morning everyone I'd like to begin by acknowledging we're
hit that
g so I'd like to be start by recognizing that cbrd is on the unseated territories
of the katson malahat subaca Halal penel Semus laxen poachin didat and patat
Nations whose people have walked here gently for thousands of years and with
the Corum being present I'd like to call this meeting to
order our first item of business is approval of the agenda would someone
like to move that we approve the agenda as presented director
Morrison apologies everyone I'm still trying to get the hang of this
thing director Morrison uh thank you chair I just want to raise for the
committee's uh um understanding that uh the item R1 on this agenda is uh being
considered by this committee but as the chair of the Electoral area Services
committee it's uh uh with great Chagrin that I will uh uh support the adoption
of the agenda but this item is a very electoral area specific agenda item and
it disturbs me that it is uh uh uh on this agenda it should uh I I want to
ensure that we do good process and good procedure and uh it's unfortunate that
the Electoral area directors aren't considering this report first
all right will someone like to move that we adopt the agenda move by uh director
Seagal do have a seconder second by director martman all in favor and
opposed n opposed motion carries we'll now move on to the
men director Morrison oos we'll now move on to the minutes and
there there is a slight change to the minutes I'm going to turn to the
corporate officer thank you chair uh the committee of Home meeting minutes of
February 12 2025 to be amended R three uh should read
$3,300 minor correction thank you would someone like to move that we adopt the
minutes from the committee the whole meeting on February 12th as amended move
by director martman seconded by director Nicholson any discussion all in favor
and opposed and oppose motion carries we'll now move on to public input period
so public input period is offer the public an opportunity to comment on an
agenda item before the committee considers the item the public input
period procedure policy allows for a law of 15 minutes where the speaker is
welcome to comment on any item on the agenda up to a maximum of 3 minutes this
excludes items that are or have been the subject of a public hearing input from
the community is valued and appreciated we request that input is presented in a
friendly and respectful Manner and your cooperation maintaining a safe and
respectful and orderly environment is greatly appreciated
C ific could state your name and address my name is David Slade I live at
3265 Cobble Hill Road Cobble Hill I would like to speak to agenda item R2
Island Rail Corridor shared visioning thank you honored chair elected
officials and respected staff for allowing me this opportunity to speak
special thanks to Allison and coral Le on the cvrd staff that led this process
and have put you way ahead of all other jurisdictions I agree with many points
highlight in the report I agree that the restoration of rail is unaffordable in
the short to medium term I agree that restoring rail service in the short to
medium term would be ineffective unproductive and expensive I agree that
unless the corridor is continuous from Victoria to Courtney it will never be
viable for trains note that the Sana o first nation in theose has already
removed 1 kilometer of rail where it bcts their Reserve lands and that in the
five places in the cvd where the rail Corridor bisects reserved lands some if
not all of the first nations are likely to seek reversion of the land and
similarly oppose the return of trains through their backyards I agree that on
80% of the corridor it is difficult or impractical to locate a trail beside the
railbed however I feel that several conclusions drawn in the report are
incorrect I disagree that locating a trail on the rail bed precludes a return
of trains to the corridor in fact a trail on the rail bed could act as a
placeholder for the next 10 to 20 years demonstrating the value of the corridor
as a public good while acknowledging that rail traffic is the first priority
for the corridor this is the case with the Galloping Goose in Victoria I
disagree that the cost of remediation would be at least $1.75 million per
kilometer if the corridor retains its industrial status with a rail as a
tempor with a trail as a temporary use there would likely be minimal to zero
remediation requirements the remediation costs for the Recently completed
Okanagan rail trail and the under construction north Okanagan shwap rail
trail have been insignificant or non-existent the report states that the
most important needs for the Island Rail Corridor are as in this order improved
Transportation connections expand Economic Development and Tourism improve
safe cycling and walking provide emergency access routes and provide
Recreation and park-like activities a trail on the rail bed does all of these
things the report report states that the corridor development should limit the
removal of vegetation avoid damage to repairing and Aquatic ecosystems a trail
on the rail bed addresses this retaining the status quo guarantees that the
creosote ties will continue to pollute the steel rails will continue to rust
and the corridor will remain a liability rather than an amazing asset if we build
a trail on the rail bit it will be used by many hundreds of people in this
Valley every single day and improve the quality of life across the entire cvrd
with 5 Seconds to spare thank you thank you any other members of the public like
to come up to the
podium so you could St your name and address my name is Alan Phillip I live
at 5734 vanco Road in North coin and I'd like to address the issue
of the vision for the island Corridor good morning counselors thank
you for this
opportunity I have read the report and it's very comprehensive however in my
view there are two major flaws in this report one of them near the beginning is
the statement that 79% of the respondents want to see tra
rail on the corridor in the future as opposed to
49% for Trail now this to me is a very simplistic question and response because
it pits Trail against Rail and that really this is not a popularity contest
this is a matter of practicality the
trail in my view is SE is could be seen as an interim
measure for possibility in the future of there being a
train now both levels of government
do not intend to contribute any money
towards a train in the foreseeable future that's
why the snow has got their got their land
back any return of train is way way in the future when
there's sufficient population density
and a business case supporting a modern train on those tracks which would
attract sufficient writers ship to actually pay for it in my view that's
going to be way past any of our lifetimes so the question to me is not
rail or Trail it's what do we do in the interim what we're
waiting right now the whole system is just lying there
deteriorating it makes far more sense to me to use that Corridor as a trail
which would benefit both recreationalists
commuters particularly people with ebikes who are a very Rising population
particularly old people like me I'm back riding a bike again on a ebike and I see
them everywhere now and just imagine being able to ride your ebike from
Duncan up to lady Smith off any of the roads a really good commuter Trail and
the same thing down to Cobble Hill you're off the highway there's no safe
way to get the Cobble Hill right now on a
bicycle the other point which I would like to say is a really major flaw is
saying that having a trail precludes return of rail that is absurd just have
a look at cin Valley Trail out to Lake cin that would very easily be able to
put a train back on that just imagine how difficult that would that be it
would be very at time okay thank you very much thank
you welcome you could state your name and address yeah hi I'm Warren scord I
live at 2299 McFarland Crescent a lot of people would probably know me from as
restor and rail uh I've been advocating thank you I've been advocating for the
railway for about 2 and a half years now uh my material online has had millions
of views this is not just a small number uh the islandwide
um when you're talking about the um the possibility or the or the want and need
of rail on Vancouver Island that 79% is actually quite low from what I've seen
um usually it's up around 83% the uh radio stations that have done polls have
shown uh upward you know 75% so it's been a consistent want and
need of the public you know the public has spoken they say they want on the
corridor now I know funding is an issue you know you've got these uh you got
this Island Rail Corporation going out there trying to collect up money trying
to get the rails back in operation you got the First Nations that are having
questions about you know how can they benefit from the rail well if the rail
is removed and we put the trail on and and despite what David is saying trying
to get a trail turned back into rail is next to Impossible the cycling movement
will just come up and they'll just go nuts and you'll never get it back and if
if that was different if that was not the case then souk right now would be
looking at the Galloping Goose piece that goes from souk to the Six Mile
where the new uh brt lanes are going to be going we'd be turning that back into
rail because it's it would be a dedicated Corridor uh for trains which
you know transit trains um buses a train is just an elongated bus okay like we're
not and it's a lot smoother a lot more comfortable they have accessible
bathrooms it's a much preferred option Trail can be put beside it there's 65 km
already of trails beside the rails and like in uh in shaigan where the new
shaigan rail trail is it actually can Veer away and utilize other Trails on
the island to connect all the way up and down the island doesn't have to stay
next to the rails all the time cyclists have told me that running on a rail or
riding on a rail trail is actually quite boring after some time because you're
just it's just straight and they like curves and hills and things like that to
make it to give it more variety so I really hope that everybody will consider
and try to retain the rails where we can and hope that God that we can convince
the First Nations that they can benefit from this ra too okay thank you thank
you morning you see your name and address good morning everyone my name is
Kim Bernard I live in the shanigan beach Estates in shaelan shaigan Lake Area B
of the cvrd I would like to speak to R1 which is the South cin Community
assessment report I want to offer gratitude and congratulations to
everyone including all of the um input that was received this is an incredible
report my remarks today if you can bear with me we drill down on pages eight and
nine of the report I'd like to First respectfully offer a correction to the
origin story and name that is listed in the report for my area of sonan Lake I
have with me a documented interview with Jared cenan Williams who sat down with
the discourse in October of 2020 to explain the meaning and name behind
shaelin that it means something mysterious happened here that we do not
understand and it's a wonderful story in the discourse so I would like that um
information to go to the Eco plan um committee and next up I would just like
to say that this report identifies a pattern and alludes to a
growth pattern so I know we're all worried about the a word here in Canada
but I would like to offer the word amalgamation is also hanging over our
heads in the south end because of the growth projections in the capital
regional district and if we wonder who The Gatekeepers are for any change of
governance we have to look no further than the province of British Columbia
and I think they have already told us what they think of the future projection
because they have redrawn the Electoral boundary and I brought that with me too
to include all of South cin together with Suk as the wand deuka
electoral area district and that along with their amazing stewardship of our
natural Water Resources instead of following the money I follow the water
tells me that they have more than enough capacity to look after the sou end
should they choose to look at this wonderful home inspection report and
decide to make a bid to acquire Us in the next 10 to 20 years and so I would
invite this board to also include that in your planning that uh some of us
would like to remain rural or certainly have the quality of life that we
currently enjoy and this report belongs to all the people in our community so my
last I guess ask would be that this board works closely with the three area
directors to make sure this information is published in a way that most people
who can't navigate the website can read so I did bring the last exhibit which is
the shanigan focus as an example of community reporting and they too refer
to our region as shans so I really do hope to have that corrected in the
report and thank you everyone hia thank five seconds to spare I think
we've got time for at least one more
speaker nobody else
so if you could state your name and address yes my name is Dick folks I live
in view Royal uh 196 where I Road um I drove up here this morning to
come to this meeting because I find it very encouraging that this regional
district is U working on this subject and I'd like to think that it's going to
be all positive I've um I've been working on trying to promote rail or the
maintenance or re restoration of Island Rail for um ever since I retired about
almost 40 years ago I've um spent many hours making
presentations trying to show the benefits of it um so that people would
learn but it's it seems to be a big struggle um in the wherever I see the
word it's expensive I think that should be challenged challenge uh expensive is
not a word that should be in the vocabulary of any report there should be
a figure and a comparative figure compared to what is it
expensive uh the coming out here from Helen Road um as usual uh the Trans
Canada highway is almost a walking speed um all the way from Veterans Parkway to
um to helin they're just piling up and it's
just every day every day the rail could handle a lot of that
traffic coming up here I note that the people going to and from Duncan could
easily many of them I'm sure go by Rail and take their bike yes certainly but
not they're not going to Pedal all that way the Trans Canada highway is quickly
becoming much like a city street with all the frequent uh
lights a friend and I handed out pamphlets at nen which is a major
employment area in squal promoting
rail at the time when the employees were coming off work and some of them
literally snatched the pamphlets out of the my hand saying I live in L Smith or
such this vehicle would bring me right to the door of my
employment the crawl through view Royal is absolutely horrendous I worked at the
dockyard in my lifetime and it was always a crawl and it's no not any
better for the for cyclists who object to rail all I can say is yeah maybe at
my age I might like to ride a bicycle in the couch and area but do you think I'm
going to ride a bicycle all the way from V Royal to cin
but on the other hand I could jump on a rail car with my bike and come up here
and enjoy this Valley right time thank
you so that concludes public input we can now move on straight to reports the
first report in front of us is with regards to the South couch Community
issues assessment so we do have a presentation from Eco plan and I
understand we have a representative from Eco plan who's going to uh to deliver
this presentation oh and Miss Ferguson's
going to first provide a overview uh good morning chair and
directors uh I am here along with our consultant uh this morning to present
the South CCH and Community issues assessment report this report provides
the residents perspectives on governance and Service delivery challenges within
the South cin region the data and its findings
presented in the report in the report were compiled utilizing a wide uh
variety of inputs such as the online survey Community forums popup events
meetings with local stakeholders and consult uh sorry cons consultations with
uh cvd staff this project stems from a board directive and was subsequently
captured in your strategic plan as objective
2.3 uh I am proud to introduce our consultant and Marie Whitaker who is an
associate senior planner with EOP plan and Marie will provide you with a
PowerPoint presentation and then we will welcome your comments uh questions
following
that thank you thank you very much for um allowing me to come back and present
the oom and the findings from this report so appreciate that um just
checking in if technically speaking everyone can see the actual PowerPoint
presentation not present interview y we can see it great thank you so much and
and I also just want to pause to a moment to say thank you to the public
speaker this morning for um comments on the the assessment and then also sharing
some information for updating the report so I appreciate that a
lot um what I'll do quickly just to give you a quick outline of the presentation
in terms of um what I'll talk about today I'll give you a quick project
overview for some of you who may not be as familiar with the project as the
Electoral area Bay AB andc um we'll talk a bit about what we heard and then
considerations for next steps moving forward
um to begin I'll talk a little bit about the project overall but generally
speaking wanted to focus your uh attention on the area of this report and
and um and where the focus happens it was for residents living in South couch
and communities electoral areas a b and c the purpose of the report or the the
