[5:31] Please be seated.
That was the Hugh Grant Love. Actually,
[5:35] did you all get Okay. Well, you wanted
me to switch it up. Good morning,
[5:39] everyone, and welcome to our county
council meeting on Wednesday, June 10th,
[5:43] 2026. It is 9:30 a.m., and I am calling
this meeting to order. As we gather here
[5:49] today, we acknowledge on behalf of the
county of Renfruit and our community
[5:52] that we are meeting on the traditional
and unseated territory of the Algangquin
[5:57] people. The county of Renfruit was
established in 1861 on these lands which
[6:01] have been cared for by the Algangquin
people for thousands of years. We
[6:06] express our gratitude to the Algangquin
people for their stewardship of this
[6:10] land and honor their rich history and
culture. We also thank all the
[6:14] generations of indigenous peoples who
have maintained a deep connection to
[6:18] this territory and we are committed to
fostering respect, reconciliation and
[6:22] understanding. And if you would join me
now in standing for a moment of silent
[6:26] reflection.
[6:49] Oh [singing]
Canada,
[6:53] our home and [singing] native [music]
land.
[6:58] True patri [singing]
love
[7:02] in all of us. [singing]
[7:08] [music]
[singing]
[7:16] » [singing]
[7:21] [singing]
>> Explore.
[7:25] God keep our land.
Glorious
[7:31] and free.
Oh Canada,
[7:37] we stand [music and singing] on guard
for thee.
[7:43] Oh Canada,
we stand on [music and singing] guard
[7:50] for the
[music]
[7:55] » Thank you. Please be seated.
Would the clerk please do roll call?
[8:03] » Sure. And good morning. Councelor Bros.
>> present. Councelor Doncaster,
[8:12] » Councelor Donahue,
>> Yotm Diesel,
[8:16] [snorts]
>> Councelor Emo,
[8:19] » present,
>> councelor Gardini,
[8:24] » present.
>> Councelor Gills,
[8:28] » present.
>> Councelor Hodnot.
[8:34] Councelor Yan,
[8:39] » Councelor Lynch
>> here,
[8:41] » Councelor Mayville
>> present.
[8:44] » Warden Murphy
>> here.
[8:47] » Councelor Nicholson.
Councelor Proctctor.
[8:54] Councelor Service
>> here.
[8:57] » Councelor Shoulist.
>> EOTMO.
[9:01] » Councelor Watt
>> present. Councelor Wear
[9:05] » here.
>> Thank you. And we have quorum.
[9:08] » Thank you. At this time, is there any
disclosure of pecuniary interest or the
[9:12] general nature thereof?
>> I see none. Uh I have a resolution that
[9:19] the minutes of the county council
meeting of May 27th, 2026 be adopted.
[9:23] May I have a mover and seconder, please?
Moved by the member from Laurentinian
[9:26] Valley. Second by the member from
Laurentian Hills. Were there any errors
[9:30] or omissions?
I see none. All in favor? Thank you,
[9:36] council. Good morning, members of
council, staff, and those joining us
[9:40] today. The county of Renfruit celebrated
World Tra uh [clears throat] Trails Day
[9:45] on June 6 by heading to Parliament Hill
to attend a special banquet marking an
[9:50] incredible milestone. The TransCanada
Trail reaching 30,000 kilometers in
[9:55] length. Thank you to operations chair
Glenn Doncaster and manager of capital
[9:59] works for attending at the event. Chair
Doncaster highlighted the Ottawa Valley
[10:03] Recreation Trail, Al Gangquin Trail on
the National Map, officially joining the
[10:08] TransCanada Trail Network late in 2024.
Officially, uh, sorry, the Algangquin
[10:15] Trail initially added 132 km to this
worldrenowned system and it continues to
[10:20] grow. Which reminds me, we're one week
into the 2026 Silver Chain Challenge and
[10:26] Lannarch County has pulled ahead of our
friendly active living competition.
[10:31] It's not boo. Yeah, it's boo. But don't
worry, there's still plenty of time uh
[10:37] to help Renfruit County catch up. The
challenge runs all through June. So,
[10:41] grab your running shoes, hop on your
bike, and get moving on trails,
[10:45] sidewalks, and neighborhood roads across
the county.
[10:49] I recently had the pleasure of attending
the Garrison Pedawa business lunch. The
[10:54] collaboration with Garrison Pedawa
remains a key strength in our region and
[10:58] events like this reinforce the
importance of maintaining strong
[11:01] connections. I was also pleased to
attend the Association of Ontario Road
[11:06] Supervisors event held in Pedawala. It
was a great opportunity to recognize the
[11:10] dedicated professionals working in
public works and infrastructure who play
[11:15] such a critical role in keeping our
communities safe and connected. Hosting
[11:20] this event within our county showcased
not only the expertise within our
[11:23] workforce but also the importance of the
ongoing training, innovation and
[11:28] knowledge sharing across municipalities.
In addition, I participated in the
[11:32] recent Ontario East Economic Development
Commission quarterly meeting where
[11:36] discussions focused on regional
priorities, economic growth
[11:40] opportunities, and strategies to attract
investment in Eastern Ontario. These
[11:45] meetings continue to highlight the value
of working collaboratively across
[11:49] municipal boundaries to advance shared
goals and strengthen our regional voice.
[11:54] June also provides an important
opportunity to recognize and celebrate
[11:58] members of our community. June is
seniors month in Ontario, a time to
[12:03] acknowledge the invaluable contributions
of older adults across Renfruit County.
[12:08] Whether through volunteerism,
leadership, or simply the wisdom and
[12:11] experience they share. Seniors continue
to play a vital role in strengthening
[12:15] our communities. I would like to thank
all of those who support and engage
[12:19] seniors throughout our county, including
staff, caregivers, and community
[12:23] organizations.
June is recognized as National
[12:27] Indigenous History Month in Canada, an
opportunity to honor and celebrate the
[12:31] rich histories, cultures, and
contributions of First Nations, Inuit,
[12:36] and Matei people. It is also a time for
reflection, learning, and continued
[12:41] commitment to reconciliation. As we
recognize this important month, we are
[12:45] reminded that reconciliation is not just
about awareness, but about ongoing
[12:50] action, relationship building, and
respect as we continue to work together
[12:54] in our communities. June is also
recognized as Pride Month, a time to
[12:59] celebrate diversity, inclusion, and the
contributions of 2LS
[13:04] GBTQI
plus individuals within our communities.
[13:09] It is an opportunity to reflect on the
importance of creating safe, welcoming,
[13:14] and inclusive spaces for all residents.
Renfruit County is strongest when
[13:18] everyone feels valued, respected, and
able to participate fully in community
[13:23] life. Acknowledging events like this
continues to reinforce our Y statement
[13:28] across the corporation to cultiv
cultivate a compassionate,
[13:32] collaborative, creative, and inclusive
environment, providing our community
[13:36] with meaningful support and innovative
solutions.
[13:40] Congratulations to Mayor Lorie Hodnot on
receiving the AMCTTO diploma in
[13:45] municipal administration award. This is
a well-deserved recognition of her
[13:49] leadership and commitment to public
service. It's great to see strong local
[13:53] leadership in Renfruit County recognized
on a provincial stage and that's why
[13:57] Lori is not with us today. She is in
Deerhurst uh accepting her award. We're
[14:03] also excited to see every year after
premiere tonight on Amazon Prime Video.
[14:08] This new series written by Barry's Bay
Carly Fortune is certain to be a huge
[14:13] hit. This is a really incredible moment
showcasing the local stories made in the
[14:18] Madawaska and Ottawa valleys on a bigger
stage. Congratulations to everyone
[14:23] involved in bringing this project to
life and putting our region uh in the
[14:27] spotlight. Craig, are you in this series
at all?
[14:30] » Uh I am not.
>> Okay.
[14:32] » I'm not telling you I am.
>> So I had to ask Craig the other day if
[14:36] he was uh in the new series Tom Green
Farms. And in fact, he wasn't in it, but
[14:41] he does get a cameo.
>> I am in it.
[14:44] » Oh, you? [laughter]
>> Okay. We'll have a discussion about that
[14:47] later.
>> We'll talk about the signatures later.
[14:50] » Autographs later. All right, I will
remind those assembled here of the
[14:54] following. The county of Renfruit,
experience our history, share our
[14:57] future. This concludes my address for
this session of county council. Thank
[15:00] you and I look forward to the business
of today's meeting and although it's not
[15:04] a beautiful day to govern. It is a great
day with the rain. We needed it. So,
[15:08] welcome everyone.
[15:12] And at this time
[15:16] you miss Burke.
>> Okay. Uh I will ask Mr. Burke to
[15:21] introduce our delegation.
[15:26] » Thank you Warden and good morning county
council. We're very pleased to welcome
[15:29] back to the chambers Miss Lorie Huber of
KPMG who is your audit partner to
[15:34] present your audited financial
statements for the year. Just a couple
[15:38] comments. Miss Huber and I uh will be
here this morning. While the resolutions
[15:44] to approve those statements for the
consolidated file in RCHC are later in
[15:48] the day in committees, uh we both may
not be here. So now is perhaps the
[15:53] better time to ask questions when her
presentation is done. If you're looking
[15:57] to tie our financial statements audited
into our year-end reporting, I direct
[16:02] you to note 13 of those statements which
do tie into our reporting as we
[16:06] presented in April. So there have been
no changes to your net surplus that was
[16:11] described then. And finally, uh just a
big thank you to Lori and her team. This
[16:17] is a a very large group project to bring
these statements together and a lot of
[16:22] work. And I think uh the team at KPMG
and especially my own staff as well
[16:26] really make that easy. So thank you to
those those individuals as well as
[16:30] yourself.
[16:34] » Welcome.
So, always nice to see you, Lori.
[16:43] » Thank you. And good morning. Uh, it's
hard to believe another 12 months have
[16:48] gone by. It doesn't feel like it was 12
months since I was standing here at the
[16:51] podium talking about the previous year.
So, in your package today, you would
[16:55] have seen our presentation, which is our
annual audit findings, which is meant to
[16:59] highlight the results of our audit. I
won't go through it in a lot of detail.
[17:05] I will make sure that we leave some time
for any specific questions either on our
[17:09] work from the external audit point of
view or the financial statements between
[17:12] Daniel and I. But certainly uh we'll
touch on the things that are meaningful
[17:17] uh to complete the fiscal 2025 year. So
we are essentially complete. However,
[17:23] recognizing the the the
presentation today, ultimately the
[17:29] county financial statements will be
accepted and approved ideally at the
[17:33] subsequent council meeting. So, I like
to say we are done save for the
[17:37] conversations that need to happen in the
approvals. To the extent anything does
[17:40] happen in this intervening period, we
need to be mindful of that. And so,
[17:45] recognizing that we will update our
subsequent events with the team up to
[17:49] and including that date. Certainly not
expecting anything to happen, but lots
[17:52] of things happen these days. So I just
wanted to make sure that I had given you
[17:55] that disclaimer. So what was new and
different this year? You would have seen
[17:59] in our report. So save for any
operational items, we always need to
[18:03] consider any changes to either the
financial reporting framework or the
[18:07] auditing standards. It was actually a
quiet year this year, which is nice.
[18:10] There has been a lot of years of change
in recent years, but fiscal 2025 was
[18:15] quiet. If there is any interest in terms
of what are some of the things that will
[18:19] be happening in the future, there is a
lot of information in the appendices of
[18:22] our report which I certainly won't go
through any of those in detail but to
[18:26] say you might have heard in other
conversations there is changes to the
[18:29] reporting model for municipal government
financial statements and that will be
[18:33] coming in 2027. We've already done some
webinars to which county team has been
[18:38] uh present at and we will continue to do
that to make sure they are in a good
[18:42] position for those changes that will be
coming in fiscal 2027.
[18:47] As a reminder to the group, our ultimate
opinion on the county's financial
[18:51] statements are consolidated. So that
means it's part of a group. So the
[18:54] housing corporation uh financial
statements are included in the overall
[18:59] consolidation. At the start of any
fiscal year, we do set a level of
[19:02] materiality. We don't audit all of the
transactions that culminate into the
[19:06] financial statements. We'd be here for a
very long time if we did. So you will
[19:10] see that we did execute our audit this
year at an overall aggregate financial
[19:14] statement materiality of 4 million. It
was up a little bit from the previous
[19:18] year, but you can see on the right hand
side of the screen, if you're following
[19:21] along, we look at the benchmarks being
either total revenues or total expenses.
[19:26] So if you have some growth in those
benchmarks, which tends to tend to be
[19:29] the case, materiality, everything else
being equal, we'll follow along. So we
[19:34] can go anywhere in our judgment or in
our opinion, uh up to 3%. And so you can
[19:39] see there's certainly still a healthy
margin there at the $4 million mark.
[19:44] In terms of risk assessment, you will
also see in our report, and I know I've
[19:47] said this in previous years, overall, we
sit down with the team early on before
[19:52] we execute our audit to understand what
is new and different that might have any
[19:56] implications to our audit plan. I would
still rate the county's financial
[20:00] statement audit to be a lowrisk audit.
There was certainly nothing
[20:03] significantly uniquely different this
year. In addition to those risk
[20:08] assessments that we make as part of our
audit plan, we are also required to
[20:11] consider specific presumed risks of
fraud that are inherent in any financial
[20:16] statement audit in Canada. And you'll
see that on our report. I say this every
[20:21] year, but I do tend to get this question
often. It's certainly not unique to your
[20:24] organization. It is required to be
addressed in every single audit that we
[20:29] do annually and you will see the work
that we do. So essentially the
[20:33] presumption is that management in their
role to the extent they might be
[20:36] interested to have a bias in reporting a
certain financial statement result. We
[20:41] as the external auditor need to come in
and to identify non-rine type
[20:45] transactions that culminate into the
financial statements and also look at
[20:49] the segregation of duties and some of
the key internal controls with respect
[20:52] to financial reporting. So that work has
been completed and you can see in terms
[20:56] of our findings, nothing significant to
bring to your attention.
[21:00] In terms of the quality of the books and
records, I think the treasurer has
[21:03] already spilled my thunder here. If
you've had the chance to read through
[21:06] his report, uh his report had mentioned
that the previous uh previous reported
[21:11] surplus is what is included in your
draft financial statements today. So
[21:14] another way to say that means that there
was actually no auditor intervention. So
[21:18] essentially the financial statements as
you see them today were what were was
[21:22] provided to us at the start of the
audit. So through our audit review there
[21:26] was nothing that impacted surplus. I'm
using my words carefully because if you
[21:30] have read through our report there are
some corrected items that have been
[21:33] incorporated into the financial
statements which are balance sheet
[21:36] reclassifications
that did not impact surplus. So again
[21:40] from an from an overall point of view
certainly the quality of the books and
[21:44] records remained high and I always like
to say to councils in terms of the
[21:47] reporting that you see throughout the
year when you don't see a lot of
[21:50] year-end auditor intervention it tends
to give you more confidence in terms of
[21:54] the quality of the reporting that you're
seeing uh during the year. Outside of
[21:59] the numbers as you'll recall a financial
statement audit does require us to make
[22:02] sure that we understand the systems
process and controls that come into the
[22:06] financial reporting process. So, we've
done that again this year. If I thought
[22:10] there was a significant deficiency in
internal controls, I would need to make
[22:13] sure that I made that clear to you here
today. Pleased to say, we've not made
[22:16] that determination. You will see in our
report that we have carried on a legacy
[22:22] item from previous years in terms of
areas of best practice related to the
[22:27] review and approval of journal entries
and the documentation and the evidence
[22:31] of that review. So that's certainly
nothing uniquely different this year and
[22:35] certainly something the team will will
continue to think about moving forward.
[22:39] We can skip through a couple of more
pages in our report. I'd mentioned the
[22:43] reporting model. I'll stop briefly on
page number 16 of our report. This is
[22:48] what we call specific topics and I think
it's a really good one that we've
[22:51] started to include in our report for the
last couple of years because I think for
[22:54] yourself as a group being those charged
with governance you don't really know
[22:56] the requirements that we have as your
external auditor in terms of the things
[23:01] that we need to report to you to the
extent they exist. So it's somewhat of a
[23:04] checklist but at the end of the day all
of these things have been considered and
[23:08] pleased to say none no such matters
exist. So again a clean clean story
[23:13] again this year in terms of our
independence that's really the beauty
[23:17] that we bring to the table as that
external set of eyes and so to the
[23:21] extent we might provide any non- audit
services to the corporation through the
[23:24] course of the year we can we just need
to be mindful that we're never putting
[23:28] ourselves in a position to be auditing
our own work that's really the spirit of
[23:31] the independents however that being said
we've actually not been engaged to
[23:35] provide any non- audit services so
there's certainly nothing from that
[23:38] point of view that might be thought to
get us into any any difficulties there.
[23:43] That takes me to the final piece that
you'll see at the start of our
[23:46] appendices and that's our our single
deliverable really after a lot of hard
[23:49] work which is our independent auditor's
report. The body and content of the
[23:54] report is consistent with previous
years. There was no changes to the
[23:57] standard this year based on the findings
presented. It is a clean audit opinion
[24:02] that is being proposed again for
December 31, 2025.
[24:06] It's also a good reminder when you take
a look at the the content of the report.
[24:11] I always like to say there's sort of
three legs to the stool in terms of
[24:14] financial reporting. A good reminder
that the financial statements really are
[24:17] meant to be a product of management
along with the internal controls
[24:20] ourselves as your external auditor. And
then the third leg really being yourself
[24:25] and the oversight of the work that you
do in that regard relative to financial
[24:29] reporting. The balance of the report is
meant to be moreformational items. happy
[24:34] to go through anything that you might
have seen or piqu your interest um on a
[24:38] previous review, but perhaps this is a
good place to stop and welcome any
[24:42] questions from the group if there are
any.
[24:44] » Excellent overview. Thank you. Comments,
questions, concerns.
[24:51] » Member from Abston Brmley, please.
>> Uh pardon me. [clears throat] Thank you
[24:55] very much, Madam Chair, and thank you
through you to Miss Yuber. uh very
[24:59] pleased at the overall uh result and I
think that that uh merits stating up
[25:04] front and there were a couple of
questions. We're just scrolling kind of
[25:07] furiously here. Um
okay, this was on this is note nine
[25:15] tangible capital assets.
This is within the uh audit itself, the
[25:20] statements themselves.
And I'm just kind of curious uh in the
[25:27] note below uh largely it is it is with
respect to the donated asset uh of the
[25:33] former CP rail
and uh I'll note as at December 31,
[25:38] 2025, the portion of the Canada Pacific
Rail Corridor acquired of $51,162,828
[25:46] is recorded as a tangible capital asset.
Uh, but the construction in progress in
[25:51] [snorts] the chart is showing a a
balance of 128 million. I'm wondering
[25:56] what is the 77 million of work in
progress that's not uh the CP rail line.
[26:04] » If I may, Daniel, I'll ask you to
provide some further insight to that
[26:08] one.
>> Thank you, Lori. And excellent question.
[26:12] The balance would be primarily in the
linear assets under construction.
[26:17] So uh in consultation with our partners
in public works, we typically will not
[26:22] capitalize
a linear asset until it has passed
[26:27] through the um the period in time where
the guarantee on the work has lapsed or
[26:34] I forget what the technical term for
that is but after we're past the
[26:37] holdback period. So the bulk of those
jobs and some of them are big multi-year
[26:42] projects on certain segments where the
engineering was sitting in whip for
[26:47] several years as we slowly build our way
towards that. So that's what the bulk of
[26:51] the the rest would be.
[26:55] » Thank you for that.
>> A followup to to to that answer.
[27:00] » Yeah, he did say he had two questions.
Yeah,
[27:02] » this is a followup that I'm my second
question is still outstanding. This is a
[27:06] follow-up to that one. So ultimately and
I just use this as an example. So rooms
[27:10] creek culvert uh just with respect to
process uh we had some challenges in
[27:16] 2025 that work is carried forward to
2026 but it's not necessarily the work
[27:20] itself. It is in fact when I'm going to
refer to it as colloquially as a
[27:25] warranty period let's say is once we are
satis satisfied that the contract has
[27:31] been completely fulfilled that's when it
it is removed from construction in
[27:36] progress
>> three warden that that would be correct
[27:40] now some of it is actually multi-year
projects though where you know the
[27:43] initial work such as design or traffic
study could have been several years ago
[27:48] and it could have been carried forward
over a number of years. Some of them are
[27:52] quite multi-year um endeavors to do some
of these linear assets.
[27:58] » Uh thank you.
>> Thank you for that.
[27:59] » Uh so the second question that I have
and this is on the segmented
[28:03] information. Uh it is note 14. It's uh
page 23 of the actual statements. I
[28:10] don't know what page it is of the uh the
today's agenda report. Uh but one of the
[28:15] things so uh ultimately the 2025
uh wages under themselves uh saw a
[28:22] pretty substantial increase of 14%. I
don't know how much of that uh would be
[28:27] um enhanced or expanded uh employment.
You know I liken it to often retail uh
[28:34] year-end uh reports talk about same
store sales because sales could go up
[28:39] but we built 10% more sales. Uh but one
of the things that that particularly
[28:44] jumped out at me and I'm presuming this
is heartthub related but I'm seeking
[28:48] guidance. Uh so within the social and
family services in 2024
[28:55] um
salaries, wages and benefits was 33 and
[29:00] a4 million and in 2025 it's 40 and 3/4
million.
[29:06] uh it's an increase of of 7 12 million
or almost 23%. I'm wondering uh what
[29:13] drove uh a very substantial increase uh
in that particular column.
[29:21] » So through you warden perhaps that's
another question that Daniel could
[29:25] answer more fully. Uh my response would
be it's a combination of all of the
[29:29] factors in terms of rate headcount and
so on but certainly Daniel please
[29:32] provide further context. Yeah, and
that's a that's an excellent point and
[29:36] it would also include things new
projects like the heart hub. However, I
[29:41] imagine that uh the bulk of the
adjustment would have to do with the
[29:45] long-term care homes. So, as we have
almost weaned ourselves off those agency
[29:51] contracts which were in purchase
service, we have substantially increased
[29:56] the salaries inside the homes to our
benefit. We're not hiring external
[30:00] agencies. We're bringing those those
employees inhouse. So I believe that
[30:04] that was the the bulk of the increase
was in in long-term care actually just
[30:08] to come up to our budgeted salary
staffing
[30:13] of interest. Long-term care which we
think of as health is in our financial
[30:17] and FIR reported under social and family
services. The only thing in health is
[30:23] functionally the paramedics and the
Ontario health team
[30:28] » supplementary.
>> Uh thank you. And it was uh so um Mr.
[30:34] Burke um mentioned uh you know it has
long been uh an irritant to me uh that
[30:41] in fact long-term care is housed under
housing uh rather than health and that's
[30:47] driven I know from FIR reporting uh but
it seems misplaced actually one of the
[30:53] things might be consideration I don't
know if those are the only ones uh that
[30:57] kind of get funneled here uh that is not
intuitive that that perhaps in the
[31:02] future Mr. Burke might give some insight
into that. So ultimately then
[31:08] this is really only catching up with
what would have been masked by a
[31:14] purchase service in years past. If in
fact I was to have uh say the last five
[31:20] years of statements open, I am probably
going to see a change uh in the trend
[31:26] line uh of that uh where we are still
getting the same services but it is now
[31:33] allocated to purchase service as opposed
to wages and benefits
[31:40] » through you. There would be some of that
for sure. Buried in there is also the
[31:45] service level enhancements that have
been approved over the last few years to
[31:49] bring us up closer to that 4 hours of
care as well as the standard uh union
[31:54] agreements and non-union wage increases
that have been approved as well. So
[32:00] combination of all of the above, but I
would imagine the bulk of it is the
[32:04] recovery from um the declining purchase
service and the onboarding of additional
[32:10] staff now that the HR situation inside
the homes has improved.
[32:17] » Thank you.
>> Anything further
[32:22] member from Renfruit, please?
>> Uh thank you. um appendix number six
[32:25] where you talk about your AI and Clara
um just a couple questions the the
[32:32] amount of integration between your
system and our system
[32:38] how can we be assured that our
information is is compartmentalized when
[32:42] it's shared uh and what safeguards are
in place
[32:46] » so through you warden that's a great
question and that's one I've been
[32:50] getting a fair bit so just to give you
clarity in terms of the integration of
[32:54] the two systems. So, we never enter um
the county's GL, if you will. We have a
[33:03] portal that essentially is our liaison
between client data and what we pull to
[33:10] actually execute the audit. It is housed
in Canada. It is restricted access and
[33:16] it is removed upon completion of the
audit. Um, in terms of AI,
[33:22] um, we've been getting this question a
lot. I would say KPMG continues to be
[33:27] conservative. Actually said this to
Daniel this morning. Uh, we are not
[33:32] using AI as a sole source of audit
evidence. I think that will change at
[33:37] some point in the future. We are using
AI to sort of be our assistant and our
[33:41] helper to ask questions and to sort of
guide us, but it's certainly not
[33:45] integral to the the work that needs to
be done to support the audit opinion.
[33:50] That's where we are today. I do think
the journey is is traveling at an
[33:55] exponential pace and I do think that
will change dramatically in the in the
[33:58] years to come.
Two years or less is my guess.
[34:03] If you stick around, we have a whole AI
report. The
[34:07] » It's exciting actually just having some
conversations in the back earlier around
[34:11] what what we can use AI for. It's pretty
neat.
[34:14] » For good, not evil.
>> Correct.
[34:16] » Is there anything further? Member from
Renfruit, please.
[34:22] » Thank you.
Just chasing buttons here. Um on note
[34:28] number 13 um
on page 21 of the of the report of the
[34:35] uh statement um it talks about our uh
it talks about our our uh debt issued
[34:44] and the budget was proposing 17 million
and we actually only issued 2.9. So, I'm
[34:49] kind of curious as to why those numbers
are so uh are so out of align out of
[34:55] alignment.
>> If I may, uh Daniel has his hand. Yes,
[35:00] thank you.
>> For sure. So, the the primary drivers
[35:06] behind our planned budgeted debt were
three items. The RCHC renewal plan for
[35:11] what at the time of the budget was a 24
unit build and two paramedic bases.
[35:17] At the December mark, we were partway
through a singular paramedic base. So
[35:21] that's that's the bulk of the
distinction right there. I won't say
[35:24] those jobs are carrying forward and the
anticipated draw on debt will also carry
[35:30] forward in the next budget as well.
>> Thank you. That's what I assumed, but
[35:35] thank you. I appreciate it.
>> A member from Whitewater, please.
[35:42] » Thanks, Warden. Question start off.
Lori, thank you. I appreciate the work
[35:47] that's gone into this in the summary and
the questions have been really good. Um,
[35:53] I'm going to go on off a tangent. Last
night I was part of an an audit uh
[35:58] presentation for our hospital and in
that audit presentation the auditor
[36:04] happens to be KPMG also provided a
comparison of 10 years worth of expenses
[36:11] and revenues as well as comparators
against other similar size similar
[36:17] service providers. Is that a level of
service that can be offered to upper
[36:22] tiers and by KPMG in this case?
>> So through warden we absolutely could.
[36:28] So that would be a value ad. We actually
have been working hard behind the scenes
[36:32] to build some databases and some PowerBI
reporting to pull.
[36:37] But the data that we could pull for
municipal governments is only as good as
[36:40] the most recent FIR submission. So if
there is interest, I could certainly
[36:44] have a conversation with Daniel at this
stage. it would be the 2024 FIRS and we
[36:49] could go back 5 years and pull some data
depending on who the team would would
[36:54] suggest would be the most meaningful
comparators. We do tend to see we used
[36:59] to do it when it was when it was sort of
new and different.
[37:03] We have found over the years it can go
down rabbit holes that might not
[37:06] necessarily be productive. So I think
it's a bit of a balancing act, but
[37:09] certainly I'd be happy to take that back
to the team and see what would be
[37:12] meaningful for this group.
Thank you for that. Anything further?
[37:18] Well, thank you so much and Oh, member
for Mist Romley.
[37:23] » Uh, beg your pardon, Madam Morton. I
just wanted to wait to see if there were
[37:26] any others uh that uh councelor emo
opened the door. I wanted to actually
[37:32] commend uh through you, Miss Huber, and
KPMG. Uh there were links on one of the
[37:37] slides to [snorts] kind of the
governance section of the KPMG website
[37:42] and there's some fantastic information
there and there is some fantastic
[37:46] information that is AI driven. Um I
downloaded them to my hard drive which
[37:51] is now crashing because I've downloaded
too much stuff to my hard drive. But
[37:55] ultimately uh one of the items AI
governance principles for boards uh
[38:00] report then there are some of the ones
that are a little bit more concerning.
