[0:24] morning everyone I'd like to begin by acknowledging we're

[0:30] hit that

[0:37] g so I'd like to be start by recognizing that cbrd is on the unseated territories

[0:42] of the katson malahat subaca Halal penel Semus laxen poachin didat and patat

[0:51] Nations whose people have walked here gently for thousands of years and with

[0:55] the Corum being present I'd like to call this meeting to

[0:57] order our first item of business is approval of the agenda would someone

[1:02] like to move that we approve the agenda as presented director

[1:10] Morrison apologies everyone I'm still trying to get the hang of this

[1:15] thing director Morrison uh thank you chair I just want to raise for the

[1:20] committee's uh um understanding that uh the item R1 on this agenda is uh being

[1:27] considered by this committee but as the chair of the Electoral area Services

[1:31] committee it's uh uh with great Chagrin that I will uh uh support the adoption

[1:37] of the agenda but this item is a very electoral area specific agenda item and

[1:43] it disturbs me that it is uh uh uh on this agenda it should uh I I want to

[1:50] ensure that we do good process and good procedure and uh it's unfortunate that

[1:54] the Electoral area directors aren't considering this report first

[2:00] all right will someone like to move that we adopt the agenda move by uh director

[2:04] Seagal do have a seconder second by director martman all in favor and

[2:10] opposed n opposed motion carries we'll now move on to the

[2:13] men director Morrison oos we'll now move on to the minutes and

[2:18] there there is a slight change to the minutes I'm going to turn to the

[2:21] corporate officer thank you chair uh the committee of Home meeting minutes of

[2:25] February 12 2025 to be amended R three uh should read

[2:32] $3,300 minor correction thank you would someone like to move that we adopt the

[2:35] minutes from the committee the whole meeting on February 12th as amended move

[2:40] by director martman seconded by director Nicholson any discussion all in favor

[2:44] and opposed and oppose motion carries we'll now move on to public input period

[2:50] so public input period is offer the public an opportunity to comment on an

[2:54] agenda item before the committee considers the item the public input

[2:57] period procedure policy allows for a law of 15 minutes where the speaker is

[3:01] welcome to comment on any item on the agenda up to a maximum of 3 minutes this

[3:07] excludes items that are or have been the subject of a public hearing input from

[3:11] the community is valued and appreciated we request that input is presented in a

[3:15] friendly and respectful Manner and your cooperation maintaining a safe and

[3:19] respectful and orderly environment is greatly appreciated

[3:30] C ific could state your name and address my name is David Slade I live at

[3:36] 3265 Cobble Hill Road Cobble Hill I would like to speak to agenda item R2

[3:42] Island Rail Corridor shared visioning thank you honored chair elected

[3:46] officials and respected staff for allowing me this opportunity to speak

[3:50] special thanks to Allison and coral Le on the cvrd staff that led this process

[3:54] and have put you way ahead of all other jurisdictions I agree with many points

[3:59] highlight in the report I agree that the restoration of rail is unaffordable in

[4:03] the short to medium term I agree that restoring rail service in the short to

[4:07] medium term would be ineffective unproductive and expensive I agree that

[4:12] unless the corridor is continuous from Victoria to Courtney it will never be

[4:16] viable for trains note that the Sana o first nation in theose has already

[4:21] removed 1 kilometer of rail where it bcts their Reserve lands and that in the

[4:26] five places in the cvd where the rail Corridor bisects reserved lands some if

[4:31] not all of the first nations are likely to seek reversion of the land and

[4:35] similarly oppose the return of trains through their backyards I agree that on

[4:40] 80% of the corridor it is difficult or impractical to locate a trail beside the

[4:45] railbed however I feel that several conclusions drawn in the report are

[4:50] incorrect I disagree that locating a trail on the rail bed precludes a return

[4:55] of trains to the corridor in fact a trail on the rail bed could act as a

[4:59] placeholder for the next 10 to 20 years demonstrating the value of the corridor

[5:04] as a public good while acknowledging that rail traffic is the first priority

[5:08] for the corridor this is the case with the Galloping Goose in Victoria I

[5:13] disagree that the cost of remediation would be at least $1.75 million per

[5:18] kilometer if the corridor retains its industrial status with a rail as a

[5:23] tempor with a trail as a temporary use there would likely be minimal to zero

[5:27] remediation requirements the remediation costs for the Recently completed

[5:32] Okanagan rail trail and the under construction north Okanagan shwap rail

[5:36] trail have been insignificant or non-existent the report states that the

[5:41] most important needs for the Island Rail Corridor are as in this order improved

[5:45] Transportation connections expand Economic Development and Tourism improve

[5:50] safe cycling and walking provide emergency access routes and provide

[5:54] Recreation and park-like activities a trail on the rail bed does all of these

[5:58] things the report report states that the corridor development should limit the

[6:02] removal of vegetation avoid damage to repairing and Aquatic ecosystems a trail

[6:07] on the rail bed addresses this retaining the status quo guarantees that the

[6:12] creosote ties will continue to pollute the steel rails will continue to rust

[6:16] and the corridor will remain a liability rather than an amazing asset if we build

[6:21] a trail on the rail bit it will be used by many hundreds of people in this

[6:25] Valley every single day and improve the quality of life across the entire cvrd

[6:30] with 5 Seconds to spare thank you thank you any other members of the public like

[6:37] to come up to the

[6:41] podium so you could St your name and address my name is Alan Phillip I live

[6:47] at 5734 vanco Road in North coin and I'd like to address the issue

[6:53] of the vision for the island Corridor good morning counselors thank

[6:59] you for this

[7:02] opportunity I have read the report and it's very comprehensive however in my

[7:08] view there are two major flaws in this report one of them near the beginning is

[7:13] the statement that 79% of the respondents want to see tra

[7:20] rail on the corridor in the future as opposed to

[7:25] 49% for Trail now this to me is a very simplistic question and response because

[7:34] it pits Trail against Rail and that really this is not a popularity contest

[7:38] this is a matter of practicality the

[7:42] trail in my view is SE is could be seen as an interim

[7:49] measure for possibility in the future of there being a

[7:54] train now both levels of government

[8:00] do not intend to contribute any money

[8:04] towards a train in the foreseeable future that's

[8:08] why the snow has got their got their land

[8:12] back any return of train is way way in the future when

[8:17] there's sufficient population density

[8:22] and a business case supporting a modern train on those tracks which would

[8:29] attract sufficient writers ship to actually pay for it in my view that's

[8:35] going to be way past any of our lifetimes so the question to me is not

[8:41] rail or Trail it's what do we do in the interim what we're

[8:45] waiting right now the whole system is just lying there

[8:50] deteriorating it makes far more sense to me to use that Corridor as a trail

[8:59] which would benefit both recreationalists

[9:03] commuters particularly people with ebikes who are a very Rising population

[9:09] particularly old people like me I'm back riding a bike again on a ebike and I see

[9:14] them everywhere now and just imagine being able to ride your ebike from

[9:19] Duncan up to lady Smith off any of the roads a really good commuter Trail and

[9:27] the same thing down to Cobble Hill you're off the highway there's no safe

[9:31] way to get the Cobble Hill right now on a

[9:34] bicycle the other point which I would like to say is a really major flaw is

[9:40] saying that having a trail precludes return of rail that is absurd just have

[9:46] a look at cin Valley Trail out to Lake cin that would very easily be able to

[9:53] put a train back on that just imagine how difficult that would that be it

[9:58] would be very at time okay thank you very much thank

[10:05] you welcome you could state your name and address yeah hi I'm Warren scord I

[10:10] live at 2299 McFarland Crescent a lot of people would probably know me from as

[10:14] restor and rail uh I've been advocating thank you I've been advocating for the

[10:18] railway for about 2 and a half years now uh my material online has had millions

[10:24] of views this is not just a small number uh the islandwide

[10:29] um when you're talking about the um the possibility or the or the want and need

[10:36] of rail on Vancouver Island that 79% is actually quite low from what I've seen

[10:43] um usually it's up around 83% the uh radio stations that have done polls have

[10:49] shown uh upward you know 75% so it's been a consistent want and

[10:55] need of the public you know the public has spoken they say they want on the

[11:00] corridor now I know funding is an issue you know you've got these uh you got

[11:04] this Island Rail Corporation going out there trying to collect up money trying

[11:08] to get the rails back in operation you got the First Nations that are having

[11:11] questions about you know how can they benefit from the rail well if the rail

[11:15] is removed and we put the trail on and and despite what David is saying trying

[11:20] to get a trail turned back into rail is next to Impossible the cycling movement

[11:26] will just come up and they'll just go nuts and you'll never get it back and if

[11:29] if that was different if that was not the case then souk right now would be

[11:33] looking at the Galloping Goose piece that goes from souk to the Six Mile

[11:38] where the new uh brt lanes are going to be going we'd be turning that back into

[11:42] rail because it's it would be a dedicated Corridor uh for trains which

[11:46] you know transit trains um buses a train is just an elongated bus okay like we're

[11:53] not and it's a lot smoother a lot more comfortable they have accessible

[11:56] bathrooms it's a much preferred option Trail can be put beside it there's 65 km

[12:02] already of trails beside the rails and like in uh in shaigan where the new

[12:07] shaigan rail trail is it actually can Veer away and utilize other Trails on

[12:12] the island to connect all the way up and down the island doesn't have to stay

[12:15] next to the rails all the time cyclists have told me that running on a rail or

[12:20] riding on a rail trail is actually quite boring after some time because you're

[12:23] just it's just straight and they like curves and hills and things like that to

[12:28] make it to give it more variety so I really hope that everybody will consider

[12:32] and try to retain the rails where we can and hope that God that we can convince

[12:38] the First Nations that they can benefit from this ra too okay thank you thank

[12:46] you morning you see your name and address good morning everyone my name is

[12:50] Kim Bernard I live in the shanigan beach Estates in shaelan shaigan Lake Area B

[12:55] of the cvrd I would like to speak to R1 which is the South cin Community

[13:01] assessment report I want to offer gratitude and congratulations to

[13:07] everyone including all of the um input that was received this is an incredible

[13:12] report my remarks today if you can bear with me we drill down on pages eight and

[13:18] nine of the report I'd like to First respectfully offer a correction to the

[13:24] origin story and name that is listed in the report for my area of sonan Lake I

[13:30] have with me a documented interview with Jared cenan Williams who sat down with

[13:36] the discourse in October of 2020 to explain the meaning and name behind

[13:42] shaelin that it means something mysterious happened here that we do not

[13:47] understand and it's a wonderful story in the discourse so I would like that um

[13:51] information to go to the Eco plan um committee and next up I would just like

[13:56] to say that this report identifies a pattern and alludes to a

[14:03] growth pattern so I know we're all worried about the a word here in Canada

[14:07] but I would like to offer the word amalgamation is also hanging over our

[14:11] heads in the south end because of the growth projections in the capital

[14:15] regional district and if we wonder who The Gatekeepers are for any change of

[14:21] governance we have to look no further than the province of British Columbia

[14:25] and I think they have already told us what they think of the future projection

[14:30] because they have redrawn the Electoral boundary and I brought that with me too

[14:35] to include all of South cin together with Suk as the wand deuka

[14:40] electoral area district and that along with their amazing stewardship of our

[14:45] natural Water Resources instead of following the money I follow the water

[14:50] tells me that they have more than enough capacity to look after the sou end

[14:53] should they choose to look at this wonderful home inspection report and

[14:58] decide to make a bid to acquire Us in the next 10 to 20 years and so I would

[15:02] invite this board to also include that in your planning that uh some of us

[15:07] would like to remain rural or certainly have the quality of life that we

[15:11] currently enjoy and this report belongs to all the people in our community so my

[15:17] last I guess ask would be that this board works closely with the three area

[15:22] directors to make sure this information is published in a way that most people

[15:27] who can't navigate the website can read so I did bring the last exhibit which is

[15:32] the shanigan focus as an example of community reporting and they too refer

[15:38] to our region as shans so I really do hope to have that corrected in the

[15:42] report and thank you everyone hia thank five seconds to spare I think

[15:49] we've got time for at least one more

[15:56] speaker nobody else

[16:02] so if you could state your name and address yes my name is Dick folks I live

[16:06] in view Royal uh 196 where I Road um I drove up here this morning to

[16:12] come to this meeting because I find it very encouraging that this regional

[16:17] district is U working on this subject and I'd like to think that it's going to

[16:23] be all positive I've um I've been working on trying to promote rail or the

[16:30] maintenance or re restoration of Island Rail for um ever since I retired about

[16:37] almost 40 years ago I've um spent many hours making

[16:42] presentations trying to show the benefits of it um so that people would

[16:47] learn but it's it seems to be a big struggle um in the wherever I see the

[16:54] word it's expensive I think that should be challenged challenge uh expensive is

[17:00] not a word that should be in the vocabulary of any report there should be

[17:05] a figure and a comparative figure compared to what is it

[17:14] expensive uh the coming out here from Helen Road um as usual uh the Trans

[17:21] Canada highway is almost a walking speed um all the way from Veterans Parkway to

[17:28] um to helin they're just piling up and it's

[17:33] just every day every day the rail could handle a lot of that

[17:39] traffic coming up here I note that the people going to and from Duncan could

[17:45] easily many of them I'm sure go by Rail and take their bike yes certainly but

[17:53] not they're not going to Pedal all that way the Trans Canada highway is quickly

[17:58] becoming much like a city street with all the frequent uh

[18:03] lights a friend and I handed out pamphlets at nen which is a major

[18:09] employment area in squal promoting

[18:14] rail at the time when the employees were coming off work and some of them

[18:18] literally snatched the pamphlets out of the my hand saying I live in L Smith or

[18:24] such this vehicle would bring me right to the door of my

[18:30] employment the crawl through view Royal is absolutely horrendous I worked at the

[18:35] dockyard in my lifetime and it was always a crawl and it's no not any

[18:42] better for the for cyclists who object to rail all I can say is yeah maybe at

[18:49] my age I might like to ride a bicycle in the couch and area but do you think I'm

[18:54] going to ride a bicycle all the way from V Royal to cin

[18:59] but on the other hand I could jump on a rail car with my bike and come up here

[19:05] and enjoy this Valley right time thank

[19:10] you so that concludes public input we can now move on straight to reports the

[19:16] first report in front of us is with regards to the South couch Community

[19:20] issues assessment so we do have a presentation from Eco plan and I

[19:26] understand we have a representative from Eco plan who's going to uh to deliver

[19:31] this presentation oh and Miss Ferguson's

[19:36] going to first provide a overview uh good morning chair and

[19:40] directors uh I am here along with our consultant uh this morning to present

[19:45] the South CCH and Community issues assessment report this report provides

[19:48] the residents perspectives on governance and Service delivery challenges within

[19:52] the South cin region the data and its findings

[19:56] presented in the report in the report were compiled utilizing a wide uh

[20:00] variety of inputs such as the online survey Community forums popup events

[20:06] meetings with local stakeholders and consult uh sorry cons consultations with

[20:12] uh cvd staff this project stems from a board directive and was subsequently

[20:18] captured in your strategic plan as objective

[20:21] 2.3 uh I am proud to introduce our consultant and Marie Whitaker who is an

[20:27] associate senior planner with EOP plan and Marie will provide you with a

[20:30] PowerPoint presentation and then we will welcome your comments uh questions

[20:35] following

[20:38] that thank you thank you very much for um allowing me to come back and present

[20:43] the oom and the findings from this report so appreciate that um just

[20:47] checking in if technically speaking everyone can see the actual PowerPoint

[20:52] presentation not present interview y we can see it great thank you so much and

[20:58] and I also just want to pause to a moment to say thank you to the public

[21:01] speaker this morning for um comments on the the assessment and then also sharing

[21:06] some information for updating the report so I appreciate that a

[21:09] lot um what I'll do quickly just to give you a quick outline of the presentation

[21:14] in terms of um what I'll talk about today I'll give you a quick project

[21:17] overview for some of you who may not be as familiar with the project as the

[21:21] Electoral area Bay AB andc um we'll talk a bit about what we heard and then

[21:26] considerations for next steps moving forward

[21:32] um to begin I'll talk a little bit about the project overall but generally

[21:36] speaking wanted to focus your uh attention on the area of this report and

[21:41] and um and where the focus happens it was for residents living in South couch

[21:45] and communities electoral areas a b and c the purpose of the report or the the

[21:52] project or study in general was to help residents and the cbrd understand the

[21:56] current governance and servicing situation for these electoral areas and

[22:00] I say cbrd as well because just getting a picture of how residents feel about

[22:04] governance and servicing um it was also to engage residents and collect their

[22:08] issues and concerns so I was really targeted about that um related to

[22:12] governance and servicing overall um and then report out on what we heard from

[22:17] residents um to it in in the hopes that we would identify um any service or

