There's another junior.
» Thank you. So, we will call this special
meeting of council for Tuesday, June
23rd to order. Please could I just
remind everybody to silence their
devices if they haven't uh done so
already. And also just a reminder that
uh today's meeting is livereamed on the
municipal YouTube channel for members of
the public to view either live as it
says or at a at a later date right
there.
Uh adoption of the open session agenda.
to be resolved that the council of
corporation town of bankrupt is hereby
approved of the open session agenda as
amended uh dated June 23rd 2026. Uh it's
amended just for the order today. So
councelor Leman and councelor Lawrence
all in favor please. Thank you.
Is there any declaration of pecuni? Just
seeing none. So today we have a
delegation uh from Mr. Brian Lawrence
over the walkway access over the
municipal property being the prominad.
So Brian, if you'd like to come to the
front. Thank you.
And you'll need to push the button there
so you get a red light on on your mic
there.
>> That one.
>> You got it.
>> That puts me on.
>> You're on.
>> Perfect. Thank you very much.
>> And just Sorry. You're going to Yeah,
we're just going to put your sketches up
so we can all see here.
>> Great. Except that I have to make a
comment on that. Okay. Um, so I want to
start off with two apologies. One, I
forgot my hearing aids. So if you have
to yell at me, that's one thing. Uh, the
other is, uh, we just found out about
this whole thing about very short, not
very long ago. I understand that the
decision was made back in May, but we
heard nothing about that. So, it wasn't
until uh I met with Jake a few not long
ago that I was presented with this. This
was totally new to us. The reason I
mention that is that we um have been
making some I have Shannon with me too,
Shannon Moore, who runs the spa. She's
the one that's most affected by this.
She's more affected by it than I am. And
uh so if there's some questions that
pertain to that, then she'd be here to
answer them. But uh so we've been
talking up until 10 minutes ago and
making some changes. So Amber, I'm sorry
that that's not the most upto-date. So I
wasn't aware that I that that was going
to be used as such. Um but anyway, so I
have a handout that's got the update
one. Is that okay?
>> Sure.
>> So I can hand that out. Okay.
>> I have a few handouts.
Take your time.
I only have three hours. You just take your time.
» Yeah.
>> My fault. This is this sad.
>> That's okay. Take your time.
Right.
» See, it always shows you who knows
what's going on.
>> That's why I brought her along, too.
>> That's right. [laughter]
» So, yeah. You don't mind taking one
passing along because your face is what
I I am. Okay. You're okay with that?
>> Yep.
Wow, that was
[laughter] I tried to call you. That's
right. Okay. So, uh yeah. So, I
apologize that didn't get sent to Amber,
but to say we've been just working on it
up. They're both the same. They're just
coming from two different directions.
>> Yeah. I'm thankful. I think
>> so. If I may folks uh give you a very
Oh, the other handout I have is a
written handout to uh text to go with
that. Just a word of explanation because
I think there are some things that uh
many of you may not be aware of with
respect to the project. Uh so I'm trying
to make this as brief as possible but at
your leisure there is um there is uh
opportunity to to get a little bit of
background. So if I may very briefly
I would like to just address
the the property. So the property we're
talking about of course is 45 Hastings
Street North. Royal Leage is in the
front. Shannon has her spot at the back
and we have an apartment upstairs.
So we bought that shortly after my
father passed away. We used some
earnings to buy a rental property and uh
so that's what uh what we have. So when
we purchased that as you can see on that
the text uh when we purchased 45 the
eastern property line extended about 30
ft past the neighboring property. So if
you go to the diagram
that I handed out, that 30 ft is that
blue box.
Why that property line extended that
far, I don't know. I wasn't part of
that. We we just bought the property.
Okay. So
forever since we bought it, we've had
that that blue square. So it's about 30
by 30, so about 900 square ft.
And historically we got limited use of
it. Uh the town would often put snow on
there and that kind of thing. So but we
did have parking behind it etc. Okay. So
when uh we had that um when 41 collapsed
when the um Victorian lady collapsed it
was as you know it was sitting there for
some period of time in a bad state of
repair. So Tyler, my son, if you know
Tyler Lawrence from Lawrence Electric,
who was with at Dolia now, keeping your
water and sewer together, um he and
Jeremy and Jason White from Beacon
Construction bought the property. They
didn't want it, they didn't need it, but
it was an eyesore and so they they
elected to buy it
and uh and tore it down. And I won't get
into all the details, but they went
through various phases with that. But
they brought the property right off the
bat. It was obvious that there was a
storm sewer went through that property
and that that storm sewer was in bad
state of repair. It was all undermined.
There was huge cavities. So they
couldn't build while that storm sewer
was in that condition.
And uh so we had some discussions with
various people over the time about about
rerouting that uh because the main uh
portion of that the largest portion of
that water came from clique. There was a
culbert that ran along the bell property
and discharged uh right right uh to the south of us behind the
neighboring property. And that huge
volume of water went through there every
spring.
It also impacted us because at the back
of 45
uh with all that snow melting etc we
ended up with huge quantities of runoff.
So we end up with quite a pond at the
back of 45 over a foot deep. And so it
affected uh plowing, it affected
parking, it affected everything. So we
in the spring would have to my son and I
would have to get in there with shovels
and dig the ditch out that got filled
with snow to get the water to run
through and it ended up going through
that culvert too. So we had two
problems. The the the runoff gave us a
big pond and the boys couldn't build.
After the building was removed, there
was a bell box on the side of the
building and uh the boys put up a wooden
stand and attached that box and it was
there for some period of time. Suddenly
one day out of the blue, if you look at
the diagram that I handed out
on the lower left corner,
Belle put up a box, a standing box that
stands about 2 ft high or whatever and
foot square
right in our driveway. As you can see,
that's the driveway. We own that
driveway. That's part of our property.
We didn't normally use that pime that uh
driveway because at that for a long time
uh where the prominad's going was open
to vehicular traffic. So we would just
drive in there. When construction
started uh then we no longer had access
to drive there. So we ended up talking
to Dwayne Sutherland at um at McDougall
and Dwayne agreed to let us use his
driveway to get back there. In exchange,
we have since then given his staff
several parking spots so that they are close to the building. So many of
them park there every day now and walk
to the business.
In conjunction with that, their neighbor
building, we call it the Henderson
building, I believe it's number 51, has
two apartments upstairs. When the
construction fences went up, there were
no parking for them. So, we were asked
by them if we could provide them with
two parking spots. When we had the blue
square, there was no problem. They
typically park behind there and and all
was good. So, that's that's the uh the
history.
So,
and uh [sighs and gasps]
um I tried to get I tried to contact
Belle to get them to move that box and
they just kept dragging me and dragging
me. Anyway, I finally got a hold of a
Bell person on and uh I don't know his
name off hand, but he said uh I I
explained the situation and he says, "We
don't have anything that you can drive
over." Okay. [laughter] So I said,
"Well, Tyler and I have been talking
about it and it's something called a
handwell. It's like a short piece of
culbert with a steel top on it that you
that's intended to be driven over." So
[snorts] he said, so we said we would
talk about doing that. He said, "Go
ahead and do that, but don't tell me
about it or whatever." [laughter]
So at our expense, and it was in the
neighborhood of $300 or $400, uh, we
bought this handwell. It's sitting on
the property now. If you look, it's
sitting in behind the u the privacy
fence there. So, it's sitting there
waiting and Tyler hopefully in the next
week or two will will be able to install
that so that then we can open that
driveway. So, the only access we have to
the back of 45 is through McDougall
parking lot. Okay. All right.
[clears throat]
A couple of winter before last, uh we
went to Florida for a while and before
we left the the uh tarp, the the
insulated tarp was behind 51. Our
understanding was that they the reason
for that is to minimize frost so that
you could dig in early spring. So when
we left uh for Florida, that was the
understanding the building was going
there. The other thing I talked to hydro
and if you look on the on the left side
of the of the blue square you'll see
that there's a hydro pole. Again this is
uh please don't the the dimensions
aren't necessarily accurate because uh
it's for illustrative purposes only. I
talked to a lady from Hydro and she said
that they hydro was going to move that
pole and move it further south on town
property because the power was going to
come from Clique Street because there's
power coming to that from uh from the U
pub area there now. So the that hydro
line would have gone right into that uh
through the had to be removed because of
the building. When we were in Florida,
Jake text me and and said, "Uh, we've
moved the location of the uh the NIP
that the the HIPP [laughter] the uh the
uh library building to where it is now."
And uh he wondered if we would be
willing to sell the black the blue
square. And I said I talked it over with
Tyler. He said, "We would really like to
keep it. We we like the we like the snow
storage and we like the extra parking."
Um anyway, then after a few discussions,
I found out that Janet was the
developer. I didn't know anything about
that till that point. And so Jake turned
me over to Janet because she was going
to be dealing with with the issues at
that point. Uh Jake and I talked about
some other things that we can talk about
later if you wish. But anyway, bottom
line, we started dealing with Janet. So,
she
sent me
a a offer to purchase
the blue square
for $2. [snorts]
Okay, we still haven't seen the $2, but
that's either here or there in exchange
because we said, "Okay, if we if we uh
agree to sell the property, and by the
way, if we'd left that, that would have
a major impact on the property. that
would it wouldn't go all the way to the
building, but it would sure have a big
impact. Uh so there were we asked we
ended up getting three condition three
um things that she agreed to. One was
that the sewer line would definitely be
a realigned so that it went across the
back of the properties and out through
the prominad area which as we all know
is has been done. The other thing was
that she would agree to put a catch
basin on behind 45 so that we would
never have a ponding issue again. And
the third thing she agreed to was that
she would haul our snow for up to up to
three times a month. So if you look at
the diagram,
the the yellow box is where presumably
the snow would be piled. And Shannon
looks after the snow plowing. Uh she uh
that's one of her jobs. And so uh in our
rental agreement, she looks after the
snow plowing. So the snow would be
stored there and up to three times a
month hauled away at the developer's
expense.
So although the storm sewer through 41
didn't affect me directly, it certainly
affected my son and the boys so that
they could build. By the way, they ended
up buying a bunch of steel for that
property because uh it was just about co
time and they knew the price was going
to rise. So they have stockpiled a bunch
of steel at Tyler's place waiting for
construction. So now that that cover the
midarity of the water no longer passes
through there, they would now be able to uh to build what their plans are uh
and have been approved. Um commercial on
the main floor, three apartments
upstairs. Okay. So that pretty much
brings us to uh uh close um back a few a
while ago um we heard through the
grapevine that the prominad was on hold
until next year.
So current or up until recently, the
people that from 51 in the apartment in
order to access access the apartment
have to Oh, by the way, the privacy
fence I opened it up a little bit too
just so there's foot traffic so that uh
spa customers and the people from 51 had
better access. Otherwise, they also have
to walk around and go down the McDougall
driveway as well. So in order to get
access to the back of the property, I
moved the end of the fence just a couple
of feet just so that there could be foot
traffic. Although we can't have
vehicular traffic obviously till the
bell box is moved, foot traffic is
possible.
So when I had heard that that fence was
going to be remain to the north of us
for at least till next year, first of
all, there was a couple of concerns. One
was the garbage. Somebody left an old
chair there and
>> [laughter]
>> uh there was a couple of real estate
boxes that they used for the the
pamphlets were there lying on the
ground. There was there's still to this
day a a a drum there with a garbage dome
on the top. So I just saw a guy today
putting garbage in there. So So
[laughter]
it looked it looked and and grass was
growing up and and it was looking pretty
ugly. So um I I contacted uh Janet and I
said is there any way that that privacy
sorry the construction fence could be
moved so that first primarily the
tenants from 51 it would be closer for
them cuz that's their part that's where
they park currently to bring their
groceries to bring their luggage if
they're going somewhere. It made it that
much shorter. It clean gave us an
opportunity to clean up the mess and
we're not going to deny it. It did make
it a little easier for people off the
sidewalk to come to to Shannon Spa
because that's where the main entrance
is on that side of the building. Okay.
[clears throat]
So, uh, when, uh, Shannon, sorry, when
Janet agreed to that, then the fence was
moved and I brought in some gravel just
to make it easy for on the short term
to, uh, to walk from the sidewalk to the main entrance on the north of the
building. Never intending it to be
anything permanent. It was just to make
it easier for the tenants and to and to
clean up the area.
So, that brings me to the point where we
are today. So when Jake showed up, he
called me and and said he wanted to meet
me at 45 and he handed me the the lease
agreement form. Well, this was a total
shock to me as was the layout of the u
of the prominad um so the sidewalk and
the whole prominad area. So that's when
we uh got in touch with um Amber and
asked if we could be here. And thank you
Amber.
>> [laughter]
>> We were pleasantly s we're very happy
that when you agreed and and uh and so I
immediately put those diagrams together
that I emailed you so that you could as
required to confirm that I wasn't aware
that that was going to be they were
going to be used here. I guess it makes
sense but I understood we had to bring
12 copies so I didn't of whatever it was
we were presenting. Okay. So now if we
can go to the diagram please.
So J Shannon and I had discussions
ongoing but we had more discussions this
morning and until we met at 45 before we
came here. So we have so right off the
bat she does not need the sidewalk. The
sidewalk that it was proposed is not
necessary at all for her business. the
vast I'm a large person and she can um
reply to this or comment many of her
customers park at the back and walk from
the back of the building down the side.
So,
currently, if you were to go there right
now, the fence is moved away from the
building, and I put in some patio
stones. When we got looking at the um uh
the uh stakes, the the the property
stakes, we was we knew it. And on your
on their diagram, if you notice there, I
show the property line on the north side
of the building. So the the property
line is really close to the front part
of the building. There is a little jog
where the spa is and but the property
line continues on past the building. I
have one more handout for you
now that I know where they are.
This was taken
this morning.
So, this is the back of the spa, the
norththeast corner of the spa.
The current patio stones are what being
used as the as the main
uh entrance access to the side entrance.
If you
Yes.
Looking towards the sidewalk
>> towards Hasting Street.
>> To lower tasting towards Hasting Street.
Yes. Okay.
So, as in front in the lower corner down
here is the property
marker, that little orange square.
So, what Shannon and I discussed, and
it's actually her suggestion, is that
let's just move the patio stones right
to the building. Now, we're on our
property
now. And by the way, if you want to
bring up one of those other rooms,
Amber, that I showed previously, I had
suggested Oh, sorry, Jake.
We got extra.
Um,
sorry. Do you have all three?
Uh,
keep going. Okay, that one. Yes.
» She did move the patio stone back on
another picture and it's real close.
Sorry.
No, no, less than that. That that's I
think maybe I don't know what the size
of that I could have measured that was
going to
>> No, that's only 6 in. basically 10 in
>> um to the building
» right here is is only about 10 in
» the patio stone was about that much
wider. I can show you the picture. Okay.
Do you mind?
>> Yeah.
Um Shannon took another picture
and um
if anybody want to see sorry
there's the
» so what we have decided
>> let let me just ask a question here for
some clarification. So,
um, sorry, uh, Jake, you made a comment
there about that distance between the
marker and the building was 10 inches.
>> Yes.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. So, 10 in is obviously not wide
enough for a
>> I don't know what that number is, Paul,
but you're I hear what you're saying. I
was there a few minutes ago. I cleaned
that area. Okay. But here's the other
thing too is that
>> the gist of of this is sorry is
>> and what we're governed by
>> through our insurance companies is li is
liability.
>> Okay.
