Report titled ‘Future Guelph Progress Report, 2026 - 308’ dated July 22, 2026, be received.

7:21kind of internal to set the stage for us. And then after that's all done, we're going to go through

7:28sort of each individual outside board and such that will come forward as well. So I'll turn things

7:36over at this time to our CAO, Tara Baker. And thank you very much for putting this all together.

7:43Great. Thanks so much, Mr. Mayor and members of council and all of our guests here today.

7:51Really pleased to be able to be here to present the progress made in 2025 under the Future Guelph

7:58strategic plan. This report highlights many accomplishments from the year and this is our

8:04second full year of implementation of the strategic plan. Reporting on progress is one way we lead

8:14with accountability and having meaningful conversations backed by good data is instrumental

8:19as we continue to work towards the goals in Future Guelph. In an environment of increase in global

8:26uncertainty, this continues to be a high priority. Our update this evening will speak honestly not

8:32only about the great work that we continue to move forward, but it also includes the challenges that

8:38we face in balancing our goals with the rising affordability pressures facing the city and the

8:43community. We've also invited our local board and shared service partners to share their progress

8:49today. All but the county of Wellington are here and I'd like to thank them for being here. The

8:56county shares their progress at the Joint Social Services and Land Ambulance Committee in June

9:02and that report is attached for your reference. To get us started, I will hand the mic over to

9:09Jody Sales, our manager, general manager of strategic initiatives and intergovernmental services.

9:15Over to you. Thanks, CAO Baker and I think Marga 3 did a good job of teeing up the agenda,

9:22so I won't spend any more time on this slide. Before we get into the results, I want to take

9:30just a quick moment to talk about why we do this. The role of data in decision making has never been

9:36more critical. To plan for our future, we need to build a solid understanding of where we're at,

9:41how much we're doing, and the impacts we're having on our community. Good quality data can

9:45allow us to have confidence in the decisions we make every day and it allows us to find efficiencies

9:51and allocate resources where they're needed most. By grounding our decisions and evidence,

9:56we not only improve outcomes but also build greater trust with our community through transparency.

10:02We are committed to continuous improvement of our performance measurement practices as well.

10:07We're laying the groundwork to move our progress reporting to a real-time model where we don't

10:12have to wait for our annual performance reporting meeting to share results with you. While we continue

10:17to believe it's important to create moments like tonight where we can reflect on our annual performance,

10:23we will also be updating our measures going forward on the website as data is available.

10:27For example, we recently completed the satisfaction survey, which informs two indicators within the

10:33future wealth strategic plan. Instead of waiting until next year's progress reporting workshop

10:38to publish this information on our dashboard, you can find it online today.

10:43So I'll hand it over to Erin to take us into the data. Great, thank you. So it's my pleasure to be

10:57here today to share the results for 2025 and while I'm here speaking to the results, the work outlined

11:02here represents the hard work of staff across the entire organization and our DCAOs are here to help

11:08answer questions related to specific projects and measures following the presentation. So I'm going

11:13to start with foundations and foundations is really about our internal investments that we need

11:18to position wealth to provide excellent services and programs and maintain both fiscal responsibility

11:24and accountability. So a few highlights to talk about from this theme. The city began its first

11:34full year of implementation of our Indigenous Relations Framework in 2025. Throughout this period,

11:39the city advanced a range of initiatives including the Indigenous Awareness Resource Hub,

11:44which offers self-directed guidance, information training, and other learning supports.

11:49Council also approved the 2025 Corporate Asset Management Plan in last June.

11:54An asset management maturity has increased to approximately 66%, which is a 9% increase since

12:002024. So as you see here, the overall under foundations, two-thirds of strategic initiatives

12:11were on track at the end of 2025 and almost three-quarters have met KPIs of metatarget.

12:17And speaking about KPIs, we wanted to look at our fiscal responsibility and accountability,

12:26which I think you can see from this slide. We've been positively impacted based on this focus.

12:32We've maintained our credit rating as AAA or level 10, and our property taxes and utility

12:37rates as a percentage of income remains within the average range of our competitor municipalities.