[22:22] governing gaps that may

[22:25] exist um one thing I did want to point out before for this and this is

[22:29] something we had to remind residents quite frequently of throughout this work

[22:32] as well was that this was not an incorporation study um this was as

[22:36] mentioned this work was to identify and acknowledge the concerns um and then to

[22:41] really clarify any of the problems before jumping to Solutions um and uh

[22:48] just to take this information as a way to First explore those options for

[22:51] addressing concerns within existing framework or governance framework this

[22:56] being a very important step uh for the ministry of M Municipal Affairs um just

[23:01] to identify the problems first you know is the ladder on the right wall um it

[23:05] was just looking at that first step and so there was four phases to

[23:11] this project moving forward which occurred over the 2024 period um mainly

[23:16] during spring and summer and and a little bit into the fall so a lot of

[23:20] this engagement occurred over a period just noting that um that typically isn't

[23:25] an engagement period but we did get out there so um it includes these the

[23:30] background work a situation assessment um engagement to identify those issues

[23:35] and then um drafting the final report so now I'll move in and just tell

[23:40] you give you the highlights of the the overall what we heard in terms of um in

[23:45] terms of the

[23:48] assessment um just before I get into the the outcomes of it uh to give you just

[23:54] an overview of the Outreach and engagement that was included within uh

[23:57] the process of the reporting uh we did use the cvd plan your couch and web page

[24:03] um for information we also had information and rack cards that were

[24:07] delivered throughout the communities um there was social media posts to

[24:11] advertise both the survey and some of the events that were happening

[24:14] throughout um the spring and summer uh we had Community posters lawn signs

[24:19] throughout the community an ad placed in the Focus Magazine uh Community survey

[24:23] uh was running throughout that whole period of time we had one Community

[24:27] Forum in each Community uh or electoral area popup events that happened

[24:32] throughout the summer and then um we did do some reaching out to neighboring

[24:35] First Nations communities uh Community groups and targeted interviews with cvrd

[24:41] staff and uh Improvement

[24:45] districts uh engagement overall we compiled 412 survey responses there was

[24:52] 96 residents who attended the community forums held in each electoral area many

[24:56] residents were engaged at popup events um those were actually really great to

[25:00] get out to because we were going to people um in various locations

[25:04] throughout electoral area a b and c um we sent an invitation to nine Community

[25:09] groups for input or allowing input um or requesting it rather um and then nine

[25:15] targeted interviews with cbrd staff departments and then an invitation to

[25:19] continued engagement with First Nations communities um we had one information

[25:23] meeting that was held and then project updates were provided for that as well

[25:30] so the following is is what we heard um this is both a mix through the community

[25:35] Forum input and the surveys outputs um so for the purpose of the report this

[25:40] information was grouped into three main themes uh governance servicing and then

[25:45] those areas or issues and concerns that residents raised that were um outside

[25:49] the jurisdiction of cvrd so we needed sort of a container for those as well um

[25:55] and so to give you some of the highlights for both the survey and

[25:58] community forums 68% of re residents felt they understood what a regional

[26:02] district is and how it operates 55% of residents felt that they understood how

[26:08] decisions and voting happens at the cbrd and noting that our survey actually had

[26:12] a bit of that kind of uh before asking questions kind of explaining how that

[26:18] happens as well so through so there was a bit of an education pie in within that

[26:21] survey too for those who may not have felt they understood uh initially and

[26:27] then residents red the following issues as most important to them within these

[26:30] areas and so this is compiled of those areas accountability um responsiveness

[26:36] to local concerns and transparency in

[26:41] governance just breaking this down a bit by electoral area to get a bit of

[26:45] information of where they differed area a was most concerned with communication

[26:50] transparency and accountability whereas B and C uh shared a stronger interest in

[26:55] representation of and response to their areas local concerns and issues so their

[27:00] interests um more so than the communication transparency um so just a

[27:05] little bit of the differences there um voting structure and the ability of

[27:09] other area directors to vote or influence decisions uh affecting the

[27:14] Electoral areas AB andc were also very common comments that we received both

[27:18] throughout the community Forum as well as on the survey and many comments

[27:22] received at the community forums focused on concerns and issues that is as

[27:25] mentioned were outside the jurisdiction of

[27:28] cbrd and so just to give you a sense of what those were um expressed by

[27:33] residents that fell into that category are listed here um and they're generally

[27:39] I guess listed in the order order of of frequency that we heard them but that's

[27:43] not statistically counted but it is just in general just how we compiled these so

[27:49] um we most some of the biggest ones were about the road standards and maintenance

[27:53] so Lo local traffic pedestrian and active Transportation uh potholes snow

[27:58] reval uh coordination of improvement districts and private utilities uh as

[28:03] well as Equity of services between different areas and then just a concern

[28:07] for Aging in infrastructure uh water quality and

[28:11] Watershed protection and I'll note that this was more so in in area B and then

[28:16] uh proposed subdivision development application wait times and frequency of

[28:20] Transit service or inefficiency of roots was

[28:24] mentioned in terms of servicing um 70 6% of residents felt they understood

[28:30] Service delivery in cbrd 23% of residents were satisfied with Services

[28:35] received and 28 had a neutral stance um noting that many comments that we

[28:39] received on servicing at this time and during this this period were related to

[28:43] the change in the garbage collection um as well as uh tops concerns for

[28:49] servicing and these were compiled with all of them uh new growth and

[28:54] development was uh a top concern as well as cost cost for services especially in

[29:00] areas who would also pay additional user fees um uh and and their taxes and then

[29:08] efficiency and coordination between Ser jurisdictions as well as inequity of

[29:12] service

[29:15] provision additionally uh 57% of residents felt they understood how

[29:20] service costs were determined and residents concerns with cost of services

[29:24] were that costs were too high uh that paying for services they don't receive

[29:30] or most often benefit from or felt that they didn't benefit from and a concern

[29:35] for how costs are calculated and feeling that they're paying more for than their

[29:40] share their fair share for those services so those were some of the the

[29:44] overview of of um uh resident concerns and issues with respect to for

[29:50] servicing um so looking at just a highlevel summary of all of this

[29:55] combined together um so just taking a step back and then looking at the survey

[30:00] and the community forums uh just noting that issues many of these were all very

[30:06] much interrelated um just noting that many of

[30:09] the issues were identified that by residents but they were also identified

[30:13] in our interviews with cvrd and area directors though basically everyone's

[30:17] saying the same thing um you know they're all you know there's not a huge

[30:21] huge gaps in there um and although there were many questions about why this

[30:25] wasn't an incorporation study and why this wasn't about um that that topic in

[30:31] particular just noting that Independence and autonomy when it was listed and

[30:35] within the survey as well as at Community forums wasn't ranked as a top

[30:39] issue at most of those within within the the work that we came back or the input

[30:45] that we received um and then just noting that the top of what we called cross

[30:50] cutting issues so those issues that were identified residents cbrd and other

[30:54] service providers were all mostly focused related to the level of service

[30:59] and servicing followed by those aspects that I mentioned that were outside the

[31:03] cbd's

[31:06] jurisdiction um and then cross cutting issues by theme in terms of governance

[31:11] uh accessible information and Communications on servicing and

[31:13] responsibilities was noted um jurisdiction was just the subdivision

[31:18] development times coordination planning of of planning objectives and policy um

[31:23] and then servicing infrastructure and growth growth being huge um um continued

[31:28] upgrades and Replacements so worrying about that future how it will look

[31:32] inequity between areas maintenance Regional planning and then water supply

[31:36] and protection so just noting that there was

[31:40] that study that was done back in 2009 and then kind of looking at today and

[31:45] and comparing those two basically not much has changed since 2009 there has

[31:51] been a few shifting concerns taxes and user fees and rising cost of living kind

[31:55] of came to the top a little bit more and then coordination and communication

[31:59] between jurisdictions for regional and strategic planning on

[32:03] infrastructure was also something that came up more frequently than what it

[32:07] looked like in 2009 so to wrap up I just wanted to talk

[32:11] a little bit about next steps this report offers some considerations for

[32:15] next steps and what to do with the information um and this was grouped

[32:19] again into the three themes of governance servicing and those outside

[32:22] the jurisdiction of cbrd noting again that many of these overlap and are inter

[32:27] related so um in terms of considerations for

[32:31] governance um possibly looking at coordinating infrastructure on a on a

[32:36] more Regional basis um targeting a review and update of cvrd planning and

[32:41] policy with these issues that have come up through this so that could just look

[32:45] like an actual review or it could be just when policy and planning plans are

[32:50] being updated that you use this these issues or this

[32:54] output to to sort of Target certain areas increase information to residents

[32:59] on governance and servicing and then um conducting a follow-up governance study

[33:04] possibly to explore changes within the regional district model that would

[33:07] address some of these concerns that came out through this assessment um and this

[33:12] could explore changes um could also be incorporated or some of this work could

[33:16] be incorporating at a regional level into future Regional planning work as

[33:23] well uh in terms of considerations for servicing uh maybe looking at High

[33:27] highlighting the board priorities related to servicing specifically for

[33:30] South couch and residents so this is a bit of a Communications thing um explore

[33:34] our changes to budgets to focus on South couch and communities uh in particular

[33:39] on some of the issues that were raised look at ways to increase collaboration

[33:42] between cbrd municipalities and Improvement districts exploring the

[33:47] potential to reduce uh Improvement districts and amalgamate some of the

[33:51] services to better address some of the issues that came

[33:55] forward and then in terms of jurisdiction

[33:58] increasing advocacy and Communications with uh mot the uh it's now

[34:03] transportation and Transit um and this uh this is ongoing I know but also uh so

[34:10] looking at ways to increase that or to address some of the issues that have

[34:12] come forth uh engaging in lobbying senior levels of government also ongoing

[34:17] I'm sure um and then looking for ways to improve coordination of subdivision

[34:22] approval process and if not uh maybe exploring Options under the land title

[34:27] act which I I know has also been uh something ongoing

[34:33] too and then uh possible next steps just to finish up um so looking at at the

[34:41] considerations uh that were just listed and maybe prioritizing these in issues

[34:46] so is Communications to Residents uh a top priority or is maybe looking at

[34:50] changes to servicing or plans and policies um just determining that

[34:55] mapping out uh departments that are involved the plans and policies that uh

[34:59] or maybe additional studies that may be required uh evaluating options and key

[35:04] actions um and then of course knowing which one which ones they you you know

[35:10] things that you're targeting to identify budget allocation and external funding

[35:13] or whatever is needed to support some of these changes and then reporting back of

[35:17] course as the most important uh to and updating the South couch and Community

[35:22] uh residents with any changes or movements or U directions that are taken

[35:27] by the board and with that just covers it at a very

[35:32] high level at a high speed there you go great thank you for the uh presentation

[35:37] I'll turn to the committee ask if there's any questions but I I will note

[35:41] that staff have prepared a suggested motion here that um speaks the concern

[35:47] raised by director Morrison about having this referred to the Electoral area

[35:51] Services committee for further discussion so we can either consider

[35:55] this motion or if anyone's got any uh question question for the presenter

[35:58] director act and then director mlon Clarity is that the motion I shared

[36:03] with the board oh

[36:09] okay okay so I said staff motion your motion give you well it is yeah all

[36:18] right any discussion or do we want to for the presenter any any questions for

[36:22] the

[36:25] presenter director abbit perhaps a two-prong and it may be more

[36:31] for staff to answer uh can you refresh our memories as to how long this process

[36:36] has taken to get to this uh to today's report and ballpark how much have we

[36:42] spent uh getting to this report yeah so the work was as a result

[36:48] of a grant from The Province um the grant was

[36:51] $6,000 um so we have spent pretty much that um it has taken a year

[36:58] um it started January last year um so there was a lot of consultation with the

[37:04] the communities and Outreach and um to get to this point

[37:12] so any further discussion we ready to consider this

[37:16] recommendation director mlon um just am I on thank you um thank you chair just I

[37:24] was uh a couple moments late could you read the motion for me is that possible

[37:28] yeah I don't think I've actually read it out for anyone yet so it's uh that it be

[37:31] recommended to the board that staff report back to the Electoral area

[37:35] Services committee with a report that provides further information and options

[37:39] to address South couch and Community issues South couch and Community

[37:43] identified issues in the categories of governance servicing and jurisdiction as

[37:48] proposed in the equal plan report uh director Wilson oh I was just

[37:54] moving okay so it's moved is there a second or seconded by uh

[37:58] director Seagal any further discussion director Acton I'd just like

[38:03] to um understand how come this wasn't at electoral area Services committee to

[38:10] begin with I don't have the answer to

[38:15] that Miss Miles

[38:19] Wilson um sorry I don't see it I'll just oh there we go Jesse's on camera

[38:28] thank thanks for the question um so a couple of things so originally the

[38:32] Direction came through the board right and um and it's in your strategic

[38:37] planned as well so recognizing the comments that have already been shared

[38:40] about the need to have an electoral area discussion staff hear you loud and clear

[38:45] um some of the recommendations and considerations in this report do require

[38:48] the board's support to proceed and so staff's recommendation was to to put

[38:53] this on this uh uh Committee of the whole so that everybody could benefit

[38:56] from the presid and receive the information but we recognize that the

[39:00] further deep dive into this will definitely have to be at elector area

[39:03] Services

[39:06] committee any further discussion we ready to call the

[39:11] question director Justice yeah thank you um recognizing

[39:15] that it's going to the EAC probably um I'll just take the opportunity to ask

[39:20] one question of the presenter if that's all right um and is sort of what I

[39:26] consider to be a bit of a a contradiction with respect to the uh

[39:31] ranking of uh issues specific to governance um noted that the uh the

[39:39] statement that Independence and autonomy consistently ranked um as the lowest

[39:46] concern um related to governance and in uh in in in all of the survey responses

[39:53] and I just wondered um how that might square with the

[39:58] um idea that there was a lot of concern that uh other electoral area directors

[40:05] um had too much say in issues that are specific to AB and C so those two things

[40:11] seem to me to be contradictory and I just wondered if you could take a stab

[40:16] at uh making that consistent for me m Whitaker yes thank you um no it's

[40:25] true that's that's why I me mentioned many times that that many of these are

[40:29] interrelated and so sometimes they overlap and it's difficult to pull apart

[40:33] but just I was noting that um I guess we you know kind of overall

[40:40] there was a lot of talk of whether or not that this you know this study or

[40:45] assessment was whether it was about uh incorporation and so we you know we had

[40:50] to separate that out but in the survey um we just asked if Independence and

[40:56] autonomy is is the uh you know a top concern and it

[41:00] just didn't ever get ranked as one of the top concerns but of course as you

[41:04] mentioned there's a number of you know other talking about communication or the

[41:09] voting or whatnot that overlaps with Independence and and autonomy so so

[41:14] you're correct like that it is a bit of a contradiction it's just that in noting

[41:18] that in the survey um you know that was constantly be put as your top concern

[41:24] for residents that residents were more often concerned with um you know

[41:29] communication or um just the servicing or service related issues that have come

[41:35] about or or just into the details of Roads or things that that that were more

[41:42] you know home close to home hitting so um so yeah no thank you for pointing

[41:47] that out those things are overlapping and they do you know um if you're

[41:52] concerned with voting then obviously you're concerned with an autonomy or a

[41:56] level of autonomy but consistently when when residents ranked their top issues

[42:01] it was more about response of the board or response of the cvd to the issues

[42:07] that matter to them the most as opposed to um you know jumping to the we want

[42:13] independence from everyone else thank you does that help kind of explain how

[42:18] that came about yeah I mean remains quite interesting to me but yeah it was

[42:24] to me too yeah thanks yeah all right before we call the question

[42:30] just one uh thought for the Electoral area Services committee to consider and

[42:34] also the rest of the board um we we did get the attachment to the report

[42:39] subsequently after the agenda was published with some of the um breakdown

[42:43] of the growth projections um what we found at the municipality North couchin

[42:49] is that um there is quite a bit of uncertainty and and I'd say

[42:53] contradictions around some of the growth projections so we've been given many

[42:57] other municipalities uh housing Target order with a particular figure that we

[43:02] have to reach over a 5year period we've been advised that that's 75% of our

[43:06] housing need so two different numbers we've also done an updated um housing

[43:11] needs report based on a formula from the province which has given us a third

[43:15] number and then we've also reviewed the BC stats population and household

[43:20] projections which is given us a fourth number over the next 5 10 20 years so

[43:25] we've written to the Prov to the housing minister asking for clarification on

[43:28] this because we're working with very different figures and they're not within

[43:31] a small range there's quite a range between these four different figures

[43:36] complicating this is the federal government has announced some pretty

[43:39] drastic changes with regards to Federal immigration policies so as we know in

[43:43] Canada we've got a declining natural birth rate our population growth has

