WELLINGTON COUNTY – Local postal workers are expected back on the job after the Thanksgiving long weekend with a switch from a nation-wide walkout to local, rotating strikes.

The change in tactics was announced by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) following an Oct. 8 meeting with procurement minister Joel Lightbound aimed at reversing changes to Canada Post’s mandate announced last month.

The switch, CUPW president Jam Simpson said in a statement, “will start mail and parcels moving, while continuing our struggle for good collective agreements and a strong postal service.”

Delivery is expected to ramp up locally starting Tuesday morning, according to CUPW Local 546 president Remegius Cheeke.

But direction on which local branches will participate in rotating strikes, and when, will come from the national level with little notice, Cheeke cautioned.

If the Guelph-based union branch, which represents postal workers in Wellington County, isn’t told otherwise, it means mail can be dropped off, retail counters will reopen, and post office boxes will be accessible come Tuesday.

Canada Post said in a statement on Friday afternoon it “will welcome back employees” starting Saturday, but service guarantees are suspended.

“While postal services will begin to resume next week, uncertainty and instability in the postal service will continue with the union’s decision to conduct rotating strikes,” Canada Post stated.

The union last used rotational strikes in 2018, before members were legislated back to work.

Fergus post office union steward Connor Ehrlich finds it “frustrating” to shift to rotating strikes as the walkout was building momentum.

The point of the strike is to get attention and cause discomfort, Ehrlich said.

But postal workers are “worn out” and some are “living paycheque to paycheque,” he said.

• Small businesses frustrated by postal strikes turn to private carriers
• Postal workers strike after feds move to end home delivery

Ehrlich suggested that’s why CUPW is switching tactics.

“I think there’s a lot of fear and anxiety from all the members,” he said.

“We’re also pissed off that we still don’t have a contract, and having to face layoffs on top of that, everyone’s just worn out by that.”

CUPW’s nationwide membership took to picket lines the day after Lightbound’s Sept. 25 announcement amid a nearly two-year impasse between the union and Canada Post on new collective agreements for letter carriers.

The strike has lasted 15 days.

Lightbound announced the government was loosening restrictions on Canada Post’s operations to help save millions of dollars for the Crown corporation.

Among the most significant changes:

• lowering of delivery standards;
• prioritizing community mailboxes over door-to-door delivery; and
• lifting of a moratorium protecting some rural post offices from closure.

Canada Post CEO Doug Ettinger has welcomed the government’s direction.

The mail service has 45 days to provide the government with a plan to implement operational changes.

CUPW national president Jan Simpson issued a statement following the Lighthouse meeting, saying the government’s involvement during the labour dispute has “undermined free and fair collective bargaining.”

“The Union also reminded the minister that the only way for this dispute to come to an end is for Canada Post to offer postal workers ratifiable collective agreements,” Simpson said.

Ehrlich, the Fergus union steward, said local members agree change is needed, but shuttering rural post offices should be off the table.

There are 12 rural post offices in the county protected by moratorium, including the Fergus location, which was also protected by past collective agreements.

“Some members agree that door-to-door delivery can be phased out, same as daily mail delivery,” Ehrlich said.

“I think that is more of a middle ground.”

But the lingering, unanswered question, Ehrlich added, is what Canadians see for the future of the nation’s mail service.

“We’ve been trying to stand up for them, but it sometimes feels like a lost cause, that nobody cares.”

Canada Post’s latest Oct. 3 submission to the union spans 500 pages, and hasn’t yet been formally responded to by the union.

In its Oct. 10 statement, Canada Post urged the union back to the bargaining table.

“The company is waiting to hear back from the union on its latest offers,” the statement said.

“Only new collective agreements will provide the certainty Canadians require to confidently use the postal system.”

But the union says little has improved from offers rejected by 69 per cent of its membership in August, following a forced vote by federal jobs minister Patty Hajdu.

