City plans for remediation work at Goldie Mill Park:
Guelph, Ont., April 16, 2018 — The City of Guelph has received final soil testing results for Goldie Mill Park and is set to begin remediation work this summer.
Site testing has confirmed earlier results; that chemicals in the soil are consistent with those typically found based on the site’s former manufacturing activities. Historically, the Goldie Mill property was used as a sawmill, foundry, cooperage, distillery, piggery and tannery. The west side of Joseph Wolfond Park was used for furniture manufacturing operations.
Remediation work is part of the City’s plan to address soil conditions and sinkholes in the park, which is owned by the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) and managed by the City. A plan will be put in place to protect workers and contractors who may come into contact with the soil.
The City will cap the soil at certain locations within the park to address shallow soil impacts and eliminate potential health risks. In some cases, an asphalt covering will be used (e.g. trail area). In other areas, a geomembrane—a synthetic membrane liner that prevents material getting through—will be laid down with clean soil and mulch added on top.
This work will eliminate both the safety risk from the existing sinkholes and any health risk posed by the current soil conditions. Once the work is done the park will reopen for public use.
Background and testing:
Last June, the City, with support from the GRCA, closed a section of the park after environmental testing commissioned by the GRCA revealed chemicals in the soil may pose health risks. Since then, both the City and GRCA have conducted environmental tests to better understand potential risks at the site and to determine if any actions were needed to address them.
Most chemical impacts were found more than 0.76 metres below the surface. However, impacts were also identified in shallower soils. There were no impacts identified in groundwater.
To ensure the public’s health and safety, the site will remain closed during the remediation work, which includes backfilling the sinkholes.
The City expects to reopen the park in late summer or early fall 2018 and will resume bookings of the site, popular for weddings, for 2019.
The additional environmental testing cost the City about $35,000 and the GRCA about $28,000. The cost to address the soil condition and sinkholes is estimated to be $450,000.
For more information or to access environmental testing reports to date, visit guelph.ca/goldiemillpark.
About Goldie Mill Park:
Goldie Mill Park, including the ruins, is owned by the GRCA and the City manages its maintenance and programming, including renting the ruins for events.
Media contact:
Mario Petricevic, General Manager, Facilities Management
City of Guelph
519-822-1260 extension 2668
mario.petricevic@guelph.ca
Guelph, Ont., April 12, 2018 – The City of Guelph, in partnership with the cities of London and Barrie, as well as MaRS Discovery District (MaRS), is embarking on an exciting three-year Municipal Innovation Exchange (MIX) project.
The MIX will open new economic opportunities to a range of businesses and help public sector institutions improve how they provide services. It is based on the success of the City of Guelph’s ground-breaking Civic Accelerator model (co-designed with the Guelph Lab) and MaRS’ Innovation Partnership: Procurement by Co-Design health innovation program.
The MIX will improve and expand the practice of innovation procurement in the municipal sector and create practices that are tested, scalable and sustainable. The three cities of Guelph, Barrie and London will be collaborating with vendors and community members to design open, fair, transparent and innovative practices that will be tested through six challenges over the three-year project.
Through the MIX process, businesses will be embedded in municipal planning and operations, providing first-hand experience that will help them develop solutions. A broad scope of businesses will be able to participate, from large established vendors to small and medium enterprises such as start-ups and entrepreneurs often excluded from municipal procurement invitations and tenders.
Lessons learned at the end of the project will be broadly beneficial, with solutions to issues and needs common across the municipal sector. The MIX will also produce a toolkit to help scale models and provide municipalities with proven practices and resources.
The project is funded by OntarioBuys, an Ontario government program, which makes investments to support innovation, facilitate and accelerate the adoption of integrated supply chain, back-office leading practices and operational excellence. OntarioBuys helps drive collaboration and improve supply chain processes in Ontario’s broader public sector.
Additional key sector leaders which have collaborated closely in the design of the MIX include Guelph Lab, Innovation Guelph, Guelph Chamber of Commerce and the Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Quotes
“Guelph has a well-earned reputation as a city that’s willing to do things differently. We are pleased to have the endorsement of the province and along with the cities of Barrie and London, look forward to the benefits the Municipal Innovation Exchange will spark in our communities.”