>> We have I hear you
>> we have to do everything to mitigate uh
to to mitigate liability.
>> Yes.
>> We would in a case like this where even
say you said you did not want to use
that site at all. we would still
probably be obligated to put up either a
fence or something of that nature there
to uh to prevent that access from
happening
>> at 10 in.
>> Yes.
>> Whatever. I mean, you obviously can't
get beyond.
>> So So again, 10 in I can't see is is not
a probably a a safe walkway. Uh
>> I believe accessibility is in
>> Yeah,
>> we're not concerned about accessibility
because we have other instances, but go
ahead.
>> Right.
» Oh, yeah. But it's not on your property.
>> Nobody.
>> I mean, as far as the the walkway, is
that what we're talking about?
>> Yeah. But bottom line, and I hear what
you're saying, Paul, carry on if you
wish.
>> No, I'm just saying is that uh Hey, if
this was at 2 ft, then you could make it
fine. But I I don't believe you don't
have enough you don't have enough room
there. And to for anybody to access
municipal property uh on a regular
basis, we have to have an we have to
have an agreement indemnifying us from
liability. That's that's the the rules
that we have to follow.
So this proposal that came forward to
put the sidewalk on both sides because
we have to treat all property owners the
same. If we do want something for one,
we have to do it for other. We have to
treat all property owners uh the same
because there's access, you know, as you
pointed out on both sides here. So the
plan that was came up which we thought
was a fairly generous plan uh to provide
you with good access to your uh to your
door um to your side door from either
the front or the back you know from the
front or the back there. Um
uh that's why the plan was developed in the form that it was in. And then as
part of that again um we have to have
some type of an agreement in place which
is the lease document and and that it
and insurance is you know is being
provided etc. So I'm sort of having a
hard time seeing how I I'm sort of
thinking the sidewalk is of great
benefit to you uh for access from both
ways to the uh to the side of the
building.
>> Good point.
So, we're I wouldn't say I was there
today. I started cleaning that area
because instead of putting patio stones,
we were planning to go with gravel as I
mentioned on on on the current one.
Okay. It is tight. There's no question
about that.
>> But it puts all the all the access and and as you know, there is a sec a
back door as is shown on here, right?
That that is not the only access to her spa.
>> I just have a quick question.
>> Sure. On the diagram that was proposed
to us, the sidewalk was only going at
the front of the building and we were
told that the fence is actually going to
go down over and then back. So that
means I have no access from the back of
my building to my door. And and that's a
point that uh we can look at again that
part of that part of it
>> because yeah I was told that the fence
was going to be pretty much whatever 10
inches or whatever that is from the back
of my building or Brian's building. So I
from the back of his building it was
going to be right there. So none of my
customers.
>> Right. So as I sit here I I don't know
what the implications of us trying to
provide a little bit more room. So, I'm
not going to say that I'm going to
promise anything, but I'm just saying is
that we could certainly look at that
>> and and I appreciate what you're saying,
Paul. On the other and on the other
hand, too, as well, we would have really
liked to have had this conversation
before that got into print and then we
could have been aware of some of these
options. This was a total surprise to us
the other day.
>> Again, it's a tough one because
technically it is our it's our property.
you know, you know, it's it's our
property that's being accessed and just
with so many changes in insurance, etc.
Uh, over the years, um, we're basically
forced to do everything to mitigate risk
to the municipality.
>> I debated about whether reading this out
or not.
Property owners or their representatives
on both sides of the prominade were
aware of access encroachments before
site development began. They
participated in discussions
uh where these challenges were discussed
and interimm pathways were subsequently
implemented when construction fencing
was erected in 2024. These owners were
aware of the development plans although
the final prominad design had not been
completed at that time.
>> I don't remember that discussion.
>> I've got emails between you and I where
we've been talking about this you know
about the whole development. But I'm
saying I had no idea that that that the um the uh
>> no sidewalk was
>> as it says right what you've just read
there the prominad design was not
finalized
>> right I I appreciate that but we knew
nothing about that I would have I'd have
loved to have these discussions before I
even put all this effort into into
making these things the other thing if
you'll notice on the other ones for a
long time people walked from the from
the vehicle driveway into the site
Right. Uh that was traffic constantly.
People actually park there and walk in
and that kind of stuff. So when I
understood there was some liability
issues. So if people walk through a
garden
as as part of the town
and trip over a shrub, can they sue
the the town over that? because I we
talked now. The reason I asked is that
because at one time I suggested a
shorter sidewalk straight out, but I
understand that's still a a uh
>> liability
>> a liability issue. So, uh the other
thing and and Shannon and I just talked
about a half an hour ago is the very
real possibility
of realigning her uh the business
inside. and that door would strictly be
a fire escape, making her reception area
at the back door rather than the side.
So, what what I had proposed on here,
and I I totally understand if if this is
a no, I I'm it is what it is.
Um
if there was any chance of moving the
fence, as you can see on the diagram,
say two options, moving the fence
further north
and and then that would mean that we
would have have have space
uh to to go down that path or if the
path if if the fence has to stay where
it is sorry in that alignment moving it
a foot.
So I think it's Shannon's respons
Shannon's
responsibility
uh I assume now correct me if I'm wrong
that she can tell her customers
whether or not they want to walk down a
10 or 12 inch path or whether they want
to use the other entrance. Is that
correct or that gray? [laughter]
>> Well again let's address your first
question.
>> Sure. Could we realign the fence at the
back so that you could go from the
parking lot and make your way around?
That's what I'm gathering is the issue
at the rear.
>> So just just
>> Yes. So I'm just saying we can look at
that. You know, it might only be you
need a couple feet to
>> Exactly. That's more than
>> Yeah. So we we could look at that. That
still leaves in play uh the fact that 10
in is probably is not going to do you to
do have a walkway. Again, I believe it's
more than 10, but I'm not going to swear
to anything until we go out and measure.
>> And I guess I'm having a hard time
because I'm thinking this is a very
generous offer by the town to provide
you with a very nice walkway and access
to the door. And the other thing too is that just for you to think about, you
may not own this building forever. And
to have that side access open, uh, you
know, with an agreement is probably to
your advantage as well. it uh it was not
being used when I bought the building.
It was a insurance at the time. They
didn't use it. It wasn't until I rented
out the front who then rented out the
back unknown to me by the way. I said,
"Here's your subtenant." Right. Okay.
[laughter] Anyway, they started to put
the spa in because the the original
tenant rented the whole floor.
>> Yeah.
>> Um and again, as I say, you can see
I I said from the from the photo. Yes,
the the the the
width is not as wide as that patio
stone. I totally agree cuz we have a
photo saying that.
But when I started clearing there, I
walked that and I could
>> like how would you clear snow in 10 in?
>> That's a Shannon's problem.
>> Well, I know like a shovel is lighter
than 10 inches.
>> No. And she wants to in the winter use
the rear entrance. That's her call.
>> Yeah. So, the two options I was hoping
for. Sorry, Council Wiggins has a
question.
>> Just uh
>> Deputy Mayor, I'm sorry.
>> No problem. Uh like your driveway on the
uh side that you're dancing with, Belle.
That's a that's an issue you're dancing
with. How wide is that driveway? Is
vehicular wide?
>> Oh, absolutely. So, like if she moved
her main entrance to the back and put
signage here, you would not need that on
the north side. You'd be able to walk
down the driveway and in the back.
>> That's what they're doing now.
>> Perfect.
>> Okay. However, uh people h want to
normally park there and they're hesitant
to use McDougall's driveway. There's a
fair bit of traffic coming and going.
The restaurant is there. Uh all that and
then when F41 gets built, it's going to
Well, by the we we hope to have that
driveway open in weeks. Oh, yeah.
>> If I can get Tyler at it. But I hear
what you're saying. And people can do
that now by walking.
>> Yeah.
>> They put a sign up on the on the privacy
fence there to indicate that. Well, to
me it just seems the simplest way to to
solve all your problems was change the
door they come into.
>> Uh, sorry to come in the back entrance.
>> Yeah, that that is is a is a
possibility. The way it's set up now,
the reception areas there that they're
tanning beds and the controls are all we
discussed
>> an hour ago and that is within the
realms of possibility.
>> You only have to realize if you insisted
on remaining with your 10 in that the
town's probably going to have to put up
some type of barrier.
>> We if she does that, we wouldn't do
that. We wouldn't bother with the 10
inches,
>> right? But
>> we would just
>> we would have to sort and I'm not again
this would have to go to staff is that
there would have to be some asurances
somehow that that side door is not going
to be used because when you step out of
that side door, you're going to be on
town property.
>> Not quite.
>> 10 inches.
>> 10 in.
>> Yeah.
>> No. Is as I said, if you lose it, it'll
be strictly fire.
>> The fire exit. The second exit.
» See?
Yeah, I guess I guess I'm still at a
loss. Why you would not want a nice
walkway?
>> Why would you walk on five feet when 10 ft over you about 20 ft?
>> Well, that's our property. We can't have people accessing that
through our property. This comes down to
the liability issue again.
» Yes.
Yeah.
>> My question, Brian, would be if we go
back to the original plan where we
offered the sidewalk and agreed to that
lease um agreement that the town has
proposed
>> and we could short not necessarily move
the fence in, but shorten a small piece
off of it. And I'm again, I can't
promise that we can do that. I'm not the
developer. I have no part of the
building of it. if that fence could be
shortened a small amount to allow you to
access there. [snorts]
>> Trees are missing.
>> That's basically what we were saying
before about investing the rear fence.
>> So rather than move the fence there,
>> yeah,
>> take a piece off the end.
>> Well, yeah.
>> So now you can access and get up, would
you be willing to take the sidewalk?
>> A different sidewalk. The back sidewalk
is 10 times more valuable than the front
side.
>> But what's the issue with having a
sidewalk? And I don't know if fire would
if that would meet fire requirements
even to have 10 inches of sidewalk. Yes,
Jay.
>> There's also two H5.
» Oh, sorry.
>> The coming in off the the main sidewalk
off of Hastings. There are also two HVAC
units that are on town property that
supply Brian's building as well. So that issue still needs to be whether
there's a lease for those units on our
property or they're removed. That that
that's another issue that needs to be
addressed.
>> But if we had the 5ft sidewalk with the
lease and the indemnity, what he does
with his units would be up.
>> He could leave them there and and people
have to walk around them or not, but
because we would lease them 5T out from
the building. Right now the the the
units are on our property outside the
building. So that has to be addressed
one way or another.
>> Can I ask a question? And you're exactly
right, Jake. Um, if we mount them on the
wall
because the the top floor over like the property line is real close all it's less than 10 in I'm sure up there.
If we mount them on the wall,
does that have any difference? Because
we say the the back sidewalk would be 10
from the back is is as I think that's
what you're referring to, Tracy. A
sidewalk where the 10 inches are at the
back be
many times more valuable than the front.
>> Right. But if you have these a if these
units are still on the town property and
somebody gets injured through them, they
can sue everybody,
>> right? So what if we mount them on the
wall? Again, I'm not a I'm not a I'm not
an expert on anything.
>> Yeah. I I think I I think if you if if
we were to look at it and do the the
sidewalk from the back parking lot to
the side entrance by just adjusting the
fence a little bit, um I I think we we
would still be in a lease agreement
situation that we wouldn't have to have.
>> Yes. I think um provided you know like
we had talked like some kind of blind
around these heater units and abandon
the front sidewalk they could just stay
where they are now and we include where
they're located on the lease for the
back area and leave them where they are
and then put like a
>> So would the cost of the sidewalk be
borne by the project or
>> Yes. Yeah. We we we were planning to
include this the cost of the sidewalk,
the installation.
>> That's why I'm a little buffaloed here.
You're going to have a great sidewalk
that I can access it from either way. Uh
we'll have a look at the rear fence and
see if there's some adjustment we can
make there to make the access from the
rear parking lot better.
>> And um at at that point, those units are
your will be your responsibility that
are sticking out onto the property that
you're leasing from the tenure. Am I
correct in that? Could we could the lease extend all the way along
the whole building then rather than just
to the door?
>> I guess that would be something we'd
have to look at.
>> Then we would have wide open access all
the way through. No. [laughter]
>> Well, I mean it it could, but I mean
uh
like either you're going to have access
from the front or access from the back.
Um, now you're looking for access from
the front and the back.
>> As I said, the back is more interest
more. We have virtually other than the
HVACs, we've Shannon has we we lived
without the front for forever.
>> Well, and that's and that's what I'm
saying with the compromise like I mean,
you know, to what what you know has been
offered um to do a sidewalk the whole
distance doubles the cost essentially if
not. Well, no, it's but but if we if we
were to do a sidewalk like let's just
say we could manage to get it from the
back the side door and leave the HVAC
where they were but include the HVAC in
the lease that they're part of the lease
agreement
and so it's not
>> double I'm going to have to interrupt
here. Okay, sorry. Um we've got to get
moving on. We got a lot of other
business here. So, uh, we have a staff
report that's coming right after this
and then I I think then then staff can
go back and have a look at a few things
that have been mentioned here today and
get back to you.
>> That's my Sorry, that's my next
question. Is there an opportunity to
meet with decision makers like this
before we finalize things? Is that a
possibility?
>> Yeah, we we most certainly can't. I'm
not saying that we what we can do or
can't do.
>> No, no, I hear you. So I want to point
out that's the only difference that
» but the door is definitely closer to the
back than it is to the front. Okay.
>> Okay. Hang on a sec here.
>> Sorry. And one more last.
>> Yeah. Quickly.
>> Yeah. Um I'm not adverse to leasing. All
right. It's a little bit of a hassle
with insurance. $600 isn't going to make
us or break us. I just jack up Shannon's
rent to cover that. But uh
>> okay
>> and I want to thank you for your time.
>> Thank you. Okay. I'm I'll let you read
it then. Okay. So we have sort of a bit
of an amended resolution here. So I'm
going to let uh Amber read it.
>> So somebody will be in touch with us as
a
>> Yeah.
>> Perfect. Thank you very much.
>> Um okay. of the draft resolution is be
it resolved that the council of the
corporation of the town of Braftoft has
hereby received the presentation from
Brian Lawrence regarding their concerns
related to the prominade development and
the proposed walkway access adjacent to
their property located at 45 Hastings
Street North and their proposals as
amended to remediate the walkway access
concerns for information purposes.
>> Can move her in a second, please.
Councelor Lawrence, Deputy Mayor, all in
favor, please. Thank you.
Thanks.
You You may want to listen to the second
one part here. This is sort of a this is
a staff report on this topic. So, yes.
So, you may want to take just a couple
minutes here.
Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Under
six item a business, Hastings Street
North Prominent delegation staff
comments. The resolution before us says,
"Be it resolved that the council of the
corporation of town of Bangkok receive
the staff comments regarding the
Hastings Street North Prominadet
delegation for information purposes."
Kevin Mover and a second councelor
Eastman and Councelor McGibbon and Andre
I'll let you go. So this is basically a
little bit of the background to this
whole thing etc. And and again we've had
some more discussion so that doesn't
affect uh the fact that we'll get
together again and chat about this.
Anyway,
>> I believe before I present my report, we
need a mover and seconder for the motion
that Amber read.
>> Oh, you did get Okay.
>> All right. We both missed that note. So,
thank you. [laughter]
» All right. My apologies. Uh, thank you,
Mayor Jenkins. So, this was just um
staff comments based on the initial
delegation documents that um Mr.
Lawrence provided for consideration.
