Guelph/Eramosa community guide on the chopping block?
BRUCEDALE – To scrap or not to scrap, that was the question driving debate at the Oct. 20 meeting of Guelph/Eramosa council, as councillors worked to decide the fate of the township community guide.
First published in 2013, the guide includes township information, departmental updates, contact details, event listings, leisure programming information and other community focused content.
The guide is currently distributed by mail to all households, with copies also available at township facilities and online.
“You don’t want to be producing something that’s not necessarily being utilized,” said Mayor Chris White.
The staff report presented to council highlighted three issues with the community guide:
- rising costs of production and mailing;
- content redundancy; and
- a broader shift towards digital communications.
“There is a lot of repetition, like year after year after year,” said councillor Bruce Dickieson.
This year’s guide featured a survey asking residents to weigh in on the future of the guide, which received just 34 responses.
“It’s kind of unfortunate that the response was so low,” said councillor Corey Woods.
“If only 34 people responded, did only 34 people look at the guide?”
The guide costs the township $15,000 per year to produce.
“If 34 people responded but 11,000 didn’t, are 11,000 people indifferent?” said Woods.
“For me, I think it’s still highly valuable,” said councillor Mark Bouwmeester.
“I understand it’s a challenge to develop new content and all that, but think it’s worth the $15,000,”
Council voted unanimously to produce the guide as usual for 2026, but a decision will be made next year to determine the fate of the guide going forward.