project or study in general was to help residents and the cbrd understand the
current governance and servicing situation for these electoral areas and
I say cbrd as well because just getting a picture of how residents feel about
governance and servicing um it was also to engage residents and collect their
issues and concerns so I was really targeted about that um related to
governance and servicing overall um and then report out on what we heard from
residents um to it in in the hopes that we would identify um any service or
governing gaps that may
exist um one thing I did want to point out before for this and this is
something we had to remind residents quite frequently of throughout this work
as well was that this was not an incorporation study um this was as
mentioned this work was to identify and acknowledge the concerns um and then to
really clarify any of the problems before jumping to Solutions um and uh
just to take this information as a way to First explore those options for
addressing concerns within existing framework or governance framework this
being a very important step uh for the ministry of M Municipal Affairs um just
to identify the problems first you know is the ladder on the right wall um it
was just looking at that first step and so there was four phases to
this project moving forward which occurred over the 2024 period um mainly
during spring and summer and and a little bit into the fall so a lot of
this engagement occurred over a period just noting that um that typically isn't
an engagement period but we did get out there so um it includes these the
background work a situation assessment um engagement to identify those issues
and then um drafting the final report so now I'll move in and just tell
you give you the highlights of the the overall what we heard in terms of um in
terms of the
assessment um just before I get into the the outcomes of it uh to give you just
an overview of the Outreach and engagement that was included within uh
the process of the reporting uh we did use the cvd plan your couch and web page
um for information we also had information and rack cards that were
delivered throughout the communities um there was social media posts to
advertise both the survey and some of the events that were happening
throughout um the spring and summer uh we had Community posters lawn signs
throughout the community an ad placed in the Focus Magazine uh Community survey
uh was running throughout that whole period of time we had one Community
Forum in each Community uh or electoral area popup events that happened
throughout the summer and then um we did do some reaching out to neighboring
First Nations communities uh Community groups and targeted interviews with cvrd
staff and uh Improvement
districts uh engagement overall we compiled 412 survey responses there was
96 residents who attended the community forums held in each electoral area many
residents were engaged at popup events um those were actually really great to
get out to because we were going to people um in various locations
throughout electoral area a b and c um we sent an invitation to nine Community
groups for input or allowing input um or requesting it rather um and then nine
targeted interviews with cbrd staff departments and then an invitation to
continued engagement with First Nations communities um we had one information
meeting that was held and then project updates were provided for that as well
so the following is is what we heard um this is both a mix through the community
Forum input and the surveys outputs um so for the purpose of the report this
information was grouped into three main themes uh governance servicing and then
those areas or issues and concerns that residents raised that were um outside
the jurisdiction of cvrd so we needed sort of a container for those as well um
and so to give you some of the highlights for both the survey and
community forums 68% of re residents felt they understood what a regional
district is and how it operates 55% of residents felt that they understood how
decisions and voting happens at the cbrd and noting that our survey actually had
a bit of that kind of uh before asking questions kind of explaining how that
happens as well so through so there was a bit of an education pie in within that
survey too for those who may not have felt they understood uh initially and
then residents red the following issues as most important to them within these
areas and so this is compiled of those areas accountability um responsiveness
to local concerns and transparency in
governance just breaking this down a bit by electoral area to get a bit of
information of where they differed area a was most concerned with communication
transparency and accountability whereas B and C uh shared a stronger interest in
representation of and response to their areas local concerns and issues so their
interests um more so than the communication transparency um so just a
little bit of the differences there um voting structure and the ability of
other area directors to vote or influence decisions uh affecting the
Electoral areas AB andc were also very common comments that we received both
throughout the community Forum as well as on the survey and many comments
received at the community forums focused on concerns and issues that is as
mentioned were outside the jurisdiction of
cbrd and so just to give you a sense of what those were um expressed by
residents that fell into that category are listed here um and they're generally
I guess listed in the order order of of frequency that we heard them but that's
not statistically counted but it is just in general just how we compiled these so
um we most some of the biggest ones were about the road standards and maintenance
so Lo local traffic pedestrian and active Transportation uh potholes snow
reval uh coordination of improvement districts and private utilities uh as
well as Equity of services between different areas and then just a concern
for Aging in infrastructure uh water quality and
Watershed protection and I'll note that this was more so in in area B and then
uh proposed subdivision development application wait times and frequency of
Transit service or inefficiency of roots was
mentioned in terms of servicing um 70 6% of residents felt they understood
Service delivery in cbrd 23% of residents were satisfied with Services
received and 28 had a neutral stance um noting that many comments that we
received on servicing at this time and during this this period were related to
the change in the garbage collection um as well as uh tops concerns for
servicing and these were compiled with all of them uh new growth and
development was uh a top concern as well as cost cost for services especially in
areas who would also pay additional user fees um uh and and their taxes and then
efficiency and coordination between Ser jurisdictions as well as inequity of
service
provision additionally uh 57% of residents felt they understood how
service costs were determined and residents concerns with cost of services
were that costs were too high uh that paying for services they don't receive
or most often benefit from or felt that they didn't benefit from and a concern
for how costs are calculated and feeling that they're paying more for than their
share their fair share for those services so those were some of the the
overview of of um uh resident concerns and issues with respect to for
servicing um so looking at just a highlevel summary of all of this
combined together um so just taking a step back and then looking at the survey
and the community forums uh just noting that issues many of these were all very
much interrelated um just noting that many of
the issues were identified that by residents but they were also identified
in our interviews with cvrd and area directors though basically everyone's
saying the same thing um you know they're all you know there's not a huge
huge gaps in there um and although there were many questions about why this
wasn't an incorporation study and why this wasn't about um that that topic in
particular just noting that Independence and autonomy when it was listed and
within the survey as well as at Community forums wasn't ranked as a top
issue at most of those within within the the work that we came back or the input
that we received um and then just noting that the top of what we called cross
cutting issues so those issues that were identified residents cbrd and other
service providers were all mostly focused related to the level of service
and servicing followed by those aspects that I mentioned that were outside the
cbd's
jurisdiction um and then cross cutting issues by theme in terms of governance
uh accessible information and Communications on servicing and
responsibilities was noted um jurisdiction was just the subdivision
development times coordination planning of of planning objectives and policy um
and then servicing infrastructure and growth growth being huge um um continued
upgrades and Replacements so worrying about that future how it will look
inequity between areas maintenance Regional planning and then water supply
and protection so just noting that there was
that study that was done back in 2009 and then kind of looking at today and
and comparing those two basically not much has changed since 2009 there has
been a few shifting concerns taxes and user fees and rising cost of living kind
of came to the top a little bit more and then coordination and communication
between jurisdictions for regional and strategic planning on
infrastructure was also something that came up more frequently than what it
looked like in 2009 so to wrap up I just wanted to talk
a little bit about next steps this report offers some considerations for
next steps and what to do with the information um and this was grouped
again into the three themes of governance servicing and those outside
the jurisdiction of cbrd noting again that many of these overlap and are inter
related so um in terms of considerations for
governance um possibly looking at coordinating infrastructure on a on a
more Regional basis um targeting a review and update of cvrd planning and
policy with these issues that have come up through this so that could just look
like an actual review or it could be just when policy and planning plans are
being updated that you use this these issues or this
output to to sort of Target certain areas increase information to residents
on governance and servicing and then um conducting a follow-up governance study
possibly to explore changes within the regional district model that would
address some of these concerns that came out through this assessment um and this
could explore changes um could also be incorporated or some of this work could
be incorporating at a regional level into future Regional planning work as
well uh in terms of considerations for servicing uh maybe looking at High
highlighting the board priorities related to servicing specifically for
South couch and residents so this is a bit of a Communications thing um explore
our changes to budgets to focus on South couch and communities uh in particular
on some of the issues that were raised look at ways to increase collaboration
between cbrd municipalities and Improvement districts exploring the
potential to reduce uh Improvement districts and amalgamate some of the
services to better address some of the issues that came
forward and then in terms of jurisdiction
increasing advocacy and Communications with uh mot the uh it's now
transportation and Transit um and this uh this is ongoing I know but also uh so
looking at ways to increase that or to address some of the issues that have
come forth uh engaging in lobbying senior levels of government also ongoing
I'm sure um and then looking for ways to improve coordination of subdivision
approval process and if not uh maybe exploring Options under the land title
act which I I know has also been uh something ongoing
too and then uh possible next steps just to finish up um so looking at at the
considerations uh that were just listed and maybe prioritizing these in issues
so is Communications to Residents uh a top priority or is maybe looking at
changes to servicing or plans and policies um just determining that
mapping out uh departments that are involved the plans and policies that uh
or maybe additional studies that may be required uh evaluating options and key
actions um and then of course knowing which one which ones they you you know
things that you're targeting to identify budget allocation and external funding
or whatever is needed to support some of these changes and then reporting back of
course as the most important uh to and updating the South couch and Community
uh residents with any changes or movements or U directions that are taken
by the board and with that just covers it at a very
high level at a high speed there you go great thank you for the uh presentation
I'll turn to the committee ask if there's any questions but I I will note
that staff have prepared a suggested motion here that um speaks the concern
raised by director Morrison about having this referred to the Electoral area
Services committee for further discussion so we can either consider
this motion or if anyone's got any uh question question for the presenter
director act and then director mlon Clarity is that the motion I shared
with the board oh
okay okay so I said staff motion your motion give you well it is yeah all
right any discussion or do we want to for the presenter any any questions for
the
presenter director abbit perhaps a two-prong and it may be more
for staff to answer uh can you refresh our memories as to how long this process
has taken to get to this uh to today's report and ballpark how much have we
spent uh getting to this report yeah so the work was as a result
of a grant from The Province um the grant was
$6,000 um so we have spent pretty much that um it has taken a year
um it started January last year um so there was a lot of consultation with the
the communities and Outreach and um to get to this point
so any further discussion we ready to consider this
recommendation director mlon um just am I on thank you um thank you chair just I
was uh a couple moments late could you read the motion for me is that possible
yeah I don't think I've actually read it out for anyone yet so it's uh that it be
recommended to the board that staff report back to the Electoral area
Services committee with a report that provides further information and options
to address South couch and Community issues South couch and Community
identified issues in the categories of governance servicing and jurisdiction as
proposed in the equal plan report uh director Wilson oh I was just
moving okay so it's moved is there a second or seconded by uh
director Seagal any further discussion director Acton I'd just like
to um understand how come this wasn't at electoral area Services committee to
begin with I don't have the answer to
that Miss Miles
Wilson um sorry I don't see it I'll just oh there we go Jesse's on camera
thank thanks for the question um so a couple of things so originally the
Direction came through the board right and um and it's in your strategic
planned as well so recognizing the comments that have already been shared
about the need to have an electoral area discussion staff hear you loud and clear
um some of the recommendations and considerations in this report do require
the board's support to proceed and so staff's recommendation was to to put
this on this uh uh Committee of the whole so that everybody could benefit
from the presid and receive the information but we recognize that the
further deep dive into this will definitely have to be at elector area
Services
committee any further discussion we ready to call the
question director Justice yeah thank you um recognizing
that it's going to the EAC probably um I'll just take the opportunity to ask
one question of the presenter if that's all right um and is sort of what I
consider to be a bit of a a contradiction with respect to the uh
ranking of uh issues specific to governance um noted that the uh the
statement that Independence and autonomy consistently ranked um as the lowest
concern um related to governance and in uh in in in all of the survey responses
and I just wondered um how that might square with the
um idea that there was a lot of concern that uh other electoral area directors
um had too much say in issues that are specific to AB and C so those two things
seem to me to be contradictory and I just wondered if you could take a stab
at uh making that consistent for me m Whitaker yes thank you um no it's
true that's that's why I me mentioned many times that that many of these are
interrelated and so sometimes they overlap and it's difficult to pull apart
but just I was noting that um I guess we you know kind of overall
there was a lot of talk of whether or not that this you know this study or
assessment was whether it was about uh incorporation and so we you know we had
to separate that out but in the survey um we just asked if Independence and
autonomy is is the uh you know a top concern and it
just didn't ever get ranked as one of the top concerns but of course as you
mentioned there's a number of you know other talking about communication or the
voting or whatnot that overlaps with Independence and and autonomy so so
you're correct like that it is a bit of a contradiction it's just that in noting
that in the survey um you know that was constantly be put as your top concern
for residents that residents were more often concerned with um you know
communication or um just the servicing or service related issues that have come
