Good evening. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Council
of the Corporation of the City of Elliott. Lake, dated
Monday, December to the 8th, 2025 07:00 p.m. And echo.
Call to order. Roll call. All members are present. Land.
Acknowledgment we would like to begin by acknowledging that the
land on which we are gathered is in the traditional
territories of the initiation abeg of the Robinson Huron. Treaty,
specifically the Serpent River, Mississauga and Sagamuk First nations, as
well as the north channel Mati council. We. Say, Migwitch,
to thank indigenous peoples for taking care of this land
from time immemorial we are all called to treat this
sacred land, its plants, animals, stories and its people. Peoples
with honor and respect. Approval of the agenda. We have
a motion that the agenda be approved as presented. Mover.
Councilor Morsette. Seconded. Councilor Flintoff. All in favor? That is
carried. Declarations of pecuniary interest. Are there any declarations? Going
once, twice. Adoption of the minutes from previous meeting. We
have a motion that the following minutes be adopted. November
24, 2025 regular meeting. Mover, councilor bowl, seconded. Councilor men,
any questions or comments? No. All in favor? Not carried.
Public input session. We have Mr. Mike Thomas this evening
for items 8.1 and 11.4 Mr. Thomas, please.
Mr. Mayor, members of council, good evening. With regards to
8.1. You have a presentation before you tonight. That has
no information to the public and as far as I'm
aware, no information to you prior to this meeting. I
believe Perry and Perry associates was here in September. Stating
at the time that we wanted to have this buttoned
up. And work on going on the interior by December.
At the latest. If you recall. In the last two
years, we heard multiple times from Dr. Tingly that it
was paramount that we control the humidity of the environment.
And ensure that it was made at a constant temperature.
Since September. We've had a variance of 30 degrees in
temperature. Rain, snow. Freezing. I drive by there three times
a week. There's people shoveling snow out of the interior
of the building. I don't know. How that takes care
of tens of a million dollars of investment in city
infrastructure that you've worked so hard to try and get
it back afloat. It would be helpful. If we get
the answers to some of those concerns. Least of which
is we're on the hook to make sure that this
project succeeds, and. I don't know what liabilities it leaves
us open to. If the environment, the structure. Is not
maintained in a sealed manner while we're working on it.
A lot could go out the window. So those are
serious concerns, and I hope Mr. Perry addresses those this
evening. And. It belays itself to all the hard work
you've done to try and get this. Back on track.
With regards to the swimming pool. There's a couple of
similar issues. The report is excellent in terms of what
it lays out, that what we have to do. The
thing that boggles the mind is. It's unknown whether it's
the same contractors that are doing the work now that
did the work before. And why I bring that up.
Is because the solution seems so self evident. That if
we'd have had this CO2 system in place before, we
wouldn't. Be dealing with what we're dealing with now. So
it would be helpful to know. Why that? Wasn't visited
before this, when we had the pool shut down and
we spent all that money to refurbish it in the
first place. My secondary concern with that is I'll go
back to the insurance issue. We were told. None of
us could be told anything because there was an ongoing
investigation with the insurance. As far as I'm aware, this
council hasn't been made aware publicly of what? The results
that were neither has the community. We don't know where
it stands. When the Pearson center collapsed, It was a
ten to $12 million building insured, and we ended up
getting $3. Million for it. Well, the same thing could
happen to us with the pool. And we don't know
who's handling who's stick handling the insurance claim. For the
pool. Now. Community doesn't know. That would be helpful information
to have. So, moving forward with the pool, I would
hope. That more would come to light as to why
this wasn't thought of before, how that's going to impact
us now. How it's going to affect our insurance before
and after, and those are all helpful things. That the
community and myself would like to know. Thank you for
your time. That's my input. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Thomas.
Okay, item eight is the presentation from Perry and Perry
architects. Mr. Perry is not feeling well, so he's joining
us by zoom. And I believe we have him here.
Can you hear me, Mr. Perry? Yes, I can. There.
Oh, perfect. Welcome back. Apologize for not being there, but
I'm probably better here. With. Spreading any viruses. Okay, sounds
good. So go ahead, please. I'm going to share.
Can everyone see my screen? Yeah, we can see it.
Okay. As per Mr. Thomas. 's acknowledgment our last visit
was. September. And at that time, we were going to
take a look at. What the overall requirements are to.
Get this occupiable by September 1, 2026. Today's presentation is
to give you an update on where we're at and
how we're going to achieve. That objective. So I will
be talking about the progress to date stakeholder meetings that
we have been held. Meetings with the structural WRD team,
meetings with the ventilation and air Handling group, the JCI
group the exterior wall insulation and finish scope. Also from.
Jhci. Electrical upgrades. Based building improvements. And recommended enhanced design
options. Also like to touch base on the project schedule.
We've got a milestone timeline from which. We need to
manage and juggle all of the different groups and requirements
in order to achieve the objective. I want to give
an update on the project budget. And advise us where
we're at with respect to the overall budget. And acknowledge
some project risks that we will be managing. As we
move forward. First item with stakeholder meetings. We have been
meeting. With the structural team, wrd and Dr. Dan tingley.
I have been briefed up to speed. We've been coordinating
the architectural and structural requirements. On a weekly basis. It's,
I think, important to note that we are not. Directly
or personally involved with the contractual relationship with WRD, but
we have been given the authority by the city. To
engage and have. Some input and influence into how things
are moving forward and being scheduled. Same with the mechanical
JCI that's under. A different contract. We've been in discussions
with HH Angus the engineer with that group to better
understand. The requirements and the outcome in terms of design.
We've engaged directly. North engineering for electrical as a result
of that review. We'll talk about it after that. There
will be some electrical upgrades required. We've met with the
Rogers family group. I believe it's about four times we
have another meeting tomorrow. I'll share with you some of
the insight with them later on in the presentation. We
met with municipal staff and arena personnel. To reduce some
of the ideas of proposed changes and design revisions to
get. A more direct response as to. What works and
doesn't work in terms of what's being proposed. We've also
met with the figure skating club. We've had contact with
the accessibility. Committee, but we will be having hard meetings
with them in early January. The minor hockey and the
Vikings group we have not had any direct discussions with
but are encouraging them. To come forth in that we
can share. Some of the ideas and how they impact
or don't impact. Their groups. With regards to the structure,
the WRD and Dr. Tingly scope. The trust and columns
are now completed. Foundation and files are completed. They are
proceeding with the exterior wall framing and bracing. That's ongoing.
We have been directly related to that as a relationship
to the exterior wall finish. And insulation. I will be
showing you. A rendering of what we think the exterior
can look like. To give you an idea of how
we're moving. Proceeding with that design. And an item that
came up. Concrete floor. Depending review and confirmation. Of the
existing floor under the bleachers and around the proper is
asphalt. And with what we want to do with some
of the leatures, another scope we want to look at
a concrete floor in there. This is a structural item,
so. It's been. Put onto wrd. 's portfolio. Just a
quick image. Of the original arena going up. Going through
the process with WRD and getting up to date as
we came in, sort of. Later in the process. I
just wanted to acknowledge that it appears that we are
reconstructing the arena to current and future standards. These are
some shots of some of the updated trusses. Being painted
and completed, and the new brackets. And sort of luck
so far. There's a closer view. This is a column
base plate. That was interesting. We questioned. The size and
the design of the plate. As we're finding out. The
columns, the existing columns are not aligned and they are
being aligned and the plates are assisting. With that alignment.
This does affect exterior wall, but we have mitigated. That
with some of the architectural design elements that we're coordinating
with WRD at the moment. With regards to the ventilation
and air handling, the engineering and design has been completed
and coordinated. Bidding negotiations is ongoing. We're hoping by middle
next week that we get an idea of where we
are with the cost. Here's a quick elevation view of
the new duct system. Similar to what was there, just
a little larger and coming. Through the building in specific
areas. Exterior wall insulation and finish. The designing coordination is
completed. We are expecting again in mid December. Next week
having some idea of the cost and budget for that.
And profile and color selection. This is what we're recommending.
What we've done is. We are recommending. A kind of
a general. White traditional siding, metal siding to go with
the roof. Color? But then. We accentuate of the columns
the wood columns with wood, metal siding. Wood looking metal
siding. To help sort of give a hint of what's
coming into the inside of the building. We're spending a
lot of money on that structure, and I think we
should celebrate it. And play up on it from the
interior point of view. In between. In each bay. We've
got to recess. Again. A simple metal siding profile. Just.
To sort of blanket it off and hold it to
create a little bit of texture to the building to
give it a new look. There's a bit of an
angle section here. This is to allow for some signage.
Mostly for the Vikings. If that's a preference. We're in
discussions with. Rogers in terms of their signage expectations, we
can't show anything yet because they still need approval. I
can show you where we recommend it going. It's not
on this side. It's. On the other part of the
building. Terms of electrical upgrades, we have confirmed. Sorry. The
engineering and coordination is ongoing. We've confirmed. Upgrade required to
1000 amps, 600 volts. I believe it's a 600 amp.
600. Volts now. Proponent of this is the new mechanical
air handling unit that's required to be. Upgraded for power.
This will also allow. Better power for other events within
the arena. Once it's set up, give it some more
versatility. We need to be coordinating with Hydro one electrical
safety authority. The design and approval is required. We're now
looking at a pad mount transformer application and a new
electrical room. This is what we have now. You can
see on the pole there's what they're called cans. Essentially,
those cans will not be required anymore, and we're looking
at an underground service through a padmount transformer. On the
site. The proposed electrical room is actually in this corner,
so it's a closer application. And a more safer. And
secure location within the building. The existing base building improvements.