[38:04] KPMG and Anthropic sign global alliance
and launch a digital gateway powered by
[38:09] claude. So Claraara
seems to be going on a date now with
[38:14] Claude.
But there is also somewhat of a
[38:17] concerning element. Uh this is Claude
mythos what frontier AI vulnerability
[38:23] discovery means. So uh I don't know for
those in the room how closely you've
[38:28] been following the it's almost now
revolution AI is moving so fast that
[38:33] it's barely could be called evolutionary
anymore.
[38:36] » So anthropic claude has been their kind
of baseline uh foundational um program
[38:42] AI platform. Uh but they have mythos
that actually seems now to have
[38:46] frightened
>> Anthropic
[38:49] » and Anthropic is not releasing it. There
was a slide within there uh and I
[38:54] haven't brought it up again because my
computer is crashing with all the data
[38:57] that's on it. Uh but ultimately it was
showing that almost akin to the touring
[39:02] test for those who know what the touring
test was that the capacity of AI now to
[39:08] mask itself in comparison to elite level
hacking is almost nil.
[39:17] So e even the worst hacker on the world
and most accomplished hacker in the
[39:21] world still has hopefully an element of
humanity left. Mythos will have no
[39:28] humanity.
So I I am I have a foot in both of those
[39:33] camps with respect to AI. It is
phenomenal
[39:37] and it is profound
>> and it is profound in both directions of
[39:42] concern and of progress. Uh but mostly
this was to say this is I think a
[39:47] fantastic resource. There's also
information for audit committees which
[39:51] we don't precisely have here but uh
there is that is a tremendous resource
[39:55] and I would encourage council to avail
themselves of that as well.
[40:00] » Completely agree there's a whole host of
information. I could have a half day or
[40:04] a full day or multiple day session
talking about it but I won't bore you
[40:07] with the details. But if there's any
interest, happy to take that offline and
[40:12] provide what we need to make do your job
>> easier.
[40:16] » So, thank you to our finance team. Thank
you to KPMG and especially to Lori and
[40:22] your colleagues. Always lovely to see
you.
[40:30] » Correspondence.
>> All the correspondence that has been
[40:33] received has been forwarded to the
appropriate committee to be dealt with.
[40:37] » Excellent.
And now I'm going to turn this over to
[40:41] Chair Bros with the DMP report.
[40:46] » Thank you, Warden. To the council of the
corporation of the county of Renfro and
[40:51] members of county council, we your
committee of a whole development and
[40:54] property wish to report and recommend as
follows. Item one is an information item
[40:59] and it's just a uh draft of the 2027 to
2036 forest management plan for the
[41:08] Renford County forests. And of course
the uh being a draft plan, there's an
[41:14] opportunity for input from anybody who
would like to recommend changes or maybe
[41:21] other information to be included.
Moving to resolutions. Uh, number two,
[41:27] Upper Ottawa Valley Drive Property
Surplus Land Resolution number
[41:31] DP-CC-260556.
[41:36] Moved by myself, seconded by committee,
that county council declare surplus to
[41:40] the needs of the county of Renfruit, the
county-owned property on Upper Valley
[41:44] Drive, [clears throat] excuse me, and
described as part 29, concession one,
[41:50] Stafford, part uh 249R207
[41:57] in the city of Pemrook and that staff
proceed with the disposal process in
[42:02] accordance with policy GA-02
disposal of corporate asset and the
[42:07] background is attached.
[42:11] Resolution number three is the forest
sector committee terms of reference
[42:14] update resolution number DP-CC-26
0557
[42:20] moved by myself seconded by committee
that county council approve minor
[42:24] amendments to the terms of reference for
the forest sector committee to revise
[42:29] quorum to be defined as a majority of
the voting members of the committee and
[42:34] clarify that the chair shall vote only
in the event of a tie. Once again,
[42:39] background is attached.
Resolution number four is Care for
[42:43] Health and Community Services Green
Space located at 425 Cecilia Street,
[42:48] Penrook. Resolution number DP-CC-260563.
[42:54] Moved by myself, seconded by committee
that county council execute a memorandum
[42:58] of understanding between Kinsman Court
Home for Men and Women, Pemrook, Inc.,
[43:04] Care for Health and Community Services
in the county of Renfruit to establish a
[43:08] cooperative framework for discussion and
pre preliminary due diligence regarding
[43:14] the potential use of the green space
associated with 425 Cecilia Street
[43:19] Penrook. Again, the background is
attached. Moving to bylaws. Number five
[43:24] is a transfer payment agreement to fund
Enterprise Rent County for 2026 to 2029
[43:31] 2030. Resolution number DP-CC-260558
[43:37] moved by myself, seconded by committee,
that county council adopt a bylaw
[43:41] authorizing the corporation of the
county of Renfruit to enter into a
[43:45] transfer payment agreement with the
province of Ontario for financial and
[43:50] program support of Enterprise Renfruit
County for a three-year term commencing
[43:55] April the 1st, 2026 and ending March
31st, 2029 with an option to renew for
[44:01] for a fourth year ending March 31st,
2030 at the discretion of the province
[44:07] and the full background is there for
your review. Item number six is the
[44:12] official plan amendment number 51,
OPA51, resolution number DP-CC-2600559.
[44:21] Moved by myself, seconded by committee
that county council adopt and approve
[44:25] official plan amendment number 55, OPA
51. Sorry, amendment number 51, OPA 51.
[44:34] And the full background is attached
[44:39] and all of this is respectfully
submitted by myself as chair and
[44:43] committee members. Thank you, Warden.
>> Thank you. So, we'll go back to
[44:48] information item number one.
Number two.
[44:55] Number three.
[44:59] Number four.
[45:03] Number five.
[45:06] And number six, formerly known as number
five.
[45:11] The report as a whole.
Could I have a mover, please?
[45:15] » So moved. Warden.
>> Thank you. All in favor.
[45:18] Thank you, councel. Now we'll move on to
Vice Chair Lynch with the
[45:24] oper
>> what
[45:29] » Dan said,
[45:34] » the chair is here.
>> Yeah.
[45:37] » However,
>> All right.
[45:40] » I missed you earlier, by the way. You
You snuck in and I didn't see you.
[45:45] » Do you want to do the report?
>> I apologize. I I can't. Sure.
[45:48] » Excellent.
>> We're ready.
[45:50] » Whatever.
>> Do you guys want to take it in the
[45:52] parking lot? Fight it out.
>> Council Lynch, it's all yours.
[45:57] » Thank you, chair.
>> To to the council of the corporation of
[46:02] the county rent, members of county
council, we your committee of the whole
[46:06] operations wish to report and recommend
as follows. Under information, we're on
[46:10] starting on page 351 of your diligence.
information. Number one was capital
[46:15] works contracts
information is there. Number two is the
[46:20] former CN line trail name and the
information is there.
[46:26] Number three is county road 51 Pedawa
Boulevard expansion. The information is
[46:31] there.
Number four is the PWC 202534
[46:37] county structure 201 Brooms Creek Culver
and Dam Engineering Service Services
[46:42] contract amendment. The information is
there
[46:46] and under resolutions
which is paragraph number five terms of
[46:51] reference transportation advisory
committee resolution number OPCC
[46:57] 260569
moved by chair seconded by committee
[47:01] that the county approve the terms of
reference for the transportation
[47:04] advisory committee. The background is
there for your information. Number six
[47:08] is rural transit for the county of
Renfruit. Resolution number OPCC260570.
[47:16] Moved by chair, seconded by committee,
the county council approve the brief
[47:19] titled rural transit for the county of
Renfruit. Again, the background is there
[47:24] for information. Number seven, Highway
17 extension advisory committee update
[47:30] resolution number OPCC260571.
[47:34] Moved by chair, seconded by committee,
and you might want to get a coffee for
[47:38] this one. Whereas the recent
announcement regarding the expansion of
[47:43] 47 correction of 17 is welcomed as an
important investment in the economic
[47:48] growth, transportation safety, and
long-term infrastructure needs of the
[47:53] county of Renfruit.
[47:56] And whereas the county of council, the
county rens extremely disappointed with
[48:02] the limited progress achieved to date on
the highway 17 expansion and fourlaning
[48:07] project and requests accelerated action
and greater accountability from the
[48:11] province of Ontario and the Ministry of
Transportation. And whereas Highway 17
[48:17] is a critical transportation corridor
supporting residents, businesses,
[48:22] emergency services, Garrison Pedawala,
Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, National
[48:27] Defense, Nuclear Energy Development,
Regional Economic Growth, and Canada's
[48:32] Supply Chain and Transportation Work
Network. And whereas continued delays in
[48:37] advancing forlaning and related
infrastructure improvements are
[48:41] impacting economic competitiveness,
commuter safety, trade movement, and
[48:46] regional growth opportunities.
Therefore, it be resolved that the
[48:50] county of Renfruit request the province
of Ontario and the Ministry of
[48:54] Transportation to establish and
communicate defined timelines,
[48:58] milestones, performance metrics, and
regular public reporting for all
[49:02] remaining phases of 517
correction highway 17 expansion and four
[49:07] laning project to Deep River, including
planning, environmental aspects,
[49:12] indigenous consultation, design, land
acquisition, tendering and construction,
[49:18] And further that this resolution be
forward to the Prime Minister of Canada,
[49:22] the Federal Minister of National
Defense, the Federal Minister of
[49:25] Infrastructure, the Federal Minister of
Natural Resources Canada, the Premier of
[49:29] Ontario, and all related provincial
ministries requesting that Highway 17
[49:33] expansion project be recognized as
nationally significant infrastructure
[49:39] eligible for federal funding
participation and accelerated investment
[49:43] support. The background is there for
your information.
[49:48] Number eight is PWC202658,
[49:52] rehabilitation of County Road, Round
Lake Road, resolution number OPCC260575,
[49:59] moved by chair, seconded by committee
that the council defer the
[50:02] rehabilitation of County Road 58, Round
Lake Road until such time as full
[50:07] rehabilitation can be undertaken and
advise the tenders accordingly and the
[50:12] staff proceed with the necessary
interimm works including
[50:16] padding, guide rail repair, repair and
replacement to ensure the continued
[50:20] safety of commuters. And the staff
review the asset management plan to
[50:24] define to identify potential alternative
surface sealer type projects for
[50:30] completion as part of the 2026 capital
program and report back to council with
[50:35] options for consideration and the
background is there for your
[50:38] information.
[50:43] Number nine is posted speed limit to
county road 26 Dor and Road resolution
[50:49] number OPCC260578.
Moved by chair, seconded by committee
[50:54] that the county recommend that the
posted speed limits on County Road 26,
[50:58] Dorne Road between Highway 17 and Murphy
Road in the town of Pedawa remained
[51:03] unchanged
and the information is listed below.
[51:08] Under bylaws, we have paragraph 10,
supply and diesel, supply and delivery
[51:13] of diesel fuel, gasoline, and heating
oil. Resolution number OPCC260581
[51:19] moved by chair, second by committee that
the county adopt a bylaw to approve the
[51:24] extension of contract PWO20128
[51:28] supply and delivery of diesel fuel,
gasoline, heating oil and above ground
[51:32] storage tanks for one year to WOT
incidents unlimited Penrook Ontario in
[51:37] accordance with the contract documents
and the background is there for your
[51:41] information.
[51:49] Number 11 is policy PW25, standing corn
snow fence program resolution number
[51:56] OPCC260582
moved by chair, seconded by committee
[52:00] that county council adopt a bylaw to
approve county run through public works
[52:04] and injuring policy PW25 standing core
corn snow fence program and the
[52:10] information is there. Number 12 is
property acquisition 386396
[52:16] Madawaska Boulevard. Resolution number
OPCC260586
[52:22] moved by chair, seconded by the
committee that the committee adopt a
[52:25] bylaw to to authorize the acquisition of
the following lands parts 1 and two on
[52:31] plan 49R21129
from 386 Madawaska Holdings for the sum
[52:37] of $53,680.
[52:40] Part three of plan 49R
21129 from Tianis Holdings Limited for
[52:47] the sum of 27,670.50
[52:52] and part four of plan 49R21129
from 386 Madawaskco Holdings and Tianis
[52:58] Holdings tenants in common for the sum
of $28,671.50
[53:04] 50 cents and the lands described be
dedicated as part of the public highway
[53:08] system upon registration of the transfer
of documents and the information is
[53:13] there all of which is respectfully
submitted by myself vice chair. Thank
[53:18] you Warden. Thank you. And we'll go back
to information item number one.
[53:25] Number two,
[53:29] number three,
[53:33] number four,
[53:36] number five,
[53:40] number six,
number seven.
[53:47] Member from Pedawa, please. Thank you,
chair, and through you. I I support this
[53:52] wholeheartedly, the resolution. Uh I'm
just wondering with the recent
[53:56] discussions we've had about Highway 17
and the timelines, specifically
[54:01] referring to the section from Deep River
to Greenwood Road, I know there has been
[54:06] some discussion about updating or
perhaps making a more specific
[54:10] resolution.
So, in terms of this one that's going
[54:14] out, I guess my question is, are we
contemplating a more specific and an
[54:19] additional resolution in terms of that
particular section of the highway and
[54:24] advocating for its fourlaning
at the same time as the construction
[54:29] that's ongoing?
Yes, I think you should write it. But I
[54:36] I do believe that's the the direction
that we sort of went on Monday to
[54:44] » bring it to operations.
>> Okay. Oh, it's being brought to
[54:47] operations at the end of the month so
you don't have to write it.
[54:53] » Member from Renfruit, please.
>> Yes. And thank you Warden and through
[54:58] you to my friend Excuse
[clears throat and cough]
[55:01] me. It's been a long-standing
um
[55:06] a long-standing I guess uh uh thought
and action that uh both projects would
[55:16] be would be continue to highlighted be
highlighted to the ministry. Um that was
[55:21] a commitment I think we made in 2014 and
we've kept that commitment in terms of
[55:27] as you're aware advancing the um uh and
this is just for public education
[55:32] because you're very aware of this
because you helped form it but in terms
[55:36] of the the uh strategy of u talking
about the improvements that are needed
[55:42] to Meath Hill from Meath Hill through to
Deep River and so that was always the
[55:47] second phase once there was some
confirmation. So, we've been working
[55:50] away quietly on that. I think we and
making those presentations, but I think
[55:54] that has to become more public. And I
and I, you know, I'm glad to see that
[55:58] we're bringing it back to operations
with a with a new um with a new motion
[56:03] to support that. So, yes, it's always
been a long-term commitment and we've
[56:08] never wavered from it. We haven't been
as loud about it, but I think that's
[56:12] about to change. Thank you.
>> Yeah. So I think the the idea is let's
[56:18] get a resolution signed, sealed,
delivered before AMO so that if there's
[56:24] the appetite to ask for a delegation
that we have something from this body
[56:30] member from Whitewater, please.
>> Thank you, Warden. Uh like uh councelor
[56:35] service said, I'm I'm in full support of
this approach and uh it's it's prudent
[56:41] upon us to look that this far forward to
try to influence this kind of provincial
[56:46] infrastructure for the future
development of the county. And I would
[56:50] pile on the electrical grid is another
example where we need to to focus some
[56:56] of our advocacy in the same way looking
out 20 years making sure that these this
[57:01] this type of provincial infrastructure
is ren county is included in the
[57:07] provincial plans
as part of the discussions that happened
[57:10] on Monday. Um there was discussion about
and I apologize I'm just going to flip
[57:15] back here. um a provincial connecting
the east transportation plan
[57:23] » and that no sorry
>> meeting
[57:26] » yeah that was part of a closed meeting
>> sorry I'm reading right off the uh I'm
[57:32] referencing the conversation but I'll
I'll pull that back and I'll say I'm
[57:36] looking at the 2022 connecting the east
transportation plan that was released by
[57:41] the province and this prioritizes the
investment in highway infrastructure in
[57:46] eastern Ontario.
I know I suspect that they are going to
[57:51] be reviewing this document. In this
document, it looks at Highway 17 within
[57:56] County of Renfruit and only a portion of
it is freeway. Once it hits Pedawa, it
[58:01] is designated as arterial. So for us to
strategically ask for investment
[58:08] on Highway 17 in the county, we are also
going to have to advocate that it's
[58:12] recognized as a freeway requirement.
Um, I'm wondering if staff could
[58:17] comment. Have we h do we have the
opportunity to influence the next
[58:20] version of this connecting the east
transportation plan and and how might we
[58:25] ensure that that our strategic needs are
recognized?
[58:31] » I can start and then turn to Mr.
Perkins. Thank you through you, Warden.
[58:34] Uh, yes. So, uh, staff is aware that I
think the the connecting the east
[58:38] document, it was from 2022 and then
Minister Monron, uh, drafted that and
[58:42] Highway 17 plays a prominent I think
it's number two in terms of action items
[58:46] moving forward. Um, as we understand it,
the and Mr. Perkins, I'm sure, can
[58:52] identify exactly where, but Highway 17
switches from a control corridor to a
[58:55] different type of corridor somewhere
after the Pedawa Plains towards Chuck
[58:59] River. And you'll notice that usually
when the snow snow hits that wall. Uh so
[59:05] that's likely why it changes from from a
freeway to an arterial. So that it's a
[59:09] very astute point. I think that that may
be the first step in in changing how
[59:13] they reference highway 17. Um, but as I
understand it from conversations with
[59:18] the MTO and uh members of parliament or
provincial parliament that there will be
[59:23] an engagement on the new connecting the
east, whatever it's being called,
[59:26] Eastern Ontario transportation plan uh
is coming out very shortly and we'll
[59:30] we'll be able to influence that and and
um I think we've heard from you, but we
[59:35] will definitely circulate you and bring
that to committee if and when we get
[59:37] notice of of that plan. And um I'll
leave it to Mr. Perkins if he has
[59:41] anything to add about the uh the
controlled corridor.
[59:46] Uh thank you and through you warden. Uh
actually the Ontario Ministry of
[59:50] Transportation uh improving
transportation in eastern on regional
[59:53] Ontario had a meeting yesterday so it's
already started. So thank you.
[59:59] » Wonderful. Anything further on number
seven? Member from Renfruit please.
[1:00:05] » Thank you. Just to pile on to my friend
from Whitewater you warden. I think it's
[1:00:09] important for um those conversations
that Mr. Perkins just uh spoke about to
[1:00:16] do a couple of things. One is to ensure
that the um as the highway progresses
[1:00:21] the um uh the ability for the and I
can't remember the the technical term
[1:00:27] but the larger trucks that are only
allowed to work on the 400 series
[1:00:32] marches along with that construction um
because because right now they have to
[1:00:36] stop in our empire and download into
smaller vehicles. So that's the first
[1:00:40] thing. The second thing is if we can get
uh from the province as part of that um
[1:00:46] process
uh a standardized
[1:00:51] report across the province on progress
so that we can measure our progress in
[1:00:57] this project with other projects because
what we're what we're doing right now is
[1:01:02] thankfully the member from Amiston
Brmley was able to find us the I guess a
[1:01:07] bastardized Gant chart. I can't quite
figure out what it was. U which showed
[1:01:12] some some of their milestones and how
they're able to speed that up. And you
[1:01:16] know, in these chambers, we've all tried
to to capture the the rapid speed of the
[1:01:22] Bradford uh express train uh sorry, the
bypass. It's going so fast. It's an
[1:01:27] express train, I think. But if we could
be able to have a standard recording
[1:01:32] format or measurement format for all of
the construction projects across
[1:01:36] Ontario, then we can match it up. So
it's apples to apples and not apples to
[1:01:41] gold bricks like the air in Bradford. So
thank you.
[1:01:45] » Agreed. Anything further member from
Abbiston Brmley please?
[1:01:49] » Uh just on that final comment uh madame
chair um it does seem
[1:01:55] uh almost hypocritical that every
municipality in the province of Ontario
[1:01:59] now must have an amp asset management
plan and our asset management plan lays
[1:02:03] out the year when we're going to do
roads. If any rate payer within any of
[1:02:07] our communities says, "When is my road
getting done?" Hold on a minute. Let me
[1:02:11] flip through and I'll find that.
Doesn't seem to be available at a
[1:02:15] provincial level.
I think that that would be it would
[1:02:19] behoove the province uh to participate
in the same uh process uh that they are
[1:02:26] in fact requiring of us. That gives some
indication
[1:02:29] uh to our communities. I recognize uh
there is there is a a stair coming
[1:02:35] directly across from the room from me
here. This is our maintenance. It is not
[1:02:39] our expansion. Uh but just the same
expansion
[1:02:43] uh would go a long way uh towards
managing expectations
[1:02:50] and I say that advisedly. I understand
all of the competing principles that the
[1:02:55] province of Ontario has uh for
infrastructure development.
[1:03:00] Uh but it is important I think to also
continue to um communicate to our
[1:03:07] residents when we expect to have some of
the major infrastructure expansion
[1:03:12] happen here as well. And uh that was
simply consistent with the asset
[1:03:17] management plans uh that are required of
us. It doesn't seem like a big leap.
[1:03:24] [clears throat]
>> I agree with you. And it's really funny
[1:03:28] like I I've often wondered why why
didn't we know that the 407 would be
[1:03:34] expanded uh through through co to the
115. Why didn't we know why don't we
[1:03:40] have firm timelines? It's ridiculous. Um
member from Greater Madawaska please.
[1:03:47] » Thank you and through you Warden. Uh
just tying into
[1:03:51] what the counselors have said already. I
think if we did have that chart, we'd
[1:03:55] also see that that the BR the Bradford
bypass
[1:04:00] originally started 30 years ago, the
planning for that. And yes, it's moving
[1:04:04] rapidly now, but it was started 30 years
ago. So, I think if we did have a asset
[1:04:12] management plan from the province that
people could look at and see that, okay,
[1:04:15] this project is started and how long it
takes on the average for large projects
[1:04:20] to take place. I I think that would be
useful. So, thank you.
[1:04:26] » Thank you for that. Anything further on
seven?
[1:04:29] Number eight,
member from Ku Haggerty and Richards.
[1:04:33] » Could I have that severed please?
>> Yes, sir. Number nine,
[1:04:40] Doran Road, member from Pedawa.
>> Thank you, chair, and through you. I I
[1:04:46] understand that this has been uh it's
been recommended that the speed limits
[1:04:51] remain unchanged on that section of
road. However, the town of Pedawa firmly
[1:04:56] believes that and in order to enhance
the safety of our residents and anybody
[1:05:01] else driving on that section of road, we
will try and find a way to advocate for
[1:05:06] those speed limits to be reduced. I I
guess my question is I know that uh the
[1:05:12] operations committee is looking at
upgrading or amending or
[1:05:17] changing the road policies. My question
is, with these new policies in place,
[1:05:24] will there be any flexibility in terms
of making it easier for some of these
[1:05:29] arterial roads to become collector roads
or making it more flexible in terms of
[1:05:36] getting speed limits reduced on some of
these roads, whereas the present policy
[1:05:41] makes it a little tough to do those
things.
[1:05:45] » Thank you for that, Mr. Perkins.
>> Yes, thank you. Sorry,
[1:05:50] » I'm sorry. The chair had his hand.
>> Sorry, member from um just a couple of
[1:05:56] points on that and then I'll let Mr.
Perkins go. Um
[1:06:01] so all of the uh whether on in
operations um the
[1:06:09] standard policies are used the standards
that come from um the province and and
[1:06:16] other associations on the classification
of the road and then subsequently the
[1:06:22] characteristics of the road based on
that. So, um there may be some
[1:06:28] flexibility in that. I the other option
um that I would point out that I'm I'm
[1:06:35] aware I'm sure that the member is aware
of is that the town could take over that
[1:06:40] road as a municipal road and have full
control over it. So, Mr. Perkins,
[1:06:45] » Mr. Perkins,
>> thank you, Warden, and thank you, Chair.
[1:06:49] Uh actually like uh as the chair just
explained uh
[1:06:54] when uh Mr. Hanrath brings back that
report, you as a council have the
[1:06:59] opportunity to
do whatever you wish.
[1:07:06] Thank you for that. I'm not going to
name names,
[1:07:11] but two people in this room witnessed
one person in this room speeding on
[1:07:16] Doran Road last week, and both of them
gave me hell for it. It's such a nice
[1:07:24] road.
Uh, all right. Thank you for that.
[1:07:28] Anything further on nine,
10,
[1:07:33] 11,
and finally 12.
[1:07:38] the report as a whole except for number
eight.
[1:07:42] May I have a mover, please?
>> So move.
[1:07:46] » Thank you. All in favor? Wonderful.
Thanks. And now we'll go back to number
[1:07:50] eight. Comments, questions, concerns.
Member from Kilu, Hagerty, and Richards,
[1:07:55] please.
>> Thank you, chair. I guess I should lead
[1:07:58] this off. Um,
[sighs]
[1:08:01] I just want to lead off by saying that u
there was a couple facts that I didn't
[1:08:05] include. Uh at our last meeting at the
operations meeting um the total project
[1:08:13] in reality was 7.67 km. In 2023 2.52 km
were completed.
[1:08:22] Um,
in 2024,
[1:08:26] our president of the Round Lake Property
Association came to council November
[1:08:31] 12th of 2024, and he had heard about uh
the deferment of the 5 km or that it
[1:08:39] wasn't not in the plan, whatever,
whichever phrase you'd like to use. And
[1:08:44] then in 2025 I had issued
um
[1:08:49] no August 2625 I announced the deferment
to the Round Lake Property Association
[1:08:54] AGM.
Um
[1:08:58] in the actual facts and I'll use rough
numbers. It shows that there was
[1:09:03] $630,000
over budget for this project.
[1:09:10] 130,000 of that was for the culvert,
which was not included in the original
[1:09:15] budget, I believe. So, in reality, it's
$500,000 over budget.
[1:09:22] During my short time here, I have never
seen uh a budget
[1:09:29] so so low, like $500,000, like something
happened. And yes, we all understand
[1:09:36] that uh because of situations that we
have no control, prices have increased
[1:09:41] dramatically. Um and I do believe that
there are other people that would like
[1:09:46] to speak on this matter also.
[1:09:51] » All right, I'll open it up to comments.
Member for My Prior, please.
[1:09:56] » Thank you, Chair. Uh just to say that
I've contacted or I spoke with Director
[1:10:00] Perkins and uh Mr. Hanrath. One of the
information purposes that was given to
[1:10:05] us was there there was only two biders
for this and that sort of narrowed it
[1:10:09] down. The the contract in previous years
for the same road there were three
[1:10:16] bidders two of them that are listed as
well as H&H which has now been bought
[1:10:21] out by BEI. So in fact there could have
been three but there's only two. That
[1:10:26] was one of the persuasions on my side.
The second part was we have a $600,000
[1:10:34] uh surplus at this point.
We're contemplating that this is going
[1:10:41] to be eaten up by the paving charges in
September.
[1:10:46] Don't know that for sure.
So I'm saying we have it today. We can
[1:10:52] spend it today and worry about
September. As I look at the CEO going,
[1:10:56] "Yep." But he's not going.
>> No, the the the CEO is going to respond
[1:11:01] though.
>> So with those two factors, the my vote
[1:11:06] last time was to accept. This time
around, I'm I'm going to oppose it.
[1:11:12] Thank you, chair. Sorry, Warden.
>> Yeah. No,
[1:11:17] no, please do.
>> No, I can. Sure. Certainly. Thank you,
[1:11:22] Warden. It's certainly something worthy
of response. more from the treasur
[1:11:26] perhaps or even the director. Um we are
very concerned uh yes on your on your
[1:11:31] recent financials there is a a slight
surplus if you will of around $600,000.
[1:11:36] Uh we know um quite with certainty that
the fuel charges and the overages will
[1:11:42] likely eat up all of that. Um and this
year more than any other year in the
[1:11:47] past we are now near completion of all
the capital projects that we said we'd
[1:11:51] complete on time and on budget so far.
uh I don't think we'll be in a surplus
[1:11:56] position at the end of the year. Uh and
this would most certainly um it would
[1:12:01] most likely certainly if you can say
that uh push us over uh into a deficit
[1:12:07] situation with with this overage. Uh we
understand that this road is important
[1:12:12] but again I'll go back to the original
recommendation two weeks ago. It would
[1:12:16] not have been a wise decision for us
knowing that there are increased costs
[1:12:20] coming to this council to recommend
going $600,000 over in a budget um at
[1:12:26] this time. But again, the decision rests
with with you. We are in a situation
[1:12:30] where all the all the pro all the um
projects that Mr. Perkins and staff have
[1:12:35] put together are at budget and we have
an unknown fuel search charge amount
[1:12:41] coming to us at the end of this year on
every single project that we've
[1:12:43] completed to date.