So, the purpose of the 5- foot wide
walkway was to recognize that there are
um HVAC units and access issues to the
building. Um we didn't want to issue a
letter that says you have to spend tens
of thousands of dollars moving your HVAC
equipment and and changing your exits
and um re realigning your building. We didn't want to do that. So, um, since
we were constructing anyway, we thought
this was a a pretty good way to
basically continue to do what you've
been doing for the last two years with
that that walkway provided. So, that was
kind of the rationale. Um, the key need
and driving factor, as Mayor Jenkins
mentioned, is liability. So, when
there's any kind of incident, accident,
um, trip, fall, slip on town property,
unless the town can demonstrate that it
has, um, released relieved itself of the
liability and responsibility, we are
responsible.
And um one of the sad things about
municipal government is that if we're 1%
responsible um we are 99% responsible uh
in a court of law and end up paying 100%
of the costs. So um that is really the
driving intent of the agreement um is to protect the town from future
liability uh when the access has no
value or benefit to taxpayers. So that
is the the purpose as far as the
proposals that you just provided. Um we
have
um written in I guess to the the one on
the other side because their access is
at the back that it would go right to
the back. So um we can we can look at
pushing that fence a couple feet to give
you enough room uh to bring that access
all the way through. Um, but I think it
would be difficult for both of us to
officially um identify the exact
pinpoints where those HVAC units are uh
and and where they might pose a hazard
for an insurance document. I think that
would be a headache for both of us
honestly.
» But when she's done a report, okay,
>> um but there is absolutely some room to
discuss there. So, um, we have been
working with the developer. We've been
getting some costing and some design
things. Um, as you noted, this is all
moving pretty quickly. So, until council
provided us with a preliminary approval
of a design, um, we couldn't engage with
other people about what council was
going to do because council hadn't even
seen the proposal. So, there is an order
of operations that needs to occur when
we're doing developments as well. So,
um, that's that's basically where we
are. As soon as that decision was made,
the draft lease was floated through
insurance and then, uh, Jake provided
that to the, uh, affected properties.
So, um, our proposal at this point would
be to continue with some kind of lease
arrangement to protect both you and the
town, uh, from the liabilities that
could arise and ensure that you can
continue to use your property, um, the
way that you have chosen to use it for
the last couple years, uh, during the
construction period.
>> Thank you. So, one quick comment, do you
guys?
>> Sorry. I was under the impression that
HVAC had to go from there either up and
we did have one mounted on the wall.
>> I think the bottom line is with the five
foot lease, it's on you what you want to
do.
>> We didn't know that
>> what you want to do.
>> Yeah,
>> that makes a big difference because
>> Yeah, because then the liability is on
you, not us.
>> And the need to cover them for aesthetic
reasons. That's
>> Yeah. Okay.
Thank you very much.
>> Okay. Um
so we have the um general manager's
report. Is there any comments or
questions on that from members of
council?
Seeing none, all in favor, please. Thank
you very much. Okay.
Item B, Municipal Waste Association
annual workshop summary report.
Uh I'll put the uh well I I'll just give
you the floor. We'll do the motion at
the end. So yes, please give us all the
background etc. So and your push your
button. Thank you.
>> Afternoon council and Mayor Jenkins. Um
I put together a report about the
municipal waste association annual
workshop that uh uh Christine and I
attended in uh May. I've kind of
summarized it was a really good
workshop. Um from May 26th till the
28th, the waste department supervisor
and myself attended the 2026 Municipal
Waste Association annual workshop. This
workshop focused on numerous areas of
waste management included a trade show
featuring the newest technologies in
this sector. Over the course of two and
a half days, the following workshops
were attended which I listed uh all the
workshops that we attended. Um while
there are many topics to discuss there
were four common subjects that were
brought up in almost every presentation.
Um these four subjects are also included
in our optimization report. Uh the first
one was waste uh waste diversion. The
importance of waste diversion was
emphasized throughout the workshop. Uh
without focus on maximizing waste
diversion the state of landfill capacity
across a province will be depleted in
record time. construction, renovation,
and demolition waste is one of the
biggest contributors to the depletion of
landfill capacity.
Surprising number is the average
landfill in Ontario only has 8 years of
capacity left. If you took all the
landfills, that's what's left for
capacity. Um, private landfills account
for 51% of the uh remaining landfills uh
capacity in the province is private.
um Ontario waste, 73% of Ontario waste
is ending up in our landfills and 27 is
being uh exported to the US. If the US
were to close the doors to that 27%
uh the fellow said it would be by 2035
we'd be completely out of room in
Ontario for capacity. So it is important
that we are still taking um diverting to the US. uh with the with the
construction renovation and demolition
waste um only 20% of it is being
recycled recycled and 80% is ending up
in landfills. With proper diversion 75%
of that waste can be diverted. So it's a
huge killer of landfills is the waste
construction. Uh another big point that
they brought uh up was it was stressed
that the communication with stakeholders
is an important part of operating an
efficient successful landfill operation.
The experience shared confirmed that
clear communication resulted in cost
savings for municipalities
um because the time spent dealing with
the complaints and inquiries was greatly
reduced. The city of Kingston's
presentation on implementing automated
curbside
um covered the communication mistakes
during phase one, how they were
corrected in phase two, and how much
time was saved. They no longer had high
volumes and inquiries and complaints. It
was it was a it was a huge factor. So
communication was was um was stressed.
One of the one of the um points they
brought up was using a digitalized
platforms like apps or a website. But um
they showed with the apps that you know
if if we offered an app with people that
you know our garbage truck broke down
rather than having to try to get the
radio to to advertise it or you know put
it on Facebook Facebook plus um people
could simply download the app and we
could instantly update. they would get a
notification garbage trucks broke down,
you won't be getting picked up today.
They'll know right away. Um, it's also
good for reminding about hazardous place
stays. Um, the the app is just a good
communication tool. There's a there's a
few companies out there that are secure.
Um, so so that was one way. Um,
it's um, good communication increases
call volumes by 40 to 50%. And one thing
they stress is communication should be
short, clear, and concise, not long. and and with with longer messages it's
better to spoon feed people. So that was interesting. Um a lot of a lot
of the pres presentations
uh reviewed the importance of scales. Uh
the health and safety of workers is one
strong reason for installing the scale
system. The other reason uh for the
importance of the scales is knowing
exactly how much waste is being received
every year. This allows for much more
accurate volume calculations and ensures
that future plans are made with accurate
information to maximize cost savings and
efficiencies. It uh they were we were we
were uh the one landfill uh once they
installed skull or uh scales uh they
reduced the negative staff stakeholder
interactions by 95%.
Um accurate information for future
planning and it ensures fair tipping for
both stakeholders and the municipality.
Everybody knows exactly what they're
paying for. It's not a judgment call. Um
it goes both ways. You might lose, you
might win on some, but at the end of the
day, it it gives an accurate um costing
to the to our rateayers. Um and the
other one surprisingly was waste audits.
Uh many presidents spoke about the waste
audits audits and the changes they were
able to make to create more efficient
diversion programs. By knowing exactly
what is entering the landfill,
municipalities can customize their
diversion programs to ensure maximum
capacity is achieved. Most
municipalities are shocked after
completing one of these programs at how
much waste is entering the landfill that
can be diverted. Um the importance of
this is every area has different
demographics. Therefore, what goes in
the landfills is unique to each area.
Diversion methods used in urban
landfills may not be the most efficient
for rural landfills. Um, knowing the
exactly where is going going or exactly
what is going into your landfill and
adjusting diversion programs can can
significantly extend the life of the
dump. Overall, this was a very
informative and educational workshop to
attend. The networking and shared
experience from other municipalities
will go a long way to ensure that we can
manage one of our most important assets
in the most effect efficient manner. to
ensure maximum longevity is achieved. Um
the financial implications, we'll see
that in the next report with the
optimization and uh that's that's
basically summary of what we learned
over the course of three and a half days
at the conference. So I'd be happy to
answer any questions. Um, so I just from
reading some of the other stuff in your
report here, was there a lot of
discussion on like what it crystal
balling down the road or new things that
might be coming or diversion things that
might be happening or
>> is are we still sort of walking step by
step? It it was it were talking about
like the auditing was a big part on how
to do it like G did they do audits all
the time now um because seasons change
and that and um what they found was and
that's where a lot of the construction
debris and and what's being uh put in
landfills and construction debris is is
just filling up. So they've really
intensified their their um um separation
requirements for the construction debris
and the recycling right up to 75% now.
It's something they um but as as far as
like new stuff like brand brand new
stuff, it wasn't really covered. It was
more sharing experiences of problems we
face today.
Um other questions or comments from
members of council?
Seeing [snorts] none, thank you. I'll
read the motion. Be it resolved that the
council of the corporation of town of
bankrop is hereby recommend that council
receive and file the municipal waste
association annual workshop report as
presented by the manager of
infrastructure and capital projects for
information purposes only. Could I have
a mover in a second? Deputy mayor and
councelor Miles. All in favor please.
>> Yes. I'm not going anywhere.
» I kind of just waiting for the motion to
be on the floor. Um, was anybody else
from here with you?
>> Yes.
>> Who?
>> Uh, Christine was with me. Our operation
supervisor was
>> Okay.
>> Oh,
>> none of our counselors were there.
Nobody
>> before. Were you Could you just second
that to put it on the floor?
>> I'll second that.
>> Yes. No. Yes. Now, go ahead.
>> I just wondering if I I'm not sure what
you attended. I just wonder if any of
our counselors were there.
>> No. No counselors attended this one.
>> Thank you, Jake.
>> Thank you.
All in favor?
Glad I remembered that. But okay.
Um, next we have item C is the landfill
optimation study. We also we have a
staff report with this. So, I will uh
let Andre present that and we'll put the
motion on the floor at the end.
» Thank you, Mayor Jenkins. Uh, what I
will do is I'll go through my report.
It's it's kind of section by section as
each different topic comes up. So maybe
we'll review a section and then if
there's questions related to that
section, we can address those then move
on to the next section. Of course, we
can come back to things at the end as
well, but it it may flow better if we
kind of deal with things in little
snippets. So at the May 23rd, 2026
council meeting, uh we all received a
presentation from John Watson, our
environmental engineer of record for the
waste site from Cambian, Inc. uh to
review his optimization proposals for
the Dungan and waste site. Uh the intent
of the study was to review the current
operations, policies, processes and
procedures at the Dungan landfill and
provide recommendations for council's
consideration which would address among
other things potential health and safety
risk to SA staff and visitors. Provide
modernized waste site operations through
improved layout and traffic flow to
identify and capitalize on cost-saving
operational efficiency opportunities.
and to explore opportunities for revenue
generation from site operations now and
into the future to reduce the impact of
escalating costs on taxpayers
year-over-year.
The report was also accompanied by a
staff report that contained additional
supplemental information for council to
consider during that meeting. At the
meeting, a number of questions were
posed which I recorded and have
attempted to provide explanations for in
this very long, I apologize, staff
report. Um, there was also an email that
was sent to all of council 2 days after
the meeting asking them to ensure that
any questions they had were submitted
for consideration by June 10th. I did
receive a number of questions from Mayor
Jenkins, some of which I understand you
sent to him uh on your behalf. So all of
those questions have also been answered
in the report. Uh otherwise I did not
receive any direct questions from other
members of council.
So the first part I want to address is
the ongoing operational deficit for the
waist site. As described in the initial
report, the need to undertake the study
was supported by the ongoing and
increasing operating deficits associated
with landfill activities.
So um I've provided a graph in the staff
report showing that uh each year our
expenses rise significantly which is
expected. Uh cost of living increases,
cost to maintain equipment increases,
cost of hydro increases, cost to procure
services associated with the waste site
increase. So our costs are going to go
up year after year unless we can find
ways to reduce them. and the majority of
costs associated with the waste site are
completely and totally out of our
control.
Nonetheless, um as a result of
decreasing revenues uh of significant
amounts between in 2024, we received
$210,000 to support our recycling
initiatives. In 2026, we received zero.
So, in three calendar years, we lost
over $200,000 of revenue, which helped
support our landfill costs as a result
of the province taking responsibility
for recycling. For this year, we were
able to capture that loss by eliminating
the recycling truck and eliminating the
recycling truck driver, reducing our
staff complement by one permanent
full-time person. That person is gone.
That truck is gone. So those savings are
not going to be recreated and and
regenerated year-over-year. So the
baseline for this year is the baseline
moving into future years where all of
those cost escalations from additional
contract costs, additional gas costs,
higher hydro costs, higher disposal
costs that we have to pay all come into
play.
I also want to clarify the difference
between an operational deficit and an
unfunded deficit because there was some
concern that we weren't properly funding
our wayside operations. Our waste site
operations are fully funded through
earned revenues and through taxation. So
there is no unfunded
negative balance in our waste department
at the end of the year.
An anticipated and funded operational
deficit is funded through taxation.
That's why you pay taxes is to pay for
the things that we don't get money to
pay for otherwise. So the waist site
doesn't work any different than our
roads department or any of our other
departments. What we know we aren't
going to get for revenue, we generate
through taxation.
In contrast, an unfunded deficit means
we spent way more money than we thought
we would and now we owe ourselves. We're
short 250,000 and where are we going to
get it? So, we do not have an unfunded
deficit. We just have an operational
deficit which we pay for through
taxation. And for clarity, when we
budget taxes to pay for operations and
we don't spend all of that money, that's
why we generate a surplus. So, we did
have a surplus in our waste department
last year because our operational
expenses were not as high as we thought
they would be. So that excess tax
revenue goes into the reserves to be
used for future projects to offset
future costs.
Any questions about that? Perfect.
There was a uh conversation at the May
26th meeting about the cost per
household for our residents compared to
the cost per household for non-resident
users uh currently one neighboring
township.
While while it's true that per capita
the neighboring township pays much less
for waste services than our residents
do, that's because our residents get a
lot more waste services that that those
neighboring municipalities don't have.
Um h household hazardous waste days, for
example, come with a price tag of
between 25 and $30,000 for one day. Uh
and we host we used to host three a day.
We three a year. We've reduced it to two
a year to try to manage that expense.
Curbside garbage collection is estimated
to cost between 150 and $200,000 per
year. Our resident neighbors don't pay
for that service. They don't get it.
It's not part of their uh their costs.
associated with bulky waste. We
don't take bulky waste or construction
and demolition debris from our
neighboring municipality at this point.
So, we have to pay to dispose of that.
They don't have those costs. So the the
cost discrepancies between neighboring
users and our users are because our
users are receiving many many more quite
expensive services for their waste
disposal.
And there's a whole list of them.
There's there's several more in there as
well.
We recover some of our costs through
user fees, tipping fees, bag tag fees.
Um, but many of the things that we do
provide, we don't have a cost recovery
model for, such as those household
hazardous waste days or curbside garbage
collection
or the expenses that we do charge for
those, like our $150 tag, are not
sufficient to fund the full program just
to help offset the costs of those
programs.
While it's recognized that the contract
that we entered into with our neighbor
in 2021 is not reflective of current day
operational costs that would be
reflected in a newer agreement with with
a new partner should we choose to embark
on that at some point. They were the
fair market costs at the time. So very
similar to many other things in the
municipal world, COVID changed the face
of waste management in Ontario. Waste
sites filled up quicker. government has
since enacted various pieces or proposed
to enact various pieces of legislation
uh to free up landfill capacities
because landfills filled up much faster
uh than we expected. So the agreement
that we have right now was reflective of
market costs and expectations at the
time, but those are not reflective of
today's costs. And when that agreement
comes up for renewal this year, we will
be looking at what current market costs
are and have already put that
municipality on notice that they should
expect increases to their contract
costs.