about or or just into the details of Roads or things that that that were more
you know home close to home hitting so um so yeah no thank you for pointing
that out those things are overlapping and they do you know um if you're
concerned with voting then obviously you're concerned with an autonomy or a
level of autonomy but consistently when when residents ranked their top issues
it was more about response of the board or response of the cvd to the issues
that matter to them the most as opposed to um you know jumping to the we want
independence from everyone else thank you does that help kind of explain how
that came about yeah I mean remains quite interesting to me but yeah it was
to me too yeah thanks yeah all right before we call the question
just one uh thought for the Electoral area Services committee to consider and
also the rest of the board um we we did get the attachment to the report
subsequently after the agenda was published with some of the um breakdown
of the growth projections um what we found at the municipality North couchin
is that um there is quite a bit of uncertainty and and I'd say
contradictions around some of the growth projections so we've been given many
other municipalities uh housing Target order with a particular figure that we
have to reach over a 5year period we've been advised that that's 75% of our
housing need so two different numbers we've also done an updated um housing
needs report based on a formula from the province which has given us a third
number and then we've also reviewed the BC stats population and household
projections which is given us a fourth number over the next 5 10 20 years so
we've written to the Prov to the housing minister asking for clarification on
this because we're working with very different figures and they're not within
a small range there's quite a range between these four different figures
complicating this is the federal government has announced some pretty
drastic changes with regards to Federal immigration policies so as we know in
Canada we've got a declining natural birth rate our population growth has
been driven by record immigration numbers in recent years which were
pushing growth rates 2 and a half 3% in uh 2022 2023 1. 9% last year with the
federal government recently announcing a a pretty drastic reversal of the federal
immigration policies we're now looking at a um population decline in Canada for
this year of 0 2% another decline of 0 2% the following year and then 8% growth
the year after that and what we've been advised by the housing uh minister is
that government is uh reviewing and revising their population household
projections based on these new immigration numbers so I just point that
out in that we um we do all this analysis on growth projections housing
needs um yet we're confronted with all these very contradictory numbers and
then we find out all those contradictory numbers aren't correct because the
federal government has made these big changes again with Federal immigration
policy and we're going to have to revise those those projections I think we can
all be confident that we live in quite a beautiful part of the world beautiful
part of the country there's going to be people wanted to come here there's going
to be growth but I would just encourage enourage everyone whether it's through
this exercise or any of the work we're doing to be a bit skeptical on some of
these numbers that have been presented to us because they they are subject to
pretty drastic change uh when there's a sight change in policy at the federal or
provincial level so I see I've got director Morrison and then director
Wilson here director Morrison thank you chair
um and just in regards to director Justice's uh uh remarks it's a it's it's
an interesting uh contradiction and and one of the things that uh our our
friends and and residents in in the South couch and have have always noted
and all the time that I've been here is is that Curiosity about the how this
Federation works and why the different Municipal and electoral area directors
that may be far flung from that region participate and vote on issues that are
of a concern and so that's one of the reasons why we make sure that we all
know what's going on in our communities and that we are wise to go and attend
some of the community events and and engagements that happen in our our the
southern part of our region because uh folks like to know that if you're going
to be participating in in voting on issues that concern South cin that
you're there and present and understand what the issues are related to that area
so that's pretty important but my question for our presenter today is and
and I I read with interest about the it seemed like there's a a relatively High
LEL LEL of understanding about not only the uh the voting but the uh the fiscal
aspect of how our regional district works and that the there seem to be a
fairly high level of uh of understanding amongst residents as to who pays for
what and and you have to benefit from a service to or being as part of a service
paying for it and receiving benefit and and I note that you you did
differentiate that there there's a difference between the municip simple
structure of how we uh how how taxes are collected and then distributed versus in
an electoral area or in the regional district did you drill down a little bit
on that just because I I find when people move to my community uh electoral
area from a municipality and then we I I take the time to describe a little bit
how each individual function collects taxes for that function and for that
service and only those people that are in that service are paying for and
receiving benefits did you drill down a little bit on that with people as you
were collecting this information Miss Whitaker thank you um
in terms of just at Community forums when people would have conversations we
would we would talk a little bit more about that but um uh no uh it wasn't I
it wasn't something I mean aside from as I mentioned within the survey there
would be um each question PR preceding each question was a little bit of
information about how the the the regional district operated so um so
there was that and then as I as I mentioned staff was in attendance at um
at uh at Community forums as well and so staff was there to provide additional
information and drill a little bit more deeper into how that operates
um yeah followup director Morrison I've got
director dor Wilson then director
deck thank you ch um this is more a question for what you've just mentioned
you touched on migration as opposed to immigration are there any numbers that
anybody's come up with a possible forecast on that because that's a major
part of what's Happening Here on our Island migration rather than immigration
do we have any numbers for for that kind of thing or maybe the uh maybe the
consultant knows that one as well yeah
I'll turn to Miss Whit in a moment I mean we we have our own um housing needs
projections as you know here at the regional district municipalities as well
the one challenge is those are based on um assumptions made at the the
provincial level and federal level so they are informed by those those
immigration numbers okay thank you H Miss Whitaker anything to add to
that uh no that the the numbers that were were used for uh the commd
assessment was um based on the recent 2024 housing needs assessment so that's
the the source of the population data that was
used so I've got director deck then director mclinton
um thank you very much for that huge wonderful report it uh I certainly saw
the overlaps um with area I and and uh I'm therefore I'm grateful that this is
going to go on to the uh easc because at that point maybe
there'll be some resolutions that will satisfy South cin
as well I I think we would all benefit from U more transparency and uh you know
there's at least a perception of lack of services so um yes I I'm grateful for
that for your report and for us moving it all forward thank
you director mclan thank you chair um while I respect all of my colleagues
opinions deeply greatly I I am you know I don't know what the right word is I'm
not sure how or why it ended up at Committee of the whole this this this
information item so I I would like to call the question the the motion on the
floor all right I see no other speakers with their hands raised I'll call the
question all in favor and opposed nonone opposed motion carries we can now move
on to our next report um thanks thanks Miss Whitaker for the
presentation thank you we'll move on to our next report the cbrd Island Rail
Corridor shared visioning project final report turn to staff to provide an
overview uh good morning chair and directors I'm pleased to introduce today
um s Tani and Johan Vanek from stantech who led the report that will be
presented today and Lindsay friet K from modus who led the
communications and uh over to them now thank
you good morning everyone uh I hope everyone's well just going to start
sharing the screen
here I hope everyone can see my screen yeah we can see your screen thank
you very much I hope you're well and I really appreciate the time to present
the report today uh my name is Salah I'm a senior real engineer project manager
pantic and today in collaboration with my colleagues Lindsay and Johan we're
going to provide a summary presentation on the Island Rail Corridor towards a
shared Vision uh project report going to the next slide here's our agenda on the
first few slides I'm going to go over uh to the introduction and Real History
slides there's going to be a brief conversation there on uh the project and
then I'm going to hand it over to Lindsay to go over the findings on uh
the First Nation engagement and public and stakeholder engagement then we have
our technical scope of the project and Johan is going to provide a summary on
the environmental scope land use planning Transportation Planning options
and option assessment and at the end of the presentation we're going to quickly
go over the next steps identified at the end of our
project and uh while we have quick time at the end of the presentation to answer
the questions uh because of the multi-discipline Nary nature of the
project if you guys have any question during the presentation please feel free
to uh share that with us and we would be more than happy to answer that either
during the presentation or at the end of the
presentation going over to next slide here's our uh project structure so uh
towards a shared region project was initiated and funded by Ministry of
Transportation in collaboration with five Regional districts including cvrd
14 First Nations and Alan Corridor Foundation we started a project in April
last year we completed our graph report late 2024 and finalized that in January
2025 and one of the important aspects of the project scope was history of the
Island Rail Corridor and we reviewed the Island Rail Corridor history and we
summarized that presented that in the report in addition in the past 20 years
there have been several technical reports and studies we made sure to
review them summarize them and provide uh a review of those findings um
including track alignment track condition reports dating back to 2003
all the way to 2020 Freight analysis studies business cases study in 2022 in
addition we synthesized this recent work completed by ICF and Ministry of
Transportation such as Corridor evaluation report development strategies
for rail Corridor report South Land Transportation strategy and stakeholder
engagement completed in 2022 now I'm going to pass it to my
colleague Lindsay on the engagement scope thank you
Sally um I'm going to start with an overview of the First Nations engagement
um first nation's engagement is critical to this project and understanding of the
potential for a shared vision for the Island Rail Corridor as a whole we're
working within the colonial history of the Esquimalt and Nyo Railway land
grants and the unresolved legal actions of a number of First Nations relating to
reserve lands um in addition to that first
nations were also undertaking their own visioning processes so we wanted to
understand the outcomes of those and coordinate across so with this our
objectives for engagement were to collaborate and build relationships to
learn about each nation's involvement en visioning and any outcomes that they
could share to learn about each nation's interests
in the different potential future uses um and specifically to learn from cin
tribes Halal and stus First Nation about their desired future use for the
bisected Reserve lands so with this we engaged Seven
Nations through this process um in addition to kaich and Halal and stus
with their B bisected Reserve lands we engaged with malahat and pelate tribe
current members of ICF and subasa Nation a former uh member of
ICF and we also engaged with uh nations with traditional territory throughout
the cbrd um Sally next
slide so I'll just go through Nation by Nation to share what we've heard kaichin
tribes uh has uh Reserve number one is bisected in two locations 750 m in the
northern portion and 750 15 me in the southern
portion the feedback that we reive from cwit and tribes is that they would like
to have their bisected Reserve lands returned to reserve um just a bit of
more context about that CCH and tribes followed uh the legal actions of snow no
First Nations in 2015 that were brought against Canada and the island Corridor
foundation so they have legal actions that are not yet resolved um that were
issued in 2016 and they do not want a rail or
Trail to go through their Reserve next
slide Halal First Nation uh Reserve number two uh is bisected you can see in
the southern uh part of that image by approximately 1,500
meters um similar to CCH and tribes Halal for nation has filed legal actions
against Canada and the island Corridor foundation in 2016 seeking the reversion
of their former Reserve lands in terms of the feedback that we
received from Hol alt they shared that landback is a priority they are
interested in understanding the options of different potential future uses and
the cost implications and they're interested also
in the potential for the Island Rail cdor in reducing the number of trucks on
the highway that pass through Reserve to help reduce the environmental and health
impacts of the of those Vehicles so they recognize that if a
rail was to be reintroduced uh safety would need to be addressed
particularly as it passes through the reserve and splits cultural sites with
um homes on the other side of the rail next slide
please um malahat foration does not have any bisected Reserve lands they do have
a reserve that is located near the Island Rail Corridor the feedback that
we received is that regarding a preferred future use they support the
rights of First Nations with bisected Reser serve lands and they don't have a
preferred future use at this time that they can share with us they are working
to establish a guardian program with the intent of reestablishing a connection to
their land their connection has been cut off
since the corridor was established and as many of you know the corridor is
difficult to access today so they're creating a virtual reality toolkit with
the intent of allowing community members and Elders to virtually experience what
is there today they're also undertaking ecosystem assistant and not
assessment and natural asset inventory and they're seeing if there's interest
in a multimodal corridor of note about their feedback is
that when the malahat highway is closed they are highly impacted by this um it
causes additional traffic to go through reserve and they are concerned about
emergency access and Wildfire risk so there may be a role for the island real
Corridor in supporting those concerns next slide please
penel tribe does not have a bisected Reserve um their their Reserve is
located approximately half a kilometer to the east of the Island Rail
Corridor their meeting minutes were under review uh to confirm reporting
permissions at the time of the report publishing next slide
please stus first nation has two reserves that are bisected by the Island
Rail Corridor Reserve number 11 seen at the top of the image is bisected by
about 550 meters and reserved number 12 is bisected by about 12200
meters stamina shared that they need more time to go back to their Community
to get a feel for what Chief and counsel would like to see before they can share
about a preferred future use and our comments and questions were shared so
that they can go and take these to community next slide
please subasa first nation is located on the NorthShore of cin Lake the Reserve
is not bisected by the Island Rail Corridor but it is located near the Spur
Line which extends West to couchin Lake so this is their greatest interest in
the Island Rail Corridor they shared that they see this
as a significant opportunity for infrastructure pieces to extend out
towards reserve and that if planned properly the Island Rail Corridor can
create great Transportation tourism and Industrial opportunities to alleviate
some of the challenges on the island they emphasized that it's critical to
understand and appreciate the complexity of the lands and how it affects each
Nation differently and how each Nation will have to be consulted with
individually next slide
please our recommendation to the province was that they continue to
provide ongoing funding to maintain the momentum that is underway and the
collaboration that has been established through this phase of
work next slide please
so I just have a few slides here now on the public and stakeholder engagement
thanks s um just as a high level over overview
we hosted a public openhouse on September 14th in
