[0:00] promote green infrastructure improved

[0:02] flood plain mapping and avoiding

[0:04] construction on floodplains many

[0:06] recommendations a MoU was asking for to

[0:08] adequately funding infrastructure

[0:10] programs provincial support for robust

[0:13] prevention and response bill 108 was

[0:16] discussed and I'll pass some information

[0:19] on to our Planning Department about that

[0:21] and ended indigenous relations

[0:24] throughout the province was discussed as

[0:26] well and I think that's about all there

[0:29] was other things so but those are kind

[0:31] of some of the key hype they think of

[0:33] councillor Dodge as well we have the

[0:34] face or the face retreat Christmas

[0:36] market coming up on December 7th that's

[0:38] in the evening I think it starts at 3

[0:39] o'clock and goes until 8 o'clock

[0:41] councillor Williamson just in terms of

[0:45] the new information on the budget

[0:47] process does that go through you to the

[0:51] clerk does that conform with our

[0:53] procedure of bylaw I thought we could

[0:54] make amendments any time

[0:57] for clarity sake it's not that they

[0:59] can't be made amendments can definitely

[1:01] be brought the evening of it's just that

[1:03] stuff there's 24 hours to be able to

[1:05] prep them so that's why we have the

[1:07] second budget night set aside over the

[1:09] last couple of years thank you

[1:10] okay thanks for the clarification okay

[1:13] and then we also have a public meeting

[1:14] on December 9th and this one's at the

[1:17] Meriton lions community center and

[1:20] that's regarding a proposal for the

[1:22] former merit in high school and I would

[1:24] just remind Council as well on December

[1:27] 12th we have the public meeting on the

[1:29] new community improvement plan and that

[1:31] takes place at City City Council

[1:33] Chambers here at 6:00 p.m. all welcome

[1:36] and on the planning one just remind

[1:38] council your role isn't to take a

[1:41] position on a proposed plan that's in

[1:43] front of us if you're at a community

[1:46] event like that your role is to listen

[1:47] and again under the Planning Act if

[1:50] you're out there saying what your

[1:51] position is when it comes to actual

[1:53] decision making time which could be

[1:55] three months down the road you could be

[1:57] compromising yourself by saying I'm

[1:59] against this right away without even

[2:00] hearing any of the actual planning

[2:02] report coming in so just be mindful that

[2:05] when you're out there listen to what the

[2:07] residents are saying but if you are out

[2:09] there also saying I'm against this I

[2:10] will fight this tooth and nail

[2:12] what essentially is you're saying is

[2:13] you're not even willing to listen to the

[2:15] planning regulation and then you could

[2:18] put yourself in jeopardy Lenovo that's

[2:19] all so just be mindful when you're going

[2:21] to the community events as well as

[2:24] everyone heard last Friday the Ombudsman

[2:27] issued its long-waited report for the

[2:29] region in the hiring of the regional CEO

[2:32] and his contract extension so this was a

[2:34] very thorough report and I'm only

[2:36] bringing it to counsels attention

[2:37] because obviously the public is talking

[2:39] about this it seems to be one of the the

[2:41] most talked about subjects over the last

[2:43] three days and as a member of this

[2:46] council will be looking at is some of

[2:47] the recommendations that came out of

[2:48] there we'll look at our policies as well

[2:50] just make sure that if we can tighten up

[2:52] any of our policies it's always

[2:53] important when you have an ombudsman

[2:55] report coming out it's not just it's not

[2:57] just native to what would be the the

[2:59] region but if they if local

[3:00] municipalities can learn from any of the

[3:02] processes in place that would be

[3:03] important as well so we'll be asking

[3:05] staff to look at his recommendations and

[3:06] see if we have to update any of our

[3:08] policies that's why I bring it up here

[3:09] as well and with that I'll look to the

[3:12] clerk and we can go on with the agenda

[3:13] three mr. mayor this evenings agenda the

[3:17] changes one of two reasons to go

[3:19] in-camera has been actually deferred so

[3:22] it's a proposed or pending acquisition

[3:24] or disposition of land so it's Realty

[3:26] file 87 35 so that will not be in closed

[3:29] session this evening council agenda item

[3:31] 11

[3:32] - motion regarding one-month

[3:34] appointments for the deputy mayor has

[3:36] been revised so that that would state to

[3:39] start in 2021 okay so the full revised

[3:42] motion will be on the screen shortly the

[3:45] following items have been added to

[3:47] councils SugarSync folder prior to this

[3:49] evening's meeting a memorandum from

[3:50] staff Ontario electricity rebate

[3:53] confidential memorandum from the clerk

[3:55] regarding citizen appointments on the

[3:57] following firefighters memorial task

[3:58] force and that's it Thank You Bonnie

[4:05] is there any amendments to the councilor

[4:07] bouncing Thank You mr. mayor I'm asking

[4:11] if we can go to eleven point two eleven

[4:18] point two before we deal with three

[4:20] point five in general committee and I'm

[4:23] not sure that require a vote on counts

[4:25] to make that change you got me agenda

[4:27] okay so the request is 11.2 to be moved

[4:30] prior to the discussion on the

[4:32] appointment of the deputy mayor

[4:33] so council us to vote on this all in

[4:35] favor opposed pregnant no it's not on

[4:42] this one not yet not yet but if you were

[4:44] thinking about the conflict it's not on

[4:45] this one okay so that has been moved

[4:47] counselor once and you have a delegation

[4:49] to add please okay Jane Hanlon has been

[4:56] added as a speaking all in favor of the

[4:57] addition of the speaker speaking to the

[4:59] tree canopy that the the forestry issue

[5:01] okay carried any other changes okay kind

[5:05] of a mover and a seconder for the agenda

[5:07] councillor Sorrento councillor Kushner

[5:08] all in favor

[5:09] carried any conflicts of interest

[5:11] tonight and you can declare when an

[5:13] issue comes up no conflicts a currently

[5:17] adoption in the minutes councillor

[5:19] Harris you're up for a regular meeting

[5:22] self seconded by Councillor Garcia that

[5:24] council adopt the minutes of the

[5:25] meetings of Council held on Monday

[5:27] November 18th 2019 any comments on the

[5:32] minutes okay seeing none all in favor

[5:34] Carrie next move by myself second by

[5:38] councillor Garcia the council adopted

[5:39] minutes of the general committee meeting

[5:41] held on Monday November 18

[5:42] 2019 okay any comments in these minutes

[5:45] seeing none all in favor Carrie

[5:49] okay well now resolved in the general

[5:52] committee and looking for motion to

[5:55] remove consent reports councillor

[5:56] Phillips motion to move consent agenda

[6:04] moved by myself the council approve the

[6:06] consent agenda same except those items

[6:07] brought forward for discussion forthwith

[6:10] okay I'll look to the clerk the CDs

[6:15] consent agenda 2.1 Planning and Building

[6:18] Services code of conduct for building

[6:20] officials policy update 2.2 planning and

[6:22] building services application to remove

[6:25] holding designation from zoning address

[6:27] 271 Merritt Street 2.3 financial

[6:31] management services director 2020

[6:33] proposed operating budget 2.4 financial

[6:36] management service

[6:37] budget standing committee report meeting

[6:39] of October 28th 2.5 financial management

[6:42] services budget Standing Committee

[6:44] report meeting of November 13 2019 and

[6:47] 2.6 financial management services budget

[6:50] Standing Committee report meeting of

[6:52] November 20th 2019 as well 2.8 legal and

[6:57] Clerk Services office of the city clerk

[6:59] counsel correspondence Custer Dodge can

[7:05] I just ask one quick question 2.2 does

[7:07] that refer back to one of the items that

[7:09] you'd withdraw number through tonight I

[7:17] looked at planning so there was a

[7:19] withdraw or no finance withdrawal of a

[7:21] in-camera

[7:22] yeah 2.2 are you talking about the

[7:26] consent agenda counselor sorry yes I am

[7:29] okay so I just pulled and then it was it

[7:32] was withdrawn it was also it's not it

[7:34] and it's no it's parking consent now

[7:36] okay yes Kelsey Garcia yes

[7:43] councillor Harris yes Master Kushner

[7:45] councillor Littleton yeah councillor

[7:48] Miller yes sir Phillips yes yes reporter

[7:50] yeah now sir Cisco yes councillor

[7:53] Sorento yes counselor Townsend yes

[7:55] councillor Williamson and mayor CENTAC

[7:57] yes carried unanimously

[7:59] so do we have some Brock students at the

[8:01] back Niagara College students at the

[8:04] back okay yeah you'll be coming up

[8:05] forward to present shortly just want to

[8:07] welcome you here and for the other folks

[8:10] here what we just did was there's a

[8:11] number of items that go on consent means that council has reviewed

[8:15] those files they see nothing in them

[8:17] that they want to ask questions for so

[8:19] they get passed as a block and so we

[8:21] just went through six items that then

[8:24] they're passed as a bundle

[8:26] okay so councils reconvened public

[8:31] meeting pursuant to the Planning Act

[8:33] there is none we have a special

[8:35] presentation by en Y so Ernst and Young

[8:38] and if I could have the presenters come

[8:40] forward and speak yeah sorry

[8:45] our CEO is going to speak to this first

[8:48] and then

[8:48] invite the speakers to come on just as a

[8:51] little bit of introduction before the

[8:53] speakers arrive as council is aware we

[8:56] received grant funding from the province

[8:58] to perform an audit and accountability

[9:00] audit I think sorry about it redundant

[9:04] but this was to help us to be find

[9:08] opportunities to be more efficient to

[9:10] modernize service delivery and at the

[9:12] same time protecting frontline jobs so

[9:14] the consultant that was successful to

[9:16] our RFP was Ian Y and they have worked

[9:20] diligently from September to November

[9:21] very short time period meeting with all

[9:24] of our directors are and their direct

[9:27] reports we scoped as your where we

[9:30] scoped the audit principally to be

[9:32] concerned with our new municipal works

[9:34] department planning building services

[9:37] the fe s and C RCS predominately looking

[9:40] at large mobile workforces and ways in

[9:43] which can we can be more efficient and

[9:45] ways in which that whole reorganizing

[9:49] our organization of our corporation can

[9:51] be more effective not surprising they

[9:55] found that looking at those

[9:56] opportunities that some of the

[9:58] opportunities are also applicable to the

[10:00] whole corporation so as they take us

[10:02] through just a very high-level summary

[10:06] of the report you will hear basically a

[10:08] number of transfer transformational

[10:10] operational opportunities that stage

[10:13] staff will be working on in the next

[10:15] foreseeable future so we have Mohamed

[10:18] bhajami sargi clothes and Fahim cutter

[10:23] Nia okay

[10:35] welcome welcome to City Council

[10:43] so just identify yourself for the public

[10:45] again here so we have an unofficial

[10:47] record oh wow I love this this is great

[10:51] my name is Mohammad bomani and this is

[10:54] faheen Cotter Dena and I'm an associate

[10:58] partner at Ernst & Young's government

[11:01] public sector practice Fahim is the

[11:02] senior manager in the practice and we're

[11:06] here to give you a little bit of a

[11:07] background on the work that we have done

[11:13] I was just getting a cough drop so I

[11:16] would be paying attention

[11:21] so thank you very much for the

[11:23] opportunity to come here and and and

[11:25] have this discussion with you today I

[11:28] know you've all had a chance to take a

[11:30] look at the at the final report that we

[11:32] submitted what I'm going to do over the

[11:34] next few minutes is just give you a

[11:35] brief overview on some of the components

[11:38] of it and then we'll we'll open it up to

[11:40] any any questions that you have it's

[11:48] thinking thinking so I'm just going to

[11:53] take you to some specific slides that

[11:56] we're gonna be talking towards perfect

[11:59] so just as bit of an of an overview the

[12:02] audit and accountability fund was

[12:04] launched by the Ontario government and

[12:06] 2019 to give me Anissa pallet II as an

[12:08] opportunity to have to do third-party

[12:12] reviews to identify opportunities for

[12:14] greater efficiency for modernization

[12:19] I'm getting there I promise here we go

[12:26] almost there we go still going the wrong

[12:29] way

[12:29] I'll keep talking till to look for

[12:34] opportunities for four modernizations

[12:36] and for efficiencies so we we I joined

[12:40] the city in September to begin our review it it

[12:47] was really meant to be it includes a

[12:49] high-level analysis of the city as a

[12:51] whole but as the CEO had mentioned that

[12:56] the focus was on expenditures operations

[12:59] and services of four departments and

[13:01] that is planning and building services

[13:03] municipal works engineering facilities

[13:05] and environmental services and community

[13:08] recreation and cultural services what we

[13:11] found as we went through is that a

[13:12] number of the opportunities that we

[13:14] found go really across the entire

[13:16] corporation and so we'll talk a little

[13:18] bit about that in a moment our approach

[13:20] was to gather as much data as we could

[13:24] financial data any types of reports any

[13:27] previous audits so on we conducted a

[13:29] whole series of stakeholder interviews

[13:31] multiple sessions with different parts

[13:34] of the organization and we looked at

[13:36] some leading practices that are done

[13:37] around the country in other

[13:39] municipalities work that we at ey have

[13:41] done we have a lot of time and

[13:44] experience in the municipal sector to

[13:47] see what those opportunities are and

[13:48] what we've been able to do is put those

[13:50] opportunities into succinct business

[13:52] cases they've been categorized if they

[13:55] can be quantified we we've done that and

[13:57] we'll talk about that in a moment and

[13:58] then we validated it with members of the

[14:01] senior leadership team and that has

[14:02] resulted in the report that you have

[14:05] today so there is obviously if you've

[14:10] seen the report it's dense there's a lot

[14:12] of information and data we're not going

[14:14] to go through every single slide that we eat that we had in here but

[14:18] there are a couple of things that I

[14:20] wanted to draw your attention to in

[14:21] terms of what we found if we look at

[14:23] revenue and expenditures across the city

[14:25] as a whole tax revenues have grown by a

[14:28] compounded annual growth rate of about

[14:30] 3.6 percent between 2014 and 2019

[14:34] expenditures have grown at 3.1 percent

[14:37] so while it is good that the growth of

[14:41] your revenues are essentially exceeding

[14:44] the growth of your expenditures both are

[14:46] in fact exceeding your population growth

[14:48] rate and so that will at some point not

[14:50] be sustainable over the longer term

[14:56] the low growth rate is largely a result

[14:59] of a continued focus by the city of st.

[15:02] Catherine's on actively managing

[15:04] expenditures while maintaining services

[15:06] so what we found as we went through and

[15:09] talked to everybody in the organization

[15:10] and looked at the data is that you have

[15:12] a relatively lean organization leaner

[15:15] than many of the other ones that we've

[15:16] had a chance to to to look at and the

[15:19] approach that that the city has made to

[15:22] expenditure management has been focused

[15:24] on managing that incremental demand as

[15:27] through existing resources and that has

[15:30] really pushed the capacity of existing

[15:32] resources just a couple of the other

[15:37] things that I draw your attention to is

[15:39] that while service levels performance

[15:42] metrics and other forms of measurement

[15:44] and information collection are common

[15:46] across divisions they're not always

[15:48] explicitly shared and they're not always

[15:50] explicitly managed directly as

[15:53] performance metrics and so the the need

[15:56] for that transparency being tied to

[15:58] citizen outcomes would be a leading

[15:59] practice that the city should should

[16:01] consider in a number of our interviews

[16:05] we thought we saw that there were

[16:06] challenges around some of the recruiting

[16:08] and retaining of staff that that the

[16:13] there's quite a component of the

[16:17] workforce here that relies on mobility

[16:20] to do its job and that that needs to be

[16:22] to you know to an extent cultivated

[16:24] because it has the ability to drive a

[16:27] lot of productivity and the work that we

[16:28] do okay I will say that I did see full full disclosure here we notice that

[16:39] it says eight municipalities on that

[16:41] previous slide we know it's 12 so we saw

[16:45] it don't worry we'll fix that I'm sorry

[16:47] I hope you're not for shadows for shame

[16:49] I know for shame the subsequent slides

[16:53] should go into some relative detail on each of the different areas we're not

