[0:00] members of the public
[0:01] it's great to see such a nice turnout
[0:03] for a special occasion for us um so
[0:05] we're here tonight to uh pay tribute to
[0:07] mr fred parker
[0:08] fred's contribution to the fire services
[0:10] has been significant and spans almost
[0:12] seven decades
[0:14] which i believe is probably never
[0:15] happened before
[0:17] uh my time with fred has been quite
[0:19] short due to my inception here not too
[0:21] long ago
[0:22] but he has actually been a quite an
[0:24] inspiration to me and he is the perfect
[0:26] example of dedication and commitment to
[0:28] service
[0:29] on behalf of student fire rescue i'd
[0:30] like to thank you for your service
[0:33] so i'll make some introductions now and
[0:35] before i do that i would also like to
[0:37] actually um recognize fred's lovely wife
[0:39] val she couldn't be here tonight she's a
[0:41] little bit under the weather but uh
[0:43] along with fred uh pursuing his career
[0:46] and being in it for such a long time
[0:48] he's obviously had the support of a
[0:49] loving wife so that's uh
[0:51] special in these circumstances and we
[0:53] appreciate her support as well thank you
[0:55] so tonight with me uh there's a few
[0:57] gentlemen that are going to say a few
[0:58] words um
[1:01] deputy chief matt barney just stand up
[1:03] matt please
[1:05] okay we have retired deputy chief rick
[1:08] mccloud please stand up please
[1:11] and we have the firefighters association
[1:13] president paul sutherland
[1:17] and before everybody sits down i would
[1:19] like
[1:19] retired fire marshal fred uh parker
[1:22] please stand up
[1:26] okay thank you fred okay i'll uh i'll
[1:29] pass it over to deputy chief party
[1:32] all right so yeah we'd just like to
[1:35] present and have an honor
[1:37] within our
[1:39] joining department
[1:39] parker
[4:27] okay thanks everybody um
[4:30] mayor tate want to say a few words
[4:31] please
[4:32] thank you thank you everyone and um on
[4:34] behalf of council in the district of
[4:36] sioux fred we do wish to extend our
[4:38] gratitude to your to yourself and to
[4:41] your family
[4:43] i have here a certificate for the 11
[4:45] years that you served with us but i know
[4:47] that you're obviously your history is so
[4:49] much longer than that and just thank you
[4:52] for being an inspiration and a mentor to
[4:54] many
[4:55] it seems though in suit that once you
[4:57] retire
[4:58] serving as a volunteer from one
[5:00] organization you'll soon have a few
[5:02] others waiting to scoop you up so
[5:04] excited to see what the next leg of your
[5:06] journey will lead to and no doubt you
[5:08] would um be welcome anywhere you went
[5:11] and be a leader and an inspiration to
[5:13] many and but of course if you just
[5:15] choose to enjoy time with your family
[5:17] i'm sure we could all respect that as
[5:19] well at least for a few days
[5:22] thank you everyone so that completes the
[9:41] presentation so
[9:44] if you would like to stay of course we'd
[9:46] love to have you
[9:48] however if you feel that you're here
[9:50] just for the presentation this might be
[9:52] a good time to exit
[9:56] thank you
[10:30] okay thanks everyone
[10:33] okay turning back to
[10:34] our agenda tonight our next delegation
[10:37] is item 5.2 and this is our building
[10:40] permit process and tonight we welcome a
[10:42] presentation from mr herb haldane so mr
[10:46] haldane if you could please come up
[10:48] you'll just need to turn on the
[10:50] microphone
[10:51] and when you begin your presentation
[10:53] we'll begin the timer and you have five
[10:55] minutes
[11:15] we'll just see if we can fix it so that
[11:17] the folks viewing from home can hear you
[12:00] i see
[12:20] yes
[12:23] [Music]
[12:46] sorry about that everyone just a small
[12:48] technical
[12:49] challenge here that's okay
[12:51] all right go ahead mr hellman
[12:54] uh yeah hello um herb haldane 3118
[12:58] c otter point road
[13:00] um the reason i came here tonight i
[13:02] guess originally i was gonna go over a
[13:04] bunch of the particulars on what i like
[13:06] didn't like and
[13:08] what other people have mentioned to me
[13:09] about what's
[13:11] poor about the process and stuff but
[13:13] i think at this point more importantly
[13:15] what i need to do is to come up with a
[13:17] solution to how we can get where we need
[13:18] to get on both sides
[13:20] you guys have a provincial mandate to
[13:22] come up with more housing to try and
[13:24] streamline systems in development and in
[13:27] building permit process
[13:28] and i'd like to be a part of how we can
[13:30] maybe make that work so rather than this
[13:32] be about criticizing and coming up with
[13:35] who did what who could do something
[13:36] better worse or otherwise
[13:38] i think my proposal here would be to
[13:40] come up with a committee structure with
[13:42] a couple of counselors
[13:44] people in the industry and then some
[13:46] staff members of course
[13:48] and then you could basically put your
[13:49] heads together in what's worked in the
[13:51] past
[13:51] i mean i built my first house in 1989
[13:54] and then i'm still doing it today
[13:57] so
[13:57] having experience in how we got there
[13:59] back then all the way to how we're not
[14:01] getting there now and whether it's 40
[14:04] days two and a half months which was my
[14:05] last permit or whether it takes three
[14:07] months or so on we have to come to a to
[14:10] a an idea process and how we can make
[14:12] that work better and the only way we do
[14:14] that is if we put our heads together
[14:15] rather than
[14:16] us you know adversarially go at each
[14:19] other whose fault it is or who made it
[14:21] work poorly or whatnot we've got a bunch
[14:24] of new staff and we've had staff turn
[14:26] over over the years here and every time
[14:28] we do get new people in some think they
[14:30] have a better idea of how to make some
[14:32] stuff work or not but we have had stuff
[14:34] work in the past really well
[14:37] in some cases and stuff worked poorly in
[14:39] the past in some cases so i think if we
[14:41] put our heads together with some new
[14:42] people new ideas i think we could
[14:44] probably get to where we need to go i've
[14:46] met most of the staff we've all talked
[14:49] on different levels i've met maya now
[14:51] for coffee quite a few times to go over
[14:53] some of the issues that i've been having
[14:55] and basically come to the realization
[14:57] that
[14:58] adversarially doesn't make anything work
[15:00] and we can keep splitting up our town
[15:02] over ideas and how we can fix stuff and
[15:06] if one side stands their ground the
[15:08] other side fights them on it and we have
[15:09] another election we turn over new people
[15:10] we can go back and forth for years but i
[15:13] just as soon come up with some solutions
[15:15] that we can work in a bipartisan way
[15:17] here so we can start getting something
[15:19] done if the province pushes their weight
[15:22] and makes us do it a different way then
[15:24] we won't have any choices so if we show
[15:26] the maturity here and make it work
[15:28] especially as a group as a small town
[15:30] maybe we can come to conclusion and make
[15:33] this take two weeks or three weeks or
[15:35] something reasonable for everybody and
[15:37] maybe we can get some housing out of it
[15:39] the big thing to remember is this is
[15:41] single-family homes part nine of the
[15:43] building code it's not engineers it's
[15:45] not
[15:46] multi-family and it's not commercial
[15:48] it's just part nine single-family homes
[15:50] and some have suites and so on but you
[15:53] know if we can get to a place where we
[15:55] can get people into rental housing for
[15:56] reasonable and we can start getting
[15:58] people into
[15:59] to for sale housing for a reasonable
[16:01] amount of money and i don't expect
[16:03] everybody knows how to make that work or
[16:05] not but
[16:06] according to the national stuff that
[16:08] i've been reading it's a canadian
[16:10] problem it's not just a sig problem it's
[16:11] not just langford problem so it's right
[16:14] across the country even in nova scotia
[16:15] and places like that they're having
[16:17] housing problems for fighting rent
[16:19] problems so those were the places we
[16:20] thought we could go for cheaper housing
[16:22] for retirement and stuff like that well
[16:24] that's not happening anymore there
[16:25] either so
[16:26] um i'd like to be on the committee if we
[16:28] could set something up i mean that's up
[16:30] to you guys to decide whether you're
[16:31] interested in something like that but i
[16:33] think it's a good opportunity for staff
[16:35] to get to know some of the development
[16:36] community some of the counselors to get
[16:38] to know some of the development
[16:39] community and then we can all work
[16:41] together at a solution
[16:42] keep in mind
[16:44] development brings in a lot of money to
[16:45] the community so if you want stuff paid
[16:48] for in that we have to find a way to
[16:50] work with them because we're going to
[16:51] have a lot of expectations coming up in
[16:53] the future because
[16:54] the one thing to stop traffic from going
[16:55] into langford in this town is to start
[16:57] getting some stuff in our own town we
[16:58] need a movie theater here for kids and
[17:00] for adults and stuff we need another
[17:03] sheet of ice we need more sports fields
[17:05] we need a lot of stuff so
[17:06] the only way we're going to make that
[17:07] happen is if we come together so
[17:10] that's about it
[17:12] thank you mr haldane i see some members
[17:14] of council have some questions so if you
[17:16] don't mind just no you know for a bit
[17:19] we'll see councillor betos
[17:20] yeah i guess uh i find this extremely
[17:23] frustrating because it was three years
[17:24] ago you came to us with the similar uh
[17:28] problems
[17:29] and uh we had the mayor uh council
[17:32] logins and myself and all the
[17:34] contractors around up here
[17:37] with staff and we hashed out a two to
[17:39] three week period for permits correct
[17:42] that was three years ago and it's gone
[17:44] from so and what went wrong in those
[17:47] three years because i thought we had
[17:48] this almost licked that
[17:50] well i think what happens is when you
[17:52] get
[17:52] again you get new people and it's not
[17:54] that they're not experienced or who
[17:56] knows where they come from the
[17:57] experience is different so you got other
[17:59] people doing different jobs and maybe
[18:01] people are adapting to new jobs when
[18:03] they get here so there's a bit of a
[18:05] learning curve with it
[18:06] i always talk and you probably heard me
[18:08] in the paper it's a micromanagement
[18:09] situation as far as i'm concerned and
[18:11] the only reason i say that is because i
[18:14] know how commercial's done i've been
[18:15] involved in it before and i know how
[18:16] multi-family's done and we're using the
[18:18] multi-family in the commercial way in
[18:21] order to deal with part nine
[18:22] single-family homes when you get to the
[18:24] property line
[18:26] everything passed there's the building
[18:27] department it's part nine tony and brad
[18:29] are quite capable of coming on the
[18:31] property and telling you whether those
[18:32] drains are hooked up properly telling
[18:34] you whether or not that foundation is on
[18:36] solid ground telling you whether or not
[18:38] it follows the building code and that's
[18:40] all that anybody asked for in single
[18:41] family when you get into commercial and
[18:44] and into multi-family there's
[18:46] expectations of engineering and
[18:48] geotechnical architects are involved
[18:50] there's a whole litany of things and i
[18:52] guess the point i'm trying to make is
[18:54] that three years ago we were on that
[18:57] right track and for at some point after
[19:00] that it must have worked because i i
[19:01] didn't hear anything from you in the
[19:03] first year or so so was it sort of
[19:05] corrected at that it did it corrected
[19:07] for for a period of time okay i mean to
[19:10] give you an example back in 2013
[19:13] we went to a 48-hour building permit and
[19:15] to give you an idea how that worked and
[19:17] this is what langford does and not that
[19:19] langford has the only solution but
[19:20] callwood does it too but they take
[19:22] longer but the thing is you can give a
[19:25] checklist and that checklist is checked
[19:27] off and those builders get to go and
[19:29] they start the permit you've got three
[19:31] months or two months before you're even
[19:33] going to get to a framing stage where
[19:34] you need the guys to come in and do your
[19:36] framing inspection last two months that
[19:38] staff would have time to go over all the
[19:40] details to make sure all those ducks are
[19:42] in order and those boxes that were
[19:44] checked off are correct
[19:45] if they're not correct then the whole
[19:47] project stops stops like a buck watch
[19:49] and that's based on what the builder
[19:51] brought to the table so if they're short
[19:53] if they didn't have the proper
[19:55] um trusses they don't have the proper
[19:57] building materials in the proper drains
[19:59] and electrical and plumbing and stuff
[20:00] like that and this isn't done to code
[20:02] then it stops until it's all taken care
[20:04] of
[20:05] so that's why they can push it further
[20:06] in language still gives staff the
[20:08] opportunity to look at the whole thing
[20:09] and they can go through all of it
[20:12] but what you do is you check off the
[20:13] boxes the problem is right now we don't
[20:14] have all the boxes
[20:16] so when i applied for the recent
[20:18] building permit they do have some stuff
[20:20] in the building department you check off
[20:22] and all that stuff's handed in before
[20:23] they'll even take your permit well then
[20:26] engineering planning environmental stuff
[20:28] they come up with some other stuff it's
[20:30] almost like a referral process for
[20:31] single-family homes and it shouldn't be
[20:33] happening that way referral process is
[20:35] done during the rezone stage then again
[20:37] during the development permit stage so
[20:39] there should be no reason to have to do
[20:40] it once you get to the building of the
[20:42] actual house the subdivisions are passed
[20:44] subdivided registered and everything
[20:46] should be done properly up to that point
[20:48] if they're not it shouldn't be a
