Call the meeting to order. Please rise for the National
Anthem.
True. Patriot. Love. In. Our life has. Come in. Carton.
Brasi. Porte le. Pay. Ton. Histoire est.
Une épo. Brilla. Expl.
Vol. We. Stand on guard. For. Thee.
We. Stand on. God. For. Thee.
Roll. Call will show that all members are. In attendance
in their seat saving accepted deputy mayor who sends his
regrets.
We'll now read the land acknowledgement. We will begin by
acknowledging that the land in which we gather is the
traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations.
Comprising the Ojibway, the Odawa, and the Pottawatomi Peoples, and
of the Huron - Wendat and Y - N. Peoples.
We recognise the lenses and expression of gratitude to those
whose traditional territory we reside on and a way of
honouring the Indigenous people who have been living and thriving
on the land since time immemorial. We value the significant
historical and contemporary contributions of local and regional First Nations
and all of the original people's turtle islands. Thank you.
See, I'm trying to be too fast. I forgot, are
there any declarations of pecuniary interest. Any declarations. Seeing none
okay. Then we need to report out from the -
in - camera session, Mr. Clerk. Thank. You worship. There
is a report out from an in - camera session
on March 9th. It was moved at the Council enter
into an in - camera meeting of council pursuant to
section 239 in municipal 2001 as amended for the following
reason. Item C, employment matter regarding identifiable employee under section
239 - 2B, personal matters, but identified all individuals, including
municipal or local board employees. And council received the matter
for information. There's a report out being camera session on
August 8th. It was moved the council enter into an
in - camera meeting of council pursuant to section 239
of the Municipal Act 2001 as amended for the following
reasons. Item A, naming rights proposal for town Parkland, under
section 239 - 2K, a position planned procedure criteria or
instruction to be applied to any negotiation carried on or
on behalf of the municipality or local board. And the
following motion is before council for consideration. Or sorry. My
apologies. And administration was directed to proceed on the verbal
direction of council. Item B, lease agreement for community space
was heard under section 239 - 2F, advice that is
subject to solicitor client privilege, including communications necessary for that
purpose. And section 239 - 2K, a position plan procedure
criteria or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried
on by or on behalf of the municipality or local
board and administration was directed proceed on the verbal direction
of council. Item C non - viable remnant parcel land
disposition under section 239 - 2F, advice that is subject
to this client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose.
And section 239 - 2K, a position plan procedure, criteria,
or instruction to be applied to any negotiation carried on
by or on behalf of the municipality or local board.
And the following motion is before council for consideration. Got
to write this time, that the land's legally identified as
part of LOT 16 concession one, part OCN Beach Reserve
Plan 941, now designated as parts one to five, 12R27426
in the town of Ambersburg, being non - viable remnant
parcels as identified in the town's disposition of surplus real
property policy and through review. Therefore be declared surplus to
the needs of corporation and by - law 2026 -
051 being a bylaw to Clairland surplus in the town
of Ambersburg be read three times and finally passed, and
the mayor and clerk be authorized to sign same. So
looking for a mover and seconder on that motion. Move
by Councillor - Alert. Second by Councillor Crane. Any discussion.
Of those in favor. Opposed that's carried. And Three -
year - worship, I believe I said the wrong date,
it's August 10th, sorry. I said August 8th for the
meeting. Now I do believe before we go any further,
I do believe there are people here. We're wondering about
the negotiations. The other, I think it was B. Can
anything be said, because... Yeah, okay. Your worship members of
council, I had correspondence with John Martin today, and he
knows I will be contacting him tomorrow to give him
an update. Okay, just so you don't have to stay
here all night, unless you want to. Okay, alright. Okay,
so minutes of the previous meeting, we have two. Can
I have a motion to receive them both? Move by
Councillor Lair, seconded by Councillor Crane. In the discussion, all
those in favor. Pose that's carried. Okay, there are no
recognitions, presentations. We have three of them. The first one,
9. 1 is the Invest Windsor Essex and Tourism, uh,
Windsor Essex - Peely Island, and the floor - jars,
Gordon. Thank. You very much for your worship. It's indeed
a pleasure to be here. I am Gordon Or, I'm
the CEO of Tours of Windsor Essex and Invest Windsor
Essex, and members of Council, it's great to be here
in the town of Amishburg. I'd like to acknowledge I'm
not alone here tonight. I'm joined by a team that
I have The Privilege to work with every day. I've
got Wendy Stark, Sabrina DeMarco, Joe Gonzalez, and Ed Dawson,
they're some of my leadership team Strongbench, and again, I'm
privileged to work with them every day. So thank you
for this opportunity to provide Council with an update on
the work of Invest Windsor Essex and tourism wins -
around, as well as present the alignment recommendations completed by
North Guide Consulting. I'll begin with a brief overview of
the performance of both organisations before discussing the recommendations that
are before council tonight. Next slide, please. I'll begin with
Invest Windsor Essex. Economic development continues to be much more
than about just attracting new investment. It's about supporting existing
businesses. Fostering entrepreneurship and positioning Windsor Essex for future opportunities.
Next slide, please. These performance metrics highlight another strong year
for 2025 economic development. Invest Windsor Essex facilitated more than
382 million dollars in new investment, 961 new jobs, 56
business expansions. And 86 business startups. Next slide, please. During
the year, the Invest Windsor Essex team through our small
business and entrepreneurship centre delivered over 1, 200 one -
on - one consultations and 105 business support sessions with
more than 2, 200 attendees. Next slide, please. Our communications
and marketing efforts continue to extend well beyond our borders.
Top visitor websites, top website visitors come from Canada, the
United States, China, Singapore, and Germany, reflecting the international audiences
we're reaching through our investment attraction and marketing efforts. Next
slide, please. Looking at some of our past highlights, we
finalised the Invest Windsor Essex New 2025 through 2028 Strategic
Plan, providing a roadmap focused on investment attraction, business growth,
innovation, and stakeholder communications. The region also celebrated significant investment
and advanced manufacturing. And at the same time, we continue
expanding beyond automotive through targeted industry diversification initiatives. Next slide,
please. So now I'll turn to tourism Windsor Essex -
Peley Island. Tourism continues to be a critical component of
Windsor Essex economy and quality of life. And the work
of Torpedoes well beyond a tracking visitors. It supports local
businesses, promotes our municipalities and strengthens community pride. Next slide,
please. Last year, Windsor Essex and Peely Island. Welcome more
than 5. 1 million visitors who generated approximately 816 million
dollars in visitors spending Tourism is a vital industry as
it remains a significant economic generator in job creator. Next
slide, please. Those economic outcomes are supported by highly effective
destination marketing 2025 showed record - breaking engagement, and we
know that awareness creates interest and interests creates visitation. Next
slide, please. This year, our official visitor guides that was
launched on April 23rd includes 292 tourism partners. With over
40, 000 printed copies distributed, and in the first two
months, 79, 000 digital views were conducted. Next slide, please.
More than 550 partners were featured through programs, and those
collaboration initiatives helped drive visitation across all newness pallies. Next
slide, please. So now I'd like to turn to the
purpose of today's report. To earlier this year, with the
support of both invest Windsor Essex and tourism Windsor Essex,
PLILE and Board of Directors, we retain North Guide, and
independent consulting firm to undertake an objective review of how
Invest Windsor Essex and tourism Windsor SXPLAN could better position
themselves for long - term success. So over four months,
North Guide reviewed governance models from across Canada, organisational financial
information. Conducted stakeholder interviews, facilitated workshops with boards and staffs.
And these recommendations are evidence - based, practical, and designed
to strengthen regional service delivery while building on the success
both organisations have already achieved. Next slide, please. This slide
captures what I believe is to be the most important
message in the report. North Guy concluded that both organisations
are highly respected and performing effectively. This review was not
initiated because of financial challenges organisational shortcomings. Rather, it's recognised
as an opportunity to build on existing strengths. The opportunity
lies in creating stronger government structure consolidating administrative functions were
appropriate, improving operational coordination, and reinvesting those efficiencies into expanding
capacity. So the objective is a stronger organisation, not a
smaller one, and any efficiencies should allow us to do
more for the region, not less. Next slide, please. North
Guide's first recommendation focused on governance. They recommend replacing the
current two boards with one unified skill - based board
of approximately nine to 11 directors. Now that board would
be selected using a Skills Matrix to ensure expertise in
areas such as finance, governance, legal, marketing, communications, tourism, and
economic development. Importantly, the mayor of Windsor and the Warden
of Essex County would continue to serve, ensuring strong, municipal
involvement. And the mayor and the warden may each designate
a member of their respective councils as an alternate. This
would ensure consistent, municipal representation, and accommodate scheduling conflicts and
other official commandments. Separate advisory committees for economic development and
tourism would also provide that sort of specialized sector expertise.
Next slide, please. One of the most common questions we've
received is whether either organisations brand would disappear. And the
answer is no. North Guide specifically recommends maintaining both investments
or Essex and tourism wins - r - 6 -
p - i - l as distinct business units under
one legal parent company. Both brands have built significant credibility
with very different audiences, maintaining those identities, protects the equity
that we've built in those brands over many years. And
any future consideration of branding would have occur only after
the organisations have successfully integrated operationally. Next slide, please. The
next recommendation focuses on shared services. So rather than duplicating
administrative functions across the two organisations, North Guide recommends consolidating
areas such as finance, human resources, and information technology support.
And by consolidating these services, we create operational efficiencies. And
any efficiencies achieved will be reinvested directly into expanding services
and regional growth and prosperity. Next slide, please. Integration is
much more than just governance. It's also about creating a
shared organisational culture. North Guide recommends beginning immediately by developing
a shared vision, mission values between both organisations. And the
report also identifies a long - term objective of eventually
bringing both teams together into one shared location by 2029.
Next slide, please. North Guide recommends a careful phased -
in implementation. Phase one then would be begin with this
year, focusing on governance, legal structure, shared mission, vision, and
values, and establishing the foundation for integrated growth. A phase
two would be introducing shared services, harmonized policies, formal referral
pathways, and greater operational alignment. And phase three, which should
be extended through 2029, would consider shared space, a future
brand review, and governance assessment after three years. So this
phased in approach minimizes disruption while allowing each milestone to
build upon the previous one. Next slide, please. Successful integration
depends on strong communication and staff engagement. And this report
recommends direct communication from leadership, consistent messaging to funders and
stakeholders like yourselves, and evolving staff and designing the future
organisation. The objective is to build a stronger organisation by
investing in people, not reducing capacity. Next slide, please. Ultimately,
success will be measured by two outcomes. By these outcomes.
Success means a unified board, providing stronger strategic oversight. It
means a streamlined operation, allowing resources to be directed towards
programs and services. And it means staff working collaboratively within
a shared culture built around common mission and values. And
most importantly, it means that the region continues receiving exceptional
service from two - trusted brands that are now even
working more effectively together. So in closing, I'd like to
thank the mayor and counsel for your continued partnership and
support of both Invest Windsor Essex and tourism Windsor Essex
Peley Island. I'd like to thank in particular and recognise
your administration, your CAO, your deputy CAO. We recognise that
the tone is set at the top, and Ms. Critchley,
Ms. Osborne, do that very well. Also give a shout
out to Jennifer him and Myrtle Donnapad. Who have continued
to work very closely with our teams on many projects
and initiatives. Moving forward, invest Windsor Essex and tourism Windsor
Essex Peely Island will continue attracting investment, growing businesses, supporting
entrepreneurs, welcoming visitors, and strengthening the long - term prosperity
of our region. The North Guide recommendations represent an opportunity
to build on the success and deliver even greater value
to our municipalities, businesses, residents, and visitors. So I want
to thank you very much for your time tonight, and
I'd be pleased to answer any questions you may have
your worship. Absolutely. Any questions of Mr. Oar, right away,
Cosla McArthur, then Councillor Crane. Thank you, Worship. Just a
quick question. So have these recommendations been approved by the
city and the county, or is that still to come,
or where's that? Good question. Three of your worship to
the councillor. Thank you very much. The city has approved
the recommendations. It's going to county council on September the
2nd with administrative support by Administration recommending acceptance as well.
Okay, are there any cost savings with this merger? There
are no cost savings identified at this juncture. 2027, both
organisations will have two separate budgets. And again, any efficiencies
that we find internally would then be used to build
capacity. Uh, these organisations, as you know, Councillor have been
flat - funded for over a decade. Uh, and the
growth. So everything costs more now. So what we're trying
to do is find operational efficiencies and use them internally.
Okay, looks like you might be saving some on the
Perdium. So like, talk with me through the board structure
again, because currently the seven political representatives on the tourism
Wessex, Peely Island Board, two from the city, two from
the county, the head of each. And then one, of
course, from Peeley Island. And it sounded like there's going
to be a lot less. And political representatives elected representatives
are the voice of the people. So justify that new
structure for the people of Amortsburg, who may rightly wonder
why, you know, mayor Pru, or Deputy Mayor Gibb, or
county representation is not on that board like it was
in the past. Sure, through you to your worship, back
to the councillor. So right now, uh, the tourism board,
uh, allows for three representatives from the city. One has
to be the mayor. Three representatives from the county, one
has to be the warden. Uh, the city does not
receive per DMs to attend the meetings. Uh, the county
does. Uh, those funds, those charges are not charged back
to our organisation. Um, we do recognise the fact that,
uh, invest Winds only has two politicians on the board,
meaning the heads of both councils, meaning city and county.
So the mayor and the warden, uh, we felt going
forward that it would be more prudent to have more
sector expertise, uh, in both economic and tourism to be
on the board. But then we've established these two advisory
committees, which is really where it's going to be funneled
up, uh, to the board. The board will be looking
more at strategy governance, finance, uh, legal HR, all of
those things. So there still is room for council members
on the advisory committees for sure. And county council would
be able to elect the mayor or the warden rather.
And also an alternate member of county council to sit
on that board. Okay. I thank you in just a
final one. Um, an easier one. Probably more fun for
you. So we've got a big festival coming up cycle
deburg this weekend. Cycling is going gang busters in this
town and this region with the opening of the new
bridge. And I'm surprised it wasn't in your presentation. But
didn't Twepi just do something really cool for bikers in
this region and launch a new website? Yes, I like
that question a lot better. Um, uh, definitely. We've got
bike the bridge. ca and the Gordy Howe International Bridge
with the multi - use path. It just opened, as
you know, last Wednesday. It's only open eight to eight.
And there were over 3, 400 people that transported either
by a foot or by a pedal. Uh, on that
day, which is just phenomenal. We received some input from
our hotel industry on here in line saying that they've
seen an influx and people as far away as Indiana
are driving here and then cycling across and coming back.
Uh, so it's been a real strong growth potential force.
We just launched our new Bike the Bridge, uh, website
and the trails on both sides of the border. Tomorrow
morning, actually the University of Windsor were going to also
be having partnering with the Great Lakes cruising coalition. And,
um, and the, um, The Great Lakes Waterfront Trail, I
should say, and the trans - Canada Trail on bringing,
we've got over 200 cyclists here in the region that
are doing all of our trails, which is excellent. Thank
you. Council Crane. Thank you, worship. Thank you, Gordon, for
the presentation. Uh, as you know, Ambersburg lost its largest
employer, Diagello, uh, are you able to speak to the
focus Invest Windstix has on Amistburg now with that loss.
Any work that's ongoing with the town that you can
share just to give some assurance to residents that, uh,
that property is, you know, consistently being marketed. Yes. Through
your worship to the councillor. Yes. Absolutely. Keenly aware. I
know that this council has put forward your recommendations to
the folks at the province and Diagio. Uh, we've also
supported your number one priority by giving some of our
money if that is the chosen, uh, project, I guess
that they deem appropriate. We have not heard from Diaz
or the province what they've decided that this juncture. Uh,
but what I can tell you is my investment attraction
team led by Jo Gonzalez and his team have been
through the facility. We're well aware now of what the
facility looks like. Uh, we understand that, uh, it's been
purchased or very close to being purchased. Uh, and we've
connected with the possible owner of the company, uh, and
we'll continue to help market it. And now that we
know a lot more about it and what the internal
operations are. So we're keenly aware and we're certainly in
lockstep with your administration and our investment attraction team. Thank
you and to follow up on that through, you worship
to staff. Do we have any response back from the
province. Regarding the funding? You worship of members of council.
No, I have, I have not heard anything back. But
now be the right time to send a follow -
up. But do we need a motion or is that
something that's deaf would be able to do. The worship
members of council I have reached out to MPP Leardi's
office on that. So they know that we're monitoring that
closely, but I can certainly do that again this week.
Thank you. Any other questions of Mr. Oar. Any other
questions. And thank you to you and your team for
coming out. Sorry you had to wait. That's okay. It
was well worth it. Thank you all very much. Good
to see you. All right. I need a motion to
receive. I moved by Councillor McArthur. Second to by Councillor
Courtney. All those in favor. Bows that's carried. Have a
safe drive. Actually avail yourself of one of our fine
restaurants or bars. Spend some money here. Okay. Um, next
presentation is McGregor Lagoon EA Stantek presentations.
Good new meeting everyone. My name's Brook Salter and I'm
here with Zhang Lee. We're both with Stantic, The Consultant
for this project. Uh, tonight we will be providing an
overview. Of the municipal class environmental assessment, uh, that was
conducted for the McGregor sewage works. And we will be
discussing the recommended solution. Next slide, please. Uh, so this
project was, uh, completed as a schedule C class EA,
which follows Byze planning process. Uh, so the first phase
identifies the problem or opportunity. Uh, the second phase identifies
and evaluates alternative solutions. Uh, the third phase identifies and
evaluates alternative design concepts for the preferred solution. Uh, the
fourth phase documents findings in an environmental study report and
then makes it publicly available. Uh, and then the last
phase implementation of the preferred design is not included in
this study. Uh, but the purpose of this class EA
is to determine the preferred solution in conceptual design required
to support future wastewater servicing demands in the community of
McGregor. Uh, next slide, please. So some background review on
the McGregor sewing treatment facility. Um, it is located at
9, 420 Walker Road. Um, it was originally constructed in
1982 with a treatment capacity of 560 metres cube per
day. And then it was later expanded and upgraded in
the early 2000s. Increasing the treatment capacity to 1127 metres
cube per day. Historically, this facility has had strong operating
performance and produce good effluent quality. Uh, and as you
can see in this table, uh, here that the average
daily flow is have increased over the past several years.
Uh, and even, uh, has reached 89 percent of the
facilities rated capacity in 2024. Next slide, please. Uh, so
the treatment process starts at the influent pumping station, uh,
located on Walker Road, uh, where it pumps Rosumage to
the influent chamber. Uh, influent chamber, then discharges the RASU,
which to the North end of cell one, uh, cell
one is the large pawn located on the right in
this figure. Uh, so the facility has three way stabilization
PONS which provide biological treatment and help remove suspended solids
from the wastewater. Uh, the aerators, uh, located in cell
one to provide or to supply oxygen to help break
down organic material. Alum is also added to cell two.
