Hey, everybody, we're gonna get started. It is 07:00 so
I'm going to call the meeting to order. We start
off in a good way with this territorial land acknowledgment,
the City of Port Moody carries out our business on
the ancestral and unseated homelands of the quake. Whitlam slail
Wattooth Musquium squamish. Kate C. Quantlin, kikate and stolo peoples
and extends. Appreciation for the opportunity to work on this
territory. Next item is adoption of the agenda. Although I
believe that, Madam Clerk, there is an amendment. For a
title change for one of. The proposed motions. Thank you,
Mary. Lady, we just request a motion that the agenda
be amended by. Replacing the memo provided in the agenda
package for item 11.2, which should be titled UBCM advocacy
housing as a human right. And that the item title
provides accordingly. Thank you. So, as amended, it's been moved
and seconded. All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Now, anyone who's
here has probably been hearing the drum beats in the
background. So at this point in time, before we move
on with the rest, of the agenda we are actually
going to take. A short recess to watch the Port
Moody Secondary school blue thunder marching drum line and then
they're going to come back and we'll have a little
chat with them. So we'll recess at this point and
everybody can go out and watch the drum line.
Nice and loud. Yeah. Well.
They wouldn't really have a spot.
Just wait for everybody to come in and we'll get
started.
Right, so we're going to reconvene the meeting. So before
we go. To the representative. From the blue Thunder marching
drum line. I'm going to go to councilor Agtrap. Who's
going to give us a little bit of information. And
then you'll be welcomed up to the podium. Great. Thank
you. We are very delighted to have Corey Smith and
the Port Moody Secondary School blue. Thunder indoor march chain
drum line here tonight, and we especially enjoyed the live
performance in front of city hall just now. And for
those of you online, you can check them out on
YouTube. Founded in 2022, the Port Moody Blue Thunder Drum
Line is a small group of students from Port Moody
Secondary School, who are dedicated to exploring the marching arts
and supporting the school. And community through Drumline, the Blue
center drumline participates in a wide variety of events and
competitions such as supporting centennial secondary football team, playing at
school and music program, fundraising events around town competing at
regional and provincial level competitions and performing for community events
such as Port Moody Shuffle and the Canada Day celebrations.
The drum line is one of. Only three drum lines
in the province capable of competing at the premier class
level in Canadian Drumline association competitions, making it one of
the top groups in the province. Each year, the ensemble
creates an original show and. That they compete with in
the spring. This year. The show is titled. Witches and
wizards and drums Omai and is a journey through the
magical world of Harry Potter. The sorcerer's apprentice. And, of
course, wizard of Oz. And wicked, welcome Corey in the
blue. Thunder drum line. We look forward to learning more
about your accomplishments. Thank you very much. Pleasure to come
out and perform for you all today. The kids were
looking forward to it for a long time. My name
is Corey Smith, director of instrumental music over at Port
Moody Secondary School, as well as the director of operations
BC for the Canadian Drumline association. Drumline is a major
passion of mine that I've developed over the years, having
watched my grandfather run drum lines in California. I was
able to bring it here to Port Moody after having
one in West Vancouver for a number of years and
very grateful that I did so that we can contribute
to events like this. And all of our. Local activities
that we do. So just a quick background. I know,
actually, that covered a lot of what we do, which
is. Great this year. The drum line. So this is
our third year in operation. We finished third in the
province out of 30 drum lines, which was. Pretty spectacular
for us, considering the other two schools that beat us
have been around for 2025. Years or more. So these
kids. Thank you. So these kids have put in an
exceptional amount of work to get to that level. What
you saw today. It's taken them three years to develop.
The skills. Just about every single one of those members
started in grade nine, and now they're. In grade eleven,
moving into grade twelve. We've got a couple of levels
of marching. We've got a junior drum line that now
feeds into this senior group. With the hope of expanding
the whole program at Port Moody secondary to a full
marching band program. Next year. So if there are any
parades in town that you need a marching ensemble for,
please. Think of us. And thank you again for having
us. Please stay, because I see that there are some
counselors that have their hands up. I just want to
commend you for placing third that your organization, the kids,
for coming. Third in the province. That's quite an accomplishment.
I was so impressed. By. The, I guess, the choreography
and just the rhythm that was provided. It was really
enjoyable to watch. I'm a parent of kids that play
in a drum line as well. And we can talk
about that later, but. It was really fun. And congratulations
again. So I'm going to go to councilor Knowles. Thank
you so much for that. And it's such a lovely
evening for it. I feel bad for anyone who was
joining. Us online tonight because they really missed out. So
this is the benefit of showing up to meetings. In
person, people. Yeah. It's just. Got me all sorts of
feelings here, and just about the work you do for
our students and. For our youth that is so important.
I have two daughters in middle school, and I'm already
thinking, like, how can I get you to go to
their school? Where do they need to go to school?
So I really appreciate people like you who dedicate their
time to arts like this. I just. Had a quick
question, actually. On the side, there was a fellow playing
a really long bunch of pipes, and I just want.
To show what that's called. Chimes or tubular bells? Tubular
belts. Yeah, tubular belt. I've never seen that before. Yeah,
very common in a concert band. But we like to.
Integrate as many strange instruments as we can in our
drum line. To add to the texture. So my question
was, you see these especially in american colleges. You see
these gem lines that wander around. Would that be something
that he could carry around or was not? Unfortunately not,
no. There's two kinds of shows that will perform. There
will be field shows. And what you saw today was
actually what we call a small format show. Typically, our
show will take up an entire basketball court. And so
we had to work very hard to compress the essence.
Of our show into a 25 by 25 foot square.
But for a field show, you would have what's called
the front ensemble. So you saw the whole slew of
fibrophones. And marimbas and xylophones, and they would typically stay
planted while the battery the snare tenor drums all do
their walking around for a parade. Show those instrument. Instrumentalists
all play either a battery instrument or an auxiliary that
they can, or a window, actually. Most of them are
wind instruments that they'll play very cool. Thank you for
the indication. Yes, absolutely. I was particularly impressed with the
young ladies in the front who had multiple batons. Or
mallets. And playing several different keys at the same time.
It was really formal. A technique is a very tricky
thing to learn. Technique. Okay, I'll write that down. They
took it upon themselves to learn it, and they asked
me to write it into the show this year. So
you get to see it in action. Proud we have
councilor Dilworth next. Thank you. That was an outstanding performance.
I wasn't sure where to look and what to look
at and. I saw the keyboardists with their imagining three,
four wands playing. There's a gentleman. Banging the hammer on
the tube bells. There was the magical movement of the
symbols off and it was just as much. I want
to say a dance program as much as it was
a music program. And hearing the reference afterwards to witches
in Harry Potter. I get it even more now. Having
heard that. I'm wondering. How long does it actually. Take
to get one performance under the belt because. I really
have to acknowledge the commitment of your students. There is
not a single song sheet in place. These kids have
memorized not only the music, their steps, the choreography, and
I can only imagine the commitment that it takes to
do that on top of part time jobs and studying
and tests and all that other stuff. So what is
that time? Commitment. And how long does it take your
group to get, like, one number solid? It's a long
time. We rehearse 3 hours a week. It's actually a
course. That the students take. And. We do one large
show like that per year. So we start writing next
year. Show after our last performance, we start brainstorming what
elements do we want? What themes do we want to
pull from? And I'll take the summer. To rank the
show, and in September I introduce it to the students,
and we hope to have them. It's called being off
book. So memorized by November ish. Playing the music, and
then we set it to choreography. And it's a full
year process. And we model it after. Obviously, it's marching
culture in the states is very popular and. Our league
is modeled after theirs, and that runs from September to
April or May. To give the schools enough time to
do it. It is very much like running a musical.
Because of the dance and the motion and the music
and the memorizing of the lines. And you're absolutely right.
I even wrote the show. And sometimes I still notice
things going. I didn't notice how. Well. Because they come
up with their own choreography, really, and it's hard to
keep track of. All of it. And seeing. I noticed
today the symbol is doing something that I hadn't noticed
for. And I noticed symbols today, right? They are fabulous.
Well, do you know what? I hope this one performance
here really brings a little bit more attention to your
group, and I look forward to hearing more, perhaps about
a first place performance at next year's competition. So thank
you for bringing that down to us. That was really
cool. Absolutely. I hope this becomes a tradition. Once you
get your performance nailed, come on down. And. We'll get
a good. We absolutely will. Thank you very much. We
have councilor Morrison next. Thank you, mayor. And a lot
of my colleagues have said the same things that I
was going to mention. So excellent performance. I really enjoyed
actually seeing a performing arts option here for our art
at council. As much as we have some amazing artists.
And pottery, et cetera, that we see. The council table
and writers, oftentimes we don't get that. So that would
be the first time I've seen that, I guess in
my term on council and going outside. And actually watching
a performance like that, so I'd love to get more
of that, so. Whoever booked this, please keep your eye
out for other options. I also wanted to recognize the
choreography was excellent. The fact that there was the opportunity
for even the back rows to be able to have
their moment to shine was really nice as well with
the kneeling down so you could see the players in
the back. That was great and really on topic with
your music selection between the Harry Potter and the revive
of that show coming back soon. And also wicked naturally
being pretty popular there. So thank you for presenting for
us tonight and showcasing and thank all your students for
me. Thank you. Thank you very much, councilor Becky. Thank
you. If I feel my colleagues have said, when you
say, I usually don't chime in. But I had to
this time. That was absolutely incredible. That's one of the
best things I've seen in a long time. I have
to tell you. It's just absolutely mind blowing. I used
to marking culture. I love that. Because you can see
how you can see the commitment and the dedication must
be part of your everyday life to be able to
do that. So I just wanted to congratulate you, obviously.
Being able to. Lead these young adults. I'll call them.
And guide them to find their own talents. To do
something like that is incredible. And congratulations to each and
every one of you. And I hope those at home
can Google and YouTube. I'm assuming and check you out
because it honestly was absolutely incredible. So thank you so
much. Thank you so much. And last but not least,
I have Councilor Lubeck. Thank you so much. I won't
go over what all of my colleagues have said. But
it was magical, honestly. And. I was struck they shared
talent. And amazing instruments to put together. But there's so
much emotion, and that's that wonderful thing about music. Is
that you can listen to something and it brings you
joy. There's no. Words, but you just can't help but
smile or laugh because it's brought that emotion out, and
I really appreciate you bringing that to city hall today.
Awesome. And best of luck coming in first next year.
Thank you. Even if you don't. Place. Come to us.
Definitely will. Thank you. Just pass on again. The good
wishes from council. There are some pretty cool cats out
there. Very much. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you
very much. Bye bye. All right, next item on the
agenda is public input. As a reminder to members of
the public. While we encourage civic engagement and welcome your
participation in the public portion of our meeting. There are
expectations regarding appropriate conduct in decorum at council meetings. We
ask all members of the public to ensure that matters
raised with council are constructively focused on issues and not
individuals and that any engagement with or about city staff
or council is addressed in a manner that is consistent
with these expectations so that we can all engage in
this space in a manner that. Is respectful and constructive
and abides by the city's respectful communications policy and respectful
workplace. Policy. We have one name on the speaker's list
at this time, and that is Sally. Common. So, Sally,
if you can come down. And anybody else who wishes
to address council. Can come up to the podium when
Sally's completed, and I'm just checking online. I see that
there is someone online that has or two people online
that have their hands up. So, Sally, please just state
your name and city of residence for the record. You
have two minutes. Sally common coquitlam. I am here to
support item 7.3, the special event support pay parking amendment.
As you heard my name. I'm with the Golden Spike
Days Festival Society. Our festival has been held at Rocky
Point for approximately 40 years. For all of that time,
we've been using the parking lot in front of the
pool. For our directors, vips such as mps and mlas
and also sponsors and entertainers. The purpose of using the
lot for these people is not about not wanting to
look for a parking, but for ease of use to
be able to come and go as many of these
people need to do. Directors often need to pop out
and to get things. Our dignitaries often have many different
events to. Attend in the same day. And need to
be able to park quickly and leave conveniently. Entertainers quite
often have the same need to be able to be
conveniently parked and leave to go to another show, not
to mention the musical equipment that they have to carry.
Our sponsors deserve to be treated. To a special parking
lot for their generosity as well. To have to pay
to use for the use of the parking lot, for
the extent of the festival would be quite cost prohibitive
for our society. Money is already very tight in these
uncertain economic times. We hope that. We would be exempt
or grandfathered somehow. We support and ask that the pay
parking management be amended as requested. Thank you. Thank you.
We'll go to online. We have two people online. We'll
go to Dr. Darren Jonesen. Please just unmute yourself. State
your name and city of residence for the record, and
you will. Have two minutes. Thank you, mayor and
council. My name is Darren. Jonathan. This is my first
time speaking. With city council. I am president elect of
BC family doctors, which is. The main advocacy organization for
family doctors in the province. I am a drummer myself.
I was in pipe band. We didn't, unfortunately, have drumline,
and I'm from. Chillowac. So started a secondary school as
my alma mater, and they have a drum line. That
does quite well as well. That's not the reason I'm
here tonight. But I wanted to share just some points
with regards to. The agenda item 11.3, which is coming
later tonight. Specifically. I just want to thank you for
even having this on the agenda. We know. That our
health care is in crisis right now across the province.
We know that patients are struggling to get access to
healthcare resources, and we understand that. It's important that we
remove barriers for healthcare access. I think. It's quite. Impressive
as a city council. That. You are able to. Change
bylaws for housing because you don't have a lot of
say over health. Care in general, right? It's a provincially
run thing, but as a municipality, to be able. To
dedicate space in new builds for primary care clinics. I
think. Is genius. I just want to thank you for
considering that. I want to show my support as well.
Just by letting you know that. In our PC family,
doctors will continue to advocate. For. A better primary care
system so that hopefully all communities in the province can
benefit from. Thank you. For that. Dr. Jonathan, if you
could just state your city of residence, please, for the
record. Kilowatt BC. Kilowatt. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very
much. We'll go to Rowan Burge. Same. Please. Just unmute
yourself and state your name. In city of residence. For
the record, you will have two minutes. Good evening, everyone.