The latest offers keeps a 13.6 per cent compounded wage increase across four years, but removes a signing bonus and proposes a certain workforce reduction through attrition and departure incentives.

Canada Post has blamed striking workers for worsening its “critical financial situation” and said its latest offers reflect the company’s “financial realities.”

But in an Oct. 3 statement, Simpson said Canada Post “seems hell-bent on making workers pay for the financial crisis it created and trying to turn the public against the very workers who keep this service alive.”

In an Oct. 9 statement, she added the union “will continue our fight for strong public services, good jobs and a sustainable public post office for all Canadians.”

A followup meeting with Lightbound is planned next week, according to the union.

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GUELPH – Hospice Wellington has set its sights on a fundraising goal of $45,000 to celebrate its 45th anniversary.

The charitable organization was established in 1980 to provide the Wellington-Guelph area with emotional support, care and practical assistance to community members with life-threatening illnesses. 

“A few ladies sat around a table 45 years ago and … they decided that people really needed help in the community with end-of-life care,” executive director Pat Stuart told the Advertiser.

The organization’s 10-bed residence facility, located at 795 Scottsdale Drive in Guelph, came 30 years later in 2010. 

Hospice Wellington executive director Pat Stuart. Submitted photo

“It’s 45 years for the community and 15 years for our hospice,” she added.

“We’re very proud and very thankful to our community because without our community we wouldn’t be here.”

Stuart has been a hospice employee for 13 years and a nurse for 47.

“It’s such an honour to do this kind of work,” she said.

“We help people live their best life here right to the end. It’s all about comfort, care and compassion.”

The hospice is funded 45 per cent by the government, meaning “everything else we have to work for,” Stuart said.

The 45 Days of Giving fundraiser began on Sept. 17 and runs till Oct. 31.

“We have someone that is matching $10,000,” she said.

“You can give whatever amount you want and honestly we appreciate anything at all.”

As of Oct. 8, just over 50% of the goal ($23,500) had been raised.

“We make sure every cent is spent properly,” Stuart said.

Most of the funds go towards operational costs, with a large portion funding hospice programs such as:

• grief and bereavement group;
• music therapy;
• art therapy;
• public workshops; and
• palliative support.

Stuart noted the fundraiser isn’t just a celebration of the past, but a way to plant the seed for 45 more years.

“It’s about our future and this need for compassionate care and support,” she said.

“It doesn’t fade with time, it only grows.”

To donate visit hospicewellington.org.

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WELLINGTON COUNTY – Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) crews are completing the annual fall removal of safety booms and buoys over the coming days. 

The booms and buoys are installed each spring upstream of dams to alert paddlers, anglers and boaters to stay away from the dams. 

The removal of these buoys and booms is set to be completed by Oct. 31, depending on weather conditions. 

GRCA officials say removal is necessary as the buoys and booms would be damaged or displaced if left during the winter months during ice and high-water flow events.

The GRCA follows Transport Canada regulatory approvals which indicate safety booms or buoys should be in place during the navigation season (May to October).

“Dams can pose serious hazards that can result in injuries or even fatalities if warning signs are ignored,” officials stated. “Water surges through gates and valves or over the dams, creating strong undertows and currents around the structures, which can be extremely dangerous.”

The GRCA urges people to heed all warning signs and stay away from the dams for their own safety.

In addition to the installation of buoys and booms and associated signage, the GRCA attends community events to promote dam safety, and educates children about the hazards associated with dam structures through its Outdoor Environmental Education Program and at children’s water festivals, officials say. 

For more information about safety around dams, visit the GRCA website.

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WELLINGTON COUNTY – Small business owners across Wellington County say the damage is done despite the Canadian Union of Postal Workers announcing a partial return to work on Oct. 11, following a walkout lasting over two weeks.

Scented Market owner Kristy Miller said the Guelph-based business, with a Fergus location, “used to use Canada Post 100 per cent, all the time.”

Last year’s four-week strike “definitely affected our sales,” Miller said.

