[27:43] Call this meeting to order. And this time, if you're able, please rise for a national anthem. Followed by our land acknowledgement.

[29:00] The

[29:07] Niagara region is situated on Treaty land.

[29:10] This land is steeped in the rich history of the First Nations, such as the Hata Wanderock,

[29:15] the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe, including the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

[29:19] There are many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people from across Turtle Island that live and work in Niagara today.

[29:27] The city of Port Colburn stands with all Indigenous people, past and present, and promoting the wide stewardship of the lands on which we live.

[29:36] Okay, the adoption of the agenda council, we have two, or sorry, we have the addition of item 6.2, which is proclamation for Indigenous Veterans Day.

[29:44] And for the agenda, if I could have councillors bother and while move the council agenda dated October 28th, 2025, be confirmed as amended.

[29:54] Questions or changes? All in favour? Let's carry it.

[30:00] Any disclosures of interest this evening?

[30:03] Proclamations. We do have two. 6.1 is moved by Councillor

[30:08] Baudner, second by Councillor Elliott, that I, Mayor William C. Steele, do hereby proclaim

[30:12] October the 26th, 2025 to November the 11th, 2025, is poppy week in the city of Perkoverne

[30:18] in honor of the men and women from Perkoverne who gave their lives during the two world wars,

[30:22] members of the Korean War and the Afghan Afghanistan War.

[30:27] All in favor.

[30:28] That's carried unanimously.

[30:30] And item 6.2, Indigenous Veterans Day, if I could have councillors Akulina and Bruno

[30:34] move that I will see steel, mayor of the city of Port Cove and do hereby proclaim November

[30:39] the 8th, 2025, as Indigenous Veterans Day, and that residents of Port Cove and I encourage

[30:44] to remember and reflect on the long and proud tradition of the Indigenous Military Service

[30:48] to Canada.

[30:49] All in favor.

[30:51] That's carried.

[30:52] We have two presentations tonight. First is Canal Days. So if we could have Olga's here. So if Olga and staff can come forward, and they're going to present.

[31:33] Good evening, Mayor Steele and Councillors. Myself and my colleagues Olga Lofan and Kennedy Stock are pleased to bring you a presentation recapping our 2025 Canal Days Festival.

[31:44] We touch on a few main points but if you have any questions you can ask after the presentation or you can reach out to us anytime during our office hours.

[32:03] Okay, so if you could direct yourselves to the screen, we have a short recap video we're going to play.

[35:15] So this slide showcase is various metrics and attendance numbers for the festival this year, some highlights include

[35:21] Um, we had strong collaboration and participation with some of our local businesses within the footprint, um, the majority of the businesses inside of our downtown footprint open their doors for the entire four days.

[35:32] We also had some participation from some businesses outside of that footprint.

[35:37] Um, in total, we hired.

[35:38] There was 43 musical acts that participated in Canaldes and various locations and in various ways.

[35:44] 34 of those were hired directly by the 12 participating businesses in our footprint as part of our special occasions permit.

[35:52] We thank them for their collaborations.

[35:55] Between the festival grounds and the museum grounds we had over 200 volunteers participate in the festival and as we all know the festival would not be possible without their support.

[36:07] and we were fortunate to work with 15 local and regional community groups within the

[36:14] footprint.

[36:16] Some highlights from this year's festival. We implemented new types of barricades

[36:21] and strategies to take care of hostile vehicle mitigation concerns. We had a high focus on

[36:30] our vendor process this year. We had an enhanced vendor package vendor guide that included

[36:36] tier of pricing. It also included the opportunity for vendors to select their preferred locations.

[36:44] We did have some adjustments to the footprint that allowed us to actually include more vendors

[36:49] including reopening the Arguson Market on Charlotte Street. With the support of the city's

[36:57] Indigenous Tourism Specialist, Josie Fuccini, we were able to do issue a call out for Indigenous

[37:01] vendors to participate in canal days and the response was very positive. We had 15 vendors

[37:07] participate. Previously, we had our recreation and kid zone in separate locations. This year,

[37:15] we grouped them together in close proximity and we had very great feedback from that.

[37:22] The YMCA was a huge partner for us in that location. We also shifted to a ticket list,

[37:29] and then go to a separate location and cash those in.

[37:34] So that was a seamless process

[37:35] that we feel enhance the customer experience.

[37:39] So we have a few slides just highlighting

[37:41] our operating budget for revenue and expenses.

[37:47] So some highlights from our revenue operating budget.

[37:50] We had a successful grant application

[37:52] with experience Ontario, provincial grant.

[37:55] We received the maximum amount available for $125,000.

[37:59] Sponsorship was a key driver to our kind of these revenue budget, and we also saw in a few areas including bar sales, parking sales, fender rentals, and

[38:10] Empire Sandy ticket sales we saw significant increases over our 2024 numbers.

[38:19] Some of the major drivers to our expense budget under program supplies include entertainment budget, fireworks, vessels, kids and family programming.

[38:29] Under contract services, we have things like portable toilets,

[38:32] it's fencing security services, shuttle services, et cetera.

[38:36] The enhancements we made to our overall security

[38:39] and safety of the festival ultimately

[38:42] did have an impact on our budget

[38:43] and I'll go over those in this next slide.

[38:47] So we did issue an RFP for our security services this year.

[38:53] We were successful in bringing on two new security firms.

[38:57] We also hired from an outside group

[39:00] a security director that played a huge part in our overall security operations but also

[39:08] implementing some procedures for crowd control. Our emergency control room that we have

[39:12] located on the 2nd floor of city hall during the festival. We had some enhancements with inclusion

[39:17] from our security team and also with our covert fire department. We worked closely with

[39:24] the Niagara Regional Police. They played a key role in the event for us and they were invested

[39:30] In our success heavily this year and as a result we had a we had a strong presence from the Niagara regional police with the public order unit.

[39:39] There's a number of infrastructure expenses as well. We totally revamped how the entrance to the concert series worked. We created a queuing area and as a result we had to utilize more fencing and some more methods in order to secure that fencing.

[39:55] We also utilize DMS and hired an additional ambulance to work the festival grounds.

[40:07] I'll

[40:11] be giving the sponsor recap.

[40:15] So our corporate sponsorship for 2025 sees the continuation of the Geo Railway Title

[40:22] sponsorship. This year we had $355,000 in sponsorship which is an increase from

[40:30] $20,000, $300,000 and a total of 67 sponsors for $20,000.

[40:39] We'd like to

[40:40] thank our title sponsor, GL Railways and our Lieutenant, Brinkin and

[40:46] corporate core sponsors as well as ballet our captain sponsor. We'd also like to

[40:52] thank our quarter master sponsors, first mate sponsors, both twin sponsors

[40:57] and deck hand sponsors.

[41:05] We started out with expanding sponsorships for other

[41:08] community events in 2025. Similar to 2024, a Sahi Kassai battery separator

[41:14] canada was the sponsor for the concert series with a $20,000 sponsorship. Peter's

[41:21] construction group was the title sponsors for our annual open house touch

[41:25] a truck and fire prevention week kickoff event with the $10,000 sponsorship.

[41:30] We also have a title sponsor lined up for 2026 sports fest with the $10,000

[41:35] sponsorship from Portage Mutual and CM Steel Insurance Brokers.

[41:42] Hopefully we have more of that to come in 2026 and if counselors or staff know of

[41:46] any companies that may be interested in sponsoring a 20 in 2026, please connect

[41:51] them with us, we would be happy to share the sponsorship package.

[42:00] Okay,

[42:04] so this year at Canal Daze, we sought data out through two different channels.

[42:09] We had a Canal Daze visitor survey which was displayed throughout signs with QR codes

[42:14] along the festival grounds, or folks could also participate in the survey at the information

[42:19] booth.

[42:20] And then we also distributed the next day, sorry, the Tuesday after Canal Daze finished on

[42:26] our social media channels, which is I think primarily followed by residents. Additionally,

[42:32] we also welcome destination Ontario for the first time to Canal Days. They were set

[42:36] up on Clarence Street and ran actually their own survey and we're happy to share that data

[42:41] with us, which I'll share in a few slides. We also have plans to collect data in 2026 that's more

[42:49] more specific to the economic impact information

[42:54] for the city of Port Covert through the festival.

[43:00] So our city one survey engaged almost 600 folks.

[43:05] We asked things like what sort of music would you like

[43:08] to see on the main stage where people are coming

[43:13] from including some economic information

[43:18] which I will also share.

[43:19] So, in terms of top favorite musical choices for next year, rock and classic rock came back

[43:25] at 40 percent, followed by country music at 32 percent and then indie and popular notable

[43:33] mentions as well. Additionally, 72 percent of respondents said that they actually came to canal

[43:38] these more than one day over the course of the four days of the festival.

[43:47] So, in terms of festival

[43:48] attractions. One of the questions you can see on your screen here. You'll notice that attendees

[43:55] were looking forward to visiting the following attractions during Canal Days. As you can see on

[43:59] the slide, other noteworthy mentions were the car show which look mentioned or on the slide the

[44:05] Lucas covering. We actually jumped this year from 900 cars to 1100 cars which is fantastic. The

[44:11] craft show saw about 50 vendors, and then the Empire Sandy had 11 cruises and we sold

[44:18] just over 1800 tickets for cruises that took place this year.

[44:28] So the Net Promoter Score, if you attend city events, like our community concert series

[44:33] canal days, you'll notice that we do these quick satisfaction surveys where we ask attendees

[44:38] to help us collect our Net Promoter Score, which essentially tells us how loyal attendees

[44:43] these are to our events. For Canal Days, we ask a simple question. How likely are you

[44:47] to recommend Canal Days to friends or colleagues? Attendees were, sorry, scored their answer

[44:55] from 0 to 10 and the score.

[45:00] For Canal Days came up at 36, which sells us Canal Days is preferring well from the perspective

[45:07] of attendees who are more loyal than average to our event.

[45:18] Economic impact information that we can share if you turn your, if you check, look at

[45:24] the slide. The festival spending out of glance is listed here, and we also asked a question

[45:30] regarding other businesses in Port Colburn and whether or not attendees plan to support them.

[45:36] So 88% said that they were hoping to support other businesses during the festival

[45:41] or before attending the festival.

[45:46] The other mode of data that we collected through was

[45:49] destination Ontario. They engaged roughly just over just under 1200 participants.

[46:05] Their feedback was that majority of the visitors to their booth were Ontario residents.

[46:10] They thought that maybe they were possibly state trippers and the surprising number showed up as international visitors.

[46:17] So they weren't quite sure why, but the thought was maybe the two cruises that were docked in Port Cobraan

[46:22] over the course of the weekend, and they had possibly found their way to the booth on Clarence Street.

[46:30] The other component I would like to mention about destination Ontario is the great partnership

[46:36] that has come from this.

[46:38] They are hoping to continue coming back to Canal Days and actually have asked to come

[46:44] to sports fest this year to set up a booth at the Mayor's Cup Valley Health and Wellness Center

[46:49] to be able to share information for anyone planning their Ontario travel this coming year.