Duncan um the openhouse included uh a video uh where you could actually
experience and ride the rail um virtually of course and a story
map which scrolled through GIS mapping so folks could better understand the
context um um there were about 350 people who
attended there was also an online survey to gather feedback so through the survey
the public was invited to share about their potential future uses and
preferred what they would like to see in the
future um the survey was available through the month of September and we
received over 4,000 responses there's incredible interest in this
project next slide thank you in terms of the key takeaways from
that survey participants shared that Transportation modes that best match
their future vision for their Island Rail Corridor it's a Top Choice folks
could choose all that apply 79% of people chose passenger rail 49% of
people chose biking and hiking trails 42% chose
Freight um the table below just provides a bit of a breakdown between the cvd and
folks who responded from outside of the cvd or didn't share uh where they were
responding from so inside the cbrd you'll see that slightly fewer people
are choosing rail as a as a preferred future use at 74% compared to people
outside of the cbrd which is 88% in terms of biking and hiking
trails people inside the cbrd chose that slightly more 52% versus outside of the
cbrd at 47% and Freight Service uh was more
highly selected for people who are outside of the cbrd at 48% versus 38%
inside the cbrd next slide
please we also asked participants to share um their priorities around
potential additional uses that could be hosted within the corridor adjacent to a
rail we we asked them to respond based on area uh station area so shanus Cobble
Hill cin Duncan lady Smith malahat and shanigan
across all areas except malahat you can see there was consistency highlighted in
green active Transportation was the Top Choice followed by tourism and then
Recreation and park like activities in the malahat area emergency preparedness
was uh chosen more often than Recreation and park like
activities next slide please in addition to public engagement
we hosted 19 one-on-one interviews with key stakeholders and organizations with
interest in transportation Economic Development agriculture environment and
utilities through these interviews we heard that seven out of 19 have a
preferred future use of rail four out of 19 have a preferred future use of rail
and Trail together and three out of 19 had a preference for trail only five out
of 19 shared that they had no Preferred Future
use there were also some shared takeaways
upholding the rights of First Nations maintaining the corridor as continuous
in recognition that as a continuous Corridor it it that would preserve its
potential for a future Transportation use and finding ways to improve Island
connectivity for the future of the corridor next slide
please and you can move to the next one thank you so finally this slide is just
to share some of the other process aspects
that we um undertook as a part of our collaboration across governments and
with the island cordor Foundation there was a Regional District staff working
group where uh staff met together to share process updates outcomes and draft
directions so that supported information sharing at the staff level across
Regional districts there was the CBD working group which included Regional
and Municipal staff we shared process updates technical deliver deliverables
and and got guidance and and feedback on the work as it
evolved and then the cbrd also participated in meetings with the island
Corridor Foundation again to talk about process and share draft outcomes of the
process that's everything from me thank you
Sally oh you're you're on mute apologies uh
thanks very much Lindsay uh now we're going to go over the technical slides
and youran is going to go over them and it's going to take you around 15 to 20
minutes thanks very
much apologies Yan you're you're muted as
well sorry still muted
is that any better yes thank you wonderful good morning everyone good
morning directors ladies and gentlemen thanks for the opportunity to um just
very briefly uh provide an overview of all the work that was
undertaken um specifically in in addition to the engagement and
consultation talks that we heard about earlier um considerable technical
efforts were also undertaken and these uh relate to
environment um
considerations then the land use and transportation evaluation and assessment
and then based on the transportation options that were identified and option
assessment of these uh were undertaken as well um next slide please Sor
they so if we next one please so if we go to environmental considerations there
three three components firstly natural habitat natural habitat really reviewed
uh background information to identify potential environmental constraints on
development based on the natural features of the area and the area was
defined as the 30 m wide Corridor and then included a a a 1 km bu buffer on
either side of the rail alignment um so therefore uh identify
habitats plant and animal species um were identified that could could
potentially be impacted by development along the corridor next slide
please as far as remediation is concerned
um uh remediation guidelines and requirements were identified based on
Federal and provincial uh guidelines when land uses are proposed and an a
cost estimate was made um in terms of remediation um it's very high level um
as you can see in the numbers and they vary quite significantly but physical
remediation um is is estimated to vary between 175 to
300,000 per 100 met section of corridor and then there uh therea further risk
assessment could also uh increase cost by 95 to 170,000 per 100 meter of a
corridor the cost variation is based on the extent of the common um the uh
contamination findings and then also the um land use remediation Target in other
words whether the target is reverting to Industrial Land versus for example
industrial land next slide
please on climate change um the focus was specifically on Wild fires extreme
heat and flooding uh events um as far as their impacts along the corridor were
concerned and the opportunities and risks that were uh identified in this
exercise um really can be summarized as um a corridor can provide a natural
buffer that can contain wild wildfire and flooding obviously uh a corridor
provides emergency routing and also a transport route to offer supply chain
resilience um but a r could also impact the transfer of flood risks and
obviously Transit operations could also ignite uh cause Sparks and ignite fires
um that's just um a brief summary of the CL climate change uh
impacts next slide please so if we move on to uh land use evaluation and
assessment um as far as land use and transportation was concerned uh the cor
was split into the five segments as shown on that map um lady Smith chus um
and then moving further south Duncan being um the the major urban area and
into the South cobal shikan Lake and further south um the
malahat um and um for each of these segments um land uses were evaluated
based on zoning and official Community plans and uh SWAT uh analys was
undertaken for each segment to uh evaluate um development restrictions the
availability of land for development um obviously the denif densification
opportunities in these areas to accommodate increased population an
important part of the land use assessment was uh undertaking a
population protection um specifically Al based on the recent Transit Orient
oriented area legislation higher densities um in catchment areas to
identify population uh densities that can be be accommodated and really that
methodology without going into the details just focused in um looking at um
uh station areas and then looking at uh populations that were within walking
distance of stations and then in areas further from stations
populations that would um use private vehicle to access stations um and
population growth projections um that were used in this exercise were uh the
projections for 2041 uh next slide
please so briefly uh from a land use perspective the summary of findings
really um relate to the fact that the corridor Ms are distinct but they also
share similarities such as um Urban CES but um definitely rural residential
areas and then resource and agricultural uses Within These
segments the cbrd policy framework support uh creating acto Transportation
networks um and using the rail Corridor for this network and policy Frameworks
also support the use of transit to encourage a mode shift away from from
the car in other words using Transit as a catalyst for change um population
projections Illustrated there is potential for population growth and
therefore land use change um uh the result of accelerated growth
in these areas is the fact that core areas uh especially in the urban areas
along a corridor would certainly see significant densification over time as
the de velopment of new housing units occurred next slide
please if we go to the transportation assessment
um uh again uh Transportation options were based on existing and future land
uses and a high level analysis was again undertaken from a transportation
perspective in terms of their strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats in
these areas and obviously in as Parton par of
the exercise was to ensure excuse me that future use of the
corridor needs to be aligned with the goals of the South Island Transportation
strategy and that refers to improving um uh a connected and integrated
Transportation Network and addressing travel demand uh promoting alternative
modes and obviously discouraging the use of private vehicles in essence three
basic strategies were examined um for use of the corridor door and those
relate to providing a trail only uh providing a rail only and then
looking at the opportunities of providing Rail and Trail
together um next slide please um as we mentioned earlier on um
the development of a ter propensity model was uh was uh a very important
component of this exercise due to the over helming interest in uh
transportation and specific specifically rail
Transportation um and in essence transport the transit
propensity model uh was just a model to assess to which extent population growth
in the CBD could support a a future passenger rail service so um estimating
ridership to examine the viability of rail service in this regard um
three population scenarios were considered for the catchment areas of uh
rail service um and those were just looking at the existing cment population
a second one looked at uh existing but projected growth population to 2024
2024 and then the third um option looked at growth based on the provincial
Transit oriented areas buildout um
and as I mentioned earlier St uh station catchment areas incorporate kind of two
rings of areas the first ring is the uh the ring closest to the station which um
reflects walking distance to stations and then the lar larger outside ring
reflecting driving distance distances um to facilitate drop
off at stations or parking at stations due to the uh proximity and overlap of
existing stations or station locations in uh the cvrd stations were
Consolidated into six locations only and then obviously assum assumptions had to
be made um to use to estimate rail ridership uh in Dem in Peak Peak periods
and off peak periods of the day as well as assumptions were used to calculate uh
Service uh requirements to meet that travel demand and that was used to
calculate the number of trips required and thus um the peak vehicle requirement
in other words the number of changes required to to to deliver that
service um next slide please so just with regards to the this
little model and its assumptions it's um uh a couple that need to be just
highlighted is first mostly that the rail line remains contiguous and is
fully developed north and south of the cvd so it's not just a cvrd in
isolation that trips rail trips reflect round trips over the length of the
corridor so that would be um south from the CR uh cvrd uh into the capital
regional district as well as into the comok Valley Regional District in the
North to the Courtney station that the necessary infrastructure was in place to
support uh access to rail um and that would include uh Transit service
integration and the availability of Park and Ride facilities and Mobility hubs
Etc at station locations and very importantly that um
transportation connections overall are sufficient for users to reach final
destinations in other words not to look at um
uh a rail service in isolation but the connections to other services for Riders
to be able to finalize and reach their final
destinations um so this assessment really is a
statement of the potential ridership and can be used as an input in in in a
future business case and also a detailed Transportation
analysis would be required to verify all these assumptions that have been made in
the model um with regards to trip volumes uh and direction of service and
destinations and so on the outcome of the model suggests
that the estimated population growth is sufficient to Warrant a viable service
and that service was identified as being providing a peak uh service of
approximately three trips an hour but just bear in mind that it uh as I
mentioned earlier on this would this takes into account um not only um
service and demand within the cvrd but the but the corridor as a whole so uh
the other Regional districts that are adjacent to the cvd as well next slide
please so requirements for adopting a long-term vision of the corridor um uh
just need to be identified and just are listed below uh in terms of reserving a
corridor in its entirety um um and to address the implications where there are
locations where theity may be impacted um as I mentioned to update travel uh
characteristics relating to travel demon and trip purpose uh identifying suitable
uh rail technology to accommodate passenger and or Freight rail because um
the requirements are um could be uh somewhat different um as far as Urban
Development is concerned to identify and promote land for higher density use um
confirming safety standards and service standards for again for passenger
service versus rail Services because they are certainly different um as I
mentioned before integrating rail service into an overall
Transportation Network um so that would for example include
uh connections to bus and Ferry services for passengers to complete their trips
to reach their end destinations obviously the updating of
costs relating to Service uh uh transportation service rail service
operations but also Transportation infrastructure as well as um Rolling
Stock and then finally to establish a regional or provincial body
to oversee the planning implement ation operation of such a
service um next slide please so based on those assessments um we we identified
Transportation options next slide please and they are listed in the following
slide so really five options were identified as we've alluded to before a
rail only option which looks at preserving the corridor for the future
introduction of rail a trail only op option which is converting the corridor
to a multi-use trail for active modes in the short and or long term thirdly um a
combination side by side if you like of rail and Trail so introducing Trail for
active mode but enabling um future rail operations in
the corridor um and the fifth option being
um other uses or no rail or Trail um which really refer to the reversion
of land and this considers the remediation of bisected Reserve
lands um a final not option really but a final consideration
um uh which should be noted and um and and and discussed as well is looking at
um the potential of Al providing alternative roots for emergency services
which was evident in the m area so the assessment of these options
examined the issues risks and the estimated costs and in the following
slides we will just highlight um uh the high level findings and the cost so
first of all next slide please
s there we go so first option rail only um obviously a continuous rail Corridor
is required to provide the service um it should just be noted again that within
the cvrd 4.8 km of the corridor um uh runs in reserve lands
um and uh a high level analysis of uh reigning rail Corridor around these res
uh to bypass the reserves um was identified as being challenging due to
Long diversions um high costs which make include could include tunneling the
requirement for new Bridges and challenging Urban environments
especially in developed areas such as Downtown Duncan um so really um uh in
essence rail alignments around Reserve lands is not really considered feasible
at this point um and therefore without access or agreements with First Nations
a rail Corridor or a rail service within the corridor becomes
unfeasible um with next slide please with regards to rail costs let's first
look at Capital Capital costs are imp uh are impacted by uh infrastructure
specifications in terms of the rail line itself um technical details are provided
in uh our report um as well as what is included and excluded such as um Rolling
Stock Does it include a commuter service versus an intert uh inter service City
inter city service I be p as well as some of the the cost um uh um
estimations included uh the parks so to Port Al Bernie section as well so this
graph just shows in blue um how the cost for from different studies varied
um uh and so if one looks at the cost per kilometer uh which is shown in red
one could see it varies all the way from 1.5 um uh
1.5 to 4.1 as a cost per
kilometer um in millions um and these are estimated from various studies and
