All rise.
Good evening and welcome to the council meeting.
And I'm going to start out with the acknowledgment of the land.
We acknowledge the incorporation of the town of Wippy is located on the lands of the Great Mississauginations,
who are signatories to the Williams Treaties.
These communities include the Mississaugas of Scuba Island.
First nations of Alderville, Bolsa Lake, Curve Lake, Hayawatha, Chippo-Wazard,
Georgina Island, and Rama.
We believe is important that we learn and work to reconcile the impact we and those before us have had on the original inhabitants.
On behalf of the town of Wippy, we want to thank them for sharing this land and all its resources.
At the town of Wippy, our goal is to respectfully share and the responsibility of the stewardship and protection of these ancestral lands,
and waters and continue towards truth and reconciliation as we move forward as friends and allies with all of our stations in UIT and MAT people.
Mr. Clerk, National Anthem, please.
Thank you.
I would now ask you to remain standing and join me in a moment of reflection.
May we always be respectful to responsibility of public office.
May we accurately discern whether it is in the public good in our diverse community.
May we work diligently in the best interests of our residents.
May we make wise decisions for the betterment of our town.
May we be seated.
Mr. Clerk, can I have the call the roll?
You were, should I can certify the attendance of all members of council?
Thank you.
Is there any declarations of conflict of interest in tonight's agenda?
Hearing none.
I'm moving to the adoption of the minutes.
Item number five.
Move by Councillor Lanklass, second by Councillor Yamada.
All in favor.
Any opposed?
I'm not as carried.
Moving on to, prior to actually moving on to the presentations.
Within the agenda and prior to getting to the delegations.
There is an item within our agenda.
And I am going to be ruling it out of order in accordance to 15.5.
And that is 12.2.
And in accordance with 15.5.
I just want to make a reminder as our roll as an example council.
And we're elected to deliver local services.
Not to decide decisions on royal succession.
So this is at the scope of what our roll is.
And I think that our residents rely on us to be making decisions that are clear within our roll.
And that is about looking at the mandate to govern locally and to deliver services.
This maintain infrastructure support housing and economic growth.
And ensure community safety and enhanced equality of life for the residents.
And I believe the focus is what this council is.
So I'm going to rule the motion out of order of 12.2.
Within 15.5.
Councillor, there is the opportunity to have council to approve for the motion to be presented this evening.
And if you'd like to proceed with that.
So your call counts are like he, but if not, then it will be ruled out of order.
And the delegate and also the motion will not be brought forward this evening.
I'm on clear on your statement.
I'd like to move it forward.
So 15.5.
Under your procedure by law.
Essentially states that council can approve.
Outside of our scope of jurisdiction.
A motion to move forward.
So as the mover to allow for it to move forward within the agenda.
You're the mover, seconder, please.
Councillor Yamada.
So council members, do you understand?
I know this is the first time with 15.5 to be presented in front of you.
That I do ask the question.
Do you as everybody understand?
Yes, it's to move it forward.
No, it's not to move it forward.
All in favor to move forward.
Okay, sure.
Mr. Clerk.
Thank you, Mayor Royce.
The question is will the ruling of the chair be sustained.
Recorded vote.
Councillor Bois and Opsky.
Yes.
Councillor Cardwell.
Sorry.
Just pointed clarification.
Mr. Clerk.
This is different.
It's not a challenge of the chair.
It's to move it forward with my understanding.
Yeah, so the chair is made a procedural rule.
Mayor Royce made a procedural rule.
So are we upholding the rule in that she is made here under section 15.5.
Yes, is supportive.
No, would be a vote against the position.
Okay.
Sorry.
I misunderstood it.
So that's fine.
Thank you.
It's Councillor Cardwell.
So I'm not more confused.
Sorry.
In the affirmative, supports the procedural interpretation that section 15.5 applies.
And this is beyond jurisdiction of council.
So if you vote in the affirmative, you're supporting the position that this is beyond the jurisdiction of council.
Councillor.
Councillor Bazaanowski.
Yes.
Councillor Cardwell.
Yes.
Councillor May.
No.
Councillor Lee.
Yes.
Councillor Lanquist.
Yes.
Councillor Mokai.
Yes.
I'll switch the head.
Yes.
Councillor Yamada.
No.
Roy.
Yes.
We're shipped that vote carries on seven to two vote.
Thank you very much.
And just to confirm that under delegations, that 12.2 is not part of our agenda this evening.
I do recognize that there is a delegate that has registered for this.
Mr. Clerk, did you notify that the delegate that there could be a potential that this would not move forward?
You were shipped.
We did not notify the delegate of that, but given that the body of council has made this decision.
I think it's an order here.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Moving on to presentations.
I'm going to move to Herbert Schillings and Ronald D.
Durham Agricultural Advisory Committee.
Please come forward, gentlemen.
Good evening.
How are you?
I'm just going to pull up the presentation.
Okay.
Good evening, Mayor.
Members of council and staff.
Thank you for this opportunity to appear before you tonight.
My name is Ronald D.
And I'm here with O'Bare Schillings from the Durham Agricultural Advisory Committee.
We're providing a brief update, annual update on the Durham Agricultural Advisory Committee.
Also referred to as DAC.
And how we can support the town of Whitby and region with agricultural and rural matters.
Okay.
Okay. So we'll cover three things tonight.
A quick reminder of what DAC is a brief overview of what we focused on in 2025.
And the key issues were here across the agricultural community in the region.
And then ending with how DAC can be a practical resource for the WIPP Council and staff.
Okay.
To start with with what DAC is and how we work.
DAC provides advice to the region of Durham on agricultural matters and rural matters as they relate to agriculture.
Projects, consultations, emerging issues can be brought to DAC either for information or to gather feedback.
Our role is to bring in agricultural perspective.
What the impacts and benefits of light for farm businesses and the broader agriculture system.
DAC includes 17 members, including members at large representatives from each municipality.
The Durham Region Federation of Agriculture, Durham Farm Fresh, and three non-farming representatives.
So in simple term stacks is a ready organized way to test how policies and projects land in the agricultural community early enough to be useful.
The next two slides are quick at a plant snapshot from region materials to ground of the discussion.
This slide pilots the scale and footprint of egg and Durham and the diversity of how farms operate and connect with the community.
The key takeaway here is that egg remains a significant land use and economic driver and intersects directly with municipal planning infrastructure and economic development decisions.
Okay, the next slide speaks the broader economic contributions.
This slide summarizes the contribution of egg or culture and agriculture to jobs and economic activity.
The reason why we include this is when council decisions affect a viability directly or indirectly.
They also affect or may affect the broader economic outcomes and local businesses tied to the sector.
Okay, so with that context here's what DAC spent time on in 2025.
In 2025 we focused on mix of engagement planning, practical issues that show up in municipal decision making.
We supported the annual farm tour.
As well as an egg or a focus mental health training.
We are involved with the North Durham on farm diversified uses project working across the North.
School of Brock and Uxbridge and regional community growth and economic development.
As well as we engaged on the Duffins Rouge egg preserve the clean water program through Toronto and region conservation authority and a number of local planning issues.
And as we discussed the broader regional themes including economic development initiatives, recurrent transportation issues such as road design and culverts.
These activities connect closely to the larger challenges we're hearing across the sector.
The major issues we're hearing include on farm diversified uses transportation of goods and a price of agricultural land.
We're also seeing a clear need for more food processing capacity.
Continued global market challenges such as tariffs ongoing planning policy changes and the importance of egg agriculture education.
So the bridge for council.
These show up in very practical ways.
How we plan land use, how we design and stage transportation projects, how we balance growth of long-term food and farm business vitality.
Okay, so that brings us to the most important slide to help DAC.
Can help with me.
So first, it provides an agricultural perspective on new projects, strategies and plans.
Second, it can help ensure local decisions consider the impacts of agricultural businesses.
And third, DAC can help raise between the region, agricultural businesses.
So the information flows practical and timely.
Examples for DAC can provide feedback include regional local strategies or plans, economic development projects, agricultural land use matters, works department matters.
For example, roundabouts, intersections, so on.
And so our ask is simple.
If we have an initiative where an agricultural lands would be helpful, we welcome the opportunity to be brought in early when the value of our feedback is highest.
And again, thank you for the opportunity to present and we're happy to take questions.
Thank you.
Thank you so much. Through you, Mayor Roy, I really appreciate you coming out and Mr. Hubert, you've met a few times in Durham Farm Connections. It is an absolute pleasure to have you in town of Whitby, Council and welcome.
I have a couple of questions. The last slide states the fact that how can you help us and I appreciate that. How can you simplify these points of how we can help you?
I give you an easy example that we went through, where we built new barns, where I need the flat piece of land, so we stripped off soil, and then we bought fill in that were surplus to regional projects. That cost me 35,000 dollars.
I could have done a whole and wrecked three acres and brought no fill in.
So that is something that's region, sorry, planning staff is listening and definitely taking into consideration and have further meetings with you.
I will definitely request that and I appreciate you bringing real example to it.
So I'll give it again. We're going to add on to three of my barns on the home farm. Don't need to do this.
Don't be as much fill as we did at Whitby on the Whitby farm.
We're not adding that much.
But those are all where we struggle. So some of us who are building new buildings, a barn, a shed, maybe needs, it's better to bring some fill in because here in Durham is all sorts of good clean fill.
Instead of digging a hole to make fill.
Or I'm going to say it makes sense to me. However, I would open up this dialogue with staff and have you talk to them and see how they can help you.
Furthermore, I know that Mr. Kahoon is a frequent visitor at the Durham region council through that as well.
You mentioned tariffs and I know that Mayor has a correct task force and this is more of a federal matter. How can we help you locally with that?
It depends what the production that we produce for export.
The tariffs are hitting some of those farmers. I'll say it that way. In my case, it's not affecting me at all.
We're basically producing for the nested market.
So depends on what farmers you are.
The big thing is moving a fertilizer now. If a cost of the U.S. border or not, type of thing.
So some of our shipping of raw product is coming direct now through the U.S. to the Canada.
So we have to re-jigger our way of getting stuff.
The other one is some sectors can buy equipment if it's not built in Canada. Quite easy out of Europe.
It might be now cheaper than the same equipment of the U.S.
So I'm lucky being in poultry myself. We have all sorts of good equipment. We have all sorts of good European equipment.