>> If you're going to uh your mic, if
you're your mic, please.
>> Yes.
>> When is the Boston contract expire?
>> Year end.
Okay. Thank you.
» All right. Any other questions about
that?
Okay. Way scales. So again, we had a a
very lengthy discussion about way
scales. And although our tipping fee
schedule is very descriptive, very
comprehensive,
it's multiple pages long, uh, I think it
probably covers every possible scenario
that someone could come to the waist
site with. There is still a lot of room
and requirement for our attendants to
make a judgment call. So, we have a fee
for a 40 yard bin, for example, but that
40 yard bin may come in and only be 2/3
full. And the person hauling it says, "I
don't want to pay for a 40-yard bin
because I only have 20 yards of
garbage." We create a conflict situation
for our staff and for that resident
because we force our attendants to make
a decision on the spot about what's fair
in that situation. The installation of
waste scales will completely eliminate
those conflicts. you have 1 kilogram of
waste, you will pay for 1 kilogram of
waste. If you have 1,00 kilograms of
waste, you will pay for 1,00 kilograms
of waste. And it will be a specific
calculation. How that figures into um
you know what someone what a resident is
allowed to bring or not, like a bag of
garbage or two bags will be determined
in the final tipping fees that have to
be determined uh to support the scales.
But everyone will know exactly what
they're bringing and exactly what the
expectation will be before they leave.
>> Is the plan to charge for waste uh yard
waste? It'll be it'll be in a vehicle
going down over the scales. Right now
there's no charge.
>> That is still the plan moving forward.
So, there'll have to be a system where
if you I'm making this up, that if you
went to the burn pile, uh you might get
a ticket that allowed you on the way out
to, you know, to go in and get out free.
So, it'll be a system developed to
accommodate the things that are free now
to be to continue.
>> So, we're not going to increase
the chargeable items
>> at the present time. No,
>> we we haven't looked at tipping, but
>> the vehicle going in that's got scales
that
>> that would be this.
>> We we'll have the same issue with scrap
metal. Um what we'll know is how much
scrap metal is coming in, but we we
would
>> they'll have to be given a ticket to get
out at no charge.
>> The trouble is it's usually going to be
a mixed load. So, it's going to be quite
a nightmare.
>> Yeah. And that's a problem that we run
into now even with some of the
commercial operators is bringing mixed
loads. So, uh then we have to charge
them for sorting. So there'll be an
education process uh required and people
it'll have to maybe even within your
trailer to separate it out.
>> So I Yeah, there's obviously details to
be
>> Oh. Yeah, we just as long as we don't
have to put bows on it. That's all.
>> Yeah,
>> you can.
» Yeah, I was just I was going to say,
yeah, there's no plan to change our
tipping fees and what we charge for.
It's just a a system to allow us to be
more accurate of, you know, you actually
are paying for what you're bringing in
rather than a judgment call. It's it's
not about changing the costing that
we're doing on what we're taking in now.
We wouldn't charge for tires or steel or brush as well. Like that's not the intent of the scales.
» Yes, Council Lawrence. uh in other
municipalities that have moved to this,
does this mean an increase in waste
coming to the facility or essentially a
net decrease or is there any way of
knowing?
>> Well, there there isn't really a way of
knowing that um because we don't know
exactly how much is coming in now. We
use estimates based on an average 40
yard bin contains this much waste and
that's how we calculate volumes of what
are coming in right now. So um it's
possible that the amount of waste could
decrease but still be exactly the same
as it is right now because right now we
say it's 40 metric tons and it's
actually only 36.8 metric tons. Um it
could go the other way too. We could be
saying that bin weighs 40 tons and it
actually weighs 43 tons. Um, so it it'll
probably balance out pretty much in the
end, but we'll have an exact number to
know what's going in instead of
estimates based on average volumes.
The report also contemplated a two-scale
system. uh staff are recommending that
we implement a single scale system but
build it in such a way provide the power
and the infrastructure for it so that if we determined in the future a second
scale was required we could bring that
back to council for consideration. At
this time we don't feel there's enough
traffic in volume at our waist site to
warrant a two scale like a dedicated in
andout. We think we can manage traffic
with a single scale. Um the report also
contemplated the construction of a full
fully built fully equipped scale house
which we don't think is required either
in further discussion. Um we may be able
to what our preference is and what's
reflected in the report is to look at a
fully automated system first. Uh similar
to what you would have when you go to a
parking lot at a hospital. You know you get your ticket when you go in, it
would give you your weighin amount. You
stick it in the machine when you leave.
It tells you what your way out amount
is. And if you only had brush and tires,
the attendant gave you a get out free
parking card like they sometimes do at
the office when you know your machine's
taking their money or or whatever. So
>> booth,
>> no, the booth will be automated.
>> Automated charge.
>> When you go to the location,
>> you would still the the attendant would
still be down at the the house at the
bottom to tell you where to put your
brush and where to put your recycling.
So, you're going to weigh in and it'll
give you the total weight for your
vehicle when you weigh in. On your way
out, it'll give you the tear weight of
your vehicle. But if you only had stuff
that there was no charge for, the
attendant would have given you a ticket
when he saw you at the bottom that you
feed in instead of putting your credit
card in or your debit card in or or
paying for your your waist.
>> Same as we do now. if you have a mixed
logo like
» so if an automated system wouldn't work
or would be cost prohibitive because
that is a potential that we need to
flush out then we would be looking
probably more at a construction trailer
as an interim um uh scale house as
opposed to a fully built with water heat
hydro service. I mean, we'd still have
hydro and heat, of course, but rather
than having a fully built, fully
constructed building, we would have a
small construction trailer that would
solely function as the take your ticket,
leave your ticket, admin piece of
things, remembering that in the report
it was noted that on quiet days there
are less than 20 vehicles a day
accessing that site. So, um, having the
attendant work with those folks, uh, who
are the ones that typically have those
mixed loads or those bigger volumes, um,
is not as ownorous as it may seem like
it might be. And then if for some reason
there is absolutely no reason we
couldn't scale back the scale house, the worst case would be a full built
scale house. But that is not our
intention.
» Yeah. Most way scales do not have a
fully built house. It's always a
trailer. And um now with this automated
system, if that doesn't work and we have
to go the other route, are we looking at
more staff members or are we able to
manage this as we are with with the two
full-time staff that are at the site? We
believe it's quite manageable. They're
already looking at every building or
every load and every trailer and
checking people in on the tablet to make
sure they're town residents and telling
them where to go. So instead of doing
that at the bottom of the hill, one of
them would do it at the top of the hill.
It
>> we could do that with existing staff.
>> Perfect.
>> And then I also provided a bit of a site
sketch about um where staff and and the
consultants have contemplated uh putting
that scale house and it would kind of be
at you know as you enter the waist site
kind of at the top of the hill on that
bit of a plateau. So there's lots of
room once you're on the site to move
around. It wouldn't impede drive aisles.
Um there there was conversation about
putting it right down at the existing
garage building, but then somebody's got
to figure out how to turn around and
come back around and and we saw some
challenges with traffic management by
having it right down on the site. But if
we have it at the top, it eliminates
that bottleneck and that gooseseneck uh
and keeps those open drive paths so
people can move around to the different
spots of the tipping face where they
need to be. And trucks would appreciate
that. So I think up above is definitely
the best way to go for sure.
Um on this because we're there, I've
also noted the proposed new location of
the burn pile, um which is up to the top
in the yellow boxes.
So folks would be able to drive straight
down there from the current existing
pathways um to to get rid of brush on
days that were not burning without
having to drive across the tipping face
and risk getting nails and whatever else
in their tires. On days that we are
burning, the second yellow bubble to the
left would be the location of a bin or drop spot. Um, so if we were burning
a controlled uh allowable burn, people
would not be able to put their brush in
that burn area. They would leave it
further up. And once the fire was
extinguished and the ashes were all
cool, staff would move that burnable
debris down to the pile uh to be
disposed of once there was enough
accumulation for the next controlled
burn.
That addresses the health and safety
issue of exposing our our visitors and
staff to um potential smoke if the wind
is blowing the wrong way on one of those
um controlled burn days.
>> Question about the burns. Do we post
when we're burning so that the public do
know that we are burning on a certain
day?
>> We don't know when we can post. The
weather conditions have to be right. It
has to be damp. There can't be any wind.
The wind can only come from a certain
direction. And
>> I mean a minute from now the weather can
change. Sometimes we light a fire put it
out because the wind the weather changed
and we weren't expecting it. So
>> that's perfect. Um, we did talk about
having designated burn days and staff
did observe as things were coming in if
we couldn't burn on that day and and we
would very quickly run out of capacity.
Um, if you know if we said it was every
Thursday we're going to burn and we
missed three Thursdays, we wouldn't have
any left and then we'd be turning people
away and we don't want to do that
either.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Any other questions about scales or
burning?
All right, moving on to remaining
landfill capacity.
So, there were some concerns expressed
about the long loss of long-term
landfill capacity if we accepted
additional waste from other sources. Um,
the report clearly demonstrated the
impact to the town of AC accepting
5001,500
uh metric tons of waste per year uh as
three different scenarios.
Looking at the 1500 metric tons per
year, which is three times more than
what we're taking from Wallist right
now. Um our gross revenues based on
current pricing would be approximately
$300 or $300,000 per year. Um now that
is straight like for like. If we
continue doing exactly what we're doing
today at the higher $200 per metric ton
cost, then we would have $300,000 of
revenue and we would lose over the
remaining life in the current cells 22
years of time.
That doesn't consider any of the other
things proposed in the report like
improving diversion, like improving um
other options uh for recycling,
looking at um better hazardous waste
management, um better public education,
food cyclinger campaigns, all of those
kind of things. So all of those will
reduce the volume going in which
increases life. You may recall that last
year's report, I believe we had 57 years
of remaining life. And this year, we're
up to 63 because we did a really great
job of getting rid of bulky waste and
reducing the amount of construction and
demolition debris coming in from um
different locations. So, um as a result
of those things, we actually increased
our capacity by eight years with a full
year of landfilling with our waist and
wallist from one report to the other.
Those numbers don't include the
additional capacity that we have.
>> They do not,
>> which is roughly 100 years,
>> another 100 years over and above what
we're currently working in right now are
already approved at the site. So, um, we
currently have, you know, 150 to 160
years of life. If you look at the whole
site, the implications of taking 1,500
metric tons reduce that initial phase by
22 years and then the secondary phase
probably by about the same. Um so we
still would have more than 100 years of
capacity in the site uh even if we
implemented a 1500 metric ton per year
um approval. And of course all of this
is assuming that the ministry will even
allow us uh to look at or do any of
these things.
We would also propose that a portion of
every invoice include a search charge
for future cost and postclosure
responsibilities. Uh we currently carry
a postclosure expense liability as a
result of ARRO legislation of $166,000
a year in addition to estimated
postretirement and postclosure cost
obligations of $730,000
a year. Um, if we stopped landfilling
today with just what's in the ground
today, those would be the costs that we
would have uh over the next couple of
decades, uh, if we just stopped taking
waste today and shipped it all away and
closed our landfill. Um, we have no
money in the bank to pay for any of
those expenses right now. We do not have
a future closure or postclosure and post
monitoring uh, reserve. We do have
landfill reserve funds, which we're
going to talk about a little later in
this report. So, I don't want it to
sound like we haven't done any planning
at all, but we have not specifically
allocated funds for postclosure and
future monitoring costs. So, staff would
propose that there be a search charge on
every invoice to reflect those future
costs based on the the amounts of waste
that we're taking from someone else,
which alleviates them of that future
cost because they're not putting it in
their landfill sites. and that that
money go to a dedicated reserve
specifically for postclosure and
monitoring.
Questions about landfill capacity.
All right. Waste audit options.
So Cameian provided two options. A
single event in one three-month period
or a one season event or four events,
one in each season of the year. staff
feel that initially a one season audit
will give us a much better understanding
of what's going into our way site than
we have right now which is just what we
see with our eyes. Um, while there is
probably benefit to doing a four-season
audit in the future, we think initially
the single season audit will give us a
ton of information to work with and
implement to make improvements. And then
later once we maximize those potentials,
we could look at doing another season
audit, a different season to see if
things have changed and see if there are
tweaks required uh to any of those
diversion programs. But we feel that the
biggest bang for our buck, so to speak,
is with that single season audit because
right now we have no baseline to work
from to know what's actually going in
our trash beyond what our attendants see
at the gate.
Uh each audit is approximately $25,000.
Um and that is actually people taking
samples of garbage. I believe it's 100
households. They collect the garbage
from directly. They physically open
every bag and sort everything. This is
green. This is recyclable. This is just
garbage. This could be diverted. And do
an audit and calculate, you know, how
much of what was in that bag that still
goes in the dump when they're done. Uh
we don't keep any of it. We're not
looking at personal identifiable
information if someone threw it in their
waste. It just is to sort the different
streams. And if we find that, you know,
50% of household garbage is actually
recyclable, then we target an education
campaign about, hey, did you know that
those Tim Hortons cups actually are
recyclable now? Please don't put them in
your garbage anymore. Uh to reduce that
volume and reduce the amount that we're
landfilling.
Does season virtually mean spring,
summer, fall, winter? And uh have you
sort of navigated what feels like the
best season? I mean,
>> we we haven't we haven't had that. I
mean, there's values to different ones.
Christmas, there's a lot of paper waste.
It was something that uh John initially
mentioned. He said in the spring, people
are spring cleaning and throwing out
things that could potentially be
repurposed. So, each season has its own
intricacies.
>> Yeah. A lot of our non-permanent
residents contributed in the summer,
too, right? So, yeah, each one of them
does. I just wonder if you navigated
what was the best choice. haven't and we would take the guidance of the
municipal engineer um if we embark on on
an audit in the future.
>> Mayor, that's you.
>> Okay. Sorry. [laughter] Sure. Kev,
that's a a question on that was like so
if we have to do an audit that means
that we don't feel they're doing a good
job uh uh sorting their garbage. So that
means that our bag tags really haven't
done what they were supposed to. and the
employee that picks the garbage up to
put it into the bag isn't looking at to
see what's in it because if there's
recycle in it, he's not supposed to take
it. So that's to me is $100,000 that
we're just throwing up in the air. The
other thing is is it our employees going
to do the audit or is it some company
comes in?
>> No. Is the waste engineer that would do
the audit? Go ahead.
>> Just to clarify, it's not 100. The
recommendation is the $25,000 option.
>> The single season.
not the four season.
What's uh in your resolution read or not
saying 343,000
>> that's
>> you'll see that at the end
>> the end but the this section here on the
um this particular audit
>> one shot by
>> yeah Jay yeah they Wayne what they do is they come in and they take the 100
households and they go through it and we
may find that food waste is 50% of
what's going into our our landfill and
it may justify by opening a composting
green box program here. Um,
and and you know, putting it on our guys
to to look in every bag, the thousands
and thousands and thousands of bags that
they're they're throwing in those trucks
every day. Um, it's just it's not
realistic for our guys. I mean, if they
get a a garbage bag full of water
bottles, of course, they would be able
to identify that. But I mean, if
somebody dragged a bag out and there's a
water bottle in the side of it, I
wouldn't expect our guys to leave it on
the side of the road. We don't know if
that's been contaminated or what. Um,
this would just give us a lot better
idea on on the diversion that we can we
can make most efficient with our dump
site and the the type of garbage that
we're receiving. And you were mentioning
from your conference that when they did
this, there was lots of surprises or
>> that Yeah, that's that's everyone were
just astonished by what they thought
would be normal garbage on what they
found was just it was incredible and
they were able to make the adjustments
to their diversion programs and they've
actually um the one municipality out of
uh mil I believe it was um are doing it
yearly now just because it changes with
the seasons like and and it's just It's
just about making your landfill as
efficient as possible and by knowing
exactly what's going in is the only way
to do that.