[16:59] going to necessarily go through that

[17:00] right now today but they do want to talk

[17:04] about the the opportunities that that we

[17:07] have identified

[17:09] so really even though the focus was on

[17:12] PBS municipal works

[17:14] EFE s and crcs there were a lot of areas

[17:18] where we can see advantages for the

[17:20] entire city to focus on and so we've put

[17:23] these business cases or these

[17:26] opportunities into into into two

[17:27] components and here they are here

[17:30] there's transformational opportunities

[17:32] which broadly means there are

[17:33] initiatives that cut across divisional

[17:35] boundaries and will likely require a

[17:37] centralized approach and will have

[17:40] impacts beyond just the four in scope

[17:42] departments they're not as likely to

[17:45] immediately result in direct savings but

[17:48] in the medium to long term they will

[17:49] improve decision-making they will

[17:51] provide better support to SLT and to

[17:53] counsel and better demonstrating the

[17:56] link between the services that you

[17:57] deliver and the outcomes that you that

[17:59] are experienced by by your citizens the

[18:03] other ones at the bottom of the screen

[18:04] there are operational opportunities now

[18:06] these are the ones are largely for the

[18:07] in scope divisions such as EF ES and so

[18:12] on

[18:12] these opportunities are contained to

[18:14] those divisions that are more likely to

[18:16] generate short medium term direct

[18:19] savings cost avoidance released capacity

[18:22] or increased productivity okay these are

[18:26] all laid out in the in the report that

[18:28] we that we have them again there's a lot

[18:30] and there's quite dense so I'm not going

[18:31] to necessarily go through them right now

[18:32] but I'm happy to take the questions that

[18:34] you will have I will just jump down here

[18:39] so there's obviously an explanation of

[18:42] each each one of these in terms of what

[18:44] the current state the opportunity what

[18:46] the benefits are

[18:53] I did want to talk a little bit about

[18:55] the engagement that we had with what the

[18:57] SLT and the prioritization process so

[19:00] something like this requires the buying

[19:03] and the participation of all the senior

[19:04] leaders within the organization and so

[19:06] we had multiple touch points with with

[19:09] SLT and that included very early on to

[19:12] identify what opportunities they saw

[19:15] what are the you know appropriate

[19:18] criteria that we might be thinking about

[19:20] when we're looking at different

[19:21] opportunities we came back with those

[19:23] options to have them validated by SLT

[19:25] and then we went through a

[19:27] prioritization exercise these are the four that made it to the top of

[19:32] the prioritization for SLT in terms of

[19:35] what was important to them that was to

[19:37] look at IT modernization it was a focus

[19:39] on evidence-based decision making it's

[19:41] about making a modern workplace strategy

[19:43] and on the more operational side was

[19:45] modernizing or building permit and

[19:47] inspections program and we had an

[19:49] opportunity to also try and develop

[19:54] essentially a modernization program for

[19:56] the city and this is how SLT has decided

[19:59] the prioritization and the

[20:00] interdependencies between making these different opportunities actually

[20:05] happen it was an absolute pleasure to

[20:07] work with the team here I will say the

[20:09] senior management team here and staff

[20:11] were a hundred and fifty percent

[20:12] cooperative and came forward with all

[20:15] the data as required we were here a lot

[20:18] we were in front of your team a lot they

[20:20] were unbelievably accommodating and

[20:21] really committed to having a good review

[20:24] that can really show some demonstratable

[20:26] results going forward and that's all I

[20:30] have am happy to answer any questions

[20:32] and thank you very much for your

[20:33] presentation counselors rental yeah

[20:35] Thank You mr. mayor three years you a

[20:37] mr. bomani could you just tell the

[20:39] public at home what efficiencies you've

[20:41] found and in and any cost savings just

[20:45] in general lay terms if you could sir

[20:46] please sure so I'll say that the when we

[20:51] talk about efficiencies there's multiple

[20:52] ways to identify what efficiencies are

[20:54] right there is the immediate savings of

[20:57] actual cash there is the avoidance of

[20:59] spending later on there is the actual

[21:01] capture of capacity to be able to spend

[21:04] time on other things and so a lot of the

[21:07] efficiencies that we found would relate

[21:09] as I said earlier on you're at capacity

[21:11] you you you've really grown as a city

[21:14] very lean Lee here here here within City

[21:17] Hall so the opportunities is to find

[21:19] better more efficient more productive

[21:21] ways to do things to release that

[21:23] capacity to focus it on on other things

[21:25] and on the slide we have here we're

[21:27] looking a little bit at some of those

[21:28] opportunities these focus a little bit

[21:29] more on the bottom seven so digital

[21:31] service delivery trying to have more

[21:34] services go online because they are

[21:36] generally cheaper to to process than the

[21:39] ones that are done face-to-face process

[21:42] automation is especially for our back

[21:44] office services is an emerging

[21:46] opportunity at all municipalities Fahim

[21:49] and I are doing this at three or other

[21:51] many municipalities and that is a key

[21:52] theme for all back offices is to stop to

[21:56] the extent that we can doing those

[21:58] transactional activities with with

[22:00] individuals and allow them to focus on

[22:01] those value-added things and have those

[22:04] things go through an automation it's

[22:06] looking at our infrastructure program of

[22:09] trying to rationalize our facilities and

[22:11] how we look at real property looking to

[22:13] partnerships and you have some good

[22:14] examples with the Meridian Center and

[22:16] the Canada Games Park on how you do that

[22:17] with other municipalities in the region

[22:19] looking at your building permits and

[22:21] inspections areas to try and make that a

[22:24] little bit more efficient and more more

[22:26] customer friendly and looking at the

[22:28] citizens first operating model as well

[22:30] did you find some cost savings as well I again not it not specifically in

[22:38] terms of a dollar savings there are

[22:39] things you can do to prevent those costs

[22:42] from going up into the future and being

[22:43] more efficient just one final question

[22:45] mr. mayor you mentioned something about

[22:46] you mentioned the percentages our

[22:48] revenue is is larger than our our debt

[22:52] and then you mentioned something about

[22:54] being unsustainable are you talking

[22:56] about revenue are you talking about the

[22:59] incorporation what were you referring to

[23:01] sheriff could be both sure so when I

[23:03] mentioned that the the average annual

[23:05] growth rate over the last five years of

[23:07] your revenues is about 3.6 percent okay

[23:10] right

[23:10] the average annual growth rate of your

[23:12] expenditures is 3.1 percent so it's good

[23:16] that your revenues are growing at a

[23:18] faster rate

[23:18] than your expenditures however both of

[23:20] those are to rate higher than your

[23:22] populations actually growing and so at

[23:24] some point that is going to give that's

[23:26] going to create more and more pressure

[23:27] on the services that you are creating so

[23:29] can you just explain what that means I

[23:31] like like is it gonna tie our hands to

[23:35] raise revenue to raise taxes is there

[23:38] gonna be a does that mean diminish

[23:40] services what does that mean I think

[23:42] what it means is that we need to build

[23:44] and create the capacity to be more

[23:46] productive so that we can handle that

[23:49] pressure assuming that those

[23:51] expenditures and that revenue growth

[23:53] won't necessarily continue to keep in

[23:57] line with your population growth okay

[23:58] thank you thank you Council to quell

[24:00] support thank you very much for your

[24:04] presentation through you through the

[24:06] mayor to you you talked about outcome

[24:09] based budgeting and other municipalities

[24:11] who do that and there's a suggestion

[24:14] that we I guess moved towards that it's

[24:16] something I'm in favor of can you

[24:18] describe how a council could support the

[24:23] corporation moving towards outcome based

[24:24] budgeting what are the other things

[24:26] you've noticed some municipalities that

[24:28] work to get there versus traditional

[24:31] based budgeting which I think we've been

[24:32] doing for a long time

[24:34] sure and I'll look to our expert on

[24:35] outcomes based budgeting cream cutter

[24:36] Deena they answer that so I think that's

[24:40] a great question in the fact that that

[24:41] somebody on council brought it up here's

[24:43] a positive because the number one thing

[24:45] I think that we found is it's buy-in

[24:46] from council because what it's gonna

[24:48] require is a presentation of a different

[24:51] set of numbers enough budget documents

[24:54] that will show you or try to show you

[24:56] what you're getting in terms of services

[24:58] rather than what you're getting in terms

[25:00] of outputs so rather than thinking about

[25:02] you know we have this many people

[25:03] delivering X this many times you move to

[25:07] a outcome based view of where you're

[25:09] providing your citizens so you know

[25:11] councils buying is is the single biggest

[25:13] factor for whether this means to eat or

[25:16] not yeah and then I would say the second

[25:18] one is it requires a broad consultation

[25:23] effort within the city ideally with

[25:25] staff and with residents to start

[25:27] talking about what is the kind of city

[25:28] that we want and how are we gonna know

[25:30] when we realized that what

[25:32] measures that we're gonna take and then

[25:35] that'll feed back to you know how what

[25:37] you're tracking and how you're

[25:38] presenting it back to council in the

[25:39] public and my next question I know you

[25:43] didn't get into specifics but it it

[25:45] seems to me that there will need to be

[25:47] some investment into IT in order to move

[25:51] forward I know you probably don't have a

[25:52] dollar figure but is this this is what

[25:54] we should be planning for and expecting

[25:57] we often don't think about IT they're

[25:59] just they're kind of down in the corner

[26:01] somewhere the people who fix our iPads

[26:04] and we don't think too much about it

[26:07] but is this something we need to think

[26:09] about in terms of that the next year or

[26:12] two yes I mean the short answer is a lot

[26:17] of these things are gonna be really

[26:18] tough to realize without thinking about

[26:20] the investments that have to make in

[26:21] technology a couple of things I will say

[26:24] though is there's an opportunity to

[26:27] think about how you can do that in

[26:29] partnership with municipalities in the

[26:31] region specifically when you think about

[26:33] things like housing management platforms

[26:36] and as some management plans because

[26:39] that you can you know you can you might

[26:40] not you might not work out but there's

[26:42] an opportunity to talk to neighboring

[26:43] municipalities about doing this in a

[26:46] coordinated way to see if there's an

[26:47] opportunity to drive down cost the other

[26:49] thing that I would say about IT is and I

[26:51] think I think you made the point well

[26:52] you know it's more than just the people

[26:54] that fix their iPads when they're not

[26:56] working it's really increasingly it's

[26:59] the backbone of the city and whether the

[27:01] city can function properly so thinking

[27:03] about it from a strategic point of view

[27:04] and where the investments are going and

[27:06] trying to do it in a coordinated fashion

[27:08] across the city I think we'll all be key

[27:11] um and all of that goes with you know

[27:14] the necessity of upfront investment in

[27:15] the next not even the next few years

[27:18] just on an ongoing basis to keep to keep

[27:20] up thank you very much

[27:23] Thank You councillor port counts the

[27:25] cushion yes I I have two questions in

[27:30] your presentation you use the

[27:32] evidence-based decision making where are

[27:35] we not doing that well I think I think

[27:40] the what we found was when we are trying

[27:45] to determine

[27:45] types of initiatives we're gonna come

[27:49] forward with whether to be council areas

[27:51] of transformation areas of investment is

[27:54] that there what we heard from staff was

[27:58] that there tends to be a very strong

[28:00] focus on the financial component of that

[28:02] and not necessarily on the benefit or

[28:04] the return side and so it's really about

[28:07] having the strong rigor and the

[28:10] robustness of developing a plan that

[28:12] clearly identifies the the opportunities

[28:17] that we are trying to gain out of our

[28:18] initiatives backed by actual evidence

[28:20] meaning as much data as you have that

[28:22] can show those previous trends and so on

[28:24] and so forth any research that's there

[28:26] to show the actual return that comes

[28:27] back and that is an emerging issue that

[28:31] we see at the provincial government at I

[28:34] have another large municipality in

[28:36] Canada where this is the exact same

[28:37] issue that we're talking about there

[28:38] it's a very common one of having really

[28:41] robust thought process as to how we make

[28:43] our decisions so you're suggesting we

[28:46] look at value at it from the expenditure

[28:48] and my concern is a lot of the

[28:51] value-added that we look at is social in

[28:55] addition to financial so how do we

[28:58] quantify the social value for example in

[29:01] the near future we'll be talking about

[29:03] keeping a golf course open and our staff

[29:07] is saying financially that does make

[29:09] sense

[29:09] which is correct but counsel looks at

[29:12] the social return from that so how would

[29:16] you reconcile the design so I think that

[29:18] absolutely has has a role to play with

[29:21] in this as well there's no perfect way

[29:24] to say this is how you do evidence-based

[29:26] decision-making I think as an SLT and as

[29:28] counsel you need to come up with a bit

[29:30] of a framework as to what what

[29:31] constitutes good evidence that is

[29:33] actually going to allow us to make that decision and what constitutes

[29:37] return so yes sometimes it is quantified

[29:39] sometimes it's not for just those exact

[29:41] reasons it's not always a

[29:43] black-and-white thing and so having a

[29:45] good framework that says these are the

[29:47] conditions by which we make our

[29:48] decisions whether it be quantifiable or or qualitative are part of developing

[29:53] that approach okay can you be more

[29:55] specific in the case of a golf course

[29:58] yeah how can we quantify the return to

[30:01] our residence so the counselor in terms

[30:05] of that's an issue that's going to be

[30:06] coming in front of council in two weeks

[30:08] and I don't think it's appropriate that

[30:10] you're trying to wedge it into today's

[30:13] discussion I think you can ask them

[30:15] offline and ask them for a quantifiable

[30:18] but trying to get them to say something

[30:20] that you're positioning probably not

[30:22] appropriate but mr. mayor I'm looking at

[30:26] all types of investments how do we

[30:28] quantify the social return

[30:31] that's my question it's an example I

[30:33] gave us the golf course

[30:35] sure I think I think that there are lots

[30:38] of different ways I would think that

[30:39] there's an element of the the economic

[30:40] impact that goes on beyond the golf

[30:42] course itself is that the the extent to

[30:46] which the city wants to be an employer

[30:49] and provides seasonal jobs those are

[30:51] types of things that you can quantify to

[30:53] an extent but those are also things that

[30:55] align to your strategy in what you want

[30:56] to be as a city and those are the kinds

[30:58] of things that I would think about

[30:59] thinking about including from a social

[31:01] component I think the important thing

[31:07] about the evidence based decision making

[31:08] is you want to have a consistent way of

[31:11] looking at these things so they you can

[31:13] make the trade-offs in a more informed

[31:15] manner so in a case like this you know

[31:17] if you're talking about the social

[31:18] benefit of a golf course you want to put

[31:20] some thought into how you measure that

[31:22] and then how you would compare that to

[31:23] the social benefit of whatever other

[31:25] investments are in front of you as an

[31:26] object then the next question I ask is

[31:30] going back to the question that

[31:33] councillor Sorrento asked you've

[31:35] indicated that a revenues and

[31:37] expenditures are growing faster than the

[31:40] population increase and that's not

[31:42] sustainable even though our revenues are

[31:45] greater than the cost expenditure I

[31:47] would have thought would be the reverse

[31:49] if we didn't have the excess then that

[31:53] wouldn't be sustainable and you're

[31:55] saying the opposite

[31:59] I think I think what we're trying to say

[32:01] is that that is a unique scenario and is

[32:05] unlikely to last forever and and so that growth needs to be considered in in

