Bill Atwood

While a planning consultant says she can appreciate the apprehension of some Sebringville residents over a proposed development that would see 265 residential units built in their hamlet, she also points to Canada’s housing crisis as a rationale for the subdivision planned for Station Road. “What we’re seeing in the province when we’re developing newer areas, we want to ensure that it’s used efficiently. We only have so much land and resources. In Stratford and some of the developments in the surrounding Perth County, we’re trying to use land efficiently. It’s the first piece in terms of when we’re going to develop new areas that we use it well,” said Caroline Baker, whose Baker Planning Group is representing the landowner.

While a vocal champion of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), Stratford Coun. Geza Wordofa is pushing to eliminate the two city positions that oversee that programming. Citing the costs of these two employees, whose salaries and benefits added up to $251,860 in 2024, Wordofa said the price tag is simply more than it’s worth in a city like Stratford.

Although there have been calls to lower costs by Stratford city council members, the potential hike to the property tax levy has only gone up since the 2025 budget deliberations began. While there’s still a least one more finance and labour relations committee meeting to go, and the budget will have to be approved by council, what started out as 5.9 per cent increase is now siting at 6.53 per cent if nothing changes. This would add an average of $370 to the tax bill per home, based on the assessed 2016 value of $350,000.

While residents grapple with the reality of Stratford’s first homicide in nearly two decades, an area criminologist questions the options available to police to keep such neighbour disputes from escalating. Laura Huey, a Western University sociology professor who specializes in policing, mental health and countering violent extremism, said Stratford officers were put in tough spot by having to respond to nearly a dozen calls on Bradshaw Drive in recent months.

As the fallout from Monday night’s Stratford council meeting continues, one of the previously banned residents is calling the decision to review the city’s respectful workplace policy “smoke and mirrors,” suggesting it will likely be a long time before anything changes.

While he’s owned his home in Sebringville for close to five decades, Joe Totaro says he hasn’t seen a lot of changes in those years. The only big change he can remember, he said, was when a pig farm on Station Road was sold and the property was severed to make way for some single-family homes.

The city councillor who chose to end a committee meeting early on Tuesday expressed surprise that one of the residents currently banned for three months from Stratford’s municipal buildings is ignoring this decision.

Another city meeting was cancelled when one of the residents temporarily banned from public facilities attended the finance and labour relations subcommittee meeting Tuesday. Former NDP MP Mike Sullivan, who is awaiting an appeal after he was reprimanded until July 2 under the city’s Respectful Workplace Policy, showed up to Tuesday’s meeting shortly after it began wearing a baseball hat and sunglasses and sat in the back row in council chambers at city hall.

When a late-May public meeting in Stratford was abruptly cancelled, it also delayed discussion about a proposal that could see the old Krug factory site at Trinity and King streets turned into a sprawling multi-residential development.

The Ford government’s changes to the planning process have raised more than a few concerns, most notably among municipal planners, those in Wellesley and Woolwich included.

As the stalemate between Wellesley council and residents drags on, there are plenty of issues at play, say two local political scientists weighing in on the 14 per cent tax hike in this year’s budget.

Just a quarter of eligible voters cast a ballot at the regional level during last week’s municipal elections. At 25.3 per cent, voter turnout was down nearly six percentage points from 2018 when 31 per cent exercised their franchise. The downward trend is worrying, notes one expert. “We really collectively need to turn that around and get much greater participation across the province in a very important set of elections. So far, there doesn’t seem to be any answer to it, but I certainly am co

Plans to provide Waterloo Regional Police with an additional $12.3 million have some groups saying the mental-health funding would be better spent elsewhere.