The company now uses six private carriers to move roughly 500 orders each week of candles and body care and home décor products to customers.

During peak holiday season, the number of outgoing parcels ranges between 1,500 and 2,000.

“Canada Post used to show up here every day and pick up hundreds of parcels,” Miller said.

Now, Miller ensures customers “over and over again that we don’t use Canada Post.”

Roughly 53,000 unionized Canada Post workers walked off the job on Sept. 25 – their second strike in less than a year – in response to the federal government’s changes to the crown corporation, the most significant being an end to daily home delivery.

CUPW has said changes would result in job losses and potential post office closures.

The union and employer have been embattled in an almost two-year-long impasse to negotiate a contract.

Following an Oct. 8 meeting between the union and federal procurement minister Joël Lightbound, CUPW announced its nation-wide strike would be replaced with rotating strikes starting Oct. 11.

Delivery will slowly resume, but several small business owners have moved on from the national postal service after twice being left in the lurch.

• Postal workers strike after feds move to end home delivery

Mary Lloyd, owner of Sensational You, a women’s undergarment store in Fergus, said the latest strike has created “another burden” for small businesses.

“I have lost patience and I don’t have a lot of empathy for the workers right now because it’s affecting business,” she said.

Lloyd, also a Wellington County councillor, said she returned to Canada Post after the first strike – but not this time around.

She’s now mailing two to four orders per week with Freightcom service ClickShip, which brings multiple carrier shipping options into one platform.

“Canada Post has had so many opportunities to modernize … and they never modernized,” Lloyd said.

With shipping costs already built into business plans, owners are forced to rethink pricing, Centre Wellington Chamber of Commerce CEO Brock Aldersley said.

“It adds to the already high costs of doing business in Ontario and Canada,” Aldersley noted.

“Shop and spend your money where you live; it’s what builds your community.”

Chris and Stephanie Bailey, owners of Brighten Up Toys and Games, with locations in Erin and Fergus, switched from Canada Post after the first strike.

“We just felt it wasn’t going to be reliable, so we just never went back,” Bailey said, adding, “there are so many other options.”

The Baileys are also using a Freightcom service, often choosing private companies like Purolator (majority owned by Canada Post) and Canpar.

“It’s going to hit that point where the entire thing is going to be privatized,” Bailey said.

Freightcom marketing VP Michael Rochon said the company, and its e-commerce platform ClickShip, are the “Expedia of shipping,” connecting businesses with more than 50 carriers.

“We’ve had a pretty massive influx of new customers as result of the Canada Post strike,” Rochon said.

Canada Post loses more of its customer base with every strike, Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) legislative affairs VP Ryan Mallough said.

“It’s a big ask to have a small business owner do a ton of research into every available option,” Mallough said.

That’s where companies like Freightcom, a CFIB partner, fill the void.

“There are a lot of options in the ecosystem, but Canada Post should still be one,” Mallough said.

He suggested the mail service should cover “areas that just don’t make economic sense for those other companies to service.”

Hides in Hand owner Teresa Paul, who designs and creates leather goods in Erin, now relies on private carriers to deliver 20 to 30 orders per week.

“As much as I want to support Canada Post, I can’t do this when I run a business,” she said.

“They don’t give you any notice and boom, they’re shut down again.”

Erin residents Brent and Annette Kilner, owners of Mississauga-based The Playing Card Factory, manufacture custom-made card decks.

The Kilners have relied on Canada Post to ship roughly 12 weekly orders of smaller deck quantities via letter mail.

The cost is usually better than private carriers, Brent said, which have rural delivery restrictions and don’t do post office boxes.

“People do complain they’re being forced to use a more expensive service now,” he said.

The price on some smaller product quantities has been adjusted to just above cost, with the company absorbing the hit.

Tia Biro, who co-owns TNT Fishing Lures with Ty Henry, said her trust in the postal service is broken.

The couple manufactures and distributes lures across the globe from Harriston.

