Good morning members of council and staff. I'd like to
call this special council meeting for Friday, August 21st to
order. We'll start with the traditional treaty territory acknowledgement. The
region of Durham exists on lands that the Michisagi and
Ashbegan have it for thousands of years prior to European
colonization. Please lands or the traditional and treaty territories of
the nations covered under the Williams treaties, including the Mississaugas
of Scuogog Island First Nation, Alderail First Nation, Iowatha First
Nation, Curve Lake First Nation, and the CHIP - 1
nations of Georgina Island - Bosole and Rama. We honour
recognise and respect the Indigenous peoples as the right holders
and stewards of the lands and waters on which we
have the privilege to live in our efforts towards reconciliation.
We continue to build strength and relationships with First Nations,
as well as the large MAIDE communities growing in you
at Community here in Durham. We commit to learning from
Indigenous values and knowledge, building opportunities for collaboration and recognising
that we're all connected. Members Council, we've had a number
of issues this summer where we have flown our flags
at Half - Mass here at the region. And before
I ask you to join me in a moment of
silence, I just want to recognise the loss that we
lowered the flags for. First of all, the Montreal Police
Cospel Muhammad Lemy, Ben Road doing was killed in the
line of duty. Cosmical training Tyrone Montebang from Durham Regional
Police Services Island. Princeton Island EMS Paramedics, Gina Crucher, Michael
McKenzie, and also Anne Martell, who was in their care
at the time of the accident. We lost two correctional
service candid officers, Nicole Serbin and Ramadeepar Mound of Edmonton
Institute for women also carry a Mussoua, who was in
their care and custody at the time of the action.
Zach Moff at a Regional Employee in long - term
care. And we lost several police officers recently, members of
the Durham Regional Police Services, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and
Hamilton Police Services. I'm going to ask you to join
me in a moment of silence, please.
Okay, thank you. Mr. Clerk, could you do a roll
call, please? Thank you, Mr. Chair Electronic Roll Call is
starting now.
Thank you, Mr. Clerk. We have Quorum. Members Council, Declarations
of Cunary Interest. Chair, I. Pushed my button. Oh, that's
okay. Noted, thank you. Online, Mr. Clerk. Okay, seeing none,
there are no Declarations. We have a Communications item, 4.
1, a memorandum dated August 18th from one of our
Regional Soleditors Adanan. The recommendation is received for information. Could
I have a mover, please? Councillor Chapman. Mayor Foster. Questions.
Seeing none, seeing none, online. Call the vote. All those
in favor. In opposition. Seeing none that carries. Members of
Council, we have two confidential reports, Mr. Clerk. Move them
both. We'll do them individually. Okay, report 2026 CAL -
41. It is a confidential report from the Commissioner of
Finance and the Commissioner of Works. Can we get it.
Ms. Clerk? We're getting it moved, and then we'll move
it into closed session. So we need to move on
seconder, and then move by Mayor Foster, seconded by Councillor
McDougal. The item is now on the floor. Is there
anyone wishing to discuss this and the need to go
into closed session. Councillor Nicholson. First of all, I'd like
to request that the motion to go on camera be
divided. Is there are two items? I was going to
deal with both items separately anyway. Okay, that's fine. Then.
I also, like I recorded vote on the item that
involves the province. Sure. The question I have, I guess
at this point, is what I appreciate the problem with
wants to keep their shady deals separate. Why do we.