[46:56] As

[47:00] we presented in the past, feedback is of great importance to our events team and

[47:08] our marketing, our communications department because it helps us make changes, positive

[47:14] changes to what it is folks would like to see at Canal Days.

[47:19] We collect that after we volunteer in staff surveys, in person debriefs, conversations with

[47:24] or event partners, surveys for vendors and businesses

[47:28] and social media monitoring.

[47:31] I'll click through these slides slowly.

[47:33] If you just want to take a moment to kind of read them,

[47:35] we have feedback from volunteers,

[47:44] local businesses.

[47:45] So this year, there was an addition of three new businesses,

[47:48] and this is a comment from one of the new businesses

[47:51] that joined

[47:57] vendors from

[48:05] event bookgoers,

[48:06] and

[48:11] then city staff

[48:19] and just in closing my section of the presentation for those who have participated in the festival be a pre-event planning, volunteering during the weekend or cleaning up the city once the last vendor has left.

[48:33] I think we can all agree that for Coburn is a community that's powered by collaboration and is what makes canal days great.

[48:48] So just to conclude the presentation, we just have a few things that we wanted to share

[48:53] that we're working on currently for next year's festival or things that we plan to implement

[48:58] for next year's festival. So as some counselors may have heard from their constituents, there

[49:04] was some issues at times during our peak attendance with certain cell phone providers, interruptions

[49:11] to cellular data, so we've engaged some representatives from those providers and we're looking

[49:17] at ways we can find solutions to ensure those interruptions don't happen in impact.

[49:22] You know, our business, our vendors, businesses.

[49:26] We are also, as I mentioned, we implemented hostile vehicle mitigation strategies this year.

[49:32] We are working with a group that is comprised of other municipalities within the Niagara

[49:37] region.

[49:38] So the plan is to implement some sort of shared procurement tender that can be utilized by the municipalities in terms of a cost savings as it is for our festival, especially we have a, you know, we are on the street.

[49:52] We have a lot of road entrances to our festival footprint. So for us, you know, it can be a significant part of our security budget.

[50:02] We're going to continue to build on the security plans that we have developed this year.

[50:07] We made some significant strides and we're at a place where we feel we're at an industry

[50:13] standard or even leading in some areas.

[50:15] So feedback from the Niagara Regional Police was they were satisfied with our plan this

[50:21] year.

[50:21] And as long as we plan to implement the same or similar with their support that we could

[50:26] possibly have a little bit of a reduction in the night regional police presence that we saw

[50:32] this year, which would ultimately help our budget. As far as musical programming, we plan to

[50:40] focus our city programming at HHNL Park and utilize our partners in the downtown area,

[50:48] the local businesses that participate in our special occasions permit for the music programming on

[50:54] and as Olga mentioned earlier, we have some plans to just collect some data that we can utilize to showcase more of the economic impact of the festival.

[51:03] In a common theme that we hear when we're collecting feedback from other staff, volunteers, festival attendees is adding additional marine heritage related programming, so that's something that we have on our radar as well.

[51:18] Okay, and thank you for this thing go presentation. There's any questions, but I just wanted to reiterate all the points. Thank you to all the volunteers, fellow staff members, sponsors and partners that help us put on this event.

[51:33] Great. Thank you, Luke, and the team. Questions from Council Councillor Bruna.

[51:39] Thank you Worship. It would be very difficult to find much fault with the

[51:50] 2025 Canal days. Probably one of the better ones I've ever witnessed in my

[51:57] lifetime and being on council. So kudos to many of you who've taken the

[52:02] festival to the next level. I don't have to remind one of the highlights I certainly thought,

[52:09] the extension down Clarence Street was like huge and really to get more vendors and the type of

[52:15] vendors like the way things were run down at the park. Fantastic security, all of that.

[52:25] I did want to direct a couple questions. I'm not sure who to ask on this, but in particular on the

[52:32] revenue and expense side.

[52:35] So I'm not sure if that's Mr. Bowles or anyone

[52:38] who uses, but I'll take out the question.

[52:41] One of the things I've concerned myself with

[52:43] with watching 22 of these presentations

[52:46] and 22 budgets is that oftentimes in

[52:52] whether it's city events or nonprofit events,

[52:58] the next year and succeeding budgets

[53:01] always seem to come together to try to get to zero.

[53:07] And so my concern is, is that at the end of the day,

[53:12] if the expenditures are going to be short,

[53:15] do we work on the revenue to make it zero?

[53:19] And I'm wondering why we don't try to even budget

[53:24] for a number higher than a break even.

[53:31] Through the mayor to the councillor,

[53:33] I think there's a couple aspects. One is the city does maintain a reserve. So if we did need it, it is available.

[53:41] But the second one is and I think what's just important and when you look at this year's budget and you compare it or this year is actually when you compare it to next year's budget, I

[53:51] think it's about $80,000 different. And that that wasn't we don't believe from a staff perspective that that's necessarily structural

[53:58] and that's why we didn't budget to the higher number.

[54:01] We don't believe it's structural

[54:02] because council just approved the short-term rental by-law.

[54:07] And in the absence of the short-term rental by-law,

[54:10] it was difficult to collect all of the municipal accommodation

[54:13] tax.

[54:15] So we still have to see how that plays out,

[54:17] but right now the estimates would be

[54:20] that the municipal accommodation tax that's being put there

[54:23] will help fill that gap.

[54:25] So we don't believe that there will be a budget, a budget shortfall and if there is there is the reserve that we could utilize.

[54:35] If we were to see this become more problematic and maintain IE that Matt tax doesn't come in as expected.

[54:42] In the future budget we would certainly bring forward a request to adjust it accordingly.

[54:48] I think to make sure that canal days continues on the trajectory it's on.

[54:51] Thank you. Just answered my second question. And so I'm pleased with that. And I guess

[55:00] I should have promised my comments on I wasn't looking to see that we would make money

[55:07] and that might out or disenfranchise people from going because it just revenue base. Why I

[55:15] wanted to see that was because one of these years it's going to rain more often. And one

[55:22] of these years things will go awry on a concert and those are major income things and so I'd like to see

[55:30] that it go to general revenues not to encourage us to make more and more when it disenfranchises people

[55:38] but just to have a safety net. I hadn't thought of that comment about the municipal tourism

[55:48] tax, and that's terrific because I think you're being cautious about this, and I'd rather

[55:56] us exceed expectations, so looking forward to see if that will help make a difference.

[56:02] The other comment on the financial side was, it seems that there are dramatic differences

[56:14] on some of the expenditure and I'm just wondering was that something that

[56:20] crept up after all the canal days meaning so for example like you're

[56:26] looking at a much higher contract services next year and what was the other

[56:31] one. Yes program supplies was up by 122,000 to the forecast and then next year it's

[56:39] going to ramp down to almost 50% of what the actual was.

[56:47] And so I'm just wondering on a couple of those things,

[56:50] if you could explain the wide swing.

[56:53] Through the mayor to the Councilor and Council,

[56:56] I think there's two things at play here.

[56:58] One is when we upgraded to the new system,

[57:01] and then when we rebuilt the 2026 budget,

[57:04] some of the items got repurposed to different account lines.

[57:07] So we have kind of struggled with making sure how we categorize things are the same.

[57:14] But the other item is we did hire and I'd pass this back over to our canal days team.

[57:21] We did bring in a specialist to help us with risk management with canal days this year.

[57:26] And that did refocus where some of the expenditures were spent.

[57:30] So I think the risk management was top notch and better than it's ever been.

[57:35] and that was one of the, we did read JIG where we spent some of those funds.

[57:41] So full disclosure, when you look at some bouncing around,

[57:44] it was because we had to reprioritize spending to make sure we hit our risk management objectives.

[57:52] Thank you, Ms. Mayor. Just one more on this.

[57:56] Talk about the recommendations and one was data collection.

[58:00] So I'm wondering if you could expand on given it was a recommendation.

[58:05] I don't know what the recommendation was behind it, so perhaps you can explain maybe why that was put on the list.

[58:13] And what do you hope to do different on data collection?

[58:23] Through your worship to Councillor Bruno.

[58:25] So the data recommendation, your suggestion was one of them, right?

[58:31] But also every year to try and bolster what it is we're collecting in terms of info to share with council, to share with the community on how to make canal these better.

[58:40] The destination Ontario kind of came in as a partnership with the experience Ontario grant that we apply for

[58:48] So that's part of the reason and then for next year's our hope is to be able to access information regarding spending whether it's through banking

[58:57] institutions, but also the major petricard

[59:01] Companies to see what kind of spending is happening at canal days over the course of the four days

[59:05] And we'll kind of impact that has on our community

[59:08] and we're hoping with that we'll come some data as well as coming to Canal days.

[59:15] I guess I'm gonna you know I'm gonna ask because after 22 years I'm still asking

[59:20] the same question I only have four witnesses here or in my age bracket including

[59:26] the regional counselor. I want to see you mine the data of those 65,000 people

[59:38] that come here. And I would like to see that you collect some of those names as private sector

[59:46] often does to reparlay into advertising harvest fest, things that are happening at Rose,

[59:55] and so I think that you know with decades of having

[1:00:00] All these folks here that it is a shame that we don't have a lot of contacts to those people. I

[1:00:08] mean, I even see it as small as, as you said, many residents are from the region. Many are

[1:00:16] Port Cobraan people. You know, we need to mind Port Cobraan only data. Maybe Port Cobraan

[1:00:23] only data is a handout or collecting names to ask them to participate in getting their

[1:00:30] water or tax bill coming of signing up for our newsletters. We have all these people here

[1:00:37] and we have, I just see a great opportunity to leverage all those visitors, to come back to Port

[1:00:48] We spend social media dollars, we spend print media dollars trying to get people here each year.

[1:00:56] But I'm not sure we do a great job in inviting people back or to remind them what's happening.

[1:01:02] But the real leverage, the real bonus to that is to get them to come to other events in Port Cobra, the other 11 months of the year.

[1:01:12] And if we captured that data, we would have a very low cost almost nil of inviting them back

[1:01:20] to see what Port Cormor has to offer the other 11 months and our other things that we do.

[1:01:27] So I'm going to ask again that you spend some time and perhaps you can come back with a report

[1:01:33] on how we can better utilize the data from those 65,000 visits for next year and for future

[1:01:42] benefit so there's more of a statement than a question but perhaps I can follow up later on

[1:01:48] that if we can stay in touch on that subject and discuss it through the year or through Jasmine

[1:01:53] that would be great. Perfect thank you councillor and we'll just take that as direction

[1:01:58] to our team to do that and I'm sure the three councillors that sit on the committee with myself can

[1:02:06] to make sure that that comes back to that.

[1:02:09] All right.

[1:02:09] Councillor Acklin?

[1:02:12] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[1:02:14] And thank you to your team and the communications team

[1:02:19] and volunteers for making Canal Days Another Successful Year.

[1:02:25] I do have a question.

[1:02:27] We're not a question.

[1:02:30] Well, I guess it's a question.