This is the existing demolition removals plan. Just the graphic
to show you what. Has been. Significantly touched within. The.
Blue generally represents. Demolition and removals, as you can see.
Features which do not meet code are coming out. All
the penalty boxes. Same on the other side. We need
a new Zambonia room. That's required to be fire separated.
The core of the entrance. Rooms and the lobby, et
cetera. Are generally being gut renovated. We'll give you an
idea of. What we're recommending. Here's the proposed floor plan.
Can you see this on your screen? Yes, we can
see it. It's quite small. There. So.
As I go through. I've got the legend here. Of
one to 13. The numbers will be appearing on the
screen. Number one is a new entrance. I'll show you
in the 3d rendering what that means. It's basically a
red. Canopy element that comes out from the building and
in through into the arena. Recommending. Brand new lobby design.
And layout centralized and symmetrical off the arena and the
entrance. Got a donor wall in direct relationship. To that
lobby. And opposite donor wall we have the canteen. Are
you able to see my numbers as I press them?
Yes. Okay. We're also recommending consolidating the change rooms up
in that west section. Northwest section. Of the arena. We've
got new washrooms, including a universal washroom. For. Battery free
compliance with the code, as well as accessible washrooms service
the public. Within the rank. Yeah, we've got some user
group storage rooms at the request of some of the
user. Groups. We're taking some of that storage out of
the arena proper into a more controlled, secure. Environment. And
easier to manage. Eight is some new offices, including the
arena office that. They can be set up for the
staff. Nine. We're recommending to
put on one side. New bleachers on the entire. Side.
Similar to this with aluminum. System. We have discussions with
them in terms of coordinating. Design and a layout and
a capacity. In a traditional sense. The timekeeper penalty boxes
and the players benches on the opposite side. So we're
separating the players? From. The stands. At that location, we'll
have, like, a media platform or booth above, overlooking the
rank from. The center. You've included for some storage cages
that are easily ventilated and open, yet secure. For some
of the other user groups that have equipment more directly
related to the. Rink. And. We're going to be up
making the code the zambone. In the corner. And the
southeast corner. Sorry. This
isn't a large plan. What we're proposing is. To. Highlighted
by the yellow, create a nice. Simple, symmetrical, directly related
to the. Rank lobby. So as you enter, you can
actually see right through the lobby through a glass. Opening
into the rink. So there's a constant relationship between there.
We have a sub relationship. In the other direction for
the canteen and the donor wall. And then from there
we go to our washrooms. User storage. Here's the electrical
room in the corner. Right beside the ice plant room.
You've got a universal washroom. And then we converted. This
section into. Additional dressing rooms. The referee room is out
here. And the offices are on the other side.
We consider an enhanced design options. A lot of what
we're doing is we're obviously functionality. And providing an occupancy
for September. We wanted to sort of master plan and
maybe look at options. To have budget remaining that we
could entertain. I'll show you a proposed entrance canopy. Some
veneer staining, some new landscaping equipment screening, and we're looking
at the rink. Boards in glass. What we can do.
With the actual rink itself to offer you. So there's.
A quick rendering. Has given you a general conceptual idea
of those enhanced ideas. Basically, it's a new canopy up
front. That's. To somewhat distract your attention from the mechanical
duct work and the other things that are going on.
As you know. You've got your killer and ice plant
equipment on one side. You're going to have the mechanical
air handling unit on the other side. We're just trying
to create. A different feel and look with some of
these ideas. The brick recommending be stained the same color
as we're doing that infill. Siding. So it looks like
the building is actually inserted into the rink and has
a complementary feel. And look. We will be discussing as
well with the accessibility committee. Access. From where? How? Parking.
From the exterior to within the building. We looked at.
A schedule. I don't want to get too much detail
in here in terms of. The specifics in terms, but
what we have done is. Terms of the project requirements.
We juggled. The way we're looking at the scope, I've
got building structure. Arena ventilation and air handling, exterior wall
insulation and finish ventricle upgrades, building upgrades and enhanced design
options. We're looking at these different phases from the project,
defining the project. Requirements. The design development of each of
those elements where we're anticipating, where things are happening, right?
Into the construction tender documents. And. Into construction. I think
at this time you're more concerned about this date here,
September 1. Where we've identified a partial occupancy. Where ice
use and user group use. Is happening. The additional. Timeline
here would be perhaps some of the enhanced design options
if we can fit them in, but some of the
billing upgrades non related to the ice usage may be
happening. In that time. In essence, in terms of. The
whole project completion or anticipating the end of. 2026. December
as we clean it up. You can imagine there's a
bunch of commissioning and other things that have to be
done. But again, the objective is to be occupiable. September
1. Terms of budget again. I've reorganized the budget.
Same context of my elements. Of the scope of work.
I've had to identify some of the structural walls of
concrete floor scope that has come up that was not
there in September. You've rearranged the budget to make sure
that we can have something there to accommodate that. That
costing will be confirmed, hopefully. In February. The ventilation and
their hailing. It's at the moment about 3.6 million. We're
just doing some value engineering, and we'll know better once
we get the final costing in place. Exterior wall insulation
and finish, same thing. We should get that number more
settled. In the next couple of weeks. Electrical service upgrades
are new. To the budget. We did have some minor
electrical service work, but this is. A significant change of
350,000 to bring in that upgraded service. That leaves us
with baseballing improvements of about 4.25 5 million. Which we
vetted out in terms of the interior scope, and at
this time, we are comfortable. That it can be accommodated
for. That brings us to the 11.6 million. Budget. That
we're still in line. I've identified the enhanced design options.
With a 1.6. We'll be assessing that as we move
forward. And firm up the other budget items as our
objective is to be at 11.6 or under.
Terms of project. Risk. Based on? Historical observations and.
Are now three months of experience with WRD. There are
some structural schedule risks that we are managing. And are
moving through. The system. I anticipated that their work would
be done by Christmas. It is now apparent. That the
exterior wall enclosure and concrete floor will be going into
the new year. Same with the mechanical. They are delivery
times in terms of schedule. Where the unit has to
be ordered to be able to be on site in
time. Budget. Again, the structural and mechanical, and those are
the new items that I have reallocated. Some funds from
our contingency to accommodate. Once we get a handle on
those actual costs, then we can hopefully redirect some of
them back to. The enhanced building improvements. In terms of
implementation, some of the risks include having multiple contractors on
site. We're looking at ways. To separate. Potential groups of
contractors on site. We have to identify constructor issues with
the occupational Health Safety act. So we're going through that
process to see how we can manage. The scope. As
a collective group of contractors on site. We are entertaining
some potential construction management approaches to some of the work
in order to facilitate the multiple contractors. Or to facilitate
the scope to meet the deadline. And that's it. Okay.
Thank you. Is there anything you want me to go
back to? That's a question for council. Do you want
to go slide by side or is there? Questions that
we could, or would you like to just ask questions?
Just ask questions. Yes. Okay, who would like to go
first? Councilor flintoff. Thank you, worship. Through you. To Mr.
Perry. Very informative presentation. My first question is, we were
led to believe that there'd be a bigger workforce there.
Right now in closing the arena, and I've driven by
many a time, and I'm only seeing two people there.
Maybe. Four, and we were told at least eight in
December to get these walls enclosed. And. I'm not negative
on it, but it seems like it's real slow going.
Yes. So, as I mentioned, I'm stick handling the contractual
relationship between you and WRD. Not in control of that
relationship. At the moment. And with our weekly meetings with
them, we have been expressing the urgency. To get their
work done so that we can properly schedule all the
other work. I do recognize. Mr thomas. 's comments about
enclosing the building into a weather tight and weatherproof facility
with the proper environmental controls? I can't answer that. That's
WRD or Dr. Tingley's expertise, and it will be asked
in. Fact, it has been asked in terms of that
exposure. We haven't got a formal reply back. With respect
to that. So we are working towards having them fast
track. This structural stuff because it is impeding on our
ability to get other contractors on site. So that's holding
us up right now because from your last presentation, didn't
you. Say we have to get the walls and closed
and we can get workforces inside. To get going. So
maybe we should have had Dr. Tingley here too. You're
correct. So we've adjusted the schedule to accommodate. The. Fluidity
of the structural scope. I still am confident that we
can work in and through it. And get it closed
up as soon as we can. Okay. And just to
follow up on the budget, When you did your original
presentation. You sort of said, I know things can happen,
but you'd said we'd be. Lucky to get to the
11.2 million all in. And now I'm looking down. At
12.9. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Can you
elaborate on that? So the enhanced design options were never
part of the original budget. We're hoping to get some
of that work in. I felt. It was professionally visible
to provide a master plan. For the scope. The objective
was to have you occupyable. By September 1 and. That
is. The first five elements in the budget that come
to 11.6, which I understand. Is the maximum upset limit.
Yes, that was our limit. I was going to look
at that again because. The enhanced design options I assumed
were in with the 11.6 or two or whatever. Okay.
Thank you. Any other questions? Councilor Morrissette. Through you, you,
worship, I have two questions. Have some of the companies
start ordering parts or whatever that is necessary to do
the work. So there's no delay when it's time for
them to install it. Yes. So, for example, like the
bleachers. We have established kind of drop dead dates when
a PO has to be issued in order. For it
to be there prior to when we need it. The
biggest red flag is the mechanical system. It can take
up to 30 weeks. With respect. To getting it on
site. And so we're hitting some critical path elements. Very
quickly. In the next month, and so decisions will be
made. And to what we're going to do in order
to make sure we achieve those dates. To be in
the ice on September 1. So the answer is yes.