Why was Regional Council want to be involved in dealing
with this in camera. As it could impact over 100
million dollars of taxpayers cost. Mr. Hunt. So
as council is aware there's the provision in section 239H
of the municipal act, which sets out meetings, which are
to be held in close session. And this meets the
requirements of that section being information supplied and confidence by
province or federal government. There is, in addition to that,
the agreement between the region, in fact, between other municipalities
participating in this program and the province and the federal
government, and that agreement provides that any of the information
related to these programs must be kept in confidence. So
it's that legal commitment and the agreement that is what
is requiring us to do this in closed session. However,
as his customary with any of our close session matters,
uh, as soon as, uh, that requirement is lifted by
the province and the federal government, uh, staff will make,
uh, information available to the public. My understanding, and I
appreciate that the sensor could help me with this, is
that the rules of going in camera allow us to
go in camera. They don't mandate us to go on
camera. We can choose as a council, can we not
not to deal with it in camera. Usually the client
gets the option of deciding not somebody else. Councillor Nicholson,
you know the rules as well as I do. Um,
you're right. Um, but this is, uh, come to us,
the provinces, as we've heard Jason explained to us, they've
asked us to do it in closed session. Your problem
isn't with this council, it's with the other levels of
government. Well, my problem for the last four plus years
with this government, uh, they like to keep things secret,
make secret deals to benefit their friends. And my problem
that I'm having as a councillor here is, well, I
understand the province would like to keep their details secret.
I would suggest to our council, to all my colleagues
that it's not in our interest to do so. Um,
to simply deal with this in camera. And endorse it
and say, someone will release the facts later on. Um,
when it could commit this council to implementing hundreds of
millions of dollars of either user rate or property tax
increases without any input from the public whatsoever. In a
situation where we're two months out from the end of
this council. I mean, literally at two o'clock, we are
a lame duck. So for us to somehow suggest that
we're going to deal with this. Uh, in secrecy. And
then someone's going to tell our voters a few weeks
from an hour, a few months from now, God knows
when. That geez, sorry we couldn't tell you, but we
passed a law that's going to raise your user rates
or raise your property taxes. And they get in those
say on it. Even if we did it, at least
we should ask their opinion. So I'm going to suggest
to members of council that we in fact do one
of two things. One that we don't go in camera.
Or if there is some reason that this to be
dealt with in an camera process, that this matter be
tabled to the newtermer of council to allow the annuly
elected council to make this decision because they're the ones
that are going to be impacted on behalf of the
residents, uh, in any future decisions that they follow from
this. We literally are the end of our term. And
none of us can guarantee that we're going to be
back. I mean, I think many of us hope to
be back, but the guarantees. Um, I've never many years
that I've been on council seen a situation where this
kind of process occurred literally on nomination day. And basically
then putting the members of this council in a position
of imposing on the next council. Well over a hundred
million dollars of tax or user rates without any public
knowledge at all. I just can't disrespectfully say, this is
the right process to do. And I would urge my
members of councils to vote against going in gamer. Thank
you. Mayor Foster. Thank you Mr. Chair. So I don't
disagree with many of the comments, but my understanding. Plainly
put is the province is requiring us to deal with
this in camera. Yes. So, well, I, so we're required.
And yet the suggestion is we shouldn't deal with this.
Or we should be dealing with it in open session.
So, so that, that part of the argument, I think
has been made for us. Uh, the rest, I think
the discussion debate concern that we need to have, in
fact, in - camera. But we're creatures of the province,
like it or not. Um, members of councillors, anyone wishing
to go into closed session to discuss this item or
ask questions to staff. Okay. Uh, microphone, please. Mayor
Carter. Sorry. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Yeah. I have a
lot of questions. So. I would like to pay your,
you're making a motion to go into close session. Yes,
sir. Yeah. Thank you. I'm looking for a second. Second
day by Mayor Foster. Thank you. Okay. So the item
before you is the motion is to go into closed
session to discuss report 2026 COL 41 only. I'm going
to call the vote councillor Nicholson has asked it for
recorded vote. So Mr. Clerk, when you're ready, please. And
Mr. Clerk, before you do that, um, the reason for
going into closed session is information explicitly supplied in confidence
to the Regional Corporation by Canada, a province or territory
or a crowning G of any item. It is under
23. 92. It is item H. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Recorded vote on the motion to go into closed session
is starting now.
Looking for Councillor Watton online. Second call, councillor Watton. Last
call, Councillor Watton online.