Can you hear me okay? Yes. Thank you so much
for having me. I am also a former band person,
so definitely going to go check out these dresses. Good
evening, everyone. My name is Rowan. I'm a resident of
Vancouver, and I'm. Also the provincial director of the BC
poverty reduction coalition. We are a coalition of 80 plus
member. Organizations across species that, at the fee for food
security, adequate housing, and wider antique poverty measures for the
province to ensure that everyone has their needs and rights
met. I'm calling in support today of agenda item 11.2
on the UBCM. Advocacy around housing is equal and right,
which is a timely and common sense motion. As I'm
sure all of you folks are already aware the housing
crisis has profoundly impacted our communities, making it very difficult
for people to access the affordable and appropriate housing. The
affordability crisis. Is leading people very hard, and those at
the lower end of the income spectrum need your leadership.
To ensure safe housing for all. As a renter myself,
I know firsthand how challenging it can be to find
an affordable long term apartment. The housing crisis touches every
level of government, but none more acutely. Assembly, I urge
you to join your voice. To leverage your position, the
policymakers at the forefront of housing decisions and call the
new potential counterparts to treat housing as a human right.
The urgency of a rights based approach has a potential
to spur investment, cut Redsk and its full frost jurisdictional
collaboration to ensure that everybody has a fully and affordable
placement. I urge you to support the motion as presented
and support to EBC for a more closed discussion encouraging
the province to recognize housing rights that substantial to offer
profound benefit to the people of Port Moody and also
our province as a whole. It is the province. There's
public support for housing and. Right, which helps us does
housing. Justice defense. Poverty advocates continue critically advocating for better
living conditions. Thank you so much for your consideration and
leadership on this critical matter. Really appreciate your time. Thank
you. Thank you. All right, at this time. We have
another person online, Mr. Mark Coonsley. Please just state your
name and city of residence for the record, Mr. Coonsley.
Mark Kunsley, Port Moody. I'm out of town tonight, so
sorry to join virtually you missed the drum line. I
do want to speak in support of 11.7. I do
feel a town hall for the official community plan doesn't
make sense. I was not able to join the session
with staff because I do work out of town. And
I think just in general, the official community plan. It
represents the community. We should be able to accommodate as
many voices as possible. And many formats as possible. Shapes
the future of our city grows. They spend a lot
of discussion on it at multiple council meetings. And this
plan, now that it's been drafted and having that opportunity
for input, the back and forth with counselors I think
is valuable. There's not really opportunities for two way communication
such as this public input. I'm speaking to you, but
I don't get to ask questions that get answers. I
do appreciate that I did have a good conversation with
Amir earlier today, so thank you for that, Merrick. And
I think a lot of that information would be a
benefit to the community. And the form, like a town
hall, would allow a lot of it to come to
light, so. Yeah, I hope to see the council of
Abscess, and I hope to be able to. Participate in
town hall on the OCP. Thank you very much. Thank
you. At this point, I'm going to open up for
anybody who wishes to provide input to council. Good evening.
Please just state your name and city of residence for
the boy. Report Moody. Counselors and mayor. I do not
play the drums. I do not play any instrument. However,
I am a huge supporter. Of live local music. So,
having said that, I just want to talk about two
events I attended recently. The Triacity's writers festival was amazing
this year. I was fortunate enough to be able to
attend. The cocktail party at the Evergreen Theater in Coquitlam.
It was a fabulous event. $20. Oh, my gosh. They
could have charged double that. I should have said that.
I guess, but it was wonderful. It was Jen. I
can never say her name. Probably Jen Sukfung Lee that
took. Me. There she was on a panel with two
other gentlemen, moderated by. Another author. Comedian. It was just
a wonderful evening. And then right here. At the inlet
theater. We unfortunately had one third hall full for an
award winning Canada, Reed's author. Danny Ram and Dan, a
syrian refugee. A wonderful personal story. He was playing and
he was brought tears to our eyes. He made us
laugh. He was interesting. He had it all rolled into
one thing, and he came to us on his birthday.
They were both wonderful. Advance. I encourage you to attend
next year. Certainly. All right. Is there anybody else that
wishes to speak to council? Please just state your name.
Let me just restart that name and city of residence
for the record. Bruce Gibson, resident of Coquitlam, and I
work quite a bit in Port Moody. I can address
a couple of items in backwards order to end with
the one that drew me. Down this evening, 11.6 on
your agenda, outdoor viewing parties for FIFA. That's awesome. That's
going to be so much fun. I hope that that
passes. The three ubcm. Advocacy motions. I'm probably the greatest
cynic of advocate motions at UBCM, but I read through
each one of those, and my compliments to your authors.
I can simply see how each one of those. Benefits
people in the local community, and so thank you for
bringing that forward. 7.3 the golden spike, folks, with the
parking relaxation. During your discussion. If the conversation of. Are
they seeking private sponsorship from private sector, I can assure
you, Ms. Van Ass and the Wild Spike Society are
seeking private sponsorship. Absolutely. They are seeking private sponsorship and
the one that brought me down is 7.2. The very
exciting conversation of property. Tax. Much to Mr. Rockwood's consternation.
I probably know way too much about the property tax.
I'm a delayed cocktail parties. The second bullet amendment to
property tax regulations to allow variable property tax rates and
allow progressive property taxation by tax, class value and use.
I have to confess, I don't understand that. I know
that we have different tax rates for different tax classes.
I live it, breathe it way. Too much. I'd love
to learn. I'm excited to learn something new about what
that means. We'll make sure we ask that question. Thank
you. Thank you. I'll make sure somebody asked that question,
Mr. Rockwood. Be prepared. To answer that. All right. Anybody
else wishes to speak? Thank you. Come on down. Yes.
You know the drill. Two minutes. State your name and
city residence. I'm just going. To restart the mic because
I don't want it to turn off for you. Okay?
All right. Go ahead. Okay. My name is Tracy Schaefer.
I live in Port Moody. Wow. You guys packed the
schedule today. And I want to talk about a bunch
of things, so buckle your seatbelts, okay? Number one item
11.3. Support, please. Yes, we need more doctors. In fact.
I don't know if you know this. We barely have
a walk in clinic at all. In Port Moody. It's
not a dedicated clinic. The doctor has patience, and sometimes
it's. Not open at all, so, yes, anything we can
do to bring doctors to this city, please. Thank you.
Item 11.8. Yes, I agree that we should be making
our city walkable. We should be bringing people out. Onto
the streets. And yes, ground level businesses should be more
hands on businesses for people to go. To. We want
to bring people to our sidewalks, and we want to
bring people spending money, so let's keep our doctors, keep
our law. Lawyers, keep our cosmetic doctors in the second
floor and let our people walk around and experience our
stores. That would be awesome. And 11.7. I actually very
much support this. I am always. For open and transparent
government. And I do believe that everybody has a right
to hear their government. Officials speak about their events. I
would only ask that we be very careful in how
these are communicated. I have participated in these kinds of
events, and I have felt intimidated when my point of
view wasn't exactly what the majority. Wanted to express. So
I actually liked the way that the talk was done
last time, and I'd like to sort of see a
hybrid, and maybe if we can try to figure out
a way to. Do it in a way that everybody
feels safe. I think that would be excellent. Thank you
very. Much. Thank you. All right. Please just state your
name and city of residence. John Grassy poor moody. First
of all, I'd like to congratulate city manager. And. Staff
for bringing forward. The. I think it's the final stage
of the Parkland strategy. I watched the meeting this afternoon
and. It was good to see get that far. And
congratulations to council for bringing it along. I'm still going
to ask that we get focused on some of the
small neighborhood parks. Especially in Moody center. And I want
to speak more on that another time. I must say
I'm a little perplexed on the open communication on the
OCP. I think there's always been hope and communication. I
think what's lacked quite often is an understanding of how
the OCP works. That it is a living document. And
it's flexible. It's a plan, after all. I remember asking
probably ten years ago that we have some public service.
Sessions for the public. On what it is about and
how it fits into the regional context and how it's
different from zone in anyway. I'll drop that one. And
I really wanted to make mention of item 11.8, and
I. For the past year, I've been walking almost daily
through Moody Center. And one of the things which is
very obvious is that. There's lots and lots and lots
of services offered in Port Moody. Unfortunately, we don't. Offer
the goods in the retail outlets and therefore. It's very
uninteresting and it's why we do not get put traffic
and why it's not a destination. So I think 11.8
is a step towards addressing that type of issue. Thank
you. Thank you. Good timing. Is there anybody else that
wishes to speak to council at this time? A second
time. Is there anybody else that wants to come down
the first time? Come on down, Jackie. Jackie boy report
Moody. I do want to speak strongly in support of
11.7. I think it's absolutely essential that we have such
a meeting. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Anybody else
that wishes to speak to council at this time, I'll
call a. Second time. Is there anybody that wishes to
speak to council? Checking online. No one online. Third and
final time. Thank you, everybody. That. Closes the verbal submissions.
Madam Clerk. Are there any written submissions? Not for the
regular agenda. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Which takes
us to the next item, which is adoption of the
minutes. So we have three sets. Of minutes. As a
block. Moved for a seconder. Moved and seconded. All in
favor? Post carried. Thank you. We'll move to the consent
agenda. Okay, councilor hagged your app. I'd like to pull
7.2, please. Okay, that's a good choice. Otherwise, can somebody
move? The rest. I think we usually move it and
then we pull. Councilor Loreki has. I will pull 7.1
the summary of 2025 public engagement for the OCP. Okay,
so 7.1 and 7.2. So that leaves us with 7.3
is. There a mover for that? Moved and seconded. All
in favor? Opposed? Carried. So we'll go to item 7.1
which is councilor Lurbecki. I'll go to you, councilor. Thank
you so. This is the summary of the OCP engagement
results that just happened, that recently happened in the last
month. So I just have some comments. Not really any
questions right now, but thank you very much to staff.
I think it's a great summary report. And really captures,
well, at least what I had heard from the things
that I had listened to. Or attended. But I did
want to provide some comments and context related to the
attached engagement summary because I did notice that the max
number of people attending. And that's attending sitting. In the
chamber here, not necessarily providing input at these events. The
Max number was 50 people. The online survey had about
350 people completed just this recent round. So I understand
that this was just intended, I believe, to provide the
2025 results, not all. The previous results. I do hope
that when council gets COCP officially that we have attached
all of the engagement results because I think they're very
important. I just wanted to provide a little bit of
comparison. I went back. To the OCP household surveys that
went out last counsel with the intention to inform the
current draft that we have today. So survey two, in
comparison, was 1802 individual survey responses with 1139 hard copy
mail in responses survey three, that was a very specific
land use. Survey that went out to every household had
1271 responses, 644 hard copy. For additional reference, just to
put those into context. When I looked up the number
of survey respondents that are used to draw conclusions, for
example, about how Canadians feel like as a country we're
I think we're about 35 million people or more now,
maybe. Such as regarding the recent federal election. The number
of respondents by looking down at the bottom there, about
1500. Right. And they made statements. Such as, quote, half
of Canadians are blah, blah, blah. So I just want
to draw attention to those surveys again. They are absolutely
incredible response rates for a city of our side. Like,
just a mind blowing response. Rate. And I want to
let the community know that they still matter. They're still
there. To date, just given those numbers and how in
depth they were. I consider them the most important piece
of feedback we have received and. When I'm reviewing the
OCP. It is online for council. You can go and
review. It now. I know we want to get it
officially here. That's what I'm especially going to be looking
for, and I think the community is going to be
asking, where are those surveys? And. How are they reflected
in the OCP? So I understand. That wasn't included here.
I just wanted to ask, I guess mention or assume
that we'll. Be getting a bundle of all the engagement
results. And throw those numbers out there because. They're quite
staggering when you really compare them. But, yeah. Thank you
very much. It was a great report that was attached
tonight. Are you going to move receipt. Okay, move. Receipt.
Is there a second? Any other. Councilor Knowles. Thank you,
mayor. Yeah, I'm glad this got pulled, because I've been
ruminating on a lot of what we read and viewed.
While I don't necessarily agree with my colleague, That the
surveys from Afreas Council are relevant for reasons we've discussed
at this table several times. And as relate to us
by a survey expert. I would like to say that
there were a few themes that arose from the comments
that were made on this engagement, and I just wanted
to address a few of those themes here. I did
want to assure a lot of the comments you can
tell. They're not regular council watchers, and I know that
sounds like such a weird thing. To say? Because why
would they be? But I think for those of us
who do this day in and day out and are
at all these meetings. It's difficult for us to read
some comments to go. Oh, but we're already doing that.
Oh, we're already doing this. So I just want to
assure a lot of folks out there that we are
working on bringing forward. Response, emergency response plans, traffic plans,
master transportation plans. Things like that. We are doing a
lot of this work already. And yeah, unless you were
a regular council washer, you wouldn't know I wanted to.
Address a couple of specific comments that I agree with
and. We'll be raising with my council colleagues. And that
is the need for additional washrooms. The fact that we
could do better in terms of mentioning the economy, business.
Commerce, tree canopy and reconciliation in our OCP accessibility for
all people. That was a recurring theme. And I wanted
to address this comment that it's not like we're trying
to get rid of cars. We're not saying that cars
don't exist. I understand as a mother of two myself,
man. I do. I am a chauffeur. I am driving.
My kids all over the tri cities for their events.
I know we need cards. The idea of a transit
oriented area. Around our two sky trains is that if
you don't need to take a car, you won't have
to anymore. If we can put these services and amenities
and stores and commercial storefronts rate where people live, people
are less likely to get in their cars. So it's
not as if we're trying to eliminate cars. We're trying
to eliminate the need for cars for future residents if.
At all possible. I assure you, we're looking at taxes
and stability and trying to find ways to reduce. The
stressors to our residents. That is a big concern of
mine. And lastly, I just wanted to kind of talk
about the city of the arts because there were a
lot of comments about this and a lot of people.
Not seeing how the city of the arts is being
reflected in the city. And that actually made me very
sad, those comments, because. For me. Artists everywhere I look
in this city, we have pomore arts. I do realize
pomo. Arts isn't on our website, and that is something
that I've brought up. In the past, but I can
assure you, we have so many arts activities, events. We've
got like 90 pieces of public art at this time.
We've got a whole new arts and business council starting.
We had a task force on arts and business last
year. We are living that title, and if you have
any questions. About how we are living, that and where
you can find this art. Please reach out to us
because we'd be glad to point you in the right
direction. That's it for me. Thank you, councilor. All right,
this has been moved and seconded. I will call the
question. All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Thank you very much.