[32:12] light of the growth of the of the actual

[32:15] city so we're not saying that there's an

[32:17] impending doom or anything but it's it's

[32:20] a trend over the last five years and it

[32:22] is unlikely to remain that way but you

[32:26] would agree it's a good trend I think

[32:28] you are you are less exposed to the risk

[32:32] at this moment at this moment yeah thank

[32:35] you

[32:35] I think Kelso cushions so I'm just me

[32:38] there you're gonna go around the

[32:39] horseshoe so councillor Miller you ready

[32:41] hand up and then we're gonna go keep

[32:42] going until we're finished this

[32:44] discussion councillor Miller you're up

[32:46] thank you thanks for the presentation

[32:48] report I I'm I'm really interested in

[32:50] the the modern workplace strategy I

[32:52] think you're bang on that's a challenge

[32:56] for us with so many competitors and in

[32:58] the marketplace for employees that

[33:00] that's somewhere we could actually that

[33:02] maybe were a bit behind that we could

[33:03] get ahead when when you look at another

[33:07] municipalities or other organizations

[33:08] you've worked at is that primarily

[33:10] strategic or are we talking about

[33:12] tangible more tangible changes to how

[33:16] workplaces are set up you know the type

[33:18] of desk-bound in the report and things

[33:19] like that or how much of a balance

[33:22] between those things is spending and how

[33:24] much is sort of a change in thinking

[33:28] please we have not rares so it's it's a

[33:34] combination of the two all right so I

[33:36] would say part of it is you know getting

[33:38] a clear view of how you stack up

[33:40] compared to regional competitors because

[33:43] the people you're looking to hire are

[33:45] not gonna be working you know beyond an

[33:48] hour's drive from here so you really

[33:50] need to think about a recompile it

[33:54] people we should considering we are the

[33:56] biggest municipalities and then in terms

[33:59] of the more I think you called it the

[34:02] strategic side I think that is a big

[34:04] part right because I'm increasingly

[34:07] people are looking for meaning in their

[34:09] work and the

[34:11] one thing that municipalities you know

[34:13] the governments have going for them is

[34:14] there's a lot of meaning in the work

[34:15] that gets done here so being able to

[34:17] position that more effectively and

[34:19] communicate that more clearly is part of

[34:21] that strategy thank you and just could

[34:24] you I suppose

[34:26] give maybe a couple quick examples of

[34:28] what some of those strategy

[34:30] implementations that have been

[34:31] successful elsewhere in terms of

[34:33] modernizing the workplace um so the the

[34:39] provincial government has started to

[34:41] move towards it's a flexible work

[34:44] environment right so what they do is

[34:46] people hire people based on their skill

[34:47] and then deploy them throughout the

[34:49] organization depending on what a given

[34:51] division needs and what that does is

[34:53] it's almost like a consulting model that

[34:55] gives that gives your employees a bit of

[34:57] it's it's both a bit of flexibility for

[34:59] the organisation you can stop up in

[35:02] departments as needed but it's an

[35:03] opportunity for the staff to get exposed

[35:06] to different areas of the organisation

[35:07] to learn and to grow personally so

[35:09] that's one that we've seen more and more

[35:11] municipalities moving towards and trying

[35:13] to deploy that okay thank you Thank You

[35:16] councillor Miller caster Phillips Thank

[35:19] You mr. mayor

[35:20] it is an excellent report

[35:22] congratulations for that it almost seems

[35:25] like a second strategic plan and that

[35:27] concerns me

[35:29] I don't know as you're aware we just

[35:32] completed our strategic plan it's

[35:34] unfortunate this didn't come before

[35:35] strategic plans so we could have melded

[35:37] the two together and hopefully doubt if

[35:40] that will happen actually it wasn't the

[35:43] report that it was melded together if

[35:44] they want to speak on how they

[35:45] integrated their a strategic land into

[35:47] this that was me that was my next

[35:49] question

[35:50] Thank You mr. rego great minds think

[35:52] alike next slide if you're on Caitlin X

[35:57] can you indicate how you've melded this

[35:59] with our strategic way I need to think

[36:07] back sorry

[36:09] while you find this line this is how we

[36:21] play I guess I didn't get to that page

[36:27] the one question I have is you've

[36:29] indicated that our staffing numbers for

[36:31] the size of the corporation are quite

[36:33] lean in numbers you've indicated what

[36:38] needs to be done now we have to find out

[36:42] how it's going to be done these our

[36:45] staff are working their fingers to the

[36:50] bone just to make the corporation run

[36:53] efficiently now this this is it to me a

[36:55] huge huge endeavor are you making

[37:00] suggestions as to how you've indicated

[37:04] what are you indicating or giving us

[37:07] suggestions as to how to implement this

[37:09] or are you seeing or suggesting that

[37:13] they do it on their own or are we gonna

[37:15] need consultants to come aboard and gain

[37:17] - to help us and implement this sure so

[37:21] it'll be a combination of all those

[37:23] things but I will say that we have

[37:25] provided the SLT with a report so what

[37:28] you have here is a report what we

[37:31] provided to them is far more detailed

[37:32] with a lot more of the specific steps

[37:35] that would have to be done to actually

[37:37] implement those so there is guidance

[37:39] that is there as to what those steps

[37:41] need to be we work with SLT as we had up

[37:43] there earlier as to how what the

[37:45] sequencing of those are because some

[37:47] support some of the others so they as a

[37:50] team have come together and developed

[37:52] what that plan would look like in some

[37:54] sort of modernization program going

[37:56] forward and that that does happen over a

[37:59] certain amount of time there's you know

[38:01] there was 14 things we had listed there

[38:03] we can't launch 14 things tomorrow

[38:05] they they have to build on each other

[38:07] and that's going to be for SLT - and I

[38:10] think to work on and to bring forward to

[38:11] you on how they want to do that okay

[38:13] thank you

[38:14] yes sir Phillips around the Horseshoe

[38:16] anyone

[38:17] so Kelsey Garcia I don't come Thank You

[38:21] mr. mayor through you to the presenter

[38:23] is following up on what councilor

[38:25] Phillips said about you said that the

[38:27] organization was relatively lean you

[38:30] were talking in terms of numbers but did

[38:33] you look at the organization itself in

[38:36] terms of efficiency when you mentioned

[38:38] the different departments that those

[38:40] departments make sense to you in terms

[38:42] of how they're separated or allocated or

[38:44] is that something you looked at at all

[38:46] so there is detailed findings that are

[38:48] in the report and that you might have

[38:50] read on some of the findings on each of

[38:52] the specific four departments that we

[38:54] looked at because those were the four

[38:55] that we focused on so there are are some

[38:57] findings on on what that might look like

[38:59] and we spent a little bit more time with

[39:00] municipal works specifically you just

[39:05] repeat the first part of your question

[39:06] there actually to the second part oh the

[39:11] lean leanness so the analysis was more

[39:14] focused on the fact that your headcount

[39:16] has barely grown at all over the last

[39:18] five years it's no more than two FTEs

[39:20] per per year however you continue to

[39:24] grow your revenues and your expenditures

[39:26] and the amount of service that you are

[39:28] providing so what so what we were saying

[39:30] is that they are operating in a way

[39:32] that's more and more lean that that they

[39:34] are being pushed to their capacity

[39:36] because of the amount of growth in the

[39:38] actual activity for the staffing that

[39:40] they have right but the fact that we are

[39:44] lean in terms of the numbers doesn't

[39:45] means that these people are being

[39:47] utilized the most efficient ways are

[39:49] correct well we're saying that there's

[39:51] ways to be more efficient and those are

[39:53] the opportunities that we have I'd you

[39:55] know identified so there is still manual

[39:58] transactional activities that staff have

[40:01] to do in different parts of the city

[40:02] we're suggesting you need to look at

[40:04] automation you'll need to look at

[40:05] technology to be able to have them do

[40:08] less of that manual more transactional

[40:11] things and spend more time on the

[40:12] value-added things that actually add

[40:13] value to your citizens mr. mayor that

[40:17] those more detailed recommendations are

[40:20] included in what you have submitted to

[40:22] staff correct okay thank you

[40:27] and the other questions of the

[40:28] presenters okay I would just like to say

[40:32] on behalf of the city of st. cabinet's

[40:33] thank you for the work that you've done

[40:35] and in terms of just the overall

[40:37] organizational effectiveness from your

[40:41] opinion working with other

[40:42] municipalities is that something that

[40:44] would be driven by the SLT team or is

[40:46] that something where the sort of council

[40:50] would be the one that would be directing

[40:53] that I think it definitely has to be a

[40:55] combination of the two I think I think

[40:58] SLT I think they gathered around a table

[41:01] a number of times and said this is

[41:03] really important to us right we've

[41:04] identified these transformational things

[41:07] and and they're their big ones are

[41:09] really important ones and so we know

[41:10] that we need to change how we do

[41:12] business in these different areas and

[41:13] here are some operation orders and we

[41:15] are going to talk about how to

[41:17] prioritize that which means there's a

[41:19] take you know an element of

[41:20] accountability that they're taking to

[41:21] make sure that happens but they need to

[41:22] work with Council to make sure that that

[41:24] happens and so are you familiar with

[41:25] organizational effectiveness reviews and

[41:27] what have you done those previously I

[41:29] have yes so this is is this something

[41:31] that is very comparable to an

[41:32] organizational effectiveness review what

[41:35] we've done here I look because the focus

[41:40] was only on certain components of the

[41:41] organization and not the entire

[41:43] organization it we've tried to identify

[41:47] areas that were pain points in those

[41:50] areas in scope and through our

[41:52] interviews and the engagement that we

[41:54] had we realized those words were larger

[41:55] we did not look at the organization as

[41:57] an absolute hole which is what you would

[41:59] want to do if you did a full on

[42:00] organizational effectiveness review

[42:01] probably want to get to the detail of

[42:03] doing activity analysis and so on and so

[42:05] forth we did not have this go for the

[42:06] time to be able to get into that okay I

[42:08] know it could have a motion to receive

[42:10] the presentation councillors councillor

[42:12] mailer accounts reporter all in favor

[42:14] carried councillor Porter you have a

[42:16] motion

[42:22] I hope stops okay with this it was just

[42:24] to refer this Republic's staff time give

[42:28] stop time to review this in the first

[42:29] quarter and then bring it forward for

[42:32] discussion of the budget committee in

[42:33] second quarter of 2020 that's a referral

[42:36] thank you very much for your

[42:37] presentation

[42:37] that's a referral so it goes back to

[42:39] council for two to staff for a report to

[42:42] come back in second quarter 2020 all in

[42:44] favor of that carry thank you Thank You

[42:47] Council report into general committee

[42:53] and council you remain seated for the

[42:56] dis items up for discussion we have

[42:58] community recreation culture services

[43:00] business planning of strategic services

[43:01] tree planting program and I'll look to

[43:04] at least norton first to come forward

[43:06] and provide some summary comments prior

[43:09] to a presentation by Niagara College

[43:11] students welcome Elyse

[43:32] it's on okay good evening mr. mayor

[43:38] members of council staff and members of

[43:41] the public my name is Elise Orton and I

[43:44] work for the community recreation and

[43:45] culture services department here with

[43:47] the city of st. Catharines this evening

[43:50] I and we are here to present to you an

[43:53] educational video on the urban tree

[43:55] canopy and tree stewardship that was

[43:58] produced as a result of a partnership

[43:59] with Niagara College third year film

[44:02] production students who I have with me

[44:04] here tonight

[44:04] staff intend to use this video on social

[44:07] media of the city's website and as a

[44:09] tool for a future educational outreach

[44:11] program on the urban tree canopy and any

[44:14] other appropriate Avenue for it to be

[44:16] shared this video along with a tree

[44:18] giveaway program is part of an

[44:20] initiative to educate and assist

[44:21] residents with planting trees on private

[44:24] property and helping to really start the

[44:26] conversation that trees and the healthy

[44:28] tree canopy provide us so many benefits

[44:30] today but also especially for our future

[44:33] generations this is to further help us

[44:35] reach our target canopy goal of 30

[44:37] percent by the year 2030 I would like to

[44:40] introduce to you a few of the students

[44:42] responsible for producing this video

[44:44] this evening we have Courtney ko Couric

[44:47] Steven Osmond and Jacob Graham absent

[44:51] from the group is Juliana Mancini and

[44:54] Victoria Weaver staff actually had to

[44:56] pitch our idea to these students against

[44:58] several other organizations and they

[45:01] have chosen to work with us the project

[45:03] began essentially on their first day of

[45:05] classes and ends this evening with the

[45:07] presentation of their hard work to staff

[45:09] and city council through many meetings

[45:11] emails and edits we'd like to present to

[45:14] you their final product

[45:34] we've is there seen let's all go to the

[45:36] lobby

[45:49] Tyra's it's loading that's fine if you

[45:53] wanna it's called fill in the the dead

[45:56] space commands come on Elise let's talk

[46:02] about trees Oh we'll go to film Thank

[46:08] You mr. Mehra through you so as Elise

[46:11] said this is a partnership that we've

[46:14] struck with Niagara College Council

[46:16] directed us to find better ways of doing

[46:18] what we do and how we do things and one

[46:20] of the things that we decided on as a

[46:22] team was to look for a way to create

[46:25] something that we could share for future

[46:26] generations at zero or no Kazi row or

[46:29] low cost and so at least in the team

[46:32] found the way struck this partnership

[46:35] and so we're really proud to show this

[46:37] to you today the plan moving forward is

[46:40] to bring this to schools as at least

[46:42] described and it's really the next step

[46:45] in the education piece of the tree

[46:46] management framework so we hope you

[46:48] you'll like him okay

[46:51] it's still loading so we need another

[46:53] commercial viewing right now but there's

[47:03] also a 30-second clip that we can roll

[47:05] on social media and our Instagram

[47:07] account and whatnot and use that way

[47:11] okay so to the students why did you

[47:14] choose to do this project if you want to

[47:15] come up to the mic time to shine let's

[47:18] go well for me I worked so you worked as

[47:27] the silliest student as a student for

[47:29] the yeah cool yeah look I think we've we

[47:33] got to take off not yet okay so one of

[47:37] yo come on tell us why you wanted to be

[47:39] inspired by this come on up now you got

[47:42] to come up and further the mic to do

[47:43] this okay fair enough

[47:51] so okay at least did you read the book

[47:57] the meaning of trees okay okay this is

[48:09] fine so you have anything on here I

[48:22] can't even tell you jokes got nothing my voice is gone today

[48:40] okay so while they're calling this up we

[48:43] could do the the motion that's moved up

[48:46] by councillor Townsend so we'll have

[48:50] that motion by councillor Townsend and

[48:53] that's to have the councillor Townsend

[48:59] if you want to just say what you're

[49:00] gonna say mayor I wanted to make an

[49:02] amendment to the motion 11.2 I just got

[49:06] to pull it up here quickly sorry one

[49:07] sight

[49:15] in the motion it it does ask for council

[49:20] to consider appointing councillors on a

[49:22] one-month basis I'm hoping that we can

[49:24] consider I know from what I understand I

[49:26] think there are three or four

[49:27] individuals that I put their name forth

[49:28] for deputy mayor for I think out of all

[49:32] fairness I think I would I would like to

[49:34] put the motion for it to have all four

[49:36] of them split the one-year term up for

[49:39] starting in 2020 just out of all

[49:41] fairness to give everyone an opportunity

[49:43] to take the seed in the role of deputy

[49:45] mayor I think that it's the most fair

[49:47] way to do it and I'm hoping council will support that change so it's an

[49:53] amendment saved by the music but it's

[49:57] something good to come up on the screen

[50:00] there we go okay cut stick hold that

[50:04] thought

[50:06] [Music]

[50:15] trees are just as important as the roads

[50:18] we drive on the sidewalks we work on and

[50:22] the houses we live in we need trees more

[50:26] than they need us but now more than ever

[50:28] the responsibility falls on you and Lily

[50:33] sortin i'm the city's development

[50:34] horticultural technician been with the

[50:37] city of st. Catharines i've been with

[50:40] the city for about ten years

[50:42] and eight in this capacity about three

[50:45] years so I think the issue is that

[50:50] there's a education aspect of it making

[50:54] people realize that they do have a

[50:56] responsibility to plant trees on private

[50:58] property and then not just plant them

[51:00] but also care for them so we can add to

[51:02] the canopy we try to offer things like

[51:04] the tree giveaway or intentive programs

[51:06] that assist residents with getting trees

[51:08] planted on private property and really

[51:11] it's just getting everybody on board

[51:12] even from a young age and getting

[51:16] everybody to want to plant trees

[51:20] so when we had the emerald ash borer we

[51:22] lost a ton of our canopy which really

[51:24] set us back so there's the issues that

[51:27] we have with invasive pests and diseases

[51:29] but there's also the issues of just

[51:31] being urban trees so issues like drought

[51:34] pollution salt from the roads in the

[51:38] winter time so our urban canopy does

[51:41] face a variety of issues so caring for

[51:45] them especially newly planted trees is

[51:47] so crucial to their overall health and

[51:49] survival the city does have a goal with

[51:55] tree planting every year we are trying

[51:56] to reach 30% tree canopy by the year

[51:59] 2030 in order to do that we need to be

[52:02] planting approximately a thousand trees

[52:04] per year on our own property but we also

[52:07] need to rely on residents to plant about

[52:09] a thousand or more trees on private

[52:11] property as well so another important

[52:14] piece to this is that within that 80% of

[52:17] the canopy does sit on private property

[52:20] 20% sits on public land so while we can

[52:24] plant as many trees as we need to on the

[52:26] public portion the private property

[52:29] residents is who we need to reach to

[52:31] really get that canopy to the target

[52:34] goal so a healthy canopy it reduces

[52:39] stormwater runoff so when we have a

[52:41] really heavy rain it's going to slow the

[52:43] rain fall down which slows it into

[52:45] entering our sewer systems and then also

[52:48] the root system

[52:49] of the trees will soak up a lot of the

[52:51] water so it alleviates the stress honors

[52:54] our roads and our sidewalks and our

[52:57] sewers it helps to cool our streets and

[53:00] cool our homes so Oh in the summertime

[53:04] they tree can the tree canopy will have

[53:06] a cooling effect and reduce hydro coughs

[53:10] in your all more in your building and in

[53:13] the winter it'll actually act as a

[53:14] windbreak so it'll reduce heating costs

[53:16] as well

[53:18] the most important time to plant a tree

[53:21] was 20 years ago

[53:23] the second best time is now

[53:26] [Music]

[53:37] at least well done to the team great job

[53:43] [Applause]

[53:48] so just in conclusion I'd like to thank

[53:52] Courtney Stephen and Jacob as well as

[53:54] the rest of the group that was unable to

[53:56] make it this evening as well as their

[53:57] professor bill Boland who really helped

[54:00] us guide us through this process this

[54:02] was a zero cost program project as mr.

[54:06] Christy mentioned other than staff time

[54:09] there were no other budget implications

[54:10] and for them there are two versions of

[54:12] this video there's the 30-second version

[54:14] as well so thank you for allowing us to

[54:16] present this this evening well done well

[54:18] done do you have any questions of the

[54:20] okay let's try and keep the questions to

[54:22] a reduced amount

[54:24] I'll go counts the Phillips first and

[54:25] then counselors Renton Thank You mr.

