Ontarians:  Help Guelph residents get the provincial government to conduct an in-depth audit of the City of Guelph’s spending!

GrassRoots Guelph, a nonprofit, non-partisan citizens’ group, submitted a petition to Queens’ Park (the Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing) on Tuesday, October 1, 2013.  This petition requests that the province conduct a “forensic audit” of the City of Guelph’s finances and operations.  In other words, the petition is asking that the Ministry drill down into City of Guelph’s financial statements for the past few years to determine where and how City Hall has spent tax revenues, and therefore why our municipal debt and property taxes keep escalating.   

The petition is 4 pages’ long, provides detailed examples of mismanagement of finances and capital projects by city administration, and was signed by more than 160 Guelph property taxpayers. It is available online at www.grassrootsguelph.com. 

Guelph’s Mayor, Karen Farbridge, has dismissed the concerns laid out in the petition.  In an October 15, 2013 article in the Guelph Mercury, she claimed that annual budgets are balanced or in surplus (Vik Kirsch, “Guelph Group Seeks Audit of City Hall Management”).  This contradicts Guelph’s financial statements which indicate that the City’s expenditures have exceeded budget by almost $25 million dollars over the past four years.   

The only response to date from the Ontario Government is a letter from the London office of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) acknowledging receipt of the petition.  In other words, Queen’s Park has dealt with the petition by farming it out to a regional office.

The action taken by GrassRoots Guelph to petition MMAH opens the door for other Ontario municipalities whose citizens have genuine concerns about the way their municipality is being managed.  It is believed that this is the first time a section of the Municipal Affairs Act 1990 allowing ratepayers to petition the Ministry has been used to make a request to Queen’s Park.

Please support Guelph residents by signing a petition that urges the Ontario Government to conduct an in-depth audit of Guelph’s spending!  The petition is found here.

By Paulette Padanyi