Bill Atwood

Stratford residents got another chance to hear from the five candidates vying to be the Festival City’s next mayor during Tuesday’s second mayoral debate of the election cycle.

More than two years after the city banned three residents from all city-owned buildings and barred them from communicating with staff for three months, Ontario’s ombudsman criticized the city’s actions that led to the ban, along with the respectful workplace policy the city used to justify its decision.

While one expert on municipal and provincial governances is generally supportive of Stratford’s legal challenge against the Ontario government’s “strong mayor” powers, he is still feeling “uneasy” about the city’s planned approach.

As discussions continue over the future of the downtown Grand Trunk site, a member of its ad hoc committee says the group could have been more effective in shaping a vision for the future community hub with a less rigid meeting structure.

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.

More than two weeks after neighbours approached Perth East council with their concerns about the Benmet Metal & Steel Recycling facility, it remains unclear just who is actually responsible for regulating the noise coming from the site.

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.