So if the tariffs, especially if you live in a steel, if their prices are going to go up, then we're going to buy more.
And so we're lucky we do have European equipment from salespeople.
So some of us are looking at equipment. We're starting to think expensive stuff.
We're starting to price it out. Do we not buy it out of the U.S.
Makes sense. I watched that Netflix series that the person buys farm equipment up in England somewhere so I appreciate that.
Thank you so much for being here. I will encourage staff to set up a meeting with you.
We will see how they can help and ease something. I can promise but I can definitely encourage and I really appreciate your here.
Thank you.
Thank you. Through you Madam Chair. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for the presentation tonight.
Just a very brief question, but the answer might be more complicated. I don't know.
The Pickering Airport lands. They're about to go through more study and strategic consultation.
And, you know, your slide says, you know, that you are giving agricultural perspective on new project strategies and more.
So, where do you see your role fitting in with that? And, you know, how do you see that unfolding as far as your guidance goes with those lands?
It's a tough one. Most farmers want to own their land. I do not see the Pickering Airport land being resold back to farmers.
So, lots of farmers rent land there and they just do what they have to do.
That land will never be taken care of my land that we own in my family.
So, I rent no land that a Pickering. I know some that do. I keep asking for more rent.
There is some land. I'll be fair to the Pickering land. They have tile drained with a longer term lease.
If they're serious about keeping it, you've got to show me a 25 year minimum lease. I don't think the federal government is there yet.
Thank you. So, if I may. So, you know, just to expand on that, the reasoning being is that when you lease land, you work it for years.
You rotate the crops every year. It takes many, sometimes 10 years to get the soil the way you want it for what you're doing, right?
Yeah, so, okay.
Well, and now the Pickering land has been, you know, 50 years rented, all the livestock has left.
So, there's no manure base left in Pickering. So, after 50 years of no manure, it's tough.
Yeah. And so, some of whom wants to be able to say a new dairy bar. No one's going to do it on rent at land or a new chicken market like what I meant.
On rent at land. Because, usually, this is a 25, 30 year investment.
Okay. So, I think I have my answers. Thank you. I assume that you will give that feedback to the federal government during this presentation, during the study that they're doing.
Thank you. That's all. You're welcome. Councillor Cardwell.
Thank you, Mayor Roy. Question to the delegates in your presentation on page 5 under activities of DAC for 2025.
In notes, agricultural focused mental health training.
That one caught my attention. Could you elaborate on that, please?
For sure. So, the committee identified mental health.
Option general terms. It's, you know, it's an important topic, but specifically to the community.
And, you know, number of committee members, you know, have had experience with it.
Other, you know, in different forms. But, but recognizing the need that it affects farmers and the farming community in different ways.
So, putting together some programming to really provide that support to the farming community around mental health mental health training.
Thanks. When it fascinates me, because I think it's a society we all hear about mental health crisis on the rise and it is.
I never really thought how would affect the agricultural factor in farmers and their families and stuff.
So, now knowing that I'm glad to hear that they're resource available to help because we all know COVID was really bad and with costs of food inflation, not great.
So, yeah, I make sense that farmers and agricultural folks are affected. So, you know, good on you and DAC to be taking care of those folks that need the assistance.
So, thank you.
And Councillor Longquest.
I was going to ask about that because it caught my attention to because it stands out.
But I have another question that's a little bit related to the same vein as Councillor Molkha.
But my aim was about the plans for high-speed rail through what might be primary agricultural lands and if you're involved in advocating one way or the other about that.
Actually, I was going to bring that up because so I'm going to use the 407 in the new piece from Pickering to the 115.
How many roads got closed because of the 407?
So, well, the same thing happened again wherever this track is.
And it's going to be north of the 407. I'm pretty sure.
I'm feeling it's the Claremont Merlot Station, the Peterbill corridor.
That's, and I'm not very far from that.
You know, and so our municipalities in our region, if this track ever does go through, really got to be upfront, where the north south roads go, that's stay open.
And I don't want to see a road, two roads closed, and the third one's finally open, where we got to go two miles east to go a mile north to come two miles west.
You know, and that's kind of like happening with the 407. Just look at the 407.
You know, there's many roads that got closed, you know, and so that would be a very concerned for the guys that farm on both sides of this.
And can't get to the other side through an underpass or a bridge.
No.
I appreciate that. Thank you so much.
Further?
Seeing that, I'm just going to expand on that conversation in that topic that's in front of us, just with the high speed railway.
This staff been reached out to have to participate in the, with the high speed to, with their consultation that they've been having within our community.
As of right now, I'm going to say no.
Okay, so from the municipal side, we have shared to the Ministry of Transportation federally, that would be wants to be a part of the consultation.
We sent that on February 19th and both the CAO myself sent that through and I know that the CAO has asked staff to pull together a internal group to make sure that we're on top of what does take place.
And the letter, I actually just sent an email earlier today to have the clerk put it into our public agenda and then the next upcoming meeting.
So it'd be interesting to have your perspective on that as well too, and to be a part of that discussion.
So we're still waiting from the Ministry of Transportation to respond to us on that, but we do have concerns as well too and your point about what the farming is very valid one.
Last time you were here, you spoke about a slaughterhouse within our community, so a year ago.
Where did that ever go?
I'll leave you when anywhere.
Okay.
It's more on the beef and the pork side.
All right.
Okay.
So Ron, we would welcome the opportunity to have further conversations, especially as our north develops in that and to ensure that you're a part of that conversation.
Okay.
Thank you.
Great.
Okay.
Thank you.
So the other one is.
I'm going to make sure I say this right.
April the 8th is the open house at the Brooklyn Reno.
It's a cold.
That's a fine fine.
Yeah.
For our farm production.
So the Wednesday night after supper, it's open to the public.
Okay.
All right.
I know.
I do think I went before allowing us to use that arena.
I think we've used it for first to 20 years.
And I hope you can carry on.
I know you're going to not have a arena in the future.
It's a good spot for us.
The building will still be there.
Yeah.
That's.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
I'm going to move on to delegations and moving on to seven two.
Jessica Street.
I'm talking about 12.3.
Good evening and you have five minutes.
Marin members of council.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight in support of this motion on transparency and disclosure.
I want to begin by acknowledging something that happened earlier.
I had prepared a short PowerPoint presentation to accompany my remarks.
Unfortunately, I was informed that I would not be permitted to present it tonight.
That presentation contains several examples and visual explanations about how outside advisors, consultants and political strategists can influence
Municipal decision making in ways that are not always visible to the public.
Since I cannot show that presentation tonight, I will simply summarize its central points, transparency matters.
And the public deserves to know who is influencing decisions at regional town hall Queen's Park and Parliament Health.
Let me also be very clear about something else.
In my presentation, I deliberately avoided mentioning the name of any counselor.
I'm not here to single anyone out.
I'm not here to make infer or imply accusations against any individual member of council.
This motion is not about individuals.
It's about systems.
The issue before you tonight is whether the public should have access to basic information about strategic political and communication advisors, who may be assisting elected officials during their term in office.
Most residents understand that elected officials often seek advice. Consultants, strategists, communication advisors and policy experts can all play legitimate roles in helping people navigate complex issues.
Advice itself is not the problem. The problem arises when the intent of the advice is invisible.
If I were able to show you my PowerPoint, you would have seen screen grabs of a website that promoted an event I went to.
The website was a chalkablock of lobbyists, communication experts, political strategists and elected officials.
I will not mention names, but the website seemingly belongs to a member of council.
This is why the mayor's motion is so important.
When residents cannot see who is providing guidance, who is shaping communication strategies, or who is attempting to influence municipal decisions, it creates uncertainty and uncertainty can quickly turn into mistrust.
Even when nothing improper is happening, a lack of transparency can lead residents to believe that decisions are being shaped behind closed doors.
This motion helps to address that concern in a very reasonable way. It does not prevent counselors from receiving advice.
It does not prohibit consultants or advisors from working with elected officials.
It simply asks that the public be informed about who those advisors are and what role they are playing.
The framework proposed in this motion is straightforward.
If someone is providing strategic communications, political, or advisory support to a member of council outside of an elected period, that relationship should be disclosed.
The fact of the matter is my PowerPoint would have demonstrated an example of how something is innocent as a campaign school should be included in such a registry.
The public registry proposed in this motion would provide four simple pieces of information.
Who the advisor or firm is, what type of support they are providing, whether they are being paid directly indirectly or providing support and kind, and how long that relationship exists.
That information would be available to the public through a registry on the town's website.
Sometimes donors provide tangible gifts of value, sometimes they provide intangible gifts of value, otherwise known as advice.
I recently filed a freedom of information request to the Finance Department.
I received back a detailed summary of expenses except one member of council who I will not name had a blank sheet.
No expenses, no plain ticket, no meal expenses.
So the mystery is, did that council member receive a donation or gift?
We will never know. I will abide by my commitment not to name a councillor at this meeting, but please know that I will always push for transparency.
I believe the motion is not an extreme proposal. In fact, it is consistent with the direction many governments are moving.
Transparency tools such as lobbyist registries exist precisely because the public expects to know who is influencing public policy.
The province of Ontario has opened a window for modernization through municipal accountability Act 2025 Bill 9.
And this motion simply asks the province to help establish a consistent province-wide standard.
Whippy has the opportunity to lead by supporting this motion council will be sending a message that transparency is not something to fear.
It would send a message to the town of whip that the town of Whippy welcomes accountability.
And it would send a message that residents deserve to see the full picture when it comes to the influences surrounding municipal decision making.
Again, I want to emphasize that this discussion should not be about personalities or individual councillors.
That is why I chose not to name anyone in my presentation I prepared.
That is about building system that protects public trust when public when the public can see clearly who is advising elected officials.
Speculation disappears, rumors disappear, confidence grows.
Sunlight strength and democracy and transparency protects everyone.
The public, the members of this council themselves.
Advice itself is not the problem in residents.
Just always remain free to share advice and ideas and concerns with elected officials.
My only hesitation with this motion is that the framework created must be careful not to infringe on the charter protected rights of residents,
particularly freedom of expression and freedom of association under section two of the Canadian chartered rights and freedoms.
Constituents must always feel free to bring their ideas concerns and perspectives to their elected officials without fear that their participation could be discouraged.
Discouraged or scrutinized.