[20:50] a builder or somebody who bought the lot
[20:52] for their own single family purpose it's
[20:54] not their responsibility it's a
[20:56] responsibility of
[20:58] let's say the engineering department or
[21:00] planning department to deal with the
[21:02] person who did the subdivision to
[21:03] correct whatever mistakes are made it
[21:05] shouldn't be up to the builder but
[21:06] that's what's holding up some of these
[21:07] permits because sometimes subdivisions
[21:09] will go through
[21:12] their registration everything else and
[21:14] in the case the last one we were doing
[21:16] they were missing a
[21:17] water meter box because it was a duplex
[21:19] instead of a single family and there was
[21:21] an expectation of a bigger
[21:23] pipe for the load for the sewer on the
[21:26] way out but you know when you're
[21:27] purchasing a duplex lot you're assuming
[21:29] that once the district has let it allow
[21:32] i don't want to cut you off but i i i
[21:34] get you i get your point and uh and i
[21:36] thank you for bringing that in because
[21:38] it's uh i think it's pretty frustrating
[21:40] for all of us to to hear that and i just
[21:42] had a
[21:43] talk to a friend on the weekend and she
[21:45] was remodeling a kitchen and the builder
[21:48] that came in he wasn't even a soup
[21:50] builder
[21:51] said don't alter anything on the outside
[21:53] because it's three months to get a
[21:54] permit
[21:55] and that's going to our citizens and uh
[21:58] that really really disturbs me so there
[22:00] is something broken here and it's
[22:02] something needs to be fixed so
[22:04] we need to get our heads together
[22:05] collectively and get on with this
[22:07] because it's been going on
[22:10] before even i became a counselor because
[22:12] i had problems with that same thing it
[22:14] is a problem we need to get it fixed and
[22:17] we're we're listening we hear you
[22:20] thank you councillor betos councillor
[22:21] bateman
[22:22] yeah i'd agree with councillor bettos um
[22:25] it's a problem that needs fixing of
[22:26] course it is a
[22:28] problem that dates back at least to 2012
[22:31] from the launch of your land use and
[22:33] environment committee back then
[22:34] um
[22:35] to your idea of a committee i think
[22:37] that's a great idea perhaps a task force
[22:39] might be best
[22:41] situated
[22:42] short-term
[22:44] work with staff given that we have this
[22:46] incoming
[22:47] grant
[22:50] for
[22:50] to streamline the system and we're
[22:53] looking at a september
[22:55] 2023 next year to implement the system
[22:58] and
[22:58] undoubtedly the expertise of the
[23:00] building community is needed to
[23:02] participate in that process so i would
[23:05] think a task force would be a good
[23:08] logical
[23:09] way to move forward with that
[23:12] um
[23:13] i think
[23:14] you know i'd like to just
[23:16] note that in our strategic plan
[23:18] back in 2019 we did cite as one of the
[23:22] top priorities is improve efficiency and
[23:24] staffing capacity of the building permit
[23:27] department and we then then went about
[23:30] and this followed the hiring of a chief
[23:32] administrative officer a key
[23:34] the key position in this staff
[23:38] operation uh the hire of a chief
[23:40] building official
[23:41] um
[23:42] a new building bylaw and the improvement
[23:45] of permitting times and we've done those
[23:46] three things
[23:48] um there were a series of
[23:51] steps to get there
[23:54] um
[23:59] we're looking at
[24:02] we did introduce a new application form
[24:04] and checklist
[24:06] in consultation with the building
[24:07] committee and that was summer of 2019
[24:10] that did reduce the time lag for the
[24:12] average low density residential permit
[24:16] by about 30 approximately
[24:19] um
[24:21] and now we've we've gone through uh with
[24:23] the new building code and now this
[24:26] project grant and of course the other
[24:28] week the approval of new staff to help
[24:31] uh facilitate the process
[24:33] i'm curious about uh this 48 48-hour um
[24:37] building permit and and i referred to it
[24:39] as a bit of an urban myth the other week
[24:41] and i just
[24:43] i i look at langford's 48-hour
[24:46] two-day building permit checklist and
[24:49] all required documents must be included
[24:51] in the submitted application package to
[24:53] qualify
[24:54] and then there's a long checklist here
[24:57] of
[24:58] about i don't know 20 items that
[25:02] so i think i suspect that their two-day
[25:04] checklist is preceded by a a good i
[25:08] don't know how long
[25:09] um to get there now you note that um
[25:13] i think in your
[25:14] the letter you submitted tonight
[25:18] um
[25:18] [Music]
[25:20] sorry i received that quite late in the
[25:22] day
[25:23] where is this
[25:29] yeah you refer to many municipalities
[25:32] building permits are processed in a few
[25:33] days now
[25:35] could you cite those municipalities so
[25:37] that we have an idea of who we should be
[25:39] emulating well i don't work in i mean
[25:41] basically i only work in suk anymore i
[25:43] used to work in oak bay and victoria and
[25:45] saanich and so on
[25:47] so i'm not necessarily able to tell you
[25:50] exactly how many days each one is other
[25:51] than langford because in langford at
[25:54] this point here i do lend uh help to
[25:56] some people who are building a language
[25:58] detached suites and otherwise
[26:00] it's like i was saying there a minute
[26:01] ago the whole idea behind any short
[26:04] process and don't get me wrong it's not
[26:06] about trying to skirt the system so that
[26:08] you can do stuff without having any
[26:11] oversight the whole idea is to getting
[26:13] all your legals in order and and even a
[26:15] geotechnical report say so you can start
[26:18] building a foundation
[26:19] because really at this point unless the
[26:22] uh tony or brad go there they're allowed
[26:24] to decide whether the ground conditions
[26:26] are conducive to building a house but if
[26:28] you get a geotechnical report then it's
[26:30] taken care of some liabilities off the
[26:32] district or anybody else in case you
[26:34] wanted to start building a house there's
[26:35] still what langford does there's still a
[26:37] process of going through all the
[26:39] applications and it does take a month
[26:41] and sometimes probably even two months
[26:43] but most of those applications take
[26:45] between uh building the foundation and
[26:47] doing the framing you don't really need
[26:49] to get to that point until you're at
[26:51] lock up so so they do have time to go
[26:53] through a lot of the stuff what they try
[26:55] to do is they try to get rid of the
[26:57] starting gate and get them going first
[26:58] and then they go through the
[27:00] applications and
[27:01] 99 percent of the time they don't find
[27:03] anything or anything wrong with it i
[27:05] mean i think the biggest thing they run
[27:07] into sometimes is an environmental issue
[27:09] with regard to uh riparian setbacks or
[27:12] stuns but
[27:14] other than that everybody i mean there's
[27:16] a 10-year home warranty from all these
[27:17] guys so the last thing you need is
[27:20] issues that show up because you're
[27:21] personally liable it's not like your
[27:23] company can go bankrupt you can start
[27:24] all over again tomorrow you have to take
[27:26] that liability right right with you to
[27:28] your own home to your own bank account
[27:30] so there's not too many guys around who
[27:32] want to try and you know put themselves
[27:34] in a compromising situation by doing
[27:36] anything wrong and none of the the
[27:39] trades the reason they found that
[27:40] building in langford there the one that
[27:42] they're having issues with the trades
[27:44] the trades came through and said hey you
[27:45] need twice as much steel in this
[27:47] building that we're putting in it was
[27:48] actually the architect was at fault so
[27:50] you got trades guys who are saying hey
[27:52] we should be building this better
[27:53] different to a higher standard and the
[27:55] other ones who picked up on it and
[27:56] that's how the whole thing started
[27:58] to come out the way it was so
[28:00] my point is even in my situation i've
[28:02] got framers drywallers and and
[28:05] electricians and plumbers and stuff who
[28:06] are saying no we have to follow this
[28:08] line of the code even if you want to try
[28:10] and maybe make a bathroom fit or
[28:12] something you didn't quite end up with
[28:13] enough room because some wall had to
[28:14] move whatever they tell you no you have
[28:16] to do this way there's concrete poured
[28:18] in all the garage walls to cover any of
[28:20] the wires now they go right to the panel
[28:22] boxes there guys were skipping out on
[28:24] that for a few years until
[28:26] inspectors were coming around tapping on
[28:27] walls and stuff there is an electrician
[28:28] that i know around who won't make you
[28:30] put that concrete in before he lets you
[28:32] put the drive over now it won't give you
[28:33] the certification paper you need well mr
[28:35] holding i have to say that i'm out of my
[28:37] depth here completely completely so this
[28:40] is why a task force makes some sense i
[28:42] mean in 2018 a very short term land use
[28:46] and development committee was formed and
[28:48] i believe you were on that committee
[28:50] berger randy clarkson and others yeah
[28:53] and in the in that year you
[28:56] there were a number of important
[28:58] recommendations made for the building
[29:00] code which were in fact implemented into
[29:02] the model bc building code or mibc
[29:07] building code that we've adopted so yeah
[29:10] i would i would think a task force would
[29:12] make some good sense well and a guy like
[29:14] randy clarkson i mean
[29:16] i don't know if don't if you've met him
[29:17] or not whatever but he's got so much
[29:18] experience he was a builder a bricklayer
[29:20] you know so he's a tradesperson and now
[29:22] he's been doing plans for probably 30 35
[29:25] years
[29:26] so he knows all the players he knows
[29:29] dozens of engineers dozens of architects
[29:32] and stuff like that he's just a great
[29:33] guy to have a community and
[29:34] don't kid yourself i learn all the time
[29:36] whether i'm learning even from your own
[29:38] staff and things like the rules change
[29:40] you don't always pay attention so i
[29:41] think between
[29:42] three different you know walks of life
[29:45] here all joining into the same thing
[29:47] people like yourselves
[29:49] your staff you've got a very capable
[29:51] staff here we all need to learn from
[29:53] each other and there's some experience
[29:54] and yeah i talked with norm not too long
[29:56] ago and i said you know maybe a little
[29:57] bit more negotiation and that doesn't
[29:59] always go over that well when you talk
[30:00] negotiation because everybody always
[30:02] assumes that nothing's in stone i mean
[30:04] your bylaws say specific things and
[30:06] rules say specifics but i think
[30:08] negotiation is a term should be used to
[30:10] come down to find out where the common
[30:12] ground is so everybody knows because
[30:14] i'm sure i learned from them but i'm
[30:15] sure they can learn from from the trades
[30:17] and from some of the people in the town
[30:19] because there's a lot of history
[30:20] involved there that doesn't necessarily
[30:22] get passed down when they get hired on
[30:23] here and stuff that we've already gone
[30:25] through before
[30:26] and tony and brad have have that
[30:28] institutional memory and we have as
[30:30] their chief building official the former
[30:32] uh
[30:33] the province of yukon territory yukon
[30:36] right so
[30:38] it's it's quite a quite a significant
[30:39] group of people to gather too
[30:43] yes
[30:47] okay thank you councillor bateman
[30:49] councillor laginess
[30:51] yeah i think the idea of a task force
[30:53] sorry council elections can you just
[30:55] turn your microphone off um thank you
[30:57] just because i could hear you breathing
[31:00] i think the idea of a task force is a
[31:02] good idea i like the idea of working
[31:04] together and i think that
[31:06] this should not be an insurmountable
[31:09] problem it's not the first house that's
[31:11] been built in suk that we're talking
[31:13] about and i think
[31:16] working together we should be able to
[31:17] solve this in pretty short order i would
[31:20] think
[31:22] okay thank you councillor st pierre
[31:26] uh as it happens there was some
[31:28] discussion just recently in the land use
[31:29] and development committee by a lot of
[31:31] very knowledgeable people on these
[31:32] issues because they're very current and
[31:34] they're very real
[31:36] what i'd like to do is maybe ask through
[31:38] your worship to staff mr apollo
[31:42] we do have some movement forward we have
[31:44] some solutions in the works or i don't
[31:46] want solutions but we're trying to find
[31:48] solutions in the works
[31:49] i'm actually curious about the timeline
[31:51] because uh we've talked about looking
[31:52] for efficiencies that's
[31:54] i i i see it in the minutes of our last
[31:57] meeting
[31:58] i know that we're looking at uh
[31:59] potentially finding out where some of
[32:01] the bottlenecks are in terms of
[32:02] professional certifications and getting
[32:04] professionals where can we skip them and
[32:05] where can the district take on more risk
[32:07] and actually speed things up but i'm
[32:08] curious as to when we can actually be
[32:10] looking at some of the stuff maybe
[32:11] rolling out or coming before council
[32:13] what's the timeline on that and in terms
[32:16] of the task force i think that bringing
[32:17] in additional experts could be useful
[32:19] but we already actually have
[32:21] quite a lot of really good people on the
[32:22] land use and development committee and i
[32:24] think that we really need a goal
[32:26] uh so for example one of the things that
[32:27] uh lankford did do was they decide on a
[32:30] goal 48 hours that might not be our goal
[32:32] but as has been suggested if we decide
[32:34] our goal is two weeks or three weeks or
[32:35] whatever the hell it is
[32:37] we find a way to reach that goal and we
[32:39] put some people on it and we figure how
[32:40] to get to that goal i don't know that we
[32:42] need specifically a task force but i
[32:44] think that we should actually set some
[32:45] objectives