» Yeah. So that's that's all we had for
the audits is that we would propose one
and then build on a program from there
depending on [clears throat]
what that looked like. Um, on the green
bin, I do also want to mention that
while we are not legislated to have a
green bin program right now, if our
population grows a whole lot more, we
will be required to have a green bin
program. Um, so it it would be good to
have some baselines to know what we may
encounter in the future in that regard.
Moving on, this was included in the last
report and I did just do a cut and paste
because I thought it was important to
mention again that there are proposed
provincial legislation legislated
changes to municipal waste operations
which streamline a lot of the processes
that we're talking about today. Right
now, we are looking at, you know, tens
of thousands of dollars for an ECA
application to change our design and
operation plan and get amendments
approved to an ECA if we move forward
with these recommendations.
However, under several of the proposed
changes, um those costs would be
significantly reduced and the processes
would be streamlined as the province
recommends that um you know, we are good
stewards and we are doing a good job and
if they've approved a 100red years of
landfilling capacity, what they found is
that changing the ECA to allow you to
take 500 tons from a neighbor, you're
still managing a 100red years of
capacity. it it doesn't change how how
well you're doing or what your
requirements are to manage that waste.
So the the getting approval doesn't
affect the outcome is is ultimately um
what they found in in some of those
legislative positions. So, I just wanted
to reiterate that the province
recognizes that things need to change in
landfill worlds and we can either manage
that change on our own proactively the
way that works for our community or we
can have them tell us that you're going
to do XY Z. Uh, and we've been on the
receiving end of that in the past as
well.
So, proposed summary of actions,
timelines, and expenses. So, in the
optimization report, there was a request
to pull all of the costs together into a
consolidated framework um because they
spread over I believe it was eight pages
in the report and each one contained a
fairly detailed explanation. Basically,
what I've done is pulled those eight
pages together into a couple of smaller
charts without the explanation. If you
want the explanation, go back and look
at the original one. Um so the the first
costs are costs that we believe can be
uh covered through the operating budget
that don't require reserve allocation
and the timelines or years when those
things would happen. So disposal ban on
some items um you know the the one that
comes to mind uh most often is the uh
the binding and the twines and the the
tarps. um you know not accepting those
and using the existing recycling
programs uh in place to help commercial
generators of that waste that is not
manageable at the landfill site um get
rid of that waste. Public education
campaigns uh textile drop off program
establishing a reuse center with lots of
guidelines. Um we've done some research
and and have some guidelines in that
others are using for those. They don't
accept any electronic appliances, for
example. Those all go to the electronic
recycling bin, and it eliminates the
risk of a electrical hazard or a short
or a fire. Um, it would only be for
things that could be easily and safely
reused. So, no dirty mattresses, um, no
pillows, no blankets, that kind of
stuff. It would be, you know, dishes or
windows that could be repurposed for a
shed or a greenhouse or a screen door
that doesn't fit the aesthetic of the
cottage anymore and is just going or
those types of reusable items that still
have lots of life in a different
application. Um, that don't pose a risk
or a safety liability concern for the
town.
>> I always understood once through the
gates couldn't remove it. That's how it
is because we don't have a reuse center.
If we had authorization for a reuse
center with parameters about what could
go there, then it could leave. It could
go to that center and leave.
That would be one of the changes that we
would put into our ECA is for approval
to do that. But you're absolutely right.
If it comes through the gate right now,
it's garbage. Even if it's perfectly
useful. Yeah.
So, total costs are between5 and $10,000
a year. the $10,000 a year in 2027 is
the highest because that would include
the establishment of that reuse center
if the ECA amendment to allow that is
approved. And that's just the cost of a
uh a prefab shed or a shipping container
um that would house those things uh in
the short term. So that's a one-time
expense. So, it's roughly $5 to $6,000 a
year for operational things to continue
with our food cyclinger program, to
continue with our composter program. Um,
all of those things would fit into that
costing. So, that's specific to the
three Rs, the reduce, reuse, recycle,
all of which would be covered by
operations. site operation
recommendations included um both
operating and reserve allocations. So
improving on-site signage. We currently
do have a line in our budget for
signage. Um a small increase to that
would allow us to cover these expenses
as part of the operating budget. Moving
the brush pile and burn pile, we can use
our own resources to do that once
approved. Um so there is no capital
allocation for us to be able to do that.
installing a single way scale as per the
recommendations here is estimated to be
about 138. We did put the 140 in for the
scale house as a worstc case scenario
with the note that we would first look
at um an automated system and then a
trailer and then go to the scale house
if all other options failed. Um, to be
frank, I don't know why a construction
trailer would not work. So, I I don't
ever see us building this. Um, but it
was the proposal contained in the
original report. So, we've reflected
that here as a worst case scenario.
Um, and then a construction and demol
demolition waste diversion recycling
strategy won't cost us anything. We just
need to change some processes that we
follow to do things. and then
construction of a household hazardous
waste containment structure. So, uh I
want to chat just a bit about the
household hazardous waste. So, we
currently run two events per year, one
in the spring, May, I think, and one in
the fall, September. Cool.
They are extremely well attended. Um as
I mentioned, they do we we pay to the
hauler for the cost of the materials
they the hazardous materials they take
away. That includes paint, aerosol cans,
old gas, um light bulbs, um you know,
batteries, uh like car batteries,
uh yeah, all of those kind of things
that we generate through our daily life
that shouldn't go on the tipping face.
What happens is household hazardous
waste day is May 20th, and on May 25th,
somebody comes in with a half a can of
varnish and says, "I don't want this
anymore." more and we say, "Oh, you have
to take it home and keep it till
September and then bring it back." And
they come back tomorrow with a bag of
garbage with that wrapped up in a bag
inside the bag and they throw in the
landfill site. Those are the chemicals
that cost us hundreds of thousands of
dollars to manage 20 years from now. So
having the containment facility to put
that can of paint in safely that's
fireproof and uh weather resistant and
rodent proof so that when that day comes
around in September we can safely
dispose of it and keep it out of our
landfill provides a convenience to our
residents and ensures that we're not
putting long-term hazardous substances
into the ground that we're going to have
to manage for decades to come. It's a
onetime expense of create building that
shed. It's actually already approved in
our ECA. So that is something that we
could move forward with without an
amendment.
>> Yes, council
» didn't take I'm concerned about spillage
like I
we start collecting the stuff and if
they're going to only collect it every six months per se. Um, and by the
way, I was there in in the May day they
had it and they did an excellent job.
Like very efficient. But if we start
collecting it ourselves, I'm really
concerned about spillage and what
hazardous problems we'll have with that.
And that's why it needs to be
constructed in the building that is very
specifically outlined the the
characteristics of the building, how it
has to be constructed. Um what the
containment is and the sealants and
stuff so that if a can of paint does tip
over, it doesn't create a problem is is
clearly laid out and identified in the
existing ECA requirement.
>> Good. Thank you.
>> And just as uh Andre mentioned, we
actually have approval to do that right
now. we just haven't done it. So, it
isn't our current ECA.
>> Are our staff uh trained to handle
hazardous waste on a continuous basis?
Cuz when they come in, uh I know our
staff helps them, but we have experts to
come and take it away. It causes 25,000
run for the day. I'm assuming that's our
staff wages also. So, that word is 25.
So what would the savings be if we've
already got it collected? So they only
need to be here for a half a day instead
of a day.
>> We would collect it if someone brought
it to the site on a day that wasn't the
hazardous waste collection day. So if
they missed it and they were going to
throw it in the garbage and they already
brought it and they were throwing it
over the hill and we said, "No, no, you
can't do that. That's what we collect.
We wouldn't be advertising that you
could bring your waste here every day
and we'll we'll take it every day." Fair
enough. Um, all of our operators have
C12, I think it is, training, which
allows them to handle and haul hazardous
waste and we have a CBOR that allows
that to be in our vehicles and and all
that kind of stuff as well. And that is
a requirement of the environmental
u approvals that we have in place to
operate a municipality as well.
>> Councelor Mouse,
>> I think you've half answered my question
in some of the conversation there. So we
would still have our two hazardous days
of the year that company would arrive.
We could still do all of our drive-thru
everything, but all the rest of the days
we collect and then on those days they
remove that hazardous waste. So we're
not accumulating it nec we're we're
storing it, but then they take it away
from there. Do we have any financial
benefit whatsoever or we're just happy
that somebody's taking it all away and
it doesn't go into the landfill? That's
the financial benefit is the tens of
thousands or hundreds of thousands of
dollars we'll save in the future not
monitoring for mercury poisoning and and
uh those those toxic hazardous
substances. Do those companies have a
process of to councelor Eastman's point?
Um, do they have I mean, if something
happens to be spilled over, and I'm
assuming some type of a metal building
is what we're looking at, or some type
of containment, do they go through a
cleaning process of that actual building
when they take away all the hazardous
waste? So, we start fresh each time they
empty it, do you know?
>> Uh, no. They're they're responsible for
anything that they do while they're on
the site. Um, so they would take it away
if the building needed to be cleaned and
we probably would give it a quick clean
after we emptied it out. We would we
would do that.
» Okay.
» All right. Emerging trends in waste
diversion. So, if you're into some
interesting reading, just Google um new
and groundbreaking waste diversion
activities. There's some stuff that you
would expect to see there, but there's
some really cool, awesome stuff that
people are working with as well. Um,
mining is becoming more and more of a
thing, but not in the traditional way
where you bring in and you dig up your
whole site and then you have to uh
reprocess all of the waste that's there
after you take out recyclables.
um they have ground radar machines that
will identify that that's a tire and
here it is and automatically plot it on
a map and you just go dig up the tire
and now you have another two feet that
you can fill. Um so there's there's some
really cool stuff out there in the
future. So these calculations, this
report, these estimates are based on
what we know and what we do today. You
know how quickly the world of technology
changes 10 years from now. some of the
technologies that'll be available to
manage what's already in the ground and
get capacity back. Especially since we
know that in the 2030s we're going to
run out of landfill capacity as a
province and and subsequently as a
country. Those technologies are going to
be developed super fast and that the
chances of us being able to utilize some
of those at some point to get back
capacity we've already used also exists.
So this report is contemplating status
quo, what we do today, what we know
today, how we've always operated. It
doesn't consider any of those future
technologies or efficiencies. So if
you're into some interesting reading,
just uh Google that. There's some pretty
cool stuff out there. Um already talked
about the year- round hazardous waste.
So financial implications. So this is
your summary, Wayne, of your $343,000
uh summary. So for 2026, we don't expect
any costs. In 2027, we would have site
preparation and improvement um that we
would fund um you know to to make to
make the site ready to accept all of
these changes to operations. If we're
moving forward with our ECA, we would
also have the costs of the ECA and the
design and operation plan application as
detailed on page 27 of the report. And
then the $10,000 to construct the
hazardous waste storage building
in 2028. site preparation and and
alterations is going to be ongoing as we
implement all of these changes and
diversion activities along with the
single way scale and only if required
which I don't expect the scale house
construction uh for 288,000 that year to
a maximum and then $10,000 in 2029 for
final site preparation and improvement
and then it's just regular maintenance
beyond there and those totals altogether
including that scale house that pretty
confident to say we don't need um are
$343,000.
We propose that those funds would come
from the reserves which have a balance
today of $71,47260
as needed though. So they wouldn't all
come out in 2026 or all come out in
2027. it would be as those activities
were implemented and we would continue
contributing to that reserve through our
regular budget activities uh each year
as well to to keep that balance up. So
um the total balance wouldn't bring the
reserve to 350,000 because we would have
additional several years of additional
contributions to that reserve as well to
support other and ongoing not yet
identified activities that may need to
occur at the site.
So when all of these factors are
considered and the subsequent
modifications and proposals and
clarifications from this report, staff
recommend that we be provided with
direction to engage Cambian to
immediately maximize site efficiency by
introducing new or amended diversion
programs and policies that are not
subject to an ECA amendment.
that they compile and submit an
application to amend the ECA and the
design and operation plan to implement
the recommendations above and contained
in this report. To implement revenue
generation tools as described in the
report to reduce the annual operating
deficit and begin to prepare for future
closure costs. Investigate and bring
forward the required policies and
procedures as recommended in this report
for council approval to reduce risk and
liability to the town while maximizing
site life and providing public
information and education as well as
improve communications.
implement new revenue generation tools
and sources, including acceptance of
waste from other municipalities as
outlined in the Cayman report to offset
continuing annual cost escalations and
future closure and post-closure
monitoring cost as required by approvals
as they are granted and install a single
waist scale to create efficiencies and
provide uniform, consistent, and fully
transparent waste disposal services as
approvals to do so are received from the
Ministry of the Environment and Parks.
And I just want to point out the the the
summary note in the Keian report because
I I do think it's really reflective of
the whole thing. So the Dangan waste
disposal site is a vital municipal asset
that plays a central role in supporting
the town of Braftoft's long-term waste
management needs. With substantial
remaining capacity and strong regular
regulatory foundation, the site presents
an opportunity not only to ensure
environmental stewardship, but also to
unlock greater potential and financial
value for the community.
>> Thank you for an excellent report and an
excellent presentation. And you actually
did breathe once in a while in there.
So, thank thank
>> did I?
>> Yeah. Uh I'm just going to put this
first. We've already done this, but I'll
put the resolution forward. The first
one was, be it resolved that the council
of the corporation of town of Bankro
receives a supplemental information
staff report regarding the landfill
optimization study report for the Dunan
landfill for information and discussion
purposes, which is what we have done.
Yes, sorry. Um, I just I just want to
mention in in the report there, um, and
I believe we can do it within the
343,000,
we didn't mention doing an audit, a
waste audit in that report. I think we
need to include that wording in there so
we can move forward with that. I don't
believe we have to increase 343 because
we have so much in there for the scale
shack which I've never seen a scale
house actual concrete. It's always a
construction trailer. So I believe we
can do do it within that money. I just
think that we should add that verbiage.
>> Yes. Okay.
>> In the resolution. That's all.
>> Okay. Thank you. Uh so that's the motion
to do the discussion which we've already
done. Could I have a mover and a
seconder for that please? Deputy Mayor
and Councelor Lawrence. All in favor,
please. Thank you. The second
resolution, be it resolved that the
council of the corporation, the town of
Bankro, hereby direct staff to engage
Cambium, Inc. to implement all the
recommendations contained in the
landfill optimization study report as
amended by the modific modifications
contained in this report, including the single waste audit. Thank
you, Jake.
and further the capital allocations
outlined on page 11 of this report be
approved up to a maximum of 343,000
if required and further the council the
corporation the town of Bankro direct
staff to execute a service contract with
Camian Inc required for this purpose
because I have a mover and a second
please councelor Lawrence and councelor
Miles all in favor is
» you can make a motion to amend that
resolution. Um, you would need a
secondary for the amendment.
>> Can I have your mic, please?
>> Sorry. Yes, I would like to amend that.