At a time when voter participation is already low, we should be cautious about creating any barriers that may make residents feel less comfortable about engaging with their representatives.
And that's for these reasons.
I respectfully encourage council to support this motion, but with caution and to continue strengthening with peace commitment to open and accountable government.
Thank you.
So I'm going to remind council members, this is for clarity on the presentation.
Please.
Councilor Shahid, Councilor Bisonoski, Councilor Yamada, Councilor Shahid.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate you coming out and speaking.
I truly do.
A question for clarity is the fact that you're supportive of this motion and you're encouraging council members to support it.
Right?
Okay.
And then what is the caution?
Can you be clear?
Can you give us the clarity of what caution you're cautioning us?
Oh, so as I said, my main caution was that we make sure that we're not infringing on the chartered rights of residents so that they can still feel free to come to their elected officials when they have issues.
I love that.
Absolutely.
For sure.
I will be supporting the fact that she supports it.
That's awesome.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Councilor Bisonoski.
Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you for being here tonight.
I think I heard you mentioned it once or once or twice.
You kept saying campaign school.
What's the campaign school?
I'm a little confused.
I attended a, I'm trying not to make many specific councillors.
I attended a session that was put on by a member of council to help train people in how to campaign.
That encouraged people to campaign early and to get out there and get in contact with different vendors and whatnot and participate.
Okay.
So in relation to the motion, are you then asking that if councillors then host campaign schools that they also have to publicly declare that?
Is that I think that they should be disclosing that, especially when there's lobbyists and things involved?
Is there a fee to attend to the school?
Yeah.
There.
So for clarity, we're just clarity as for the details of the campaign school.
I think we're delving in deeper into something that we'd like to do.
I've never heard of a campaign's full name.
I heard you mentioned it twice.
So I appreciate you giving us additional feedback.
Thank you.
Councillor Matta.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
And I do think for questions of clarity, I do think it's fair to be able to ask, for example,
how much did this campaign school cost?
How many people were attending?
Because if we are asking councillors, for openness and transparency, I do think that outside of the costs of putting on an event that you're speaking to.
I'd love to know where the profits went.
Councillor.
Especially if there were lobbyists and councillors.
So that the clarity, if there were lobbyists there.
Councillor.
The clarity for the question to the participant and to our delegate.
She was a participant.
As for the cost and anything further than that, that I think is something that's outside of our realm.
But it could be probably found out by just having further information after the fact after the meeting today.
I don't know why we're hiding anything.
No hiding anything.
We've gotten opportunity to ask a question.
If I'm being told that I can't get an answer before I'm going to make a decision on emotion later today.
I think is unfair.
I think things are.
Point of order.
Trying to be subverted.
Please Councillor Leicester.
Okay.
Councillor Leicester.
What Councillor Leicester is attempting to do is actually not relevant to the motion itself.
And the fact is if there are questions.
Point of order would talk to the person.
Councillor Leicester.
Open this and transfer.
So Councillor members, remember with the procedure with our governor?
I'm where hold on.
I have the floor.
Yeah.
So did I.
So when you call a point of order, a point of order needs to be acknowledged by the chair before
you speak.
And that is our procedure.
And that's our procedure of dialogue.
This is not going to be across the bait.
She brought forward a point of order.
I acknowledged her.
She spoke Councillor.
And I'd like a point of order after.
You can have it.
And I will come back to you because you still have the floor.
Thank you.
Unquest.
So the challenge that I'm having with what's transpiring is that it actually isn't relevant to the conversation.
So what somebody may or might not have done previously isn't going to be impacted.
But this because law does not apply retroactively.
And so the idea that we must have answers to this to vote on this.
It doesn't actually make any practical sense.
And so I have to question the purpose of the conversation.
But most more specifically, it isn't the delegates position or place to be responding to questions that are meant for another council member.
Councillor Lankos.
Thank you.
Councillor Yamada.
You have the floor.
I think.
You have councilor.
Are you doing point of order?
I do think it is relevant because I think we are talking about transparency.
We're talking about openness.
And I don't think there's anyone around this table that doesn't believe that more openness and transparency is better for our democracy and our council overall.
So I do think.
It is fair.
Madam Mayor.
To ask those questions.
Did you have heard the questions that the delegate for clarity?
No.
Those were my questions of clarity.
And I would hope I could get some answers.
Thank you.
I have nobody other questions.
Thank you, Mister.
For coming forward.
I'm moving on to the correspondence.
And I am turning to Councillor Lee.
Thank you.
Members of council.
We have the following.
Proclamation requests have been received and are recommended to be endorsed.
The first.
The first being world behavior analysis day on March 20th, 2026.
And medical laboratory week from April 12 to April 18th, 2026.
Thank you.
This is second of a councilor.
Leahy.
All in favor.
And that is carried.
I'm moving on to.
8.2.
It's a member and a press cousin supervisor for development.
Construction dated March 9.
Move by Councillor Bazaanowski.
Do you agree?
Yes.
It's a housekeeping item.
Second by Councillor Shahead.
Do you agree?
Okay.
Any questions?
All in favor.
And that is carried.
Now we're moving on to committee of the whole planning and development.
And I have from items 9.1 to 9.7.
And I believe that 9.6 has been moved by Councillor Mokahi.
And I do not have anything else pulled.
So moved by Councillor Mokahi.
Second by Councillor Cardwell.
On 9.1 to 9.5.
And then 9.7.
All in favor.
And that is carried.
Councillor Mokahi.
Do you still move 9.6.
Second by Councillor Cardwell.
Yes.
Councillor Mokahi.
Has it moved or please?
Yes.
I just want to bring for the OPA one last time for one motion that the clerk has in his possession.
This is in relation to 540 Winchester Road north.
This is on the north side of Winchester Road.
It's 540 Winchester Road west.
I believe is the actual address.
And it's on the north side of the road.
Yes.
The two parcels of land.
This is the one on the north side.
And this is a red designation from designated from prestige to business instead.
And the rationale behind this is that it is on a provincial highway.
It is a prime location for a business that could be complementary to the hospital lands.
Or also to the sports facility that we've built in relation to hotel conference center.
And many different uses that would be significant for the site.
And I feel it's important to put forward.
And Councillor Lengquest is my seconder.
Can we?
I don't know if it's possible.
Is there an illustration of where these lands are within the report that we can pull up?
Mr. Clerk?
Just to ensure that people are aware.
Councillor Lengquest, do you want to speak to this as a seconder?
I do.
And I want to be clear that I'm respectful of the position of staff.
And I've kind of toiled over this one because it didn't sit well with me.
Because it's separate and apart from the continuous lands that are prestige employment.
And to me, we took a ton of business use out of the OPA in the OPAs.
Turned them into residential.
And we need business.
And frankly, I think it's the right place for it in light of what's coming that area.
And so it doesn't actually prevent the other parcels from being a continuous grouping of employment
Prestige employment lands.
And so to me, this is a minor amendment in some ways that makes a ton of sense.
Thank you.
Councilor Leahy. Thank you. So while we're waiting for it. It's up. It's up already. Okay, so it's just the, and it's, is it one side of the street, one side of
the Cochlan, no east west, east or west side of Cochlan of the whole parcel of north.
Just just a west side apart, Cochlan. Okay, so my question is through you, madam, mayor, to staff. So how many, do we know
how many, I have a couple questions, how many acres is this. And how, if we lose this prestige and
which is very difficult to get.
Where else could we place this prestige industrial somewhere else
in town?
Commissioner.
Answer the first question.
I don't know what the acreage is.
It's not large.
Okay.
There is no other opportunity to replace this
with other prestige industrial elsewhere
because essentially the amendments we have before Council now
deal with all of the lands within Whitby that are not part of the
green belt.
So when we speak of this as a larger
contiguous employment area, we look at the entire area as
bounded by 47 hydrochord or right through and not
why we refer to it as contiguous.
We're not looking at separation by roads because
even we develop a plan of subdivision we separate land by roads.
Yes, there was a lot of land redesignated from prestige to
business in response to the changes to the PPS.
And there were further changes through the considerations of Council
at committee a couple of weeks ago.
Frankly, this is not a change that causes me a great deal of concern.
Business is still a designation that's going to generate
employment.
It's not the same employment as prestige, but it's
employment nonetheless.
I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
So I think that's pretty much it.
Thank you, Commissioner.
Yeah, further supplementary.
Well, if you're not going to lose as much sleep
in about it, then I will neither.
The other three parcels of lands around it, those all
prestige industrial, so we would just have one
quarter would be business and the rest would be
prestige industrial.
That would be the outcome, yes.
And there are there is a draft plan of subdivision on
the other side, on the east side of
that is being considered by staff at this time.
It'll be coming forward for council consideration in
the near future.
Okay, fair enough.
And there's as there are any risk of conflict between business
use and prestige industrial use, because I know
self-wiping others with there's odd conflict, but
don't anticipate any issues.
No, the potential conflict would be between prestige
industrial if it was considered to go to residential
or another sensitive type use.
Business does not permit those sensitive type
uses either, and that is intentional in the way
that we've developed this new designation to co-exist
with and create buffers if you will between residential
and prestige in general industrial.
So it's not a great concern.
Okay, no, those are my questions.
Thank you.
Further?
Councillor Cardwell.
Thank you, Mayor Roy, through you to staff.
Councillor Lee's question pointed out that we lost some
prestige, this would make us lose some prestige industrial
to business.
My question is, how many acres of business land
did we lose with the OPA changes?
Through you, Mayor Roy, we didn't lose any.
We created a new designation.
What happened with the new provincial policy statement,
uses that were previously permitted within the
prestige industrial designation, like hotels,
certain amounts of retail commercial uses, for instance,
that contribute to an industrial or employment area,
are no longer permitted.
Honestly, I think that's an oversight on the part of the
province, they just didn't fix it.
So we're left to pick up the pieces and come up with a way
to make these areas still work.
So we created a new designation and needed to transfer
or redesignate lands to fit into that category to continue
to provide a wholesome amount of employment opportunities
that hit the broad spectrum in response to those
decisions on the province.
Thank you, and just a comment, please.
After committee of the whole Councillor Lungquist and I
stayed behind, we spoke to the delegate, the property owner.
He's here with us tonight and shared his vision for what he
wants to do with that land and the jobs he wants to create and
it's exciting.
And he needs this designation of business.
