[0:24] morning everyone I'd like to begin by
acknowledging we're
[0:30] hit that
[0:37] g so I'd like to be start by recognizing
that cbrd is on the unseated territories
[0:42] of the katson malahat subaca Halal penel
Semus laxen poachin didat and patat
[0:51] Nations whose people have walked here
gently for thousands of years and with
[0:55] the Corum being present I'd like to call
this meeting to
[0:57] order our first item of business is
approval of the agenda would someone
[1:02] like to move that we approve the agenda
as presented director
[1:10] Morrison apologies everyone I'm still
trying to get the hang of this
[1:15] thing director Morrison uh thank you
chair I just want to raise for the
[1:20] committee's uh um understanding that uh
the item R1 on this agenda is uh being
[1:27] considered by this committee but as the
chair of the Electoral area Services
[1:31] committee it's uh uh with great Chagrin
that I will uh uh support the adoption
[1:37] of the agenda but this item is a very
electoral area specific agenda item and
[1:43] it disturbs me that it is uh uh uh on
this agenda it should uh I I want to
[1:50] ensure that we do good process and good
procedure and uh it's unfortunate that
[1:54] the Electoral area directors aren't
considering this report first
[2:00] all right will someone like to move that
we adopt the agenda move by uh director
[2:04] Seagal do have a seconder second by
director martman all in favor and
[2:10] opposed n opposed motion carries we'll
now move on to the
[2:13] men director Morrison
oos we'll now move on to the minutes and
[2:18] there there is a slight change to the
minutes I'm going to turn to the
[2:21] corporate officer thank you chair uh the
committee of Home meeting minutes of
[2:25] February 12 2025 to be amended R three
uh should read
[2:32] $3,300 minor correction thank you would
someone like to move that we adopt the
[2:35] minutes from the committee the whole
meeting on February 12th as amended move
[2:40] by director martman seconded by director
Nicholson any discussion all in favor
[2:44] and opposed and oppose motion carries
we'll now move on to public input period
[2:50] so public input period is offer the
public an opportunity to comment on an
[2:54] agenda item before the committee
considers the item the public input
[2:57] period procedure policy allows for a law
of 15 minutes where the speaker is
[3:01] welcome to comment on any item on the
agenda up to a maximum of 3 minutes this
[3:07] excludes items that are or have been the
subject of a public hearing input from
[3:11] the community is valued and appreciated
we request that input is presented in a
[3:15] friendly and respectful Manner and your
cooperation maintaining a safe and
[3:19] respectful and orderly environment is
greatly appreciated
[3:30] C ific could state your name and
address my name is David Slade I live at
[3:36] 3265 Cobble Hill Road Cobble Hill I
would like to speak to agenda item R2
[3:42] Island Rail Corridor shared visioning
thank you honored chair elected
[3:46] officials and respected staff for
allowing me this opportunity to speak
[3:50] special thanks to Allison and coral Le
on the cvrd staff that led this process
[3:54] and have put you way ahead of all other
jurisdictions I agree with many points
[3:59] highlight in the report I agree that the
restoration of rail is unaffordable in
[4:03] the short to medium term I agree that
restoring rail service in the short to
[4:07] medium term would be ineffective
unproductive and expensive I agree that
[4:12] unless the corridor is continuous from
Victoria to Courtney it will never be
[4:16] viable for trains note that the Sana o
first nation in theose has already
[4:21] removed 1 kilometer of rail where it
bcts their Reserve lands and that in the
[4:26] five places in the cvd where the rail
Corridor bisects reserved lands some if
[4:31] not all of the first nations are likely
to seek reversion of the land and
[4:35] similarly oppose the return of trains
through their backyards I agree that on
[4:40] 80% of the corridor it is difficult or
impractical to locate a trail beside the
[4:45] railbed however I feel that several
conclusions drawn in the report are
[4:50] incorrect I disagree that locating a
trail on the rail bed precludes a return
[4:55] of trains to the corridor in fact a
trail on the rail bed could act as a
[4:59] placeholder for the next 10 to 20 years
demonstrating the value of the corridor
[5:04] as a public good while acknowledging
that rail traffic is the first priority
[5:08] for the corridor this is the case with
the Galloping Goose in Victoria I
[5:13] disagree that the cost of remediation
would be at least $1.75 million per
[5:18] kilometer if the corridor retains its
industrial status with a rail as a
[5:23] tempor with a trail as a temporary use
there would likely be minimal to zero
[5:27] remediation requirements the remediation
costs for the Recently completed
[5:32] Okanagan rail trail and the under
construction north Okanagan shwap rail
[5:36] trail have been insignificant or
non-existent the report states that the
[5:41] most important needs for the Island Rail
Corridor are as in this order improved
[5:45] Transportation connections expand
Economic Development and Tourism improve
[5:50] safe cycling and walking provide
emergency access routes and provide
[5:54] Recreation and park-like activities a
trail on the rail bed does all of these
[5:58] things the report report states that the
corridor development should limit the
[6:02] removal of vegetation avoid damage to
repairing and Aquatic ecosystems a trail
[6:07] on the rail bed addresses this retaining
the status quo guarantees that the
[6:12] creosote ties will continue to pollute
the steel rails will continue to rust
[6:16] and the corridor will remain a liability
rather than an amazing asset if we build
[6:21] a trail on the rail bit it will be used
by many hundreds of people in this
[6:25] Valley every single day and improve the
quality of life across the entire cvrd
[6:30] with 5 Seconds to spare thank you thank
you any other members of the public like
[6:37] to come up to the
[6:41] podium so you could St your name and
address my name is Alan Phillip I live
[6:47] at 5734 vanco Road in North
coin and I'd like to address the issue
[6:53] of the vision for the island
Corridor good morning counselors thank
[6:59] you for this
[7:02] opportunity I have read the report and
it's very comprehensive however in my
[7:08] view there are two major flaws in this
report one of them near the beginning is
[7:13] the statement that 79% of the
respondents want to see tra
[7:20] rail on the corridor in the future as
opposed to
[7:25] 49% for Trail now this to me is a very
simplistic question and response because
[7:34] it pits Trail against Rail and that
really this is not a popularity contest
[7:38] this is a matter of
practicality the
[7:42] trail in my view is SE is could be seen
as an interim
[7:49] measure for possibility in the future of
there being a
[7:54] train
now both levels of government
[8:00] do
not intend to contribute any money
[8:04] towards a
train in the foreseeable future that's
[8:08] why the snow has got their got their
land
[8:12] back any return of
train is way way in the future when
[8:17] there's
sufficient population density
[8:22] and a business case supporting a
modern train on those tracks which would
[8:29] attract sufficient writers ship to
actually pay for it in my view that's
[8:35] going to be way past any of our
lifetimes so the question to me is not
[8:41] rail or Trail it's what do we do in the
interim what we're
[8:45] waiting right now the whole system is
just lying there
[8:50] deteriorating it makes far more sense to
me to use that Corridor as a trail
[8:59] which
would benefit both recreationalists
[9:03] commuters particularly people with
ebikes who are a very Rising population
[9:09] particularly old people like me I'm back
riding a bike again on a ebike and I see
[9:14] them everywhere now and just imagine
being able to ride your ebike from
[9:19] Duncan up to lady Smith off any of the
roads a really good commuter Trail and
[9:27] the same thing down to Cobble Hill
you're off the highway there's no safe
[9:31] way to get the Cobble Hill right now on
a
[9:34] bicycle the other point which I would
like to say is a really major flaw is
[9:40] saying that having a trail precludes
return of rail that is absurd just have
[9:46] a look at cin Valley Trail out to Lake
cin that would very easily be able to
[9:53] put a train back on that just imagine
how difficult that would that be it
[9:58] would be very at time okay thank you
very much thank
[10:05] you welcome you could state your name
and address yeah hi I'm Warren scord I
[10:10] live at 2299 McFarland Crescent a lot of
people would probably know me from as
[10:14] restor and rail uh I've been advocating
thank you I've been advocating for the
[10:18] railway for about 2 and a half years now
uh my material online has had millions
[10:24] of views this is not just a small number
uh the islandwide
[10:29] um when you're talking about the um the
possibility or the or the want and need
[10:36] of rail on Vancouver Island that 79% is
actually quite low from what I've seen
[10:43] um usually it's up around 83% the uh
radio stations that have done polls have
[10:49] shown uh upward you know
75% so it's been a consistent want and
[10:55] need of the public you know the public
has spoken they say they want on the
[11:00] corridor now I know funding is an issue
you know you've got these uh you got
[11:04] this Island Rail Corporation going out
there trying to collect up money trying
[11:08] to get the rails back in operation you
got the First Nations that are having
[11:11] questions about you know how can they
benefit from the rail well if the rail
[11:15] is removed and we put the trail on and
and despite what David is saying trying
[11:20] to get a trail turned back into rail is
next to Impossible the cycling movement
[11:26] will just come up and they'll just go
nuts and you'll never get it back and if
[11:29] if that was different if that was not
the case then souk right now would be
[11:33] looking at the Galloping Goose piece
that goes from souk to the Six Mile
[11:38] where the new uh brt lanes are going to
be going we'd be turning that back into
[11:42] rail because it's it would be a
dedicated Corridor uh for trains which
[11:46] you know transit trains um buses a train
is just an elongated bus okay like we're
[11:53] not and it's a lot smoother a lot more
comfortable they have accessible
[11:56] bathrooms it's a much preferred option
Trail can be put beside it there's 65 km
[12:02] already of trails beside the rails and
like in uh in shaigan where the new
[12:07] shaigan rail trail is it actually can
Veer away and utilize other Trails on
[12:12] the island to connect all the way up and
down the island doesn't have to stay
[12:15] next to the rails all the time cyclists
have told me that running on a rail or
[12:20] riding on a rail trail is actually quite
boring after some time because you're
[12:23] just it's just straight and they like
curves and hills and things like that to
[12:28] make it to give it more variety so I
really hope that everybody will consider
[12:32] and try to retain the rails where we can
and hope that God that we can convince
[12:38] the First Nations that they can benefit
from this ra too okay thank you thank
[12:46] you morning you see your name and
address good morning everyone my name is
[12:50] Kim Bernard I live in the shanigan beach
Estates in shaelan shaigan Lake Area B
[12:55] of the cvrd I would like to speak to R1
which is the South cin Community
[13:01] assessment report I want to offer
gratitude and congratulations to
[13:07] everyone including all of the um input
that was received this is an incredible
[13:12] report my remarks today if you can bear
with me we drill down on pages eight and
[13:18] nine of the report I'd like to First
respectfully offer a correction to the
[13:24] origin story and name that is listed in
the report for my area of sonan Lake I
[13:30] have with me a documented interview with
Jared cenan Williams who sat down with
[13:36] the discourse in October of 2020 to
explain the meaning and name behind
[13:42] shaelin that it means something
mysterious happened here that we do not
[13:47] understand and it's a wonderful story in
the discourse so I would like that um
[13:51] information to go to the Eco plan um
committee and next up I would just like
[13:56] to say that this report
identifies a pattern and alludes to a
[14:03] growth pattern so I know we're all
worried about the a word here in Canada
[14:07] but I would like to offer the word
amalgamation is also hanging over our
[14:11] heads in the south end because of the
growth projections in the capital
[14:15] regional district and if we wonder who
The Gatekeepers are for any change of
[14:21] governance we have to look no further
than the province of British Columbia
[14:25] and I think they have already told us
what they think of the future projection
[14:30] because they have redrawn the Electoral
boundary and I brought that with me too
[14:35] to include all of South
cin together with Suk as the wand deuka
[14:40] electoral area district and that along
with their amazing stewardship of our
[14:45] natural Water Resources instead of
following the money I follow the water
[14:50] tells me that they have more than enough
capacity to look after the sou end
[14:53] should they choose to look at this
wonderful home inspection report and
[14:58] decide to make a bid to acquire Us in
the next 10 to 20 years and so I would
[15:02] invite this board to also include that
in your planning that uh some of us
[15:07] would like to remain rural or certainly
have the quality of life that we
[15:11] currently enjoy and this report belongs
to all the people in our community so my
[15:17] last I guess ask would be that this
board works closely with the three area
[15:22] directors to make sure this information
is published in a way that most people
[15:27] who can't navigate the website can read
so I did bring the last exhibit which is
[15:32] the shanigan focus as an example of
community reporting and they too refer
[15:38] to our region as shans so I really do
hope to have that corrected in the
[15:42] report and thank you everyone
hia thank five seconds to spare I think
[15:49] we've got time for at least one more
[15:56] speaker nobody else
[16:02] so if you could state your name and
address yes my name is Dick folks I live
[16:06] in view Royal uh 196 where I
Road um I drove up here this morning to
[16:12] come to this meeting because I find it
very encouraging that this regional
[16:17] district is U working on this subject
and I'd like to think that it's going to
[16:23] be all positive I've um I've been
working on trying to promote rail or the
[16:30] maintenance or re restoration of Island
Rail for um ever since I retired about
[16:37] almost 40 years
ago I've um spent many hours making
[16:42] presentations trying to show the
benefits of it um so that people would
[16:47] learn but it's it seems to be a big
struggle um in the wherever I see the
[16:54] word it's expensive I think that should
be challenged challenge uh expensive is
[17:00] not a word that should be in the
vocabulary of any report there should be
[17:05] a figure and a comparative
figure compared to what is it
[17:14] expensive uh the coming out here from
Helen Road um as usual uh the Trans
[17:21] Canada highway is almost a walking speed
um all the way from Veterans Parkway to
[17:28] um
to helin they're just piling up and it's
[17:33] just every day every
day the rail could handle a lot of that
[17:39] traffic coming up here I note that the
people going to and from Duncan could
[17:45] easily many of them I'm sure go by Rail
and take their bike yes certainly but
[17:53] not they're not going to Pedal all that
way the Trans Canada highway is quickly
[17:58] becoming much like a city street with
all the frequent uh
[18:03] lights a friend and I handed out
pamphlets at nen which is a major
[18:09] employment area in
squal promoting
[18:14] rail at the time when the employees were
coming off work and some of them
[18:18] literally snatched the pamphlets out of
the my hand saying I live in L Smith or
[18:24] such this vehicle would bring me right
to the door of my
[18:30] employment the crawl through view Royal
is absolutely horrendous I worked at the
[18:35] dockyard in my lifetime and it was
always a crawl and it's no not any
[18:42] better for the for cyclists who object
to rail all I can say is yeah maybe at
[18:49] my age I might like to ride a bicycle in
the couch and area but do you think I'm
[18:54] going to ride a bicycle all the way from
V Royal to cin
[18:59] but on the other hand I could jump on a
rail car with my bike and come up here
[19:05] and enjoy this
Valley right time thank
[19:10] you so that concludes public input we
can now move on straight to reports the
[19:16] first report in front of us is with
regards to the South couch Community
[19:20] issues assessment so we do have a
presentation from Eco plan and I
[19:26] understand we have a representative from
Eco plan who's going to uh to deliver
[19:31] this
presentation oh and Miss Ferguson's
[19:36] going to first provide a
overview uh good morning chair and
[19:40] directors uh I am here along with our
consultant uh this morning to present
[19:45] the South CCH and Community issues
assessment report this report provides
[19:48] the residents perspectives on governance
and Service delivery challenges within
[19:52] the South cin
region the data and its findings
[19:56] presented in the report in the report
were compiled utilizing a wide uh
[20:00] variety of inputs such as the online
survey Community forums popup events
[20:06] meetings with local stakeholders and
consult uh sorry cons consultations with
[20:12] uh cvd staff this project stems from a
board directive and was subsequently
[20:18] captured in your strategic plan as
objective
[20:21] 2.3 uh I am proud to introduce our
consultant and Marie Whitaker who is an
[20:27] associate senior planner with EOP plan
and Marie will provide you with a
[20:30] PowerPoint presentation and then we will
welcome your comments uh questions
[20:35] following
[20:38] that thank you thank you very much for
um allowing me to come back and present
[20:43] the oom and the findings from this
report so appreciate that um just
[20:47] checking in if technically speaking
everyone can see the actual PowerPoint
[20:52] presentation not present interview y we
can see it great thank you so much and
[20:58] and I also just want to pause to a
moment to say thank you to the public
[21:01] speaker this morning for um comments on
the the assessment and then also sharing
[21:06] some information for updating the report
so I appreciate that a
[21:09] lot um what I'll do quickly just to give
you a quick outline of the presentation
[21:14] in terms of um what I'll talk about
today I'll give you a quick project
[21:17] overview for some of you who may not be
as familiar with the project as the
[21:21] Electoral area Bay AB andc um we'll talk
a bit about what we heard and then
[21:26] considerations for next steps moving
forward
[21:32] um to begin I'll talk a little bit about
the project overall but generally
[21:36] speaking wanted to focus your uh
attention on the area of this report and
[21:41] and um and where the focus happens it
was for residents living in South couch
[21:45] and communities electoral areas a b and
c the purpose of the report or the the
[21:52] project or study in general was to help
residents and the cbrd understand the
[21:56] current governance and servicing
situation for these electoral areas and
[22:00] I say cbrd as well because just getting
a picture of how residents feel about
[22:04] governance and servicing um it was also
to engage residents and collect their
[22:08] issues and concerns so I was really