[32:47] and then find a time lag to reach those
[32:48] objectives
[32:56] so we've just begun the the review of of
[32:58] these items and this was uh the item
[33:00] that uh ceo mechanism had mentioned to
[33:03] council uh previously so that works
[33:05] currently underway i'd like that work to
[33:08] be completed over the the course of the
[33:09] next few weeks so
[33:11] you know if this is something that we
[33:12] can
[33:13] get back to to council with an update uh
[33:16] but by the end of
[33:18] say next month since march
[33:21] tomorrow that would that would ideally
[33:22] be a good goal to to inform council of
[33:25] where we're headed with this and also
[33:27] reporting back to the land use uh
[33:28] committee as well with uh the
[33:30] recommendations that they had made to
[33:32] staff and what our findings are uh based
[33:34] on that because i think that will also
[33:36] inform a process if we're to
[33:38] strike a task force to kind of bring in
[33:40] some of that um
[33:42] already researched information
[33:45] um based on that group's expertise and
[33:48] then also with with a task force if it's
[33:51] put together um the those local
[33:53] community members also contributing to
[33:55] that information piece so you know if we
[33:57] can if we can establish something over
[33:58] the course of the next month or so that
[34:00] would that would be ideal uh moving
[34:02] forward on this in the meantime um as
[34:05] was mentioned uh tonight about the
[34:06] hiring of another billing official uh
[34:08] the other goal is of course also making
[34:10] progress through those uh development or
[34:12] building permits that we currently have
[34:14] under review uh which we are making
[34:16] progress on uh already just since last
[34:19] week with the hiring
[34:22] just if i can add to that so my
[34:24] understanding is the hiring and you just
[34:26] mentioned mr powell just to catch up on
[34:29] some of the backlog
[34:30] uh part of it also my understanding is
[34:33] there's been identified of some process
[34:36] issues in the current building bylaw so
[34:39] those will be coming to council
[34:42] where staff have identified some process
[34:44] problems that need to be remedied so
[34:47] that's also in the works now
[34:50] uh
[34:51] and then
[34:52] in terms of using the word task force if
[34:54] if we move in that direction it would
[34:56] probably be easier just for the mayor
[34:57] myself to call a standing committee
[34:59] because then it's um it's a very
[35:01] specific one and can move faster than a
[35:05] select committee so just thinking of
[35:07] local government contacts and what works
[35:10] so do we have standing or select
[35:12] committees there uh in either form
[35:15] um
[35:17] and then the other piece just i had
[35:19] asked inquired today a bit more about
[35:21] what happened to the 48 hour building
[35:22] permit so back in the day when it it was
[35:25] a direction of council back in
[35:28] 2012 or 11 or 13 or whatever year it was
[35:31] it never became a policy though it just
[35:33] became a direction at that day
[35:36] and then there's been subsequent reports
[35:38] out
[35:39] where staff identified at the time
[35:42] that we were running into some capacity
[35:44] issues to meet that so that was 2016 it
[35:47] looks like when uh they reported out to
[35:50] council that we're not able to meet this
[35:53] so it did come to a council meeting at
[35:55] that time and then the problem for many
[35:57] years was not increasing the capacity so
[36:00] then we ran into a point where we didn't
[36:02] even have a planner working at the
[36:03] district um and our
[36:06] building inspectors we only had two and
[36:08] one was on leave so that leaves one
[36:10] person trying to do a lot
[36:13] so
[36:13] things did go awry and i'm not trying to
[36:15] make excuses just sort of explaining
[36:17] what happened here so then over the
[36:19] years
[36:20] uh things have changed i think the last
[36:22] time
[36:23] there was an update was in 2018 and
[36:25] there was a legal challenge about the
[36:27] districts and the liability that the
[36:29] district would be exposed to so there
[36:31] were some concerns raised there
[36:34] and then it did pick up though i think
[36:35] it was 2019 when we met here three years
[36:38] ago my goodness
[36:40] and then of course with the pandemic the
[36:43] challenge that we have there is we did
[36:44] have staff depart new staff joined us
[36:47] and then our operations were
[36:50] to recall the words of the minister of
[36:53] of affairs at that time said we're all
[36:55] building an airplane and flying it at
[36:57] the same time well for me the airplane
[36:59] hasn't landed yet it's still kind of in
[37:01] the air
[37:02] i think it's about to touch down soon
[37:03] which would be great but still up there
[37:06] so anything built in that type of a way
[37:08] is not sustainable there's good people
[37:11] for sure but if you're going to build an
[37:13] operation and then run it at the same
[37:15] time it was meant to be i think for a
[37:17] very short period of time i don't know
[37:19] that any of us wanted to believe the
[37:21] pandemic was going to stretch on as long
[37:22] as it has
[37:24] i certainly did hear that from someone
[37:26] but i didn't want to believe it at the
[37:27] time and now here we are two years later
[37:29] so and then of course just an
[37:32] overwhelming demand and interest in our
[37:33] community that i think is beyond what
[37:35] anyone just thought so there's all of
[37:37] those pieces there but i think what i
[37:39] want to assure you at the moment is that
[37:41] we really appreciate you coming here
[37:42] tonight
[37:44] i think um we'll look for the solution
[37:46] and
[37:47] i think matthew wanted
[37:48] not the end of this month but an update
[37:50] at the end of next month or sooner so we
[37:53] can we'll continually check in on how
[37:56] we're doing
[37:57] um
[37:59] and then look to identify those so i
[38:01] think that's where we do have the land
[38:03] use committee so i kind of don't want to
[38:04] create another committee when we have a
[38:06] committee because then what is the
[38:07] committee's mandate over there but it's
[38:10] it's something that they're well aware
[38:11] of so we'll just look for the best way
[38:14] uh to do that meeting of the mind so
[38:16] that we get the technical expertise that
[38:18] we need
[38:19] uh the user perspective of this the
[38:22] layperson who's making decisions here
[38:25] and then how we can all implement those
[38:27] together while admitting the other
[38:28] priorities that we're trying to achieve
[38:30] here
[38:31] so it's timely
[38:32] uh that you've addressed us we certainly
[38:34] appreciate what you're
[38:36] saying though i agree with councilor
[38:38] bateman when it gets that specific
[38:41] that's where it's not that we're not
[38:43] following you it's just we really don't
[38:45] know quite what you're talking about
[38:46] because we're not the ones building the
[38:48] houses
[38:49] but there is also likely from this
[38:51] there's an educational component that
[38:53] needs to land with the elected body and
[38:55] that means us so we heard of ministers
[38:57] eb announcement they want to get the
[38:59] housing supply on they agree that local
[39:02] government government can decide where
[39:05] and how much but not if it happens and
[39:08] so that's a message right to the elected
[39:10] body that
[39:12] while we like to sit there and well what
[39:13] about this this and this and we've all
[39:15] done it here talking about parking and
[39:18] some things part of it is
[39:21] we will lose that autonomy if we get too
[39:23] nitpicky about the province wanting to
[39:26] deliver the supply and they're serious
[39:28] about it so i'll be curious also to see
[39:31] as they're drafting legislation
[39:34] and
[39:35] consulting or advising local governments
[39:38] on what that looks like is what we're
[39:40] going to hear in time as they move
[39:41] forward in that way there is now a new
[39:43] minister
[39:44] responsible for local government
[39:47] nathan cullen i believe has been
[39:48] assigned so now we get to know a whole
[39:50] new minister available
[39:52] but it'll be timely
[39:54] in the in the coming weeks for sure
[39:57] so at this point i think um stay tuned
[40:00] and we also know that we need to
[40:01] continually improve our communication so
[40:04] as things do change
[40:06] finding ways to deliver out that message
[40:08] like look the province has come down
[40:10] with x we have to do x did you know that
[40:12] this is happening and finding more ways
[40:15] to engage out with those that are the
[40:16] end users
[40:19] but yeah i i would agree that we
[40:21] we want to find improvements and
[40:23] everyone here is committed to doing that
[40:26] so thank you
[40:28] for your time today
[40:30] for being here and of course we'd love
[40:32] to have you stay with us
[40:34] for the rest of the meeting
[40:36] sure that would be a great way to enjoy
[40:38] a monday
[40:39] with your partner
[40:43] okay council so we'll move on into our
[40:46] next item here which is our pub pardon
[40:48] me
[40:49] item six report from the chief
[40:51] administrative officer
[40:53] thank you worship and i will give just a
[40:54] quick update on the
[40:56] building permit application process uh
[40:58] since my um presentation on february
[41:01] 14th oh mr haldane you may want to hear
[41:03] this mr mckinnis is giving an update on
[41:05] the building permit process so as mr
[41:08] haldane suggested
[41:09] we don't have a tool to do uh something
[41:12] similar to a development permit
[41:14] application before building permit so a
[41:17] lot of these other communities that are
[41:20] processing
[41:21] building permit applications in days
[41:24] actually have a process in front of that
[41:27] where various things are looked at and
[41:29] the legal advice that you referred to
[41:31] suggests that there's a number of things
[41:33] that need to be outside of any 48-hour
[41:35] process or policy that council may want
[41:37] to consider
[41:39] geotechnical reports
[41:42] various things that are in covenants one
[41:44] of the things that we have found through
[41:46] our process now there are a lot of
[41:48] covenants on individual
[41:51] properties in suk and most of those
[41:53] covenants say you must do various things
[41:57] before issuing a building permit
[41:59] so that's one thing that we're going to
[42:01] have to
[42:02] have a serious look at so if the
[42:04] covenant says you must provide a
[42:05] stormwater management plan or a
[42:07] geotechnical report before the issue of
[42:09] the building permit
[42:11] what mr haldane suggested we do and run
[42:13] these things in tandem
[42:14] that's not what the the legal agreements
[42:17] uh that the landowner and the district
[42:19] have coveted on title so that's one
[42:21] thing that we're seeing the other piece
[42:23] is um i would love to have a development
[42:26] permit process for
[42:27] in front of each building permit but our
[42:29] ocp has
[42:31] not gone that way and there are so many
[42:33] building permits that come to us we
[42:35] don't have the tools to do that
[42:37] pre-engineering or
[42:39] planning work in front of that
[42:42] so as of this morning we have about 70
[42:45] individual permits in the queue right
[42:47] now um most of those permits have uh or
[42:51] those
[42:52] parcels have two permits a building
[42:53] permit and a plumbing permit and then
[42:55] we've got uh
[42:57] for instance the the development next
[42:59] door two individual buildings with
[43:00] various permits so we have about 30
[43:03] applicants in the queue right now
[43:06] last year our last week when our new
[43:08] building official came on
[43:10] we actually issued 12 building permits
[43:12] and we brought in five new applications
[43:14] so we're on the right track
[43:17] uh we're going down that road
[43:19] um so we're looking at a three-phase
[43:22] solution to our current situation uh
[43:25] looking at the backlog
[43:27] and then bringing the building bylaw
[43:29] back to council to councillor beto's
[43:32] question what what changed uh one of the
[43:34] things that changed was the building
[43:36] bylaw adoption that happened in february
[43:39] of 2021
[43:41] if you look at sectional or part 11 of
[43:44] the building bylaw
[43:45] it is clear what is required for an
[43:47] application uh in souq and it's uh quite
[43:51] onerous so we're looking at those things
[43:54] that are discretionary
[43:55] and may not have to come with each
[43:58] permit so
[44:00] my
[44:01] suggestion to council is
[44:03] i think we know what the issues are it's
[44:05] the building bylaw it is the covenants
[44:08] to
[44:09] bring other people in at this point
[44:10] would probably um
[44:13] just
[44:14] take more time i would suggest that the
[44:16] bigger process with the grant that we
[44:18] have and the ultimate solution to this
[44:20] is where we need to engage
[44:22] i think that um to engage now we'll just
[44:25] add more time to the backlog that we
[44:27] want to really focus on getting through
[44:30] and then bringing that that bylaw back
[44:32] to council in order to knock down some
[44:34] of the barriers where there's low risk
[44:36] for us
[44:37] requiring various things
[44:40] so i think i'll leave it there but
[44:42] three-phase process the backlog the
[44:44] building bylaw and then the longer term
[44:47] process review that we're doing with the
[44:49] grant that we got
[44:50] from
[44:52] municipal affairs
[44:55] and this follows a very
[44:58] thorough review and uh study that was
[45:00] done in
[45:01] 2019 by municipal affairs on the whole
[45:04] building
[45:05] uh process uh review
[45:07] and uh one of the things in that review
[45:09] is uh
[45:10] as mr haldane alluded to uh we're not
[45:13] alone in this uh
[45:14] it's a systemic problem across the
[45:17] province
[45:18] but one of the the big the biggest issue
[45:21] still was incomplete or poorly developed
[45:24] applications um so we need to make sure
[45:27] that section 11 in our bylaws part 11 in
[45:30] our bylaw is
[45:32] focused we're not asking for too much
[45:35] but we're not taking an undue risk as
[45:36] well
[45:41] thank you
[45:43] when we get to public input you could
[45:45] okay thank you mr mckinnis
[45:49] okay so that brings us to item seven
[45:52] public question and comments so this is