[43:47] been driven by record immigration numbers in recent years which were

[43:51] pushing growth rates 2 and a half 3% in uh 2022 2023 1. 9% last year with the

[43:59] federal government recently announcing a a pretty drastic reversal of the federal

[44:03] immigration policies we're now looking at a um population decline in Canada for

[44:10] this year of 0 2% another decline of 0 2% the following year and then 8% growth

[44:15] the year after that and what we've been advised by the housing uh minister is

[44:20] that government is uh reviewing and revising their population household

[44:24] projections based on these new immigration numbers so I just point that

[44:28] out in that we um we do all this analysis on growth projections housing

[44:33] needs um yet we're confronted with all these very contradictory numbers and

[44:37] then we find out all those contradictory numbers aren't correct because the

[44:41] federal government has made these big changes again with Federal immigration

[44:44] policy and we're going to have to revise those those projections I think we can

[44:48] all be confident that we live in quite a beautiful part of the world beautiful

[44:52] part of the country there's going to be people wanted to come here there's going

[44:55] to be growth but I would just encourage enourage everyone whether it's through

[44:58] this exercise or any of the work we're doing to be a bit skeptical on some of

[45:02] these numbers that have been presented to us because they they are subject to

[45:06] pretty drastic change uh when there's a sight change in policy at the federal or

[45:12] provincial level so I see I've got director Morrison and then director

[45:17] Wilson here director Morrison thank you chair

[45:22] um and just in regards to director Justice's uh uh remarks it's a it's it's

[45:27] an interesting uh contradiction and and one of the things that uh our our

[45:32] friends and and residents in in the South couch and have have always noted

[45:36] and all the time that I've been here is is that Curiosity about the how this

[45:41] Federation works and why the different Municipal and electoral area directors

[45:45] that may be far flung from that region participate and vote on issues that are

[45:50] of a concern and so that's one of the reasons why we make sure that we all

[45:55] know what's going on in our communities and that we are wise to go and attend

[46:00] some of the community events and and engagements that happen in our our the

[46:04] southern part of our region because uh folks like to know that if you're going

[46:08] to be participating in in voting on issues that concern South cin that

[46:12] you're there and present and understand what the issues are related to that area

[46:16] so that's pretty important but my question for our presenter today is and

[46:21] and I I read with interest about the it seemed like there's a a relatively High

[46:26] LEL LEL of understanding about not only the uh the voting but the uh the fiscal

[46:32] aspect of how our regional district works and that the there seem to be a

[46:36] fairly high level of uh of understanding amongst residents as to who pays for

[46:43] what and and you have to benefit from a service to or being as part of a service

[46:48] paying for it and receiving benefit and and I note that you you did

[46:53] differentiate that there there's a difference between the municip simple

[46:57] structure of how we uh how how taxes are collected and then distributed versus in

[47:03] an electoral area or in the regional district did you drill down a little bit

[47:08] on that just because I I find when people move to my community uh electoral

[47:13] area from a municipality and then we I I take the time to describe a little bit

[47:19] how each individual function collects taxes for that function and for that

[47:23] service and only those people that are in that service are paying for and

[47:28] receiving benefits did you drill down a little bit on that with people as you

[47:32] were collecting this information Miss Whitaker thank you um

[47:39] in terms of just at Community forums when people would have conversations we

[47:44] would we would talk a little bit more about that but um uh no uh it wasn't I

[47:51] it wasn't something I mean aside from as I mentioned within the survey there

[47:55] would be um each question PR preceding each question was a little bit of

[48:00] information about how the the the regional district operated so um so

[48:06] there was that and then as I as I mentioned staff was in attendance at um

[48:11] at uh at Community forums as well and so staff was there to provide additional

[48:16] information and drill a little bit more deeper into how that operates

[48:21] um yeah followup director Morrison I've got

[48:26] director dor Wilson then director

[48:30] deck thank you ch um this is more a question for what you've just mentioned

[48:35] you touched on migration as opposed to immigration are there any numbers that

[48:40] anybody's come up with a possible forecast on that because that's a major

[48:44] part of what's Happening Here on our Island migration rather than immigration

[48:49] do we have any numbers for for that kind of thing or maybe the uh maybe the

[48:53] consultant knows that one as well yeah

[48:57] I'll turn to Miss Whit in a moment I mean we we have our own um housing needs

[49:01] projections as you know here at the regional district municipalities as well

[49:06] the one challenge is those are based on um assumptions made at the the

[49:11] provincial level and federal level so they are informed by those those

[49:15] immigration numbers okay thank you H Miss Whitaker anything to add to

[49:21] that uh no that the the numbers that were were used for uh the commd

[49:26] assessment was um based on the recent 2024 housing needs assessment so that's

[49:32] the the source of the population data that was

[49:36] used so I've got director deck then director mclinton

[49:41] um thank you very much for that huge wonderful report it uh I certainly saw

[49:48] the overlaps um with area I and and uh I'm therefore I'm grateful that this is

[49:55] going to go on to the uh easc because at that point maybe

[50:00] there'll be some resolutions that will satisfy South cin

[50:06] as well I I think we would all benefit from U more transparency and uh you know

[50:15] there's at least a perception of lack of services so um yes I I'm grateful for

[50:22] that for your report and for us moving it all forward thank

[50:27] you director mclan thank you chair um while I respect all of my colleagues

[50:33] opinions deeply greatly I I am you know I don't know what the right word is I'm

[50:38] not sure how or why it ended up at Committee of the whole this this this

[50:42] information item so I I would like to call the question the the motion on the

[50:45] floor all right I see no other speakers with their hands raised I'll call the

[50:50] question all in favor and opposed nonone opposed motion carries we can now move

[50:55] on to our next report um thanks thanks Miss Whitaker for the

[51:00] presentation thank you we'll move on to our next report the cbrd Island Rail

[51:05] Corridor shared visioning project final report turn to staff to provide an

[51:11] overview uh good morning chair and directors I'm pleased to introduce today

[51:17] um s Tani and Johan Vanek from stantech who led the report that will be

[51:24] presented today and Lindsay friet K from modus who led the

[51:29] communications and uh over to them now thank

[51:34] you good morning everyone uh I hope everyone's well just going to start

[51:38] sharing the screen

[51:42] here I hope everyone can see my screen yeah we can see your screen thank

[51:48] you very much I hope you're well and I really appreciate the time to present

[51:52] the report today uh my name is Salah I'm a senior real engineer project manager

[51:57] pantic and today in collaboration with my colleagues Lindsay and Johan we're

[52:02] going to provide a summary presentation on the Island Rail Corridor towards a

[52:06] shared Vision uh project report going to the next slide here's our agenda on the

[52:12] first few slides I'm going to go over uh to the introduction and Real History

[52:16] slides there's going to be a brief conversation there on uh the project and

[52:21] then I'm going to hand it over to Lindsay to go over the findings on uh

[52:25] the First Nation engagement and public and stakeholder engagement then we have

[52:29] our technical scope of the project and Johan is going to provide a summary on

[52:35] the environmental scope land use planning Transportation Planning options

[52:40] and option assessment and at the end of the presentation we're going to quickly

[52:44] go over the next steps identified at the end of our

[52:49] project and uh while we have quick time at the end of the presentation to answer

[52:53] the questions uh because of the multi-discipline Nary nature of the

[52:58] project if you guys have any question during the presentation please feel free

[53:01] to uh share that with us and we would be more than happy to answer that either

[53:06] during the presentation or at the end of the

[53:09] presentation going over to next slide here's our uh project structure so uh

[53:15] towards a shared region project was initiated and funded by Ministry of

[53:19] Transportation in collaboration with five Regional districts including cvrd

[53:24] 14 First Nations and Alan Corridor Foundation we started a project in April

[53:29] last year we completed our graph report late 2024 and finalized that in January

[53:38] 2025 and one of the important aspects of the project scope was history of the

[53:44] Island Rail Corridor and we reviewed the Island Rail Corridor history and we

[53:50] summarized that presented that in the report in addition in the past 20 years

[53:54] there have been several technical reports and studies we made sure to

[53:58] review them summarize them and provide uh a review of those findings um

[54:04] including track alignment track condition reports dating back to 2003

[54:08] all the way to 2020 Freight analysis studies business cases study in 2022 in

[54:14] addition we synthesized this recent work completed by ICF and Ministry of

[54:19] Transportation such as Corridor evaluation report development strategies

[54:24] for rail Corridor report South Land Transportation strategy and stakeholder

[54:28] engagement completed in 2022 now I'm going to pass it to my

[54:32] colleague Lindsay on the engagement scope thank you

[54:38] Sally um I'm going to start with an overview of the First Nations engagement

[54:43] um first nation's engagement is critical to this project and understanding of the

[54:49] potential for a shared vision for the Island Rail Corridor as a whole we're

[54:53] working within the colonial history of the Esquimalt and Nyo Railway land

[54:57] grants and the unresolved legal actions of a number of First Nations relating to

[55:04] reserve lands um in addition to that first

[55:09] nations were also undertaking their own visioning processes so we wanted to

[55:12] understand the outcomes of those and coordinate across so with this our

[55:17] objectives for engagement were to collaborate and build relationships to

[55:22] learn about each nation's involvement en visioning and any outcomes that they

[55:25] could share to learn about each nation's interests

[55:29] in the different potential future uses um and specifically to learn from cin

[55:34] tribes Halal and stus First Nation about their desired future use for the

[55:39] bisected Reserve lands so with this we engaged Seven

[55:44] Nations through this process um in addition to kaich and Halal and stus

[55:48] with their B bisected Reserve lands we engaged with malahat and pelate tribe

[55:53] current members of ICF and subasa Nation a former uh member of

[55:59] ICF and we also engaged with uh nations with traditional territory throughout

[56:04] the cbrd um Sally next

[56:10] slide so I'll just go through Nation by Nation to share what we've heard kaichin

[56:16] tribes uh has uh Reserve number one is bisected in two locations 750 m in the

[56:24] northern portion and 750 15 me in the southern

[56:28] portion the feedback that we reive from cwit and tribes is that they would like

[56:32] to have their bisected Reserve lands returned to reserve um just a bit of

[56:37] more context about that CCH and tribes followed uh the legal actions of snow no

[56:43] First Nations in 2015 that were brought against Canada and the island Corridor

[56:47] foundation so they have legal actions that are not yet resolved um that were

[56:52] issued in 2016 and they do not want a rail or

[56:55] Trail to go through their Reserve next

[57:01] slide Halal First Nation uh Reserve number two uh is bisected you can see in

[57:07] the southern uh part of that image by approximately 1,500

[57:13] meters um similar to CCH and tribes Halal for nation has filed legal actions

[57:19] against Canada and the island Corridor foundation in 2016 seeking the reversion

[57:24] of their former Reserve lands in terms of the feedback that we

[57:28] received from Hol alt they shared that landback is a priority they are

[57:32] interested in understanding the options of different potential future uses and

[57:37] the cost implications and they're interested also

[57:40] in the potential for the Island Rail cdor in reducing the number of trucks on

[57:44] the highway that pass through Reserve to help reduce the environmental and health

[57:49] impacts of the of those Vehicles so they recognize that if a

[57:54] rail was to be reintroduced uh safety would need to be addressed

[57:59] particularly as it passes through the reserve and splits cultural sites with

[58:03] um homes on the other side of the rail next slide

[58:09] please um malahat foration does not have any bisected Reserve lands they do have

[58:15] a reserve that is located near the Island Rail Corridor the feedback that

[58:20] we received is that regarding a preferred future use they support the

[58:24] rights of First Nations with bisected Reser serve lands and they don't have a

[58:28] preferred future use at this time that they can share with us they are working

[58:32] to establish a guardian program with the intent of reestablishing a connection to

[58:36] their land their connection has been cut off

[58:40] since the corridor was established and as many of you know the corridor is

[58:43] difficult to access today so they're creating a virtual reality toolkit with

[58:48] the intent of allowing community members and Elders to virtually experience what

[58:52] is there today they're also undertaking ecosystem assistant and not

[58:56] assessment and natural asset inventory and they're seeing if there's interest

[59:00] in a multimodal corridor of note about their feedback is

[59:05] that when the malahat highway is closed they are highly impacted by this um it

[59:11] causes additional traffic to go through reserve and they are concerned about

[59:16] emergency access and Wildfire risk so there may be a role for the island real

[59:20] Corridor in supporting those concerns next slide please

[59:26] penel tribe does not have a bisected Reserve um their their Reserve is

[59:33] located approximately half a kilometer to the east of the Island Rail

[59:36] Corridor their meeting minutes were under review uh to confirm reporting

[59:40] permissions at the time of the report publishing next slide

[59:45] please stus first nation has two reserves that are bisected by the Island

[59:49] Rail Corridor Reserve number 11 seen at the top of the image is bisected by

[59:55] about 550 meters and reserved number 12 is bisected by about 12200

[1:00:01] meters stamina shared that they need more time to go back to their Community

[1:00:05] to get a feel for what Chief and counsel would like to see before they can share

[1:00:10] about a preferred future use and our comments and questions were shared so

[1:00:14] that they can go and take these to community next slide

[1:00:20] please subasa first nation is located on the NorthShore of cin Lake the Reserve

[1:00:26] is not bisected by the Island Rail Corridor but it is located near the Spur

[1:00:29] Line which extends West to couchin Lake so this is their greatest interest in

[1:00:33] the Island Rail Corridor they shared that they see this

[1:00:37] as a significant opportunity for infrastructure pieces to extend out

[1:00:43] towards reserve and that if planned properly the Island Rail Corridor can

[1:00:49] create great Transportation tourism and Industrial opportunities to alleviate

[1:00:53] some of the challenges on the island they emphasized that it's critical to

[1:00:57] understand and appreciate the complexity of the lands and how it affects each

[1:01:00] Nation differently and how each Nation will have to be consulted with

[1:01:04] individually next slide

[1:01:08] please our recommendation to the province was that they continue to

[1:01:12] provide ongoing funding to maintain the momentum that is underway and the

[1:01:17] collaboration that has been established through this phase of

[1:01:21] work next slide please

[1:01:28] so I just have a few slides here now on the public and stakeholder engagement

[1:01:31] thanks s um just as a high level over overview

[1:01:36] we hosted a public openhouse on September 14th in

[1:01:39] Duncan um the openhouse included uh a video uh where you could actually

[1:01:45] experience and ride the rail um virtually of course and a story

[1:01:50] map which scrolled through GIS mapping so folks could better understand the

[1:01:54] context um um there were about 350 people who

[1:01:59] attended there was also an online survey to gather feedback so through the survey

[1:02:05] the public was invited to share about their potential future uses and

[1:02:09] preferred what they would like to see in the

[1:02:11] future um the survey was available through the month of September and we

[1:02:16] received over 4,000 responses there's incredible interest in this

[1:02:21] project next slide thank you in terms of the key takeaways from

[1:02:26] that survey participants shared that Transportation modes that best match

[1:02:32] their future vision for their Island Rail Corridor it's a Top Choice folks

[1:02:36] could choose all that apply 79% of people chose passenger rail 49% of

[1:02:42] people chose biking and hiking trails 42% chose

[1:02:47] Freight um the table below just provides a bit of a breakdown between the cvd and

[1:02:53] folks who responded from outside of the cvd or didn't share uh where they were

[1:02:58] responding from so inside the cbrd you'll see that slightly fewer people

[1:03:03] are choosing rail as a as a preferred future use at 74% compared to people

[1:03:08] outside of the cbrd which is 88% in terms of biking and hiking

[1:03:13] trails people inside the cbrd chose that slightly more 52% versus outside of the

[1:03:19] cbrd at 47% and Freight Service uh was more

[1:03:24] highly selected for people who are outside of the cbrd at 48% versus 38%

[1:03:29] inside the cbrd next slide

[1:03:36] please we also asked participants to share um their priorities around

[1:03:40] potential additional uses that could be hosted within the corridor adjacent to a

[1:03:46] rail we we asked them to respond based on area uh station area so shanus Cobble

[1:03:51] Hill cin Duncan lady Smith malahat and shanigan

[1:03:56] across all areas except malahat you can see there was consistency highlighted in

[1:04:01] green active Transportation was the Top Choice followed by tourism and then

[1:04:06] Recreation and park like activities in the malahat area emergency preparedness

[1:04:11] was uh chosen more often than Recreation and park like

[1:04:18] activities next slide please in addition to public engagement

[1:04:24] we hosted 19 one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders and organizations with

[1:04:29] interest in transportation Economic Development agriculture environment and

[1:04:33] utilities through these interviews we heard that seven out of 19 have a

[1:04:38] preferred future use of rail four out of 19 have a preferred future use of rail

[1:04:44] and Trail together and three out of 19 had a preference for trail only five out

[1:04:49] of 19 shared that they had no Preferred Future

[1:04:52] use there were also some shared takeaways

[1:04:56] upholding the rights of First Nations maintaining the corridor as continuous