We move to 7.2. I think that was Councilor Agtra.
Hopefully, you get the answers we're looking for. Well, I
will ask the question, but I also have a small
amendment and. I think what I understand bullet two to
be asking or talking about is the land value tax.
Or the way of. But I will turn it over
to staff to actually answer the question because they. Wrote
this excellent resolution. What I'm happy to support with a
small amendment. So do you want to make your amendment.
Yeah. The only thing I would say is the end,
that we send a copy of this resolution to all
UBCM municipalities. Okay, very simple. That's been seconded, okay? So
it's been moved and seconded with that and that. And
if staff could please answer the residents question from the
previous. For sure. And Chen, social Planner. I'm the author
of this report, so from what I understood from the
question from the residents. It's about the point number two,
about the progressive. Property taxation and what it means. So
from my understanding about the property taxes coming through, looking
at PC assessment. DC assessment does not do taxation, but
it's the cities that will. Do it. But DC assessment
assesses properties based on class value and use. But at
this time. There's no explicit subcategory for different types of
uses and classes, which may be beneficial if we're looking
at creating subcategories, categories for market rental and affordable housing.
So in that case, we are looking at available tax,
proper taxation based on different classes. And uses and value.
Okay, so including. The use. May I ask a follow
up? Yeah, go ahead. So then, for what I am
understanding, you saying. So right now we have residential, we
have commercial classes, but we have no ability to split
residential. Into different classes that would be, say, residential, but
then there would be, like, nonprofit residential, and that's. Kind
of what you're asking. Okay, thank you. I think Mr.
Rockwood also wanted to jim hin on this. Yeah. Thank
you, madam. So there's two approaches that are discussed in
the report. The first one. Is councilor egg drop just
mentioned is the split assessment. So class one would be
split into. Two classes, essentially, so there'd be. Market value
homes, and then there'd be an affordable map of rental.
Home classification, so. This was tried a few years ago
on the business class where they were trying to do
a split assessment, because what happens is BC assessment. Assesses
on the highest and best use. Which could be commercial,
that grade, but then residential above it, but the whole
property gets assessed. At class six. So the approach here
is to split the assessment. The second methodology is the
land. Value taxation. So what happens on a vacant piece
of land? It's assessed at a certain value, but. As
you build on it, you added a building on it,
it increases in value. And then, obviously the taxes go
up under the Lvt the land value taxation, it would
remain at the value of the land. So there would
be an incentive to build affordable housing because it wouldn't
change the tax. So those are the two approaches being
discussed. Does that answer your question? Okay. Thank you, Mr.
Rockwood. All right. Has this been moved? Councilor. Yes. All
right, then. Councilor lubic. Honestly, I just wanted to say
that I was so happy. When I read this report.
It's brilliant. And I love that our social planners are
so forward thinking and trying to do this and also
that our finance committee is like, how can we do.
Finance. Lovely folks are like, how can we do affordable
housing? Staff are amazing. Thank you so much for this.
They are amazing. And the question was, when does this
ever happen? When does a staff person bring forward a
UVCM advocacy motion? But I'll tell you what it reminded
me of not too long ago, when we had. I
think it was Laura Sampler, who brought forward a UBCM
adv. Advocacy motion around zero emissions, which then ultimately became
a provincial legislative requirement through the new building code. So
thank you for this. Thank you very much. I don't
see any other comments, so I'll call the question. All
in favor? Opposed. Carried. Thank you. So we'll need to
get. Good speaking notes from when we go to speak
to our mlas on this. Okay, so that takes us.
To new business. So we are at 11.1. That is
the ecom agm voting delegate appointment. Who are you? Can
make that recommendation. I will make it, okay. All right.
Any been moved and seconded? Any comments or questions? Should
we have an alternate? How about, do we have to
appoint an alternate? Or can we say, it's the acting
we have in the past. Okay. All right. Myself and
the acting mayor as the alternate. We will call the
question then. All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Thanks, everyone. Now
we're going. To go to 11.2, which is housing as
a human right, and I will hand the table over
to councilor Lubeck. Thank you so much, and I look
forward to hearing councilor. Dillard's remarks as well. I was
glad to work on this together. So the motion is
whereas recognizing housing as a human right fundamentally shifts government
motivations by adding critical urgency and responsibility to ensure access
to affordable housing through policies that prevent homelessness. Address the
escalating housing costs and homelessness crisis, eliminate discrimination and prioritize
the needs of vulnerable and marginalized, pop. Populations. And whereas
the government of CANADA affirmed the right to housing as
a matter of international law, in, enshrined and domestically. In
domestic law through the National Housing Strategy act, recognizing it
as a human right and establishing mechanisms for accountability and
inclusion. Therefore, be it resolved that UBCM call and the
BC government to enshrine housing as a human right in
legislation and forthcoming housing and homelessness strategies to ensure that
housing policy in British Columbia is grounded in the princi.
Principles of equity, accessibility, accountability. And inherent dignity to all
people. So you've made that motion. Is there a second
or. Seconded. Seconded. Would you like to speak to it,
councilor Lubic? Thank you very. Much. We are joining a
number of municipalities across the province. In this advocacy. As
well as the poverty reduction coalition. We know the housing
is more than just four walls and a roof. It's
a place to live in security, peace and dignity. And
essential the physical and mental health, community and sustainability. And
having an affordable. Suitable and safe place to live. Helps
people and their families succeed and thrive. Everyone should have
access to housing that meets their needs without discrimination or
harassment. Using humans rights based approach to housing reinforces the
expectation that legislation, policies, and programs affecting housing will emphasize
participation, empowerment, accountability, and nondiscrimination while fulfilling the human right
to adequate housing human rightsbased approach focuses on groups with
the greatest need, including people who. With lived experience. Of
housing need and homelessness. Now, how things a human right
doesn't mean that governments must provide housing. Although I think
it should. Instead, it means governments must ensure that housing
systems enable everyone to live somewhere in security and peace.
So Canada is in the middle, midst of an ongoing
housing crisis from skyrocketing rents to expanding encampments and the
failure to provide adequate and affordable housing. Has become one
of the most pressing human rights issues. So while the
federal government hasn't spined this as in the whereas as
clauses, it's not in the provincial legislation, and it's critical
that it be so we can actually move forward on
these things. And we have seen that Manitoba's move to
enshrine housing first policies and housing as a human, right?
Has really, actually made progress. In clarity, in red tape
removal, and in ensuring that all policies meet this need.
Thank you. Thank you. Councilor. Councilor Dilworth. Thank you. I
want to say this is. A long time coming. It's
been well over ten years since I heard that word
housing. As a human right. And it was when I
worked with a coalition of nonprofit and co op housing
providers. And we're finally seeing some action, and I don't
know if it's. Because we've had an affordability crisis, because
we've had a cost of home. Delivery crisis. But what
I do see happening is that local governments are taking
action and the federal government has identified some action, and
we really need to prompt our province to come. As
board as well. When I look at the successes that
we've seen in addressing these two separate crises. What I've
seen is a partnership of all levels of government and
quite often community organizations and associations that participate. As well.
And I also want to reiterate councilor Lubig's point. This
is not an isolated conversation that we're having. It's one
that is taking place with those non market housing providers,
with co ops, with our peers across city halls across
the province, and there's no doubt in my mind we're
going to see a number of very similar motions come
forward at UBCM and I think that just speaks to
a louder collection of voices agreeing that this is the
right thing. To do. And it might be one of
those pieces that actually helps us garner traction on additional
initiatives actions. And even funding to help address the housing
crisis that we're facing. So. I'm looking forward to support
from all of our colleagues here and taking it and
beating our drums at UBCM. Looking forward to that. Thank
you, councilor. We've got Councilor Eggtrap. Thank you. And thank
you to my colleagues for. Bringing this forward. I absolutely
believe that this is the direction that we need to
be going. When you think of people. Without safe and
secure housing. It's really better as a society as a
whole, and I think it's a mark of society on.
How we help the most vulnerable people amongst us. And
I do believe that homelessness can be eliminated through the
coordination of all levels of government, sort of rowing the
boat in the same direction. And supporting each other. Not
only through funding, but through aligned policy. So I'm hoping
that with I know this, a similar motion is that
other councils. I think a couple of already passed something
like this, and I hope that collectively I think there's
about ten local governments. That are discussing this that I
hope that collectively. This gets the attention of the province,
and then. The attention of the federal government so that
we can continue to work on this together in a
manner that suits each of our individual communities needs. So
looking forward to the continued advocacy at UBCM thank you,
councilor. Councilor Lebecki. Thank you. I greatly appreciate this. I
agree with everything it says. Absolutely. Housing needs to be
human, right? I will share that. Why I appreciate us
going and advocating on this. Sometimes. Maybe these advocacy motions.
The first thing that pops into my mind is, yes,
we can ask. The province. But we control so much,
we can make sure we have an affordable housing bylaw.
And then we can enforce it. We can make sure
we don't make planning decisions that cause land speculation or.
Increases land value. That are unnecessary. We can make sure
that we only approve housing developments that truly meet our
housing needs and not ones, for example, that have zero
affordable housing. So I appreciate this. I just want to
remind our council, all councils. So much still lies with
us. So much responsibility. Is right here at this table,
and we have a lot of control still. So, yes,
let's. Advocate to the province, but let's make sure that
we're doing these things. And treating housing like a human
right at this table. Thank you. Thank you, councilor. I
don't see any other hand, so I'm going to call
the question all in favor? Opposed? Carried. Thank you. Which
takes us to 11.3. What do you want to do?
Coin toss. You can start us off. Councilor lubic. This
is a joint advocacy motion from the councillor. And myself.
Thank you so much. So I'll skip the whereas this
time. But therefore be it result that the province work
with local governments. The province provincial and local divisions. Of
family practice and developers to encourage or require considerations of
community health clinic spaces in new development including, but not
limited to providing provincial health infrastructure funding and subsid. Subsidies,
provincially leased spaces, and connections between physicians and healthcare workers
to understand and address community needs. Within new spaces and
that the province explicitly include funding for community health spaces
in eligible amenity cost charge benefits. Thank you. So I'll
speak a little, and then I'll come back to you,
councilor. First of all, I want to thank councilor Lubic.
For bringing this to my attention and for asking me.
To co sponsor this. I think that what we're talking
about really is a space bottleneck, and I know that
the province has been doing a lot of work. Around
the longitudinal family physician payment model, fee enhancements, team based
funding. These have really helped to improve the issues that
we have because. It's multifaceted, but. This is really sort
of to address that, what has been described as the
space bottleneck. And we have over 700,000 British Columbians who
lack a family physician and part of the problem is
that there is no place for these doctors to open
up a practice. It's. Too expensive. There's. A number of
myriad of. Different reasons why. But. I think that it
starts here advocating for that, and also it puts it
on the radar for us to consider when we are
talking to developers that come forward. And. The motion that's
following, I believe is around. There's a motion coming up
around that councilor Agtrap has brought forward. Around. Businesses and
placing those types of businesses on the second floor, and
those conversations continue to take place. But it really kind
of elevates it to a point where it's like, We're
taking a stand publicly. So, councilor lubic. I'll give you
an opportunity to speak to it as well. Thank you
so much. Van and mayor so a few months ago,
I had the opportunity to be at quality forum on
a panel. With someone that was talking about how do
cities. And health providers work together, and it was really
interesting. I was also surprised that the room was full.
But it was great to see how much engagement there
was and how much interest there was in working together
and people actually being like, I think this would help.
I think that would help. And so myself and the
mayor had the opportunity to meet with some folks from
the BC divisions. Of family practice, and it's been really
helpful to help us just start understanding each other's. Needs,
how we can work together, what we could do. And
we're facing the same challenges from different angles. So we
are living in a world with complex problems where we
don't have simple solutions. But we can start somewhere and
we can understand where some of the bottlenecks are. As
the mayor said, we are facing a primary care crisis.
The provincial population is growing at 1.7% a year and
without a regular family. Doctor patients turn to walk in
clinics, which we don't always have. Emergency departments or virtual
providers, and none of that is. Continuous on the continuum
of care, and so it doesn't provide preventative care, it
doesn't provide chronic disease management, and this can lead to
delayed diagnosis and unmanaged conditions. At the same time, municipalities
are facing infrastructure challenges, and we've had this conversation around
the table a lot as we are growing. We hear
from our residents. That we have a lack of health
infrastructure, and so how can we face those challenges together?
And we know that through our provincial mandates, we're going
to be having more density and we are going to
be having more density anyway, so it's important to be
looking for. Those ways that we can work together to
find those spaces and. We do have been working. We
have been directing our economic development staff to look for
to work. With some of the developers. On. Trying to
find health anchor tenants. But this is another but. Again.
It's that funding piece and the space piece that we
keep coming up against when we talk to the doctors.
It's just very expensive to find spaces. And the final
part of this motion. Is, as we have these new
mechanisms, the acc. They're supposed to be used to help
fund a variety of community amenities in response to population
growth and development, such as community centers, recreation facilities, libraries,
and a big grab bag of things. That says support
livable and complete communities. In areas of growth. But it
doesn't specifically talk about health spaces. And so that would
be a really important tool to have as well. Thank
you, councilor. I don't see any of their hands up,
so. This has been moved and seconded. I'll call the
question. All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Thank you. Which brings
us to item 11.4, request for provincial reform on school
planning. I think this is you, Councilor Morrison. Thank you,
mayor. I'm going to read the whole thing just because
it's a short one, if that's all right, that the
following resolution be submitted to 2025 UPCm. I'll skip to
the next part. Whereas the province has mandated significant increases
in housing, provisions as of 2024 to address the housing
availability and affordability crisis requiring growth in areas beyond. Municipality's
original density plans. And whereas schools across British Columbia are
at capacity with enrollment based planning, failing to account for
future growth, resulting in delayed school infrastructure despite municipalities being
required to complete housing units under the Housing Supply act
without corresponding adjustments to school planning timelines. Therefore, be it
resolved that the BC government amend their school planning and
funding policies so that schools are built and ready for
occupancy based on projected population numbers and or legislated. Growth
targets ensuring timely school infrastructure development in municipalities affected by
rapid housing growth, including but not limited. To communities with
transit oriented areas and Housing Supply act requirements and that
staff be directed to forward a copy of this resolution
to the provincial ministers involved in education and municipal affairs.