[45:54] for all items on tonight's agenda um any
[45:57] speaker you would just need to give your
[46:00] name
[46:01] and municipality of address we don't
[46:03] need your home address just where you
[46:05] live
[46:06] and everyone would have up to two
[46:07] minutes
[46:08] and when you start speaking we will
[46:10] start timing
[46:15] so miss lou i see miss lures
[46:23] eleanor's
[46:25] soup
[46:26] um i just wanted to speak to page 15
[46:33] uh the adoption of the minutes for the
[46:35] ocp
[46:36] and uh
[46:38] and also the minutes uh on page 17
[46:47] the ocp
[46:48] [Music]
[46:50] as these committee meetings
[46:52] were
[46:53] not recorded
[46:55] they weren't recorded but they were
[46:57] recorded written
[46:59] but i made comments at the meeting on on
[47:03] february
[47:04] or january 20th december december 15th
[47:08] made comments and asked questions and
[47:09] they weren't
[47:10] on the minutes
[47:12] uh weren't put forward in the minutes
[47:14] and the same on january 20th and the
[47:16] same on february 15th and
[47:21] i i understand that there's a summary
[47:24] done but the comments and and queries
[47:27] that i had were questions that community
[47:30] had asked and i asked them
[47:32] of the committee
[47:34] asked the questions i did meet with
[47:36] staff
[47:38] to answer some of the questions but
[47:40] those are questions that were all of the
[47:41] committee's concerns
[47:44] and i did put a um an email out saying
[47:48] that committee and council are under the
[47:50] same rules under the municipal act you
[47:53] have to have accurate minutes
[47:57] and it concerns me greatly with all the
[47:59] other committees as well
[48:01] if the minutes are summarized and things
[48:04] are left out then how are we knowing
[48:07] what's really going on in the meeting do
[48:09] we have to go to every meeting to in
[48:11] order to find out exactly what's
[48:12] happening
[48:14] the questions i asked i thought were
[48:15] fair there are questions also that our
[48:17] committee had talked about
[48:19] so my suggestion would be
[48:21] that uh
[48:23] that there be recorded the minutes be
[48:25] recorded the same as council meetings
[48:27] because
[48:29] when you look at history when you look
[48:31] back and you see those things weren't
[48:32] even brought up
[48:34] so
[48:36] nobody discussed that but that's not
[48:37] true
[48:38] there was a lot of discussion went on
[48:40] and it wasn't recorded and uh
[48:43] i would really like to see minutes
[48:45] recorded properly
[48:47] because under the because we are under
[48:49] the municipal municipal act
[48:51] i know the district doesn't have a
[48:52] policy but we don't have a policy
[48:54] because we're in a municipal act we have
[48:55] to have accurate minutes for committees
[48:58] and for council
[49:00] beside each other so
[49:02] i i would ask that perhaps
[49:05] we look at the doing this properly
[49:07] it's most unfortunate it's most
[49:09] unfortunate when those because when you
[49:11] go to review
[49:12] uh if you go to look back and you go to
[49:14] review you're going to see that
[49:16] there's nothing there nobody talked
[49:17] about that
[49:19] okay thank you thank you miss lures i i
[49:21] will share though that our minutes are
[49:22] handled through our council procedural
[49:24] bylaw
[49:25] so that's where the handling of minutes
[49:28] for counseling committee meetings are
[49:30] handled through that procedural bylaw so
[49:32] but they still require accurate minutes
[49:34] i suppose they summarize the meeting but
[49:36] perhaps i'll have our corporate officer
[49:38] answer that
[49:40] certainly um
[49:44] under robert's rules of minutes and this
[49:46] is what i have referenced uh previously
[49:48] is that the minutes are to be a record
[49:51] or of the decisions that were made at a
[49:53] committee not what was said and
[49:57] sometimes we do include some additional
[49:59] comment for frame of reference around
[50:02] the conversation but
[50:04] the minutes are intended to be a record
[50:06] of what was the decisions that were made
[50:08] at a at a meeting
[50:10] i have another question i see that and
[50:13] all of them uh the
[50:16] the comments made by the public were in
[50:19] here
[50:20] and they're recorded but the comments of
[50:22] the committee aren't in here
[50:24] just uh something i observed okay thank
[50:28] you ms lures for
[50:30] bringing this to our attention
[50:39] yeah
[50:40] just turn the button on please uh
[50:42] william wiles from suke
[50:44] i just wanted to ask two issues that
[50:46] were on the agenda tonight one is the
[50:47] fire service fees that is being
[50:49] addressed there's one item in there
[50:51] that's the removal of oil tanks and
[50:55] gas tanks i guess
[50:56] and uh it's car charging 80 bucks an
[50:58] hour
[50:59] to i don't know what it is but i think
[51:02] it should be
[51:03] qualified whether
[51:05] small household oil tanks are to be
[51:08] included in that where they have to go
[51:10] observe whether someone's taking we're
[51:11] trying to encourage people to get off of
[51:13] oil so i'm just wondering if that fee
[51:15] might be weighed for
[51:16] small things and i don't know if it
[51:17] applies
[51:19] the second issue is in regard to the
[51:21] incentives for
[51:23] underground garages or houses for cars
[51:26] i i see the logic of trying to get cars
[51:30] off the road
[51:35] uh save land but at the same time
[51:37] there's a fair there's enormous amount
[51:39] of concrete that has to go in for the
[51:41] development of an underground garage
[51:44] uh we all know that uh concrete has
[51:47] greenhouse gas
[51:48] implications and i'd like to demonstrate
[51:51] that just a little bit we have a new
[51:53] library there a wonderful building just
[51:56] an absolutely wonderful building
[51:58] but if you look underneath it
[52:01] there's over
[52:02] 800 cubic meters of concrete that went
[52:06] into that building
[52:08] that's over 160 tons of greenhouse gases
[52:12] it's housing six cars
[52:15] that are under there
[52:17] an enormous waste of
[52:20] concrete
[52:21] energy greenhouse gases i think we
[52:23] should
[52:25] consider
[52:27] giving incentives to
[52:29] build houses for cars
[52:31] we're trying to get people away from
[52:33] cars we're trying to reduce our
[52:35] greenhouse gases and i think uh in
[52:37] providing incentives to build houses for
[52:40] cars it's just the wrong
[52:42] incentive that we should be operating
[52:44] the ipcc
[52:46] secondary report came out today
[52:49] things are not looking good for the
[52:50] environment i think we all should
[52:52] take a second look at how we
[52:55] uh operate
[52:57] and
[52:58] that's it thank you very much
[53:00] thank you mr wallace
[53:03] do we have an answer just on the fees
[53:06] and the removal of the tanks for mr
[53:08] wallace that is an existing fee uh the
[53:11] only reason that it's in the agenda this
[53:14] evening is because that table is being
[53:16] replaced and has a couple of additions
[53:18] the fuel tank item is something that has
[53:21] been in the bylaw for a period of time
[53:25] thank you do we have other other
[53:27] speakers
[53:36] hi susan belford i live in sukh
[53:39] i'm also speaking to item 10.4 the
[53:43] building bylaw density bonusing
[53:45] um
[53:47] i understand why
[53:48] it seems a good idea hiding cars
[53:51] underground does yield a more
[53:53] aesthetically pleasing
[53:54] above ground but i think we have to
[53:57] watch out
[53:58] for unintended consequences with this
[54:01] kind of incentivizing i don't think it's
[54:03] appropriate allowing for further density
[54:08] to encourage developers to build
[54:11] underground parking
[54:13] ultimately in the end all it's going to
[54:15] do is increase density
[54:17] and increase the number of cars which
[54:19] isn't going to meet our
[54:21] long-term goals as a as a municipality
[54:24] over time i think
[54:27] i really would urge council to consider
[54:30] doing what other municipalities have
[54:32] done
[54:33] require developers to build underground
[54:36] parking
[54:37] they'll do it
[54:39] decouple the cost of parking from the
[54:41] cost of a unit so that
[54:44] i as as
[54:46] you know or any individual who wanted to
[54:48] buy a unit
[54:50] could make the choice to buy the unit
[54:52] without parking thus making a commitment
[54:54] not to bring a vehicle into the downtown
[54:57] core
[54:58] council and developers can support
[55:02] purchasers in this
[55:04] by ensuring that each new multi-family
[55:08] or or higher density development has a
[55:13] good sized
[55:15] fleet of shareable vehicles
[55:19] there are two good car share
[55:22] organizations in the local area
[55:26] car sharing has shown to reduce the
[55:29] number of vehicles on the road over time
[55:33] as well as so increase car share and
[55:35] also
[55:36] increase other kinds of incentives for
[55:40] for people
[55:41] by giving them bus passes and that kind
[55:44] of thing thank you mrs bill for the last
[55:46] two minutes i just got um
[55:48] just been called out a bit actually
[55:50] procedurally that items coming
[55:52] for first and second reading are not
[55:55] the public can't comment on them because
[55:57] there'll be a public hearing to address
[55:59] that further on in which case you'll be
[56:01] able to speak to it at a public hearing
[56:03] and everyone will have that so that's
[56:05] unfortunate i guess um
[56:08] that does limit conversation a little
[56:10] bit but anyway i understand why
[56:12] but i appreciated you being here so
[56:14] that's where i wanted to give you the
[56:16] two minutes just the same
[56:19] okay
[56:27] hi
[56:28] anna russell wanta fuca
[56:30] uh i wanted to talk about the building
[56:32] permit agenda item
[56:34] and um
[56:36] just in terms of contacts in other
[56:37] communities uh having coming from
[56:39] vancouver a few couple of years ago
[56:42] i think my neighbor waited months for a
[56:45] permit and it might have been closer to
[56:46] a year so just to say that not everybody
[56:48] is doing the 48-hour thing uh and as a
[56:51] management consultant i cannot actually
[56:53] think of a management process in which
[56:55] you could guarantee that building
[56:56] permits will already be always be
[56:59] managed within a specific frame time
[57:01] time frame because
[57:02] even if there aren't covenants there are
[57:04] always going to be different amounts
[57:06] coming in and you could set up a system
[57:08] in which you would have a good chance of
[57:10] meeting a particular performance target
[57:12] of amount of time but if a whole bunch
[57:14] of builders show up with a whole bunch
[57:15] of new permits suddenly they will not be
[57:17] bringing in enough revenue right away
[57:19] for you to hire a new person right away
[57:21] to instantly process everything
[57:23] in exactly the same amount of time so i
[57:25] guess i just wanted to counsel against
[57:28] unrealistic expectations around what can
[57:30] be meant if you're met if you're going
[57:31] to be having a task force um you might
[57:34] be able to
[57:35] commit to a certain time frame for
[57:37] processing applications for the first x
[57:39] number of straightforward fully
[57:42] completed applications but if you get a
[57:44] back uh if you get a sudden influx of
[57:46] new
[57:47] applications uh it would be unrealistic
[57:50] in my opinion to
[57:52] meet that target so i just don't want to
[57:54] um
[57:55] have a lot of pressure on staff to meet
[57:57] an unrealistic expectation and then a
[57:59] lot of pressure on council to be raped
[58:02] over the coals for not meeting an
[58:03] unrealistic expectation and that's my
[58:05] perspective tonight thank you
[58:07] thank you miss russell and i'll share
[58:08] that we're not targeting 48 hours by any
[58:12] means i know yes because i know
[58:14] we've learned that our ability to meet
[58:16] that
[58:17] it's never been successful i think maybe
[58:20] it worked for a day and as far as i know
[58:22] it it just
[58:24] was a great idea but the capacity was
[58:26] not in place
[58:27] and then that led it
[58:29] led us to
[58:30] you know failing to meet expectations
[58:32] when we were unable to we weren't
[58:34] positioned to even meet that back in the
[58:36] day
[58:37] but i think it's more just in terms of
[58:39] what is reasonable and we have good
[58:41] averages and and so forth and we do need
[58:43] to make some improvements which we're
[58:45] doing but i think saying okay even 72
[58:47] hours
[58:48] uh would be unfair for reasons that
[58:50] you've expressed
[58:54] okay thank you everyone for
[58:57] taking the time i need to brush up on
[58:59] our procedural bylaw a little bit more
[59:01] um but one point that's been made
[59:03] through the changes that is made is that
[59:04] when items come for first and second
[59:06] reading that
[59:08] uh because there would be a scheduled
[59:09] public hearing that's advertised and it
[59:11] provides fairness to those that are not
[59:13] present for this meeting or following it
[59:16] as closely to at least receive the
[59:18] notification of something that's coming
[59:20] and plan either to email a submission or
[59:23] plan to present in person so then we get
[59:25] the benefit of all views
[59:27] uh at that time but
[59:29] since you are here and we've missed
[59:30] having in like actual people with us
[59:33] it's like well you can't make it can't
[59:35] make how i can't stop someone from
[59:37] speaking because we're delighted that
[59:39] you've actually joined with us tonight
[59:40] so thank you everyone
[59:47] that's okay and i should know better
[59:48] myself but like i said it's just nice to
[59:50] see people in human form
[59:53] okay counsel we'll move on into our
[59:55] agenda then and that takes us to our
[59:58] consent agenda so here we are and that
[1:00:01] is that items 8.1 and 8.2 be adopted by
[1:00:04] general consent
[1:00:06] i have a mover by councillor st pierre
[1:00:08] and seconded by councillor laginess
[1:00:11] i'm not hearing of
[1:00:13] extraction yeah i wanted to extract one
[1:00:16] that was item f
[1:00:18] so that's to be pulled for consideration
[1:00:20] of the next council meeting okay so let
[1:00:23] me just open that please just second so
[1:00:25] correspondence received counselor
[1:00:27] battles would like item f
[1:00:30] our pardon me counselor what did i say
[1:00:32] counselor
[1:00:33] battles pardon me counselor betos