targeted about that um related to
[22:12] governance and servicing overall um and
then report out on what we heard from
[22:17] residents um to it in in the hopes that
we would identify um any service or
[22:22] governing gaps that may
[22:25] exist um one thing I did want to point
out before for this and this is
[22:29] something we had to remind residents
quite frequently of throughout this work
[22:32] as well was that this was not an
incorporation study um this was as
[22:36] mentioned this work was to identify and
acknowledge the concerns um and then to
[22:41] really clarify any of the problems
before jumping to Solutions um and uh
[22:48] just to take this information as a way
to First explore those options for
[22:51] addressing concerns within existing
framework or governance framework this
[22:56] being a very important step uh for the
ministry of M Municipal Affairs um just
[23:01] to identify the problems first you know
is the ladder on the right wall um it
[23:05] was just looking at that first
step and so there was four phases to
[23:11] this project moving forward which
occurred over the 2024 period um mainly
[23:16] during spring and summer and and a
little bit into the fall so a lot of
[23:20] this engagement occurred over a period
just noting that um that typically isn't
[23:25] an engagement period but we did get out
there so um it includes these the
[23:30] background work a situation assessment
um engagement to identify those issues
[23:35] and then um drafting the final
report so now I'll move in and just tell
[23:40] you give you the highlights of the the
overall what we heard in terms of um in
[23:45] terms of the
[23:48] assessment um just before I get into the
the outcomes of it uh to give you just
[23:54] an overview of the Outreach and
engagement that was included within uh
[23:57] the process of the reporting uh we did
use the cvd plan your couch and web page
[24:03] um for information we also had
information and rack cards that were
[24:07] delivered throughout the communities um
there was social media posts to
[24:11] advertise both the survey and some of
the events that were happening
[24:14] throughout um the spring and summer uh
we had Community posters lawn signs
[24:19] throughout the community an ad placed in
the Focus Magazine uh Community survey
[24:23] uh was running throughout that whole
period of time we had one Community
[24:27] Forum in each Community uh or electoral
area popup events that happened
[24:32] throughout the summer and then um we did
do some reaching out to neighboring
[24:35] First Nations communities uh Community
groups and targeted interviews with cvrd
[24:41] staff and uh Improvement
[24:45] districts uh engagement overall we
compiled 412 survey responses there was
[24:52] 96 residents who attended the community
forums held in each electoral area many
[24:56] residents were engaged at popup events
um those were actually really great to
[25:00] get out to because we were going to
people um in various locations
[25:04] throughout electoral area a b and c um
we sent an invitation to nine Community
[25:09] groups for input or allowing input um or
requesting it rather um and then nine
[25:15] targeted interviews with cbrd staff
departments and then an invitation to
[25:19] continued engagement with First Nations
communities um we had one information
[25:23] meeting that was held and then project
updates were provided for that as well
[25:30] so the following is is what we heard um
this is both a mix through the community
[25:35] Forum input and the surveys outputs um
so for the purpose of the report this
[25:40] information was grouped into three main
themes uh governance servicing and then
[25:45] those areas or issues and concerns that
residents raised that were um outside
[25:49] the jurisdiction of cvrd so we needed
sort of a container for those as well um
[25:55] and so to give you some of the
highlights for both the survey and
[25:58] community forums 68% of re residents
felt they understood what a regional
[26:02] district is and how it operates 55% of
residents felt that they understood how
[26:08] decisions and voting happens at the cbrd
and noting that our survey actually had
[26:12] a bit of that kind of uh before asking
questions kind of explaining how that
[26:18] happens as well so through so there was
a bit of an education pie in within that
[26:21] survey too for those who may not have
felt they understood uh initially and
[26:27] then residents red the following issues
as most important to them within these
[26:30] areas and so this is compiled of those
areas accountability um responsiveness
[26:36] to local concerns and transparency in
[26:41] governance just breaking this down a bit
by electoral area to get a bit of
[26:45] information of where they differed area
a was most concerned with communication
[26:50] transparency and accountability whereas
B and C uh shared a stronger interest in
[26:55] representation of and response to their
areas local concerns and issues so their
[27:00] interests um more so than the
communication transparency um so just a
[27:05] little bit of the differences there um
voting structure and the ability of
[27:09] other area directors to vote or
influence decisions uh affecting the
[27:14] Electoral areas AB andc were also very
common comments that we received both
[27:18] throughout the community Forum as well
as on the survey and many comments
[27:22] received at the community forums focused
on concerns and issues that is as
[27:25] mentioned were outside the jurisdiction
of
[27:28] cbrd and so just to give you a sense of
what those were um expressed by
[27:33] residents that fell into that category
are listed here um and they're generally
[27:39] I guess listed in the order order of of
frequency that we heard them but that's
[27:43] not statistically counted but it is just
in general just how we compiled these so
[27:49] um we most some of the biggest ones were
about the road standards and maintenance
[27:53] so Lo local traffic pedestrian and
active Transportation uh potholes snow
[27:58] reval uh coordination of improvement
districts and private utilities uh as
[28:03] well as Equity of services between
different areas and then just a concern
[28:07] for Aging in
infrastructure uh water quality and
[28:11] Watershed protection and I'll note that
this was more so in in area B and then
[28:16] uh proposed subdivision development
application wait times and frequency of
[28:20] Transit service or inefficiency of roots
was
[28:24] mentioned in terms of servicing um 70 6%
of residents felt they understood
[28:30] Service delivery in cbrd 23% of
residents were satisfied with Services
[28:35] received and 28 had a neutral stance um
noting that many comments that we
[28:39] received on servicing at this time and
during this this period were related to
[28:43] the change in the garbage collection um
as well as uh tops concerns for
[28:49] servicing and these were compiled with
all of them uh new growth and
[28:54] development was uh a top concern as well
as cost cost for services especially in
[29:00] areas who would also pay additional user
fees um uh and and their taxes and then
[29:08] efficiency and coordination between Ser
jurisdictions as well as inequity of
[29:12] service
[29:15] provision additionally uh 57% of
residents felt they understood how
[29:20] service costs were determined and
residents concerns with cost of services
[29:24] were that costs were too high uh that
paying for services they don't receive
[29:30] or most often benefit from or felt that
they didn't benefit from and a concern
[29:35] for how costs are calculated and feeling
that they're paying more for than their
[29:40] share their fair share for those
services so those were some of the the
[29:44] overview of of um uh resident concerns
and issues with respect to for
[29:50] servicing um so looking at just a
highlevel summary of all of this
[29:55] combined together um so just taking a
step back and then looking at the survey
[30:00] and the community forums uh just noting
that issues many of these were all very
[30:06] much
interrelated um just noting that many of
[30:09] the issues were identified that by
residents but they were also identified
[30:13] in our interviews with cvrd and area
directors though basically everyone's
[30:17] saying the same thing um you know
they're all you know there's not a huge
[30:21] huge gaps in there um and although there
were many questions about why this
[30:25] wasn't an incorporation study and why
this wasn't about um that that topic in
[30:31] particular just noting that Independence
and autonomy when it was listed and
[30:35] within the survey as well as at
Community forums wasn't ranked as a top
[30:39] issue at most of those within within the
the work that we came back or the input
[30:45] that we received um and then just noting
that the top of what we called cross
[30:50] cutting issues so those issues that were
identified residents cbrd and other
[30:54] service providers were all mostly
focused related to the level of service
[30:59] and servicing followed by those aspects
that I mentioned that were outside the
[31:03] cbd's
[31:06] jurisdiction um and then cross cutting
issues by theme in terms of governance
[31:11] uh accessible information and
Communications on servicing and
[31:13] responsibilities was noted um
jurisdiction was just the subdivision
[31:18] development times coordination planning
of of planning objectives and policy um
[31:23] and then servicing infrastructure and
growth growth being huge um um continued
[31:28] upgrades and Replacements so worrying
about that future how it will look
[31:32] inequity between areas maintenance
Regional planning and then water supply
[31:36] and
protection so just noting that there was
[31:40] that study that was done back in 2009
and then kind of looking at today and
[31:45] and comparing those two basically not
much has changed since 2009 there has
[31:51] been a few shifting concerns taxes and
user fees and rising cost of living kind
[31:55] of came to the top a little bit more and
then coordination and communication
[31:59] between jurisdictions for regional and
strategic planning on
[32:03] infrastructure was also something that
came up more frequently than what it
[32:07] looked like in
2009 so to wrap up I just wanted to talk
[32:11] a little bit about next steps this
report offers some considerations for
[32:15] next steps and what to do with the
information um and this was grouped
[32:19] again into the three themes of
governance servicing and those outside
[32:22] the jurisdiction of cbrd noting again
that many of these overlap and are inter
[32:27] related
so um in terms of considerations for
[32:31] governance um possibly looking at
coordinating infrastructure on a on a
[32:36] more Regional basis um targeting a
review and update of cvrd planning and
[32:41] policy with these issues that have come
up through this so that could just look
[32:45] like an actual review or it could be
just when policy and planning plans are
[32:50] being updated that you use this these
issues or this
[32:54] output to to sort of Target certain
areas increase information to residents
[32:59] on governance and servicing and then um
conducting a follow-up governance study
[33:04] possibly to explore changes within the
regional district model that would
[33:07] address some of these concerns that came
out through this assessment um and this
[33:12] could explore changes um could also be
incorporated or some of this work could
[33:16] be incorporating at a regional level
into future Regional planning work as
[33:23] well uh in terms of considerations for
servicing uh maybe looking at High
[33:27] highlighting the board priorities
related to servicing specifically for
[33:30] South couch and residents so this is a
bit of a Communications thing um explore
[33:34] our changes to budgets to focus on South
couch and communities uh in particular
[33:39] on some of the issues that were raised
look at ways to increase collaboration
[33:42] between cbrd municipalities and
Improvement districts exploring the
[33:47] potential to reduce uh Improvement
districts and amalgamate some of the
[33:51] services to better address some of the
issues that came
[33:55] forward and then in terms of
jurisdiction
[33:58] increasing advocacy and Communications
with uh mot the uh it's now
[34:03] transportation and Transit um and this
uh this is ongoing I know but also uh so
[34:10] looking at ways to increase that or to
address some of the issues that have
[34:12] come forth uh engaging in lobbying
senior levels of government also ongoing
[34:17] I'm sure um and then looking for ways to
improve coordination of subdivision
[34:22] approval process and if not uh maybe
exploring Options under the land title
[34:27] act which I I know has also been uh
something ongoing
[34:33] too and then uh possible next steps just
to finish up um so looking at at the
[34:41] considerations uh that were just listed
and maybe prioritizing these in issues
[34:46] so is Communications to Residents uh a
top priority or is maybe looking at
[34:50] changes to servicing or plans and
policies um just determining that
[34:55] mapping out uh departments that are
involved the plans and policies that uh
[34:59] or maybe additional studies that may be
required uh evaluating options and key
[35:04] actions um and then of course knowing
which one which ones they you you know
[35:10] things that you're targeting to identify
budget allocation and external funding
[35:13] or whatever is needed to support some of
these changes and then reporting back of
[35:17] course as the most important uh to and
updating the South couch and Community
[35:22] uh residents with any changes or
movements or U directions that are taken
[35:27] by the board
and with that just covers it at a very
[35:32] high level at a high speed there you go
great thank you for the uh presentation
[35:37] I'll turn to the committee ask if
there's any questions but I I will note
[35:41] that staff have prepared a suggested
motion here that um speaks the concern
[35:47] raised by director Morrison about having
this referred to the Electoral area
[35:51] Services committee for further
discussion so we can either consider
[35:55] this motion or if anyone's got any uh
question question for the presenter
[35:58] director act and then director
mlon Clarity is that the motion I shared
[36:03] with the board oh
[36:09] okay okay so I said staff motion your
motion give you well it is yeah all
[36:18] right any discussion or do we want to
for the presenter any any questions for
[36:22] the
[36:25] presenter director abbit
perhaps a two-prong and it may be more
[36:31] for staff to answer uh can you refresh
our memories as to how long this process
[36:36] has taken to get to this uh to today's
report and ballpark how much have we
[36:42] spent uh getting to this
report yeah so the work was as a result
[36:48] of a grant from The Province um the
grant was
[36:51] $6,000 um so we have spent pretty much
that um it has taken a year
[36:58] um it started January last year um so
there was a lot of consultation with the
[37:04] the communities and Outreach and um to
get to this point
[37:12] so any further discussion we ready to
consider this
[37:16] recommendation director mlon um just am
I on thank you um thank you chair just I
[37:24] was uh a couple moments late could you
read the motion for me is that possible
[37:28] yeah I don't think I've actually read it
out for anyone yet so it's uh that it be
[37:31] recommended to the board that staff
report back to the Electoral area
[37:35] Services committee with a report that
provides further information and options
[37:39] to address South couch and Community
issues South couch and Community
[37:43] identified issues in the categories of
governance servicing and jurisdiction as
[37:48] proposed in the equal plan
report uh director Wilson oh I was just
[37:54] moving okay so it's moved is there a
second or seconded by uh
[37:58] director Seagal any further
discussion director Acton I'd just like
[38:03] to um understand how come this wasn't at
electoral area Services committee to
[38:10] begin
with I don't have the answer to
[38:15] that Miss Miles
[38:19] Wilson um sorry I don't see it I'll just
oh there we go Jesse's on camera
[38:28] thank thanks for the question um so a
couple of things so originally the
[38:32] Direction came through the board right
and um and it's in your strategic
[38:37] planned as well so recognizing the
comments that have already been shared
[38:40] about the need to have an electoral area
discussion staff hear you loud and clear
[38:45] um some of the recommendations and
considerations in this report do require
[38:48] the board's support to proceed and so
staff's recommendation was to to put
[38:53] this on this uh uh Committee of the
whole so that everybody could benefit
[38:56] from the presid and receive the
information but we recognize that the
[39:00] further deep dive into this will
definitely have to be at elector area
[39:03] Services
[39:06] committee any further discussion we
ready to call the
[39:11] question director
Justice yeah thank you um recognizing
[39:15] that it's going to the EAC probably um
I'll just take the opportunity to ask
[39:20] one question of the presenter if that's
all right um and is sort of what I
[39:26] consider to be a bit of a a
contradiction with respect to the uh
[39:31] ranking of uh issues specific to
governance um noted that the uh the
[39:39] statement that Independence and autonomy
consistently ranked um as the lowest
[39:46] concern um related to governance and in
uh in in in all of the survey responses
[39:53] and I just wondered um how that might
square with the
[39:58] um idea that there was a lot of concern
that uh other electoral area directors
[40:05] um had too much say in issues that are
specific to AB and C so those two things
[40:11] seem to me to be contradictory and I
just wondered if you could take a stab
[40:16] at uh making that consistent for
me m Whitaker yes thank you um no it's
[40:25] true that's that's why I me mentioned
many times that that many of these are
[40:29] interrelated and so sometimes they
overlap and it's difficult to pull apart
[40:33] but just I was noting that
um I guess we you know kind of overall
[40:40] there was a lot of talk of whether or
not that this you know this study or
[40:45] assessment was whether it was about uh
incorporation and so we you know we had
[40:50] to separate that out but in the survey
um we just asked if Independence and
[40:56] autonomy is
is the uh you know a top concern and it
[41:00] just didn't ever get ranked as one of
the top concerns but of course as you
[41:04] mentioned there's a number of you know
other talking about communication or the
[41:09] voting or whatnot that overlaps with
Independence and and autonomy so so
[41:14] you're correct like that it is a bit of
a contradiction it's just that in noting
[41:18] that in the survey um you know that was
constantly be put as your top concern
[41:24] for residents that residents were more
often concerned with um you know
[41:29] communication or um just the servicing
or service related issues that have come
[41:35] about or or just into the details of
Roads or things that that that were more
[41:42] you know home close to home hitting so
um so yeah no thank you for pointing
[41:47] that out those things are overlapping
and they do you know um if you're
[41:52] concerned with voting then obviously
you're concerned with an autonomy or a
[41:56] level of autonomy but consistently when
when residents ranked their top issues
[42:01] it was more about response of the board
or response of the cvd to the issues
[42:07] that matter to them the most as opposed
to um you know jumping to the we want
[42:13] independence from everyone else thank
you does that help kind of explain how
[42:18] that came about yeah I mean remains