I believe in his vision and I would like to see this
change made tonight.
Thank you.
Further.
Councillor Lee.
Thank you.
Just a few questions, I guess, to commissioner
Saunders on this.
Because my understanding is that we could, at any time the land owner
could do this in the future, should there be an opportunity that
presents itself that exists in business, is that correct?
Through you, Mayor, to clarify, are you asking if a property owner
could re-designate through a privately initiated
amendment from prestige to business?
Yes.
It's a specific development proposal.
Yes.
Perfect.
That was the big thing, if there's a development proposal that does
that requires this sort of zoning, because right now we're working on
hypotheticals as to what use could be for this land where years away from
anything.
And then the second question is, around what all the servicing really,
power, sewer, everything that would be required for any
developments, I don't believe we're anywhere close to having it on
these lands.
Like, we're ages away.
I thought, but maybe I'm wrong.
Through you, Madam Mayor.
The ability to service south of the 407 is a different scenario than
north of the 407.
I can't say for sure that Hydro will be available to this extent.
But that would all be dealt with once we had something to actually
consider for an actual development proposal.
So I can't say for sure either way at this point.
Okay.
So then just as a follow up to that through you, Mayor.
Are we, and I guess this is asking your opinion, if you can give it,
are we sort of ahead of the game here if there's no power, there's no
servicing, we don't have potentially a proposal in front of us.
Are we just jumping ahead of the game here?
No, this is not really ahead of it.
Through you, Madam Mayor, not really.
Whether it's designated prestige, industrial looking forward to the
potential for those types of uses or business that would accommodate
those types of uses, the ability to move forward in either
respect is there's no difference.
Okay.
I appreciate it.
Thank you.
Further.
On the amendment.
All in favor.
Any opposed?
That's carried.
Moving back to the main motion.
Councillor McCoy, you still have the floor.
Well, I want to thank staff for all their effort that they've put through for
the OPA.
I know it's been a big project and I certainly will be glad when this is over.
So thank you so much.
So to the main motion with the amendment, is there questions?
Not seeing any?
All in favor?
Any opposed?
That is carried.
We're moving on to general government and within general government,
10.1 has been pulled.
10.9 was referred by the committee.
And 10.10 was pulled.
On the remainder, moved by Councillor Lanklist, second by Councillor Shahed.
10.2 to 10.8 and then 10.11 to 10.12, all in favor.
Any opposed?
And that is carried.
Councillor Shahed, on 10.1?
Will you move?
Yes, please.
And the Councillor Lanklist?
Thank you so much.
Mayor, I don't have a question, but just a comment if you allow.
Considering that we had the first celebration of 55 plus and on its 50th anniversary,
I can just tell you how happy the room was of filled with our senior community and how proud
they were of the 50th anniversary.
The reveal of the mural and the guests there and the cake cutting and everything.
I could just tell you how happy our 55 plus senior community is of the celebration.
And I know that in the summertime there's ice cream promised as well.
So I will be looking forward to more celebrations.
But with that, I'd like to really thank staff how they had put together the whole event and what they have shared
with me in the upcoming future event to keep on celebrating the 50th anniversary of 55 plus senior
recreation center.
I can tell you, the mural itself was beautiful, depicting the miracles, the winter jacket, and the Canadian flag,
and the small detail of it was just absolutely beautiful.
And at some point I'd like to see a video or a picture of it in the Canada,
in the National Anthem that gets played as well because I think it will be a great touch as well if that could be added at some point.
But I just want to commend staff on bringing this event and how beautifully it was shared with the community and us.
I really thank you for the hard work for it.
Thank you, Frther.
I'm just going to further make comments.
I think that I'm not only just to our staff but it is also our community of volunteers with our 55 plus who put a lot of energy into what does happen at the center.
And then lastly is that as the unveiling took place of the mural for many people who didn't know I'll see.
But for those of us who did that that mural really represented a lot of what she stood for within our community.
And she stood for within our community and helped a big of a support.
She was 255 plus in that with her passing that she made sure that 55 plus had a something a memory with Elsie and that mural is a something that memory will carry on for a very long time.
It was great to see a young local artist was a part of that event as well too.
And that is carried.
Moving on to 10 10.
Deputy Mayor Lee, can you take over and I will move the motion.
Absolutely.
I will bring this up here as item 10 to point 10 which is the hotel in conference center attraction program.
And Mayor Roy, I have you is moving it.
We will need a second or I don't know if you have one for that or.
Probably cancel one question.
I will take that and Mayor Roy would you like to speak to this first.
I would like to first think staff are working together with this but also with our economic development team and pulling together this strategy and council for supporting that hotel strategy.
I know that there was a reference meeting in the committee of the whole to a potential investor that was in 2019 and I think there needs to be a point to clarity for.
That proposal that move forward and that proposal for that purchase and going into purchase agreement was a unanimous vote that was publicly made by the council of the day to.
To seek that venture and.
I know that the time made on Mitchell spoke of it highly and our commissioner of community services Mr. Label.
He was also working very hard and our staff through economic development are reaching out to potential investors for different portions of land.
And I did actually reach out to the past interested party today to see if they would be interested, especially around the motion that is in front of us and.
That maybe a potential of a conversation and reinvigorating a previous conversation for investment within our community and I don't know if this is the first of its kind across the province of Ontario but.
With the deferral development charges that we need to recognize that this is not about taking out the tax base but we will be getting the investment into this and that the development charges will be paid.
This isn't about relieving development charges this is about the deferral and to allow for that development to move forward.
Our business community is ecstatic by this action of council to move forward as is our.
Tourism and also our sports organizations are very excited and the response has been nothing but positive and I will be asking for a recorded vote this evening because I think this is an illustration of investing into our community.
Through actions that, when you need to make some bold decisions, well, the economy is not doing well. This is where we need to be making a bold decision collectively as a council.
Thank you. Councilor Lengquist is a seconder. Would you like to speak as well?
Yes, I'll be very brief. I'm glad that the Mayor clarified that because there was some chatter online that I think was suggesting that in some way we were giving a free ride to potentially corporate interests on the backs of taxpayers, and clearly that isn't the case.
This is something that has been talked about since I've been on council and clearly previous to that.
The need has been identified, and I am hopeful that everybody will support it because as we grow and we open things like large wreck centers in Brooklyn, and we attract more supporting activity, et cetera. We're going to need it, but also I will point out that yesterday was international women's day, happy international women's day to anybody who identifies in that way.
And many of the events that I went to were not in Whitby. They were held outside of Whitby because we don't have the facilities to host those kinds of events of the size that occurred.
So I appreciate the motion. I'm happy to second it, and I look forward to voting on it. Thank you.
Thank you. Councilor Shade, please.
Thank you so much through you, Deputy Mayor Lee. I would be wholeheartedly supporting it.
This is a community need of yesterday, which has really in demand, and I can tell you that even with our, and this has been noted by Councillor Cartewell, I believe that even our would be chamber biggest event happens in Ajax.
Two women's day events that I attended were in Ajax, and one was in Toronto. So I mean, we don't have capacity, the largest within the town of Whitby as a corporation is hidden shore pavilion, and that houses just about 200 people.
The rest are in Oshawa or Ajax, and we are always within these communities because our big events are happening over there. So I will be supporting it. I will be making sure that I work with staff and town of Whitby Council to make sure that this dream comes to a realization.
And I know our community will celebrate. There will be lot more weddings happening here. There will be lot more happening. Happy events happening here. So I will be supporting it all already. Thank you.
Thank you. Any further? Councillor Cartewell.
Thank you, Chair Lee. Just a quick question to direct Deputy CAO, Klein, I apologize.
Regarding if this gets done and it's built and it's starting to see events there and the hotels full.
Could you speak to the potential revenue that would bring in through the Mattax?
Through you, Chair Lee, to Councillor Cartewell, currently our municipal accommodation tax. There is a 4% charge for individuals who are staying and that comes to the municipality which we can then use 50% for the tourism entity for marketing and promotion.
50% comes to the town of Whitby to be able to support tourism initiatives. So ultimately additional hotel and a conference center that will result in more revenue that we can then use to enhance tourism in our municipality.
Thank you. My understanding is the silver stick weekend for both the boys and the girls. We see families from out of town having to stay in Scarborough and Markham.
Because we don't have the capacity and Whitby and that's unfortunate we're missing out on potential Mattax revenue.
But also for the families not wanting to commute on game day 25, 30 minutes just so their kid can play a game and then inevitably try back to the hotel and come back and do it all over again.
So I think this is a great. I said it at Calvin now that I have the opportunity to say it again looking forward to this looking forward to voting in favor.
Thank you. Any further?
Seeing none. I just will make a couple of quick comments. This is actually quite good. I really hope that this comes to fruition in the next couple of years because we've had quite a bit of demand and residents wanting more hotel options.
Not only for capacity across the town but just location wise you know in the north with the new court sports complex and not having any hotels.
I think this will be quite good and if we can get to out of it and all the better for the Mattax revenue is well too.
So thank you and I will call the question on this. All in favor.
Oh yes of course. I forgot about that. Mr. Clerk if you wouldn't mind doing the recorded vote on this place.
There's Councillor Bosnabsky. Yes. Councillor Cairdwell. Yes. Councillor Leahy. Yep. Councillor Leahy. Yes. Councillor Lundquist. Yes. Councillor Malkai. Yes. Councillor Shehid. Yes. Councillor Yamada. Yes. Mayor Roy. Yes.
Deputy Mayor that vote passes unanimously. Thank you and I will turn the chair back over to Mayor Roy to continue on.
Thank you and we are finished with general government. We are going to now move on to no submissions. So we're moving on to 2.1.
This motion public disclosure of legal advice. Notice a motion on proposed amendments to the purchasing policy.
Move by Councillor Lundquist and second by Councillor Shehid's Councillor Lundquist and is the motion yet the motions up on the screen.
Thank you, Mayor Roy. This arises after the conversation we had at committee of the whole last two weeks. I don't know when it was on every 20 it all blends in.
This motion I think is important because of the conversations that we've been having at this table.
So in my view this motion is really about ensuring that council decisions are grounded and clear understanding of legal frameworks.
The government municipal authority. The legal opinion obtained by the towns spoke directly to the significant challenges associated with the temporary framework or motion.
And address core issues that the municipality about the municipality having to act within its authority granted to them by provincial law and federal 2 under the heads of powers.
