January 29, 2012

The city has begun its work on our community’s new culture plan, which is looking at culture not through what buildings we have to house institutions but how we as a community express ourselves, in all of its different forms.

This weekend in Waterloo has been true to the diversity of expression and culture we have to celebrate.

Lion approaches our table, taking an offering for good luck, at the Chinese New Year Gala

On Saturday,I had the privilege of bringing greetings to a COCCC gala celebrating the Chinese New Year. The year of the dragon was ushered in with a traditional Lion’s dance and a visit from the God of Fortune, followed by an endless parade of talened expression through traditional music and dance. Thank you to Romy Yee for the invitation.

Reading 'If you give a Moose a Muffin' to families at Family Literacy Day

On Sunday morning, I was pleased to be the first reader for Family Literacy Day activities at Conestoga Mall as part of Project READ. Reading ‘If you give a Moose a Muffin’ to an assemblege of families with young children, it occured to me how much we have structured our formal correspondence through the written word requiring a particular form of literacy to engage with it, but we have still held fast to an oral storytelling component as part of these efforts of expression. Thank you to Anne Ramsay and Lorri Sauve for the invitation and the opportunity.

Ann Roberts speaking to a large crowd at Knox, across the street from the gallery she helped found

Finally, I was thrilled to hear from Ann Roberts, as she related her 50 year retrospective through her ceramic and other works, before touring her exhibit in the gallery she helped found, the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery. We have certainly blessed to have her works challenging us to rethink what we see before us displayed again with such dynamic prominence given her lasting local and international impact.

We are blessed through this grand diversity of expression that comprises culture in our community, and I am looking forward to hearing more from the community through our consultation process in the culture plan. We are certainly more blessed with culture than any of us individually know.

January 19, 2012

In a first for Waterloo, perhaps in Canada, the City will be holding an All-Access Town Hall meeting on the budget this Tuesday, January 24, 2012.

We will be taking questions via email before 7 pm and via Twitter, Facebook, and over the phone starting at 7.

For more information on how to participate, visit http://www.waterloo.ca/budget

I look forward to hearing from you.

December 29, 2011

Grand River Transit has announced that, due to demand along Columbia St., two new stops will be added for the 201 iXpress on January 2, 2012, outbound from Laurier: one at Columbia at Hazel and Columbia at Albert.

In conversations with regional transit planners, we discussed the volume on this route and the option of adding additional stops in this highly congested corridor, particularly near WCI.

I am very pleased that the region is taking this important step, and it is good news for transit riders. It will be especially helpful for residents of the east side of Ward 6 looking for less congestion and more connections to the University of Waterloo and the west side of Waterloo and Kitchener as well as many WCI students heading home throughout the day.

Happy New Year!

December 20, 2011

The City of Waterloo is offering a special workshop to assist landlords in applying for a residential rental housing license under the new by-law at fifteen different times/days. These sessions will help people understand what documentation is required and how to complete an application, but will not answer any question about a specific address.

These will be held at the Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex, Lions Room 200, at 101 Father David Bauer Drive at the following dates from 1 – 3 p.m., 4 – 6 p.m., and 7 – 9 p.m.:

Tuesday February 14, 2012, Wednesday February 15, 2012, Thursday, February 16, 2012, Tuesday, February 28, 2012, Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Space is limited to 30 participants per session. Registration is required to attend and will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

To register, email rental@waterloo.ca with at least two choices of dates and times.

If there are questions about individual addresses, that needs to be done at a separate time with by-law staff, who can also be contacted at rental@waterloo.ca.

GO arrives in Kitchener

December 18, 2011

(Written from onboard the GO)

The first GO Train left the station in Kitchener today with free service to and from Guelph. Excited passengers packed the platform and filled the seats.

Hopefully the enthusiasm people had today will carry forward and provide solid ridership, convincing GO to make the investment in track upgrades to make the train ride faster while adding reverse service for GTA commuters to Waterloo.