[1:02:33] for the 65,000 that attended and then the 26,000 that attended. Do you have a

[1:02:42] comparison from 2024 or 2023 just so that we can see that like how we've done

[1:02:53] over the years? Through you, Mr. Mayor, to Council Act Elena, so no we don't have

[1:02:59] of that same type of data for the most recent values.

[1:03:03] It's something that we could obtain

[1:03:05] and just there would be a cost to doing so.

[1:03:08] Yeah.

[1:03:09] Is it possible like for next year

[1:03:13] that we could do like a comparison?

[1:03:18] Like so we have the data now

[1:03:21] then we could include it next year

[1:03:23] and just talk like a year over year review.

[1:03:27] I think there'd be interest there and then is there I don't think this is

[1:03:33] possible but is there a way to know I don't think we can like the comparison

[1:03:43] between the 65 and 26 like how many people I don't I don't think there's a way

[1:03:50] we could track that but the tracking for the, sorry, yeah, sorry. Through your

[1:03:58] worship to Councillor Ecclely not the tracking for the concerts actually are, I'm

[1:04:02] not going to say more accurate, but they're, they happen every year because we use

[1:04:06] clickers, so we could compare those easily last year versus this year. Where's the

[1:04:11] data for the 65,000 was went through and vironics in 2023, from cellular

[1:04:17] or geo-offensing of the area.

[1:04:20] So unless we subscribe to the service year over year,

[1:04:23] we kind of, right, that's why the numbers.

[1:04:25] So those are completely separate from,

[1:04:27] like, 26 is part of the 65,000.

[1:04:30] It's just easier to obtain for the concert

[1:04:32] because it's actually happening in the moment.

[1:04:38] I'll just stop at the moment.

[1:04:46] Through you, Mr. Mayor.

[1:04:47] So we are total attendance at the concert.

[1:04:50] I don't have the measure.

[1:04:51] I think it was 26,000 is what we had listed.

[1:04:54] So the previous year, yeah, it was about the same, I would say we had a similar-sized, you know,

[1:05:04] being Saturday night with a lot of folks that attended. But yeah, it was in the same ballpark.

[1:05:09] And then we had the Sunday show as well, which we did not have this year. So we kind of lost,

[1:05:13] we lost those numbers in our attendance for this year.

[1:05:16] Yeah, it just kind of gives you an idea. Our numbers are pretty consistent along the way.

[1:05:20] I mean, if you actually go down, I mean, if you go back to

[1:05:22] and dance with Marin and Rodney was there, if you go back,

[1:05:25] and you look at, I mean, I don't think you can compare

[1:05:28] Westrie because it's changed so much.

[1:05:30] But if you look at fireworks, nights and concerts,

[1:05:33] other than moving from down temple, we always filled the venue

[1:05:36] here, and now we're filling the venue there.

[1:05:39] But even on fireworks, nights, since way back when,

[1:05:43] I mean, you look at the crowds, they're pretty consistent.

[1:05:45] So it's consistent numbers that keep coming back to us.

[1:05:48] So I think Westery, if you saw over the last couple of years,

[1:05:51] you can see the elevation of people coming,

[1:05:54] just what's changed from the museum all the way down

[1:05:58] to the Canadian Corps, basically.

[1:06:01] So yeah, just stay through the Mayor to Council,

[1:06:04] and I think it was said during the presentation.

[1:06:06] So we are looking at financial institution information,

[1:06:11] because I think that's gonna be one

[1:06:12] of the biggest ways to look at year-to-year,

[1:06:14] what kind of impact Canelle Day's has

[1:06:16] because you can extrapolate from that how many people are coming a lot of data over the years has been by clickers and that and depending on how you click and who clicks and where you click it changes but having seen some of this it's it's quite interesting the data that they can create we look forward and I think the team looks forward to bring something back to the working group because there is a cost it's not actually the cheapest data to buy but the

[1:06:46] It is information that would, I think, satisfy the question that's been answered,

[1:06:50] or not answered, asked. I've been here for five years. It's been asked for five years.

[1:06:55] I think we found how to do it. There's a bigger cost, I think, than what we think it is.

[1:07:00] So, or what maybe people think it is. So, we'll bring that to the working group and have them kind

[1:07:05] of just oppose that against other expenditures to see how we move forward. But I think that's the

[1:07:10] way we get a strong data plan. Perfect, further questions. Okay, thanks guys. Great job.

[1:07:20] Next we have our Museum Canal Days recap.

[1:07:26] The museum staff is coming up.

[1:07:35] Welcome, Tammy.

[1:07:43] The Steel and Counselors are giving me the opportunity to report on the museum's successful 47

[1:07:49] annual canal days.

[1:07:57] Just like my colleagues over here, I'll just be giving a

[1:08:02] brief overview of some of our elements that helped make us successful. So we

[1:08:08] had 5,500 visitors over three days. So when I say three days, I know our

[1:08:13] festival is actually in two days at the museum, but we do host a free concert

[1:08:19] through our Music on the One Series at Rosalam on the Monday of Canalities,

[1:08:24] and that brings in additional 500 people.

[1:08:27] So even from the 5,000, that is an increase from the past few years as well.

[1:08:33] We do have over 100 volunteers who help us out.

[1:08:36] We have about 50 or so that help us in certain positions with certain activities.

[1:08:40] But we also include our community groups that bring volunteers in for the weekend to help them out.

[1:08:47] So we do have a great number of community groups that we use everything from guilds, some

[1:08:57] of the reenactors, we have our co-brand historical side, we have community living, people

[1:09:02] like that.

[1:09:03] We do have three sponsors who help with various things and I'll mention those a little

[1:09:11] bit later.

[1:09:12] We do activate 14 buildings so we have 10 onsite, including museum, the tea room, the archives

[1:09:17] and including Rosalind. So there's reenactors and activities in each one exhibits as well.

[1:09:25] We do have seven exhibits during the canal days. Everything from our 50th anniversary step right up

[1:09:31] to our next theme buggy to our Niagara in the carriage house. We had a special one in our

[1:09:39] Marine Exhibit Lighthouse called Toying the Line. That was to honor the 30th anniversary of Laura

[1:09:45] likes towing, who is our longest sponsor of Canal Days. We had 18 re-enactor groups

[1:09:53] and promoters. So we have everything from naval re-enactors. We had indigenous groups there

[1:10:01] with their training posts. And we have Army re-enactors for more of 18th of all as well.

[1:10:06] We have blacksmiths. We have hand-weavers and spinners. We have carvers and canoes as well.

[1:10:13] Well, we also have a lot of hands-on activities for families and people of all ages.

[1:10:19] Everything from rope making to games of racing boats on canals, face paints, all the reenactors

[1:10:27] are hands-on.

[1:10:28] You can get in one of the 19th century naval boats and row the boat.

[1:10:33] You can handle some of the unloaded muskets, things like that.

[1:10:38] We also have four food vendors, one that we bring in and three that are through ourselves.

[1:10:46] Here's just some highlighted pictures of things you can see on the ground during Canal Days.

[1:10:52] Dress up is one of our hands on activities that are outfits from the settlers times.

[1:10:58] You get families who take a yearly picture.

[1:11:01] I'll dress up usually bringing, dragging in the teenagers or the dads who don't want to be up there.

[1:11:07] We have a picture of the Toronto All-Star Big Band so that's the band that comes

[1:11:14] are the Jazz Swing Band of young students who come and they bring in a huge

[1:11:19] crowd every year and that's a free concert. New this year actually was the

[1:11:25] stilts we had our volunteer group make stilts and it's not as easy as it looks

[1:11:30] when you're an adult because the perch is very small but children could get the

[1:11:34] hang of it and guys were actually better at it.

[1:11:37] I don't know if it's center of gravity,

[1:11:38] but I was a lot of fun.

[1:11:40] Sandbox is always a huge hit.

[1:11:44] We usually have to tell the kids

[1:11:46] when we're closing at the end of the day.

[1:11:47] And I'm usually there like an hour or so later

[1:11:49] that I'm very sorry if we're closing.

[1:11:52] And the parks guys are great and bring us in that sand.

[1:11:57] And the center bottom is our Niagara handkeepers.

[1:12:00] I'm spinner so they're just one of the many guilds

[1:12:03] and trades people that come in and show off their skills and just a picture of a family we have

[1:12:10] families who spend the whole day at the museum. We had families that like plunked their baby

[1:12:16] down in the shade and then one parent kind of hovers while the rest of the family goes off.

[1:12:26] Just some of the highlights that make the museum so special for communities is we obviously have

[1:12:31] the heritage focus. Not only on local history, but marine history. We have canal days exhibits

[1:12:37] and the maps and bringing in those reenactors really helped as well. We have an indigenous

[1:12:45] inclusion which is growing every year. We have the strong water singers which is an off-key

[1:12:50] male indigenous group who come and open the festival for us on Saturday and Sunday. Not only do

[1:12:57] they perform their songs but they bring a different age range and each one of them will come up and

[1:13:03] tell the story or the meaning of the song before they perform it.

[1:13:09] New to us was the Niagara Region Métis Council who brought their trading post with them and

[1:13:16] also New to us this year was an art installation I'm called hashtag Hope in Healing Canada by Métis

[1:13:22] artist Tracy May and that was up both outside the museum and outside at Rosalind for the summer

[1:13:30] this year. It was also the museum's 50th anniversary and with that we saw some expansion of our

[1:13:38] canal days. We were able to expand the field behind the archives building all the way over behind

[1:13:44] the library to the park which we don't usually go out that far and we needed that to

[1:13:49] to help make room for our new renactors.

[1:13:55] We brought in some new groups and vendors.

[1:13:57] We had a room squire, which is someone who makes rooms for us.

[1:14:02] And we brought in new entertainment for children.

[1:14:05] We have Christopher and friends who sing sea shanties

[1:14:09] and interactive songs and activities for children.

[1:14:14] And we're always increasing our visitorship and our revenue.

[1:14:19] And as I mentioned, family-friendly programming where I would say we're the oasis during

[1:14:25] Canal Days, West Street is always very busy.

[1:14:28] Here we have a bit more space, we have shade, we have trees, we have grass, we've seeding.

[1:14:34] So it just gives people a little time to decompress but also still get involved in Canal Days.

[1:14:40] Our Canal Day budget, I'll just make it brief that I'm going to say that I'm going to

[1:14:50] Our total expense this year was about $5,500,

[1:14:54] which is increasing like everybody's budget is increasing.

[1:14:56] Most of that money goes towards our reenactors groups.

[1:15:00] Bringing in some of the supplies. Our total income this year was just over 12,000, about $6,500 of that is in sponsorship. So overall our total revenue was $6,472.35. Which is the biggest revenue we've had since pre-COVID.

[1:15:23] And of course, one of our biggest sellers and one of our biggest revenue is our Canal

[1:15:31] Days t-shirts.

[1:15:32] And we do that as our major funders are for the year.

[1:15:36] And this year we were able to get all the cloths of making those t-shirts fully covered

[1:15:41] by sponsorship.

[1:15:42] Thank you to Bell Marie.