We are identifying long lead items that would require. Commitment
prior. And the other big concern I have is with
Ontario Hydro. They seem to. Be slow, like molasses sometimes.
And getting some of their stuff done. We're still waiting
for. Other hydro projects. We waited a long time for
Ontario Avenue, so could that be a big potential? Delay
there. You're correct. I've got a number of other projects.
That. Were waiting many months in order for hydro one
to provide either their approval or designs or all the
above. So it has been red flagged. There's another urgent
item I've assigned the electrical engineer. To update me weekly.
I haven't got an update yet this week. With respect
to that coordination with Hydro one and Electrical Safety authority
in order so that we can get things in place.
I've been told that it should not be a problem,
but from my past experience. It's an authority to have
a jurisdiction out of our control, and I'd rather be
safe than sorry and get it done sooner than later.
Councilor bowl. And thank you, your worship. Through you to
Mr. Perry. When you say occupiable. Does that mean that
we'll be able to use it in September and they
can start the ice in August. Or will the ice
have to be started in September? Then. Okay, go ahead
then. Use it in October sort of thing. The objective
is isis. Starting in august. For use September 1. Okay,
thank you. And I know you've been in contact with
the accessibility advisory committee regarding the plans. And I'm glad
that's going to happen. Then the committee is going to
have a chance to look at the plans. Before. Construction
starts so that they can have their input to make
sure everything's up to code. For the aoda. And I
just want to make sure that we do it right
this time, because I've seen some issues that the new
art center, that didn't go well or proper, so I
just want to make sure that we do this one
correctly and properly. Thank you. Councilor the fifth. Thank you,
you, worship. Through you to Mr. Perry. You just made
comment about mechanical decisions that need to be made. Is
there anything holding up those decisions? And if so, was
that something you can share with council? Yeah, well. It
came in over budgets and what we were advised. So
we're quickly doing some value engineering to see how we
can get it back online. We will be hitting a
point where we may say go or no go. This
does have a connection with the structure because the design
parameters of the mechanic equipment is given. By Dr. Tingly.
So. We need to coordinate it between the two to
make sure. We're getting what is required for all that
investment putting into that structure. So I'm anticipating that. In
short order, that council. Will be advised to make a
commitment. One way or the other to the mechanical system.
Councilor Seidel. Thank you, worship. Through you. To Mr. Perry.
You said you're in weekly meetings with Dr. Tingley, is
that correct? Correct. But you have not got an answer
on why the walls are taking so long. To close
that arena in. From my understanding, the main reason is
they did not finish. The timber plate work. And pile
foundation work. Until I believe it was two weeks ago.
I do know as of today or over the weekend,
they did do a mockup of a wall assembly. Shear
wall assembly. That we reviewed today and actually made some
changes. Because it did not work with the architectural. Intent
and integrity of what we need to do with the
building envelope. So my understanding that he is proceeding ASAP.
On this exterior wall. I believe on the weekend. My
concern is. We're in basically phase one of closing this
arena, and it looks like our timetable. Is already pushed
back. From what it used to be. These walls were
supposed to be enclosed by mid December, and now we're
pushing them into January. How much is that going to
throw off? The other schedule for inside. So my post
schedule also schedule has taken that into effect. It has
tightened. The march window where I've got. Four separate contractors
potentially on site. I was hoping not to have that
situation, and that's why we're looking at some of the
health and safety and legal issues about having multiple contractors
doing work on the same project site. As I had
mentioned. Some of these items are fluid. Out of our
control, and we're trying to manage them with the objective
of having ice. And occupancy September 1. Hold on to
that. No questions, Councilor Flintoff.
Thank you, worship. Through you. Back to Mr. Perry. So
the ventilation and air handling. When our CEO, Mr. D.
Bartoli, was here, he was sort of giving us. An
impression that. It should go the other way. Like we
might be able to lower this. And now it's. Gone
back up to three point. 5 million. So is that
Dr. Tingly telling us we have to get this huge.
Expense of ventilation. Because I know that's out of your
hands and you have to deal with it, but. You're
presenting this information to us? Yeah, so correct. I had
used a different number, a lower number. The latest budget
I was advised was the three point. I think it's
3.6. Which to me is a red flag. And we're
value engineering that to understand why it's going up and
not down. And as I said, that decision is going
to have to be made within a week or so.
Because you can't afford not to have ventilation, not only
for the structure, but for ice. Making. They won't be
able to make ice without some form of. Air handling
equipment in there. It'll be all foggy. So you are
correct. It went in the opposite direction. I put it
in the budget as it is now. As I've been
advised. But we haven't had a chance to do our
due diligence. This was given to me, actually, on the
weekend. And my last question. So who has the final
say? Is it you or is it Dr. Tingly on
the ventilation? System. I don't want to put you in
the. But this is big money, so the public and
everybody wants to know. Yeah. So I'm not the designer.
In the context of managing JCI and Dr. Tingly. I'm
a project manager. I'm not the architect. So I'm managing
on your behalf. That item, and so. We've asked Dr.
Tingly if. There's some room with respect to the design
parameters. That can look at some cost saving measures without
affecting the integrity of the structure. And as well with
the mechanical system. The mechanical engineer is not under. Our
contract. It's under jci's contract. And you've been given a
little bit of discussions with them or allowed to discuss
with them. But basically. The design parameters provided by Dr.
Tequlin. Okay. We'll leave this with you. Thank you. Any
other comments? Questions? Overall, I appreciate your presentation. It sounds
like you were given information at the last minute. I
feel the same. We are just learning and getting this
presentation today. I think you've brought up a lot of
points. That. We need to discuss further. I will say
that the overall concept. I'm loving a lot of these
designs. I think looking at it closely might benefit us
a little bit. But. I don't know if today is
a day that we are going to make any decisions.
I appreciate the presentation. But. There are a number of
factors you brought into play. That are making us question
a lot of things about the project and where it
is, especially budget. Timing and those things. Now we have
in our agenda that we are considering maybe moving our
next council meeting, which would be December 22. Do you
think you would be available to join? Hopefully all parties
involved. To our council meeting and maybe we can go
have some time and look at things. And have a
good discussion with all involved. Because it seems like you're
putting up all these things in front of us, and
you're. Going to get hit with everything, and it's not
your fault. What you paid. I understand.
I had my presentation ready earlier. However, there was still
some fluid. I wanted some answers on some items. Because
I wanted to give you good current information. Which I
believe I have now I feel comfortable with where that's
at. And by all means. Yes, I will make myself
available on the 22nd. This has to. Be managed and
dealt with on a weekly basis. So again, apologize for
the late presentation. However. I think in the big picture.
It is moving forward, I'm still optimistic that we're going
to meet our dates. And yes, I'm getting blindsided by
some of the other entities that are involved with the
project. But that's something we just got to manage as
we go through the objective of being on that ice
September 1. We. Thoroughly agree with that point. We've been
living this for two or three years now. So there
are a number of issues you just brought up as
well. The weekly meetings and reporting. I think we're getting
a bit frustrated with not knowing a lot of things
as well. So I think moving forward, we are going
to demand some more answers, and I hope you plan
for December 22. As all parties will be informed to
join us. Any other questions or comments? Okay, one more,
Mr. Perry. Go ahead. I'm thinking that. Maybe there's
been a lot of. Review and meeting with all the
groups since September. For me with all of this, to
get a handle on the big picture. I would think
that perhaps. I present every council meeting an update. About
where things have been and where we're at, and so
that you're apprised of the schedule of the budget. On
a two week basis. That'd be excellent. I totally appreciate
that. But I just going to reiterate one more time.
Is that you don't have all the information either. So
that's a little bit of a stumbling block for council,
I believe. But like I said, continue what you're doing.
I think the idea here is really good. I see
potential for. All season use. With this redesign of the
arena. And I think. Accessibility factors. You could see that
there are changes here that will allow. A lot more
accessibility. But I think the next two weeks will allow
maybe a few more. Consultations, such as minor hockey, maybe
the local junior club. If they can contact you directly,
that might be something. But now that this presentation is
out, It allows a little time for people to digest
and maybe bring up some other comments. Like my grandpa
said, take a few days and sleep on things before
you make some decisions. Any last comment? Okay. Once again,
Mr. Perry, I hope you feel better, and thank you
very much for presenting this. Evening. Thank you. I'll see
you in two weeks. See you in two weeks. Hopefully
in person this time. Thank you. Take care. Thank you.
Okay. There are no delegations. The consent agenda.
I can just say this, right? May I have a
motion that the consent agenda be received and the recommendations
contained therein be. Approved with the exception of item 10.2,
which will be dealt with separately. We have a mover.
Councilor man, seconder, Councilor Bull. All in favor? That is
carried. So. 10.2 memo from the Director of Clerks and
Planning services. So we will have the. I don't know
how to go about it, but we will. Have the
December 22 meeting? Yes, you, worship. So my memo was
advising counsel of the schedule of. Meetings for 2026 and
had a recommendation to cancel December 22. But if it's
the will of counsel. We can simply. Receive the 2026
schedule and maintain our December 22 council meeting. Okay, that
would be the motion. Councilor man second. Council of the
Faith. Any questions or comments? All in favor? Introduction and
consideration of corporate reports. 11.1 report from the manager of
environmental services regarding service agreement hazardous and special products materials.