[1:00:36] has requested that item f lpit
[1:00:39] notification suit mr greg little
[1:00:42] come to the next regular council meeting
[1:00:44] for discussion
[1:00:48] counselor bateman requested that
[1:00:52] don't even ask me what i just said okay
[1:00:54] so
[1:00:55] next regular council meeting for
[1:00:57] discussion counselor bateman okay
[1:00:59] anything else to be extracted no so i'll
[1:01:03] call the question then to receive and
[1:01:04] file all those in favor please
[1:01:06] and that's unanimous thank you sorry if
[1:01:10] i'm confusing names
[1:01:13] okay all right
[1:01:16] here's a bit of a difference
[1:01:18] let's not let's let's not go there
[1:01:21] tonight
[1:01:23] reports yeah yeah yeah okay item 9.1
[1:01:28] volunteer recognition event
[1:01:31] let's focus so we have our report here
[1:01:34] i'll turn it over to staff just to walk
[1:01:35] us through the report
[1:01:41] i guess that's me
[1:01:44] oh thank your worship so um if
[1:01:47] i believe it was lost fall counts yes
[1:01:50] sorry october 2021
[1:01:52] uh council had mentioned a
[1:01:55] possibility of considering an event or
[1:01:58] um occasion to recognize the work of our
[1:02:01] volunteers specifically uh the people
[1:02:03] that are serving on our advisory
[1:02:05] committees so staff
[1:02:07] had done a little research
[1:02:10] there was an event in 2013 and then
[1:02:12] again in 2017 both were a little bit
[1:02:15] different one with refreshments
[1:02:17] certificates and flowers and then the
[1:02:20] most recent one was just an event held
[1:02:22] in council chambers
[1:02:24] with certificate and refreshments again
[1:02:26] so i guess i'm sorry not too different
[1:02:29] and then we have
[1:02:31] just done some initial investigation as
[1:02:34] to
[1:02:35] what type of events could be offered and
[1:02:38] what those costs would be and those are
[1:02:40] outlined in the table in the
[1:02:43] report
[1:02:45] did you want me to go through that
[1:02:48] okay
[1:02:50] so
[1:02:52] um we do not have the money in our event
[1:02:55] budget is already spoken for through the
[1:02:57] santa claus parade so um
[1:03:00] and given that this hasn't been an
[1:03:02] annual event
[1:03:03] um
[1:03:04] since 2017 there are no specific funds
[1:03:08] for this in the budget so it would
[1:03:09] probably need to come from council
[1:03:11] contingency or some other
[1:03:14] fund that's it
[1:03:17] thank you miss michelle so the other
[1:03:19] piece to this that remains a bit of a
[1:03:22] mystery to me
[1:03:23] is that every term that i'm aware of
[1:03:26] we've done some community a recognition
[1:03:29] awards
[1:03:30] so i recall the first time for myself
[1:03:34] was at the community hall
[1:03:37] i think
[1:03:39] members of the community sort of
[1:03:40] nominated
[1:03:42] different individuals and then there
[1:03:44] must have been a a committee that juried
[1:03:47] these applications i'm not sure who that
[1:03:49] committee was i just remember needing to
[1:03:51] be at the hall at a certain date and
[1:03:53] time
[1:03:54] uh the piper piped us in the mayor gave
[1:03:57] a presentation and one by one
[1:03:59] certificates were handed out to
[1:04:00] individuals and so that's where there's
[1:04:03] been this event like this but it just
[1:04:05] sort of happens
[1:04:07] on its own and then suddenly there's
[1:04:10] folks
[1:04:11] nominations are coming in and and
[1:04:14] so forth so it's always like the elected
[1:04:16] body has never been a part
[1:04:18] of the selection we've never been the
[1:04:20] jurors of this event it's more
[1:04:23] the wrecking the community recognition
[1:04:25] is open now
[1:04:26] uh and then we tend we're sort of told
[1:04:29] in the past like not to nominate
[1:04:30] ourselves or family members because it's
[1:04:32] obviously major conflict there but that
[1:04:35] the commun the district was doing this
[1:04:37] as a like community leadership type
[1:04:39] awards
[1:04:41] so that's sort of what i was thinking
[1:04:42] though i also know we talked about
[1:04:44] wanting to recognize all the volunteers
[1:04:46] from our committee so are these the same
[1:04:48] things or different now
[1:04:50] staff has just advised me that the event
[1:04:53] that i think you're referring to was
[1:04:54] done in coordination with the souq
[1:04:56] museum
[1:04:58] so i'd have to speak more with staff
[1:05:00] that may have been around at the time
[1:05:02] that was prior to
[1:05:04] my starting with the district as well
[1:05:07] but um it sounds like we might have some
[1:05:09] staff history that we could provide a
[1:05:11] little bit more information on that
[1:05:13] okay because that's where it's always
[1:05:15] the case where it's like once a term and
[1:05:18] then um but i wasn't sure
[1:05:21] where how it evolved it's just always
[1:05:23] been on my mind that okay what and then
[1:05:25] of course with kovid
[1:05:27] the ability to gather and do anything
[1:05:29] and just like it all went out the window
[1:05:30] completely so now it's the case of
[1:05:34] you know what do we do this term or you
[1:05:36] know and how do we advance this
[1:05:38] accordingly so okay maybe that piece
[1:05:40] then we could get something different so
[1:05:43] this is for our committee volunteers
[1:05:45] district suit committee volunteers
[1:05:48] because we've had different committee
[1:05:49] members
[1:05:50] over the time okay
[1:05:53] all right so clarity another information
[1:05:55] report to come on that note
[1:05:57] um this then is focusing on our
[1:05:59] committee volunteers
[1:06:01] um
[1:06:02] so
[1:06:04] my thought here is that
[1:06:07] weekends are going to be a challenge
[1:06:09] many of our volunteers are volunteering
[1:06:13] uh which they do on weekends or enjoying
[1:06:15] time with
[1:06:16] family uh and then
[1:06:20] i was sort of more it's
[1:06:22] just something it's honoring the
[1:06:24] volunteers um
[1:06:26] and finding a time that would work i
[1:06:28] know it doesn't work for everyone but
[1:06:30] maybe we could do something indoor in
[1:06:32] chambers on a monday before a council
[1:06:34] meeting
[1:06:35] typically in soup not a lot of people
[1:06:37] volunteer monday night there's some
[1:06:39] obviously that do but wednesday
[1:06:41] thursdays
[1:06:42] are very heavy and weekends volunteers
[1:06:45] are now delivering what they're doing
[1:06:47] and of course some meet all the time
[1:06:49] counselor battles
[1:06:50] yeah i had a look at this and i wasn't
[1:06:52] quite sure exactly what we were getting
[1:06:55] at here but i i looked at council
[1:06:57] chambers and you know even if you do 10
[1:06:59] volunteers and recognize them and their
[1:07:02] family members it fills up pretty quick
[1:07:04] so i'm
[1:07:05] really not in favor of doing it in
[1:07:07] chambers here at all
[1:07:10] again i don't know that the number
[1:07:12] involved but
[1:07:13] i would think with the committees that
[1:07:15] we've had running in the last
[1:07:17] three four years
[1:07:18] you could probably have 50 people and
[1:07:21] family members so
[1:07:23] i only thought option d in-person event
[1:07:26] on a sunday
[1:07:27] um
[1:07:28] i know it's the most expensive one but
[1:07:30] we've got a beautiful little part next
[1:07:32] door here
[1:07:34] that would be
[1:07:36] a better a better fit but again i'm not
[1:07:39] clear as to who are we honoring here so
[1:07:42] it will be the ones on committee not
[1:07:43] people in the community that work for
[1:07:45] the food bank or anything like that it
[1:07:47] is for the people that work for us over
[1:07:49] those years it would be district
[1:07:51] committee volunteers okay like yes
[1:07:54] ocp climate there's been two forms of
[1:07:57] the climate committee yeah uh and then
[1:07:59] there's been the land and the land use
[1:08:01] and development committee and i would
[1:08:03] expect you to bring a spouse to
[1:08:04] something like that if we invited a
[1:08:06] member of the spouse to come with them
[1:08:07] depends on the volunteer yeah well i
[1:08:10] understand that but if
[1:08:11] you'd be
[1:08:12] allowed to bring a guest i suspect so
[1:08:14] that's why i was sort of leaning towards
[1:08:16] uh
[1:08:17] d
[1:08:18] and a nice day in uh in the summer
[1:08:20] months outside here uh i thought that'd
[1:08:23] be pretty good i know it's the most
[1:08:25] expensive item but uh
[1:08:27] these people put in many many
[1:08:30] hours of work and uh i thought that'd be
[1:08:32] good
[1:08:33] i don't think this cost covers the
[1:08:35] family this is just to have the
[1:08:37] volunteers present so if we're looking
[1:08:39] at adding
[1:08:40] more where they bring their family we
[1:08:42] the cost would go up to
[1:08:45] uh to accommodate whether that's chair
[1:08:47] my other question though is given the
[1:08:49] construction next door i don't know what
[1:08:50] this would be yeah
[1:08:52] all i know is like i think we can do it
[1:08:54] in chambers that was my point
[1:08:57] counselor saint pierre then login us
[1:09:00] uh two or three small points uh one is
[1:09:03] that uh i'm well aware that the climate
[1:09:05] action committee that was in place
[1:09:07] during the first year of the pandemic
[1:09:09] never had a chance to wrap up properly
[1:09:11] but did in fact keep on working through
[1:09:13] the pandemic
[1:09:14] and uh it was a lot of work
[1:09:17] but there was no recognition at that
[1:09:18] point in time so i'm hoping that when we
[1:09:20] do this we can actually you know
[1:09:21] definitely make sure we get back to
[1:09:22] those people and invite them
[1:09:25] the other thing was that the subregion
[1:09:27] volunteer center might be a good partner
[1:09:29] and might have a suitable location over
[1:09:31] the family resource center type of place
[1:09:33] they've got some nice garden areas and
[1:09:34] so on i don't know if it would be
[1:09:36] possible but if they had any events that
[1:09:38] were similar it might be interesting for
[1:09:39] them to partner with the district
[1:09:41] in a volunteer recognition type event
[1:09:43] and then the district could actually be
[1:09:45] one of the presenters
[1:09:47] recognizing many of the volunteers in
[1:09:49] sioux because we're our committees are
[1:09:50] not the only volunteers
[1:09:52] so that was another just a mighty way to
[1:09:55] either defray costs or stretch the
[1:09:57] dollars to have an even better event
[1:10:00] so you're thinking
[1:10:01] did i hear sioux family resource center
[1:10:04] or with the volunteer region volunteer
[1:10:06] center okay i think it's is uh
[1:10:08] that's where they're located
[1:10:10] right okay
[1:10:14] yeah councillogness
[1:10:19] i would be in favor of doing um
[1:10:22] an outdoor event i'm not sure where the
[1:10:26] covered outdoor area
[1:10:29] um i don't think we have any
[1:10:33] oh a rented like rent a tent or
[1:10:35] something
[1:10:36] i mean if we do in the summertime we can
[1:10:38] save the cost of renting the tent and
[1:10:41] just uh pick a location
[1:10:43] we should be able to find some place
[1:10:51] you're assuming it's not going to rain
[1:10:52] i'm not making any bets on weather
[1:10:54] anymore councillor bateman well the
[1:10:56] committees wind up on june 30th right so
[1:11:00] therefore we'd be looking at a summer
[1:11:01] event and i i agree it could be an
[1:11:04] outdoor event it would make total sense
[1:11:06] i don't know why it has to cost that
[1:11:08] much can't can't we just fire up some
[1:11:10] barbecues and um
[1:11:12] you know bringing a few lines to run the
[1:11:15] uh
[1:11:16] i know that there must be a
[1:11:18] simpler way to gather in a kind of
[1:11:21] picnic
[1:11:22] scenario
[1:11:23] outdoors
[1:11:26] and also yeah so we in just in terms of
[1:11:30] the
[1:11:31] this mixed messaging here we got the
[1:11:33] committee volunteers and then community
[1:11:35] volunteers and i did do some research
[1:11:37] and
[1:11:38] since 2001 there was 12 straight years
[1:11:42] of annual volunteer recognition
[1:11:44] ceremonies
[1:11:45] and 350 residents have been acknowledged
[1:11:48] and then that lapsed and then in 2017
[1:11:51] you honored marlene barry said jordan
[1:11:53] heather phillips neil flynn in chambers
[1:11:56] so um be great to you know as the
[1:11:59] volunteer capital canada would be great
[1:12:01] to have that
[1:12:02] revived
[1:12:04] yeah that's where i recall it being the
[1:12:06] last time it was in chambers
[1:12:08] uh and there was it was small it was
[1:12:11] just the four
[1:12:13] uh members of council staff and i think
[1:12:15] maybe a few family members it was it was
[1:12:17] much smaller than the previous events
[1:12:19] but that's where i'm kind of mixing
[1:12:21] events together here it was just the
[1:12:23] case of
[1:12:24] i remember it just being once a term
[1:12:26] that obviously happened more frequently
[1:12:28] in the past
[1:12:30] and then sometimes i get queries from it
[1:12:33] where someone wants to nominate somebody
[1:12:35] and they're waiting for the intake so
[1:12:37] that's what kind of like oh yeah i have
[1:12:39] to ask like where is that event and who
[1:12:41] was the keeper of that process
[1:12:44] so
[1:12:45] i think right now we need a bit more
[1:12:47] information here before we make a
[1:12:48] decision so
[1:12:50] i'm wondering here
[1:12:53] i you know i'm hearing a desire to have
[1:12:55] something outside
[1:12:57] uh i hear a bit more i mean myself i'm
[1:13:00] looking for the community recognition
[1:13:02] piece
[1:13:03] and then does it all go together because
[1:13:05] i think where the staff report was was
[1:13:08] to invite just the committee members
[1:13:10] that served members of council and staff
[1:13:12] in which case chambers would have been
[1:13:14] adequate as a location
[1:13:16] but when we start to add in more then
[1:13:19] obviously that changes
[1:13:22] the venue obviously becomes too small
[1:13:24] and then locating outside i think maybe
[1:13:27] part of it being covered is the weather
[1:13:28] is unpredictable
[1:13:30] and that um the case of having tables
[1:13:33] with some food items that aren't in the
[1:13:36] sun leading to other
[1:13:38] potential issues with exposed food in
[1:13:40] the sun so that
[1:13:43] and to keep it sort of as a simple way
[1:13:45] for folks to meet and greet and see each
[1:13:47] other in person because as counselor st
[1:13:49] pierre said some haven't even really met
[1:13:53] counselor saint pierre then back to
[1:13:54] meadows