12:42Well, we have a long way to meet our target of having a fully funded infrastructure renewal.

12:46We are making progress at expected rates over the past two years, and we have a strategy in

12:51place to return to target by 2031 for tax-supported services and 2044 for non-tax-supported.

12:58So this year, we thought we would do something different, and we'd also provide an opportunity

13:06to look at one of the KPIs with more of a long-term approach. This one is about our

13:13staff voluntary turnover rate. So it shows the historical view, and it's one way we measure

13:19to have the right people, our ability to have the right people and the right skills. If you look over

13:24the last six years, we can see the disruption in employment caused by COVID-19 with turnover

13:29first dropping dramatically than rising before returning to more healthy levels in 2024 and 2025.

13:35We are now performing at target on this KPI, and we continue to implement retention strategies,

13:40including actioning our employee engagement survey recommendations and inclusive workplace

13:45efforts. Just to note, this KPI is based on permanent full-time and part-time employees,

13:50and doesn't include temporary contract, part-time casual, or seasonal workers.

13:58So we're going to move to the next theme, which is all about city building, which focuses on

14:04housing growth and investing in city infrastructure and programming. In 2025, the city continued to

14:12remove barriers to increasing housing. The city's housing ready efforts have advanced all eight of

14:17the city-led housing pledge actions, including the development of the Stone Road and Burl Community

14:22Planning Permit System. This is an innovative planning tool that will support affordable housing

14:27and help more housing units reach the market quicker. And evidence of this came recently with

14:31the announcement of the first approved build under the CPPS. Under this theme of city building,

14:41half of the strategic initiatives were on track at the end of 2025, and 60 percent of the KPIs met

14:47their target. And in our KPIs, you can see the evidence of the challenging environment for housing

14:54construction that we continue to operate in. Rising costs in the construction industry, as well as

14:59larger trends in political and economic uncertainty, have driven the level of construction of new units

15:04to the lowest level in several years in Guelph and many other places across the province.

15:09Despite these market conditions, the city continues to act on the housing affordability

15:13strategy and through direct actions has supported the creation of 26 affordable units in 2025.

15:23So to illustrate another longer-term example and our investment in community spaces, we can look

15:29back on progress of two of the city's major projects, the South End Community Center and Baker

15:34Library. So following strong project management principles, both projects have remained on track

15:39with steady progress year over year. Both facilities will add to the portfolio of community spaces

15:44available for community members for years to come after they are completed this year. Our next

15:55theme as we move through is the environment, which speaks to our role in environmental stewardship

16:00to reduce corporate greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, protect and improve our green spaces

16:05and support community climate action. So we've continued to invest in electrifying our fleet

16:13and we're keeping on track to reach our goal of 15% electric fleet vehicles by 2028.

16:18Significant progress also continues to be made on Guelph's One Water Plan, which will make us one

16:23of the first municipalities in Ontario to pursue a progressive, fully integrated One Water approach

16:28that values all water resources. Once completed, this plan will provide a long-term framework

16:33to work alongside our community to conserve and protect this crucial resource for current and

16:38future generations. Overall, under the environment theme, half of our strategic initiatives were

16:46on track and 44% of our KPIs met their target. And when you look at our KPIs, well, we have not

16:57reached our targeted levels of greenhouse gas emissions reduction based on the Race to Zero

17:01campaign. We are still lower than the 2018 baselines and the city continues to make investments

17:07that are having positive impacts such as supporting electrification and energy retrofits to

17:12facilities. And it will take a concerted effort from all levels of government,

17:16as well as community members to make progress in this area. And just to note that you can

17:20check out more environmental indicators through the Environmental Sustainability Report that was

17:24published this month on Guelph.ca. So one such indicator that we are seeing some great progress

17:34in over the last three years is our Guelph Greener Homes Program. We have over 400 households have

17:40completed energy retrofits by the end of 2025 under this program. The projects completed

17:46have helped many households to make their homes more energy efficient, comfortable,

17:50climate friendly, and will help to reduce our community GHG emissions. And we've reached the