[1:15:44] And so our profit, which was $2,500 this year, was pure profits.

[1:15:48] But

[1:15:52] let's go over our sponsors really quick, friends of Rosalam Center, they sponsor the

[1:15:57] music on the lawn series, so they pay for the entertainment to come in, and they run

[1:16:03] a 50-50 draw so that they can raise money as well.

[1:16:06] Belmarine is our sponsor, I think for at least the past 10 years, that sponsors the T-shirts,

[1:16:13] which includes buying the T-shirts and getting them printed.

[1:16:16] And then Laura likes towing is our sponsor, who sponsors the $5,000 for admission fee.

[1:16:23] So the museum's festival can be free for everyone.

[1:16:29] And they've been sponsoring for the last 30 years.

[1:16:34] And our 2026 festival we're moving forward with that.

[1:16:38] We've already done a verbal confirmation from most of our re-enactors groups that they would

[1:16:43] like to come back.

[1:16:45] We're still working with other partners.

[1:16:47] we actually just met today with a new partner from Heartland Forest and how we can help support them

[1:16:52] and they can support us and I think it will be a great addition to the festival next year.

[1:17:01] And on top of thanking our staff, the museum staff and dedicated volunteers, I would also like to thank you

[1:17:09] to the events team as well as we have a lot of support in the ComS team and the parks team as well.

[1:17:18] Any question?

[1:17:18] Great, thanks.

[1:17:19] Questions, Councilor.

[1:17:22] Councilor Rudolph.

[1:17:24] Thank you.

[1:17:24] I promise you I won't ask you any financial questions.

[1:17:28] You guys are fantastic.

[1:17:31] And the amount of volunteerism there

[1:17:33] amazes me every year.

[1:17:34] Not just for canal days, but as a museum.

[1:17:37] I didn't want to ask you though,

[1:17:39] it was interesting to me

[1:17:40] and there may be a logical explanation to this

[1:17:43] that in the survey, the focus group,

[1:17:46] It was like 21% of the people were interested in the museum to come.

[1:17:53] But if I take 5,500 and divide it into the 65,000, sort of 8.46% of the people came to

[1:18:03] museum.

[1:18:04] Now, I think the difference is, but I'd love for us to look at this, is 26,000 concert

[1:18:11] goers might be clipped off the top because they're not there in the daytime, but I am interested

[1:18:18] in what Councillor Acklin has said about year over year figures.

[1:18:24] And I'm wondering in the future if you could put together some kind of comparison on a

[1:18:29] lot of your categories, particularly attendance, but the interesting to see over a period of

[1:18:37] time, how that changes or ups or downs. My real question though is, is there a goal at the museum

[1:18:49] for canalaries? It may be attendance is one of them, but it doesn't have to be the top one.

[1:18:56] There's lots more important things than just numbers in life and then what you do. But I would be

[1:19:01] interested in knowing, you know, can you handle more people? So in other words, you

[1:19:09] know, I want West Street and I don't really see any high-profile signage pointing

[1:19:18] to the entity that started it all. And I kind of think it would be nice to

[1:19:26] to expose visitors there.

[1:19:28] I don't know what 5,500 is as a percentage of true people

[1:19:34] who walk the street on West Street and do the vendors.

[1:19:38] But the real question is, could we get more people

[1:19:43] over at the museum?

[1:19:45] And we better decide that before trying

[1:19:47] to drive more people over to the museum.

[1:19:50] So I don't know if you have an opinion on kind of the grounds

[1:19:54] and the vendors handle more, should we be pointing more people towards the museum that might

[1:20:02] not even know it's there.

[1:20:06] Through the Mayor to Councillor, first I'll mention, make

[1:20:11] point to your first one. I have a here, I just put it up on the screen. We do keep a comparison.

[1:20:17] This one goes back 12 years. That shows like the visitors from each gate, also the breakdown

[1:20:23] down of all the revenue and the expenses as well.

[1:20:27] So it is available for whenever you like it.

[1:20:30] I can include it next time.

[1:20:33] For the little, you actually mentioned a really good point

[1:20:35] that we've always wanted.

[1:20:39] It may be more signage or something

[1:20:40] that directs people to the museum.

[1:20:43] I have to say over the past couple of years,

[1:20:45] the events team and the comp team

[1:20:46] have really boosted up how they support us

[1:20:50] and how they promote us.

[1:20:51] and especially including the end of West Street

[1:20:55] to link all the way to the museum has really helped.

[1:20:59] We could definitely handle more

[1:21:03] because it comes in ebbs and ebbs and flow,

[1:21:05] so there's always room for more.

[1:21:09] And I have another idea about this now,

[1:21:12] left in my mind.

[1:21:15] Yeah.

[1:21:16] Yeah.

[1:21:17] Yeah.

[1:21:24] And we have a lot of space. That's, we're very lucky in that way that we have the big field and that's we're able to utilize that space a lot as well.

[1:21:33] And I think helping promote that if we want to see more marine heritage during the festival.

[1:21:42] We do marine heritage really well, helped send them our way and said it may be

[1:21:47] disporzing it more, helped send them, send them our way.

[1:21:54] Great council, further questions. One thing I did promise this family to bring

[1:21:59] forward is, and it's the first time my wife and I when we man the gates and we do

[1:22:03] different gates over here this year we're on the King Street Gate. We did have a

[1:22:07] family came up and thanked. I think they thought we actually represented lower

[1:22:12] lakes towing we told if we didn't but they really wanted to thank lower lakes towing they were a

[1:22:17] from out of town but they knew that they were the main sponsor and at that gate was a big banner

[1:22:22] from from lower lakes but I wanted to bring that forward here only because sometimes their sponsors

[1:22:29] don't hear it enough and especially from people from out of town people in town have that in their

[1:22:34] mind that you know kind of who were the the normal sponsors of of canal days and the museum so

[1:22:40] So I wanted to bring that forward.

[1:22:42] They weren't the only ones that day.

[1:22:43] We had a few others that came forward and said,

[1:22:45] hey, we really appreciate what sponsors do

[1:22:47] for our museum here in Portland.

[1:22:49] But they said they were from out of town

[1:22:50] and there was about eight of them.

[1:22:53] And they spent quite a bit of time in the museum.

[1:22:56] That's one thing I had to bring forward today.

[1:22:58] So thank you.

[1:22:58] And we do thank, again, Laura likes towing

[1:23:00] for all they do for the museum.

[1:23:02] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[1:23:03] They usually aren't able to send a representative

[1:23:07] during Canal Days.

[1:23:08] at least they're able to pop in before and pop out.

[1:23:11] Is this time of the year?

[1:23:12] Yes, it is, but they are the ones who help us provide

[1:23:16] a very family-friendly festival

[1:23:19] because they keep the costs down.

[1:23:21] We don't have to charge a mission

[1:23:22] and I think the most anyone has to pay

[1:23:24] for anything is $2 during the festival

[1:23:27] and a lot of it's free.

[1:23:28] That's good.

[1:23:29] Thank you.

[1:23:30] Thank you, Council.

[1:23:31] Thank you.

[1:23:37] All right, onto the mayor's report.

[1:23:40] First off, as everybody sees,

[1:23:43] This is our last Council meeting prior to a remembrance day. Our next meeting is on November the 12th

[1:23:50] So I really want to give a special thank you to our museum curator Michelle Mason and Frank a phone exhibit designer

[1:23:57] Carly Pollyotchi for the exceptional remembrance day display and council chambers

[1:24:02] Obviously council. We're all wearing them as our poppies. We're left there better

[1:24:08] desks here this evening. I do want to point out one thing though because it is

[1:24:12] here every so many years. There is a photograph up here right in front of the

[1:24:16] clerk. It's taken on Catherine Street in front of the original Guild Hall which

[1:24:21] is next door to us. In that picture is my great-grandfather and my great-uncle, so

[1:24:27] my grandfather's brother, who served in the First World War in artillery.

[1:24:33] because you know my youngest son Riley, go take a look. I can't believe that my

[1:24:39] great uncle is a spitting image or my youngest son is a spitting image of my

[1:24:44] great uncle. I took a picture of it a few years ago show my wife and it was like oh

[1:24:48] my gosh but it is and it's a pretty cool photograph of those going off to

[1:24:54] war and who was in that photograph but it's actually pretty cool. I mean I'm one

[1:25:00] that was lucky enough that my fall obviously because I'm here my father returned as a fighter pilot

[1:25:04] from World War II and and I know many of us across Council have had family members fight in one

[1:25:11] of the World Wars and beyond and the other conflicts that came after those specifically World War I.

[1:25:19] So I really want to thank Museum staff you guys are phenomenal this is fantastic and the history

[1:25:24] that sits in front of the city of Port Colburn.

[1:25:28] Please read this.

[1:25:29] And for those at home, we ask you go to the museum,

[1:25:32] just ask about the pictures that we're here.

[1:25:35] Weakurch brothers, which were triplets

[1:25:36] that fought World War I.

[1:25:39] We all know the Weakurch farm,

[1:25:41] which is now owned by the Marsh family.

[1:25:44] You know, these are families that go way,

[1:25:45] way back in the city of Port Colburn.

[1:25:47] So again, thank you.

[1:25:52] So this season, Port Colburn welcomed more than 70

[1:25:54] crew ship visits from Viking, Victory, Pearl Seas, and Panant between April 23rd and October

[1:26:01] 27th. A 30% increase in visits is being seen in all Great Lakes ports with more than 700

[1:26:08] total visits this year, and an estimated $230 million in economic impact to Great Lakes

[1:26:16] region as a whole. The 17,000 crews passengers who traveled the Wellen Canal were treated to

[1:26:22] views of porcola and many chose to enhance their visit by joining one of our popular

[1:26:26] onshore excursions. The last ship, Victory One of Victory Cruise lines, docked in town yesterday

[1:26:33] and then they set sail back for Toronto. We thank all the boats and their crews for coming in and

[1:26:40] out of porcola. It is phenomenal to see and it's quite phenomenal to see people that come into town

[1:26:46] just to watch not just the great lake ships but specifically cruise ships when

[1:26:52] they're back and forth. The city cruise will be performing maintenance on

[1:26:57] selection on sections of the friendship trail. During this week work will take

[1:27:01] place between Rooter Road and Lorraine Road near the Snyder Road crossing and

[1:27:07] between Weaver Road and Pinecrest Road near the former Miller Road crossing.

[1:27:12] The maintenance will involve resurfacing the asphalt trail, while the trail will not

[1:27:18] be fully closed, service vehicles and equipment will be present during the work.

[1:27:22] No detours are planned, the trail uses are asked to exercise caution and respect the work

[1:27:27] areas, and I appreciate your understanding and cooperation during this time.

[1:27:33] Last week I was thrilled to welcome Mayor Matthew Shoemaker and his senior staff from the

[1:27:37] City of Sioux, St. Marie, here at Port Blower.

[1:27:41] Myself and Mayor Schumaker had the opportunity

[1:27:43] to meet with Hope of Port, with men this is tough tonight.