[1:12:47] Thank you for that clarification.
Member from North Ala Wilburforce,
[1:12:51] please.
Thank you, Warden. Well, I'm in support
[1:12:55] of this resolution and just for the
reason that the CEO has indicated as
[1:13:02] well as the fact that we know from
bylaws in this report as well that our
[1:13:07] fuel pricing for the coming year has
doubled from uh the previous year as
[1:13:13] well.
And we know that our winter operations
[1:13:16] were also over budget. So being
cognizant of the fact that you know we
[1:13:22] already faced our residents with a 8%
levy increase this year and now and we
[1:13:31] had to dig into reserves just to make
just to get there and now we're going to
[1:13:36] end up in a deeper uh hole if we go
forward with this this year. Thank you,
[1:13:44] Ward.
>> Thank you. The word deferred has been
[1:13:48] used a lot that this project has been
deferred. And I think for the viewing
[1:13:53] public and for this chamber, can we
please get a definitive answer? Is this
[1:13:58] the second year this project has been I
know the answer, but I want I want the
[1:14:04] answer in public. Is this the second
year that this project's been deferred?
[1:14:09] Please. Uh thank you Warden and thank
you for the opportunity for the
[1:14:12] clarification. Uh this project was
always scheduled for 2026. Uh even with
[1:14:17] our AMP or our asset management plan
overhaul in 2024 where we lowered our
[1:14:21] PCI from 72 to 60. Um this was always
scheduled for 2026. So this would
[1:14:26] potentially be the first year for a
deferral for this length of road.
[1:14:31] » Thank you for the clarification. Member
from Laurentian Valley. Please,
[1:14:36] is there a definite
uh item that this will be completed next
[1:14:41] year? This is it. Is it on the list for
next year for operations?
[1:14:48] » Mr. Perkins.
>> Thank you, Madam Warden. And through
[1:14:50] you, uh yes, this would go forward next
year. Uh this the saving or the money
[1:14:55] would be carried forward for next year
from this project. So, it will go first
[1:14:59] thing next year. But again, I clarify
when we bring the budget to you guys in
[1:15:04] uh hopefully the the
I'm not sure how it works when there's
[1:15:08] an election for pre-budget approval for
our engineering works. Uh last last few
[1:15:13] years has been in October. So we would
bring it in October and then it'll be
[1:15:17] decision to council if you want to
[clears throat]
[1:15:19] but it will be on the list for next
year. I suppose my only other question
[1:15:23] is next year the costs to complete this
project are probably going to be up
[1:15:30] again uh with wages uh with material
costs and I don't think fuel expenses
[1:15:35] are going to be much lower then than
now. So
[1:15:39] will we still be ahead?
>> Thank you for that. Uh member from
[1:15:45] Greater Madawaska.
Thank you. And through you, to Director
[1:15:51] Perkins, I'm just wondering um maybe I
missed it. I I'm just wondering what the
[1:15:58] PCI of that road is right now and what
would it be forecasted to be if this is
[1:16:07] put over to the next year. I'm just
thinking of the safety and security of
[1:16:12] everybody that travels it.
[1:16:17] » Thank you, Warden. through you. I'm not
sure the exact number of the PCI, but uh
[1:16:21] if there is a deferral, as the
resolution states, there would be some
[1:16:24] remedial work done on guard rails and a
couple of sections of road that are that
[1:16:28] are bad. Uh again, with the reduction of
the PCI in 2024, we're actually going to
[1:16:34] see roads go longer. So, this this was
prior to that. So, uh any safety aspects
[1:16:40] of it, if it's deferred, will be
repaired. Uh other than that the road
[1:16:44] will be rehabbed as best as possible for
this year anyways to to accommodate the
[1:16:48] the bad section.
[1:16:53] » Member from Padawa and then arm prior.
>> Thank you chair and through you. So I I
[1:16:58] hear you mentioning that you are going
to take some measures to improve the
[1:17:02] safety and the the condition of the road
in terms of guard rails and I'm guessing
[1:17:07] some pavement remediation.
The money that is spent doing that is
[1:17:11] that coming out of this year's budget
for this actual tender or is this money
[1:17:17] being taken from somewhere else?
>> Thank you through you. Uh actually this
[1:17:22] money would come out of our operations
budget in terms of safety uh equipment
[1:17:26] and that sort of thing. So we would not
touch this money at all. We just carry
[1:17:29] it into next year.
>> Supplementary.
[1:17:34] » Yes, supplementary. Thanks.
So because you're completing some of
[1:17:39] these works, it's going to lower the I
guess the scope of the tender for next
[1:17:43] year. Should this be deferred to next
year? And I I guess I just also like an
[1:17:48] answer to u the question from my
colleague in Laurentian Valley. I know
[1:17:52] you can't predict the future, but how
confident are you in the pricing for
[1:17:56] next year in terms of asphalt, fuel, and
everything else that goes into this
[1:18:01] project?
I think we all hope fuel will come down,
[1:18:06] but Mr. Perkins.
>> Yes. Thank you, Ordinant. And uh through
[1:18:10] you.
[1:18:14] Yeah, if we if we do the safety
guardrails and that sort of thing this
[1:18:16] year, if there is a deferral, that would
definitely change the scope of the
[1:18:19] project for next year. Uh unfortunately,
I I can't speculate as to what it'll be
[1:18:25] next year. If I had, I wish I could. Uh
the the biggest concern here was that it
[1:18:30] was 26.33% over budget. So as staff, the
second last project of the year cuz
[1:18:37] there was two projects in that week that
were tendered. Uh as staff, we had to
[1:18:42] bring it forward and and recommend we go
next year with it, right? So uh but no,
[1:18:47] uh potentially, yes, if we do all the
safety improvements this year to guard
[1:18:52] rails, um it should potentially lower
the scope of the job.
[1:18:57] Thank you. Um, member from Arm Prior.
>> Thank you, Warden. Just another thanks
[1:19:05] to Director Perkins for bringing that
forward for the two contracts that were
[1:19:09] put out. One was Bulier, I believe, and
then Round Lake. with the two quotes
[1:19:14] that we got from Bulier and
Round Lake. From what I understand, the
[1:19:20] cost of the Ashvalt was cheaper
the second time with BEI than it was
[1:19:27] with Buler. So, we're actually saving
monies
[1:19:31] not using the rate from the Bulier rate,
if that makes sense to anybody. So
[1:19:35] hypothetically, not hypothetically,
Buler paid $2 per yard and we're now at
[1:19:42] 175 for Bonnet for the Round Lake. So
we're saving money today. We don't know
[1:19:47] what we're going to be spending in 2027.
Thank you.
[1:19:53] » Um,
>> member from Deep River, were you going
[1:19:58] to answer that or did you also have a
question?
[1:20:01] » Well, kind of just a bit of both.
>> Kind of a comment, whatever. Um, so I
[1:20:07] wasn't issued my crystal ball last last
week, so I can't really use that. But,
[1:20:13] um, when we look at
historically, sometimes we don't know
[1:20:18] why the prices fluctuate whether they're
going up or down. Um, but when you look
[1:20:24] at these types of construction projects,
the one of the two biggest factors that
[1:20:28] we've seen in the last couple years is
uh, steel costs. And hopefully we have
[1:20:33] some certainty a year from now um on
what what that u industry uh is facing.
[1:20:43] Um and secondly is the the cost of
pavement is is
[1:20:48] generally tied very closely to the cost
of oil. So, if fuel prices are going to
[1:20:53] come down, and hopefully they will,
well, Alberta doesn't hope that they do,
[1:20:58] but um
when you look at constructions, if if
[1:21:03] that's so that could make so both steel
and and oil prices um are significant
[1:21:09] factors in in a lot of the projects that
we have. So, I think there's going to be
[1:21:13] some more stability, but like I said, it
wasn't issued my crystal ball, so I'm
[1:21:16] not sure.
I've got the member from Renfruit and
[1:21:21] then the member from Whitewater, please.
>> Uh, thank you. So, [clears throat]
[1:21:26] just a couple of points that have been
rattling around for me. One is, uh, I
[1:21:31] worry about our capacity to bump this to
next year and [clears throat] complete
[1:21:34] it as an add-on to what could be a busy
year anyway.
[1:21:42] So, then that begs the question, what
could be bumped off next year's list? So
[1:21:46] then it becomes a cascading uh problem.
The other uh question I have is is there
[1:21:51] any carveouts of this project to make it
a little more comfortable so the gap
[1:21:57] isn't $662,000?
Uh you know I heard some conversation
[1:22:02] about uh about remedial work this year
taking it out of operations uh out of
[1:22:08] the operation budget as opposed to the
capital side. uh is there an appetite to
[1:22:14] go ahead and do those uh do those what
was termed remedial work using
[1:22:20] operations money and then also issue
this contract. So that's kind of where
[1:22:25] I'm coming at it from the last question
would be a the remedial work will that
[1:22:31] include pavement being put down and then
churned up next year um as as the whole
[1:22:37] project goes forward. Thank you.
>> So I'm going to turn this over to Mr.
[1:22:40] Perkins, but in order to lower the scope
of the work, we would have to retender
[1:22:44] it as well
because the tender went out for those
[1:22:50] kilometers with these parameters. Am I
wrong, Mr. Perkins?
[1:22:55] » No, thank you. Word through your No,
that's correct. Um,
[1:23:00] yeah. No, that's correct. Thank you.
[1:23:12] Uh, no. I think member from Renfruit had
a second question that wasn't answered
[1:23:17] though.
Um, member from Whitewater.
[1:23:21] » Thanks, Warden. I just wanted to say um
I appreciate this being severed and this
[1:23:29] discussion about prioritization
about you know PCI and level of service.
[1:23:37] It's it's probably the first of many to
come and we're going to have to make
[1:23:43] tougher and tougher decisions because we
just can't keep increasing
[1:23:49] property taxes
uh beyond what's affordable. Um so these
[1:23:53] types of discussions this contemplation
the exploring for alternatives trying to
[1:23:59] understand you know where is the push
and pull how does that reflect next year
[1:24:04] and the year after that these are the
types of discussions that I believe we
[1:24:08] need to continue to have and I and I
expect that when we do the budget again
[1:24:12] this year um what I was hoping for just
because I didn't realize it before we
[1:24:20] got into more in-depth discussions about
this since the last meeting uh the CEO
[1:24:24] had mentioned a fuel search charge
and I was hoping that maybe we could
[1:24:30] just understand that contractual process
that we have in place when it comes to
[1:24:36] the tendering for roads. We tender, we
see a value, we approve that value, but
[1:24:41] obviously there is some changes to those
costs as the price of fuel goes up and
[1:24:47] down. I'm wondering if you can just get
a better appreciation for that. what the
[1:24:52] the the percentage of magnitude that has
on an overall project, not just for
[1:24:56] council, but for any of the public that
might be watching.
[1:25:01] » I throw this over to Mr. Perkins.
[1:25:06] » Uh thank you Warden and through you. Uh
ashvault of course is the largest
[1:25:09] component of all of our projects, right?
So obviously is a direct correlation to
[1:25:15] what the cost of the projects are. So
and then the fuel is is anotherary
[1:25:20] price, right? But the but right now the
cost of ashvault is what is the majority
[1:25:24] of the pricing for us.
[1:25:30] Yeah. Fuel again with the AC index u as
the vice chair pointed out with Bular
[1:25:36] road and uh and with uh Round Lake Road
the AC charge actually changed in the
[1:25:42] time that they bid both those jobs. Uh
but anyways the at the end of the season
[1:25:47] when all the bills come in that's when
we actually pay the AC search charge and
[1:25:50] or sorry the fuel search charge and the
AC index. So uh we really don't know
[1:25:56] until October what the actual cost of
everything is
[1:26:04] » supplementary.
>> Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that
[1:26:07] director. Um
in terms of the magnitude of that change
[1:26:13] uh just to use an example like if if if
ashalt and fuel as a combined represents
[1:26:20] 80% of an approved budget and say we
approve that tender at 2 million. If the
[1:26:27] price goes up of of fuel by 10%.
What will that 2 million do? What
[1:26:35] magnitude of impact does a percentage
change in fuel have on that final price
[1:26:41] that you calculate in October? And I'm
not looking for a precise figure, but I
[1:26:44] just want to make it clear that that
fuel that the change in price in fuel
[1:26:50] and ashalt
we can't forecast. And when we get the
[1:26:54] bill when it closes in the end, it could
be substantially different.
[1:27:01] » Yeah, the answer is yes, you are
correct. But go ahead, Mr. Perkins.
[1:27:05] » Oh, thank you, cheer. Or thank you,
Warden. Yes, that's correct. Thank you.
[1:27:09] Sorry.
[1:27:12] » Uh member from Abston Bramley, please.
>> Uh thank you very much, Madam Chair. So,
[1:27:17] a couple of comments, but I want to
correct the record on a few things. I'm
[1:27:20] not sure uh which councelor had said our
fuel is going up next year. Our fuel is
[1:27:24] not necessarily going up next year.
uh it's contained within this report uh
[1:27:29] in at our committee meeting and then in
a follow-up offline conversation with
[1:27:33] Mr. Perkins,
uh, our vendor, uh, it is still
[1:27:39] essentially rack plus or rack minus,
whatever it was under our former
[1:27:42] agreement. Uh, you may be unfamiliar
with rack pricing. Uh, I have it on my
[1:27:47] farm fuels, but it is a little bit of an
esoteric uh, consideration. It's a
[1:27:51] little bit like the uh, the um, fuel
search charge or the AC index.
[1:27:56] Ultimately
uh there is published every day uh what
[1:28:00] the major uh petroleum vendors have as
their rack price.
[1:28:05] Maybe it's 123 for E10 gasoline. And
then your price on your bulk tanks is
[1:28:12] going to be perhaps that rack price plus
2 cents maybe minus 5 cents if you have
[1:28:18] enough volume and depending on where
they're delivering it to. So our fuel is
[1:28:22] not going up in 2027. our pricing is the
same. Our fuel will go up if in fact the
[1:28:29] price of fuel across the globe uh is
still high or is going up. That's number
[1:28:34] one. Number two, uh notwithstanding uh
councelor Mayville's comments about
[1:28:39] there being initially the uh Round Lake
being 7 whatever kilometers. Well, uh
[1:28:45] Bulger Road that actually divides
councelor Bro's municipality from my
[1:28:49] municipality. I travel it when I come up
here. Um there's a small section of it
[1:28:53] we're doing this year. is it was
allocated to be done this year. There's
[1:28:57] another section will be done next year,
but the the road is not the project.
[1:29:01] That segment is so there was only ever
been this segment that is in front of us
[1:29:08] now that in the AMP in November 2024
that we reviewed in the AMP in November
[1:29:14] of 2025 that we reviewed, it was clearly
identified this section of Round Lake
[1:29:19] Road was going to be done in 2026.
nothing has been deferred that was
[1:29:25] supposed to have been done sooner.
That's a done deal. So ultimately uh I
[1:29:30] had outreach and it's my understanding
that almost everybody from council had
[1:29:34] outreach uh from the low bidder in this
instance uh with questions comments in
[1:29:39] the outreach that I had. I said I am
always open to new information but I've
[1:29:42] not heard any in the room. I'm will
repeat my comments that I made at at uh
[1:29:49] the operations committee a couple of
weeks past uh wherein certainly the
[1:29:53] residents along there have been looking
for this to happen uh but this is a
[1:29:59] 26.88 not 33 26.88%
overage
[1:30:04] staff brought that to us. we council can
do whatever we want, but I was staring
[1:30:08] straight into that camera and I'm saying
we're looking at a pretty substantial uh
[1:30:12] levy increase in 2027
and here we are with staff recommending
[1:30:18] that we not go over budget on this and
push it to next year. For those who are
[1:30:22] concerned that it could be more money
next year, I chaired operations in 2015.
[1:30:27] 2015 I think we paved about an extra six
kilometers or probably somewhere on the
[1:30:31] order of 18 to 20% more kilometers than
we had budgeted because oil had
[1:30:36] declined. Ultimately it is imprecise
ratio though there is a connection
[1:30:42] between the AC index and the price of
oil. There is a one ratio on the fuel
[1:30:47] search charge and what fuel is. And in
the outreach uh that I had from uh the
[1:30:53] low bidder uh what I suggested is in
2015 there were structural issues that
[1:30:58] were driving and depressing the price of
a barrel of oil. It's entirely man-made
[1:31:04] today. It could end tomorrow.
As far as the president of the United
[1:31:09] States is concerned, it's ended 10 times
already. It'll probably end three times
[1:31:14] this week before it's up.
So I would say that if that in fact it
[1:31:20] is somewhat rolling the dice to push
this project to 2027
[1:31:27] keeping in mind that we have a margin of
$600,000 from what we thought it would
[1:31:30] cost.
But there is the least risk. Uh it is
[1:31:35] said I think that the blackjack table
favors the house the least uh at the
[1:31:40] casinos. This is the blackjack table. uh
there are some pretty substantial odds
[1:31:45] [snorts] uh that this might uh might
come in cheaper next year as far as our
[1:31:48] capacity to councelor Emo's comments
this is a done deal like unless we're
[1:31:53] changing the scope all of the
preliminary work is done uh last comment
[1:31:58] and again to correct the record uh when
councelor Mayville had suggested that
[1:32:01] the the um Thomas the 125,000 that's a
whole separate line item the very top
[1:32:07] line is on page 359 of the agenda report
it clearly shows that The budget for the
[1:32:12] construction of this was just under 2.3
million. The bid was just under 2.9.
[1:32:19] That can't be changed. It's 610,000
on the total project. A couple of things
[1:32:24] or one thing that certainly mitigated
against it as is common practice.
[1:32:28] Everybody in the room I think
understands when we are tendering these
[1:32:31] we have a 10% contingency. So on top of
the the um the uh uh initial budget,
[1:32:38] there was 10% of that contingency,
we lower that to 5%. So we've actually
[1:32:44] diminished the overage on this by
$83,000
[1:32:49] by changing it from 10 to 5. Otherwise,
we're up at about a $750,000
[1:32:54] overage on this.
So all of these things are still the
[1:32:59] compelling thing that it might cost us
more next year with respect to monies
[1:33:05] that may be available this year. How
much of that is actually deferred work
[1:33:09] like carryover work? We're not saving
money. We're just not spending it,
[1:33:14] right? We're going to we're going to fix
the the deck uh surrounding the house
[1:33:18] even though the roof's been leaking for
3 years because because uh we just don't
[1:33:24] have the money for it this year. We're
not saving that money. It's allocated.
[1:33:28] If we spend that money that we are
saving, then we're going to have to tax
[1:33:33] for it again next year. We will have
spent the money for projects that we
[1:33:36] have funded. Uh my my colleague to my
right here has two roads in Deep River
[1:33:42] uh that are funded right now. Um so
that's where we're saving the money.
[1:33:49] almost every project, every road project
on this year's uh roster is over budget.
[1:33:56] The proponent uh the actual low bidder
on this uh has uh was the successful uh
[1:34:03] bidder on seven of the capital projects.
Across those seven capital projects, it
[1:34:09] was just under 400,000. All of them are
over budget and we still carried forward
[1:34:12] with them.
if and and and I think it was something
[1:34:16] on the order of about 5% was our total
overage on those seven. If in fact Round
[1:34:23] Lake goes forward, it will now be eight.
But the overage goes from 5% to 10%.
[1:34:30] That's a pretty substantial jump. So I
don't have that crystal ball either, but
[1:34:35] I do know that this is substantially
over. And
[1:34:41] what is the risk of pushing it? Yeah,
the risk is not that it's going to cost
[1:34:45] the same thing. That's no risk. We'd
spend the same next year as we would
[1:34:49] spend this year. The risk is that it
might be more.
[1:34:53] But I have I have uh some certainty that
there is a value even in establishing
[1:35:01] that we are fiscally responsible in this
room. For all of you rateayers at home,
[1:35:07] uh this is the appropriate decision. I
treat this much like I treat uh replays
[1:35:12] in professional sports. The call on the
field was to defer this. There'd better
[1:35:17] be some compelling evidence [snorts]
uh to suggest that we change our minds
[1:35:22] from that and I have heard none in the
room.
[1:35:25] » Okay. Thank you. Uh member from Greater
Madawaska, please.
[1:35:29] » Thank you. And I'll be quick. Warden, uh
to Mr. Perkins, um just wondering, do we
[1:35:34] have a vehicle count per day that uses
this road? Secondly, do we know what is
[1:35:41] the uh average type of vehicles, whether
it be large commercial um vehic um
[1:35:47] motorcycle, regular cars, whatever. And
then I'm just going to go one further.
[1:35:52] Have we received complaints from the
residents about accidents or or or
[1:35:57] damage to their vehicles on these
things? I'm just going back to safety
[1:36:00] issue again.
>> Uh thank you. And through you wouldn't
[1:36:04] take me some time to compile that, but
no. Uh we haven't had any we haven't I
[1:36:08] have not heard any direct complaints on
that road for for you know for that
[1:36:13] situation but uh but as for the average
daily traffic numbers and that'll take
[1:36:17] me a little while to get that put
together for you.
[1:36:21] » Okay. Uh member from Madawaska Valley
please.
[1:36:24] » Yes. Uh Warden I just want to be on
record here. Um I'm not a fan of
[1:36:29] deferring any projects. I think we got
uh very competitive uh bids and local
[1:36:36] businesses and uh I really like I said
you you don't win with deferring any
[1:36:41] project as far as I'm concerned.
>> Thank you.
[1:36:45] » Thank you. Is there anything member from
Renfruit please?
[1:36:48] » Yeah I just uh we've talked about this a
lot. So just in terms of should this
[1:36:53] motion be defeated
then is there the opportunity to make a
[1:36:58] motion for this project to go forward or
does that have to go back to committee
[1:37:02] or what's the process? I want to make
sure understand procedurally and I think
[1:37:06] everybody else may need to understand
that.
[1:37:08] » I think through you and I think our
staff understands if this motion is
[1:37:11] defeated then that means that you've
accepted the the the lower bid will be
[1:37:14] accepted and uh it will go ahead. I mean
but but the the issue now is that we
[1:37:22] have um we would have brought this to
committee uh and identified how this is
[1:37:29] going to be paid for. This goes beyond
delegated authority as it's outside of
[1:37:33] budget.
>> Uh wait yeah 20 28.66%
[1:37:38] or whatever you referenced earlier uh
88. Um the understanding is that the the
[1:37:43] the project would go ahead. Um
we would have to seek a a a resolution
[1:37:51] [gasps] for uh from council. Then it
would be it would then direct staff to
[1:37:55] to accept the lowest tender.
Um,
[1:38:01] yeah, I'm just trying to find out what
that resolution would be, but would be
[1:38:04] to accept the the the quotation or the
the RFP response from BEI incorporated
[1:38:09] and that funds be taken from
I mean typically we won't even talk
[1:38:14] about where the funds would be taken
from. We we determine that at the end of
[1:38:17] the year when we determine if there's a
surplus or not. It's just that that
[1:38:19] council resolution is that you accept
the lowest bid.
[1:38:23] » Thank you. A member from Laurentinian
Lurentin Hills, sorry.
[1:38:29] Sorry, I got all
>> Thank you, [clears throat] Warden. Um, I
[1:38:32] can't remember. Are we able to move up
another project? Should this be
[1:38:36] deferred? Are we able to move up an any
other project that was not on the
[1:38:40] original list?
Yeah,
[1:38:43] » that sorry that was in the resolution
that was that we would we would move
[1:38:47] forward sorry through your word is that
the resolution states that we don't do
[1:38:50] this and then we would identify other
microservicing um jobs that were due to
[1:38:56] be completed in 2027. Microsurfacing is
easy doesn't it's easy. Yeah, I say that
[1:39:01] cuz I don't do it. Uh microservicing is
a project that doesn't require
[1:39:05] designing, right? microservicing can
just be tendered and and the the
[1:39:09] proponent would go out and do that if
they should win. Uh and it doesn't
[1:39:13] require design work. This because of
design work requires planning to do
[1:39:16] that. So uh a 2027 project of similar or
equal value to to some amount and that
[1:39:23] report would come back to you in two
weeks directly to council on what
[1:39:26] projects would be in the microservicing
world be brought forward um that would
[1:39:32] be essentially come out of next year's
budget. Right? So there would be some
[1:39:36] room to accept this project next year if
those projects move into this year.
[1:39:41] » What he said.
>> So to be clear, we are not next year. We
[1:39:46] do not have to again bump another
project should we defer this because
[1:39:51] some of the work scheduled for next year
is actually going to be done this year.
[1:39:56] [clears throat]
>> So sorry, you're still over budget,
[1:39:58] right? If Well, you're going to retender
this project, right? You're probably
[1:40:02] you'll likely resculpt this project.
retender it and there may be again
[1:40:07] crystal balling it you you run the risk
of being overbudget or on budget or
[1:40:12] under budget right that's the risk you
take I think the reference was made of
[1:40:15] rolling the dice and that that is
definitely the case
[1:40:19] » so I've still got a lot of hands up
we've been at this a long time and I see
[1:40:24] some people that want to take a break so
would you like to take a break now and
[1:40:29] come back or do you want I'm getting
finish this fine
[1:40:34] Uh I've got the member from Renfruit and
the member from Abston Bramley.
[1:40:39] » And I you know I apologize for hammering
on this but what is do we have a sense
[1:40:44] of what the remedial when we talk about
the um the interimm works ashalt padding
[1:40:50] guard rail repair repair and
replacement. Do we have an an idea what
[1:40:55] that cost is that's going to be pulled
out of operations for this year?
[1:41:00] » Mr. Perkins. Thank you, Warden. And
through you, uh, no, we don't have it
[1:41:04] because we've not we don't know what the
resolution is going to be here today, so
[1:41:08] we haven't done an actual estimate.
>> Member for Adam Bramley.
[1:41:16] » A couple of things. First off, I think
uh, correct me if I'm wrong, councelor
[1:41:20] Gardini. I think what I think it was
inferred uh, that it was this road. I
[1:41:26] think what councelor Gardini was talking
about is what we desri discussed uh when
[1:41:29] we when we deferred the deep river
projects. Could we in fact then
[1:41:34] resurrect the Palmer road project uh
that there would be an alternative road
[1:41:39] perhaps where we could spend these
monies and advance a project from the
[1:41:42] future amp into this year. Perhaps I am
wrong. Uh I am getting the nod that is
[1:41:47] so I'm presuming that that we're in June
now. Uh, Palmer Road I think was the
[1:41:53] only one that was relatively shovel
ready and I don't think there's anything
[1:41:56] else on the roster on that. Uh the other
the the main comment that I want that I
[1:42:02] put my hand up for though was in in all
previous uh tenders where they've been
[1:42:08] over budget and on most of the road
works they have been there is has been a
[1:42:14] comment attached with each of them
saying that staff are confident the
[1:42:17] savings in in other areas can pay for
these. Staff are now saying we do not
[1:42:23] believe that. So I don't think I I do
think that we would have to allocate
[1:42:29] that that uh where the funds would come
from because if in fact it was [snorts]
[1:42:36] it was the the fuel search charge and AC
index that boosted Round Lake
[1:42:44] then it's going to boost all of the
other projects cuz they're contained
[1:42:48] within what they bid on was an AC index
of this what they're what ultimately
[1:42:52] they will be paid for is what the AC
index index is I assume at the time that
[1:42:55] the ashalt is put down.
So I do not believe that there are
[1:43:01] monies sufficient in our capital budget
to pay for this overage. And I think
[1:43:05] that uh if in fact the resolution is
defeated to defer this then it does
[1:43:11] return to that in fact then we would go
forward with this but then the component
[1:43:17] of that is where will we fund it because
this is unfunded and we need to do that
[1:43:24] because otherwise we're lame duck. I
expect that this would be done before
[1:43:28] nomination day anyway, but that looms in
2026 where it wouldn't loom in other
[1:43:33] years as well. I I would suggest that we
do uh need to identify where the funds
[1:43:38] would be drawn from.
Okay,
[1:43:44] with that
anything member from Renfruit?
[1:43:48] » I think we probably need a recorded
vote, please.
[1:43:52] » Thank you.
>> Oh, Mr. Perkins.
[1:43:55] » Yeah, my apologies. The average daily
traffic on County Road 58 is 2,431 cars
[1:44:01] per day. Yeah. Unfortunately, I can't
tell you which, but but as you know, it
[1:44:05] is a major hauling route for for our
logging companies.