Okay. It's carried 18 to three. Uh, Mr. Clair, how
much times do you need to get ready. Uh. Just
a quick. Answer. And the officers will ask them to
step out to the officers in the room. I'm going
to ask, have to ask you if you could step
out and take a seat in the hallway and we'll
come and get you when we're finished with this closed
item. And members of council, it'll take, uh, five minutes.
Five minutes to get everything set to go into close.
Councillor Kerr, Councillor. Kerr and Councillor Pettengel. Councillor Pentenguell. Councillor
Kerr, you're holding up the meeting.
Mr. Clerk, could you do a roll call, please? Thank
you, Mr. Chair, Electronic Roll Call, is starting now. Councillor
George Street and Rob.
Councillor Wu, can you push your button please?
We have Corham, how many do we have in the
meeting. 23, okay. Members of Council and to the public
in the continuing interest of transparency and open government, I
am reporting the public session. That we had conversations, but
no direction or motions were given in closed session related
to report number 2026, COW - 41. We're now in
open session. We'll go to the request. Councillor Nicholson. Thank
you, Mr. Chairman. I'm just asking on a procedural matter.
Would it be in order to place a direction to
our negotiating team that should the CLAC provision not be
eliminated? The region Durham would not agree. To the agreement.
I'll go to our CAO. She did state that if
it had created a problem, they would manage it and
deal with it, and it would come back to council.
That's right. If just through you, Mr. Chair, if we're
not able to negotiate an agreement that keeps the risk
as it's been identified in the report, we would certainly
come back to council. And it has certainly councils prerogative
if it wants to put a condition on our negotiations.
I would be concerned about the ramifications like that. The
province may agree to soft in it, but not withdraw,
or they may ideally withdraw it, but I do not
want to jeopardize our opportunity to advise infrastructure. But again,
it is counsel's prerogative. Alternately, could we give a direction
then that if the clawback isn't removed, the final provision
would come back to council for final approval.
I think we could do that pending any unanticipated deadlines
put on it by the province. We're not aware of
any yet, except that they want this done very quickly.
Go ahead. Sorry, go ahead. Go ahead, we'll try again.
Aren't the direction given through the Resolution delegation of authority.
That would be contrary to the delegation of authority. In
my view. Coming back prior to the new council, is
that what you're seeing, Councillor? No, I'm saying we're giving,
we're delegating authority, you, and one of the councillors. Respectfully,
is saying we're qualifying that delegation. So I don't think
that the question is in order. I would have to
defer to our solicitor, our clerk on that. Okay, Mr.
Hunt. So it would be a restriction on the delegation.
Restriction on delegations are in order, but I think it's
important for council to recognise that not only would the
conditions of the delegation be required to be met by
staff. However, this new restriction would also be required to
be met by staff. And if it couldn't be, then
we would be required to come back to council. Uh,
and I do think it's important to note that the
wording is important here. And this is, I guess, some
of my caution about giving direction to staff to negotiate,
but then giving explicit caveats in that direction, which is
that they're likely will be a clawback mechanism. We just
maybe don't know right now what that looks like. And
some of those might be acceptable within the risk tolerance
that the CA was outlined in some of those may
not be in staff would assess that with the information
from the discussion among council and closed session. And if
we're not comfortable, that it was within the risk that
we discussed. We would come back as the direction requires
now. However, the more explicit we are, the more constrained
staff are, certainly easy for staff, but may not end
up being in the best interest of council. Councillor Nicholson.
Well, contrary to the previous question. We have not given
any direction yet. So as the sister said, we can
give whatever directions of staff that this council wishes to
give to staff. I'm not looking to tie our negotiator's
hands. Um, I just having great trouble. Uh, I can
live with most of it, um, if we go over
the hundred and to go to 12, 000, I can
even live with that risk because we're going to get
more tax revenues and more growth. So we're going to
get the money to pay for that. The problem lies
in is, say, a hypothetically, we only get 5, 000
units. Over the three years cycle. Now we've committed to
all the work to be done. So we're on the
hook for that. Are we looking at a possibility of
a prurated reduction claw bag. Which could be 100 million
dollars? I'm from the province. I'm worried that we're travelling
down something that should be discussed in closed session. I'm
trying to keep it as broad as I can. I
still think we're crossing very close to crossing the line.