So the middle pawn there for phosphorus removal. Uh, and
then following treatment, uh, Theflin is further polished, uh, through
four intermittent sand filters. And then finally, the treated effluent
is discharged to King Creek through the facility's outfall. Next
slide, please. Uh, so this view here shows the sanitary
servicing area for the McGregor sewage treatment facility. The sanity
collection system was constructed in the 1980s and serves both
the town of Ambersburg and the town of Essex. So
the AMSBR is located west of Walker Road and then
The Town of Essex is located east of Walker Road.
The sanitary collection system consists of four pumping stations. So
the first one is the Walker Road Meme Pumping Station.
The second one is the Du Charmling Pumping Station. Uh,
third one, the Lucier Estates Plumpe Initiation. And then the
last one is The Fox Glenn Pomping Station. Uh, The
Fox Glenn Pompeon Station is located outside of McGregor. Uh,
and therefore is not shown in this figure. But although
Wastewater in the community is collected and directed to the
Walker Roe main pumping Station, uh, which serves as the
infant pumping Station for the treatment facility. Uh, next slide,
please. So expansion is being considered because an analysis completed
in 2018 and historical flow records indicated that the McGreer
Sew Streetment facility was approaching its capacity limit. And also
the town of Ambersburg and, uh, the town of Essex
are both exploring options to accommodate future development within the
community of McGregor, uh, so the figure here on the
left, uh, shows potential development areas within the town of
Ambersburg. And then the figure on the right, uh, shows
potential development areas within the ton of Essex. Uh, next
slide, please. So for this project, the projected feature flows
were divided into two planning phases. Uh, the first phase,
um, includes projected flows over the next 20 years. And
this is estimated to be approximately 3, 252 metre cubes
per day. And then for the second or ultimate phase,
uh, it includes projected flows beyond the 20 year planning
horizon. And as that's made to be approximately 5, 724
metres cubic per day. And so the projective flows are
made up of the existing flows, uh, flow from future
developments within the ton of Essex and the time of
Ambersburg. And it also includes flows from the Howard Industrial
Area. Next slide, please. So as part of this class
EA, um, The Feast BLG of servicing the Howard Industrial
Area through the McGregor sewage treatment facility was evaluated. And
based on this evaluation, uh, the preferred solution identified with
a discharge flows from the Howard Industria to the McGregor
sewage treatment facility. Uh, however, the servicing route remains subject
to further review. And then the figure here on the
right shows the lands that make up the Howard Industrial
Area. Next slide, please. Um, so this figure here shows
the preferred layout for the upgraded facility. Uh, so the
influent compensation located on Walker Road, uh, would be decommission
in a new inlet publing station would be constructed on
site, uh, the flow would then enter new diversion chamber,
uh, which would either direct flow to the screening and
grip removable building or to sell one, uh, which would
be repurposed as a wet weather flow retention PON, uh,
to prevent overloading the treatment process during storm events, uh,
and then, uh, The influent would then be treated in
the new sequencing batch reactor tanks. Uh, and then any
sledge generated during the treatment process, uh, would be handled
in the new dewatering building. Uh, the Efflunt would then
undergo additional treatment through the new cloth DISC filters, uh,
followed by UB disinfection before being disturged to King Kreeka
through the existing outfall. Next slide, please. So to account,
uh, the future wastewater servicing demands in the community, collection
system upgrades are anticipated. Sewer capacity, uh, analysis was completed,
uh, to identify any sections of the collection system, uh,
that may require upgrades, uh, as flows increase. Uh, so
the analysis determined, uh, the upgrades are required for 18
trunk sewers along Walker Road. Two sewers on 11th concession
road and one sewer on middle side road. So you
can see in the figure on the right here that
the sewers highly didn't green have adequate capacity. Uh, the
sewer is highlighted in yellow and orange have marginal capacity
and the sewer is highlighted in red have exceeded their
design capacity under ultimate flow conditions. Next slide, please. So
pumping station upgrades are also anticipated to accommodate future wastewater
serving demands in the community. So I've shown in this
table, um, the walker road me compensation and the decerm
lane pumping station, uh, do not have sufficient capacity to
meet the 20 year and ultimate design flows. And as
such, it's recommended that the Walker Road Pumping Station be
replaced with a new inlet POMP station with the firm
capacity 201. 2 litres per second and size to accommodate
the ultimate design flow of three Enduring 22. 2 litres
per second. And then as for the ducerm lane pumping
session, the existing compensation is recommended to be upgraded to
a firm capacity of 5. 6 litres per second. Next
slide, please. Uh, so in summary, uh, the pineal probable
cost for the proposed expansion of the McGregor sewage treatment
facility is approximately 35. 5 million dollars. That's made cost
for upgrade to them a great collection system is approximately
6. 1 million dollars. The McPumbi station is approximately 10.
5 million dollars. But please keep in mind that these
are high level costs. And it would be further refined
during detailed design or another future stage, uh, in the
project. Uh, next slide, please. Uh, so as for next
step, so the notice of completion was issued on June
25th. The next steps will include finalising the environment adult
study report, uh, based on input received from review agencies.
And then the report will be placed on public record.
And then following completion of the class EA Council Direction,
uh, will be provided as to whether, uh, implementation, uh,
they will proceed with implementation of the recommended works. Um,
and then next slide, please. It. Thank you for your
time. Does anyone have been any questions. Questions. Okay. Okay.
I was just going to say before questions. What is
being requested here today. Is not to spend 52 million
dollars. I heard some gasps out there. Uh, what is
being requested is for us to approve this as a
long - term goal. Leave it with staff and see
if, uh, in the future some government or some somebody
wants to assist us in paying. And also we have
to negotiate with the town of Essex as well. So
it's no gasp. Please. Okay. Uh, Councillor Courtney. A couple
of questions. So we do this infrastructure provides for both
residents on the AMSberg site and Essex. Do we know
what percentage or stake in the game as it contributes
to our existing lagoons and wastewater. Currently. I don't know
the exact percentage. Off the top of my head. But,
uh, Essex is proposing more for the future development. Uh,
so that would, would be considered in the future. Um.
Okay. I think rather than let's go right to Todd.
Thank you, three, Mr. Mayor, to Councillor Courtney. Um, right
now the town of Ambersburg manages and maintains the system
as well as the Lagoon system as well as the
sewer system. So the Essex residents, um, that are on
that system pay the same sewage rates that all town
of Ambersburg residents pay. And right now that, uh, Lagoon
system is split about 50 - 50. It's evenly shared.
Um, the town of Essex is a partner in this
EA process. They are, we are splitting the cost of
this EA 5050 with them as well. Um, and that
gets to the point of at least, um, adopting the
ESR as the possible, uh, forward path for future growth
immigrer. Beyond that, any discussions of how that future growth
is funded would be a discussion with the town of
Essex at that time. Okay. Question, because I'm looking at
the recommendation, it uses the word endors, not receive. That
kind of made me ask. Why were endorsing, if we
want to increase the ability to have more houses out
there. But why can we not just receive this report?
Because to me, receiving should be adequate. Your worship members
of council, we need, um, an endorsed environmental class assessment,
uh, for a variety of reasons. One reason is, uh,
we need to have that if we wanted to go
further for any grant funding. We have to have that
endorsed by council that we have a plan and we
have the plan on the books and ready to go.
And what is our current capacity of our existing lagoons
and treatment facility? What was the number? It's a big
robust report. The existing capacity is 1127 metres cube per
day. I mean, where are we at capacity for more
houses right now to tie in a before we have
to say no more houses can be built. Like what
percentage of capacity are we at right now? We're close
to maximum. Yeah. Yeah. I would say it's closer to
like 80 to 90 percent of capacity right now. And
what's the utmost threshold? Cause I know it's not 100.
I think we talked about this a couple of years
ago, Todd. So Todd's got the quote. Answer, okay. Through
you, Mr. Mayor. I'll take this one, Brooke. So right
now we have limited growth in McGregor. So, uh, in
2018, we did a capacity assessment that assessed that we
had about 100 and I'll give it 140 lots of
capacity. Those were distributed between the town of Essex and
the town of Ambersburg at that time. Um, based on,
uh, we did a calculation based on how many they
had, how many lots Essex had built since the expansion
in the 2000, which they had partnered in and how
many Ambersburg had. And we distributed those lots. The town
of Ambersburg right now, uh, has approximately 80 lots left.
Those are currently committed to the, um, trails subdivision. And
the town of Essex is pretty much used up all
of their, uh, growth with, uh, The apartment building that
they built behind the church as well as the expansion
of the Ducharmelean subdivision. Okay. And looking at the mapping
and the report on page 60, um, the rationale for
the expansion. I'm looking at these, the red mapping here
of future, uh, residential, what, what number of houses would
that include by doing this kind of infrastructure? Well, redo.
Like how many houses are we talking. Through you, Mr.
Mayor, to Councillor Courtney. It's not, we try to do
it based on, um, per hectar and designs of what
we believe to be, you know, the future growth sizing
of homes versus what, uh, some of them were built
now. Um, the, uh, chart that was in the graphics
earlier had a, so sort of the 20 year projected
flows. And what it showed is that the town of
Ambersburg feature development was about 30 percent. Of the future
flow in the town of Essex future development was going
to be about three three three percent. So they're, their
growth rate is a little bit higher than ours. They
have a little bit more land that is buildable. Um,
but ultimately when you say 30 percent, to double the
size housing wise of what Ambersburg has now in McGregor.
Okay. So my last statement is obviously we got to,
we, we had to move forward with this. And if
it's for grant funny, you still got to figure out
where you're going to get money. So 52 million, my
jaw hit the floor when I looked at these numbers.
And it sounds like it's all got to be put
together because you need pumping stations to pump the new
infrastructure to the lagoons, whatever. Um, is there any criteria
for us to cap in these open lagoons right now?
We're grandfathered with the existing system as is. Do we
have to do anything? Are we mandated to move and
advance this into facilities? Um, do you, Mr. Mayor, to
Councillor Courtney, no, if we choose, if the town of
Ambersburg or the chooses to move forward with no growth,
future growth in McGregor, uh, depending on cost or, or
those any other, uh, criteria, the lagoon system, as long
as we continue to meet our effluent criteria, can operate,
uh, imperpetuity. Uh, we have no issues out there currently
with effluent quality. We would, in the end, we can't
expand the lagoon system. It's at its maximum now. So
the only really option with respect to expansion would be
to go to, uh, treatment plant style as was identified
in the, uh, OK. So again, I'm not, we'll endorsed
it, I guess, based on the wording that the, not
MCA. So we need, but we've got a capabilities of
50, 000 residents for our in town one. So expansion
and growth to me, this would be irresponsible. I mean,
if we have to stop growth in McGregor too expensive,
the infrastructure, but, uh, I'll listen to the council members,
but, uh, yeah. Anyhow, thank you. Councillor Pouge. Thank you,
Mr. Mayor. Um, through you to, I believe it would
be, uh, The planner. So, uh, why is there no
other option offered other than the 52 million treatment plant.
Like for example, the option for adding an additional settling
pond. So we did consider adding additional, uh,
lagoons. That was, uh, after an evaluation, it wasn't a
recommended option because, uh, due to the required increase in
capacity, um, there's not enough space on land to accommodate,
uh, the number of pawns that we would need. To
provide the required treatment. That scene is the ministry of
environmental basically is another accepter, uh, pound only option. If
you touch it upon, if we want to expand it
has to be always more advanced treatment. Than other things
as a broker mention is that is a limited space.
That it is a restriction here for the, for the
expansion options. Okay. Thank you. Is it true that it's
just gene settling ponds have not been cleaned out since
2013. Three, Mr. Mayor, uh, Councillor Pouge. That is accurate.
Um, the PONS were put in in the 1980s, early
1980s. Cell one, which is the main, uh, influenced cell
was cleaned, I believe 2010 or 2007 maybe. And the
SET PON2 was cleaned in 2013. Okay, thank you. So
there was an additional settling pond. I understand, I guess
you can't use that. If I'm correct, if that's correct.
And the existing suddening ponds were cleaned. How long would
the projected lifespan be for the ponds? And would they
be able to accommodate, uh, residential expansion at the Howard
Industrial Plant. Through you, Mr. Mayor, to Councillor Pouje, the
PONS themselves, uh, with maintenance could be operated for as
long as we can. I mean, we maintain them now.
They've been there for closing in on 45 years and
we would expect them to continue to operate. What we
cannot predict is whether the Ministry of Environment will continue
to allow it as we move forward, whether they try
to change the effluent criteria that we currently have. Um,
the reasoning one of the reasons why we struggle to
add another POND for capacity is because once you, uh,
as Dr. Lee mentioned, once you start to change your
platform, so to speak out there, the MOE or the
MECP, sorry, old school, the MECP will start to change
the effluent criteria. So they want, once you look to
expand, they're going to want to have better effluent criteria
than you have now. And with an expanded lagoon system,
we would struggle to meet even the criteria that we
meet now. Um, with respect to, uh, cleaning them or
the capacity. And I'm glad you brought up The Howard
Industrial Zone because it was mentioned in the, um. In
the presentation. Um, the capacity that would be required for
the Howard Industrial Zone could not be accommodated in the
PONS as they sit, even if we were to add
another pond, even if it was possible. That would not
be sufficient. Um, we estimated those flows to be in
the range of, I think one to two thousand. I
apologise for not knowing that number right off the top
of my head. But in comparison, the flows that we
would anticipate from the Howard Industrial Zone would be more
than what the Lagoons treat now as a capacity. So
we would almost, we would have to double the lagoons
just to service the Howard Industrial lands. And again, with
the land constraints that we have there, that's even if
the MECP was favorable to that, uh, it's not an
option for us in that area. Any other questions. Councillor
McArthur. Just dead a question for Todd. So it's largely
kind of flowing under the radar, what we've done over
in golf you. But it's one of the most remarkable
achievements, I think, like in terms of recreational infrastructure and
livability for residents in that area. And everywhere. But those,
when we decommissioned, you know, those lagoons, we turned it
now into there's eucalyfer walk there and the birds from
all over the world. It's a beautiful nature trail. I
appreciate the two situations are a little bit different and
that this one was going to have a treatment, you
know, facility on site potentially down the road. But are
there opportunities to decommission if and when those things get
decommissioned to do what we did in golf you and
give a little something back to the residence. Three, Mr.
Mayor to Councillor McArthur. Yes. It absolutely would be a
possibility to do that. Um, similar to Edgewater, we would
save one of the cells for wet weather flow, which,
uh, has been excellent for the edgewater system because it
allows for that, um, the reduction of possibile flow into
basements because it gives us that area to pump. The
sewage, even when it can't be pumped to the main
plant. And so we can store it. And this system
would have the same. But if we were to decommission
and with some fencing and other requirements, um, we would
hopefully be able to achieve the same thing, uh, as
we move forward with that decommissioning. Right as you say
right now, we don't allow traffic there. But if we
were to secure it in a similar way that we
do at edgewater where it's fenced and that wet weather
cell is there, but not accessible. Um, those options could
be available in the future if this was to move
forward. I just want to say this is, you know,
editorializing and it's a lot of money. Uh, so I'm
not even sort of considering it. But right there that
land, I mean, it's adjacent to two conservation areas. I
mean, there's already an active trail system there. Uh, the
ATV club goes there. It would link Howard and Walker
Road. So I mean, for the residents in that area,
if at some point that would be a real added
bonus, uh, to the addition of, you know, the expansion
of infrastructure, water infrastructure for housing. But recreationally, and I
know it's a way down the road. And it's a
lot of money, but that could be a gem that
comes out of all of this. Okay. Uh, any other.
Go ahead. Real quick. Todd, it was mentioned about Howard
Industrial. And we would have to link that within an
ink if we started to go down this path for
expansion. Where does the existing wastewater go with what's out
at how our industrial right now? Mayor, do Councillor Courtney.
There is no sanitary sewers in the Howard Industrial Area
right now, uh, all the businesses and buildings that are
there are on septic systems. Thank you. Any other questions
of the presenters. Okay, well, thank you very much to
the presenters. And I guess now I need a motion
to, uh, to bring forward.
Move by Councillor Crane, seconded by Kessler Pouger. We now
have 13. 4 before us, which is the 600 pages.
Oh, sorry. Uh, I need to vote. Yes. Okay. All
those in favor bring it forward. Okay. Carried. Okay. Any
questions of staff on any of this. Council Courtney. Real
quick. Uh, endorsement. What does that require from our staff
in regards to time efforts? We've got a lot on
our plates right now. I don't see this happening anytime
in the near future. So by endorsing what actively our
staff going to be doing with grant seeking and things
like that, or because again, dollar for dollar, we're going
to have to find dollars to match. So is this
worth endorsing right now? Yourship members of council. Absolutely. It
is worth endorsing right now. Um, essentially so that should
further grant opportunities become available. We will have that piece
satisfied that we do have an endorsed and fully completed
environmental class assessment. One of the steps as Ms. Psalter
stated in her presentation was the next thing would be
that it would all be filed appropriately with the MEC
P and placed on the environmental register. And that's the
final step. Um, in terms of staff time moving forward,
um, essentially until, um, council gives us direction to move
forward with this project. We won't be doing anything actively.
Um, obviously whenever, um, big infrastructure grant programs are announced
by the province or the federal government. We assessed all
projects that are outstanding against them. And if we thought
that this was a good match, um, that we could
move forward with, obviously with the cooperation of the town
of Essex, we would then bring that to council for
consideration of further direction. And I will defer to Mr.
Hugher, Ms. Osborne, if there are any further things I'd
like to add. Through you, Mr. Mayor, to Council, thank
you, CAO Critchley. Further to that, The Howard Industrial Park
is included in this particular study as Council is aware
we're currently in the middle of doing some work with
our consultants to better understand how those lands can be
developed, what sort of industry can be there. One of
the questions that they need to provide is value for
investment, which sanitary sewer is one of those things. If
they come back with that information, that that can be
value added in order for us to develop out the
Industrial site. There are federal and provincial grants of a
sizable nature that this being endorsed would position us to
start to seriously look at going after those funds. Any
other questions. Seeing none, they need a motion. Councillor McArthur.
Recommendation. Second of my councillor Crain. Any discussion. All those
in favor. Posed that's carried. Okay, then let's go back
to the next. Presentation, which is number 9. 3 The
Audited 2025 audited year and presentation.
Go ahead, the floor is 7. 1. Hear me okay?
So excuse me, what number are we on? It's number
9. 3. It's on the purple sheet.
Okay, is there someone going to present this. Yeah, just
confirm you can hear me, okay? Okay, sure. Go ahead.