[1:44:12] » Pardon me.
>> Four trips are Gwen and I
[1:44:14] » Oh, yeah. Yeah. Four of those trips are
Gwen and Craig coming from the bay. A
[1:44:21] member from Gil, Lou Hagerty, and
Richards.
[1:44:24] Well, thank you for all the
conversation. This has been really
[1:44:28] enlightening. Um, if
let's hope or whatever this gets
[1:44:33] deferred. Uh, would
we basically have a budget amount of
[1:44:39] 2600 $2.6 $6 million and whatever the
amount is that we're going to have to re
[1:44:46] put repairs back into that road
um
[1:44:51] that will still have to be repaired the
following year if it gets moved to the
[1:44:55] following year. Having said that, so we
have a bucket of $2.6 million.
[1:45:03] Is there a possibility
that the scope of the project could be
[1:45:08] changed to do per se half the road or an
just a section of the road just like the
[1:45:15] first part of the project was that was
done 2.52 is that a possibility as
[1:45:21] opposed to just no it's not being done
this year.
[1:45:24] » Okay. So number one the repairs to the
road once again that Mr. Perkins said
[1:45:29] are being taken out of a different
budget. The budget for this will be the
[1:45:34] budget for next year. The second uh
question which is what the member from
[1:45:40] Renfruit asked is can we change the
scope? We can but we would have to
[1:45:46] retender.
[1:45:53] Okay. Now are we ready with the
recorded? Oh, they're ready. All right.
[1:45:57] Would the clerk please call the vote?
[1:46:03] Member from Laurentian Hills.
>> Just for clarification, we are voting
[1:46:08] whether we are still in favor of
deferring this.
[1:46:11] » That is correct. Thank you for doing
that. I should have done that.
[1:46:18] » Councelor Emo.
>> Uh I'm opposed.
[1:46:24] » Councelor Gardini
>> in favor.
[1:46:28] Councelor Grills in favor.
[1:46:35] » Councelor Lynch.
>> Opposed.
[1:46:41] » Councelor Mayville
>> opposed.
[1:46:47] » Warden Murphy
>> in favor.
[1:46:52] » Councelor Nicholson
>> in favor.
[1:46:59] Councelor Service
>> in favor.
[1:47:03] » Councelor Shoulist
>> opposed.
[1:47:12] Councelor Watt
>> in favor.
[1:47:18] » Counselor where
>> opposed.
[1:47:23] Councelor
[1:47:29] Bros
>> in favor.
[1:47:34] » Councelor Doncaster
>> in favor.
[1:47:37] » And councelor Donahghue
>> in favor.
[1:47:45] The motion passes at 118 votes to 72.
>> Thank you for that. Uh, so it is 11:12
[1:47:54] a.m. I would suggest that we be back in
our seats at 11:25, Peace.
[2:01:41] Welcome back everyone. Uh there are no
consent items. Uh and now I'm going to
[2:01:45] turn this over to Mr. Belmore with his
staff report.
[2:01:49] » Thank you madam morning and good morning
county council. The recommendation this
[2:01:53] morning is that county council approve
the ratification and adoption of
[2:01:56] employment bylaw number three concerning
the collective agreement with the
[2:01:59] Ontario Nurses Association ONA and its
local 049 county of Renfruit Bonnes
[2:02:04] Manor and Mirmishi Lodge for a 2-year
contract term effective from April 1223
[2:02:09] to March 31, 2022 and that bylaw number
128-21 be repealed.
[2:02:14] » Thank you. May I have a mover and
secondary to get it on the floor,
[2:02:17] please? Moved by the member from Greater
Metawaska, second by the member from
[2:02:20] Renfruit. Background discussion.
>> Thank you. And as uh the background
[2:02:25] indicates here, uh council uh previously
authorized us to enter into negotiations
[2:02:30] to prevent going to interest arbitration
based on advice from uh legal counsel
[2:02:34] and other arbitrated settlements that
had been reached. And we were able to
[2:02:38] get a 2-year deal with ONA. uh they you
know they were happy that we were
[2:02:42] looking for a 4-year deal originally but
they have other asks other than just the
[2:02:45] monetary items supposedly to come for
that 2-year period. So actually as part
[2:02:49] of the minutes of settlement for this
negotiation we've agreed to already
[2:02:53] enter right into the next round of
negotiations. So we are continuing
[2:02:57] negotiations for the fact we're expired
already for this ratification. Um,
[2:03:05] I think it covers everything in the
background that we we met the directives
[2:03:09] set by council which were uh to match
hospital central and uh we'll get this
[2:03:14] in place and keep bargaining and bring
you back an update in the near future
[2:03:18] I'm sure.
>> Thank you. Comments, questions,
[2:03:21] concerns?
Seeing none, all in favor? Thank you,
[2:03:25] councel. Um, and Gwen, do you want me
just to read this resolution? Yeah. Uh,
[2:03:31] so I have a resolution that council
approve amending the committee structure
[2:03:35] bylaw 36-26
to reflect the name change of the
[2:03:38] Renfruit County Forest Sector Committee
and that bylaw 36-26
[2:03:43] be repealed. May I have a mover and
secondary please? Moved by the member
[2:03:47] from North Wilburfor, second by the
member from Headclair Mariah.
[2:03:50] Discussion. It is just a housekeeping
item. All in favor? Thank you councel.
[2:03:56] We have no close session. Uh we have no
reports from external boards. We have no
[2:04:01] notices of motions. We have no written
motions. Do we have any announcements?
[2:04:07] Member from Gilu Hagerty and Richards,
please.
[2:04:09] » Thank you, chair. Um I passed out a
bunch of documents prior to the meeting
[2:04:14] and uh summertime events that are
happening Kill Hagerty Richards this
[2:04:19] this summer. So hopefully we'll see you
there.
[2:04:21] » Lovely. Thank you. Member from Greater
Madawaska.
[2:04:24] » Yeah, just quickly through you warden.
Uh, I just want to say we had our
[2:04:28] guitars and gasoline uh concert out in
Calabogi this weekend and the rain did
[2:04:35] not deter anyone. However, I do want to
point out something that uh that I
[2:04:41] noticed that happened there. We had a
lightning strike about a kilometer away
[2:04:48] and there was an orders order put out to
evacuate by Chief Nolan's crew and
[2:04:57] this the staff the volunteers the staff
and all of the people that were
[2:05:01] attending it was it was they just flowed
out. Everything flew they flowed out to
[2:05:08] their cars. They they took shelter quick
and a lot of that had to do with our
[2:05:13] paramedics. Our paramedics had drones in
the air with speakers
[2:05:19] advising people that there is a hazard
and that they need to seek shelter
[2:05:25] immediately
and the use of those drones and the
[2:05:30] volunteer and the organizers uh
Tracy and Jay who were running it and
[2:05:37] I'll shout out to them. They had their
volunteers get everybody out of there
[2:05:41] and he I think Chief Nolan could attest
that I've I've I was a police officer
[2:05:47] and I went I a lot of concerts and a lot
of things emptied out. This flowed so
[2:05:51] well and I I want to thank the
paramedics for those drones that I did
[2:05:55] not know had speakers that were that
loud, but people even that were partying
[2:06:00] and they could hear it. So, thank you
Chief Nolan and the paramedics and
[2:06:03] Sierra team for being there.
>> How lovely of you to share that with us.
[2:06:07] It's sort of the modernday air raid
siren
[2:06:10] » right
>> through drones. Thank you, Chief Nolan
[2:06:13] and to all of your crew. That's
really neat story. Uh do we have any
[2:06:19] other announcements? Member from Pedawa,
please.
[2:06:23] » Thank you, Warden. Uh civic center days
in Pedawa take place this weekend.
[2:06:27] There's a craft beer festival on
Saturday and on Friday the Pedawa Sports
[2:06:32] and Entertainment Hall of Fame has their
2026 induction ceremony. Allison Aman, a
[2:06:38] Commonwealth game swimmer, Hec Clue,
harness driver and marathoner
[2:06:42] extraordinaire. Glenn Douglas, a former
CFL player, and the legendary
[2:06:48] entertainer Tom Green. Tickets are only
$5. Food is served. Live entertainment,
[2:06:53] fun for the whole family.
>> Thank you. There's actually a write up
[2:06:57] about all three of them and the leader
today. Uh, anything any other
[2:07:01] announcements?
uh member from Deep River.
[2:07:06] » Uh thank you Warden. Um
not really an announcement but not a
[2:07:11] report but uh um just I think everybody
knows I was at the FCM uh annual
[2:07:18] conference uh last week. Um I just
wanted to point out that um councelor
[2:07:26] Tim Tierney from Ottawa is now the
president of FCM.
[2:07:31] Um Tim's been involved with FCM for
probably 15 years or so. Um
[2:07:38] so that was that. I will put together a
report, a written report uh for my
[2:07:43] colleagues. Um one I just wanted to
point out one thing. I did um at the
[2:07:49] opening of the uh conference, there was
an indigenous market that was set up and
[2:07:54] I was able to purchase a um a wood
carving of a of a an arrow head, but
[2:08:02] inside the arrow head is engraved a
bear's face. It is the coolest thing.
[2:08:07] I'll bring it I well, I have a picture,
but I'll bring it in and show everybody.
[2:08:11] It's just as soon as I saw it. Um I have
seven or eight um artist drawings of
[2:08:17] bears in my house. So when I saw this
thing I had to buy it. But one of the
[2:08:22] things I noticed in at at uh at the
conference um and in Edmonton proper is
[2:08:29] um the sign and and it's it's due to
probably the percentage of of um the
[2:08:36] percentage of the general population
that is indigenous. But um everything
[2:08:42] that happens, every step you take uh
whether it was at the conference or it's
[2:08:47] in the city has an indigenous component
to it. It's just it's
[2:08:53] indigenous culture is part of
culture. That's what it is. [snorts] And
[2:09:00] it doesn't matter what you do. Um,
and that's what it's something that I
[2:09:06] found completely
um different than here. Um, and I I say
[2:09:13] I I do believe it's it's because of the
the percentage of the population. Um,
[2:09:19] but it was um
um it was really nice to see it and and
[2:09:24] it like I said, it didn't matter doesn't
matter what you do, there's something
[2:09:28] indigenous about it in Edmonton. So
anyway, I'll leave it at that for now.
[2:09:33] » Thank you for sharing that. Uh any other
announcements?
[2:09:38] Uh don't forget we're having our drone
show on Canada Day as opposed to
[2:09:42] fireworks if anybody wants to come. Oh,
member from Deep River.
[2:09:46] » Your drone show is not the first drone
show in Redford County because Deep
[2:09:50] River had one two years ago
>> and I confirmed with your mayor, not on
[2:09:55] Canada Day. We're the first Canada Day
drone show. I Oh, I I confirmed because
[2:10:01] I thought maybe
>> kids.
[2:10:04] [laughter]
[2:10:07] Mom and dad, don't fight.
>> All right. Uh, is there any new
[2:10:12] business?
Seeing none, I have a resolution that
[2:10:17] bylaws listed be deemed read three times
and passed. May I have a mover and
[2:10:20] seconder, please? Moved by the member
from Arm Prior, second by the member
[2:10:23] from Pedawa. All in favor?
And I have a bylaw to confirm the
[2:10:29] proceedings of the council of the county
of Renfruit at the meeting hel-6
[2:10:35] being a bylaw to confirm the proceedings
of the council of the county of Renfruit
[2:10:38] at the meeting held on June 10th, 2026
be now deemed read three times and
[2:10:44] passed. May I have a mover and second
moved by the member from Kilu Hagerty
[2:10:47] and Richards, seconded by the member
from Greater Madawaska. All in favor and
[2:10:53] a resolution that county council adjourn
at 11:35 a.m. May I have a mover and
[2:10:58] seconder?
Moved by the member from Laurentian
[2:11:02] Hills, second by the member from
Whitewater. All in favor. Thank you,
[2:11:07] councel. And we will begin health
committee in five minutes.
[2:16:58] Uh thank you everyone for your patience.
Uh we are going to reconvene uh as the
[2:17:03] health committee. I'm calling the
meeting to order. It is 11:41.
[2:17:07] Uh I would invite first Miss Van
Starkenberg. Has the role been called
[2:17:11] please?
>> Yes. Thank you chair. We have quorum.
[2:17:14] » Outstanding. Thank you. Uh, I would
invite disclosure of pecuniary interest
[2:17:18] and if there is any, the general nature
thereof, please.
[2:17:22] Uh, the chair recognizes none. With
that, I'd seek a motion to adopt the
[2:17:26] minutes of the health committee meeting
held May 13th, 2026, please. Uh,
[2:17:32] councelor Bros. seconded by councelor
Pcell. Any errors or omissions?
[2:17:40] All in favor? Those are carried. Uh, I
would seek a motion that the board of
[2:17:45] health minutes for March 31st, 2026 be
received, please. Uh, councelor Weir,
[2:17:51] seconded by councelor Mayville. Um, we
do have several members of the board of
[2:17:56] health present. If there are any
questions or comments?
[2:18:00] I see there are none. All in favor? That
is carried as well. Um,
[2:18:08] I'll complete this. Uh, there are no
delegations and presentations. There is
[2:18:11] however a change to our agenda this
morning. Uh there is a very
[2:18:16] time-sensitive issue uh that has has
come up that is requiring us uh to move
[2:18:20] into a closed session. And as part of
this closed session, uh Chief Nolan
[2:18:25] actually has a meeting uh that is going
to be conflicting with us in short time
[2:18:29] frame. Uh so I am going to advance the
close session to the front of this
[2:18:35] meeting. Uh whereupon we will recommence
then at item number six. But in order to
[2:18:40] to receive this closed session, which
did come after the uh agenda were
[2:18:45] circulated within that time frame, I'd
now seek a motion to suspend the rules
[2:18:49] procedure moved by councelor Nicholson,
seconded by councelor Watt. Uh all in
[2:18:54] favor that is carried. So with that then
um bear with me. I'm going to have to go
[2:19:00] back to the uh the email then Ms. Van
Stark for the wording here.
[2:19:20] Uh, sorry. Do bear with me.
[2:19:28] » Oh, Lord. Uh, my computer's freezing up
again. Uh, I wonder if someone would be
[2:19:32] so kind as to read. Oh, Miss Van
Starkerberg, if you could read the
[2:19:36] resolution and I will seek a motion
then.
[2:19:40] » Yes. Thank you, chair. That pursuant to
section 2392 of the Municipal Act 2001
[2:19:46] as amended, the health committee move
into a closed session for the following
[2:19:50] reason. I a trade secret or scientific,
technical, commercial, financial or
[2:19:55] labor labor relations information
supplied in confidence to the
[2:19:59] municipality or local board which if
disclosed could reasonably be expected
[2:20:04] to pre prejudice significantly the
compet competitive position or interfere
[2:20:10] significantly with the contractual or
other negotiations of a person, group of
[2:20:16] persons or organization. and it's for
the
[2:20:21] » for the
[2:20:24] paramedic
programs.
[2:20:26] » Okay. Thank you very much. Uh you've
heard the resolution. I'd seek a mover.
[2:20:30] Councelor Lynch, seconded by councelor
Shoulist. Um any question? All in favor?
[2:20:37] We are enclosed.
[2:52:34] Uh thank you everyone for your patience.
Excuse [clears throat] me. Uh we are out
[2:52:39] of closed. However, lunch is here. So we
are going to recess uh until 12:45.
[2:52:44] I just want to remind everyone in this
room and those that may be streaming uh
[2:52:48] we will be picking up business at item
number six on our agenda. That is
[2:52:52] communications. When we return.
[3:23:24] Uh, welcome back everyone. We're just
slightly delayed. It is 12:48. We are
[3:23:28] picking up where we left off. And as
committee will recall, uh, where we left
[3:23:32] off was at item six, communications. Uh,
it is the Ministry of Long-Term Care
[3:23:37] spring bulletin and a co-ayment update.
Uh the recommendation is that the
[3:23:42] communications be received as
information. I would seek a motion
[3:23:44] please. Uh councelor bro seconded by
councelor Weir. Any questions?
[3:23:50] [sighs and gasps]
All in favor? That is carried. Uh moving
[3:23:54] on to consent reports there. And as item
number seven and uh as always we will
[3:24:00] begin uh with Mr. Quaid uh the long-term
care consent report. It can be found on
[3:24:04] page eight.
[3:24:08] Thank you chair. through you to
committee. Uh item number one is just
[3:24:12] the Ministry of Long-Term Care
Inspection Statistics. As you can
[3:24:16] remember, about four months ago, I
brought some numbers from 2024 and 2023.
[3:24:25] [clears throat] Excuse me. These are
releasing uh the 2025 statistics. Uh key
[3:24:31] highlights would be uh just that they
are increasing their frequency which
[3:24:37] we've said here again at health
committee on numerous times. Uh the top
[3:24:41] issues
remain the same this year related to uh
[3:24:46] abuse and uh infection control,
excuse [clears throat] me. And uh the
[3:24:54] monetary uh penalties seem to be issued
more frequently now uh because there is
[3:25:02] no uh voluntary corrective action. It's
either you receive an order or uh you
[3:25:08] are compliant with the act. Uh number
two is the Ministry of Long-Term Care
[3:25:16] Inspection Reports. These reports we
only received because again as you
[3:25:20] remember uh a couple months ago we had
an inspector and there was a bit of an
[3:25:24] issue with the inspector. So there was a
delay in receiving these reports. The
[3:25:29] first one was related to a family member
where we had received some
[3:25:33] documentation.
It was in the moment. It was video
[3:25:37] surveillance and we did not feel it
constituted a uh report of abuse or
[3:25:42] neglect. However, the family reached out
to the ministry who came in and said we
[3:25:47] should have reported it. So, they uh
give us gave us a written notification.
[3:25:52] Uh the second incident uh was related to
a plan of care that hadn't been updated
[3:25:59] uh in a timely manner and then an
infection control issue which uh they
[3:26:04] observed a staff member not wearing
proper PPE to protect themselves when
[3:26:09] they were performing a medical
procedure. And uh on the 28th of April,
[3:26:16] uh there were no findings of
non-compliance. They came in to uh
[3:26:23] interview or investigate an alleged uh
verbal and emotional abuse by a resident
[3:26:28] or from a resident. Uh and during this
time, they also reviewed four of our
[3:26:34] programs as well, and there were no
findings of non-compliance.
[3:26:40] And lastly, this one I think I've
brought up previously. It was related to
[3:26:45] administering a medication to a family
or resident. We allowed a family member
[3:26:51] to administer the medication. However,
when the resident is within the home, uh
[3:26:57] they want us to ensure that the actual
staff is the one who witnesses
[3:27:03] or actually administers the medication.
Uh so unfortunately our staff member had
[3:27:09] given the medication to uh the power of
attorney and they administered the
[3:27:14] medication but they did not stay and
observe the pills going down the
[3:27:18] resident's throat. So therefore uh we uh
got an order which is kind of funny
[3:27:24] because we do send them home with
medications over a weekend in a lunch
[3:27:27] bag and then they come back after the
weekend. So, a little frustrating but uh
[3:27:32] it is a written notification. And then
uh number three lastly is a delegated
[3:27:39] authority and this was uh for our
grounds contract. So we've had uh JWK
[3:27:46] contractors for the past couple of years
and they've been doing an excellent job.
[3:27:51] We did uh have a some bids submitted.
There was a previous contractor who uh
[3:27:58] unfortunately we had to break contract
with in 2021 who had submitted a lower
[3:28:04] bid. Uh however, given the fact we had
to cancel the contract in 2021, we are
[3:28:11] uh requesting to go with the higher bid
even though uh or sorry and that's uh
[3:28:18] under policy GA01
and it is because of the performance
[3:28:24] that they did not meet uh our contract.
So uh it's still within budget and it
[3:28:30] was about an $11,000 difference.
Thanks.
[3:28:35] » Thank you. Excuse [clears throat] me.
Thank you very much, Mr. Quaid. Uh,
[3:28:38] returning to item number one, questions
or comments committee,
[3:28:43] item two,
and finally item three.
[3:28:49] Seeing none, we'll go directly then to
Deputy Chief Gier if you would be so
[3:28:53] kind as to take us through the emergency
services consent report.
[3:28:57] » Thank you, chair, to your committee. Um
item number one EOP communicationary
[3:29:03] assistation uh for life saving. Uh so we
have some member of the county ranch for
[3:29:08] primary services here team Matt Kru Sea
Doyle and Devin Kenan. Uh were recently
[3:29:15] recognized for the AOP commission
station of lifeing acknowledgement. Uh
[3:29:20] this happened in June last year. Uh if
you guys remember uh sever storm in the
[3:29:26] along park uh we responded with uh all
our partner like the provincial
[3:29:33] uh art team, the Ontario park staff, the
ministry of natural resource aviation
[3:29:38] services and [clears throat] the patient
family. Um and with all of us working
[3:29:45] together we managed to extricate and
treat that patient and now is um is in
[3:29:53] good health. Uh so this recognition
highlight the professionalism the
[3:29:58] clinical expertise and teamwork
demonstrating for all the frontline
[3:30:02] staff that was involved in that in that
incident.
[3:30:07] Point number two, uh, point of care
ultrasound. The county of Ran through
[3:30:12] has implementing the point of care
ultrasound, uh, through the community
[3:30:18] permit program and we're expanding
through our service. Um, we also partner
[3:30:24] with the Entro Health to expand the
knowledge through um, multiple services
[3:30:30] throughout the province. So far we have
um trained over 42 participant over 12
[3:30:39] different services across the province.
Um doing this course they need to
[3:30:44] prompter and do a lot of scanning to
make sure they meet their competency. Um
[3:30:50] and is a partnership with uh here in
Penrook with the uh the Algo College
[3:30:55] where we use our lab to make sure we
have a nice simulation and all that. uh
[3:31:01] for a bigger picture. Um
this technology also can uh help support
[3:31:09] the uh long-term facility where we can
start using some of that technology to
[3:31:14] uh uh prevent some transportation for
some patient that we that need per say a
[3:31:19] CT scan or an X-ray to there some some
scan we can do to prevent that. Uh the
[3:31:26] course was well received about 94% of um
satisfaction with high value of
[3:31:34] extensive and on practice knowledgeable
instructor and good feedback throughout
[3:31:40] the the course.
Um item number three medic connect. Uh
[3:31:46] we're start working with a company
called Axon Border Warm. Um, and what
[3:31:54] we're trying to accomplish is to uh use
that technology to be able to transcribe
[3:32:00] and use that tool to actually reduce the
burden of the administrative uh
[3:32:05] component of documentation. Uh, also the
the cognitive load on the parame
[3:32:15] quality of patient care that we we're
offering. We're trying to work
[3:32:20] throughout all the different policies
and uh privacy issue where we're working
[3:32:26] with our the department make sure it
meet all the regulated and the
[3:32:31] compliance for the corporation. Um we're
also working um
[3:32:38] uh one sec.
[3:32:44] Uh to make sure that you know all the
consent and privacy and the record
[3:32:48] retention is are all in practice. Um
we're also going to make sure that we
[3:32:53] have a strong evaluation in place. Uh
because we're leading the front with
[3:32:58] that technology. So we want to make sure
that our technology is is well evaluated
[3:33:04] to make sure that we can replicate and
uh probably publish some of that work
[3:33:08] that we're doing. Um
item number four uh flood response uh
[3:33:16] permic services update. So the level of
the water has decreased and declined.
[3:33:22] We're under the minor flooding
threshold. Um and we um we want to just
[3:33:30] make sure that we thanks all the the
responsive municipality and partner uh
[3:33:35] that are that was strong caliber
calibrator and professionalism
[3:33:39] throughout the the flooding season. Um
all the coronation respond across all
[3:33:45] the region play an important role
supporting community and safety of of
[3:33:49] all res residents and well-being um
throughout the county. So
[3:33:57] um item number five medication buyout
program. So we started working with a
[3:34:02] self-rescript uh soft um return program.
Uh and this has gave us a a really good
[3:34:11] opportunity to return all our experation
medication uh for a credit and so far we
[3:34:19] uh received three $3,200 of credit uh
based on the the purchase of of
[3:34:25] medication. So if we continue that like
over next year we hope to increase that
[3:34:31] credit. So it's say costsaving for
logistic department.
[3:34:36] Item number six, the CR the CR team
status uh update. So over the past 12
[3:34:44] months uh we have about 95 deployment
across a range range of operational
[3:34:51] challenge. Uh we assess treat more than
278
[3:34:56] uh people.
uh permit. We're providing high quality
[3:35:01] care uh extended from spring season to
uh to the flood response to uh and we
[3:35:11] did about 277
uh wellness assessment during that flood
[3:35:16] response. Um and to make sure that
everybody was safe in their home. uh
[3:35:20] they had all their medication and they
didn't want need to be
[3:35:25] room from their own just from a safety
perspective. We also were invi invited
[3:35:31] to Tiger X 2026 that was a large scale
multi- agency training uh exercise at
[3:35:39] the CFB Trenton. Uh and we work with the
coast guard uh the United State Coast
[3:35:45] Guard, the OP regist response team and
the 424 scadrant. Uh this our team uh
[3:35:54] member train across land, air and water
environment and this exercise uh
[3:36:00] strengthened our calibration and gave us
um a better perspective around how to
[3:36:06] communicate in that complex multi-justal
uh response.
[3:36:12] uh and give us some better tool to
respond in our backyard in the in the
[3:36:17] along park.
[3:36:21] Item number seven, Ebola response. Um as
you know Ebola is uh is an outbreak in
[3:36:30] Angada and you know the risk of travel.
So, our uh dispatch center starting to
[3:36:37] start to screen and on travel history,
potential contact uh and symptoms and
[3:36:45] all that information will be
communicated to a paramedic as stirred
[3:36:49] last week and we want to make sure that
all this is continue because the risk is
[3:36:54] is a potential uh even if you know we
know that in nothing in Ontario or in
[3:36:58] Canada at this moment but uh the
screening and to make sure that we have
[3:37:03] preventative measure in place that are
important for our parame safety.
[3:37:08] And finally, uh item number eight, uh
the parake service week was May 17 to
[3:37:15] May 23rd. Uh the county of participated
in parake service week align with the
[3:37:22] Ontario association permit chief. Uh the
theme this year was better care third
[3:37:27] year which highlight the trust
compassionate and evolving role of
[3:37:31] primary into the healthcare. Uh we went
through multiple different uh domain
[3:37:37] each day. So, Nlloxxone awareness,
overdose response education, our peer
[3:37:43] support team uh for paramedic wellness,
new uh new orientation and teamwork,
[3:37:50] community uh parame medicine in M and
patient care uh partnership in RF county
[3:37:56] industry health. Um and I think that was
successful and well received by the
[3:38:00] primary services this year.
[3:38:07] Thank you, chair.
>> Thank you very much, uh, Deputy Chief,
[3:38:11] excuse me. [clears throat]
Uh, committee, we will return to item
[3:38:14] number one found on page 10, the
commissioner's citation. First off, uh
[3:38:18] please extend
uh Deputy Chief Gier to um Mers Crusher
[3:38:24] Doyle and Keenan our commendation uh on
on the actual rescue uh and the
[3:38:32] outstanding outcome but also on their
being recognized by the um the
[3:38:36] commissioner. Uh any questions or
comments?
[3:38:40] Uh item two, point of care ultrasound.
[3:38:46] Item three, the medic connect.
[3:38:51] Item four, the flood response.
[3:38:56] Item five, the medication buyback
program. Councelor Service, then
[3:39:00] councelor emo.
>> Thank you, chair, and through you. I'm
[3:39:04] just wondering who subsidizes this
program, who's providing the funding for
[3:39:09] these credits for their expired
medications and the credits once we get
[3:39:15] them. What does that allowed us to do
with those credits?
[3:39:19] » Deputy chief, please.
>> Thank you, chair.
[3:39:24] Through you. Um, so the the so we
partner with Silvercript to purchase
[3:39:29] some medication uh at the moment. So
everything that were in the permit bag
[3:39:36] um from you know treating a diabetic
emergency to our old piece of medication
[3:39:41] that we carry. So uh silver script this
year offer us a buyback uh perspective.
[3:39:50] I don't know where they get their money,
but because we're purchasing medication
[3:39:55] from them when they capture all our
expiration medication, they able to give
[3:40:00] us some credit on the future purchase of
medication. So is net, you know, revenue
[3:40:06] for us because we need to purchase that
medication anyway.
[3:40:12] » Cerebo, please.
>> Thank you. So, this is not an invitation
[3:40:16] to
uh people to bring their expired
[3:40:19] medication or medication unused to a
paramedic station and
[3:40:23] » No, no.