quite interesting to me but yeah it was
[42:24] to me too yeah thanks yeah
all right before we call the question
[42:30] just one uh thought for the Electoral
area Services committee to consider and
[42:34] also the rest of the board um we we did
get the attachment to the report
[42:39] subsequently after the agenda was
published with some of the um breakdown
[42:43] of the growth projections um what we
found at the municipality North couchin
[42:49] is that um there is quite a bit of
uncertainty and and I'd say
[42:53] contradictions around some of the growth
projections so we've been given many
[42:57] other municipalities uh housing Target
order with a particular figure that we
[43:02] have to reach over a 5year period we've
been advised that that's 75% of our
[43:06] housing need so two different numbers
we've also done an updated um housing
[43:11] needs report based on a formula from the
province which has given us a third
[43:15] number and then we've also reviewed the
BC stats population and household
[43:20] projections which is given us a fourth
number over the next 5 10 20 years so
[43:25] we've written to the Prov to the housing
minister asking for clarification on
[43:28] this because we're working with very
different figures and they're not within
[43:31] a small range there's quite a range
between these four different figures
[43:36] complicating this is the federal
government has announced some pretty
[43:39] drastic changes with regards to Federal
immigration policies so as we know in
[43:43] Canada we've got a declining natural
birth rate our population growth has
[43:47] been driven by record immigration
numbers in recent years which were
[43:51] pushing growth rates 2 and a half 3% in
uh 2022 2023 1. 9% last year with the
[43:59] federal government recently announcing a
a pretty drastic reversal of the federal
[44:03] immigration policies we're now looking
at a um population decline in Canada for
[44:10] this year of 0 2% another decline of 0
2% the following year and then 8% growth
[44:15] the year after that and what we've been
advised by the housing uh minister is
[44:20] that government is uh reviewing and
revising their population household
[44:24] projections based on these new
immigration numbers so I just point that
[44:28] out in that we um we do all this
analysis on growth projections housing
[44:33] needs um yet we're confronted with all
these very contradictory numbers and
[44:37] then we find out all those contradictory
numbers aren't correct because the
[44:41] federal government has made these big
changes again with Federal immigration
[44:44] policy and we're going to have to revise
those those projections I think we can
[44:48] all be confident that we live in quite a
beautiful part of the world beautiful
[44:52] part of the country there's going to be
people wanted to come here there's going
[44:55] to be growth but I would just encourage
enourage everyone whether it's through
[44:58] this exercise or any of the work we're
doing to be a bit skeptical on some of
[45:02] these numbers that have been presented
to us because they they are subject to
[45:06] pretty drastic change uh when there's a
sight change in policy at the federal or
[45:12] provincial level so I see I've got
director Morrison and then director
[45:17] Wilson
here director Morrison thank you chair
[45:22] um and just in regards to director
Justice's uh uh remarks it's a it's it's
[45:27] an interesting uh contradiction and and
one of the things that uh our our
[45:32] friends and and residents in in the
South couch and have have always noted
[45:36] and all the time that I've been here is
is that Curiosity about the how this
[45:41] Federation works and why the different
Municipal and electoral area directors
[45:45] that may be far flung from that region
participate and vote on issues that are
[45:50] of a concern and so that's one of the
reasons why we make sure that we all
[45:55] know what's going on in our communities
and that we are wise to go and attend
[46:00] some of the community events and and
engagements that happen in our our the
[46:04] southern part of our region because uh
folks like to know that if you're going
[46:08] to be participating in in voting on
issues that concern South cin that
[46:12] you're there and present and understand
what the issues are related to that area
[46:16] so that's pretty important but my
question for our presenter today is and
[46:21] and I I read with interest about the it
seemed like there's a a relatively High
[46:26] LEL LEL of understanding about not only
the uh the voting but the uh the fiscal
[46:32] aspect of how our regional district
works and that the there seem to be a
[46:36] fairly high level of uh of understanding
amongst residents as to who pays for
[46:43] what and and you have to benefit from a
service to or being as part of a service
[46:48] paying for it and receiving benefit and
and I note that you you did
[46:53] differentiate that there there's a
difference between the municip simple
[46:57] structure of how we uh how how taxes are
collected and then distributed versus in
[47:03] an electoral area or in the regional
district did you drill down a little bit
[47:08] on that just because I I find when
people move to my community uh electoral
[47:13] area from a municipality and then we I I
take the time to describe a little bit
[47:19] how each individual function collects
taxes for that function and for that
[47:23] service and only those people that are
in that service are paying for and
[47:28] receiving benefits did you drill down a
little bit on that with people as you
[47:32] were collecting this
information Miss Whitaker thank you um
[47:39] in terms of just at Community forums
when people would have conversations we
[47:44] would we would talk a little bit more
about that but um uh no uh it wasn't I
[47:51] it wasn't something I mean aside from as
I mentioned within the survey there
[47:55] would be um each question PR preceding
each question was a little bit of
[48:00] information about how the the the
regional district operated so um so
[48:06] there was that and then as I as I
mentioned staff was in attendance at um
[48:11] at uh at Community forums as well and so
staff was there to provide additional
[48:16] information and drill a little bit more
deeper into how that operates
[48:21] um
yeah followup director Morrison I've got
[48:26] director dor Wilson then director
[48:30] deck thank you ch um this is more a
question for what you've just mentioned
[48:35] you touched on migration as opposed to
immigration are there any numbers that
[48:40] anybody's come up with a possible
forecast on that because that's a major
[48:44] part of what's Happening Here on our
Island migration rather than immigration
[48:49] do we have any numbers for for that kind
of thing or maybe the uh maybe the
[48:53] consultant knows that one as
well yeah
[48:57] I'll turn to Miss Whit in a moment I
mean we we have our own um housing needs
[49:01] projections as you know here at the
regional district municipalities as well
[49:06] the one challenge is those are based on
um assumptions made at the the
[49:11] provincial level and federal level so
they are informed by those those
[49:15] immigration numbers okay thank
you H Miss Whitaker anything to add to
[49:21] that uh no that the the numbers that
were were used for uh the commd
[49:26] assessment was um based on the recent
2024 housing needs assessment so that's
[49:32] the the source of the population data
that was
[49:36] used so I've got director deck then
director mclinton
[49:41] um thank you very much for that huge
wonderful report it uh I certainly saw
[49:48] the overlaps um with area I and and uh
I'm therefore I'm grateful that this is
[49:55] going to go on to the
uh easc because at that point maybe
[50:00] there'll be some
resolutions that will satisfy South cin
[50:06] as well I I think we would all benefit
from U more transparency and uh you know
[50:15] there's at least a perception of lack of
services so um yes I I'm grateful for
[50:22] that for your report and for us moving
it all forward thank
[50:27] you director mclan thank you chair um
while I respect all of my colleagues
[50:33] opinions deeply greatly I I am you know
I don't know what the right word is I'm
[50:38] not sure how or why it ended up at
Committee of the whole this this this
[50:42] information item so I I would like to
call the question the the motion on the
[50:45] floor all right I see no other speakers
with their hands raised I'll call the
[50:50] question all in favor and opposed nonone
opposed motion carries we can now move
[50:55] on to our next report
um thanks thanks Miss Whitaker for the
[51:00] presentation thank you we'll move on to
our next report the cbrd Island Rail
[51:05] Corridor shared visioning project final
report turn to staff to provide an
[51:11] overview uh good morning chair and
directors I'm pleased to introduce today
[51:17] um s Tani and Johan Vanek from stantech
who led the report that will be
[51:24] presented today and Lindsay friet K from
modus who led the
[51:29] communications and uh over to them now
thank
[51:34] you good morning everyone uh I hope
everyone's well just going to start
[51:38] sharing the screen
[51:42] here I hope everyone can see my
screen yeah we can see your screen thank
[51:48] you very much I hope you're well and I
really appreciate the time to present
[51:52] the report today uh my name is Salah I'm
a senior real engineer project manager
[51:57] pantic and today in collaboration with
my colleagues Lindsay and Johan we're
[52:02] going to provide a summary presentation
on the Island Rail Corridor towards a
[52:06] shared Vision uh project report going to
the next slide here's our agenda on the
[52:12] first few slides I'm going to go over uh
to the introduction and Real History
[52:16] slides there's going to be a brief
conversation there on uh the project and
[52:21] then I'm going to hand it over to
Lindsay to go over the findings on uh
[52:25] the First Nation engagement and public
and stakeholder engagement then we have
[52:29] our technical scope of the project and
Johan is going to provide a summary on
[52:35] the environmental scope land use
planning Transportation Planning options
[52:40] and option assessment and at the end of
the presentation we're going to quickly
[52:44] go over the next steps identified at the
end of our
[52:49] project and uh while we have quick time
at the end of the presentation to answer
[52:53] the questions uh because of the
multi-discipline Nary nature of the
[52:58] project if you guys have any question
during the presentation please feel free
[53:01] to uh share that with us and we would be
more than happy to answer that either
[53:06] during the presentation or at the end of
the
[53:09] presentation going over to next slide
here's our uh project structure so uh
[53:15] towards a shared region project was
initiated and funded by Ministry of
[53:19] Transportation in collaboration with
five Regional districts including cvrd
[53:24] 14 First Nations and Alan Corridor
Foundation we started a project in April
[53:29] last year we completed our graph report
late 2024 and finalized that in January
[53:38] 2025 and one of the important aspects of
the project scope was history of the
[53:44] Island Rail Corridor and we reviewed the
Island Rail Corridor history and we
[53:50] summarized that presented that in the
report in addition in the past 20 years
[53:54] there have been several technical
reports and studies we made sure to
[53:58] review them summarize them and provide
uh a review of those findings um
[54:04] including track alignment track
condition reports dating back to 2003
[54:08] all the way to 2020 Freight analysis
studies business cases study in 2022 in
[54:14] addition we synthesized this recent work
completed by ICF and Ministry of
[54:19] Transportation such as Corridor
evaluation report development strategies
[54:24] for rail Corridor report South Land
Transportation strategy and stakeholder
[54:28] engagement completed in
2022 now I'm going to pass it to my
[54:32] colleague Lindsay on the engagement
scope thank you
[54:38] Sally um I'm going to start with an
overview of the First Nations engagement
[54:43] um first nation's engagement is critical
to this project and understanding of the
[54:49] potential for a shared vision for the
Island Rail Corridor as a whole we're
[54:53] working within the colonial history of
the Esquimalt and Nyo Railway land
[54:57] grants and the unresolved legal actions
of a number of First Nations relating to
[55:04] reserve
lands um in addition to that first
[55:09] nations were also undertaking their own
visioning processes so we wanted to
[55:12] understand the outcomes of those and
coordinate across so with this our
[55:17] objectives for engagement were to
collaborate and build relationships to
[55:22] learn about each nation's involvement en
visioning and any outcomes that they
[55:25] could share
to learn about each nation's interests
[55:29] in the different potential future uses
um and specifically to learn from cin
[55:34] tribes Halal and stus First Nation about
their desired future use for the
[55:39] bisected Reserve
lands so with this we engaged Seven
[55:44] Nations through this process um in
addition to kaich and Halal and stus
[55:48] with their B bisected Reserve lands we
engaged with malahat and pelate tribe
[55:53] current members of ICF and subasa Nation
a former uh member of
[55:59] ICF and we also engaged with uh nations
with traditional territory throughout
[56:04] the
cbrd um Sally next
[56:10] slide so I'll just go through Nation by
Nation to share what we've heard kaichin
[56:16] tribes uh has uh Reserve number one is
bisected in two locations 750 m in the
[56:24] northern portion and 750 15 me in the
southern
[56:28] portion the feedback that we reive from
cwit and tribes is that they would like
[56:32] to have their bisected Reserve lands
returned to reserve um just a bit of
[56:37] more context about that CCH and tribes
followed uh the legal actions of snow no
[56:43] First Nations in 2015 that were brought
against Canada and the island Corridor
[56:47] foundation so they have legal actions
that are not yet resolved um that were
[56:52] issued in
2016 and they do not want a rail or
[56:55] Trail to go through their
Reserve next
[57:01] slide Halal First Nation uh Reserve
number two uh is bisected you can see in
[57:07] the southern uh part of that image by
approximately 1,500
[57:13] meters um similar to CCH and tribes
Halal for nation has filed legal actions
[57:19] against Canada and the island Corridor
foundation in 2016 seeking the reversion
[57:24] of their former Reserve lands
in terms of the feedback that we
[57:28] received from Hol alt they shared that
landback is a priority they are
[57:32] interested in understanding the options
of different potential future uses and
[57:37] the cost
implications and they're interested also
[57:40] in the potential for the Island Rail
cdor in reducing the number of trucks on
[57:44] the highway that pass through Reserve to
help reduce the environmental and health
[57:49] impacts of the of those
Vehicles so they recognize that if a
[57:54] rail was to be reintroduced
uh safety would need to be addressed
[57:59] particularly as it passes through the
reserve and splits cultural sites with
[58:03] um homes on the other side of the rail
next slide
[58:09] please um malahat foration does not have
any bisected Reserve lands they do have
[58:15] a reserve that is located near the
Island Rail Corridor the feedback that
[58:20] we received is that regarding a
preferred future use they support the
[58:24] rights of First Nations with bisected
Reser serve lands and they don't have a
[58:28] preferred future use at this time that
they can share with us they are working
[58:32] to establish a guardian program with the
intent of reestablishing a connection to
[58:36] their
land their connection has been cut off
[58:40] since the corridor was established and
as many of you know the corridor is
[58:43] difficult to access today so they're
creating a virtual reality toolkit with
[58:48] the intent of allowing community members
and Elders to virtually experience what
[58:52] is there today they're also undertaking
ecosystem assistant and not
[58:56] assessment and natural asset inventory
and they're seeing if there's interest
[59:00] in a multimodal
corridor of note about their feedback is
[59:05] that when the malahat highway is closed
they are highly impacted by this um it
[59:11] causes additional traffic to go through
reserve and they are concerned about
[59:16] emergency access and Wildfire risk so
there may be a role for the island real
[59:20] Corridor in supporting those
concerns next slide please
[59:26] penel tribe does not have a bisected
Reserve um their their Reserve is
[59:33] located approximately half a kilometer
to the east of the Island Rail
[59:36] Corridor their meeting minutes were
under review uh to confirm reporting
[59:40] permissions at the time of the report
publishing next slide
[59:45] please stus first nation has two
reserves that are bisected by the Island
[59:49] Rail Corridor Reserve number 11 seen at
the top of the image is bisected by
[59:55] about 550 meters and reserved number 12
is bisected by about 12200
[1:00:01] meters stamina shared that they need
more time to go back to their Community
[1:00:05] to get a feel for what Chief and counsel
would like to see before they can share
[1:00:10] about a preferred future use and our
comments and questions were shared so
[1:00:14] that they can go and take these to
community next slide
[1:00:20] please subasa first nation is located on
the NorthShore of cin Lake the Reserve
[1:00:26] is not bisected by the Island Rail
Corridor but it is located near the Spur
[1:00:29] Line which extends West to couchin Lake
so this is their greatest interest in
[1:00:33] the Island Rail
Corridor they shared that they see this
[1:00:37] as a significant opportunity for
infrastructure pieces to extend out
[1:00:43] towards reserve and that if planned
properly the Island Rail Corridor can
[1:00:49] create great Transportation tourism and
Industrial opportunities to alleviate
[1:00:53] some of the challenges on the island
they emphasized that it's critical to
[1:00:57] understand and appreciate the complexity
of the lands and how it affects each
[1:01:00] Nation differently and how each Nation
will have to be consulted with
[1:01:04] individually next slide
[1:01:08] please our recommendation to the
province was that they continue to
[1:01:12] provide ongoing funding to maintain the
momentum that is underway and the
[1:01:17] collaboration that has been established
through this phase of
[1:01:21] work next slide please
[1:01:28] so I just have a few slides here now on
the public and stakeholder engagement
[1:01:31] thanks
s um just as a high level over overview
[1:01:36] we hosted a public openhouse on
September 14th in
[1:01:39] Duncan um the openhouse included uh a
video uh where you could actually
[1:01:45] experience and ride the
rail um virtually of course and a story
[1:01:50] map which scrolled through GIS mapping
so folks could better understand the
[1:01:54] context um um there were about 350
people who
[1:01:59] attended there was also an online survey
to gather feedback so through the survey
[1:02:05] the public was invited to share about
their potential future uses and
[1:02:09] preferred what they would like to see in
the
[1:02:11] future um the survey was available
through the month of September and we
[1:02:16] received over 4,000 responses there's
incredible interest in this
[1:02:21] project next slide thank
you in terms of the key takeaways from
[1:02:26] that survey participants shared that
Transportation modes that best match
[1:02:32] their future vision for their Island
Rail Corridor it's a Top Choice folks
[1:02:36] could choose all that apply 79% of