[1:05:01] in recognition that as a continuous Corridor it it that would preserve its

[1:05:05] potential for a future Transportation use and finding ways to improve Island

[1:05:10] connectivity for the future of the corridor next slide

[1:05:18] please and you can move to the next one thank you so finally this slide is just

[1:05:22] to share some of the other process aspects

[1:05:26] that we um undertook as a part of our collaboration across governments and

[1:05:31] with the island cordor Foundation there was a Regional District staff working

[1:05:35] group where uh staff met together to share process updates outcomes and draft

[1:05:41] directions so that supported information sharing at the staff level across

[1:05:46] Regional districts there was the CBD working group which included Regional

[1:05:51] and Municipal staff we shared process updates technical deliver deliverables

[1:05:57] and and got guidance and and feedback on the work as it

[1:06:00] evolved and then the cbrd also participated in meetings with the island

[1:06:04] Corridor Foundation again to talk about process and share draft outcomes of the

[1:06:10] process that's everything from me thank you

[1:06:15] Sally oh you're you're on mute apologies uh

[1:06:21] thanks very much Lindsay uh now we're going to go over the technical slides

[1:06:25] and youran is going to go over them and it's going to take you around 15 to 20

[1:06:28] minutes thanks very

[1:06:37] much apologies Yan you're you're muted as

[1:06:46] well sorry still muted

[1:06:56] is that any better yes thank you wonderful good morning everyone good

[1:07:00] morning directors ladies and gentlemen thanks for the opportunity to um just

[1:07:06] very briefly uh provide an overview of all the work that was

[1:07:10] undertaken um specifically in in addition to the engagement and

[1:07:15] consultation talks that we heard about earlier um considerable technical

[1:07:20] efforts were also undertaken and these uh relate to

[1:07:24] environment um

[1:07:28] considerations then the land use and transportation evaluation and assessment

[1:07:33] and then based on the transportation options that were identified and option

[1:07:39] assessment of these uh were undertaken as well um next slide please Sor

[1:07:47] they so if we next one please so if we go to environmental considerations there

[1:07:54] three three components firstly natural habitat natural habitat really reviewed

[1:08:01] uh background information to identify potential environmental constraints on

[1:08:06] development based on the natural features of the area and the area was

[1:08:11] defined as the 30 m wide Corridor and then included a a a 1 km bu buffer on

[1:08:18] either side of the rail alignment um so therefore uh identify

[1:08:24] habitats plant and animal species um were identified that could could

[1:08:29] potentially be impacted by development along the corridor next slide

[1:08:36] please as far as remediation is concerned

[1:08:41] um uh remediation guidelines and requirements were identified based on

[1:08:46] Federal and provincial uh guidelines when land uses are proposed and an a

[1:08:52] cost estimate was made um in terms of remediation um it's very high level um

[1:09:00] as you can see in the numbers and they vary quite significantly but physical

[1:09:07] remediation um is is estimated to vary between 175 to

[1:09:12] 300,000 per 100 met section of corridor and then there uh therea further risk

[1:09:20] assessment could also uh increase cost by 95 to 170,000 per 100 meter of a

[1:09:26] corridor the cost variation is based on the extent of the common um the uh

[1:09:33] contamination findings and then also the um land use remediation Target in other

[1:09:40] words whether the target is reverting to Industrial Land versus for example

[1:09:45] industrial land next slide

[1:09:50] please on climate change um the focus was specifically on Wild fires extreme

[1:09:56] heat and flooding uh events um as far as their impacts along the corridor were

[1:10:03] concerned and the opportunities and risks that were uh identified in this

[1:10:08] exercise um really can be summarized as um a corridor can provide a natural

[1:10:15] buffer that can contain wild wildfire and flooding obviously uh a corridor

[1:10:22] provides emergency routing and also a transport route to offer supply chain

[1:10:29] resilience um but a r could also impact the transfer of flood risks and

[1:10:34] obviously Transit operations could also ignite uh cause Sparks and ignite fires

[1:10:41] um that's just um a brief summary of the CL climate change uh

[1:10:46] impacts next slide please so if we move on to uh land use evaluation and

[1:10:53] assessment um as far as land use and transportation was concerned uh the cor

[1:10:59] was split into the five segments as shown on that map um lady Smith chus um

[1:11:05] and then moving further south Duncan being um the the major urban area and

[1:11:11] into the South cobal shikan Lake and further south um the

[1:11:17] malahat um and um for each of these segments um land uses were evaluated

[1:11:24] based on zoning and official Community plans and uh SWAT uh analys was

[1:11:30] undertaken for each segment to uh evaluate um development restrictions the

[1:11:38] availability of land for development um obviously the denif densification

[1:11:43] opportunities in these areas to accommodate increased population an

[1:11:48] important part of the land use assessment was uh undertaking a

[1:11:52] population protection um specifically Al based on the recent Transit Orient

[1:11:57] oriented area legislation higher densities um in catchment areas to

[1:12:04] identify population uh densities that can be be accommodated and really that

[1:12:10] methodology without going into the details just focused in um looking at um

[1:12:17] uh station areas and then looking at uh populations that were within walking

[1:12:23] distance of stations and then in areas further from stations

[1:12:28] populations that would um use private vehicle to access stations um and

[1:12:34] population growth projections um that were used in this exercise were uh the

[1:12:39] projections for 2041 uh next slide

[1:12:45] please so briefly uh from a land use perspective the summary of findings

[1:12:51] really um relate to the fact that the corridor Ms are distinct but they also

[1:12:57] share similarities such as um Urban CES but um definitely rural residential

[1:13:04] areas and then resource and agricultural uses Within These

[1:13:09] segments the cbrd policy framework support uh creating acto Transportation

[1:13:15] networks um and using the rail Corridor for this network and policy Frameworks

[1:13:20] also support the use of transit to encourage a mode shift away from from

[1:13:25] the car in other words using Transit as a catalyst for change um population

[1:13:32] projections Illustrated there is potential for population growth and

[1:13:36] therefore land use change um uh the result of accelerated growth

[1:13:44] in these areas is the fact that core areas uh especially in the urban areas

[1:13:49] along a corridor would certainly see significant densification over time as

[1:13:54] the de velopment of new housing units occurred next slide

[1:13:59] please if we go to the transportation assessment

[1:14:05] um uh again uh Transportation options were based on existing and future land

[1:14:11] uses and a high level analysis was again undertaken from a transportation

[1:14:16] perspective in terms of their strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats in

[1:14:20] these areas and obviously in as Parton par of

[1:14:25] the exercise was to ensure excuse me that future use of the

[1:14:30] corridor needs to be aligned with the goals of the South Island Transportation

[1:14:35] strategy and that refers to improving um uh a connected and integrated

[1:14:41] Transportation Network and addressing travel demand uh promoting alternative

[1:14:45] modes and obviously discouraging the use of private vehicles in essence three

[1:14:50] basic strategies were examined um for use of the corridor door and those

[1:14:55] relate to providing a trail only uh providing a rail only and then

[1:15:01] looking at the opportunities of providing Rail and Trail

[1:15:06] together um next slide please um as we mentioned earlier on um

[1:15:14] the development of a ter propensity model was uh was uh a very important

[1:15:21] component of this exercise due to the over helming interest in uh

[1:15:27] transportation and specific specifically rail

[1:15:31] Transportation um and in essence transport the transit

[1:15:37] propensity model uh was just a model to assess to which extent population growth

[1:15:42] in the CBD could support a a future passenger rail service so um estimating

[1:15:49] ridership to examine the viability of rail service in this regard um

[1:15:55] three population scenarios were considered for the catchment areas of uh

[1:16:01] rail service um and those were just looking at the existing cment population

[1:16:08] a second one looked at uh existing but projected growth population to 2024

[1:16:14] 2024 and then the third um option looked at growth based on the provincial

[1:16:21] Transit oriented areas buildout um

[1:16:29] and as I mentioned earlier St uh station catchment areas incorporate kind of two

[1:16:34] rings of areas the first ring is the uh the ring closest to the station which um

[1:16:41] reflects walking distance to stations and then the lar larger outside ring

[1:16:46] reflecting driving distance distances um to facilitate drop

[1:16:51] off at stations or parking at stations due to the uh proximity and overlap of

[1:16:59] existing stations or station locations in uh the cvrd stations were

[1:17:04] Consolidated into six locations only and then obviously assum assumptions had to

[1:17:11] be made um to use to estimate rail ridership uh in Dem in Peak Peak periods

[1:17:18] and off peak periods of the day as well as assumptions were used to calculate uh

[1:17:23] Service uh requirements to meet that travel demand and that was used to

[1:17:28] calculate the number of trips required and thus um the peak vehicle requirement

[1:17:35] in other words the number of changes required to to to deliver that

[1:17:41] service um next slide please so just with regards to the this

[1:17:48] little model and its assumptions it's um uh a couple that need to be just

[1:17:53] highlighted is first mostly that the rail line remains contiguous and is

[1:17:58] fully developed north and south of the cvd so it's not just a cvrd in

[1:18:04] isolation that trips rail trips reflect round trips over the length of the

[1:18:09] corridor so that would be um south from the CR uh cvrd uh into the capital

[1:18:17] regional district as well as into the comok Valley Regional District in the

[1:18:22] North to the Courtney station that the necessary infrastructure was in place to

[1:18:28] support uh access to rail um and that would include uh Transit service

[1:18:34] integration and the availability of Park and Ride facilities and Mobility hubs

[1:18:39] Etc at station locations and very importantly that um

[1:18:44] transportation connections overall are sufficient for users to reach final

[1:18:50] destinations in other words not to look at um

[1:18:55] uh a rail service in isolation but the connections to other services for Riders

[1:19:02] to be able to finalize and reach their final

[1:19:05] destinations um so this assessment really is a

[1:19:10] statement of the potential ridership and can be used as an input in in in a

[1:19:15] future business case and also a detailed Transportation

[1:19:20] analysis would be required to verify all these assumptions that have been made in

[1:19:25] the model um with regards to trip volumes uh and direction of service and

[1:19:32] destinations and so on the outcome of the model suggests

[1:19:36] that the estimated population growth is sufficient to Warrant a viable service

[1:19:42] and that service was identified as being providing a peak uh service of

[1:19:49] approximately three trips an hour but just bear in mind that it uh as I

[1:19:54] mentioned earlier on this would this takes into account um not only um

[1:19:59] service and demand within the cvrd but the but the corridor as a whole so uh

[1:20:05] the other Regional districts that are adjacent to the cvd as well next slide

[1:20:12] please so requirements for adopting a long-term vision of the corridor um uh

[1:20:19] just need to be identified and just are listed below uh in terms of reserving a

[1:20:25] corridor in its entirety um um and to address the implications where there are

[1:20:31] locations where theity may be impacted um as I mentioned to update travel uh

[1:20:39] characteristics relating to travel demon and trip purpose uh identifying suitable

[1:20:46] uh rail technology to accommodate passenger and or Freight rail because um

[1:20:51] the requirements are um could be uh somewhat different um as far as Urban

[1:20:59] Development is concerned to identify and promote land for higher density use um

[1:21:05] confirming safety standards and service standards for again for passenger

[1:21:10] service versus rail Services because they are certainly different um as I

[1:21:16] mentioned before integrating rail service into an overall

[1:21:20] Transportation Network um so that would for example include

[1:21:25] uh connections to bus and Ferry services for passengers to complete their trips

[1:21:30] to reach their end destinations obviously the updating of

[1:21:35] costs relating to Service uh uh transportation service rail service

[1:21:42] operations but also Transportation infrastructure as well as um Rolling

[1:21:47] Stock and then finally to establish a regional or provincial body

[1:21:52] to oversee the planning implement ation operation of such a

[1:21:58] service um next slide please so based on those assessments um we we identified

[1:22:06] Transportation options next slide please and they are listed in the following

[1:22:11] slide so really five options were identified as we've alluded to before a

[1:22:17] rail only option which looks at preserving the corridor for the future

[1:22:21] introduction of rail a trail only op option which is converting the corridor

[1:22:27] to a multi-use trail for active modes in the short and or long term thirdly um a

[1:22:35] combination side by side if you like of rail and Trail so introducing Trail for

[1:22:40] active mode but enabling um future rail operations in

[1:22:46] the corridor um and the fifth option being

[1:22:50] um other uses or no rail or Trail um which really refer to the reversion

[1:22:58] of land and this considers the remediation of bisected Reserve

[1:23:04] lands um a final not option really but a final consideration

[1:23:10] um uh which should be noted and um and and and discussed as well is looking at

[1:23:18] um the potential of Al providing alternative roots for emergency services

[1:23:23] which was evident in the m area so the assessment of these options

[1:23:29] examined the issues risks and the estimated costs and in the following

[1:23:33] slides we will just highlight um uh the high level findings and the cost so

[1:23:39] first of all next slide please

[1:23:44] s there we go so first option rail only um obviously a continuous rail Corridor

[1:23:51] is required to provide the service um it should just be noted again that within

[1:23:56] the cvrd 4.8 km of the corridor um uh runs in reserve lands

[1:24:05] um and uh a high level analysis of uh reigning rail Corridor around these res

[1:24:13] uh to bypass the reserves um was identified as being challenging due to

[1:24:19] Long diversions um high costs which make include could include tunneling the

[1:24:25] requirement for new Bridges and challenging Urban environments

[1:24:30] especially in developed areas such as Downtown Duncan um so really um uh in

[1:24:38] essence rail alignments around Reserve lands is not really considered feasible

[1:24:44] at this point um and therefore without access or agreements with First Nations

[1:24:50] a rail Corridor or a rail service within the corridor becomes

[1:24:55] unfeasible um with next slide please with regards to rail costs let's first

[1:24:59] look at Capital Capital costs are imp uh are impacted by uh infrastructure

[1:25:06] specifications in terms of the rail line itself um technical details are provided

[1:25:13] in uh our report um as well as what is included and excluded such as um Rolling

[1:25:20] Stock Does it include a commuter service versus an intert uh inter service City

[1:25:25] inter city service I be p as well as some of the the cost um uh um

[1:25:35] estimations included uh the parks so to Port Al Bernie section as well so this

[1:25:40] graph just shows in blue um how the cost for from different studies varied

[1:25:47] um uh and so if one looks at the cost per kilometer uh which is shown in red

[1:25:53] one could see it varies all the way from 1.5 um uh

[1:26:00] 1.5 to 4.1 as a cost per

[1:26:05] kilometer um in millions um and these are estimated from various studies and

[1:26:11] the final column shows uh the estimate that was made for this um study the uh

[1:26:18] cvd and it's a the high it's a high level estimate for for specifically for

[1:26:23] commu terrain so we are capital cost is just in the or just

[1:26:30] below a billion dollars um for the

[1:26:33] cvd um if we move on to the next slide please that shows uh a little bit of

[1:26:39] information on uh once the once a rail line is established obviously uh

[1:26:45] operating cost and uh is incurred as well so this graph shows in blue shows

[1:26:51] the revenue from fairs and a a revenue of $15 per um per per ride is

[1:26:59] assumed the red bars show the operating cost for the different levels of service

[1:27:04] uh based on population for the three scenarios that were undertaken and then

[1:27:10] the yellow shows the shortfall and that really is the subsidy that's required to

[1:27:15] cover the uh difference um uh in in in the in the revenue and the

[1:27:22] cost and obviously oper cost depends on service provision such as the

[1:27:27] frequencies and the extent of um uh the service and the times of operation and

[1:27:33] so on but it does show that um uh that uh uh beyond the capital cost there is a

[1:27:41] annual uh additional cost uh despite the income of through fars um to cover the

[1:27:49] shortfall between operating cost and um fair fair generation

[1:27:56] um next slide please um the next option looked at Trail only and again the

[1:28:02] capital cost for this was estimated at 55 million and this was based on uh

[1:28:09] approximately at 25 as 25% uh asphal surfacing of the corridor

[1:28:16] uh of the total length but that also then included in uh the vertical uh

[1:28:22] raising the vertical elevation for two Bridges um for 16 Bridges um uh railing

[1:28:29] and decking improvements and falling uh Rock mitigations in the malat area and

[1:28:35] again uh Beyond Capital cost there is a maintenance cost fortunately a low

[1:28:40] number but estimated at three of uh 3 million per year um with regards to soil

[1:28:49] Remediation in this option of Trail only um no soil remed mediation is required

[1:28:55] if the rail is if the trail is built on the existing rail bed um if for uh

[1:29:02] whichever reason um remediation of the corridor within the

[1:29:08] cvrd uh would be required that cost would vary uh quite significantly

[1:29:14] between 76 and 255 million depending on um the low or high estimate of

[1:29:22] remediation and then obviously as we mentioned earlier on land use

[1:29:27] designation remediation of cvrd Reserve lands however is uh pegged at between 9