Is there a policy? I guess my concern is I'm
just trying to get some assurances as a member of
council. That if negotiations don't go as well as we
expect that we're given the directions we've all talked about,
that we're going to get another kick of the can
here. Or are we simply endorsing this today and we're
never going to say it again. So in fairness to
our CAO and to our treasurer, um, who we have
trusted for four years, they do all the work on
our behalf and do an supplementary job. I trust them
on this. That they will act in the best interests
of the region. And fulfill it. And, uh, as we
heard from the CAO, she has said that if it
causes something that is going to use this term, raising
the hair on the back of their necks for not
a better term, that, that they will deal with it
in the appropriate manner. Um, I don't have a crystal
ball. I don't know what's going to happen. But I
don't want to handcuff our team. Um, we've heard from
our CAO their plans and I respect that. All right.
Thank you. Okay. Members Council, Councillor Nicholson asked for record
a vote. Part. Okay. You asked for the recorder vote.
Before I go to the recorded vote, Mayor Foster. Thank
you Mr. Chair. I'll be brief some of the comments,
particularly the comments in close session, uh, from, uh, Mayor
Ash were, to my mind, bang on. You know, we're
talking about the claw back, but that would be fairness.
I mean, the upper levels of government would, would equally
take risks. So, you know, so this mechanism. Remember we're
an open session. Yeah. No, I'm not getting annotating detail,
but it's fairness, frankly, to both parties. And as much
as there is a focus on building houses and affordability
and, you know, this would make houses sell it more
affordable. We cannot lose sight of the plumber's electricians, uh,
roofers, uh, the vast number of people that are not
working today. Um, and the, the spin - offs in
the economy. Uh, you speak Mr. Chair. Although I can't,
I'm not going to say that because it wasn't closed
session, but we look at the impact of the economy.
We, we look at, uh, unemployment rates right now. I,
you know, housing is important building communities is important. Getting
these people to work, especially in the environment that we
find ourselves in today, uncertainty on a geopolitical level. This
is, uh, this is equally important. Uh, so I am,
I am fully supportive of this. Understand the risks involved,
but fully supportive. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Kerr. Thank
you, Chair. I'm just going to circle back to what
Mayor Ash started this whole discussion with, and mind you,
in closed session, but I'm not going to circle back
in details. I'm just going to summarize this position as
follows. Don't look at gift horse in the mouth. That's
what this is. We're trying to get from A to
B and develop, or A to Z in development. We're
not getting there. Along comes somebody and says, here's a
worse. They allow you to get there. And we're going
to look at its teeth and make sure that the
horses, and we're going to look at the hooves and
we're going to brush the tail just to make sure
before we get on the horse and ride down the
road. No, let's get on the horse. Thank you. Thank
you. Okay. Recorded vote has been called. Recorded voters. We'll
call by Mayor Carter. Thank you, Mr. Chair, recorded vote
on the confidential recommendations of the report, our starting now.
Looking for councillor Wu. Thank you. And looking for councillor
Leahy online. Second call, councillor Leahy.
Last call, councillor Leahy online.
It's unanimous securities. Um, members council, we're going to move
on to the next item 5. 2. It is a
confidential report from the Commissioner of Finance. This is on
items that council has already dealt with. I don't think
the need to go into closed session, but I would
take a motion to go in closed session. Seeing none,
Mayor Carter. Just at the appropriate time at Record of
Vote, please. Well, first of all, let's get you to
move it. Move by, thank you. Move by Councillor Chapman,
seconded by another secondary councillor Anderson. Um, the item is
on the floor, recorded vote was called by Mayor Carter.
Councillor Kerr, before I call fast to clerk to take
the vote. Yes, I just had, uh, one question, um,
through you to our Commissioner of Finance. And it's just
a clarification question. Some people may wonder this. I did.