the final column shows uh the estimate that was made for this um study the uh
cvd and it's a the high it's a high level estimate for for specifically for
commu terrain so we are capital cost is just in the or just
below a billion dollars um for the
cvd um if we move on to the next slide please that shows uh a little bit of
information on uh once the once a rail line is established obviously uh
operating cost and uh is incurred as well so this graph shows in blue shows
the revenue from fairs and a a revenue of $15 per um per per ride is
assumed the red bars show the operating cost for the different levels of service
uh based on population for the three scenarios that were undertaken and then
the yellow shows the shortfall and that really is the subsidy that's required to
cover the uh difference um uh in in in the in the revenue and the
cost and obviously oper cost depends on service provision such as the
frequencies and the extent of um uh the service and the times of operation and
so on but it does show that um uh that uh uh beyond the capital cost there is a
annual uh additional cost uh despite the income of through fars um to cover the
shortfall between operating cost and um fair fair generation
um next slide please um the next option looked at Trail only and again the
capital cost for this was estimated at 55 million and this was based on uh
approximately at 25 as 25% uh asphal surfacing of the corridor
uh of the total length but that also then included in uh the vertical uh
raising the vertical elevation for two Bridges um for 16 Bridges um uh railing
and decking improvements and falling uh Rock mitigations in the malat area and
again uh Beyond Capital cost there is a maintenance cost fortunately a low
number but estimated at three of uh 3 million per year um with regards to soil
Remediation in this option of Trail only um no soil remed mediation is required
if the rail is if the trail is built on the existing rail bed um if for uh
whichever reason um remediation of the corridor within the
cvrd uh would be required that cost would vary uh quite significantly
between 76 and 255 million depending on um the low or high estimate of
remediation and then obviously as we mentioned earlier on land use
designation remediation of cvrd Reserve lands however is uh pegged at between 9
and 15 million so that would be the 4.8 kilm of um Reserve Land that are
impacted within the cvd area next slide please third option uh looked at Rail
and Trail uh the the construction cost for this option is higher than Trail
only because the railway remains officially active and it requires
maintenance of tracks and trestles the provision as the picture shows of a
safety fence between the rail alignment and the trail and obviously safety
improvements at rail crossings to meet um transport can standards
um and then um it should also be noted when rail service is introduced that uh
Crossings uh would have to be addressed in terms of improving uh Crossings for
active modes uh and that's that's roughly at 16 Crossings in in in the
area um the trail cost uh in uh was based uh in in this option was based on
the cost incurred in uh the enn trail in Victoria Langford uh which was at 2.1
million per kilometer which is significantly more than the .6 million
per kilometer for the trail only option the cvd cost for Rail and Trail would be
in the order of 129 million so next slide please um in the
interest of time is just a summary of the four options um uh that we have
spoken about um just showing what uh what they are and then showing when they
are implemented as specifically with regards to rail and Trail and then um in
the in the case of rail and Trail together but just a summary slide which
is part of um I believe your handout um next slide
please as we mentioned earlier on emergency access uh um and specifically
alternative rooting for emergency services not re uh an option per se but
a consideration for the various segments as we mentioned malahat is often
congested and suffers from accidents and closures and delays um there certainly
are limited traffic alternatives to the Mal hat and in fact the mot did
undertake a study a couple of years ago to consider root Alternatives which are
depicted um in this uh diagram um and the Alternatives excluded the RO
Corridor um these Alternatives were identified but not pursued any further
so just um a note on
that um so if uh next slide please so just a summary of the options assessment
uh just to bring this all together um is first of all in the Rail options first
we would require um an agreement with First Nations to access the RO Corridor
um and there specific Pacific Reserve lands 4.8 km to in order to provide a
continuous Corridor um and uh a rail only option would
obviously um preclude uh potential emergency access to alternatives on the
Malad trail trail only option obviously precludes rail in the future
and the cost assume that construction won't require soil
remediation um in the case of Trail only if it weren't a continuous route that
could be overcome by diversion onto thejason Street
Network for Rail and Trail this is the highest cop uh option um in terms of uh
Trail provision due to the requirement of the trail adjacent to the rail line
um preserving the opportunity for future rail when when a business case can be
made and funding can be secured and then finally other uses or land
rsion that means in essence means a change in the land use and the soiled
mediation costs for Reserve lands in the cvrd
um so that really is a summary of um what what what our uh um options
assessment um uh provided us so if we move on in conclusion
bringing this all together the next steps um really uh for this project as a
whole can be summarized in the following Four Points um first of all to review
the interest in the potential of uh reestablishing the rail service
obviously in the longer term and in collaboration with land owners um
reviewing the feasibility of expanding the trail Network to accommodate active
modes in the short term undertaking transportation study to
look at the provision of alternative loots um to Highway one for emergency
services Services particularly in the Maad section and um finally engaging in
uh ongoing an additional collaboration to arrive at an overall shared Vision
that is supported by all that brings me to the end of uh my presentation thank
you
thanks everyone for your patience read the number of
slides great thank you for the for the presentations I have a request um to
take a five minute break for the the board before we jump into questions if
that works for everyone all right so we'll um resume
the meeting at uh I've never been above
160 this is the heaviest as long as I feel good
running how are they spicy nice none of my clothes are though
all right we'll now resume our committee the whole whole meeting and we're at uh
questions for our presenters with regards to the Island Rail Corridor
visioning exercise so I'm going to turn first to uh director
Wilson thank you chair yeah and um I I've got to say um I
sorry director WS can you press the button again I'm having a bit of trouble
here apologies there continue there we go I got to stop doing that okay thank
you very much um I Love Trains I think they're brilliant um and I would love to
be able to to bring something like this back again I mean my my kids and my
grandkids don't believe that growing up I traveled on steam trains diesel trains
and all the rest of it just to get backwards and forwards but on a local
level I have traveled before it was shut down on this particular one from uh all
the way from Sheamus to to um to Victoria and it really is the most
amazing trip um that I've ever taken it was beautiful and and I would hate to
see it disappear but when I look at the costs it more than a sharp intake of of
breath here um and I but I would like to bring it back again I do believe it is
the future because previous experience in the UK before we came to Canada a lot
of the branch lines were shut down uh in order to um save costs and yet 10 or 15
years later they had to bring them back again because of their usefulness I
would love to see this brought back again uh so the question is on terms on
terms of costs how is that going to be financed and what impact would that have
for instance on the cvrd um on our taxpayers or having to go
to short-term borrowing there has to be an impact is there any study on that
particular one thank
you s you want to take this
one thanks very much for the question I guess I should pass this to youran
please thanks um thank you for the question Vaga question um because that
is always um when one goes through these exercises
um that final question that has to be resolved to answer your question um no
no study has been undertaken as to how this would be funded and obviously that
would have that is an exercise in itself because I think the important part of
this is to say okay um if one were to implement something like this um who are
all the funding Partners obviously uh provincial government local government
uh federal government and uh the the the CBD as well and I think it's an
important question to have an answer uh to pass on to residents of the cvrd so
that uh they are aware of of what that cost implication would be for
them course yeah if I could um follow up yeah and and this is one of the most
important ones it it don't get me wrong we need something like this there's no
two ways about it but I would much rather know or even
have a very rough figure of what it's going to cost me before any more Studies
have been going on the reason here is that the studies have been going on how
long 5 10 years or something like that and we're still no further forward let's
get some numbers if we can please thank you next I have uh director
mcgonagal thank you first of all thank you very much for a very wholesome
presentation uh I think we all accept the value of the island Corridor not
only within our regional district but up and down uh the corridor line I I look
historically at the branch line to the West couchin area and the way it was
utilized industrially and how it has transformed into a Transportation uh an
alternative transportation Hub currently which has engaged in tourism
opportunities economic opportunities in the west cchan area so I do see the
value in in rail to Trail but also looking back historically at the
adjacent lands for instance that were accommodated within the propriety of
providing rail service how quickly that Island Corridor would be reinitiated
should those lands be reinstated into other options that's just a comment uh
for a question not uh perhaps to you but perhaps to our
staff you mentioned uh subsidies within your report of per ridership I believe
it was a $6 negative subsidy it would be interesting to see the comparative
between what is currently subsidized in ridership in transit as toose opposed to
those projections just so that we had an idea of of how that could be implicated
within budget discussions we know that any service that we to provide whether
it be Recreation whether it be Transportation Transit are slightly
subsidized uh by by taxation so it would be interesting to know the comparatives
in that thank you very
much so Lee would you like to respond to
that okay par me did you ask me I think the question was more to to staff yes
yeah director mical indicated he can also follow up
offline it's noted okay I'll move on to the next speaker uh director
Morrison thank you chair um so I want to to thank stantech and and modus a very
thorough report uh I got to be noted on time and on budget so that's pretty
exciting and uh I I'm just thrilled that uh our staff and and and our Consultants
were able to actually do the work uh quite successfully within the original
time frame that the province wanted the work done and uh so we're actually done
leaders of the pack and the other organizations that uh must be doing that
work well I I think Al Bernie clat is is very close to to completion as well so
uh good on them as well uh I I have to say I'm I'm an internal Optimist when it
comes to the you know what a huge asset this is and and I I just think of you
know in regards to what director Wilson had just said um I wasn't it just this
week that the federal government announced that they're going to do
high-speed rail from Quebec City to Toronto and and they don't have like the
lands and and they don't have the Assembly of what's required they have
some of it um huge multi billion doll project for that area yes they've got
the population uh different scenario but you know I think what what we're facing
with the island Corridor in this area is is almost as complex as cbrd budgeting
it's it's a really there's so many variables in this but being that
internal Optimist you know the question was asked how much is this going to cost
and we had somebody stand up during public input and say when I hear the
word expensive in a report I want to challenge it and and I I too think of
that what is the cost to not do some of these things that are are suggested in
the report whether it's reestablishment of rail or Rail and Trail and the likes
and and why I'm an optimist is that you know you just look back as to what
happened with Sky Train when when that was announced people were selling their
properties near potential Sky train stations for you know you know Pennies
on the dollars and the developers came along bought them up now there's
highrises all the way around all all around the the sky train stations and
there's been huge economic and social Improvement in those areas as a result
of a transportation and Logistics Improvement and I see that potential for
the island Corridor whether it's it's aiding and food security you know we
grow stuff in this region we should be able to consolidate process and ship it
off to other areas and if we're looking at the future and high cost of
Transportation rails got to be part of that equation at least from where I sit
um I I know that our friends in alurn kwat are feeling really fortunate that
they've got that rail line there and that they can they can look to the
Future for deep sea port activities and the and the tourism potential that with
their train that they have there so I'll I'll
pretty much I'll stop there and say that you know whether whether we go to
residential development along the the the corridor or light industrial
industrial there's huge potential in a Consolidated and maintained Corridor and
uh I I hope that we can move in that direction at some point but I think this
this report is a great Foundation leaves us some more questions to ask but I I
want to thank the consultants and our staff for doing such a fine job thank
you I next have uh director Duncan uh thank you yeah and thank you
for the report in the past I was uh the city of Duncan representative to the ICF
uh consultations and one of the things I noticed in the report was rail crossings
and that sort of twigged on to my memory uh in the past that there there was
approximately 200 rail crossings and the cost to upgrade each one was about
200,000 I didn't see any sort of numbers around that in this report so can you
confirm how many rail crossings there are and who's actually responsible to
pay for the upgrade of those is it each
municipality Yan maybe I can help answer this question as a rail yes so a lot of
these rail crossings are existing I don't have the actual count uh on my
head of course we have listed that in our uh first presentation and also uh R
report and those costs were already covered in
the W speed report in 2020 and as a part of the upgrade cost which were separated
out into three different phases uh initial phase intermediate and ultimate
phase all of these costs were accommodated of course the cost that wsp
prepared in 2020 uh was 5 years old of course we try to you know scale them up
and uh come up with more accurate estimate but a lot of those Crossings if
we just explore them on googlers they already have active warning system which
means flashing lights bells and some of them they have Gates as well like a lot
of them are already fully equipped but uh when I was talking to ICF uh some of
them were not fully in service due to like uh protection protecting the asset
so there's going to be some cost for having them activated and as you guys
are fully aware uh Transport Canada guideline and Transport Canada bre
ulations are in effect Since U uh 2014 and uh there's a lot of existing
agreement between Railway Authority and the municipality on the cost sharing uh
on maintenance fees so a lot of them are existing they need to be assessed and uh
there's a full report I believe completed by Bonds on Crossing
assessment and cost available as well but the costs have to be scaled by I
hope that answered the question
I follow up director Duncan no do I push all right okay I'll move on now to
director
Nicholson press one more
time okay go for it thank you thank you for the report
um yeah like I've been waiting for to be able to commute to Victoria
for my whole career 40 years and then the last at least for the last
20 the the corridor has not been used for anything and so I try and walk along
it but I fall into holes and it's fairly dangerous so I'm thinking about
timelines here and I recognize when I read this report that really this is a
lot to do with First Nations so we don't have a um so we will be waiting for a
while while that whole situation get sorted out one way or the
other and so I guess what I'm wondering um in several replaces the
report states that lifting the rail and putting a trail on the rail bed would
preclude the return of rail in the future so I thought perhaps an option