[1:29:34] and 15 million so that would be the 4.8 kilm of um Reserve Land that are

[1:29:40] impacted within the cvd area next slide please third option uh looked at Rail

[1:29:48] and Trail uh the the construction cost for this option is higher than Trail

[1:29:54] only because the railway remains officially active and it requires

[1:29:58] maintenance of tracks and trestles the provision as the picture shows of a

[1:30:03] safety fence between the rail alignment and the trail and obviously safety

[1:30:08] improvements at rail crossings to meet um transport can standards

[1:30:16] um and then um it should also be noted when rail service is introduced that uh

[1:30:22] Crossings uh would have to be addressed in terms of improving uh Crossings for

[1:30:28] active modes uh and that's that's roughly at 16 Crossings in in in the

[1:30:34] area um the trail cost uh in uh was based uh in in this option was based on

[1:30:42] the cost incurred in uh the enn trail in Victoria Langford uh which was at 2.1

[1:30:50] million per kilometer which is significantly more than the .6 million

[1:30:55] per kilometer for the trail only option the cvd cost for Rail and Trail would be

[1:31:02] in the order of 129 million so next slide please um in the

[1:31:09] interest of time is just a summary of the four options um uh that we have

[1:31:15] spoken about um just showing what uh what they are and then showing when they

[1:31:22] are implemented as specifically with regards to rail and Trail and then um in

[1:31:28] the in the case of rail and Trail together but just a summary slide which

[1:31:32] is part of um I believe your handout um next slide

[1:31:41] please as we mentioned earlier on emergency access uh um and specifically

[1:31:47] alternative rooting for emergency services not re uh an option per se but

[1:31:52] a consideration for the various segments as we mentioned malahat is often

[1:31:57] congested and suffers from accidents and closures and delays um there certainly

[1:32:03] are limited traffic alternatives to the Mal hat and in fact the mot did

[1:32:09] undertake a study a couple of years ago to consider root Alternatives which are

[1:32:15] depicted um in this uh diagram um and the Alternatives excluded the RO

[1:32:22] Corridor um these Alternatives were identified but not pursued any further

[1:32:28] so just um a note on

[1:32:33] that um so if uh next slide please so just a summary of the options assessment

[1:32:40] uh just to bring this all together um is first of all in the Rail options first

[1:32:46] we would require um an agreement with First Nations to access the RO Corridor

[1:32:52] um and there specific Pacific Reserve lands 4.8 km to in order to provide a

[1:32:58] continuous Corridor um and uh a rail only option would

[1:33:04] obviously um preclude uh potential emergency access to alternatives on the

[1:33:09] Malad trail trail only option obviously precludes rail in the future

[1:33:17] and the cost assume that construction won't require soil

[1:33:21] remediation um in the case of Trail only if it weren't a continuous route that

[1:33:28] could be overcome by diversion onto thejason Street

[1:33:33] Network for Rail and Trail this is the highest cop uh option um in terms of uh

[1:33:41] Trail provision due to the requirement of the trail adjacent to the rail line

[1:33:47] um preserving the opportunity for future rail when when a business case can be

[1:33:52] made and funding can be secured and then finally other uses or land

[1:33:57] rsion that means in essence means a change in the land use and the soiled

[1:34:02] mediation costs for Reserve lands in the cvrd

[1:34:07] um so that really is a summary of um what what what our uh um options

[1:34:16] assessment um uh provided us so if we move on in conclusion

[1:34:24] bringing this all together the next steps um really uh for this project as a

[1:34:29] whole can be summarized in the following Four Points um first of all to review

[1:34:35] the interest in the potential of uh reestablishing the rail service

[1:34:39] obviously in the longer term and in collaboration with land owners um

[1:34:44] reviewing the feasibility of expanding the trail Network to accommodate active

[1:34:49] modes in the short term undertaking transportation study to

[1:34:54] look at the provision of alternative loots um to Highway one for emergency

[1:35:00] services Services particularly in the Maad section and um finally engaging in

[1:35:08] uh ongoing an additional collaboration to arrive at an overall shared Vision

[1:35:14] that is supported by all that brings me to the end of uh my presentation thank

[1:35:21] you

[1:35:24] thanks everyone for your patience read the number of

[1:35:29] slides great thank you for the for the presentations I have a request um to

[1:35:34] take a five minute break for the the board before we jump into questions if

[1:35:38] that works for everyone all right so we'll um resume

[1:35:43] the meeting at uh I've never been above

[1:35:50] 160 this is the heaviest as long as I feel good

[1:35:57] running how are they spicy nice none of my clothes are though

[1:36:35] all right we'll now resume our committee the whole whole meeting and we're at uh

[1:36:39] questions for our presenters with regards to the Island Rail Corridor

[1:36:43] visioning exercise so I'm going to turn first to uh director

[1:36:49] Wilson thank you chair yeah and um I I've got to say um I

[1:36:55] sorry director WS can you press the button again I'm having a bit of trouble

[1:36:57] here apologies there continue there we go I got to stop doing that okay thank

[1:37:02] you very much um I Love Trains I think they're brilliant um and I would love to

[1:37:07] be able to to bring something like this back again I mean my my kids and my

[1:37:12] grandkids don't believe that growing up I traveled on steam trains diesel trains

[1:37:17] and all the rest of it just to get backwards and forwards but on a local

[1:37:20] level I have traveled before it was shut down on this particular one from uh all

[1:37:26] the way from Sheamus to to um to Victoria and it really is the most

[1:37:31] amazing trip um that I've ever taken it was beautiful and and I would hate to

[1:37:36] see it disappear but when I look at the costs it more than a sharp intake of of

[1:37:44] breath here um and I but I would like to bring it back again I do believe it is

[1:37:50] the future because previous experience in the UK before we came to Canada a lot

[1:37:56] of the branch lines were shut down uh in order to um save costs and yet 10 or 15

[1:38:03] years later they had to bring them back again because of their usefulness I

[1:38:09] would love to see this brought back again uh so the question is on terms on

[1:38:14] terms of costs how is that going to be financed and what impact would that have

[1:38:20] for instance on the cvrd um on our taxpayers or having to go

[1:38:25] to short-term borrowing there has to be an impact is there any study on that

[1:38:29] particular one thank

[1:38:32] you s you want to take this

[1:38:39] one thanks very much for the question I guess I should pass this to youran

[1:38:44] please thanks um thank you for the question Vaga question um because that

[1:38:49] is always um when one goes through these exercises

[1:38:53] um that final question that has to be resolved to answer your question um no

[1:39:00] no study has been undertaken as to how this would be funded and obviously that

[1:39:06] would have that is an exercise in itself because I think the important part of

[1:39:11] this is to say okay um if one were to implement something like this um who are

[1:39:18] all the funding Partners obviously uh provincial government local government

[1:39:24] uh federal government and uh the the the CBD as well and I think it's an

[1:39:30] important question to have an answer uh to pass on to residents of the cvrd so

[1:39:37] that uh they are aware of of what that cost implication would be for

[1:39:44] them course yeah if I could um follow up yeah and and this is one of the most

[1:39:51] important ones it it don't get me wrong we need something like this there's no

[1:39:55] two ways about it but I would much rather know or even

[1:40:00] have a very rough figure of what it's going to cost me before any more Studies

[1:40:04] have been going on the reason here is that the studies have been going on how

[1:40:09] long 5 10 years or something like that and we're still no further forward let's

[1:40:13] get some numbers if we can please thank you next I have uh director

[1:40:20] mcgonagal thank you first of all thank you very much for a very wholesome

[1:40:26] presentation uh I think we all accept the value of the island Corridor not

[1:40:31] only within our regional district but up and down uh the corridor line I I look

[1:40:37] historically at the branch line to the West couchin area and the way it was

[1:40:41] utilized industrially and how it has transformed into a Transportation uh an

[1:40:47] alternative transportation Hub currently which has engaged in tourism

[1:40:54] opportunities economic opportunities in the west cchan area so I do see the

[1:40:59] value in in rail to Trail but also looking back historically at the

[1:41:04] adjacent lands for instance that were accommodated within the propriety of

[1:41:09] providing rail service how quickly that Island Corridor would be reinitiated

[1:41:15] should those lands be reinstated into other options that's just a comment uh

[1:41:22] for a question not uh perhaps to you but perhaps to our

[1:41:27] staff you mentioned uh subsidies within your report of per ridership I believe

[1:41:33] it was a $6 negative subsidy it would be interesting to see the comparative

[1:41:38] between what is currently subsidized in ridership in transit as toose opposed to

[1:41:44] those projections just so that we had an idea of of how that could be implicated

[1:41:51] within budget discussions we know that any service that we to provide whether

[1:41:56] it be Recreation whether it be Transportation Transit are slightly

[1:42:01] subsidized uh by by taxation so it would be interesting to know the comparatives

[1:42:06] in that thank you very

[1:42:09] much so Lee would you like to respond to

[1:42:15] that okay par me did you ask me I think the question was more to to staff yes

[1:42:26] yeah director mical indicated he can also follow up

[1:42:30] offline it's noted okay I'll move on to the next speaker uh director

[1:42:36] Morrison thank you chair um so I want to to thank stantech and and modus a very

[1:42:43] thorough report uh I got to be noted on time and on budget so that's pretty

[1:42:51] exciting and uh I I'm just thrilled that uh our staff and and and our Consultants

[1:42:58] were able to actually do the work uh quite successfully within the original

[1:43:05] time frame that the province wanted the work done and uh so we're actually done

[1:43:11] leaders of the pack and the other organizations that uh must be doing that

[1:43:16] work well I I think Al Bernie clat is is very close to to completion as well so

[1:43:21] uh good on them as well uh I I have to say I'm I'm an internal Optimist when it

[1:43:27] comes to the you know what a huge asset this is and and I I just think of you

[1:43:33] know in regards to what director Wilson had just said um I wasn't it just this

[1:43:38] week that the federal government announced that they're going to do

[1:43:41] high-speed rail from Quebec City to Toronto and and they don't have like the

[1:43:46] lands and and they don't have the Assembly of what's required they have

[1:43:50] some of it um huge multi billion doll project for that area yes they've got

[1:43:56] the population uh different scenario but you know I think what what we're facing

[1:44:01] with the island Corridor in this area is is almost as complex as cbrd budgeting

[1:44:07] it's it's a really there's so many variables in this but being that

[1:44:12] internal Optimist you know the question was asked how much is this going to cost

[1:44:18] and we had somebody stand up during public input and say when I hear the

[1:44:22] word expensive in a report I want to challenge it and and I I too think of

[1:44:27] that what is the cost to not do some of these things that are are suggested in

[1:44:34] the report whether it's reestablishment of rail or Rail and Trail and the likes

[1:44:38] and and why I'm an optimist is that you know you just look back as to what

[1:44:44] happened with Sky Train when when that was announced people were selling their

[1:44:49] properties near potential Sky train stations for you know you know Pennies

[1:44:53] on the dollars and the developers came along bought them up now there's

[1:44:57] highrises all the way around all all around the the sky train stations and

[1:45:02] there's been huge economic and social Improvement in those areas as a result

[1:45:06] of a transportation and Logistics Improvement and I see that potential for

[1:45:12] the island Corridor whether it's it's aiding and food security you know we

[1:45:18] grow stuff in this region we should be able to consolidate process and ship it

[1:45:23] off to other areas and if we're looking at the future and high cost of

[1:45:28] Transportation rails got to be part of that equation at least from where I sit

[1:45:33] um I I know that our friends in alurn kwat are feeling really fortunate that

[1:45:39] they've got that rail line there and that they can they can look to the

[1:45:43] Future for deep sea port activities and the and the tourism potential that with

[1:45:49] their train that they have there so I'll I'll

[1:45:53] pretty much I'll stop there and say that you know whether whether we go to

[1:45:58] residential development along the the the corridor or light industrial

[1:46:03] industrial there's huge potential in a Consolidated and maintained Corridor and

[1:46:11] uh I I hope that we can move in that direction at some point but I think this

[1:46:15] this report is a great Foundation leaves us some more questions to ask but I I

[1:46:20] want to thank the consultants and our staff for doing such a fine job thank

[1:46:24] you I next have uh director Duncan uh thank you yeah and thank you

[1:46:29] for the report in the past I was uh the city of Duncan representative to the ICF

[1:46:35] uh consultations and one of the things I noticed in the report was rail crossings

[1:46:40] and that sort of twigged on to my memory uh in the past that there there was

[1:46:44] approximately 200 rail crossings and the cost to upgrade each one was about

[1:46:50] 200,000 I didn't see any sort of numbers around that in this report so can you

[1:46:54] confirm how many rail crossings there are and who's actually responsible to

[1:47:00] pay for the upgrade of those is it each

[1:47:06] municipality Yan maybe I can help answer this question as a rail yes so a lot of

[1:47:12] these rail crossings are existing I don't have the actual count uh on my

[1:47:17] head of course we have listed that in our uh first presentation and also uh R

[1:47:22] report and those costs were already covered in

[1:47:27] the W speed report in 2020 and as a part of the upgrade cost which were separated

[1:47:33] out into three different phases uh initial phase intermediate and ultimate

[1:47:37] phase all of these costs were accommodated of course the cost that wsp

[1:47:42] prepared in 2020 uh was 5 years old of course we try to you know scale them up

[1:47:48] and uh come up with more accurate estimate but a lot of those Crossings if

[1:47:54] we just explore them on googlers they already have active warning system which

[1:47:59] means flashing lights bells and some of them they have Gates as well like a lot

[1:48:04] of them are already fully equipped but uh when I was talking to ICF uh some of

[1:48:09] them were not fully in service due to like uh protection protecting the asset

[1:48:14] so there's going to be some cost for having them activated and as you guys

[1:48:18] are fully aware uh Transport Canada guideline and Transport Canada bre

[1:48:22] ulations are in effect Since U uh 2014 and uh there's a lot of existing

[1:48:29] agreement between Railway Authority and the municipality on the cost sharing uh

[1:48:35] on maintenance fees so a lot of them are existing they need to be assessed and uh

[1:48:41] there's a full report I believe completed by Bonds on Crossing

[1:48:45] assessment and cost available as well but the costs have to be scaled by I

[1:48:50] hope that answered the question

[1:48:55] I follow up director Duncan no do I push all right okay I'll move on now to

[1:49:00] director

[1:49:05] Nicholson press one more

[1:49:10] time okay go for it thank you thank you for the report

[1:49:15] um yeah like I've been waiting for to be able to commute to Victoria

[1:49:20] for my whole career 40 years and then the last at least for the last

[1:49:26] 20 the the corridor has not been used for anything and so I try and walk along

[1:49:33] it but I fall into holes and it's fairly dangerous so I'm thinking about

[1:49:38] timelines here and I recognize when I read this report that really this is a

[1:49:44] lot to do with First Nations so we don't have a um so we will be waiting for a

[1:49:50] while while that whole situation get sorted out one way or the

[1:49:54] other and so I guess what I'm wondering um in several replaces the

[1:50:01] report states that lifting the rail and putting a trail on the rail bed would

[1:50:06] preclude the return of rail in the future so I thought perhaps an option

[1:50:11] might have been that um you do a a trail beside the rail a rail trail beside the

[1:50:17] rail where you could and then use the trail the rail when you can't do that

[1:50:22] for for example through bright angel Park You couldn't possibly have a a

[1:50:26] trail beside the rail there as as an interm thing which led me to think about

[1:50:31] well what is what is what kind of a a time frame are we talking about and I

[1:50:35] found the report a little bit unclear on that front so you talk about short to

[1:50:39] medium um and I'm wondering what short to medium means is that 10 to 15 50

[1:50:44] years or like another two two working Generations or how much is that

[1:50:57] s thanks very much for the question truly appreciate it I I should pass this

[1:51:00] to your hand please um it's it's difficult to

[1:51:06] actually um determine exactly what is short medium and long term in in in in

[1:51:12] the sense of this report um the long term as far as this report is concerned

[1:51:18] is some point in the future when a rail line uh potentially can be uh

[1:51:24] reinstituted so um uh shortterm and medium term be

[1:51:30] derivatives of that in terms of perhaps being shortterm within the next 10 uh

[1:51:38] roughly 10 to 15 years maybe and the medium term beyond that I think at this

[1:51:44] point that's probably the closest we can get to uh defining those uh uh time

[1:51:50] periods thanks youran I can also add on top of that as an engineer that you know

[1:51:56] to have a good estimate we have to have a design and of course on the design we

[1:52:01] usually have the first phase which is conceptual feasibility study we're going

[1:52:05] to have like at least horizontal alignment and we can have like let's say

[1:52:10] class D cost estimate and then we can definitely spend more time do a detailed

[1:52:14] design and come up with accurate timeline and cost estimate so in order