[54:28] Merritt a question I just want to

[54:29] indicate and congratulate Elise and her

[54:33] staff I can remember when councilor

[54:36] Elliot and I were on the urban forestry

[54:38] master plan committee and at that time

[54:40] our canopy was around 17 or 18 percent

[54:43] and during that time since then we've

[54:45] gone through the ash borer catastrophe

[54:48] where we've knocked down thousands of

[54:49] trees and now our canopy has gone from

[54:52] 18% prior to the ash borer and we're

[54:55] probably down it up to what are we now

[54:57] 23 I think it was so congratulations to

[55:01] our forestry staff they've done a really good job I'm hearing a lot of

[55:05] positives from our residents about the

[55:07] free tree giveaway we need to do that

[55:10] again and to the Negra college students

[55:14] she did a great job thank you well said

[55:16] counselors rental you mr. mayor to miss

[55:19] Norton how many trees do we give away a

[55:21] year and how many do we apply it on

[55:23] public property we give away

[55:25] approximately a thousand and we also

[55:27] plant approximately a thousand that's

[55:29] just for our regular tree planting

[55:32] program that doesn't account even for

[55:34] volunteer groups or our friends up

[55:36] groups

[55:37] it's great thank you any chance to

[55:39] stretch oh then a motion to receive

[55:41] counselor Phillips counselor Garcia

[55:44] all in favor carried thank you very much

[55:47] and great work seeing Niagara College

[55:48] put this production together their

[55:50] outstanding post-secondary institution

[55:52] in a community congratulations and look

[55:54] forward to seeing you all grow in your

[55:56] careers

[55:57] take care

[56:11] yes Miss Jane Hanlon you come forward

[56:14] you're the second speaker on this

[56:15] delegated list

[56:24] welcome to Sandlin thank you thank you

[56:27] for allowing me to address you tonight

[56:37] so it follows up on the on the tree

[56:40] canopy and well we have great attention

[56:43] to adaptation mitigation is being left

[56:47] behind it

[56:50] many of you will know I haven't been to

[56:53] Council to address you since I think

[56:55] about 2011 in fact the last time I did a

[56:59] critique on this particular management

[57:01] plan I've had a unique opportunity to

[57:05] immerse myself in all things relating to

[57:08] climate including urban forestry and I

[57:12] also have been a member of the Ontario

[57:14] urban urban forest committee the climate

[57:20] research for 13 years I have focused on

[57:26] climate research half averaging half of

[57:29] every day

[57:36] that climate research has been the heat

[57:38] and drought tolerances of trees their

[57:39] natural migration rates how far they

[57:42] would spread from one year to the next

[57:43] of their own accord and comparing that

[57:45] to climate scenarios the UN a-- has

[57:50] asked us recently to triple efforts we

[57:54] are nearing nine tipping points nine

[57:58] those tipping points will accelerate the

[58:01] crisis we have a buffer of less than

[58:05] five years to bring our carbon to Net

[58:10] Zero I know the federal government is

[58:12] talking about 2050 and I know we're

[58:14] talking about beyond but that's just

[58:15] talk so the focus in five years means

[58:22] that it's this particular council that

[58:24] needs to make the difference now the

[58:27] corporate climate adaptation plan is

[58:29] essential but it's the declaration of

[58:32] climate emergency that is providing hope

[58:34] to the young people the the group

[58:39] meeting for the green New Deal Niagara

[58:42] is also on tonight hence them not being

[58:44] here adapting can divert us from solving

[58:51] the climate crisis and it can also SAP

[58:54] budgets adapting without mitigation is

[59:00] something that we can't afford to get

[59:03] wrong it's not sustainable it just sets

[59:07] up the next generation for not being

[59:10] able to adapt and so here we are

[59:13] following the 2011 plan with data

[59:16] provided from 2010 and tweaking it and

[59:19] finding budget free items low-hanging

[59:24] fruit

[59:25] absolutely great let's do it but I have

[59:28] some suggestions that I hope will be

[59:31] taken under consideration to increase

[59:34] the sustainability of our forest canopy

[59:36] there are 15 of them and I'll be quick I

[59:44] hope it fits in that five minutes I got

[59:46] 315 here so I do not have 26 copies

[59:49] to hand out we need to double the target

[59:53] we need to reduce the time line at least

[59:57] in half that 20-year target set in 2011

[1:00:02] to not be there until 2030 and then we

[1:00:05] need to wait 40 years for those trees to

[1:00:07] grow it's not going to work we need to

[1:00:11] increase partnerships to include

[1:00:13] community groups and then sustain

[1:00:16] strategic alliances to include the same

[1:00:18] the community groups are there to take

[1:00:20] advantage of to get the trees in the

[1:00:22] ground but they're not there for

[1:00:23] continuing support we need to install

[1:00:27] committees with term limits so that we

[1:00:29] can have young vibrant people who want

[1:00:31] to get the job done thanks very much to

[1:00:34] the people who on the on the committees

[1:00:36] God'll um they've been great we have to

[1:00:39] move on for affordability we need to

[1:00:42] reduce tree calliper now I know there

[1:00:44] was no cheese I'm at 450 and I'm just

[1:00:48] gonna read them out to you there we go

[1:00:49] you have to work out why so utilizing

[1:00:53] volunteer plantings reduce space

[1:00:56] required between trees a healthy forest

[1:00:58] isn't specimen trees we need to include

[1:01:02] shrubs wherever possible they improve

[1:01:04] soil reduce compaction protect the roots

[1:01:07] we need to set in motion a new tree

[1:01:09] management plan but don't wait for

[1:01:10] completion of it to begin here we need

[1:01:13] to coordinate with grey infrastructure

[1:01:15] roads and utilities for tree priority

[1:01:18] not equals not equal billing we need

[1:01:20] less priority on tree inventory its ups

[1:01:22] the budget and the stuff we need to

[1:01:25] increase priority of trees in the ground

[1:01:26] we need to utilize bare root plantings a

[1:01:29] bare root blitz for three weeks annually

[1:01:32] it's a quarter of the cost per tree and

[1:01:34] we have volunteers who would be happy to

[1:01:36] knock on doors to find locations to get

[1:01:38] those trees in we need to increase

[1:01:41] species selection yet again including

[1:01:44] fast-growing species biodiversity

[1:01:46] requires this and we need faster shade

[1:01:48] we need to increase water coarse buffer

[1:01:51] zones remove requirement for parking

[1:01:53] lots to be paved

[1:01:54] seems off-topic that's totally not we

[1:01:57] need to include 30% Dutch white clover

[1:02:00] seed we're planting grass

[1:02:02] we need to keep bringing a tree bylaw

[1:02:04] forward until we actually get it through

[1:02:06] and we need to treat this focus in this

[1:02:08] request on the urban forest canopy as

[1:02:10] though future generations are counting

[1:02:12] on you and that's it 543 thank you very

[1:02:16] much if I may ask if you have an

[1:02:20] electronic version of that or a

[1:02:21] photocopy of it that I'll be happy to

[1:02:23] take a picture of at the center to my

[1:02:25] favorite counselor well they'll he have

[1:02:31] to satisfy it has a question yes you

[1:02:37] have a question that's exactly what I

[1:02:39] was gonna ask see sir Wilson's

[1:02:44] okay just you're suggesting that we're

[1:02:47] not going far enough we're not acting oh

[1:02:49] god no okay not even close

[1:02:51] I just you talked about adaptation and

[1:02:54] mitigation I just wonder if you could

[1:02:55] vote for us adaptation is enabling the

[1:03:00] city and to the responsibility of the

[1:03:02] city like sewers sidewalks roads some

[1:03:06] heat relief some shade but the next

[1:03:11] generations are counting on living here

[1:03:13] we're not covering that part that's not

[1:03:16] adapting we they won't be able to adapt

[1:03:18] unless we can mitigate thank you

[1:03:21] so the mitigation was in our strategic

[1:03:23] plan around climate change we do have

[1:03:25] mitigation planning that's in place as

[1:03:26] well okay any other questions of the

[1:03:29] presenter no sir reporter thank you yes

[1:03:35] if we're going to be putting grass

[1:03:38] anywhere near trees it ought to have

[1:03:40] something to feed it for the first

[1:03:41] several years it's you know 30 percent

[1:03:45] seed coverage won't be so much that it

[1:03:48] looks unsightly but it will feed okay

[1:03:52] thank you motion to receive presentation

[1:03:55] council Garcia councillor dodge all in

[1:03:57] favor carried thank you okay so now I

[1:04:04] could have a motion for this 3.1 it's on

[1:04:08] the screen behind me who wants to make

[1:04:09] this motion councillor Cisco SEC another

[1:04:12] counselor Littleton question council

[1:04:15] million I'd just like a make an

[1:04:18] amendment that hopefully friendly that

[1:04:21] staff consider miss hanlin's 15

[1:04:25] recommendations we could actually I mean

[1:04:31] it's a friendly amendment but I'm if we

[1:04:33] could add on to that and that staff take

[1:04:37] those recommendations and present

[1:04:39] budgetary impacts to the to the budget

[1:04:42] committee in the new year I recognize

[1:04:44] that it's a long list I'm not expecting

[1:04:46] it in the first quarter but if it can be

[1:04:48] a part of a budget presentation in the

[1:04:51] new year in 2020 so it's not okay okay

[1:04:55] councillor Wilson and thank you this

[1:04:58] dovetails into the climate change

[1:04:59] emergency and climate change issues in

[1:05:01] general is when are we gonna get a

[1:05:03] report back on progress that we're

[1:05:05] making is there and hopefully hopefully

[1:05:07] we're tightening timelines on this is

[1:05:09] this gonna be an annual so I I don't

[1:05:12] know if you look at the agenda but we do

[1:05:14] have a presentation on the climate

[1:05:15] change adaptation coordinate I know I

[1:05:17] know but just on tree planting Irena get

[1:05:19] an annual report on how we're progress

[1:05:22] for making on this area in this

[1:05:24] area sorry I would say let's wait for

[1:05:26] the the coordinators discussion on this

[1:05:28] on climate cuz that that's her her job

[1:05:30] is climate change adaptation so let's

[1:05:32] wait for that at that point thank you so

[1:05:36] call a question through you mr. mayor

[1:05:39] Councillor Phillips

[1:05:40] councillor Miller yes yes reporter yeah

[1:05:45] councillor Littleton yes councillor

[1:05:47] Kushner councillor Cisco yes councillor

[1:05:50] Harris councillor Garcia yes bouncer

[1:05:53] dodge yeah

[1:05:54] councillor Sorrento yes councillor

[1:05:56] Townsend yes councillor Williamson yes

[1:05:58] and marry Sansa yes carried unanimously

[1:06:01] okay now we have engineering facilities

[1:06:03] environmental services and miss Olivia

[1:06:06] Gulf will be coming forward cross right

[1:06:09] climate change adaptation coordinator to

[1:06:13] present on this with the

[1:06:20] that's the first time presentation so

[1:06:22] welcome to City Council and again just

[1:06:25] identify yourself for the public and

[1:06:27] you're off to the races

[1:06:28] okay so good evening mr. mayor

[1:06:31] councillors city st. Catharines staff

[1:06:33] my name is Olivia Groff and I am your

[1:06:35] climate change adaptation coordinator so

[1:06:37] it's nice to finally I got a chance to

[1:06:39] come out here so it's just so the agenda

[1:06:43] here tonight I'm going to be doing a

[1:06:45] little bit an overview of the corporate

[1:06:46] initiatives I've taken place to date a

[1:06:48] small background on climate change

[1:06:50] examples of climate change and the

[1:06:52] extreme weather events we've been facing

[1:06:54] here in st. Catharines and globally as

[1:06:55] well as a little bit on the development

[1:06:58] of the adaptation plan itself so as an

[1:07:01] overview of the corporate initiatives

[1:07:03] that have taken place there has been a

[1:07:05] new strategic plan on that specifically

[1:07:08] meant mentions climate change which is

[1:07:09] great to see st. Catharines declared a

[1:07:12] climate emergency on April 29th and st.

[1:07:17] Catharines was actually 29th in

[1:07:18] declaring a climate emergency and there

[1:07:20] have been approximately 470 cities have

[1:07:22] declared a climate emergency to date the

[1:07:25] first was actually in January by

[1:07:26] Vancouver so in line with making sure

[1:07:32] that we're on track and we have things

[1:07:35] in mind the main contributor to climate

[1:07:37] change or an increase in greenhouse

[1:07:39] gases and the conversion of forest to

[1:07:41] agriculture which is why greenhouse gas

[1:07:43] reduction targets are so important so

[1:07:45] back in 2017

[1:07:46] the council actually endorsed a

[1:07:49] community target and they fall quite

[1:07:51] closely in line with the corporate

[1:07:53] targets that were recently approved by

[1:07:55] council in October and this really stem

[1:07:58] from the energy conservation demand

[1:07:59] management plan and to date there has

[1:08:02] been a 25% reduction in greenhouse gas

[1:08:05] intensity with the target being of 2030

[1:08:07] which lines similar to the community

[1:08:09] target a 40% reduction a partnership

[1:08:13] that was entered with the city of st.

[1:08:15] Catherine's along with six other

[1:08:16] municipalities is nagger adopts which is

[1:08:18] formed with Brock University there was

[1:08:21] entered a Memorandum of Understanding in

[1:08:24] August and there was just a negra DAPs

[1:08:26] launch event that happened last week as

[1:08:28] well so that was really kick starting

[1:08:30] everything these are the partnerships

[1:08:32] that are

[1:08:34] and the goal of this project is really

[1:08:36] to make an auto paint walk us kind of

[1:08:40] basically through building an adaptation

[1:08:41] plan through planning and implementation

[1:08:44] there is a Community Survey that is up

[1:08:48] on the city st. Catharines website where

[1:08:50] we're trying to get as many community

[1:08:51] participants to fill it out as much as

[1:08:54] possible and there is an incentive of a

[1:08:56] three hundred dollar prize draw just in

[1:08:58] time hopefully for some Christmas

[1:09:00] shopping so the big kind of big

[1:09:05] definitions for climate changes

[1:09:06] mitigation and adaptation so mitigation

[1:09:10] really is all about reducing the

[1:09:12] emissions that contribute to climate

[1:09:13] change so things such as LED upgrades

[1:09:17] that city center formed was a mitigation

[1:09:20] action trying to reduce our reliance on

[1:09:24] electric are trying to rely more on

[1:09:26] electric vehicles and less on gas is

[1:09:27] another mitigation action adaptation

[1:09:30] actions are really about minimizing or

[1:09:33] preventing the negative impacts of

[1:09:34] climate change so those can be things

[1:09:37] such as rain barrels on the tree

[1:09:38] giveaways those will fall in line with

[1:09:40] the adaptation actions as well and

[1:09:43] making sure that citizens are aware that

[1:09:45] we want the water to go where we want it

[1:09:47] to go so cleaning ditches and catch

[1:09:49] basins is very important some global

[1:09:52] events that we have seen in this past

[1:09:54] year there was hurricane durian that

[1:09:57] happened to happened in September so not

[1:09:59] only from the devastation that it causes

[1:10:02] from the viewpoint of infrastructure

[1:10:05] there's also mental health impacts as

[1:10:08] well or the psychological impacts and

[1:10:11] then it hit a little bit closer to home

[1:10:13] in Nova Scotia and we saw a lot of

[1:10:16] infrastructure not only hard

[1:10:18] infrastructure but green infrastructure

[1:10:19] damaged as well and so from all this we

[1:10:24] can see it does hit the pocketbook so

[1:10:26] the economic impact and there was a

[1:10:29] 20-19 report which identifies Canada's

[1:10:31] physical infrastructure as one of the

[1:10:33] country's top climate change risks so in

[1:10:36] the absence of adaptation and not

[1:10:38] preparing for the future climate change

[1:10:40] will cost Canaan taxpayers between 21

[1:10:42] and 43 billion annually by 2050

[1:10:45] however research

[1:10:47] shows that for every dollar invested in

[1:10:49] pre-disaster adaptation activities up to

[1:10:51] six dollars can be saved and

[1:10:53] post-disaster recovery spending and

[1:10:54] that's by a pretty recent report which

[1:10:56] is just in October so to move towards

[1:11:01] kind of how how we're experiencing

[1:11:03] things in st. Catharines st. Catharines

[1:11:05] and agra has experienced 52 extreme

[1:11:07] weather warnings in the past two years

[1:11:09] and that's in counting over the past

[1:11:11] weekend we had freezing rain we are

[1:11:15] seeing a rise in heat warnings issued

[1:11:17] for the for the Nagar region and st.

[1:11:20] Catharines sink Athens was swamped with

[1:11:22] basement flooding which we saw this past

[1:11:24] summer as well as cleanup from windstorm

[1:11:28] so the windstorm that we had even on

[1:11:30] Halloween night that was another recent

[1:11:33] storm event so taking all this into

[1:11:36] effect developing the adaptation plan is

[1:11:39] really where this is all going to come

[1:11:41] together so an internal climate

[1:11:43] adaptation team has already been formed

[1:11:45] and it's a inter departmental team

[1:11:48] working across the various departments

[1:11:50] of the city st. Catharines and the role

[1:11:53] will be to assess the impacts refine and

[1:11:55] adopt a corporate adaptation plan and

[1:11:57] council approval will take plates place

[1:12:00] once a draft plan is actually complete

[1:12:05] another component to this actual plan is

[1:12:08] the communication and outreach component

[1:12:10] to it as well so the goal being to

[1:12:13] increase climate literacy internally

[1:12:15] with staff across all departments in the

[1:12:17] community so we're doing this both

[1:12:19] through internal city staff outlets as

[1:12:22] well as external to the public so we do

[1:12:26] have with the nacre adapts partnership

[1:12:28] that I talked about a little bit earlier

[1:12:29] there has been a community engagement

[1:12:31] opportunity so this was a set up at the

[1:12:33] st. Catharines farmer market a couple

[1:12:35] Thursday's ago will be there again next

[1:12:38] Thursday and this is where we had a

[1:12:41] booth set up about water conservation we

[1:12:43] had the computer set up where people

[1:12:44] could fill out the survey right then on

[1:12:46] the spot or take it home to fill out on

[1:12:48] their own time and then adds of November

[1:12:51] 22nd we've had three hundred and three

[1:12:53] surveys complete for st. Catharines the

[1:12:55] goal through Negra docks was to have a

[1:12:57] hundred people participate

[1:12:59] in the survey so we're already above

[1:13:00] that which is great so the next step for

[1:13:04] adaptation adaptation is an easy thing

[1:13:06] an update adaptation is going to cost so

[1:13:10] the more we can prepare for it now

[1:13:11] the better we will be in the end so

[1:13:15] working through the next steps will be

[1:13:17] further work on the climate impacts

[1:13:19] develop a climate policy which we will

[1:13:22] seek council approval the survey results

[1:13:24] for Niagara taps will be coming out in

[1:13:27] the new year as well as will continue

[1:13:28] public feedback and comments as well as

[1:13:31] the adaptation plan itself will seek

[1:13:34] council approval so in conclusion we

[1:13:38] have targets in place a climate

[1:13:40] adaptation plan is in motion and we have

[1:13:42] community support which we have seen and

[1:13:45] entering the nearest new year with some

[1:13:47] great momentum for 2020 and making sure

[1:13:49] that we're ready for the steps ahead ok

[1:13:54] thank you very much for a very thorough

[1:13:56] presentation and a great job on your

[1:13:57] first presentation to council so Olivia

[1:14:00] you'll be taking a seat or you want us

[1:14:02] to stay up here ok you don't want to be

[1:14:07] in the hot seat councillor Kersey have a

[1:14:15] question Thank You mr. mayor can we ask

[1:14:19] questions sitting down over there so

[1:14:22] just you mentioned I think that there

[1:14:25] were 52 extreme events in the past two

[1:14:27] years and I was just wondering how does

[1:14:30] that compare to previous history do you

[1:14:31] know that wasn't actually something that

[1:14:35] I looked into that will be something

[1:14:37] that I definitely can look into I'm not

[1:14:39] sure how that impacts just from climate

[1:14:41] change we've noticed that things are

[1:14:43] becoming more frequent and more severe

[1:14:45] so that takes into account wind storms

[1:14:48] freezing rain and all that but not

[1:14:50] specifically yeah Thank You Sergio mr.

[1:14:53] mayor I would think that that is

[1:14:55] probably quite dramatic compared to what

[1:14:57] we've had in the past the second

[1:14:59] question was one of the communication

[1:15:01] objectives is the communicate

[1:15:03] to the public have you got any thoughts

[1:15:06] as to how to do that because that's a

[1:15:07] big challenge we have from for

[1:15:10] everything we do because you know years

[1:15:12] ago as I always say we had the paper

[1:15:14] everybody read it read it now it's a

[1:15:16] question of website versus tax bill or

[1:15:20] how do we let the public know about

[1:15:21] something like this so the survey itself

[1:15:25] has been a really good outlet on that's

[1:15:27] not operated through the st. Catharines

[1:15:29] nagger adopts is collecting all the

[1:15:31] information they're going to assemble it

[1:15:32] for us which is the great thing about

[1:15:34] the partnership and we're going to just

[1:15:37] be trying to get out to like these

[1:15:39] community events that were going to the

[1:15:40] farmers market is providing a really

[1:15:42] good opportunity for us to engage with

[1:15:44] the public the climate strikes again

[1:15:46] I've been going to those to kind of hear

[1:15:49] what what's been said and on the ground

[1:15:51] so there's just well we'll keep we'll

[1:15:53] keep working through all the different

[1:15:55] areas that we possibly can councillor

[1:15:58] Garcia just a Miller

[1:16:01] actually council Garcia asked my

[1:16:04] question all right counselor

[1:16:05] Williamson you had your hand up and kill

[1:16:07] civilians thank you just back to my

[1:16:09] question timelines we unanimously

[1:16:13] approve this climate change declaration

[1:16:16] last April an hour

[1:16:17] it's the end of the year what when are

[1:16:20] we gonna get reports back and I just

[1:16:22] wanted to get lay out I mean I like what

[1:16:24] I'm seeing to be quite honest I'm

[1:16:25] impressed I just wonder what the timing

[1:16:27] is going to be like yeah so for the

[1:16:30] climate change policy we're really

[1:16:32] hoping to get that in place for the

[1:16:33] first quarter and then for the

[1:16:35] adaptation plan itself we're hoping for

[1:16:37] the third quarter so by basically next

[1:16:41] fall we'll have a draft plan for

[1:16:43] Council's approval and we'll see some

[1:16:45] pragmatic actions like it'll really

[1:16:53] depend on the actual plan itself what it

[1:16:55] comes out with so what those actions are

[1:16:57] I can't comment on that right now but

[1:17:00] hopefully it'll be a good one so give

[1:17:02] you a regular fixture here yeah thank

[1:17:05] you that's actually a good point coastal

[1:17:07] waves in his

[1:17:08] sure that we have the allocation so that

[1:17:10] we'd have staff that are focused on this

[1:17:11] we can't just declare kind of an

[1:17:13] emergency and not have it on the corner

[1:17:15] of the staffs desk and us wishing that

[1:17:17] something gets done so that's a great

[1:17:19] point good point

[1:17:20] councillor Phillips Thank You mr.