I'd like to move that if possible there. Seconder. Thank
you, council. So. Yes, I would. Very much so. Thank
you. This is not the first time I've brought up
the challenges that we have with the fact that port
moody, amongst many, many other communities across the province, not
just once the sky train stations, but even ones with
small transit hubs are facing in regards to density. And
I certainly hope that this is not the only version
of this motion being put forward by our fellow cities.
Across the province to the upcoming UBCM convention in Victoria
because it does affect so many I believe this motion
speaks clearly and highlights the extreme challenges that residents of
our community. And communities like ours are going to have
as part of the unexpected and forced densification. That the
provincial government has pushed on cities with transit hubs. This
motion is written to highlight just one of the challenges
that cities like ours, with two sky train stations and
minimum densities mandated by the province, by the provincial government
around these stations. The province ruled bills 44 and 47
out. With really no consultation with local municipalities to hear
what issues would be experienced by making. These density areas.
And making sure that they're able to provide what they
need to provide. And that would be, of course, inclusive
of things like schools, hospitals, extend housing as needed for
supportive housing. So for the cities, we have to do
things like. Park spaces, an appropriate amount of park spaces,
which we just talked about earlier this evening. Roads, recreation
centers are going to be needed, fields, arenas, et cetera.
And unfortunately, there is no provision or change that I've
heard of from the province in how they're going to
plan to provide these school spaces based on the timelines
that they've put, especially for cities like ours that are
part of the Housing Supply act, where we have a
certain amount of population we need to accommodate by a
certain date, and they do. Not have a plan in
place to be able to make sure that school. Schools
are provided to meet that target on the date in
which those targets are due. So I'm hoping that they
will change their planning process. This is not out of
the in ordinary. This is how things have been done
for the longest. Time. They wait until there's a need
and they're at capacity, then they build. A school at
that point if they're going to force and mandate housing
numbers upon our cities. They need to make sure they're
providing all the provisions, health care as well as schools
by the time those are due. That's my report on
that. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor. We'll go to Councilor
Knowles. Thank you. Just wanted to thank my colleague for
bringing this forward. He mentioned at one point that. This
is not the first time he's brought this forward. It's
certainly not the first time this council has even brought
this forward. I think we've brought it forward at every
UBCM. We've met twice with education ministers. Two different education
ministers about this. We are meeting regularly with our local,
our district school board. I can tell you they are
just as frustrated as we are, and we are in
this together. And we are working, trying to work the
problem. But we need provincial. Support here. I struggle a
bit. With. How the province allocates. Allocates funding. I mean,
I'm sure anyone who's been paying attention to the news
knows that the NDP is currently defending itself about new
reports and the dramatic increase in public sector employees and
the cost of payroll right now. And it's really hard.
When communities like ours are struggling to provide affordable housing,
we're struggling to provide sufficient doctors in health care and
schools. So I appreciate the fact that councilor Morrison. Has
kind of further targeted this ask by mentioning the specific
transit oriented areas in housing supply act. Requirements. And if
we have to keep beating this drum every year, then
so be it, because. We're students, and our kids deserve
the best. Thank you. Thank you, councilor. Councilor eichra. Thank
you. I appreciate the tenacity in bringing this forward. I'm
right there with you on another matter. But we'll get
there. But. I think the answer that we had in
the past is like, this is, or at least from
the school board because. Their hands are tied in a
sense of like, well, it's always being done this way.
Is no longer good enough and. There's a lot of
technology has changed. There's a lot of ways, I think,
that. We in the school board? And the Ministry of
Education can be more proactive. In planning. For that need.
And I understand the concern that there has been in
the past of building things. And then the associated influx
of residents. Haven't materialized. And so my understanding is there
hesitation around building things. But I do think that there
is opportunity. To move forward in such a way that.
We're not behind the eight ball always and that we're
not always having schools. Open or even schools under construction,
knowing that there will be full capacity the day they
open. So I appreciate councilor Morrison, bringing this forward and.
I hope. And I was just thinking about this. For
all our UBCM resolutions, it's. Too late to make the
amendment for some of them, but. Can we package them
up and share them with other municipalities? Because I don't
think that we're not alone in this. We're not alone
in any of the UBCM. Resolutions. There's all of the
communities in BC are facing the same, if not similar
or similar, if not the same, challenges. And I think
there is. Power in collectively going forward and having joint
sponsors of motion. So if there's an opportunity to do
joint advocacy. I think we should take it. Thank you.
I guess what we'll do is we'll find out when
we get to LMLGA. Or. Not lmlj. They've already had
it. When we get to ubcm. What other municipalities have
submitted. Similar advocacy because. There's always a number of them,
so we can also join forces there. Okay.
Yeah. I don't know if we have time for that
to do a joint sponsored resolution, but. We'll give it
a shot. All right? Yeah. LMLJ is coming on. Okay,
so there aren't any other questions? Or any other hands
up. So I'll call the question. All in favor? Opposed?
Carried. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Morrison, for that. Which
brings us to the next item, which is my motion.
I'm going to move that the city establish a pilot
program for a local transit service. To run a shuttle
bus to connect the inlet center and parts of Moody
center to Rocky Point. Park on Fridays, Saturday and Sunday
afternoons evenings, with additional services for potential FIFA games that
are identified and that this service run from June 1,
2020. Six to August 31, 2026. Did I? This is
11.5. That's what I'm on. And. That.
Status. Okay, staff, report back by September 2025. With a
project plan and cost estimates for establishing this pilot shoreline
shuttle service and that this service be paid for from
a portion of the pay parking revenues and that staff
report back in October. 2026 with a report outlining this
service, including ridership. So this is after the fact. To
determine if this pilot project is to be made permanent.
Okay. Thank you. So I'm going to just provide a
little bit of background. And. Some of the conversations that
I've been having. My conversations with staff. On the understanding
that these types of things take time to get up
and running. So if there was a possibility to get
it going earlier. I'm sure if this was approved by
council. For next year. I'm sure council would be open
to that, but at this point, wanting to give staff
enough time to get their project plan together. In my
conversations with staff, there are a lot of things that
have already been done. We already have signage. We've already
got, so a lot of the main costs have already.
Been covered in the previous project. There may be some
tweaking done to do here and there, but. They basically
have got the sort of, I guess, template for a
plan. So I think that it's reasonable. And stuff, in
my conversations with them, thought it was reasonable. To take
this approach. And if there are any other questions. Around
this item. I'd be happy to answer them, but I
will go to. I've got lots. Of people. Councilor Dillworth,
thank you. And thank you for bringing this forward. Merlotti.
I've been waiting for this to come back to the
table. We did a one year project a number of
years ago, and I've had some successes. And it had
some challenges, and I think as a community now, We're
much more better established to bring back a shuttle. I've
been talking to people as recently as. The town hall
meeting that we had on parks. I was talking with
a younger couple that said, I remember that. Is that
going to come back soon? So I'm excited to see
this. If my recollection is correct. The last time that
we undertook this, there was up to 1000 people on
a weekend utilizing that. Shuttle. I mean, that's not insignificant
when you think of how many cars those people would.
Be taking up. I also want to ask, in your
conversations with staff, Excuse me. Part of the success of
our previous shuttle service was that of private sponsorship, and
there was a significant chunk of money that was donated
to the city to provide for things like vehicular maintenance
fuel paying a driver. I'm wondering if you can tell
us, mayor, if you've had discussions with staff. Or if
the concept of private sponsorship has been raised as well.
Yes, and of course. If those opportunities present themselves and.
If I have the opportunity to actually secure some of
that. We can use those things as well. My feeling.
Going forward was we need to at least have a
source of payment in case those funds don't come through.
Okay, what we're hearing right now around sponsorship for events
and for different things in the city. Is that that
money? Is not as forthcoming as it was five or
six years ago. Understandable. I think it's important that. We
have the ability to pay for this service. And. It's
not a lot of money. It's about $8,000. Once, and
the original one was about. 40 and 50,000, but. A
lot of that money has already been spent, and that
was on signage and things like that. So we wouldn't
be expending that much. That much in terms of. 50,000.
There will likely be a portion of that that would
have to be reinvested, but. We're talking less than 10,000.
That's great. Thank you. Councilor Agtrap. Thank you. Some of
my questions have been answered. Like partnerships, one, and then
just about the success of the shuttle in the past
and. It sounds like we have information on that. I'm
just curious. Can that be shared with us? And sort
of what were the past challenges? That shuttle experience that
you alluded to. Great. Sorry. What was the challenge? It
sounds like it was pretty successful, but there were still
challenges. I think that only having a very short period
of time. The challenge, I think, was. Getting. The increase
in ridership that we were hoping for. The awareness of
it. Yeah, the awareness of it. So I think that,
but in retrospect, when sort of getting the comments back
from the community around. When are you going to bring
that back? And during the election, there was a lot
of discussion. Like, at the doorstep about this. I really
want that. I think that the awareness is there, and
I think that people, I think that hopefully will have
a good uptake on this. This doesn't in any way
preclude encouraging other modes of transportation, of course, like getting
people to take sky trains, for instance. That's there. Already,
right? And just remind me, the loop was, like, from
here, like, from city hall area to Rocky Point. And
then did it go to Moody center sky train as
well? It looped through Moody center, so, yeah, I mean,
staff will come back with a plan on what the
route might look like. It'll probably be different than the
original one because the original one, I think went up
to pleasant side, so I think it's going to be
a little shorter of a route where people will have
to find their way here. And then make their way
down there. So it's going to be basically or potentially
a loop. From this area down. Through to Rocky Point
and then up through Moody center and back. Okay, great.
I look forward to seeing whatever the next steps are.
Thank you. So we would get something back from staff
in September. On that. Councilor Lebecki. Thank you. So I
definitely appreciate the intention here, but I do want to
talk a little bit more about what I could see
as some of the challenges, the past challenges, and what
we could be facing. So back in 2018, as Amir
indicated, the cost was $50,000. And I think it actually
had run for three months. At the time. And with
that ridership, that worked out to $13.50 a ride. And
when I look up Uber. It's $11 to go to
the park, so I think that's. Important I'm hearing, which
makes me feel quite a bit better. A claim of
$10,000. If that is in fact the case, I would
bring that cost down. But in 2018, my understanding is
it wasn't, though ended just because of lack of funding.
I believe when I went back and looked into that,
and that conversation was actually ended, though, because it was
not considered a good value for the money at the
time. Except for just hoping. I haven't seen any information
provided to me or to the community. In the memo
that would make me think I just don't have the
information to know. That it just wouldn't be the same.
I'm trying to hope it would be a higher usership,
but if it costs that. Much, then there's been major
inflationary costs since 2018, so we really need to get
down to how much is this going to cost per
ride? I also think. The distance from Inlet center to
Rocky Point park is flat, is walkable, it's bikable there's
two transit forms that you can take, bus and sky
trade, and I do wonder if people are not doing
those options right now. Then why is that? And who
then is going to be motivated to use this free
shuttle? I honestly believe what is more likely to occur
is the shuttle will really be a transit subsidy paid
for by our residents. Through this pay parking instead of
serving to reduce car trips. Because if you don't have
to drive right now from the rec center to the
park. I don't think you're probably doing that. And if
you do have to drive, I don't think this shuttle
is necessarily going to fix that for you, like mobility
issues or lagging tons of gear, because. I would assume
you could consider the bus already. That does leave just
out on Ioco there. Parking at the rec center is
also a huge consideration, especially on the weekends. Another problem
is a big problem for me with this, honestly, is
the use of paid parking fees. For a project like
this without a broader conversation having occurred on the strategic
use of these funds. I don't think councils received the
information received in this report. On those available funds until
today, so I was a bit surprised to see that
preemptively in this report before we talk about it. And
we really need to talk about those use of those
funds. What about park improvements and park expansion. For example,
if you go to Rocky Point park on a rainy
day right now, you're. Going to go through a puddle
on the sidewalks. Is that a bigger priority maybe, than
the shuttle? I don't know, but I think we need
to have those conversations before we make decisions. I know
this is a feel good initiative, and I know people
in the community like, oh, those start to show up
before elections. And look, things like this can sound great.
They can look great. And maybe some of them are
actually great, but I do think we need to dig
deeper and. Make sure we are making long term good
choices for our community. That makes sense. Parking revenue is
not free money. It's hard earned money from our residents
that they now have to spend to visit a public
park. I didn't support that because I didn't. Think it
was fair. There's been recognition that not everyone can afford
pay parking in kind of this conversation, but. Then I'm
wondering. So we're using the money to make a shuttle
that maybe. We don't need. And the people will pay.
That can't take the shuttle anyway. Maybe we should just
remove the pay parking for our residents. That's where I
kind of land back with this thinking. So I would
like to see a report back from staff in this
motion, because to be comfortable I mean, if it really
is $10,000, and that obviously is a big difference for
me than $50,000. So I am going to call for
separation, though, because I'm not prepared to endorse kind of
the other things said here before I have that information.
So I look to just support that third bullet. And.
I'm possibly thinking on a motion arising after this, so
if you come back to me. Thank you. Thank you.
Councilor. Councilor Noel. Thank you. Actually. Councilor lure. Becky said
a lot of what I was going to say. So
on the surface, I like this idea. I think it
is a good feel good motion. I do have some
concerns. One of my concerns was also about spending the
pay parking revenues. To fund this. I feel like that
is a conversation that needs to take place. Either. With
the public or among this council first. Firstly, I think
we all have different ideas about how these finished bees.
Personally, I would like to use them for tax relief
for our residents. So I don't know how I feel
about that. I'm glad we're going to move separation on
these. I do have some concerns that the points between
let center Moody Center Rocky Point park are already very
accessible by transit. So I'm not sure how necessary. The
shuttle is, although. For me. I'm okay with the staff
report coming back, and let's take a look at what
it's going to say, but for me, the final decision
is going to be based on receiving information that shows
that there's going to be an acceptable roi to the
city. With an acceptable RoI to the city so that
the use needs to match the value and the costs.
I would actually like to. Move an amendment to the
third bullet. To explicitly add that we should be looking
at private sponsorships first before. Breaking into our pay parking
revenues. And I also just want to comment that. If
we do proceed with this, the communications piece has to
be robust. It has to really get out that we
can't afford to spend this money and make this big,
even pilot commitment without making sure people are aware it
exists. So for now, I will move the amendment to
the third bullet. And the amendment would be. And that
this service be paid. For through corporate sponsorships. Paid for,
actually. Sorry. Doing this on the fly. Paid for through
corporate sponsorships, if possible. And otherwise.