[1:13:55] i think one of the things that i would
[1:13:56] really like here is for more of the
[1:13:58] community be actually able to attend and
[1:14:00] we know that a local government event
[1:14:01] like this is not also going to bring in
[1:14:02] a lot of the public so it's probably
[1:14:04] going to be as has been previously
[1:14:05] stated a very small number family and so
[1:14:07] on and so forth
[1:14:08] uh i like the idea of john phillips i
[1:14:10] like the idea of maybe doing it on a
[1:14:11] saturday when the farmer's market is
[1:14:13] already going something like that is
[1:14:14] happening
[1:14:17] uh well we've got parking up here and
[1:14:18] it's not that far to walk
[1:14:21] sorry i'm just chiming in because i've
[1:14:23] come to the market and left because i'm
[1:14:25] parking on the road because it is full
[1:14:28] here when the market is on so from
[1:14:30] accessibility it doesn't work for folks
[1:14:33] unless we screen off half the parking
[1:14:35] which works so i don't want to let's not
[1:14:37] tangle everything
[1:14:38] it's just too bad because logistically i
[1:14:40] wish that more of the community could
[1:14:42] actually
[1:14:42] see what we're doing and see what these
[1:14:44] volunteers are doing
[1:14:45] yeah
[1:14:46] [Music]
[1:14:47] councillor battles
[1:14:49] one uh possible place is ed mcgregor
[1:14:52] park they have the band shell
[1:14:54] which which is covered you could put the
[1:14:56] food under there
[1:14:57] and uh
[1:14:59] the other part of the equation which i'm
[1:15:01] not familiar with yet is i still would
[1:15:03] like an outdoor venue
[1:15:05] but again it's the numbers uh i mean
[1:15:07] it's
[1:15:08] i'm hearing two things now it's going to
[1:15:10] be the ones that have worked for council
[1:15:12] on these different committees now i
[1:15:14] don't know what those numbers are and
[1:15:15] now we're talking about expanding it a
[1:15:17] bit more into maybe some recognitions
[1:15:19] from the community uh either way i i
[1:15:22] think that uh the band show would work
[1:15:25] and there is that possibility of asking
[1:15:27] a service club to to cater it but i mean
[1:15:30] i can't speak for them but i do know
[1:15:32] that stuff that's been done in the past
[1:15:34] with the three
[1:15:36] clubs that i'm familiar with uh you know
[1:15:38] the they all go together and
[1:15:40] do stuff so
[1:15:42] there is some possibilities but uh
[1:15:44] um i need some more information here how
[1:15:47] many people are we talking about because
[1:15:48] i'm just thinking the committee's alone
[1:15:51] 35 35-40 people
[1:15:56] okay
[1:15:57] all right so
[1:15:59] it's about a hundred here and then also
[1:16:01] it's the case of um
[1:16:04] what we have available in contingency
[1:16:07] and we're going to have another report
[1:16:09] on what travel expenses are going to
[1:16:11] look like and what we versus what we
[1:16:12] budgeted which is another impact on
[1:16:14] contingency so i just wanted to
[1:16:17] flag that so in terms of here though
[1:16:20] it's the case of
[1:16:22] there's two things is let's just
[1:16:24] separate them then
[1:16:26] and focus on recognizing our committee
[1:16:28] volunteer did i miss you okay this is
[1:16:31] where someone who sees you needs to say
[1:16:33] point of order
[1:16:34] and i'll say what is it counselor saint
[1:16:36] beer oh counselor elijahness had his
[1:16:38] hand up okay sorry please speak
[1:16:41] i was
[1:16:43] i'm used to it
[1:16:44] um i was just going to suggest maybe um
[1:16:47] we could do something at the celebrate
[1:16:50] souq event
[1:16:51] and what celebrates well okay
[1:16:54] um canada day then if that's what we're
[1:16:56] doing we could just invite the
[1:16:59] volunteers to come show up at a certain
[1:17:01] time and
[1:17:03] give them a
[1:17:05] district of soup water bottle or
[1:17:07] something
[1:17:11] because that would be a venue there
[1:17:12] would be people there there'd be an
[1:17:14] audience and and
[1:17:17] that might work
[1:17:19] it might having been on that stage many
[1:17:22] times
[1:17:23] there's a big crowd that grows as you
[1:17:25] approach the end of speeches and the
[1:17:26] cunning of the cake mirrors
[1:17:28] so
[1:17:31] you know because there's other things
[1:17:32] happening in the background i'm just
[1:17:33] saying what i've seen from
[1:17:35] standing there
[1:17:43] oh i might not be able to cut a cake
[1:17:45] yeah the big covered cake okay so okay
[1:17:47] we'll just leave
[1:17:49] the coke okay so let's
[1:17:51] let's just focus here because
[1:17:54] that's just taking
[1:17:57] you know the whole point of we want to
[1:17:59] recognize our volunteers that set on our
[1:18:01] committees
[1:18:02] so
[1:18:03] that's what the intent of this report is
[1:18:05] to do and which option are we exploring
[1:18:07] here so i think we need a bit more
[1:18:10] on the numbers the venue at mcgregor
[1:18:13] park our park makes a lot of sense um i
[1:18:16] think we can get a pa system there the
[1:18:19] other pieces are there there's a
[1:18:20] washroom there and so forth
[1:18:23] uh and and then to find a date there so
[1:18:26] probably a sunday afternoon seems to be
[1:18:28] what would work because it would be
[1:18:31] let's not
[1:18:32] collide with the fling though
[1:18:35] and then the second piece would be
[1:18:37] information on
[1:18:39] the community recognition event
[1:18:41] and
[1:18:43] how that is done and if we're able to do
[1:18:45] it the timing for that is very
[1:18:48] slim which is unfortunate
[1:18:51] can i just clarify so if it's i think
[1:18:54] what counselor bateman was saying along
[1:18:56] the lines where there was only four
[1:18:57] people recognized perhaps that was
[1:18:59] something
[1:19:00] that we could have a third party
[1:19:02] evaluate but it is more people putting
[1:19:04] in submissions for kind of lifetime
[1:19:06] achievement sort of thing with respect
[1:19:09] to volunteer is that like
[1:19:11] the direction that we're thinking that
[1:19:13] needs to go
[1:19:15] yeah and that's where we i we would mean
[1:19:17] more intel behind that process
[1:19:20] on what it was i remember just two
[1:19:24] nominators maybe
[1:19:26] nominating somebody for for an award but
[1:19:29] i could be
[1:19:30] confusing that with other awards
[1:19:33] programs that i've been through over the
[1:19:36] last few years of which i've sat through
[1:19:38] four of them so this is where the
[1:19:40] processes just need to be clear but in
[1:19:42] that case
[1:19:43] from what i would call it was somebody
[1:19:46] honoring
[1:19:47] so and so for the many contributions
[1:19:49] they do towards our community and then
[1:19:50] there were the four volunteers and i
[1:19:52] think even the bigger one at the
[1:19:54] community hall there was maybe a dozen
[1:19:56] people there was a lot of family
[1:19:58] presence so the community hall was
[1:20:00] certainly full that day but there was
[1:20:02] about a dozen
[1:20:03] honorees
[1:20:06] that day
[1:20:07] and so they were different it wasn't a
[1:20:10] think the committee volunteer it was
[1:20:12] specific to community recognition awards
[1:20:17] but that's where i was never certain who
[1:20:19] the selection panel was and when i asked
[1:20:21] i was told well that's
[1:20:24] nobody knows who the selection committee
[1:20:26] was so that's why i don't know it was
[1:20:28] meant to be discreet
[1:20:33] okay so i think maybe what we'll do then
[1:20:36] is just can we refer this report back to
[1:20:39] staff
[1:20:40] okay i'll just get some more miss
[1:20:42] michelle is typing
[1:20:44] just watch her type at the same time
[1:20:51] yes counselor sink here would this be
[1:20:54] first have to look at the mcgregor
[1:20:55] option is that the idea
[1:20:57] i'm just waiting to see what she
[1:21:07] but i think ed mcgregor would be
[1:21:11] a nice location doable
[1:21:14] that's kind of the intent of the park
[1:21:16] it's a beautiful setting and undercover
[1:21:18] space
[1:21:20] whereas this one will be undergoing
[1:21:23] and parking
[1:21:24] well it'll be
[1:21:26] under construction like as it is now i
[1:21:28] don't think it'll be done by that
[1:21:45] almost
[1:21:59] okay so the council direct staff to
[1:22:07] bring forward a report with specifics
[1:22:09] regarding a community volunteer event at
[1:22:11] mcgregor park in july and that council
[1:22:14] direct staff to bring ford a report with
[1:22:15] additional information regarding a
[1:22:17] community volunteer recognition program
[1:22:19] including the nomination and selection
[1:22:21] process
[1:22:22] yeah so moved by councillor bateman
[1:22:26] seconded by councillor st pierre
[1:22:29] motion any
[1:22:30] nope no nothing to motivate on
[1:22:33] okay councillor saint pierre
[1:22:36] okay anything from anyone else
[1:22:40] so it's nothing to do with canada day or
[1:22:42] celebrate soup we'll just get specifics
[1:22:44] to do this
[1:22:45] okay i'll call the question then all in
[1:22:47] favor please
[1:22:49] anyone opposed it's unanimous thank you
[1:22:51] everyone good discussion
[1:22:55] okay
[1:22:57] bylaws section
[1:22:59] uh we are on to 10.1
[1:23:03] and so this one here
[1:23:05] we're in adoption here is that council
[1:23:07] adopt the bylaws cited a zoning
[1:23:09] amendment bylaw number 818 600-88 2021
[1:23:14] it's moved by councillor
[1:23:16] st pierre and seconded by councillor
[1:23:18] bateman
[1:23:20] all those in favor
[1:23:22] and that's unanimous thank you
[1:23:25] the next part is 10.2 and that is that
[1:23:27] council adopt the bylaws cited as suit
[1:23:29] course sewer
[1:23:31] suit course sewer specified area
[1:23:33] amendment bylaw number 838
[1:23:35] 147-43 2022
[1:23:38] and that's moved by councillor st pierre
[1:23:40] and seconded by councillor elijah ness
[1:23:43] all of us in favor
[1:23:45] and that's unanimous thank you
[1:23:48] and 10.3
[1:23:51] that is that council adopt the bylaws
[1:23:53] cited as fees and charges amendment
[1:23:55] bylaw number 839-752-05-2022
[1:24:00] moved by councillor saint pierre and
[1:24:02] seconded by councillor lajness
[1:24:05] all those in favor
[1:24:08] spanish thank you
[1:24:11] pardon
[1:24:13] no
[1:24:14] it's already gone through readings in a
[1:24:16] public hearing
[1:24:19] okay fine what would you like to make
[1:24:22] uh i tend to agree with the uh one
[1:24:23] comment that this is actually a very
[1:24:25] high cost for example for seniors that i
[1:24:27] tend to have these older systems the oil
[1:24:29] tanks specifically
[1:24:30] if we can actually investigate means by
[1:24:32] which
[1:24:33] that could be
[1:24:36] changed in some way or helped in any way
[1:24:37] that'd be wonderful whether there's
[1:24:39] grants available elsewhere
[1:24:40] because 80 an hour to move a tank
[1:24:43] when it's already costing you a fortune
[1:24:44] to burn that oil is hard
[1:24:46] okay so what i will recommend is because
[1:24:49] that item was not what motivated the
[1:24:51] changes to the fees and bylaw like it
[1:24:53] was just the case where the table was
[1:24:55] included i suggest a notice of motion
[1:24:59] yes well we have it's adopted but just
[1:25:02] to your point there um because that
[1:25:04] would require a bit more than sort of
[1:25:06] what we have there is i would recommend
[1:25:08] drafting a notice of motion and then
[1:25:10] that would yeah but right now it's not
[1:25:14] why this was put in front of us so a
[1:25:16] notice of motion that comes forward
[1:25:18] would enable that more fulsome
[1:25:20] conversation to have
[1:25:22] okay that's what i would suggest there
[1:25:25] okay 10.4
[1:25:27] excuse me um we just need to wrap that
[1:25:30] up he called the question but we didn't
[1:25:32] finalize the vote
[1:25:33] well that was unanimous thank you
[1:25:38] okay 10.4
[1:25:41] density bonusing over to staff please
[1:25:47] thank you excuse me thank you
[1:25:49] so this is coming forward you recall
[1:25:52] at the last council meeting staff
[1:25:53] brought forward a uh a list of uh text
[1:25:56] amendments uh proposed for the zoning
[1:25:58] bylaw this was additional items that we
[1:26:01] had flagged internally and also
[1:26:03] presented to
[1:26:04] the land use and development committee
[1:26:06] on february 16th it was supported by
[1:26:09] that committee
[1:26:11] and what it's proposing is to
[1:26:14] amend the density provisions section of
[1:26:16] the zoning bylaw to include
[1:26:18] a 10 units per hectare incentive
[1:26:21] currently the way the bylaws
[1:26:24] read it allows for if 80 or more of the
[1:26:27] concealed parking is provided on the
[1:26:29] site the applicant could potentially
[1:26:32] benefit from having a 10 percent
[1:26:34] maximum site increase
[1:26:37] for coverage or an additional story
[1:26:40] what we found is
[1:26:41] that's not being utilized and the
[1:26:43] general feedback is there's no incentive
[1:26:46] to do so there's more cost of materials
[1:26:48] if you're going to build a larger site
[1:26:50] whether it's vertically or across the
[1:26:53] property then there needs to be another
[1:26:55] incentive
[1:26:56] through our research it was noted back
[1:26:58] in the 2006 zoning bylaw that a 10 units
[1:27:01] per hectare incentive was included as
[1:27:04] part of this
[1:27:05] staff were not sure why during the 2011
[1:27:08] uh amendment to this that that portion
[1:27:10] was removed and then subsequently
[1:27:12] followed through again with our current
[1:27:14] uh 2013 zoning bylaw
[1:27:17] so based on that uh staff is proposing
[1:27:20] that that incentive be reintroduced
[1:27:22] also note that the decrease of the 10
[1:27:25] lot coverage down to 5 is a result that
[1:27:28] our zones also increase their maximum
[1:27:30] lot coverage so to coincide with a
[1:27:33] larger lot coverage per zone it would
[1:27:35] only make more sense to
[1:27:37] reduce that lot coverage incentive down
[1:27:39] to five percent so previously it may
[1:27:41] have been a maximum lot coverage in that
[1:27:43] zone 50 percent
[1:27:46] now we have lot coverages of a maximum
[1:27:48] of 70 or 80 percent so just by virtue of
[1:27:51] that zone alone we've already allowed a
[1:27:53] much larger maximum site coverage for
[1:27:56] that
[1:27:57] so those are the specific uh reasons why
[1:27:59] we want to reintroduce this we feel it
[1:28:01] would provide some incentive to the
[1:28:03] development community to include
[1:28:06] concealed parking if they saw another
[1:28:07] benefit like additional units