Thank you through you, Mr. Chair. Um, so we have
here a summary of our audit findings and the financial
operations for the year. We had presented the full findings
and statements to the audit and finance advisory committee on
July 22nd. What you'll see here is a summary. The
full audit findings and statements were included in the council
package. So in terms of our engagement status, as I
mentioned, we have presented the financial statements and findings to
the audit and finance committee. Uh, we have substantially completed
our audit procedures over the consolidated statements of the municipality
and pending approval of our following subsequent event items. Um,
anticipate being able to sign our independence report. So those
items would be approval of the financial statements by cancel,
uh, receipt of signed management representation letter that was provided
to management today. Completion of our subsequent event procedures up
until today's date. And then confirmation of, um, the remaining
legal confirmations that we've sent out as of today's date
to receive back. In terms of the scope of our
audit, so I mentioned the full audit findings letter has
been provided in the council package. We have audited the
financial statements of the municipality, including the consolidated statement of
financial position as at December 31st, 2025. They consolidated statement
of operations accumulated surplus net financial assets and cash flows
for the year ended, as well as the notes to
the financial statement, including the significant encounting policies. Our audit
was conducted in accordance with Canadian generally accepted auditing standards
over the financial statements and financial information prepared by management.
We have completed our procedures over the significant risk areas
that were identified in our audit service plan and no
issues were identified within the audit finding letter, uh, with
respect to those procedures. We did not encounter any significant
difficulties disagreements with management or any limitations on our audit
work. So unless any unforeseen complications arise, our audit report
will be an unmodified clean opinion that the financial statements
are fairly presented in accordance with the Canadian public sector
counting standards. Akin confirm that we remained independent throughout the
engagement and we will issue a formal independence letter of
the same. And then as I mentioned, we've requested that
management provide representations of the work provided to us during
our audit. So just some key financial statement highlights to
make here. So you're looking at the consolidated statement of
financial position, which is included within the financial statements that
were uploaded. This is ASA December 31st, 2025. So a
point in time snapshot at that date. Total financial assets.
We're just over 90 million. Financial liabilities 75 million 545,
000, which led to net financial assets of 14, 548,
000. Non - financial assets, which consist of your tangible
capital assets and prepaids was 300 million. Taking all that
into account the accumulated surplus for the town was 315
million for the year. There was a question coming out
of the audit in finance advisory committee that I said
I would get back to. So that will come back
to their meeting, but just for councils, uh, understating as
well. So the question in regards to one of the
notes, note 17 with respect to the aging of taxes
receivable given that that bucket was in the over 20
days and kind of just coming back with, uh, an
assessment of the typicalness of that presentation. So in looking
at similar sized municipalities, um, based on similar billing cycles,
I can confirm that anything kind of over that 90
to 120 days, um, is consistent with a similar billing
cycles and similar seis municipalities. Looking now at the consolidated
statement of financial activities. So this is the operations of
the municipality throughout 2025. Total revenues were 77 million 799,
000 expenses were 54 million six hundred eighty three thousand,
which led to an annual surplus under the PSAS reporting
standards of 23 million 116, 000. So taking that into
account with your beginning accumulated surplus. We reconcile back to
that same accumulated surplus we saw in the first statement
of 315 million. The next statement is the statement and
change in that financial assets. So this takes into account
the annual surplus for the year and the changes in
the non - financial assets to reconcile to the change
in the net financial assets for the year. So starting
out the year with 9, 174, 000 and ending the
year with that 14, 548, 000, which we saw in
the first page, which is your financial assets. Less your
financial liabilities. The last statement in the package is the
statement of cash flows. And this is a reconciliation of
where the cash was provided or used in the year,
taking into account your operations investing capital and financing activities.
So again, starting the reconciliation with the annual surplus and
looking at those provided or uses of caches, uh, whether
that's an investing pieces for capital side of it, the
acquisition of tangible capital assets factors in. So that's a
decrease in cash. And then any repayments of debt or
receipts of any debts to finance those pieces as well.
So take it into account. So during the year, there
was a decrease in cash over all of five million,
which led to the ending cash balance of 63, 667,
000. I'll note too that the policies and no disclosures
are consistently applied from the previous year and a full
copy of the financial statements was provided in the council
package as well. When we look to our audit recommendations,
there was no significant deficiencies in internal controls that were
noted. We do have a couple of best practice findings,
um, around treasury management. So just for the town to
continue to review their cash management strategies, um, to look
at any excess cache, again, looking at kind of future
funding projects that are coming up or investing opportunities as
well. And then on the reserve side, again, just to
continue to monitor for sufficiency for upcoming projects, the funds
that have been set away to finance those pieces. Um,
so again, no significant deficiencies were noted, but just some
best practice considerations around those pieces. In terms of our
unadjusted differences, uh, there was three that were noted here
that management has signed off as part of the engagement.
These do not come to our bar of materiality so
they don't impact our opinion given that they were approved.
The first one is an estimate of potential matters that
recovered by insurance or any deductibles in those regards on
going operations within the normal course of business. The second
tier just relate to the timing difference of when the
Essex dividends is recorded on the cache basis. Whereas we
would look to the accrual basis for, for PSA. But
as you can see, those amounts are quite similar there.
So overall, uh, the total impact of those unadjusted items
that were approved by management is 165, 000. Lastly, just
a piece that's update. So just providing more details around
the update. The counting standard that is coming for fiscal
year ends beginning, honour, after April 1st, 2026, early adoption
is permitted, but we are expecting to see, um, it
will be permitted when it, they come out with the
fear there. Um, in terms of the changes, the financial
statement of financial position, uh, is expected to have some
presentation changes, but overall no significant changes to any of
the anal surplus or accumulated surplus that's been reported. With
that, I will open it up to any questions. Are
there any questions. Any questions. Seeing none. So thank you
very much for your report. Thank you. And, uh, I
need a motion now to bring forward 11. 3. Moved
by Councillor McArthur, seconded by. Councillor Pouger. Uh, any discussion.
All those in favor. Opposed. That's carried. Okay. So 11.
3 is the year end. Reporting audited consolidated financial statements.
Any questions of staff, uh, Councillor McArthur. Thank you. Deputy
CAO or the CAO. You know, I was always a
words guy. Not at not, not a numbers guy, but
when I read that, I pull a lot of positives
out of that, uh, net financial assets increased. From 9.
2 to 14. 5 million municipal that declined by about
2. 1 million or nine percent. Capital assets up. And
despite all our capital investment, we still had reserves and
reserve funds of about 45 million. So taken together, does
that suggest our financial, uh, position is improving. Council. I'll
certainly defer to, uh, the deputy CIO and also to,
uh, Mr. Mancina, who is our, uh, financial consultant. Um,
but yes, absolutely. Um, all of the indicators are moving
in the appropriate direction. And I would say this is
probably the strongest set of financial statements that we've had
certainly in this term of council. I also think that
the improved financial planning that we've implemented in terms of
moving forward with the seven year capital plan has helped
us to more appropriately plan and stage our projects and
move slowly to a pay as you go model, as
you all know, we've done that with, uh, the new
fire truck that will be purchasing. It's also helped us
to be able to fund some of our ongoing projects
as they are ongoing. And we've delayed the need to
issue debt. And until it was absolutely necessary. So that's
also another positive. So yes, I would say that this
is a good news story. And I will deter to
the CIO or to Mr. Mancini if they have anything
else to add. Through your worship, uh, to, uh, I
would comment similarly to the CAO that certainly this financial
statement and the results do demonstrate a very strong financial
profile. I think I've seen in my work here, looking
back at some of the financials. And I think Ms.
Osborne did present a presentation a couple of meetings ago
was relates to some other relevant financial indicators. And if
you compare accumulated surplus, uh, total cash, total financial assets,
net financial assets. And you compare, for example, 2017 even
to 2025. You see dramatic improvements in the financial profile
of the municipality. And so, yes, very much, uh, councillor
McArthur, I think your comments are very much in line
with what you're seeing in terms of these financial statements.
The other thing that I would highlight as well is,
um, we do get a financial indicators report from the
province, municipality does get one every year. Uh, and in
the last financial indicators report, uh, The Municipality had a
low risk indicator, a low risk across all indicators, both
financial and sustainability. And that is a market improvement from
like 2017. So all things are moving in the right
direction. Okay. Thank you. I've got a couple of follow
- ups. So one, am I reading it correctly that
because we sort of have cash on hand to internally
finance, you know, some big ticket projects, fire station, water
treatment plant that we saved between 1. 3 and 1.
5 million in interest. True, Mr. Mayor, two members of
council. Yes. Our ability to fund those projects rather than
issuing debt right from the start based on our cash
flow and our reserve levels was projected at about a
1. 4 million dollar cost avoidance in interest charges. Okay.
Um, and then we just heard the auditor talk about,
they found no significant deficiencies and internal controls. No issues
identified. Uh, in their testing of significant risk areas, um,
so is it fair, I guess, for the public to
take some, some reassurance from those findings. Through you, Mr.
Mayor, two members of council, I would say yes, understanding
that these audit procedures, uh, only go so far in
depth when they do their audit for those litmus tests
around those sorts of things. However, I certainly defer to,
I believe she is still online. She is, Ashley, if
you want to comment further around that. And certainly Mr.
Mansina, based on your 40 years of municipal audits, what
you have seen around those things as well. Yep. Happy
to comment from our perspective there. Um, As Ms. Bourne.
Osborne mentioned we do a RESPE audit targeted to the
RESP - sections. No findings in that regard, no significant
findings on the internal controls. Uh, we haven't done a
deep dive on the internal controls more so from reviewing
the processes and procedures, uh, but for what we're, we're
seeing there. So I do think from that perspective, um,
that we've looked at it with an independent lens, um,
that there's assurance to be gained there. Okay. Thank you
for that. And just one more. I've got one final
question. And actually I would appreciate Mr. Mancina's perspective on
this because he's been around the block. He's been in
different missing paladies. And also, you know, our staff as
well. But reserves, you know, it's a constant debate we
have here, you know, a decade ago or a bit
longer. We sort of didn't have many left. And, uh,
or much in the bank and the way in reserves.
So over time these past eight years, we've been prediligement
about trying to stock them up again. And we just
saw, we saved 1. 5 million in interest because we
have some money. Now we have about 45 million in
reserve and reserve funds. But I don't know if we're
out of the woods yet. I mean, MNPs recommended that
we continue reviewing our reserves to make sure they're sufficient
for upcoming projects. And we just saw one 52 million
dollars tonight. So, you know, I guess from an outsider's
perspective, different municipalities coming at this town. How is our
reserve level now? Because a lot of times people, they
can perceive it as overtaxation. It's better in their pockets
than in ours, but also we have some big ticket
projects coming up. And, uh, you never know, uh, when
it might rain. So how do you determine a healthy
reserve balance and how is our town doing compared to
comparator municipalities. Thank you for the question through you, Mr.
Mayor, to Councillor McArthur. So in terms of the reserve
fund balance, it's certainly looking at the history of the
statements and looking at the reserve fund balances are absolutely
has been a market improvement in that. I think what's
really important is, um, your funding strategies, as CAO has
indicated has changed over the last number of years. So
rather than funding capital works through debt issuance on our
regularized basis for sort of your routine and ongoing capital
works, there's been a shift where you're funding those on
a seven year plan and funding them from revenues that
are generated and reserved funds that are available on an
ongoing and sort of a pag as you go basis.
So I think that's really an important element of it.
So while the reserve funds do appear healthy and they
are up here healthy, room to continue to build on
that, recognising as well that, um, a number of those
are also deferred revenue, which means there are certain legislative
requirements around those deferred revenues that they must be spent
for investments specific to development charges, for example. And so
forth. And so to some extent, that limits your ability
to leverage investing it in long - term investments that
don't allow you to draw it based on looking at
your capital works program. So I think the short answer
to it is I think you have absolutely some healthy
reserves. But I think it requires due diligence in the
part of administration and council to continue to monitor those
very closely on an ongoing basis to ensure that they're
matched. Against your capital program. And to reserve sort of
the dead issuance for those sort of long - term
multi - generational projects that can't be funded perhaps through
those reserves. But allowing further regular day - to -
day capital works program leveraging grant funding to be able
to draw on those reserve as much as you're able
to. Just add to that a little bit. So, um,
Mr. Mancina had spoken about some of your reserves being
more dedicated. And you had commented councillor around some people
thinking, well, these reserves are they not high enough. Can
you stop taxing us? So in relation to what Mr.
Mansina is saying, some of those reserves are made up
of OSIP funding Canadian Community benefit DC's grants. They account
for almost 22 million dollars worth of your reserves. So
those are things that are not taxpayer - based funded.
They are a third party and or developer charges. So,
so taking those out of the equation leaves the rest
of your tax sort of based ones, especially the general
reserves. So your asset management program over the last several
years, this council has been making appropriate investments in increasing
those reserves. And the result of that is you have
a seven year forecasted capital budget that you can execute.
We've been able to fund the fire hall and the
water reservoir project knowing they were coming within your existing
dollars. We have been able to fund a three million
dollar fire truck by planning it over those five years
based on the funding that we need to pay as
that. Unit gets built before it is delivered. And you're
avoiding putting in Mr. Mincyna mentioned this. You're avoiding issuing
debt for projects that are in the neighbourhood of 400,
000 dollars, 245, 000 dollars. 123, 000 dollars
funded by issuing debt. You're now funding those directly out
of your capital program leveraging the reserves that you are
building and still sustaining appropriate reserves to pivot and move
on new projects that you may want to deal with
as well. So it may seem, um, and it's always
that, that dangerous balance of how much is enough before
we start increasing the taxes. However, at this point, these
things have avoided the issuance of debt on many projects.
That before we're quite small that you were issuing dead
on. Any other questions, I saw Councillor Crane first and
then Councillor Pouge. Do you want to mention the committee
also met on this? Ashley mentioned a variety of the
points as well. But the committee supported the presentation and,
uh, the report. So I just want to let Council
know that. Councillor Pouger. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Julie, I do find this report surprising because eight months
ago, uh, we were told that we had the highest
deck per capita and our reserves were at risk. This
was when we were entering into, um, budget deliberations. And
so does the, and at the time we were told
that our fire hall was going to actually cost us
23 point some million with 30 years debentures. And that
our proposed water treatment plant could cause us up to,
um, for the expansion up to 35 million dollars. So
why does it seem like it's so different now? It's
a difference between night and day, eight months ago until
now. But through you, Mr. Mayor, who provided those specific
comments? Because I don't recall those statements being made by
administration. Yes. They were made by administration. We were cautioned
over and over again to be careful about taking money
out of reserves. During budget deliberations. Taking money out of
reserves in order to avoid tax increases potentially. However, the
numbers that you're quoting with respect to how much the
debt will cause for the fire hauler water reclamation, I
don't believe where statements of administration, but other members of
council and residents that based on the total cost associated
with it once you factor in all of the interest
over those years. But the project itself costs the 11
point, whatever million we're issuing for dead. So I'm just
trying to understand. So what is it with the debentures?
How long are we going to be venturing and went?
What is the total cost for it? So that is
report is actually on the agenda this evening. If you'd
like to save those questions for when we go to
that report, I'm happy to answer them. Okay. Um, and
then the other question is, um, for our building reserve,
uh, building reserve fund is only, the interest is only
0. 36 percent. And the building reserve capital interests is
only 0. 354 percent. And that appears to be, uh,
far below the inflation. And I believe that was one
of the questions from the audit and finance committee that
they were concerned about this. So I do not recall
that question being brought up at audit and finance. However,
Councillor for clarity, your assertion is that there is no
interest that is earned on the building operating fund reserve
or the capital operating fund reserve. Is that what I'm
understanding your. Comment is. Inflation. The interest on it.
How is that calculated. I'm just curious as to your
source. Well, I believe it was in the report. On
what page. In front of me.
All I can suggest you have the question. Can you
get back to the councillor in a day or two
if you can find it? Or if she can get
back to you in a day or two, if she
can find it. Yes, that would be helpful. I think
that's the only thing we can do at this juncture.
Okay. Any other questions. Councillor Courtney. Every year at the
year end, just same question pops up. So we talk
about reserve building as Council McCarth said how, where should
we be? What's the threshold? I know capital. There's a
lot of moving parts. And you always look at the
final line, your surplus. And this year it was, uh,
it was 2. 141 million dollars. That saving accept. So
the 483, 000 dollar WSIB rebate that doesn't happen very
often, correct? Well, my story I'm going to talk in.
Are you referring to the urine surpluses, councillor? I think
it's a different report that you're referring to. We're not
an 11. 4. I got an 11. Foot. Oh, my
bad. Okay. I'll see you on the way. Okay. Any
other questions for 2025. In the other. Uh, Councillor is
moving to staff recommendations. Seconded by Councillor Crane, any discussion.
Seeing no discussions, all those in favor. Opposed. Well, I
saw a majority vote for it anyway. Okay. I think
discussion was going elsewhere. Okay. Which takes us to the
only delegation 10. 1 has cancelled. So it's 10. 2
is the only delegation. And that is Marco Gardonio on
item 13. 5. So by 10. 1 being cancelled, are
you referring to the delegate being here? Yes. It's Orin.
Zorro and vasic informed the clerk that he's not coming.
Okay. So the delegation is cancelled. But what we do
have a delegation on the same, uh, matter. Yeah. On
the same matter, um, Marco, um, Gardonio. Is Marco here.
Come on up. Uh.
Good evening Mayor and council. I'm here in regards to
the McCurdy Drive. My name is Marco Gardonio. I'm the
current heavy construction. Heavy construction association president of Windsor. And
Dwayne Dawson director. Is with me. I'm here on behalf
of that association who build our roads. Our water mains
are sewers, our structures. Uh, to address the buy Ontario
Directive. That has been included and has been brought on
by the province onto municipalities buyers sellers of goods and
services from the government. Over the last few days, our
association has made contact with the, uh, town staff. And
on the Bio, Ontario and how they are being applied
on the construction tenders within the town of Amsburg. Those
conversations have started to become more open and constructive. And
staff have informed me that they are looking more at
the commitment aspect when appropriate. I should also say that
our association has nothing against biontario. We are the Ontario
content. Our people live here are people work here. Our
equipment is here. They aggregate the pipe. Everything is from
here. The only question we have is the method that
the province offers. And works best with this kind of
work, the heavy construction. Uh, the province is given municipalities
more than one way to do this, uh, requirement that
they've put down on, onto us. Uh, there's the evaluated
approach, which McCurdy used. And gives where each bidder puts
a number that they, we feel sometimes. It's very hard
to determine at time of tender sometimes. How much Ontario
content is actually in. The project. So it's, it's an
arbitrary number that the contractors are filling in. But this
number gives an advantage. To when you're using that evaluated
method. To the bidder who puts the most Ontario content
in their price, in their form on your tender. Which
can have real consequences. With costs and thing which it
looks like based on the report. Happened at McCurdy. So
our association. Thinks that price should always dictate the lowest
price. And that the preferred method should be a commitment
method rather than the evaluated method. The difference
is between each bidder for Ontario content on these projects
is very minimal. It's sometimes only one to two percent
difference between each bidder. If they filled out the forms
properly. Sometimes it gets, it's hard, it's brand new and
it's very hard for contractors to figure it out. Both
contractors then I think administration because it's brand new to
all of us. So. The difference is that. There's no
offshoring. There's no foreign bidders bidding on municipal contracts. Most
municipal contracts. And using a scored method is just a
separation of a few points. And no actual benefit. To
Ontario in that sense. So going with extra money. To
the municipality if they're using that method. And I want
to be clear that I'm not criticizing counsel or not
council administration. Uh, the method used was one, the province
allowed for. It permits. And it's set out in the
tendered arguments. To all the bidders. And they use that
criteria. But what I want to ask is that going
forward, the report that council received on McCurdy shows the
10 percent advantage. And how it was calculated. And how
each bidder put it in. I don't believe that is
in the report. For McCurdy right now. It just states
who had the lowest Ontario content. And that would be
useful for administration and council. For future contracts. Okay.