I think it's important that this goes into the public is because of the conversation that was so broadly had in the public that was a gross misunderstanding in my view.
When a motion is ultra-virus it is not simply controversial. It's outside of the legal powers of our council.
I'm releasing the opinion will allow residents to understand the analysis provided to us and the jurisdictional limitations that apply to municipal governance.
And I think that's important because transparency in what we're doing in why.
It's not meant to shut down conversation. It's meant to understand the authority that we have and do not have.
So to me, this motion really explains clearly why the decision was made last week by members of council who relied on the opinion to determine that we should not proceed.
And so I'm hopeful that council will be prepared to release the opinion and wave its privilege and allow residents to see the framework that impacted that council decision.
I think more broadly, you know, we talk about accountability and transparency and when we're having broad scale discussions about this in public forums.
It's particularly important that the public understands what is driving our decision making. Thank you.
Thank you so much. I'll just say I won't be able to put it that eloquently council on quest, but I could definitely say that it is very important that we wave the privileges of this particular advice that we got from.
And we want to make sure that it is very clear of what our scope as council is and what is our jurisdiction and where is the line that we can walk over or we can't.
And it is very important that we are very transparent about and as you had said when the meeting had started.
We have a bunch of duties as counsellors municipal counsellors that we need to adhere to and stick to and that's where our jurisdiction is when we go above and beyond.
We are stepping into jurisdiction of provincial and federal which we have no hold over and sometimes discussing that can be messy and I can tell you that it was getting messy on social media.
There were some very level headed people who were voicing their concerns on it and they were very well at concerns they wrote to me.
They wrote to the entire council members of why that motion was so far away from our jurisdiction but also it was getting very racial as well.
So I would rather stay away from it. I'm staying away from it. Marrow, I'm just saying it. So I would be so heartedly supporting this and thank you so much.
Councillor Yamada.
Thank you through you to staff.
What triggers the legal opinion when a member brings a motion forward?
Commissioner.
Through the mayor to counsellor Yamada circumstances where there may be legal advice that council should be aware of and in the context of the motion.
Could this not have been done in house? Why or why not?
Through you Madam Mayor, it could have been done in house.
In this instance we chose to go externally to ensure that we had the full expertise of the lawyer in the firm to provide advice on a matter that had a multitude of different legal aspects.
If a member brings a motion forward is it now practice to go outside to get legal opinion?
Through the mayor, I wouldn't say it's practice to go external.
I think there's a judgment call that's made in terms of when we would go internal versus external depending on expertise, depending on time availability and
the primarily at timing and availability and expertise that we would have in house.
What was the cost of the legal opinion?
Through you Madam Mayor, I cannot share that.
I'd like to have an amendment then that we had the cost as to disclose the cost of the legal opinion is 0.3.
Secondary council.
So to the amendment, can we have it up first?
Number three.
Is that correct?
Yes.
Secondary?
Is that correct?
House range is fine.
Thank you.
Councilor, you want to speak to it?
I just think if we are looking at more openness and transparency, I'm asking about the cost.
I think that should be made.
Made available to the public as well, especially if down the road, we could be seeing more of these legal opinions in our inboxes when members of council bring motions forward.
I think it's also just for clarity to help to assist.
This request actually came from another member of council.
So.
And so this is not the first time a member of council has made a request for an alternate legal opinion.
And we have gone outside.
The practice has been the same.
And in this situation, if the practice was the same.
So I guess my question then maybe through.
You to the CAO or or.
Yeah, CAO is prepared to speak as I know.
In terms of a member of council.
Asking for a legal opinion.
What is the process?
I would think something like that would have to be.
Brought to council to ask if we are going to spend money.
On a legal opinion that.
We get.
That authorization from council.
To see you.
Through you, Madam Mayor.
Generally speaking.
Administration, particularly the town solicitor has the residual discretion to.
And financial capacity to seek external legal advice when required.
In a situation like this.
It is.
Where there is a perception that there may be some exposure to the town.
In implementing a motion that a member of council has brought.
And it is perceived that it is.
The responsibility of staff to be able to provide the best advice possible to council on whether or not that motion will expose the town to potential liability.
In those instances, yes, we will either generate an internal legal opinion or.
If we require particular expertise or from a timing perspective or what have you.
We will go outside and I think in this particular instance, it was both an expertise issue and a timing issue that suggested we go outside.
But the motivation was really on the basis that there was concern.
By staff that there was the potential that.
The town could ultimately be exposed in the event that this motion was passed and we wanted to make certain that we could advise council appropriately.
In the course of that decision.
Okay, thank you.
So we have a motion that's an amendment number three.
Council on quest.
I just have one very simple question.
The commissioner indicated that he wouldn't or couldn't provide the cost amount.
Can you explain to council, why you indicated that, please?
Commissioner.
Through the mayor to council room on quest.
When we obtain legal services.
The retainer, the cost, the hourly rates, the there's a flat rate.
Those are all privilege.
And confidential information. They are also financially sensitive information that the town receives, and if disclosed, could put us in a negative position in the future, trying to negotiate with lawyers and with others to obtain legal services.
So my advice is almost always to not release the specific costs. We have released general costs or a cost range in the past, but my first advice would always be to keep that confidential.
If we can, to preserve our bargaining ability in the future.
I appreciate that. Thank you, Commissioner.
Thank you, Mayor. I know we set around the status all the time. We keep talking about transparency. So I'll be transparent.
I was the counselor who asked for the opinion, because when I can be as frank as possible, the motion that was put forward was absolute garbage.
It was offensive. It was xenophobic. And I had serious issues with it. It was illegal to say the least.
And I didn't think it was fair as a counselor to be forced to sit here and debate something that was xenophobic and racist tonight.
And that was my opinion. I made it publicly. I made it privately and I shared it with anybody who asked.
So if we want to go ahead and make that cost public, I have no problem doing so. You can pin the entire cost on me because I just think it's incredibly unfair that we're asked to sit here.
And we're asked to talk about federal policy that has nothing to do with us.
So in the next couple of weeks, I will be bringing a motion forward to this council that asked that we stop doing this.
That we stop pinning things on each other that we stop that we have to stop literally sitting here and talking about federal things that have nothing to do with this municipality.
So I have no problem sharing the cost. I have no problem going.
But council laws not to your question. No issue with it whatsoever.
I'll say the rest of my comments for the rest of the the entire motion.
Council.
Thank you so much. Through you, Mayor Roy. I just wanted to ask our Mr. Sandigita a question of the fact that would he be comfortable with the cost range.
Commissioner.
I know it says that. I'm just asking.
Through the chair to Councillor she hid.
As I said, my first preference would be that we do not chair any costs.
However, if if it is the desire of council to give an idea of what the cost would be, I would prefer a range as opposed to any sort of specific number.
Thank you. May I request a motion to divide?
We're just dealing with number three right now.
Thank you.
Councillor Lee.
Thank you.
Through you, Madam Mayor, to staff.
So on that thing, when the motion says to provide general cost of range, can you not adjust that range to a level that will not give away divulge any state secrets or our buying power or ability to negotiate in the future?
Through you, Madam Mayor, that would be my intent or that's how I would read the motion.
But I would not. Again, I've made my position clear.
No, just that was I think that's part of it. Why a range was included to give you that caution that you provided but still provide transparency of what was spent.
So fully supported the amendment. Thank you.
Further.
Recorded vote.
I'm actually going to support this in the reason why could be in the outcome of what could have happened with that motion had to come forward.
And the cost that would have laid upon us.
Mr. Clerk.
Number three.
On the amendment. Recorded vote. Councillor Bazaan, obviously.
Yes.
Councillor Cardwell.
Yes.
Councillor Lee.
Yes.
Councillor Lundquist.
Yes.
Councillor Malkai.
Yes.
Councillor Shahid.
Yes.
Councillor Yamada.
Yes.
You were ship that will pass this unanimously.
Thank you.
And as amended with number three.
Any further to the Councillor Yamada, you did make the amendment.
But did you want to speak further to the whole motion?
No.
Thank you.
Further.
Councillor Lee.
Yes. Thank you.
So no.
And I appreciate people's caution and concern.
I guess my first question to go back is that can you point out where in the motion it was actually asking for anything other than a report.
That would actually cause a decision.
Councillor Renats speaking to the motion.
I'm talking about your original motion.
No.
I'm talking about the legal opinion.
So the legal opinion.
The releasing of the legal opinion.
Okay.
So I misunderstood.
I thought you were going to your original motion.
Repeat what you just said.
Yeah.
So again, so we're asking to release the legal opinion.
Yes.
And it's also been mentioned here.
Yes.
The direction could have made to put the town in jeopardy.
There was where in the motion was it actually asking for direction.
It only asked for reports on trying to understand the leap.
But this is the part here.
You're talking about your motion that you were originally going to bring forward.
That's.
So we are not going to go back to that motion.
The motion in front of us is to release the legal opinion.
That's the context of what we are discussing tonight.
The release in the legal opinion.
There was a legal opinion.
And they asked with this motion is to wave its confidentiality.
And as for the context of the February 20th.
Potential of a motion.
That is not a part of this discussion.
Well, it seems relevant.
What can I rephrase it?
So our motions requesting report ever out of order.
Like it's just asking for a report.
It's not actually making a decision.
The content.
And if you go back to the out of order and why it was rule out of order, it was about the jurisdiction.
And it was about 15.5.
But it's just asking for a report.
And on the other different piece.
So moving forward on.
Legal opinions.
So it basically the way that I understand the process.
So if a member of council asks and legal agrees, they'll continue that practice.
So if the legal opinion is asked and it's dependent on the conversation that may even take place with the CAO.
And with our legal department as to what capacity they have.
What they can in terms of their interpretation to be able to give an opinion.
And if they don't have the depth to give that full opinion, then there is an opportunity to go outside.
However, in the situation, a council member can make a request.
And you have yourself have made a request for a legal opinion where there was a motion that was brought forward.
And a direction.
And the CAO worked with the solicitor to be able to get an outside opinion to bring it back in.
It's not the first time.
It's not the last time.
And actually in support for the request of that point in time.
It is one where every council has a right to bring a motion forward.
But the context and the content of the motion should be within their scope of practice is a miscible leader.
Not as a federal leader, not as a provincial leader.