[1:17:23] America in your organization you

[1:17:26] indicated you have seven municipalities

[1:17:27] presently as members where's the rest of

[1:17:30] Meg

[1:17:31] have they been approached and not are

[1:17:34] they on their own or what's the story

[1:17:36] with that um so for the so I'm not

[1:17:40] representing Brock University with a

[1:17:42] negra adopts but really how that all

[1:17:45] stemmed was from securing a grant to

[1:17:47] hire climate change coordinator

[1:17:50] specifically some of those

[1:17:51] municipalities I guess didn't go after

[1:17:54] the funding or they didn't have the the

[1:17:59] anks to go for a climate change

[1:18:01] coordinator there are two different

[1:18:03] streams so there are municipalities that

[1:18:05] are going after a mitigation stream and

[1:18:06] their arm you know spies are doing the

[1:18:07] adaptation stream which the city st.

[1:18:09] Catharines is so there are a couple

[1:18:12] municipalities they're just doing a

[1:18:13] little bit it's a little a different

[1:18:16] plan essentially so they're on there

[1:18:17] they're doing something but they're on

[1:18:19] their own

[1:18:20] yep and you've done a lot of work within

[1:18:24] the municipality of st. Catharines how

[1:18:26] often does your group nagger adapt meet

[1:18:28] and and you discuss issues that are

[1:18:31] common with with those municipalities

[1:18:33] yep I think it's probably on average but

[1:18:37] every other so the coordinators it sells

[1:18:39] we're meeting actually every months

[1:18:41] not through Nagar adapts but we're all

[1:18:44] getting together to kind of figure out

[1:18:46] where we are on our plans and to discuss

[1:18:48] this issue as well as for the negra DAP

[1:18:52] so it's probably on average every other

[1:18:53] month thank you

[1:18:55] and what's what's good about the

[1:18:58] position is that olivia is working

[1:19:01] directly with mark green as well so

[1:19:03] those of you around council know mark

[1:19:05] greenness is very is very involved in a

[1:19:08] lot of the climate change mitigation and

[1:19:10] what we're working on here at the city

[1:19:12] and so she's working directly with

[1:19:13] market because she works for the city

[1:19:15] under i anthony if you want to jump in

[1:19:18] there yeah so Olivia works for

[1:19:21] ifvs through barks group she we secured

[1:19:26] funding to be able to obtain a

[1:19:28] adaptation coordinator to help us put

[1:19:30] together our plan the Niagra adapts

[1:19:33] group is actually a memorandum of Understanding that the

[1:19:38] city entered into with seven other

[1:19:41] municipalities and brock to provide some

[1:19:44] technical support to assist us in

[1:19:46] developing the climate adaptation plan

[1:19:50] okay see no other further questions of a

[1:19:53] counselor reporter kind of a big

[1:19:57] question I'm I'm just wondering if

[1:20:01] there's enough I don't know when our

[1:20:02] official plan is due how many years away

[1:20:05] are we from a new official directive

[1:20:08] planning through the mayor to the

[1:20:12] counselor the city's official plan is a

[1:20:14] twenty five-year plan the last time we

[1:20:17] did a brand-new official plan was 2010

[1:20:20] and we update it every five years or so

[1:20:23] we're currently undergoing our current

[1:20:25] municipal comprehensive review and

[1:20:28] that's been scoped to deal with the land

[1:20:29] needs assessment so the employment land

[1:20:31] needs assessment the commercial land

[1:20:33] needs assessment and the residential

[1:20:35] land needs assessment and that is being

[1:20:36] presented to council in q1 2020 okay I'm

[1:20:41] just curious if there's any possibility

[1:20:43] to address climate change or if you've

[1:20:45] seen other municipalities address

[1:20:48] climate mitigation and adaptation issues

[1:20:51] and their official plan is that in any

[1:20:53] of the conferences you've been to

[1:20:57] through the mayor to the councillor I

[1:20:59] think typically what we see are greater

[1:21:02] initiatives around climate change like

[1:21:04] what we've just heard from our climate

[1:21:06] change coordinator and that they're done

[1:21:08] corporately because they include not

[1:21:11] just growth related aspects but

[1:21:12] operational related aspects as well so I

[1:21:15] think in this circumstance it might make

[1:21:17] sense to let some of that work play out

[1:21:19] and then tie it into our planning

[1:21:22] policies that the next opportunity for a

[1:21:24] review Jane Thank You councillor Porter

[1:21:28] any further questions okay and prior to

[1:21:32] the vote and kalsa Williamson and I

[1:21:34] think a direction would be if it's open

[1:21:36] for you is that at the budget meeting if

[1:21:39] staff can highlight some of the 2020

[1:21:43] climate mitigations cuz I I think it's

[1:21:46] in the budget and what we're pushing for

[1:21:49] but we're not highlighting it so if we

[1:21:50] can bring that out during budget night

[1:21:52] some of the climate change initiatives

[1:21:53] are climate mitigation strategies that

[1:21:55] we have it's good to point out that

[1:21:57] we're actually budgeting for some of

[1:21:58] this stuff as well okay

[1:22:00] counselor wants to move to motion three

[1:22:04] mr. mayor councillor Sorrento yes

[1:22:08] councillor Townsend yes councillor

[1:22:10] Williamson yes councillor Cisco yes

[1:22:14] councillor Porter yes councillor Philips

[1:22:16] yes

[1:22:17] councillor Miller yes councillor

[1:22:19] Littleton yes councillor kushner yes

[1:22:21] Chancellor Harris councillor Garcia yes

[1:22:24] councillor dodge yes and Mayor CENTAC

[1:22:26] yes carried unanimously

[1:22:28] okay so we move on to three point 3

[1:22:30] which is councillor three point three

[1:22:35] which is the well and canals Parkway

[1:22:36] well and wilfred laurier crest at

[1:22:39] Crescent and I'll look to Anthony

[1:22:40] Martucci Oh for some comments through

[1:22:43] you mr. mayor the report before you

[1:22:45] tonight is in response to counsels

[1:22:47] motion to review the intersection

[1:22:48] traffic control with theme of assisting

[1:22:51] pedestrians crossing long canals Parkway

[1:22:53] from Wilfred Laurier crusted to the

[1:22:55] pathway you will see in the report that

[1:22:57] staff undertook an assessment of the

[1:22:59] various types of recognised traffic

[1:23:01] control which range in both costs and

[1:23:04] complexity complexity of installation

[1:23:07] the process involved undertaking to

[1:23:09] eight-hour

[1:23:10] in vehicle volume counts the results

[1:23:13] identified that pedestrian and vehicle

[1:23:15] volumes on Welford Laurier were

[1:23:17] extremely low in comparison to that of

[1:23:21] the volumes experienced on well on

[1:23:23] canals parkway these traffic volumes

[1:23:26] were reviewed in applied to various

[1:23:27] industry standards and council approved

[1:23:30] warrants for each of the traffic control

[1:23:32] types the results of the assessment

[1:23:34] indicated that none of the

[1:23:35] justifications are warrants were

[1:23:37] satisfied except for the pedestrian pxo

[1:23:40] however due to operational safety

[1:23:42] concerns staff are not recommending any

[1:23:44] of the traffic control measures it

[1:23:47] should also be noted that based on

[1:23:48] current funding levels for traffic

[1:23:50] signals staff are only able to address

[1:23:52] one intersection per year and those

[1:23:55] funds are reserved to address existing

[1:23:56] signals that are at end of life are in

[1:24:00] poor condition and lack accessible

[1:24:02] accessibility in with respect to the

[1:24:05] always thought even though the cost for

[1:24:07] implementing the solution is relatively

[1:24:09] low in comparison to the other means of

[1:24:11] traffic control staff are not

[1:24:13] recommending this type of traffic

[1:24:15] control as the warrants approved by

[1:24:16] council are not satisfied staff have

[1:24:19] concerns that the extreme imbalance in

[1:24:21] traffic volumes could lead to poor

[1:24:23] driver habits on well and canals Parkway

[1:24:25] where signage is ignored and could

[1:24:28] result in greater safety concerns okay

[1:24:31] thank you mr. Marr to chill so council

[1:24:34] will attend you have a motion on the

[1:24:35] floor

[1:24:36] that's right moved by myself seconded by

[1:24:38] councillor Miller that where's the

[1:24:39] pedestrians from the residential

[1:24:41] neighborhood on the west side of

[1:24:42] Wellington else Parkway wishing to cross

[1:24:44] well and canals Parkway to or from the

[1:24:46] pathway must do so at an uncontrolled

[1:24:49] location and where is the installation

[1:24:51] of a pedestrian crossover is not

[1:24:53] appropriate due to operational and

[1:24:55] safety limitations therefore be it

[1:24:57] resolved that staff be directed to

[1:24:59] install and always stop at the

[1:25:01] intersection of well and canals Parkway

[1:25:03] and wilfred laurier crescent to provide

[1:25:05] a controlled crossing for pedestrians at

[1:25:08] this location

[1:25:09] John just picked me to speak to it now

[1:25:10] you can either choose to speak to an

[1:25:12] hour speak to at last what would you

[1:25:14] choose to do you only speak once I'm

[1:25:16] speaking last

[1:25:18] councillor Cisco hey mr. mayor I forgive

[1:25:22] me maybe this is a ridiculous question

[1:25:24] but are we able to install and always

[1:25:27] stop on well in canals Parkway I thought

[1:25:30] that was Seaway control mr. Marku Cho

[1:25:33] know that that is a that is a city right away okay so we are capable of

[1:25:38] doing this correct

[1:25:40] I feel like we've had conversations in

[1:25:42] the past about changes too low in canals

[1:25:44] Parkway that indicated the opposite

[1:25:47] specifically when we were dealing with

[1:25:49] the new development to the north of

[1:25:51] wilfrid laurier Crescent and the desire

[1:25:54] some of the residents to have an outlet

[1:25:55] from the new roads that were going in

[1:25:58] there they wanted to outlet on the wall

[1:26:00] in canals Park man at the time I thought

[1:26:02] the reason that was given to us was that

[1:26:03] we couldn't do that because it was

[1:26:05] Seaway controlled mr. white choo-choo

[1:26:09] that is not the understanding that that

[1:26:12] I currently have but I could look it

[1:26:14] into that further and and provide you

[1:26:16] with that information was it the

[1:26:17] previous kind of like last council that

[1:26:19] was the last term of council it was

[1:26:21] brought by I believe both ward

[1:26:23] councillors were looking for that and it

[1:26:25] was it was not about the opportunity it

[1:26:28] was the danger on the corner so they did

[1:26:30] a study on the turn and the volume of

[1:26:33] speed and cars going through it would

[1:26:35] create a blind spot so the cars would be

[1:26:37] traveling at too quick of a distance to

[1:26:39] then stop that's why staff had

[1:26:41] recommended against that so it wasn't

[1:26:43] about not being able to it was the

[1:26:45] danger of that corner it was too close

[1:26:48] to the bend

[1:26:48] I remember that discussion but we we can

[1:26:51] pull the report up and send it it's a

[1:26:53] council Phillips and I were both under

[1:26:55] that impression that was the reason why

[1:26:56] I asked initially because it felt like

[1:26:59] that was the reason that was given but

[1:27:00] okay if we're able to do it then I

[1:27:01] appreciate that counselor tells him

[1:27:05] Thank You mr. mayor quick question and

[1:27:10] are we able to is sorry it says always

[1:27:13] stop I'm visualizing obviously a stop

[1:27:15] sign but is there like a red flashing

[1:27:17] light what type of I guess my concern

[1:27:19] would be anyone going through a stop

[1:27:22] sign are we able to add any type of

[1:27:24] flashing red light below the stop sign

[1:27:27] just to make it visible for people

[1:27:28] driving just aware to chill

[1:27:32] our typical always stops do not have

[1:27:34] flashing Reds that that is something

[1:27:36] that we could investigate to bring more

[1:27:38] attention to the intersection however it

[1:27:40] would add to the costs for the

[1:27:42] installation one always thought you'd

[1:27:44] have to break power and two to the

[1:27:47] location to be able to provide those

[1:27:48] services there and my other question

[1:27:51] would be to the Reds are the residents

[1:27:54] in favor of this obviously there's been

[1:27:56] conversations with residents I guess to

[1:27:59] the ward councillors comes a little too

[1:28:01] near moving the motion but if I speak

[1:28:05] now you can I sell you're just answering

[1:28:06] the question

[1:28:07] yes it's a great concern there's people

[1:28:10] cannot get from the community that they

[1:28:13] live in plus the additional houses that

[1:28:15] are going to be built in their townhouse

[1:28:16] community another couple hundred people

[1:28:18] cannot get across while in canals

[1:28:20] Parkway in a safe manner councillor

[1:28:24] Miller do you want to add to that or no

[1:28:26] okay if not that I'm gonna go back to

[1:28:28] the question okay Kelsey Johnson I am I

[1:28:32] would like to add a friendly amendment I

[1:28:34] guess my concern here is just the

[1:28:35] visibility of being able to see the stop

[1:28:38] sign I know it is a Parkway is quite

[1:28:40] busy

[1:28:41] I would hope you'll be a friendly

[1:28:44] amendment to add some type of in context

[1:28:46] there is a stop sign at the end of Scott

[1:28:50] Street and that's in your ward and that

[1:28:53] doesn't have a flashing red light on it

[1:28:54] and people are they stopped there it's

[1:28:56] the same exact same as this one so I

[1:28:59] understand what you're saying it could

[1:29:01] be a temporary signage that says stop

[1:29:03] sign being installed and you'd be aware

[1:29:05] new stop sign but long-term I don't

[1:29:07] think it needs one okay so we can have

[1:29:09] like a notice of like new stop sign

[1:29:10] that's something we can at least have

[1:29:12] mr. Marku cheero notice of stop sign

[1:29:14] coming and then having some kind of

[1:29:16] awareness program to use you mr. mayor

[1:29:19] yes we could provide public notice of

[1:29:22] the new installation of a stop sign at

[1:29:23] the intersection okay okay now I would

[1:29:26] be okay with that

[1:29:26] thank you you're right Ithaca who had

[1:29:29] her hands up councillor Miller then go

[1:29:31] to councillor Williamson just sort of I

[1:29:34] guess answered councillor Thompson's

[1:29:35] question and I span on it we did we've

[1:29:37] heard about this frequently in regularly

[1:29:39] since since the campaign last year and I

[1:29:41] think Kelsey Wilson is probably a

[1:29:43] I think expert by now and maybe if she

[1:29:46] wants to switch career she could

[1:29:47] probably get into that by the amount of

[1:29:48] work she does around traffic in our ward

[1:29:51] which seems to be a significant problem

[1:29:52] and I think this has a chance I know

[1:29:55] stop signs aren't great for speed

[1:29:57] mitigation but we'll do a little bit and

[1:29:59] hopefully we'll stop some of the

[1:30:00] excessive truck traffic so I think this

[1:30:02] always stop might not be a perfect

[1:30:04] solution but it addresses a number of

[1:30:06] concerns on the street so I think and

[1:30:10] it's it's not costly and we always have

[1:30:12] the opportunity to review these new stop

[1:30:15] locations as we move forward so I think

[1:30:17] this is a good compromise solution for a

[1:30:20] number of issues on one canals Parkway

[1:30:22] you Kelson Miller councillor Williamson

[1:30:24] Thank You mr. Merrick - mr. Martin show

[1:30:27] is is your staff comfortable with having

[1:30:31] this attorneys are also always tough

[1:30:33] this location through you mr. mayor

[1:30:36] staffs recommendation is is for not

[1:30:40] installing and always stop given the

[1:30:43] options that were presented a pedestrian

[1:30:46] crossover and always stop staffer more

[1:30:49] comfortable with it always stopped and

[1:30:51] putting a pedestrian crossover at this

[1:30:52] location in terms is it warranted based

[1:30:57] on the statistics do you miss your Mara

[1:31:00] no it is not warranted based on the

[1:31:02] warrants that were approved by council

[1:31:05] Thank You councillor sweat mr. mayor

[1:31:09] through you to director Marty Jo really

[1:31:13] in the horns of dilemma on this one

[1:31:15] because I usually like to support the

[1:31:17] staff recommendation should it be the

[1:31:19] will of council to have the three-way

[1:31:22] stop signs installed is there the

[1:31:25] possibility of this being even more

[1:31:28] unsafe for motorists and and perhaps if

[1:31:32] you will actually being a little bit

[1:31:35] more dangerous or a little bit more

[1:31:38] unsafe because I understand that on

[1:31:41] these through strict thorough with

[1:31:44] streets main roads arterial roads the

[1:31:46] idea is to keep the traffic flow moving

[1:31:48] and if we were to have install a stop

[1:31:52] sign there

[1:31:53] good could it possibly be more unsafe

[1:31:56] through you mr. mayor staffs concerns

[1:31:59] are that due to the imbalance in in

[1:32:02] traffic so 6% of the traffic at that

[1:32:05] intersection is coming from wilfred

[1:32:08] laurier in 94 percent of the traffic is

[1:32:10] actually on well on canals parkway so

[1:32:11] our concern is that as as drivers starts

[1:32:15] to realize that when they come up to a

[1:32:17] stop sign there there's no reason to

[1:32:19] stop because there's no pedestrians or

[1:32:21] vehicles that they'll though there's the

[1:32:24] possibility that they'll gain bad habits

[1:32:26] of disobeying the stop sign altogether

[1:32:28] and driving through which could cause

[1:32:31] more significant safety concerns at the

[1:32:35] intersection than doesn't currently

[1:32:36] exist mr. mayor I just I'm gonna add

[1:32:39] this very quickly and then I'm not gonna

[1:32:41] say anything else so just make my

[1:32:43] remarks in any ward we have a lot of

[1:32:46] major arterial roads streets and I've

[1:32:50] received a lot of complaints about

[1:32:52] safety crossing Vine Street bunting Road

[1:32:55] Grantham you can make an argument that

[1:32:57] almost on every street secondary main

[1:33:01] arterial road it is dangerous to cross

[1:33:04] so I think I think I've got to go with

[1:33:08] the staff recommendation on this one mr.