– Cam Guthrie, Mayor of Guelph
“Our ability to improve public services and drive projects like the Municipal Innovation Exchange is possible because we have strong partnerships with industry leaders. Together, we have the ability to adopt and adapt innovative practices that bring value to our community.”
– Derrick Thomson, Chief Administrative Officer, City of Guelph
“Our government is committed to funding forward-thinking approaches to procurement. The City of Guelph’s Municipal Innovation Exchange project will demonstrate new ways to create solutions for complex municipal problems by introducing leading-edge procurement practices that are scalable and sustainable. Building an innovative and modern procurement process is part of the Ontario government’s economic plan to build prosperity for people across the province.”
– Tracy MacCharles, Minister, Ministry of Government and Consumer Services
“I’ve always said the six worst words in government are ‘we’ve always done it this way’. I’m proud that the City of Barrie is a forward thinking organization not afraid to innovate the way we offer services. We’re grateful to be able to partner with two other progressive municipalities on this exciting initiative. Barrie’s growing start-up community and culture of entrepreneurship makes the Municipal Innovation Exchange a perfect fit for our community.”
– Jeff Lehman, Mayor, City of Barrie
“This is a partnership that will allow our region to take another step forward together. Over the next three years this will allow us to tackle unique challenges and revise innovation practices as we continue to lead.”
– Matt Brown, Mayor, City of London
Media Contacts
Cathy Kennedy, Manager, Policy and Intergovernmental Relations
City of Guelph
Scott Lamantia, Senior Communications Advisor
City of Barrie
Rosanna Wilcox, Director, Community and Economic Innovation
City of London
Today I joined other Mayors and residents of Kitchener, Waterloo and Guelph in Kitchener to welcome further announcements on High Speed Rail and All Day Two Way Go Trains!
Please read the following news release:
News Release
Two-Way, All-Day GO for Waterloo Region Takes Next Steps Forward
April 6, 2018
Ontario Commits More Than $11 Billion for High Speed Rail and Takes Next Steps to Deliver Two-Way, All-Day GO Regional Express Rail Service to Kitchener
Premier Kathleen Wynne was at Vidyard in Kitchener today to announce a series of actions Ontario is taking to dramatically expand regional transit for people in Waterloo Region.
As announced in the 2018 Budget, the government will make an initial investment of more than $11 billion to support construction of Phase One of Canada’s first high speed rail line. This will create a fast route between Toronto’s Union Station, Pearson International Airport, Guelph, Kitchener and London as early as 2025. Electric-powered trains moving at up to 250 kilometres per hour will slash travel times to an estimated 48 minutes between Kitchener and Toronto Union Station.
The Premier also announced key advances in bringing two-way, all-day GO train service to Kitchener by 2024, as part of the GO Regional Express Rail project (GO RER). Ontario is moving ahead with two environmental assessments (EAs), which are required to provide faster, electrified, two-way, all-day train service on the Kitchener line. One EA is to provide electrified service between Georgetown and Kitchener, and the other EA is the next step for the freight bypass to provide unrestricted rail access for passenger trains between Toronto and Kitchener. To help guide this work and deliver a near-term increase in service and faster travel times for customers, the province is hiring a technical advisor.
As part of this EA phase, Ontario is now working with the Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA) to explore options to connect two-way, all-day service on the Kitchener GO line to the proposed multimodal transit hub at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The major transit hub the GTAA is proposing to build at Pearson will offer seamless connections between trains, buses, airplanes, light rail vehicles and high speed rail along the Toronto-Windsor corridor.
High speed rail and two-way, all-day GO RER will strengthen transit connections across Central and Southwestern Ontario and help create jobs and economic growth. The new and expanded services will give people a faster and greener way to get to a good job, and will help businesses attract talented workers from across a wider area.
Expanding transit options in Waterloo Region and across Southwestern Ontario is part of the government’s plan to support care, create opportunity and make life more affordable during this period of rapid economic change. The plan includes free prescription drugs for everyone under 25, and 65 or over, through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, and easier access to affordable child care.
QUICK FACTS
• In March, Ontario announced a major step forward in bringing two-way, all-day GO train service, launching the process to design and build six new GO stations and six new City of Toronto SmartTrack stations, and moving ahead with the procurement of new maintenance facilities, trains and tracks.