And there were concerns, and there were like serious concerns that were raised by members of council.
Which, if they're going to be making an opinion in a decision, something that's been published, then they have that right to have a legal opinion that supports or does not support.
The ability to have a conversation and a debate.
And is it art within our scope to be debating it?
Yeah, no problem with it.
Just looking for clarity for when it happens again in the future.
I appreciate it.
And the so-for clarity, great word for tonight, is that for clarity, as we take a look at anything that comes in front of us.
It's not a simple decision to say the mayor is making the decision.
It's the CAO making decision or it's a solicitor.
There will be a dialogue of if it was beyond the ability of just a simple opinion in a simple one that needed more involvement for legal.
I do believe the CAO would come back to council and to bring a motion forward to ask and request that council support because if it's like a substantial amount of money.
And we do give the jurisdiction to the CAO to give the right to look for advice and protect a corporation as well.
Yeah, no, I completely agree.
Yeah.
Don't unhappy for that.
So anyways, I guess the other challenge on this piece is that anyway, so now that we have the legal opinion, we can re-word the motion and be in line with what they're in and we can debate it next meeting.
So today we're talking about this motion and release of the legal opinion.
Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you.
Councillor Bazaanowski.
Thank you, Mayor.
Just some comments, just because we can do something doesn't mean we should be doing that.
And when I say that, that means bringing motions forward that have nothing to do with bringing the municipalities business forward.
I can bring a motion here and talk about the death penalty, but why would I do that?
This is not the right stage for that, and it makes no sense.
In fact, all I'm doing is wasting everybody's time.
And when you're bringing motions forward that have nothing to do with the power of the municipality and we're debating federal policy, you're wasting everybody's time.
And not just my time or staff's time, you're wasting the residence time.
And then having to go and get legal opinions to prevent these motions from coming forward.
Honestly, it's ridiculous.
It's ridiculous.
It's embarrassing.
I mean, we deserve better.
We deserve better is fellow counselors.
We deserve better is humans and our residents deserve so much more from us than bringing forward motions that are xenophobic.
That's what it was.
It was garbage and it was xenophobic.
So if I had to ask for a legal opinion to prevent it from being debated, then I'm going to keep doing that.
But I really hope that we do learn to respect each other.
That we learn to respect our residents and we stop doing that because it is a waste of everybody's time.
So in the next coming weeks, I will be bringing a motion forward to have a look at our procedure by a lot to prevent these motions from continuously reoccurring.
Because it's embarrassing.
If you're having that published on the agenda, it's embarrassing.
It's embarrassing to any civil immigrant out here.
Any immigrant that's helped contribute to the town of Wippy to anyone who knows law.
I mean, it's just such a slap in the face.
I can go on and on and I won't because it makes me so angry.
And we'll leave that motion there where it deserves to be and hopefully it's dead and it never comes back.
And it's just disappointing that we even have to go through this and I'll leave it there.
Councillor Cardwell.
Thank you, Mayor Roy.
Through you to Commissioner Santa Guida.
Quick question.
You cautioned on releasing how much this cost the town would be to do.
But in all of you answered, is there any harm to the town to wait privilege on this?
Thank you.
Through you, Madam Mayor.
There is always risk.
And it's about quantifying that risk.
Solicitor client privilege is one of the cornerstones of a legal relationship.
It ensures that a client, which in this case is the town, is governed by the nine members of council.
And by self as the solicitor are able to have candid and honest conversations.
I would commend to council that if they are considering to wave privilege in this instance.
That they consider any risks that that may be present in doing so.
And understand that there could be risks that are unforeseen that arise as a result of it.
And lastly, that if we wave privilege on this, there's no taking it back.
Once it's out there, it's out there.
And we, we have, we are behold into that decision.
So if we want to talk more specifically about the risks, we would have to go in camera.
I'll just leave it at that.
I don't think, thank you. I don't think that'll be necessary.
And another question to the CAO and, and Mayor, you can correct me if this is, if this is out of order.
Say we wave the privilege and say we want to know, we want the public to know what the legal opinion costs.
Just a common on the cost versus the potential liability.
Is it okay to comment on that?
Commissioner. OK, sure.
CAO.
As Commissioner Santigrid has said, ultimately, the privilege is councils.
Council can decide to wave it or or not.
I think under the circumstances that the whatever the cost was, it was money well spent in order to make sure that the town is not going into an area that was inappropriate and could expose it to liability.
Thank you. That is all.
I have no further speakers.
Council should head.
Through you, Mayor Roy, just for clarity, now we are dealing with the entire motion.
Or is point one and two, all of them all of it.
One, two, three.
That's good enough.
And I believe my council member, specifically council boss,
Novsky spoke very well about it.
And I will be supporting which he said further of what she would be bringing.
I have one question.
There was a motion that I had brought months ago or over a year ago which quantifies everything that drops in a bucket of kind of calculating what
happens.
It becomes a tax end of it.
For you on us, your motion was about the impact of the exactly of a motion onto your tax base.
Yes.
So my question to that is that any members who knows their place and triggers a motion that is out of order despite the staff telling them that is out of order or this should not be brought forward.
And then other expenses triggers on top of it.
Does that.
To be calculated as well, it could be. And do I need to bring another motion to quantify that, or it automatically happens?
So, which should, and I think that this needs to be actually figured out in a procedure with the commissioner as to, the moving forward, how that actually will be managed.
And we have motions that have come forward where the action has been an outcome of cost, and the cost is not known prior to a decision being made by council.
And I think we really need to tighten that up. So, between commissioner Wang and our CAO and our clerps.
This is an opportunity to take a look at how we can do that differently, and we can do it better in accordance to your motion.
Then I'm going to speak to Commissioner Wang and CAO if they need a motion from me further to tighten that.
I don't think we need a motion. This is just friendly and they'll help us.
All right, I'd be happy to support that when that comes forward. Thank you so much, Mayor.
Okay. So, I have no further, and there's a recorded vote, Mr. Clerk. All motion.
Recorded vote on the entire motion. Councilor Bozenovski. Yes. Councilor Cardwell. Yes. Councilor Leahy. Yes. Councilor Lee. Yes. Councilor Lundquist. Yes. Councilor Mokai. Yes. Councilor Shihid. Yes. Councilor Yamada. Yes. Mayor Roy. Yes. You worship that vote, carries unanimously. Thank you.
Moving on to now 12.3. I'm going to ask the deputy mayor to assume the chair, and I will be pleased to move the motion.
Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to get the right one here. So we have the motion in front and enhancing municipal accountability.
Mandatory disclosure of third party consultants.
And obviously, Mayor, you would like to move this. I have a seconder of Councilor Lundquist. Is that still good with you, Councillor? Perfect.
And Mayor, would you like to speak to this please? I'm going to reserve my right to speak later.
Absolutely. I will circle back to Councillor Lundquist as a seconder. Thank you. I actually have an amendment that Clerk should have. Okay. We can get that up there if we can, Mr. Clerk, please.
So we have that coming up there. Is that correct? Councilor Lundquist? It keeps moving. So I'm just going to need a minute to. It's okay.
Okay. Perfect. So we have on the floor currently about the amendment only. Would you like to speak to that first?
Yes. So I felt that the motion needed a little bit more clarity and a little bit more substance in terms of lobbyists.
I am very familiar with the provincial and federal lobbyist registry. Having been both a lobbyist in my employment and also having been lobbied extensively.
But I think that we have a gap in municipal governance and I think it's important that transparency is seen to be done at this table.
And if we are meeting with people and they are influencing our decisions, there needs to be a public disclosure of that.
I appreciated the submission of the delegate today because I think sometimes we position ourselves as oppositional to each other just because and I don't think we need to do that. I think we can look at good ideas from every angle and decide that this makes sense.
And to me, this is complementary to the motion and it makes sense and I'm hopeful that council will support it. Thank you.
Thank you. Councillor. Any further on the amendment.
Councillor.
I'd like to just be a bit transparent and the question did come to one of the delegate mentioning the campaign school. The campaign school was started by me and I'm happy to be transparent about that.
So Councillor. I'm just coming to the question through you.
Just on the amendment though, please we can hold off on anything else for the main motion.
I would be fully supportive of it. I think it is a great amendment and I would be supporting it for wholeheartedly.
Thank you so much and thank you for letting me make that disclosure.
Of course. Any further on the amendment, Councillor.
Can we qualify what is meant by any successor legislation? Is there anything else coming in context of bill nine that would be included within what is being asked to do in point three?
Mayor Roy you were the mover. Do you have that sort of part of the original motion if you wish to just clarify that for sentence I guess?
I'm not turning on.
Are we broken the mic so they still work?
Okay. Now it's working.
You're dealing with the amendment, but just with any successor legislation that if there is any future legislation that we adopt as we move forward with this.
Anything further, Councillor.
So within this point three, we're asking the provincial government to do this.
It's my understanding.
I'm not reading it that way. I'm reading and we're asking the integrity commissioner and staff to report back, but.
So it's a report back with a framework that we would implement as this council, so we're not asking the provincial government in any way, because we're asking subject to the adoption of bill nine and successor legislation.
So I would say we have to hold that off because this is not the amendment, but we can definitely circle back to you on that with the main motion for sure.
If the amendment changes sort of what point three is talking about, no?
If I may not am there for clarity. Oh, sorry. Sorry, Deputy Mayor Lee.
Please go ahead.
So the successor legislation piece, I mean, Bill 9 could die and they could introduce something quite quickly, you know, to change it thereafter, so to me that is the purpose of that.
The, the other piece, though, the municipality has the ability to do this under the municipal act, and I would like.
Either commissioner Santa Greeda or CIO gas school to speak to that, because I confirmed that before I actually sought to have a lobbyist registry created for our municipality.
And in fact, there are the lobbyist registries and other municipalities.
So.
Commissioner, did you want to speak to that? I'm going to we're going to make three all as one, because otherwise we're trying to separate out sentences, it makes no sense.
So if you would like to be to it or CIO, whoever, I'll let you fight amongst yourselves to who goes first.
Through you, Deputy Mayor, yes, under the municipal act, I mean, this building can create an impose a lot of lobbyist registry.
Councilor, you mad.
I'm, I'm opening, I think fall of number three if, if there's anything further that you have there just to make it easier.
Nothing further, thank you.
Thank you.
Councilor, she had.
