Advocacy Work

Future-Proofing Guelph: Priorities for the Next City Council

Sep 21, 2026

Future-Proofing Guelph

Building a city where people can live, work, invest and thrive

Priorities for the Next Guelph City Council — 2026 Municipal Election

Over the next several months, the Guelph Chamber of Commerce is leading Future-Proofing Guelph, an ongoing initiative of events, research and member engagement built around a single question: what does Guelph need to do now to remain a city where people can live, work, invest and thrive?

The present times call for that question. Escalating U.S. trade action is disrupting the export relationships that Guelph’s economic prosperity depends on.

Housing supply has fallen behind what the city’s economy and residents need.

The city faces consequential decisions about how it pays for growth, and it is managing mental health, addictions and housing pressures with limited support from senior governments. Many of the choices that will determine how Guelph comes through this period rest with the Council elected on October 26.

This is the initiative’s first contribution. It sets out the Chamber’s priorities for the next term of Council, anchored around housing, and the measures the Chamber will use to assess progress.

Housing as the Organizing Priority

The Chamber believes the next term of Council should treat housing as its organizing priority: the lens through which competing demands are weighed and trade-offs resolved. For a mid-sized city like Guelph, housing is the most reliable driver of a stronger tax base, a more competitive economy and a higher quality of life.

A great deal depends on it. Employers, from the hospital and the university to the manufacturing sector, compete for talent on whether workers can find somewhere to live. A thriving downtown, the retention of young people after graduation and the ability of older residents to age in place all rest on adequate and suitable housing supply.

Two conditions shape whether Council can deliver.

The first is a well-run city. Sound fiscal management, reliable service delivery and disciplined municipal operations are obligations any Council owes residents, and they are the foundation on which a housing agenda is built.

The second is Guelph’s position beyond its own boundaries: its economic competitiveness, and its relationship with the federal and provincial governments that hold most of the fiscal and legislative levers.

Many important ideas and goals will inevitably compete over the next four years. When they do, the Chamber encourages Council to ask which option does the most to get homes built.

Priority One: Build More Homes, Faster

Housing scarcity is the binding constraint on nearly every objective Guelph has set for itself. The City has done substantial planning work, with approvals since 2024 creating capacity for more than 22,000 potential units. Building permits have followed for 1,256 of them. To meet its own targets and secure its final federal housing funding, the City needs roughly 2,400 additional permits issued before January 2027, a deadline that falls within weeks of the new Council taking office. The task of converting approved capacity into construction should be the next Council’s central governing test.

The Chamber supports a broader range of housing options across the continuum and asks candidates to commit to:

Publishing housing targets by type, so residents can track progress toward the right mix of homes;

Working collaboratively with builders, service providers and the community at large to convert the existing approvals pipeline into construction against those targets; and

Continuing to improve the timeliness and predictability of the approvals process.

Priority Two: Make Guelph More Competitive

Growth should strengthen the city’s economic foundation. Guelph competes with municipalities across Ontario for employers, investment and talent, and that competition is intensifying. Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office identifies Guelph as one of the province’s most tariff-exposed communities, a reflection of its concentrated manufacturing and agri-food base.

Affordability is itself a competitiveness issue. Employers ultimately locate where their workers can afford to live, which ties this priority directly to the first. Municipal decisions on property taxes, fees and process timelines will also influence how well local businesses weather a difficult stretch.

The Chamber asks candidates to commit to:

Reviewing municipal costs, fees and timelines through a competitiveness lens; and

Making the value of major municipal spending visible and defensible to the residents and businesses who fund it.

Priority Three: An Effective Strategy to Advocate for a Fair Deal

Many of the levers that matter most to Guelph sit outside City Hall, including interest rates, immigration policy, the provincial health system and the municipal fiscal framework. Within its own authority, the City determines how it finances growth and how effectively and consistently it makes its case to Ottawa and Queen’s Park.

Both will be tested early. The next Council inherits pending decisions on development-charge relief and growth-financing tools. It will also need to press the federal and provincial governments, alongside partners such as the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and Ontario’s Big City Mayors, for growth infrastructure funding and for the mental health, addictions and supportive housing capacity Guelph is currently expected to manage without.

The Chamber asks candidates to commit to:

Transparent, evidence-based decisions on growth financing; and

A coordinated advocacy strategy built around Guelph’s priorities and sustained across the full four-year term.

The First-Year Test

Residents and businesses will assess the next Council in its first year on whether it has moved from setting priorities to delivering on them. Four markers will indicate progress:

Published housing-approval standards, with a working and rapid escalation process for stalled applications;
A transparent and affordable plan for servicing growth;
A public accounting of the financial implications of the upcoming development-charge decision; and
A formal advocacy agenda developed with community partners.

Next Steps

These priorities set the Chamber’s advocacy direction for the election and the term that follows. As the next phase of Future-Proofing Guelph, the Chamber will convene a series of member roundtables over the coming months, sponsored by Mettle Strategies. We will begin with housing and development, to work through specific solutions with the people positioned to champion and deliver them. The Chamber’s recommendations to candidates and to the incoming Council will become more detailed as that work proceeds.

The Chamber and its member network are committed to an ongoing, collaborative partnership with Guelph’s elected representatives and City staff to build the community residents deserve.

The Bottom Line

Guelph needs a Council focused on outcomes: more homes built, a more competitive local economy, a higher quality of life for the people who live and work here, and stronger partnerships with the governments that share responsibility for the city’s future. The Chamber asks candidates to bring discipline to these priorities and candour about the trade-offs they involve.

Thank you to our sponsor: Mettle Strategies