December 6, 2011

One year ago today, I was officially inaugurated as the Councillor for Ward 6. In my first address to Council, as a male engineering graduate I reflected on the tragic events of December 6, 1989 at Ecolé Polytechnique and the need to work hard to promote inclusion and diversity in our community. Tonight, I’m honoured to join the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region for the annual vigil in recognition of those tragic events.

Reflecting back on the last year, we have made a lot of progress together. Here is a brief sample of some of the work we’ve done over the past twelve months:

• On the first regular Council meeting, we began the Northdale Land Use and Community Improvement Plan study, which will help us address the long-standing issues in that neighbourhood. I ensured we took the status quo off the table at the start by adding a goal of reurbanizing Northdale, and I have supported the special project committee as their Council liaison. Council and the stakeholder committee unanimously endorsed the results of the first phase last week, which contained an inspiring vision and principles statement.
• We have and will keep tax increases low, including property tax rate increases of 0.78% in 2011 and proposed increases of 1.09%, 1.21%, and 1.44% over the next three years. This is after the storm water phase-in costs are transparently transferred out of the operating budget and into its own utility over four years. Council will receive a plan to provide credits for people managing their storm water early in the new year. I have and will continue to scrutinize the budget proposal to make sure we have found the right balance between serving community needs and the capacity of our residents to fund those services.
• Council adopted a Strategic Plan that emphasizes environmental sustainability and adds new pillars for public engagement, vibrant neighbourhoods, and getting around. I have asked staff to consider identifying environmental implications in staff reports and supporting community environmental projects in the cash grants process.
• Council approved a new low-density Rental Housing Licensing By-law to reduce impacts on neighbourhoods and support safer housing for renters, and a Transportation Master Plan that promotes real transportation choices. In my work supporting transportation choice, I’ve been successful in saving bus service for seniors on Regina Street, and I have argued for better trail connections in the completion of Allenby Court.
• I have engaged a number of neighbourhood associations on the issues that matter to them, including Beechwood II and Beechwood South on special area levies, Beechwood Park on parking near their community facilities, and Beechwood-Bridle Gate on rental housing.
• Recognizing the increasing mental health challenges facing our high school and university population at the key age of onset for many mental illnesses, I recently convened a Town and Gown summit to see what more we can do together. It was the first time the hospitals, community mental health providers, school boards, police, city staff, and universities had been around the same table on this issue, and we made good initial progress.

The next three years will continue to present challenges, and I will continue to look for your input and involvement as we work to make our City an even more vibrant and inclusive community that supports all of our residents. Feel free to contact me about the issues that matter to you by emailing me at jeff.henry@waterloo.ca

October 24, 2011

Yesterday, Mike Connolly passed away.

He served his community with passion and a dedicated focus to the issues he cared about, including nearly 11 years on local municipal councils.

I saw a lot of Mike over the past year – from the campaign trail last year and, regularly, on the Northdale Special Project Committee. The night before his eventually fatal brain hemorrhage, he was in full form at a meeting of the committee, pushing to further entrench the vision of the group he represented.

Our great community is always served better by those who passionately engage in trying to make it better, and so we are worse off today for no longer having the voice of Mike Connolly around the Waterloo table.

September 25, 2011

I was in Savannah, Georgia about one month ago as part of a short, but much needed vacation.

The original capital of the colony of Georgia and founded in 1733, this bustling capital and fourth largest U.S. port city is also host to one of the country’s largest historic districts. Encompassing nearly the entirety of the downtown district, the city has managed to preserve a grid pattern centered around 22 public squares. The historic district came about in large part out of a very public backlash around converting these historic squares and adjoining buildings into the standard and quite ugly 1960s parking garages.

As we get ever closer to approving the City of Waterloo’s Official Plan, which contains our first historic district and a significant update in how we view development from the 1990 version to which we are still subject, I couldn’t help but think a bit differently about how progress and the past can get along.