Uh let me just find
amend it to say be it resolved that the
council of the corporation of the town
of Braftoft hereby direct staff to
engage Cambium Inc. to implement all but
accept waste from other municipalities.
So that's the only one I want pulled
from that.
>> So that's your motion needs to be sorry.
Yes.
>> If I can just make a comment um
excluding that or
>> sorry excluding that. Yeah,
>> excluding that and moving forward with
everything else would duplicate your ECA
fees. If there was a decision to move
forward with that in the future, you
would have to submit yet another design
and operation plan and another ECA
amendment to make that change later if
it wasn't included with the first
suite of changes.
Just a
» So, the motion's on the floor. Looking
for a seconder.
Council Eastman seconds. Um,
>> can I just speak to why I want to do
that?
>> Uh, it's pretty evident. Do you want to?
>> Well, I would like to say something if I
can.
>> I'm not saying that I'm opposed to it. I
mean, at the end of the day, it's a
$700,000
operational cost to all of our
taxpayers. Now, when you take off, like
Andrew made a good comment about
curbside. So, when we're bringing in
revenue from other municipalities to
bring to offset our costs, so we're
going to bring in bring in other dollars
from them, um our costs that our people
incur that anybody from other
municipalities wouldn't, such as
curbside and um our hazardous waste and
such, they don't benefit from that.
That's our our people only. But still,
when you look at the difference, you're
still looking at a $450,000 difference.
So, yes, it would be great if we could
bring in enough revenue from other
municipalities so that we run it
where we don't have to like there's not
a big chunk coming off of our taxpayers.
But at the end of the day, I really
don't want to see the lifespan of our landfill um lesson. I think back of
when we were, this is a positive note
though, when we were first elected in in
20 uh 2014, there was an expected life
expectancy of 160 years and we're still
sitting at that. So over 12 years, we
haven't lost, we've gained, which is
great, but I just think we need to do a
little more exploring on that. Um, we've
got our residents who are dead set
against it. many are and I just
I don't want to see the greatest asset
that we have deplete. That is one thing
that every municipality,
you know, we're we're one of the rare
ones that have that kind of life
expectancy. And yes, the $700,000
that we we incur the cost of our
landfill, we bring in a little bit of
revenue from elsewhere, but we're look
that's a 10% in our taxes. If we can
eliminate that by half, then that's 5%
off of our taxes. So, I I get that and I
understand that and I understand the
money part of it and how wonderful that
would be. But at the same time, I just
why do we have to make this decision
right now? Can it not wait? I mean, a
few months later, we've got potentially
a new council coming in and I just think
that it could sit on that council table
as opposed to right now.
comments from the floor.
Councelor Miles,
>> um I'm not in support of the amendment
because I feel that the opportunities
here, well, first of all, the extra cost
to going back to the ECA again. That
does make some sense. We are already
accepting garbage from another
municipality. We're just not getting
enough for it, but we're going to
correct that. I don't see this as a
floodgate um uh presentation. I think it
will be managed clearly. I think I could foresee a future where we we
don't we have we can't cut off our noses
despite our face. uh you know so the
report does sort of talk about what are
some limitations about how much we
should accept
and I think
I have a responsibility to say to every
constituent you are the highest taxpayer
almost in the province based on our mill
rate and if I could say to you I can
find a way to generate like what's
$300,000 5% of tax base
>> if I can say we're We have found a
program that, you know, it's not going
to happen tomorrow, but maybe over the
next 5 to 10 years, we know we can
generate some revenue to help with that
with proper control. I think we should
be taking those opportunities while
they've been presented to us by the
people who do garbage best. Um I I think
they're they're the pros. They're the
ones who've paid attention to what is
here. And so I think missing that
opportunity to stay to say to a
constituent, I can help find some
revenue for the taxes here because we're
already so high. I have a responsibility
I feel to a constituent to find a way to
do that. That that's that's why I would
be opposed to the amendment.
>> Any other comments on that, Council
Lawrence?
I guess I see the length of time that
the um landfill can operate as an
opportunity and an asset like you you
pointed out, but uh an asset that
remains in the ground and doesn't
generate revenue for us. Uh I would not
support. I see this something like the
excess capacity we have with the sewage
treatment plant, you know, uh treating
leech from other municipalities.
Um now in that case, I don't think it's
something that goes away. It it
um but I I would welcome the opportunity
to reduce taxes of our taxpayers and
make us more affordable.
So comment that I have is is that um to
delay this to another council, this
council has has a lot of uh education
and expertise on this matter that
they've acquired and there's going to be
a large turnover. So to put this to a
new council who have really no
background information is going to
extend this out far enough. And we were
elected to make decisions, you know, we
were elected to make decisions as
councelor Miles said in the best
interests of our taxpayers. we don't
have very many opportunities
uh for revenue generation and I think
that we know that there are a whole
bunch of other costs that are uh on the
horizon uh for um that we have no
control over you know every we've seen
10 plus% in the last few years I think
it was 18 one year for the policing etc
we still don't know where that's going
so there are a lot of other expenses the
only thing that we can do to offset them
and still be responsible with the way
site and I think 100 plus years of
capacity
uh with upcoming changes probably of
technology uh that it's our duty to uh
in the best interest of our taxpayers to
move forward with this. Uh deputy mayor.
>> Yeah, just a couple of comments if I
might. Uh uh first of all, the these
other municipalities have as far as I
know have not approached us about
coming. It's all hypothetical. And if if
it came back to the local council at the
time uh to accept or reject each an
individual uh proposal uh as a revenue
base, there might be other ones. There
might be other municipalities uh that
are out there that are uh really
desperate. We might be able to uh uh
generate a whole lot of money in a hurry
and and even less garbage. But that
that's part of it.
The one thing I don't like about I'll
speak to the to the resolution is that
we accept all all his recommendations
and I'm afraid I don't agree with them
all. I agree with some but not them all.
So if we have to accept them all, it's
going to be difficult.
>> Council Miles,
>> uh just one more uh followup comment. I
have some thoughts also that we put
ourselves in a really good standing with
the province. I think that when we start
talking about how the the the the
condition of dumps throughout the entire
province, the province is going to start
having problems and they're going to be
municipalities going to the province and
saying, "Help us, help us, save us, save
us." If we are super proactive about
finding ways to help some of our
municipalities, it wouldn't shock me if
when the time comes and we're ready to
put this way scale in that we send for a
grant to the province and say, "Oh, and
by the way, we've taken every step
that's been reported by the people that
know this best. So why don't you help us
because we're trying to put our foot
forward to be able to maybe help with
this massive garbage problem that's
coming down the chute." And so I wonder
this if taking the resolutions from or
the recommendations also puts us in
really good standing with the province.
>> Council Eastman,
>> I I guess my my concern is that are we
committing future councils to accept
automatically this or will will they
have a say on who they accept and when
uh what the scales is of the time? like
a like I mean we're we're putting it in
out there uh not knowing what one of our
neighbors that we have pending uh
decisions on. Um so again I I just have
a concern that that so so the study
doesn't specify the who's all it's
specifying is a quantity
>> but it says all.
>> Pardon me.
>> It says all.
>> Sorry but what's the all part?
I understand it says all
the motion is to accept all
municipalities garbage.
>> No, no, no, no. All all the
recommendations in the report, not all
municipalities garbage. There's a cap on this of 150,500
metric tons. Whether that comes from our
neighbor X, Y, or Zed, um is to be deter
is to be determined. So, no, not all
municipalities.
So,
Jake, you had a comment.
>> I I just I think I need like I'm
listening to everybody's questions. I
think what the resolution is is like
what Andre had mentioned that moving
forward is to get to permission to do
this. Um whether future councils decide
to accept ways from other municipalities
will be up to them, but this just puts
us in a position in the future if that
is an option. It wouldn't be
>> is that is that the way I understand it?
No, this is to take 1500 metric tons.
>> Okay. Then I was I thought this was just
for the ECA
>> up to a maximum 1500 metric tons. That's
what this resolution Okay.
>> And that's because we need to identify
that volume for the ECA amendment. The
ECA is very specific about how much
waste we can take from outside of our
municipal boundaries. So, um we're we're
saying 1500, but you know that that may
not happen all at once. it it could be
500 the first year and maybe somebody
else comes forward with another 500 and
will we get to 15? I I think there's
absolutely um no doubt that the demand
is there. Um but that won't happen in
2026 or 2027 and is probably um you know
not even something we would start to
implement until 2028 once we had the
ECAs and the design and operation
approvals in place to do so.
>> So I forgot what I was going to say. Oh,
you got your hand up. Sorry.
>> So, I was just thinking
>> Oh,
>> sorry. I just very quickly I did
remember you you only want to do one ECA
amendment because
>> Right. Yeah. So, you you don't want to
keep going peace meal because it's very
expensive. Sorry. Thank you.
>> It would it would allow like what what
Tracy's concern is is is allowing the
next count, but
>> you're still you're still capable of
>> Well, you're still capable. What I'm
saying is you're putting it as a rider
basically that's gonna if in the future
you want to. Was that not?
>> No, this is to accept the 1500 tons in a
manner that staff probably sees fit and
from who in the future.
>> Yeah. Sorry, Tracy.
>> So, yeah. So, it's not that we're
capable and ready to do it if we choose
to. We have to do it.
>> No, it gives us the license to do it
over.
>> So, we have the license to do it. We
could have a a a shop that has a license
to do whatever we're licensed to do, but
then if nobody ever brings that in or we
choose not to do that, we're still
licensed to do it, but we just choose
not to at that time. So that's all I'm
saying. It's not like we're like, "Oh,
yeah, we're we're licensed to do it, so
therefore we absolutely have to bring in
all of that." No, we don't have to. We
can just be licensed and set up for the
future, but we don't have to do it.
>> That's why the
>> Go ahead.
I I think you just spoke for voting
against your amendment. Well,
>> I was thinking more
>> this gives us the it's a cost a partial
cost recovery model, you know, as
outlined in the report. We know our
costs today, but they're going to
continue to escalate. We got closure
costs coming. We have many other costs
coming and this is a manner to uh to
address some of these and hopefully even
reduce our operating deficit. Yes. If I
can, I can give you two examples from
our existing ECA on the shelf right now.
One is that municipal hazardous waste
collection depot. We are already
approved to do that. We just haven't
yet. And we've had that approval for
upwards of 10 years now. I think that
was the 2018 approval. Um, and we just
haven't yet. We also have approval to
run a full composting facility at the
site right now, but we haven't looked at
doing that and the costs associated with
doing it and the infrastructure
required, but it's already approved
because when we open that ECA, we put it
in there because it might be something
we want to do. Um so so the approvals
can be there but like you said it
doesn't mean absolutely the minute you
get the approval you have to start doing
something anything but you can that's
but you can and I and and I guess my my
other part B to that question is so yes
right now we have roughly 160 years
which could be depleted down to 100 but
Jake in your professional opinion and I
know that you can't say like I know we
can't end up at a net zero where we can
bring in all this and not deplete our longevity of our dump by by
anything. But do you think if if we do
diversion properly and our our taxpayers
who don't want to lose the longevity of
our dump do their part to make sure that
they're not throwing stuff in our
landfill that shouldn't and they step up
and do what they should. Do you foresee
that 100 years being more than 100?
>> 100%. I believe that. I believe that um
you take, you know, you take say we have
150 years. Go back in time to 1875 from
now and how far we've come. Think think
of how far we're going to be ahead in a
100 years. Uh diversion methods, methods
to to break down garbage to to do
everything. And I I believe the future
holds lots of opportunities for us to
regain capacity and um and I I I'm full behind all these
recommendations because um they're just
going to lead to extending the lifespan.
Look what we've done in the last few
years. We've brought life back to that
landfill just by better practice with
our operations and and and I do believe
we can that that [clears throat] 22
years um that they're saying that we
would lose. I I believe we can shave
that down with better diversion models
100%.
» Sorry, somebody take their mic off. Try
now.
>> So, further to that, I'm going to pedal
backwards. I just felt we needed to have
that discussion and that conversation.
Um, my my big thing is, hey, at the end
of the day, yes, we are responsible to
our rateayers. Um, and if we can lower
our taxes and not decrease the longevity
of one of our greatest assets by too
much and I don't want to close the door
in an opportunity for the future. Um, so
I will pull my
>> and I think you're right. The the goal
is and I you know I think this report
was very conservative. I and to Jake's
point and other discussions I've had, I
think we still want to try to achieve
more capacity and uh and through all of
these programs. So that would be the
ultimate goal is exactly what you said
and I would
>> we can't sit here and guarantee.
>> No, no, but but even to cap it. Okay. So
that's what that's what is in the report
suggested cannot be capped. We're not
going to take any more than this.
>> That's the cap.
>> That's the actual cap.
>> That's what's going to go forward in the
ECA and you cannot deviate from the ECA.
Okay.
» On the first motion,
» but I I don't think it was seconded, was
it?
>> Yeah,
>> it was. Yes.
>> Oh, I'm sorry. I I missed that. I missed
that. Okay. So, we have to vote on the
uh on the amendment. So, all in favor of
the amendment, please raise your hands.
All opposed.
Thank you. Okay. Thank you. You sure
can.
uh on these proposals that we're saying
that we're going to accept all of them
on this report.
Will they come back to the existing
council at that at that time for new
plans or is this just letting staff go
wild to do what they want?
>> As far as what?
>> Well, for example, like the hazardous
building, I I don't personally think we
should be into that. So, that's part of
the uh scenario. So like if they come
back will staff come back and say the
hazardous buildings don't cost us
assist. This is how it's all planned
out. Uh we got into this with the uh
workshard we had a a Taj Mahal idea and
they just kept growing and growing and I
got a feeling that the same thing could
happen here quite readily unless they
come back with individual like for
example the scales and so yeah okay the
scales are this is what's going to cost
da da da go for it or we saying today go
for it and not worry. So there is a
budget cap in this report of the 343,000
that anything in exceeding in excess of
that would have to come back for sure.
You you can't go over that. That's what
the recommendation is.
So
>> is that budget cap now at 363
with 38?
>> No. Um um no. But
>> Jake's comment was is that uh we can do
it right within I think the big thing in
that report is 140,000 for the scale
house. I don't think anybody thinks that
we're going anywhere near that, but that
was what was in the consultants report.
So
>> yeah, that that that's what I meant was
the the waste audit. I believe we can
contain it within that 343,000.
Um I just wanted to make sure it was in
the verbiage that
>> that we were going to do that as well,
but there's no price increase with that.
We can work within that budget.
>> Okay. Um, okay. I have a second
recommendation. I make sure I'm on the
right item here.
Second resolution. Be it resolved the
corporation of the town of Bankrop here
by direct staff to engage Cambium Inc.
to implement all of the recommendations
contained in the landfill optimization
report as amended by the modific
contained
in this report being the staff report.
» Yes. including a single season waste
audit. Thank you.
And yes, and further the capital
allocations outlined on page 11 of this
report be approved up to a maximum of
343,000 if required. And further the
council of the corporation of town of
bankrooft direct staff to execute a
service contract with Cambium Inc. as
required for this purpose. Could I have
a mover in a seconder, please?
No, this is a separate motion.
Oh, I do.
Well,
it's a long
>> Yeah. long. Okay. All in favor, please.
Okay. So, we have four. One, two, three,
four. Yes. So passed.
Let's have everybody put their hand up
so that the clerk can please say it for
approval. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. So So pass. Thank you.