[1:27:49] With the Hamilton-Oshaw Port Authority,

[1:27:51] to discuss potential partnerships

[1:27:53] for cargo and shipping services

[1:27:54] between our two port cities.

[1:27:57] Together, we explored opportunities

[1:27:58] that strengthen our communities

[1:28:00] and the Great Lakes economy.

[1:28:02] We took Mayor Schumaker and his staff

[1:28:05] with a hope of reps in our staff on a great tour of the port area of Port Cobra and we really look

[1:28:12] forward to further discussions and further collaboration between the City of Port Cobra and the City

[1:28:17] of Su-Saint-Marie.

[1:28:21] Join us at the Valley Health and Wellness Center for the Ultimate Family Night,

[1:28:24] a series of free, family-friendly events hosted by the City of Port Cobra and the YMCA of Nida.

[1:28:31] Each month from October to April we ask you to enjoy a movie in the gym, those are at six o'clock,

[1:28:36] free skates from 7 to 8.30 and free swims from 7.15 to 8.30 p.m.

[1:28:44] Marker calendars for the fall of movie nights, November 22 is Matilda.

[1:28:48] December 27 is the Grinch, Houston, Christmas.

[1:28:52] January 17, the Lego movie, February 28, the Super Mario Brothers.

[1:28:57] March 21 is Wall E, and April 25 is Wicked.

[1:29:02] admission is free to all the events. All we ask is you donate a non-perishable

[1:29:07] food item for pork hairs and more details can be found on the city's website.

[1:29:13] The city of Corcoran is asking residents to share their thoughts on the

[1:29:16] development of a Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan. Once completed the plan will

[1:29:20] help determine future needs and priorities for the city's parks, recreation facilities

[1:29:25] and services as well as how they are delivered to the committee for the next 10

[1:29:30] years. To gather input the city will use online and paper surveys and an in-person public engagement

[1:29:37] open house to learn residents opinions of Port Colburn's parks, recreation facilities, waterfront,

[1:29:43] programs, and events in addition to their satisfaction with an assessment of the important levels of

[1:29:51] these amenities. The confidential survey must be submitted by Sunday November the 9th and should

[1:29:58] take approximately 15 minutes to complete.

[1:30:00] And it can be accessed at www.serveymonkey.com, force-r, force-pc, community survey, or on paper from

[1:30:12] the city hall, Valley Health and Wellness Center and the Porcoburn Public Library. The public

[1:30:19] engagement open house will take place on Wednesday, November the 5th, from 3 to 7 p.m. at the

[1:30:26] the Valley Health and Wellness Center in the Gold Puck Room.

[1:30:30] And I know Halloween is fast approaching this Friday,

[1:30:33] but we must talk about our annual lighted Santa Claus

[1:30:37] parade.

[1:30:39] Mark here, calendars for Saturday, December the 6th.

[1:30:42] At 6.30 p.m., as poor Corbin's downtown core will light up

[1:30:45] with holiday magic once again.

[1:30:47] Join us for an evening of festive fun, featuring floats

[1:30:50] from local business, community groups, schools, and more.

[1:30:55] The reason why we bring it up early is because we

[1:30:56] ask people to put their applications in for floats and for volunteers, and that's available

[1:31:01] on our website at forecorpon.ca, for slash Santa Claus parade. We're also looking

[1:31:07] for parade sponsors, and more information is available online. On October the 22nd, I had

[1:31:14] the pleasure of receiving the first official Poppy marking the beginning of this year's annual

[1:31:18] Poppy campaign. Each year millions of Canadians proudly wear the Poppy as a symbol of remembrance,

[1:31:24] hard felt tribute to those who served, sacrificed, and continued to protect the freedoms we cherish today.

[1:31:32] The Poppy Stands are during emblem of strength, gratitude, and national pride.

[1:31:38] Residents are encouraged to once again support the Poppy campaign beginning October 31st.

[1:31:44] Donations collected are held in trust at the local Royal Canadian Legion branch,

[1:31:48] and it goes directly towards supporting veterans and their families within our

[1:31:52] community to help ensure the Canada never forgets and you'll see out a lot of

[1:31:57] local businesses the boxes of poppies whatever you can donate everything from

[1:32:04] a looney to I've had people in my office throwing $1,500 bills over the year so

[1:32:09] anything you can donate grab your poppy and please wear it proudly and the next

[1:32:16] This item is for those that know him, and most of us in this room do is David T. LaMetti,

[1:32:22] who was born on August 10th, 1962, was a little bit younger than I am. I was born in March

[1:32:27] of 1962. He's a Canadian diplomat, lawyer, and former politician, and he will become the Canadian

[1:32:33] ambassador to the United Nations on November 17th of 2025. David was born on August 10th, 1962,

[1:32:41] to import Colburn to Italian immigrants.

[1:32:44] You grew up in Port Colburn during a time

[1:32:46] where it was a small industrial town

[1:32:48] where most families on his block

[1:32:50] had at least one person working at the nearby steel mill,

[1:32:53] cement plant, or nickel refinery.

[1:32:55] David went on to study at the University of Toronto

[1:32:58] after which he advanced to the role of Minister of Justice

[1:33:01] and Attorney General of Canada from 2019 to 2023.

[1:33:05] He's a member of the Liberal Party

[1:33:07] who has served as a member of parliament

[1:33:10] for La Salle and Margaret Verdun from 2015 to 2024.

[1:33:15] After leaving electoral politics,

[1:33:18] he was Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Mark Curry

[1:33:20] from July to September of this year.

[1:33:23] We congratulate a pork over and son

[1:33:25] for achieving this remarkable appointment.

[1:33:28] David and I went to high school together.

[1:33:30] His family grew up here.

[1:33:31] His father was a builder in pork over and built many houses

[1:33:35] as, and I've lived in one,

[1:33:37] that the Lamedi family put up and David and I had lots of great debates in Mr. Wilson's

[1:33:49] history class at Port High and most people know I've been conservative most of my life.

[1:33:55] David being a liberal.

[1:33:56] I was with the young conservatives, he was with the young liberals.

[1:33:59] We had a teacher, Arnold Wilson would let us go on for the whole period in a debate on politics

[1:34:05] in Canada.

[1:34:06] And it was actually pretty cool.

[1:34:08] We got the other students involved through us.

[1:34:11] But those are days I do remember.

[1:34:13] And again, here we are, the city of Port Overland

[1:34:17] around 22,000 population today.

[1:34:20] And David and I grew up, we were about 24,000

[1:34:24] with Port Overland, Humberston and the township of Humberston.

[1:34:31] But he's now become,

[1:34:36] this is a pretty high job.

[1:34:40] I mean, you become you

[1:34:47] know to the United Nations that that bodes well for his upbringing in our community

[1:34:52] his education through our community and further at his university and I know we went overseas to England to receive his

[1:35:00] his law degree, but you know I think this is pretty cool for the city of

[1:35:04] Port Coronet. I know Vance served with David. You know it was funny. We were one of

[1:35:10] the only I think cities that I knew our writings where we actually had two

[1:35:13] representatives because David grew up in Port Coronet. Whatever we needed I know

[1:35:17] Vance would always pull them into his office and say David you're supporting

[1:35:20] this. But that was one thing David always said to me. Whatever we needed please

[1:35:26] He's let him know.

[1:35:27] He knew Vance was our representative,

[1:35:29] but he was always there to support

[1:35:31] and is still today here to support the City of Procurement.

[1:35:35] So that does conclude my remarks this evening.

[1:35:38] Councillor Bruno.

[1:35:40] I was just wondering, Mr. Mayor,

[1:35:42] what his hockey prowess was

[1:35:44] because I guess he played with Mark Carney

[1:35:47] at the University of Oxford.

[1:35:50] They were both of teammates like us.

[1:35:52] So I don't know if you had any experience

[1:35:53] with him in high school. Well, one thing I can brag about in on behalf of

[1:35:59] advance and I wasn't as good as either of us.

[1:36:12] Yeah, good friend of ours, good friend of mine and as I said,

[1:36:17] advanced served him with him for numbers, but you live in Portugal and we all do

[1:36:20] each other and growing up. So yeah, I'm pretty proud of this guy. Pretty good

[1:36:26] for us. Any further questions with regards to the nearest report? Okay, seeing none, regional

[1:36:32] council are bad way. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you for those comments about David as well.

[1:36:38] You really appreciate that. Hopefully we can get a copy down to him. I respect your comments.

[1:36:44] I guess I need to really appreciate that. You know, the one thing I have to say, I won't be too long

[1:36:49] on it because you covered most of it. But having grew up with David, I know he went to Port

[1:36:55] He also went on the other day, so he was a couple of years ahead of me as you were.

[1:37:01] Still am.

[1:37:02] Yeah, still are, yeah.

[1:37:03] But we played a lot of soccer and hockey together, but I'll tell you something about David

[1:37:08] having worked with him recently on the Hill for the last 10 years since 15.

[1:37:13] We got to let it together.

[1:37:15] The one thing about David is he never lost his roots.

[1:37:18] You know, David was David.

[1:37:19] He was the same David LeMetti as he was back when he was a child teenager.

[1:37:23] You know, in his 20s, Miguel, U of T, Oxford, professor, lawyer, now, you know, attorney general,

[1:37:33] a member of parliament, he was always David, you know, and it was always nice to go into

[1:37:37] his office for a glass of milk. And, and hear him, you know, put it, put a little, he always

[1:37:42] had the term table on there, the record, and he put his Jeff Rotel or something on way back

[1:37:46] from our days, raging ourselves. But he never lost his roots. He was always a poor,

[1:37:50] Gordon Boyd, Truman Blue, and just a genuine gentleman.

[1:37:55] So, you know, well-earned, well-deserved,

[1:37:57] and I'm sure he's going to do well representing all of us.

[1:38:01] Mr. Mayor, it's, and I know you covered a lot of it

[1:38:06] when you made your comments about the Dean of Niagara,

[1:38:10] the champion of Niagara, and his passing,

[1:38:13] most recently Jim Bradley.

[1:38:17] And I just wanted to make mention this evening

[1:38:20] to the council that we have been notified by the province of Ontario, that they will

[1:38:25] be announcing next steps in the appointment of a new chair. That is imminent, and there

[1:38:31] has been no chatter, no discussion at the region, who that's going to be, so don't ask me

[1:38:35] that question, so I have no idea. But for the better part, we're looking forward to that

[1:38:41] being made, that decision and that announcement being made soon, rather than in the meantime,

[1:38:44] everyone's filling in to take a part of the duties and right now it's Pat Keokeo from

[1:38:51] Welland and once again we're hoping that that appointment will be made sooner rather later.

[1:38:57] I was certain to tone whether I was going to bring this up or not but I am and I'll

[1:39:03] tie a Y upon my conclusion of bringing it up. I had the opportunity last night, it was

[1:39:07] a lot of off the past few days and I had the opportunity to meet with the EU ambassador

[1:39:13] at the Senate in Ottawa and spoke with her about the Niagara Ports Court, the Niagara

[1:39:18] Trade Court, the Niagara Ports Trade Court, within a great lakes and sandlands region.