>> Good. Just wanted to be clear on that. I
[3:40:26] I assumed that, but it just looked too
uh too inviting. Thank you.
[3:40:31] » Thank you, chair.
>> Thank you. Anything further on item
[3:40:34] five?
Item six, the Sierra team status update.
[3:40:42] Item seven, the Ebola virus. Councelor
Service, please.
[3:40:46] » Thank you, Chair, and through you. I'm
just wondering how we would know here
[3:40:50] [clears throat] in Renfruit County if
there is somebody who's traveled to one
[3:40:53] of these affected countries and then
have now entered Renfruit County. How
[3:40:58] are we able to track that? And are we
going out to do any screening with any
[3:41:03] of these individuals?
>> Deputy Chief.
[3:41:09] » Uh, thank you, Chair. you. Um this is a
good question. Um I think the screening
[3:41:14] start from you know when they arrive to
the country and after that uh each
[3:41:20] patient who entered the the country who
has traveled to a certain area will be
[3:41:24] screened and be in quarantine.
um that information will probably go to
[3:41:29] the public health of the region to make
sure that they respect the quarantine
[3:41:33] and if they have to uh go to a hospital
or be treated that's you know this is
[3:41:39] where the screening will start uh but
you know from a screening and and I
[3:41:44] don't think that a region would be aware
of where that person will go uh but they
[3:41:49] have like really strict standard in
place from a quarantine and to uh ensure
[3:41:54] the symptom of any sort expand that
regard.
[3:42:00] » Thank you.
>> Thank you. Anything further?
[3:42:03] Uh one thing and I thought perhaps uh
councelor service this uh might have
[3:42:07] been what you were bringing forward. Uh
often and I shouldn't say that but I
[3:42:12] know that I was sitting on the board of
health and I can't remember whether it
[3:42:15] was the 2014 outbreak or the 2018 2018
outbreak. uh but there was a a
[3:42:21] contingent from Garrison Pedawa actually
traveled to and at that time I don't
[3:42:25] know I think it was perhaps Sierra Leone
Liberia not positive of that u but there
[3:42:30] was a pretty substantial team uh medical
team that was uh at that outbreak from
[3:42:37] Padawa so there was a direct vector I
think often in Renfruit County we think
[3:42:41] we are uh insulated or indemnified from
some of these these things that happen
[3:42:45] across the globe uh but in that instance
there was you're unaware of any direct
[3:42:50] uh connection out of the garrison at
this point.
[3:42:53] The council service let the record show
that he is shaking his head. [laughter]
[3:42:58] » I forgot I had to put that on the
record. I am unaware of any direct uh
[3:43:03] relationship with Garrison Pedaw and any
of these.
[3:43:06] » Yeah. And and in fairness uh this was
not like a confidential or a secret
[3:43:10] mission. I'm quite convinced that you
would be aware and likely we would be
[3:43:14] aware. Uh but as uh the deputy chief has
suggested our uh the vector by which we
[3:43:20] became aware was that there was a pretty
substantial uh uh component uh to the
[3:43:28] return uh through public health and
working with the uh the medical
[3:43:32] establishment uh in the garrison as
well. So we will certainly be aware at
[3:43:35] the time if that comes up. Uh moving on
then to finally to item number eight,
[3:43:41] the paramedic services week.
[3:43:45] Uh, I see none. Just bear with me. I
would now seek uh that um motion that
[3:43:51] the communi uh sorry that's the wrong
one. That the consent reports be
[3:43:54] received as information, please.
Councelor Watt, seconded by councelor
[3:44:00] Service. All in favor? That is carried.
Uh we have uh two discussion reports as
[3:44:08] well. So once again, Mr.
uh you will kick things off with a
[3:44:12] long-term care discussion report please
page 16. Thank you chair through you to
[3:44:17] committee. uh resolution uh multis
sector service accountability agreement
[3:44:23] schedule F form of compliance and
declaration recommendation that health
[3:44:28] committee recommends the county council
authorize the warden and CAO to sign the
[3:44:34] schedule F declaration of compliance
issued pursuant to the multis sector
[3:44:39] service accountability agreement for the
county of Renfruit Bonishair manor
[3:44:44] senior adult day program
>> thank you very much I'd seek a mover
[3:44:48] Councelor Bros. Seconded by Councelor
Lynch. Background please.
[3:44:52] » Uh the background Bonire Manor has been
operating a senior adult day program in
[3:44:57] Renfruit since February 1997. The
program is available to residents in and
[3:45:03] around the communities Monday to Friday
8 to 4:00 p.m. Access into the day
[3:45:09] program is through the Ontario Health at
home and uh for the continuation of
[3:45:14] funding the Bonoshair Manor senior adult
day program. Ontario Health is
[3:45:19] requesting the signed schedule F
declaration of compliance for the period
[3:45:24] of April 1st, 2025 to March 31st, 2026
as attached.
[3:45:32] Thank you. Any questions or comments?
All in favor? That is carried. Uh thank
[3:45:39] you. That was a single item from
long-term care. I would turn once again
[3:45:43] Deputy Chief Gren for the emergency
services discussion report, please.
[3:45:46] Thank you chair to committee. Um the
bylaw is crossborder agreement uh for l
[3:45:53] county. Uh the recommendation is that el
committee recommend that the county
[3:45:58] council adopt a bylaw to enter into land
emulence crossber agreement between the
[3:46:04] county of r the corporation of the
county of rainf to the corporation of
[3:46:08] county of lanarch for the provision and
payment for land emulent services.
[3:46:14] » Uh thank you. Do I once again seek a
mover please?
[3:46:18] Councelor Weir, seconded by councelor
Doncastaster.
[3:46:22] Background please. So the background is
the province is a seamless service
[3:46:26] delivery model. Uh what that mean is the
closest available primary services
[3:46:32] regardless of the municipality boundary
is required to respond to emergency
[3:46:36] call. Uh these crossborder response most
commonly occur in a rural area uh where
[3:46:43] crew from a neighboring municipality are
closer to the incident or um to the
[3:46:50] local resource are temporary unavailable
due to increased call demand. Although
[3:46:55] the provincial legislation reconizes a
cost sharing agreement for crossborder
[3:47:00] services ended in 2015,
seven municipality including the county
[3:47:05] of Renfruit and the county of Lannarch
have mbal agree uh to continue the
[3:47:11] practice. The proposed agreement is a
10-year term expiring in December 31
[3:47:19] 206.
>> Uh thank you very much deputy chief.
[3:47:23] questions, comments. I'll start with
councelor Doncaster, please.
[3:47:29] » Thank you, chair. Um, [clears throat]
[3:47:34] my first question was around um
it's stated that I guess the the
[3:47:40] accounts are reconciled once a year kind
of thing. Is there any historical data
[3:47:44] on how
um how much how how many calls are being
[3:47:50] done in both directions? But I'm quite
convinced the data exists. I don't know
[3:47:54] if it's been compiled. Uh, Deputy Chief.
>> Yeah, the data exists. I don't have the
[3:48:00] the specific number with you. We're
talking about about $15,000 a year uh in
[3:48:06] term of exchange of money. Uh, and so
with the county of Lannarch and the
[3:48:10] county of Rent, we're both cost sharing.
Uh, so we have a a plus minus $15,000.
[3:48:18] » Is it plus or is it minus?
So, so we're charging some money to
[3:48:25] Lannarch and we're paying around $15,000
to Lannarch.
[3:48:30] » Okay.
>> And follow up. Y
[3:48:33] » um same well same issue [clears throat]
obviously. Um I'm just wondering if uh
[3:48:39] we uh quite some time ago we had an
agreement with the city of Ottawa. Have
[3:48:44] we
reopened that um can of worms and and
[3:48:49] tried to come up with an agreement with
the city of Ottawa?
[3:48:54] » It's it's been difficult to find the can
opener. Uh what I will say is that's
[3:48:58] consistent with what uh the deputy chief
had identified. So in through to 2015 uh
[3:49:04] the ambulance act actually mandated uh
that there be a financial
[3:49:09] reconciliation. We are obligated our
paramedic services as uh all paramedic
[3:49:13] services right across the county are
participating in the seamless delivery
[3:49:17] of emergency service. The province as a
50% funer 50% less whatever from last
[3:49:24] year. Um ultimately uh this is
appropriate.
[3:49:29] It was unclear to anyone uh why the
ambulance act in its in the amendment in
[3:49:37] 2015 removed
uh that financial reconciliation be a
[3:49:42] mandate from this one. Uh I'm certainly
am pleased uh that we continue to see uh
[3:49:50] paramedic services
uh will do the proper and just uh and
[3:49:56] equitable thing whether we are told to
do the proper and just and equitable
[3:50:01] thing or not.
[3:50:05] » Deputy chief you wish to add?
>> Thank you chair um to you. Um
[3:50:12] so for the Ottawa situation uh we don't
have an agreement with them at this this
[3:50:17] moment. Uh what we're uh working on or
we've been working on is to reduce
[3:50:23] reliability in term of the number of
call we do in in that region. uh we are
[3:50:28] reduced from our MPDS
um response like the the color that we
[3:50:36] are uh responsible to respond in that
municipality also the time uh frame of
[3:50:43] which we are responsible to go and and
help in that region. So that remov like
[3:50:49] our responsibility to to do that. Um I
can find more information if you require
[3:50:56] in that regard.
[3:50:59] » No,
[3:51:03] I'm I'm glad I gave you the opportunity
to jump on your soap box on that issue,
[3:51:07] but uh no, I just wondered if we had
reopened that concept to see if the city
[3:51:13] of Ottawa would pay. uh because that's
pretty much pretty much a one-way street
[3:51:19] in that direction. So, [clears throat]
>> so in in in fairness and as a reminder,
[3:51:24] uh MPDS, a medical priority dispatch
system has substantially changed uh some
[3:51:32] of the pressures that we were
experiencing.
[3:51:34] Uh there have been some other changes.
One of the things with the seamlessness
[3:51:40] is the closest ambulance responds to a
call. Uh where there is an an imbalance
[3:51:46] in this is typically
uh there is much more transfer from
[3:51:50] Renfruit County or even direct bypass
that is going directly into the city of
[3:51:54] Ottawa. So essentially if a county of
Renfruit par um ambulance
[3:52:01] uh is at a hospital in Ottawa, it is
effectively considered a city of Ottawa
[3:52:08] ambulance. If they are are uh utilizing
substantial amount of their their
[3:52:14] ambulances or in a code zero where they
have none available
[3:52:18] uh then our ambulances are considered
their the city of Ottawa ambulances. So
[3:52:23] that that continues to be. So I'm I'm
quite certain that there would be an
[3:52:27] imbalance there. But the the the
irritant uh remains from 2015 there has
[3:52:34] not been a an an agreement a direct uh
biparty agreement um with the city of
[3:52:41] Ottawa.
Anything further?
[3:52:46] Uh all in favor?
That is carried. Uh, I now seek a motion
[3:52:51] that the discussion reports be received
as presented. Please, councelor Watt,
[3:52:56] seconded by councelor Gardini. Further
and final opportunity for any question,
[3:53:01] comment.
Seeing none, all in favor. That is
[3:53:05] carried. Thank you. Uh, there are no
deferred reports. There are no verbal
[3:53:10] reports. There was in fact a closed
session, but we did tend to that up
[3:53:14] front. Uh is there any other new is
there any new or other business?
[3:53:21] Uh with that then I would seek a motion
to adjourn with a recommendation being
[3:53:25] that this meeting adjourn and the next
regular meeting be held on Wednesday
[3:53:29] August 12th 2026.
[3:53:34] Uh, councelor Weir,
councelor Mayville, all in favor that is
[3:53:41] carried. And councelor Gardini, five
minutes. Uh, so let's say uh 125 then
[3:53:48] that gives us 7 minutes. 125
sharp.
[4:03:03] Thank you. Uh good afternoon and welcome
to the Renfruit County Housing
[4:03:06] Corporation Board annual general
meeting. It is Wednesday, June 10th at
[4:03:12] 1:28.
Um I'd like to call this meeting to
[4:03:15] order and Miss Van Starkenberg has roll
call been taken.
[4:03:19] » Yes. Thank you, chair. And we have
quorum.
[4:03:21] » Thank you.
Are there any disclosures of pecuniary
[4:03:25] interest and general nature thereof?
[4:03:30] » Seeing none. Uh there are minutes a
recommendation that the minutes of the
[4:03:35] April 8th, 2026 meeting be approved. Can
I get a mover in a second, please? Moved
[4:03:40] by the member from North Ala
Wilberforce. Second by the member from
[4:03:43] Martin Prior.
Any errors or missions? Seeing none. All
[4:03:49] in favor? Carried.
[4:03:54] Delegations and presentations. Uh we
will have two this afternoon. And the
[4:03:58] first one um I will ask um the chief
operating officer, Miss Patrick, to
[4:04:04] introduce the delegation, please.
>> Thank you very much, chair, and through
[4:04:07] you to the board. Good afternoon,
everyone. It's my uh pleasure to invite
[4:04:12] uh Jennifer Drosski, community housing
manager, and uh Kevin Ratit, real estate
[4:04:16] manager, up to the podium to provide a
brief overview of the uh Renford County
[4:04:21] Housing Corporation annual general
report for 2025.
[4:04:56] There we go. Good afternoon.
[laughter and gasps] It's my pleasure to
[4:05:01] present a few highlights from the 2025
Brenfruit County Housing Corporation AGM
[4:05:07] report on behalf of our community
services department. And you'll see that
[4:05:12] we have a photo up on the first slide.
You may recognize a few faces on the
[4:05:17] screen. This was from an event that
happened on May 19th in Renfruit. We
[4:05:23] were very happy to um celebrate the
opening of a triplex on Francis Street.
[4:05:32] And uh just wanting to note that uh this
construction and construction like this
[4:05:38] is what really is part of our vision
forward and it demonstrates the county
[4:05:45] of Renfruit's stewardship role and deep
commitment to ensuring deeply affordable
[4:05:52] housing within the county.
[4:06:02] I just wanted to take a few moments to
review to you review with you what's
[4:06:08] fundamental for the services that we
provide.
[4:06:11] A culture of collaboration and care is
the foundation for how the county of
[4:06:16] Renfruit provides services.
This is our MESA philosophy and practice
[4:06:23] within community housing specifically.
Over the last several years, services
[4:06:29] have transformed ever more so
recognizing and responding to support
[4:06:34] health, wellness, and community
connection.
[4:06:39] Our goal is to help our tenants remain
safely and affordably housed.
[4:06:44] We do this through inclusive
and ongoing partnerships,
[4:06:50] staff training to support a
traumainformed
[4:06:53] practice and well-being supports such as
wellness check-in meetings at tenant
[4:06:59] homes as well as community gardens.
We rely on the support and skills of our
[4:07:06] team in a multid-disciplinary way
through our peer committee and we are
[4:07:11] committed to advancing relational
investment by increasing outreach
[4:07:16] services and through partnerships that
are colllocated at our facilities such
[4:07:22] as the Boys and Girls Club that is at
one of our units at Lee Street and
[4:07:26] Pemrook
providing services to those in the
[4:07:29] community as well as the Barry's Bay and
senior support services that are
[4:07:34] coll-located with us at our apartment at
75 Stafford Street in Berries Bay.
[4:07:43] Our values within community services and
I'm sure for the whole county of
[4:07:48] Renfruit, all of us here are equity,
collaboration, empowerment,
[4:07:54] transparency,
and compassion. And we've believed that
[4:07:58] this is essential for supporting people
but also necessary to achieve outcomes.
[4:08:04] These values come to life when we let
real-time data guide our work.
[4:08:10] Through our 2025 by name list, we were
able to learn more about 131 individuals
[4:08:18] that were experiencing homelessness.
And this provided us with an up-to-date
[4:08:23] picture of the needs in the community
that helps us to target the supports
[4:08:28] that we tailor for these people. Of
those individuals, 22%
[4:08:34] 29 people identified as indigenous and
that understanding is helping us to
[4:08:40] shape a more culturally responsive
support system.
[4:08:46] We are also seeing the connections
between housing and health more clearly
[4:08:50] than ever.
50 out of 370 mental health clients
[4:08:56] through the Pemrook Regional Hospital,
about 13.5%
[4:09:01] reside within Renfruit County Housing
Corporation Homes. And for us, this
[4:09:06] reinforces the importance of working
collaboratively with our health service
[4:09:10] providers, including our hospital
providers partners.
[4:09:17] 142 tenants were supported and continue
to be supported by the county of
[4:09:22] Renfruit's community paramedic program
within Renfruit County Housing
[4:09:26] Corporation. And this service is helping
us to deliver more integrated wraparound
[4:09:33] care that promotes health and housing
retention
[4:09:37] together. This work is improving
alignment across community housing,
[4:09:41] health, and emergency services and is
directly informing our vision forward
[4:09:46] priorities and the system improvements
that we are committed to advancing.
[4:09:56] This slide here captures six ways that
our community services department moved
[4:10:01] forward in 2025.
And I'll take a few moments to walk us
[4:10:06] through each one of these areas with a
quick example.
[4:10:11] First, we strengthened integration
across our programs and service areas.
[4:10:17] And I believe a good illustration of
this is embedded in our practice of
[4:10:21] crossprogram case conferencing.
An example, when we're supporting a
[4:10:27] family tenency, we bring children's
services, Ontario works or community
[4:10:32] support services, and community housing
staff together to help that family
[4:10:38] navigate the individualized supports and
benefits that may be available to them.
[4:10:44] We advance modernization and
datainformed initiatives. We recently
[4:10:48] onboarded a data program called Invisio
which is helping us to track measures
[4:10:53] and outcomes that are aligned with our
community services strategic plan. And
[4:10:58] we're now on boarding a Corey to replace
our current tenant management software,
[4:11:04] Yardi. And we believe that Corey will
give us an improved ability to customize
[4:11:10] our data needs. And uh we believe that
will be really helpful to inform
[4:11:16] decisions moving forward. We're also
moving forward with um bringing our
[4:11:21] annual review annual information review
system online. And this will provide
[4:11:27] tenants with another convenient option
for reporting their information compared
[4:11:32] to the current uh paper process. We
expanded collaboration with our
[4:11:37] community partners. We're meeting them
more often to coordinate supports.
[4:11:43] And because of those relationships and
because we are meeting frequently and
[4:11:47] talking frequently, the relationships
are becoming ever so welldeveloped. And
[4:11:52] this is helping us to respond more
quickly and effectively. We responded
[4:11:57] flexibly, sorry, we responded flexibly
to an evolving health crisis and we
[4:12:03] continue to adapt our services to meet
the changing health and wellness needs
[4:12:08] of our tenants.
A good example is our response to high
[4:12:13] content supports throughout 2024. You
may recall that we built up our staff
[4:12:19] skill and technical level that helped
tenants deal with this very complex
[4:12:27] issue. We did this through working um in
a pilot with the Peenrook Regional
[4:12:33] Hospital mental health services to learn
more about how to best support people
[4:12:38] that may be struggling with high content
issues or or hoarding. And as a result
[4:12:43] of this, our staff are now far better
equipped to help tenants in these
[4:12:47] situations.
We increased outreach for complex client
[4:12:52] needs through our community supports
outreach program. We we introduced
[4:12:57] additional services for housing tenants
that help support people with necessary
[4:13:03] life skills. Examples of that being help
with budgeting or even help with uh
[4:13:09] guidance for housekeeping tasks.
And finally, we improve cross program
[4:13:15] coordination through our human services
integration focus. We introduce pro
[4:13:21] cross program supervisors within our
community services team. And at the same
[4:13:26] time, we steadily increase knowledge
transfer between our programs. All of
[4:13:31] this combines to help our team work more
seamlessly,
[4:13:36] which results in improved service
pathways for the people that we are here
[4:13:41] to serve.
[4:13:47] This slide offers a glance of our
community housing weight list statistics
[4:13:52] and you can get a closer look at that on
pages 25 and 26 of the AGM report. What
[4:13:58] I'd like to highlight here is that while
the weight list numbers are high and
[4:14:04] they continue to grow, they don't
actually capture the true community need
[4:14:09] for deeply affordable housing. These
figures only reflect the people who have
[4:14:13] applied for rent geared to income
support and we suspect many others
[4:14:18] haven't applied at all because the wait
times are so long. We receive doz dozens
[4:14:24] of calls every day from the public and
from our partners with inquiries about
[4:14:31] how much longer it's going to take for
somebody to get into housing.
[4:14:38] For our weight list, there's essentially
three parts to it. The weight list
[4:14:44] altogether is a chronological weight,
but there's a priority ranking. The
[4:14:49] first priority goes to those that are
identified under the housing services
[4:14:54] act as having special priority status
and those are people who have
[4:14:58] experienced domestic violence or human
trafficking. They are offered the vacant
[4:15:03] units first.
This is followed by our local housing
[4:15:08] prioritization called MESA community
housing prioritization.
[4:15:12] And this provides an advanced community
housing pathway for some people that are
[4:15:19] residing within the heart hub bridge
housing when they're ready to to move on
[4:15:24] from that programming.
And then the the more broader um part of
[4:15:29] the weight list is what we refer to as
our general chronological weight. And
[4:15:34] unfortunately um for those folks the the
wait is quite long upwards of of 10
[4:15:40] years or or more.
I wanted to provide an update um
[4:15:45] regarding the work that we're doing to
improve the the weight list. Starting in
[4:15:50] May 2026, we had two students join us to
kick off our weight list modernization
[4:15:56] initiative. And this work is really
about ensuring that the information we
[4:16:03] have is accurate and we want to ensure
that it is accurate so that we can focus
[4:16:09] our limited supports and limited
resources to those that need us the
[4:16:13] most. We are strengthening our
application eligibility review so that
[4:16:17] applicants clearly meet income and asset
requirements. And this is aligned with
[4:16:23] the community services priority of
directing limited resources to those
[4:16:27] with the greatest depth of need.
Eligibility continues to be confirmed
[4:16:32] when an applicant initially applies, but
new for 2026, we will introduce a
[4:16:38] bi-weekly or sorry by annual review to
determine continued eligibility.
[4:16:44] Those check-ins will also create an a
natural opportunity for community
[4:16:49] services staff to to connect with
applicants on the wait list to update
[4:16:54] their information, but to also um
connect them with um possible interm
[4:17:00] supports while they wait. And we're
doing this so that no one is simply left
[4:17:04] on the wait list with no point of
contact or no path forward for help.
[4:17:17] This slide here provides an overview of
our rent affordability and homelessness
[4:17:21] prevention programs. At the top we have
um rent geared to income housing. So of
[4:17:28] course that is within Renfruit County
Housing Corporation, but there's also um
[4:17:33] units within five nonprofit housing
providers across the county of Renfruit.
[4:17:39] And uh we'll look over at number three.
Um rent geared to income um is also for
[4:17:45] the rent supplement program. So as I
mentioned a bit earlier, there is um
[4:17:50] income um criteria that must be met to
qualify. The asset limit to qualify for
[4:17:59] housing. One's family must be um having
$50,000 or less in assets. And there are
[4:18:05] certain, you know, exemptions there such
as owning a vehicle or locked in
[4:18:10] retirement plans and so forth. And then
um the income part of it is defined
[4:18:15] within the housing services act and more
information about um income levels and
[4:18:21] rent amounts are on page 23 of the AGM
report. Um but I just wanted to
[4:18:26] highlight that the maximum rent for
onebedroom within Renfruit County
[4:18:31] Housing um for 2025 was 8 63
and the annual income cutoff for the
[4:18:40] one-bedroom unit was 38,500.
[4:18:44] The emergency assistance and
homelessness prevention program funded
[4:18:48] through HPP from the province of Ontario
is delivered through the community
[4:18:53] supports division. And this helps
connect people with urgent financial
[4:18:59] assistance. So they're able to stay
housed or they're able to acquire a
[4:19:04] home. And this can help with expenses
such as um utility disconnection fees or
[4:19:11] last month's rent.
the rent supplement program. Um we also
[4:19:15] refer to this as private market rent
gear to income. And um for 2025 we
[4:19:22] assisted 74 households on average and
the average monthly subsidy was about
[4:19:29] $540
for those households.
[4:19:33] The rent allowance program for 2025
assisted about 210 households. 70% of
[4:19:42] those households were um households
without children. And the amounts that
[4:19:47] we issue for households without children
is $300 per month directly over to the
[4:19:52] landlord. And for households with
children, the amount is $400 per month.
[4:19:57] And lastly, we have the emergency minor
home repair program. And this program is
[4:20:03] for lowincome homeowners and can help
with um essential repairs. So that could
[4:20:09] include something like uh a roof repair
or even an accessibility modification at
[4:20:14] a doorway so that somebody can get into
their home. And for 2425 fiscal year, we
[4:20:20] assisted 20 households. And for 2526
fiscal year, we assisted eight.
[4:20:29] [snorts] And last but not least, um I
wanted to take this opportunity to to
[4:20:35] thank all of council for your continued
leadership and support for the programs
[4:20:41] and the people
within community services. Um I also
[4:20:46] would be remiss if I did not recognize
the heart of everything that we do, that
[4:20:52] being our county of Renfruit staff. And
I say county of Renfruit staff because
[4:20:57] it really is, you know, inclusive to all
of the county of Renfruit staff. When
[4:21:01] we're supporting people in housing, you
know, there's community services, we
[4:21:05] have finance, we have development and
property. It's a it's it certainly is a
[4:21:10] a team approach. And uh I think we can
all reflect upon the county's why
[4:21:16] knowing that our services do cultivate a
compassionate, collaborative, creative,
[4:21:21] and inclusive environment, providing our
community with meaningful support and
[4:21:26] innovative solutions. Thank you. And
I'll pass the mic on to my colleague
[4:21:30] Kevin Ratitz. [panting]
[4:21:46] Thank you, Jennifer, and and through
you, chair. Good afternoon.
[4:21:54] So, in our housing in our
[clears throat] housing portfolio, we
[4:21:59] have uh,32
residential units. Um and that
[4:22:05] translates into about 1.1 million square
feet of real estate. Of course um these
[4:22:11] units consist of um apartments, town
houses,
[4:22:16] single and semi- detached homes which
are located throughout the county and in
[4:22:21] the city of Pamroke.
So, in 2025, [clears throat]
[4:22:27] um it was another another busy year and
just I'll mention some you'll see some
[4:22:32] of the projects and milestones uh up on
the screen. Of course, there was the 135
[4:22:39] Francis Street uh triplex and that's
where we removed a uh wartime home from
[4:22:45] the property and replaced it with a 2100
ft um triplex.
[4:22:52] There was the um over 2024 Vimemy uh
Boulevard. We converted that uh space.
[4:23:00] It was a storage space, a garage. We
converted that into a two-bedroom
[4:23:05] uh apartment. And of course, the Palmer
Rapids septic system replacement, that
[4:23:10] was a uh unplanned or an emergency
project where we had to replace a a
[4:23:16] septic system. And I think the price tag
on that was about $283,000.
[4:23:21] for that emergency repair.
And the Lee Street project that was
[4:23:26] somewhat of a a significant and I'll say
unique project where we did a 8 unit uh
[4:23:33] rehabilitation.
Um there was a lot of u coordination and
[4:23:39] scheduling involved for that that
project. Um we had to vacate the uh and
[4:23:46] and relocate the tenants uh before we
were able to uh conduct the work. And
[4:23:52] that work involved um we
addressed some of the um structural
[4:23:59] deficiencies. There were some foundation
issues. uh drainage concerns as well as
[4:24:06] and of course we uh uh upgraded u some
energy efficient uh units with
[4:24:13] insulation.
Um [clears throat] so with that project
[4:24:17] there we were able to there was some
considerable cost savings uh due to the
[4:24:21] fact that the uh the contractors
um were on site for a period of time and
[4:24:28] of course evidently they were just able
to move from uh unit uh to unit. So, not
[4:24:33] only was there cost savings, but um it
reduced the uh the timeline of the
[4:24:38] projects, which we completed that
project in about a 9-month period. And
[4:24:43] you can see some of the the pictures up
there. It does you can see the Lee
[4:24:48] Street photo um of the uh the new newly
renovated uh unit. [clears throat]
[4:24:57] And then of course over at the uh 700
McKay uh care for building, we um
[4:25:04] constructed uh another uh eight bedrooms
and upgraded the kitchen facilities and
[4:25:11] laundry facilities.