Are you finished? I was just going to say the
five minutes are up. Oh, is it? Okay. Do you
need more time? I do. Okay. Then is there a
motion to extend move by Councillor Layer seconded by Councillor
McArthur. Posed? Go ahead. All right. Thank you. So the
commitment approach avoids these problems. Of where the lowest bid
does not win the project. And a threshold can be
set. The town of Essex or the county of Esthix
have this threshold that they've set the municipal, uh, associations
of SET, other municipalities have set thresholds, the MTO have
a threshold of 51 percent. It's, it's different. And it
requires market research. Which, uh, our association could help with
and are willing to help with. Applying. And.
We want to counsel two, so our association wants counsel
to align that the commitment method is. The standard. And
when it has to get away from the commitment method,
that they administration has a reason to go away from
that commitment method because that's the simplest and the fairest
method for contractors when they're bidding on projects. And with
that. I'd like to, uh, thank you for your time.
And thank you again to the administration for the discussions
to date. And I'm happy to take any questions. Questions.
Councillor Pouche. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Through you to Marco.
Thank you for your presentation. So, um. It appears that
we awarded construction company, a contract for 121, 800 dollars
more than the lowest spitter. Is that bitch. I believe
I believe that's what the report says. I didn't, I
think that should be directed to. So it's 121, 800
dollars more. For the same product. Same service. Local suppliers.
Subcontractors. Uh, same pits, plants and materials. Is that a
fair statement. Uh. Yeah, it's not, not directed that me
more than that. I couldn't say that. Yeah. I feel
like that's for administration. I think if to staff. Yeah.
Out director's just that. Okay. So my question was, why
wouldn't we save our taxpayers? 121, 800 dollars. When we
have one of the most. Who is the question too?
I'll direct it to Todd. Well, we're not on that
yet. We're still dealing with the, okay, so if you
want to save that question, it's a good one. Um,
but, uh, are there any more questions of the deputy.
Councillor Aler. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I just had
a quick question because I was trying to type down
the approaches you were talking about. You want to seize
the commitment method. What was the other method that you
stated we used? The evaluated method. Do you mean this
palette or which the town of atmosphere had used on
McCurdy. Thank you. Any other questions at the deputy. Okay.
Then, uh, motion to receive the deputation. Councillor Crane seconded
by Councillor Lair. Any discussion, all those in favor. Pose.
Thank you very much for bringing this forward. Now questions
of staff and I'll go right to. Oh, sorry. Yes.
I have to bring forward 13. 5 so that we
can do that. Motion to bring forward councillor McArthur, seconded
bike, uh, Councillor Allaire, all those in favor opposed. That's
carried. We now have 13. 5 in front of us.
Questions of staff. Now I'm going to go to Councillor
Pouger because she was trying to ask them, no, staff
can answer these. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Through you to
Todd. So why wouldn't we save our taxpayers 121, 800
dollars. When we have one, like it just doesn't make
sense to me. I know the By Ontario Act exists.
But with this gentleman says it's really hard to determine
if the second bidder will actually use one hundred percent
of Canadian products. Okay. I think the question is to
the deputy CAO. I know you're looking down to Mr.
Huet, but I think the question is a financial one.
Financial and purchasing related. So I'm going to start and
then I will pass it over to our manager of
purchasing Capitol and Reserves, Ms. Little, after, uh, my comments.
So much in line with, uh, what was just said
by the delegate, uh, The Construction Industry is also finding
it difficult to determine what percentage of, uh, by Ontario
content, they are actually putting forward when we deal with
a submission much like The Purchasing Process that we followed
in accordance with the Biontario. The other option of the
commitment method, which when this particular tender went out, we
had, um, consultants provide for us information to help us
trying to determine whether or not the commitment method was
something that the town could stand firmly on and be
certain that if we were challenged by any of the
bidders, we knew for certain X percentage of that tender
could feasibly be by Ontario. And we have to have
documented evidence and market research to confirm that we actually
know that and can stand on that grounds. Otherwise, we
face the risk of legal prosecution around it from anybody
else. So much the same as the challenges that the
construction industry is going through, we were faced with that.
And we had one person at the time that was
trying to figure it out. So we chose based on
the consultants lack of recommended direction on which method they
thought would be better. The one that would put the
responsibility on the construction industry to firmly definitively state what
their attestation was to Ontario content. The way the process
works is the group that comes back with the highest
Ontario content. And it didn't have to be a hundred
percent. It's just the highest percentage, which I believe they
were in the eighties in this particular case. They get
a arbitrary 10 percent reduction from their price. To make
them more comparable to everybody else. So in this case,
they're 10 percent reduction resulted in their price being less
than the lowest bidder. Which through the definition of the
new legislation, we are required to then take that lower
bid. Now, I want to clarify a couple of things.
Because the entire tender, including the extra 122, 000 as
a result of having to implement by Ontario came forward,
this is over our budget. Council then has the ability
to reject this tender. And we can revisit it at
a later date. I will, however, strongly encourage that if
council is going down that path, you should speak with
Mr. Hewitt as to what those implications are in deferring
this particular project. It's also important to understand that the
project was over budget regardless. The 122 just put it
that much further. So we should not expect that reissuing
this tender under a commitment base would result in a
tender price that would come in on the budget that's
already defined. The other thing to understand is. You cannot
reject. Had this come in on budget and had the
second highest one actually been awarded because of the Biontario
legislation. You are not allowed to reject it without ramifications
against that legislative act. So had this all come in
within budget, including the extra 122. Council would not have
the option. You do have the option to cancel it
because you came in over budget. And therefore that is
a discretion that you have. We are working towards determining
as much inventorium formation as we can in market research
about when projects are actually confident that it is Ontario.
And in many cases locally. The other tender before you
this evening that closed last week was the sidewalk tender.
We set that one as a commitment one. We knew
that the material content, the major component of it was
concrete. We know not only can you source it in
Ontario. You can do it at our own backyard. So
we were confident that was a definitive market research and
we issued it that way. It's come in. It's before
council tonight. There is another tender. Did it go out
today? Um, which is also a large project. It's related
to the southeast quadrant. And it is also commitment -
based. We worked with our team, with other parties that
we have been dealing with. And we are able to
confidently say that we can defend a market research that
a certain percentage of it can absolutely be bintario and
therefore that is how that one was issued as well.
So I just want to make clear to everybody. This
is, this is not a simple process. As it was
said from the delegation. It's not simple for the industry
that does this every day. Um, you can fully expect
that this legislation probably costs us more money. That is
site unseen. The 122 is apparent. There are additional costs
that the construction industry is bearing in order to generate
this data do their own markets research and fill all
of this out that most certainly is probably being passed
along and not in all cases are we going to
have this situation. Unfortunately, our first one out The Gate
was not a commitment - based. We did not feel
it was the right way to go in the first
instance. Um, and this is where we are today, but
it is Council's Perview to reject this and not proceed
forward because you're over budget. The only caution I would
give you is that Mr. Huet obviously put that tender
out for a reason. And we should probably understand the
implications of postponing it. And you should be aware that
you were over budget anyways. Regardless of the 122 differential
because of the different types of bio - Ontario. I
will, however, defer at this point to Ms. Little, because
I think council needs to understand how the legislation came
down and what efforts our team have been doing and
who they've been working with to understand this very complex
legislation. It seems really high level and simple when you
just say 51 percent whatever they submit. There's a far
more nuances than that. Thank you, Ms. Elsborn. Three of
you has to worship to Council and Members. Um, the
directives have come through, as has been stated, um. To
impact or to illustrate the opportunities available, as was mentioned
by Marco. The two approaches are available to us. And
we do, we will be using, um, an evaluation. We
will be reviewing each on a case - by -
case basis to understand, as Miz - Osborne has stated,
which approach would best suit the project at hand. To
identify that we would solely use or exclusively use the
commitment - based over the evaluation - based may not
be prudent of the legislation that's been brought forward. So
we are all working together. We, you know, regional procurement
specialists and professionals to best understand what the objective, how
best we can deliver the objective of the new legislation,
um, with each project that's presented. So as Ms. Osborne
has shared with the first project, we, based on the
resources that we had, the information that we had collected
to that point, we had elected to use the evaluation
approach within the evaluation approach, there are other options within
that. So price only is one option rated criteria is
a second option. Um, and as well, there's, you know,
DSCPs with a 10 percent evaluation score you can factor
in, um, construction schedules, et cetera, et cetera. So they
do become more complex than there are some variables that
we can follow. So first one of the gates, we
have elected the evaluation approach. Um, as Miss Osborne has
shared, we do have two tenders that are before you
this evening that were confident based on the complexity or
lack of complexity value, um, and subject matter expertise that
we were comfortable to defend the commitment - based approach.
Going forward, each case would be each procurement would be
assessed on level of risk, level of resources to defend.
The approaches selected. And information that we have from the
market or from the industry. That said, um, since December,
so the new by Ontario Act came into Royal Asset
on December of 2025. There have been many surveys, many
webinars, many, um, touch points sessions regionally across our province
to better understand what the expectations will be. So it
is, has been shared new policy, new directives evolving every
day. We are all regionally staying connected to understand what
the interpretations are, what changes could be seen, what opportunities
are there to help streamline and be more definitive with
the information that's put forth in each tender. Okay, questions
of staff. Councillor Pouger. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. You know,
at no time was I criticizing Todd for doing this.
I understand the rationale for it. However, what I'm concerned
about is that we have an overexpended show of 682,
872 dollars. And we had to take it from general
reserve. And our wastewater reserve. And, um, I just believe
that this is unacceptable for us. And I think we
should correspond with the Ontario government because this bill only
benefits the successful tender, but burdens are taxpayers. In this
case, with an additional moan of 124, 045 dollars. And.
I don't, I think it's going to require more work
from our staff. To go in and ensure that every
piece of equipment they use or any kind of material
they use. Is purchased in Ontario. I think that's going
to be really time consuming and very expensive for our
staff. And I really do believe we should correspond with
the government and tell them that we are concerned about
this. Okay. That wasn't a question. So I don't know
that there'll be an answer. Okay. Councillor Crane. Three to
staff. Province has definitely made this very complicated and difficult
to follow. Just so I can understand this in layman's
terms. The second bidder, the more construction, after the
evaluation saying that the lowest bidder without the 10 percent
reduction, which is 1. 76 had less Ontario made. Products
or like built into their bid. What we're seeing is
that, and this is, this is what the, um, Marco
had mentioned. The challenge is in this scenario, each of
those construction companies that bid had to create their own
determination of how much buy Ontario content is in their
bid, subject to their interpretation of how they would come
to that evaluative criteria. And then they submit that percentage
into, uh, The tender. The challenge is there is no
challenge on that. What they submit is there attestation. Ms.
Little was on a call quite literally the very next
day with the Ontario buyers. And specifically ask the question
in that scenario whether or not the municipality can challenge
whether or not those that put the largest Ontario content
bid in and result in an overexpenditure such as this
could be challenged. And the advice that was given was
not to do that. Because we are waiting into waters
where we do not have the market research. We do
not have the depth or breath or knowledge to challenge
them on what they have attested to. This compounds the
challenge that the delegate Marco has brought forward to the
community. And is what we are currently experiencing right now.
It is why we are working collectively with other municipalities,
um, in speaking with Marco and his associates. They've said
the MTO is putting some market research and data out
there, which we welcome and have told them as soon
as they have it, please give it to us. Um,
we are engaging with other larger municipalities that to Councillor
Pouge's point will have the bench strength and experience to
do some of these market research things. And obviously working
with the heavy construction industry to understand when we put
a bid forward, is there market research or something they
can help us substantiate that we can put definitively in
our bucket to say, if we're going to say it
can be 51 percent, liable, if we can't defend our
position. So legally the town cannot select major construction and
apply, which would bring it down to 1. 5. So
no, the way this tender worked is those were all
the price bids. They all then gave us their percentage
of buy Ontario, the one that said they had the
highest level of biontario was D'Amor. They automatically get a
10 percent reduction, making them the lowest tender, which by
default under this process under the Bioenterial Legislation. We are
required to honour. However, because this tender in its entirety
is over budget. It is up to Council's discretion if
you choose to not award the tender, in which case
we would have to revisit that and reissue it at
some point in time, again, two cautions. One, it was
over budget to begin with the differential of the 122
is really what is debate here. Second, I do not
know the implications, uh, Mr. Huet can speak to it.
If this project is further delayed, given its importance in
priority. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. To clarify as well,
you can't take that 10 percent and then just put
it onto The actual low bidder. You can't do that.
That's not permitted. A lotsman said, Mr. Huet. Do we
have to proceed with this. I mean, the easiest thing
to say is we're not going to be, you know,
we're not going to do it. But what will happen
if we don't do it? We certainly will save a
lot of money. Through you, Mr. Mayor, uh, well, three
of them, to you, Mr. Mayor. That's always the option.
So this project was budgeted in 2025. Um, due to
some, uh, work from the consultant, and when he got
the tender in 2026. What I would say is that
the second phase, which will take us from lilac to
friar is in the 2027 budget. For, um, to finish
phase two. So the intention or basically because of funding,
uh, in the, in the water sector, we couldn't do
them in back to back years. So it was 2025
and 2027. At this point, we're almost into September of
2026. And this project hasn't started yet. So to say
that we could potentially postpone and tender it as one
full project with the funding from 2025 and 2027 may
give us a better bang for our buck is a
bit larger tender. Whether that's going to save money or
not is always a difficult thing to guess. Because oil
prices change and inflation changes. The prices very rarely go
down. So if this price was competitively bid in July
of 2026 with seven bidders, that was the best price,
well, the lowest price was the best price we could
get. That's not what it ended up being with the
buy Ontario Act that we would have to award. But
those were competitively bid. So to say that if we
were to tender it again in a month or two
months that the price would be the same, we can't
say that. Um, what you could determine depending on whether
we could go to a commitment - based approach that
perhaps we could alleviate ourselves of the 120 dollar additional
costs. That's resulted from that by Ontario Act. That for
sure, if we could go to a commitment - based
approach, we could. Eliminate, for lack of a better term.
Does that mean that the tender is going to be
120, 000 dollars less. At the time.
Those are all pieces of the puzzle that add into
that price. So certainly it's within councils purview to postpone
this or to not award this tender. The town would
then move forward to look at what our best options
were, whether that would be to issue it again immediately,
which then may result into winter work, which we wouldn't
really look for. Or do we postpone it till 2027
and look to combine it into a larger one project
that would complete the entire length of McCurdy at once.
So those would be options that the infrastructure services would
look at if this, um, tender was not awarded tonight.
But what I could never definitively say is whether it
would be cheaper. Um, what I would say is that
this water main needs replacement. It needs replacement now. It'll
still need replacement next year. Okay. But nothing's going to
cave in on this. Through Mr. Mayor, this waterme has
had a number of breaks. People would know that in
front of the subway, there was a fairly large break
last year. Um, so it is due for replacement. Um,
whether that's going to, whether we'll have one more water
main break between now and then or two, I can't
say. But again, we've been, uh, we aim to replace
it. We, it needs to be replaced. If that's postponed
for six months, I can't say that there'll be any
imminent danger. We still have safe drinking water. Those residents
will all still get safe drinking water. It's just a
matter of whether there could be a water main break
in that area between now and then. Perhaps. But that's,
um, that could happen tomorrow. And we still haven't gotten
that water main replace. So. Councillor McArthur. Thank you. Where
should those? There's a lot to unpack there, but there's
some, what I get out of that is there may
be some real material benefits. To doing, to waiting a
couple of months. And doing one tender. And I think
Todd is right. I mean, costs generally only go up.
So, you know, you waited a couple of months, that
could happen. But there's also the opportunity for economies of
scale, because now it's going to be one project. Uh,
instead of two split over two years, I think what
also give the next council an opportunity to issue, you
know, an early tender. Right now they're all, you know,
they're dockets full. So if they want to do work
now, it's going to cost a lot of money. But
if you can issue it late in the year or
early in the new year, uh, when they're really hungry
for, for jobs, you might get, uh, The opportunity for
a lower bid. And also the sidewalk. I mean, one
of the best things about this is we're finally going
to put a sidewalk on the north side of McCurdy.
I can't imagine what kind of world we lived in
when we built that subdivision and didn't put a sidewalk
in. It makes no sense. But it gives us the
opportunity instead of having a sidewalk to nowhere, uh, that
just ends at lilac. We could actually in one fell
swoop, uh, put a sidewalk in that goes the whole
stretch. And additionally, you're only going to disrupt the residents
in that street once. Uh, as, as opposed to twice.
So given everything I just said, I guess they're taught.
I mean, did I say anything that was horribly inaccurate
with my reasoning or is that about right? Oh, that
definitely. Okay. I think generally, uh, Councillor, yes. One thing
to bear in mind is we have to be careful
that if we do rescind this tender, you'll have to,
um, change it by about 20 percent. Otherwise you're seen
as shopping around and you're not allowed to do that.
Uh, so bundling it together with the larger project. Um,
would allow for that change in the tender that we're
not seeing as shopping it around. I will, however, say,
uh, I do agree. We've seen often tendering projects in
the fall or the winter for projects to start in
the spring, uh, tends to be, um, better pricing. I
don't know whether or not Mr. Huit would be even
in a position to have the full scope of work
ready for inclusion of the 2027 items. However, if council
wishes to move in that direction, they will have to
consider making a motion to approve the funds that are
in the Capitol budget in 2027. Tonight in order to
allow him to proceed with that tender. Otherwise, it will
have to wait until the 2027 budget deliberations to confirm
that that project funding is there before the tender could
be issued, which will place us given we are in
election season, the new council will not take place until
end of November. Budget might most likely, depending on how
the mayor, um, chooses to proceed forward, will be January
to February timeframe. You'll still be tendering sometime. Spring that
summer. Okay. This is taking a long time. Councillor Lair.
Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And, uh, thank you to our
deputy CAL for that lovely explanation. I am willing to
move the staff recommendation. As written. Forward. Okay,
good. Thank you. Sorry. In all three parts. So. Okay.
There was a motion to do all three parts to
staff recommendation. Is there a second or to the motion.
Well, I got to get a second or first if
there is one. Thank you. For discussion. Okay. Okay. I
think I've been asking both them McCurdy Road for three
years. It's been in our capital budget since I got
elected. It has been needed to be done. I agree
with everyone that, yeah, when you bundle everything together, it
makes everything a lot cheaper. This is done. We have
to accept it now. We have to move forward. I'm
going to say this. There is great explanations given by
our administration. Gas goes up. Costs go up. Everything increases
with price. We have seen it time and time again.
We push something back one more year. It is like
200, 000 dollars more. Yes, it'll be cheaper that we
bundle it together, but it will not get done. Uh,
our first year elections are budget season was in February.
And I'm going to be real honest. My first time
at budgets newly elected. I didn't know what was going
on. It was a whirlwind. So you're having a new
council come in here. A lot of them might be
new. And to make them make a huge decision like
this would be, um, kind of silly on us, but
we didn't take care of our town for the last
four years. So to step back and not make this
decision now after all this work has gone into it.
Would be insane to me. This has been needed to
be done multiple times. So now is the time. Councillor
Courtney on the motion. I'm speaking to the motion. So
I'm on the fence with this one. I hear some
of the positive there. I hear some concerns from staff
by delaine it. The government did this. They're downloading money
again onto the municipalities. We are over budget. I understand
that on the original. And now another 120, 000. I
mean, I had a good sidebar with Mr. Mayor there
last week and staff member. And, uh, we were trying
to wrap our heads around this. And the best motive
attack might be to record. Moving forward with their new
legislation, how it's impacting financially. The municipalities that have to
foot the bill by giving these reductions, you know, cause
we're not seeing it. We're paying for it. So I'm
not opposed to a councillor lair to move forward with
these projects because it does backlog things. It doesn't sound
like it's too compromising. At the same time, I'll wait
to hear the rest of council. And I don't want
to beat this thing. Um, it's already dead, I think.
But, uh, again, there might be something all we can
do is record these things moving forward so we can
show how much more it's cost us on our BIDS
and tenders and let that start to build up and
then build a case and let more studies happen where,
because we're not the only ones that are facing this
right now. It's every municipality in Ontario. So again, my
only question was this, the staff is the onus on,
oh, sorry, I'm speaking to her emotions, so I will
stop. Thank you. Okay. On the motion, anyone else want
to speak on the motion. Councillor McArthur. I'm. Going to
vote. And just, I've talked myself into it. I think
it makes the most economic sense. To bundle it together,
do it right, do it once, uh, and so that's
what I think makes the most sense given everything that
I've heard tonight. Any other discussion. Mayor, I'm going to
oppose it to, based on the fact that it's so
much over budget over 600, 000 over budget. And I
like the fact that it's very possible if we bundle,
we will get cheaper rate. And to do it in
the early spring. So I, I, although I appreciate the
motion, I just, I can't support it. I'm going to
pass the gavel. I likely won't get a vote here
unless it's a recorded vote. I likely won't, but I
can't support this. I want to county council, uh, both
the deputy mayor and I spoke against this particular policy.
We spoke in very strong terms. We spoke about the
cost to the taxpayers. I reminded people that this, the
lot of hare brain schemes come out of, uh, Queen's
park. I know I was there for 13 years. I
listened to a lot of it. I never was on
the government side to make them. But a lot of
them don't make sense. And this one does not make
sense at all. I agree with counsellor Courtney that should
this motion, uh, pass, uh, I would add an addendum
to tally up all the money that we spend for
the next, uh, to the end of the year and
send a bill, uh, or not a bill, but a
request to the Ontario government to make us whole because
their policies do not, they don't work. They don't work
for the taxpayer. And my number one thing is the
taxpayer. If that, if that's, if the water main is
not going to, you know, it's not going to be
disastrous. I mean, we always have water main brakes. We
have them all over the place all the time. Every
winter. If it's not, if it's not absolutely obvious to
me, it makes a whole lot of sense wait and
do it all at once. And I know we're getting
around. But the bigger issue in the long term is
we cannot continue to abide by costing the taxpayers a
fortune. Uh, even the 122, 000 dollars means that in
terms of the population of Amortsburg, that's about six dollars
for every man, woman, and child. They have to pay
every six dollars from everybody just to satisfy something that
makes no sense. Absolutely none. And if our best way
out of this is to, uh, simply say no to
all of it and go back, uh, that's where I'm
going to go with all great respect to my colleague,
Councillor Lara. I, I know, I know she wants to
see it done. So do I. But if the spring
of 2027, uh, is done, I'm willing to even put,
put forward and say, uh, let's commit to getting it
in 2027. Have it in the budget and have the
new council look with an explanation as to why it's
all there together at once. I think they would appreciate
that. And I know the taxpayers would appreciate not spending
too much money. And being gouged by a policy, uh,
that is not of our making. Anyway, that's where I'm
coming from, but, uh, I may not even get to
vote. Okay. Recorded vote. There you go. Now you get
to vote. Okay. I took the gavel back. And the
first thing was a recorded vote. Is there anybody else
who wishes to speak councillor a lair. Okay. Thank you.
I guess I just need clarification on this. So we
shut this one down and we do the tendering process
again, but all at once. Is it not still the
same process? Do we still not have this policy in
place. So, uh, when they look at the next tender
that is inclusive of the larger pictures sometime in 2027,
they will determine and we will hopefully have better market
research to know whether or not the commitment - based
process can be defined for this project so that it
can be released. I can't definitively say yes or no
until we have that information before us. But to be
clear, you won't even be tendering until spring of next
year. Construction is not next year. Yeah, I understand that.
Um, okay. So I'm just going to put it out
there because I think we've mentioned about eight times today
about how the higher tiers of government have totally screwed
us over. I think everyone understands that. I have to
vote in favor of this for the main reason of,
yeah, we want to save our residents'money. I get it.
They're the taxpayers. I'm a taxpayer as well. But also
this is a service that, I'm sorry, if my watermeke
broke like three times within four years, I'd be freaking
losing it. So I'm just putting it out there. I'm
voting for the residents. So they have the services. That
municipality is supposed to provide for the residents. And I
understand that it is a huge chunk of money. I
don't think it's going to come in any cheaper. And
I think I'm going to argue with the fact that
this just pushes it back about a year. We've been
fighting for this road for almost four. So that's all
I got to say. Okay. Everybody's spoken. We have a
motion on the floor on a recorded vote. Thank you
worship. Councillor Lair support. Councillor Courtney. Opposed. Counsel crane. Post.
Council McArthur. Bouger. And Mayor PrES Motion fails. All right.
We need another motion. Councillor McCarthy, do you want to
move that we, uh, not award, the contract. And that
we recommend, uh, The Money's be put aside for the
2027 budget due the whole thing all at once. I
think that. S so movie. Pretty much the motion. Mr.
Kirk, can you make that into good language? I would
put that, uh, Deputy CO just to understand whether or
not the pre - commitment could happen, uh, with the
strong mayor's budget. No, and I don't believe this council
is looking to pre - commit the funds. But merely
two defer this tender. And to. Bring forward the tender
again. Once the 2027 Capitol budget is approved and to
ensure that in that budget, the second phase of this
project is included in 2027. Sage advice.
How it has to be, then that's how it has
to be bundling, uh, gives us opportunities to do save
significant money. So
alternatively, since it is, the mayor's budget. Pre - committing
for 2027 would not work. However, if counsel so wish
to commit the funds that are in the report. So
that a minimum of 682, 2872, 000 is available to
start, I presume, design work, Mr. Hewitt. What do you
need to start your project. The full design was approved
as part of the engineering. So that work has generally
been completed. Um, we wouldn't really need any additional funds
to move forward. The project now. Really the funds would
be needed to move it to construction. So in order
to tender, how much additional by the fall, how much
additional funding would we need to know that we have
before we put the tender on the street. Because I
believe, Ms. Little, we have to have the funding before
we issue attender. Is that correct? How much additional funding
are we looking at, Mr. Hewitt? That would be a
very difficult question for me to answer right off the
top of my head. I would have to look at
what our 2027 budget was for that. And I believe
it carried into 2028. Uh, for phase two. And we
would still need to consider that additional money, at least
some of the monies that we were over budget because
the work still has to be put in at that
point. Up to phase two. So although we may say,
there could be some economies of scale and certainly the
buy Ontario money could potentially be saved. If we can
go to the commitment - based approach. I would have
to work through the budget number to determine what that
is. What I would suggest would be that perhaps the
best way forward, this money is in the budget now.
This 2025 dollars will still be there waiting for this
project to be completed. And when we can work on
a capital budget issue paper that includes the phase two
works as well so that we can have a comprehensive
dollar value for the new council to look at in
2027 and be ready to tender once that's approved. For
council's reference, um, I'm looking at the 2026 seven -
year capital budget. And there's 600, 000 in 2027 and
another 675, 020 - 28 that Mr. Hewitt's referring to.
So it is a 1. 275 million dollar additional set
of funding that I am happy to find the funding
sources this evening should counsel wish to have this move
forward and tender it this fall. Otherwise it would simply
be that it remains in a recommendation for the next
council. To approve those funds and bring them forward to
2027 for the next council to consider that so they
can move the project in its entirety forward. Councillor McArthur.
Can we. Get a report on this to come back
to the next council meeting or is that council meeting
against September 14th after Lameduk. Okay. So we have to
make the decision tonight or never. So, so again,
Mr. Huytt has advised that he's not confident the 1.
275 million will be sufficient particularly given the results of
this individual tender. All I can tell you is 1.
275 is what's been identified for those other phases of
the project that are being recommended to be bundled together.
So at a minimum, the 1. 275 million would need
to be essentially approved by this council to proceed forward
with a tender that has meaningful funding associated with it.
And that should those tenders also result in something about
the budgeted amounts if council approves those additional funds this
evening. Then they would have the responsibility of making that
determination in their council term of modern or not to
proceed or to uncouple the project or whatever they may
choose at that point. Councillor Laird. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
And just through you, just for a point of clarity.
So it's, it's 1. 275 for future projects, but it
is also 1. 7. Yeah. Thank you. I just wanted
to make sure that I understood that fully. So it's
about 3 million moving it up and trying to get
it all together in the fall, which we weren't expecting
this year. Okay. So, I mean, if it isn't sufficient,
the next set of people sitting around this table can
make that decision. Just have to put more money in
the budget. And that's as simple as that. They're already
starting with at 1. 2 million dollars. Yeah. Yes, exactly.
So that's all they have to do. As soon as
the funding's approved. They make the decision. They have 1.
2 to start. Put in whatever else they need, tender
it. Yes. So, I mean, that's, you reject a tender
tonight. You instruct staff to do the necessary preparation for
the new council. Colour train. I'll move that recommendation. Okay.
Second, if I councillor McArthur, any discussion on the motion.
Council Allaire. Thank you. You don't want to go home
tonight, right? No, never. I've been going since 6 AM,
so why not? Uh, I just, I want clarity. So
we're putting it forward for the new council. And then
that tender would go out roughly. After that budget season
or even later. So this project, just so everyone completely
understands probably will not be done in 2027 either, right?
Or maybe late. Mr. Mayor to councillor Lair, if this,
the goal would be to get it done in 2027.
If the additional funds were approved in the 2027 budget,
which, uh, I believe the deputy CAO said would probably
be in January or February. I'm not sure what that
timing is. Once that budget would be finally approved. Uh,
the goal from infrastructure services would be to tender that
as quickly as we can. To get that, uh, to
get our pricing for what would essentially be a summer
of 2027 construct. And that would be if all the
dollars aligned, that would be the full length of McCurdy
as well as the four cul - de - sacs
along there. And one of the items that, uh, when
we talk about funding is the sidewalk as well. So
we would have to also include the funding for the
second half of the sidewalk, which wouldn't have been considered
in the original budget. Okay. Everybody got it clear as
mud now. Okay. We have a motion moved and seconded.
To not award the contract to put the monies aside.
Through all the things that have been discussed. Okay. All
those in favor. Opposed that's carried. Okay. Which takes us
back to the beginning, not the end. Back to the
beginning of the agenda. Thank
you. Okay. 11. 1 is the next item on the
agenda, which is the changes to financial services department. Councillor
Crane. I will move the staff recommendation. Okay. Is there
a seconder. Councillor LAR. Any discussion or questions that came
right off the top councillor Courtney. Mr. Mayor. As is
transparent, because people have been asking me these scene changes.
With our CFO not being present. And now I will
state this. This was discussed. We had to figure out
a game plan. So I will staff came up with
this as the best way to proceed. Um, I do
have questions. I don't like things done and move behind.
Closed doors. Um, this to me is a budgeting item
thing when we're bringing in new positions and we're bringing
in different job descriptions. And we're bringing in new pay
grids and we're bringing in all these things. And I
know the financial is broken down here that it's not
that significant. But if you do the math on it,
you've basically downloaded work and increased work for three existing
employees. You've created the job title to two other ones
and in a 0. 5 position, um, so at the
end of the day, financially, is I going to have
an impact on our budget moving forward with legacy costs.
Um, I understand the responsibilities of our finance department is
probably the most important one. You got to keep us
afloat. And sometimes times of the, uh, is this of
the essence. But, um, my question to staff is this.
Because of the change, with legislation and the, the, um,
the frustrations and the extra work and all that stuff
with our existing staff with the creation of these new
positions. Is there other municipalities that have had have done
like as well with this new job titles to, to
take on that extra, uh, stresses of their municipalities. Do
we know of anybody else that has restructured their financial
departments in any capacity just because of the legislative changes,
responsibilities? I'm going to ask, Madam CO. I don't know
that the deputy CEO feels comfortable to any of these
questions or not. Oh, she's fine. Okay. All right. All
right. I just want to make sure, because okay, she's
part of it. Mr. Mancina two way in when you
need to. Madam CAO. You Weres members of council. I
will start and I can defer also to the Deputy
CAO and Mr. Mancine if they have other things to
add. Um, I'm a huge believer in the concept that
when any staff member leaves either by resignation or retirement,
um, that you look at your organisational structure and that
it is irresponsible to simply blindly repost something and go
forward with the same structure because that's the way it
always has been. I believe it's incumbent on us to
look at the structure and see what works best in
the current state with the skills that we have within
our corporation. Um, so I'll preface it with that. Um,
we organisations take place all of the time. Mr. Manzena
can certainly attest to that having worked in a large
municipality. Um, I worked in a large municipality as did
Ms. Osborne. And this happens all of the time. Um,
I don't have specific examples of, uh, those, uh, those
reorganizations in a finance department, although I can tell you
that large overhauls of financial services departments have happened. For
example, the city of Windsor did it in, I believe
it was 2002 where they totally went from a decentralized
system to a centralized system and changed all their positions,
et cetera. Um, so it does happen. Um, I would
also, um, state that it happens in other departments. For
example, prior to me becoming CIO, I was the director
of legislative services when I became the CIO, that position
was eliminated. And we simply went with a municipal clerk
position, which is a different position because I could fulfill
many of those director roles. And we didn't need to
have a director position in that spot. So this happens
all the time. And I believe it's the best way
to look at the resources that you have within your
municipality and the skill sets. We are a LEAN team.
As you know, we're not, um, several layers thick of,
of different, um, levels of non - union and union
staff. Um, when we do projects, it tends to be
all the same people around the table. And so we
may be lean, but I think that we have an
amazing skill set here. And so what we've done is
look at, look at the skill sets that we have
and how we can best put them to use and
use the resources we have, um, most effectively, but I
will defer to Ms. Osborne and to Mr. Mancina as
well. So thank you. Specific to your question about whether
or not other municipalities have done it. The short answer
to your question is yes. Um, we have actually, uh,
already met with the town of LaSalle around how they
operate. Some of the efficiencies they have. They've recently added
staff and a supervisor in order to accommodate their new
workloads. One of the things several of those municipalities have
that we do not are effective updated systems. And I
referenced it in the report where I said quite often
our systems are like looking up information on an encyclopedia
instead of Google. They take more time. They're not as
accurate and they're not as quick. And that is the
type of systems we have. As I said in the
report, we've got about 37 different business processes that are
old and equated time consuming. And their key punching activities.
When we have a skilled set of staff who can
actually do more. They can get to those other things
that people are asking us to get to. But right
now we can't because we can't get out of our
own way for keep punching information. So we've already identified
37 of them. We've put two in place already. One
of them we will be able to action this evening
provided council approves the policy change on the credit cards.
That's going to save us four to five weeks of
time of key punching. We've identified a couple others through
the tax process that are going to also save us
several weeks. And just to be clear, this isn't several
weeks, Councillor, that all of a sudden we don't need
resources. I've already been taking a look at the kind
of overtime that the team has been putting in just
to sustain these antiquated processes. And we've got 11 weeks
of overtime in our union staff and non - union
that get overtime from January to now. And your three
non - union staff that don't get paid overtime, inclusive
of me of putting collectively 23 weeks of overtime myself
personally 11 weeks since January. So there's a lot of
heavy lifting going on by this team. They absolutely need
the resources. And it's one of the reasons why I
agreed to take on this additional work in order to
allow those new positions to be created at a net
impact of this community of only 25, 000 dollars need
to be. And that may be clear that this was
impromptu throw on us really quickly. And with a solution
that I've never heard of before with brand new positions,
no job descriptions and really explaining exactly what everyone's going
to be doing moving forward definitively on the fly. Where
normal positions arise during budget sessions with a clear and
concise explanation why we should do this and have that.
So that was done behind there. And now we got
to do a report out and it's happened. We had
to action some of these things. And it was action
done. I'm just going on record that I did not
want to action on it. I wanted to figure out
another solution. So that's where I'm at tonight. And it
is what it is. Okay. Any other questions counsel Paje.
Thank you Mr. Mayor. I too have very serious concerns
regarding what happened and how it came up out. And,
uh, I voted against it. Uh, so at the deputy
CAO has been, uh, estates here in her report. The
deputy CIO has been working with staff and observing the
business practice of work and workload at the finance department
for the past couple of years, including the added requests
from council and the audit and finance committee. And so
you are the author of this report talking about yourself.
And then the deputy CIO that on the same report,
you are now a deputy CAO chief financial officer, director
of development service. So when did you get the promotion.
And why is it this been made public. Your worship
members of council, I believe all of council is aware
that this happened in April at an in - camera
session of council and Councillor Prusia, I believe that you
were there. It happened March 9th, 2026. It did not
happen on March 9th to correct the record. And I
will ask the clerk. Council received information in camera on
March 9th. And then the final, uh, organisational structure was
brought to council in April. But it was sniffered by
public. So through your ship. In the March 9th meeting
was never reported out for definitively. Was this brought to
Council on OpenSession? So, uh, when this was addressed initially
in March, it was presented for information in April. It
was brought back in direction was provided as part of
that direction, a public report was requested. And that is
what is before us tonight. Having followed all of the
directions of council. We voted in camera on March 9th.