We have a motion that council authorize entering into a
service agreement with product care association of Canada for hazardous
and special. Products, materials and that the appropriate bylaw be
passed. A mover. Councilor Faye seconded. Councilor Bolt, Mr. Irving,
please. Good evening, your worship. And through you to members
of council, the city of Elliott Lake entered into. An
agreement with Product Care association of Canada on June 30,
2015, with an amended agreement following on April 1, 2016.
This agreement pertains to the waste diversion program for municipal
hazardous and special waste. Specifically paint encodings, pesticides, and solvents.
These products are all collected during the City Valley at
Lake's annual hazardous waste collection event. Product care is registered
as a producer responsibility organization. Or pro, and operates its
Ontario program in accordance with the hazardous and Special Products
Regulation. Ontario Regulation 449 20. One. This agreement succeeds and
replaced the current amending agreement from 2016 and shall be
on an initial term until December 31, 2026. Upon the
expiry of the initial term, this Agreement will automatically renew
for successive renewal terms of twelve months. The City of
Elliot Lake will continue to provide the annual hazardous waste
collection event while utilizing a service provider approved by product
care. The City of Elliot Lake assist the service provider
by recording relevant information and the individual dropping off hazardous
and special waste and by assisting in the loading of
said waste. The service provider provides support by organ. Organizing
the waste packaging to proper specifications and delivery to the
drop off location. This agreement serves to provide some modifications
to the compensation the City Valley Lake currently receives, such
as. Product care will compensate the city value of Lake
$2.66 per kilogram of paints and coatings. Product area will
compensate the city Valley Lake $3.21 per kilogram of pesticides.
And product care will compensate the city of Elliot Lake.
$2.54 per kilogram of solvents consumer price index index adjustments
on the rates outlined above will be determined on the
first day of each renewal term. This will be calculated
by the percentage change of the Statistics Canada Consumer Price
Index for Ontario for the most recent twelve month period.
Product care will provide the City of Elliot Lake a
one time retroactive payment for the 2024 HSP collection service
in the amount of 4% of the amount paid by
product care to the city of Elliot lake. This aligns
with the city's strategic plan by the city, recognizing its
interest and role as a steward and stakeholder in the
condition of the local environment. And will continue to conduct
its affairs with an awareness of environmental impact. In summary,
by executing this replacement agreement. The City of Elliott Lake
will continue to support waste diversion from the landfill, along
with providing a long term hazardous and special waste collection
agreement. I'm open to any questions should you have any.
Okay, thank you. Mr. Irving, any questions? Comments. Councilor flintoff.
Thank you, worship. Through to Mr. Irving. More of a
curiosity question. Why are we getting a retro? Payment for
24. Through. Worship. They just really want us to sign
this agreement. So it's a bonus. Okay. I like those
deals. I knew that was good news story. Thank you.
Sorry. Appreciate the honesty. Any other questions or comments? Councilor
Marcett through you, your worship. I noticed on the other
two reports how much possible money. But do we have
any numbers yet for this one? For this one. I
believe in 2025 we collected. I could be wrong here,
but. It was a couple of hundred kilograms that was
collected. So I don't have the exact figures. I haven't
looked yet into it. Okay, but I can get you
that information if you'd like. I can share, that is.
That something Mr. Alt would have. Thank you through your
worship. So. Looks like we collected. About
total dollars that we retire through this program. Was $12,085.
So not a ton of money, but enough to buy
a few tons of metal anyway. Okay. Very good. Are
you okay with that? Yes. Okay. Any other questions? All
in favor? Not carried. 11.2 report from the Manager of
environmental services regarding municipal and First nations automotive materials services
amending agreement. We have a motion that council authorized entering
into an amending agreement with automotive. Mat. Materials Stewardship, Inc.
For the establishment of a collection and management system for
hazardous and special products regulation and that the appropriate bylaw
be passed a mover. Councilor lefe seconded. Councilor bo. Mr.
Irving again, please. Thank you, your worship. And through you
to members of council. The city of Elliot Lake entered
into an agreement with Automotive Materials Stewardship, Inc. On October
1, 2021. This agreement pertains again to the Waste diversion
program for automotive HsP. Which includes oil containers, oil filters,
and antifreeze. These products are all collected during the city
value Lakes annual hazardous waste collection event, and AMS is
also registered as a pro and operates under. The hazardous
and special products regulation. Oreg 449 21. The current agreement
was on initial term until December 31, 2022, an automatically
renewed for successive one year terms. This amended agreement will
commence on January 1, 2026, and the initial term will
continue. For five years until December 31, 2030. The agreement
will automatically renew for an additional five years unless it
is terminated in accordance with this agreement. City Valley Lake
will continue to provide the annual hazardous waste collection event,
and this agreement service provides some modifications to the compensation
the city of Elliot Lake currently receives, such as AMS,
will compensate the city of Elliot Lake. $2,550 per ton
of automotive HSP, plus taxes and ams will compensate. The
city of Elliott Lake. A minimum payment of $500 plus
applicable taxes per event. Consumer price adjustments on the rate
outlined above, excluding the minimum payment, will be adjusted on
January 1 of each year. This will be calculated by
the percentage change of the Statistics Canada Consumer Price Index.
For Ontario. For the most recent twelve month period, AMS
may increase the payment rate without requiring an amended agree.
Agreement and the city valley lake will be notified of
any such increase. A minimum of 15 days. In advance
through written notice. This aligns with the city strategic plan
by the city, recognizing its interest and role as a
steward and stakeholder in the condition of the local environment
and will continue to conduct its affairs. With an awareness
of environmental impact. In summary, by executing this amended agreement,
the city Valley Lake will continue to support waste diversion
from the landfill, along with providing a long term and
hazardous. And special lease collection agreement pertaining to oil containers,
oil filters and danifreeze. Again open to questions. Thank you.
Mr. Irving. Any questions or comments? So we use these
services just once a year after our weekly collection. Correct.
So after. All the items are collected during the event.
Then the service provider brings it back to a depot.
And they submit all the weights to us, and then
we take all those weights, submit them to. All these
providers that we have agreements with and receive compensation based
on those rates. But we don't have a depot for
all year donations. Quote unquote. No. It's only operated once
per year. Once per year? Okay. Any other questions or
comments? Council Marcett. True. One more little question I noticed
when I was at the dump the other day. There
was a lot of steel there. Is that collected or
does stay at the dump eventually? Are you? Your worship?
That's typically collected a couple of times per year. Okay.
All right. All in favor? Not carried. 11.3 report from
the Manager of environmental services regarding agreement with product care
association of Canada Municipal Lighting materials. Of a motion that
council authorized entering into an agreement with product care association
of Canada for the provision of certain collection and post
collection services of lighting materials and at the appropriate bylaw
be passed. May have a mover. Councilor Ho fave seconded.
Councilor Moore. Set Mr. Irving. Thank you, your worship. And
through you to members of council. The City Valley Lake
currently collects lighting during the annual hazardous waste collection event,
but no compensation is received through this agreement, product care
will begin compensating the city Valley lake based on the
amount of unit weight collected during the event. This agreement
pertains to the waste aversion. Program for electrical and electronic
equipment, specifically lighting. Product care is registered as a producer
responsibility organization and operates this Ontario program under the Electrical
and Electronic Equipment, or EEE Ontario Regulation 522 20, which
is issued under the Ontario Resource recovery and circular. Economy
act. The initial term of this agreement commences on November
16, 2023, and shall end on December 31, 2025. At
the expiry of the initial term, this agreement will automatically
renew for successive renewal terms of twelve months. The agreement
outlines the accepted program products inclusive of fluorescent tubes, fluore.
Fluorescent bulbs, high intensity discharge bulbs, led bulbs, miniature bulbs,
halogen and incandescent valves. The products not accepted under the
program are light fixtures, ballasts, string lights, batteries, smoke and
CO2. Detectors. The city value lake will continue to provide
the annual hazardous waste collection event, and this agreement serves
to provide compensation to the city Valley Lake, such as.
Product air will compensate the city of Elliot Lake $2,200
per ton of lighting. And although not located within the
agreement, Product Care has communicated that it will provide retroactive
payments for the lighting collected during the 2023, 2024 and
2025 collection events. This aligns with the city strategic plan
by the city, recognizing its interest and role as a
steward and stakeholder in the condition of the local environment
and will continue to cond. Conduct its affairs with an
awareness of environmental impact. In summary, by executing this agreement,
the City of Valet Lake will continue to support waste
aversion from the landfill, along with providing a long term
lighting collection agreement. I'm open to any questions. Thank you,
Mr. Irving. Any questions or comments? Councilor Flintov? Thank you,
worship, sir. To Mr. Irving. So there's all kinds of
different product, down to. Led light bulbs, and the other
ones were paint cans. Who separates all this? They do,
or the staff. So staff assists a contractor. We bring
in and all this is then separated so we record
all. The people showing up and help them load the
equipment, and the service provider will package all this. And
just one more quick follow up. So this lighting one,
is this brand new we've never done the lighting before,
is that what. Correct. We've never done the lighting, but
they. Sent out the agreement in 2023. I'm glad you're
on it. Thank you. Councilor. Thank you, your worship. Through
you to Mr. Irving. Just knowing that you're new. To
the role. It's commendable that you're bringing these three agreements
making. Sure that the city is protected and that we're
renewing things on time. So thank you for taking this
a priority for you. Yes, I agree. Thank you very
much. Good work. Same question. Are we going to have
a depot set up for. Light collection. So that'll just
be annually during the collection event, okay? I am looking
into different options we can take in the future. Yeah,
the hazardous waste. I can understand you can't store it
somewhere without regulations, but light. Bulbs. In a big container.