[4:25:17] Um in 2025 the capital projects we had
approximately it's we kind of averaged
[4:25:22] in the last few years about about $5
million uh in capital projects both
[4:25:27] planned and unplanned. Uh last year we
had over 130 projects that were
[4:25:32] completed and uh some of them involved
you see paving of parking lots uh over
[4:25:38] at the Bronx and Reynolds complex. We
replaced some exterior doors. to be was
[4:25:44] about over 40 doors that were replaced.
Um the over at 41 Vimemy in Renfruit, we
[4:25:51] had a porch roof. We installed new porch
roofs and uh Spruce Street uh roof
[4:25:57] replacement as well as other buildings
where we replace the roofs and the
[4:26:02] regarding the electrical electrical
upgrades. We did uh four buildings last
[4:26:07] year where we converted the existing
fluorescent lights to LED and we
[4:26:12] continue with that this year. I think we
have another nine sites scheduled uh to
[4:26:17] do that conversion this year. As you can
see in the chart, probably about half of
[4:26:22] our projects are related to u structure.
[4:26:31] And of course uh every year we we
encounter and deal with uh emergencies
[4:26:36] uh or unplanned projects. Um but one
good news story as you see up there at
[4:26:42] 2025
uh we had we had no fires and um as of
[4:26:48] 2026 to date um knock on wood uh no no
fires and we trust that that trend
[4:26:56] continues. But of course we did respond
to multiple uh building system failures.
[4:27:00] As you can see in some of the photos up
there in the top right hand corner, we
[4:27:05] replaced some um furnaces with high
efficiency furnaces. We replaced some
[4:27:11] electrical panels that were damaged due
to uh water. And then of course the
[4:27:16] middle picture was uh one of those
emergency projects where um
[4:27:23] the sanitary sewer line failed. It was a
a 60 unit apartment complex and as you
[4:27:29] can see in the picture um it uh it the
original u sanitary line which was
[4:27:37] located underneath the slab of the
building of course was approximately
[4:27:41] about you know 50 plus years old it had
failed. Uh so in order to address that
[4:27:46] and correct that repair that sanitary
line um we had to cut through the uh 8
[4:27:54] in slab in the hallway um a probably
about 20 in wide and it was about 50 ft
[4:28:01] in length and so it was uh it was a
considerable emergency project but I
[4:28:07] think we were able to have that restored
within about a 3-day period. And of
[4:28:12] course um we did have some u storm and
sanitary backups over at Solivan
[4:28:17] Crescent. And last year there was a
total of 73
[4:28:22] um sewer backups in in the portfolio.
[4:28:29] So on the operations and maintenance
side of the business, you know, we
[4:28:33] continue uh continue progression from
reactive to pro proactive maintenance
[4:28:38] model which uh we've had some success
with that. [sighs]
[4:28:41] Um we are able to 2025 we maintained a
vacancy rate of about 3 to 4% which
[4:28:47] which is about uh 35 to 40 units and as
you can see we completed 102 vacant uh
[4:28:56] units. We repaired them and and turned
them over. As I indicated earlier, uh
[4:29:00] 2025 was a busy year busy year. You can
see where [clears throat]
[4:29:05] there was 30 over 3,700 work orders,
which averages about 300 work orders per
[4:29:11] month. And uh if you look at the chart,
you can see about 50% of that, half of
[4:29:16] that is related to electrical and
plumbing. And then of course in the
[4:29:21] portfolio we completed um 100% uh
inspections, building inspections in the
[4:29:28] portfolio. And I'll maybe just elaborate
a little bit on that. That's uh it's a
[4:29:34] um considerable uh time consuming
exercise. We estimated that there was
[4:29:40] probably over a thousand uh staff hours
involved in this annual exercise. And
[4:29:46] what that consists of, we have the
building infrastructure coordinators.
[4:29:51] They will do inspections within the the
units. Um so they they go to the unit
[4:29:56] and do a walk through, a visual
inspection and they have a uh inspection
[4:30:00] list um for a report which there's about
uh 80 plus line items on that report and
[4:30:07] the uh information is documented on that
reported by a lot of pictures. And then
[4:30:14] of course it doesn't end there. Uh
[clears throat] because of the items
[4:30:18] that's identified, there's work orders
created uh in order to address some of
[4:30:23] the priority um issues or priority
items. And sometimes it's not only a
[4:30:30] work order, it translates into uh small
small projects.
[4:30:35] Um again a very uh timeconsuming
u exercise each year but very important
[4:30:45] and 2026 uh some capital projects again
we have about uh $5 million
[4:30:52] uh scheduled for this year uh consisting
of there's probably 70 plus projects
[4:30:57] planned projects of course there will be
some emergencies and unplanned projects
[4:31:01] uh as well um We in I believe it was
it's seven seven units to date we have
[4:31:13] uh moved to the digital keying systems.
It's a fob system. Uh in we did a pilot
[4:31:19] project in one of the uh units where
we've replaced and modernized the uh
[4:31:25] laundry equipment, the washing machines
and dryers which were uh currently they
[4:31:31] were currently coin operated and we
upgraded them replaced them to uh modern
[4:31:37] technology.
And of course uh we have uh several
[4:31:41] roofing projects and insulation projects
this year u upgrades to elevators and we
[4:31:47] anticipate doing uh possibly another
triplex replicating the 135 Francis
[4:31:52] project and um also we continue with
balcony inspections and some complexes
[4:31:59] where we'll be actually removing the uh
balconies.
[4:32:07] Sorry.
Sorry.
[4:32:11] Um in the revi revitalation
revitalization strategy uh vision
[4:32:17] forward. You know we continue
incrementally increase unit density by
[4:32:22] converting wartime homes to triplexes or
possibly even quadlexes. Um we're going
[4:32:28] to replace units that have been the
higher priority that has been identified
[4:32:32] for devestment through our building
condition assessments. Um we received
[4:32:37] that report in 2024.
And of course there's u other
[4:32:41] opportunities within the county for um
development redevelopment of properties.
[4:32:47] Um as as you can see up on the screen
there's a couple of potential uh
[4:32:52] development sites in in the county
[4:33:00] and uh moving forward into into the
future. Um, you know, some of our
[4:33:06] priorities, you know, we want to
continue with the uh transition to
[4:33:10] proactive maintenance and long-term
asset management. Uh, continue with
[4:33:15] supporting tenant the well-being
uh through uh safe and secure and
[4:33:21] well-maintained communities, improve
accessibility,
[4:33:25] um, energy efficient energy efficiency
and long-term sustainability uh, while
[4:33:30] reducing maintenance and operating
costs. um in the housing portfolio with
[4:33:36] new development and building upgrades
and continue with u maint maintain low
[4:33:42] vacancy rates and reduce u unit
turnovers.
[4:33:46] Of course, all these uh priorities are
only made possible uh with our continued
[4:33:54] um dedication and prof professionalism
uh from our staff. And um in our
[4:34:01] division, we are are fortunate and I
sincerely say that we are fortunate to
[4:34:06] have a a team that is um very
conscientious uh committed uh a
[4:34:13] remarkable a remarkable work ethic and
they really do care what they do each
[4:34:17] each and every day. And uh a thank you
to uh the senior leadership team for for
[4:34:22] your guidance and um also a big thank
you to county council for your ongoing
[4:34:28] support. Thank you.
[4:34:33] » Thank you Kevin and Jennifer. Um two
very good reports and I think I'd like
[4:34:38] to echo what uh Jennifer said in
thanking all the staff everywhere for
[4:34:44] what you do. I mean, it's not an easy
job to do. Um, you know, helping people
[4:34:48] maintain their basic,
um, need for housing. Are there any
[4:34:54] questions? I'll take the first question
from the city of Penrook, please.
[4:34:58] » Madame Chair, Mr. Ratis, and Mr.
Umbrowski, thank you for the wonderful
[4:35:02] report. Uh, I live in an area where
there's social housing is sort of all
[4:35:08] around me. I grew up uh you know in in a
private home with my parents and uh
[4:35:13] other people didn't have the
opportunities perhaps that I had in a
[4:35:17] very humble environment. Uh but I know
that uh social housing you know in many
[4:35:23] uh instances uh you know when families
encounter a sinking ship you're their
[4:35:28] life raft till they can get on to better
things. And I know particularly that uh
[4:35:33] two individuals that I knew that I kind
of grew up with, they're a little bit
[4:35:37] younger than me. Uh they ended up in
social housing due to circumstances
[4:35:43] beyond their control. And I remember one
young boy, he had three paper routes in
[4:35:48] order to help his mother offset the
costs of the rent. And I mean, as I
[4:35:53] said, you were their life raft till they
could go on to better things and be
[4:35:57] rescued. and that you know today that
one individual that had the three paper
[4:36:01] routes has a very successful business
and he employs 70 people and it's
[4:36:08] because of organizations that I think
such as the boys and girls club who
[4:36:13] reached out to these individuals and uh
show them that there were other things
[4:36:17] available for you know that perhaps kept
them out of mischief. uh they learned
[4:36:22] something. They learned to uh uh coexist
with one another. Uh they learned about
[4:36:27] relationships.
And as a former mayor of Pemrook some
[4:36:31] years ago, I went to one of those Boys
and Girls Club meetings on Cecil Street
[4:36:37] and I saw for myself the dedication of
the staff uh you know the volunteers and
[4:36:43] the parents to help those children uh
lives become better.
[4:36:49] another individual faced the same
circumstances and I hope I'm not going
[4:36:53] on too long. Uh is now in a leadership
role. He joined the military and he's in
[4:36:58] Latafia and I mean if it wasn't for you
know folks such as Renford C County
[4:37:04] Housing Authority and the excellent
staff to keeping the buildings in shape
[4:37:08] whatever and your interest and your uh
your commitment uh you know those folks
[4:37:15] probably wouldn't have had that chance.
Uh, councelor Watt and I were talking
[4:37:18] earlier a little bit during the break.
Uh, we've been friends, well, I think
[4:37:22] we've been friends for uh, 60 years and
uh, we were just discussing about small,
[4:37:28] you know, councils as opposed to this
county setting. And he said to me, what
[4:37:33] do you think? I said, well, you know,
our situations are different in a
[4:37:36] smaller community council. But I said,
this group are professional. I mean, uh,
[4:37:42] you know, we're very fortunate as
municipalities that we have the Renfruit
[4:37:46] County Group such as this one to help us
carry on and make life better for
[4:37:51] everyone. So, thank you very much. I
appreciate it.
[4:37:58] » Thank you for sharing that. Are there
any other member from Aron Prior,
[4:38:02] please?
>> Thank you, chair. Thanks,
[4:38:04] [clears throat] Melissa. Thanks, Kevin.
Melissa, the question you had was or
[4:38:08] didn't one of your statements was that
do you review the applicants to bring
[4:38:12] their applicants applicants or
applications up to speed every six
[4:38:18] months or semianually?
Geez, what a day. Been a long day.
[4:38:22] semianually
people that are in the residence today.
[4:38:28] Do we do a
semianual or annual update on what their
[4:38:36] income is? Like hypothetically, I got in
there, I was a
[4:38:42] Tim Horton server and now I'm the
manager. So my my wages have tripled.
[4:38:49] Does that get taken into account? and
then I get moved out or how does that
[4:38:54] work? Thank you.
>> Yeah.
[4:38:58] » Thank you. Through chair through chair
to to council. Um for current tenants,
[4:39:05] we have a process called annual
information review. And that's when we
[4:39:10] have tenant households confirm a lot of
information you as to you know who all
[4:39:16] is living there um any special needs
they may have along with their financial
[4:39:22] information. So we focus over on assets
and assets are you know self-disclosed
[4:39:28] to to us and then income we require um
verification of income most commonly
[4:39:33] that is uh their income tax assessment
for the previous year. So most
[4:39:38] definitely we do evaluate their income
to determine the level of subsidy that
[4:39:44] they may receive for those whose income
is higher. They can continue to reside
[4:39:50] within Renfruit County Housing
Corporation because it's the housing
[4:39:53] services act that speaks to the social
assistance part of it, the rate of
[4:39:58] subsidy, but it's the residential
tenency act that protects people's
[4:40:03] rights to continue living within their
home. So, if somebody's income is now
[4:40:08] high and and I think it's great a lot of
tenants, you know, um have been able to
[4:40:13] increase their incomes um they still
have a home with Renfruit County Housing
[4:40:18] and we appreciate that people, you know,
are reluctant to move um because the
[4:40:24] rents are just so unaffordable in the
community. When we think about, you
[4:40:28] know, what a one-bedroom costs in the
private market or a two-bedroom or a
[4:40:31] threebedroom, um, despite income
increases within our CHC households, it
[4:40:37] still isn't enough to have people
venture out along the housing continuum.
[4:40:42] » Thank you.
>> Are there any um member from North Alono
[4:40:48] Wilberforce, please?
>> Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you,
[4:40:51] Jennifer and Kevin. Excellent
presentation. I think I have a question
[4:40:55] for each one of you. Um, Kevin, I know
that I was really pleased to see that
[4:41:01] 100% of the unit inspections have been
completed and I'm just guessing that
[4:41:07] that may have had some impact as to the
reduction in the fires and hopefully
[4:41:13] being proactive that helps uh keep that
number at zero.
[4:41:21] And for Jennifer, I was just curious as
well. I know there's a new program where
[4:41:27] rather than move toward eviction as
quickly as maybe we did in the past,
[4:41:33] there's more intervention now, more
support, and I'm just interested
[4:41:38] year-over-year what that reduction in
eviction notices might look like. Thank
[4:41:43] you.
[4:41:47] » Go first.
>> Uh, thank you for that question. Thank
[4:41:50] you, chair. Um yeah, we're we're
optimistic and um I said we hope the
[4:41:58] trend continues where there there are no
fires. Um regarding the building in
[4:42:05] inspections, we would think that uh you
know there's some dividends being being
[4:42:11] paid through those um inspections.
[4:42:20] member from Admir Bramman, please. Uh
>> thank you very much, Madame Chair, and
[4:42:24] as with all of my colleagues, uh thank
you to Miss Dumbroski and Mr. Ratit's uh
[4:42:29] outstanding report. Uh the the it's
always important to recognize um those
[4:42:35] folks that are leaving precarious lives
within our community. We must embrace
[4:42:38] them. Uh there was one question I had on
the capital projects page. So, uh, it
[4:42:45] appears that vacancy turnover is just
under $3 and $10 of of our capital
[4:42:50] expenditures. Is that kind of consistent
with with uh with rental properties?
[4:43:00] » Um,
I may direct that over to Mr. Mr. Davis.
[4:43:09] [laughter]
>> I do like to involve as many staff as
[4:43:12] possible. Mr. Davis, please.
>> Thank you, Chair and three. So, um, to
[4:43:16] be to be blunt and and open, I think
we'll have to get back to you on that
[4:43:19] question to see if, um, what's
consistent with the public compared to
[4:43:23] the private market.
>> Thank you,
[4:43:27] » member from uh, Greater Madawasco,
please.
[4:43:30] » Thank you. And through you, chair. Just
a quick question. I know that I we're
[4:43:36] looking at some housing changes in Armp
Prior, Renfruit, some rehabilitations of
[4:43:41] that. Um, as we progress and as we move
forward, um, areas such as Cobden that
[4:43:49] may be growing with a mine area that
that will attract workers, is there any
[4:43:54] thought going down the road of possibly
selling some units and run through an
[4:43:58] armpire and then purchasing properties
in in other areas that may be growing
[4:44:04] within the county?
[4:44:11] Um,
>> Mr. Davis.
[4:44:14] » Sure. I don't mind, Chair. And
>> you're going to give me whip last year.
[4:44:18] Don't go there.
>> No, I I don't mind, Shar. And thank you.
[4:44:20] And through you. So, when we look at our
portfolio as a whole, our 132 units, um,
[4:44:26] we typically look at rebuilding what we
have in those locations. Other locations
[4:44:31] like your municipality where may not
have our RCHC units, um, we'd be looking
[4:44:36] for partnerships. Um, we've engaged with
some partnerships already to see what we
[4:44:40] can do in your municipality and any
municipality in Renford County. We've
[4:44:44] talked openly about a care for
partnership. We've talked openly about a
[4:44:48] um, our empire regional health as a
partnership to expand our portfolio
[4:44:52] while Deep River, sorry, Deep River 2,
thank you uh, CEO. While we look at
[4:44:57] these units, um, I think we've talked
about this in the past during our vision
[4:45:01] forward or 5-year plan. when we replace
a unit with three units, this is when we
[4:45:06] can look at internally with our CEO and
director Patrick, what can we divest
[4:45:10] ourselves with after that? So, it's not
a matter of building more than 1,032
[4:45:15] units. That's not our our standard, but
we have an opportunity now to divest
[4:45:19] ourselves with units like we talked
about openly about the 24 units at
[4:45:23] Nelson Street. With those monies, we
then can look at the partnerships and
[4:45:27] build somewhere some other locations.
>> Yeah. and like it does benefit that we
[4:45:32] have municipal lands and other municipal
lands in our portfolio.
[4:45:39] » Okay, thank you. Miss Dan Broski would
like to answer one of the questions from
[4:45:44] Yeah,
>> thank you through chair to council. Um,
[4:45:50] thank you councelor Bros for uh raising
the the point about the the efforts that
[4:45:56] we are doing to help people stay within
their homes. Uh we can call it housing
[4:46:02] retention, we can call it eviction
mitigation, but it really is about
[4:46:05] helping people stay in their homes. And
uh we are doing everything that we can
[4:46:11] with a health and a traumainformed
collaborative lens. We are working
[4:46:16] within our own team within community
services. Um really having meaningful,
[4:46:23] you know, collaborative meetings through
our peer committee. Um turning over
[4:46:27] every single option. um talking with
mental health services and and other
[4:46:33] support providers and trying to come up
with a plan not just for the person but
[4:46:38] with the person so that they can
overcome some of the challenges that
[4:46:43] they're facing. I'd like to say that
we're very close to having a no eviction
[4:46:47] policy within Renfruit County Housing
Corporation and uh I I talk about it
[4:46:54] very generically because um this has to
do with people and of course you know
[4:46:59] all the circumstances are are individual
um but you know that is our mission to
[4:47:04] keep people in their homes.
>> Thank you for that. Are there any other
[4:47:09] questions or comments? Member from
Renfruit please.
[4:47:12] » Uh thank you very much. an excellent
report and I really enjoy just comparing
[4:47:16] numbers. Uh so I'm curious uh if you can
offer some insight into the graph that
[4:47:24] shows households that moved out of our
CHC units. Last year we're 65 and this
[4:47:29] year we're 95. So that seems like a
pretty significant increase and I'm just
[4:47:33] wondering you know what you can offer on
that please.
[4:47:42] So the reason for moveouts can be for a
variety of of reasons. Um we really
[4:47:49] don't have any trend that's pointing out
to say that it's any one given thing. Um
[4:47:56] generically, you know, people we find
move because they are choosing to to
[4:48:02] move communities. um they perhaps have
opportunities for other services or
[4:48:07] employment or or family connections or
in some situations
[4:48:13] um they become homeowners or in some
situations their close relationships
[4:48:18] change and they may now cohabitate over
in a spousall like relationship. Um so
[4:48:24] there's a variety of reasons.
>> Okay. Thank you. and and just the
[4:48:30] waiting or the weightless modernization.
Um
[4:48:35] it's it looks like we have more of a
requirement for one bedroom and it looks
[4:48:40] like an older adult population when I
look at the when I look at the little
[4:48:46] bar graphs. Is that is that a fair
assessment?
[4:48:49] » Yes, through you chair to council. That
absolutely is a fair assessment. The
[4:48:54] biggest pressure point is for the
one-bedroom and twobedroom units with
[4:48:57] throughout our portfolio.
>> Thank you.
[4:49:01] » Thank you. Are there any other questions
or comments? Member from Whitewater,
[4:49:05] please.
>> Thank you, Chair, and to Jennifer and
[4:49:09] Kevin. Thank you for all you do
throughout the year. We only get to uh
[4:49:15] to really recognize it when you come
here to do the AGM presentations.
[4:49:19] Usually, it's bad news if we see you
between AGMs. Um, but I I thank you for
[4:49:25] that. Your presentation today was really
good. Like from a it was
[4:49:31] uh
it really spoke to the improvements that
[4:49:35] were making in the process. Jennifer,
from your side, the six uh areas that
[4:49:40] you highlighted within the community
services development department, the
[4:49:44] examples you gave of how you're
increasing integration, modernization,
[4:49:49] collaborate, that that is exactly, I
think, what council has wanted. Uh we
[4:49:54] may not be able to make the difference
and build another thousand homes, but we
[4:49:57] can do better to to support the people
that we can within the resources we
[4:50:02] have. So, I I want I want to recognize
you and of course the director and her
[4:50:06] whole team for that type that that
investment you're making in those
[4:50:10] efforts. And Kevin, it goes without
saying
[4:50:14] trying to be proactive and making sure
that the limited dollars that we have
[4:50:19] available are are supporting these the
limited assets we have. When you take a
[4:50:25] look at the money we're putting in to
repair uh a portion of a building
[4:50:29] knowing that the roof is next and we
can't afford to do the roof, but it's
[4:50:33] going to cause more damage. This is the
type of thing that you're tackling. And
[4:50:37] I know we're not throwing enough money
at you to solve it yet, but you are
[4:50:41] making headway and we're seeing it with
the examples at Francis Street. So, I I
[4:50:46] just want to I want to thank both of you
and your teams for this type of
[4:50:49] investment and effort.
Uh, I have a couple questions about
[4:50:53] numbers and sorry, they're going to be
more for Jennifer and Kevin. [laughter]
[4:50:57] Um, when I look at the total number of
households that Renford County Housing
[4:51:02] supports
between the different programs you
[4:51:05] outlined,
it's about 1,525
[4:51:09] households.
Add in the heart hub at another 12 to 24
[4:51:15] depending on the state of it. We're
really right now based on the dollars
[4:51:19] we're going to talk about later in the
in the agenda, we're supporting 1,550
[4:51:25] households within Renford County. Is
that approximately?
[4:51:28] » That's very close. Yes.
>> Good. And with that 1,550 households, we
[4:51:34] still have almost 2,000 on the wait list
[4:51:40] and right now no way to meet that
demand. So that's, you know, that's a
[4:51:45] total demand right now of of 3,500
people who are asking for affordable
[4:51:51] housing. We're able to support,550.
[4:51:55] You had mentioned about affordable
housing at $863.
[4:52:00] $863 was a single bedroom for affordable
housing. Is there anywhere within the
[4:52:06] county of Renfruit, not the corporation,
but the geographical area where that
[4:52:12] type of rent is being offered outside of
something that you're managing?
[4:52:20] » Thank you. Through you, chair to
council. No,
[4:52:24] the rent amounts within the private
market are astronomical. If we were to
[4:52:29] look today to try to find ourselves a
onebedroom or a twobedroom, a
[4:52:33] onebedroom, if we're lucky, may cost us
16 to $1,800 plus utilities. And a
[4:52:40] two-bedroom might cost us, you know,
upwards of $2,200. Of course, you know,
[4:52:46] there are, you know, some homes that,
you know, are a little bit less than
[4:52:50] that, but really a little bit less than
that. It's it's impossible for for folks
[4:52:55] unfortunately especially those that that
have lower incomes.
[4:52:59] » Good. And that's reality we need to keep
to to bang bang down the not for-profit
[4:53:05] homes. You're right now we have
partnerships with the not for-p profofit
[4:53:09] homes. There's five of them listed in
the chart. about 200 are directly
[4:53:15] working with your portfolio to manage
the remainder that they manage as not
[4:53:22] for profofits not using you as a
resource. They're not offering
[4:53:26] affordable rents are they
>> through you chair to council. Yes, they
[4:53:32] but they are not offering rent gear to
income for their market unit
[4:53:41] rents. Um each nonprofit housing
corporation has their own guidelines as
[4:53:47] to what that affordable rent rate may
be.
[4:53:52] um in some situations they may have
received um previous you know iterations
[4:53:57] of government funding that tied them to
CHC, Canada Mortgage and Housing
[4:54:02] Corporation rates and you know certain
percentage calculations as far as
[4:54:07] average market rent and all of that to
have their their rents below a certain
[4:54:11] level. Um but through talking with the
nonprofits um it's my understanding that
[4:54:16] their rents are you know a little bit
lower than uh what they they could be.
[4:54:21] So um yeah outside of the the private
market um they are the only other ones
[4:54:28] that I am aware of that are providing
that level of deep affordability in
[4:54:32] housing.
>> Perfect. So the point I'm trying to make
[4:54:36] and I just want to make sure I wasn't
veering off is that there's no one else
[4:54:40] in the community that can come to this
that can meet this demand.
[4:54:45] Even the not forprofits run by, you
know, fundraising and and and and
[4:54:51] gaining access to things like CHC, they
still can't offer affordable housing.
[4:54:56] And
it's it's frustrating because we all
[4:55:00] just keep saying, "Oh, can we just uh we
talked to the poor treasurer about uh an
[4:55:05] affordable tax rate. Well, who's going
to take us up on the affordable tax
[4:55:09] rate?" No one can afford to provide
affordable rent. So, you're going to
[4:55:13] create a rate that that can't even be
taken advantage of by the private
[4:55:17] market. Um, so I guess what I'm saying
is just recognizing the problem,
[4:55:22] quantifying it, and saying that there is
no easy solution. and we need to
[4:55:26] continue to work through it. Um, the
last thing I'll say is I'm encouraged.
[4:55:31] We have a new board member for CADCO and
I'm very curious
[4:55:36] to learn more about how organizations
like CADCO are making this work in other
[4:55:42] communities and how we might be able to
apply that locally. So, I'll sum up
[4:55:47] there. Chair, thank you so much. I
really appreciate the time that was put
[4:55:50] into these presentations.
>> Thank you. No pressure, Craig. Uh one
[4:55:55] I'll take one more question from
administr Brammley please.
[4:55:59] » Thank you very much and just as
preamble. So this it is such an
[4:56:02] incredibly complex uh the uh social
housing community housing as I'm sitting
[4:56:09] here listening to uh councelor Nichols
and I'm even thinking I don't know if
[4:56:13] people remember quants uh in the 2008
um it's it's a quantitative analysis uh
[4:56:20] that's how they could break up these
mortgages into these little trenches
[4:56:23] etc. But I'm struck uh we almost need to
have a job description for a quant here
[4:56:27] to be able to follow all of the
different mathematical formulas as to
[4:56:31] how to provide this is an incredibly
complex framework
[4:56:37] of market uh rates rent geared to income
social housing etc. So I'm I'm slowly
[4:56:42] gaining an appreciation for your
capacities. This question though is it
[4:56:47] kind of came up uh at an earlier uh
meeting some some weeks ago. So under
[4:56:53] the SP the special priority populations
um is is the uh theou I believe that we
[4:57:01] have with RVH so is that creating a new
SP?
[4:57:09] » Miss Patrick please.
>> Uh thank you chair through you to
[4:57:13] councelor Donahghue. It's a very good
question. um theou um councelor
[4:57:19] Donahghue is referring to we had uh
brought a draft before um committee we
[4:57:23] have we're still in negotiations with
RVH we have not finalized it and that is
[4:57:27] one of the things that we are uh talking
to them about um some of the particulars
[4:57:32] of what that would look like um I think
as um committee will recall when we
[4:57:37] spoke about that we're really looking
about um essentially targeting the same
[4:57:41] population uh that we would be working
with that may be homeless and not able
[4:57:45] to return return home, but um really in
deep deep uh low income and in deep need
[4:57:51] both medically and socially. Uh so uh
that may look like one of our MESAs
[4:57:57] prioritizations or or potentially um it
could be SP. So that's one of the things
[4:58:03] that we're still working on, but I can
bring back an update at a future
[4:58:05] meeting. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Um I think that's it for
[4:58:12] these presentations. I think they well I
know the general consensus here is that
[4:58:16] it's a very emotional uh portfolio that
you have with between the two of you and
[4:58:22] we thank you for everything you do and
um good luck for another year. Did you
[4:58:28] have anything else you wanted to say?
>> No, thank you.
[4:58:33] » Okay.
[4:58:42] Okay, communications. There are no other
communications. Uh, no consent reports.
[4:58:49] Discussion report. I'll hand this over
to Miss Patrick, please.
[4:58:54] Thank you, chair, and through you to the
board. So, we have three um resolutions.
[4:58:58] May I go ahead and read the first one,
chair?
[4:59:00] » Yes, please. Okay. Thank you. So through
you to committee uh resolution number
[4:59:06] one audited financial statements. The
recommendation is that Renford County
[4:59:10] Housing Corporation board of directors
approve the audited financial statements
[4:59:14] for the Renford County Housing
Corporation for the year ended December
[4:59:18] 31st, 2025.