Regarding this. Excuse me, not regarding the new structure. You
received information. No, at that meeting, there was a determination
about who was going to be put in that position.
As a chief financial officer. And, uh, further shad, there
was a mention of money. And other, um, benefits regarding
that. So three year worship that's, I think what you
were reporting is related to an in - camera dialogue.
So I'm very cautious about how we discuss that. But
certainly that was not what occurred in March. In March,
it was provided for information, as has been reported out.
Um, in April, as was reported out, administration was directed
per sede on the verbal direction of council. And so,
you know, those are the dates. And I can certainly
provide you the in - camera minutes to substantiate those
comments. Okay. So the report states that you supported
and requests from audit and finance committee, it states that
new tech required for overall financial management, the tools of
finance are integrated. But, uh, this is, this hasn't been
brought to counsel. And we, we haven't done anything to
make sure that these statements are correct and that the
financial management is being done properly. Through you, Mr. Mayor,
um, with respect to the comments about the systems, that
was raised certainly at the audit and finance committee by
the former CFO. Okay. Uh, so did you ever advise
counsel DRed and finance committee? We're concerned that there was
a control breach. And I wasn't aware of it. And
it appears counsel wasn't informed and no follow - up
with this committee. This controlled breach is very concerning, yet
it appears to have been downplayed. So three, first of
all, what has that got to do with the issue
before us? Well, it's all part of the plan where
she states, and I'm not criticizing her, but she clearly
states that she was working with the Binance Department and
all these things were being dealt with. At audit and
finance. But there was never any follow - up for
them. True your worship. This question came up at audit
in finance, and I corrected the record at that time.
And I'm happy to send that information along to council
as well. The auditors reported that there was, um, a
dual level of approval that existed, uh, with the treasure
several treasures ago several years ago at that time, there
was no actual, um, wrongdoing that was identified. It was
simply a process that needed improvements. It was identified. The
treasure acknowledged it and corrected it. And it was closed.
And that was fully disclosed to the committee. It was
fully disclosed to counsel. And as part of the audit
financial records associated with the town's audited financial statements of
that year, the two accountants clearly stated that they were
not informed. In fact, they had a meeting December 1st.
And there was no follow - up until July 22nd.
Of this year. So eight months later.
I'm totally, I'm sorry. I thought I knew everything going
on around here. I've never heard of this before. Can
anyone elucidate this. Members of council and a former audit
as the clerk has stated there was a note that
the auditors made about a control. Um, it was a
sign - off control. They noted it. There was no
one toward action taken because of it. They made a
recommendation that the control be changed. And that was done.
And I believe that was reported to the audit and
finance committee when those financial statements were presented to them.
And I believe that would have been in the summer
of 2024 or 2025. I'm sorry. I don't remember the
year. It actually would have been prior to 2021. As
it was when treasure Russo was here who left in
2021. So, um, it certainly very old. At the December
meeting, what was discussed was that town budget deliberations, The
Operating Capital Budgets were deliberated. And then the next meeting
of the committee that took place was when the audit
financial statements came back, which is their next regularly scheduled
activity. Okay. Well, they raised it again on July 22nd.
And the fact of the matter. On a point of
order, can we keep the conversation focused on the, like
the motion item on the floor? I tried. And I'm
not, I'm not sure where all of this is going,
except. Because this is in her report. That she was,
uh, involved with the audit and finance committee and bringing
this back to council. What about. Are you saying that
this is Ms. Osborne's report says all of this. Well,
he, she refers to the fact that she's been working
with, uh, finance department and the audit and finance committee.
It states it very clearly in the report that she's
been doing is for the past, uh, months. But in
reality, I only knew her to be the deputy CAO
and involved with, um, economic development and tourism. But it
states in a report. I was reading from it. Your
worship members of council as the clerk has mentioned. We
have to be careful what we say regarding in camera,
uh, deliberation. However, all of council was aware of the
changes being made in finance. Uh, in April and Councillor
Pouge was at that meeting. So she should have been
aware. Of the March 9th meeting to report out.
Again, you know, I haven't dealt yet with Councillor Crane.
I think your point is well taken. I mean, I
don't know where all this is going Councillor Prusa. I
don't know except you obviously are trying to dig up
old things against either Ms. Osborne or the finance department
or something. And I can't figure out why. I cannot
for the life of me. It's not making any sense.
Can you please tell me why you feel it necessary
to do this. Or else I'm going to rule on
his notice of motion. I mean, his point of order.
I'm speaking on the report. I'm speaking to the report
that's before us. And those things, big questions because it
brings into effect the audit and finance committee. I just
attended their last meeting. July 22nd. It's not before us.
The minutes are not before us. Yet the accessibility committee
meeting one day later, their minutes are before us. Okay.
But what has that O ties together with the report.
Sorry, I don't see it. Your point of order as
well taken, um, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to
ask Councillor Prugget that you desist from this line of
questioning. Please deal with the new structure. That's what is
before us. I look, I think it's, it's not fair
to staff. It's not fair to counsel that you bring
up things that go back five and six years and
ask for reports and do things that none of us
were even there or understand. The staff has made the
explanation and Councillor Crane's position on this is correct. And
I am ruling in his favor that the point of
order as well taken. And please, please ask your questions
on the establishment of the new finance department. We're raised
at the audit and finance committee meeting on July 22nd.
That's what my point. They were raised there. Okay. And
to what did they pass. Where motions made that passed?
Where motions made that past. The audit and finance committee.
In the same question. And they were, I were not
getting the same. The answers that they sought. I don't
know. The clerk, were you there at that meeting? I'm
not understanding what councillor Pouge is trying to do or
to say. Three of you, your worship. I struggle this
well. Um, unfortunately, you know, I was present for that
meeting. If there was something substantive related to this report
that came out of that meeting, we'd certainly have that
before you. It'd certainly be part of this report. I
do not see a connection between these, uh, items. There
is a mention that she has worked with that committee.
Um, but that really has no bearing on the financial
services department or the restructuring. Okay. Council of Pouger, the
floor is still yours. Do you have any questions about
the new organisational structure. Which is what we're dealing with.
And bring it forward because at that meeting, when they
were very clear about, um, some very personal issues, they
were told that's it. You can't ask those questions. Can't
make this motion. And further to that, I do, uh,
stop, uh, the meetings have all been cancelled. Well, I
don't know whether I have no evidence of this. And
I don't know, does council want to hear more questions
of this. I don't think so. Councillor Crain. Are we
able to call the question and vote. On the motion
for us? And you know, the question can be called.
It requires a two thirds majority. And, but if the
members who other members who have questions, who have not
had a chance. I'll hold off if the other members,
but otherwise they. Okay. I will come back to you,
Councillor Pouger. Later, if you have any questions related to
the issue at hand. Councillor McArthur. Thank you. Worship, I
just, I want to ask, uh, couple of questions and
also just speak a bit, uh, to the report. I
actually want to thank administration for, for bringing such a
Folsom, uh, report forward sort of explaining, uh, this restructuring,
um, why it was necessary. And what the benefits are
going to be going forward. So what's pretty clear, I
mean, two things I think need to be said. One,
we had earlier tonight. Um, presentation, a third party presentation,
you know, discussing our audited financial statements that said we
have solid, we have robust internal controls in place. I
think that's, that's important. Um, can they be better? Sure.
Of course they can be better. If the one department
that this town of all the towns in Ontario wants
to be in tip top shape, given our history, it's
finance. Right. Uh, we've made incredible strings. Um, over the
past eight years, uh, but, uh, prior to that, uh,
you know, they were, there were some issues. We all
remember those headlines. So, uh, you know, reports from Deloitte,
you know, recommendations, you know, on and on and on.
We've done incredible work to get our financial House and
order input solid internal controls in place. But what this
report tells us pretty clearly is that two things it
tells us one, the demands on finance staff are going
in, they're increasingly more complex. We just had a huge
debate about this with these Biontarial provisions. Um, and, you
know, the whole workload has changed. There's multi - year
capital planning, workaround reserves and grants, development charge requirements, procurement
requirements, more transactions. There are busier now than they ever
were. And this is the thing that should concern people.
Not that we're restructuring, but this report says finance staff,
they've worked in excessive overtime, having weekly meetings to decide
what work has to be besponed. Sometimes for months, you
know, these pressures have been building for 24 months. So
it's pretty clear that when it comes to finance, we
need more feed on the street. We need people crunching
the numbers, reading the reports and getting things ready. So
for a constant 25, 000 dollars, what this report has
done, it's eliminated to, you know, a corner office to
eliminate it a title. A director of corporate services and
it's replaced it with people that can get to work
done on the ground. There's a manager of purchasing capital
and grants position and a senior financial analysts for a
cost of 25, 000 dollars. So the one thing that,
you know, administration, like how can we put, and one
other thing I'm going to say too, there not only
putting people in places where they need to be to
get the jobs done to fulfill our obligation to be
solid financial stewards of this town. They've identified already 37
business process improvements. Some involving automation and technology. Okay. So
they're getting that house. In order. Um, so I guess
my question is that is this enough. So we can
address these problems and be on a more solid financial
footing going forward. Or what else does this council need
to do to keep the steady shape of our fiscal
ship on this forward trajectory that this report is putting
us on. PETTON. Through you, Mr. Mayor to Councillor McArthur.
And I would ask that Mr. Mancina chime in. If
he has anything further to add at this point, these
are the resources that we've identified that fill the gaps
that are currently there. The business processes that we have
identified were currently going through them. We're looking for all
of the low - hanging fruit, the quick winds, the
low cost options that we can get implemented quickly and
efficiently. They give us gains, much like the one before
council this evening to change the credit card policy so
that we can stop processing Amazon invoices for 10 dollars
through a very complicated AP process and just pay it
on the credit card that has due diligence, processes. And
it's far more efficient and does not waste manual labour
for no reason. Once we get through all of those,
we suspect there is quite likely going to be some
software improvements that need to happen. This is not new.
This has been stated to audit and finance when they've
asked for different types of ways in which information can
be communicated to them. We are limited in our systems.
We are limited in our automation and our discussions with
other municipalities have highlighted for us that we are behind.
At this point until such time, as I've actually seen
all those things implemented and that we are still overcapacity,
which I do not suspect the situation will be. I'm
not recommending any more resources. There is abundant opportunity to
create space and abilities to take on more once we
stop doing useless things. Any other questions.
Any other statements. Okay, so. We have a motion on
the floor. Could you read out the motion because that
the report be received for information and that bylaw 2026
- 042 being a bylaw to appoint a treasure and
a deputy treasurer be taken as having been read three
times and finally passed. And the mayor and clerk be
authorized to sign scene. Okay, all those in favor. Opposed.
Well, again, I got three in favor and nobody voting
a post. So the motion carries.
All right. Next is 11. 2 final approval for long
- term debt. Evidence by debenture to be issued. To
Ontario Infrastructure and Lens Corporation often referred to as infrastructure
Ontario Deventure. Any questions or comments, Councillor Crane. I'll move
the staff recommendation before us. Second, if I counsel a
lair, any questions or discussion. Seeing none, all those in
favor opposed. That's carried. Okay. 11. 3.
Is done. 11. 4. Now before us, which is the
year - end budget to actual summaries and transfers. Questions.
Okay. Councillor Courtney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. A lot of
financial statements and things. And we're in the positive, which
is good, right? That's how businesses run. You should have
a surplus. You don't want to be in a deficit.
Um, so we ended what I'm seeing on the one
page. We ended with 2, 141 taxation supported surplus. The
question I had, and we had it at IRCA as
well. WSIB rebate. Is that I'm just playing this as
devil's advocate. Does that happen often? It was this one
- off. And would we expect this again in a
year or two? It was 483, 000 dollars for a
rebate. Yes. Yes, we potentially could have a WSIB rebate.
However, we won't know until the end of the year.
It is a calculation that they provide us. And so
when we start the budget year, they tell us what
we should expect our expenditures to be. That is how
we budget at the end of the year. They provide
us information on whether or not there will be a
rebate. In this year, it was a rather sizable one.
Okay. My second question is, and I ask it again,
what is considered a good, I mean, we try to
figure out all the things that are happening throughout the
year. And the things that happen employees come, employees go.
Their savings here. There's over, overshoes on road projects like
I'm McCurdy. Um, what's considered a good amount of surplus
money because you don't want to go too heavy with
it because then you've overtaxed inadvertently. Um, but at the
same time, you want to be cautious and safe. So
what would be, is this a good number, how high
would we want this or low? So your worship members
and council, um, when we got the final number, I
did the calculation and our surplus is just about three
percent of our total budget. And of course, the budget
is a guest estimate. Best guesstimate, um, which is, you
know, we, we try to get as close as we
can. So I think on a, on the 65 million
dollar plus budget being within three percent is a good
number. And I would remind counsel too it's also in
the report, um, that at budget last year, instead of,
um, increasing your, your annual, uh, investment into the asset
management program and raising, um, you know, putting a permanent
increase in that amount onto the tax levy. You stated
that, um, should we have a surplus? That would be
a first charge against the surplus, so to speak. So
that has, has panned out, um, as well. So, um,
although we've got that two million dollar surplus, we do
now have that savings, if you will, to put into
our asset management program, which, um, I think is a,
uh, good news item. Further questions. Further questions. Seeing none,
motions. Crane saw your hand first. Recommendation. Second up by
Councillor Lair. Any discussion on the motion. Seeing none, all
those in favor. Posed, that's carried. 11. 5, The Amended
and New Financial Policies. Any questions. Councillor Larry is moving
the staff recommendation. Seconded by. Councillor Crane. Any discussion. Seeing
none, all those in favor. Pose that's carried.
What's happening? Okay. Even with my hearing aids in, I
can't, okay. Okay. Uh, 13, uh, point one, 2026 roads
repair program tender results. Questions. Councillor Lair. Thank you, Mr.
Mayor, through you. Uh, just a question. Is this where
we repair sections of the road or is this a
specific road that's going to be repaired. Mr. Mayor, Jesse's
online. He can answer that. Oh, and Jesse, we can't
hear you. Sorry. Just see if you can turn your
mic on. Or. Lieu of just the answering. I can
answer that. Okay. Thank you, Todd. Hopefully you can get
his microphone fixed. So yes, this road repairs program is
exactly that. These are where we repair larger sections of
road, but certainly not the whole road where we see
a pretty significant failure. Perfect. And do we have a
road section that we're planning on or is it all
throughout our town. It would be all throughout the town.
It would be different areas. That over the course of
the year that we would identify. And we would mark
those areas out. And then as then we tender it.
And as long as we have the money, those will
be completed. Perfect. Thank you very much. I will move
the staff recommendation. Okay. Is there a seconder. Councillor Crane.
Any discussion. All those in favor. Of pose that's carried.
Thirteen point two North side road Reconstruction, Acceptance and Infrastructure
and Start of Maintenance. Uh, Councillor Courtney. Second of my
councillor lair. Any discussion. All those in favor pose that's
carried. Next one, 13. 3 bob low wastewater treatment plant
decommissioning. I didn't declare this because it's a town facility.
Okay. And okay. Uh, so, um, so I don't have
one. 13. 3 any discussion questions. Councillor Lair. Staff recommendation
seconded by. Councillor Pouger. All those in favor. Bose that's
carried. There are 13. 4 is done. Yes. And 13.
5 is done. And 13. 6. Walk replacement program tender
results. Questions or comments, councillor Lair. Do we just through
you two back to Todd, please. Uh, do we have
a section that we are specifically focusing on our wrote
our town as well. Is it just for some code?
That was my follow. Uh, let's see if Jesse's mic
works this time. Hello. There's my network. You're there. Yay.
So three YouTube missile three mayor to counsel lair. So
this sidewalk tender is going to be, um, for, um,
Cylok segments that are throughout the town. Uh, we are
replacing, um, the along SIMCO where the, uh, high school
is at. We are placing that replacing that stretch from
the high school to George Street as of right now.
Very much. And I will move this staff recommendation. Second
of my councillor McArthur. Any discussion. See, none of all
those in favor. Foes that's carried. 14. 1 amendment to
the economic development community improvement plan. Questions.
Moved by Councillor Lair, the staff recommendation seconded by Council
of Crane. Any discussion on the motion. All those in
favor. Pose. That's carried. Uh, 14. 2 Heritage Eastment Agreement
130 sandwich street south, just for clarity. That's the former
high school councillor crane. Yes. Thank you, worship through you
to staff. Um, personally, I'm comfortable with the Heritage Gisman
Agreement, The Developer, uh, seems to be on board. It
works as a happy medium for the town and also,
uh, the development. I did have a question on, uh,
the third part of the recommendation. Bylaw 2026 - 045
being a bylaw to designate property of cultural heritage value
or interest. And it goes on. Uh, outlines these specific
lots. Is that designating the property in its entirety. Or
is that just a follow - up motion to just
the heritage easement agreement? Because if it's too designate the
property, it's not something that I would support. And I'd
rather see the motion split. Mr. Coates is here. If
you could explain what the bylaw details? Through your worship,
yeah. That is a designation of the property. The Heritage
Easement takes precedent over the designation. So what is in
the easement. Um, has higher priority over the actual designation
of the property. Uh, usually when a Heritage Mint is
brought forward, a designation does come with it. The easement
sets the framework on a morph kind of finer grain
detail of what the requirements are. Uh, either exceptions from
the designation and or what needs to be done, uh,
to satisfy the easement. So it is a common practice.
Okay. So it supersedes the designation. Those are the only
requirements. Correct. Okay. And the developer is on board with
this based on my understanding. That's my information. I have
not spoken directly with the developer, but my information from
Mr. Coates is that he's on board. That is correct.
I'll move to the recommendation in its entirety. Okay. Uh,
seconded by, uh, councillor Courtney. Any discussion on this. Councillor
Courtney first and then Councillor Pouger. Thank you Mr. Mayor.
Um, I am second in it. I did, uh, quick
talk with Mr. Valenti. So I want to thank all
parties here. I'm glad that, uh, everyone was able to
find a mutual agreement. This is such an important project
to move forward. And I'm very confident that the Valente
Development Court will get this. Our ink will get it
done. Um, the right way with pride. And be able
to do it without too many complications. So I'm glad
that the Heritage Committee and everything was able to get
rectified because the only reason why I'm getting behind this
is because the developer can. Be okay with this. And
that's the only reason why I'm supporting it because ultimately
this is a lot at stake here. And I'm happy
to see that we're at a point out where it'll
be proceed. And I hope it's sooner than later. That's
all I have to say. So thank you. Councillor Pouger.