Look at a different funding source. Okay, so you're striking
the third bullet and you're saying that it be paid.
For by corporate sponsorship, if possible, or other funding sources.
Or other funding sources. Is my, is there a secondary
for that. The fourth bullet, the third. Mdet the fourth
bullet, the third. And is there a secondary for that.
Okay. Do you have anything else you want to add
to that? Yeah. Again. I think that instead of first
diving right into our pay parking revenues to fund this,
we need to be looking at other funding options. I
think we should be looking outside of the city for
corporate opportunities. We are developing our city. There's some significant
density going in Moody Center. And I think we need
to leverage some of the relationships we have to see
if we can get some support to pay for this.
If we can't, we can look at other funding. Options,
including pay parking revenues. But I think just to immediately
say. Let's use that. Money is a little problematic to
me. Anybody else on this? On the amendment, councilor. Thank
you. I appreciate what everybody said so far, and so
it just sounds like. And the amendment that was made,
but it sounds like maybe we'd all be more comfortable.
If we just did the staff report back before committing
to. The other bullets. I can't really make an amendment
on an amendment. But I would just say we defer
the other ones and just do the second and that
the third statement. Okay, so we're speaking to an amendment,
so if you don't. Support it, it fails, then we
can bring another motion arising, another amendment, and just remove
that bullet. And then have and determine a funding source
at a later. Date, or depending on what happens with
this amendment. Okay, so. Council. Yeah. So we're voting on
the amendment, and then we also separate, and if it
fails. Then we can move separation. Or we can move
an amendment to this motion to just remove that bullet.
Okay. Okay. I'll be moving deferral afterwards, I think. Okay.
But. Let's just handle this one first. Councilor lubic. I
was just going to say that I think I feel
more comfortable having a conversation about how we're going to
pay for it once. The staff will get back. Okay.
Thank you, councilor. Morrison. Thank you for that. I appreciate
that little extra clarity that I got from councilor Knowles
after seconding it. And if that third bullet had been
written. Paid for with a portion of as opposed to
from a portion of. Then that leaves it more open
to than just using that one source. So I agree
with my colleagues. I won't. Support the amendment just for
the interest of. Preferably just having staff report back with
funding source. Options, et cetera. Everything that. We need. And
I know it might not be able to be done
sooner than September, but appreciate that. Thank you. All right.
I'm not going to support the amendment, but. If it
does fail, then I think the cleanest way to deal
with this is to just. Remove that bullet, and then
when. We get to in September. When we get the
cost estimates and the plan, we can then determine the
funding source. So I'll call the question on the amendment.
All in favor? Opposed. Okay, it is. Opposed. Councilor Lubic
Knowles, Morrison, myself, Agtrap, and Rebecca Post. Thank you for
that support. Councilor. Tilworth. I'm going to move that bullet
be removed. Seconded. And so that we don't have to
be addressing. The source of payment at this time. All
in favor? Opposed? Carrie. Thank you. So we are down
to a main motion that. Has now only got three,
and that. On that. I think everyone's had a chance.
Oh, pardon. Councilor lubic. I'm sorry. I just wanted to
ask. So I do think that this is a good
thing to explore. Given what others have said about. Since
the last time we had a pilot. We now have
sky train and things like that, so. I'm wondering if
there's an opportunity first after court back if there are
areas of Port Moody. Where that are less served by
transit. I know some of those may be more. What
I'm trying to get at is are there some people
in Port Moody that really have to drive and then
park. Is there an opportunity for the shell to serve
those neighborhoods? You could make a motion, or you could
make an amendment to the last bullet to say when
it says to determine if this pilot project is to
be made permanent. And to recommend any potential expansion of
the service to underserved portion of the community. To
recommend potential expansion of the service team. Underserved portions of
the community. So that is an amendment that's been seconded
on the amendment. I'll just see a show of hands
if anyone wants to speak to the amendment councilor. Morrison.
Yes. And then I'll keep you in the queue. You're
second in line after. Councilor Eggtrap. I appreciate that aspect
of it. It seems really early for that when we
don't have the report back to how that's not until
October of 26. Yeah, so that's. Why we're kind of
building it into a decision process right now before we've
gotten the report back. It almost seems like it should
be built into the report. After we get the report
back. I want to be really clear. The motion is
to establish the service. Yes, I'm aware. Of that, but
it's just about the underserved aspect of it, because that
report wouldn't come back until 2026. So I'll support it.
It just seems like it's a little early for it.
When we don't have the main report. Thank you. Thank
you. Anyone else on the amendment? Who said yes. Councilor
Knowles. Yeah, I agree. Perhaps I'm just not understanding the
wording of this correctly. But the second bullet says. And
that staff report back by September 2025 with a project
plan and cost estimates for establishing this pilot, shoreline shuttle
service. And then if we jump down to the last
bullet and that staff. Report back with report outlining how
it's already proceeded, including ridership, et cetera. Et cetera. So
I also thought that was premature once I read it
and once we removed the pay parking revenues item because
I would prefer that we get a staff report on
whether we want to even for me. There needs to
be an Roi before I'm going to even agree to
this. So I think what you're saying, Mayor Lottie, is
that if we vote for this, is happening? Yes. The
motion says that the city established a pilot program. Okay,
in that case. We're on an amendment. I understand. That
changes things for me in terms of the amendment, and
I will speak to that, I suppose. Next. Okay. I
will call the question on the amendment. All in favor?
Opposed? Councilor Knowles and councilor Morrison are opposed to the
amendment. And councilor Dilworth. Okay. All right. It passes. All
right, so we're back to the main motion. And now
I have a speaking lesson. Counselor. Agtrop and then councillor
Morrison and then councilor Dilworth. All right? So we'll go
to Councilor Agtrap first. Thank you. I think. Personally, and
I think from what I'm hearing, is that we would
all feel more comfortable that staff report back on this
before we commit to establishing the pilot program or commit
to running the service from any length of time or
even the last bullet. Could we defer? Those other clauses
until staff have reported back. Is that possible? I think
the best. Yeah, you could do that. Yeah, you could
do that. Then I'll move that. We defer the first
clause, the second clause and the last clause until we
get the third. Clause back. Is there a secondary? All
right. There's no thank you debate on deferral. I'll call
the question on deferral. All in favor? Opposed? Carried. Okay,
so now we're just down to reporting back. Councilor Eichrap,
do you still have the floor? You're good, councilor. Morrison.
On the motion, which is just to have the report
back. Thank you. Thank you for that. I appreciate it,
Councilor Eggcraft. And Petra, I just want. To say thanks
to Mayor Lottie for thinking about this when I'm bringing
this forward. Again. I know. We're going to get the
report back on it. It's going to be an ROI,
the whole thing. Staff are going to be good to
go and we're going to get a chance to talk
about it again, but I think that it's a creative
way of providing a transport. Transportation option to people that
may get them to actually come down now that there
is paid parking. At Rocky Point park. There's no need
to circle around. There is a cost to taking the
bus. I get it. And there's a cost to parking
down there. I get it. But this is a way
to remove another barrier that has a cost. And I
think that if it's going to get the ridership and
its advertised properly, I think. It's a good thing to
try as a pilot, so thank you for bringing it
forward. And I'm looking forward to the report back. Thank
you, council Dilwart. I'm going to step back my enthusiasm
a little bit after having heard from my colleagues, and
I totally get that there is a lack of information.
And I have that information in my brain. That doesn't
mean it automatically transfers to everyone. Else. So I'm very
supportive of this. I'm very supportive of this process. Noting
that. Well, sky train was in place. While the previous
shuttle. Was in use, pay parking wasn't. And my antidotal
memory is the people that use that shuttle were people
that were walking from inlet center or they were coming
down. Either the noon's creek corridor or heritage Mountain Boulevard.
Parking at the rec center. And taking the shuttle to
Rocky Point park or wherever else they were going. Maybe
hard bean brunch who knows? But they were taking that
shuttle because they didn't want to have to drive around
the parking lot at Rocky Point park or even pay
the $3 at the sky train, so that's. The primary
audience that I remember. And I think with pay parking
in place now, this is going to be a bigger
incentive for people to park somewhere else and then jump
on the shuttle. Thank you. There aren't any other comments.
Yeah, I agree with a lot. And. I guess my
enthusiasm is around. Similar to Councilor Dilworth. In that. This
isn't. About. Not encouraging people to take transit or. Not
recognizing that people have the ability to walk down. They
do already. There are people in this community who will
use it. I think that at peak times, when parking.
Is demand is high. This is a reliable mode of
transportation that they will become familiar with. It is a
short period of time during the busy season, I guess.
And that sort of mitigates the stress of finding parking.
And. This service also. I think while I do appreciate
the comments around that there is a bus. This is.
Having our own service allows us to be able. To.
Sort of, I guess, adapt it to specific community needs.
And if there are areas or spots in the community
that we think need to be addressed. We have the
flexibility to do that. I know that families and seniors
have, those are the main groups that have reached out
and said that this is something that they would really
like to see happen. So I'm really hoping that council
will ultimately support this. So the motion is to have
staff report back in September. So we look forward to
having that report come back. I will call the question.
All in favor? Opposed? Carrie? Thank you, everybody. Next item
is the FIFA. Item, Councilor Knowles. Oh, councilor. Sure. Councilor
Lebecki. Thank you. Listening to the discussion, I would like
to move that staff report back with potential priority uses
of paid parking reserves her review and discussion by council.
So hoping we can move up that would that be.
Would that be a council thing or a finance committee
issue? Yeah, maybe at a finance committee, yeah. Let's have
them report back to finance so councilor Knowles can handle
that conversation. I think there's not an issue with that.
Is there a second case been seconded? All in favor?
Opposed? Carried. Thank you very much, councilor. We'll move on
to the. Next item that I served, which is kind
of a fun thing. That the city of Port Moody
host public viewing opportunities for up to ten games at
Rocky Point. Park during FIFA 2026 World cup between June
13 and July 19, and that these opportunities include any
games played by Canada, as well as all quarterfinal, semifinal
and final games. Staff report backed by September with a
project. Plan and a budget that includes the communication and
audiovisual equipment requirements. Security considerations, staffing requirements, as well as
costs associated with FIFA licensing and the installation of a
large, temporary east facing. Now, that could be amended depending
on what they think, stage, screen and that. Staff investigate
diverse options for funding these FIFA viewing opportunities, including sources
from one time funding surplus. Funds, grants and sponsorships and
that the Golden Spike Day Society summer Sunday concert series
organizers and the Rotary Club of Port Moody be notified
of the intention to utilize a portion of the park.
For this purpose during these dates and events. Seconder and
seconded. Councilor Knowles. Thank you. Almost no notes for me
on this one. The only question I had. And it's
more of a question through to. I don't know if
it's. Through to staff. Would there be an opportunity even
at just asking folks for a donation? I'm not necessarily
trying to turn this into a revenue generating operation for
us, although that wouldn't be the worst thing in the
world. But just yes, in terms of diverse options for
funding these opportunities, something like a tap. Like what? Golden
spike uses at the entrance just to help cover costs.
Anything that we can do? To. Lessen the cost to
the city, I think. We can certainly. This doesn't preclude
that from being an action, then I would just like
to. Make those comments and have staff take those back.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Morrison. Thank you. I'm
in support of this. I just wanted to ask a
question. If there's. The opportunity for any of our local
charity, whether it be Crossroads hospice, et cetera, to be
able to set up some sort of small booth for.
Beverages, popcorn, snacks, et cetera, as part of this event
as well. In the park as opposed to. Charity side.
This kind of is handing it over to staff to
say, what do you think we can do? There may
be, like at some of the larger games or some
of the more sort of the games that there will
be more people, because I don't anticipate that there's, going
to be a lot of people at all the games,
but there might be that'd. Be kind of fun, but,
yeah, I think that it's an opportunity to really think.
Outside the box on how to support our community and
how to bring the community together. Okay. The only other
thing I would mention is the provision of shade, et
cetera, to be. Mentioned there because it could be very
hot and the ability to have some way of offering
that. Ability. If possible. You have to have people encouraging
people to bring umbrellas and to bring. Their own shade
tents as well, because I know we have the bleacher
stands that have been used previously and stuff like that,
and there's the ability to shade those towards the back
so you don't block everybody's view? Because I've had people
set. Up tents for summers, Sundays. And it blocks your
view all the way back if somebody sets up. A
big dent for it. So I think it does need
to be thought through, especially on those busy events. On
how we can get people in there comfortably, but as
well, make sure we're maximizing the amount of people that
can view it. I'm going to sort of say that.
The reason that I'm bringing this forward now is to
give staff an opportunity to really think about this and
to come back with something. That's ultimately going to be
the best case scenario for the community. Okay? So I'm.
In support of it. I think it's going to be
a great community gathering opportunity. And of course, everybody gets
around those international events, whether it be Olympics or FIFA,
et cetera. To get behind Team Canada. Thank you. Thank
you, councilor Lebecki. Thank you. I think this is. A
very cool idea. I mean, party is like, well, what's
it going to cost? But I think. A comfortable moving,
supporting this as it is and assuming we'll move ahead
with this, I guess. My first thought was, and I'm
not sure if it sued a staff was like a
screen in the middle of the day. If you've gone
to any outdoor movies and it hasn't gone dark yet
and you can't see anything. That's why I've got it.
That's. Why I put the east facing. So that the
sun's behind. Yeah. I'm not a professional technician or whatever,
but I'm just trying to envision. Does that still work?
If it does, great. I just can think of instances
where I couldn't. See screens in the day. So just
throwing that out there, maybe staff can confirm the angle.
Obviously, Rocky Point park is very busy and there's competing
interests, and some people are super. Into soccer. And some
people are like, what's going on with soccer? And I'm
mindful of this location in the summer. I think I
have a little bit of worry about that. I think
it's a special occasion, like the Olympics and people will
be accepting that this is going on there and it's
busier than normal and it's just like a fun short
term thing. Yeah, so I support this. Just wanting to
hear those kind of technical details back from staff, so.