[1:52:18] to have a very robust uh not even highly robust B just just a very kind of

[1:52:24] reliable time Horizon a conceptual design drawing across the corridor is

[1:52:32] required I hope that answerers the question thank you follow up thank you

[1:52:37] well I guess I I mean I just from my perspective it the question is really

[1:52:41] about um are we prepared to wait another 50 years for potentially rail to happen

[1:52:48] or could we make the the the corridor a little bit more useful than it is right

[1:52:52] now um yeah right I'll now move on to director

[1:52:59] mclinton thank you chair um a few comments before

[1:53:03] my question um yeah if I had a magic wand I'd

[1:53:07] probably like to see rail uh put in I think it offers the most options for the

[1:53:13] most amount of people um you know somebody that drove from Victoria to

[1:53:18] coox for work in my early 30s that uh yeah I think there' be a big benefit

[1:53:24] there but I was listening to the report you know I just was struck by

[1:53:32] first just visually seeing the our Colonial history of I forget the number

[1:53:38] maybe three or four Indian reserves where we cut through the the land and

[1:53:43] just uh just a quick personal anecdote my my son his his grandmother is a

[1:53:49] jibway and his grandfather is the rer AR chief of the quaca band alert Bay and

[1:53:57] the jju nation has tremendous treaty rights um and quaca they're in stage

[1:54:03] four and the the the jux the position just couldn't be more hu bigger and and

[1:54:11] you know so he obviously he when he had the option that's when he took his

[1:54:16] status that's he went with the jibway and you know we see I think it was said

[1:54:22] I the full report there's two Nations or sorry two reserves that that don't they

[1:54:28] want their land back and so I mean we're pontificating about what we

[1:54:34] want to do with this Corridor I mean perhaps there's a section from Victoria

[1:54:38] to shaigan or something along those lines but I mean the recommendation that

[1:54:44] we proceede I mean I guess this gets to my question um I mean without the

[1:54:49] province sitting at the table either coming up with comp ation or

[1:54:54] rerouting um you know unless they weren't 100% clear that they want their

[1:55:00] land back I mean how can we possibly proceed with anything I mean it's I I

[1:55:07] just I I had a hard time listening after I heard that there's there's sort of two

[1:55:13] Nations or two reserves for sure and then I I wasn't quite sure where we

[1:55:16] landed with the stanus and the lady Smith where they just got the the land

[1:55:20] transfer for the harbor so anyways my question is

[1:55:25] um what is your understanding of those two Parcels of land or three I for

[1:55:33] whatever it is that cut through the the Indian reserves um and and then how can

[1:55:38] we you know how can we possibly move forward lindsy do you want to take this

[1:55:48] one thank you for the question um so coin tribes is has bisected Reserve

[1:55:55] lands in two areas and cin your right has been clear that they would like

[1:56:00] those Reserve lands returned and that they do not want to have a

[1:56:03] transportation use in the future in that area we looked at whether or not there

[1:56:09] could be rerouting can you go below over around I mean we Transportation routes

[1:56:18] can be rerouted again it comes back to cost

[1:56:23] um Halal is the other nation that has bisected Reserve lands and would like

[1:56:30] the land returned they were not

[1:56:34] as decided when it comes to the potential future use they were

[1:56:38] interested in options and in the same way that a rail would impact their

[1:56:44] Reserve by going through it for safety and other reasons they have the highway

[1:56:49] passing through it and causing other issues of its own as a result of the

[1:56:53] truck traffic so they're interested in understanding potential Transportation

[1:56:59] options um in terms of CCH and tribes we only know what they've shared

[1:57:04] with us and and I can't really comment on whether or not they might change

[1:57:09] their position at some point in the future but that's what we understand

[1:57:17] today hook me up thanks chair um you

[1:57:24] know yeah this is this is It's a challenging situation um

[1:57:31] until in my so first I just want to say and this is with all due respect to to

[1:57:35] director Nicholson um but they you me waiting 40 years for rail I I mean these

[1:57:41] folks on the in new Reserve been waiting you know Generations right and I mean

[1:57:49] until I hear that they're open into communication or that we have a tangible

[1:57:55] way to re-root this rail I mean or or there's some way that is going to

[1:58:02] accommodate this I have a I have a I'm very uncomfortable moving forward with

[1:58:05] these sorts of conversations I think it undermines their

[1:58:10] treaties doesn't undermine I I think it's disrespectful and I think that

[1:58:15] those that needs to be resolved first and foremost before we have a

[1:58:18] conversation about Crossings

[1:58:22] Trail whatever it might be so anyways that's a comment not a

[1:58:27] question director mcki thank you uh so I I think I'm most closely

[1:58:34] sort of jumping off the point that uh director Nicholson was making

[1:58:40] um and without coming right out and saying I

[1:58:45] don't necessarily support rail I'm going to ask a

[1:58:49] question um cuz I don't know if I supported or not but in the meantime as

[1:58:53] we're waiting to sort out funding as we're waiting to sort out the Reserve

[1:58:58] Land question as we're waiting to find out if

[1:59:02] north and south of Us wish to C on board and make it Contin contiguous as we've

[1:59:08] already learned it's not any use to us if it's not contiguous through as far as

[1:59:13] it can go and make it useful it's lots of it it's about Victoria as we're

[1:59:19] waiting for all of that maybe 50 years there must be chunks of rail in

[1:59:25] existence with sufficient distance that don't involve any critical

[1:59:32] infrastructure that don't involve any expensive repair that we could

[1:59:37] certainly investigate throwing down some good gravel and creating a cap on it for

[1:59:44] it to be used as active transportation in the meantime I'm not talking about a

[1:59:51] 30 m chunk of it I'm talking about substantial lengths of trail that could

[1:59:56] be used over the next 50 years we don't even have to pull them up we could just

[2:00:02] cap it and use it in the meantime as the rest of this stuff is being sorted

[2:00:07] out I feel like we are doing ourselves a disservice and I don't buy the fact that

[2:00:12] we can't use it for trail as we wait can we make better use of this

[2:00:20] active trans active trans transportation is a critical part of the

[2:00:26] what the work we're trying to do in our communities let's address that in the

[2:00:31] next 50 years as we're waiting for rail thank

[2:00:35] you I'm going to turn to our CEO

[2:00:48] We There You Go takes a second thank you um I just wanted to uh go back to the

[2:00:53] the previous comments about the um uh land reversion process and just remind

[2:01:02] the um the committee that uh this board has uh

[2:01:07] supported um in a resolution uh to support the land reversion process as

[2:01:12] did the ICF board um and so we also received Direction recently from from

[2:01:18] this board to write a letter to the provincial government which we're

[2:01:21] working on at the moment to um continue to support the ICF to facilitate the

[2:01:26] knitting together of the shared visioning work because arguably we've

[2:01:30] just looked at the boundaries of of this Regional District and and been

[2:01:33] communicating with the Nations within this Regional District but the corridor

[2:01:37] is a contiguous piece of land that um needs coordination amongst Regional

[2:01:42] districts on the island and that uh that letter that advocacy letter is going to

[2:01:46] request resources to support that continued work uh we just have a role to

[2:01:51] play in it but it needs to be facilitated so I just wanted to remind

[2:01:54] that that there's a lot more conversation to come and there's a lot

[2:01:57] more work as well and it and it and it won't be uh a quick project it will go

[2:02:02] on for a very long time

[2:02:05] yeah director

[2:02:09] Calo don't touch

[2:02:15] it a thank

[2:02:19] you um I'm just going to say it's a great report and when I was reading this

[2:02:23] at home on my computer uh I I actually quite enjoyed it and you know traveling

[2:02:28] in Europe and even some parts of the United States using the rail systems

[2:02:32] down there I mean we could take a uh a a good page out of their book I mean

[2:02:38] traveling around Europe is just so easy to uh in England even in England um they

[2:02:44] uh have a great rail system there and it just it just takes so many people off of

[2:02:50] the road there's just so many people over there so many off the road and you

[2:02:53] know we we're not the point where we're very heavily populated on the island

[2:02:59] right now it's mostly empty territory but um for

[2:03:04] me I I'm in agreement with um director mclinton is that um this seems like a

[2:03:12] non-starter because we we need to figure out what we're going to do with the

[2:03:17] First Nations that um have cut this uh rail line into

[2:03:22] chunks and you know I and I agree with director mclinton also in that you know

[2:03:29] we have to have respect for the First Nations and the fact that uh this land

[2:03:34] was taken from them but so for me I think what we need to do is figure out

[2:03:41] how what's what's the next step forward to uh you know make this a

[2:03:48] continuous line otherwise I just don't see you know how it can possibly afford

[2:03:54] as a as a trail line that makes sense to me uh you know I I'm in complete support

[2:04:01] of having the island Corridor go forward but looking at the intersections that

[2:04:06] have been created in the line it seems that um that's something that needs to

[2:04:12] be solved as soon as possible and my question is what is the potential to

[2:04:17] negotiate with the tribes and Nations involved to maybe get an agreement with

[2:04:24] them to actually uh put this line together turn this off

[2:04:34] now follow followup somebody say followup okay uh director

[2:04:41] Morrison uh thank you chair uh I I'm wanted to sort of paint a little bit of

[2:04:48] context here in that um this report is what's been uh prepared and presented on

[2:04:57] the basis of what the province came to us and

[2:05:00] said uh take this money and go out and uh create the that shared vision and our

[2:05:08] our staff and our Consultants have have done that and I think it's a a pretty

[2:05:12] exhaustive report for for directors that that have the concern about the uh first

[2:05:20] nation's land I share that concern and and if you're not aware all across this

[2:05:26] country our federal government has had policy in the past of dividing reserves

[2:05:32] whether it be with Trail or with uh Rail lines or roads it's uh there's actually

[2:05:39] a really good book written on it um so we are dealing with issues that were you

[2:05:46] know created decades ago uh this report

[2:05:50] though and and our CAO has has reiterated the fact that not only does

[2:05:55] this board support reversion which is landback the island Corridor Foundation

[2:06:01] supports that as well so this is a a document that is saying okay for our

[2:06:07] region we're at at at this point um this is what we've got and we're waiting for

[2:06:14] the other organizations that have been funded as well to come up with that

[2:06:19] vision for their region and I have to say that the nations are engaged in this

[2:06:25] to the extent they can and the capacity they have to participate and do it

[2:06:29] because they were also funded and asked the same question as well I think the

[2:06:34] the big point the big takeaway from this and it hasn't been mentioned a lot we

[2:06:38] talk about going back to the province for their Direction and funding but at

[2:06:43] the end of the day it's going to be the federal government that is going to be

[2:06:47] the big decision maker in this uh what they will be doing with uh First Nations

[2:06:52] and their Reserve lands and what they will be doing around funding major

[2:06:57] transportation projects like this may be similar to the one that they spoke about

[2:07:02] in Quebec City to Toronto so it's that's where the main emphasis should lie is

[2:07:09] what will the federal government ultim ultimately be doing and right now

[2:07:13] they're not even at the table so I think I I was going to move the recommended

[2:07:19] resolution because I think that sort of puts a bow on the work that we've been

[2:07:24] asked to do and I think it's been completed in a in a very satisfactory

[2:07:29] way so I would move that recommendation so it's moved is there a second or

[2:07:33] seconded and just to be clear to the committee so the the wording is that we

[2:07:38] accept the report so by accepting the report doesn't mean you necessarily

[2:07:42] agree with all the findings but it's um we need this motion passed um as part of

[2:07:47] the uh the process in terms of this Grant from the government we have a

[2:07:52] March 31st deadline that we're working towards okay so it's move second it's on

[2:07:56] the floor next I've got um director aach and then I'd like to jump in

[2:08:03] myself thank you chair um just really quick because the uh person who's a

[2:08:09] little bit obsessed with bikes um I first want to acknowledge I definitely

[2:08:14] appreciate director mcclinton's point and that's why I

[2:08:17] think uh with the important thoughts he was sharing why it's really important to

[2:08:23] reflect on director makai's points of we have important things we have to wait on

[2:08:28] and work on but every we just keep kicking the ball down the field without

[2:08:34] meaningfully trying to score a goal on the lwh hanging fruit that is keep going

[2:08:39] hard on shortterm usage of the rail but primarily keep on the great work we're

[2:08:44] doing with rail the trail and I in the report I didn't like that it's it

[2:08:48] competes the two against each other like we can do both where it's necessary um I

[2:08:55] think of my route when I do all my cbrd commutes by bike how transformative

[2:09:00] would be when I get to bonsel Creek to be able to hop on the enn it would bring

[2:09:05] me directly to this building yet I have to do a maze of tricky Maneuvers and uh

[2:09:11] there's little old uh Trans Canada Highway Crossings I have to do it would

[2:09:16] be pretty amazing and then the reason I reflect on that is um while we don't

[2:09:21] have the population density where we have it we should be focusing on the

[2:09:25] rails uh with trails and Paving them and doing them properly cuz I usually

[2:09:31] typically I ride three to four times in the Victoria area specifically because

[2:09:35] of their rail system um just as an example one converted Railway Trestle

[2:09:40] yesterday had nearly 3,000 people cross it in one day on their system and being

[2:09:46] that when you build that system uh in of course dense

[2:09:52] population uh but Victoria in 20 2022 their stats were that 43% of the

[2:09:59] population daily chooses not to drive it's all active

[2:10:03] Transportation but back to my point of rail not making it against each other I

[2:10:08] mean goodness I it's a chore uh in the summer months one to two times three

[2:10:13] times a month I ride all the way from shanus to Victoria on my bike man it

[2:10:17] would be amazing when I'm exhausted there to put my bike on a train and come

[2:10:21] back back on it um so train is Transit all in as much as we can do as uh

[2:10:27] director kellyo said um you know trains are amazing as such that Transit but

[2:10:31] then also what uh director uh micle said is interesting like what is the level of

[2:10:38] subsidy that we're putting into it as a per user on a tax rate and how what is

[2:10:45] the ROI on that subsidy if that's invested

[2:10:49] into uh adding four more buses a day on the Victoria Express on uh you know at

[2:10:57] building the rail the rail the trails where uh the lwh hanging fruit

[2:11:01] possibilities are that director McKay said so lots of good discussion there I

[2:11:05] just wanted to share just a quick little bit of input as someone who rides a bike

[2:11:09] every day when I can and I I don't do it right now this time of year weather

[2:11:14] isn't an issue but there's no shoulders no safe ways from shanus to here in the

[2:11:18] winter in the dark where there's no shoulder

[2:11:22] and if we had a safe route I think even more people would be doing it um we're

[2:11:27] going to see later in the issues there showing where the success of rails and

[2:11:32] trails is is in lady Smith the shanus it's transformed the relationship

[2:11:37] between those communities and been a uh really good part to seeing you know

[2:11:44] we've got a really good successful business in Sal that benefits from that

[2:11:47] as well so it connects those communities and you'll see in the upcoming report if

[2:11:52] you break down the rails the trail stats on the counter on the rail the trail

[2:11:56] there that's 1466 people a day in shanus to the shanus to Lady Smith route

[2:12:03] 1466 you know grain of salt that might be out and backs so even at that you're

[2:12:08] seeing 700 plus users per day using the rail the trail there so it's just saying

[2:12:14] just I don't like the idea of their competing uses but really wanted to be

[2:12:17] open to like what can we do right now and of course that was reflected in both

[2:12:22] north couch and master Transportation plan and also reflected in the uh cvr's

[2:12:28] recent active Transportation survey and Report uh plan that was

[2:12:32] finalized thanks for the time to share those

[2:12:35] thoughts all right I've got a uh question some comments and I'm going to

[2:12:39] turn to director McClinton and perhaps we can then then call the question uh Ju

[2:12:43] Just want to build on the the comments from director McKai about some of the

[2:12:48] the lower cost options in terms of laying gravel beside the existing rail

[2:12:53] tracks for walking and cycling paths and wondering if the uh presenters and

[2:12:57] perhaps even uh the CEO of the island corter Foundation might be able to speak

[2:13:01] to any recent examples of that that um that you could elaborate on in terms

[2:13:07] of uh again lower cost options to further active transportation

[2:13:22] Mr B's coming up then perhaps s you could speak to this after as

[2:13:31] well thank you board and chair uh it's great to be here again and eching uh uh

[2:13:37] hats off to the consultant and staff team really incredible work that just

[2:13:41] shows the complexity uh that we're dealing with and uh we need to continue

[2:13:46] stepping forward work walking hand inand with the Nations uh to find uh really

[2:13:52] strong uh solutions that we all benefit from and uh feel uh that uh we can uh

[2:13:58] put our heart and soul into with respect to short-term uh items uh couldn't agree

[2:14:04] more and we're having some real great progress in other areas uh on this uh

[2:14:08] where it makes sense Qualicum Beach in particular has been a leader where uh

