Get Involved Guelph asked individuals and community organizations to identify questions that candidates should answer so that voters can make good electoral choices in the 2026 Guelph municipal election.
Eighteen organizations are participating. Here are the 30 questions that they are being asked to address. Candidate responses will be posted the third week of September on this site.
1. Social, housing and income security (6 questions)
| Submitting Organization | Candidate Question | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Guelph Shelter and Food | 1. How will you ensure that our most vulnerable citizens have at least one meal at supper time indoors each day? | |
| The Guelph Community Health Centre | 2. Food insecurity is at a record high. What options would you champion so that the municipality addresses this hardship? | Local food insecurity impacts roughly 1 in 4 (25%) households. Root causes include housing costs, low income, and cost of living. |
| GW Tenant Union | 3. Would you support a Guelph bylaw requiring landlords to maintain rental units at no more than 26°C during periods of extreme heat, by providing adequate cooling where necessary, without passing the costs of installation, maintenance, or operation on to tenants? | Ontario already requires landlords to maintain rental units at a minimum temperature of 20°C because protection from extreme cold is a basic health and safety issue. Other Ontario municipalities, including Mississauga, have also established maximum indoor temperature standards. |
| Get Involved Guelph (GIG) Individual submission | 4. What is your plan for encampment residents that respects people’s humanity and need for safety? | |
| Guelph & Wellington Poverty Elimination Collaborative/Dublin Street United Church Social Justice Committee | 5. What actions would you champion to address the housing crisis and improve income security in our community? | Including opportunities to preserve housing and increase the supply of affordable, deeply affordable, and non-market housing. |
| Basic Income Guelph | 6. What is your understanding of the causes of homelessness and what actions should the municipality take to prevent it? | In 2023, Council passed a motion directing the mayor to petition federal and provincial allies for a National Guaranteed Livable Basic Income |
2. Environment, climate action, and infrastructure (11 questions)
| Submitting Organization | Candidate Question | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN) and eMERGE Guelph Sustainability | 7. How will you make sure the City stops shifting the responsibility onto residents, fixes its own pollution problems, and puts the necessary funding back into local climate action? | Our city is missing its climate targets by 33%, and emissions are continuing to go up. Despite this, the City of Guelph cut its local climate capital budget reserve by $16.2 million (42%) between 2022 and 2026. While regular residents have done the hard work to cut pollution in their own homes, the City’s own operations are moving in the wrong direction. Instead of stepping up, the City created a “Community Call to Action” that asks everyday citizens to do even more. |
| Guelph Climate Action Network (GCAN) | 8. How will you work to ensure that Guelph’s transportation, construction, commercial and industrial sectors meet greenhouse gas emission targets? | |
| GIG Individual submission | 9. What measures will you take to ensure that Guelph stays within its water capacity limits and does not end in a crisis like the City of Waterloo? | The City of Waterloo is currently facing a water crisis that is preventing development. Globe and Mail report |
| Pollination Guelph | 10. As a member of council, how would you show leadership to ensure that the city continues to grow and enhance green spaces that support healthy environments for native plant and animal species, such as pollinators, as well as for city residents? | |
| Guelph Urban Forest Friends | 11. What initiatives or additional measures would you propose and fund to protect and increase the canopy to achieve the goal of 40% coverage? | Guelph has a goal of 40% tree canopy. The 2023 One Canopy Tree Strategy acknowledges that achieving this goal will require a significant increase in the number and maturity of trees growing on private property. To support retention of the existing canopy, in March 2025, Council passed an updated Bylaw for the Protection of Trees on Private Property. |
| Guelph Community for Active Transportation (GCAT) | 12. What steps will you take to improve the safety, accessibility, and completeness of Guelph’s active transportation infrastructure for all ages and abilities? How will you ensure that the City remains on track to achieve the Transportation Master Plan’s active transportation mode share goal? (Mode share is the proportion of trips by different transportation modes such as walking, cycling, transit, and cars.) | The six values identified in the City’s Transportation Master Plan (TMP) are to have a safe, sustainable, equitable, complete, affordable, and supportive of land use (p. 53-54) transportation system. The TMP sets the goal to increase active transportation’s mode share from 11 percent to 25 percent of the total trips ending in Guelph (p. 61, 76). |