Let's take a 10-minute prayer.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. We'll reconvene at this
time. Next on our agenda, item D,
ventilation and thermal load assessment
reports addressing uh identified worker
health and safety issues. And this is
for portions of our uh current
workshard. Uh the motion before us is be
it resolved that the council of the
corporation of town of bankrock receives
this staff report and the associated
attachments for information and
discussion purposes and further that
council direct staff uh to procure and
install components for a compressed air
system for the trucks in the cold
storage bay and to engage the services
of a wildlife management pest control
company to remove the pigeons from the
cold storage truck bays and complete
remediation of the space as a result of
pigeon activity. ity to a maximum amount
of $30,000 $30,000 total cost with funds
to be allocated from the corporate
services reserve health safety and
accessibility initiatives fund. Could I
have a mover and a seconder please? Uh
councelor Eastman and councelor Miles
and Andre I will call on you again to
present this please.
>> Thank you Mayor Jenkins. So you have a a
number of reports in front of you. Um, I
did reattach the building envelope
assessment summary from last uh last
fall for the initial assessments of the
buildings. We've also attached a summary
document uh compiled by our manager of
infrastructure and capital projects with
regard to the newest ventilation and
thermal load assessment reports. Um
we're still working through the details
of those for longer range things and and
there is some information in them that
um would have required a significant
amount of redacting to be included on
this agenda. Um serial numbers and
identifiers of critical equipment for
example. So um we we didn't get that
process complete and that's why those
reports aren't attached but the summary
is there so that you at least have that
information to refer to uh until we can
get the reports in a publicly
presentable uh fashion. So the intent of
those reports was to evaluate the
ventilation um and heating and cooling
systems in the two buildings the parks
and wreck building and the public works
building. I'm probably going to refer to
cold storage. That's the parks building.
Um, that's where we park our snow plows
in the winter to keep them out of the
snow. It's an unheated, unserviceed
building with the exception of hydro.
Um, but it does keep the snow off the
vehicles in the ambient temperature in
the bay. Keeps the temperature close to
zero, which makes starting the trucks a
little bit easier than they would if
they were parked outside at minus40. We
also can't park our snow plows outside
because they are ready to plow when
weather starts. So, they're filled with
uh sand or sweet mix or salt or a
combination thereof. And if those are
outside and they get wet, they turn into
cement in the box and then we can't uh
actually spread anything. So, we do need
to keep those vehicles inside so they're
ready to roll. So, if you have questions
about the actual report findings in
detail, I'm sure Jake would be happy to
entertain them. The main purpose of
today is to get approval to uh complete
some immediate uh remediation to the
spaces to ensure that our workers are
safe in those spaces while future
decisions about public works and parks
uh continue to be contemplated.
So both buildings miserably failed
ventilation assessments. There is
inadequate ventilation uh for staff in
both buildings when there are vehicles
running in those buildings particularly
in cold startup conditions.
The uh public works building or the
garage uh does have a ventilation system
although it is not appropriately sized
for the use that we have in the
building. uh and a couple components of
that system have failed. But there is a
ventilation system there which can
safely allow workers to work in that
space providing that a number of other
procedures are put in place such as
keeping certain doors closed at all
times. So um exhaust fumes from one area
can't get into another area of the
building because of the door stops and
the and the seals around the doors. So
we will be working with our joint
occupational health and safety committee
to uh identify those business procedures
to ensure um that staff can safely work
in that building and we aren't
recommending any immediate remediation
in that building beyond those procedure
procedures at this time. However, the
cold storage building has zero
ventilation and there is absolutely no
way that we can put enough worker
controls and safety procedures in place
to allow trucks to run in that space in
the cold to um air up so that they can
be moved, which is the practice now. You
have to start a diesel truck and let it
run for a number of minutes um to en to
allow the air tanks to build up enough
pressure so that you can engage the
drive system and move the vehicle out of
the garage. Um so while that's happening
all the exhaust from those trucks is
accumulating in that building um with no
ventilation.
So, our proposal for that issue is to
install a a self-contained um or not a
self-contained, but an air system um an
independent air system independent of
the building. Um, that will allow us to
hook each of the trucks to an air
compressor system through a through a
hose and a connection to the air tank to
keep the air tanks in the truck full
enough that someone can get in, turn the
key, put it in, drive, and drive out of
the building and close the door,
minimizing the amount of exhaust that
accumulates inside that building to keep
it at a safe level for workers. Once the
trucks are out of the buildings, then
workers can complete any remaining
safety check things, um any adjustments
that they might need to make, um any
improvements that can all be done
outside the building safely where there
is fresh air, which provides adequate
ventilation and uh minimizes or
eliminates exposure to um diesel
emissions uh from those trucks. So, the
cost to do that includes a compressor, a
large compressor, as it will have to
service a number of trucks, the hose
reels that will allow the hoses to uh be
pulled out and retract when they're not
needed so they aren't in a way causing
another health and safety issue, and
then the fittings that those hoses
connect to the vehicles to to allow the
air to remain in those tanks. This is
not a new system. It's not something we
made up. Uh the fire departments use
those to keep those fire trucks so that
when they get a call, they can jump in
them and hit drive and go. They don't
have to wait 10 or 15 minutes for the
trucks to warm up before they can
respond to a call. So basically, we're
going to implement the system that fireh
halls use to make sure that those trucks
are ready to roll as soon as someone
gets in them and turns a key.
Uh the other issue is our pigeons and we
love our pigeons and we don't want any
harm to come to the pigeons but they
cannot reside inside the building. Um
the pigeons pose a significant health
and safety risk not because of the birds
themselves but because of the things the
birds leave behind. Um so we need to
remove the birds from the building.
however, a pest control company does
that and then clean up the mess that the
birds have left behind and cover the um
points of entry. So, there are some
windows up high that are broken or
accessible that will need to be closed
in. Um, we'll probably need to put some
kind of bird stopper devices on the
ledges and the sills so they can't land
and sit there and and basically do
everything that we can to encourage them
not to come back once we evict them. Uh
so again that will [clears throat]
require the services of a professional
pest control company and we would like
to engage that immediately to get the pests out of the building uh as
quickly as we can uh in the most
appropriate manner to do that. So those
are the two recommendations in my
report. I am happy to answer questions
if you have any. We have met with our
joint occupational health and safety
committee um and shared these health
concerns or worker risks with them as we
are obligated to do when we become aware
of a risk. They are aware of these two
recommendations coming forward today and
are supportive of these interim measures
until we can identify a permanent
solution for the um myriad of challenges
that those buildings are providing right
now. Just a point of clarification, this
compressor can be relocated in the
future to another facility. Okay.
>> It can. It's not installed as a fixture
in the building. It's a standalone
component. So, it's as simple as taking
the screws out of the hose reels and
putting the compressor on a probably
heavy duty dolly. It'll be a big
compressor and moving it out of the
building.
>> Councilman, you had a question.
>> Not a question, but a comment. I I just
think the health and welfare and safety
of our staff is utmost.
I think that's a no-brainer.
All in favor? So pass. Thank you very
much. Yeah, many things.
>> Just a a sidebar comment on this is that
we uh have been working with our MPP
uh and with staff from um Infrastructure
Ontario to try to finalize something
with either we have potential to stay
here under favorable circumstances or to
uh to leave the building. Um and it's
been a very long drawn out process. Um
even um our MPP thought there was a
resolution and it didn't uh turn out
quite the way it didn't even turn out
never mind turn out the way there was a
some communications error. So uh we're
still dealing with that on that front
there. And part and parcel of the
original report that came through was on
the uh uh the fire side as well. And uh
currently the uh fire service review is
underway and I would imagine that it'll
come sometime before the end of third
hopefully in August council. So we'll
have a bit a bit bigger picture on that
as well. So yes,
>> what has the cost of all these
assessments been to date?
>> Was it in there? I missed it.
Um
>> I don't have it handy. I do think that
uh the initial costs of this one were in
the 2025 report when you approved moving
forward with them.
Uh $13,350
for the first building envelope
assessment summary reports. I don't have
the amount of these newest uh reports
in the report. So, um I I I can't
confidently
>> No worries. I just was curious if we
were kind of within
» Yes.
>> Okay. Yeah. That but I mean all the
>> in the report he keeps referring to
2025.
>> Did they do this study a year ago? I
thought they just did the initial. I
believe
>> the building assessment reports were
done in 2025 and the ventilation reports
were completed this year based on those
2025 building condition assessment.
>> Yeah, after we got the first report, we
asked them to go back and provide us
with further information on the air
quality. Okay, we did vote on that.
>> Okay, thank you. Item E, recreation and
data project community survey results.
So the resolution before us is be it
resolved the council of the corporation
town of bank for office by received this
report and presentation for information
purposes only. Could I have a mover in a
secondary to put it on the floor please?
Deputy mayor and secondary councelor
Eastman Sarah the floor is yours.
>> Good afternoon your worship and members
of council.
I'll just wait until uh our clerk can
get the presentation up on uh on the
wall here.
So, I'm here today to provide you with a
summary um the initial summary of the
recreation and data project that we put
out to the community. Um the
presentation that we're going to go
through uh undertake undertake kind of
the key findings, community input and
outlines and next steps and supports and
directing staff to advance
implementation, further engagement and
priority actions.
So, we took this on as part of I think
it was uh Andrea's in February 2026 when
she kind of brought it forward to kind
of undertake sort of initial data
collection around our park and rec
facilities and culture plan. Um we're
kind of in phase one of collecting the
information. So, we launched the public
anonymous survey um to gather input from
residents, seasonal residents, visitors,
anyone who would scan our QR code and do
the survey. Um, so if we can flip to the
next one and our five key insights that
we found from our 206 survey respondents
were
I know thank you councelor Miles it was
very good that we did get engagement um
that our system is widely used and it
matters in our everyday life. Our
strongest assets are our parks, our
gathering spaces, events, trails and
outdoor experiences. The public is not
calling for wholesale change. It they're
asking it asking the town to strengthen
what we already have. The biggest
barriers are practable, solvable, cost,
communication, seasonal limits, and
program availability. And that our
recreation and culture system serves
more than our town residents. It
functions as a broader regional asset.
And I'm sure nothing there surprises
anyone around the table or anyone behind
me. Um, it's just nice to hear it from
the community that everyone's kind of on
the same page. So, this was exciting for
myself who normally has been doing
surveys and normally our demographics,
we usually get a lot of response that
matches our regional demographics, which
would be our senior population, but we
took a very targeted approach and
ensured that we emailed it out to our
partner agencies, emailed it out to our
user groups, making sure that we got
some responses. So you will see that the
majority of our responses have come from
our 25 to 50 year old age range which we
definitely got a great response cuz
those are the people with family with
children. So that was a great response.
So you'll see kind of we did um kind of
broke it up around who is here. Most
respondents were year-round residents,
63%,
but 33% did live outside of Braftoft,
but use our parks regularly and our
cultural spaces and showing that's just
showing that we're using both the local
and regional users. So, we also asked to
break it down by our regional townships
and around the area. So, um nonraftoft
residents, the largest shares, no
surprise, came from Hastings Highlands,
45% and Faraday, 32%. So, we all know
how close those are as our neighbors.
Um, so of course they're utilizing our
assets on a regular ongoing basis.
Pardon?
[laughter]
>> So, this was another great one that we
got. We got some information around
families and children with children with
youth or caregiving. So, it was a nice
kind of cross range of information. um
basically a 50% breakdown of who had
children, who didn't and we also
captured around whether there was doing
we were doing the people were doing
caregiving within their household to
capture that different demographic.
So the why people are coming to
Braftoft, why are they coming to our
area? Um basically was like people come
every day for living, events,
recreation, and access to the facilities
and programs that we offer within our
community. This shows that our community
serves both local daily life and as a
destination for activity, connection and
experience.
So why are people using our places? Why
are they coming here? Why are they using
our parks, recreation and culture
spaces? Our spaces are most used for
events and festivals, specific
facilities, and time outdoors. The
strongest reason that came out on top
was events, facilities, and our outdoor
experiences, which shouldn't surprise
anyone either. So, what spaces are used?
Our community parks and gathering spaces
are used most. We have a fair amount of
them. So, those would be things like
Millennium Park, our community center,
any of those type of community areas.
Um, and then followed by a strong use of
trails. Um, I will at some point present
the data compared to other
municipalities, but I will let you in
that we have a higher proportion of
trails than any other municipality of
Ontario. So, multi-use trails, just the
amount of kilometers that we have and
waterfront spaces. So, frequency of use.
Um, I think this one kind of surprised
me that people were actually using our
spaces like weekly, like a lot weekly
and monthly. That's a lot of people
using them every day in whatever whether
that's Millennium or Eagle's Nest um the
arena any of those kind of location
active and everyday part of life.
So we also looked at kind of um events
and event attendance. Um we know that
we've been there's been many more events
happening in our local parks in our
local areas and they're attending
frequently occasionally. They love to
come for the farmers market, um,
community markets, things like that.
They also like to come for our seasonal
events, indigenous expo, jamberee, rally
of the top lines. They're a major draw,
but also Canada Day and Santa Claus
parade. Definitely something else that
our residents and beyond our residents
attend.
So, we also asked why, like what would
make you come out more? Um, of course,
everyone's saying more variety. we can't
keep everyone happy. So, more variety,
also more rear
year yearround options. Um, a few
comments kind of like why can't Eagles
Nest be open in the winter and all those
types of things. Better affordability
would drive higher event attendance.
So, I did do one on the trails cuz we
asked specifically because we do have a
very high proportionate amount of
kilometers. Um, you know, most people
are walking on them or hiking on them,
running, cycling. Um, what I will worry
about in this particular slide is I
launched this in the summer. So, I maybe
didn't get those winter snow, you know,
snowshoeing or winter ping. So, it is
kind of not really confident in this
when they weren't here. I mean, it'd be
neat to kind of launch it again in the
winter season. I mean, I did send it out
to our partners that, you know, snow
riders and those types of things, but
they're not as active in June. Yes,
>> I actually think
>> Oh, Mike. Um the the stewards for the
Eagles Nest actually did a survey I
don't know 10 or 12 years ago. Chris
Durst has all that information and I
think that that would be the same
>> even in the winter. I don't know that
there that we there's there's a belief
that the ATV and snowmobile would drive
those things up because of wintertime. I
don't actually think that's the case and
maybe not. Right. And that would be
interesting. I mean people still walk in
the snow, right? So we don't know that
for a fact but I just wanted to throw
that out there.
And
yes, the Eagle's Nest, they have some
great data that I'll be able to share in
another council meeting of kind of what we're seeing in those those areas.
So, next was the experience that our
users have. So, how well they function.
Let's look at the half happy happiness
there. Over half are saying mostly well.
We're doing okay. Then we have another
25% are doing very well. So, if we're
looking at 75%, we're doing above board.
Let's let's let's give ourselves a pat
on the back. But some are also saying
that we're doing adequate but we could
with some limitations. So I think that's
a very proud thing we can say especially
without a recreation committee
especially without any kind of extra
information. I mean yes we have an
amazing team of staff here that look
after these spaces but not a dedicated
person organizing events. overall
experience
functional but aging system with a
strong foundation clear opportunities
for targeted improvement. So as I said
in the beginning we have a great base
here we just need to maintain it
increase it and we will have more usage
and more happiness I guess or
contentment
barriers um were practable practical and
solvable. So yes, user fees came up of
course, um cost, there was also limited
program time, lack of awareness, all the
common um themes that normally come up
around barriers came up. Transportation
came up as well and access
um and another thing it was the winter
use piece. Um I wasn't sure since I
launched it in the summer whether the
four season thing wasn't captured in
there. So just a thing that you know put
away in the back of your mind.