I don't know even a couple of it. Over the
course of the year. Some of that can be sort
of organized for you. Led lights. And whatever. Something just
to think about. I have something to speak on for
that. Sorry. So for the lighting, if it's broken, they
don't collect it, so that's. One of the struggles with
having a storage facility. Wow. Interesting, then. Very good point.
Any other. Questions. Okay. Thank you very much. All in
favor? Not carried. 11.4 memo from the Director of Recreation
and Culture regarding Reuben Yudi, center update we have a
motion that the memo from the Director of recreation regarding
the Rubeni UD center update be received. Mover. Councilor man
seconded. Councilor Flintoff. Ms. Kluk, please. Thank you. So, since
the completion of the inspection. At the Ruinley Beauty center,
staff and contractors have been working diligently to ensure the
facility can be safely returned to full operation following the
investigation of the equipment in the mechanical room. A specialized
team was brought in to preserve all mechanical equipment to
stop any further corrosion. Once that work was completed, our
electrical contractors conducted a full assessment of the damage and
have now ordered parts that were required for replacement of
the components. At the same time, staff had been working.
Have been coordinating with contractors who've installed the original mechanical
system together. They've been reviewing the condition of all affected
equipment and arranging for ordering any additional parts. That will
be required for replacement. In parallel with these repairs, staff
and contractors have been taking steps to improve the overall
safety of the mechanical room. A redesign has been completed
to prevent similar incidents. From occurring in the future. Under
this redesign, the chlorine tanks will be relocated to a
separate, dedicated storage room that's outside of the mechanical room.
They will supply the necessary systems through piping and wiring,
providing full isolation. Of the rest of the mechanical room
and the equipment inside. During the process, staff were also
informed of the alternate option for managing pool ph levels
that does not rely on acid. Based on the recommendations
from our contractors and consultants, staff approved transitioning from an
acid based pool to a CO2 system, which would be.
A new development in Lake. It should be noted that
there's some costs associated with this transition. A portion of
these is expected be covered under the insurance claim. Related
to the acid leak, and additionally, we do not anticipate
any meaningful increases in operating costs with the change from
one system to the next. In fact, the CO2 system
is expected to be comparable to the previous acid base,
and there may be less corrosion or anything on equipment
further down the road. So most importantly, the CO2 is
significantly safer and more reliable method for balancing the pool's.
Ph. It reduces the risk for staff and the equipment
and avoids hazards associated with storing and handling acid installation
of the new CS two system was completed last week.
And our team fully remains committed to completing all remaining
mechanical and electrical repairs as quickly and safely as possible.
Staff continue to work closely with the appropriate authorities to
secure required approvals and ensure that upgrades meet all current
safety standards, so that's kind of where we're sitting. Right
now. With just trying to work with ESA. On being
able to get approval, so I'm open for any questions
that you may have. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Kluk. Any
questions? Councilor man? Thank you, worship. Through you a. Comment,
and I have two questions, if I might, through you
to Ms. Kluk. First of all. Thank you for the
report. It is nice to hear that there is work
going on and some of the information we've been provided
is that some of the damage wasn't to the significant
extent that we thought initially. I guess my first question
is, when would you anticipate. The timeline for the results
in the investigation. Have we got any sense of the
final report and when that will be available. Through your
worship. I don't have a timeline yet. Still ongoing. So
it's hard to comment on that right now. My second
question, your worship. Obviously, I think in the last main
point of your report about the transition from the acid
based system to the CO2 system. Easy to sit here
now and kind of wonder why, when the initial redevelopment
of the pool. Can't make assumptions, but. I'm wondering why
that wasn't something that was considered at that time by
the engineers and consultants that we were using to do
the rehabilitation, because obviously some of this could have been
prevented. Thank you. Your worship. Definitely. It's easy to sit
back now and comment. But it's an acid system, is
very common for commercial pools. I've worked in many now,
and it's always been acid. From my experience, I think
the switch to CO2. Is becoming more modern. But the
acid system is very tried and tested with pools and
acid, actually. Reacts faster for ph, and it actually has
a better. It balances alkalinity as well. So even switching
to CO2, we would still have to have acid on
hand to manually. Add it. Say that if there's a
ph swing, it does react faster. But it wouldn't be
as much and we wouldn't be relying on heavily and.
It's never our experience. Sorry. The engineer's experience with this
as well as the. Designer has never experienced a failure
like this in their past. So they wouldn't have known.
Or, I guess, expected something like this to happen. So
that's why they've never. Kind of steered away from going
with the asset system before, so it's something we're seeing
more and more in newer pools. And same thing with
the consultants. They were able to make the suggestion. There's
other even systems out there, too, that other pools have
gone to now, but. It's just, I think based on
experience and the designers and engineers, Didn't obviously expect it.
Nor did we at the time. Okay. Thank you. Thank
you. Any other questions, Councilor Marsette, through you, your worship.
If we were to get the okay from Esa tomorrow.
How long of a process would it take to get
it started? The pool again. With the public health and
all of those agency that needs to be approved. During
your worship. It would take a little bit of time.
With just one. We've dealt with this. So public health
after a 30 day shutdown. We would have to schedule
an inspection, so they'd have to come in and improve
everything. ESA ultimately would have to say yes, and then
it would just be a matter of making sure staffing
and programming are set to go. I know we have
a lot of eager staff waiting. To get back to
it, so I don't think. That would be a problem,
but it just would be scheduling that inspection and making
sure everybody is aware. So we're all ready to go
and eager to go and wanting to go. So it's,
I guess, just a matter of following provincial standards. And
has ESC said anything or gave us a timeline, or
are they coming back to the city to look. Through
your worship. It's something that our electrical contractors and main
engineer. Are pushing on them at this time, but I
don't have a time letter date for their inspection time,
but I know it's being pushed on almost daily. Councilor
is in favor. Thank you, you, worship. Through you, I'm
a little confused, so. My understanding was that we had
ordered parts that aren't coming until spring or summer, so.
Are those parts not dependent on us reopening the pool?
Through humi worship. They're trying to figure out the best
way to get approved, so they're working. With ESA for
something that they would sign off on. There'd be no
liability. There is some things that need to be replaced,
and I think they're just trying to exploit all options
right now and try to get. This approved by ESA
so we can get open fast and still replace what
is needed. The time of the arrival of the other
part. So they're trying many different plans and options to
get everything safely approved open so that we can operate
as soon as possible. And have. The remaining parts upon
arrival, replace. Just another follow up question. I know that
the recommendation is that we move to CO2. My fear
is that are we just making a knee jerk reaction
to the fact that we had an acid leak because
CO2 been tried, tested and true. Because you are saying
it is new technology. Drew. Your worship. No, I don't
think. It's pretty common. There's other pools and commercial pools
using it. It's also been used in our water treatment
plant years ago. So. It's pretty trying to test it
as well. It's just kind of one option. Or the
other. And based on the research, And everything that's been
given to us. It seemed like the right and the
proper fit for us. And also with the less risk
of corrosion on our equipment. And that it'll last longer
and it might be more cost effective along in the
long run. Councilor flintoff. Thank you, worship. Through to Ms.
Kluk. So from your report, the CO2 system is. All
in. As of on Friday. Is it the contractor that
did this? Is this the same? Contractor that did the
original work. Through your worship, so. They supplied it and
installed it. Yes. It's not the same designer. But. Some
of the contractors that we use to have all the
equipment installed. And it is the same one we used
prior. And they're the same ones. That are addressing all
of the other the motors and the pumps down there
and cleaning and replacing what would be needed for the
claim as well. And sort of follow up from councilor
Le Fabe. So the CO2 systems in has it been
tested yet, or do we still need more equipment before
it can be tested? Through your worship. It's sin right
now. We did temporarily turn it off for the weekend
just because it would be unsurprised and we didn't want
there to be. Any incidents that happened unsupervised, but we
are just using right now. Smaller cylinder tanks so that
there would be a later install that we would require
for that, but there's just been a little bit of
a weight, so we've worked locally to get that? But
it's been able to get it into our system, and
we'll have better. Reads throughout, but. We're not apprehensive, Earth.
There's no precaution for us. To think that it wouldn't
work. It's set up and ready to go. We just
are waiting for more electrical approval than anything. Okay. Thank
you. Councilor Seidel. Thank you. To Ms. Cloop, would you
anticipate having an answer before the 22nd from ESA to
give us more of a time frame. Like, are they
coming to do an inspection? Usually they're. Here on Thursdays.
Through you. I hope so. Like every week we've been
trying. There's been almost change frequently. Every day we're making
calls and trying to get answers and try to get
them here. I think. When I spoke to the contractor,
they were hoping. For potentially last week or this Thursday,
so I'm hoping to have an answer on that. So.
If they are, I'll definitely come back with an update.
But at this time. I just don't have an answer
from when they would come to inspect. Thank you. Okay,
so this system. Is there a breakdown of the cost
of what's been happening? Any updates on that so far?