[1:28:10] for their development as well we thought
[1:28:12] this was timely because there is also a
[1:28:13] cost savings that we can advertise this
[1:28:16] along with the
[1:28:17] other
[1:28:18] zoning obama bylaw amendment that i had
[1:28:20] mentioned from
[1:28:21] the last council meeting and then host
[1:28:23] the public hearing on the same night as
[1:28:24] well
[1:28:26] so that concludes my summary on this
[1:28:28] item
[1:28:29] thank you mr pelo can you just restate
[1:28:32] the part um
[1:28:39] i almost got it where you were saying
[1:28:42] that
[1:28:45] we've allowed greater lot coverage
[1:28:49] but didn't do something else
[1:28:52] we didn't provide another incentive so
[1:28:54] what we're saying is you can provide the
[1:28:56] 80
[1:28:57] or more of your parking being
[1:28:59] underground concealed in some format but
[1:29:01] there's a cost associated with that so
[1:29:03] what additional benefit is a developer
[1:29:05] getting by adding those additional
[1:29:07] construction costs to building that
[1:29:11] underground parking well if they can get
[1:29:13] more units per hectare there's you know
[1:29:14] potentially additional sales
[1:29:16] that would be associated with an
[1:29:18] increased density in their development
[1:29:20] so that's that's what the incentive is
[1:29:21] they have more units to rent or sell to
[1:29:24] uh to the future
[1:29:26] homeowner in that rare but we had
[1:29:28] something in place in the old zoning
[1:29:30] bylaw that
[1:29:32] was an incentive this this very
[1:29:35] amendment that we're bringing we're
[1:29:36] essentially reintroducing what existed
[1:29:38] in the 2006 zoning bylaw
[1:29:42] and for whatever reason we're unclear as
[1:29:44] to why in the 2011 and 2013 zoning bile
[1:29:48] auditions that was removed we can't seem
[1:29:50] to find record as to why that was done
[1:29:52] but the lot coverage remained the same
[1:29:54] so the lot coverage increased
[1:29:57] but then the incentive disappeared
[1:30:00] that's correct so that's also
[1:30:02] a strange reasoning why the why the
[1:30:04] incentive was removed but also the lot
[1:30:06] coverage was also increased i'm not sure
[1:30:08] what the what the logic was considered
[1:30:10] at that time
[1:30:11] okay there's there's one p it just
[1:30:13] something's missing there for me but i
[1:30:16] don't maybe it's that
[1:30:19] possib possibly uh but yeah we're we're
[1:30:21] unable to to determine why this
[1:30:24] incentive which is clearly something
[1:30:26] that we see as a benefit to to an
[1:30:28] applicant to provide
[1:30:30] um in addition to concealing that
[1:30:33] parking
[1:30:35] counselor st pierre
[1:30:37] uh we had a few speakers from the public
[1:30:39] that uh spoke specifically to this item
[1:30:42] and at the time i didn't have a resp i
[1:30:44] didn't want to respond
[1:30:46] at that time in any sort of an
[1:30:47] adversarial way but i do want to uh to
[1:30:50] explain why i believe that density is
[1:30:53] actually important in terms of
[1:30:55] addressing our emissions
[1:30:56] because one of our goals is to actually
[1:30:58] increase density but it's not always
[1:30:59] clear to the public
[1:31:00] why density would actually decrease our
[1:31:02] emissions
[1:31:03] and the reasons are that by having
[1:31:06] density we're actually discouraging
[1:31:07] urban sprawl which means they're
[1:31:08] actually affecting less of the habitat
[1:31:11] that's available elsewhere so we have
[1:31:13] more room for people
[1:31:14] but we're not actually having urban
[1:31:16] sprawl we're making better use of our
[1:31:17] infrastructure means we don't need to
[1:31:19] build additional wastewater pre-implants
[1:31:21] rip up the roads to put in bigger pipes
[1:31:23] or pour more concrete for all the rest
[1:31:24] of that stuff and have more concrete to
[1:31:26] sidewalks
[1:31:27] so simply by putting more people to a
[1:31:28] smaller area we're using less concrete
[1:31:30] in all sorts of other ways
[1:31:32] so it i mean it's obviously you need to
[1:31:34] account for the concrete you need to
[1:31:35] account for emissions but you also need
[1:31:37] to account for those things
[1:31:39] density in the public also allows us to
[1:31:40] have a thriving local economy where you
[1:31:43] can actually have more retail more
[1:31:44] businesses more places to walk to from
[1:31:47] places where we have more people that
[1:31:48] actually allows us to reach our goals of
[1:31:50] having a pedestrian friendly community
[1:31:52] with jobs that are locally available
[1:31:54] that allow people not to commute not
[1:31:55] emit those ghgs
[1:31:57] so in answer to why do we want density
[1:31:59] and why is it a good thing
[1:32:01] for all those reasons and many more that
[1:32:02] i won't get into right now
[1:32:04] but density this is not just just
[1:32:06] something that we're doing to help
[1:32:08] developers
[1:32:09] we actually want developers to create
[1:32:10] more density to help us in reaching our
[1:32:13] climate goals
[1:32:14] so i just wanted to you know kind of
[1:32:15] push that out there because obviously
[1:32:17] that message has not been made clear to
[1:32:19] the public
[1:32:20] thus far and it's it's kind of
[1:32:21] unfortunate thank you
[1:32:23] thank you councillor st pierre
[1:32:25] councillor elijah knows
[1:32:28] yeah so in your report your reference
[1:32:31] that we might want to go to a floor area
[1:32:34] ratio calculation as well and i like
[1:32:37] that calculation because it's a simple
[1:32:39] one
[1:32:41] and
[1:32:42] in the
[1:32:43] the draft ocp
[1:32:45] we have floor area ratios referenced in
[1:32:49] there so are we not already
[1:32:51] moving in that direction
[1:32:55] excellent question yes that is
[1:32:57] one proposed route but until the
[1:32:59] official community plan has been
[1:33:01] adopted uh and then at that time staff
[1:33:04] would bring forward the necessary
[1:33:05] amendments to the zoning bylaw to also
[1:33:07] bring it into compliance i think we'd
[1:33:09] want to have a little bit more
[1:33:10] consultation on the whole zoning bylaw
[1:33:13] package as we see
[1:33:15] it coming into compliance with our
[1:33:17] official community plan but yes that
[1:33:18] that is
[1:33:19] the route that we are proposing uh right
[1:33:21] now in the current uh
[1:33:24] official community plan that uh the
[1:33:26] council will see for first reading
[1:33:30] so so what we're looking at now is an
[1:33:33] interim
[1:33:34] solution
[1:33:36] what we're looking at is a opportunity
[1:33:39] to introduce a
[1:33:41] incentive
[1:33:43] that we feel the development community
[1:33:44] could take advantage of we can further
[1:33:47] elaborate on that through
[1:33:49] floor area ratio once we begin to
[1:33:52] establish that as our preferred method
[1:33:54] for calculating density
[1:34:06] i'm not sure there's a question here so
[1:34:08] i should not
[1:34:10] no statements at this point no there's
[1:34:12] no motion only questions okay
[1:34:16] okay
[1:34:17] question
[1:34:22] okay so that would be that council give
[1:34:24] first and second reading to zoning
[1:34:26] amendment bylaw number 840 600-90 2022
[1:34:30] and that council direct staff to
[1:34:32] schedule a public hearing for zoning
[1:34:34] amendment bylaw number 840 600-90 2022
[1:34:37] in accordance with section 466 of the
[1:34:39] local government act moved by councillor
[1:34:41] st pierre seconded by councillor bay
[1:34:44] comment
[1:34:48] not at this time good discussion at the
[1:34:50] committee level thank you
[1:34:51] thank you councillor bateman
[1:34:53] and i agree i should likely save this
[1:34:55] for the public hearing but just the
[1:34:57] comment would be um you know our town
[1:34:59] center is already quite heavily uh
[1:35:03] um a lot of parking lot space in the
[1:35:06] town center so our our future definitely
[1:35:08] we need to have underground parking and
[1:35:11] um
[1:35:13] i think some of the creative solutions
[1:35:15] that
[1:35:16] ms belford raised tonight are good i
[1:35:18] mean car shares
[1:35:20] i think these are cited in the ocp
[1:35:23] um
[1:35:24] the transportation demand management the
[1:35:26] bus passes and this new thought i hadn't
[1:35:30] thought of this decoupling the cost of a
[1:35:32] unit
[1:35:33] minus parking but that would be
[1:35:35] something for the
[1:35:36] developer to consider as a way to
[1:35:38] attract
[1:35:40] anyway
[1:35:42] i look forward to the public hearing
[1:35:44] thank you councillor bateman councillor
[1:35:46] meadows yeah i just i wasn't going to
[1:35:48] comment but i will now um
[1:35:50] i i did appreciate mrs belford's
[1:35:53] comments and they're all wonderful ideas
[1:35:56] but i guess the
[1:35:57] reality of the next 10 15 years we're
[1:36:00] going to still have a tremendous amount
[1:36:02] of cars in suit
[1:36:03] hopefully electric
[1:36:05] and we go that way so i think in the
[1:36:08] next while uh
[1:36:09] you know putting them underground i'd be
[1:36:11] very happy to see that so
[1:36:14] unfortunately we're still going to need
[1:36:15] cars and hopefully we can park them
[1:36:17] underground thank you
[1:36:20] and and just to that point
[1:36:22] um you know having done property
[1:36:25] management and and or been a renter in
[1:36:27] my time i didn't always get a parking
[1:36:29] spot
[1:36:30] so i've rented from owners
[1:36:33] who didn't have parking as an option
[1:36:36] available uh didn't come with the suite
[1:36:38] so at the time it wasn't an issue until
[1:36:41] i got a car and then i had to find a
[1:36:43] place to park it
[1:36:44] and then other times when someone
[1:36:47] usually when a building is built the
[1:36:49] condo owners would own would get to
[1:36:52] decide what their parking is maybe
[1:36:54] there's one or two and they pay more for
[1:36:56] that particular one in their unit
[1:36:59] uh then if they go to rent it they can
[1:37:01] market it accordingly but in some cases
[1:37:03] it's it's up to the ownership group on
[1:37:06] who chooses to buy as to whether or not
[1:37:08] parking
[1:37:09] and they pay for it like you pay for it
[1:37:11] so it is
[1:37:12] part of buying that unit
[1:37:17] and then
[1:37:18] others don't because they don't need one
[1:37:20] so that's kind of their call um
[1:37:24] but in some cases depending on the use
[1:37:26] on the main floor
[1:37:28] uh there could always be a requirement
[1:37:30] to have parking uh to meet the use and
[1:37:32] needs of humans
[1:37:37] anyway i look forward to the public
[1:37:39] hearing too on this matter
[1:37:41] okay so i'll call the question all those
[1:37:43] in favor please
[1:37:44] and that's unanimous thank you i recall
[1:37:47] now that i didn't do the scheduled
[1:37:48] health break at 8 20.
[1:37:53] so
[1:37:57] okay we're okay
[1:37:59] everyone to carry on okay i'm not seeing
[1:38:01] in
[1:38:03] i'm not seeing any new business uh no no
[1:38:06] correspondence so council verbal
[1:38:12] i don't know
[1:38:13] it depends on what you're doing
[1:38:16] uh we had correspondence from uh i
[1:38:18] didn't see it in the correspondence
[1:38:19] package from lynn west uh with regards
[1:38:22] to firework damage and i realized that i
[1:38:23] didn't understand
[1:38:25] um what our own regulations with regards
[1:38:27] to fireworks were so is that course is
[1:38:29] that correspondence on tonight's no it
[1:38:31] wasn't okay so um
[1:38:35] i was hoping that we might be able to
[1:38:36] get a report or just information from
[1:38:38] staff when this does come up as to what
[1:38:40] our actual regulations are with regards
[1:38:42] to fireworks
[1:38:43] what we have that controls them do we
[1:38:45] have any controls in place that type of
[1:38:46] thing
[1:38:47] okay so we'll follow up for that i'm
[1:38:50] seeing a nod um
[1:38:52] and uh feel free to call chief writer in
[1:38:55] the meantime but the correspondence is
[1:38:57] making its way to us
[1:38:58] it's likely the cut off date that was it
[1:39:00] that's all okay
[1:39:02] well next time chief when it's on the
[1:39:04] agenda thank you
[1:39:05] okay okay turn off your microphone okay
[1:39:08] council reports
[1:39:12] i'm just reminding folks to turn off
[1:39:14] their microphone go ahead counts are
[1:39:15] better it's not really a committee but
[1:39:17] we did mention uh very briefly about
[1:39:19] canada day i can give you a bit of an
[1:39:21] update if you wish uh one is
[1:39:24] talking to a very
[1:39:26] good staff member here uh this she this
[1:39:29] person i won't mention her name
[1:39:31] suggested instead of cake that we do
[1:39:33] cupcakes because of cobit and i thought
[1:39:35] that was a marvelous idea and i think
[1:39:37] that's where we're probably gonna go
[1:39:40] just let you know that it's going before
[1:39:42] the community association
[1:39:44] tomorrow night at their meeting and once
[1:39:46] they get the okay
[1:39:49] then
[1:39:51] we'll proceed with
[1:39:52] the whole program
[1:39:55] the idea is that we
[1:39:57] my understanding
[1:39:59] is we're not going to go to an all-night
[1:40:01] event there will not be fireworks only
[1:40:03] because we can't get fireworks
[1:40:05] there's a shortage and even the nine
[1:40:08] o'clock gun in vancouver can't fire
[1:40:10] anymore because they can't get black
[1:40:12] powder
[1:40:13] so there's no guarantee that we get them
[1:40:15] so instead of going from
[1:40:17] noon or one o'clock to ten o'clock at
[1:40:20] night we're going to go from
[1:40:22] noon to six
[1:40:24] and have an abbreviated version uh the
[1:40:27] logging show will be there
[1:40:29] and it does involve a three thousand
[1:40:31] dollar deposit
[1:40:33] and uh
[1:40:34] if it's canceled by any of us they just
[1:40:38] keep it to the next time that they can
[1:40:39] show up at which they did the last time
[1:40:42] um so it'll be an abbreviated one uh we
[1:40:46] will be doing uh vips and honor guard
[1:40:49] and things like that
[1:40:50] so it is going to happen and i'm just
[1:40:53] tickled pink that we're going to have
[1:40:54] something in this community that we can
[1:40:56] celebrate although we will miss the
[1:40:58] fireworks but it might be something that
[1:41:00] i know the chief is looking into other
[1:41:03] venues for the fireworks for the future
[1:41:05] because of the fire hazards maybe do
[1:41:07] them over the harbor
[1:41:08] that's in his capable hands
[1:41:10] but
[1:41:11] it's moving ahead
[1:41:13] thank you counselor betos um