people chose passenger rail 49% of
[1:02:42] people chose biking and hiking trails
42% chose
[1:02:47] Freight um the table below just provides
a bit of a breakdown between the cvd and
[1:02:53] folks who responded from outside of the
cvd or didn't share uh where they were
[1:02:58] responding from so inside the cbrd
you'll see that slightly fewer people
[1:03:03] are choosing rail as a as a preferred
future use at 74% compared to people
[1:03:08] outside of the cbrd which is
88% in terms of biking and hiking
[1:03:13] trails people inside the cbrd chose that
slightly more 52% versus outside of the
[1:03:19] cbrd at
47% and Freight Service uh was more
[1:03:24] highly selected for people who are
outside of the cbrd at 48% versus 38%
[1:03:29] inside the
cbrd next slide
[1:03:36] please we also asked participants to
share um their priorities around
[1:03:40] potential additional uses that could be
hosted within the corridor adjacent to a
[1:03:46] rail we we asked them to respond based
on area uh station area so shanus Cobble
[1:03:51] Hill cin Duncan lady Smith malahat and
shanigan
[1:03:56] across all areas except malahat you can
see there was consistency highlighted in
[1:04:01] green active Transportation was the Top
Choice followed by tourism and then
[1:04:06] Recreation and park like activities in
the malahat area emergency preparedness
[1:04:11] was uh chosen more often than Recreation
and park like
[1:04:18] activities next slide
please in addition to public engagement
[1:04:24] we hosted 19 one-on-one interviews with
key stakeholders and organizations with
[1:04:29] interest in transportation Economic
Development agriculture environment and
[1:04:33] utilities through these interviews we
heard that seven out of 19 have a
[1:04:38] preferred future use of rail four out of
19 have a preferred future use of rail
[1:04:44] and Trail together and three out of 19
had a preference for trail only five out
[1:04:49] of 19 shared that they had no Preferred
Future
[1:04:52] use there were also some shared
takeaways
[1:04:56] upholding the rights of First Nations
maintaining the corridor as continuous
[1:05:01] in recognition that as a continuous
Corridor it it that would preserve its
[1:05:05] potential for a future Transportation
use and finding ways to improve Island
[1:05:10] connectivity for the future of the
corridor next slide
[1:05:18] please and you can move to the next one
thank you so finally this slide is just
[1:05:22] to
share some of the other process aspects
[1:05:26] that we um undertook as a part of our
collaboration across governments and
[1:05:31] with the island cordor Foundation there
was a Regional District staff working
[1:05:35] group where uh staff met together to
share process updates outcomes and draft
[1:05:41] directions so that supported information
sharing at the staff level across
[1:05:46] Regional districts there was the CBD
working group which included Regional
[1:05:51] and Municipal staff we shared process
updates technical deliver deliverables
[1:05:57] and and got guidance and and feedback on
the work as it
[1:06:00] evolved and then the cbrd also
participated in meetings with the island
[1:06:04] Corridor Foundation again to talk about
process and share draft outcomes of the
[1:06:10] process that's everything from me thank
you
[1:06:15] Sally oh
you're you're on mute apologies uh
[1:06:21] thanks very much Lindsay uh now we're
going to go over the technical slides
[1:06:25] and youran is going to go over them and
it's going to take you around 15 to 20
[1:06:28] minutes thanks very
[1:06:37] much apologies Yan you're you're muted
as
[1:06:46] well sorry still muted
[1:06:56] is that any better yes thank you
wonderful good morning everyone good
[1:07:00] morning directors ladies and gentlemen
thanks for the opportunity to um just
[1:07:06] very briefly uh provide an overview of
all the work that was
[1:07:10] undertaken um specifically in in
addition to the engagement and
[1:07:15] consultation talks that we heard about
earlier um considerable technical
[1:07:20] efforts were also
undertaken and these uh relate to
[1:07:24] environment
um
[1:07:28] considerations then the land use and
transportation evaluation and assessment
[1:07:33] and then based on the transportation
options that were identified and option
[1:07:39] assessment of these uh were undertaken
as well um next slide please Sor
[1:07:47] they so if we next one please so if we
go to environmental considerations there
[1:07:54] three three components firstly natural
habitat natural habitat really reviewed
[1:08:01] uh background information to identify
potential environmental constraints on
[1:08:06] development based on the natural
features of the area and the area was
[1:08:11] defined as the 30 m wide Corridor and
then included a a a 1 km bu buffer on
[1:08:18] either side of the rail
alignment um so therefore uh identify
[1:08:24] habitats plant and animal species um
were identified that could could
[1:08:29] potentially be impacted by development
along the corridor next slide
[1:08:36] please as far as remediation is
concerned
[1:08:41] um uh remediation guidelines and
requirements were identified based on
[1:08:46] Federal and provincial uh guidelines
when land uses are proposed and an a
[1:08:52] cost estimate was made um in terms of
remediation um it's very high level um
[1:09:00] as you can see in the numbers and they
vary quite significantly but physical
[1:09:07] remediation um is is estimated to vary
between 175 to
[1:09:12] 300,000 per 100 met section of corridor
and then there uh therea further risk
[1:09:20] assessment could also uh increase cost
by 95 to 170,000 per 100 meter of a
[1:09:26] corridor the cost variation is based on
the extent of the common um the uh
[1:09:33] contamination findings and then also the
um land use remediation Target in other
[1:09:40] words whether the target is reverting to
Industrial Land versus for example
[1:09:45] industrial land next slide
[1:09:50] please on climate change um the focus
was specifically on Wild fires extreme
[1:09:56] heat and flooding uh events um as far as
their impacts along the corridor were
[1:10:03] concerned and the opportunities and
risks that were uh identified in this
[1:10:08] exercise um really can be summarized as
um a corridor can provide a natural
[1:10:15] buffer that can contain wild wildfire
and flooding obviously uh a corridor
[1:10:22] provides emergency routing and also a
transport route to offer supply chain
[1:10:29] resilience um but a r could also impact
the transfer of flood risks and
[1:10:34] obviously Transit operations could also
ignite uh cause Sparks and ignite fires
[1:10:41] um that's just um a brief summary of the
CL climate change uh
[1:10:46] impacts next slide please so if we move
on to uh land use evaluation and
[1:10:53] assessment um as far as land use and
transportation was concerned uh the cor
[1:10:59] was split into the five segments as
shown on that map um lady Smith chus um
[1:11:05] and then moving further south Duncan
being um the the major urban area and
[1:11:11] into the South cobal shikan Lake and
further south um the
[1:11:17] malahat um and um for each of these
segments um land uses were evaluated
[1:11:24] based on zoning and official Community
plans and uh SWAT uh analys was
[1:11:30] undertaken for each segment to uh
evaluate um development restrictions the
[1:11:38] availability of land for development um
obviously the denif densification
[1:11:43] opportunities in these areas to
accommodate increased population an
[1:11:48] important part of the land use
assessment was uh undertaking a
[1:11:52] population protection um specifically Al
based on the recent Transit Orient
[1:11:57] oriented area legislation higher
densities um in catchment areas to
[1:12:04] identify population uh densities that
can be be accommodated and really that
[1:12:10] methodology without going into the
details just focused in um looking at um
[1:12:17] uh station areas and then looking at uh
populations that were within walking
[1:12:23] distance of stations and then
in areas further from stations
[1:12:28] populations that would um use private
vehicle to access stations um and
[1:12:34] population growth projections um that
were used in this exercise were uh the
[1:12:39] projections for
2041 uh next slide
[1:12:45] please so briefly uh from a land use
perspective the summary of findings
[1:12:51] really um relate to the fact that the
corridor Ms are distinct but they also
[1:12:57] share similarities such as um Urban CES
but um definitely rural residential
[1:13:04] areas and then resource and agricultural
uses Within These
[1:13:09] segments the cbrd policy framework
support uh creating acto Transportation
[1:13:15] networks um and using the rail Corridor
for this network and policy Frameworks
[1:13:20] also support the use of transit to
encourage a mode shift away from from
[1:13:25] the car in other words using Transit as
a catalyst for change um population
[1:13:32] projections Illustrated there is
potential for population growth and
[1:13:36] therefore land use change
um uh the result of accelerated growth
[1:13:44] in these areas is the fact that core
areas uh especially in the urban areas
[1:13:49] along a corridor would certainly see
significant densification over time as
[1:13:54] the de velopment of new housing units
occurred next slide
[1:13:59] please if we go to the transportation
assessment
[1:14:05] um uh again uh Transportation options
were based on existing and future land
[1:14:11] uses and a high level analysis was again
undertaken from a transportation
[1:14:16] perspective in terms of their strengths
weaknesses opportunities and threats in
[1:14:20] these
areas and obviously in as Parton par of
[1:14:25] the exercise was to
ensure excuse me that future use of the
[1:14:30] corridor needs to be aligned with the
goals of the South Island Transportation
[1:14:35] strategy and that refers to improving um
uh a connected and integrated
[1:14:41] Transportation Network and addressing
travel demand uh promoting alternative
[1:14:45] modes and obviously discouraging the use
of private vehicles in essence three
[1:14:50] basic strategies were examined um for
use of the corridor door and those
[1:14:55] relate to providing a trail
only uh providing a rail only and then
[1:15:01] looking at the opportunities of
providing Rail and Trail
[1:15:06] together um next slide
please um as we mentioned earlier on um
[1:15:14] the development of a ter propensity
model was uh was uh a very important
[1:15:21] component of this exercise due to the
over helming interest in uh
[1:15:27] transportation and
specific specifically rail
[1:15:31] Transportation
um and in essence transport the transit
[1:15:37] propensity model uh was just a model to
assess to which extent population growth
[1:15:42] in the CBD could support a a future
passenger rail service so um estimating
[1:15:49] ridership to examine the viability of
rail service in this regard um
[1:15:55] three population scenarios were
considered for the catchment areas of uh
[1:16:01] rail service um and those were just
looking at the existing cment population
[1:16:08] a second one looked at uh existing but
projected growth population to 2024
[1:16:14] 2024 and then the third um option looked
at growth based on the provincial
[1:16:21] Transit oriented areas buildout um
[1:16:29] and as I mentioned earlier St uh station
catchment areas incorporate kind of two
[1:16:34] rings of areas the first ring is the uh
the ring closest to the station which um
[1:16:41] reflects walking distance to stations
and then the lar larger outside ring
[1:16:46] reflecting driving
distance distances um to facilitate drop
[1:16:51] off at stations or parking at stations
due to the uh proximity and overlap of
[1:16:59] existing stations or station locations
in uh the cvrd stations were
[1:17:04] Consolidated into six locations only and
then obviously assum assumptions had to
[1:17:11] be made um to use to estimate rail
ridership uh in Dem in Peak Peak periods
[1:17:18] and off peak periods of the day as well
as assumptions were used to calculate uh
[1:17:23] Service uh requirements to meet that
travel demand and that was used to
[1:17:28] calculate the number of trips required
and thus um the peak vehicle requirement
[1:17:35] in other words the number of changes
required to to to deliver that
[1:17:41] service um next slide
please so just with regards to the this
[1:17:48] little model and its assumptions it's um
uh a couple that need to be just
[1:17:53] highlighted is first mostly that the
rail line remains contiguous and is
[1:17:58] fully developed north and south of the
cvd so it's not just a cvrd in
[1:18:04] isolation that trips rail trips reflect
round trips over the length of the
[1:18:09] corridor so that would be um south from
the CR uh cvrd uh into the capital
[1:18:17] regional district as well as into the
comok Valley Regional District in the
[1:18:22] North to the Courtney station that the
necessary infrastructure was in place to
[1:18:28] support uh access to rail um and that
would include uh Transit service
[1:18:34] integration and the availability of Park
and Ride facilities and Mobility hubs
[1:18:39] Etc at station
locations and very importantly that um
[1:18:44] transportation connections overall are
sufficient for users to reach final
[1:18:50] destinations in other words not to look
at um
[1:18:55] uh a rail service in isolation but the
connections to other services for Riders
[1:19:02] to be able to finalize and reach their
final
[1:19:05] destinations
um so this assessment really is a
[1:19:10] statement of the potential ridership and
can be used as an input in in in a
[1:19:15] future business
case and also a detailed Transportation
[1:19:20] analysis would be required to verify all
these assumptions that have been made in
[1:19:25] the model um with regards to trip
volumes uh and direction of service and
[1:19:32] destinations and so
on the outcome of the model suggests
[1:19:36] that the estimated population growth is
sufficient to Warrant a viable service
[1:19:42] and that service was identified as being
providing a peak uh service of
[1:19:49] approximately three trips an hour but
just bear in mind that it uh as I
[1:19:54] mentioned earlier on this would this
takes into account um not only um
[1:19:59] service and demand within the cvrd but
the but the corridor as a whole so uh
[1:20:05] the other Regional districts that are
adjacent to the cvd as well next slide
[1:20:12] please so requirements for adopting a
long-term vision of the corridor um uh
[1:20:19] just need to be identified and just are
listed below uh in terms of reserving a
[1:20:25] corridor in its entirety um um and to
address the implications where there are
[1:20:31] locations where theity may be impacted
um as I mentioned to update travel uh
[1:20:39] characteristics relating to travel demon
and trip purpose uh identifying suitable
[1:20:46] uh rail technology to accommodate
passenger and or Freight rail because um
[1:20:51] the requirements are um could be uh
somewhat different um as far as Urban
[1:20:59] Development is concerned to identify and
promote land for higher density use um
[1:21:05] confirming safety standards and service
standards for again for passenger
[1:21:10] service versus rail Services because
they are certainly different um as I
[1:21:16] mentioned before
integrating rail service into an overall
[1:21:20] Transportation Network um so that would
for example include
[1:21:25] uh connections to bus and Ferry services
for passengers to complete their trips
[1:21:30] to reach their end
destinations obviously the updating of
[1:21:35] costs relating to Service uh uh
transportation service rail service
[1:21:42] operations but also Transportation
infrastructure as well as um Rolling
[1:21:47] Stock and then finally to
establish a regional or provincial body
[1:21:52] to oversee the planning implement ation
operation of such a
[1:21:58] service um next slide please so based on
those assessments um we we identified
[1:22:06] Transportation options next slide please
and they are listed in the following
[1:22:11] slide so really five options were
identified as we've alluded to before a
[1:22:17] rail only option which looks at
preserving the corridor for the future
[1:22:21] introduction of rail a trail only op
option which is converting the corridor
[1:22:27] to a multi-use trail for active modes in
the short and or long term thirdly um a
[1:22:35] combination side by side if you like of
rail and Trail so introducing Trail for
[1:22:40] active mode but
enabling um future rail operations in
[1:22:46] the
corridor um and the fifth option being
[1:22:50] um other uses or no rail or Trail
um which really refer to the reversion
[1:22:58] of land and this considers the
remediation of bisected Reserve
[1:23:04] lands um a final not option really but a
final consideration
[1:23:10] um uh which should be noted and um and
and and discussed as well is looking at
[1:23:18] um the potential of Al providing
alternative roots for emergency services
[1:23:23] which was evident in the m area
so the assessment of these options
[1:23:29] examined the issues risks and the
estimated costs and in the following
[1:23:33] slides we will just highlight um uh the
high level findings and the cost so
[1:23:39] first of all next slide please
[1:23:44] s there we go so first option rail only
um obviously a continuous rail Corridor
[1:23:51] is required to provide the service um it
should just be noted again that within
[1:23:56] the cvrd 4.8 km of the corridor um uh
runs in reserve lands
[1:24:05] um and uh a high level analysis of uh
reigning rail Corridor around these res
[1:24:13] uh to bypass the reserves um was
identified as being challenging due to
[1:24:19] Long diversions um high costs which make
include could include tunneling the
[1:24:25] requirement for new Bridges and
challenging Urban environments
[1:24:30] especially in developed areas such as
Downtown Duncan um so really um uh in
[1:24:38] essence rail alignments around Reserve
lands is not really considered feasible
[1:24:44] at this point um and therefore without
access or agreements with First Nations
[1:24:50] a rail Corridor or a rail service within
the corridor becomes
[1:24:55] unfeasible um with next slide please
with regards to rail costs let's first
[1:24:59] look at Capital Capital costs are imp uh
are impacted by uh infrastructure
[1:25:06] specifications in terms of the rail line
itself um technical details are provided
[1:25:13] in uh our report um as well as what is
included and excluded such as um Rolling
[1:25:20] Stock Does it include a commuter service
versus an intert uh inter service City
[1:25:25] inter city service I be p as well as
some of the the cost um uh um
[1:25:35] estimations included uh the parks so to
Port Al Bernie section as well so this
[1:25:40] graph just shows in blue um how the cost
for from different studies varied
[1:25:47] um uh and so if one looks at the cost
per kilometer uh which is shown in red
[1:25:53] one could see it varies all the way from
1.5 um uh
[1:26:00] 1.5 to
4.1 as a cost per
[1:26:05] kilometer um in millions um and these
are estimated from various studies and
[1:26:11] the final column shows uh the estimate
that was made for this um study the uh
[1:26:18] cvd and it's a the high it's a high
level estimate for for specifically for
[1:26:23] commu terrain so we
are capital cost is just in the or just
[1:26:30] below a billion
dollars um for the
[1:26:33] cvd um if we move on to the next slide
please that shows uh a little bit of
[1:26:39] information on uh once the once a rail
line is established obviously uh
[1:26:45] operating cost and uh is incurred as
well so this graph shows in blue shows
[1:26:51] the revenue from fairs and a a revenue
of $15 per um per per ride is
[1:26:59] assumed the red bars show the operating
cost for the different levels of service