I would just probably, this is a clarity question for CIO.
With the region, I believe that there is that Corp and other corporations registered with the region.
Does that region has a registry.
Through you, Deputy Mayor, I don't believe that the region does.
I know that at least one area municipality in Durham region does pickering and so lobbyist registry.
But the region does not to mine.
Okay.
Well, maybe then we could just go have our findings.
If who does it, how they do it and what's the best practice and then assume that, I guess.
But I leave it to you and your work wants this motion passes.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor.
Any further on the amendment, Councillor May he please.
Thank you.
Through you, Deputy Mayor, staff.
So when that report comes back, can we get what the projected annual cost is going to be to maintain this registry.
At least an estimate and that included in that report.
I'm seeing lots of head shaking yes, so we'll go with that.
All right.
My only question.
Thank you.
Perfect.
Any further.
So on the amendment, did we have a recorded on this Mr. Corp?
No.
Perfect.
So on the amendment only, all in favor please.
That passes.
So we will move on to the main motion.
And Councillor Lungquist, because of the quickness of the amendment.
Do you have anything to speak on the main motion or?
I think I covered some of my main points on the amendment.
So I will withhold for the moment.
I can circle back up.
Absolutely.
So members all open it up on the main motion.
Any members wish to speak to the main motion.
Councillor Cardwell.
Thank you, Chair Lee.
I thought about this a lot.
I think we all have.
We were all asked to comment in the wippy this week.
To Tim Kelly whether this even applied to us and the supermajority or all of council said,
know that it didn't.
But I understand the significance of it.
I understand the importance that moving forward.
Maybe there are things that I'm not aware of happening.
I think and delegate street spoke very well about the significance and importance of accountability.
I don't think any one of this table and according to Councillor Layhee from earlier has a problem with more accountability
or transparency.
And so this establishes a, well, it will establish a well laid out.
Even playing field for those that want to utilize third parties.
And that's okay.
They're not doing anything wrong.
But it'll be nice to be transparent about it for us to know the other members of council and the public to know who these third parties are,
what activities they're doing and how they're helping.
So I appreciate the motion.
I thank it for coming forward.
I will be interested to see how it's laid out and then enforced.
That will be a big part of it enforcement because people I believe have to pretty much voluntarily
register or reveal that their third party or the council will have to let people know or the registry know about it.
But I'm looking forward to seeing how it rolls out.
I'm looking forward to the end result.
I'm looking forward to a greater transparency for the community.
That's what everybody asks.
That's what everybody around this table wants.
And looking forward to it, Mayor.
Thank you.
I saw Councillor Bosnowski's hand first.
And then I will come right back to your council.
Are you okay?
Councillor Bosnowski?
I don't know if you're.
Oh, you're good.
Okay.
Perfect.
Don't worry.
Yep.
Thank you.
Clearly, I don't have a script when I speak.
It's definitely don't mean one.
There's municipal politics.
I mean you lead with your heart.
You're here to represent your residence.
And they're your voter base.
So they'll pretty much guide you and tell you what you need to do when you're up on the status.
I've never used a third party clearly.
You can tell one of my scripts are generated for me before when I get here.
And I think that if you are an elected member and you are using a third party or an organization,
you should when you should 1,000% disclose that information to your voter base.
So I do think that this is extremely important.
So I do think the Mayor for bringing this forward.
And I'm happy to support it tonight.
Thank you.
Councillor your mother.
I had you next.
Yeah.
I'm just wondering.
So going forward with a lobbyist registry.
If we have an event like Mayor's golf tournament, for example, and there's a whole bunch of
developers, do they now become lobbyists?
Like how does this work?
Do you want me to answer this?
Please, if you wouldn't mind.
No.
That's not the situation.
In terms of a lobbyist, it's the actual firm that there's many firms that are lobby firms,
that are working on behalf of individuals, such as even when we take a look at the province.
And the province now has a registry as well too.
And seeing what is, if you take a look at the Pickering's page, it's very simple to navigate it.
It says, we are making decisions around this table.
Who's the influence?
But it just really doesn't go far enough.
Then if I've got someone who wants me to influence public policy, but they're not registered as a lobbyist.
And they want to meet for a cup of coffee.
That's lobbying.
Well, the other part of it, I'm cross debating, sorry, Mr. Chair.
I'm just trying to, because if we are going to put forward a lobbyist registry, then we need to go all the way.
It can't be just, if it's a lobbying firm, we've got to go all the way on this.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor.
Any further on the main motion?
I'll go to Councillor Lenkowitz first.
I saw your hand go up quicker.
Thank you.
I also recognize that the mayor can supersede me if she so chooses, and I'm fine with it.
I don't disagree with Councillor Yamada actually.
I think that when that lobbying is about the activity itself, not a social event where you just say hello to people.
But where somebody's actively trying to get you to change your position, I don't think it's complicated.
I think it really just becomes a clear definition of what lobbying is.
And there should be an ethical component of this, which is self-reporting.
I don't think they have to be a registered lobbyist in my view. I think that is council members. When a member, when someone does not
be a member of the public, I mean I guess everybody's a member of the public, but when someone is attempting to influence
a council decision, I don't see any challenge with reporting it. And then if it doesn't need to be in the
registry, the decision maker will say so. I don't think this needs to be overly complicated,
but I do agree that it needs to capture actual lobbying activity. So on the motion itself,
when the mayor spoke to me about it, I was happy to second it. And the reason I was happy to
second it, because we talk a lot about transparency, and I think we all know what it means,
and yet somehow we avoid it. And I don't want to avoid it. I want it to be fully transparent at
this table all of the time. Because I don't think, if we're, no, I do think, actually, I think if we are not
transparent that the inevitable effect is an erosion of trust in the work that we do. And all you need to do
is spend two and a half minutes online to see that that erosion is occurring every day and every minute
and every time somebody posts. This really is about transparency and public trust.
Municipal government is going to work better when people believe that decisions are being made openly.
When they know what influences are impacting decisions and positions of this council table,
there is no current mechanism required member of council. Any member of council disclose
when the receiving strategic or political or communication support from outside advisors,
consultants, organizations, and I have to tell you, I think that's a huge problem.
And the reason I think it's a problem is because I am entirely confident that some of those behaviors
have influenced what has happened at this council table and not in a good way.
I don't think this motion does anything to limit anybody's ability to seek advice or consult with others. I will
still do that. I think that's the job. I think councilors should be able to speak with residents and
stakeholders and experts so that we don't end up with motions that are ultra-viries and legally problematic.
I think healthy democratic decision making depends on that exchange of ideas.
The idea that we wouldn't unanimously support something like this would I think be really problematic
to the public. I think that the public has an appetite to see this council be more accountable to it
and I think that's what this motion does. I am mindful of the comment of the delegate about
somehow restricting freedom of expression and I not only don't want to see that, I don't believe we
will see that because the goal of this is not to restrict any conversation. It is actually just to
provide transparency about decisions and bring some light to those decisions. So I think this motion is
really a simple one and it really is just transparency and closing that gap that currently exists.
Reinforcing principles of openness and accountability that residents expect from municipal
government and that they have not had. I appreciate the time. Thank you. Thank you. And I may
roll your hand up as well. I do have some comments. I know you wanted to reserve yours. I don't know
if you'd wish to go now or please. This motion now as it's amended. It is a two-fold approach.
First for understanding for what Councillor L'Uncle has brought forward.
That action is one that the lobby and the lobbyists would have to register, which is if you take a look at
number and misspalities that have had it in place and actually there is a number who are
actioning it presently right now and even the province of Ontario lobbyists have to register and they have to
be on their registry. That's the first component which is the amendment. The action of what I have
brought forward with this motion is more about if for ourselves as individual counselors if we find it upon
ourselves that we have to move to receive support and it's not about saying no to support. This is about
making sure it's clear and that we are one first and foremost protecting the integrity of this council.
But also ensuring that the public confidence in this government is in place and there has been a lot of
feedback in the last year or so that this is not the situation so it's to reassure that we are being clear and
transparent and there were a number of with it with the delegation and number of examples which makes it
very clear that we need to be doing better as to the action of what is happening around the table. At the end of
March you are going to be seeing the Councillor's expense report and yes some council members around this
table spend their own money to buy tickets to support events and to do like community events within
their own wards as well and would they report that? I'm sure they would. The council member who
did the activation of what the campaign school, the potential is probably the sharing of that information
would be public but I think that's the most important part about this conversation. It's it's really
become evident that the action is happening and it is happening in many different ways around this table.
Now I will say that I have had conversations with other municipalities who have actually asked for this
motion to be brought to them and they are going to action this in other municipalities as well because they
are seeing this action taking place. The conversation about Bill 9 really opened up that within
not just municipal government but government as a whole it's about that transparency and Bill 9 in
the actions of what is moving forward through that and we need to be working through to ensure that our
municipal act is one that is up to date and is working with the current state of affairs not the
state of affairs that are back to 2001. I had a reporter, I did an interview with me and asked
specifically why would you bring this forward is because times have changed and within what we see
what is happening and I'm specifically talking about our council and the times have changed and the
manner of how we conduct ourselves in communication and community but even the influence there are a lot of
influencers out there and it is good it's healthy but we need to ensure that for our community as a
whole they're really understanding us to who are the influencers and why are the influencing and it's
not to shut down conversation it's about being transparent. I also want to just make like in terms of
what this motion does not do it doesn't prohibit counselors from receiving a bice or support far from it.
It's about openly disclosing what is happening as we are having these conversations.