17:59final theme, which is people in the economy, which are all about supporting our local economy,

18:04businesses, and people around Guelph. And it's probably no surprise to anyone, as you can see

18:11by the construction downtown, that the city is making significant investments through the

18:15downtown renewal program to create a more welcoming, functional, and people focused environment in the

18:20heart of Guelph. These renewal efforts will create the foundation for future prosperity,

18:25sustainability, and well-being for the next several decades. As of the end of 2025, the city

18:30has made progress by completing the design and tendering of phase one to allow construction to

18:35begin on Windham Street, as well as finalizing the plans for St. George Square and the McDonnell

18:39Street Bridge and Allen Stam. Under this theme, 57% of strategic initiatives were on track at the

18:49end of the year and 56% of our KPIs method target. And looking at our KPIs, we have seen that progress

18:59on our circular economy project has stalled as staff are pursuing external grant funding to

19:04proceed on this work. However, the remaining KPIs shown are green because we have seen a

19:10noticeable increase, for example, in the land assessment volume for downtown, where it's now

19:16over 973 million at the end of 2023. And recent city policy work, such as the height study and

19:22community planning permit system, will continue to contribute to making downtown an even better

19:27place to invest. Under this one, we thought we spotlight the municipal accommodation tax revenue.

19:37As you can see, it continues to increase year over year. And this revenue is used to develop a

19:42suite of resources and supports for businesses and organizations in our community. And on that note,

19:51that concludes our progress update for the year. As you can see from the link here, all of this is

19:56now live and available on progress.golf.ca. And I'm going to hand it back to Jody Sales to wrap up

20:03and talk about future plans. Thanks, Erin. Earlier, you heard me talk about continuous

20:10improvement. And as we look towards the refresh of our strategic plan, yep, that's happening already.

20:16For the next term of council, some improvements that we're looking at include

20:20increasing the connections between our major planning documents, including the multi-year

20:25budget, our master plans and comprehensive plans, working with council to develop clear

20:30objectives with measurable outcomes that we can report on annually. And lastly, we want to make

20:35sure that there's an ability to balance our shared goals in the strategic plan with the ability to

20:40adapt to changes that will no doubt come our way. An information report with information about the

20:462027 budget update, the 2028 to 2031 multi-year budget, and the strategic plan refresh process

20:54will be in the information items on Friday. So please have a look. And with that, we're happy

20:59to take any questions. Great. So council, this portion, it would just be questions only on the

21:06presentation that was there. And the report obviously attached, but because all the other ones

21:11the presentations are going to come up after. Is there anything of questions? And maybe actually

21:16what I'll do is I'll ask for the recommendation for this part to be tabled first and then see if

21:21there's any questions. If not, we can move on. But council Richardson, would you move the recommendation?

21:26So this is just to have the report received. And then council Pusatil will second. Okay, with that

21:33on officially on the floor, is there any questions of staff right now or can we move on? Looks like

21:40move on. So I can call the vote, everybody. Okay. Is there anybody against receiving the report

21:47and presentation today? I see and hear nobody. So that is unanimous. And I think on behalf of

21:53council, I will just say this is a maturing thing that happens every year. And you're already looking,

22:00as you just said, Jody, maybe some changes evolving into the next one and the next one. So

22:08this is a very, it's actually a very good document and all the information that's online, like this

22:14was just kind of touching the surface a little bit. We really do want council and the community to

22:20actually dig deep a little bit into there to see what's going on. It is a very transparent

22:24way of telling everybody the story of what kind of happened in the last year to what our goals

22:29and aspirations were compared to what we got done. And some of the reasons why it did or did not

22:34happen and such. So we really appreciate the work that staff did. Okay. With that, we're going into

22:41all of our outside boards or shared services. And so right off the top, I want to say thank you for

22:47everybody that came. We really appreciate that. And secondly, I will be timing you. You can't talk

22:56long. So no, we know that you've prepared your presentations and we're looking forward to them.

23:03And the first one actually is the Downtown Guelph Business Association and Chuck Nash is the

23:10Downtown Guelph Business Association chair is here to give us a little high level presentation