[1:27:04] uh based on population for the three
scenarios that were undertaken and then
[1:27:10] the yellow shows the shortfall and that
really is the subsidy that's required to
[1:27:15] cover the uh difference um uh in in in
the in the revenue and the
[1:27:22] cost and obviously oper cost depends on
service provision such as the
[1:27:27] frequencies and the extent of um uh the
service and the times of operation and
[1:27:33] so on but it does show that um uh that
uh uh beyond the capital cost there is a
[1:27:41] annual uh additional cost uh despite the
income of through fars um to cover the
[1:27:49] shortfall between operating cost and um
fair fair generation
[1:27:56] um next slide please um the next option
looked at Trail only and again the
[1:28:02] capital cost for this was estimated at
55 million and this was based on uh
[1:28:09] approximately at 25 as
25% uh asphal surfacing of the corridor
[1:28:16] uh of the total length but that also
then included in uh the vertical uh
[1:28:22] raising the vertical elevation for two
Bridges um for 16 Bridges um uh railing
[1:28:29] and decking improvements and falling uh
Rock mitigations in the malat area and
[1:28:35] again uh Beyond Capital cost there is a
maintenance cost fortunately a low
[1:28:40] number but estimated at three of uh 3
million per year um with regards to soil
[1:28:49] Remediation in this option of Trail only
um no soil remed mediation is required
[1:28:55] if the rail is if the trail is built on
the existing rail bed um if for uh
[1:29:02] whichever reason um remediation of the
corridor within the
[1:29:08] cvrd uh would be required that cost
would vary uh quite significantly
[1:29:14] between 76 and 255 million depending on
um the low or high estimate of
[1:29:22] remediation and then obviously as we
mentioned earlier on land use
[1:29:27] designation remediation of cvrd Reserve
lands however is uh pegged at between 9
[1:29:34] and 15 million so that would be the 4.8
kilm of um Reserve Land that are
[1:29:40] impacted within the cvd area next slide
please third option uh looked at Rail
[1:29:48] and Trail uh the the construction cost
for this option is higher than Trail
[1:29:54] only because the railway remains
officially active and it requires
[1:29:58] maintenance of tracks and trestles the
provision as the picture shows of a
[1:30:03] safety fence between the rail alignment
and the trail and obviously safety
[1:30:08] improvements at rail crossings to meet
um transport can standards
[1:30:16] um and then um it should also be noted
when rail service is introduced that uh
[1:30:22] Crossings uh would have to be addressed
in terms of improving uh Crossings for
[1:30:28] active modes uh and that's that's
roughly at 16 Crossings in in in the
[1:30:34] area um the trail cost uh in uh was
based uh in in this option was based on
[1:30:42] the cost incurred in uh the enn trail in
Victoria Langford uh which was at 2.1
[1:30:50] million per kilometer which is
significantly more than the .6 million
[1:30:55] per kilometer for the trail only option
the cvd cost for Rail and Trail would be
[1:31:02] in the order of 129
million so next slide please um in the
[1:31:09] interest of time is just a summary of
the four options um uh that we have
[1:31:15] spoken about um just showing what uh
what they are and then showing when they
[1:31:22] are implemented as specifically with
regards to rail and Trail and then um in
[1:31:28] the in the case of rail and Trail
together but just a summary slide which
[1:31:32] is part of um I believe your
handout um next slide
[1:31:41] please as we mentioned earlier on
emergency access uh um and specifically
[1:31:47] alternative rooting for emergency
services not re uh an option per se but
[1:31:52] a consideration for the various segments
as we mentioned malahat is often
[1:31:57] congested and suffers from accidents and
closures and delays um there certainly
[1:32:03] are limited traffic alternatives to the
Mal hat and in fact the mot did
[1:32:09] undertake a study a couple of years ago
to consider root Alternatives which are
[1:32:15] depicted um in this uh diagram um and
the Alternatives excluded the RO
[1:32:22] Corridor um these Alternatives were
identified but not pursued any further
[1:32:28] so just um a note on
[1:32:33] that um so if uh next slide please so
just a summary of the options assessment
[1:32:40] uh just to bring this all together um is
first of all in the Rail options first
[1:32:46] we would require um an agreement with
First Nations to access the RO Corridor
[1:32:52] um and there specific Pacific Reserve
lands 4.8 km to in order to provide a
[1:32:58] continuous Corridor
um and uh a rail only option would
[1:33:04] obviously um preclude uh potential
emergency access to alternatives on the
[1:33:09] Malad trail trail only option
obviously precludes rail in the future
[1:33:17] and the cost assume that construction
won't require soil
[1:33:21] remediation um in the case of Trail only
if it weren't a continuous route that
[1:33:28] could be overcome by diversion onto
thejason Street
[1:33:33] Network for Rail and Trail this is the
highest cop uh option um in terms of uh
[1:33:41] Trail provision due to the requirement
of the trail adjacent to the rail line
[1:33:47] um preserving the opportunity for future
rail when when a business case can be
[1:33:52] made and funding can be secured
and then finally other uses or land
[1:33:57] rsion that means in essence means a
change in the land use and the soiled
[1:34:02] mediation costs for Reserve lands in the
cvrd
[1:34:07] um so that really is a summary of um
what what what our uh um options
[1:34:16] assessment um uh provided us so if we
move on in conclusion
[1:34:24] bringing this all together the next
steps um really uh for this project as a
[1:34:29] whole can be summarized in the following
Four Points um first of all to review
[1:34:35] the interest in the potential of uh
reestablishing the rail service
[1:34:39] obviously in the longer term and in
collaboration with land owners um
[1:34:44] reviewing the feasibility of expanding
the trail Network to accommodate active
[1:34:49] modes in the short
term undertaking transportation study to
[1:34:54] look at the provision of alternative
loots um to Highway one for emergency
[1:35:00] services Services particularly in the
Maad section and um finally engaging in
[1:35:08] uh ongoing an additional collaboration
to arrive at an overall shared Vision
[1:35:14] that is supported by all that brings me
to the end of uh my presentation thank
[1:35:21] you
[1:35:24] thanks everyone for your patience read
the number of
[1:35:29] slides great thank you for the for the
presentations I have a request um to
[1:35:34] take a five minute break for the the
board before we jump into questions if
[1:35:38] that works for
everyone all right so we'll um resume
[1:35:43] the meeting at
uh I've never been above
[1:35:50] 160 this is the
heaviest as long as I feel good
[1:35:57] running how are they spicy
nice none of my clothes are though
[1:36:35] all right we'll now resume our committee
the whole whole meeting and we're at uh
[1:36:39] questions for our presenters with
regards to the Island Rail Corridor
[1:36:43] visioning exercise so I'm going to turn
first to uh director
[1:36:49] Wilson thank you chair yeah and um I
I've got to say um I
[1:36:55] sorry director WS can you press the
button again I'm having a bit of trouble
[1:36:57] here apologies there continue there we
go I got to stop doing that okay thank
[1:37:02] you very much um I Love Trains I think
they're brilliant um and I would love to
[1:37:07] be able to to bring something like this
back again I mean my my kids and my
[1:37:12] grandkids don't believe that growing up
I traveled on steam trains diesel trains
[1:37:17] and all the rest of it just to get
backwards and forwards but on a local
[1:37:20] level I have traveled before it was shut
down on this particular one from uh all
[1:37:26] the way from Sheamus to to um to
Victoria and it really is the most
[1:37:31] amazing trip um that I've ever taken it
was beautiful and and I would hate to
[1:37:36] see it disappear but when I look at the
costs it more than a sharp intake of of
[1:37:44] breath here um and I but I would like to
bring it back again I do believe it is
[1:37:50] the future because previous experience
in the UK before we came to Canada a lot
[1:37:56] of the branch lines were shut down uh in
order to um save costs and yet 10 or 15
[1:38:03] years later they had to bring them back
again because of their usefulness I
[1:38:09] would love to see this brought back
again uh so the question is on terms on
[1:38:14] terms of costs how is that going to be
financed and what impact would that have
[1:38:20] for instance on the
cvrd um on our taxpayers or having to go
[1:38:25] to short-term borrowing there has to be
an impact is there any study on that
[1:38:29] particular one thank
[1:38:32] you s you want to take this
[1:38:39] one thanks very much for the question I
guess I should pass this to youran
[1:38:44] please thanks um thank you for the
question Vaga question um because that
[1:38:49] is always um when one goes through these
exercises
[1:38:53] um that final question that has to be
resolved to answer your question um no
[1:39:00] no study has been undertaken as to how
this would be funded and obviously that
[1:39:06] would have that is an exercise in itself
because I think the important part of
[1:39:11] this is to say okay um if one were to
implement something like this um who are
[1:39:18] all the funding Partners obviously uh
provincial government local government
[1:39:24] uh federal government and uh the the the
CBD as well and I think it's an
[1:39:30] important question to have an answer uh
to pass on to residents of the cvrd so
[1:39:37] that uh they are aware of of what that
cost implication would be for
[1:39:44] them course yeah if I could um follow up
yeah and and this is one of the most
[1:39:51] important ones it it don't get me wrong
we need something like this there's no
[1:39:55] two ways about it
but I would much rather know or even
[1:40:00] have a very rough figure of what it's
going to cost me before any more Studies
[1:40:04] have been going on the reason here is
that the studies have been going on how
[1:40:09] long 5 10 years or something like that
and we're still no further forward let's
[1:40:13] get some numbers if we can please thank
you next I have uh director
[1:40:20] mcgonagal thank you first of all thank
you very much for a very wholesome
[1:40:26] presentation uh I think we all accept
the value of the island Corridor not
[1:40:31] only within our regional district but up
and down uh the corridor line I I look
[1:40:37] historically at the branch line to the
West couchin area and the way it was
[1:40:41] utilized industrially and how it has
transformed into a Transportation uh an
[1:40:47] alternative transportation Hub currently
which has engaged in tourism
[1:40:54] opportunities economic opportunities in
the west cchan area so I do see the
[1:40:59] value in in rail to Trail but also
looking back historically at the
[1:41:04] adjacent lands for instance that were
accommodated within the propriety of
[1:41:09] providing rail service how quickly that
Island Corridor would be reinitiated
[1:41:15] should those lands be reinstated into
other options that's just a comment uh
[1:41:22] for a question
not uh perhaps to you but perhaps to our
[1:41:27] staff you mentioned uh subsidies within
your report of per ridership I believe
[1:41:33] it was a $6 negative subsidy it would be
interesting to see the comparative
[1:41:38] between what is currently subsidized in
ridership in transit as toose opposed to
[1:41:44] those projections just so that we had an
idea of of how that could be implicated
[1:41:51] within budget discussions we know that
any service that we to provide whether
[1:41:56] it be Recreation whether it be
Transportation Transit are slightly
[1:42:01] subsidized uh by by taxation so it would
be interesting to know the comparatives
[1:42:06] in that thank you very
[1:42:09] much so Lee would you like to respond to
[1:42:15] that okay par me did you ask me I think
the question was more to to staff yes
[1:42:26] yeah director mical indicated he can
also follow up
[1:42:30] offline it's noted okay I'll move on to
the next speaker uh director
[1:42:36] Morrison thank you chair um so I want to
to thank stantech and and modus a very
[1:42:43] thorough report uh I got to be noted on
time and on budget so that's pretty
[1:42:51] exciting and uh I I'm just thrilled that
uh our staff and and and our Consultants
[1:42:58] were able to actually do the work uh
quite successfully within the original
[1:43:05] time frame that the province wanted the
work done and uh so we're actually done
[1:43:11] leaders of the pack and the other
organizations that uh must be doing that
[1:43:16] work well I I think Al Bernie clat is is
very close to to completion as well so
[1:43:21] uh good on them as well uh I I have to
say I'm I'm an internal Optimist when it
[1:43:27] comes to the you know what a huge asset
this is and and I I just think of you
[1:43:33] know in regards to what director Wilson
had just said um I wasn't it just this
[1:43:38] week that the federal government
announced that they're going to do
[1:43:41] high-speed rail from Quebec City to
Toronto and and they don't have like the
[1:43:46] lands and and they don't have the
Assembly of what's required they have
[1:43:50] some of it um huge multi billion doll
project for that area yes they've got
[1:43:56] the population uh different scenario but
you know I think what what we're facing
[1:44:01] with the island Corridor in this area is
is almost as complex as cbrd budgeting
[1:44:07] it's it's a really there's so many
variables in this but being that
[1:44:12] internal Optimist you know the question
was asked how much is this going to cost
[1:44:18] and we had somebody stand up during
public input and say when I hear the
[1:44:22] word expensive in a report I want to
challenge it and and I I too think of
[1:44:27] that what is the cost to not do some of
these things that are are suggested in
[1:44:34] the report whether it's reestablishment
of rail or Rail and Trail and the likes
[1:44:38] and and why I'm an optimist is that you
know you just look back as to what
[1:44:44] happened with Sky Train when when that
was announced people were selling their
[1:44:49] properties near potential Sky train
stations for you know you know Pennies
[1:44:53] on the dollars and the developers came
along bought them up now there's
[1:44:57] highrises all the way around all all
around the the sky train stations and
[1:45:02] there's been huge economic and social
Improvement in those areas as a result
[1:45:06] of a transportation and Logistics
Improvement and I see that potential for
[1:45:12] the island Corridor whether it's it's
aiding and food security you know we
[1:45:18] grow stuff in this region we should be
able to consolidate process and ship it
[1:45:23] off to other areas and if we're looking
at the future and high cost of
[1:45:28] Transportation rails got to be part of
that equation at least from where I sit
[1:45:33] um I I know that our friends in alurn
kwat are feeling really fortunate that
[1:45:39] they've got that rail line there and
that they can they can look to the
[1:45:43] Future for deep sea port activities and
the and the tourism potential that with
[1:45:49] their train that they have there so I'll
I'll
[1:45:53] pretty much I'll stop there and say that
you know whether whether we go to
[1:45:58] residential development along the the
the corridor or light industrial
[1:46:03] industrial there's huge potential in a
Consolidated and maintained Corridor and
[1:46:11] uh I I hope that we can move in that
direction at some point but I think this
[1:46:15] this report is a great Foundation leaves
us some more questions to ask but I I
[1:46:20] want to thank the consultants and our
staff for doing such a fine job thank
[1:46:24] you I next have uh director
Duncan uh thank you yeah and thank you
[1:46:29] for the report in the past I was uh the
city of Duncan representative to the ICF
[1:46:35] uh consultations and one of the things I
noticed in the report was rail crossings
[1:46:40] and that sort of twigged on to my memory
uh in the past that there there was
[1:46:44] approximately 200 rail crossings and the
cost to upgrade each one was about
[1:46:50] 200,000 I didn't see any sort of numbers
around that in this report so can you
[1:46:54] confirm how many rail crossings there
are and who's actually responsible to
[1:47:00] pay for the upgrade of those is it each
[1:47:06] municipality Yan maybe I can help answer
this question as a rail yes so a lot of
[1:47:12] these rail crossings are existing I
don't have the actual count uh on my
[1:47:17] head of course we have listed that in
our uh first presentation and also uh R
[1:47:22] report
and those costs were already covered in
[1:47:27] the W speed report in 2020 and as a part
of the upgrade cost which were separated
[1:47:33] out into three different phases uh
initial phase intermediate and ultimate
[1:47:37] phase all of these costs were
accommodated of course the cost that wsp
[1:47:42] prepared in 2020 uh was 5 years old of
course we try to you know scale them up
[1:47:48] and uh come up with more accurate
estimate but a lot of those Crossings if
[1:47:54] we just explore them on googlers they
already have active warning system which
[1:47:59] means flashing lights bells and some of
them they have Gates as well like a lot
[1:48:04] of them are already fully equipped but
uh when I was talking to ICF uh some of
[1:48:09] them were not fully in service due to
like uh protection protecting the asset
[1:48:14] so there's going to be some cost for
having them activated and as you guys
[1:48:18] are fully aware uh Transport Canada
guideline and Transport Canada bre
[1:48:22] ulations are in effect Since U uh 2014
and uh there's a lot of existing
[1:48:29] agreement between Railway Authority and
the municipality on the cost sharing uh
[1:48:35] on maintenance fees so a lot of them are
existing they need to be assessed and uh
[1:48:41] there's a full report I believe
completed by Bonds on Crossing
[1:48:45] assessment and cost available as well
but the costs have to be scaled by I
[1:48:50] hope that answered the question
[1:48:55] I follow up director Duncan no do I push
all right okay I'll move on now to
[1:49:00] director
[1:49:05] Nicholson press one more
[1:49:10] time okay go for it thank you thank you
for the report
[1:49:15] um yeah like I've been waiting
for to be able to commute to Victoria
[1:49:20] for my whole career 40 years
and then the last at least for the last
[1:49:26] 20 the the corridor has not been used
for anything and so I try and walk along
[1:49:33] it but I fall into holes and it's fairly
dangerous so I'm thinking about
[1:49:38] timelines here and I recognize when I
read this report that really this is a
[1:49:44] lot to do with First Nations so we don't
have a um so we will be waiting for a
[1:49:50] while while that whole situation get
sorted out one way or the
[1:49:54] other and so I guess what I'm
wondering um in several replaces the
[1:50:01] report states that lifting the rail and
putting a trail on the rail bed would
[1:50:06] preclude the return of rail in the
future so I thought perhaps an option
[1:50:11] might have been that um you do a a trail
beside the rail a rail trail beside the
[1:50:17] rail where you could and then use the
trail the rail when you can't do that
[1:50:22] for for example through bright angel
Park You couldn't possibly have a a
[1:50:26] trail beside the rail there as as an
interm thing which led me to think about
[1:50:31] well what is what is what kind of a a
time frame are we talking about and I
[1:50:35] found the report a little bit unclear on
that front so you talk about short to