[1:39:23] And the great deal of investment that's coming into Niagara as many members recognize that

[1:39:29] as one of the most strategic quarters in the world, not just here in Canada, but the world.

[1:39:34] The well in Canal here in Niagara will play a key role in transatlantic trade coming

[1:39:38] into our area here, and also obviously in another of the Greer Lakes, the St. Lawrence.

[1:39:45] And by the way, it's a $6 trillion industry that's attached to the Greer Lakes and St.

[1:39:50] Lawrence.

[1:39:50] We can't, and Gary and I were talking about it before the meeting, we can't underestimate

[1:39:54] the impact that the Greer Lakes and St. Lawrence have on the overall economy throughout Canada,

[1:39:59] the United States, but especially here in Niagara.

[1:40:03] And, you know, although I do look forward to continuing our dialogue with that particular

[1:40:07] ambassador and others and bringing Bill into the fold as well within my new position,

[1:40:14] but on behalf of the region and working with Bill in the city, and the reason I'm bringing

[1:40:20] this up is because, again, we can't hear in the Port Cobra in Niagara underestimate the

[1:40:26] impact that the economy is having and growing within something that we've grown up with

[1:40:32] our entire lives, which is the well-known canal, as part of the great lakes in the St.

[1:40:36] Lawrence.

[1:40:38] However, we have to ensure that we work together, and this is why I'm bringing this up, and

[1:40:43] I know Brian's doing it now, and I know the mayor's doing this now, and I congratulate you

[1:40:46] and thank you for that.

[1:40:48] But it's imperative, and I'm Gary too, thank you, Gary.

[1:40:51] And it's imperative that we continue to work together.

[1:40:53] The private sector, all levels of government,

[1:40:56] as well as the arms-like organizations,

[1:41:00] such as the St. Lawrence C-Way,

[1:41:02] and ports like the Hamilton-Oshaw,

[1:41:04] Port of 30, it's imperative that we continue to work together

[1:41:07] to strengthen the capacity.

[1:41:10] The capacity needed to ensure that we have the fluidity

[1:41:13] within our region's economic order

[1:41:15] so that we can keep up with this growth.

[1:41:17] That includes roads, it includes rail,

[1:41:20] it includes water, it includes docking,

[1:41:22] It includes a lot of the underground infrastructure that you're putting in right now, and I congratulate you for that, the water, the sewer, and working with other partners to ensure that their needs are being looked after, the shipping companies, Hamilton, actual port authority, and a list goes on to crew shipping industry, and a list goes on.

[1:41:41] And that's why I'm bringing it up today. When I had the discussion with the ambassador last night, she was quite impressed with what's happening here in Niagara and across the galaxy of Lawrence.

[1:41:50] And she is key, because with the Prime Minister not diversifying our economy and growing

[1:41:56] that in that part of the world, the transatlantic shipments are coming through Montreal and

[1:42:00] Surreal, most of which then go on a truck or rail, most of which are going to go on a ship.

[1:42:06] And that ship's going to come down the river, it's going to come through the well in Canal,

[1:42:09] it's going to go on into the Great Lakes, Midwest, U.S. Canada.

[1:42:13] And it's imperative that we capture a lot of that.

[1:42:15] that. Don't just watch it sail by. That would capture a lot of that within our potential

[1:42:20] container ports with the bodies that are going to be coming here going to the falls,

[1:42:25] the busy with the cruise ships, the wineries. We're going to become more of a destination.

[1:42:31] And we're going to start capturing a lot of this. But the capture more of it, we're going

[1:42:34] to need the capacity, the infrastructure in place to ensure that we grow and our economy

[1:42:39] goes because of it. The last thing I want to mention is that as members of Council recognize

[1:42:44] and I'll counsel back you about the stuff a few meetings ago, but I want to make you

[1:42:47] aware that the region, once again, that the region is moving forward with a scheduled

[1:42:51] B municipal class and environmental assessment to study the possibility of building a new

[1:42:56] large trance sewer and sewage pumping station here in Prokober.

[1:42:59] Yes, as you know, we'll better transport wastewater, I know it's not the most appealing thing

[1:43:03] to talk about, but it is reality we have to deal with it.

[1:43:06] This will better transport wastewater to the sewage treatment plant.

[1:43:11] The reason why I'm bringing it up is because we do have an in-person information center,

[1:43:15] which is planned to share information related to the study.

[1:43:18] On Wednesday, November 5th, from 5 to 7, at the Pro-Cover and Operation Center on Colleys

[1:43:24] Street West, I would encourage all of you, most of you.

[1:43:29] I know staff are more likely to be there as well to be there because, again, it's not the

[1:43:34] most appealing topic to talk about, the wastewater, but with the growth, and as I mentioned earlier

[1:43:40] able to capacity needed for our economic growth as well as residential growth, it is needed.

[1:43:46] And people that have some challenges, especially in the Bartok area, in those areas, I know

[1:43:50] Councillor Brunan and Councillor Danch probably still get calls on that. I know I used to

[1:43:53] announce that you're seeing Mr. Mayor. Projects like this will make a difference not only for

[1:43:58] the growth but also for the existing residents and businesses in the community so that

[1:44:01] therefore some of the challenges that they're running into will continue.

[1:44:06] Other net, we are continuing to work on our budgets, both capital and operating at the region.

[1:44:11] We're going through piece by piece for the past few weeks, all the different components of the budget.

[1:44:16] I know the mayor has been a great part of that as well.

[1:44:17] When it comes to wastewater, it comes to water, it comes to roads, it comes to policing, and let's go on.

[1:44:22] We're preparing to present that budget, hopefully in Q1 or next year.

[1:44:27] And that's it, Mr. Mayor.

[1:44:28] I'll take questions.

[1:44:29] Thanks, Councillor.

[1:44:31] Questions for the regional Councillor.

[1:44:34] Right?

[1:44:35] Perfect.

[1:44:36] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[1:44:37] Thank you very much.

[1:44:38] Very easy.

[1:44:38] there's just a nightmare. Okay. Consent agenda. Are there any items that need to be lifted?

[1:44:48] Okay. I'll have Councillors Baguio in dance. Move the council here by approves the listed

[1:44:52] consent items on the October 28th, 2025 council agenda. At the consent items be approved on the

[1:44:58] recommendations as

[1:45:00] Attain to their in all in favor. That's carried.

[1:45:06] Out of 12, one is council update and workshop, new official plan. I'm going to put this in the floor that I'll have Eric and a staff do the presentation. I'm going to have counselors Elliott Bruno move that the memorandum council law with the presentation by the consulting team regarding the new official plan be received for information. That staff be directed to continue to work with the consulting team to advance the official plan project. Eric. Thank you. Through the mayor.

[1:45:32] to the council as you're aware, we've discussed previous meetings, cities in the process of undertaking

[1:45:38] the development of a new official plan. Tonight we're joined by Patty Kennedy and Amy Greenberg

[1:45:44] from Dylan Consulting who are doing the work on that. They're going to give us a brief presentation

[1:45:49] of the plan. There are some discussion points at the end of that. If there's time tonight,

[1:45:56] council can feel free to engage on those points but if you want to take some of those back and think

[1:46:02] about them. I encourage you to contact either Kelly Martell or myself if you've got considerations

[1:46:08] for the official plan or questions on any of the matters that come up tonight beyond what

[1:46:13] you're able to have dialogue on tonight. So thank you and I'll turn this over to

[1:46:19] Adi and Amy.

[1:46:26] Well thank you thank you for that introduction Eric thank you Mr. Mayor

[1:46:32] members of council's pleasure to be here this evening to speak with you. I have a relatively

[1:46:37] brief presentation to walk you through. I understand I'm competing with another event that's

[1:46:42] going on as we speak so I'll try to be as brief but thorough at the same time as I can.

[1:46:52] So the new official plan first and foremost will provide a dynamic long-term vision for the

[1:46:58] city of Port Colburn up to 25 years and beyond. It's going to be prepared to align with the province's

[1:47:04] latest provincial planning statement. It will conform to all the latest changes on the planning

[1:47:08] So you'll have a modern up-to-date decision-making tool that you can use to both guide investment

[1:47:14] but make decisions at the site level on development applications as they come forward.

[1:47:19] It's also going to be prepared in a way that's concise.

[1:47:22] It's going to be user-friendly so that only developers and staff can use it,

[1:47:26] but residents can use this document to understand how particular change in the neighborhood is happening.

[1:47:30] And so that's the goal here that we want to prepare this very strategic but yet user-friendly document.

[1:47:37] For more technical level, the plan will ensure that you have an appropriate banal land for

[1:47:43] all those investment opportunities that we're just alluded to here in the previous session

[1:47:47] from Councillor Bataway, that we have the right amount of residential land, commercial

[1:47:51] land, employment land to satisfy long-term growth, that we can use the plan to guide our longer

[1:47:57] term infrastructure decision-making questions that we have about where the next generation

[1:48:03] of roads and sewers and parks and facilities need to go. We will have an up-to-date natural

[1:48:09] heritage system to protect those important natural features and functions that flow through

[1:48:14] the city and beyond that we have climate change policies. Now we capture a range of different

[1:48:22] community improvement initiatives that come forward through the exercise of this project.

[1:48:27] Lastly, this does, I believe, tick a box for your strategic plan, but there are important objectives

[1:48:32] in your plan that will be carried forward in this as well.

[1:48:36] The process we have is sort of a five phase process.

[1:48:39] We're just at the beginning of the end of the first phase,

[1:48:42] which was to finish up a plan for consultation engagement

[1:48:45] and pick some rough timelines for when we'll be able

[1:48:48] to the public to collect their feedback on the plan

[1:48:50] and get input from this council as well

[1:48:53] at those key decision points along the way.

[1:48:57] The second phase of work is we'll be back to you

[1:48:59] to present some policy recommendations

[1:49:01] for you to give us feedback on and for us to modify,

[1:49:06] discuss, debate, and make sure that those objectives

[1:49:09] are later at the beginning are reflected in the policy directions.

[1:49:13] Phase three is sort of an internal exercise work with staff

[1:49:15] to come up with the first draft of the plan.

[1:49:18] And then we'll be back to you to share the draft of the plan

[1:49:21] and then we'll bring it out to the public

[1:49:22] and have a robust dialogue with the public on the draft plan

[1:49:26] before we come back in phase five.

[1:49:28] All this is to be done between now and the end of the summer, that's the goal, we're

[1:49:33] going to try our best to do that, to the extent it's in our control, barring major changes

[1:49:38] to provincial legislation, that might be the one thing that we have no control, but that's

[1:49:42] the goal.

[1:49:44] So tonight really is just a preview, I think of our understanding of some of the key issues

[1:49:48] the plants got to deal with and sort of introduce some of the technical themes for the OP.

[1:49:55] colleagues from my firm are with you before a couple of other years, so we'll go to present

[1:49:59] some of the feedback from that initial public engagement and identified a bunch of these

[1:50:04] key themes that the OPE is to deal with. One of the outputs of that first phase of public

[1:50:10] engagement work was a draft vision statement for Colburn, so I'm going to share that

[1:50:15] with you now and then I'm just going to touch on a couple of topics in these themes.