might have been that um you do a a trail beside the rail a rail trail beside the
rail where you could and then use the trail the rail when you can't do that
for for example through bright angel Park You couldn't possibly have a a
trail beside the rail there as as an interm thing which led me to think about
well what is what is what kind of a a time frame are we talking about and I
found the report a little bit unclear on that front so you talk about short to
medium um and I'm wondering what short to medium means is that 10 to 15 50
years or like another two two working Generations or how much is that
s thanks very much for the question truly appreciate it I I should pass this
to your hand please um it's it's difficult to
actually um determine exactly what is short medium and long term in in in in
the sense of this report um the long term as far as this report is concerned
is some point in the future when a rail line uh potentially can be uh
reinstituted so um uh shortterm and medium term be
derivatives of that in terms of perhaps being shortterm within the next 10 uh
roughly 10 to 15 years maybe and the medium term beyond that I think at this
point that's probably the closest we can get to uh defining those uh uh time
periods thanks youran I can also add on top of that as an engineer that you know
to have a good estimate we have to have a design and of course on the design we
usually have the first phase which is conceptual feasibility study we're going
to have like at least horizontal alignment and we can have like let's say
class D cost estimate and then we can definitely spend more time do a detailed
design and come up with accurate timeline and cost estimate so in order
to have a very robust uh not even highly robust B just just a very kind of
reliable time Horizon a conceptual design drawing across the corridor is
required I hope that answerers the question thank you follow up thank you
well I guess I I mean I just from my perspective it the question is really
about um are we prepared to wait another 50 years for potentially rail to happen
or could we make the the the corridor a little bit more useful than it is right
now um yeah right I'll now move on to director
mclinton thank you chair um a few comments before
my question um yeah if I had a magic wand I'd
probably like to see rail uh put in I think it offers the most options for the
most amount of people um you know somebody that drove from Victoria to
coox for work in my early 30s that uh yeah I think there' be a big benefit
there but I was listening to the report you know I just was struck by
first just visually seeing the our Colonial history of I forget the number
maybe three or four Indian reserves where we cut through the the land and
just uh just a quick personal anecdote my my son his his grandmother is a
jibway and his grandfather is the rer AR chief of the quaca band alert Bay and
the jju nation has tremendous treaty rights um and quaca they're in stage
four and the the the jux the position just couldn't be more hu bigger and and
you know so he obviously he when he had the option that's when he took his
status that's he went with the jibway and you know we see I think it was said
I the full report there's two Nations or sorry two reserves that that don't they
want their land back and so I mean we're pontificating about what we
want to do with this Corridor I mean perhaps there's a section from Victoria
to shaigan or something along those lines but I mean the recommendation that
we proceede I mean I guess this gets to my question um I mean without the
province sitting at the table either coming up with comp ation or
rerouting um you know unless they weren't 100% clear that they want their
land back I mean how can we possibly proceed with anything I mean it's I I
just I I had a hard time listening after I heard that there's there's sort of two
Nations or two reserves for sure and then I I wasn't quite sure where we
landed with the stanus and the lady Smith where they just got the the land
transfer for the harbor so anyways my question is
um what is your understanding of those two Parcels of land or three I for
whatever it is that cut through the the Indian reserves um and and then how can
we you know how can we possibly move forward lindsy do you want to take this
one thank you for the question um so coin tribes is has bisected Reserve
lands in two areas and cin your right has been clear that they would like
those Reserve lands returned and that they do not want to have a
transportation use in the future in that area we looked at whether or not there
could be rerouting can you go below over around I mean we Transportation routes
can be rerouted again it comes back to cost
um Halal is the other nation that has bisected Reserve lands and would like
the land returned they were not
as decided when it comes to the potential future use they were
interested in options and in the same way that a rail would impact their
Reserve by going through it for safety and other reasons they have the highway
passing through it and causing other issues of its own as a result of the
truck traffic so they're interested in understanding potential Transportation
options um in terms of CCH and tribes we only know what they've shared
with us and and I can't really comment on whether or not they might change
their position at some point in the future but that's what we understand
today hook me up thanks chair um you
know yeah this is this is It's a challenging situation um
until in my so first I just want to say and this is with all due respect to to
director Nicholson um but they you me waiting 40 years for rail I I mean these
folks on the in new Reserve been waiting you know Generations right and I mean
until I hear that they're open into communication or that we have a tangible
way to re-root this rail I mean or or there's some way that is going to
accommodate this I have a I have a I'm very uncomfortable moving forward with
these sorts of conversations I think it undermines their
treaties doesn't undermine I I think it's disrespectful and I think that
those that needs to be resolved first and foremost before we have a
conversation about Crossings
Trail whatever it might be so anyways that's a comment not a
question director mcki thank you uh so I I think I'm most closely
sort of jumping off the point that uh director Nicholson was making
um and without coming right out and saying I
don't necessarily support rail I'm going to ask a
question um cuz I don't know if I supported or not but in the meantime as
we're waiting to sort out funding as we're waiting to sort out the Reserve
Land question as we're waiting to find out if
north and south of Us wish to C on board and make it Contin contiguous as we've
already learned it's not any use to us if it's not contiguous through as far as
it can go and make it useful it's lots of it it's about Victoria as we're
waiting for all of that maybe 50 years there must be chunks of rail in
existence with sufficient distance that don't involve any critical
infrastructure that don't involve any expensive repair that we could
certainly investigate throwing down some good gravel and creating a cap on it for
it to be used as active transportation in the meantime I'm not talking about a
30 m chunk of it I'm talking about substantial lengths of trail that could
be used over the next 50 years we don't even have to pull them up we could just
cap it and use it in the meantime as the rest of this stuff is being sorted
out I feel like we are doing ourselves a disservice and I don't buy the fact that
we can't use it for trail as we wait can we make better use of this
active trans active trans transportation is a critical part of the
what the work we're trying to do in our communities let's address that in the
next 50 years as we're waiting for rail thank
you I'm going to turn to our CEO
We There You Go takes a second thank you um I just wanted to uh go back to the
the previous comments about the um uh land reversion process and just remind
the um the committee that uh this board has uh
supported um in a resolution uh to support the land reversion process as
did the ICF board um and so we also received Direction recently from from
this board to write a letter to the provincial government which we're
working on at the moment to um continue to support the ICF to facilitate the
knitting together of the shared visioning work because arguably we've
just looked at the boundaries of of this Regional District and and been
communicating with the Nations within this Regional District but the corridor
is a contiguous piece of land that um needs coordination amongst Regional
districts on the island and that uh that letter that advocacy letter is going to
request resources to support that continued work uh we just have a role to
play in it but it needs to be facilitated so I just wanted to remind
that that there's a lot more conversation to come and there's a lot
more work as well and it and it and it won't be uh a quick project it will go
on for a very long time
yeah director
Calo don't touch
it a thank
you um I'm just going to say it's a great report and when I was reading this
at home on my computer uh I I actually quite enjoyed it and you know traveling
in Europe and even some parts of the United States using the rail systems
down there I mean we could take a uh a a good page out of their book I mean
traveling around Europe is just so easy to uh in England even in England um they
uh have a great rail system there and it just it just takes so many people off of
the road there's just so many people over there so many off the road and you
know we we're not the point where we're very heavily populated on the island
right now it's mostly empty territory but um for
me I I'm in agreement with um director mclinton is that um this seems like a
non-starter because we we need to figure out what we're going to do with the
First Nations that um have cut this uh rail line into
chunks and you know I and I agree with director mclinton also in that you know
we have to have respect for the First Nations and the fact that uh this land
was taken from them but so for me I think what we need to do is figure out
how what's what's the next step forward to uh you know make this a
continuous line otherwise I just don't see you know how it can possibly afford
as a as a trail line that makes sense to me uh you know I I'm in complete support
of having the island Corridor go forward but looking at the intersections that
have been created in the line it seems that um that's something that needs to
be solved as soon as possible and my question is what is the potential to
negotiate with the tribes and Nations involved to maybe get an agreement with
them to actually uh put this line together turn this off
now follow followup somebody say followup okay uh director
Morrison uh thank you chair uh I I'm wanted to sort of paint a little bit of
context here in that um this report is what's been uh prepared and presented on
the basis of what the province came to us and
said uh take this money and go out and uh create the that shared vision and our
our staff and our Consultants have have done that and I think it's a a pretty
exhaustive report for for directors that that have the concern about the uh first
nation's land I share that concern and and if you're not aware all across this
country our federal government has had policy in the past of dividing reserves
whether it be with Trail or with uh Rail lines or roads it's uh there's actually
a really good book written on it um so we are dealing with issues that were you
know created decades ago uh this report
though and and our CAO has has reiterated the fact that not only does
this board support reversion which is landback the island Corridor Foundation
supports that as well so this is a a document that is saying okay for our
region we're at at at this point um this is what we've got and we're waiting for
the other organizations that have been funded as well to come up with that
vision for their region and I have to say that the nations are engaged in this
to the extent they can and the capacity they have to participate and do it
because they were also funded and asked the same question as well I think the
the big point the big takeaway from this and it hasn't been mentioned a lot we
talk about going back to the province for their Direction and funding but at
the end of the day it's going to be the federal government that is going to be
the big decision maker in this uh what they will be doing with uh First Nations
and their Reserve lands and what they will be doing around funding major
transportation projects like this may be similar to the one that they spoke about
in Quebec City to Toronto so it's that's where the main emphasis should lie is
what will the federal government ultim ultimately be doing and right now
they're not even at the table so I think I I was going to move the recommended
resolution because I think that sort of puts a bow on the work that we've been
asked to do and I think it's been completed in a in a very satisfactory
way so I would move that recommendation so it's moved is there a second or
seconded and just to be clear to the committee so the the wording is that we
accept the report so by accepting the report doesn't mean you necessarily
agree with all the findings but it's um we need this motion passed um as part of
the uh the process in terms of this Grant from the government we have a
March 31st deadline that we're working towards okay so it's move second it's on
the floor next I've got um director aach and then I'd like to jump in
myself thank you chair um just really quick because the uh person who's a
little bit obsessed with bikes um I first want to acknowledge I definitely
appreciate director mcclinton's point and that's why I
think uh with the important thoughts he was sharing why it's really important to
reflect on director makai's points of we have important things we have to wait on
and work on but every we just keep kicking the ball down the field without
meaningfully trying to score a goal on the lwh hanging fruit that is keep going
hard on shortterm usage of the rail but primarily keep on the great work we're
doing with rail the trail and I in the report I didn't like that it's it
competes the two against each other like we can do both where it's necessary um I
think of my route when I do all my cbrd commutes by bike how transformative
would be when I get to bonsel Creek to be able to hop on the enn it would bring
me directly to this building yet I have to do a maze of tricky Maneuvers and uh
there's little old uh Trans Canada Highway Crossings I have to do it would
be pretty amazing and then the reason I reflect on that is um while we don't
have the population density where we have it we should be focusing on the
rails uh with trails and Paving them and doing them properly cuz I usually
typically I ride three to four times in the Victoria area specifically because
of their rail system um just as an example one converted Railway Trestle
yesterday had nearly 3,000 people cross it in one day on their system and being
that when you build that system uh in of course dense
population uh but Victoria in 20 2022 their stats were that 43% of the
population daily chooses not to drive it's all active
Transportation but back to my point of rail not making it against each other I
mean goodness I it's a chore uh in the summer months one to two times three
times a month I ride all the way from shanus to Victoria on my bike man it
would be amazing when I'm exhausted there to put my bike on a train and come
back back on it um so train is Transit all in as much as we can do as uh
director kellyo said um you know trains are amazing as such that Transit but
then also what uh director uh micle said is interesting like what is the level of
subsidy that we're putting into it as a per user on a tax rate and how what is
the ROI on that subsidy if that's invested
into uh adding four more buses a day on the Victoria Express on uh you know at
building the rail the rail the trails where uh the lwh hanging fruit
possibilities are that director McKay said so lots of good discussion there I
just wanted to share just a quick little bit of input as someone who rides a bike
every day when I can and I I don't do it right now this time of year weather
isn't an issue but there's no shoulders no safe ways from shanus to here in the
winter in the dark where there's no shoulder
and if we had a safe route I think even more people would be doing it um we're
going to see later in the issues there showing where the success of rails and
trails is is in lady Smith the shanus it's transformed the relationship
between those communities and been a uh really good part to seeing you know
we've got a really good successful business in Sal that benefits from that
as well so it connects those communities and you'll see in the upcoming report if
you break down the rails the trail stats on the counter on the rail the trail
there that's 1466 people a day in shanus to the shanus to Lady Smith route
1466 you know grain of salt that might be out and backs so even at that you're
seeing 700 plus users per day using the rail the trail there so it's just saying
just I don't like the idea of their competing uses but really wanted to be
open to like what can we do right now and of course that was reflected in both
north couch and master Transportation plan and also reflected in the uh cvr's
recent active Transportation survey and Report uh plan that was
finalized thanks for the time to share those
thoughts all right I've got a uh question some comments and I'm going to
turn to director McClinton and perhaps we can then then call the question uh Ju