That we can make sure. It is what it is
supposed to be. And people can see and they have
a good time. And they have shade and they bring
their umbrellas and all the rest. For sure. You don't
want to spend money, set up something and have people
not be able to. See the screen. That would be
terrible waste. Thank you for that. Councilor. Councilor Dilworth. Thank
you. I just have one brief question. Have we had
any discussions with the Port Moody Soccer Club, or if
we envision some ways that the soccer club might be
involved in the provision of this. Because. These are, like,
hardcore soccer fans, and I'm sure that they would love
to be a part of it. Down, so I wanted
to make sure that that was on our radar. What
a wonderful idea. I'm sure staff is listening. Great. Thank
you. I mean, there's lots of time between now and
then to organize little things and demonstrations and even mini
games. If potentially that's something that they want to do.
All right. Councilor Eggtrap. Thank you. Just following on the
rocky point sort of theme, I guess. And as you
were saying, we're not sure who's going to show up
or. How many people or who's playing. And because different
teams draw different amounts of crowds. Right. If it's Canada,
then it's. Going to be a totally different story, but
I'm just wondering if there would be. Opportunity when staff
was exploring this to look at potentially different locations depend.
Can we be nimble enough that, depending on who's playing,
maybe the semifinals and. Quarterfinal. Semifinal final games are at
Rocky Point. I think that the reason that, yeah, I
did put a lot of thought into that. It's going
to be something that's semi permanent, so I don't think
it's going to be something that's not part of going
to be able to pick up and move from one
part to the next, okay? Because. If there's other games.
That are, I don't know that Canada or favorite teams
are in. Is there a way we can utilize. Out
back here for games that may be less popular. I
don't know, just. Shining right on the screen. It's an
unfortunate way. Ideally, that would be my first. I would
think would be a great, because it'd be kind of
a fun. It's. Already tiered, but your son is going
to be right on the screen. We need a shade.
I know something. About that. That has come and gone,
my friend. All right. Thank you, Councilor Knowles. Come on.
I did that to myself. I'm sorry. Yeah, councilor egg
chop kind of beat me to it the more I
was thinking about it. This might be a really good
opportunity to kind of highlight and showcase some of our
other parks. Rather than doing this at Rocky Point park.
And I'm specifically thinking of, and I was just looking.
I'm trying to find the name. The one by across
from Glenair is. Huge. It has tons of shade and
trees. It's got. A big area, and then there's also
west hills, so. I just want to encourage. Us because
Rocky Point is, Biggie is busy with big events. Can
we just keep an open mind in terms of where
I understand these are going to be? Semi permanent. But
we have other parks. Yeah, I totally understand where you're
coming from, okay? We want it to be central so
that people can take transit, so people can take the
shuttle. If they want to. People. Can access it. And,
yes, we do have other parks, and I put lots
of thought into perhaps West Hill because it's a covered
area and it would be, but it's just. Not as
accessible and if. You're actually drawing a few hundred people.
It's probably not a good idea to be having that
many vehicles because it's just not accessible. Okay. Right. So.
Yeah, I totally understand where you're coming from. If there's
any issue. No, sorry. That's okay. Thank you. Thank you.
Yes, but. Yes, I'm sure. Staff. Will be considering all
of that. All right, so I will call the question
then. All in favor? Opposed? Carrie. Thanks, everybody. The next
item is councilor. Lebecki's motion, and I will go to
you. Councilor Becky, thank you so. I'm just going to
go ahead. Everyone's reading tonight. I'll remind. That a meeting
called a council town hall on the official committee plan
is scheduled after first reading. And before second reading of
the draft OCP and that the meeting serves as an
open space. For residents who had feedback and questions for
council regarding the draft OCP with the purpose to inform
any council initiated changes to be tabled during second reading
of the draft OCP and that this meeting be in.
Person and live streamed with Zoom participation recorded, amended with
counsel on the stage with support from senior staff chaired
by the mayor, an open mic format allowed to be
extended to support hearing from each resident who wishes to
speak. And the designated sorry. A designed invitation is sent
to every household. Thank you, councilor. Is there a second?
Seconded by Councilor Newbeck. Thank you. So it's important when
we're having this discussion tonight, I would like council to
consider that we did have two discussions on this already.
And in those discussions when I went back and I
listened to the full discussions of both at the time.
We did very clearly agree, and I believe, vote on
having an open mic town hall. For whatever reason, this
has not happened. I still believe it can, and I
believe it must occur. Asking our community what they think
and offering them direct access to freely express themselves and
share their thoughts with us, with their elected officials. It's
not adversarial or negative and I've heard these thrown out
there lately, and I find it very perplexing. As a
council, we may not agree with or like what we
hear to town hall or people. Out of town hall
might not agree with each other. But that is literally
democracy. Right, creating spaces for respectful disagreement. And to be
frank, we have people here every week. Very rarely is
someone disrespectful at that mic. Extremely rare. So I really
think. We need to honor that. And not make folks
feel if they come and don't agree with something, we're
doing or with each other that somehow they're being negative
or adversarial or. They shouldn't feel good about being able
to speak their mind. Town halls are a bedrock of
our engagement processes in Port Moody for years and years.
Literally, the creation of Bert Flynn park. Imagine if we
didn't have an open mic. We wouldn't. Have for Flim
Park. We've created these spaces through history. In our community.
And they've had a difference because having that mic, having
people be able to speak to the decision makers up
here. It matters. 2011, 2014, OCPS 2018. I mean, honestly,
there were hundreds and hundreds of people showing up. In
the past to some of these meetings, whether it's council
meetings, public hearings, and, yes, town halls because councils of
the day created those spaces for people to come because
they felt safe. And they felt empowered to do so.
And I really do wonder why this is not happening
under this council. And it means something is not working
properly under our poaches. When we see 50 people. I'm
sorry. That is not acceptable to me. That is not
a high enough number of people to be acceptable. For
an OCP engagement. Town hall. Something we're doing is just
not working. Less engagement is a bad thing. It's not
a good thing. And when I hear from people in
the community that stop me in a coffee shop, and
they're so passionate, they share their thoughts with me about
the future of our community. I'm like, hey, why don't
you come into council? I haven't seen you. Why don't
you come? On down. All too often I hear, because
what does it matter? And that breaks my heart. And
I think, we should be doing everything we can to
change that narrative that is existing in our community, because
I'm hearing it on the ground all the time. So
this doesn't need to be adversarial. This doesn't need to.
Be political. We've already had this conversation, and there seemed
to be immense agreement around this. Table. At the time,
just over. A year ago, and I just don't know.
What possibly could have changed since then, except for a
feeling that people are not as happy as they were.
And that should not be a reason we don't open
up that mic. We've heard support in the cuny to
have this town hall like we've always had town. Halls.
We've already tried the other way. We've had the Slido
app and. The facilitator kind of rounding out questions and
summarizing things for people. Again, 50 people showed up and
took advantage of that. If at a town hall, we
want to throw in an app as well somehow, then
sure. But it needs to be open mic. It needs
to be documented. It needs to be recorded. It needs
to be accessible. Everyone should be invited and we should
stay here as long as it takes. I'll stay here
all night long to hear from people, and very importantly,
Very importantly. The public hearing is not enough time to
do what I'm asking for, so I'm. Hoping for council
support. Thank you, councilor. I will just point out we
never had a town hall on Bert Flynn park, but
we did. Have a very robust and long. Public hearing
that went till two in the morning. Councilor dilworth. Town
hall meetings. We've had different formats here, Mayor Lottie, I.
Don't you remember there was. One meeting, we were sitting
on pillows on the bleachers, the steps down below, talking
to youth. We've had town hall meetings that our staff
led. We've had town hall meetings that have been developer
led out in the galleria. So I went down a
little bit. Of. A rabbit hole. And there's no one
succinct definition of what a town. Hall meeting is. It's
one group of people listening to another group of people.
And I would totally support an OCP. On. Sorry. A
town hall meeting on the OCP. What I've been struggling
against is. The timing. We have not had to draft
OCP come to council table yet. We have nothing. To
respond. To. I also. Look at going back to what
does the provincial government do for town hall meetings? Mlas.
Quite often do independent telephone town hall meetings. What a
nonprofit organizations do? What do private companies do? Everyone does
something a little bit different and I want to acknowledge
that as councilor Lebecki said, port Moody is a leader.
Nobody is afraid of hearing what our public has. To
say it's how we do it. And when I note
that local government there's, no definition in the community charter
or. In Local Government act about having a town hall
meeting. It's something that's grown. A little bit organically. And
as I said earlier, if it's a marriage, town hall
meeting, the mayor gets to define what that town hall
meeting looks like. If council is going to have a
town hall council gets to define. What that looks like.
I'm certainly not afraid, and I don't think there should
be any insinuation that we are. It's part of a
process, and I'll just close by. Saying, one of the
reasons that I think we've got away from doing town
hall meetings is because. The online engagement tools are growing
faster and quicker and providing. More access than we've ever
had. With our residents before online. And I would say
certainly going through Covid and looking at the challenge of
just getting our committee meetings back in person. People don't
want to come to city hall. They want to. Sit
at home in their living room from the comfort of
their computer or their laptop or even their tv. To
see what's going on at town hall. There's not a
one size fit all approach. And certainly it's not the
end all and be all, but it's certainly one. Tool
in the toolbox. That we have on discussing any issue,
whether it's the OCP, whether it's public safety, whether it's
snow. It's one tool in the toolbox. So. Yeah, I'm
looking forward to it. I want to reference something councillor
Lubecki said earlier. She said, I hope we get everything.
And all the consultation. Council. Rebecca, you're going to get
that 2500 page binder. It's coming. So having been through
that before, Careful what you ask for. Sometimes you'll be
reading for days. So. Thank you. Thank you, councilor. Councilor
Eggtrap. Thank you. I do strongly support meaningful public engagement
on these OCP. I think it's really important. To also
recognize staff's engagement. On all the staff's effort in all
the engagement conducted today, I feel that this has been
quite extensive and. This process started back in 2021. So
multiple years of engagement with multiple formats. And as was
referenced, It seems like. The engagement for different forms was
higher in the past. But this spring, we've had seven
OCP related events, and including working with youth, which I
greatly appreciate that staff has done that. And I believe
that this is all being done in good faith to
ensure that the public's. Voices have been heard. And are
reflected. I believe that's reflected in the document. In item
7.1, and I believe that staff will reflect that. In
the draft. OCP. But I do wonder. If people are
tired. And why. Are we not seeing sort of what
the engagement levels were on, like, paper surveys? What is
the difference. I'm not necessarily opposed to this, but. I
want to make sure that we are spending time and
effort in eliciting. Responses from people we haven't heard from.
And how do we do that and how do we
do this in a good way? Where we are seeking
to create. Mutual understanding. Learning about things. That, like a
two way learning? So I just have some reservations about
this format. And I would rather refer this to staff
and not. Be dogmatic about the format itself, but how
do we do this? In a way. That. We're collectively
well served, that we have clear outcomes and clear objectives
defined so that we're ensuring that the feedback from this
engagement process. Is not only transparently shared. But. The outcomes
are clearly articulated and how we are going to use
that and how that is going to be reflected. And
I think perhaps one of the things. That is not
missing, but maybe just not. The lines aren't so clearly
drawn is like when we get feedback and when it
summarize, how does that relate? Can people see the clear
lines between their feedback and how is that reflected in
the document? And so. I don't really have an answer
to this, but I do think. Where we are right
now in this conversation does speak to a need for
better communication and. Better just drawing more clear lines so
that people understand when they give feedback. Where is that
reflected? In the OCP, so I'll just leave it there.
Thanks. Okay. Thank you. Councilor Lubeck. Thank you so much.
So as we saw tonight, The 2025 engagement report. And
we know that that's been done. For years now. Staff
have been doing an amazing job, and I'm really looking
forward to what they bring. Together and present to council.
I actually, as one of our residents said, really enjoyed
the last OCP town hall. I did hear some frustration
that the questions were rewarded or not accurately. Interpreted. And
I was also a little bit disappointed, if I'm honest,
that we didn't. Have enough time for that dialogue portion,
but it was great that we got everyone's questions. Answered
as best as we could. I am supportive of having
a town hall once that OCP has been actually presented,
so we have something to talk about. But I think
it's really important. And Councilor Eggcraft stole all my words.
But I think it's really important that we articulate why
we're doing the engagement and help people understand. What? Nobody's
vision of the ocp. Is going to be exactly reflected
in what we get back. It won't be everything that
I want. It won't be everything that my neighbors want,
but it will be somewhere in the middle of what
if staff have tried to done to incorporate everybody's feedback
and everybody's input, and so I think it's really important
that we have a town hall where people can really
articulate where they don't. See their don't or do see
their. Visions articulated. And I think that we did that
really well with the park town hall. What we heard
back. Staff were able to take that, make some amendments,
and also articulate where maybe it wasn't. So clear that
that was the plan. But I also think. The way.
And I think that public engagement is always important. I
think back a lot to there was a mayor that
I was on a panel on depolarization on. And he
said that when their OCP came out, this was some
small town. In the us. But he said when their
ocp came out, Everyone. It's not that everybody agreed, but
it was that they understood. How their comments had been
reflected in that document. So they had very little pushback
in the community. And I think it's really important that
people do see that we have listened and how? So
I'm happy to have a town hall. I do think
that. We should potentially refer this. I'm not going to
make the motion because I won't. Hear from my colleagues,
but I do think we should potentially refer this to
strategic initiatives and rather meaning to talk about what kind
of format? Open mic online hybrid. Tables. What would help
us elicit what we need to make sure everyone feels
heard but also safe. And is encouraged to provide, to
take part in whatever way makes sense to them. Well.
The motion is very prescriptive on that, so. If you're
wanting to refer this. To. A committee meeting for further
discussion. You can make that motion. Or amend this motion.
To remove that and just say that it be referred
to a committee meeting. To determine the format, the exact
format. So it's up to you how you would like
to do on that. Sounds good. I will wait because
I know that. Thank you. Put that out there to
council for consideration. Councilor Knowles. Thank you. I essentially want
to echo a lot of what councilor Eggtrap said. We've
had several discussions about this already. Seven OCP events. My
concern is that exactly what you said. Maryland, this is
a very prescriptive motion that has already been seconded in
front of us without any information. About cost. Even this
designed invitation. I don't know what that means. Perhaps. The
mover can clarify what that means as opposed to what
we normally send to households, but yes. For me, the
major concern. Is. There's no discussion about costs here. And
considering we've had so many OCP events and we plan
to have more and we've already received so much information.