[1:33:10] mayor I'm you know I'm going to defer to

[1:33:13] the staff on this one because I think

[1:33:15] the concerns are not only for wilfred

[1:33:18] laurier but throughout the entire city

[1:33:20] so thank you mr. mayor my my thoughts are

[1:33:28] exactly the same I thought we had

[1:33:31] delegated authority to staff for stop

[1:33:33] signs all up to the sale

[1:33:40] we did it the reason why it's here is

[1:33:42] because it's been lifted I because

[1:33:46] they're councilor Lord we did and if

[1:33:49] it's contested by either the community

[1:33:51] or councilor then it has to come to us

[1:33:53] that's why it's in front of so any

[1:33:55] councilor can bring up the staff denial

[1:33:59] yeah okay and the other question I had I

[1:34:03] thought there environmental reasons for

[1:34:06] delegating it to staff that every time

[1:34:09] we have these stop signs there's an

[1:34:11] environmental cost to it could staff

[1:34:14] respond through you mr. mayor if we if

[1:34:22] IKEA may be a little more clarification

[1:34:23] on what you mean by environmental

[1:34:25] concerns through mr. mayor

[1:34:34] I don't believe that that's something

[1:34:37] that that I've dealt with at least since

[1:34:40] taking on the role but it's definitely

[1:34:42] something we could further look further

[1:34:45] into you don't ya say Thank You mr.

[1:34:51] mayor

[1:34:51] I thought previously that our staff did

[1:34:57] express that as a concern I look forward

[1:35:00] to the new directors approach thing

[1:35:02] Council Harris through you mr. mayor to

[1:35:07] the director of Transportation when

[1:35:09] you're answering councilor Sorrento's

[1:35:12] questions you're mentioning a boat you

[1:35:14] know it might encourage bad behavior and

[1:35:16] stuff is that not something that the

[1:35:18] police should actually be enforcing so

[1:35:21] perhaps part of this motion when we put

[1:35:23] in a stop saying we could actually

[1:35:24] request the NRP to monitor it for the

[1:35:26] first little bit through you mr. mayor

[1:35:30] you're corrected disobeying stop signs

[1:35:33] would become an enforcement issue

[1:35:34] however the staff would still get

[1:35:37] complaints with regards to traffic

[1:35:41] issues at the intersection but we could

[1:35:42] definitely reach out the NRP

[1:35:44] and notify them of the always thought

[1:35:46] that was installed at the intersection

[1:35:48] maybe as an amendment

[1:35:49] this not only like notifying the

[1:35:52] residents that that's going to be

[1:35:54] installed leading up to the stop spine

[1:35:56] but also to notify the NRP and perhaps

[1:35:59] they can monitor at first does that make

[1:36:02] sense through you mr. mayor yes we could

[1:36:04] reach out to you okay I guess my other

[1:36:06] question is the staff have we had okay

[1:36:13] this isn't a really a new issue I seem

[1:36:15] to recall previous councils talked about

[1:36:18] this a lot can you give us like just a

[1:36:21] little bit of a background like I

[1:36:22] believe Jenny Stevens brought it up

[1:36:25] quite a bit and we fought for these type

[1:36:27] of things over and over again and staff

[1:36:30] continually deny it can you just comment

[1:36:33] on it through you mr. mayor when we get

[1:36:38] these types of requests we'd only go out

[1:36:40] the intersection to do a traffic

[1:36:41] analysis to determine the amount of

[1:36:44] traffic that's in the intersection to

[1:36:45] see whether or not it meets the

[1:36:47] guidelines that were approved for the

[1:36:50] installation of stop signs that's

[1:36:52] generally the driving factor but behind

[1:36:55] the decisions that staff are

[1:36:56] recommending

[1:36:57] can I through the mayor to the director

[1:36:59] engineer when you establish these

[1:37:02] guidelines and when you go out and

[1:37:04] monitor it do you actually select

[1:37:05] certain times I guess I'm going back to

[1:37:08] a few years ago councilor cushion I

[1:37:10] encountered when we wanted to get rid of

[1:37:11] a crossing guard on Glendale even though

[1:37:15] it was a crossing guard for a school and

[1:37:18] I guess when staff went out there they

[1:37:21] noticed that there weren't that many

[1:37:22] cars but they weren't actually

[1:37:23] monitoring it during the summer so I'm

[1:37:25] just wondering do you guys go out during

[1:37:29] certain times like peak times certain

[1:37:31] times through you mr. mayor yes we we

[1:37:35] typically use best practices at doing

[1:37:38] analysis of traffic intersections for

[1:37:41] this one we went once during the week

[1:37:43] for an eight-hour session and we also go

[1:37:47] a once during the weekend on fair

[1:37:50] weather days where

[1:37:52] we would expect increased traffic flow

[1:37:54] on the street in order to carry out

[1:37:55] these analysis okay just one more

[1:37:58] question I'm just wondering how much

[1:37:59] weight do we actually put on like I

[1:38:02] guess we have all this criteria but how

[1:38:03] much weight do we actually put on the

[1:38:05] councillors opinion because they're the

[1:38:07] ones that actually filled all the calls

[1:38:08] is there any sort of weighting that goes

[1:38:11] to that through you mr. mayor no the

[1:38:15] recommendations from staff are based

[1:38:17] solely on best practices for traffic

[1:38:20] okay perfect thank you

[1:38:22] councillor guys Thank You mr. mayor

[1:38:26] for clarity what the councillors are

[1:38:29] asking for is a safe way for them to

[1:38:32] cross from wilfred laurier across the

[1:38:35] parkway to get on to the get to the path

[1:38:38] I'm a long wall and canals Parkway

[1:38:40] that's correct so what's happening is

[1:38:43] people from Mackenzie King we love real

[1:38:45] Fred Laurier where's my other Street

[1:38:48] nning there's Howland there's a new

[1:38:52] street coming in McNaughton and Alex

[1:38:54] grant place all of those people so they

[1:38:57] can cross safely correct thank you when

[1:39:01] I'm reading through the report maybe I

[1:39:02] missed it but when you're showing the

[1:39:05] traffic counts it's showing the traffic

[1:39:07] count and it says that a requirement is

[1:39:10] an average of 90 vehicles an hour for

[1:39:12] 720 and you're showing the traffic count

[1:39:16] for wilfrid laurier Crescent but you

[1:39:19] don't show anything for the well canals

[1:39:21] Parkway so I'm just don't know whether

[1:39:23] I'm missing it somewhere in this report

[1:39:25] or if you can give me those numbers for

[1:39:27] that

[1:39:37] three mr. mayor we we do have the the

[1:39:41] counts for well canals Mark Waid they

[1:39:43] aren't included in the report and

[1:39:44] actually a must apologize I don't have

[1:39:47] them with me today but they the counts

[1:39:51] that we we show for Wilfred Gauri are

[1:39:54] it's to demonstrate that it doesn't meet

[1:39:56] the minimum of thresholds that are

[1:39:58] required on wilfred laurier in order for

[1:40:00] us to install those types of traffic

[1:40:03] patrols okay but just what I'm

[1:40:07] understanding from the councillor is

[1:40:08] it's not wilfred laurier that they're

[1:40:10] more concerned about crossing it's and i

[1:40:13] think there would be a stop sign there

[1:40:14] already what they're more concerned

[1:40:16] about is crossing the canal Parkway and

[1:40:19] you're not showing any of the counts for

[1:40:21] that to you mr. mayor I could provide

[1:40:25] some further accounts that we did so it

[1:40:30] in the eight-hour count that we did for

[1:40:33] the intersection there were

[1:40:34] approximately 334 vehicles on wilfred

[1:40:36] laurier in comparison to well canals

[1:40:39] Parkway where there were approximately

[1:40:40] 5700 vehicles that went down the street

[1:40:43] there was also only 29 pedestrian

[1:40:46] crossings at that street okay so there

[1:40:49] was 5700 cars that went by in an hour is

[1:40:52] that what you're is that per day I mean

[1:40:54] the drinking the eight-hour count okay I

[1:40:57] would think that maybe that might be the

[1:40:59] reason that there's such a low count of

[1:41:01] pedestrians they're probably afraid to

[1:41:03] go across that Street thank you okay

[1:41:06] council Phillips Thank You councillor

[1:41:08] done the concern I have is based on the

[1:41:15] what I hear for the residents who live

[1:41:17] in the Scott Street area I've had

[1:41:19] complaints numerous times about the fact

[1:41:21] that drivers regard those stop

[1:41:24] scientists optional with their word

[1:41:27] they're rolling the stop signs or

[1:41:28] they're going through all the time and

[1:41:30] that actually it was creating a

[1:41:32] dangerous situation for them because

[1:41:34] they thought it was gonna be safe

[1:41:35] crossing because there was a stop sign

[1:41:37] there and you know the car kept going

[1:41:40] and that's what I'm having a real hard

[1:41:43] time with this one as

[1:41:45] councillor Sorento because I don't want

[1:41:48] to create a situation where they think

[1:41:50] they can cross and all of a sudden

[1:41:52] you're with that number of cars

[1:41:54] somebody's going to miss a stop sign

[1:41:56] I could see perhaps putting a painted lines going across to end with

[1:42:05] signs indicating pedestrians crossing or

[1:42:09] something like that but a stop sign

[1:42:11] does not definitely guarantee safety

[1:42:15] honest on a busy and I'm up and down

[1:42:17] that that wrote a lot and cars are not

[1:42:20] traveling at necessarily the assigned

[1:42:23] speeds I would be I'm really really

[1:42:26] concerned about putting that and as far

[1:42:27] as asking the NRP to be there I've

[1:42:30] requested the NRP to be a Scott Street

[1:42:33] numerous times maybe they were but

[1:42:35] they're not going to be there every day

[1:42:36] planted at at a crosswalk on the

[1:42:39] overwhelming Canal Parkway get councilor

[1:42:42] films okay before councillor Littleton

[1:42:44] speaks the wiseguys did put a councillor

[1:42:47] Miller councillor Porter okay thanks I

[1:42:52] did I just want clarification this is

[1:42:55] only for pedestrians it's the residents

[1:42:58] don't have trouble turning left or right

[1:43:00] for in their cars on here it's just for

[1:43:03] because I'm looking at well in canto

[1:43:04] mats Parkway which isn't really

[1:43:06] pedestrian friendly it's like a

[1:43:09] thoroughfare so they're there the

[1:43:11] streets not designed for it's

[1:43:14] essentially designed for speed there's

[1:43:16] nothing else here that would kind of

[1:43:20] cause you or want you to slow down so I am echoing councillor Sorrento's

