Caron and Chew Promise Homecoming Action as Mayor. Questions Remain About What They Did as Councillors.

Leanne Caron has served on Guelph council since 2006 and Ken Yee Chew since 2022, yet both mayoral candidates are now calling for action on Homecoming disruptions and costs that have repeatedly surfaced during their council terms.

Their promises raise a question for voters: what did they do about the problem while already in office?

After Saturday’s University of Guelph Homecoming, Chew issued a September 27 news release describing what he saw near Chancellors Way as significantly worse than in many recent years. He said that, as mayor, he would bring the City, the University and Guelph Police together to pursue a formal service agreement covering advance planning, enforcement, neighbourhood impacts, cleanup and the sharing of extraordinary costs.

Chew’s proposal addresses a longstanding concern. His release, however, does not say whether he tried to advance such an agreement as a councillor. He has served through three Homecomings since his election in 2022.

Caron posted a video from Chancellors Way and said what happened during Homecoming was “not acceptable.” She called for elected leaders, the University, students, neighbourhoods, property managers, city staff and law enforcement to work together. She also wrote that Guelph taxpayers “cannot continue to be on the hook for the growing costs of these events.”

For Caron, this is familiar ground. Her Ward 5 includes the University, and Homecoming concerns were being discussed with residents years before this election. In 2018, Caron, then known as Leanne Piper, and fellow Ward 5 councillor Cathy Downer facilitated a meeting where residents and city staff discussed Homecoming, student housing and efforts to prevent another large gathering. That was action on the issue, and her record should not be portrayed as silence. But a meeting eight years ago also invites a harder question: what lasting result followed?

A resident put a similar question to Caron beneath her recent Facebook post. Caron replied that she had supported past discussions about a service agreement, as had Mayor Cam Guthrie, but said she was not in a position to make that decision as a Ward 5 councillor. She did not specify when those discussions took place, what steps she took to advance an agreement or what resulted from them. In the same reply, she said Chew was an invited member of the Town and Gown committee, where Homecoming response planning occurred last month.

The costs are not a surprise discovered this weekend. Chew’s release cites more than $125,000 in additional policing, fire and bylaw costs associated with the 2022 Homecoming weekend. It says policing in 2024 cost just over $73,000, with the University covering more than $18,000. In 2021, the Guelph Police Services Board approved a motion from Guthrie seeking reimbursement from the University and a future funding arrangement for Homecoming and Safe Semester costs.

Guthrie said in a recent video statement that he had previously billed the University, raised the issue with its former leadership and joined other mayors in seeking provincial action. He said those efforts did not produce a lasting solution. His latest suggestion is a per-student contribution to a reserve fund to help cover future costs.

Neither Caron nor Chew can solve the problem alone, and a mayor cannot simply promise that another large gathering will never happen. But both are campaigning on their ability to lead the next response. Caron should explain what became of the service agreement discussions she says she supported. Chew should explain what he did to advance the agreement he now proposes. After years of recurring concerns, residents deserve more than another call to bring people to the table.