Could I get a mover and a seconder,
[4:59:22] please? By the member from Pedawa,
seconded by the member from North Ala
[4:59:26] Wilberforce. Background, please.
>> Thank you, chair. Uh and through you to
[4:59:32] the board. So, um, earlier in the
meeting, uh, Lori Hunner was here to
[4:59:36] present an overview of the financials,
which included that of the Runford
[4:59:40] County Housing Corporation. Uh, the
financial statement is attached in the
[4:59:44] package and, uh, we're happy to take any
questions if uh,
[4:59:50] sorry if there are any.
>> Are there any questions on the financial
[4:59:53] statement?
A member from Whitewater, please.
[4:59:58] » Thank you, chair. uh and and I suspect
that this this may be bounced over to
[5:00:03] our treasurer. So, uh in the report
there's a note number nine that talks to
[5:00:08] municipal sub subsidies and the page
number
[5:00:13] 16 is on the bottom of the page
in it. It talks about uh the comparison
[5:00:20] to 2024 2025 between a number of the
different programs.
[5:00:25] And I see the $6,700,000
of base funding which I just wanted to
[5:00:31] confirm my understanding that that is
property tax.
[5:00:35] And I second question is uh the capital
portion of funds that are used to
[5:00:42] reinvest are they included in this chart
or did I they're somewhere else in this
[5:00:47] in this report? Two questions.
>> Mr. Burke, please.
[5:00:54] Thank you and good afternoon uh housing
corporation committee. So it's very
[5:01:01] difficult to draw a clean line between
where the RCH as a corporation ends and
[5:01:08] the county as a municipality begins.
So, of that 7 million or we'll say $7
[5:01:16] million in direct subsidy, the lion
share would be property tax
[5:01:22] requirements.
However, of course, a portion of that
[5:01:25] belongs to the city of Pemrook as well
as there is a federalbased subsidy in
[5:01:30] there as well. So if you were to look at
our internal financial statements, what
[5:01:34] you would see is a housing department
and from there there's an expense of
[5:01:38] transferring dollars into the RCHC
corporation.
[5:01:42] So mostly property tax. The portion of
that that is capital in the 2025 year is
[5:01:51] only about $300 or $400,000 as we
continue to consume the internal
[5:01:56] reserves of the RCH corporation. When
you look at this in 2026,
[5:02:02] should you still be here looking at
these things, uh you will notice that
[5:02:06] the property tax component will jump to
about $9 million and the bulk of the
[5:02:12] jump will be of course capital
contributions.
[5:02:17] » Thank you, chair. Thanks, treasure.
>> Some of us will and some of us won't.
[5:02:22] Are there any other questions
on that? Seeing none, all in favor?
[5:02:28] carried. Uh item two, please.
>> Thank you, chair, and through you to the
[5:02:32] board. Item number two is the annual
general report. The recommendation is
[5:02:36] that the Renford County Housing
Corporation Board of Directors approve
[5:02:39] the 2025 annual general report as
presented.
[5:02:43] » A mover in a second, please. Move by the
member from Gentian Valley, second by
[5:02:47] the member from Kiloo, Hagerty, and
Richards. Uh background, please.
[5:02:53] » Thank you, chair, and through you to the
board. I think Mr. Radits and Mr. Rosski
[5:02:57] did an excellent job of overviewing the
background. Just um I'll express uh as
[5:03:02] well my thanks to the board for their
support uh in the 2025 year as well as
[5:03:06] to all the staff. Um definitely um as
was mentioned by the managers, it's very
[5:03:11] much a collaboration, multiple county
departments really working together to
[5:03:15] try to meet the needs uh that we see in
in our buildings in our community. So
[5:03:19] thank you.
>> Any discussion, questions? Member from
[5:03:24] Renfruit, please.
>> Yes. Thank you. Uh um [clears throat]
[5:03:28] just a a comment. I was trying to get
the question in earlier and I wasn't
[5:03:31] fast enough. Um on page 18 it talks
about uh the uh by name list and it says
[5:03:40] there are 131 community members and that
29 of them identify as indigenous. And
[5:03:46] so I'm wondering if that's a a potential
partnership for
[5:03:52] homes in in the near future. I'm
guessing those 29 are not uh members of
[5:03:59] Alangquins of Pepnagon First Nation.
They're some of the other communities in
[5:04:03] our in our community. Is that a fair
assessment?
[5:04:09] » Miss Patrick, please.
>> Thank you, Chair. Uh through you to
[5:04:12] councelor Yim. It's an excellent
question. Uh it's certainly um something
[5:04:17] that the managers and I are working
really closely on looking to um really
[5:04:22] have you know stronger um partnerships
with our our our indigenous agencies
[5:04:27] that are providing services. We've uh
held a number of meetings recently um
[5:04:32] with some of our um agencies that
provide indigenous health services that
[5:04:36] are off reserve as well as we do work
closely with uh the Pikuagon uh services
[5:04:41] as well and really looking to understand
those numbers and what the needs are
[5:04:45] both um you know on and off the reserve.
Uh certainly uh one of the things that
[5:04:49] that we do see is is a real need for you
know many individuals who aren't able to
[5:04:54] access services uh on the reserve that
that may need some supports and and
[5:04:58] looking to what opportunities there may
be that we can work more closely with
[5:05:02] some of the agencies providing those
services. So it's definitely something
[5:05:05] that it's a priority uh for us. Uh these
numbers always have been high. In fact,
[5:05:10] I think when we did the last point in
time count, which was back in 2024, the
[5:05:14] percentage was about 40% um of people in
experiencing homelessness were
[5:05:19] indigenous. Uh the numbers down in 2025
to about I think it was 22%. Uh but
[5:05:25] again, that's based on uh
self-disclosure and it may be higher.
[5:05:28] So, this is just definitely a priority
for us that we're working on. So, thank
[5:05:31] you for raising that.
>> Thank you. Are there any other
[5:05:36] questions?
Seeing none, all in favor? Carried. Uh,
[5:05:42] item three, please.
>> Thank you, chair, and through you to the
[5:05:46] board. So, item number three, surplus
dwelling, 149 Francis Street, Renfruit.
[5:05:51] And the recommendation is that the
Renfruit County Housing Corporation
[5:05:55] Board recommends to county council that
the single family dwelling, municipally
[5:05:59] known as 149 Francis Street, Renfruit,
be declared surplus and that the board
[5:06:05] approve a capital project to construct a
triplex on the site with a total project
[5:06:10] budget of 900,000.
Move in a second, please. Moved by the
[5:06:15] member from Headclar Mariah, seconded by
the member from Greater Meetaska.
[5:06:22] to the background please.
>> Thank you chair and through you to the
[5:06:25] board. So as we uh Mr. Mr. Davis and I
discussed with the vision forward
[5:06:30] certainly we're looking for
opportunities to um have some
[5:06:34] incremental densification. Uh we have 56
single family homes in the portfolio. We
[5:06:39] had really great success with the um the
Francis Street project that we had the
[5:06:44] ribbon cutting for earlier and looking
to replicate that model where where
[5:06:47] possible. um and where we have of course
the um need to replace some aging
[5:06:52] structures where the repair costs are no
longer economical. So we've identified
[5:06:57] that at the 149 Francis Street this
would be another location where which
[5:07:01] would be an opportunity for us to uh do
another triplex very similar model and
[5:07:06] and again add two units to the
portfolio.
[5:07:09] » Thank you.
>> Thank you. Are there any questions or
[5:07:12] comments?
Member from Pedawa please.
[5:07:16] » Thank you chair and through you. I I
love this idea and I love this vision.
[5:07:21] I'm just wondering, it sounds like by
the condition of the house that it's not
[5:07:25] going to be uprooted and trucked
anywhere and nobody's going to buy it.
[5:07:30] It's just something we're going to tear
down. So, in terms of funding the new
[5:07:34] project, because we're creating a
triplex, are we going to look for two
[5:07:38] other properties that we can divest
ourselves with to fund this project, or
[5:07:42] is this funded with funding we already
have in place?
[5:07:48] Mr. Davis, please.
>> Thank you. And through you, chair. So,
[5:07:51] um, right now we are still looking at to
move this house. So, it's still on our
[5:07:57] portfolio in the sense of the the whole
project schedule to move this house. So,
[5:08:02] that's I'll I'll [snorts] kind of leave
it at that for now. And um
[5:08:07] when we look at rebuilding a three for
one like what we did in Francis and what
[5:08:11] we're planning on doing here, we will
like we mentioned just before I'm
[5:08:15] working with Andrea Patrick, her
treasurer to divest ourselves of other
[5:08:19] units to make sure we have more in the
hopper to move forward.
[5:08:26] » Thank you. Any other questions? U member
from Renfruit, please.
[5:08:30] » Thank you. I um just wanted to add
something. I sent a note to
[5:08:35] Miss Patrick, Mr. Kelly, and
the warden and Mr. Davis on the weekend.
[5:08:41] I found the other home that was taken
off the prop, the other Frances Street,
[5:08:46] and it's on a foundation at this point,
and they are building around it. So, uh,
[5:08:51] it's, you know, I think it's something
for us to, uh, to make sure we remember
[5:08:56] to to speak to the ministry about. We're
not wasting
[5:09:00] uh any resources. There is the
opportunity for some uh who want to take
[5:09:06] on at least that home. I'm not sure
about the state of this one, but they
[5:09:10] were able to start rehabbing it. Uh and
uh it looks like they're going to cut
[5:09:15] some walls out of it and and and add
pieces to it. Um so, you know, it's a
[5:09:20] it's a really good news story in that
sense.
[5:09:23] » Thank you. Any other uh member from
Whitewater, please? I can hardly see you
[5:09:29] behind that chair that's in front of
you.
[5:09:32] » I did it on purpose and then you can't
see me when I start to nod. [laughter]
[5:09:42] » Sorry, we have to listen to all the
audit questions.
[5:09:50] Okay. Um chair the two questions and I
similar vein as to what has already been
[5:09:55] asked but I just wanted to um as per our
vision I I I I support the approach I
[5:10:02] see the approach we're we're at 1032
we're we're saying let's demo one to go
[5:10:07] to 1031
build three go to 1034
[5:10:12] find two other ones to do to to get rid
of we're back down to 1032 so the net
[5:10:16] change is zero we're just having to
build in order to be able to demo and
[5:10:20] that's part of taking care of our
tenants. I just wanted to validate that
[5:10:24] I'm getting the nod from the director.
Okay, good. The second question is just
[5:10:28] about the 900,000. I just want a
reassurance that this is no, this is not
[5:10:34] a requirement of a net increase in
property tax. This is within the
[5:10:38] allocations that currently exist within
the corporation, the Renford County
[5:10:42] Housing Corporation.
[5:10:47] » Mr. Davis.
>> Yeah, thank you chair and through you.
[5:10:49] So um again working with our partners,
our treasurer and and all through the
[5:10:54] process of this kind of um the project.
So would be utilizing the coochi funding
[5:10:59] that we have and in the background
report and maybe need to be flushed out
[5:11:03] a little bit more. We've had a capital
plan utilizing the kochi funds and now
[5:11:08] we're looking at what funds what are the
projects we had for coochi just to jig
[5:11:13] it enough or modified enough to make
sure we we can account for this
[5:11:16] $900,000. So it's using the existing
funds in treasure. Correct me if I'm
[5:11:20] wrong if I if I may,
>> Mr. Burke.
[5:11:25] » Uh through you chair. No, the director
is correct. So the the funding model
[5:11:29] behind these replacements
uh is should be a net zero across the
[5:11:37] 10-year plan, though it may involve an
outlay this year. Right. So yes, we can
[5:11:43] dispose of of units to help with the
funding. The disposals will not fund the
[5:11:47] new build. I mean, we're not going to
take in that much money, but that means
[5:11:50] we can also get rid of the repair items
on our 10ear capital plan for those
[5:11:55] units we've disposed of, right? We're we
are replacing those units with new
[5:12:00] builds that do not require major
repairs. So, our savings come from that
[5:12:04] to help offset and our total cost inside
that 10-year capital plan remains the
[5:12:09] same or optimistically a little bit
lower as we trade out these older units
[5:12:14] that need uh large dollar repairs.
[5:12:21] » One more.
>> That's it. That's it.
[5:12:23] » That's it. Oh, that was
>> I have one comment.
[5:12:25] » One more. the uh and I love the approach
because what we're doing is we're taking
[5:12:31] the asset management plan for Renford
County Housing and we're not just
[5:12:35] looking at it through a capital lens. We
are saying we are going to be able to
[5:12:40] save on the operations side of that
corporation
[5:12:44] because we're overexpending operation
dollars maintaining something that
[5:12:48] shouldn't be maintained. We slide it
over to the capital side and it saves
[5:12:52] money. So, we're we're we're looking at
our asset management through two
[5:12:57] different sources of funding,
operations, and capital. And I think
[5:13:01] that approach, especially in a 10-year
vision, gives us the flexibility to be
[5:13:05] able to address this without impacting
property tax. And I think that's the
[5:13:09] right approach. So, thank you, chair.
>> Thank you.
[5:13:13] Any other questions or comments on that?
Seeing none, all in favor?
[5:13:19] Carried. Uh a recommendation that the
discussion reports be received as
[5:13:24] presented. Move in a second, please.
Moved by the member from North Alona
[5:13:29] Wilberforce, seconded by the member from
Headcla. All in favor? Carried.
[5:13:39] There are no deferred reports, no verbal
reports, nothing for close session.
[5:13:46] Is there any new or other business?
Seeing none, um I have a recommendation
[5:13:52] that this meeting adjourn and the next
regular meeting be held at the call of
[5:13:56] the chair. It is 2:38. Moved by member
from uh North Alona Wilburfor, second by
[5:14:03] the member from Renfruit. All in favor?
Carried.
[5:14:07] We are adjourned. Could we take a
fiveminut bio break please?
[5:24:13] » [gasps]
>> Welcome back. Um, I'd like to call to
[5:24:16] order this meeting of the Community
Services Committee. It is Wednesday,
[5:24:20] June 10th, and it is 2:50 p.m. Uh, Miss
Van Starkenberg, has roll call been
[5:24:27] taken?
>> Yes. Thank you, chair. We have quorum.
[5:24:31] » Thank you. Are there any disclosures of
pecuniary interest and general nature
[5:24:36] thereof?
Seeing none,
[5:24:40] uh, could I I have a recommendation that
the minutes of the May 13, 2026 meeting
[5:24:44] be approved. Could I get a mover in a
second, please? Moved by the member from
[5:24:48] Martin Prior, seconded by the member
from
[5:24:52] Pimrook. Are there any errors or
emissions?
[5:24:56] Seeing none, all in favor? Carried.
[5:25:02] I have a recommendation that the closed
minutes of the May 13, 2026 meeting be
[5:25:07] approved. And if so, the will we are
there any errors or omissions? And if
[5:25:12] so, we'll have to go into closed. Are
there any? Seeing none, all in favor?
[5:25:18] Carried.
Did I get a mover in a second? I did
[5:25:21] not. Could I get a move in a second?
Moved by the member from Kilu Hagedy and
[5:25:25] Richard. Second by the member from
Renfruit. All in favor? carried.
[5:25:34] There are no delegations. Um,
communications. There are four items
[5:25:40] there. Are there any questions on any
one of those?
[5:25:48] Seeing none, I have a recommendation
that the communic that the
[5:25:52] communications be received as
information. Moved by
[5:25:57] member from North Alona Wilberforce,
seconded by the member from Laurentin
[5:26:01] Valley.
[5:26:05] All in favor?
Carried.
[5:26:10] Uh consent report.
[5:26:15] This uh the agenda includes written
items of important information that were
[5:26:18] provided for your review. There are two
consent reports. One is the community
[5:26:23] services consent report. Second is
corporate services.
[5:26:29] I have a recommendation that the consent
reports be received as information.
[5:26:34] Could I get a move in a second, please?
Move by the member from Madm Bramley,
[5:26:37] second by the member from headclair
Mariah. Is there any discussion on
[5:26:41] either one of those two reports?
>> I'm looking right at you, sir.
[5:26:48] » I just my hands are on my phone.
Seeing none. All in favor carried.
[5:26:56] Woohoo.
Sorry. [laughter]
[5:27:01] There are no discussion reports. Um def
there there are no deferred reports.
[5:27:07] [laughter] My French is coming out. Uh
verbal reports. No. We do have a close
[5:27:13] session and the recommendation is that
pursuant to section 2392 of the
[5:27:18] municipal act 2001 as amended the
community services committee move into a
[5:27:23] closed session for the following reason.
C. A proposed or pending acquisition or
[5:27:30] disposition of land by the municipality
or local board Siccilia Street Housing
[5:27:35] at 252.
We're going to move in a second, please.
[5:27:39] Moved by a member from Madam Bra uh
sorry, North Alona Wilbur Forest. Slip
[5:27:44] of the tongue, seconded by the member
from Greater Madawaska. All in favor?
[5:27:49] Carried.
Okay. You know,
[5:35:43] Thank you. We are back. A discussion
occurred regarding the potential use of
[5:35:47] the green space located at 425 Ciccilia
Street in Penrook. Thank you. Um there's
[5:35:53] no new or other business.
Seeing none, um, a recommendation that
[5:35:59] this meeting adjourn and the next
regular meeting be held on Wednesday,
[5:36:03] August 12th, 2026.
Could I get a move in a second?
[5:36:10] Uh, I'm just looking at Valerie there.
See if she wants to raise her hand.
[5:36:13] Yeah.
Moved by the member from Brunell,
[5:36:18] Lindok, and Raglin, and seconded by the
member from Mar Prior. All in favor?
[5:36:24] Carried. We are journ. and we'll
reconvene in 5 minutes at 306.
[5:36:30] Thank you.
[5:42:28] Perfect. Thank you. Good afternoon,
everyone. I'd like to call the corporate
[5:42:32] services meeting of Wednesday, June the
10th, 2026
[5:42:37] at 3:07 p.m. to order.
Miss Wilson, has roll call been taken?
[5:42:46] » Yes, Chair. Roll call has been taken and
we have quorum. Thank you. Are there any
[5:42:50] disclosures of beinary interest and the
general nature thereof?
[5:42:55] Seeing none, thank you.
Could I get a mover and seconder that
[5:43:01] the minutes of the May 13, 2026 meeting
be approved? Mover, please. Mover from
[5:43:07] Laurentian Valley. Seconder, Greater
Madawasa.
[5:43:12] Are there any errors or emissions?
All those in favor?
[5:43:18] Opposed?
None. It's carried. Thank you,
[5:43:21] committee.
At this point, we're moving to item
[5:43:24] number five. And I'd like to invite
Chris Ren, the associate director of
[5:43:28] information technologies to the podium
to overview his presentation on
[5:43:33] responsible AI use framework. Mr. Ren,
please.
[5:43:41] And as you make your way up, I'd like to
uh thank your staff. Uh last time we
[5:43:46] were in chambers, I had my fan quit on
my uh laptop. They were walking by and
[5:43:51] they said, "Yeah, much better parts."
Took it down. 5 minutes later, new fan
[5:43:54] uh off. They scavenged off another one.
So, thank you very much for that
[5:43:57] service.
[5:44:06] » There we [laughter] go.
Thank you, chair. Through you two uh
[5:44:10] committee. Um before I uh I jump uh into
my uh presentation here, um I'm just
[5:44:16] going to uh maybe give a little bit of
background as to where this came from
[5:44:20] and how it was uh how it came to be. Um
so um the the county belongs to uh a
[5:44:27] group uh that's called the Eastern
Ontario IT Collective and it's basically
[5:44:31] made up of all the members of the
Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus and it's
[5:44:36] uh primarily just IT managers and
directors. we all get together and we
[5:44:40] work on common goals and issues uh that
we all are facing. And one of the items
[5:44:44] that we highlighted uh last year that we
started working on was uh we needed a
[5:44:50] responsible use of AI. Um not only is
this uh been uh mandated by the province
[5:44:57] uh with the in the EDS
TA act uh the electronic data
[5:45:06] gez I always get it mixed up. um uh act
uh and um we also used the a consultant
[5:45:15] uh the Perry group uh to help us uh you
know put this together and uh my
[5:45:20] presentation today will overview the
summary uh executive summary report
[5:45:24] that's in your package uh that can be
found on page 76.
[5:45:36] Okay. Um, so to get started, um, uh, I'm
just going to start off by saying AI, AI
[5:45:42] is here. If you use a computer, you use
a cell phone, you use anything, AI is
[5:45:48] baked into everything nowadays. Um,
there's no getting away from it. Um, we
[5:45:52] are standing on the train tracks and the
train is barreling towards us. Um so to
[5:45:57] start this project off um last year um
our consultant um released a survey to
[5:46:05] uh over 200
uh municipal staff to get a sense of
[5:46:10] where everybody is in terms of AI uh
usage. Uh and uh some of the results
[5:46:16] were kind of not so much surprising but
you know it really highlighted why we
[5:46:22] need this. uh only about 7%
of organizations actually have an AI
[5:46:28] policy.
Um 60% of staff are using AI um already
[5:46:35] uh at home and uh bringing those
[5:46:41] uh work hab those what they're using it
for uh at home into work with using for
[5:46:47] their work habits and that sort of
stuff. Um so the question is uh whether
[5:46:52] or not to adopt AI because it's already
here we need to to adopt it.
[5:47:00] So again, basically why this framework
was created um again initiative out of
[5:47:07] the EOITC
um that uh all municipalities including
[5:47:12] your local tiers can take this framework
and use it at home uh to uh to help
[5:47:17] yourself out. And uh it is a requirement
of the the EDSTA the enhancing digital
[5:47:25] safety and trust act which uh came into
effect in 2024.
[5:47:31] Uh also there are new emerging uh
requirements for MIPA. So uh that is
[5:47:36] something else that we have to take into
consideration. uh and no longer we need
[5:47:41] to comply with this cuz there are um
reputational and uh you know monetary
[5:47:48] fines for not following and having AI
policies and guidelines. Um so the uh
[5:47:54] the full the sorry the uh executive
report can uh be found in your uh in
[5:48:00] your package as well. Uh what AI is
and what it is not. Uh AI is great uh at
[5:48:12] uh drafting emails and agendas and
summarizing documents and meeting notes
[5:48:19] uh rewriting content for clarity,
brainstorming and reviewing data. But
[5:48:24] what AI cannot do uh it cannot it can
confidentially identify wrong
[5:48:31] information. And you may have heard of
the term halluc AI hallucinations. And
[5:48:35] that's basically what that is is you ask
the AI something and it spits something
[5:48:40] back to you that sounds real, that
sounds like it could be legit. Uh but in
[5:48:46] fact it may not be. So there's a lot of
reviewing and proofing your work uh that
[5:48:52] is required when you're uh you're using
an AI tool. um it performs poorly on
[5:48:57] tasks uh requiring empathy uh and uh
requiring local knowledge and it cannot
[5:49:04] exercise qualified professional
judgment. So just couple of things that
[5:49:10] you know where AI can struggle.
[5:49:15] The core principle of uh the uh the
framework is called uh human in the loop
[5:49:22] always. And basically what that boils
down to is AI assist staff but staff
[5:49:30] still make the decisions. Uh every AI
output uh must be reviewed uh and uh
[5:49:38] before it's used in uh in a public
context. uh human in the loop always.
[5:49:45] That's it's just it's it's the the
probably one of the most important
[5:49:50] concepts and principles uh in uh in our
AI uh framework.
[5:49:57] What can go wrong with AI? Uh lots of
stuff. uh without the governance,
[5:50:04] municipalities face six categories of
risk ranging from privacy breaches all
[5:50:10] the way up to non-compliance uh with
some of the new uh standards and
[5:50:14] legislation. Uh so privacy and data
leakage uh you know concerns about
[5:50:21] uh information being entered into AI
tools that
[5:50:26] are used uh to train um other models and
uh so we we definitely want to you know
[5:50:35] avoid putting any confidential personal
information and stuff like that in
[5:50:39] there. Uh cyber security exposures um AI
is becoming a real threat. Um, we're
[5:50:46] getting constantly getting new advanced
tax that attacks that uh are getting
[5:50:52] harder and harder to detect and as AI
grows and gets smarter, it's going to
[5:50:57] get really really hard to uh keep that
stuff out of our network. Um, accuracy
[5:51:02] and accountability gaps again goes back
to human in the loop. uh we always need
[5:51:08] need to make sure that we're you know
verifying the information that the AI
[5:51:11] tool is providing us and uh you know
make sure that it uh we're we're good
[5:51:16] with the content uh loss of public trust
um algorithmic bias a lot of the uh AI
[5:51:25] tools out there it's picking up
information from everywhere in the world
[5:51:29] and
there's there's lots of uh sites out
[5:51:33] there that will try and introduce uh
bias into the prompts or in your uh your
[5:51:40] content that you're getting back to uh
serve their own needs. So that there's
[5:51:44] something again to be very cautious of
uh and regulatory uh regulatory
[5:51:49] non-compliance uh you know w bring that
back to MIPA and the uh uh enhancing
[5:51:55] data and safety uh trust act.
[5:52:04] our uh framework um uses five five real
foundations
[5:52:11] uh in in its uh organization. Um so one
being uh establish accountability um so
[5:52:19] council uh the CEO senior management IT
we all all staff we all have a role to
[5:52:26] play in this. It's not just an IT thing.
It's not just a management thing. we all
[5:52:31] have to be cautious of what we're using
this for.
[5:52:35] Um second uh foundation is uh we need to
build an IT governance team so that we
[5:52:43] uh we know what use cases we're going to
use this for and we're not just going to
[5:52:47] let uh you know AI run uh run rampant uh
without any control or any safeguards in
[5:52:54] place.
Uh and then we're going to move on to
[5:52:58] you know our guiding principles. um
that's part of this document. Uh and uh
[5:53:04] it's going to be key that staff will
know what they can and can't use this
[5:53:07] for. And it's the uh personal
information that uh that we really have
[5:53:12] to watch what we're dealing with. Um
and we need to define the red line. And
[5:53:18] by what I mean by define the red line,
these are hard lines of what cannot go
[5:53:24] into uh or cannot be fed into the uh the
AI tools. things like driver's license
[5:53:30] numbers, SIN numbers, all that personal
information. Uh and and the last
[5:53:35] foundation is uh uh an use and uh
riskbased approach. So as we start
[5:53:43] developing and using AI more frequently,
uh we want to make sure that we're we're
[5:53:48] looking at what we're using it for. um
everything from lowrisk activities to
[5:53:54] high risk uh that's going that could
possibly require a privacy impact
[5:53:58] statement. So there's there's a lot of
that stuff that we need to make sure
[5:54:02] that we're doing.
Um the accountability structure uh as I
[5:54:08] mentioned we all play a role in this uh
from council right down to the staff. um
[5:54:13] we all have to make sure that uh you
know we're we're using it uh responsibly
[5:54:18] and that's going to be the key to uh to
AI.
[5:54:25] Um some additional guiding principles um
uh these uh these principles were taken
[5:54:32] directly from the privacy commissioner
from Ontario. um you know uh
[5:54:37] accountability uh privacy and
confidentiality
[5:54:41] uh reliability and trustworthiness
uh human in the loop. There's that that
[5:54:46] term even there they're using it. um
security, safety,
[5:54:55] fitness and or freedom sorry freedom of
information and uh files uh temporary
[5:55:04] and disclosure uh and value driven. Uh
those are some of our our principles
[5:55:10] that we were going to you know
incorporate into uh into our framework.
[5:55:16] The red line. Again, these are items
that cannot and should never be uh put
[5:55:21] into uh to AI tools, especially the the
personal information, the health
[5:55:26] information, SIN numbers, driver's
license numbers, all that good stuff.