[1:50:39] medium um and I'm wondering what short
to medium means is that 10 to 15 50
[1:50:44] years or like another two two working
Generations or how much is that
[1:50:57] s thanks very much for the question
truly appreciate it I I should pass this
[1:51:00] to your hand
please um it's it's difficult to
[1:51:06] actually um determine exactly what is
short medium and long term in in in in
[1:51:12] the sense of this report um the long
term as far as this report is concerned
[1:51:18] is some point in the future when a rail
line uh potentially can be uh
[1:51:24] reinstituted
so um uh shortterm and medium term be
[1:51:30] derivatives of that in terms of perhaps
being shortterm within the next 10 uh
[1:51:38] roughly 10 to 15 years maybe and the
medium term beyond that I think at this
[1:51:44] point that's probably the closest we can
get to uh defining those uh uh time
[1:51:50] periods thanks youran I can also add on
top of that as an engineer that you know
[1:51:56] to have a good estimate we have to have
a design and of course on the design we
[1:52:01] usually have the first phase which is
conceptual feasibility study we're going
[1:52:05] to have like at least horizontal
alignment and we can have like let's say
[1:52:10] class D cost estimate and then we can
definitely spend more time do a detailed
[1:52:14] design and come up with accurate
timeline and cost estimate so in order
[1:52:18] to have a very robust uh not even highly
robust B just just a very kind of
[1:52:24] reliable time Horizon a conceptual
design drawing across the corridor is
[1:52:32] required I hope that answerers the
question thank you follow up thank you
[1:52:37] well I guess I I mean I just from my
perspective it the question is really
[1:52:41] about um are we prepared to wait another
50 years for potentially rail to happen
[1:52:48] or could we make the the the corridor a
little bit more useful than it is right
[1:52:52] now um
yeah right I'll now move on to director
[1:52:59] mclinton
thank you chair um a few comments before
[1:53:03] my question um yeah if I had a magic
wand I'd
[1:53:07] probably like to see rail uh put in I
think it offers the most options for the
[1:53:13] most amount of people um you know
somebody that drove from Victoria to
[1:53:18] coox for work in my early 30s that uh
yeah I think there' be a big benefit
[1:53:24] there but I was listening to the
report you know I just was struck by
[1:53:32] first just visually seeing the our
Colonial history of I forget the number
[1:53:38] maybe three or four Indian reserves
where we cut through the the land and
[1:53:43] just uh just a quick personal anecdote
my my son his his grandmother is a
[1:53:49] jibway and his grandfather is the rer AR
chief of the quaca band alert Bay and
[1:53:57] the jju nation has tremendous treaty
rights um and quaca they're in stage
[1:54:03] four and the the the jux the position
just couldn't be more hu bigger and and
[1:54:11] you know so he obviously he when he had
the option that's when he took his
[1:54:16] status that's he went with the jibway
and you know we see I think it was said
[1:54:22] I the full report there's two Nations or
sorry two reserves that that don't they
[1:54:28] want their land back and so I
mean we're pontificating about what we
[1:54:34] want to do with this Corridor I mean
perhaps there's a section from Victoria
[1:54:38] to shaigan or something along those
lines but I mean the recommendation that
[1:54:44] we proceede I mean I guess this gets to
my question um I mean without the
[1:54:49] province sitting at the table either
coming up with comp ation or
[1:54:54] rerouting um you know unless they
weren't 100% clear that they want their
[1:55:00] land back I mean how can we possibly
proceed with anything I mean it's I I
[1:55:07] just I I had a hard time listening after
I heard that there's there's sort of two
[1:55:13] Nations or two reserves for sure and
then I I wasn't quite sure where we
[1:55:16] landed with the stanus and the lady
Smith where they just got the the land
[1:55:20] transfer for the harbor so anyways my
question is
[1:55:25] um what is your understanding of those
two Parcels of land or three I for
[1:55:33] whatever it is that cut through the the
Indian reserves um and and then how can
[1:55:38] we you know how can we possibly move
forward lindsy do you want to take this
[1:55:48] one thank you for the question um so
coin tribes is has bisected Reserve
[1:55:55] lands in two areas and cin your right
has been clear that they would like
[1:56:00] those Reserve lands returned and that
they do not want to have a
[1:56:03] transportation use in the future in that
area we looked at whether or not there
[1:56:09] could be rerouting can you go below over
around I mean we Transportation routes
[1:56:18] can be rerouted again it comes back to
cost
[1:56:23] um Halal is the other nation that has
bisected Reserve lands and would like
[1:56:30] the land
returned they were not
[1:56:34] as decided when it comes to the
potential future use they were
[1:56:38] interested in options and in the same
way that a rail would impact their
[1:56:44] Reserve by going through it for safety
and other reasons they have the highway
[1:56:49] passing through it and causing other
issues of its own as a result of the
[1:56:53] truck traffic so they're interested in
understanding potential Transportation
[1:56:59] options um in terms of CCH and
tribes we only know what they've shared
[1:57:04] with us and and I can't really comment
on whether or not they might change
[1:57:09] their position at some point in the
future but that's what we understand
[1:57:17] today hook me up thanks chair um
you
[1:57:24] know yeah this is this is It's a
challenging situation um
[1:57:31] until in my so first I just want to say
and this is with all due respect to to
[1:57:35] director Nicholson um but they you me
waiting 40 years for rail I I mean these
[1:57:41] folks on the in new Reserve been waiting
you know Generations right and I mean
[1:57:49] until I hear that they're open into
communication or that we have a tangible
[1:57:55] way to re-root this rail I mean or or
there's some way that is going to
[1:58:02] accommodate this I have a I have a I'm
very uncomfortable moving forward with
[1:58:05] these sorts of conversations I think it
undermines their
[1:58:10] treaties doesn't undermine I I think
it's disrespectful and I think that
[1:58:15] those that needs to be resolved first
and foremost before we have a
[1:58:18] conversation
about Crossings
[1:58:22] Trail whatever it might be so anyways
that's a comment not a
[1:58:27] question director mcki thank
you uh so I I think I'm most closely
[1:58:34] sort of jumping off the point that uh
director Nicholson was making
[1:58:40] um and
without coming right out and saying I
[1:58:45] don't necessarily support rail I'm going
to ask a
[1:58:49] question um cuz I don't know if I
supported or not but in the meantime as
[1:58:53] we're waiting to sort out funding as
we're waiting to sort out the Reserve
[1:58:58] Land
question as we're waiting to find out if
[1:59:02] north and south of Us wish to C on board
and make it Contin contiguous as we've
[1:59:08] already learned it's not any use to us
if it's not contiguous through as far as
[1:59:13] it can go and make it useful it's lots
of it it's about Victoria as we're
[1:59:19] waiting for all of that maybe 50 years
there must be chunks of rail in
[1:59:25] existence with sufficient
distance that don't involve any critical
[1:59:32] infrastructure that don't involve any
expensive repair that we could
[1:59:37] certainly investigate throwing down some
good gravel and creating a cap on it for
[1:59:44] it to be used as active transportation
in the meantime I'm not talking about a
[1:59:51] 30 m chunk of it I'm talking about
substantial lengths of trail that could
[1:59:56] be used over the next 50 years we don't
even have to pull them up we could just
[2:00:02] cap it and use it in the meantime as the
rest of this stuff is being sorted
[2:00:07] out I feel like we are doing ourselves a
disservice and I don't buy the fact that
[2:00:12] we can't use it for trail as we
wait can we make better use of this
[2:00:20] active trans active trans
transportation is a critical part of the
[2:00:26] what the work we're trying to do in our
communities let's address that in the
[2:00:31] next 50 years as we're waiting for
rail thank
[2:00:35] you I'm going to turn to our CEO
[2:00:48] We There You Go takes a second thank you
um I just wanted to uh go back to the
[2:00:53] the previous comments about the um uh
land reversion process and just remind
[2:01:02] the um the committee that uh this board
has uh
[2:01:07] supported um in a resolution uh to
support the land reversion process as
[2:01:12] did the ICF board um and so we also
received Direction recently from from
[2:01:18] this board to write a letter to the
provincial government which we're
[2:01:21] working on at the moment to um continue
to support the ICF to facilitate the
[2:01:26] knitting together of the shared
visioning work because arguably we've
[2:01:30] just looked at the boundaries of of this
Regional District and and been
[2:01:33] communicating with the Nations within
this Regional District but the corridor
[2:01:37] is a contiguous piece of land that um
needs coordination amongst Regional
[2:01:42] districts on the island and that uh that
letter that advocacy letter is going to
[2:01:46] request resources to support that
continued work uh we just have a role to
[2:01:51] play in it but it needs to be
facilitated so I just wanted to remind
[2:01:54] that that there's a lot more
conversation to come and there's a lot
[2:01:57] more work as well and it and it and it
won't be uh a quick project it will go
[2:02:02] on for a very long time
[2:02:05] yeah director
[2:02:09] Calo don't touch
[2:02:15] it a thank
[2:02:19] you um I'm just going to say it's a
great report and when I was reading this
[2:02:23] at home on my computer uh I I actually
quite enjoyed it and you know traveling
[2:02:28] in Europe and even some parts of the
United States using the rail systems
[2:02:32] down there I mean we could take a uh a a
good page out of their book I mean
[2:02:38] traveling around Europe is just so easy
to uh in England even in England um they
[2:02:44] uh have a great rail system there and it
just it just takes so many people off of
[2:02:50] the road there's just so many people
over there so many off the road and you
[2:02:53] know we we're not the point where we're
very heavily populated on the island
[2:02:59] right now it's mostly empty territory
but um for
[2:03:04] me I I'm in agreement with um director
mclinton is that um this seems like a
[2:03:12] non-starter because we we need to figure
out what we're going to do with the
[2:03:17] First Nations that um have cut this uh
rail line into
[2:03:22] chunks and you know I and I agree with
director mclinton also in that you know
[2:03:29] we have to have respect for the First
Nations and the fact that uh this land
[2:03:34] was taken from them but so for me I
think what we need to do is figure out
[2:03:41] how what's what's the next step
forward to uh you know make this a
[2:03:48] continuous line otherwise I just don't
see you know how it can possibly afford
[2:03:54] as a as a trail line that makes sense to
me uh you know I I'm in complete support
[2:04:01] of having the island Corridor go forward
but looking at the intersections that
[2:04:06] have been created in the line it seems
that um that's something that needs to
[2:04:12] be solved as soon as possible and my
question is what is the potential to
[2:04:17] negotiate with the tribes and Nations
involved to maybe get an agreement with
[2:04:24] them to actually uh put this line
together turn this off
[2:04:34] now follow followup somebody say
followup okay uh director
[2:04:41] Morrison uh thank you chair uh I I'm
wanted to sort of paint a little bit of
[2:04:48] context here in that um this report is
what's been uh prepared and presented on
[2:04:57] the basis of what the province came to
us and
[2:05:00] said uh take this money and go out and
uh create the that shared vision and our
[2:05:08] our staff and our Consultants have have
done that and I think it's a a pretty
[2:05:12] exhaustive report for for directors that
that have the concern about the uh first
[2:05:20] nation's land I share that concern and
and if you're not aware all across this
[2:05:26] country our federal government has had
policy in the past of dividing reserves
[2:05:32] whether it be with Trail or with uh Rail
lines or roads it's uh there's actually
[2:05:39] a really good book written on it um so
we are dealing with issues that were you
[2:05:46] know
created decades ago uh this report
[2:05:50] though and and our CAO has has
reiterated the fact that not only does
[2:05:55] this board support reversion which is
landback the island Corridor Foundation
[2:06:01] supports that as well so this is a a
document that is saying okay for our
[2:06:07] region we're at at at this point um this
is what we've got and we're waiting for
[2:06:14] the other organizations that have been
funded as well to come up with that
[2:06:19] vision for their region and I have to
say that the nations are engaged in this
[2:06:25] to the extent they can and the capacity
they have to participate and do it
[2:06:29] because they were also funded and asked
the same question as well I think the
[2:06:34] the big point the big takeaway from this
and it hasn't been mentioned a lot we
[2:06:38] talk about going back to the province
for their Direction and funding but at
[2:06:43] the end of the day it's going to be the
federal government that is going to be
[2:06:47] the big decision maker in this uh what
they will be doing with uh First Nations
[2:06:52] and their Reserve lands and what they
will be doing around funding major
[2:06:57] transportation projects like this may be
similar to the one that they spoke about
[2:07:02] in Quebec City to Toronto so it's that's
where the main emphasis should lie is
[2:07:09] what will the federal government ultim
ultimately be doing and right now
[2:07:13] they're not even at the table so I think
I I was going to move the recommended
[2:07:19] resolution because I think that sort of
puts a bow on the work that we've been
[2:07:24] asked to do and I think it's been
completed in a in a very satisfactory
[2:07:29] way so I would move that recommendation
so it's moved is there a second or
[2:07:33] seconded and just to be clear to the
committee so the the wording is that we
[2:07:38] accept the report so by accepting the
report doesn't mean you necessarily
[2:07:42] agree with all the findings but it's um
we need this motion passed um as part of
[2:07:47] the uh the process in terms of this
Grant from the government we have a
[2:07:52] March 31st deadline that we're working
towards okay so it's move second it's on
[2:07:56] the floor next I've got um director aach
and then I'd like to jump in
[2:08:03] myself thank you chair um just really
quick because the uh person who's a
[2:08:09] little bit obsessed with bikes um I
first want to acknowledge I definitely
[2:08:14] appreciate director mcclinton's point
and that's why I
[2:08:17] think uh with the important thoughts he
was sharing why it's really important to
[2:08:23] reflect on director makai's points of we
have important things we have to wait on
[2:08:28] and work on but every we just keep
kicking the ball down the field without
[2:08:34] meaningfully trying to score a goal on
the lwh hanging fruit that is keep going
[2:08:39] hard on shortterm usage of the rail but
primarily keep on the great work we're
[2:08:44] doing with rail the trail and I in the
report I didn't like that it's it
[2:08:48] competes the two against each other like
we can do both where it's necessary um I
[2:08:55] think of my route when I do all my cbrd
commutes by bike how transformative
[2:09:00] would be when I get to bonsel Creek to
be able to hop on the enn it would bring
[2:09:05] me directly to this building yet I have
to do a maze of tricky Maneuvers and uh
[2:09:11] there's little old uh Trans Canada
Highway Crossings I have to do it would
[2:09:16] be pretty amazing and then the reason I
reflect on that is um while we don't
[2:09:21] have the population density where we
have it we should be focusing on the
[2:09:25] rails uh with trails and Paving them and
doing them properly cuz I usually
[2:09:31] typically I ride three to four times in
the Victoria area specifically because
[2:09:35] of their rail system um just as an
example one converted Railway Trestle
[2:09:40] yesterday had nearly 3,000 people cross
it in one day on their system and being
[2:09:46] that when you build that system uh in of
course dense
[2:09:52] population uh but Victoria in 20
2022 their stats were that 43% of the
[2:09:59] population daily chooses not to drive
it's all active
[2:10:03] Transportation but back to my point of
rail not making it against each other I
[2:10:08] mean goodness I it's a chore uh in the
summer months one to two times three
[2:10:13] times a month I ride all the way from
shanus to Victoria on my bike man it
[2:10:17] would be amazing when I'm exhausted
there to put my bike on a train and come
[2:10:21] back back on it um so train is Transit
all in as much as we can do as uh
[2:10:27] director kellyo said um you know trains
are amazing as such that Transit but
[2:10:31] then also what uh director uh micle said
is interesting like what is the level of
[2:10:38] subsidy that we're putting into it as a
per user on a tax rate and how what is
[2:10:45] the ROI on that subsidy if that's
invested
[2:10:49] into uh adding four more buses a day on
the Victoria Express on uh you know at
[2:10:57] building the rail the rail the trails
where uh the lwh hanging fruit
[2:11:01] possibilities are that director McKay
said so lots of good discussion there I
[2:11:05] just wanted to share just a quick little
bit of input as someone who rides a bike
[2:11:09] every day when I can and I I don't do it
right now this time of year weather
[2:11:14] isn't an issue but there's no shoulders
no safe ways from shanus to here in the
[2:11:18] winter in the dark where there's no
shoulder
[2:11:22] and if we had a safe route I think even
more people would be doing it um we're
[2:11:27] going to see later in the issues there
showing where the success of rails and
[2:11:32] trails is is in lady Smith the shanus
it's transformed the relationship
[2:11:37] between those communities and been a uh
really good part to seeing you know
[2:11:44] we've got a really good successful
business in Sal that benefits from that
[2:11:47] as well so it connects those communities
and you'll see in the upcoming report if
[2:11:52] you break down the rails the trail stats
on the counter on the rail the trail
[2:11:56] there that's 1466 people a day in shanus
to the shanus to Lady Smith route
[2:12:03] 1466 you know grain of salt that might
be out and backs so even at that you're
[2:12:08] seeing 700 plus users per day using the
rail the trail there so it's just saying
[2:12:14] just I don't like the idea of their
competing uses but really wanted to be
[2:12:17] open to like what can we do right now
and of course that was reflected in both
[2:12:22] north couch and master Transportation
plan and also reflected in the uh cvr's
[2:12:28] recent active Transportation survey and
Report uh plan that was
[2:12:32] finalized thanks for the time to share
those
[2:12:35] thoughts all right I've got a uh
question some comments and I'm going to
[2:12:39] turn to director McClinton and perhaps
we can then then call the question uh Ju
[2:12:43] Just want to build on the the comments
from director McKai about some of the
[2:12:48] the lower cost options in terms of
laying gravel beside the existing rail
[2:12:53] tracks for walking and cycling paths and
wondering if the uh presenters and
[2:12:57] perhaps even uh the CEO of the island