Transparency is something that will really strengthen us in the past three and a half years we've talked
about governance we've talked about procedures and we've talked about how we can better manage around
this table and there's been a lot of modifications to our procedure bylaws about how we conduct ourselves
within meetings but also it's the processes that are in place in our operating policies and it continues to
do so we continue to be better and that is one of our 62 action items that we all agreed upon that this
community asked us to concentrate on its governance and transparency and I think this is a contributing
factor towards one of those 62 action items which falls within our community strategic plan it's another example
of how we can do better and we can do better for our residents and I think ultimately
if we have nothing to hide and we're not concerned then the openness is something that we can
share quite openly to our community and very transparently and share it's like yes I am using an outside
source yes I have I I know some members of council have supports for writing of their new
letters and have supports for their websites but they are actually accounting for that within their
expense policy and we will see that at the end of this month but this is just another layer
and the word gap is a true example of the gap that is in place that we need to be
very upfront as to what we are doing and how we are doing it and how we can be better for our community as
a whole thank you Mr. Chair thank you council or my kind of head thank you well said I think
when you have nothing to hide there's nothing to worry about I was part of the campaign school I
went and sat on the panel and talked to people about how they should read for council yay so it's more
of it was an incursion thing I wasn't compensated for it it's great but I guess my question is you know
like I have no problem with anything that I'm doing you know and I sure the community wouldn't either
it's just I look ahead and go I go to an event I've been on a silent auction I pay for a silent
auction then I sometimes redone it to the next silent auction it's this all going to have to be
documented oh my goodness I have no problem doing that but you know when I start thinking about all the
little things that we do from day to day that that we just don't put down on paper and I know that you know
yes you're going to see in my expense account there's some help in there for a newsletter but there's
but there's also so many things that we do out there in the community that that are going to be maybe a bit
eye opening and it might actually be nice for people to understand because it's every day like
if there's constantly things every day and that's part of being in the community so I have no problem with
this I think it's going to be great you know if everybody has good intentions and show them because
there's really I don't feel a lot to be concerned about with this motion at all so thank you
thank you I believe that is everybody that's how to chance to speak I just have a point of
clarification if I'm okay please because I think there was and I think it's my fault so I just wanted to be
clear I understand that there should be a registry of lobbyists I'm talking about when you have coffee
with somebody who may not be from you know those those unofficial sort of things where somebody is a
member of community versus an actual lobbyist so I think that that I would just wanted to clarify that
because I think both of those things may influence decisions and I think we have to be reasonable about
about the assessments thank you for that I appreciate that thank you so I have a few comments on this
just that I haven't had a chance to speak on it yet and you know Councillor McCoy he touched on a few
points a few others have touched on it but you know we often go out and and we're at events or
things like that and and some of us pay for our own tickets I have in the past sometimes they get
expense under our expense policy for community events but I I'm pretty sure most of us we've all done
it where we they come by and we got to buy the lucky balloon or we got to buy the raffle tickets so we
got to buy I lose more raffle tickets and find them in my suit pockets later than I never say I never look at
them but we all we all buy them to support community so I don't think we want to get to that level of
having to record things but I am happy to for every twenty dollars I have thrown it whatever raffle
multiple times per month that that I go to or every run that we're asked to come out and support or things
of that nature I think the big one for this is really that you know residents and voters they really
want honesty from us we've heard the word transparency thrown around but what they want is they want to
know that they can trust us they want to know that we have maybe not their individual best interest in
in a particular item we may disagree on things at times but we are doing our best to represent the entire
community all of the residents as a whole as best as we can and I think you know when it comes to transparency
or trust or things like that you know these get thrown out there but at the end of the day you know
what they want is they want counsel to have integrity they want us to be able to have or they want to
have confidence in us that we are trying our best and trying to move things forward as a community and I've
always said and and this is one that I would be happy to do here you know I don't particularly use any
political strategist I never have but should I choose to in the future like any decision that I make here
I will absolutely have my reasons and I will be proud of those reasons and I will be happy to tell you
my reasons we may disagree whether it's on a vote whether it's on somebody that I've talked to for strategy
whether it's a PR firm and and how I do something but I can guarantee you that my goal is to have a
well thought out reason for it and to be proud of it and I think if you are proud of something like that
that you are using for whatever the reason is or whatever the decision was behind it then you have nothing to
hide there's no reason to hide it if you're proud of it you should be able to say exactly why exactly what the purpose
was why you made the decision why you agree with it whatever it might be and I think you know one of the
things that comes into play with this especially if I if I can generalize it and say people behind the
scenes and and by that I mean any third party professional consultant strategist communications firms
PR firms individuals that might be leading a charge with lobby
Or trying to promote people in a certain way, or trying to shed a certain light on things.
For me, personally, if they are being paid, that might be a slightly different level than somebody
who is doing it out of the kindness of their heart, although I don't really know a PR firm or a political strategist
that would do it out of the kindness of their heart.
You know, we can debate whether there's a difference between paid professionals being used as strategist or consultants or things like that,
and somebody that's doing it out of an in-kind donation.
But I also think there's an issue if another organization is paying for them on your behalf.
And I do believe that residents absolutely deserve the right to know that, deserve the right to know your reasons why.
And again, if you're proud of it, I see zero reason that you would want to hide that and not disclose it and why you wouldn't be okay with telling everybody where it comes from and why you're doing it.
So that's my opinion on it.
And with that, we will, sorry, Mary.
Yep, we have a recorded vote on this.
And I will call the question, Mr. Clerk, if you can run through that for us, please.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Bozenowski.
Yes.
Councillor Cardwell.
Yes.
Councillor Leahy.
Yes.
Councillor Leahy.
Yes.
Councillor Lundquist.
Yes.
Councillor Malkai.
Yes.
Councillor Shid.
Yes.
Councillor Yamada.
Yes.
Mayor Roy.
Yes.
Deputy Mayor, that vote passes unanimously.
Thank you, and I will turn this back over to Mayor Roy to continue as a chair for the rest of the meeting.
Thank you.
Moving on to 13 new admissions.
There is then moving on to bylaws.
Move by Councillor Cardwell.
Second by Councillor Yamada.
All in favor.
So, can you just state that out loud, Mr. Clerk?
Yes.
Thank you.
May I just note for the bylaws.
We'll adopt the one bylaw with respect to a PA-188 as amended by the motion introduced by Councillor Malkai.
So that's 1410.
Bylaw.
We'll be amended to reflect that.
Okay.
Comfortatory bylaw.
Move by Councillor Baisanowski.
Second by Councillor Leahy.
All in favor.
And that's carried.
Announcements.
No, announcements.
Councillor Cardwell.
Thank you, Mayor Roy.
This is a bit of a fun one.
I had a resident in West Ward, reach out to me name.
Stephanie Summers.
And she inquired about a program that used to exist in the WIP in the town of WIP.
It would be called snow angels.
And after talking to Mayor Roy and Mayor Roy, then talking to staff, it was reintroduced.
So essentially what a snow angel program is here in the town of WIP.
If any of your neighbors or you have observed someone that has helped someone through a very tough winter with heavy snow and salt and sleep and all the fun we've all had,
you can go to wIP.ca back slash snow angels and you can nominate them for a certificate of appreciation.
And it's on the town website.
The words getting out there.
But I don't want this just to be something that sounds cool on the internet or on Facebook.
I actually want to see some of these certificates go out.
It's a real, feel good thing and it's been a horrible winter and people are really kind out there and they should be recognized.
I know they don't do it to be recognized, but I think they should be.
So if, if you know of anybody, please nominate a snow angel.
Thank you.
So Councillor, we will, I'll get the number updated for tomorrow, but on every day we get nominations from community members for snow angels.
And I had the privilege of actually bringing a certificate to a woman up in Brooklyn who actually broke her ankle.
I'm clearing the snow for her elderly neighbor as she fell down and so we brought her flowers and a certificate to her house.
But Councillor Lanklust.
Well, the note of no good deed goes unpunished my goodness.
I have, I have three sort of interconnected announcements and I think they're kind of remarkable.
So I recently did a drive for sanitary products to help Saint Marks.
They run a lunch program for a hot meal once a week and they hand out products to women who are unhoused and who are visiting.
My thanks is to the community who really showed up for those women.
There was more than enough for what they needed and we were able to donate a significant amount of those along with diapers to Saint Andrews.
And I'm proud and impressed by the community that always shows up.
Senator Ward is a special place.
And on that note, I last week awarded a center ward champion, a certificate.
Her name is Heather O. Shay.
I can't begin to describe the amazing contribution she makes to wippy.
She, I'm going to try though, badly.
She has something called the green bean collectives.
She's done many things including harvesting fruit trees in the neighborhood for distribution.
Amongst the neighbors who need it and also with excess going to the food bank.
She currently has a small mini food bank on her property right beside Rosedale park that is currently empty.
And so this is my plea to any of you if you're in the neighborhood.
There's a, there's a fridge and there's also a pantry for dried goods but if you are in the neighborhood.
She would be really delighted to receive your support and helping feed the community.
Sometimes we have to go small to do big things.
Thank you.
Further.
Councillor McKay.
Thank you.
I would just like to remind everybody of the last state at Luther of Ipon Memorial Arena on Sunday.
John Vipon is pulling this together on behalf of his family.
To 30 to 430 the Brooklyn Legion is open afterwards.
We are expecting that it will be a large crowd as people are messaging saying they're coming from out of town with their skates.
So it will be big and just you know it's there's so many great memories in that arena.
And when if you get a chance to come and chat with John he has so many stories.
When gratsky skated there.
You know like it's just, among others like it's just amazing when you talk about Luther and the stories about Luther and his dog and how he took care of that building.
And I think we've heard some of them but like you really have to come out.
There will be a hundred foot long paper roll on the wall for people to leave their memories that we will document and send to the archives.
But also give back to the bypon family.
I will be writing on it that I wouldn't exist without federal radio.
My parents met there in 1958 in the old barn skating.
So please come out.
It should be fun and I'm looking forward to seeing everybody.
Thank you.
Further.
Councillor Lee.
Thank you and kind of continuing across fun free stuff.
Obviously that one is coming up with the skating.
But I wanted to just announce that myself and the mayor have partnered together to bring two community free swims out to everybody.
So we're doing a couple of big pool parties.
They're both on Saturdays.
One is on March 21st from 23 to 430.
The others on April 25th also 23 to 430.
And both right next door at the civic rec complex here in Whitby.
And so we definitely want everybody to come out family, friends, whoever you want.
Come out and check out the pool party.
And if you're unable to make it, you can at least go and see the fantastic cartoon version of myself on the flyer that exists.
That my daughter says I gave way too much hair to in the cartoon.
So she's probably right.
I think the cartoon's got a little bit more than me.
But nonetheless, there's cartoon counselor and cartoon mayor that exists for those of you
that are interested if you can't make this swimming.
Otherwise, come on out to the swimming and we'll be good to see everybody there.
Thank you.
Can we get that flyer?
Oh, we can make sure you get one.
No problem.
We'll get one out there.
Further.
Motion to adjourn.
Counselor she had.
Counselor Cardo.
All in favor.
And that's carried.
Thank you.