“It affects us greatly because Canada Post was our most inexpensive method,” Biro said.

A retailer in Chile orders around 800 to 2,000 lures this time of year, but shipping costs with private carriers are double or triple that of Canada Post’s.

Biro and Henry dealt with the same problem during last year’s strike.

Ultimately the Chilean retailer ate the cost, but Biro and Henry have covered some of the difference out-of-pocket to make it economical to ship North American and local orders.

Biro has made a trip across the border once already to get packages out of Canada and into the U.S. postal system, but she said that’s unsustainable.

With postal disruptions and prohibitively expensive shipping costs with carriers like DHL or Purolator, customers aren’t placing orders.

Carriers also won’t deliver to the more remote places that Canada Post is mandated to serve

Orders have fallen to, at most, 20 in a week, from an average of 30 to 60 per week.

“We’ve taken quite a big hit,” Biro said.

She noted when postal workers strike, it puts small businesses out. And yet she understands employees needing full-time work that pays a living wage.

“I hope that our government understand this,” she said. “We have to have a more reliable postal service.”

Canada Post did not immediately reply to an Advertiser request for comment.

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If you asked Trevor Clare six years ago if he could see himself painting nostalgic locations for a living, he probably would have said that’s a “wild” idea.

Back then, Clare didn’t see art as a serious hobby, let alone a full-time career. If anything, he saw painting as a way to distract himself from his mental battles.

But what Clare didn’t realize was that his digital recreations of iconic neon signs, beloved mom-and-pop shops, and other nostalgic landmarks in Kitchener and Waterloo would do more than just help him deal with his mental health struggles. It drew in a community who appreciated how his expertise on colour theory, values, and balance turned digital art into something that brought back warm, fuzzy memories they so cherished.

Clare transformed what originally was just a personal distraction into something emotionally powerful and impactful for everyone around him.

Clare is a multimedia artist from Kitchener. He painted most of his life using traditional media focusing on landscapes and architecture. He also dabbled in graphic design for about 15 years. The Kitchener artist only started digitally painting nostalgic locations near his house on Guelph Street, just off Lancaster Street to keep his mind busy six years ago, when he was left unemployed and mentally struggling.

He wanted to get away from the “endless ruminations and unhealthy coping patterns.”

“I’m a very nostalgic person by heart,” he said. “I started capturing these [nostalgic] places because I felt like they really kind of spoke to me somehow.”

“I realized just how powerful that emotion was.”

This love for emotion and nostalgia is what made Clare gravitate towards painting places that were familiar to him, especially ones that had sentimental value. It’s this same ability – encapsulating emotion in art – that drew people to his work.

“Paintings must give a sense of comfort for many people, perhaps tinged with sadness for times and memories of the past,” Joan Coutu said of Clare’s artwork.

Coutu is a fine arts professor at the University of Waterloo. She teaches visual culture and art history courses. She classifies Clare’s art as “iconic local heritage paintings influenced by American Realism.”

The style is not new. There’s a long tradition to what Clare is doing. Coutu said that painting nostalgic scenes, especially rural ones, was “extremely popular in Europe and North America in the 19th century.”

American painter and illustrator Edward Hopper is a good example of an artist who focuses on the emotions and anxieties of everyday life in his art. According to the National Gallery of Art, Hopper had a “recognizable style in which ordinary places [such as] motels, gas stations, restaurants, while realistically rendered, are pervaded with a sense of estrangement or loneliness.”

Hopper is one of Clare’s inspirations for his work.

“I think that was important to [Hopper]… the nostalgia and the emotional part of architecture and place,” he said.

It’s what Clare captures in his creations. His painting of the Schneiders sign on Highway 401, he says, is an example of how art can remind people about memories and emotions they might have forgotten.

“It’s kind of like a landmark where we’re like, okay, we know we’re 20 minutes from home, welcome back,” he said. “The warmth of the neon… [it] really is an emotional thing for people.”