[2:14:13] through some ditching work and uh uh gradeall work that we had to do anyways

[2:14:18] this year uh qualum uh Town put in another $10,000 and we

[2:14:23] were able to do almost a kilometer of uh I wouldn't quite call it a AAA multiuse

[2:14:29] facility but it's definitely uh you're not stuck in the brambles anymore and if

[2:14:34] you have a half decent mountain bike um not everyone does but uh something with

[2:14:40] some pretty good tires you can now Traverse uh on the corridor instead of

[2:14:45] going on Fern Road and that's tremendous we're also uh going to be launching

[2:14:50] something on Earth Day in Nimo uh where there's a real pinch point to get to a

[2:14:55] school in Chinatown in the South End there and the City of Nimo is going to

[2:15:01] be contributing uh to get a rough path to connect that school uh which is

[2:15:06] already traversed very heavily Every Morning by kids and we're trying to push

[2:15:11] that back uh in a in a more uh Safe Way and yeah low hanging fruit it's not uh

[2:15:17] as good as the iann trail in Victoria we would love to see that everywhere but

[2:15:23] that's going to be big dollars and um whether or not that can happen in uh the

[2:15:28] medium term or not has so many factors at play with the nations with the other

[2:15:33] memberships and maybe maybe not but I'd say for short-term items uh let's put

[2:15:38] some love into the corridor great thanks Mr bevon and I'll

[2:15:42] turn SLE anything to add to

[2:15:46] that or Johan yes thank you very much um yeah I I would like to add to that um I

[2:15:53] think well well first of all the the the the work that has been done uh certainly

[2:15:59] did not go to that granular level of detail in terms of what are the

[2:16:03] different levels of trail that one could establish uh but I do think there is

[2:16:09] Merit in saying that work should be done and could be done to say figure out okay

[2:16:16] because what we hear what we are hearing loud and clear is uh what are our

[2:16:21] options looking at establishing in the short term um uh perhaps not the whole

[2:16:28] Corridor but portions of the corridor and converting that to a trail so maybe

[2:16:33] it's not as um Mr Bon um suggested it's not the the AAA version but it is a

[2:16:40] version that really turns the corridor around into some use so yeah I I I I

[2:16:46] would I would suggest I would strongly suggest some work could certainly be

[2:16:50] done in in that area so I don't know if you would like to add to that thank you

[2:16:55] very much Yan you covered it quite well uh well just uh putting my transporation

[2:17:00] engineering hat here and speedballing you know we had different topography and

[2:17:06] different grades and different you know kind of areas across 71 kilm in cvd or

[2:17:11] the whole Corridor roughly 240 kilm so we have to do a zoning there's a need

[2:17:17] for a conceptual design and really comes to the cost and different options uh

[2:17:23] different scenarios can be designed you know uh the wids or typical section of

[2:17:27] the gravel path what areas uh have safety concerns because we're talking

[2:17:33] about a rail Corridor and when we have a rail Corridor uh or sharing an area on

[2:17:39] the rail Corridor there's a lot of safety

[2:17:41] concerns and of course covering or just building a path right beside the

[2:17:46] corridor so there's a lot of feasibility in conceptual uh study required to uh

[2:17:52] come up with the uh first priorities in terms of safety topography wids and also

[2:17:58] the grades that we can put there so that people can use like ebikes or just can

[2:18:02] walk there and do hiking there so I would say uh and a study is required to

[2:18:09] identify the fairest you know areas that could be easily uh and quickly expanded

[2:18:15] and what's going to be the challenging Crossing areas rails and rivers and Road

[2:18:19] crossings that need uh safety improvements handrails and uh

[2:18:24] uh reach uh Rehabilitation maintenance and uh then then kind of next phases can

[2:18:29] be developed I hope that answers the question thank you thank you all I just

[2:18:34] have a couple comments and I'm going to turn over to director mclinton and

[2:18:37] hoping we can perhaps call the question after that so in my view this report has

[2:18:42] been uh very thorough and reflects the uh the complexity and the history of the

[2:18:46] corridor as you know a significant portion of the C's population lies near

[2:18:50] the Corridor and as the aanch has shown we can expect a lot more growth in areas

[2:18:55] within a short distance of the corridor between now and

[2:18:58] 2041 this spine is absolutely critical to the city's future and should be

[2:19:02] reflective uh as such in future growth planning the public clearly wants to see

[2:19:08] Transportation options provided on the corridor whether for rail trail or a

[2:19:12] combination of the two the city has been Auto has been an autod dependent area

[2:19:17] for more than 50 years and with all the growth happening this has to shift

[2:19:21] the answer is not one more Lane the city needs to listen to the public and

[2:19:25] provide leadership so the corridor can serve as a transportation asset now and

[2:19:29] into the future in my view the city also needs to continue to work creatively and

[2:19:34] collaboratively so that the corter can benefit the First Nations and public

[2:19:39] together we know that couch and tribes are becoming leaders in development with

[2:19:43] impressive projects like the 200 unit Rivers Edge rental apartments by The

[2:19:47] Quon Development Corporation this could be a model for how we want to densify

[2:19:52] service lands beside the corridor and protect and conserve lands away from

[2:19:58] it so now turn it to director mclinton perhaps to close

[2:20:03] yes one more Lane wouldn't be so bad thank you

[2:20:08] chair uh no I I just want I just want to go on record I and I I didn't say this

[2:20:13] at the beginning I do want to thank Miss Miles Wilson for and the other caos that

[2:20:18] and the the the Chiefs and all the representatives that were really in my

[2:20:21] opinion put in an untenable situation I I like the province was hopefully they

[2:20:28] all agree that's sort of what it seemed like to me um but it is great to see

[2:20:31] this report and I just want to go on record I'm very happy to receive this

[2:20:34] report I think it's terrific information it's super important to know where we're

[2:20:38] at and the challenges we have to move forward um it's just clear in my mind

[2:20:42] it's clear to me the first things first is is reroute compensate or you know uh

[2:20:48] figuring another solution to to deal with the intersection so um with that I

[2:20:53] I'm happy to well it's already been moved so we'll call the question all

[2:20:58] right we'll call the question then all in favor of exec the report and opposed

[2:21:03] none opposed motion carries we can now move on to R3 report from the parks and

[2:21:09] trails division regarding the 2024 year end park ranger

[2:21:17] report are we getting an overview from staff or we going straight

[2:21:21] inform Just for information all right any questions from the committee no all

[2:21:27] right yeah director Nicholson thank you I um I read this

[2:21:33] report with great interest and it would be very helpful next time if you could

[2:21:37] please put information about specific parks in

[2:21:42] there all right seeing nodding from staff can I move on to item R4 report

[2:21:48] from the parks oh sorry director Morrison over to you uh

[2:21:55] thank you chair and I was hoping we might actually have staff up here for

[2:22:00] some questions around this because uh uh I'm really curious about the um

[2:22:07] interactions and and conflicts that I've heard of recently developed uh you know

[2:22:13] when we first started the the um various trails and and and improved them uh uh

[2:22:20] it was mainly uh Recreation we had people using it for equestrian purposes

[2:22:28] uh and then we had the Advent of uh of electrified scooters and the like and

[2:22:33] and and one of the issues was motorized vehicles on the on the trail um uh I'm

[2:22:40] now getting reports on a regular basis of uh the equestrian users which have

[2:22:47] every right to be using it are having Pleasant interactions with the

[2:22:53] ATVs and difficulties with the ebikes and the ebikes can go pretty fast on

[2:22:58] there and uh horses are big animals so if if we've been noticing an uptick in

[2:23:04] the uh uh conflicts between the different user groups because I what I'm

[2:23:08] hearing is is that what everyone was afraid of with the

[2:23:12] ATVs hasn't materialized but the new conflicts with other user groups has so

[2:23:19] have you got any comment on that

[2:23:23] through the chair thank you for the question um yeah when I started um

[2:23:29] ironically it was the motorized vehicles that were the problem which kind of

[2:23:33] initiated the share the trail um Campaign which has now been kind of

[2:23:38] going for two and a half almost 3 years into various stages um and then I was

[2:23:44] just talking about this today anecdotally what I've noticed is the

[2:23:47] motorized vehicle issue has gone down um I was inundated with those calls when I

[2:23:53] first started and that is no longer the case I think it's a combination of you

[2:23:58] know the ATVs being a little bit wiser to it um maybe they're conducting

[2:24:04] their their their activity after hours When there's less people on the trail or

[2:24:09] they've just realized the game is up and they've moved on or other Park users

[2:24:13] have read our signs and they've kind of felt empowered to be able to go out and

[2:24:16] tell people themselves because they can see the rules stated pretty clearly um

[2:24:21] so then in a vacuum then comes the ebikes um that is something that comes

[2:24:27] across my desk for sure uh people complaining about um the speed with

[2:24:31] which cyclists are going on the trail and that's also just cyclists that's not

[2:24:36] just ebikes so um that's you know the Sunday Riders who are really going I get

[2:24:41] a lot of calls about that up in salar and Chima so um it's not necessarily

[2:24:46] just an ebike problem I think what's happened is the motorized vehicle issue

[2:24:49] has subsided slightly um and then the proliferation of ebikes has come in to

[2:24:54] kind of fill a little bit of a vacuum thank you for that and just a a

[2:25:00] followup um I I the this was initiated by some folks that were uh that have

[2:25:07] been regular equestrian users and and like to get out on their horses and ride

[2:25:11] on the weekend but uh they now feel that um that our our trail system isn't

[2:25:18] appropriate for their use because of of the potential danger of uh of their

[2:25:24] animals being surprised and and so uh are are we doing anything to ensure that

[2:25:30] uh that those users that are entitled to the use of our trails are uh are feeling

[2:25:36] welcome and and able to enjoy the benefits of

[2:25:40] them yeah through the chair thanks for the follow-up question uh we are um yeah

[2:25:45] I um one of the things that I've been focusing on particularly in the spring

[2:25:48] and summer um is what I call checkpoints so I'm actually stopping at various

[2:25:53] locations um around the CVT um and checking in with people both their

[2:25:58] experiences their the pros and cons of their of their use um so we do kind of

[2:26:05] do reach out um campaigns with Trail users just to kind of engage with them

[2:26:10] as well as to kind of stop people who are in the middle of conducting

[2:26:13] themselves contrary to the park bylaw it's important to note though that with

[2:26:17] ebikes um there's a limit to which um to how fast that they can go um and that

[2:26:23] limit is is recognized and categorized by uh ICBC and you know the the powers

[2:26:29] that be that conduct our our road um rules and the ebikes that are allowed on

[2:26:35] our Trails cannot go P cannot go faster than 32 it's just slightly over 32 km an

[2:26:42] hour so a lot of the complaints that we get are to be honest um people's

[2:26:48] experience you know having a negative experience the ebike is going past them

[2:26:53] at a clip that's a lot faster than the horse that they're on but when you

[2:26:57] actually lean into um the situation um the ebike isn't going any faster than

[2:27:03] what's allowable and we are um you know

[2:27:08] conscious that you know when you're sitting still or just walking along some

[2:27:12] people are pushing strollers some people are walking with their kids um any

[2:27:16] cyclist going past at the max speed is going to be

[2:27:22] startling follow up director Morrison all right any further questions for

[2:27:27] staff director Nicholson

[2:27:32] can can you press it one more time I was so well trained

[2:27:39] before um shus River Park I was wondering um

[2:27:45] how often you get out there and what the issues are these days

[2:27:50] well I thank you for the question through the chair um I do get out there

[2:27:55] it's pretty quiet these days it used to be a lot worse um from everything that

[2:27:59] I've read um there's no longer The Bullet Hole damage and the gates being

[2:28:04] ripped and um that sort of thing but we do have people camping um as we have all

[2:28:09] over the region um I was there this past Sunday and someone was operating a um a

[2:28:16] sauna like a that they pull behind their truck um and you know you know so

[2:28:21] there's little things like that um but anecdotally from my perspective I have

[2:28:27] yet to encounter um problems of the severe

[2:28:31] nature that were happening there before um but all that said I still hear

[2:28:35] stories of you know summertime parties and um campouts and all that sort of

[2:28:40] stuff but in terms of Park damage um damage to trees uh tree theft um like I

[2:28:46] said um unauthorized hunting and fishing um

[2:28:50] I'm not seeing that as much as we we were before I started

[2:28:56] yeah any further questions all right thank Youk you so this was just for

[2:29:01] information we can now move on to the next report from the parks and trails

[2:29:05] division this is with regards to the 2024 city parks and trails visitation

[2:29:10] program summary any questions for

[2:29:15] staff director estash thank you chair just a quick

[2:29:20] question on as I spoke really quick on the shanus to Lady Smith Sal rail the

[2:29:25] trail I just curious um was the trail counter relocated and I'm just C I don't

[2:29:31] know if we publicly it's a policy to share where they are I'm just curious uh

[2:29:36] if it was a change because now there's multiple access points now or was it

[2:29:41] because of the change of the new parking lot which is of course getting

[2:29:44] tremendous usage and at that 63,000 uh uh for last year being down

[2:29:51] I'm just curious if that is isn't indicative as we heard there are some

[2:29:55] concerns of uh usage uh they aren't really conflicts their education misses

[2:30:01] some people have never seen horses some seniors have never ridden bikes but my

[2:30:06] question is on that 1,466 on average people per day where is

[2:30:11] that count being initiated who wants to take this one

[2:30:20] thank you for the question through the chair um the location of that counter

[2:30:24] has stayed the same and uh where we've located it is in our Central um location

[2:30:30] on I believe is Davis Road or not Davis Road sorry uh Douglas um so right where

[2:30:35] there's a kiosk and a bathroom a portable yeah so it's there cuz it's in

[2:30:40] right in the middle and it hasn't changed locations okay uh as a followup

[2:30:44] chair um is there any thought on temporarily possibly this summer at peak

[2:30:49] times uh getting a count or on the south side of the road at the new parking lot

[2:30:57] at North Watts there just to see to get an idea of usage uh initiating out of

[2:31:02] the investment that cvd made into that parking

[2:31:06] lot yeah yeah yeah we've talked about um the idea of around new builds and you

[2:31:13] know um if it's a newly created Corridor or kind of a new um attraction so to

[2:31:20] speak is putting in trail counters for temporary periods as you said

[2:31:23] particularly during the peak times just to get a snapshot and then we can report

[2:31:27] out from there um North wat is under consideration shaigan rail trail um and

[2:31:33] the like so yes great yeah thank you to all the staff as well that's my go-to I

[2:31:38] either run it or ride it every single day and the quality of work and cleaning

[2:31:44] up after storms and everything there I know I'm going on but it's an

[2:31:47] opportunity to thank staff so definitely staff have done a great job there and uh

[2:31:51] look forward to the continued success of IT director Wilson don't touch it yeah

[2:31:59] thank you chair um a technical question more than anything uh with the um the

[2:32:04] counters um how how do you compensate for somebody going in and then somebody

[2:32:11] coming out again does that count as two or is there any compensation on that

[2:32:15] kind of thing

[2:32:20] through the chair uh thank you yes we kind of look at every single counter and

[2:32:24] kind of uh deliberate how it's being used through that so if it's like into a

[2:32:30] park you can assume that they're going in and out so we'll divide that by two

[2:32:33] okay so we do do some division of those numbers depending on like how we think

[2:32:38] that might operate that's what I um some of the ones along the trail we might

[2:32:41] assume that some are doing a through and some might be doing it back so we might

[2:32:45] uh divide by like 1.5 for instance okay so we do try to count that as we to find

[2:32:50] those numbers thank you very much that's me director

[2:32:54] Morrison thank you chair um I I think I might have asked this question last year

[2:33:00] and uh got some interesting uh answers and and it's more in regards to asset

[2:33:05] management of of the counters um I noticed in uh some figures that uh there

[2:33:11] may have been uh in my area a counter that had either malfunctioned or had

[2:33:18] been damaged and that we've had some of these counters for quite a quite a

[2:33:22] length of time now and are are we so my question is really about are are we

[2:33:28] having counters aging out are we having any uh recurring software hardware

[2:33:34] issues uh what's the state of the inventory of of the equipment and uh and

[2:33:40] are we going to be looking at I think we could probably do uh as was indicated

[2:33:45] earlier some some spot and point and time counts but I think there's other

[2:33:50] parks that may deserve to be monitored as well so how are we doing as far as

[2:33:54] our inventory and replacement of old equipment and the likes and and are

[2:33:58] there any specific issues around uh uh damage or or vandalism that uh that we

[2:34:04] should know about through the chair yes this is a

[2:34:09] question we kind of deliberate every single year um this year in particular

[2:34:13] we found uh a few have been aging out so we're kind of reviewing uh purchasing of

[2:34:20] some new ones to replace those in the inter term we've had some that we can