[1:43:26] concerns I am concerned about putting an

[1:43:28] all-way stop I know I I would be in

[1:43:32] favor of something else pedestrian

[1:43:34] crossing with some kind of signage but

[1:43:37] that way the pedestrians know there's no guarantee of a stop so they

[1:43:41] the pedestrians would have to be extra

[1:43:42] cautious and not assuming that the cars

[1:43:46] going to stop for them so I would I

[1:43:48] would sort of be in favor of that I know

[1:43:50] I'm not going to support the stop signs

[1:43:53] I just just because I don't think it's

[1:43:55] the safest option right now

[1:43:57] just a point of clarification just

[1:43:59] quickly so I know earlier we we had said

[1:44:02] that at the end of Scott Street that

[1:44:04] there are no lights but they do have the

[1:44:06] flashing red lights and looking at this

[1:44:09] intersection I am concerned that there

[1:44:10] it is a big intersection and I do think

[1:44:12] mr. mayor would need some type of lights

[1:44:14] to draw attention to any drivers on the

[1:44:17] road so we'll have the staff look into

[1:44:21] it

[1:44:21] okay so councillor Wilton before

[1:44:24] councillor Littleton speaks we did open

[1:44:26] a new park there last year and it was

[1:44:28] the wise guys park they generously

[1:44:30] donated a significant amount of money

[1:44:31] it's about 15 feet away from that

[1:44:34] intersection I think it'd be

[1:44:36] irresponsible for us not to put up a

[1:44:37] four-way stop because if any kids decide

[1:44:40] that they want to go in that direction

[1:44:41] and then they haven't been obviously

[1:44:44] maybe go trained that's very close to

[1:44:48] that and I think we should be doing

[1:44:49] everything we can to slow traffic if we

[1:44:51] talk about vision zero which is putting

[1:44:53] the pedestrian and the cyclist first we

[1:44:55] got to get people to slow down more and

[1:44:57] we got to get people to realize that

[1:44:58] these are also subdivisions that are

[1:45:00] being created and there is a very good

[1:45:02] well used park 15 feet away from all

[1:45:05] that 1,500 cars driving up and down so

[1:45:07] it's incumbent upon us to create a safe

[1:45:09] space for that Park as well if not we

[1:45:12] shouldn't have put the park there in the

[1:45:13] first place

[1:45:13] councillor a little tenure thank you

[1:45:16] next time I'm speaking first okay so I

[1:45:19] want to address some of the things that

[1:45:21] have been brought up because I did not

[1:45:22] bring this willy-nilly I met with staff

[1:45:24] twice before this has come before you

[1:45:27] and we've had conversations that's why

[1:45:29] the language is the way it is in the in

[1:45:31] the recommendation staff has said the installation the pedestrian

[1:45:35] crossover which is similar to the one

[1:45:37] that's on Vine Street is not appropriate

[1:45:39] I'll tell you why people are going to

[1:45:40] come across that they're gonna come down

[1:45:42] the street this is what staff was saying

[1:45:45] they may not see it the things are

[1:45:46] flashing everybody as soon as you hit

[1:45:49] that they're gonna go right with a stop

[1:45:52] we know as pedestrians do we do wait to

[1:45:55] see if people are actually going to stop

[1:45:57] when you push a button like the one

[1:45:59] outside the pack you push and you go

[1:46:00] it's not the same pedestrian behavior so

[1:46:03] that's why that is is is mentioned like

[1:46:06] that

[1:46:07] a couple of things that need to be

[1:46:09] really I think we need to talk about it

[1:46:11] just logically when we're talking about

[1:46:13] people are gonna roll through stops

[1:46:15] they're gonna do it everywhere folks

[1:46:16] everywhere at every stop sign this is

[1:46:19] making this intersection just to echo

[1:46:21] what the mayor said more safe it's

[1:46:24] making it safer right now what you have

[1:46:26] is a situation as councillor Porter

[1:46:28] alluded to you have a straight way there

[1:46:31] are no sidewalks on the side of these so

[1:46:33] if someone's thinking well why can't

[1:46:35] they just walk up to the little one

[1:46:36] where you push the button outside of

[1:46:38] Rockwood you there's nowhere for them to

[1:46:40] walk as the mayor said we've built a

[1:46:42] park here on the west side actually on

[1:46:47] the other side of Wellington else

[1:46:48] Parkway is another is another playground

[1:46:52] on the other side where the museum is so

[1:46:54] you have all these people that are here

[1:46:56] that you have this straightaway the stop

[1:47:00] sign also creates a speed reduction you

[1:47:04] have all the signs coming up people will

[1:47:05] learn that they have to stop just like

[1:47:07] they have to stop at Scott just like

[1:47:09] they have to stop further down well in

[1:47:10] canals it becomes a behavior and it will

[1:47:13] slow that speed down right now

[1:47:15] everybody's foot is at 60 to 65 it's a

[1:47:18] 50 zone that's anecdotal all the time

[1:47:22] so that I don't buy that that people are

[1:47:24] going to blow through it it's going to

[1:47:25] make it less safe than it is now

[1:47:27] right now your option is to look both

[1:47:29] ways and run as fast as you can across

[1:47:32] there and everybody's going like I just

[1:47:34] told you between 60 and 70 if we do have

[1:47:37] the stop sign then it does it yes

[1:47:40] there's a possibility that someone's

[1:47:42] going to blow through a stop sign just

[1:47:44] like they're going to do it at every

[1:47:45] other part of the city so I want

[1:47:47] everybody to think about that the

[1:47:48] director is talking about Beck's best

[1:47:50] practices when they're talking about

[1:47:52] that it doesn't meet their standard for

[1:47:55] the always stop 100% it doesn't because

[1:47:58] of the discrepancy as he's mentioned in

[1:48:01] the to the two streets wilfred laurier

[1:48:04] only has three hundred and whatever it

[1:48:06] is over the eight-hour period well in

[1:48:08] Canal Park we as you just heard has six

[1:48:10] thousand vehicles we need to make this

[1:48:13] intersection safer we have we are

[1:48:15] creating walkable cities on the you look

[1:48:18] at the picture here right on the other

[1:48:20] side of this is a

[1:48:21] frail that people can get on they can

[1:48:23] bike there they can walk they can take

[1:48:25] their families they can take their

[1:48:26] strollers and then the museum is right

[1:48:29] there like I just told you that is

[1:48:30] creating a walkable city where there

[1:48:32] isn't currently a sidewalk to go down

[1:48:36] well in canals parkway so I want you to

[1:48:38] all think about that the question about

[1:48:41] turning left yes it is a little bit

[1:48:43] difficult but that wasn't the number one

[1:48:45] driver for me asking for the staff

[1:48:47] report so I really hope that you'll you

[1:48:50] will you will allow for this to go

[1:48:53] through we can always look at it again

[1:48:56] in six months I don't know why no one's

[1:48:57] listening what why we can look at it

[1:49:00] again in six months if it'll make you

[1:49:02] feel better we could we examine it I'm

[1:49:04] happy to do that but not doing anything

[1:49:06] at this point in time where we know when

[1:49:09] we say why did would why were we talking

[1:49:11] about it eight years ago or why would

[1:49:12] now we have all these new houses in here

[1:49:15] and we have a whole other bunch of

[1:49:17] townhouses that are going to bring

[1:49:19] 100-200 more residents in in the next

[1:49:22] say whatever five years it's incumbent

[1:49:24] uncommon excuse me upon us to do it now

[1:49:27] I'm asking for your support thanks so

[1:49:30] much thank you how's your little team

[1:49:32] okay I'll call a question through you

[1:49:36] mr. mayor

[1:49:36] councillor Littleton yes Elster kushnir

[1:49:40] councillor Harris councillor Garcia yes

[1:49:44] councillor Dodge yes

[1:49:46] councillor Miller yes councillor

[1:49:48] Phillips no councillor Porter no

[1:49:52] councillor Cisco yes

[1:49:54] councillor Sorrento

[1:50:04] councillor Townsend yes councillor

[1:50:08] Williamson no in there sends it yes and

[1:50:13] that's carried okay folks we head on

[1:50:19] into financial management three point

[1:50:22] four and Christine Douglas director of

[1:50:25] financial management you have some

[1:50:26] opening remarks thank you your worship

[1:50:31] under the Municipal Act council adoption

[1:50:34] of the budget is required Council

[1:50:36] approved the city's 2020 capital budget

[1:50:38] at its meeting of October 7th 2019 with

[1:50:41] the exception of two items these two

[1:50:43] items are being discussed this evening

[1:50:45] the one was the city's website upgrade

[1:50:47] project and the second is a Transit

[1:50:49] Commission capital portion of the 2020

[1:50:51] fleet budget both of these items have

[1:50:53] been included in the draft 2020 capital

[1:50:55] budget that was presented to Council on

[1:50:57] October the 7th of this year at that

[1:51:00] meeting counsel referred these items to

[1:51:02] staff for additional information the

[1:51:04] budget Standing Committee reviewed the

[1:51:06] additional information related to these

[1:51:08] two capital items council has been

[1:51:10] provided with the links to the budget

[1:51:11] Standing Committee reports memos and

[1:51:14] correspondence items and these two items

[1:51:16] are now returning to council this

[1:51:17] evening for your consideration as part

[1:51:19] of the city's 2020 capital budget okay

[1:51:24] councillors went to the other question

[1:51:26] that's mr. mayor then there's anybody

[1:51:29] else going to speak no from staff no

[1:51:33] we're good

[1:51:33] alright just a few questions mr. mayor

[1:51:35] through you to any one of our staff so

[1:51:38] I've received a few phone calls and some

[1:51:41] of the residents are looking at the

[1:51:42] total amount of money that's four

[1:51:44] hundred thousand dollars so you know in

[1:51:47] today's world of technology where there

[1:51:49] are a lot of free apps and a lot of

[1:51:50] stuff that's for free can you just

[1:51:52] explain for the public as to why our up

[1:51:56] side limit is four hundred thousand

[1:51:58] dollars any one of our staff okay I'll

[1:52:01] put over to Maggie through you mr. mayor

[1:52:04] so when we were looking at the website

[1:52:07] we recognize that there's a base amount

[1:52:10] that you'd have to consider so that base

[1:52:12] amount was developed by having

[1:52:13] conversations

[1:52:14] with our current provider looking at

[1:52:16] other municipalities who've been

[1:52:17] updating their websites as well as

[1:52:19] conversations with our IT staff so when

[1:52:21] we're talking about 400,000 the 200,000

[1:52:24] allows us to get an update of

[1:52:25] essentially what we have now and to

[1:52:28] further explain that what we have now is

[1:52:30] a website that doesn't allow a lot of

[1:52:31] online functionality so there are a lot

[1:52:34] of additional services that we'd like to

[1:52:36] add to improve customer service we'd

[1:52:39] also like to the opportunity to

[1:52:40] integrate with city software because

[1:52:42] right now our website doesn't really

[1:52:44] speak to the city software so that

[1:52:46] creates problems and processes so that's

[1:52:49] where we kind of have developed that

[1:52:50] upper limit of the 400,000 mr. Barun

[1:52:54] these are the reasons as to why it's

[1:52:56] going to cost so much money

[1:52:58] yes okay thank you mr. mayor to anyone

[1:53:02] of our staff how old is our current

[1:53:03] website right through you mr. mayor our

[1:53:09] current website is about 15 years old

[1:53:11] and we haven't made any further

[1:53:13] investments in our website in 2014 we

[1:53:17] did an additional eight thousand dollars

[1:53:20] worth of work on our website to make it

[1:53:22] accessible at the time so we'd call that

[1:53:24] version 1.0 so then clearly so then

[1:53:29] clearly our website is incredibly dated

[1:53:31] if you can just like some technical

[1:53:34] questions mr. mayor to our director of

[1:53:37] IT mr. director gardener can you tell us

[1:53:41] what back office programs are and the

[1:53:44] accessibility components of this new

[1:53:46] website and perhaps you know what their

[1:53:49] cost is or through You mr. mayor

[1:53:55] first of all there is a accessibility

[1:53:58] regulations the current website does not

[1:54:01] meet those regulations so we want to

[1:54:04] obviously develop a new website that

[1:54:07] will meet them secondly there are a

[1:54:09] number of as Ernest a young reported

[1:54:12] earlier we're we need an IT system

[1:54:15] modernization plan right now we have no

[1:54:20] integration to our amanda systems or our

[1:54:22] class system that has parks and

[1:54:24] recreations there is a

[1:54:26] number of systems we would like to

[1:54:28] integrate into the web to allow citizens

[1:54:31] to do online transactions instead of

[1:54:33] having to report in to the City Hall and

[1:54:36] one final question mr. mayor - to any

[1:54:40] one of our staff so if it is the will of

[1:54:42] this council to approve this new new

[1:54:44] infrastructure system if you will will

[1:54:47] this allow us to build on it moving

[1:54:49] forward

[1:54:53] Thank You Kelsey Garcia thank you Thank

[1:55:00] You mr. mayor

[1:55:01] through you to the staff I have similar

[1:55:05] concern to council Sorrento I'm I'm just

[1:55:08] concerned about the costs like based on

[1:55:10] what I hear elsewhere that updating a

[1:55:14] website cost I totally agree that our

[1:55:17] website is horrible in terms of

[1:55:19] navigation it's very difficult to

[1:55:20] navigate

[1:55:21] but 400,000 is a lot of money so I'd

[1:55:24] like to put our new director on the spot

[1:55:26] and ask them even though he just joined

[1:55:29] us is this does this seem reasonable to

[1:55:31] you 400,000 for this because it seems

[1:55:34] like a lot to me I'll first go to

[1:55:36] director of financial management then

[1:55:38] we'll jump over to the CIO CIO office

[1:55:42] thank you through your worship I think

[1:55:44] for some context for counsel with

[1:55:47] regards to the original website that was

[1:55:49] designed and developed in 2005 that

[1:55:53] total cost was at a cost of 250 thousand

[1:55:56] dollars to the municipality so therefore

[1:55:58] looking at a cost of four hundred

[1:56:00] thousand dollars this year - to review

[1:56:03] our website for accessibility and to in

[1:56:06] to to create some improvements with

[1:56:08] regards to the website I would say in in

[1:56:10] my opinion I think that upper limit of

[1:56:12] $400,000 is a reasonable costing so mr.

[1:56:16] Gardner you want to anything to that the

[1:56:20] integration it will be up to 400,000 it

[1:56:23] depends on how many systems we want to

[1:56:25] integrate we will study that as part of

[1:56:27] this whole project so that number may

[1:56:30] come in lower or it may come in

[1:56:32] depending on what we want to deliver to

[1:56:33] the citizens Thank You Jessica CFO thank

[1:56:35] you mr. mayor through you to staff with

[1:56:38] all due respect to the director

[1:56:40] Financial Management I don't think

[1:56:41] comparing it to what it costs before is

[1:56:43] necessarily a good rationale because

[1:56:46] maybe we grossly overpaid before but

[1:56:49] anyway is this going to be based on

[1:56:53] actual quotes or do we have any actual

[1:56:56] quotes at this time that's that's why

[1:56:58] it's an upset limit they'll have to go

[1:56:59] to RFP the cancel source so they have to

[1:57:02] go up or go yes they do okay so that

[1:57:04] will come back to counsel doesn't come

[1:57:06] back to counsel if it's under four

[1:57:07] hundred thousand no no okay that's why

[1:57:11] we're setting the up set limit okay okay

[1:57:15] counsel Miller yeah I just wanted to

[1:57:18] touch on that having worked in building

[1:57:21] websites and digital marketing then the

[1:57:23] $400,000 I think can be taught to most

[1:57:25] businesses locally is a reasonable

[1:57:27] number for the amount the sheer size of

[1:57:30] this website and the amount of things we

[1:57:31] do with it and want it to be able to do

[1:57:34] and I don't think it's really incumbent

[1:57:36] on this council with no offense any of

[1:57:38] my colleagues to really nitpick that

[1:57:40] number at that point that's the number

[1:57:41] we're getting from staff I think it's

[1:57:43] been under a lot of scrutiny it's been

[1:57:44] in the press and things like that and

[1:57:46] they haven't backed off a bunch on that

[1:57:47] number so I think we have to trust that is the number I just have a

[1:57:51] question about how this will happen if

[1:57:52] approved that RFP that we send out what

[1:57:57] is the timeline that we're looking at in

[1:57:58] terms of having this okay Maggie at this

[1:58:04] point we're still in the really early

[1:58:05] stages we just have a meeting with the

[1:58:08] staff team members to kind of set out

[1:58:10] the project schedule so we haven't

[1:58:12] really set any specific timelines yet

[1:58:13] with that because there's also a number

[1:58:16] of other IT projects happening at the

[1:58:19] same time we are a little bit tight on

[1:58:22] time as far as trying to be able to get

[1:58:24] those activities all done around the

[1:58:25] same time okay thank you and I guess

[1:58:30] through you the mayor I have a feeling I

[1:58:32] know the answer this question but we

[1:58:33] have a number of wonderful IT and

[1:58:37] website design companies locally here in

[1:58:38] Niagara it's it's sort of a burgeoning

[1:58:40] industry here is there any way to our

[1:58:42] RFP process to give consideration to

[1:58:45] those companies that are creating jobs

[1:58:46] and and things like that in Niagara

[1:58:49] Christine

[1:58:51] through you your worship with regards to

[1:58:53] local local vendors that can supply this

[1:58:57] product I would recommend that they

[1:58:59] register on our bids and tenders website

[1:59:02] and then they would get notified when

[1:59:03] these RFP documents get issued were not

[1:59:07] permitted under our procurement by law

[1:59:09] to for a local preference thank you for

[1:59:12] that and I'd be remiss not to mention

[1:59:14] this I am the youngest member of Council

[1:59:15] and I think it really it really is

[1:59:18] important as we move the city forward to ensure that we are online that our

[1:59:23] presence is easy to navigate and we are

[1:59:25] able to accomplish the goals of the city

[1:59:27] Thank You councillor Miller

[1:59:29] okay singing councillor reporter thanks

[1:59:33] very much I'm gonna support this I look

[1:59:36] forward to a new website I do think it's

[1:59:39] a tad a than it's in line with where

[1:59:42] we're going and as the auditors from

[1:59:45] earnest in Yahoo pointed out we where

[1:59:48] our staff is lean and we they can't

[1:59:51] build it themselves that those are some

[1:59:52] of the comments that I receive like

[1:59:54] can't can't can't there's existing staff

[1:59:56] build a website themselves they don't I

[1:59:59] don't think they have the capacity there

[2:00:01] we've heard from the previous director

[2:00:03] I've I T that you know there's always

[2:00:07] managing IT risks all the time there's

[2:00:09] always viruses coming in and there's there's new projects and there's

[2:00:13] a lot that they have to keep going with

[2:00:15] kind of a bare-bones stuff so we do have

[2:00:17] to hire externally for this project I'm

[2:00:19] just wondering if there will be citizen

[2:00:21] engagement through this process like

[2:00:24] focus groups like is that being built

[2:00:26] into okay Maggie project part of the

[2:00:31] process will include public consultation

[2:00:33] so what we intend to do is have meetings

[2:00:36] with senior staff as well as the

[2:00:39] accessibility committee and the public

[2:00:41] so we've already started an online

[2:00:43] survey essentially communication survey

[2:00:45] which does ask some questions specific

[2:00:47] to our website so we are getting some

[2:00:49] information in on that aspect but once

[2:00:52] we start the actual process of doing

[2:00:53] essentially an audit of what we have now

[2:00:56] that will include quite a bit of public

[2:00:58] consultation thanks very much thanks

[2:01:00] counselor Porter

[2:01:01] so you know their further questions

[2:01:02] we'll call it can I ask that we voted

[2:01:04] them separately mr. mayor of course you

[2:01:06] can okay so we'll vote first on the

[2:01:09] website up to the clerk 3 mr. mayor

[2:01:19] Councillor you just guess councillor

[2:01:22] dodge councillor Garcia no councillor

[2:01:28] Harris councillor Kushner yes

[2:01:31] councillor Littleton yes councillor

[2:01:33] Miller yes councillor Phillips yes

[2:01:35] councillor Porter yeah councillor Cisco

[2:01:38] yes councillor Sorrento a hearty yes

[2:01:41] councillor Townsend yes councillor

[2:01:45] Williamson yes and mayor sent sickness

[2:01:47] and that's carried okay so the second

[2:01:49] part of the motion councillor Cisco yes

[2:02:00] councillor Porter yes

[2:02:03] councillor Phillips councillor Miller

[2:02:06] yes councillor Littleton yes councillor

[2:02:10] Kushner councillor Harris councillor

[2:02:12] Garcia yes

[2:02:13] councillor Dodge yes councillor Sorento

[2:02:17] yes

[2:02:18] heartily councillor Townsend yes

[2:02:21] councillor Williamson yes and Mayor

[2:02:23] Senza yes carried unanimously

[2:02:25] all right three point five looking

[2:02:29] forward to a new website by the way

[2:02:30] what's going on maybe you can ask Greg

[2:02:33] for some councillor Miller for some

[2:02:34] guidance it's he's probably on website

[2:02:37] 4.1 or something now that he's the

[2:02:38] youngest

[2:02:41] okay sorry point of order this is your

[2:02:46] yep Council Townsend so after that long

[2:02:51] commercial it's over to you all right

[2:02:55] surprise surprise you can probably guess

[2:02:58] in reference to 11.2 I'm asking council

[2:03:02] to appoint those the four that I put

[2:03:05] their names forth to have them split the

[2:03:08] year term doing three-month Atkins sect

[2:03:11] three months consecutively as deputy

[2:03:14] mayor and I'm hoping council will

[2:03:15] support that I think it's in all

[2:03:17] fairness we have four outstanding

[2:03:19] candidates that have put their name

[2:03:20] forth and I think that in all fairness

[2:03:23] they would each do a very good job

[2:03:25] representing as deputy mayor gates right

[2:03:31] there

[2:03:32] so councillor Townsend you'll be moving

[2:03:36] that motion and you'll be asking for in

[2:03:40] a minute meant an amendment so

[2:03:43] essentially what you're asking for is

[2:03:44] for 2020 to be equal appointments for

[2:03:48] the those that are interested and then

[2:03:50] for 2021 it's by month correct okay by

[2:03:56] month in 2021 so we don't go through

[2:03:59] this again it's just everyone's assigned

[2:04:00] a month and if you don't want it you can

[2:04:02] pass it on to someone else

[2:04:03] councillor Cisco mr. Mara I was just

[2:04:06] gonna ask that with respect to the

[2:04:07] clause they're about equal appointments

[2:04:10] that some sort of policy come forward

[2:04:11] from staff I know for some of us given

[2:04:14] our work schedules there are some months

[2:04:16] of the year that may be applicable but

[2:04:17] other ones that wouldn't so staff could

[2:04:19] put together some policy based on the

[2:04:20] best practices that will come back I'd

[2:04:22] be great come back for 2021 councillor

[2:04:25] Garcia would take those directions of

[2:04:26] staff mr. mayor I'd just like to ask the

[2:04:29] procedural question from the clerk we

[2:04:33] got an email from the clerk a couple of

[2:04:36] days ago pointing out that to pull item

[2:04:39] from consent the procedural bylaw says

[2:04:41] we have to do it by Friday I didn't see

[2:04:45] any of these motions I don't think until

[2:04:46] Saturday I don't know when they can look

[2:04:48] to the clear what's the deadline for

[2:04:50] emotions because I didn't so this will

[2:04:52] just pass the clerk yeah motion was

[2:04:55] submitted through you mr. Mehra this

[2:04:57] motion was submitted it wasn't published

[2:05:00] it published

[2:05:02] Friday morning

[2:05:06] the motion was the deadlines are

[2:05:09] Wednesday at 3:30 we published Friday so

[2:05:14] it was published in the courthouse give

[2:05:15] it to ya sorry so you did get it by one

[2:05:18] sec okay thank you through through you

[2:05:22] mr. mayor if I may if we do this we need

[2:05:25] to pass a motion to suspend your

[2:05:27] procedural rules and that's where I

[2:05:29] thought counselor Garcia was leading

[2:05:30] because your procedural rule right now

[2:05:33] says you point one deputy mayor annually

[2:05:36] so we'll have to do a suspension of the

[2:05:38] rules counselor Sisko motion to suspend

[2:05:43] the rules all in favor okay can I can I

[2:05:48] just say we're just gonna take a time

[2:05:49] them and see AO

[2:05:52] if you can just direct what you're

[2:05:53] talking about oh my gosh what is the

[2:05:59] five months in 2021 with 14 okay so it's

[2:06:07] splitting the year of 2020 and then

[2:06:09] monthly in 2021 thank you to the CEO

[2:06:16] paying attention like it's good I

[2:06:19] clearly I wasn't some it's a compliment

[2:06:24] councillor Littleton yeah thanks can we

[2:06:27] separate out the the I'm sorry to

[2:06:31] everybody I'm gonna apologize but I'm declaring conflict on this this

[2:06:36] changing the procedural to the whatever

[2:06:42] we're just going to what I'm sorry I'm out on I'm out on that on a conflict