Clare transitioned to painting as a full-time job last November 2024. He sees the lucrative potential in his art. At the same time, he knows he’s running a business out of a passion; balance is paramount.

He doesn’t always paint a location just because people want him to do it.

“Would I be able to convey it in a way that would be powerful in an artistic capacity, not just the story itself?”

It’s a question he often asks himself – or rather one of many. There are many things about business that Clare doesn’t understand, especially as someone who doesn’t have an “entrepreneurial spirit.”

But again, he’s a dreamer.

“I would love to do a Canadian version of this where it’s cities across Canada or potentially worldwide,” he said with enthusiasm.

Through it all, Clare wants to make sure he doesn’t lose sight of his original goal. That is, to paint these places that are so near and dear to people’s hearts with sincerity, and not with money in his mind.

“At the end of the day, it is about community and connecting with everybody,” he said.

“That is still most important to me.”

DRAYTON – Grade 4 and 5 students in Mount Forest are celebrating this week as the Wellington Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) has chosen the name they suggested for a new elementary school in Drayton. 

Saint Martin of Tours was the name proposed by a Grade 3/4 class at St. Mary Catholic School in Mount Forest last school year. 

It is also the name of the Roman Catholic Church in Drayton. 

Trustees voted unanimously for the name during an Oct. 6 board meeting. 

The school is expected to open in 2026, with space for 222 students and 64 day care children from Mapleton and Minto. 

• Catholic board gets closer to naming Drayton school
• Mapleton approves zoning bylaw changes for Drayton school, severed farm
• Catholic board applies for zoning change for new school
• Council approves $450,000 road for new school
• Province approves $17 million in funding for new Drayton school, child care centre
• Catholic school board requests expansion in Drayton, Fergus, Rockwood

According to a proposal from the students, “St. Martin was a kind, wise and humble man. 

“He is most famous for cutting his cloak in half and giving half to a beggar,” the students stated in a report about the school’s name. 

“He dedicated his life to helping the poor and standing for what is right … He showed great love for others, even strangers.” 

The board has been working on determining a name for the new school since April, when a naming committee had its first meeting. 

The committee included a trustee, a parish priest, two senior administrators, principals from nearby schools, student senators, a parent and a community member. 

In May, the committee met to review 26 names suggested by the community and used a scoring matrix to narrow it down to the top-four options.

These four options were Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, Saint Phillip Neri, Saint Teresa of Calcutta and Saint Martin of Tours. 

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha was proposed by a WCDSB employee who said “given the continued journey of Truth and Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples here in Canada, I feel naming the school after the first Native American Saint would be a fitting and important gesture.” 

Saint Phillip Neri was proposed by a parent whose children will attend the Drayton school, who said Neri was the patron saint of joy and laughter, and Drayton is known for Drayton Entertainment, which brings “a lot of joy to the community.” 

Saint Teresa of Calcutta was proposed by a WCDSB employee because Saint Teresa “dedicated her life to help the sick, the hungry, the homeless and those that were unloved and uncared for.”  

In September, director of education Mike Glazier met with Bishop of the Diocese of Hamilton Douglas Crosby, who “thought that all the names were excellent,” as did the board’s executive council, the report states. 

Superintendent Betty Farrell said all four names “would be a great inspiration to students and future staff there.

“We had a lot of discussion and it really was a difficult choice.” 

She said the biggest factor in selecting Saint Martin for the school’s name was student input.

Farrell also noted historical significance of the name, calling it a “nod to the past people of the Drayton area because they are the ones that named their church. 

“We thought that if they had the money at the time to build a school, likely they would have named it Saint Martin of Tours.”

Prior to the decision, Glazier said a group of St. Mary students approached him during a cross country meet to ask if the board would pick their selection for the name. 

When he told them their proposal had made the top four, Glazier said “they were over the moon.

“They told me stories about all the work they had put into it and what they learned about Saint Martin of Tours,” including him giving his cloak to someone in need.