Columbia Square in Savannah, GA

I was particularly drawn to the public squares, which have served as the front and backyards to generations of Savannah residents given how tight the traditional buildings were before the idea of suburbia transformed what we look for in our homes. With just four trees, one on each corner, an entire square is now in shade, providing a gathering place both in and out of the hustle and bustle of city life.

As I look ahead to the October 5th community visioning session for Northdale, I wonder how we can reconcile the past and progress, and the need for public space, in a way that will contribute to a better Waterloo.

July 28, 2011

On August 15, Council will spend the morning in its first budget-related workshop towards the 2012-2014 City of Waterloo Operating and Capital budgets.

Earlier this summer, we adopted our 2011-2014 Strategic Plan. Under the six pillars of “Sustainability and Our Living Environment”, “Public Engagement”, “Healthy & Safe Community”, “Vibrant Neighbourhoods”, “Getting Around”, and “Economic Vitality” are a number of areas of focus. Critical to allocating spending and effort over the balance of Council’s term are prioritizing these areas of focus, which all of Council has been asked to do individually by August 5 before deliberating as a group around the Council table on August 15.

I appreciate all feedback that I continue to receive about the state of taxation, user fees, and where you believe the City could be more proactive, effective, or efficient in services.

At this point, I am interested in hearing from you what your top area of focus is in each of the six pillars of the Strategic Plan prior to August 5th.

In putting my priority listing together, I’ll be considering any feedback I receive now along with all of the general feedback I heard on the campaign trail, what I promised I’d focus on in my platform, and what I’ve heard at the numerous community conversations, small and large, formal and informal, since the election.

Feel free to leave a comment below, through Twitter or Facebook, or by email.

July 28, 2011

Accepting an invitation from Kevin Thomason, earlier this week I headed out with my spouse, Kate Daley, to the west side of Waterloo to get local perspective on the developments of late and over the last several years.

It was a perfect evening for a walk through the Schneider and McNally lands.

Walking through the Schneider lands with Kevin Thomason. Photo by Kate Daley

As a Waterlooian without a car, this is an area I don’t get to see very often, and even then only briefly from the road at 50 km/h. At that speed, one can hardly get the true sense of how easily water passes through the sandy surface and into the aquifer below. In the latest battle of words with Wilmot township over their unpublicized decision to tar and chip part of their Wilmot line adjacent to Waterloo, much has been said about Waterloo’s decision many councils ago to build just to the east.

It is important to remember that since that fateful decision, Waterloo has done everything it reasonably can, working with that developer and concerned citizens, to mitigate the impacts it will have on the infiltration of water into our aquifer. We have also done everything we can to keep traffic away from the Wilmot line – a road with a dangerous steep hill and blind turns. The road cannot be safer overall through paving, as paving feeds the impression that the city-adjacent road is of urban quality and much safer to drive at speed than it actually is. All of that is besides the negative impact additional salting will have on the quality of water infiltrating into the aquifer.

Council is waiting for a staff report to understand the situation better and take appropriate action, which we will need to do at our August meeting.

In all of this, of course, what is missing most is an account of vast natural and naturalizing areas on our doorstep, including the Waterloo-owned former McNally lands. We may not have huge mountains or large beaches, but we have fantastic vistas, great hiking and cross-country skiing, all within a short cycle of our city. The long term conversation – after the Wilmot line and the west-side subdivisions issues settle – is how to live in and next to nature in a way that sustains both it and us. What trail connections and maintenance should we make, what and how should we promote these gems, and how do we encourage the forest and meadow’s new neighbours to be as sensitive and nurturing to the area as many living on the edge of our great city already have been doing.

Thank you to Kevin Thomason for the invitation and, also, to Robert Fleming, Deb Swidrovich, and Dianne Ensing for the company and the conversation. Kate and I were pleased to have the opportunity.