[2:06:46] but I'd like to vote on the other part

[2:06:48] of this motion thank you okay councillor

[2:06:51] report my hoping this can be a friendly

[2:06:55] amendment I prefer the idea of

[2:06:57] continuing this on a quarterly basis

[2:07:00] rather than monthly I just think

[2:07:02] sometimes we wouldn't be able to get our

[2:07:05] feet wet in the job I think it would be

[2:07:07] too too confusing to do it on a monthly

[2:07:10] basis and I think there are some people

[2:07:13] who just don't won't ever want to do it

[2:07:15] so I think quarterly

[2:07:18] that's the opportunity over the rest of

[2:07:20] the term to give people a chance and I

[2:07:22] think it's easier to manage

[2:07:24] I know I would accept that as friendly

[2:07:26] yeah

[2:07:52] so you're going quarterly moving for so

[2:07:54] we have to go through this whole thing

[2:07:55] again where people put up their hands

[2:07:58] every month and are every for like

[2:08:00] really I get this is where you want to

[2:08:02] go with this come on folks welcome so

[2:08:06] can I just on the way I guess the vision

[2:08:10] would look like is next December those

[2:08:12] who are interested would put their names

[2:08:14] forth and it would be divided up if

[2:08:16] they're save three or four counselors

[2:08:18] okay here okay so and if you don't get

[2:08:25] how it would work monthly then it's like

[2:08:28] how would it be any different

[2:08:30] there's twelve counselors so every

[2:08:32] counselor would be assigned a month so

[2:08:34] you wouldn't have to jockey for which

[2:08:35] once you want to do it which ones you

[2:08:36] don't want to do it and all that other

[2:08:37] stuff associated with it i I just wonder

[2:08:40] if either if there are counselors who

[2:08:41] actually want to do it does everybody

[2:08:44] want to be a deputy mayor this makes it

[2:08:49] simple now so Harris you haven't spoken

[2:08:54] would it not make sense just to do it

[2:08:56] for this year and then implement like it

[2:08:58] an actual strategy for 2021 with an

[2:09:01] actual process is that not so just stick

[2:09:05] with the original the original four

[2:09:10] names or whatever or three names or two

[2:09:12] names or whoever wants to do it okay

[2:09:16] then I guess you can ask for it I don't

[2:09:17] know like a sec because it seems like

[2:09:19] we're gonna be able to agree with

[2:09:21] anything well the simplest one is okay

[2:09:30] counselor Miller you haven't spoken I

[2:09:32] guess my struggle is if we're saying the

[2:09:35] monthly point is the best plan which is

[2:09:36] essentially what we're saying here why

[2:09:37] wouldn't we just go to that right away

[2:09:38] why would we wait a year and I

[2:09:40] understand he's the for counselors put

[2:09:42] their name for but they also put their

[2:09:43] name for when the job was very different

[2:09:44] than it's being described here I think

[2:09:46] myself and I'm sure others would have

[2:09:48] done it if we knew it we were signing up

[2:09:51] for a two-month period at some point and

[2:09:52] put our names fort so well I am I guess

[2:09:55] I'm sympathetic to the for people who

[2:09:57] wanted to put their names for the next

[2:09:58] year that's also not even what we're

[2:10:00] potentially voting on here so I guess I

[2:10:03] would just ask that why wouldn't we just

[2:10:05] start the monthly plan in January 2020

[2:10:09] and not go through this whole hullabaloo

[2:10:12] so if you if you didn't want to be

[2:10:14] deputy you just pass it to another

[2:10:16] counselor perfect that works change it

[2:10:18] back to monthly and if so to clarify if

[2:10:22] someone doesn't want to be deputy mayor

[2:10:23] they can give their month up correct

[2:10:46] it's because our bylaw stops December

[2:10:49] first 20 right now should be 2019 three

[2:10:54] mr. mayor

[2:10:55] due to the election you were actually

[2:10:57] nog you rated December one so that's

[2:10:59] when the deputy mayor was first done

[2:11:01] what we're hoping to do is begin January

[2:11:04] one so we're asking this deputy mayor to

[2:11:07] continue December until January 1 to get

[2:11:11] it but it says a deputy mayor for 2020

[2:11:15] so is there one man

[2:11:21] the present deputy mayor which is

[2:11:24] councillor Harris continue his duties

[2:11:26] through December so that we begin the

[2:11:28] process January somewhere on a regular

[2:11:30] January to December 31 so that we could

[2:11:34] do it one month at a time pointing out

[2:11:37] is that it should be 2019 so sorry

[2:11:42] counselor it should be 2019 and the

[2:11:49] appointments begin January 2020 and it

[2:11:53] should say three months consecutively

[2:11:56] councillor Williamson I would suggest we

[2:12:02] just worry about this year because

[2:12:03] that's what how we've done appointments

[2:12:05] in the past four deputy mayors just this

[2:12:06] year let's do a quarterly for this year

[2:12:08] and then we can figure out what we're

[2:12:09] gonna do going forward for next time

[2:12:13] okay

[2:12:14] I would agree with you councillor

[2:12:15] Williamson it's just that what's been

[2:12:17] experienced over the last three weeks is

[2:12:19] quite frustrating when council should be

[2:12:21] paying attention to the stuff in front

[2:12:23] of us and there's phone calls about I

[2:12:24] want to be deputy mayor I want to be

[2:12:25] deputy mayor if we can cut that off now

[2:12:28] and just have a process that's true but

[2:12:30] it makes it so more people may want to

[2:12:32] do it again next year and it might just

[2:12:33] be you might work out fairly okay

[2:12:36] councillor Kushner yes

[2:12:39] mr. Mara I can't agree to this we have

[2:12:43] what I thought I was coming for an

[2:12:45] election and we're decay ting that

[2:12:48] responsibility if the position was not

[2:12:51] important

[2:12:51] I'd say fine but I think it is an

[2:12:54] important position and I think there's a

[2:12:56] learning curve and I would ask to a

[2:13:02] former deputy mayor maybe - is there a

[2:13:06] learning curve for the job

[2:13:10] yes I think there is a learning curve

[2:13:13] and I think it's a it's a responsibility

[2:13:17] not to be taken lightly and I look at it

[2:13:20] as the opportunity to represent counsel

[2:13:24] and be almost the conduit for counsel to

[2:13:28] the mayor and senior staff so there is a

[2:13:32] learning curve curve that curve because

[2:13:34] I think it curves it's longer than a

[2:13:37] month I assume yes into councilor

[2:13:41] Phillips I agree with with councillor

[2:13:46] Harris yes there is a learning curve

[2:13:48] I saw the role of deputy mayor in number

[2:13:53] one because I'm retired I was able to

[2:13:56] attend the senior management team

[2:13:58] meetings on Wednesday and answer

[2:14:01] questions and help develop agenda which

[2:14:03] I found to be very important I don't

[2:14:05] know if that I don't know if councillor

[2:14:07] Harris was able to do that that's one to

[2:14:09] me significant role secondly any

[2:14:12] concerns from councillors that they

[2:14:14] wanted taken to the mayor I was able to

[2:14:16] do that or if he wanted me to take

[2:14:18] something to specific councillors I was

[2:14:20] able to do that and plus Saturdays are

[2:14:24] busy because the mayor is always

[2:14:27] double-booked

[2:14:28] he's out everywhere opening businesses

[2:14:31] and you usually get the call to do I'm

[2:14:34] going to say to three businesses most

[2:14:37] Saturdays so that's the role yes there

[2:14:40] is a learning curve to be there for a

[2:14:46] month I don't know it depends on on the

[2:14:50] availability of the person who's who's

[2:14:52] going to be deputy mayor and the

[2:14:53] involvement he or she want to become

[2:14:56] involved in it in context that the

[2:15:01] region it is by month so and the region

[2:15:05] you'd think the regional chair would

[2:15:07] have a very important vice chair that

[2:15:09] would do all the work of what a vice

[2:15:11] chair would do but it's my month it's

[2:15:13] taught by years so I think a bigger

[2:15:15] corporation you'd think there would be a

[2:15:16] vice chair but there's not counselor

[2:15:18] just just add to what you said I spoke

[2:15:20] with councillor height about it he's

[2:15:22] been deputy

[2:15:23] mayor on this council as well as running

[2:15:25] the or being the the deputy mayor of the

[2:15:29] month or Deputy Chair of the month of

[2:15:31] the region and he says it does work up

[2:15:34] there but then again there's things that

[2:15:36] work up there that don't work down here

[2:15:38] and rap Vicey Versey if I can continue

[2:15:43] mr. mayor you indicated works for the

[2:15:46] region well I would have some question

[2:15:48] about how while it worked for the last

[2:15:51] term of the region but my point is I

[2:15:54] have not heard a good argument I've not

[2:15:57] heard a good argument for why we would

[2:16:00] be doing this with the exception that we

[2:16:03] have for good people that are interested

[2:16:05] and therefore that's the reason to make

[2:16:08] them deputy mayor on a short basis if we

[2:16:12] have four excellent people let this

[2:16:14] council decide who is the most excellent

[2:16:17] to the for thank you okay anybody else

[2:16:21] when you speak councillor Porter if I

[2:16:29] can respond to councillor Kushner's

[2:16:33] comments I think it would be important

[2:16:36] to have different people who have new

[2:16:37] counselors experienced counselors you

[2:16:40] get to spend additional time with senior

[2:16:42] staff and with the mayor setting the

[2:16:44] agenda and I think it just builds for a

[2:16:48] better team so that's that's why I would

[2:16:50] be in favor of of taking turns doing it

[2:16:53] is is you get that opportunity to kind

[2:16:55] of be on the inside a little bit and you

[2:16:57] get a gaining greater appreciate a

[2:16:59] greater appreciation of what's what

[2:17:03] staff are doing else reporter Kelso

[2:17:07] Ceretto Thank You mr. mayor it's not a

[2:17:08] conflict for me to speak to this is it

[2:17:11] I'm okay look okay so I'm Justin but the

[2:17:16] greatest respect to my colleague and

[2:17:18] I'll ask her later on I just don't

[2:17:19] understand why councillor Littleton

[2:17:21] declared a conflict and I'll ask her I

[2:17:24] do agree with this and just to get to

[2:17:27] the comment about the learning curve the

[2:17:29] one thing that I heard that stands out

[2:17:31] is that

[2:17:32] selecting the the agendas most of us

[2:17:37] have represented you mr. mayor and we

[2:17:40] have represented council so I don't know

[2:17:42] you know when you talk about a learning

[2:17:44] curve how much more of a learning curve

[2:17:46] there there is involved other than

[2:17:49] picking up the items for the agenda we

[2:17:51] read the agendas every other week or

[2:17:53] when they come to us so I don't see that

[2:17:55] as a tremendously onerous learning curve

[2:17:57] if you will mr. mayor and I quite agree

[2:17:59] with some of my colleagues that I think

[2:18:02] that we should should rotate it

[2:18:05] quarterly mr. mayor because it will

[2:18:08] allow other people to represent your office so councillor

[2:18:14] Miller councillor Porter is interested

[2:18:17] in doing it and there are four of us

[2:18:18] right now that would allow everybody a

[2:18:20] fair opportunity and I think three

[2:18:22] months I think three months is long

[2:18:25] enough to do it and then if there is

[2:18:27] another counselor who doesn't want to do

[2:18:29] it and they say okay let's take this to

[2:18:31] Council I'm going to withdraw my name so

[2:18:33] someone who hasn't done it okay for this

[2:18:36] term then go ahead and do it and I think

[2:18:38] that that would be very democratic and

[2:18:40] I'm sure that my colleague from Port

[2:18:42] deluzy would appreciate that democratic

[2:18:44] principle that's it thank you okay okay

[2:18:49] so we we good here so councillor towns

[2:18:55] motion is in front of you you've made

[2:18:57] the motion you've heard from Council do

[2:19:01] you want to remove the 2021 which is one

[2:19:03] month for each councillor in 2021 and

[2:19:05] come come back to this kind of wonderful

[2:19:07] discussion that we just had in a year

[2:19:10] from now leave it the way it is and

[2:19:13] let's vote on it the way it is okay

[2:19:14] thank you okay Thank You councillor

[2:19:18] Townsend so call a question through you

[2:19:22] mr. mayor through is this the motion

[2:19:25] with the BIA as well on it the BIA one

[2:19:28] is not a separate it's just a separate

[2:19:30] so the motion before you councillor

[2:19:34] Townsend yes

[2:19:37] councillor Williamson yes

[2:19:44] did she ask that when she did she did

[2:19:47] didn't she

[2:19:47] did she ask for that I'm sorry I just

[2:19:49] heard her say she had a conflict

[2:19:55] what does councillor Littleton have a

[2:19:58] conflict on she's declaring a conflict

[2:20:01] on the position of deputy mayor cuz it's

[2:20:02] a it's a paid position in its entirety

[2:20:05] though I wasn't sure if she was

[2:20:06] separating out a portion of missing so

[2:20:08] she could vote on a portion of it that's

[2:20:10] what we're going to get okay that's the

[2:20:12] case you should clarify that

[2:20:19] split it counselor Wilson counselor

[2:20:22] lamps and split split move on I don't

[2:20:34] know if we'll have such a robust

[2:20:36] discussion for the Downtown Association

[2:20:37] but who would like to be a member of the

[2:20:39] Downtown Association is there anyone we

[2:20:42] would like to put your hand up because

[2:20:43] currently we have a vacant space

[2:20:45] councillor Sorrento mr. mayor I have to

[2:20:49] defer for a year okay just just so you

[2:20:52] know I end up then don't put your hand

[2:20:54] up

[2:20:55] you can't defer it okay for my position

[2:20:57] for my nomination I'll do it next to all

[2:21:00] the council yes okay so voting on the

[2:21:09] first one so councillor Williamson you

[2:21:15] said yes counselor Townsend you said yes

[2:21:17] counselor Sorrento

[2:21:18] so we're voting on the first part which

[2:21:21] is that one okay Cory I wrote this I got

[2:21:25] to get it up we're doing a quarter legal

[2:21:29] okay

[2:21:30] just where you'd be clear to come yes

[2:21:33] clerk councillor Cisco councillor Porter

[2:21:39] yeah councillor Phillips councillor

[2:21:43] Miller yes

[2:21:44] councillor Littleton conflict councillor

[2:21:49] kushner councillor Harris

[2:21:58] well I had my hand up no you guys kept

[2:22:00] switching back and forth between

[2:22:01] different things just strike his name

[2:22:04] okay okay that's okay you can still vote

[2:22:11] yeah okay yes

[2:22:13] Cal sir Garcia no and counselor dodge

[2:22:17] yeah

[2:22:18] they are sensing yes and that's carried

[2:22:22] the second one so highlight the second

[2:22:26] one Kyra if you can which is the note no we're still on the first we're still

[2:22:32] in that one but it was let the motion

[2:22:33] was split so go back to the screen

[2:22:36] and you got to highlight the second part

[2:22:38] that we're voting on which is that it's

[2:22:41] the for the next year so it's so all the

[2:22:46] way up right there

[2:22:47] so we're voting on if you got to

[2:22:48] highlight that and the remainder okay

[2:22:57] it's council clear okay

[2:23:00] councillor dodge councillor Garcia No

[2:23:05] councillor Harris yes councillor Kushner

[2:23:10] councillor Littleton yes

[2:23:13] councillor Miller yes councillor

[2:23:16] Phillips councillor Porter yes

[2:23:20] councillor Cisco councillor Sorento yes

[2:23:29] councillor Townsend

[2:23:31] yes councillor Williamson and Mayor

[2:23:34] CENTAC yes and that's carried okay that

[2:23:38] was a tough one folks congratulations to

[2:23:43] this year's deputy mayors and look

[2:23:46] forward to the calendar of deputy pairs

[2:23:48] next year that'll be a nice one okay so

[2:23:53] we got to do the Downtown Association

[2:23:56] councillor Dodge sorry mr. mayor

[2:23:59] so how is it gonna work for the monthly

[2:24:01] thing like are we section is to report

[2:24:03] back on how it's gonna be so I didn't

[2:24:05] see that I'm sorry the staff direction

[2:24:07] from councillor Cisco okay and then

[2:24:13] Downtown Association councillor Kushner

[2:24:15] you'd like to put your name for it okay

[2:24:16] all in favor of council that's what

[2:24:22] happens when you put your hand up mr.

[2:24:23] mayor you have to be innovative since

[2:24:25] nobody's interested and we have four

[2:24:27] deputy mayors why not three why not have

[2:24:31] one of them on the Downtown Association

[2:24:32] because they have already

[2:24:37] should I read my speech for deputy mayor

[2:24:40] so I can get on the down

[2:24:41] you hear it it's a very good speech I'm

[2:24:48] very good at speaking just switch out

[2:24:52] okay so who wants to put their name for

[2:24:55] it

[2:24:55] counselor enter you're gonna put your

[2:24:56] name forward okay okay okay

[2:25:03] counselors rant oh no see nobody else

[2:25:05] all in favor of counselors ranch on

[2:25:07] Downtown Association carried salt to the

[2:25:13] highest bidder I don't think counselor

[2:25:23] Alton even put your name forward did you

[2:25:25] I thought I thought you were gonna read

[2:25:28] a speech we're moving on so now where do

[2:25:37] we go from here in Kim

[2:25:42] so three point six that was already

[2:25:45] referred that was already referred by

[2:25:47] counselor Porter that's the audit and

[2:25:49] accountability fund correct that's

[2:25:52] already been referred to the budget

[2:25:53] committee so now we go in-camera there's

[2:25:55] a human resources matter fire services

[2:25:58] personnel matter about an identified

[2:26:00] noble individual including municipal

[2:26:01] local board employee I have a mover in a

[2:26:04] secondary to go in-camera counselor

[2:26:10] which one is what the original agenda

[2:26:14] item where we were gonna vote for deputy

[2:26:15] manager to the old rules we had to make

[2:26:17] some sort of motion to that from the

[2:26:19] agenda so what is through you mr. mayor

[2:26:21] there it was just a recommendation what

[2:26:24] you did was a new motion was put so the

[2:26:26] original was never put thanks for the

[2:26:29] clarification

[2:26:30] okay motion to a camera counselor

[2:26:32] Phillip pardon later that's after we

[2:26:38] come out of in-camera counselor dodge

[2:26:40] all a favor

[2:26:42] carried seeing camera

Regular Council - 02 Dec 2019

Transcript