I cannot support the motion as it is currently. On
the table. I would be willing to support referring this
back to staff to bring back report. Regarding feasibility, resources,
timeline, et cetera. Thank you. Okay, so what I'm hearing
is question. About cost, question about format or concern. About.
Maybe not. Having nailed down the correct. Way to gather
that information. And I will add in. My concern around
the timing and stuff. So whatever we decide and listen,
I'm going to. Support whatever council wants to do here.
But we need to make sure that. We're not interfering
with a process that has a timeline. And not to
say that we cannot delay it if we choose to,
but we do have a timeline. We are required to
have this wrapped up at a certain point, so we
just want to make sure that staff can confirm that
this. Is not going to. In any way or how
we can make this happen. Without. Sort of threatening or
in any way putting. Any creating a problem for staff.
Councilor morrison. Thank you, mayor. I appreciate the motion. And
the attempt to try to have a more concrete design
of. What council Lebecki is trying to see at one
of these town halls. Where I agree with my colleagues,
including councilor Lubic and councilor Agtrap, is around the gap
in information. What are we missing? What are we trying
to get? And I appreciate that because. I actually thought
that the way that we did our last. Town hall
engagement process. Council was accessible. We were here. Or most
of us were here. I don't think all of us
came in person, but most of us were here in
person. Could be accessed before or. After the meeting. We
had staff, the professionals of. These particular documents, answering questions
from the public that council may not be able to
answer anyways. And we would just be saying, hey, can
you answer this for us? Staff member x. And they
had an open mic session at the OCP portion where
people could raise their hand. And actually speak. If they
wanted to speak with the open mic, they had the
opportunity to submit. Something online, anonymously, up on a board
that everybody could see and help vote. And we could
answer. And all the questions were answered online as much
as possible after the fact. So I'm just wondering what
different group of people is going to come out to
another one of these town halls that hasn't already been
represented. It just feels like. We're trying to redo the
same thing over and over again to get a different
result? We have 50 people show up. Each time and
say the same sort of things, and I'm not hearing
a ton of different concerns, and I'm wondering what another
town hall is going to do. Now, perhaps, like my
colleagues have mentioned, Having. That the draft, full draft version
come out and be able to really dig into it
first, would be helpful and maybe there are some concerns
and things that come up, and that's the whole idea
of having the multiple readings to the OCP, including a
public hearing. In regards to the OCP, that would happen
as well. So I agree that we want to be
as accessible and make this as open as possible for
people to communicate with. Council we have two opportunities every
single meeting for people to tell us their thoughts on
anything, not just what's on the agenda. We're very fluid,
as Councilor Dilworth mentioned, in regards to how much public
input we accept. And they can talk about the OCP
every single time they want to call in. If they
want to, but they don't. So. I'm always, always happy
to hear from the public. And I was standing outside
waiting for people to come up and chat with me
about my thoughts on it if they really wanted to.
Be directly speaking to a counselor or a counsel. And
one or two people maybe came up to me afterwards,
and I'm not sure if that's the same experience that
my other colleagues had in regards to it, but it
was typically single issues, questions and. Easy, straightforward answers that
I could give if I had the ability to give
it or refer to the right department to get more
information if they didn't, but. I want this to be
effective for the purpose of the public input, not to
just be another. Opportunity for the same people to come
out and say the same thing that we've heard. Two
or three times because a lot of the same people
came to both of those town halls. Around the same
issue. And I think that our normal process that we
have for this with the seven engagement sess. Sessions. That
councilor Ektrap mentioned and councilor Knowles mentioned. Is great. Plus
the remaining stages we still have to go through. And
if at that point we feel that we do need
to have this town hall. I am absolutely happy to
do that. If there's that many questions coming up that
was completely out of left field that we need. To
really hone in on, but unless we're getting different information
from groups that haven't been represented. I don't know if
it's going to be val. Valuable to the same extent.
Thank you. I think, to be fair, to date. The
engagement. Has been. On collecting input on what the potential
plan would be. What councilor Larbecci is referring to. Is
actually after that document has the draft document has been
received. To then have that be discussed. As a document
as opposed to. Seeking an opportunity for engagement, so I
see value in that. But I don't disagree. With. Many
of the comments around the fact that perhaps maybe we
want to talk a little bit more. About what we
want that to look like because. Obviously, what I'm hearing
around the table is a desire to have transparency. To
have counsel. Hear from the community, and most importantly, I
think the most important aspect of Councilor Becky's motion is.
That. The purpose is to inform counsel initiated changes to
the document not dissimilar to the changes that occurred. After.
The town hall that we just received, that we just
held on park expansion, which did as councilor. Lubic stated
lead to changes to that potential document. So I do
see value in receiving that input. I don't disagree, though,
that perhaps, maybe we want to have a further discussion.
About what that looks like so that we can really
take advantage of. Really making this a meaningful. Interaction with
our community and. What we really want to try and
do is create an atmosphere where people can provide their
input. We can answer questions that we have the ability
to answer. You're right. We may be. Referring a lot
of it to staff. But it's an opportunity, another opportunity
for the community. Now, again, my biggest concern is timing.
And. How? We would roll that out. And so I'm
going to go to councilor Dilworth, because I see she
has her hand up for a second time, and then
I'm going to ask staff if they can sort of
give us a little bit of information or some advice
on, if we wanted to. Have another opportunity after the
document has been received, what the timing might look like
for something like that. So, Councilor Dorwood, do you have
something new to add? Through to Ms. Lamb. Do we
know exactly how much time I have left of my
five minute speaking. Okay. I'll be really quick. I just
want to pick up on some of the things I've
heard from my colleagues, and it's about where are the
gaps in information? That we're not getting. Who aren't we
hearing from? And how can we better? Support and incentivize.
And I'll use three examples. Youth focus committee. Bringing pizza
to those meetings got those kids to come out and
serve on committees. When we used to have our budget
town hall meetings every year, we'd have a budget. Town
hall meeting, and we would have an iPad as a
raffle, and we could fill this. Theater with people. But
are they coming for the chance of winning an iPad,
or are they actually. Coming down to provide input or
hear what we had to say about the budget and
the taxes. And the third one is we have large
ethnic communities in Port Moody. How do we hear from
them. Is it something as simple as providing a translator?
I'm not looking to rework the process. I'm not looking
at adding extra work to staff, but I think it's
a conversation that we have, and if it means a
referral to the strategic initiatives committee where staff will come
prepared with some information, maybe some answers to the questions
that we've raised tonight. Why don't I do that right
now? Why don't I just make a motion? To refer
this to the strategic initiative committee at the soonest possible
time. To have a further discussion. On. The well served
outcomes that we're looking for. How do we meet them
and define further? What the process might look like. Thank
you. Can I ask? That. Thank you for that, councilor.
That staff. When is the next meeting that this could
be? I know these things take time, so. I don't
want us to be in any way interfering with staff.
Timelines. If we don't have to, but. We may be
doing that inadvertently, Ms. Smith. Go
ahead. Through the chair. Currently, what staff have queued up
is based on the endorsement of the community. Engagement summary.
Tonight we are bringing the draft of the OCP to
the July 15 committee. Then if that was supported there,
the next step would be bringing it forward. For first
reading in September. Okay, so July. Okay. So. For September.
Okay. For first reading. First reading September and then referral
for public hearing, which would be later in the fall
with adoption by the end of the year. So it
seems like this. Is. A doable. Something we can achieve.
With this motion. It could be on the strategic initiatives
committee on July 15 at the same night. That we
receive it and then we can have the conversation. Okay.
If this is endorsed. Okay. So this is being referred
to a committee so we can have a discussion. Is
there anybody that wishes to speak to this. Just put
your hand up. Councilor Lebecki. Thank you. So my understanding
is this motion. Is being referred to committee, so I
can support that. I hesitantly support that. And the reason
is what I described, which is we talk about this
twice. The reason I'm so prescriptive is what I said,
which is we talked about. It and talked about it
in minute detail, past motions that didn't have those details
and then nothing like that happens. So again, I'm not.
What happened was, well. Done. Absolutely. But it did not
align with the council conversation. Again, I don't know how.
That happened. Anyway, let's move on. But I would be
curious. Which of these exactly, council? Would disagree with, right?
I don't want to move away from the intention, and
the community is watching. And how clear this is. What
the goals are that have not been achieved. Is that
open free space? So sure, let's. Talk about it. I'm
a little gun shy of going down the same path
where we think we blended on something and it doesn't
happen that way. So I will strongly be advocating for
the goals that are outlined here, but if we want
to send it to comedian, make sure that we get
this exactly perfect. Absolutely right. With the most people possible,
then. That's awesome. Thank you. I'm envisioning something that actually
adds to this. It? Perhaps, maybe additional. Something additional I'm
not taking away. Okay, anyone else that wants to speak
to this? Okay, I've got councilor Lubic and then councilor
Knowles in order. Go ahead, Councilor Lubic. Thank you very
much. I think I'm just going to. Echo for now.
What? Councilor Diller said. And two things that came through
my mind, like translation services. I don't know how expensive
that is. I think that is a really good idea.
Or even just like, specific outreach, because we know, we
do have some community organizations. And the other thing was,
I know that pizza is sometimes just a way to
get people here. That maybe don't care as much. But
food is also what brings us together. And when our
bellies are full, we're happier and we make better decisions,
and we're also nicer to each other. So I would
strongly advocate for food to be available. Food. And child
care. Okay, well, we can have those conversations at that
meeting. Thank you, councilor. Councilor. Knowles. Yeah. So, again, to
reiterate my primary concern, although I do agree the timing
is an issue, especially since we have already delayed this
to give extra time to the park lounge. Strategy is.
Again costs. So I'm hoping that. If we vote to
refer this to strategic committee meeting, if we could also
get some information at that regarding potential costs. I would
personally appreciate that. That's going to be the information that
I'm looking for. Thank you. Do you need direction on
that? Staff will have that for us. Okay, I don't
see any other comments or questions here. So this is
a good thing. We're not voting this down. We're actually,
I think, promoting this. To further conversation so that we
can get it right. So on the motion to refer
to strategic priorities to further discuss. The format. I'll call
the question. All in favor? Opposed? Carried unanimously. Thank you
for that. And thank you, Councilor Becky, for bringing that
forward. We'll go to councilor. Sorry. We'll go to item
11.8, which. Is councilor Agtarap's motion. Thank you. And in
the interest of time, I. Will buck the trend. I
will not read it. I'm assuming you all have. Second.
Moved and seconded. Okay. Just some general remarks on it.
We all know that businesses are facing rising costs, shifting
consumer habits, and intense pressure from circumstances beyond their control.
And in times of economic uncertainty, commercial landlords may default
to safe tenants. So those anchor. Tenants. That are like
banks and other things like that. That may be lower
risk but also have lower impact on. Employment generation, foot
traffic, and streetscape interaction. So I believe that city policy
can be a tool to ensure that we foster the
port Moody's diverse and dynamic economy that I know we
all support. Ground level commercial spaces play a critical role
in advocating streetscapes, drawing people to interesting spaces. And supporting
local economic diversity. This motion is about exploring options to
ensure our policies and zoning support a diverse mix of
retail, service and cultural spaces. The toas are growing hubs,
and as we densify in these areas, we need to
signal our desire for intentional placemaking. So that we don't
default to passive low interaction uses. That, while important, don't
necessarily support neighborhood vitality and don't necessarily need to be
located on the street front. This motion is not about
restricting, but about creating. Intentional space for better outcomes. For
example, understanding the barriers to subdivision of larger spaces into
smaller ones. Could provide much needed flexibility and support local
and small scale and startup businesses that are currently priced
out of larger and newer spaces. Similarly, mapping existing health
services allows us to plan proactively. Understanding service gaps and
align with broader equity and access. Schools. This supports, not
replaces, provincial planning and our UBCM advocacy. From 11.3 young
primary care clinics in general. This motion is asking for
the Economic Development and Tourism Committee feedback before proceeding. Down
a path that takes up too much staff time. This
exploratory work with the committee is intended to inform future
steps and aligns with the committee's current work plan. I
believe this motion also supports our collective vision and aligns
with our desire for vibrant and prosperous community. So I
hope everyone can support this. Thank you. Thank you, councilor.
Any feedback, councilor? Morrison. Thank you. I appreciate this motion
by councilor egg trap because I know that this discussion
has come up at council about. What do we want?
Our toas and our denser areas and our evolving new.
Hubs to look like as far as commercial services go.
And what other things have we seen? In other municipalities
that have been challenges, and we talk about North Road,
Clark Road, et cetera. And the distribution of certain types
of services. Being represented or overrepresented in those areas. So
I appreciate this being referred to the economic development tourism
committee. We have discussed a little bit, not as much
in depth as that this is requesting about ways in
which we can try to encourage certain. Commercial uses, specifically
on ground level to create that vibrancy, et cetera, in
those areas. To encourage more pedestrian friendly and higher turnover
that helps those smaller shops with their ability to survive.
As opposed to professional services such as dentists or nail
salons, et cetera, that may not have that same amount,
but can charge higher dollar amounts to survive. Banks is
another example. They're usually quite well established anchor tenants. That
landlords look for because they pay well and they are
there forever. So I appreciate this. The one thing that
did come up, though, in the committee was the fact
that a lot of times. By the time even a
project gets the first reading with us, they've almost already.
Determined their anchor tenants. We're talking years in advance of
being even built. So that's. One thing that there was
a little bit of discussion about our sustainability report card
trying to get more information in advance, perhaps different ways
of scoring through that to try to encourage local small
business and the diversity of businesses, and it's a lot
easier when you have a master plan. Community like what
we have in Newport village with one developer doing it
all, or in Suterbrook with one developer doing it all
where they can balance their tenant mixes to make sure
that everybody can survive, as opposed to individual landowners having
control over one small lot and there being seven. 8910
of them. So I am supportive of this. I don't
know what some of the legal context will be, but
I'm hoping that our manager of economic development. Will be
able to provide that information to us if we have
the power to be able to. Do anything about that
and restrict anything like that. I hope we'll get those
answers at the committee when it does come to it,
if it is supported by the rest of my colleagues.