[1:50:19] So, the vision for the OP is that Port Colburn is a thriving, diverse, vibrant, and I'm going

[1:50:27] to have to go to my actual hard copy now, let's see here because the band is on the actual

[1:50:31] mechanism statement.

[1:50:33] Here we go.

[1:50:35] And by the end of the project, I'll have it committed to memory.

[1:50:39] So, I will be able to just delete on the spot.

[1:50:41] But a vibrant, diverse rural and urban-like front community that is rooted in our cultural

[1:50:46] Heritage and Natural Landscapes Plakiary. Our community is welcoming, inclusive, accessible

[1:50:51] to all ages and abilities.

[1:50:57] We work together to build community that is walkable with

[1:51:00] the thriving downtown, complete streets, very affordable housing options while protecting

[1:51:04] our farmland and natural heritage features.

[1:51:09] We're inspired by our commitment to maintain

[1:51:12] proper infrastructure, we also plan for expansive parks, green spaces, community gathering spaces

[1:51:17] is ensuring that we have a healthy community

[1:51:20] for current and future generations.

[1:51:23] And then we have places to work and to promote economic development,

[1:51:26] tourism, arts and culture to support our community,

[1:51:28] poor COVID, as a growing community,

[1:51:30] and our official plan creates a strong foundation

[1:51:33] to support future growth.

[1:51:34] So that's the overall sort of vision statement.

[1:51:37] It's not certainly set in stone, but it's a piece that we'll

[1:51:40] continue to reach out to the public as we go through the process.

[1:51:45] Couple of the key kind of themes I just

[1:51:47] We just want to touch on tonight where topic one is sort of planning for growth.

[1:51:51] The PPS gives us the time horizon that we have to plan for when making an official plan

[1:51:56] between 20 and 30 years.

[1:51:58] We've had some changes in how we do growth forecasting for the future, understanding how much

[1:52:03] we grow as a key ingredient and sort of preparing an official plan because it sets sort of the

[1:52:08] amount of land that we designate for particular land uses.

[1:52:12] And so the province provides us some guidance and they're asking us to use their Ministry of

[1:52:16] financials projections, and that's kind of the starting point for our work is to understand.

[1:52:20] But the long-term growth projections could be for Port Colburn.

[1:52:24] I understand you've recently updated your development charges by law, and so that that

[1:52:28] DC study that Watson Associate did gives us kind of a quick snapshot of the next 10 years.

[1:52:35] And he's like picking up on some of the themes of a lot of the opportunities for growth.

[1:52:39] These numbers think reflect that looking at sort of that 19 to 24% change over the next

[1:52:45] decade or plus its potential for growth but we'll be looking at a longer time horizon as

[1:52:51] part of our second phase of work.

[1:52:56] Yeah, I'm not going to speak to this too much. I think it's just

[1:52:58] the point here is that the province is also issued some guidelines for us to follow that we have to

[1:53:03] work within when we project a growth.

[1:53:08] So some of the questions that we will be considering in the

[1:53:11] second phase are like what are the more specific critical factors in the city that are going to

[1:53:15] shape the growth so we can come up with a good understanding of how much and

[1:53:20] understand what those top priorities for development are. And more importantly,

[1:53:23] where those opportunities should be focused and that would influence certainly

[1:53:27] the way the land use plan is prepared and that sort of thing.

[1:53:33] In terms of housing,

[1:53:34] supply options and intensification, the problems are access to plan for the sort of

[1:53:38] full range of housing types and all forms of intensification. And so we also need

[1:53:43] to include some off-to-date targets for intensification in the plan.

[1:53:47] As you are all aware, getting homes builds a top priority for the province, a top priority

[1:53:51] for this council and something we're hoping the plan will enable.

[1:53:55] But just by way of information, full range of housing types, it would include things like

[1:54:00] your singles, your semis, your ADUs, which you've recently tackled here, street town homes,

[1:54:05] low rise, mid rise, laneway housing, stack town homes, et cetera, you kind of get the flavor

[1:54:11] here of the full range of uses. The key question I suppose for the official plan is what's the appropriate location?

[1:54:17] What's the types of criteria you want to have around this so that when you have applications come forward,

[1:54:21] you're equipped to make some informed decisions or ask different things of the applicants to address

[1:54:26] whether it's an urban design issue or a servicing issue and that sort of thing.

[1:54:32] The last kind of point maybe to make on this topic of range of housing options and intensification

[1:54:39] has to do with a better defined urban structure.

[1:54:44] The current official plan,

[1:54:45] and your current official plan,

[1:54:47] you have two locations here identified

[1:54:49] where intensification is supposed to be targeted

[1:54:51] in your downtown,

[1:54:52] and the area on Humberston sort of on Main Street West,

[1:54:55] they're loosely defined.

[1:54:56] The OP has a target of 15% intensification.

[1:54:59] Some previous work that was done on the OP identified

[1:55:02] an opportunity to look at maybe some other places,

[1:55:05] some other geographies,

[1:55:06] maybe some more refined boundaries

[1:55:08] and to provide a bit more guidance on build form

[1:55:11] and the type of development we want to have in these locations.

[1:55:16] So really the question in the phase two

[1:55:18] that we'll be dealing with is what areas should be the focus

[1:55:20] of the intensification, does the plan have the right ones,

[1:55:23] should there be new ones, how should we consider this,

[1:55:26] how precise should we be in defining those locations.

[1:55:30] And do we have the right range of housing options

[1:55:33] in the current plan that we need to expand

[1:55:35] in that sort of thing?

[1:55:36] Third

[1:55:41] theme to talk about is planning for employment.

[1:55:44] Certainly the province's directions here that we are supposed to plan for a range of employment opportunities,

[1:55:49] plan for long-term growth, more importantly, protect our employment areas for many incompatible land uses.

[1:55:53] It can become very challenging for industry to run their operations.

[1:55:57] There's residential rate up cheek to gel with them.

[1:56:00] So you want to have broad areas established for employment uses and protect them from incompatible land uses.

[1:56:07] The current official plan, these are the three main areas in the OP with the minister's

[1:56:15] zoning order and the battery separator plan inside the urban boundary to the north as

[1:56:20] sort of the major economic development opportunity here in the city in recent years, but certainly

[1:56:25] there's a number of lands designated for employment uses in the OP around the canal in these areas.

[1:56:30] And the big question I think for us is, is this the right amount of land or these the right

[1:56:33] locations of their opportunities for more locations and so really how aggressive should the

[1:56:40] OPP be in trying to anticipate what the future changes are in the city and are there new employment

[1:56:46] areas we should consider as part of this. Any environmental side? The PPS directs municipalities

[1:56:52] to protect natural features and functions from the long-term to maintain and restore where possible

[1:56:57] enhance the connectivity of those features to protect and improve and restore water quality

[1:57:02] water quantity, so this is the overarching policy objectives that are from the province

[1:57:07] that was paused to incorporate in their official plans.

[1:57:11] I mean, generally, this is one of the sections of the plan that's, like it's, is dated.

[1:57:15] It generally reflects those provincial directions, so I don't expect it's going to be drastic changes

[1:57:20] to the environmental policy frameworks that's on the current plan today, but we'll have to

[1:57:25] do a more detailed gap analysis to really understand if that's the case.

[1:57:29] There could be changes to the mapping and we would expect that just to give a number of

[1:57:35] changes that have gone on to sort of the regions roll over the years that will be updating

[1:57:39] the environmental impact study requirements and policies in the OP.

[1:57:45] So really well that sort of environmental system of environmental protection areas, environmental

[1:57:51] conservation areas, the mapping study requirements, well that kind of forms the bones of a good

[1:57:57] robust policy, there are other areas that can be explored, can capture some of the work

[1:58:01] you're doing on urban forestry, for example, include canopy targets in there, can we

[1:58:06] have enhanced policies on climate change, looking at low impact development or energy efficiency.

[1:58:12] If there are other areas that we want to provide guidance on, the plan can do that.

[1:58:18] The last topic I wanted to touch on here is agriculture. The province, so agriculture is a

[1:58:24] of provincial interests, the province has this

[1:58:26] agricultural system's approach, basically means

[1:58:30] to try and look at your all your agricultural lands

[1:58:32] and ensure that you're allowing permission

[1:58:35] for the broad range of agricultural uses in that area.

[1:58:38] And there's an opportunity I think to update your plan

[1:58:40] to include a sort of a broader range of agricultural uses,

[1:58:43] particularly on these agricultural related uses,

[1:58:47] but also what they call on farm diversified uses,

[1:58:49] which are meant to allow farmers to do more things

[1:58:52] in their property that leveraged the value of their farm.

[1:58:58] So the updates to this section of the plan are intended to basically help the city's

[1:59:03] rural and cultural areas have opportunities to grow and thrive as well.

[1:59:07] And we do have an opportunity from some of the work the Regents done in the last couple

[1:59:12] of years to leverage some of their policy and mapping work as well to help us with that

[1:59:15] section as well.

[1:59:18] And so if there are other priorities beyond those ones I outlined, that will be helpful

[1:59:22] for us to understand and know as we work through the policy directions work in phase two.

[1:59:29] So a little bit speedy through this, but the next steps for the official plan are to

[1:59:35] sort of come do the work on the growth forecast and that sort of 2055 timeline, complete our

[1:59:42] policy directions discussion paper. So all those things I just spoke about will come

[1:59:47] back with some analysis and some recommendations on for Council to consider and launch our

[1:59:51] public engagement program. And I'll just leave this up here at the end. These were just the recap

[1:59:57] of the questions I had posed during the slide, and I think Eric had mentioned.

[2:00:01] Okay, questions now, we're happy to speak offline afterwards. Thank you. Great. Thank you. I think that through the mayor to council. I think what we're going to do is send you a summary email of this presentation and the questions that are in it. And if you'd like to respond tonight, patty in a year here, Kelly and I can record notes and assist with answering questions. If you've got further thoughts for the official plan beyond tonight, please respond to that email.

[2:00:32] and let us know.

[2:00:34] Great, thank you.

[2:00:36] Councilor's questions.

[2:00:38] Councilor Brunner.

[2:00:40] Thank you for the presentation.

[2:00:42] Could you give me a favor and go back

[2:00:44] to one of the second or third slides.

[2:00:47] Who is the one on population?

[2:00:53] The Wolf the Chair.

[2:00:55] Yes.

[2:00:59] So for me, the question about the new OP

[2:01:04] is centered on what you do

[2:01:06] about what's already baked in.

[2:01:09] So, let me start with population, I mean he helped from the mayor because he's quoted a number before.

[2:01:16] So, population out there on the side, again, come in by the battery separator plant,

[2:01:23] I believe is just over 20,000, right?

[2:01:27] And I thought I had heard that the actual update population from the last census,

[2:01:32] maybe not as official was in around 23.

[2:01:36] The last one I received from the federal government on the update of the most recent census was 21,135.