Through you. Just based on we've been tracking, because everything
that's come through right now, there hasn't been. Any. Are
you wondering just how much the unit itself cost? Yeah,
like changing to a CO2. System. We don't know what
the cost is. Where's the money coming from? Yeah. So
it's expected that the unit itself, the CO2 unit, we
would have had to replace the acid beck system unit,
so it's expected that that would be covered under. The
claim. But. That alone. That's part of the reason to
switch, is that we knew that that would have come.
Through the claim or in hopes. But. It was under
$10,000 to get the system purchased and. It wasn't as
costly as we thought. And especially. Expecting that. It should
be filed under the claim, and then. There'd be a
little bit of an upfront cost just to get the
tanks installed. As they would be coming from a supplier.
And. We would look temporarily at renting to see if
that's better than just for hazard. And to prevent staff
to having to do the inspections, it would be done
by an actual company. Itself. But that's expected to be
five grand as well, so it's nothing that has been
astronomical. For the change, and then. The operational costs are
expected to be similar with having to bring supplies out
of town with the asset like we normally do as
well. So the system we have now is sufficient for
the reduced acid use. I understand you're just using it
as a quick buffer, but it still has to be.
A system that has to get into the water, correct?
Do we have that already? In our inventory. Or is
that going to be an extra cost? The CO2 s
no. You mentioned that we needed CO2. But for spikes,
for example, to change that, you're still going to have
to apply. An asset based system. Yeah. There wouldn't be
a lot, and it would just be kind of monitoring
on hand. We actually have a lot right now of
acid just from purchasing it from our operations. It's not
expected to be a lot, and it's something that we
can purchase from a supplier. That we regularly use or
service tele la. Lake so. If we needed it, there
would be a lot smaller of an order than what
we've been using. No, I understand the supply of asset.
It's the distribution system of acid that just blew. Up.
Yeah, we wouldn't be using it that way. It would
be manually from the pool. Deck. Okay. Sprinkling it in.
Got you. Appreciate it. Any other questions? Okay. All in
favor? Not carried.
11.5 report from the Director of finance treasurer regarding 2026
interim tax levy may have a motion that the bylaw
to provide for an interim tax levy for 2026 for
the payment of taxes and for penalty and interest on
rears in accordance with the Municipal Act 2001. Be passed
by council. Mover. Councilor man seconded. Councilor Seidle, Mr. Olt.
Thank you very much. Your worship and through you. The
memo in front of you today is with respect to
an interim tax levy. So here in Ontario, it's very
common for all municipalities. To bill taxes with. Two bills
that come in the mail, one in February and one
in June. The one in February is what we call
the interim tax bill. The one in June is what
we call the final tax bill. In the interim tax
bill. We assess your property taxes at 50% of whatever
your taxes were from the year previous. The reason we
do that is because there are a lot of inputs
that have to go into that. Bill. Municipal budget has
to be passed. The school board. Rates have to be
determined by the province, and we need to know what
our assessment value is so that we can divide it
up per dollar of property value correctly for the different
classes of properties that we have, residential, commercial forests, aggregate
pits and so on. So we usually send those bills
in February, which means we print them in January. There's
5000 bills to print out. And even if we pass
the budget here at the end of December, We would
like to use last year's rate for that first bill
because it's practical. And issue those bills accordingly, which would
set the payment for April and June, and then. Once.
We can have a bit of time. We can set
our property tax rates once all those other unknowns are
made available and send that bill in June. So this
is a standard housekeeping. Procedure that's done in pretty much
all 444 municipalities across Ontario. And I would ask. That.
You ask me any questions you may have, and I
look forward to answering them. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.
Olt. Any questions or comments? Councilor man just to comment
your worship and discussions. With Mr. Alt earlier today. I
believe we're still on track to get the budget wrapped
up. No later than early January. If that. So this
is again. As indicated. Just a housekeeping matter, but I
think we're going to be pretty close. To getting it
done on our original schedule. Thank you. Thank you. Any
other questions or comments? No. Okay, Mr. Holt, go ahead.
Just on that note. So based on the results of
the survey, Obviously, it was seen that user fees are
big importance to the community, so we spent our time
to revise user fees, not just applying a blanket percentage,
but going through every single fee and so that is
why we redirected the coming ad hoc budget committee towards
primarily the review. Of user fees, which is a major
input to the budget and has a direct imp. Impact
on the levy. And then we would ask that an
additional ad hoc budget committee meeting be made. To review
the budgets that obviously that input would produce. With that
one extra meeting and one council. Meeting such as the
22nd. We can have this passed by the end of
2025. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that was my comment. You
now have December 22 to play with. Any other questions
or comments? Councilor Lo fave thank you, Richard. Through you,
just a comment. Though the ask is that you're going
to. Bill. The interim tax levy will be based on
50% of last year's property taxes. Irrelevant of whether we
finished a budget on time. Thank you, you, worship. And
through you. That is exactly correct. And that's what happens
at every other municipality. For instance, City of Sue St.
Marie just passed their budget last week, but they were
still doing an interim tax levy even though the school
board rates just came out this morning. Sudbury is doing
the same thing, and they just passed a budget a
couple of weeks ago. This is done by all communities,
and it's because. We can't really set the rate until
we know what the assessment value is, which means we
have to wait at least until December 31. We don't
come back to the office until, obviously, January. And we
need to print off 5500 bills and have them mailed.
So this is just. A practical way to do it.
Questions. Okay. All in favor? That is carried.
11.6 report from the Director of Finance treasurer regarding Political
Intelligence 2025 government relations activities. We have a motion that
the report from political intelligence for 2025 government relation activities
be received. Mover. Councilor bowl seconded. Councilor lefe. Mr. Alt,
I believe you have a presentation, or we have two
members. From the political intelligence group Christine Reddig and Dion
Huawei. Are here to present via zoom, correct? That is
correct, sir. And through you. This is with respect to
a council report that was requested. Upon the signing of
political intelligence to be the government relations experts here for
the city of Elliot. Lake. As we know, government relations
is more than just filling out applications. It's figuring out
how projects that don't really fit neatly into. A government
funding box can fit neatly into a government funding box
and takes a lot of strategy. Relationship management and understanding
of the unique needs of the client, or which in
this case, is us. As a northern community. And it's
on that note that I wish you could please invite
both Christina Retig and Dina Huai to give a presentation.
On their progress to date. And direct any questions you
may have towards them. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Hi,
Dion. Hi, Christine. Can you hear us? I can hear
you loud and clear. Can you hear us? Yes, perfectly.
Here, you all, your worship. Thank you. Okay, please go
ahead. I understand you have the presentation in your package.
Would you like me to share my screen or. Is
it easier to follow along on paper? Yeah. We have
a number of people in the gallery. If you'd like
to share. Okay. Just one moment, please. Sure.
Okay, can everyone see that? No, not yet. Not yet.
Okay. One moment, please. Sorry. Okay, now, are you able
to see my screen? There you go. If you can
enlarge. It. Maybe. Yes, no problem. Is that all
right? Perfect. I'm going to take 1 second. My daughter
just showed up and I'm going. To try and make
sure that she goes upstairs. My love, please go to
bed. Can you go? Upstairs and find daddy. I'm very
sorry about that. She snuck downstairs. That's perfect. Don't worry.
I thought I was hiding from her, okay? So this
picture represents one of our early goals in our relationship
with the city of Elia. Lake. We wanted to make
sure that we were engaging at Queens park before Christmas
while the house is still in session, which was a
relatively short window to help make the case for the
city. And priority projects. And some of you might be
wondering why we were stressing the need to do this
in. Person. Especially for Premier Ford, who we were targeting
for a meeting in person is the way to go.
He is. Not necessarily. A huge fan of Zoom meetings,
and he is a dynamic, in person kind of. Kind
of leader. So we wanted to lead with the direct
approach, and I would say in person tends to also
lead to more high quality and memorable engagements. Taking the
time to make the trip to the legislature having discussions
with multiple offices is definitely a net benefit, and I
would say. There's also a net benefit to being just
in the building while all the mpps are in town,
you can have spontaneous interactions, et cetera, just wandering the
hallways. Which definitely merits the in person approach. And here
you can see around the table, this was the meeting
with the premier. Staff. You can see your local MPP,
Bill Rosenberg, was at the table. The mayor. Of course,
the deputy mayor. And city staff Steven Tunis and Andrew
alt. Each individual brought something different to the meeting. We
wanted to make sure that we could have a wide
ranging discussion with the various offices that we were engaging.
So it was helpful to have a delegation there. And
why were we there over two days? I would say
that we wanted to make sure that we were making
the trip as valuable as possible, given the distance and
the drive. That your staff and your leaders were taking,
so we wanted to make sure that we had as
many meetings as possible. To. Talk about the priorities for
Elliot Lake. So you can see here we had a
number of touch points across a variety of ministries. While
we were there. Most importantly, being with the premier, we
wanted to make sure that we had an in person
engagement. With him, his staff, because they are critical to
drafting the budget and making decisions about what future funding
looks like. Your local MPP, Bill Rosenberg, who I know
is aware of the situation, but it's. Helpful to keep
him. Abreast of developments and also included in meetings at
Queens park so that he can be alive to the
issues. In addition to that, there were staff meetings with
staff from the Minister of Northern Economic development and growth,
responsible for the heritage Fund, the office of the Ministers
for the senior ministers in the portfolio. The Minister of
Tourism, Culture and gaming. And the parliamentary assistant to the
Minister of Sport, Natalie. Pierre. So, quite a few meetings.