But thank you for bringing it forward. Thank you. Councilor.
Councilor lubic. Thank you so. Much. I'll be very brief,
as I know. It's late, but I just wanted to
say I really appreciate this being brought forward. And I
think for me, one of the critical pieces is really
that activation of the pedestrian realm. And understanding that foot
track that businesses need and that really. Is how the
business ecosystems can thrive. And we've talked a lot about
in the tod area, those small businesses that are going
to be struggling or are struggling. Because of some of
the rents that they're facing. So I think I know
the Economic Development Committee is very passionate about this, as
this committee. So I look forward to hearing what the
results are. Thank you. Thank you, councilor. My only comment
is going to be sort of like I look at
the motion that was served by councilor. Councilor Lubic and
I earlier this evening around primary care clinic space and
the fact that we don't have a lot of it.
And if there was a doctor's office. That wanted to
open up in fort Mooney, and it happened to be
on the ground floor. I would certainly hope that we
aren't discouraging them from doing that because we have to
balance it out. I get. That I understand the intention
of this and I support it for the most part,
but I don't like the idea of restricting. Extended health
services as a permitted use on ground level across the
board. I think we need to be looking at encouraging
it on the second floors, and we need to be
really putting that out. To developers at the outset of
these conversations when they are first coming to us so
that they're designing these spaces. With the right. Sort of
the right, I guess, buildable space for those services because
we have a dearth. Of these in Port Mooney, so
I don't want to be doing one that is going
to in any way compromise the other. So. I have
an issue with the word restricting it. I don't mind
exploring it, but I really want to put it out
there that we do not want to be. On the
one hand, saying? We need primary clinic space. And then
on the other hand, saying, let's respect, let's. Restrict it
on the ground level. I just think we need to
be careful. Okay? Yes, councilor. Thank you. And I totally
understand that. And that is not the intent, and that's
why if you read the rest of the sentence, I
see it where upper stories exist or within limited areas,
and it's really about signaling. Signaling at an early stage.
These are the type of things that we want. And
then. Just one other point that isn't in here, but.
Is something that we've heard is that new commercial spaces,
if we want restaurants and things. So new commercial spaces
aren't being built. With ventilation built in. And so I
think that's also something. That. Whether I'll leave it to
Councilor Morrison and chairing the economic development Committee. Is that
something that needs to be communicated because. The amount of
money to retrofit and to add ventilation afterwards is astronomical.
So we need to make sure that not only are
we creating spaces, For doctor's office, and that's why it
says extended health services, not primary health. For doctors to
be in areas where we need them. But we also
need to make sure that when we are building or
when we're approving. Developments. We also need to make sure
that the other requirements for other businesses like restaurants and
food services are in there prior. To when the building
is being built and not having to retroactively add them.
Yeah, I think these are great conversations. I just wanted
to put that out there. Around, sort of. The. Seeming
contradiction, but, yeah, I do appreciate that, and I recognize
that. This is intended for new buildings. Mainly in Toa
and Tod area. And that we want to keep it
at the forefront. And as something to be considered. So,
seeing no other hands, I will call the question on
this motion. All in favor? Opposed. Carrie. Thanks, everybody. Which
brings us to verbal reports. Councilor Morrison thank you, mayor.
I just wanted to say that. I was very honored
to be able to. Stand. In place of you because
you were not available on. This past weekend at the
Jewish Culture Festival. It was a wonderful get together of
our jewish community from across the tricities. They had wonderful
music. Things for kids to do. Art being showcased and
sold and jewelry being sold, including delicious food items. That
one of my fellow counselors might mention that she picked
up. I don't know. What it's called, but it looked
delicious. Okay, a chocolate bobca. And I had councilor Knowles
and councilor lubic there at. The event as well that
day. So it was wonderful and a great opportunity and
just a beautiful peaceful place to be at Rocky Point
park, so thank you for allowing me to attend that
one. Thank you for doing that. I will mention as
well before our next regular council meeting, there is national
indigenous Peoples day on Saturday, June 21. It's at Rocky
Point park, and it starts at 01:00 p.m. everything kicks
off at 01:00 p.m. so get there early. If you
can, and it's about 2 hours long. Everything goes from
one to three at the performance stage. I will try
my best to be there for the beginning of it,
but. I will be off as acting mayor to. The
graduation ceremony for heritage woods. That happens at basically 02:00
that same day. So I'll try to see if I
can squeeze both in. But if I can't, please. Know
that. I wish I could have been there, but I
will be up at the heritage wood. Secondary graduation. And
you will be there. So we're going to be able
to get them both covered. But I just want to
make sure that everybody knows that I wish I could
do both, and. If I can. I'll try my best.
All right. Thank you very much. Thank you, councilor. Councilor
Dilworth. Following up on that same theme, I had the
great pleasure. It's been the first time in a long
time. As acting mayor, participate as a ceremonial review officer
for the Port Moody Naval cadets and the mayor. Is
aware. Going to air cadet reviews. And navy cadet reviews.
It is really cool. And I have to acknowledge that
this was the 60th anniversary of grills. I can't remember
the number of Port Moody's cadet group that they have.
They have one of the largest. Groups in the province.
There was over 120 cadets participating in events this Sunday.
They also have a phenomenal band that came second. In
provincial competitions, and it was just so inspiring. We had
the larger walkouts, we had the bands, and then we
had the opportunity. To speak to the cadets in smaller
groups where they were working as working groups on flags,
on first aid on the history. And I'm one year
older than the cadets are. That was pointed out to
me. I know. Go figure. It was just a tremendous
celebration for those kids who've put a full year into.
Committing to military training, committing to personal growth, committing to
new friendships that they made so mayor in future years.
If you're busy, I will always take up the opportunity
to attend and pretend. I know what I'm doing when
I'm walking around inspecting all of nodding nice. Shoes. My
second item I want to report out on is the
fact that councilors knows Morrison Lobeki. And myself, we all
attended the Federation of Canadian Municipalities recently in Ottawa. These
are great opportunities for learning. And networking and having the
opportunity to talk to our federal leaders and other local
leaders from across Canada. I want to talk about two
tours that they had. One of the tours that I
attended. Was on the Byward market, and this is like
a massive Granville island market type, and. It is intentional
place making, as Councilor Agtrap referred to earlier. And it's
a fusion of. Hospitality, restaurants, pubs. A tremendous art
component with. Little galleries, a lot of pop up for
artists in small storage containers throughout and the market. Is
based on a grid where streets going one way or
pedestrian and all the other streets going the other way
are for vehicular traffic. There's also the opportunity to open
up. An entire block, and they do it pretty regularly
on weekends for any community group to come and host
a celebration. We had the experience of having one of
the largest Schwarma festivals I've ever experienced in my life
taking place right in front of our hotel. It was
8 hours long. It was very loud, but. It was
just teeming with people that were out enjoying the weather
and enjoying the market. I took a lot of pictures
only because. I loved how they used pop up opportunities.
Such as? These small storage containers that artists could use
once a month or once every two months. Some of
the art installations. The advertisement or the promotion of who's
in the market and what's taking place. It was just
phenomenal. They also had a tour on the Ottawa hub,
which is the innovation center. I didn't. Go on the
tour this time, and I have gone on it previously,
and I came back to council with a PowerPoint presentation
for council and for the economic development committee, and I
might dig that out. The innovation center is very much
a vibrant space to support new small businesses. Technology they
had a film studio in there. They had a radio
studio in there. They have innovative technology around agriculture in
there. It was just a huge welcome spot for people
in the community. To come and get advice, to come
and get mentorship or to actually. Have access to space
and technology to help advance. Their concepts and their business
plans, and maybe I will grab that out again. And
these are just two really great outcomes from FCM. I
know. I think all of us have posted something on
social media about our takeaways from the event. I just
wanted to share those at this time. And I'm hoping
someone else who might be speaking next might talk about
the children's. Art festival taking place out in the Galleria.
Thank you. Thank you, councilor. Councilor Knowles. I wasn't going
to speak about the children's art festival, but I will
because. I actually already posted about it on my council
page a couple of days ago. It is running until
June 12. So another couple of days. Is art made
by all the students of I think her name is
Avelia Spinoza. If I remember correctly. So I apologize. I've
forgotten that name wrong. But yes, do come and see.
There's. So many fun and whimsical things. You can tell
there are certain themes. So looking at how different students.
Have approached doing lemons and limes versus cats versus a
bunch of other things. It's. Really wonderful. So it's also
cool and air conditioned in the galleria. So I recommend
it as a fun thing to do. I was actually
going to speak to quickly. The art shuffle. It's taking
place on June 20. I thought someone else would have
mentioned it, but. This is an annual event that we
have. Where? A lot of our businesses throughout the city,
and particularly along St. John's, participate in kind of an
open evening where you can go in and look at
the art and perhaps buy as well, and it's a
great event for community, and again, This is something that
doesn't happen in a lot of other communities. This is
very special and unique to port Modi as the city
of the arts and. I highly recommend it. And you
know what? I did, like, half of my Christmas shopping
last year at this. It's just great opportunity. To buy
some local art that you can't buy anywhere else. That's
it for me. Thank you. Thank you, councilor. Yeah, I
was going to mention, to remind everybody, remind the community
about the art shuffle, so thank you for that. I
have a couple of things. To report on. It's been
a really busy last few weeks. I. Wanted to just
share a couple of highlights. I got to attend the
girl guys of Canada youth. Achievement awards here in the
theater. And that's another one I know. Councilor Dilworth. Likes
to attend. I had the honor of being their guest
speaker. And it was very near and dear to me,
but it was amazing. To hear about all these young
women. And their achievements and all of their accomplishments. They
received the highest award. That a youth member of girl
guys in Canada can achieve and. It was really a
wonderful event. Also got to attend the arrogant ceremonial review
for the 754 Phoenix. Which I'm not going to. Go
on at great length. But similar to councilor Dillworth's experience,
It was really a wonderful event, and it was so
lovely. To see all of these youth. It was a
very large group, I think over 120 air cadets. At
this event and some really phenomenal skills that they shared.
So there was that. We also had the first CPKC
Rail community advisory panel meeting. I think that was that
last week. Which I think. We've been a long time
in the making, and I was really pleased we had
representatives. There from pct. From IOCo refinery as well as
CPKC, the superintendent as well as their representative. Their national
representative. So I think that that meeting was quite productive.
And thinking that once the minutes come out, we can
share them with council. I had the pleasure of going
to the belong center. Indoor skate park yesterday. And. This
is something. That. Has. I'm not sure if everyone's familiar
with the location, but it is the location. Where? Right
next to a and w. Where the old pub used
to be, and it's the largest indoor skate facility in
the lower mainland. It is destined to be that, apparently.
The next closest one. There's only two other ones. And.
Are half the size. So they have some great ambitions
about how to utilize that space because. It's going to
take a combination of different revenue streams to keep it
afloat. But I was really impressed with their passion. And
encourage counselors. Like if you're walking through that part of
town, if you're, walking down the street and you see
the door open. Go on in. They welcome members of
the community to come in and have a look at
what they're doing, and I think that they are hoping
to be up and running. In the next little while,
so they're working with staff on that. With all that
said, I have a notice of motion. Sorry, folks. And
I will just read it. Off, and I will provide
it to staff. And the motion is as follows. Whereas
the city of Port Moody holds the lease for the
intertitle mud flats and foreshore of the public. Harbor in
the eastern end of broad inlet from the port of
Vancouver. For 60 years with the option to extend and
whereas the entered title these intertidal mud flats are an
important estuaran habitat for salmonids, migratory and overwintering waterfowl and
shorebirds, providing a much needed nutrient rich biofilm as well
as resting and nesting. Habitat. And whereas the ecological benefits
on. The site also provide a high carbon sequestration capacity
as well as opportunities for research and protection. I'm almost
there. And whereas there are no other urban marine protected
areas within municipal boundaries in North America. Therefore, be it
resolved at the City of Port Moody designate these intertidal
flats in foreshore lands as an urban marine protected area.
And further apply for UNESCO urban marine protected area status.
So that's my motion, which will come to the next
council meeting. And I will go to staff. Does staff
have any reports? No reports from staff. Which brings us.
To public input. At last, public input. I'm going to
read again the disclaimer in case anybody wants to speak
to us. I see Mr. Coomsley's online, so I see
his hand up. Okay. As a reminder to members of
the public. While we encourage civic engagement and welcome your
participation in the public, portion of our meeting. There are
expectations regarding appropriate conduct in decorum at council meetings. We
ask all members of the public to ensure that matters
raised with council are constructively focused on issues and not
individuals and that any engagement with or about city staff
or council is addressed in a manner that is consistent
with these expectations so that we can all engage in
this space in a manner that. Is respectful and constructive
and abides by the city's respectful communication policy and respectful
workplace. Policy. Having said that, we will go into public
input. And I see we have Mr. Coonsley. Online with
his hand up. Thank you for being so patient. I
know this has been a long meeting. You have two
minutes, Mr. Coonsley. Please state your name in city of
residence for the. Record. Yeah. Mark Kunzley Pormody. Just allow
to say great meeting. I made the comment. When I
haven't felt it reflected the city. Well, I thought everybody
did a great job. To lay a lot of good
business. I just wanted to provide a couple of closing
thoughts on. The town hall. I've always thought the town
hall is where residents can get feedback directly. And ask
questions and get answers of their elected officials. I appreciate
that other formats may work, but they got slick more
of it. I do think that after Covid. We've all
got accustomed to doing things online, but I do feel
like face to face. There is things that come out
of that that are more beneficial. And with respect to
cost and timing. As a resident. I don't want to
see the tailwag and the dog here. I think it's
really important to have this. Just to delineate a public
hearing. I don't see that as a town hall. Or
fulfill the same purpose because statements are written ahead of
time. There's no back and forth. And then the public
input. It's not a Q and A. Through the comment
about the same people saying the same things. I get
that, but maybe it's because they're not getting a response,
and so. I would like to see maybe potentially opening
up this public input to a q and a. And
to councilor Lubrick's point about connecting input to the OCP,
maybe that's a way to do it is if I
can ask questions, get answers, then okay, now we can
see how it all connects. So. Yeah, I really like
the discussion. Looking forward to participating in the town hall,
and. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Is there anybody else
that wishes to provide input to council? I'll call a
second time. Is there anybody that wishes to provide input
to council?