corter Foundation might be able to speak
[2:13:01] to any recent examples of that that
um that you could elaborate on in terms
[2:13:07] of uh again lower cost options to
further active transportation
[2:13:22] Mr B's coming up then perhaps s you
could speak to this after as
[2:13:31] well thank you board and chair uh it's
great to be here again and eching uh uh
[2:13:37] hats off to the consultant and staff
team really incredible work that just
[2:13:41] shows the complexity uh that we're
dealing with and uh we need to continue
[2:13:46] stepping forward work walking hand inand
with the Nations uh to find uh really
[2:13:52] strong uh solutions that we all benefit
from and uh feel uh that uh we can uh
[2:13:58] put our heart and soul into with respect
to short-term uh items uh couldn't agree
[2:14:04] more and we're having some real great
progress in other areas uh on this uh
[2:14:08] where it makes sense Qualicum Beach in
particular has been a leader where uh
[2:14:13] through some ditching work and uh uh
gradeall work that we had to do anyways
[2:14:18] this year uh qualum
uh Town put in another $10,000 and we
[2:14:23] were able to do almost a kilometer of uh
I wouldn't quite call it a AAA multiuse
[2:14:29] facility but it's definitely uh you're
not stuck in the brambles anymore and if
[2:14:34] you have a half decent mountain bike um
not everyone does but uh something with
[2:14:40] some pretty good tires you can now
Traverse uh on the corridor instead of
[2:14:45] going on Fern Road and that's tremendous
we're also uh going to be launching
[2:14:50] something on Earth Day in Nimo uh where
there's a real pinch point to get to a
[2:14:55] school in Chinatown in the South End
there and the City of Nimo is going to
[2:15:01] be contributing uh to get a rough path
to connect that school uh which is
[2:15:06] already traversed very heavily Every
Morning by kids and we're trying to push
[2:15:11] that back uh in a in a more uh Safe Way
and yeah low hanging fruit it's not uh
[2:15:17] as good as the iann trail in Victoria we
would love to see that everywhere but
[2:15:23] that's going to be big dollars and um
whether or not that can happen in uh the
[2:15:28] medium term or not has so many factors
at play with the nations with the other
[2:15:33] memberships and maybe maybe not but I'd
say for short-term items uh let's put
[2:15:38] some love into the
corridor great thanks Mr bevon and I'll
[2:15:42] turn SLE anything to add to
[2:15:46] that or Johan yes thank you very much um
yeah I I would like to add to that um I
[2:15:53] think well well first of all the the the
the work that has been done uh certainly
[2:15:59] did not go to that granular level of
detail in terms of what are the
[2:16:03] different levels of trail that one could
establish uh but I do think there is
[2:16:09] Merit in saying that work should be done
and could be done to say figure out okay
[2:16:16] because what we hear what we are hearing
loud and clear is uh what are our
[2:16:21] options looking at establishing in the
short term um uh perhaps not the whole
[2:16:28] Corridor but portions of the corridor
and converting that to a trail so maybe
[2:16:33] it's not as um Mr Bon um suggested it's
not the the AAA version but it is a
[2:16:40] version that really turns the corridor
around into some use so yeah I I I I
[2:16:46] would I would suggest I would strongly
suggest some work could certainly be
[2:16:50] done in in that area so I don't know if
you would like to add to that thank you
[2:16:55] very much Yan you covered it quite well
uh well just uh putting my transporation
[2:17:00] engineering hat here and speedballing
you know we had different topography and
[2:17:06] different grades and different you know
kind of areas across 71 kilm in cvd or
[2:17:11] the whole Corridor roughly 240 kilm so
we have to do a zoning there's a need
[2:17:17] for a conceptual design and really comes
to the cost and different options uh
[2:17:23] different scenarios can be designed you
know uh the wids or typical section of
[2:17:27] the gravel path what areas uh have
safety concerns because we're talking
[2:17:33] about a rail Corridor and when we have a
rail Corridor uh or sharing an area on
[2:17:39] the rail Corridor there's a lot of
safety
[2:17:41] concerns and of course covering or just
building a path right beside the
[2:17:46] corridor so there's a lot of feasibility
in conceptual uh study required to uh
[2:17:52] come up with the uh first priorities in
terms of safety topography wids and also
[2:17:58] the grades that we can put there so that
people can use like ebikes or just can
[2:18:02] walk there and do hiking there so I
would say uh and a study is required to
[2:18:09] identify the fairest you know areas that
could be easily uh and quickly expanded
[2:18:15] and what's going to be the challenging
Crossing areas rails and rivers and Road
[2:18:19] crossings that need
uh safety improvements handrails and uh
[2:18:24] uh reach uh Rehabilitation maintenance
and uh then then kind of next phases can
[2:18:29] be developed I hope that answers the
question thank you thank you all I just
[2:18:34] have a couple comments and I'm going to
turn over to director mclinton and
[2:18:37] hoping we can perhaps call the question
after that so in my view this report has
[2:18:42] been uh very thorough and reflects the
uh the complexity and the history of the
[2:18:46] corridor as you know a significant
portion of the C's population lies near
[2:18:50] the Corridor and as the aanch has shown
we can expect a lot more growth in areas
[2:18:55] within a short distance of the corridor
between now and
[2:18:58] 2041 this spine is absolutely critical
to the city's future and should be
[2:19:02] reflective uh as such in future growth
planning the public clearly wants to see
[2:19:08] Transportation options provided on the
corridor whether for rail trail or a
[2:19:12] combination of the two the city has been
Auto has been an autod dependent area
[2:19:17] for more than 50 years and with all the
growth happening this has to shift
[2:19:21] the answer is not one more Lane the city
needs to listen to the public and
[2:19:25] provide leadership so the corridor can
serve as a transportation asset now and
[2:19:29] into the future in my view the city also
needs to continue to work creatively and
[2:19:34] collaboratively so that the corter can
benefit the First Nations and public
[2:19:39] together we know that couch and tribes
are becoming leaders in development with
[2:19:43] impressive projects like the 200 unit
Rivers Edge rental apartments by The
[2:19:47] Quon Development Corporation this could
be a model for how we want to densify
[2:19:52] service lands beside the corridor and
protect and conserve lands away from
[2:19:58] it so now turn it to director mclinton
perhaps to close
[2:20:03] yes one more Lane wouldn't be so bad
thank you
[2:20:08] chair uh no I I just want I just want to
go on record I and I I didn't say this
[2:20:13] at the beginning I do want to thank Miss
Miles Wilson for and the other caos that
[2:20:18] and the the the Chiefs and all the
representatives that were really in my
[2:20:21] opinion put in an untenable situation I
I like the province was hopefully they
[2:20:28] all agree that's sort of what it seemed
like to me um but it is great to see
[2:20:31] this report and I just want to go on
record I'm very happy to receive this
[2:20:34] report I think it's terrific information
it's super important to know where we're
[2:20:38] at and the challenges we have to move
forward um it's just clear in my mind
[2:20:42] it's clear to me the first things first
is is reroute compensate or you know uh
[2:20:48] figuring another solution to to deal
with the intersection so um with that I
[2:20:53] I'm happy to well it's already been
moved so we'll call the question all
[2:20:58] right we'll call the question then all
in favor of exec the report and opposed
[2:21:03] none opposed motion carries we can now
move on to R3 report from the parks and
[2:21:09] trails division regarding the
2024 year end park ranger
[2:21:17] report are we getting an overview from
staff or we going straight
[2:21:21] inform Just for information all right
any questions from the committee no all
[2:21:27] right yeah director
Nicholson thank you I um I read this
[2:21:33] report with great interest and it would
be very helpful next time if you could
[2:21:37] please put information about specific
parks in
[2:21:42] there all right seeing nodding from
staff can I move on to item R4 report
[2:21:48] from the parks oh
sorry director Morrison over to you uh
[2:21:55] thank you chair and I was hoping we
might actually have staff up here for
[2:22:00] some questions around this because uh uh
I'm really curious about the um
[2:22:07] interactions and and conflicts that I've
heard of recently developed uh you know
[2:22:13] when we first started the the um various
trails and and and improved them uh uh
[2:22:20] it was mainly uh Recreation we had
people using it for equestrian purposes
[2:22:28] uh and then we had the Advent of uh of
electrified scooters and the like and
[2:22:33] and and one of the issues was motorized
vehicles on the on the trail um uh I'm
[2:22:40] now getting reports on a regular basis
of uh the equestrian users which have
[2:22:47] every right to be using it are having
Pleasant interactions with the
[2:22:53] ATVs and difficulties with the ebikes
and the ebikes can go pretty fast on
[2:22:58] there and uh horses are big animals so
if if we've been noticing an uptick in
[2:23:04] the uh uh conflicts between the
different user groups because I what I'm
[2:23:08] hearing is is that what everyone was
afraid of with the
[2:23:12] ATVs hasn't materialized but the new
conflicts with other user groups has so
[2:23:19] have you got any comment on that
[2:23:23] through the chair thank you for the
question um yeah when I started um
[2:23:29] ironically it was the motorized vehicles
that were the problem which kind of
[2:23:33] initiated the share the trail um
Campaign which has now been kind of
[2:23:38] going for two and a half almost 3 years
into various stages um and then I was
[2:23:44] just talking about this today
anecdotally what I've noticed is the
[2:23:47] motorized vehicle issue has gone down um
I was inundated with those calls when I
[2:23:53] first started and that is no longer the
case I think it's a combination of you
[2:23:58] know the ATVs being a little bit wiser
to it um maybe they're conducting
[2:24:04] their their their activity after hours
When there's less people on the trail or
[2:24:09] they've just realized the game is up and
they've moved on or other Park users
[2:24:13] have read our signs and they've kind of
felt empowered to be able to go out and
[2:24:16] tell people themselves because they can
see the rules stated pretty clearly um
[2:24:21] so then in a vacuum then comes the
ebikes um that is something that comes
[2:24:27] across my desk for sure uh people
complaining about um the speed with
[2:24:31] which cyclists are going on the trail
and that's also just cyclists that's not
[2:24:36] just ebikes so um that's you know the
Sunday Riders who are really going I get
[2:24:41] a lot of calls about that up in salar
and Chima so um it's not necessarily
[2:24:46] just an ebike problem I think what's
happened is the motorized vehicle issue
[2:24:49] has subsided slightly um and then the
proliferation of ebikes has come in to
[2:24:54] kind of fill a little bit of a
vacuum thank you for that and just a a
[2:25:00] followup um I I the this was initiated
by some folks that were uh that have
[2:25:07] been regular equestrian users and and
like to get out on their horses and ride
[2:25:11] on the weekend but uh they now feel that
um that our our trail system isn't
[2:25:18] appropriate for their use because of of
the potential danger of uh of their
[2:25:24] animals being surprised and and so uh
are are we doing anything to ensure that
[2:25:30] uh that those users that are entitled to
the use of our trails are uh are feeling
[2:25:36] welcome and and able to enjoy the
benefits of
[2:25:40] them yeah through the chair thanks for
the follow-up question uh we are um yeah
[2:25:45] I um one of the things that I've been
focusing on particularly in the spring
[2:25:48] and summer um is what I call checkpoints
so I'm actually stopping at various
[2:25:53] locations um around the CVT um and
checking in with people both their
[2:25:58] experiences their the pros and cons of
their of their use um so we do kind of
[2:26:05] do reach out um campaigns with Trail
users just to kind of engage with them
[2:26:10] as well as to kind of stop people who
are in the middle of conducting
[2:26:13] themselves contrary to the park bylaw
it's important to note though that with
[2:26:17] ebikes um there's a limit to which um to
how fast that they can go um and that
[2:26:23] limit is is recognized and categorized
by uh ICBC and you know the the powers
[2:26:29] that be that conduct our our road um
rules and the ebikes that are allowed on
[2:26:35] our Trails cannot go P cannot go faster
than 32 it's just slightly over 32 km an
[2:26:42] hour so a lot of the complaints that we
get are to be honest um people's
[2:26:48] experience you know having a negative
experience the ebike is going past them
[2:26:53] at a clip that's a lot faster than the
horse that they're on but when you
[2:26:57] actually lean into um the situation um
the ebike isn't going any faster than
[2:27:03] what's
allowable and we are um you know
[2:27:08] conscious that you know when you're
sitting still or just walking along some
[2:27:12] people are pushing strollers some people
are walking with their kids um any
[2:27:16] cyclist going past at the max speed is
going to be
[2:27:22] startling follow up director Morrison
all right any further questions for
[2:27:27] staff director
Nicholson
[2:27:32] can can you press it one more
time I was so well trained
[2:27:39] before
um shus River Park I was wondering um
[2:27:45] how often you get out there and what the
issues are these days
[2:27:50] well I thank you for the question
through the chair um I do get out there
[2:27:55] it's pretty quiet these days it used to
be a lot worse um from everything that
[2:27:59] I've read um there's no longer The
Bullet Hole damage and the gates being
[2:28:04] ripped and um that sort of thing but we
do have people camping um as we have all
[2:28:09] over the region um I was there this past
Sunday and someone was operating a um a
[2:28:16] sauna like a that they pull behind their
truck um and you know you know so
[2:28:21] there's little things like that um but
anecdotally from my perspective I have
[2:28:27] yet to
encounter um problems of the severe
[2:28:31] nature that were happening there before
um but all that said I still hear
[2:28:35] stories of you know summertime parties
and um campouts and all that sort of
[2:28:40] stuff but in terms of Park damage um
damage to trees uh tree theft um like I
[2:28:46] said um unauthorized hunting and fishing
um
[2:28:50] I'm not seeing that as much as we we
were before I started
[2:28:56] yeah any further questions all right
thank Youk you so this was just for
[2:29:01] information we can now move on to the
next report from the parks and trails
[2:29:05] division this is with regards to the
2024 city parks and trails visitation
[2:29:10] program summary any questions for
[2:29:15] staff director
estash thank you chair just a quick
[2:29:20] question on as I spoke really quick on
the shanus to Lady Smith Sal rail the
[2:29:25] trail I just curious um was the trail
counter relocated and I'm just C I don't
[2:29:31] know if we publicly it's a policy to
share where they are I'm just curious uh
[2:29:36] if it was a change because now there's
multiple access points now or was it
[2:29:41] because of the change of the new parking
lot which is of course getting
[2:29:44] tremendous usage and at that
63,000 uh uh for last year being down
[2:29:51] I'm just curious if that is isn't
indicative as we heard there are some
[2:29:55] concerns of uh usage uh they aren't
really conflicts their education misses
[2:30:01] some people have never seen horses some
seniors have never ridden bikes but my
[2:30:06] question is on that
1,466 on average people per day where is
[2:30:11] that count being
initiated who wants to take this one
[2:30:20] thank you for the question through the
chair um the location of that counter
[2:30:24] has stayed the same and uh where we've
located it is in our Central um location
[2:30:30] on I believe is Davis Road or not Davis
Road sorry uh Douglas um so right where
[2:30:35] there's a kiosk and a bathroom a
portable yeah so it's there cuz it's in
[2:30:40] right in the middle and it hasn't
changed locations okay uh as a followup
[2:30:44] chair um is there any thought on
temporarily possibly this summer at peak
[2:30:49] times uh getting a count or on the south
side of the road at the new parking lot
[2:30:57] at North Watts there just to see to get
an idea of usage uh initiating out of
[2:31:02] the investment that cvd made into that
parking
[2:31:06] lot yeah yeah yeah we've talked about um
the idea of around new builds and you
[2:31:13] know um if it's a newly created Corridor
or kind of a new um attraction so to
[2:31:20] speak is putting in trail counters for
temporary periods as you said
[2:31:23] particularly during the peak times just
to get a snapshot and then we can report
[2:31:27] out from there um North wat is under
consideration shaigan rail trail um and
[2:31:33] the like so yes great yeah thank you to
all the staff as well that's my go-to I
[2:31:38] either run it or ride it every single
day and the quality of work and cleaning
[2:31:44] up after storms and everything there I
know I'm going on but it's an
[2:31:47] opportunity to thank staff so definitely
staff have done a great job there and uh
[2:31:51] look forward to the continued success of
IT director Wilson don't touch it yeah
[2:31:59] thank you chair um a technical question
more than anything uh with the um the
[2:32:04] counters um how how do you compensate
for somebody going in and then somebody
[2:32:11] coming out again does that count as two
or is there any compensation on that
[2:32:15] kind of thing
[2:32:20] through the chair uh thank you yes we
kind of look at every single counter and
[2:32:24] kind of uh deliberate how it's being
used through that so if it's like into a
[2:32:30] park you can assume that they're going
in and out so we'll divide that by two
[2:32:33] okay so we do do some division of those
numbers depending on like how we think
[2:32:38] that might operate that's what I um some
of the ones along the trail we might
[2:32:41] assume that some are doing a through and
some might be doing it back so we might
[2:32:45] uh divide by like 1.5 for instance okay
so we do try to count that as we to find
[2:32:50] those numbers thank you very much that's
me director
[2:32:54] Morrison thank you chair um I I think I
might have asked this question last year
[2:33:00] and uh got some interesting uh answers
and and it's more in regards to asset
[2:33:05] management of of the counters um I
noticed in uh some figures that uh there
[2:33:11] may have been uh in my area a counter
that had either malfunctioned or had
[2:33:18] been damaged and that we've had some of
these counters for quite a quite a
[2:33:22] length of time now and are are we so my
question is really about are are we
[2:33:28] having counters aging out are we having
any uh recurring software hardware
[2:33:34] issues uh what's the state of the
inventory of of the equipment and uh and
[2:33:40] are we going to be looking at I think we
could probably do uh as was indicated
[2:33:45] earlier some some spot and point and
time counts but I think there's other
[2:33:50] parks that may deserve to be monitored
as well so how are we doing as far as
[2:33:54] our inventory and replacement of old
equipment and the likes and and are