[1:41:15] and that makes sense
[1:41:17] really that might help save some money
[1:41:19] on costs
[1:41:21] uh yeah there is uh some thoughts about
[1:41:23] asking for more money but i think with
[1:41:26] the budget we have it'll be close uh we
[1:41:28] may be just fine uh you know we're not
[1:41:30] we don't have to hire security all night
[1:41:32] yeah uh the buses don't have to run uh
[1:41:35] that long still need a bus i suspect but
[1:41:37] uh you know it'll be paid for by the
[1:41:39] hour so uh there could be some cost
[1:41:41] savings and uh there's some pretty good
[1:41:43] consultant staff here that have
[1:41:45] experience putting events on and not
[1:41:48] just cupcakes but could be other good
[1:41:50] ideas there too
[1:41:52] no that's great because some you know in
[1:41:54] the past we have had challenges with the
[1:41:56] fireworks extreme
[1:41:58] weather events that prohibit us from
[1:42:01] discharging them with good reasons so we
[1:42:03] made that call
[1:42:05] and then it was
[1:42:06] brought to my attention that um when the
[1:42:09] uh the launch site moved across
[1:42:13] uh to the other side of the river that
[1:42:15] some of the embers might have damaged
[1:42:16] the all-weather field so the proximity
[1:42:19] to the field with the debris that falls
[1:42:21] um might be a challenge so it makes
[1:42:23] sense to actually look at what a better
[1:42:25] location would be
[1:42:27] and then just
[1:42:28] you know i sort of think with the
[1:42:30] weather trends
[1:42:32] maybe it'll be a flight of drones in the
[1:42:34] future
[1:42:35] that we're starting to see in various
[1:42:37] places because it's just impossible with
[1:42:40] the extreme weather to launch them
[1:42:45] still you know and so it's something
[1:42:47] just to we'll get more information on
[1:42:49] but that that's fine okay other updates
[1:42:53] counselor bateman sure um so very
[1:42:56] exciting on friday for the library
[1:42:58] opening um you know 7.5 million dollars
[1:43:01] and
[1:43:02] uh you walk in and you
[1:43:05] you know on friday afternoon it was
[1:43:07] filled with with
[1:43:08] young children and their parents and a
[1:43:11] lot of teenagers and
[1:43:13] a number of us old-timers sort of
[1:43:15] wandering around
[1:43:16] uh marveling at at um
[1:43:19] this modern library here in the heart of
[1:43:22] souk it was quite something
[1:43:25] [Music]
[1:43:26] there was also the coldest night of the
[1:43:28] year walk on saturday night which raised
[1:43:30] twenty one thousand dollars again this
[1:43:32] year for the sioux shelter society
[1:43:35] and the mayor and
[1:43:36] the shelter society's melanie cunningham
[1:43:39] did some opening remarks and the mayor
[1:43:41] made the good point that the colors this
[1:43:43] year
[1:43:44] of the the toque are yellow and blue and
[1:43:47] the ukraine right there so you bridge
[1:43:49] that because it was a
[1:43:51] you know the opening of the library and
[1:43:53] uh
[1:43:54] the coldest night of the year and the
[1:43:56] possible outbreak of world war iii all
[1:43:58] at once so
[1:44:00] kind of puts things in perspective
[1:44:04] i also you mentioned the guiding lights
[1:44:06] uh the the girl guides event which i as
[1:44:09] acting mayor i got to
[1:44:11] to um
[1:44:13] i don't know what i did i spoke and
[1:44:15] councillor betos was there and
[1:44:17] ms frobel from corporate services was
[1:44:19] there to switch on the light
[1:44:21] and among the things i said was i
[1:44:23] celebrated the fact that this council
[1:44:25] has
[1:44:26] three women
[1:44:28] as role models and examples of the
[1:44:30] possibilities
[1:44:32] for girls and women in this brave new
[1:44:33] world and i urge them all to identify
[1:44:36] and follow their various blisses and to
[1:44:38] effectively take no
[1:44:41] right
[1:44:43] and we were rewarded with all those
[1:44:44] cookies
[1:44:45] right
[1:44:46] a half dozen boxes most of which went
[1:44:48] into the staff
[1:44:50] lunchroom so hopefully
[1:44:52] oh
[1:44:54] they were devoured very rapidly
[1:44:57] and finally the climate action committee
[1:44:59] last week we were the
[1:45:02] amazing presentation by jack anderson i
[1:45:04] don't know are you going to speak to
[1:45:06] this
[1:45:06] council saying pierre no
[1:45:08] so uh jack anderson's with nanaimo based
[1:45:11] green plan and he brought forward the
[1:45:14] idea of the farm hamlet template which
[1:45:16] is a farm micro village
[1:45:19] basically
[1:45:20] by any other name and it's a place that
[1:45:23] provides housing solutions
[1:45:26] on farmland for farming families
[1:45:29] while improving community food security
[1:45:32] and
[1:45:33] so on a
[1:45:34] piece of land you would have on the
[1:45:36] piece that is the least
[1:45:38] uh
[1:45:40] arable no that's not the right word
[1:45:42] arable yes um that's where you would
[1:45:44] cluster a collection of
[1:45:46] permanent and temporary housing
[1:45:48] and um this would be truly affordable
[1:45:51] get people back on the land and and
[1:45:54] working and
[1:45:55] it's it's
[1:45:57] the proposed proposal will be coming to
[1:45:59] council
[1:46:00] um with a request for a staff report so
[1:46:02] the climate action committee approved
[1:46:04] that
[1:46:05] and the great thing here is mr anderson
[1:46:07] is backed by uh
[1:46:10] the
[1:46:11] consultants on this project include guy
[1:46:13] doncy
[1:46:14] um
[1:46:15] who we all know i believe and heather
[1:46:17] pritchard from farm folk city folk
[1:46:19] and a gentleman with quantum college in
[1:46:22] food security who actually lives here in
[1:46:24] sioux
[1:46:25] and
[1:46:26] ceo mckinnis and councillor st pierre
[1:46:29] have all
[1:46:30] it's quite an exciting project and it's
[1:46:32] a pilot project that
[1:46:34] is scalable to to small or larger farm
[1:46:38] settings and
[1:46:40] here in the 50th anniversary year of the
[1:46:43] agricultural land commission it's it's a
[1:46:45] really brave bold new
[1:46:47] solution to
[1:46:49] a number of issues
[1:46:51] so
[1:46:54] thank you councilor bateman councillor
[1:46:56] largeness
[1:46:59] yeah um
[1:47:01] the
[1:47:02] uh
[1:47:03] climate action committee the jack
[1:47:05] anderson's presentation i was thoroughly
[1:47:08] impressed with that as well and also
[1:47:10] with
[1:47:11] our climate action coordinator and her
[1:47:13] presentation i thought was was great as
[1:47:16] well
[1:47:17] um
[1:47:19] i
[1:47:20] met with the
[1:47:23] community act dev committee last week
[1:47:26] where
[1:47:27] ms carrollsfeld also presented
[1:47:32] on
[1:47:33] metrics and tools for green business and
[1:47:35] souk
[1:47:37] and we also had an
[1:47:40] excellent presentation from jonathan
[1:47:43] dick and sandra richardson from victoria
[1:47:46] foundation and vital signs
[1:47:49] was very encouraging and the work that
[1:47:51] they do is just
[1:47:52] amazing i didn't take very good notes i
[1:47:55] can't tell you too much about it
[1:47:58] but
[1:48:00] and i also visited the library on the
[1:48:04] weekend and just was thoroughly
[1:48:06] impressed with the quality of
[1:48:08] construction and it's just a beautiful
[1:48:11] space and i think i'm going to be
[1:48:13] spending quite a bit of time there
[1:48:17] and other than that i just want to
[1:48:19] um
[1:48:21] say that my thoughts are with the people
[1:48:23] of ukraine and all of europe actually
[1:48:26] and i have and with russia as well i
[1:48:29] have a lot of russian friends
[1:48:32] and what's happening there is not
[1:48:36] the russian people it's one lunatic
[1:48:38] that's that's causing all the grief
[1:48:40] there and
[1:48:42] so i don't want people to
[1:48:45] um
[1:48:46] think badly of the russian people
[1:48:49] because they're not in favor of what's
[1:48:51] happening either
[1:48:54] that's it
[1:48:55] thank you councillor lajness
[1:48:57] uh just to close myself um i was on the
[1:49:02] selection committee uh for the order of
[1:49:05] bc a couple of years ago
[1:49:08] and so the event there was a virtual
[1:49:10] recognition of the
[1:49:12] of the recipients a couple of years ago
[1:49:14] but the event itself was postponed and
[1:49:16] delayed due to count due to covet
[1:49:18] obviously but it's actually going ahead
[1:49:20] this thursday so they're putting them
[1:49:23] uh together at at government house
[1:49:26] uh so i'll have the opportunity to
[1:49:28] attend that event uh in person which
[1:49:31] will be really nice to think about what
[1:49:33] to wear it's kind of been a while right
[1:49:35] uh and then also i'm on the bc
[1:49:38] achievement award so this is where i'm
[1:49:40] sort of confusing the selection and
[1:49:43] processes together because just what's
[1:49:45] on my mind at the moment
[1:49:47] but it's inspiring work
[1:49:49] to read through all of the nominees and
[1:49:51] just to see how
[1:49:53] folks are making a difference in their
[1:49:55] respective communities this is for bc
[1:49:58] and then my role is to pick out the top
[1:50:00] 40 which is proving to be nearly
[1:50:02] impossible because
[1:50:04] there's it's just amazing work that's
[1:50:06] occurring it's very inspiring
[1:50:09] um
[1:50:10] one thing i do have coming up on
[1:50:12] international women's days i might have
[1:50:14] shared with you my involvement with un
[1:50:16] habitat and the urban development group
[1:50:18] so they're doing a two-day session
[1:50:21] north america women and
[1:50:24] and urban
[1:50:26] sustainability goals so i'll be one of
[1:50:28] the speakers
[1:50:30] on the second day
[1:50:31] and it's always fascinating just as i
[1:50:33] look through the program and who will be
[1:50:35] speaking so
[1:50:37] there's um because it's in ontario there
[1:50:39] are a lot of folks from ontario
[1:50:41] including the lieutenant governor there
[1:50:44] uh followed by different mps and so
[1:50:47] forth but there's a speaker coming from
[1:50:49] mexico that'll be talking about the
[1:50:51] feminist approach in the mexican content
[1:50:54] member of parliament from winnipeg
[1:50:57] several from different treaty nations
[1:51:01] uh the canadian center for women's
[1:51:03] empowerment and so forth so it's it's
[1:51:05] it's all on zoom which sometimes has its
[1:51:08] challenges but um
[1:51:10] again it's always very exciting for me
[1:51:12] though this means my day starts at 5 30
[1:51:14] because i'm always like is that pacific
[1:51:15] time no my it's eastern time as we
[1:51:18] always tell you but
[1:51:20] i'm like that's okay it's it's an early
[1:51:22] start so that's coming up in something
[1:51:24] um
[1:51:25] you know i i find the work expiring
[1:51:27] uh lovely for the library to open and
[1:51:29] look forward to that grand opening event
[1:51:31] i think they're just still finalizing
[1:51:32] the time i believe
[1:51:34] march 26th at 1 pm it has been finalized
[1:51:37] at 1 pm okay good i was going to ask
[1:51:39] that and then just timely with the souk
[1:51:42] shelter walk because
[1:51:45] after i
[1:51:46] parted ways i went to get takeout in
[1:51:48] route 14 and there was a bit of a queue
[1:51:50] outside and so the folks waiting to go
[1:51:53] inside or the folks sitting in the
[1:51:54] window and looking out would see like
[1:51:56] gaggles of small groups going by
[1:51:59] and so many thought it was a a walk uh
[1:52:03] to support the ukraine so then someone
[1:52:05] said to me well why are they not all
[1:52:07] together and it keeps breaking up into
[1:52:09] groups like what i just left it right
[1:52:11] because
[1:52:12] like i don't want to say that i'm
[1:52:14] eavesdropping but it's fine and and a
[1:52:16] lot of people were also giving that
[1:52:18] support so i think that was important as
[1:52:20] well
[1:52:21] uh we have over a million
[1:52:24] uh folks with ukraine heritage within
[1:52:26] our country i'm not sure how many in
[1:52:27] suit but of course we're all touched by
[1:52:29] this
[1:52:30] and i find the events um
[1:52:33] very alarming and and
[1:52:35] worrisome for sure i think it's a
[1:52:37] frightening time right now so i try to
[1:52:40] keep the conversation light at home but
[1:52:42] of course it's with us all the time so
[1:52:44] my thoughts of course as well and i
[1:52:46] agree with you there's some really good
[1:52:48] people in russia that are terrified
[1:52:50] about what's happening here there's
[1:52:52] there's no doubt about that
[1:52:54] okay council thank you all i'm our
[1:52:57] member of the public that stayed with us
[1:52:59] mr mcinnis thank you worship i just want
[1:53:01] to mention that uh we were able to
[1:53:04] source a uh ukraine flag today it will
[1:53:07] be here tomorrow
[1:53:09] our flag policy
[1:53:12] section for courtesy flags it doesn't
[1:53:15] necessarily directly fit but
[1:53:17] i think we're going to put this under a
[1:53:20] district event and that does give the
[1:53:22] ceo and the mayor some latitude so
[1:53:24] there's no objection uh we'll replace
[1:53:27] the district's uh flag with the ukraine
[1:53:30] flag uh sometime tomorrow for a period
[1:53:32] of time
[1:53:33] thank you very much norm thank you for
[1:53:35] getting on that so quickly i um and
[1:53:37] thanks to jennifer for her work today
[1:53:40] and sourcing that real quickly and
[1:53:41] having it delivered tomorrow
[1:53:43] that's great because i thought oh i
[1:53:45] should have i should have
[1:53:47] mentioned that friday because by monday
[1:53:49] they're all
[1:53:50] they're going to be very hard to find
[1:53:52] but i'm glad you found one no that'll be
[1:53:53] great thank you for that
[1:53:56] okay so on that note folks um be well
[1:53:59] i'll call now for a motion to adjourn
[1:54:01] please move by counselor saint pierre
[1:54:03] seconded by councillor elijah nass
[1:54:06] see there it's like this needs to be a
[1:54:08] little narrower because like you can't
[1:54:09] see
[1:54:10] i can't i can't see you all and honestly
[1:54:12] like this like you start to get motion
[1:54:15] sickness after like i'm getting dizzy
[1:54:17] which is why i tend for a while i need
[1:54:19] to just look in one direction so i'm not
[1:54:21] trying to ignore you
[1:54:23] but
[1:54:24] i just make a noise it it makes me a bit
[1:54:27] ill like it's just the way it goes so i
[1:54:29] don't need to leave anyone out i just
[1:54:31] can't
[1:54:33] see that way that's all anyway okay call
[1:54:36] the question on german all in favor
[1:54:38] that's unanimous thank you everyone
[1:54:40] thank you