Mr. Mayor, I just want to make sure that, um,
The developer is happy with all three of the recommendations
on here. Okay. And, um. I guess I should be
directing it to the Heritage Planner. So are there any
other roadblocks in place. Right now? Arcan Mr. Valenti proceed
with, um, continuing with these plans to build. Worship. Um,
I can only speak currently to the, um, the Heritage
Eastman Agreement, of course, that was negotiated with Valente Development.
And what that did is it set up the very
defined path forward. Uh, in order to get, uh, to
the development he wants and ensuring that the level of
comfort, uh, on his end where there won't be any
surprises or surprise decisions. Let's say if the Heritage Committee
changes or if the council changes, um, so it sets
the framework for that. So I believe, um, that, that
path is set. And everybody's currently happy with it. Um,
I'm not sure with roadblocks what you might say, but
I know this is a complicated development. Of course, there's
other approvals that are going to have to come forward.
Dr. Asple, do you have any, uh, ideas if Mr.
Valenti can proceed rather quickly now.
Mr. Mayor to members of council, Planning Act Improvals are
in place. The official plan designation zoning by law amendment.
Are both in place. As previously approved by council. Unless
there's further changes to the proposal. It's in the developer's
hands. Oh, he needs this building permit. In theory, he
could play for building permits. Okay. All right. Councillor McArthur.
Thank you. So I want to thank Mr. Valente for,
uh, sitting here tonight. He's been here at least in
six and it's 9. 30. So thank you for respecting
the process. And respecting these chambers. And, uh, thank you
for. The investment you've made in this town and that
you're about to make in this town and even greater
investment that's going to be, you know, dividends for, for
generations to come. And thank you for working through this
process with town staff to come to this agreement where
everybody wins. I mean, at that meeting when we issue
the notice of intent to designate, I mean, you can't
really, you know, judge, uh, your council actions by the
reaction on, on Facebook. But you can get a flavour
and people weren't happy with us. And, um, and I
understood why because your project is breathtaking in its ambition
and its beauty and its potential to transform this town.
I mean, I know they're only renderings, but it's a
showstopper. And the corridor that leads right into downtown Amortsburg
right next to Fort Mald, then I mean, just transformational
is an understatement. And, you know, people said, you know,
just, just his pictures are beautiful, you know, let them
go, but, but we also have an obligation to protect,
you know, the town and hope and handshakes, you know,
is no way to, you know, to run an organisation
of, of this size. And when we issued that notice
of intent, the desk is named, all we did was
actually give administration a pass to go to you and
to talk and begin to negotiations. I know people like
to think that administration is just running around sort of
without cancel direction. But they're not. Like they were frozen
until we actually, you know, introduced that mechanism for these
negotiations to take place. You know, they couldn't do anything.
So I said at the time that if you couldn't
reach a deal and you came back, I was going
to be supportive of your project regardless. But that conversation
happened and I'm grateful that it did. And to me,
one of the most exciting things that we're preserving is
those murals. I mean, and look what we're doing here,
our vision. It's a very vision statement preserving our past,
well forging our future. This project is symbolic of that,
emblematic of that. And the one thing that did sort
of bother me is, uh, with some of the comments,
is people saying those murals weren't worth protecting because they'd
only, you know, been there since 1967. And they weren't
100 years old. Well, I mean, I was born in
1971. I'm almost 55. And like, I'm pretty archaic. So
those murals are old. And if we run around, you
know, chopping down everything that's 50 years old, 60 years
old, 70 years old, it's never going to get to
be 100. We're chopping down saplings because, you know, before
they become towering oaks, we didn't do that in this
case. We recognise something that was of value. To our
past. To our future, and to everybody who said, you
know, that Amortsburg is inhospitable to developers. We just proved
them wrong because we're preserving our history. We're protecting our
future. And we're doing it hand in hand. So again,
it's 940. You want to go home. Thank you for
everything you're going to do for this town. Anyone else
before I give a couple of comments, I'm going to
pass the gavel then. I want to thank Mr. Valenti
and the staff. This is, I'm sorry, but this is
what I felt was going to happen all along. I
know the last meeting, the few tempers out there, but,
but no, we have an obligation, as Councillor McCarthy said,
to make sure that the heritage is protected. And it
was. And Mr. Valenti has had the opportunity to make
sure it was protected. What she said he wanted to
by simply sitting down and talking. And that, uh, that
resolves a lot of things. Um, some people run off
the courts and lawyers and everybody else. But to my
mind, the best way of making things happen is when
two people reasonable people sit down, discuss and come to
a compromise, which is exactly what happened here. Uh, from
the minute that Mr. Valenti bought that property. And remember,
we refused it because we didn't have the money and
didn't probably know how to do it right anyway. Uh,
but was from the minute he bought the property. I
have been enamored at his proposals. He has a vision
which will radically and brilliantly transform the downtown core. And
many, many towns wish that they had something like this.
I know Kingsville just had a high school and tore
down Livington had a high school and tore it down.
They're all, you know, they're just getting rid of the
properties. But this one here is a gem. And from
the beginning, uh, we recognised it as a gem. And,
uh, to Mr. Code's benefit, the report, um, I think
six out of the eight, uh, criteria were met. And
people were saying, this isn't heritage. It met almost every
single criteria set up by the Ontario government. If this
isn't Heritage, then we don't have a Heritage building in
this old town. Depending, nevermind what the age is. So,
um, okay. I guess they've had enough. Okay. Uh, so,
so I want to thank him. And I want to
thank the town for bearing with us. I know there
were some people not happy at The Last meeting, but
I think everybody's going to go home happy tonight. And
Mr. Valenti, all I can say is God's speed. Find
somebody to fill those places. Build it, rent it, lease
it, sell it. Do something to make sure that that
is the, uh, architectural gem of Essex County because I
am positive with your leadership it will be. Take the
gavel back. Okay. We got a motion on the floor.
All those in favor. Pose has carried unanimously. Okay.
15. 1 special events approval part five.
Councillor Lair. Moved staff recommendation. Move the staff recommendation. Okay.
Um, seconded by. Councillor Pouger. Any discussion on this. Seeing
none, all those in favor pose that's carried. 15. 2
RFP for integrity commissioner services. Any questions or motions questions.
Councillor, do you have question or motion? Question, okay, well.
Are we getting an annual report? They're already out. We're
still waiting for our... Did we get the annual report?
Did I miss it? In which report? So through your
worship, yes, the report was provided. We sent an email
to that effect, but I'll follow up on that. It's
on the town website as well. Usually the report comes
as a report to council so we can actually look
at it and all that, like, why are we not
doing like withdrawal? It's a suggestion from the entirety commissioner
was to save us the expense and having him come
and present. Even just presenting the report then, I mean.
Yeah. Has he been remote anyways, so they can do
it from wherever their office is. Okay, that was your
question, Councillor Poje. Go ahead. And I support what councillor
Courtney is saying. We had been advised that it was
going to appear on council so that if somebody wanted
to, they could speak to it or buy members of
Council about their concerns about this. The report was very
ambiguous. It did not have a breakdown of how many
it cost us for investigations or anything like that. And
I think this report should come back to council and
be occluded on the agenda. Could I just make sure,
if that's a motion, what will happen? Is this less
than 50, 000, or do we have to leave this
up to staff move this motion? Because we have to
have an integrity commissioner. Yeah, so through your worship, I
think what is being discussed is different than the report
that's before us tonight, is this would be an RFB
for new integrity commissioner services. I think that discussion is
about the integrity commissioner who has provided his notice termination,
and the report that he had provided as part of
that. He intended not to be present to provide that
and ask that been a doll of council. So that's
what we did. If you'd like to request that he
attend and pay the associated costs, we do have an
agreement with him that's in effect until November 20th. And
there are set fees for what it would cost for
him to attend and speak to that report. You know,
in my estimation, the report's been live now for two
months. We haven't heard any feedback. Councillor Pouja, I want
to be clear. You want the former or the about
to be former Integrity Commissioner to become before council and
pay his fees so we can hear why he quit?
Well, no. Well, no, I'm trying to figure out what
you want. I just want his report that he was
supposed to report to us. And it's on the website,
but it's never been on council document on an agenda.
I'm all for, we have to appoint a new integrity
commissioner. I'm all for that. But it's just that, I
believe that report should be made public so that it
can be seen by. And he doesn't have to appear
before us. He just gave a report. Okay, so it's
on the website, but you want it to come before
council. Just request that you brought forward to the next
or subsequent Council meeting. And it will, if it passes,
it will. I mean, it is public, but if you
want it for councils, edification and debate, you'd have to
make that motion. So you can do that under new
business. Okay, well. Because this one here is to authorize
the new one. Yeah. Okay, Councillor Courtney. The recommendation. We
need an integrity commissioner. I looked online. I tear you
have to have when I get it. But it says
in RFP. So with an RFP, we put a what
we want. They give us a fee. And then, so
I guess the RFP that we put out when principals
took it on for Mr. Elman, what was inclusive of
what we paid them? Like per report, per statement, per
whatever. And then at the end of it, we get
an annual statement. They come before us and they explain
it. Was that part of the RFP? Because I've never
seen the RFP with what exactly principles owes this town.
And if it wasn't part of it, then... So again,
I think we're dealing with two different things here. We
know, you know, when we get to new business, you
know, happy to have that discussion. The cost to have
the integrity commissioner come for that report beats 1700 and
50 dollars. I'll move the recommendation for the new people.
Okay. Any discussion on the recommendations that are before you.
All those in favor. Posed. You opposed are just both
of you late. Putting your hands out. I'm going to
ask again, all those in favor. Okay, that passes. Okay.
I wasn't sure whether it was... Maybe I was too
fast with my question of opposed. Anyway, next go to
Information Reports. The Three of them, B. Received. The Council
requests for history at 208, saying our node. The quarterly
fired department activity report and the building activity report. I
have a motion to receive them all, and then we'll
see if anyone wants to pull any of them. Move
by Councillor Crane, seconded by Councillor Pouger. Okay, we have
them all before us. Anybody want to question or speak
about any of the three. Anybody want to? Okay, none.
All those in favor. Opposed that's carried. Okay. The next
one is the consent correspondence. We have three. Essex solid
waste. Regulatory changes for improving Ontario's drinking water resources. And
whether notification system letter from Chris Lewis MP, kind of
a motion to receive all three. Moved by Councillor Crane,
seconded by. Councillor Lair. Uh, okay. Any discussion on any
of the three.
No, you just, you voted for it. Everybody voted to
receive all three. Well, that's why I asked. I was
surprised when you didn't. So. Well, we'd have to go
back. What we're in the motion on the floor for
17. 1 to 17. 3. Does anybody want to talk
to those. Councillor Courtney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So just
receive the an article from a resident that unfortunately Mr.
Lewis attempt to try to get with his concerns about
weather reporting an area specifically fell on deaf ears in
Ottawa. So I don't want to let it die here.
I wish Mr. Lewis lettuce know ahead of time so
we could gather some steam as a municipality to all
the municipalities. So can I move him? We're receiving these
correspondence. Maybe I'll do it under a new business. I'll
like to move a motion regarding this, but I just
wanted to speak to it. Like, uh, it's, it's kind
of important stuff here. And, uh, it got shrugged off.
Um, by our other members of parliament and thought that
the minister, everything her, the basis recovers. So. I want
to thank Mr. Lewis for representing our area and sending
this off because he's not the only one that has
concerns with, uh, weather reporting and radar and things like
that. So I just want to, I'll bring it up
on a new business, but I just wanted to speak
to that. Okay. I mean, I thank him for that
too. But parliamentary system, somebody in opposition is not likely
to get very far with a letter like this. So,
but anyway, he tried. So that's, uh, okay. Uh, so,
uh, so the motion is before us that they all
be received. All those in favor. Pose that's carried. Now
councillor Pouge has requested that the matter of 16. 1
be reopened. So, uh, it would, uh, it would require
a vote to reopen, which is, and we all voted,
everybody voted in favor of it. So it would need,
uh, vote would need mover a secondary and a vote
to reopen it. And two thirds. Yeah. There would be
reconsideration. Yeah. So it's two thirds. Okay. So, okay. Is
there a motion to reopen at first. Yes. I almost
said, yeah. To read. Consider to reconsider a motion to
reconsider. All we did was receive them. Well, yeah, I
know. But that's on other items before with less, less
things. Can we just, can we go back? Yeah. Let's
go back. That's not the procedure. Yeah. Well,
it's not the correct way. If we've done it before
I'm apologised, if I had any part in it, okay.
So is there a motion to reconsider. Courtney, is there
a second or to that motion. Okay. Councillor Pouge. Is
there any discussion on the motion to reconsider. Seeing none,
all those in favor of reconsidering. It passed. It's now
before us.
Lord is very concerning. Uh, uh, uh, uh. Firmly believe
for administration to use excuse in this report because there
were so many emails and complaints. It made it difficult
for a timeline. It's inexcusable and totally unacceptable. The fact
of the matter is there were numerous complaints with documentation
to prove this building was an arena and not a
warehouse. From the very first moment council and the residents
were misled by the developer and administration. Committee of adjustment
from the developer, I would whole early. I don't know
you can say that about administration. Well, how did administration
mislead? Well, the committee of adjustment gave approvals for variance
for a warehouse, not an arena. At no time did
the administration go back to them and say, Oh, you
gave an adjustment variance. But by the way, it's not
going to be aware how it's going to be an
arena. And the accessibility committee was duped also. They approved
a parking lot for a warehouse, not an arena. They
were never allowed to show, be showing the site plan.
For an arena. And, um. No one informed these committees
of this betrayal. So there was numerous complaints by Law
Us Building in March of 2025. By - law asked
building department. To halt a project temporarily until actions were
verified. Emails and documents from complainants that walls went up
on two sides, drainage, continued and completed gravel poured coolant
lines, lead and buried compressors and fans running constantly. Administration
assisted. It wasn't an arena. Despite these complaints, the footings
and foundations were inspected and approved. What was under the
cement. Lines were they inspected. On May 2025, there was
an order to comply. The building continued. Juni 11, 25
Bill Pertuniak sent pictures, which I have, refrigerant units outside
arena. I immediately contacted the chief building official. I was
denied by right to speak to him about this arena
and warehouse. June 12. 2025. There was a stop work
order. Building continued. June 28, 2025, another complaint. Why woulds
work continuing on this arena when there was an order
to comply and a stop work order. Pictures were shown.
And of the delivery of rink boards, delivery of San
Boney, delivery of scoreboards, installation of plastic refrigerant lines, support
system, appropriate delivery and manifolds. Plumbing installed and drained tie
- ins. The pouring and installation of, um, mentioned concrete
over the above finishing lines on what appears to be
a rink - like oval. Day later, the rest of
the floor was poured. The interior block was constructed with
bay doors. Wide enough for a Zambodi. The building, they
allowed the building to continue. On July 30th, 2025, building
insulation inspected failed due to stop work order. Building continued
to be completed. Why did administration allow them to continue
to build and not present them, uh, with a summoned
until November 20th, 2025 when in May, June, July. It
was proven over and over again. They were building an
arena. And they, it wasn't until November 20th, 2025 that
has summons to appear in court when an order to
comply and stop work order were issued six months earlier.
The deceit continued March 12, 2026, The Structure was not
in compliance. It required another setback. No one caught this.
Not built according to plan. In closing, I firmly believed
Council cannot simply receive this report for information. But must
request a full investigation for allowing the structure to be
completed as an arena while they were orders to comply
and stop work orders issued. Um, right now, this poor
gentleman and his family, they are living in hell. And
I encourage everybody from council to go there and to
witness it. There's continuous, mechanical noise. Fans and compressors. Just
yesterday, the indoor, 45 decimal readings is evidence. Amrisburg uses
the excuse that we don't have the proper equipment to
measuring decibels. And we don't have, um, nighttime enforcement. In
the meantime, this family is living a life of health
with the 24 - 7 noise traffic, lack of privacy,
and the knowledge that they were misled and deceived every
step of the way for proposed warehouse that ended up
being a commercial arena. Okay. That I take was just
a statement. So I don't know whether you're expecting. I
do. Well, maybe before anything happens, we now have two
minutes to 10. I need a motion if people want
to stay late emotion to extend the time. Otherwise we're
finished. Councillor Crane. Until 1030. Okay. Is there a seconder?
I don't think we'll finish at 1030, quite frankly. But
go ahead. I'm optimistic. Okay. Uh, Councillor Lair seconds the
motion. All those in favor. Opposed that's carried. We're until
1030. Okay. Now you made a number of statements. Is
there any questions you want to ask or is just
you just wanted to make the statement? No, I want
to make a motion that administration goes there and investigates
the complaints made by this family. And, um, and I
know that there's a ways up for them. They haven't
even mentioned how we could help them. But there has
to be some municipal noise bylaw that's present. And if
not, the NPC 300 or the Ministry of Environment should
be called in. There's, there was never any mentioned to
put buffers in there or any thing to ease the
sound and to help this family. From what they're going
through. All right. I'm going to ask the CAO. I
know that she was written at least four emails on
this very topic today, at least for. But go ahead.
Your worship members of council, the initial noise complaint was
investigated, um, and, uh, the manager of Bylaw is not
here this evening. He's on vacation. Um, he sent a
detailed email to the complainant explaining why, uh, that, that,
uh, complaint was, um, found not to have enough evidence
to move forward. The complainant was, uh, told that if
he was not satisfied with that, he does have the
option to go before the justice of the peace and
provincial court and lay a private charge. If he feels
he has enough evidence, um, bylaw certainly did not feel
that we had the evidence to sustain that charge. Um,
another complaint was made. And I believe, um, uh, that
has to do with a second source of the HVAC.
Again, Mr. Wilder, um, expressed to the complainant that when
he went the first time, uh, there was no violation
in his view. Um, and a second actual formal complaint,
not an email, but a formal complaint through our portal
was never filed again for the HVAC. Another complaint came
in this morning with respect to a different noise. Bylaw
will be investigating that. Um, and with respect to, um,
the environmental guidelines, which are guidelines, um, those are, uh,
actually enforced by the MECP. They are not enforced by
municipal bylaw officers. And so the complainant is free to
call the MECP. And if they feel that it's valid
to come and investigate, I imagine they will do so.
Further questions. No, Council of Courtney. Mr. Mayor. So, I
mean, this file sloppy. It's been what we've all had
concerns from the onset. I think staff did their best
in regards to trying to rectify. Sean Arno is a
very unique street in our town. It has got so
many zoning things from residential to light industrial to heavy
industrial to residential, to commercial. And it's very unfortunate that
that blend ever came to be, but somehow it happens
on St. Arnold. So I guess my question is for
the resident that is a buddy this, uh, and, and,
and whatever the zoning, staff says it meets the criteria,
but there is cameras, the lights, the sounds after a
certain times. What is the, um. What can be done
in regards to hearing pucks banging off the boards all
night long, potentially because it's, to me, it's not a
public arena. I've never seen, it's private, in my opinion,
because I haven't been, I'll see if I can get
some ice time and then that'll verify it. But what
can we do with Bylaw or, or what does the
resident have available in their toolbox to push this owner
that is right on the property line. With all of
these exceptions to the rule to at least let their
family be able to live comfortably in their backyard? I
think that's where we got to go from here now.