And I wonder if you'd be kind enough to explain
the difference if we can do this between grant and
a forgivable loan, please. Nicole. Yeah. So through the chair,
uh, to the councillor, sorry, to the councillor. Hello. Um,
the difference between the two. So for all intents of
purposes, they are, uh, a forgivable loan is a grant
in the sense that, you know, as long as we
meet our obligations, we don't have to pay back that
loan. So it is from that perspective considered a grant
from an accounting treatment perspective. They are treated from an
accounting perspective very differently, uh, a forgivable loan will counts
as a, as a, as a liability, uh, on our
books, uh, it's a contingent liability until we've, um, met
all of the obligations that we have to meet. And
because of that, it does count towards our debt cap
as part of our provincial ARL, our annual repayment limit.
But as long as we deliver the project, uh, there
we will not have to repay that, uh, that portion
of money. And when we do is just stricken and
soft the dead cap. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Nicholson.
Thank you. Obviously I'm going to be supporting this. It's
in my constituency. Um, also the project's underway. So if
we didn't approve this, then we'd be on the hook
for all that money. So this is kind of the
reverse of the other debate we just had. So it's
important this is very, very prudent financing. Thank you. Councillor
Pentagon. It's okay. I'm going to withdraw my question. Thanks.
Okay. Recorder vote was called by Mayor Carter. Mr. Clerk,
when you're ready. Thank you, Mr. Chair, recorded vote on
the matter is starting now.
Looking for councillors Leahy and Waden online. Second call for
councillors Leahy and Watton. Last call councillors Leahy and Watton
online. Thank you.
Okay. That carries. Um, unanimous. Members of council will move
on to Mr. Clark. That's the business before Bylaws. Okay.
Mayor Ash. Um, I have two motions. Let's move on
myself and seconded by Councillor Dyes for the last time.
She'll be seconding of motion. And that's the Bylaw number
2026 036 be passed. On Bylaws. We'll call the vote.
All those in favor. If you would allow me, um,
I'd like to move the confirming Byla. And I'd like
Councillor Dyes to second it. Perfect. Uh, move by Chair
Henry. Second of my councillor dies that the bylaw number
2026 037 being a Bylau to confirm the proceedings of
council, the Regional Municipality of Durham at their meeting held
on the 21st day of August, 2026 be passed. All
those in favor. In opposition. Seeing none. Uh, remember members
of Council. I hope you all wear sunscreen. Um, and
I will see some of you out on the campaign
trails. I wish you a wonderful safe rest to your
summer and to staff. Awesome work on this. It was
a short turnaround. I hope you get a holiday now
too. Thank you. Motion to adjourn. Councillor Dyes. I'll speak.
To it as well. To a German? Yes. Okay. Kelsor
dies is moving adjournment. Second of all, Mayor Foster. And
you'd like to speak to a German? Mr. Chair, we,
uh, we thought a couple of weeks ago that, uh,
it was perhaps the last meeting, uh, of this term
of council, uh, this in fact is the last meeting.
I would like to reiterate the comments, uh, that were
made, uh, then. The one, how deeply appreciated, uh, your
good leadership, your good and effective leadership. Uh, has been
over the past four years, uh, and the accomplishments that
we have made and accomplishments that we have made, uh,
only by virtue of the work of the staff that
support us. Uh, so, uh, Elaine to you and your
team to the staff, uh, please accept congratulations. There are
things that they should be exceptionally proud of changes to
our community that will endure for a very long time,
uh, and Mr. Chair, without your leadership, none of that
would have happened. So, so accept my thanks, please. Thank
you. Um. I'll call the vote. Councillor Kerr. Debating a
journal. No, I'm not debating it. This is Councillor dies
last meeting of her career. And I think I would
just like to extend my thanks and having the joy
of working with you. Some people for longer than me.
And I just joined me in thank Councillor dies for
a wonderful career.
Call the vote. All those in favor. In opposition. Careful
when you say that. In opposition, seeing none, that carries.
Enjoy the rest of your day.