So um the priorities we asked the users
that did the survey you know where you
know what input could they give around
um you know what where should we invest
our money. So in top top investment pro
were maintaining what we have looking at
yearround um use and increasing or
maintaining our trails and water access.
Um they want improvements that maintain
our core while enhancing four season and
outdoor access. And then the other one
was strengthen what we have and targeted
new additions. So don't create anything
new big and bold just work with what
we've got.
So I do have um it was great that half
of the respondents left comments. Some
from very simple comments to very
lengthy comments um very passionate and
engaged as we found in the last survey
that we did. Um they reinforced the
survey findings around facilities, more
youth and family programs, stronger
trails, waterfront access,
um and emphasize making assets work
better, more affordability and
accessible year round.
So I put the uh the foundations kind of
around the comments and the passion of
the pe of the people. Um, so we can look
at removing practical barriers to build
confidence in our public spaces, unlock
forces season use and program for all
ages. Let's just not focus on one
demographic here. Um, and you'll see
some of the comments around the outside
pulled exactly and directly from the users are, you know, kind of
back those up.
And the last page is the feeling. Um,
I'm all about the feeling. the feeling
about the feedback and the you know who
filled these out because we don't know
it's anonymous but there was concern
there was hope
there was passion and there was caring
and I think that echoes um who sits
around this table who sits behind me who
works with us every day but it also
reflects our community that we're
engaged in what we're doing and that
they see hope for the future.
So next steps um would be first off
sharing with you guys and see where we
go from there. Um and close the feedback
loop. So report back um because proper
engagement in you know is not one way.
It needs to be two ways. So we need to
report this back to our partners. Report
this back to the community um of what's
needed. Use these to see where we need
to move forward. So as I said youth and
family we don't usually get a lot of
feedback from youth and family but nice
to reach out and go what does that look
like? reach out to our senior
population, reach out to those targeted
partners that we have. Engage so no one
can say, "I didn't know." Even though
they will. [laughter] Um, and ask kind
of more detailed, deep diving questions.
Look at comparing our results with other
recreation plans, how they look. You
know, Val said we got great at 206, but
what does that mean? Did West get 500?
Did we do about right? See what see what
other communities are doing. And then
also um I've done a kind of a quick look
over our comments for quick wins, things
that we can improve in communication.
Couple parent I didn't know there was a
free summer camp. I didn't know that
Millennium Park was open every day. I
didn't know. So we can kind of come up
with those practical fix the foundations
things. Um people don't know that you
can, you know, use our sites and for you
know low or limited cost. Yes, we got
the money cost, but could be directed to
one particular asset and other assets we
have in our community.
So, I know it's been a long meeting, but
does anyone have any questions or
comments?
>> A comment.
>> Oh, excellent. Okay. Um back in 2018 we
did our economic development uh
strategic plan of making our future
>> and from the the part that was sort of
absent from that was on the recreation
side it wasn't really part of it but it
was sort of the thing. So when Andre and
I started this discussion about having
uh an you know recreation master plan um
we we grabbed a few examples from other
municipalities etc. And that's what led
this backing up this is the first step
is that survey. So uh I would like to
see us um you know think about moving
forward with that sort of master plan
and a master plan is what it is. It
doesn't mean you do it tomorrow etc.
Like we have 35 35 acres up at the
arena. We have 35 acres up at the arena.
I believe sometime way in the past there
might have been one done but nobody can
find a copy of it because I've been told
that there was there was
>> I've searched I haven't found one yet. I
haven't been able to find it, but I
think based on this information, it
targets where you might want to go, but
uh that would certainly be my desire to
see that. And uh hey, maybe there's even
some money out there to do it under some
stream of uh the provincial government,
etc. So anyway, that's my comment, but
excellent. Um I saw it online. It looked
really great and it invited you to
participate, which I did. So thank you
very much.
>> Thank you, Council Miles.
um your survey uh results were sort of
perfect timing because the eagle's nest
met for the first time last night in
quite some time and so having data that
showed us exactly that walking was
important and that the eagle's nest is
important and that you know and then the
I I don't want to talk too much because
I don't we don't it's not part of the
agenda and we don't have the actual
minutes here but uh having that
information I think will help guide us
to decide to make decisions regarding
any of our parks parks or our arenas or
our our events and things and it it
already has used the data in a meeting
last night. So that's it was great the
timing of having this because it'll then
allow the eagle's nest to sort of maybe
bring some recommendations forward and
hope that council has an opportunity to
look at how do we improve the eagle's
nest. It's had lots and lots of
improvements already, but we know we
we've we're working towards that piece
that is the expansion getting done. I
also want to say the engagement on our
Facebook if you haven't noticed. Well,
maybe you're not on Facebook, but I
really appreciate um what is happening
in that piece. I think there's lots
there. There's lots of information being
posted. There's lots of reminders of
what's going on and the Eagles Nest will
be looking to complete part of that our
project and we will be asking for help
from the town of Bankrooft's Facebook
site looking for some volunteers. So
when those dates come, I'm hoping I just
forward to you, you share that out. And
if these pieces that you say are
important to you, then maybe you have
the capacity to volunteer because it
will it meant you didn't have to spend 5
cents. You just needed to be there,
enjoy your day of walking, and maybe cut
some roots and rake. So uh banks, I
think it's fantastic. Feedback loops are
extremely important and engagement, and
that's what proper partnership and
collaboration looks like. Um, and I'm
hoping with the next stage of presenting
user data, usage data that I've
collected from the partners and we can
exchange back because yes, you're going
to apply for grants. KMM might apply for
grants. We might apply for grants. The
more we can collate and work together,
we can do more with less. That's what
we've always said in this community. Do
more with less. And if we all take a
little piece, we'll be able to do a lot.
So Andre perhaps I could ask you how you
see us moving forward from here or what
the practicality is of engaging in a
master plan etc etc.
>> So um I I do think that a master plan
proposal could be something that we
could look at potentially under a rural
economic development grant stream uh for
some strategic design on a higher level.
Um, I do think Sarah is very capable of
taking this data though to the next
stage of data collection and having
those focus groups and breaking out what
does low cost mean to the kids with
families at the daycare center for
example. what what are the barriers that
you reflected in your comments and how
do we make that more cost-effective for
you and your children or you know
talking to the seniors to say you know
there's a lot of feedback that we need
to improve our spaces what isn't working
for you in our spaces specifically and finding those quick things one of
the things while I was reading through
the comments that I noted is that as
much as we're sharing sharing sending
out newsletters posting putting things
in the newspaper getting radio coverage
a lot of People said things like, "Well,
I didn't know that happened. I didn't
know that existed. I've been here 20
years. I never heard of this." Um, so
finding other ways to get those messages
out, particularly if we can identify
that specific user groups are missing
those,
>> if you can solve that problem because we
have that issue with everything that we
do even around this table that because
news dispersion is so fragmented these
days. So,
>> one step at a time.
>> Yeah. And and I think being able to
identify some of those challenges like
kids with or families with children
communicate this way and seniors tend to
prefer this communication and maybe it's
you know instead of just a Facebook post
we do the Facebook post but we print 20
copies of it and take it over to the
active agent center so the people who
don't have Facebook still have the same
information and see the same post in a
format that's comfortable for them. So I
think just from what we have here, we
can significantly improve communication
and connection to the policies or to the
programs and resources we already have.
Uh to Val's point, I think this will go
a long way um to helping identify where
do we get the biggest bang for our buck.
And then yeah, I do think there is merit
to looking at some grant funds for
strategic development, a strategic
development plan to put that that real
long-term what what's the long-term goal
and how do we get there? And most of the
plans have done a background what's
called a background report. Um so there
are some comparative data that's been
done. Most of the communities that been
working with have background reports and
then that feeds their feeds their
recreation and master plan and it's
broken into three phases. So, we're in
the phase one section.
>> Great.
>> And moving forward, phase one. And I
mean, it's completely all done probably
could be done with in-house staff, but
as we move forward, we might want to
move to phase two with with a grant or
those types of things, but
relationships, engagement, and feedback
loops, treating your partners with
respect and collaborators.
>> Great. Thank you. Is there any other
comments or questions from anybody?
>> Just a quick comment. I I think the uh
percentages you uh gathered from in
town, out of town and using our
facilities, I think that is the whole ball of wax that pertains to
employment, recreation, the arena, all
the rest of it. So, uh if uh I guess I
don't if something happens at the arena
uh has to take a little rest, but I
think your uh numbers are going to jump
sideways on you. Well, and that data is
very important and that's one of the
reasons why we wanted the survey to
capture a lot of data because it may be
used for other purposes in the future.
>> Thank you. That was great.
>> Thank you.
>> So, item seven, bylaws. We're Oh, yes.
All in favor. Did I proceed there
before? Thank you. It's a long day. So,
we're bylaws. We're near the end.
Bylaw's first, second, and third reading
be resolved that the following bylaws be
introduced and read a first, second, and
third time be finally passed at the
mayor and clerk do sign and seal the
same any rule of this council to the
contrary notwithstanding. Bylaw number
43, 2026, being a bylaw to authorize the
corporation of the town of Bankrop to
enter into a professional service
agreement with Highland, Inc. Uh, bylaw
number 44-2026
being a bylaw to amend bylaw number
182024 being a bylaw to support a person
to perform civil marriage. What is that?
Solomonizations.
My good my eye job isn't quite working
yet. And provide guidelines for such
services. Could I have a mover and a
seconder, please? Councelor Miles,
that's you. And councelor Lawrence, all
in favor, please. So, uh, because we had
a question at break and it's not
formally in our agenda, I will just ask
if anybody out there has a general
question that they would, uh, like to
ask. Um, and if not,
yes, young man, you can come. You can
come right. Yeah, you can come up and
hit the button
so we can hear you. You may have to bend
it.
>> Thank you, worship. Um I just here is a
uh just a tax uh rate payer and I just
was curious the tax increment equivalent
grant program.
>> Yes.
>> For new businesses in town or anybody
that kind of attaches to I think it's
the municipal water system or sewer
system. Is that being promoted a lot?
I've never heard of it. I've just done a
little bit of research on it, but I'm
just wondering if it's being promoted to
assist in reducing the
uh I guess helping people uh make the
town look better and add nice things to
their house and obviously it would help
reduce the tax uh to the to the
>> business. So the the one program we have
which is the tax differential program is
to encourage new growth because we've
long identified that to get our tax rate
down we need to utilize our facilities
you know we have excess capacities and
water and sewer etc. So and we we
recognize for various reasons that we've
gone over 100 times why our tax rates
are higher than everybody else. um we do
promote it to all of the developers and
builders and who then you know try to uh
inform their um uh their customers of
this to try to get them to entice. But
you do make a good point you know um I I
was at a conference earlier this year
and I explained this to EMPAC our
program and they were really quite
surprised and uh because I was
complaining about their assessment
process etc. So, it it is a a really
good point and it's like everything
else. You think everybody knows about
it, but then you find out that uh that
they don't. I'm not sure if there's any
other sections of our CIP that we have
not fully utilized at this time.
>> So, we do have a brownfield section and
a facade uh section as well to increase
the physical look of buildings, but
those are currently unfunded. We we
don't have funds uh available to support
those things at this time. So would that
be more like the beautifification bylaw
so the town kind of flows better as you
look down the main street that okay
>> and over time we have implemented
particular parts of it you know we did
have facade improvement uh there was
some uptake but it wasn't really what we
hope for where we were actually paying
50% of some improvements and for some
reason businesses were not up taking up
on it. Having said that over the years
we have seen a number of businesses that
have done great improvements to their
property. We've seen it very recently,
you know, between the brew pub and the
IDA, etc. And we applaud those folks for
doing that. And I think it leads to
their next door neighbor thinking, I
better get my, you know, up to speed.
But, um, but yeah, as more funds come
available then and and we saw a
necessity and we also in the past have
worked through with the BIA on certain
programs as well to to increase that.
Yes,
>> I just had one last question u with it's
a little bit with reference to EMPAC but
not answering from an EMPAC perspective
but uh in discussions with EMPAC on on
my residence I'm currently paying $8,600
a year and it's to the point where it's
almost depressing slash unaffordable and
uh you know having uh doing things all
above board having a permit go in and
then getting a phone call from EMPAC and
you know more discussions um I guess I
was curious um I can hold on for a
second. Yeah, I was curious. Um, they
talked about we're still on the 2016
rates and when the 2026 rates come
around, uh, in discussions with some of
the EMPAC people, they said, "Well, if
the towns are managing their budget
right, then you shouldn't actually see
an increase potentially, but they said
if your house was to double and go from
[clears throat] say its value of 500,000
to a million, then you're going to
double your your budget." I said, or
double your taxes. I said, "Well, that
would mean that the town of Brooft would
have to increase major capital spending
and and put forward all these new
projects." So I guess my question is
from an affordability slash
>> I don't know what the right word is
depressive standpoint of a of a home of
a taxpayer these new 2026 potentially
they haven't announced yet but when they
come out
>> is the town of Braftoft looking at all
that to go okay we need to just even
though houses have went up and
potentially double or they've increased
a third like that's pretty scary as a
homeowner to go I can't even afford them
now let alone they go up to 11,000 I'd
have to just
>> so if everybody's assess value went up
the percentage- wise the same and the
town's budget didn't change our mill
rate would drop down and your taxes
would not change. Okay. Um so yes the
fact that they come out with new
valuations when they whenever they do it
uh and nobody knows really why they
haven't done it. Um now there could be
some because of over as you say 2016 or
10 years later now uh they may realize
that some were terribly underassessed
which you know we have a feeling that
there are a lot of those and anybody as
you said who built new or has permits
tends to pay the full pay the full
brunt. So hopefully and theoretically
there will be some adjustments there.
But your general question, no, because
your assessment doubles. If the world,
if it went equally and our budgets
didn't change, your taxes should not
change, you know, so you can sleep a
little better now. [laughter]
>> Thank you. Yeah, those are just my
couple questions. Thank you very much.
Thank you for today. It's great.
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Um,
where am I here now? Confirming by
>> Oh, Andre like to say something. Excuse
me.
I know there is not a section on this
agenda for community announcements. Um
but since it's not a formal action item,
I'm going to pop it in there anyway. Um
I learned last week that Harvest Moon
will be closing on July 1st after almost
40 years in our community. So I want to
wish the owners of Harvest Moon well in
this next chapter and adventure and
thank you thank them for providing 40
years of service. Um, those of us who
have been here all of those 40 years
will definitely notice that they're not
here anymore. So,
>> great. Thank you. Confirming bylaw,
first, second, and third reading. Be it
reserve uh resolve that a bylaw to
confirm the proceedings of the meeting
council held on June 23rd, 2026 be
hereby given a first, second, and third
reading be passed final and be finally
passed, signed, sealed, and numbered
bylaw 45-2026.
Could I have a mover in a second,
please? Councelor Eastman seconded by
Councelor Lawrence. All in favor,
please. So, pass. Next uh meeting of
regular council scheduled for August 11,
2026, commencing at 300 p.m. We were
thinking there was going to be a special
meeting in July, but we were waiting for
a zoning amendment uh application to
come through, and it has not as of this
time. So, there's still a a very slim
but far-fetched chance that may happen.
And um potion to a turn,