[2:33:58] there any specific issues around uh uh
damage or or vandalism that uh that we
[2:34:04] should know
about through the chair yes this is a
[2:34:09] question we kind of deliberate every
single year um this year in particular
[2:34:13] we found uh a few have been aging out so
we're kind of reviewing uh purchasing of
[2:34:20] some new ones to replace those in the
inter term we've had some that we can
[2:34:23] put in the inter term that should
suffice for uh at least a few years we
[2:34:29] hope um but this is kind of like a an
ongoing issue that we address on an
[2:34:34] ongoing basis um we do have incidences
particularly at particular locations of
[2:34:39] vandalism which kind of deterior our
numbers being useful in some instances
[2:34:44] um so those are some locations we also
deliberate of relocation or different
[2:34:50] positioning of those just to help with
those issues as well but uh yeah we're
[2:34:54] currently we're kind of reviewing um
some purchasing of some new counters to
[2:34:58] compensate some of those aging
ones yeah just as a real quick followup
[2:35:04] I I I think it'd be interested if uh if
staff could come forward I don't know if
[2:35:08] it would be a what are we calling them
they're not supplemental items anymore
[2:35:12] but they're uh uh additions to service
service enhancements service
[2:35:16] enhancements uh because uh you know
investing
[2:35:20] in our Parks is is uh really important
and and it's it helps me as a director
[2:35:25] to know that uh if I'm getting increased
usage or heavy usage in in one area or
[2:35:30] another to have that data is really
helpful uh on on where we direct our
[2:35:35] assets so if if there was uh you know
the ability to acquire more equipment
[2:35:39] monitor more parks and more areas that
would be uh something I'd be interested
[2:35:43] and I don't know if my colleagues would
be but uh it would be for my area at
[2:35:47] least thank you
great thank you we'll now move on to the
[2:35:52] next report here also from the parks and
trails division so this is with regards
[2:35:56] to the 2024 Park reservations special
events and parks and trails volunteer
[2:36:01] program summary any questions for
[2:36:06] staff all right so this
one soorry I I keep looking at looking
[2:36:12] at all your faces I got to look at the
screen so I'll get the hang of it
[2:36:15] director Wilson then director
Morrison yeah thank you chair um I've
[2:36:19] got a question here I'm a great believer
in volunteers um because I I think we
[2:36:25] really do
underutilize the resources and the
[2:36:29] expertise that there is out there and
the willingness of groups to uh help us
[2:36:35] out uh they do a very good job if
they're allowed to do and half half the
[2:36:39] problem is and I've I've got an email
here from a local Ramblers Association
[2:36:45] which is voicing their serious
disappointment and concern um that
[2:36:50] Parks has opted to a they're using the
word ignore our offer of doing the
[2:36:54] preliminary work of plotting out the
hill as it currently stands these are
[2:36:59] very experienced hikers they use the
trails all the time they've offered to
[2:37:03] map the trails and everything else and
yet they're not being used they're going
[2:37:06] to be using I understand um Consultants
to do it why are we not taking more
[2:37:14] advantage of the of the volunteers that
we've got in instances like this to keep
[2:37:18] our cost down
and to engage the community when they
[2:37:22] want to be engaged thank
you um through the chair to director
[2:37:29] here um I I believe it probably has to
do with the type of work um through the
[2:37:33] volunteer policy that we have in place
um there's only certain types of work
[2:37:38] that can be um done that wouldn't
interfere with sort of unionize staff
[2:37:44] and those type of things um and it could
be a capacity issue as well I think it
[2:37:50] just depends do anyone else want to jump
into that or does that um answer the
[2:37:55] question do answer your question
director Wilson not really
[2:38:05] um no it doesn't really um because I've
heard this before where it's a question
[2:38:10] of liability it's a question of training
and it's a question of this it's always
[2:38:14] and and you know I'm going to be as
direct as I can here more often than not
[2:38:18] at this table I hear what we can't do
whereas what we can do what we can
[2:38:24] achieve with the kind of resources we've
got available to people who want to help
[2:38:28] as far as liability is concerned I
checked this with the m uh with the
[2:38:33] municipal in Insurance Bureau and they
said as long as they have been given
[2:38:37] some kind of training they are covered
under our insurance so the liability
[2:38:42] question really is a non-starter so let
me ask the question again why are we not
[2:38:47] taking more advantage of willing groups
who have the resources and the expertise
[2:38:51] to carry out this kind of work without
paying other
[2:38:55] people through the chair a very good
question and at the end of the day it
[2:38:59] really comes down to a few things was
mentioned by uh Elizabeth uh around
[2:39:04] capacity around our ability to respond
to group's interests how it aligns with
[2:39:08] the work program and plans that are
established by the board every year with
[2:39:12] budget approvals so we know there's lots
of groups out there with lots of great
[2:39:16] ideas at the end of the day it really
comes back to this table in terms of
[2:39:20] where you see overall uh the parks and
trails program both in electoral areas
[2:39:25] and Regional Parks establishing
priorities uh we have a lot of Outreach
[2:39:29] uh with volunteers as you see in the
report before you uh quite a lot of
[2:39:32] projects were done both through the
volunteer program last year but also a
[2:39:36] significant amount of staff time through
the program is also supporting groups
[2:39:40] and organizations that are holding
events in your Parks across the region
[2:39:45] uh so as it comes down to capacity so
certainly we'd be happy to into this
[2:39:49] more with the committee if there's a
desire to see what more can be done how
[2:39:54] we can reach out and engage more with
our community volunteer interests but at
[2:39:58] the end of the day it comes back to how
we as an organization can support them
[2:40:02] to be able to do things in your Parks
yeah thank you Brian and and I I'll
[2:40:06] follow up with a comment here uh as far
as capacity is
[2:40:10] concerned um it seems to me there's an
awful lot of rigidity there's no
[2:40:15] flexibility here at all and that's
something I'd like to see thank you than
[2:40:20] you director Morrison uh thank you chair
uh through the staff uh and I'm I may
[2:40:27] need some help in in Remembering if I
got the details here exactly right but
[2:40:31] it it seemed that uh a couple of years
ago we had uh found that some other
[2:40:36] jurisdictions were uh changing their
policy as to uh what was allowed to
[2:40:41] happen in parks and uh and and I I think
it was somewhere Greater Vancouver where
[2:40:48] they were allowing people to bring a
bottle of wine into the park and and
[2:40:52] have a bottle of wine on the beach and
and we really hadn't developed a a
[2:40:57] policy as to what actual activities
would be uh allowed in our parks and so
[2:41:04] uh it seemed to me a couple of years ago
we were talking about developing a
[2:41:09] special events and and and uh use policy
as to what would be allowed and what
[2:41:15] wouldn't as in like if people wanted to
have their wedding reception and a park
[2:41:19] and would would alcohol be allowed to be
in there would there be able to be food
[2:41:24] preparation and the likes have we
engaged in in that study or review
[2:41:30] yet through the chair director Morrison
you have a wonderful crystal ball
[2:41:34] because staff are currently working on
that and we're looking forward to
[2:41:37] bringing it Forward at a near future
[2:41:41] meeting director
Nicholson thank you director martman has
[2:41:46] helped me by covering my button
[2:41:51] um I'd like to just bring us back to
[2:41:59] this
okay um Asset Management I I have um I
[2:42:06] don't think we have a an invent a map
maps or inventory of our ecosystems that
[2:42:13] we have in our Parks do
we chair through to direct
[2:42:19] for all parks no other than what exists
at certain mapping levels across the
[2:42:23] region and or what's been been done
specifically when we're doing a park
[2:42:27] management plan right so to follow up
with
[2:42:32] um director Wilson's comment about
volunteers and and I think there's a
[2:42:36] real opportunity to maybe engage the
schools viu um on on programs to have
[2:42:43] our an inventory done by students um
because I think that's the first step of
[2:42:49] you you really need to know what you've
got in your parks and um if you're going
[2:42:54] to especially if you're going to do a
management plan it's nice to know what
[2:42:58] you have and potentially the condition
of it and so I think that's a real
[2:43:02] opportunity that we should um look into
thank
[2:43:06] you director
estash thank you chair uh super quick
[2:43:11] before my question just a thanks and
acknowledgement to staff for all the
[2:43:15] events last year and also hats off to
the huge turnout of cvrd staff at the
[2:43:21] one event uh specifically the CCH and uh
Autumn classic trail running event so
[2:43:26] thanks to the cvrd staff that make
events like that possible there were a
[2:43:30] lot of really soaked but huge smiling
faces on our fellow cvd cvrd employees
[2:43:36] and myself that participated in that
event so thank you and then also as the
[2:43:40] lead course marshal for the burnt bridge
classic uh I was able a lot of I was a
[2:43:45] motorized lead so was good to see that
um what staed to let users in the area
[2:43:51] know that a race was on of course that's
working with the organizers but that's a
[2:43:54] significant event that takes significant
cvrd resources so uh I didn't run into
[2:43:59] any user conflicts or anything
especially people not expecting to see a
[2:44:03] a marshall on a motor bike so uh that
from that standpoint that how you make
[2:44:08] these events possible is great my
question though is uh we're seeing it at
[2:44:13] North cin and then now also here at the
cvrd board do is it at a point where we
[2:44:19] might need to revisit the um how we look
at large events and more open to them
[2:44:25] the reason I speak to that of course now
for the third year the Belgian waffle
[2:44:28] rid's coming back uh this is because of
the work that laake cwi's done in the
[2:44:33] Trailblazers they're going to have a new
race there the coastal uh trail running
[2:44:37] series that's going to be the first of
its kind out there this year and then
[2:44:41] North CCH and on behalf of the
organizers that do run the burnt bridge
[2:44:45] classic are currently trying to bring
the Canadian gravel bike Nationals to
[2:44:51] the cin Valley for this year bringing it
from Calgary which is a multi-million
[2:44:55] dollar event so of course those using
CBD assets do we need to look at our
[2:45:00] policies a bit different as we're
getting bigger and larger events that
[2:45:04] utilize parks and trails uh of course
bringing huge economic uh impact but
[2:45:10] also are taking more staff resources to
make them a
[2:45:17] possibility chair wonderful question and
certainly that will be covered off under
[2:45:22] that uh policy uh that's currently being
developed to be brought forward in the
[2:45:25] near future because certainly staff are
recognizing as well that the popularity
[2:45:30] of parks and trails across the region
not just for our local residents but
[2:45:33] visitors coming to the region but also
the ability to host events and
[2:45:37] activities is growing and in some cases
growing quite substantially and and how
[2:45:42] do we manage all of that to maintain
that balance between uh the the general
[2:45:46] recreational use the ecological
Integrity of our parks and Trail sites
[2:45:51] but also recognize that that these
larger events uh also bring some
[2:45:55] prosperity to the region and and have a
lot of spill out effect for other
[2:46:00] businesses and activities that take
place here as well so end of the day
[2:46:04] it's it's it's a lot of positives but we
need to uh find ways to approach it on a
[2:46:08] bounced uh basis so good question and
yes that'll be uh part of the work
[2:46:12] that's being done right
[2:46:15] now director mclinton
[2:46:19] uh thank you chaired thank you staff
it's great I certainly support wine in
[2:46:23] the park and other similar
activities uh um and also I'd like to
[2:46:30] support director Wilson and his ideas
around
[2:46:33] volunteers and perhaps down the road uh
there could be a notice of motion for
[2:46:39] hiring a a volunteer coordinator if
there's capacity issues within within
[2:46:44] the parks um I know we've got a lot of
people that love our communities and
[2:46:48] they want want to get out there and help
and it is happening but if I I think in
[2:46:53] many especially electoral areas they're
um I think there could
[2:46:58] be uh we could better utilize our
[2:47:04] volunteers director Wilson a
close yeah thank um do we not already
[2:47:10] have a volunteer
coordinator that's what I thought
[2:47:14] yeah yeah yeah no that's what I thought
we've already got one I'll just I'll
[2:47:18] just apply to that so my position is
Parks volunteer coordinator um yeah
[2:47:24] how however it is a split position so
that's why both of these um parts of the
[2:47:30] report come from me um and you can see
the this the the attachment to do with
[2:47:36] reservations and special events is quite
large um and that that's again a
[2:47:39] capacity issue um because there just the
one person dealing with all the event
[2:47:44] applications and picnic shelter
reservations and field trips Etc as as
[2:47:48] well as the volunteer program so there's
a lot of um potential for growth but
[2:47:53] capacity issues sort of hold us back a
little bit cheriff you let me follow up
[2:47:57] remove hang on I'm not finished oh
[Laughter]
[2:48:03] sorry was I didn't know that it had gone
to you no no that that was just in the
[2:48:07] side because you were more concentrated
on your bottle of wine
[2:48:13] um um is there anything that we can do
apart from now your part-time is that
[2:48:21] correct um the position's fulltime but
the volunteer coordination is only like
[2:48:27] half of what I do say Okay okay so is
there anything that we can do to
[2:48:34] increase the use of volunteers I'm going
to keep on about this one so that make
[2:48:38] it a real priority so that we can reduce
the maintenance and asset management
[2:48:42] cost because they are huge we've seen in
the upcoming budget just how huge those
[2:48:47] costs are there has to be something we
can make a priority in order to use the
[2:48:52] expertise the willingness to bring those
costs
[2:48:58] down Miss Miles
[2:49:03] Wilson I I do see that Brian's giving me
the eye so that he may have a a response
[2:49:08] to this but I just wanted to remind as
well that we are going to be taking a
[2:49:11] look at the Strategic plan coming up and
that would be a good opportunity for
[2:49:15] directors to voice kind of perspectives
and um kind of interest to look at
[2:49:21] service levels in the organization um so
that that we're we're in the in the
[2:49:25] works in the planning stages of that
session so I just wanted to make that
[2:49:28] note that would be a good
opportunity great thanks director
[2:49:33] mclinton one the last
word thank you chair i' just like to
[2:49:38] slowly remove my foot from my mouth I I
do
[2:49:41] apologize as I was saying volunteer
coordinator director Acton was writing
[2:49:47] it down and I was having trouble reading
it um I just I just to the point it is
[2:49:53] more capacity I think is great I think
you're I I know you're coordinating with
[2:49:56] some of the folks in Sal a and the
trails that are so I do know that
[2:50:00] there's work being done with the
volunteers it's just um I'm just in
[2:50:03] support of sort of the the idea that uh
director Wilson had so forgive me for
[2:50:10] yeah for not knowing as knowing their
correct titles uh thank you chair all
[2:50:16] right so that concludes our reports we
can now move on on to question period so
[2:50:21] this is opportunity for offer the public
uh chance to ask a question regarding um
[2:50:27] the business of the CBD so we allow we
allow up to 15 minutes and is comprised
[2:50:33] of two parts the first reserve for
questions directly through agenda items
[2:50:36] and if there is time remaining questions
maybe on a matter of public interest
[2:50:40] related to severity jurisdiction each
question is permitted to ask one
[2:50:45] question plus one followup question
related to the answer the the question
[2:50:49] must truly be a question and not a
statement of opinion or speech and
[2:50:53] questioners must avoid personal
references insinuations violent
[2:50:57] offensive or disrespectful remarks about
another person and unparliamentary
[2:51:03] language thank you Mr chair Kim Bernard
area B shaelin shanigan Lake I will have
[2:51:08] two did you know questions to inject a
little bit of levity and a little bit of
[2:51:12] follow-up first of all did you know you
have tremendous Community volunteer
[2:51:16] assets right here in this room and
following this meeting virtually I've
[2:51:19] been in close contact with Mr Cliff
Evans throughout the meeting today and
[2:51:24] uh we both represent the Nice n i that's
on my shirt today which is neighborly in
[2:51:31] collaborative
enthusiasm we are also that inul means
[2:51:36] Nalan that we want to go forward in a
good way together the the public in
[2:51:41] volunteering and he um and staff as well
and so I have huge thanks for Park staff
[2:51:48] on a number of levels uh we do our
annual Cleanup in the Parks we uh do all
[2:51:54] kinds of things fieldwork Mr Cliff Evans
has been teaching me how to gather data
[2:51:58] in a very uh scientific way and to take
the Pulse of our uh ecological assets
[2:52:05] and I just think yeah that we uh my
question is did you
[2:52:10] know and and also my second question is
uh did you know that the eopl report as
[2:52:16] it was presented today both electronic
Ally and in a printed copy I just
[2:52:20] received actually cuts off in uh the
last attachment on page 52 and so I'm
[2:52:26] wondering could that please get fixed
for the
[2:52:30] EC yes so for the first question now we
know so thank you and I I think we can
[2:52:35] easily address the the the problem with
the the report when it's refer when it's
[2:52:39] presented at the ESC and the last
question is did you know that uh when I
[2:52:45] went to use the QR code for the newest
survey the community satisfaction survey
[2:52:50] the very first gatekeeping question is
do you have a member of your household
[2:52:54] that works for cvd parks and once again
I want to thank the cvrd park staff for
[2:52:58] mentoring my son as a gatekeeper this
last three years but unfortunately it
[2:53:02] means that I can't participate in the
survey did you
[2:53:07] know now we do thank
you thank you for all your hard work
[2:53:11] let's get to lunch thanks any other
members of the public with a question
[2:53:16] for the
committee all right so we can now move
[2:53:19] on to the Clos session and just to the
interest of time um staff have suggested
[2:53:24] we can refer items CR csr1 and csr2 to
the closed board meeting later this
[2:53:32] afternoon moved is there a second or
seconded all in favor and opposed not
[2:53:37] opposed motion carries that concludes
our business got to get a motion to
[2:53:40] adjourn moved seconded all in favor and
oppose this meeting is adjourned