Trustee Vikki Dupuis said, “Saint Martin is credited as the first conscientious objector in all of history,” in addition to being the patron saint of the poor, soldiers, tailers and wine makers.  

“So that pretty much covers it,” she said with a laugh from the other trustees. 

The post New Drayton school named Saint Martin of Tours appeared first on Wellington Advertiser.

ELORA – Centre Wellington Mayor Shawn Watters held a town hall meeting in Elora on Oct. 6 so residents could voice their concerns – and boy, did he get an earful.

About 300 people filled the hall at the Jefferson Elora Community Centre, which is likely the biggest number to attend any of the 15 town halls the mayor has held since taking office.

Tourism was the hot topic but it spilled into other related topics such as parking, short-term rental policies, affordable housing and taxes.

Watters had back-up from CAO Dan Wilson, who weighed in at Watters’ request.

“It’s not an easy time here,” Watters said at the opening of the meeting, noting the province has mandated that Centre Wellington double in size.

“We’re also dealing with tourism – we get 750,000 people a year, just in Elora. There is a lot going on in this community. It’s hard to balance these things.”

Watters walked through the crowd with a microphone to take questions, which jumped from topic to topic through the two-hour session. 

To questions on housing, Watters said despite approving numerous housing proposals in the township, “no building is going on.”

That’s on the developers, he said, who are cautious to build in this uncertain economy.

He said in his mind, affordable housing means homes in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, and that might be for a 700-square-foot house. Wilson clarified that according to the province, affordable housing is $430,000.

Watters said the township’s strategy is to contain urban sprawl and preserve farmland.

“We’re pushing for intensification. But more supply means more opportunity,” he said.

The township is working on a bylaw to regulate short-term accommodations, which is expected to come to council in January or February, Wilson said. 

Many residents noted that long-term rentals are drying up in favour of Airbnbs, leaving the “working poor” with no place to live.

Watters said staff and council worked for a year and a half to determine the new urban boundary and where all the growth will be, but the province hasn’t yet approved the plan.

In the meantime, some developers want the boundary to stretch to include their land and are heading to the Ontario Land Tribunal to make their case.

One woman, noting the new provincial policy statement on housing has been released, asked, “When will we see a cap on growth in Centre Wellington?”

“The provincial policy statement doesn’t cap growth,” Wilson replied. “It encourages it.”

He noted the new township boundary also establishes employment lands, which are also critical for growth.

Some residents wanted to complain about what they called “the elephant in the room” – Kat Florence Canada, the company that has bought up several historic buildings in downtown Elora and restored them as hotels or venues to accommodate tourists. 

The company has also run promotional campaigns to attract more tourists to town.

Watters shut down that line of questioning, saying it’s “not cool” to discuss particular people in the setting.

“If we can’t talk about the elephant in the room, there’s no point being in this room,” one man said.

Fergus resident John Mifsud talked about “the appearance of favouritism” when it comes to Kat Florence, adding, “It doesn’t help that the narrative gets policed.”

Mike Nagy retorted, “the real threat to the community is Doug Ford, Bill 5 and MZOs (ministerial zoning orders). But the biggest threat is Bill 5.”

Nagy said Ford thinks the solution to the housing crisis is single family homes.

“He’s killing all attainable housing. Ask our mayor and council to push harder,” Nagy said.

Residents seemed happier to hear the township is working on two initiatives that would see tourism pay for tourism: paid parking and a municipal accommodation tax (MAT).

Residents who register their licence plate numbers with the township will be able to park for free and the MAT tax will be paid by tourists who stay in local hotels or Airbnbs.

Those funds will be used to benefit the community, Watters said.

To a question about public transit, Wilson said the township received a grant from the province and has commenced a feasibility study to determine how to go about it.

The thinking is that a local transit service would connect with the county’s RideWell program and with services in Guelph and Waterloo.