| Guelph Off-Road Bicycling Assoc (GORBA) | 13. Will you give staff the mandate and tools necessary to carry out the priorities outlined in the Guelph Trails Master Plan? | The Trails department has implemented only one project in the past seven years where the GTMP suggests 2-3 per year. Trails have always ranked high for Guelphites as illustrated in the 2021 Guelph Trail Master Plan, which states, “Our new vision for our trail network recognizes that trails are essential to the everyday life of Guelph residents for recreation, health and mobility”. |
| Guelph Cycling Club (GCC) | 14. Recently the Guelph Junction Railway and the city closed century-old trails between Victoria Rd and Stone Rd. The staff responsible for the GJR continually ignore council’s direction for a more responsive relationship with the public. Do you support changing the makeup of the GJR board of directors to a community-based board whose membership equally reflect GJR’s profit and community-good mandates and excludes members who are not Guelph residents? | Guelph sustains numerous vulnerable road user (pedestrian and cyclist) deaths and injuries every year. It appears little is being done to improve the situation. The GJR right-of-way provides a great opportunity for safe off-road connectivity. |
| Transit Action Alliance of Guelph (TAAG) | 15. What measures will you support to improve local transit service, especially frequency and reliability, and how should those improvements be funded? | |
| GIG individual submission | 16. What do you see as the highest priority for the Yorklands (former Ontario Reformatory property)? |
3. Economy, parks, and population growth (3 questions)
| Submitting Organization | Candidate Question | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Guelph Skateboarding Committee | 17. How will you ensure residents have equitable access to needed services and amenities, like parks, recreation and libraries, in light of the province’s mandated growth target for Guelph of 208,000 people? | The 2023 Parks and Recreation Master Plan (PRMP) serves as the primary evaluation tool for fixing indoor and outdoor recreation facility gaps. |
| GIG Individual submission | 18. What is your vision for the growth and development of Guelph’s business and industry? What specific strategies do you have in mind to attain them? |
4. General, culture, and public administration (5 questions)
| Submitting Organization | Candidate Question | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Praise the Ward | 19. How can the city implement the action items suggested by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission? | |
| GIG Individual submission | 20. How would you support the protection of our built and cultural heritage in Guelph? | The Ontario Heritage Act enables municipal councils to protect not only individual properties but also districts of cultural heritage value of interest as Heritage Conservation Districts. |
| Guelph Skateboarding Committee | 21. How will you empower the generations poised to inherit this city, as contributors? | |
| Friends of the Library | 22. What is your position on intellectual freedom in public libraries, and how would you support the Guelph Public Library in maintaining its independence in selecting materials, programming, and resources for the community? | Challenges to books, programs, displays, and other library materials frequently arise at the local level. Public libraries play a vital role in providing access to a broad range of ideas and perspectives. |
| Praise the Ward | 23. How will you support our vibrant arts community, which contributes so much to Guelph’s quality of life and economy? |
5. Government, budget, and taxation (8 questions)
| Submitting Organization | Candidate Question | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Guelph Skateboarding Committee | 24. How would you improve the relationship between the city and community organizations that volunteer to enhance the city through many different projects? | |
| GIG Individual submission | 25. What changes would you make to current tax allocations to get better value for our tax dollars? | Here are the current allocations of tax dollars in our city. |
| GIG Individual submission | 26. What mechanisms would you support to give city government better accessibility, transparency and accountability? | Mechanisms could include formal responses by council or committee reports, accessible databases of city policy and council decisions, and participatory budgeting. |
| GIG Individual submission | 27. What is your position on ranked ballots for municipal elections, and what role, if any, should Council play in advocating to the Province on how local elections are run? | |
| GIG Individual submission | 28. Do you support strong mayor powers? Explain why or why not. | |
| GIG Individual submission | 29. Will you sign/have you signed the elect respect pledge? | |
| GIG Individual submission | 30. What experiences, community involvement and civic participation do you bring to the office you wish to be elected to? |
Participating organizations
- Basic Income Guelph
- Dublin Street United Church Social Justice Committee
- Friends of the Library
- Get Involved Guelph
- Guelph & Wellington Poverty Elimination Collaborative
- Guelph Climate Action Network (GCAN)
- Guelph Community for Active Transportation (GCAT)
- The Guelph Community Health Centre
- Guelph Cycling Club (GCC)
- Guelph Off-Road Bicycling Assoc (GORBA)
- Guelph Shelter and Food
- Guelph Skateboarding Committee
- Guelph Urban Forest Friends
- GW Tenant Union
- Pollination Guelph
- Praise the Ward
- Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN) and eMERGE Guelph Sustainability
- Transit Action Alliance of Guelph (TAAG)