5:17:56And I also feel too that with increases in ridership

5:17:59that also can sometimes look to help us with grants

5:18:02from other levels of government

5:18:03when they base things on ridership numbers.

5:18:06So there's sort of the revenue side on that too.

5:18:09The last part I would just say is,

5:18:17and I hope you, my colleagues will agree,

5:18:23is that I know that I've been using the strawmere powers

5:18:25a few times, but I have always used it in a way

5:18:31that has never countered democracy.

5:18:34I've never done that.

5:18:35So I've brought forward items of information

5:18:41or research and review, which is allowed

5:18:43under the legislation, and I've always brought them forward

5:18:46for all of Council.

5:18:49I've never brought forward something

5:18:52where it has been what's called a bylaw,

5:18:56which only then would require a one third vote of Council.

5:19:01And the reason why that is important to me

5:19:07is that it dilutes the position

5:19:15of an elected official as a Councillor.

5:19:17And so if I were to come here today

5:19:20and do sort of a reverse and say, well, I'm gonna veto this,

5:19:25and then it would only require a one third,

5:19:30it does go against some of the positions

5:19:34that I've had that I've held fast on

5:19:36and true on on the democracy front.

5:19:39I think there is a role for strawmere powers

5:19:40on the other things I have used it on,

5:19:43and I have no hesitation to continue using them

5:19:45to further things faster, housing,

5:19:49other important issues in the city.

5:19:51I will not apologize for that,

5:19:53but I think overriding my colleagues

5:19:58from a democracy point of view has still considered,

5:20:02is to me something that is difficult.

5:20:05And so I just wanna respect that for my colleagues.

5:20:08And again, I come back to the whole value

5:20:10versus affordability position.

5:20:13If I, at the end of the day,

5:20:18I own the decision of, I added it up,

5:20:22it's $1.09.

5:20:24So I own that $1.09 that I,

5:20:28per month of the average assessed household

5:20:30that is not, that I didn't veto.

5:20:34And I will stand behind that decision.

5:20:39And as you could tell too,

5:20:42I didn't obviously touch the daytime space as well

5:20:47that we did as a council.

5:20:48So, so yeah, sorry, that was a long way

5:20:52of just saying I didn't veto.

5:20:54But there's some of my, I think I'm allowed that space

5:20:58to tell you why.

5:21:00Because if I did veto, I would have been forced

5:21:03to tell you why.

5:21:04So I'm telling you why not.

5:21:06Okay, so with that, we're actually done.

5:21:09But I know that Councillor Gibson,

5:21:11I promise you I'd go back to you.

5:21:13I mean, go ahead and say what you wish.

5:21:16But after you're done or anybody else,

5:21:18it is a motion to adjourn, we're done.

5:21:22Thank you.

5:21:23Go ahead.

5:21:24Through Mr. Mayor, just acknowledgement,

5:21:25the, I always try and sort of frame the budget

5:21:30in my own mind.

5:21:30And I think from the, from the beginning,

5:21:32early budget workshops,

5:21:33we talked about development slowing down in our city.

5:21:37So therefore a weakens whole revenues

5:21:39or new development charges or new taxation,

5:21:42this growth is on the decline.

5:21:45And to that point, I think that should be stated publicly

5:21:48that the projected revenues on growth are down

5:21:51and it will continue probably to trend downwards

5:21:54until something changes.

5:21:55But you took that and you incorporated that into the budget

5:21:59that you brought to council,

5:22:01Mayor and CEO and the executive team

5:22:03in terms of your capital deferrals.

5:22:05So you took that list of things

5:22:07that we have projected to want to do.

5:22:09You tried to align it with our decreasing overall revenue

5:22:14and you reset expectations.

5:22:16So the deferral list on capital

5:22:18is always a little bit depressing,

5:22:20but that is a splash of reality that has to happen

5:22:23when you're going through,

5:22:25quite frankly, an economic downturn.

5:22:27So that, from that perspective, thank you for the work.

5:22:31You took a lot of that burden away from us council.

5:22:34It's very hard to find seven votes around the horseshoe

5:22:37when you're trying to take things out of the budget.

5:22:39So I do appreciate that.

5:22:41As someone who's introduced much motions before,

5:22:44it's difficult to win one if you bring forward 10

5:22:47and you get two, that's great.

5:22:49So the fact that that work was done a lot in advance

5:22:52when the mayor brought forward the budget

5:22:53is very much appreciated.

5:22:54So we're not wrangling over every last project.

5:22:58I didn't like everything in the budget.

5:23:01I respect the mayor's desire not to veto.

5:23:06I think it's always hard,

5:23:08even again, we talk about the conversations

5:23:10we have in our household,

5:23:12it's always hard as costs go up

5:23:13and as costs keep going up,

5:23:16acknowledging councillor Alts emotion,

5:23:18there's some reality in that.

5:23:20But I do want to give credit where credit is due

5:23:25to the mayor and to the rest of council.

5:23:26I think we did collectively get along pretty well today

5:23:29and through this process.

5:23:31So for those who haven't experienced a tough budget,

5:23:34like this has been pretty mild.

5:23:36So to my council colleagues,

5:23:40we all wear this budget together.

5:23:42So I appreciate that.

5:23:43Thank you.

5:23:45Right.

5:23:47Thank you.

5:23:48Do I need to go to anybody else

5:23:50or can I look for adjournment?

5:23:52Okay. So before adjournment,

5:23:55I do want to say thank you to staff.

5:23:58Again, I said at the beginning,

5:23:59I'm going to say at the end.

5:24:00So like since February,

5:24:04there has been a ton of work

5:24:06and you really helped with everything so much.

5:24:09And I can't thank you enough personally

5:24:11for holding my hand a little bit

5:24:13through this whole process like you did.

5:24:14And I also want to say thank you to my council colleagues too.

5:24:18Like it was great.

5:24:19I mean, it really was.

5:24:21It was a nice process to get where we landed

5:24:23and we did it together and that's a good thing.

5:24:25So with that, I bet you Billings