Just want to build on the the comments from director McKai about some of the
the lower cost options in terms of laying gravel beside the existing rail
tracks for walking and cycling paths and wondering if the uh presenters and
perhaps even uh the CEO of the island corter Foundation might be able to speak
to any recent examples of that that um that you could elaborate on in terms
of uh again lower cost options to further active transportation
Mr B's coming up then perhaps s you could speak to this after as
well thank you board and chair uh it's great to be here again and eching uh uh
hats off to the consultant and staff team really incredible work that just
shows the complexity uh that we're dealing with and uh we need to continue
stepping forward work walking hand inand with the Nations uh to find uh really
strong uh solutions that we all benefit from and uh feel uh that uh we can uh
put our heart and soul into with respect to short-term uh items uh couldn't agree
more and we're having some real great progress in other areas uh on this uh
where it makes sense Qualicum Beach in particular has been a leader where uh
through some ditching work and uh uh gradeall work that we had to do anyways
this year uh qualum uh Town put in another $10,000 and we
were able to do almost a kilometer of uh I wouldn't quite call it a AAA multiuse
facility but it's definitely uh you're not stuck in the brambles anymore and if
you have a half decent mountain bike um not everyone does but uh something with
some pretty good tires you can now Traverse uh on the corridor instead of
going on Fern Road and that's tremendous we're also uh going to be launching
something on Earth Day in Nimo uh where there's a real pinch point to get to a
school in Chinatown in the South End there and the City of Nimo is going to
be contributing uh to get a rough path to connect that school uh which is
already traversed very heavily Every Morning by kids and we're trying to push
that back uh in a in a more uh Safe Way and yeah low hanging fruit it's not uh
as good as the iann trail in Victoria we would love to see that everywhere but
that's going to be big dollars and um whether or not that can happen in uh the
medium term or not has so many factors at play with the nations with the other
memberships and maybe maybe not but I'd say for short-term items uh let's put
some love into the corridor great thanks Mr bevon and I'll
turn SLE anything to add to
that or Johan yes thank you very much um yeah I I would like to add to that um I
think well well first of all the the the the work that has been done uh certainly
did not go to that granular level of detail in terms of what are the
different levels of trail that one could establish uh but I do think there is
Merit in saying that work should be done and could be done to say figure out okay
because what we hear what we are hearing loud and clear is uh what are our
options looking at establishing in the short term um uh perhaps not the whole
Corridor but portions of the corridor and converting that to a trail so maybe
it's not as um Mr Bon um suggested it's not the the AAA version but it is a
version that really turns the corridor around into some use so yeah I I I I
would I would suggest I would strongly suggest some work could certainly be
done in in that area so I don't know if you would like to add to that thank you
very much Yan you covered it quite well uh well just uh putting my transporation
engineering hat here and speedballing you know we had different topography and
different grades and different you know kind of areas across 71 kilm in cvd or
the whole Corridor roughly 240 kilm so we have to do a zoning there's a need
for a conceptual design and really comes to the cost and different options uh
different scenarios can be designed you know uh the wids or typical section of
the gravel path what areas uh have safety concerns because we're talking
about a rail Corridor and when we have a rail Corridor uh or sharing an area on
the rail Corridor there's a lot of safety
concerns and of course covering or just building a path right beside the
corridor so there's a lot of feasibility in conceptual uh study required to uh
come up with the uh first priorities in terms of safety topography wids and also
the grades that we can put there so that people can use like ebikes or just can
walk there and do hiking there so I would say uh and a study is required to
identify the fairest you know areas that could be easily uh and quickly expanded
and what's going to be the challenging Crossing areas rails and rivers and Road
crossings that need uh safety improvements handrails and uh
uh reach uh Rehabilitation maintenance and uh then then kind of next phases can
be developed I hope that answers the question thank you thank you all I just
have a couple comments and I'm going to turn over to director mclinton and
hoping we can perhaps call the question after that so in my view this report has
been uh very thorough and reflects the uh the complexity and the history of the
corridor as you know a significant portion of the C's population lies near
the Corridor and as the aanch has shown we can expect a lot more growth in areas
within a short distance of the corridor between now and
2041 this spine is absolutely critical to the city's future and should be
reflective uh as such in future growth planning the public clearly wants to see
Transportation options provided on the corridor whether for rail trail or a
combination of the two the city has been Auto has been an autod dependent area
for more than 50 years and with all the growth happening this has to shift
the answer is not one more Lane the city needs to listen to the public and
provide leadership so the corridor can serve as a transportation asset now and
into the future in my view the city also needs to continue to work creatively and
collaboratively so that the corter can benefit the First Nations and public
together we know that couch and tribes are becoming leaders in development with
impressive projects like the 200 unit Rivers Edge rental apartments by The
Quon Development Corporation this could be a model for how we want to densify
service lands beside the corridor and protect and conserve lands away from
it so now turn it to director mclinton perhaps to close
yes one more Lane wouldn't be so bad thank you
chair uh no I I just want I just want to go on record I and I I didn't say this
at the beginning I do want to thank Miss Miles Wilson for and the other caos that
and the the the Chiefs and all the representatives that were really in my
opinion put in an untenable situation I I like the province was hopefully they
all agree that's sort of what it seemed like to me um but it is great to see
this report and I just want to go on record I'm very happy to receive this
report I think it's terrific information it's super important to know where we're
at and the challenges we have to move forward um it's just clear in my mind
it's clear to me the first things first is is reroute compensate or you know uh
figuring another solution to to deal with the intersection so um with that I
I'm happy to well it's already been moved so we'll call the question all
right we'll call the question then all in favor of exec the report and opposed
none opposed motion carries we can now move on to R3 report from the parks and
trails division regarding the 2024 year end park ranger
report are we getting an overview from staff or we going straight
inform Just for information all right any questions from the committee no all
right yeah director Nicholson thank you I um I read this
report with great interest and it would be very helpful next time if you could
please put information about specific parks in
there all right seeing nodding from staff can I move on to item R4 report
from the parks oh sorry director Morrison over to you uh
thank you chair and I was hoping we might actually have staff up here for
some questions around this because uh uh I'm really curious about the um
interactions and and conflicts that I've heard of recently developed uh you know
when we first started the the um various trails and and and improved them uh uh
it was mainly uh Recreation we had people using it for equestrian purposes
uh and then we had the Advent of uh of electrified scooters and the like and
and and one of the issues was motorized vehicles on the on the trail um uh I'm
now getting reports on a regular basis of uh the equestrian users which have
every right to be using it are having Pleasant interactions with the
ATVs and difficulties with the ebikes and the ebikes can go pretty fast on
there and uh horses are big animals so if if we've been noticing an uptick in
the uh uh conflicts between the different user groups because I what I'm
hearing is is that what everyone was afraid of with the
ATVs hasn't materialized but the new conflicts with other user groups has so
have you got any comment on that
through the chair thank you for the question um yeah when I started um
ironically it was the motorized vehicles that were the problem which kind of
initiated the share the trail um Campaign which has now been kind of
going for two and a half almost 3 years into various stages um and then I was
just talking about this today anecdotally what I've noticed is the
motorized vehicle issue has gone down um I was inundated with those calls when I
first started and that is no longer the case I think it's a combination of you
know the ATVs being a little bit wiser to it um maybe they're conducting
their their their activity after hours When there's less people on the trail or
they've just realized the game is up and they've moved on or other Park users
have read our signs and they've kind of felt empowered to be able to go out and
tell people themselves because they can see the rules stated pretty clearly um
so then in a vacuum then comes the ebikes um that is something that comes
across my desk for sure uh people complaining about um the speed with
which cyclists are going on the trail and that's also just cyclists that's not
just ebikes so um that's you know the Sunday Riders who are really going I get
a lot of calls about that up in salar and Chima so um it's not necessarily
just an ebike problem I think what's happened is the motorized vehicle issue
has subsided slightly um and then the proliferation of ebikes has come in to
kind of fill a little bit of a vacuum thank you for that and just a a
followup um I I the this was initiated by some folks that were uh that have
been regular equestrian users and and like to get out on their horses and ride
on the weekend but uh they now feel that um that our our trail system isn't
appropriate for their use because of of the potential danger of uh of their
animals being surprised and and so uh are are we doing anything to ensure that
uh that those users that are entitled to the use of our trails are uh are feeling
welcome and and able to enjoy the benefits of
them yeah through the chair thanks for the follow-up question uh we are um yeah
I um one of the things that I've been focusing on particularly in the spring
and summer um is what I call checkpoints so I'm actually stopping at various
locations um around the CVT um and checking in with people both their
experiences their the pros and cons of their of their use um so we do kind of
do reach out um campaigns with Trail users just to kind of engage with them
as well as to kind of stop people who are in the middle of conducting
themselves contrary to the park bylaw it's important to note though that with
ebikes um there's a limit to which um to how fast that they can go um and that
limit is is recognized and categorized by uh ICBC and you know the the powers
that be that conduct our our road um rules and the ebikes that are allowed on
our Trails cannot go P cannot go faster than 32 it's just slightly over 32 km an
hour so a lot of the complaints that we get are to be honest um people's
experience you know having a negative experience the ebike is going past them
at a clip that's a lot faster than the horse that they're on but when you
actually lean into um the situation um the ebike isn't going any faster than
what's allowable and we are um you know
conscious that you know when you're sitting still or just walking along some
people are pushing strollers some people are walking with their kids um any
cyclist going past at the max speed is going to be
startling follow up director Morrison all right any further questions for
staff director Nicholson
can can you press it one more time I was so well trained
before um shus River Park I was wondering um
how often you get out there and what the issues are these days
well I thank you for the question through the chair um I do get out there
it's pretty quiet these days it used to be a lot worse um from everything that
I've read um there's no longer The Bullet Hole damage and the gates being
ripped and um that sort of thing but we do have people camping um as we have all
over the region um I was there this past Sunday and someone was operating a um a
sauna like a that they pull behind their truck um and you know you know so
there's little things like that um but anecdotally from my perspective I have
yet to encounter um problems of the severe
nature that were happening there before um but all that said I still hear
stories of you know summertime parties and um campouts and all that sort of
stuff but in terms of Park damage um damage to trees uh tree theft um like I
said um unauthorized hunting and fishing um
I'm not seeing that as much as we we were before I started
yeah any further questions all right thank Youk you so this was just for
information we can now move on to the next report from the parks and trails
division this is with regards to the 2024 city parks and trails visitation
program summary any questions for
staff director estash thank you chair just a quick
question on as I spoke really quick on the shanus to Lady Smith Sal rail the
trail I just curious um was the trail counter relocated and I'm just C I don't
know if we publicly it's a policy to share where they are I'm just curious uh
if it was a change because now there's multiple access points now or was it
because of the change of the new parking lot which is of course getting
tremendous usage and at that 63,000 uh uh for last year being down
I'm just curious if that is isn't indicative as we heard there are some
concerns of uh usage uh they aren't really conflicts their education misses
some people have never seen horses some seniors have never ridden bikes but my
question is on that 1,466 on average people per day where is
that count being initiated who wants to take this one
thank you for the question through the chair um the location of that counter
has stayed the same and uh where we've located it is in our Central um location
on I believe is Davis Road or not Davis Road sorry uh Douglas um so right where
there's a kiosk and a bathroom a portable yeah so it's there cuz it's in
right in the middle and it hasn't changed locations okay uh as a followup
chair um is there any thought on temporarily possibly this summer at peak
times uh getting a count or on the south side of the road at the new parking lot
at North Watts there just to see to get an idea of usage uh initiating out of
the investment that cvd made into that parking
lot yeah yeah yeah we've talked about um the idea of around new builds and you
know um if it's a newly created Corridor or kind of a new um attraction so to
speak is putting in trail counters for temporary periods as you said
particularly during the peak times just to get a snapshot and then we can report
out from there um North wat is under consideration shaigan rail trail um and
the like so yes great yeah thank you to all the staff as well that's my go-to I
either run it or ride it every single day and the quality of work and cleaning
up after storms and everything there I know I'm going on but it's an
opportunity to thank staff so definitely staff have done a great job there and uh
look forward to the continued success of IT director Wilson don't touch it yeah
thank you chair um a technical question more than anything uh with the um the
counters um how how do you compensate for somebody going in and then somebody
coming out again does that count as two or is there any compensation on that
kind of thing
through the chair uh thank you yes we kind of look at every single counter and
kind of uh deliberate how it's being used through that so if it's like into a
park you can assume that they're going in and out so we'll divide that by two
okay so we do do some division of those numbers depending on like how we think
that might operate that's what I um some of the ones along the trail we might
assume that some are doing a through and some might be doing it back so we might
uh divide by like 1.5 for instance okay so we do try to count that as we to find
those numbers thank you very much that's me director
Morrison thank you chair um I I think I might have asked this question last year
and uh got some interesting uh answers and and it's more in regards to asset
management of of the counters um I noticed in uh some figures that uh there
may have been uh in my area a counter that had either malfunctioned or had
been damaged and that we've had some of these counters for quite a quite a
length of time now and are are we so my question is really about are are we
having counters aging out are we having any uh recurring software hardware
issues uh what's the state of the inventory of of the equipment and uh and
are we going to be looking at I think we could probably do uh as was indicated
earlier some some spot and point and time counts but I think there's other