Were shoehorned into a short period of time. This is
here to make sure that we're making sure that we
are being publicly transparent. That we are keeping the public
engaged about what leadership is doing at Queens park, showing
that the wide variety of meetings and nature of the
discussions and to make sure that. You're there where that
your local MPP is being engaged in the conversations. And
to just be as transparent as possible about the kind
of work that you're doing. While you're at Queens Park.
In terms of meeting outcomes. We had a couple of
very specific messages that we were trying to get across.
First is to raise awareness for the arena and project
timelines relative to the different funding opportunities like Mr. Altis
mentioned, this doesn't necessarily neatly fit into the programs as
is and we needed to emphasize why that's the case.
A big reason for that is that this is a
sole access project which differentiates it from other northern cities,
such as the Sioux or Sudbury, et cetera, where there
are multiple arenas which have been funded by the provincial
government and made the clear link between. This arena. Hockey,
skating and communities, wellness and morale. It's more than just
a building. And the history that was behind it. Critically,
we emphasize the major impact of the ongoing closure on
the local economy. There are many spin off effects to
having that arena open and functional. From not just skating
in hockey, but also the trade shows and all the
various events, concerts et cetera that I know are hosted
there and all of the ripple effects that that has
on the local economy, from accommodations to restaurants, retail, gas,
et cetera. It all adds up. We also wanted to
make sure that we were linking assets like the arena
to demographic changes that are happening in Elliot Lake, where
there's population growth happening. Involving young children and families and
where these kinds of assets. Are important to access for
those people in addition to the rest of the population,
and they're expected in a northern city. And we also
want to make the case that special circumstances were as
usually allowed to some degree in various programs for funding.
Can be expanded further to recognize some of the practical
challenges facing northern infrastructure projects. Now the meeting. They were
milestones. They were with important steps. But we want to
make sure that we keep the pressure on because we
want to ultimately come up with results. And part of
that is not just explaining the problem to decision makers
and staff at Queens park. But it's proposing policy solutions
for them. And one of the funds we are focusing
on particular is the community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund,
which already has special circumstances, and we're proposing that those
circumstances be expanded a little bit more. To allow for
funding for a project like the arena. In addition to
that, those expanded special circumstances would not mean much if
they didn't put more money into this pot because we
assume that they have spent all of the $200 million.
That was previously allocated to this fund. So we are
advocating for additional funding and budget 2026. Next up, we
also want to make sure that the local MPP is
fully engaged and abreast of all the developments are happening
because things can change. We've seen. This is a project
where it is ongoing and evolving, so we want to
make sure we're doing that. The relationships that were established
need to be maintained, and we want to make sure
we follow up. With them. To make sure that they're
aware of the policy solutions and help with any advocacy
that might be required for the budget. Because advocacy can
come from all sides, not just from the city of
Elliot Lake. And we also want to make sure that
we're maintaining contact with the heritage fund about progress and
interacting. With their funding of opportunities because we want to
keep that door open as much as possible for future
funding. And that about sums it up. Okay. Thank you
very much. I will say, for my part, we did
benefit from the services. Especially navigating around Toronto. It's not
just one meeting spot you got to walk all around.
There's, like, tremendous blocks in between. Dion was our guide
every moment of the day. He has a good history.
Of interacting with. Queens park mpps. And he knew a
lot of people. And helped us get a few of
these connections and meetings. And those meetings, to me, were
very productive. Obviously, they don't say. Okay, here you go.
But I think we've established a number of reports, and
I agree that the pressure needs to continue. A lot
of focus in the presentation was the arena, but there
were a number of. Important issues for Elliott Lake that
were brought up in these meetings. I've never been to
a conference yet. But by all accounts, these meetings. One
or two of them went beyond 45 minutes, which is
unheard of. So it was very personal. And we're very
appreciative for the guidance of the company. That we have
contracted. To. So thank you very much for that. And
I will say we do have ongoing talks currently. On
board at the moment, which is great news. Councilor Morissette.
Through who you worship. Does these talks was with the
provincial government. Are we going to get this similar with
the federal government. Or is that totally something different? Did
you take out, your worship? Sure. So. Excellent question, Councilor
Morrissette. We are planning on engaging at the federal level
as well, to start through your local MP, Terry Sheehan,
there was some language in the most recent federal budget
about reusing existing infrastructure funds for a new community infrastructure
stream that would be direct to commun. Communities, as opposed
to going through all of the work involved in getting
on a provincial priority list. Which I know you're familiar
with from path infrastructure rounds. We are monitoring the situation
carefully. To see when that is launched. As you know,
the federal budget has not been passed yet. I don't
expect it to be passed before the break, given the
minority context, they're at a bit of an impasse at
the federal level, but once that is passed, We hope
that that community infrastructure fund will flow expeditiously and we
will be absolutely looking for an application when that happens.
Councilor flintoff. Thank you. Just a comment because I went
down with the team and I've been to quite a
few conferences and going into delegations, but you're one of
a many municipality like you're. Lined up and you're in
there and you're feeling, you're on the clock, but I
really felt, when I went into these meetings, We weren't
quite as marijuana said, a couple of them went into
45 minutes and we were in their work area and.
It just. Seemed like a lot more like they were
really focused on how we at lake when we were
in there and Dion looked after us. He was the
king of the Ubers and showed us. Where to eat,
but. I really think it was time well spent. I
agree. Thank you. Any other questions? Comments? Councilor man. Thank
you, your worship. Through you to Mr. Ralph. Just to
clarify the term of the existing agreement, ends when. Thank
you. And through you. The term of the existing agreement
technically ends on January 15 and a part of this
note is also to provide direction to extend that agreement
into the new year. There are a number of priorities
that political intelligence obviously is engaging with currently, as you've
seen. From the next steps, both at the provincial level.
And at the federal level, and I believe that it
would be in the municipality's best interest to continue the
relationship on a month to month basis. And we can
provide further direction in the 2026 budget. Thank you. Any
other questions? All in favor? Not as carried.
Okay. Thank you, Christine. Thank you, Dion. Merry Christmas. Thank
you. To you as well. Thank you. Be in touch.
Okay. Report from the 11.7. Report from the Director of
Finance treasurer, regarding gis services. Agreement with Sue St. Marie
Innovation Center SSMIC. The council approved the execution and renewal
of the GIS services agreement with the Sue St. Marie
Innovation center dated October 14, 2025, which provides pay as
you go GIS support. Technical services and strategic spatial data
management for the city of Elliot Lake, and that the
appropriate bylaw be passed a mover. Council of fave seconded.
Councilor bo Mr. Alt. Thank you, your worship, and thank
you. For the opportunity to speak on behalf of this
project. As you know, asset management remains one of the
top priorities for the city of Elite Lake finance. And
information technology and public works departments. And JS technology is
how we're able to make a lot of decisions using
data. And evidence. For many municipalities, GIs is known as
the single source of truth, meaning that as soon as
assets are updated. They're recorded on GIS. All of the
inventory of our assets, everything. From the fire hydrants to
the linear infrastructure underneath the roads to the treadmills and
the gym to the. Ice plants in the arena are
all recorded. On a GIS system. And the way I
like to describe this is that we have smartphones and
they're powered by Android or apple. What powers a lot
of GIS systems is a technology known as Sri or
Esri S. Three has been around for well over 30
years. And provides the backbone kind of foundational infrastructure from
that. Developers create app. Apps or applications similar to. How
Google makes Google Chrome as an application on the smartphone.
So these applications enable us to do things with the
maps. The Sue St. Marine Evasion center has been a
catalyst for developing apps on the GIS system ever since
it's launched. In 2006. I had the pleasure of working
there and myself in 2013. And since then, they've grown
to be. Known worldwide for excellence in geomatic information systems.
They rebranded their division for gas. As known as acorn,
and they serve as a maid in the north solution.
What Susan Renovation center does is develop these applications for
the context of municipalities. Again, everything from linear infrastructure, buildings
recording depreciation. Recording replacement cycles. Tracking when we have an
excess number of leaks and pipes, when our maintenance costs
are exceeding replacement. Cost. Those are things that we need
in order to make informed capital budgeting decisions. Here at
the city Valley lake, engaged with the sustained renovation center
in the past. The project was incomplete as it was
determined that. They wanted a change in vendor was required.
And a Toronto based Mississauga based vendor at the time,
was recommended. This is to restart our engagement with the
maid in the north solution in Sue St. Marie. Here
in Algoma municipality. We also qualify for their original product,
which is how they gain their reputation, which is a
municipal cost share pool. So when we want to develop
new apps that they currently don't have say to track
something in the arena. The cost to develop that app
would not just be owned by the City Valley Lake,
it would be actually shared by the municipality Awa municipality
of Prince. Most of the townships along the North Shore,
St. Joe's island, and if we become a member of
the city of Valley Lake. It is a nonprofit entity
fully owned by the city of Sue St. Marie. It
has grown to well over 50 employees. The expertise. They
have there is unbelievable. The agreement that you have in
front of you is an extraordinarily. Cost effective agreement for
providing top of the line. World class GIS support. That
includes getting our maps up to date, getting our asset
inventory up. To date. And ready to hit the ground
running. For 2026. We had Sean Crozier come here to
Elliot Lake to make a presentation. Which impressed everybody, and
we have 100% confidence they're going to do a great
job. In doing that. These are computery guys and girls
and they like to work. So December when everything shuts.