[5:55:38] Um the next slide kind of talks about uh
uh our risk based riskbased approach to
[5:55:46] uh AI use cases. Uh and we we kind of
did this as like a traffic light. So you
[5:55:53] green is your lowrisk activities like uh
this is for internal use only drafting
[5:55:59] some emails that kind of stuff. uh
really low-level lowrisk uh type of
[5:56:05] activities. And the second tier uh
yellow or the medium risk, this is uh
[5:56:10] information that could be released to
the public. Um so we want to make sure
[5:56:14] that we're we're starting to really
verify what we're putting in there. Uh
[5:56:18] and uh you know, we're we're going to
you're going to want to have some senior
[5:56:22] leadership team uh approval, CEO
approval. Uh and then the last tier is
[5:56:27] uh the red or the high-risk areas. And
these are uh things that we may want to
[5:56:32] have a privacy impact assessment done
before uh we we start going down the
[5:56:38] road of using AI for these types of
cases
[5:56:46] and why we should act now. Um basically
AI is here. We we can't stop it. Um it's
[5:56:54] uh a real paradigm shift in the uh in
the world right now. Um and a lot of
[5:57:00] people can relate it back to you know
when computers first came out when
[5:57:03] smartphones were first released and
email uh was came out. Um
[5:57:13] uh modest AI adoption can return $3 to4
uh in value uh for every dollar spent on
[5:57:21] licensing. So there there is definitely
some uh some efficiencies and some cost
[5:57:26] savings to be uh to be had with it. Um
you know some reports are are showing
[5:57:31] that uh staff that use it on a monthly
basis can save up to 5 to 10% uh of uh
[5:57:38] you know their time uh with the help in
the the help of AI tools and uh
[5:57:44] leadership uh viability and genuine
support are are crucial um so that the
[5:57:51] staff uh take the note from the top.
And that's pretty much my quick summary
[5:57:58] of the executive summary in your
package. Um, so if uh that's it for me.
[5:58:05] » Right. Thank you very much. Any
questions or comments? And the member
[5:58:08] from Greater Madawaska, please.
>> Thank you. And through you, chair. Um,
[5:58:14] we are, as you said, AI is here and it's
being used. Uh, I have a two-part
[5:58:19] question. One is um any documentation or
anything that is produced from AI,
[5:58:26] we do not have the ownership of that. Is
that correct? It would be the AI company
[5:58:32] have ownership of any documentation
unless we have a license uh license
[5:58:37] service agreement with them.
[5:58:45] » I'm really not 100% sure on that one.
Maybe Craig would have some more
[5:58:50] information.
>> Mr. Kelly.
[5:58:51] » No, thank you uh thank you chair and
Chris and thanks for the question. So
[5:58:54] we've we've been working hand inand on a
lot of things. We were actually just at
[5:58:57] a workshop last week about AI with with
a local administrators group too and
[5:59:01] talking about next steps. Um yeah so um
AI generally open AI or open AI or the
[5:59:10] new anthropic claude clude um are are
super agents or super Google searchers
[5:59:17] right so they don't open AAI doesn't own
any data they're assembling it from
[5:59:22] inputs that that that the open licensers
put into it
[5:59:28] uh we use by well we use a number of
different agents here, right? Some of us
[5:59:34] have chat GBT accounts, but we've as a
corporation have adopted Microsoft
[5:59:39] C-Pilot as the accepted accepted use
because they're a little more protected.
[5:59:44] Chat GBT is not protected. Clo is very
protected, right? In terms of of
[5:59:48] software, Microsoft's in the middle.
[clears throat] what we draft on those
[5:59:56] agents uh is
if it's protected by an account
[6:00:03] right a paid account in chat GPT's
version or a license like co-pilot it is
[6:00:07] specific to us it doesn't get shared out
to the broad masses as we understand AI
[6:00:12] at the at the moment uh if so if I type
in write me a report on on AI today uh
[6:00:21] because I have a paid account, it is it
is um secret. It is proprietary to to my
[6:00:27] account and doesn't get shared to build
the matrix, if you will.
[6:00:32] If I have a an open account or a free
account, which which many people do in
[6:00:36] the community, and they type in uh how
do I get from 9 international drive to
[6:00:42] uh Toronto, that is an an information
that gets fed into it, and if you ask it
[6:00:46] many times, then it finds the better
route to get to Toronto and it feeds
[6:00:49] that algorithm moving forward. So uh to
your question if I ask that question I
[6:00:54] think what's happening here mostly is we
don't take everything that that AI
[6:00:57] builds for us if it's a report or if
it's an opinion or if it's a uh a
[6:01:01] picture
uh we download that information to our
[6:01:06] servers to our desktops or to our our
drive then we have ownership of that
[6:01:12] so so it's two-part sometimes we do
sometimes we don't but most of the time
[6:01:16] we download that information then all of
a sudden it becomes a file and then I
[6:01:20] would say it's open to interpretation
and then FIPA and everything else that
[6:01:23] we have
>> supplementary.
[6:01:27] » Yeah, thank you. So, uh that gets to my
question then. So, that uh we do have
[6:01:32] some licensing service agreements or um
through the county with with some of the
[6:01:38] with co-pilot.
>> Yeah. Chris, can I say that?
[6:01:41] » Yes, we do.
It's uh with Microsoft Copilot is what
[6:01:46] we're we're piloting.
>> Yeah.
[6:01:51] Okay. Thank you. And Admission Brownley,
please.
[6:01:55] » Thank [clears throat] you very much. Uh
Mr. Chair, uh this is quite fascinating.
[6:01:59] The first uh question I have so uh
through [clears throat] you Mr. Chair,
[6:02:03] Mr. Ren said that this is the executive
summary. I wonder if the report is
[6:02:06] available because this is something
perhaps that uh is going to be the
[6:02:10] foundational document within ADM Mast
and Brumley as we're starting to wrap
[6:02:14] our heads around AI as well. Is that
available?
[6:02:18] » Absolutely. the uh the full uh framework
um is available and I can send that out
[6:02:23] to to any of the the the lower uh tier
municipalities. Um and inside that
[6:02:28] framework, it also it you're going to
get a sample policy so you don't have to
[6:02:33] build it from scratch. Um there is a
incident response plan template um and
[6:02:40] uh an sample prompt library to help you
maybe use uh the AI tools a little bit
[6:02:46] more effectively. uh it's a fairly large
document uh but I can uh certainly make
[6:02:51] that available to everybody.
>> Okay. Thank you. The other comments and
[6:02:55] I'm picking up kind of on what I had
suggested um this morning during the the
[6:03:00] presentation of the audit statements. So
the governance web page [clears throat]
[6:03:04] that uh KPMG has and I'd identified that
uh Mr. Kelly had recognized Claude
[6:03:13] uh Claude uh is still a horse and buggy.
mythos is now uh the rocket engine that
[6:03:19] is going to truly disrupt and and
speaking of or or in picking up on on
[6:03:24] Mr. Ren's comments about uh some of the
the particularly white collar let us say
[6:03:30] like some of the uh computers and
software uh that have dramatically
[6:03:35] advanced uh how business is done the
speed of business if you will and a lot
[6:03:39] of those routine and data uh sensitive
things this in my estimation is a whole
[6:03:46] different level what I'm [clears throat]
hoping quite soon uh the US I think is
[6:03:50] beginning now to take the tenative first
steps uh but I see uh some sort of
[6:03:55] agency that's going to be akin to the
International Atomic Energy Agency. This
[6:03:59] thing has capacities that no other
technology before now has had. And this
[6:04:05] this is an analysis from KPMG's website.
And this probably means more to you, Mr.
[6:04:10] Ren, than to anybody in this room. What
used to take weeks for skilled human red
[6:04:16] teams now happens in minutes with
Frontier AI. Attackers who gain access
[6:04:21] with missiles class capability, whether
through leakage, distillation, or
[6:04:25] computers release, will operate at a
tempo most corporate SOC's were never
[6:04:29] designed to match. And on the page
before that, it says, "Engineers
[6:04:34] [clears throat] with no formal security
training asked it to find a
[6:04:37] vulnerability and received complete
working exploits by morning."
[6:04:42] Right? The next day, it delivered these
things. This is a Pandora's box. Make no
[6:04:47] mistake, that has been open. and it is
released and I agree with the comments
[6:04:51] here. There is now no stopping this or
stuffing it back into the box. But I
[6:04:55] think it's incredibly
valuable that this is a starting point.
[6:05:00] We need to have enterprise policy on how
we're going to use it. But from the
[6:05:05] broader perspective of the community,
the people that we represent, our
[6:05:08] civilization,
uh we need to move fairly quickly in
[6:05:13] recognizing uh that there does need to
be a an international oversight of what
[6:05:18] this thing is going to be doing. Just
recently, you may be aware, I think
[6:05:21] about a month ago, within certainly 2
months, it was after this this uh
[6:05:25] adventurism in the Persian Gulf in the
straight of Hormuz right now that there
[6:05:30] was an AI agency that's that uh uh
decreed to the US military that it was
[6:05:35] not going to provide its AI software. Uh
there was another AI company stepped
[6:05:40] forward almost immediately and they're
using it for targeting data now.
[6:05:45] So this is is
it is a challenge and certainly what I'm
[6:05:52] talking about is much larger than this
room but it is also changing
[6:05:58] so fast within this KPMG document. It
talks about things that they can do now
[6:06:02] that they couldn't do a year ago and it
is just simply astounding
[6:06:07] the speed of change. So that we have you
know the template of a policy here
[6:06:12] before us. I would submit that you're
pro we probably at least need to be
[6:06:17] looking at that semiannually if not
quarterly because the pace of change is
[6:06:22] going to demand uh that we do things to
stay on top. It is important that the
[6:06:26] horse not run free of the rain and
that's my largest fear.
[6:06:32] » Okay. Thank you
and the member from Pedawa please.
[6:06:38] Thank you chair and through you. Well,
now I'm thoroughly frightened after
[6:06:42] that. So, there are some concerns and
some challenges for sure, but I would
[6:06:46] definitely like to receive the full
framework so that it can help our
[6:06:49] municipality going forward. My concern
is did AI write the AI policy or was it
[6:06:55] human reviewed afterwards?
>> AI was used in the development but again
[6:07:01] human in the loop. It was reviewed by
humans. Yeah.
[6:07:06] » Okay. Thank you.
Member from Whitewater, please.
[6:07:10] » Yeah, chair. Just my feedback. The I I
uh I support the red line idea and the
[6:07:16] riskbased classification. I think those
are two good approaches for how to at
[6:07:21] least set the framework for dealing with
AI. I'm struggling though internally.
[6:07:26] All of the documents that are generated
like the public documents that we see,
[6:07:31] they're all available on the internet.
There's nothing stopping any member of
[6:07:34] the public from putting them all in and
uploading them all in AI, all of the AI.
[6:07:39] So I guess really we're looking at it
how do we control the confidential
[6:07:44] information the closed session
information from getting out or
[6:07:52] beyond that how do we you know systems
that we might use AI to make decisions
[6:07:58] on your your third category there your
tier three maybe those are the ones that
[6:08:03] we focus on. Is there any comments from
staff on on on that thought?
[6:08:09] Um there I I think training our staff is
going to be a big part of it uh of them
[6:08:15] knowing what and what they can't use it
for. Uh but beyond that there are um
[6:08:20] some new security tools that are coming
out uh on the market. Um that are
[6:08:25] specifically designed to monitor what's
going on in the AI environment. Um, so
[6:08:31] if a staff person feed tries to feed a
driver's license number into an AI tool,
[6:08:37] it's going to pick that up and say,
"Nuh-uh, you're not doing that." So
[6:08:42] there there are some stuff it it's new.
Um, so uh, as these tools uh, kind of
[6:08:48] mature a little bit more, it's
definitely going to be something that I
[6:08:51] think we're going to need.
[6:08:55] » So thank you, chair, and through you.
So, this is obviously people around me,
[6:08:59] you know, I get excited about this stuff
because I to say you can't use this is
[6:09:03] ridiculous, right? And Chris pointed
this out. We're all using it. You've got
[6:09:07] to use it, right? I think what it it
it's helping staff
[6:09:11] to be a little more empowered in terms
of their creativity and reaching outside
[6:09:15] of of their box to find those that
information without spending hours in
[6:09:18] the stacks of the library as I equated
to, right? People working on calculators
[6:09:24] say goodbye to the abacus, right? When
email came out, we said goodbye to the
[6:09:27] fax machine. Remember six years ago, we
didn't want to go on Zoom because we're
[6:09:31] all afraid of cameras. Right now, what
do we do? 90% of our day, we're stuck on
[6:09:34] a camera and having meetings on that.
So, it's it's a natural evolution. It's
[6:09:39] just it's getting it to to not think for
us, but start the thinking maybe for us
[6:09:45] or get us through our brain farts
sometimes, right? Quite honestly, or get
[6:09:49] us to a point. So instead of um the
menial task, we're managing what we
[6:09:55] message to start that that information
that we either need to provide the
[6:10:00] public or to you, right? And and we're a
humanfaced
[6:10:04] company, corporation. So no jobs are
disappearing because of AI, because
[6:10:09] we're we're a humanbased entity, right?
We've got to deal with the public on a
[6:10:13] regular basis. But to your to your first
point, uh we got to be careful the
[6:10:17] information we feed into it.
Well, if everybody did that, then we
[6:10:21] wouldn't be knowledgeable, right? I I
agree with the closed items and all
[6:10:25] these other things, but when I look at
gosh, we need a new design for a
[6:10:29] paramedic base or we need uh to look at
how to do something different. We need
[6:10:34] to reach out across the world. I could
spend 14 days googling every single
[6:10:38] website in the world or I could spend 13
seconds asking them with the right
[6:10:42] inputs, find me these things. Right? So,
I think it just opened up a whole new
[6:10:47] world. the Pandora's box is is god it's
already opened right but it it has
[6:10:51] opened the world to greater prob
possibilities
[6:10:55] um in a shorter time limit the
unfortunate part is the public's well
[6:10:59] not the unfortunate part you get into
these AI wars now with with people that
[6:11:03] you're communicating with right so we we
develop an email we humanize it and it
[6:11:08] bounces to somebody and we get a 13page
manifesto back right from whomever
[6:11:15] uh from either upper tier lower tier or
people in the public, right? We're
[6:11:18] seeing seeing the M dash is coming from
everywhere. The the telltale sign of an
[6:11:22] AI written letter. Um, so we have to, as
we've said in our own reports, and I've
[6:11:27] said it before, we have to own the words
we say. And Chris has pointed that out,
[6:11:30] that human loop. So we better be darn
sure that when we say something and
[6:11:35] we've generated it off that we back
every single word in that, right, and
[6:11:38] we've read it and reviewed it. So that's
just all all my concern that we're all
[6:11:42] using it in some fashion to get to the
information there. if you know my my my
[6:11:47] colleague in in emergency services is
using it for for good as well, right?
[6:11:51] Their paramedics use it if in need of of
establishing um a care before they get
[6:11:58] to the site. Sometimes they they they
will use their own GPT based on um uh
[6:12:04] the inputs based on medical uh textbooks
and everything else from from around the
[6:12:09] world. What is the level of care I need
to to establish before I get to that
[6:12:12] site if if it's outside of their
knowledge, right? Uh,
[6:12:17] I might use it if someone asked me a
quick question right now. You know, what
[6:12:20] what is the know how many housing units
do we need to know? 13 seconds. I'll
[6:12:25] have the answer for you. So, we're not
waiting for a minute to go back. So, the
[6:12:29] world is changing very fast. We've ex
we've adopted this here at the
[6:12:32] corporation. It's finding those
guardrails that we need to put in place
[6:12:35] to make sure that people are using it
safely and and not keeping stuff on this
[6:12:38] phone that has a driver's license and
SIN number and everything else on it and
[6:12:42] protecting the organization.
[6:12:48] Okay, thank you. Is there anything
further?
[6:12:52] Okay, we'll move on to item number six.
Thank you very much, Chris. Really
[6:12:57] appreciate it.
Uh we have two communication items. We
[6:13:01] have the 2025 financial statements and
of the Renford County District Health
[6:13:06] Unit. And we have the package from OMX,
the Ontario Municipal Insurance
[6:13:11] Exchange, providing details of their
financial position at December 31, 2025.
[6:13:18] And could I get a mover and seconder
that the communications be received as
[6:13:23] information? Member from Kilu Hegy
Richards, second by a member from North
[6:13:27] Aona Wilburforce. Is there any
discussion or questions? Member Fan, Mr.
[6:13:32] Bramley, please.
>> Uh, thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I
[6:13:35] think that Mr. Burke uh may have
identified this when we had our
[6:13:39] discussion about the reserve accounts,
specifically WSIB.
[6:13:43] » Oh, he's not here. No, I don't have any.
Well, okay. I'll I'll throw this to to
[6:13:48] Mr. Belmore.
Um, so I know that in and I think that
[6:13:54] we're all familiar with this with the
insurance. there is the the the certain
[6:13:58] sun setting or time frame uh of when a
claim can be made. Uh but of course if
[6:14:04] there is an infant perhaps in the
vehicle that clock doesn't start until
[6:14:09] they hit the age of majority as I
understand it and I think that that's
[6:14:12] what Mr. Burke had
>> [clears throat]
[6:14:13] » identified at a previous meeting. I
wonder in any of the communications uh
[6:14:17] Mr. Melbour if you might be aware of how
long the the uh stewardship
[6:14:25] uh of uh of uh what is it?
Um yeah how long uh this is anticipated
[6:14:32] before there would be a distribution of
surplus funds
[6:14:37] » through you chair to the council.
Unfortunately I'm unaware of that
[6:14:39] information but I can take it back and
try and get you an answer.
[6:14:42] » Thank you.
>> Okay. Thank you. Are there any further
[6:14:47] questions?
Seeing none, I'll call the vote. All
[6:14:50] those in favor? Opposed? None. It's
carried. Thank you very much, committee.
[6:14:59] The agenda includes written items of
important information that were provided
[6:15:05] for your review. Number A is the
administration
[6:15:09] consent report providing the information
technology key performance indicators
[6:15:13] for January to March 2026.
and the delegated authority for theou
[6:15:18] extension for RCVTAC
integrated virtual care with the Pedawa
[6:15:23] Centennial Family Health Center. Are
there any questions on those two items?
[6:15:29] Okay, seeing none,
uh the corporate services department
[6:15:34] consent report contained the executive
summary for it regarding responsible AI
[6:15:40] use framework. Could I get a mover and
seconder to accept the consent reports
[6:15:44] as information? Move, please. Moved by
the member from Armpire, second by the
[6:15:48] member from Headclar Mariah. Discussion.
All those in favor? Opposed? None. It's
[6:15:55] carried. Thank you.
[6:16:00] Almost skipped right till the end. Uh
[6:16:07] 8A discussion reports. The only item
within the administration discussion
[6:16:11] report item number one has a
recommendation
[6:16:16] that
>> I'm sorry.
[6:16:20] » Okay. That the corporate services
committee recommends that county council
[6:16:24] approve the following amended corporate
policies.
[6:16:27] A policy A7
criminal record checks as amended and B
[6:16:34] policy A8
criminal record check for all
[6:16:38] prospective county of Renfruit
volunteers and Renfruit County Housing
[6:16:42] Corporation RCHC contractors amended and
that a bylaw to amend bylaw 6303 being a
[6:16:50] bylaw to establish human resources
corporate policies and procedures for
[6:16:54] the county of Renfruit be adopted. Could
I have a mover and seconder, please?
[6:16:58] Member from Amiston Brmley, second by
the member from Laurentian Hills. And
[6:17:03] I'd like to ask the manager of
legislative services, our clerk, to
[6:17:07] overview the background, please.
[6:17:12] » Thank you, chair. When I was reviewing
the policies, I noticed that volunteers
[6:17:16] included members of our ad hoc
committees. And because under the
[6:17:20] municipal act, um, counselors do not
need to have a criminal background
[6:17:24] check, I thought I would remove them
just for that reason with a caveat that
[6:17:29] our members here at county council do
need a criminal background check through
[6:17:33] the long-term care home. But because
these members are not on our long-term
[6:17:37] care home, I thought we'd remove them.
[6:17:41] » Okay. Thank you. [snorts] Are there any
other I'm sorry, a member from Kilu Hegi
[6:17:46] Richards.
>> Thank you, chair. just along the lines
[6:17:49] of the volunteers.
So, anytime we get a volunteer to any of
[6:17:54] our functions, we have to do that
criminal record check. And is there a is
[6:18:00] there a charge for that?
[6:18:08] » Yes, there is, but I'm not sure what it
is right now.
[6:18:12] So take for example if we our our show
outside
[6:18:17] um with with all our departments and
everything like that and we were had to
[6:18:21] have volunteers at that function all of
those people would need to be checked
[6:18:30] » the functions that we have here like our
our
[6:18:32] » like our trade show you know that
>> staff are all have it
[6:18:36] » okay but if there's volunteers involved
pardon me
[6:18:40] » if there's volunt volunteers involved.
Yes, we do a criminal background check
[6:18:44] on them,
but like when we have county council day
[6:18:48] here, it's all staff.
[6:18:55] » Very rarely do we have volunteers. Yeah,
it's not quite like a municipality where
[6:18:59] you have events and festivals and things
like that where you have volunteers, but
[6:19:02] that's
>> okay. Thank you. Member from Greater
[6:19:06] Madawaska.
>> Yeah, just some clarity on the
[6:19:09] volunteers. Are they requiring to get a
vulnerability sector check or a full
[6:19:15] criminal back full criminal check?
There's a difference between them.
[6:19:25] » Yeah.
>> Yes, sir.
[6:19:27] » Thanks through you to uh the counselor
for employees and uh long-term care. We
[6:19:33] need the vulnerable sector check. Uh but
for and the volunteers, anybody working
[6:19:40] in uh long-term care with the exclusion
of some contractors and that sort of
[6:19:46] thing, but then for council here, it's
just a criminal record check. So much
[6:19:52] better with the timeline turnaround and
all that. Uh it's not the vulnerable
[6:19:56] sector check.
It's only those who are in direct
[6:20:01] contact with residents, providing care,
interacting with residents.
[6:20:07] » Yeah, thank you. I just I was kind of
referring to the just the volunteer side
[6:20:12] of it though. Um I'm just wondering
whether because I think there is a um a
[6:20:19] different dollar value for a
vulnerability check than there is a
[6:20:23] criminal background check. And I would
hate to see the fact that we are all
[6:20:28] clamoring for volunteers everywhere all
the time that um they may dissuade them
[6:20:35] from
volunteering because they have to pay
[6:20:38] the higher price for a criminal
background check than a vulnerability
[6:20:41] sector check. That's all.
[6:20:45] » So again, it's just those who are in
direct care with the residents, i.e. the
[6:20:50] volunteers who are again in direct care
with those residents. They need the
[6:20:55] vulnerable sector check. We provide them
with a letter and uh yeah.
[6:21:05] » Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Belmore and then
Whitewater.
[6:21:08] » Thank you, Chair. Uh, so the criminal
record check is the lower level of the
[6:21:13] two checks and that is free for people
to do for volunteering. the vulnerable
[6:21:18] rec record Records check the VRC that we
require for long-term care as a
[6:21:22] condition of the fixing long-term care
act. So that's a legal requirement for
[6:21:25] us again say for the few caveats that
Dean mentioned for contractors there is
[6:21:29] a fee associated with that. So it's only
the folks in long-term care need the VSC
[6:21:34] all of the rest of our volunteers would
only need a CRC and those are free.
[6:21:43] » Supplementary supplementary
>> supplementary supplementary is following
[6:21:46] that. So currently when we do a criminal
background check it comes back either
[6:21:50] positive or negative without any
distinction of what the criminal charges
[6:21:55] are and if they want to go further then
to to move on is u fingerprint. So are
[6:22:00] we doing this I guess this is to Mr.
Belmore are we doing this objectively or
[6:22:06] subjectively that if it comes back that
that yes they do have a criminal
[6:22:11] background. uh are we offering them the
step that they can then go and get a a
[6:22:17] detailed record of what they have or do
we just say no at that point?
[6:22:24] » Thank you chair through to the
counselor. So when it comes to
[6:22:26] employment typically we in invite people
during interviews to advise us if
[6:22:31] they're going to be successful in
getting a clear records check and if
[6:22:34] they're forthcoming and disclosing uh
whatever charges may appear on there. We
[6:22:38] can do an assessment in advance if we
come to find out after the fact that
[6:22:42] they did have charges. We again do an
assessment of what the what the charges
[6:22:45] were and our policy speaks to it going
up essentially between the director and
[6:22:48] the CEO to review and say uh you know
someone working in long-term care that
[6:22:53] may have had a DUI. They don't have to
drive our our people around. They're not
[6:22:57] expected as opposed to plow operator
let's say. So we might make an exception
[6:23:01] for that sort of a charge on someone's
file. Um I would suggest I'll have to
[6:23:05] ask Dean Director um Quaid specifically
whether volunteers are treated
[6:23:10] differently in the home, whether it's
mandatory to have a clear one. But for
[6:23:13] employees, we do give them the
opportunity uh to provide sort of the
[6:23:17] details behind it to make an assessment.
>> Thank you very much. Thank you. And no
[6:23:22] more supplementals.
>> Okay. Thank you. And the member from
[6:23:25] Whitewater, please.
>> No, it's answered. Thanks, Chair. Thank
[6:23:30] you. I'm curious. I didn't see uh my pet
project included in this where uh
[6:23:37] members of uh cabinet ministers and
their staffs have to have it before they
[6:23:42] can go into the long-term care. But
we'll save that for another day. Are
[6:23:46] there any questions or concerns?
All those in favor? Opposed? None is
[6:23:52] carried. Thank you.
[6:23:56] And moving along within the corporate
services report, we have a
[6:24:00] recommendation on under item number one
that the corporate services committee
[6:24:04] recommends to county council that the
audited financial statements for the
[6:24:08] county of Renfruit for the year ended
December 31, 2025 be approved. Can I get
[6:24:14] a mover and second please? Member from
North Aona Wilberfor. Second by a member
[6:24:18] from Pedawa. Is there any further
discussion? This was information was
[6:24:22] overviewed and discussed during county
council. Are there any remaining
[6:24:26] questions, concerns? Seeing none, all
those in favor? Opposed? None is
[6:24:30] carried. Thank you very much.
[6:24:34] Within the corporate services discussion
report, there's item number two. And we
[6:24:38] have a recommendation that the corporate
services committee recommends that
[6:24:42] county council approve the following
changes to the non-union staff salary
[6:24:46] grid within employment bylaw number one.
A the unit clerk position be replaced in
[6:24:52] group two and B the heart hub operations
and intake coordin coordinator position
[6:24:59] be included in group eight and that the
revised employment bylaw number one be
[6:25:04] adopted. Could I get a mover and
seconder please?
[6:25:08] member from Headclair Mariah, seconded
by member from Greater Madawasa
[6:25:15] and I would ask that the associate
director of people and culture/D deputy
[6:25:21] treasurer to overview the background
please. Thank you chair and through
[6:25:25] committee. Uh the first item the unit
clerk is is more of a housekeeping item.
[6:25:30] Uh when we prepare our budgets we don't
have a job description necessarily
[6:25:34] formalized at the time. uh so we can't
undertake the full job evaluation
[6:25:38] process. It's based on an estimate of
where we think it will land and in the
[6:25:42] budget package uh presented earlier this
year. It was placed as group three and
[6:25:46] budgeted as group three. However, now
that since the position has been
[6:25:49] approved, the formal job description has
been created, it has been scored using
[6:25:53] our job evaluation tool which places it
on group two. So that is why this bylaw
[6:25:58] amendment is coming through here because
we're actually moving forward or have
[6:26:01] been moving forward with the recruitment
process for filling these roles. The
[6:26:05] second is a new position, the heartthub
operations and intake coordinator that's
[6:26:09] been created. This is one of the
positions uh supporting the heartthub
[6:26:13] and this will be an employee of the
county of Renfruit, which is why we're
[6:26:16] adding it to our employment bylaw so
that we can enter into an employment
[6:26:20] relationship with the uh individual for
this role and it's fully funded again
[6:26:24] through the heartthub side of our
operations. Thank you.
[6:26:29] Are there any other questions, comments
or concerns?
[6:26:33] Seeing none, all those in favor opposed?
None. It's carried. Thank you very much.
[6:26:38] And could I have a mover and seconder,
please, that the discussion reports be
[6:26:42] received as presented? Moved by the
member from Laurentin Valley, seconded
[6:26:47] by the member from Brudinell Lindok.
Discussion. All those in favor? Opposed?
[6:26:54] None is carried. Thank you very much.
There are no further Sorry, there are no
[6:26:59] deferred reports. Are there any new
updates that require verbal reports?
[6:27:05] Okay, seeing none, we do not have a
close session.
[6:27:10] Is there any other new business?
Okay, seeing none. And with that, uh, I
[6:27:17] would like a mover and seconder, please,
that this meeting adjourn and the next
[6:27:20] regular meeting be held on Wednesday the
12th of August at 2026 on 2026, I'm
[6:27:29] sorry. And a mover, please. Member from
Laurentian Hills, seconded by member
[6:27:35] from Madawaska Valley. Discussion.
All those in favor? Opposed? None. It's
[6:27:42] carried. Thank you very much. It's We
are now adjourned at 3:52 p.m.
[6:27:50] » Enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you to
staff for your uh excellent reports.