parks that may deserve to be monitored as well so how are we doing as far as
our inventory and replacement of old equipment and the likes and and are
there any specific issues around uh uh damage or or vandalism that uh that we
should know about through the chair yes this is a
question we kind of deliberate every single year um this year in particular
we found uh a few have been aging out so we're kind of reviewing uh purchasing of
some new ones to replace those in the inter term we've had some that we can
put in the inter term that should suffice for uh at least a few years we
hope um but this is kind of like a an ongoing issue that we address on an
ongoing basis um we do have incidences particularly at particular locations of
vandalism which kind of deterior our numbers being useful in some instances
um so those are some locations we also deliberate of relocation or different
positioning of those just to help with those issues as well but uh yeah we're
currently we're kind of reviewing um some purchasing of some new counters to
compensate some of those aging ones yeah just as a real quick followup
I I I think it'd be interested if uh if staff could come forward I don't know if
it would be a what are we calling them they're not supplemental items anymore
but they're uh uh additions to service service enhancements service
enhancements uh because uh you know investing
in our Parks is is uh really important and and it's it helps me as a director
to know that uh if I'm getting increased usage or heavy usage in in one area or
another to have that data is really helpful uh on on where we direct our
assets so if if there was uh you know the ability to acquire more equipment
monitor more parks and more areas that would be uh something I'd be interested
and I don't know if my colleagues would be but uh it would be for my area at
least thank you great thank you we'll now move on to the
next report here also from the parks and trails division so this is with regards
to the 2024 Park reservations special events and parks and trails volunteer
program summary any questions for
staff all right so this one soorry I I keep looking at looking
at all your faces I got to look at the screen so I'll get the hang of it
director Wilson then director Morrison yeah thank you chair um I've
got a question here I'm a great believer in volunteers um because I I think we
really do underutilize the resources and the
expertise that there is out there and the willingness of groups to uh help us
out uh they do a very good job if they're allowed to do and half half the
problem is and I've I've got an email here from a local Ramblers Association
which is voicing their serious disappointment and concern um that
Parks has opted to a they're using the word ignore our offer of doing the
preliminary work of plotting out the hill as it currently stands these are
very experienced hikers they use the trails all the time they've offered to
map the trails and everything else and yet they're not being used they're going
to be using I understand um Consultants to do it why are we not taking more
advantage of the of the volunteers that we've got in instances like this to keep
our cost down and to engage the community when they
want to be engaged thank you um through the chair to director
here um I I believe it probably has to do with the type of work um through the
volunteer policy that we have in place um there's only certain types of work
that can be um done that wouldn't interfere with sort of unionize staff
and those type of things um and it could be a capacity issue as well I think it
just depends do anyone else want to jump into that or does that um answer the
question do answer your question director Wilson not really
um no it doesn't really um because I've heard this before where it's a question
of liability it's a question of training and it's a question of this it's always
and and you know I'm going to be as direct as I can here more often than not
at this table I hear what we can't do whereas what we can do what we can
achieve with the kind of resources we've got available to people who want to help
as far as liability is concerned I checked this with the m uh with the
municipal in Insurance Bureau and they said as long as they have been given
some kind of training they are covered under our insurance so the liability
question really is a non-starter so let me ask the question again why are we not
taking more advantage of willing groups who have the resources and the expertise
to carry out this kind of work without paying other
people through the chair a very good question and at the end of the day it
really comes down to a few things was mentioned by uh Elizabeth uh around
capacity around our ability to respond to group's interests how it aligns with
the work program and plans that are established by the board every year with
budget approvals so we know there's lots of groups out there with lots of great
ideas at the end of the day it really comes back to this table in terms of
where you see overall uh the parks and trails program both in electoral areas
and Regional Parks establishing priorities uh we have a lot of Outreach
uh with volunteers as you see in the report before you uh quite a lot of
projects were done both through the volunteer program last year but also a
significant amount of staff time through the program is also supporting groups
and organizations that are holding events in your Parks across the region
uh so as it comes down to capacity so certainly we'd be happy to into this
more with the committee if there's a desire to see what more can be done how
we can reach out and engage more with our community volunteer interests but at
the end of the day it comes back to how we as an organization can support them
to be able to do things in your Parks yeah thank you Brian and and I I'll
follow up with a comment here uh as far as capacity is
concerned um it seems to me there's an awful lot of rigidity there's no
flexibility here at all and that's something I'd like to see thank you than
you director Morrison uh thank you chair uh through the staff uh and I'm I may
need some help in in Remembering if I got the details here exactly right but
it it seemed that uh a couple of years ago we had uh found that some other
jurisdictions were uh changing their policy as to uh what was allowed to
happen in parks and uh and and I I think it was somewhere Greater Vancouver where
they were allowing people to bring a bottle of wine into the park and and
have a bottle of wine on the beach and and we really hadn't developed a a
policy as to what actual activities would be uh allowed in our parks and so
uh it seemed to me a couple of years ago we were talking about developing a
special events and and and uh use policy as to what would be allowed and what
wouldn't as in like if people wanted to have their wedding reception and a park
and would would alcohol be allowed to be in there would there be able to be food
preparation and the likes have we engaged in in that study or review
yet through the chair director Morrison you have a wonderful crystal ball
because staff are currently working on that and we're looking forward to
bringing it Forward at a near future
meeting director Nicholson thank you director martman has
helped me by covering my button
um I'd like to just bring us back to
this okay um Asset Management I I have um I
don't think we have a an invent a map maps or inventory of our ecosystems that
we have in our Parks do we chair through to direct
for all parks no other than what exists at certain mapping levels across the
region and or what's been been done specifically when we're doing a park
management plan right so to follow up with
um director Wilson's comment about volunteers and and I think there's a
real opportunity to maybe engage the schools viu um on on programs to have
our an inventory done by students um because I think that's the first step of
you you really need to know what you've got in your parks and um if you're going
to especially if you're going to do a management plan it's nice to know what
you have and potentially the condition of it and so I think that's a real
opportunity that we should um look into thank
you director estash thank you chair uh super quick
before my question just a thanks and acknowledgement to staff for all the
events last year and also hats off to the huge turnout of cvrd staff at the
one event uh specifically the CCH and uh Autumn classic trail running event so
thanks to the cvrd staff that make events like that possible there were a
lot of really soaked but huge smiling faces on our fellow cvd cvrd employees
and myself that participated in that event so thank you and then also as the
lead course marshal for the burnt bridge classic uh I was able a lot of I was a
motorized lead so was good to see that um what staed to let users in the area
know that a race was on of course that's working with the organizers but that's a
significant event that takes significant cvrd resources so uh I didn't run into
any user conflicts or anything especially people not expecting to see a
a marshall on a motor bike so uh that from that standpoint that how you make
these events possible is great my question though is uh we're seeing it at
North cin and then now also here at the cvrd board do is it at a point where we
might need to revisit the um how we look at large events and more open to them
the reason I speak to that of course now for the third year the Belgian waffle
rid's coming back uh this is because of the work that laake cwi's done in the
Trailblazers they're going to have a new race there the coastal uh trail running
series that's going to be the first of its kind out there this year and then
North CCH and on behalf of the organizers that do run the burnt bridge
classic are currently trying to bring the Canadian gravel bike Nationals to
the cin Valley for this year bringing it from Calgary which is a multi-million
dollar event so of course those using CBD assets do we need to look at our
policies a bit different as we're getting bigger and larger events that
utilize parks and trails uh of course bringing huge economic uh impact but
also are taking more staff resources to make them a
possibility chair wonderful question and certainly that will be covered off under
that uh policy uh that's currently being developed to be brought forward in the
near future because certainly staff are recognizing as well that the popularity
of parks and trails across the region not just for our local residents but
visitors coming to the region but also the ability to host events and
activities is growing and in some cases growing quite substantially and and how
do we manage all of that to maintain that balance between uh the the general
recreational use the ecological Integrity of our parks and Trail sites
but also recognize that that these larger events uh also bring some
prosperity to the region and and have a lot of spill out effect for other
businesses and activities that take place here as well so end of the day
it's it's it's a lot of positives but we need to uh find ways to approach it on a
bounced uh basis so good question and yes that'll be uh part of the work
that's being done right
now director mclinton
uh thank you chaired thank you staff it's great I certainly support wine in
the park and other similar activities uh um and also I'd like to
support director Wilson and his ideas around
volunteers and perhaps down the road uh there could be a notice of motion for
hiring a a volunteer coordinator if there's capacity issues within within
the parks um I know we've got a lot of people that love our communities and
they want want to get out there and help and it is happening but if I I think in
many especially electoral areas they're um I think there could
be uh we could better utilize our
volunteers director Wilson a close yeah thank um do we not already
have a volunteer coordinator that's what I thought
yeah yeah yeah no that's what I thought we've already got one I'll just I'll
just apply to that so my position is Parks volunteer coordinator um yeah
how however it is a split position so that's why both of these um parts of the
report come from me um and you can see the this the the attachment to do with
reservations and special events is quite large um and that that's again a
capacity issue um because there just the one person dealing with all the event
applications and picnic shelter reservations and field trips Etc as as
well as the volunteer program so there's a lot of um potential for growth but
capacity issues sort of hold us back a little bit cheriff you let me follow up
remove hang on I'm not finished oh [Laughter]
sorry was I didn't know that it had gone to you no no that that was just in the
side because you were more concentrated on your bottle of wine
um um is there anything that we can do apart from now your part-time is that
correct um the position's fulltime but the volunteer coordination is only like
half of what I do say Okay okay so is there anything that we can do to
increase the use of volunteers I'm going to keep on about this one so that make
it a real priority so that we can reduce the maintenance and asset management
cost because they are huge we've seen in the upcoming budget just how huge those
costs are there has to be something we can make a priority in order to use the
expertise the willingness to bring those costs
down Miss Miles
Wilson I I do see that Brian's giving me the eye so that he may have a a response
to this but I just wanted to remind as well that we are going to be taking a
look at the Strategic plan coming up and that would be a good opportunity for
directors to voice kind of perspectives and um kind of interest to look at
service levels in the organization um so that that we're we're in the in the
works in the planning stages of that session so I just wanted to make that
note that would be a good opportunity great thanks director
mclinton one the last word thank you chair i' just like to
slowly remove my foot from my mouth I I do
apologize as I was saying volunteer coordinator director Acton was writing
it down and I was having trouble reading it um I just I just to the point it is
more capacity I think is great I think you're I I know you're coordinating with
some of the folks in Sal a and the trails that are so I do know that
there's work being done with the volunteers it's just um I'm just in
support of sort of the the idea that uh director Wilson had so forgive me for
yeah for not knowing as knowing their correct titles uh thank you chair all
right so that concludes our reports we can now move on on to question period so
this is opportunity for offer the public uh chance to ask a question regarding um
the business of the CBD so we allow we allow up to 15 minutes and is comprised
of two parts the first reserve for questions directly through agenda items
and if there is time remaining questions maybe on a matter of public interest
related to severity jurisdiction each question is permitted to ask one
question plus one followup question related to the answer the the question
must truly be a question and not a statement of opinion or speech and
questioners must avoid personal references insinuations violent
offensive or disrespectful remarks about another person and unparliamentary
language thank you Mr chair Kim Bernard area B shaelin shanigan Lake I will have
two did you know questions to inject a little bit of levity and a little bit of
follow-up first of all did you know you have tremendous Community volunteer
assets right here in this room and following this meeting virtually I've
been in close contact with Mr Cliff Evans throughout the meeting today and
uh we both represent the Nice n i that's on my shirt today which is neighborly in
collaborative enthusiasm we are also that inul means
Nalan that we want to go forward in a good way together the the public in
volunteering and he um and staff as well and so I have huge thanks for Park staff
on a number of levels uh we do our annual Cleanup in the Parks we uh do all
kinds of things fieldwork Mr Cliff Evans has been teaching me how to gather data
in a very uh scientific way and to take the Pulse of our uh ecological assets
and I just think yeah that we uh my question is did you
know and and also my second question is uh did you know that the eopl report as
it was presented today both electronic Ally and in a printed copy I just
received actually cuts off in uh the last attachment on page 52 and so I'm
wondering could that please get fixed for the
EC yes so for the first question now we know so thank you and I I think we can
easily address the the the problem with the the report when it's refer when it's
presented at the ESC and the last question is did you know that uh when I
went to use the QR code for the newest survey the community satisfaction survey
the very first gatekeeping question is do you have a member of your household
that works for cvd parks and once again I want to thank the cvrd park staff for
mentoring my son as a gatekeeper this last three years but unfortunately it
means that I can't participate in the survey did you
know now we do thank you thank you for all your hard work
let's get to lunch thanks any other members of the public with a question
for the committee all right so we can now move
on to the Clos session and just to the interest of time um staff have suggested
we can refer items CR csr1 and csr2 to the closed board meeting later this
afternoon moved is there a second or seconded all in favor and opposed not
opposed motion carries that concludes our business got to get a motion to
adjourn moved seconded all in favor and oppose this meeting is adjourned