The scope of questions and comments was wide-ranging. Some complained their driveways were blocked by tourists. Some asked for a senior’s centre in Elora.

Many also spoke about the qualities that make Elora so special – the people, the causes the community rallies behind, the natural beauty.

“There’s something very special about Elora. Hearts matter more than appearances,” one woman said.

“I moved here because it’s pretty and I love it,” said another woman.

“We have to solve the problems. We can’t just argue anymore.”

The post Elora residents speak out against tourism, parking, lack of housing at town hall appeared first on Wellington Advertiser.

Wellesley Mayor Joe Nowak accused Premier Doug Ford of “throwing the baby out with the bath water” over the province’s plan to ban all speed cameras.

He said the proposed legislation could prove a costly mistake as he joined other municipal leaders in calling for the province to at least make school zones an exception to the prohibition.

“I think it’s less than a year since we’ve had them deployed, and you have to wonder whether some adjustments could have been made,” Nowak told The Observer.

Since Canada Post workers went on strike last month, local municipalities have resorted to hand-delivered mail.

Thousands of postal workers walked off the job on September 25, following the federal government’s announcement of significant changes at Canada Post.

As a result, letter mail and packages are not being processed or delivered, which has affected the Township of Wellesley’s ability to mail out any statutory notices, with the final 2025 tax bills due on October 31.

Wallenstein’s Kassie Ciaschini claimed the title at the finals of the Wellesley Idol competition, held in conjunction with the Apple Butter and Cheese Festival.

Linwood’s Eleanor Maggs was second, with Baden’s Kristine King in third place.

Musician Allister Bradley, one of the judges, said the talent on display made it difficult to pick a winner.

Kitchener Conestoga MP Tim Louis said boosting Canadian labour mobility is his top priority in helping the country to weather U.S. economic attacks as he spoke of his new government role amid Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to Washington this week.

Louis, who has held a trade ministry job since June, believes eliminating job barriers, such as different provincial occupational certifications, would benefit his own constituents as much as people in other parts of the nation.

It would also boost economic growth, he told The Observer.

The Region of Waterloo is wasting facilities that it could be making money from, with some buildings sitting almost empty while staff work from home, its newest councillor says.

Joe Gowing told The Observer that he is now pushing the municipality to carry out a strategic plan to assess property usage – and possibly consider selling some – because he is determined to avoid further inflation-busting property tax increases.

“What sparked it is that I went on a tour of 99 Regina Street, and it’s practically empty,” said the investment expert who was selected as a Kitchener representative following the April death of Coun. Kari Williams from cancer.

The clock strikes egg with a new contest to help promote egg farmers across the province in line with World Egg Day.

Egg Farmers of Ontario (EFO) is putting on its third annual It’s Egg O’clock Somewhere contest, which ends for entries tomorrow (Friday).

October 10 is World Egg Day, and that is a chance to promote egg farms around the country, said EFO’s Donna Large.

“We are thrilled to once again bring back the Egg O’Clock contest,” said Large. “Not only does it help us celebrate World Egg Day, it also serves as a reminder that eggs are a fresh, local and healthy option at any time of day.”

Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario (ARIO) is getting a $41-million boost, the province announced this week.

That includes $10.5 million for the new Ontario Poultry Research Centre at the Elora Research Station, where Agriculture Minister Trevor Jones announced the new funding Tuesday morning.

“We are grateful to the Ontario government for its increased investment in the Ontario Poultry Research and Innovation Centre,” said Murray Opsteen, board chair of the Chicken Farmers of Ontario.

A new partnership aims to connect agronomic advisors across the province, enhancing their effectiveness and supporting the various programs in the field.

The Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA) and the Ontario Crop Advisor Association (CCA) have entered into a partnership with the aim of making those with the designation more effective.

A survey conducted by the CCA found that 85 percent agreed or strongly agreed that agronomists with a CCA designation are a trusted source of guidance regarding agronomic issues on the farm.