The arena is not going to get tore down. It's
been approved. But that's, we're working, what can we do?
So those types of sounds would be the type that
are regulated or that not regulated, but for which the,
um, Environmental guidelines are in place. And that will be
something MECP can come and investigate if they feel it's
warranted. Our noise bylaw has already been investigated and it
was not found to have, um, enough evidence to proceed
with any kind of a charge. On the HEVEC and
excuse me, sir, I am speaking. If there is another
complaint, a formal complaint can be made, not an email,
but through the portal. And the complaint with respect to
the PEX, our By Enforcement officers are going to attend
to investigate that. But that would be more for the
MECP. I understand there was a light complaint. That was
dealt with. And I believe there may have been complaints
about the cameras, which were also dealt with. No opportunity
for the public to speak. Nobody put a name down.
It was here. Nobody put a name down from the
entire town to speak. You know, you can't. It's just,
you can't do it unless there's unanimous consent. Let's follow.
Your own time. To rely on. It. No, that's the,
no, that's not in the procedural bylaw. It is there's
somebody on council who wishes to, to allow DeputNut who
is not, uh, registered to speak. I do. All right.
Is there a second or to this. Well, by seconded
by Councillor Allaire, again, it must be unanimous. All those
in favor of allowing the gentleman to speak. Could we
have a recorded vote, please? No, it's procedural. You know
that you cannot ask for a recorded vote. On a
procedural matter. Okay. All those in favor of allowing him
to speak. All those opposed. Counsellor Crane said no. He
cannot speak. Okay. Now, okay. You want to do the
same thing. Okay. All right. Councillor Pouger moves that a
second deputy allowed to speak. Seconded by Councillor Lair. Well,
we know who it, okay. I don't even know his
name. Do you worship the first motion was to wave
the rules of border to allow a delegation to speak.
It did not indicate the individual. So I think based
on that, a second motion will have the same result.
There's no procedural reason to go back through that's emotion.
Okay. Well, it was, it was generic. The clerk is
right. It was generic to allow someone to speak. And
it did not pass. So that means everybody in the
room. I thought I was
pretty familiar with the bylaw. I do not believe that
that's what the bylaw says it needs to be unanimous.
It was not unanimous. Now we know the gentleman with
the beard was the one. I don't have any problem.
Saying that we can, if you want, but you have
to name the individual this time. I'm sorry about that.
His name is Nate Aroic. For the record. Council. Okay.
But that's who I thought it was. But I didn't
want to was denied the right in Ukraine. It's been
denied. Yeah. Okay. So who do you want to speak
next? I'm asking to wait the rules of order to
allow Alice and Baldwin to speak. Okay. Is there a
seconder. Councillor Lair. Okay. Is it just a vote on
a procedural matter. Well, it's a procedural motion. You don't
usually speak. I mean. If you want to get into
a big discussion, let's go. Well, no, it's not going
to be a big discussion, but, uh, I'm with Councillor
Crane on this one. I was prepared to hear the
homeowner because I think that sort of serves that the
public good to give them the opportunity to speak, but
just to, you know, other people putting up their hands
randomly. I want to hear from the homeowner. And, uh,
and that's not going to happen. That's fine. But, but
I'm not going to support Ms. Baldwin speaking on this
issue. It's not her house. Okay. So, so anybody else
want to speak to the issue. The reason I, uh,
was suggesting Alison speak is because she has been there
on several occasions. And she has witnessed. There may be
many good reasons, but it has to be, uh, Councillor
Crane, do you want to speak to this? Yes. I
have many times, uh, I'll keep it short. There's an
opportunity to register as a delegate. Anyone from the public
could have registered to speak on these items. That did
not take place. The process was not followed. It's almost
1030. This is a meeting of council, not a meeting
of the public. We had that during the planning meeting
session. Um, and for another, a number of other reasons
that I've mentioned every time I'm the big bad wolf
saying no, uh, but we have a procedural bylaw that
needs to be followed. So thank you. All right. So
we have a motion moved and seconded everybody who wants
to speak has spoken. All those in favor of letting
Alice and Baldwin speak signify all those opposed. There are
two in opposition that fails. Okay. So. Where are we
at Mr. Clerk? Is there anything on the. S nothing
else? Okay. There's no motions. There's nothing. Well, it's been
reopened. Yes. So there have to be another motion. Councillor
Larry, you're moving motion to receive it. Is there a
seconder. Councillor Crane, any discussion on the second motion to
receive. All those in favor. Posed. That's carried. It's received
again. Okay. Next is a
proclamation request for National Disability Employment Awareness Month Ontario Disability
Employment Network. And they are requesting that we declare October
National Disability Employment Awareness Month and that we light up
the town in purple and or blue on October 16th.
Councillor Lair. I will move the staff recommendation and could
we let it up in blue. Okay. Is there a
second or to that. Councillor Crain. Okay. So this is
specific. We proclaim it and we light it up in
blue. And he discussion, councillor Courtney. I shouldn't have the
tread lately. I think city of Windsor did it right.
Um, the proclamations continue to come in and they're very
widespread. And the months and the weeks and the days
and there's going to be years soon that we're going
to proclaim a whole year for something. And no disrespect
to any of these entities, but we are a corporation.
We are a talent in the province of Ontario flags
and town hall buildings really were delving into things that
have nothing to do with the town of Ambersburg. We
don't have to proclaim stuff. It should be given. But
whatever this council wants to do, but it's just every,
they're coming in all the time. And the list is
growing. I'd be curious to know the number of requests
for proclamation days and months. And see where it's at.
I'm just curious. I mean, Windsor did away with it
for a reason. I've seen it and I followed along
and I kind of agree. Do you want that before
we deal with this item or do you want this
deal with this item? And as for it later. All
right. Okay. So anybody else to speak to the item.
Okay. Then all those in favor. Opposed. Okay. Now under
new business, if you want to ask for that report,
you can get it. All right.
Okay. We now have consent other minutes. There's the, uh,
regular board meeting minutes. The committee of adjustment meeting minutes
Heritage Committee meeting minutes and the Amortsburg accessibility advisory committee
meeting minutes. Motion to receive them all. Councillor Allaire, seconded
by Councillor Courtney. Anybody want to pull any or discuss
any of these. Okay. Seeing none, all those in favor.
Opposed. That's carried. Other minutes, The Drainage Board meeting minutes
of July 7th, 2026. Is there a motion. Councillor Lair.
Just at the recommendations. Approved, received and approved. Okay. Is
there a seconder. Councillor Crane. Any discussion. Seeing none, all
those in favor. Pose. That's carried. Unfinished business. And anything
an unfinished business. No. Okay. Then over onto the page.
We now have new business. This is an opportunity. There
was a number of things discussed already tonight that could
go here. Councillor Larry, see you first. Thank you, Mr.
Mayor. I will try and keep this super quick. Um,
just to calm every resident that might be still somehow
tuning in. The weeds, uh, on the sidewalks in town,
it was explosive on the internet this week. And everyone
thinks that the town does not care about our sidewalks.
Can we just get confirmation as a whole from administration
that we are taking care of this. Through you, Mr.
Mayor, to counsel a lair, The weeds will be no
longer. So it just is a little explanation. We have
to get approval from the MECP to do our wheat
spraying programs. Uh, we had the one for the rural
sections a long time ago. And the one for the
sidewalks took us almost three months to finally get that
approval. Once we get the approval, then we put it
into the newspaper, which it was two weeks ago. And
that, uh, weed spring program did start last week. So
even if, uh, unfortunately, we'll take about a week for
them to die as well. So it may have already
been sprayed, but it'll take a little bit of time.
And just to confirm, it is throughout our entire town,
correct? If it's a curb, we spray it. Yes. Okay.
Perfect. Thank you. And then the next hot topic this
week was Accessibility in our parks. Um, I do know
that, uh, our director of Parks and REC Heide took
very good response to many of the emails. Could you
enlighten us on some of the actions that we are
capable of taking from those emails and what could be
effective. Thank you for the questions through Mr. Mayor. Remembers
of council, we have reviewed the request that have come
in and all the emails that have come in regarding
some of the accessibility, um, suggestions for some of the
playgrounds, uh, we are looking into those with the playground
vendor that supplied the equipment. Some of the suggestions I
will, uh, caution if we implement those, um. Compromise the
passing of the unit. So if there are any compromises
like that, we will not make those adjustments. We will
also be sourcing additional panels perhaps that we might be
able to put out there. There will be a cause
to that as well. Um, and we're also looking at,
um, other adjustments within the parks where we can perhaps
pour one section of sidewalk to make that accessible. We're
also ordering signs for the accessible parking spots that was
recommended. You guys worked really quickly. So I appreciate that.
Um, one of the small suggestions that this resident made
was painting the strip at Jack Purdy Park, um, to
prevent parking in front of the ramp. Can we get
that done this year? That's not a cost. Thank you
for the question councillor to you. Mr. Mayor to all
of council. Everything comes at a cost, but we are
working on that. So we will be painting that area
in front of Jack Prairie Park and the signs are
on order. So, um, we do have signs. We are
looking at all of the parks. Um, I would like
to notify council that in all of these things come
at a cost. And we do have in our regular
program and accessibility budget where we can do bits and
pieces of these things. So as capital budgets move forward,
we can do these additional little pieces that we know
need to happen. So we will take into consideration all
the accessibility improvements that need to happen across our parks.
We know that there are a lot in terms of
connectivity. And we will work on those as budget permits
little by little. Perfect. And then just the final follow
- up with Parks. The Port of Johns. So we
do have accessible porta - johns and a lot of
our parks, which I appreciate. However, they were originally placed
some not inaccessible areas. Can we just ensure that that
is taking care of and they are improper placement. Thank
you for the questions to you, Mr. Mayor to members
of council. Um, they were placed inaccessible locations. Unfortunately, the
storms that we've had when the companies come out sometimes,
they don't know. We know where to put them back
or they get turned. Or if they're not actually anchored
down kids tip them over and they get spun around.
But we did do a thorough walkthrough of all the
parks. Um, I personally went out there with our parks
manager. Um, to look at some of the areas where
they were in the wrong location. So our staff are
addressing that. Thank you. Um, I have other, can I
do one more. Oh, do you want to speak to
we only have 11 minutes. I want to give everybody
a chance, but go ahead. Okay. Uh, well Councillor Courtney
wanted to speak to Parks, but I guess it's kind
of environmental. So we're going to go with it. Uh,
I just wanted to give everyone an update on the
amalgamation of IRCA to Willerca, the Western Lake Erie Regional
Conservation Area. Um, I sent Council on email, but just
to let everyone know on August 5th, uh, that we
got an update from the MECP. And they did change
our structuring. So now what we'll be different is all
of Essex region will be represented by three representatives, uh,
Windsor will also get three representatives and Peely will get
one representative. And Wallerca will consist of 22 representatives. So
I just wanted to get that out there. Um, and
then Tim and I are on the transition team. That's
effective until February 1st. Apparently. And, uh, we've been trying
to get this so - called playbook to explain what
is going to happen to our area. Um, it's out
there, but they are not showing us. So we basically
get to learn. As it comes. So I just wanted
to give the update. Thank you. Okay. Other new business.
Councillor Courtney. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Real quick too. Just
a follow up to, um, the resident reached out to
all of us. And you were very good. Staff was
very good with, uh, in regards to the accessibility. Namely,
the one that she referenced was Boldway Park. Again, just
looking for signage, just a sign dedicated near the path
closest to, to me, I don't think it's a significant
dollar amount, but whatever parks that we have, if it's
new or there should be, I agree with her just
a sign in a post. And whatever funding, we're going
lame dunk, but I mean, hopefully we got some, something
in a reserve somewhere because this is something that I
think is the only real request to make sure that
available parking spot or two is closest to that path
to let that child, at least quickly as possible, get
to, even if it's the gravel trails right now. And
she's aware that it's going to be a phased in
approach. You did that very well. But just putting up
a simple sign, just to mark it off. And then
the ramp access or the, uh, path access. A little
bit of paint. I'll go and paint the lines. I
don't care. I got paint. So let's, I hope we
can move quickly on that. That was the request. Um,
my second thing is I brought out up earlier MP
Lewis. It fell on deaf ears. The ministry environment says
that no, no, they're doing their due diligence with exeters
radar station. And it went down. But that's not enough
in my opinion. It was his letter that came in
and he was his that he brought forward. I don't
know what kind of, uh, support he got from the
area. I wish he kind of let everyone know. But
I'd still like to send a letter off to this
minister stating that we as the town of Amsburg do
support, um, P. Lewis'concerns. And we feel it won't go
anywhere. And also CC, other municipalities and maybe county council
can bring it up in support of, uh, MPUS because
he shouldn't be left high and dry when he's trying
to take care of this area and the safety, uh,
for bad weather. And again, we just had a rock
and storm last night. Power was out at my house
for 12 hours. Um, generator's been in use. I've had
to pay for generator. Like things are happening here. And
we try to alert people as soon as possible. We
have to. And we got to stay on top of
the government and okay is not, is not adequate. You
know, we got to make sure that, and he has
a concern and I want to support him. So I
put a motion forward that we sent a letter of
support to the minister in regards to M. P. Lewis's
letter that he submitted. NCCA copy to the area. Is
that signifying you want to speak or that you want
to support this? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Your second to
get any discussion. All those in favor. Pose that carries.
And I got one more thing real quick. Um, new
fire hall. Shingle roof. We're looking for, uh, rate reductions
for that thing. And I remember this council did shingle.
I'm seeing metal things going up signifying a metal root.
Like what are the metal girders and things going up
on the roof of the fire hall? I've seen it.
Other people seen it and they've made comments. So what
roofing material are going is going on the roof. I'll
take that one through you, Mr. Mayor, to Councillor Courtney.
It is a shingle roof. What you see up there
are the girders that will support the insulation. So what
hasn't gone up yet is the insulation that I'll go
between those girders. Uh, so those girders will ultimately be
covered with plywood and shingles, uh, when the final product
is complete. So with two layers from the outside for
insulation for the roof versus normally that's interior and you
see that. So that's the correct. Okay. Thank you. Other
new business. Councillor Pouger. Mr. Mayor. I just wondered if
we can write to the Diagello and Premier Ford to
find out where we are with the 500, 000 dollars
that we are supposed to be given. Oh, I don't
see why not. So, okay. That's a request that staff
do that. Or did I do it? Whoever can do
it. Do you want it to come from the mayor's
office or do you want it to come from staff.
Okay. Would it be more effective coming from the mayor's
office? All right. Is there a second or to that
motion? Okay. Uh, second, I saw Councillor Crane's hands first.
Any discussion on this. All those in favor. Pose. I
hope staff will help me prepare a nice letter. Thank
you. And I will gladly sign it. Okay. Other new
business. Councillor Fouger. Yes. Um, so I'd been receiving some
emails about Minnesota and other places that are being, their
water treatment plant is being hacked. I just wondered if
we could receive an update. From administration to tell us
all the, um, criteria that they have put in place
to prevent that in the town of Amorsburg. Worst members
of council would be happy to bring that report in
camera, but to bring it publicly would expose all of
the precautions that we've taken, but we would be happy
to bring you that in camera. No objection to be
abroad in camera. It just said, I know it's very
concerning for a number of people because it's happened in
Minnesota 55 times. So. People are concerned. A good request.
Is there a second or to that. Councillor or letter?
Any discussion. All those in favor. Pose that's carried. Anymore.
Go ahead. Um, regarding Bill 72, the Bio Ontario Act.
Would it be not be in our best interest to
send a letter to the province. Um, asking, telling them
how it's affecting us dramatically and giving the example of
what happened tonight. No seconded by Council
Ukraine. I did, I did have a motion. Or do
you want any statistics? Cause this, what we did tonight
did not cost us any money. So we don't have
anything to, we can say we don't like the act.
No. I can't find my notion I had. So do
you want the motion just to say we don't like
it? No. How it affects us. Well, we went around
it. Process more money. Well, I'm just trying to find
my, my motion. That I had made. Until. It does.
While you're looking forward, I'll see if anybody else has
any other motions. Off.
Yeah. Well, I mean, but okay. We can send it
could have cost us money, but we decided to, okay.
The scenario tonight to them that it was going to
cost us 120, 000 dollars more than one of the
primary reasons why it was deferred. And it was an
option available on our toolbox. But moving forward, if this
is going to be a trend, which it sounds like
it's going to be. That's why we've got concerns. I
think it's fair. All right. Mr. Mayor, my motion probably
is not a might not be appropriate. It was to
direct administration to correspond with the province of Ontario. To
request compensation for 124, 045 dollars. But because we didn't,
uh, proceed with it. I guess we can't. No, we'll
have to go with the first motion. Okay. But it
makes sense. Okay. All those in favor of the first
motion. Okay. Pose. Okay. Um, I had a few, but
we're not going to get there because, uh, we've got
other things to do. I had a couple of motions.
I thought, uh, one of the councillors was going to
do what reg nemeth asked and asked for a report
on the North of Alma, but nobody did. He said,
you were going to do it. He said, Diane was
going to do it. And nobody did. Like that. Were
you asking a report from. Council games doing everything? Is
Councillor Crane doing it right now? Yes. Um, so I
don't have to do it. So I'll move a motion.
I spoke with Kevin about perhaps council receiving a watershed
update in a report. Uh, when I spoke to Mr.
Nemeth, he did not explain what he was looking to
talk about. So I'm hoping that a general reporter about
watershed will give him the chance to do that. Yeah.
I think specifically around the big creek signage that was
put in there in the environmental provisions and how they're
working. Um, may speak to the area that he has
concerns with. That would be great. And then some move
around a seconder. Not yet. Secondary. Councillor Pouger. Okay. Just
may I speak on it. Well, very quickly. You got
two minutes to wrap up everything. I'll be so, uh,
the other part that they're concerned about is if there
was a frag mite's mapping, I know we spent 20,
000 dollars to do it. And I think that's a
part of the concern is how successful have we been
with phragmalities control. Okay. So, okay.
But that doesn't have to be in the. Okay. Uh,
any other discussion, all those in favor. Pose that's carried.
Um, I did have one item, but I'll deal with
staff later. Okay. Uh, anything else. Yes. I got one
minute. We've got, uh, three bylaws, 24. 1. It is
the bylaw, uh, to the shoel line drain. We'll move
them all. Can I do that? Yeah, you can. Okay.
I'll do it. Perfect. That includes the confirmatory bylaw moved
by Councillor Crane, seconded by Councillor Lair, all those in
favor. Opposed that's carried adjournment. Okay. Councillor
Courtney, seconded by Councillor Lair. All those in favor. Opposed.
And the meeting concludes that. 1029.