[2:01:45] So guess where I'm going with this is that it's not too hard to believe that the reality is that we may well be

[2:01:59] if we're at 21 L, we basically, you know, you have quite a spread there between 2024 and

[2:02:09] 2036. You don't have much of a spread in population in 2019, so it would be 3,000, 4,000.

[2:02:20] The reality is that it should be we should be we be worried that we're not really even

[2:02:30] starting with the right based data.

[2:02:34] So that's that's question one.

[2:02:37] On housing, if you look at the number on the chart there, we have approximately, I believe

[2:02:46] American, totally good question, around 7,400, 7,200 housing units in contemplation, in

[2:02:57] one form or another in draft planning.

[2:03:04] That blows that number quickly with the big

[2:03:11] asterisk if they're built.

[2:03:15] But my question really revolves around the fact that those,

[2:03:19] and we've talked about it around this day is, is that barring draft plan

[2:03:28] approvals that get canceled or expired, a lot of the tables have been set with

[2:03:38] in-hand draft plan approvals. I mean if you ask me as an overall you know on the

[2:03:45] industrial, but the agriculture isn't going to move much, right? The industrial, we know

[2:03:51] where it's going and there's how many acres along the 140. The housing in between all the

[2:04:01] infill is going to, if they happened, would blow those numbers off the chart, past 2036.

[2:04:11] And so my question becomes, what are we really designated in the future in the official

[2:04:23] plan when, you know, some 400 units are baked in and where they're going and then infill

[2:04:33] and they're in the current urban service area?

[2:04:35] So, there's not even much left unless you go out

[2:04:42] towards Lorraine Road and roads like that

[2:04:45] to actually complete the land that's left.

[2:04:51] So, can you square all that with what we're really left

[2:04:56] in being able to affect?

[2:04:59] I'll certainly give it a shot here.

[2:05:01] That's what you've just heard.

[2:05:01] there. A couple of points I'll make, I guess, on the housing side certainly. There are

[2:05:09] a lot of, I think he says, sort of six to 7,000 units in the pipeline that have been approved

[2:05:14] that have a decision. They're not built, so they're pure supply. They're not demand.

[2:05:22] Our exercise in this second phase of work is to look at the trends, look at the analysis,

[2:05:28] to look out to the future and try and come up with what we think the demand will be.

[2:05:34] Compare that against your supply, see if there's a gap.

[2:05:37] If there is a gap, we would recommend designating some additional land.

[2:05:41] If there isn't a gap, then we have to focus on some policies in the plan that guide the

[2:05:48] the lapsing of development applications that don't get built, that sort of provide guidance for

[2:05:53] like what to do with lands that don't get built and this kind of thing because it is tied.

[2:05:58] The development gets approved, doesn't get built, and sits there. It's not a big deal if it's

[2:06:03] one or two things, but when it's like the majority of your supply is sitting there not getting moved,

[2:06:08] then that's a problem that we need to sort of tackle collectively because then you can't grow.

[2:06:13] And then you have to start thinking of those some different strategies that I want to do.

[2:06:21] Great answer, but I'm convinced that you're going to have to show me.

[2:06:25] So I'm looking forward to it, OK?

[2:06:28] The other part of this is what I'd like to throw in,

[2:06:32] with I think we're all going to be worried with,

[2:06:34] is potentially how all these units are constructed,

[2:06:39] and you read our strapline about small town atmosphere.

[2:06:45] And so the thing I'm most concerned of,

[2:06:47] and I know Eric and Kelly have been right on it,

[2:06:50] is design standards.

[2:06:52] because if we have to deal with the 7400 where they currently are, we sure as heck want

[2:06:59] to make sure that they at least look right if they can.

[2:07:03] And I don't know if we can get into that on draft plans, but that would be – that

[2:07:08] in transportation would be the two things I'd like to add, but I'll let my colleagues

[2:07:13] ask some questions.

[2:07:14] Thank you very much.

[2:07:15] Thanks, Council.

[2:07:16] Further questions?

[2:07:20] I think that.

[2:07:20] We'll certainly look at those two additional topics and I know there's a lot to go through at a very fast base

[2:07:28] So like we'll be accessible if you want to talk to Eric or talk to us afterwards

[2:07:32] We'll try to be accessible and responsive through the course of the project. Great. Thank you back. I'm in for

[2:07:38] You're all set

[2:07:40] Okay, that's good. All in favor

[2:07:43] That's carried all

[2:07:47] right on the staff remarks matter clerk anything

[2:07:50] Nothing this time fire

[2:07:53] Nothing mr. Mayor public works

[2:07:55] nothing Mr Mayor thank you second floor all in composing nothing to see

[2:08:06] planning I'm with him on the second floor yeah comms oh thank you Mr.

[2:08:12] Rick Parks and Rec you're all set CEO Mr. Mayor I wish I had nothing but just

[2:08:18] to remind everyone that the strong mayor budget is being presented next Tuesday

[2:08:22] I'm looking forward to chatting with everybody on Council and anybody from the public that wants to come.

[2:08:28] Thank you.

[2:08:29] Okay.

[2:08:30] I don't think I forgot.

[2:08:32] I'm going to give the resources I don't give.

[2:08:34] You're later with us.

[2:08:36] And the museum already gave theirself.

[2:08:39] Okay.

[2:08:39] Councilor Adams.

[2:08:40] Councilor Bobner, anything?

[2:08:44] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[2:08:46] Just to remind people on November 11th, I don't remember it's day 1045.

[2:08:51] We'll have a service at Centennial Park Cedar Bay and it's kind of a laid back service,

[2:09:04] but very meaningful, so we invite everybody out, be great.

[2:09:09] And just because you mentioned, Arna Wilson, he's one of the great teachers where you could

[2:09:20] to have some fun in his class.

[2:09:22] One was trying to get the business,

[2:09:24] she got the business, so.

[2:09:26] And just as on the side,

[2:09:29] we invited him and he came to our wedding.

[2:09:33] So he was just a straight up great guy, good teacher.

[2:09:38] Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

[2:09:39] Thank you, Councilor.

[2:09:40] Councilor Wilde.

[2:09:41] Just like to say, thanks to staff for helping out during the week.

[2:09:44] And I have no other thing to work with.

[2:09:46] Councilor Dan.

[2:09:47] Okay, short and sweet, nothing.

[2:09:50] Councilor Elliott.

[2:09:52] I had about 15 questions for public work,

[2:09:54] but I'm not gonna dump them on you.

[2:09:57] So I'll get a hold of Steve,

[2:09:59] and the museum ladies left because I was gonna ask them,

[2:10:03] maybe comms knows, Christmas at the museum.

[2:10:09] Is it the Sunday after our fabulous,

[2:10:13] this lighted Christmas parade, or is it before?

[2:10:18] Through you, Mr. Mayor, it's always the first Sunday.

[2:10:21] So I think it's the 6th or the 7th this year.

[2:10:23] So it's the Sunday right after that parade.

[2:10:26] So same with you.

[2:10:27] I just wanted to give them a chance to throw that out

[2:10:29] because we're talking about how to drive more people

[2:10:31] to the museum.

[2:10:33] There you go.

[2:10:34] So December 7th, right?

[2:10:36] Because the 6th is the parade?

[2:10:38] Yeah, okay.

[2:10:39] Christmas at the museum, don't miss.

[2:10:42] Yeah, well, and quite frankly, under the mirrors report, we'll be bringing that up closer.

[2:10:46] The reason we brought up the parade is because we got to get people in for floats and

[2:10:51] now's the time to get them together. That's why that's the one stuff.

[2:10:54] You know how much, and often I champion them, you see them. So I don't always get to get a chance,

[2:10:58] chance to log out there. So when you said the parade, I'm thinking, okay, when is Christmas at the

[2:11:02] museum? So I was going to give them a chance to promote it themselves, but they left too early.

[2:11:08] I'm sure it'll be back.

[2:11:10] Yeah.

[2:11:10] Order your puddings now.

[2:11:12] Councilor Reno.

[2:11:14] Just real quick, when I had a request from a resident today,

[2:11:17] and I checked with parks and rec, concerned that a lot of people

[2:11:23] still like to walk the trails and walk around the Lakeview Park area,

[2:11:29] and the washrooms close around the 12th.

[2:11:31] I was told that there was a reason for that.

[2:11:35] no heat in there for pipes and things like that.

[2:11:39] But an interesting suggestion came from Parks and Rack,

[2:11:43] person which I thought was great.

[2:11:45] And that was, weren't great,

[2:11:47] is that for those that do drive to the park

[2:11:51] and enjoy that walk, but have no washroom facilities

[2:11:54] that there can walk the trails in and around the Vale Center

[2:12:00] and have a washroom from 6 a.m. to 10 at night.

[2:12:04] So I don't know if there's something we can put on those other two buildings or if there's any comms things

[2:12:09] We can do to highlight the still get out there and walk the trails. So yeah, if that's help us out

[2:12:17] It was an excellent suggestion

[2:12:19] That's all I have Mr. Mayor. Thank you comms and Greg you'll take that. Thank you

[2:12:25] Councillor Baguette. Ah, this chair is empty Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Thank you

[2:12:31] Thank you, Ms. Mayor. I just wanted to state that last week I presented a

[2:12:41] 25th anniversary certificate for people, people helping people achieve

[2:12:49] community was at the Guild Hall so I was super honored to do that. They're a great

[2:12:57] group of volunteers and members. Unfortunately, I followed regional counselor

[2:13:07] fataways speech, so he can't really follow him very often. He's very loved by

[2:13:16] that group, so that's it. Thank you. Great. Thank you for attending

[2:13:21] counselor. The mayor at times is stretched in every direction. I appreciate you

[2:13:26] going and they are a fantastic group. We did their light raising here a little over a month ago.

[2:13:31] So that was good. Yeah, and I know following advance can be tough sometimes depending on how long

[2:13:36] you go on.

[2:13:39] That's good. No, that's good. The both of you were there. Having that, are there any notices

[2:13:44] of motion this evening?

[2:13:48] Bylaws. If I could have Councilor's Dan Chinak, will you move that the

[2:13:50] following bylaws be passed in an act that is presented by law number 7397 slash 888 slash 25.

[2:13:56] And by law seven, 398-89-2-5, questions?

[2:14:04] All in favor?

[2:14:06] That's carried.

[2:14:09] And we are going into closed session council.

[2:14:11] I could have councillors Beggio and Bruno move the council did not proceed to meet in closed session.

[2:14:17] At 8.41 p.m. under the municipal act of 2001, subsection 239-2-B.

[2:14:28] where a closed session meeting is held if the matter being considered are personnel matters about an identifiable individual including municipal or local board employees.

[2:14:39] In subsection 2392D, where a closed session meeting is held if the subject matter being considered is labor relations or employee negotiations.

[2:14:49] All those in favor, and that's carried.

[2:14:54] and for those that are watching at home and those in the gallery, this ends our

[2:14:58] Council meeting this evening.

[2:15:00] We will not be coming back on camera for the screen, so we thank you for watching, and be safe out there.

Council Meeting

Transcript