City Hall
We hope to use this page to provide an ongoing perspective on city governance. We acknowledge that we are not unbiased, but we believe our contribution will be valuable. We’re building a list of specific concerns at the bottom of this page.
If you have news, ideas for the page, suggestions, criticisms, or other comments, please contact us through the form at the bottom of this page.
If you have thoughts you would like to share with an individual councillor, use this link.
To send an email to all councillors, go here.
If you’d like to join the discussion, use the comments box in the posts below.
RECENT POSTS
City Council refuses to hear banned resident
Barb Shaugnessy is not a member of Get Concerned Stratford, but many people seem to think she is. We apologize to her if being associated with our organization has caused her any problems at City Hall. Barb made a citizen deputation in February against turning the...
Krug factory project
Here's some potentially good news. BMI, the developer for the Krug Factory, may be listening to the concerns of residents. A new page has appeared on their website that seems to respond to many of the criticisms that have been voiced by the residents of the Krug...
What Mike said
During the break at the Council meeting of February 26, a member of the public took issue with the truthfulness of one of the presenters. Although the person I mention was not one of the delegation presenters, he was opposed to the loss of rental housing for...
This is what happened at Tuesday’s explosive meeting
Stratford Council’s meeting Tuesday night was abruptly cancelled by Mayor Ritsma, causing anger and frustration for the approximately 100 people in attendance. The public meeting was scheduled to consider the controversial application of Juliana Development, Inc. for...
This would be funny, if you didn’t care about democracy
Sharon Collingwood: The latest on the City ban of residents You probably know a lot of the story by now… our own Mike Sullivan has been banned from all City buildings in Stratford, and he can only communicate with City employees through the City’s lawyer in London....
All God’s children got a place in the choir
Sharon Collingwood: We need all voices in a democratic society I met Mike Sullivan in the Fall of 2020. I liked him right away; he’s a plain-spoken man, with a wry sense of humour, and has lots of interesting stories of his time as a member of Parliament in York...
The Krug project is HUGE.
On the positive side, this is a project that takes into account the cultural history of the Krug factory (Trinity Street). They have given serious consideration to how the project will conform to the architecture of Stratford. The developer intends to retrofit the...
Citizens of Stratford Unlawfully Barred from City Council
Stratford, ON—‘Get Concerned Stratford’, the community group behind the fight against the secret Xinyi glass factory, has learned that the City of Stratford has unlawfully banned a number of residents from attending City Hall, going to any city building, like...
The Closed Meetings Investigations final report is here
Final tallies - 141 closed meetings between Sept 2018 and May 2023, 57 months. Almost 2.5 per month. At the 126 meetings with votes, there were 408 votes. Of those, 276 (67.6%) were properly conducted, 132 (32.4%) were illegal. Council acted illegally nearly one...
Xinyi planner disciplined
On Friday we attended the Ontario Professional Planners Insitute disciplinary hearing for Chris Pidgeon, planner for the City of Stratford's Xinyi project in 2018-21. The hearing was a result of Get Concerned Stratford's complaint of 2021; in an agreed...