• Construction on the Highway 401 Rail Tunnel Project required to increase service on the Kitchener line begins in spring 2018, and plans to build a fourth track to deliver two-way, all-day electrified service from Union Station to Bramalea are already in progress.
• Track improvements to support two-way, all-day between Georgetown and Kitchener will begin as early as next year.
• The technical advisor on GO’s Kitchener line will work on improving the speed and frequency of service in the near term, starting the environmental assessments required for electrification of the line, and studying options to connect GO service to the proposed Pearson multimodal transit hub.
• Working with the GTAA to connect the Kitchener line to the proposed Pearson hub would create a solely passenger service corridor allowing for two-way, all-day electrified service from Union Station for both GO RER and high speed rail.
• GO RER is the largest rail project in Canada. It will quadruple the number of weekly trips across the GO rail network, from about 1,500 to nearly 6,000 by 2024.
• Since 2013, GO train service to Kitchener has doubled, and in 2014 the province purchased 52 kilometres of track between Georgetown and Kitchener for $76 million, clearing a major hurdle towards delivering two-way, all-day service.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
• What high speed rail means to you and your community
• How GO’s expansion will make rail service faster and more frequent
• Budget 2018: A Plan for Care and Opportunity
QUOTES
“Waterloo Region’s booming economy has created a lot of good jobs — but it has also increased traffic and made getting around the region harder. We are building Canada’s first high speed rail line and bringing two-way, all-day GO service to Kitchener so you can get to work more easily and home to your family sooner. The people of Ontario are poised to do great things, but government needs to invest in that potential. That is what we are doing.”
— Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario
“We are connecting communities and creating more transportation choices for people across Southwestern Ontario. This is a significant milestone in our commitment to deliver two-way, all-day GO train service to Kitchener by 2024, and to bring even more opportunity to the Innovation Supercorridor with high speed rail between Toronto and Windsor.”
— Kathryn McGarry, Minister of Transportation
“We are committed to providing two-way, all-day GO Train service to Kitchener-Waterloo and are moving ahead with the necessary environmental approvals, working with the Greater Toronto Airport Authority and exploring all available options that will allow us to deliver faster, more frequent service for our customers.”
— Phil Verster, President & CEO of Metrolinx
This was sent to me today and I thought some might be interested:
Canada Post wants to help businesses in the Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph areas who want to join and succeed in the exploding e-commerce revolution.
This link: https://www.facebook.com/events/221870021696693/ gives you more info and the Canada Post event is to be held on Thursday, April 12th at the Delta Hotels Waterloo, 110 Erb Street West, Waterloo, starting at 8:30 a.m.
They are bringing together industry experts and successful retailers to talk about e-commerce and provide valuable information on how to effectively operate, grow and scale e-commerce business and expand e-commerce business networks.
Once again, registration is free.
Thank you.
Guelph is so lucky to have our Rotary Clubs! They give a great deal back to our community and have done so for many years! Last week I met with Terrie and Alan from Rotary who told ma all about the launch of “FOOD4KIDS” in Guelph. There are great programs in Guelph helping students in need of healthy foods during the week, but there’s a gap, especially for our most vulnerable young people when they’re not at school. So far there are 41 students identified to participate in this pilot program starting this week!
Their press release states:
“Food4Kids Waterloo Wellington, which has successfully operated in the Kitchener-Waterloo area since 2016, has now established a satellite operation in Guelph as well.
Food4Kids aims to close the weekend gap in feeding children whose families are struggling to make ends meet and to feed their families at home. From Monday to Friday, many children in our community benefit enormously from nourishment programs at school, like breakfast, snack or lunch, but too many of them often go hungry at weekends.
Food4Kids will provide needy children (as many as the program can afford) with a sensible pack of food to take home from school on a Friday, to tide them over the weekend till they get back to school on Monday to enjoy their food programs there again.
In a true community partnership, Food4Kids in Guelph is actively supported by all four Rotary Clubs of Guelph, the Guelph Community Health Centre’s SEED program, and the local school board.”
Please check their website out and if you or a group of people want to help get involved, please email: terriejarvis39@gmail.com
Here’s their website: https://www.food4kidsww.ca/gwd
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