Down. They like to become workaholics, and that's why this
agreement is in front of you today because we really
want to get our asset inventory uploaded to gis as
quickly. As we can so that we can start making.
Good decisions. I don't anticipate we're going to come close
to 50,000. By the end of the year. However, I
am intending to carry over. Whatever we are expected not
to use to the 2025. Operating budget. So on that
note, I would look forward to answering any supplemental questions
you have about this project. Okay. Thank you very much,
Mr. Alt. Any questions or comments? Councilor man. Thank you,
worship. I think the other point in this is it's
very important that we become provincially compliant with this asset
management, which we know we have not been as of
late. So I thank you for bringing this forward, Mr.
Alton, and getting back on track with us so. Much
appreciated. Thank you, Councilor Flint. Flintoff. So this is a
fairly new contract. Courtney, report. We started October 14. Go
ahead. No. The agreement was dated October 14, when we
had our initial conversation. We weren't sure what the fit
would be like if what we had before would be
salvageable. What the approximate cost would be from an aggregate
perspective. So we had further conversations with them before. Bringing
this to you. And that's why we didn't come to
you in October. With that. We want to make sure
what we have done before. Can be done again. And
we don't have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak.
As maybe our decision might have been different if we
had to start from ground zero. So because we've had
some stuff done in the past with them on Sri.
Our cost was scaled much lower than. What continuing with
dot, for example, might have been. Okay, so I misunderstood
that. So we haven't really fully engaged them yet until
after the. Meeting tonight. That's correct. And just. Could you
just explain? The difference between level one, level two and
level three? Yeah, for sure. So there's different. Levels of
experience. Kind of like going to a law firm. You
might get the top lawyer in the province, so you
might get the junior lawyer, and of course, it depends
on the complexity of your case. So some things that
are relatively simple can get kind of farmed off to
kind of the junior people. We don't need to be
paying somebody that's going to be at a higher rate
of pay to do something that a junior could do.
But there are some things especially in this technology that
you do need the expertise of a seasoned gray hair,
so to speak. And it's worth paying the residual. I.
Have great hair too, but. That's kind of the idea
behind that. Okay. As councilor man said, it's a good
way to get our asset management plan and good work.
Council Bolt. Thank you, worship. To you. To Mr. Alt.
Has the city ever done a gis? Before. Thank you,
Councilor bowl. We've attempted to. There's been an attempt, initially
with the Sue St. Mary Innovation Center a long time
ago. With Sri. And then there was a more recent
attempt with Dot. This is revitalizing the earlier attempt. With
s three. Okay, a follow up. So is there an
upset limit to how much we're going to spend next
year on this? Or is it because I didn't see
it in here? If there was an upset limit. Thank
you for your question. I mean, I'm cognizant that we're.
Already in December, so there's only so much time between
now and the end of this year that this technically
would be active for. However, in the budget that would
be presented to you later. This. Month, and maybe we
might want to word it in the motion today. An
upset limit of a project total of $50,000 to get
everything back up to date and running. Obviously, the work
is going to start in December, but we'll definitely carry
forward into 2026. My recommendation would be to approve the
upset limit of $50,000 today. However, in the operating budget.
We will also put in the 50,000 less, maybe five.
And that gives them the flexibility to work as much
as they want during the holiday season to get this
done. We did have conversations directly with our account manager,
Sean, to kind of ballpark that estimate pretty accurately. Okay,
now for the information. Do they come here for that,
or do we have to have our resources go through
all that and send it to them again? Good question.
So we are in a mixed digitization phase. So just
to give you an idea, Was consulted on the capital
budget because we believe strongly in infrastructure. You're at the
city. Of Elliot Lake. And that's why we engage professionals
in infrastructure. And when we ask them what might be
a priority. They were digging up literal paper files, so
we have a lot that stored. Not. In the digital
system that has to get stored into a digital system.
So the digitization. Is a big part of this. For
an example. If you want to find out what road
should we do next? Well, you probably want to know
a the age of the infrastructure and the road and
the problems that you're facing right. How many visits have
we had to do? How many leaks have we had
to repair, et cetera et cetera. And so there's a
lot of information that goes into those decisions. Because we
do have scarce resources. Ultimately, if we had unlimited money,
we'd fix all the roads tomorrow, but we don't. And
so to make. These informed decisions. We need good information.
Right now, that information is mixed between paper and digital.
There's not really one source of truth, because on some
software that we use says one thing. Other software, says
another even dot, for example. Our current dot subscription, which
was recently updated. Hillside drive north is still listed in
Dot and in the asset management plan as needing revitalization
yet. We all know we just fixed hillside drive north.
The reality is it just never got uploaded to the
system. So that's what a lot of this is, is
to upload. That data. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions?
Just for curiosity's sake, if this goes further. I feel
like I've asked this question before. Do we need a
position at the city? To change our paper to digital.
Is that something that's being considered through? Your worship, I
think certainly I can comment on my understanding and finance.
Although perhaps the it director. Might further expand. A desire
to treat Gis seriously. Certainly at other municipalities that are
medium sized. They have departments that are smaller but exist.
I would say that working with a provider like the
Sue St. Renovation center on this provides continuity. I don't
know if we really want to attract a computer science
student. To go into that cycle of every two years,
having to recruit and so on and so forth. But
I do think we could have somebody on staff that
might support this initiative, and I do. Think that. That
is attainable. I could put some metrics out there. So
we usually compare ourselves to Canora and to Dryden. In
canor. They do have a GIs analyst, and they also
work with a GIs. Firm from Winnipeg. I think a
model such as that would be something that would work
for our city. So having, like, one employee, but still
having. The main support department that we could consult and
provide continuity of service. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay,
so are we going to consider the 50,000 upset limit?
In tonight's motion or just we're going to accept those?
Is council. The fave moved. So what are we doing?
Okay, let's just have a vote then. Councilor man.
Wasn't my motion, so I feel a little uncomfortable about
recommending it, but I would be happy. To agree or
support the treasurer's recommendation for an upset limit of 50
in 2025. So if the mover and seconder are agreeable,
we can do a friendly amendment to add an upset
limit of $50,000. So it was council, the fave, and
it was councilor bowl. You're both in favor?
Friendly amendment, but we said we would never do. Okay.
It's now allowed under our new procedural. Okay. So the
motion. Would you mind reading it, please? Thank you. You
were. So the motion reads, that council approve the execution
renewal of the gIs. Services agreement with Sue St. Marie
Innovation center dated October 14, 2025, which provides pay as
you go GIS support technical services and strategic spatial data
management for the city light lake at an upset. Limit
of $50,000. And that the appropriate bylaw be passed. Thank
you. All in favor? Not as carried. There's no presentation
of committee reports. No one finished business. No notice is
a motion, general. Announcement. On behalf of the Elliot Lake
Council and the city of Elliott Lake, we would like
to congratulate. Mr. James Owl on being elected as chief
of Serpent River First Nation we'd also like to extend
our congratulations to George Coglin, Justin Irquart, Rebecca Sazar, Angela
Trudeau, Nicole Pelchier and Aaron Carne on their election to
council. We do look forward to working together with our
neighbors to ensure. The success of our two great communities.
The city's rock. The holidays decorating contest is back. Head
to Elliot Lake, CA Rocktheholidays 2025 or the city's Facebook
and Instagram pages between December 9 and December 14. To
find a map outlining participants, take. The tour and experience
the magic of the season with your friends and family
after you've done. Head back to Ali Lake, ca. Rocktheholidays
2025 before December 15 to cost your vote for this
year's. People choice winner. Contest winners will be announced on
December 15. Please check the city's website and socials. For
the map. And city holidays. Closures are as follows. City
hall will be closed to the public beginning at noon
December 24 until January 5. The call and call will
be closed at noon on December 24. And on December
31, Closed all day on December 25, 26th and January
1. And the landfill will be closed in December 25,
26th and January 1. And the library will be closed
at noon on December 24 and on December 31 and
will be closed all day on December 2526, 27th, 28th,
and January 1. Any other announcements? Okay.
There are no addendums, introduction and consideration of bylaws. May
have a motion that bylaws 25 118 to 25 125
be passed. Mover councilor. Bowl seconded. Councilor lefe. All in
favor? Not as carried. Closed session. There are three items
for closed session this evening. Memo from the manager of
economic development. Guarding letters. Of intent for Oakland Boulevard, a
memo from the director of clerks and planning services regarding
appointment to committee of Adjustment and property Standards Committee and
a memo from the manager of human resources regarding CAO
recruitment update. So may I have a motion that council.
Proceed into closed session as per the provisions under section
239, Municipal act, at the hour of 09:00. P.m. mover
councilor Mann seconded. Councilor sidle all in favor.
Okay. May I have a motion that council return to
open session at the hour of 09:58 p.m. Mover.
Councilor Lefave. Seconded. Councilor Bowle. All in favor? Carried may
have a motion that Rick Hamilton be appointed to the
committee of Adjustment and property standards. Committee mover. Councilor, man
seconded. Councilor Flintoff. All in favor? Not carried. Confirmatory bylaw
19.1, bylaw 25 126 being a bylaw to confirm the
proceedings of council at its regular meeting held on Monday,
December 8, 2025. We have a motion that bylaw 25
126 be passed. Mover councilor Sido councilor. La fave. All
in favor? That's carried adjournment. We have a motion. That
the meeting adjourned at the hour of 10:00 p.m. Mover.
Councilor Marsette seconded. Councilor the fave. All in favor? Not
carried. Thank you very much.