[2:34:23] put in the inter term that should suffice for uh at least a few years we

[2:34:29] hope um but this is kind of like a an ongoing issue that we address on an

[2:34:34] ongoing basis um we do have incidences particularly at particular locations of

[2:34:39] vandalism which kind of deterior our numbers being useful in some instances

[2:34:44] um so those are some locations we also deliberate of relocation or different

[2:34:50] positioning of those just to help with those issues as well but uh yeah we're

[2:34:54] currently we're kind of reviewing um some purchasing of some new counters to

[2:34:58] compensate some of those aging ones yeah just as a real quick followup

[2:35:04] I I I think it'd be interested if uh if staff could come forward I don't know if

[2:35:08] it would be a what are we calling them they're not supplemental items anymore

[2:35:12] but they're uh uh additions to service service enhancements service

[2:35:16] enhancements uh because uh you know investing

[2:35:20] in our Parks is is uh really important and and it's it helps me as a director

[2:35:25] to know that uh if I'm getting increased usage or heavy usage in in one area or

[2:35:30] another to have that data is really helpful uh on on where we direct our

[2:35:35] assets so if if there was uh you know the ability to acquire more equipment

[2:35:39] monitor more parks and more areas that would be uh something I'd be interested

[2:35:43] and I don't know if my colleagues would be but uh it would be for my area at

[2:35:47] least thank you great thank you we'll now move on to the

[2:35:52] next report here also from the parks and trails division so this is with regards

[2:35:56] to the 2024 Park reservations special events and parks and trails volunteer

[2:36:01] program summary any questions for

[2:36:06] staff all right so this one soorry I I keep looking at looking

[2:36:12] at all your faces I got to look at the screen so I'll get the hang of it

[2:36:15] director Wilson then director Morrison yeah thank you chair um I've

[2:36:19] got a question here I'm a great believer in volunteers um because I I think we

[2:36:25] really do underutilize the resources and the

[2:36:29] expertise that there is out there and the willingness of groups to uh help us

[2:36:35] out uh they do a very good job if they're allowed to do and half half the

[2:36:39] problem is and I've I've got an email here from a local Ramblers Association

[2:36:45] which is voicing their serious disappointment and concern um that

[2:36:50] Parks has opted to a they're using the word ignore our offer of doing the

[2:36:54] preliminary work of plotting out the hill as it currently stands these are

[2:36:59] very experienced hikers they use the trails all the time they've offered to

[2:37:03] map the trails and everything else and yet they're not being used they're going

[2:37:06] to be using I understand um Consultants to do it why are we not taking more

[2:37:14] advantage of the of the volunteers that we've got in instances like this to keep

[2:37:18] our cost down and to engage the community when they

[2:37:22] want to be engaged thank you um through the chair to director

[2:37:29] here um I I believe it probably has to do with the type of work um through the

[2:37:33] volunteer policy that we have in place um there's only certain types of work

[2:37:38] that can be um done that wouldn't interfere with sort of unionize staff

[2:37:44] and those type of things um and it could be a capacity issue as well I think it

[2:37:50] just depends do anyone else want to jump into that or does that um answer the

[2:37:55] question do answer your question director Wilson not really

[2:38:05] um no it doesn't really um because I've heard this before where it's a question

[2:38:10] of liability it's a question of training and it's a question of this it's always

[2:38:14] and and you know I'm going to be as direct as I can here more often than not

[2:38:18] at this table I hear what we can't do whereas what we can do what we can

[2:38:24] achieve with the kind of resources we've got available to people who want to help

[2:38:28] as far as liability is concerned I checked this with the m uh with the

[2:38:33] municipal in Insurance Bureau and they said as long as they have been given

[2:38:37] some kind of training they are covered under our insurance so the liability

[2:38:42] question really is a non-starter so let me ask the question again why are we not

[2:38:47] taking more advantage of willing groups who have the resources and the expertise

[2:38:51] to carry out this kind of work without paying other

[2:38:55] people through the chair a very good question and at the end of the day it

[2:38:59] really comes down to a few things was mentioned by uh Elizabeth uh around

[2:39:04] capacity around our ability to respond to group's interests how it aligns with

[2:39:08] the work program and plans that are established by the board every year with

[2:39:12] budget approvals so we know there's lots of groups out there with lots of great

[2:39:16] ideas at the end of the day it really comes back to this table in terms of

[2:39:20] where you see overall uh the parks and trails program both in electoral areas

[2:39:25] and Regional Parks establishing priorities uh we have a lot of Outreach

[2:39:29] uh with volunteers as you see in the report before you uh quite a lot of

[2:39:32] projects were done both through the volunteer program last year but also a

[2:39:36] significant amount of staff time through the program is also supporting groups

[2:39:40] and organizations that are holding events in your Parks across the region

[2:39:45] uh so as it comes down to capacity so certainly we'd be happy to into this

[2:39:49] more with the committee if there's a desire to see what more can be done how

[2:39:54] we can reach out and engage more with our community volunteer interests but at

[2:39:58] the end of the day it comes back to how we as an organization can support them

[2:40:02] to be able to do things in your Parks yeah thank you Brian and and I I'll

[2:40:06] follow up with a comment here uh as far as capacity is

[2:40:10] concerned um it seems to me there's an awful lot of rigidity there's no

[2:40:15] flexibility here at all and that's something I'd like to see thank you than

[2:40:20] you director Morrison uh thank you chair uh through the staff uh and I'm I may

[2:40:27] need some help in in Remembering if I got the details here exactly right but

[2:40:31] it it seemed that uh a couple of years ago we had uh found that some other

[2:40:36] jurisdictions were uh changing their policy as to uh what was allowed to

[2:40:41] happen in parks and uh and and I I think it was somewhere Greater Vancouver where

[2:40:48] they were allowing people to bring a bottle of wine into the park and and

[2:40:52] have a bottle of wine on the beach and and we really hadn't developed a a

[2:40:57] policy as to what actual activities would be uh allowed in our parks and so

[2:41:04] uh it seemed to me a couple of years ago we were talking about developing a

[2:41:09] special events and and and uh use policy as to what would be allowed and what

[2:41:15] wouldn't as in like if people wanted to have their wedding reception and a park

[2:41:19] and would would alcohol be allowed to be in there would there be able to be food

[2:41:24] preparation and the likes have we engaged in in that study or review

[2:41:30] yet through the chair director Morrison you have a wonderful crystal ball

[2:41:34] because staff are currently working on that and we're looking forward to

[2:41:37] bringing it Forward at a near future

[2:41:41] meeting director Nicholson thank you director martman has

[2:41:46] helped me by covering my button

[2:41:51] um I'd like to just bring us back to

[2:41:59] this okay um Asset Management I I have um I

[2:42:06] don't think we have a an invent a map maps or inventory of our ecosystems that

[2:42:13] we have in our Parks do we chair through to direct

[2:42:19] for all parks no other than what exists at certain mapping levels across the

[2:42:23] region and or what's been been done specifically when we're doing a park

[2:42:27] management plan right so to follow up with

[2:42:32] um director Wilson's comment about volunteers and and I think there's a

[2:42:36] real opportunity to maybe engage the schools viu um on on programs to have

[2:42:43] our an inventory done by students um because I think that's the first step of

[2:42:49] you you really need to know what you've got in your parks and um if you're going

[2:42:54] to especially if you're going to do a management plan it's nice to know what

[2:42:58] you have and potentially the condition of it and so I think that's a real

[2:43:02] opportunity that we should um look into thank

[2:43:06] you director estash thank you chair uh super quick

[2:43:11] before my question just a thanks and acknowledgement to staff for all the

[2:43:15] events last year and also hats off to the huge turnout of cvrd staff at the

[2:43:21] one event uh specifically the CCH and uh Autumn classic trail running event so

[2:43:26] thanks to the cvrd staff that make events like that possible there were a

[2:43:30] lot of really soaked but huge smiling faces on our fellow cvd cvrd employees

[2:43:36] and myself that participated in that event so thank you and then also as the

[2:43:40] lead course marshal for the burnt bridge classic uh I was able a lot of I was a

[2:43:45] motorized lead so was good to see that um what staed to let users in the area

[2:43:51] know that a race was on of course that's working with the organizers but that's a

[2:43:54] significant event that takes significant cvrd resources so uh I didn't run into

[2:43:59] any user conflicts or anything especially people not expecting to see a

[2:44:03] a marshall on a motor bike so uh that from that standpoint that how you make

[2:44:08] these events possible is great my question though is uh we're seeing it at

[2:44:13] North cin and then now also here at the cvrd board do is it at a point where we

[2:44:19] might need to revisit the um how we look at large events and more open to them

[2:44:25] the reason I speak to that of course now for the third year the Belgian waffle

[2:44:28] rid's coming back uh this is because of the work that laake cwi's done in the

[2:44:33] Trailblazers they're going to have a new race there the coastal uh trail running

[2:44:37] series that's going to be the first of its kind out there this year and then

[2:44:41] North CCH and on behalf of the organizers that do run the burnt bridge

[2:44:45] classic are currently trying to bring the Canadian gravel bike Nationals to

[2:44:51] the cin Valley for this year bringing it from Calgary which is a multi-million

[2:44:55] dollar event so of course those using CBD assets do we need to look at our

[2:45:00] policies a bit different as we're getting bigger and larger events that

[2:45:04] utilize parks and trails uh of course bringing huge economic uh impact but

[2:45:10] also are taking more staff resources to make them a

[2:45:17] possibility chair wonderful question and certainly that will be covered off under

[2:45:22] that uh policy uh that's currently being developed to be brought forward in the

[2:45:25] near future because certainly staff are recognizing as well that the popularity

[2:45:30] of parks and trails across the region not just for our local residents but

[2:45:33] visitors coming to the region but also the ability to host events and

[2:45:37] activities is growing and in some cases growing quite substantially and and how

[2:45:42] do we manage all of that to maintain that balance between uh the the general

[2:45:46] recreational use the ecological Integrity of our parks and Trail sites

[2:45:51] but also recognize that that these larger events uh also bring some

[2:45:55] prosperity to the region and and have a lot of spill out effect for other

[2:46:00] businesses and activities that take place here as well so end of the day

[2:46:04] it's it's it's a lot of positives but we need to uh find ways to approach it on a

[2:46:08] bounced uh basis so good question and yes that'll be uh part of the work

[2:46:12] that's being done right

[2:46:15] now director mclinton

[2:46:19] uh thank you chaired thank you staff it's great I certainly support wine in

[2:46:23] the park and other similar activities uh um and also I'd like to

[2:46:30] support director Wilson and his ideas around

[2:46:33] volunteers and perhaps down the road uh there could be a notice of motion for

[2:46:39] hiring a a volunteer coordinator if there's capacity issues within within

[2:46:44] the parks um I know we've got a lot of people that love our communities and

[2:46:48] they want want to get out there and help and it is happening but if I I think in

[2:46:53] many especially electoral areas they're um I think there could

[2:46:58] be uh we could better utilize our

[2:47:04] volunteers director Wilson a close yeah thank um do we not already

[2:47:10] have a volunteer coordinator that's what I thought

[2:47:14] yeah yeah yeah no that's what I thought we've already got one I'll just I'll

[2:47:18] just apply to that so my position is Parks volunteer coordinator um yeah

[2:47:24] how however it is a split position so that's why both of these um parts of the

[2:47:30] report come from me um and you can see the this the the attachment to do with

[2:47:36] reservations and special events is quite large um and that that's again a

[2:47:39] capacity issue um because there just the one person dealing with all the event

[2:47:44] applications and picnic shelter reservations and field trips Etc as as

[2:47:48] well as the volunteer program so there's a lot of um potential for growth but

[2:47:53] capacity issues sort of hold us back a little bit cheriff you let me follow up

[2:47:57] remove hang on I'm not finished oh [Laughter]

[2:48:03] sorry was I didn't know that it had gone to you no no that that was just in the

[2:48:07] side because you were more concentrated on your bottle of wine

[2:48:13] um um is there anything that we can do apart from now your part-time is that

[2:48:21] correct um the position's fulltime but the volunteer coordination is only like

[2:48:27] half of what I do say Okay okay so is there anything that we can do to

[2:48:34] increase the use of volunteers I'm going to keep on about this one so that make

[2:48:38] it a real priority so that we can reduce the maintenance and asset management

[2:48:42] cost because they are huge we've seen in the upcoming budget just how huge those

[2:48:47] costs are there has to be something we can make a priority in order to use the

[2:48:52] expertise the willingness to bring those costs

[2:48:58] down Miss Miles

[2:49:03] Wilson I I do see that Brian's giving me the eye so that he may have a a response

[2:49:08] to this but I just wanted to remind as well that we are going to be taking a

[2:49:11] look at the Strategic plan coming up and that would be a good opportunity for

[2:49:15] directors to voice kind of perspectives and um kind of interest to look at

[2:49:21] service levels in the organization um so that that we're we're in the in the

[2:49:25] works in the planning stages of that session so I just wanted to make that

[2:49:28] note that would be a good opportunity great thanks director

[2:49:33] mclinton one the last word thank you chair i' just like to

[2:49:38] slowly remove my foot from my mouth I I do

[2:49:41] apologize as I was saying volunteer coordinator director Acton was writing

[2:49:47] it down and I was having trouble reading it um I just I just to the point it is

[2:49:53] more capacity I think is great I think you're I I know you're coordinating with

[2:49:56] some of the folks in Sal a and the trails that are so I do know that

[2:50:00] there's work being done with the volunteers it's just um I'm just in

[2:50:03] support of sort of the the idea that uh director Wilson had so forgive me for

[2:50:10] yeah for not knowing as knowing their correct titles uh thank you chair all

[2:50:16] right so that concludes our reports we can now move on on to question period so

[2:50:21] this is opportunity for offer the public uh chance to ask a question regarding um

[2:50:27] the business of the CBD so we allow we allow up to 15 minutes and is comprised

[2:50:33] of two parts the first reserve for questions directly through agenda items

[2:50:36] and if there is time remaining questions maybe on a matter of public interest

[2:50:40] related to severity jurisdiction each question is permitted to ask one

[2:50:45] question plus one followup question related to the answer the the question

[2:50:49] must truly be a question and not a statement of opinion or speech and

[2:50:53] questioners must avoid personal references insinuations violent

[2:50:57] offensive or disrespectful remarks about another person and unparliamentary

[2:51:03] language thank you Mr chair Kim Bernard area B shaelin shanigan Lake I will have

[2:51:08] two did you know questions to inject a little bit of levity and a little bit of

[2:51:12] follow-up first of all did you know you have tremendous Community volunteer

[2:51:16] assets right here in this room and following this meeting virtually I've

[2:51:19] been in close contact with Mr Cliff Evans throughout the meeting today and

[2:51:24] uh we both represent the Nice n i that's on my shirt today which is neighborly in

[2:51:31] collaborative enthusiasm we are also that inul means

[2:51:36] Nalan that we want to go forward in a good way together the the public in

[2:51:41] volunteering and he um and staff as well and so I have huge thanks for Park staff

[2:51:48] on a number of levels uh we do our annual Cleanup in the Parks we uh do all

[2:51:54] kinds of things fieldwork Mr Cliff Evans has been teaching me how to gather data

[2:51:58] in a very uh scientific way and to take the Pulse of our uh ecological assets

[2:52:05] and I just think yeah that we uh my question is did you

[2:52:10] know and and also my second question is uh did you know that the eopl report as

[2:52:16] it was presented today both electronic Ally and in a printed copy I just

[2:52:20] received actually cuts off in uh the last attachment on page 52 and so I'm

[2:52:26] wondering could that please get fixed for the

[2:52:30] EC yes so for the first question now we know so thank you and I I think we can

[2:52:35] easily address the the the problem with the the report when it's refer when it's

[2:52:39] presented at the ESC and the last question is did you know that uh when I

[2:52:45] went to use the QR code for the newest survey the community satisfaction survey

[2:52:50] the very first gatekeeping question is do you have a member of your household

[2:52:54] that works for cvd parks and once again I want to thank the cvrd park staff for

[2:52:58] mentoring my son as a gatekeeper this last three years but unfortunately it

[2:53:02] means that I can't participate in the survey did you

[2:53:07] know now we do thank you thank you for all your hard work

[2:53:11] let's get to lunch thanks any other members of the public with a question

[2:53:16] for the committee all right so we can now move

[2:53:19] on to the Clos session and just to the interest of time um staff have suggested

[2:53:24] we can refer items CR csr1 and csr2 to the closed board meeting later this

[2:53:32] afternoon moved is there a second or seconded all in favor and opposed not

[2:53:37] opposed motion carries that concludes our business got to get a motion to

[2:53:40] adjourn moved seconded all in favor and oppose this meeting is adjourned

Committee of the Whole - Wednesday, February 26 2025

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