Good evening everyone. Welcome to everyone in the chambers. It's
good to see a good crowd here this evening. I
would like to call this Council meeting of the Town
of Lincoln Council of July the 27th, 2026 to order.
And I would ask, if you are able to please
stand for the National Animal.
True. Patrio. Come.
La. Croix. Des. Plus brillants.
Exploi.
O. We. Stand on. God.
Thank you. We have the right people. Here this evening.
Thank you so much. I would like to begin by
reading a safety notice. In the event of an emergency
please evacuate Council Chambers to the nearest exit through the
Chamber of Doors. Obey all instructions given. And assistance if
it's required, please see the clerk to my right. She'll
be out there once you've evacuated the building, please gather
in the front parking lot outside of Town Hall. Now
please ensure you place your cell phone on silent or
turn it off. The Town of Lincoln Council meetings are
posted on our YouTube channel. Closed captioning is available on
all our videos by selecting the closed captioning button on
the bottom right of the video. The Town of Lincoln,
being part of the Niagara region is situated on treaty
land. This land is steeped in the rich history of
the First Nations, such as how to Wanderonk, the Hoden
of Shone, Diana Schnabe, including the Mississaugas of the Credit
First Nation. There are many First Nations, mati an inuit
people from across Turtle Island that live and work in
Niagara today. The Regional Municipality of Niagara and the Town
of Lincoln stand with all Indigenous people past and present
in promoting the wise stewardship of the lands on which
we live. All members of Council are in attendance. And
we have staff and attendance this evening. We also have
representatives from the Lincoln soapbox Derby and the Lincoln Garden
Club. And regional councillor foster is an attendance. Item 5
is confirmation of agenda. Due to the recent flooding that
occurred and in light of the comments from the CAO
and members of council on this matter, I would like
to move Council remarks to item seven on the agenda.
Immediately before announcements by members to allow council the opportunity
to discuss this issue at that time. I'll now ask
for a show of hands. That is unanimous, thank you.
Declarations of interest. Are there any declarations of interest. I
see none. We will now consider the matter of recent
flooding. That has occurred. And the CAO will provide some
comments. Mr. C. Hale. Thank you, Madam Mayor. And following
my comments, I am going to ask Director Graham to
provide a little bit of an operational update for you
as well. But this is one of those times where
I'm not happy to be addressing Council. I wish I
didn't have to speak on this particular. Item, but we
are here. And so I will provide some comments. Staff
meant today specifically to discuss what happened. We had been
meeting over the weekend and following the storm up to
and including that evening. And to review really the flooding
event itself. But what happens next? What can we do
next? I know I've discussed this with a number of
members of council most recently as today. And I think
you've heard me say a few times you've heard us
say that this was one of those extraordinary storms. And
generally our infrastructure performed relatively well. I say that, but
to the resident who experienced significant flooding and there were
many of them. That really doesn't make a difference that
it performed well and that this was greater than 100
- year type storms that were receiving. And so I
say that really to say it doesn't really matter that
our infrastructure performed well. At the end of the day,
we need to understand where we had issues. There were
areas with some of these micro bursts that didn't get
hit that typically get hit. I think about Hickson. I
think about other locations that during the storm we drove
to. And there was actually very little rain. We need
to understand the how this happened. And ultimately really the
why so that we can figure out what happens next.
You've heard us or you've seen us, whether it be
social media or specifically reaching out to residents to gather
information from those that were affected. Some have proactively already
reached out. Some were going to be reaching out. And
we really need to understand from everyone whether the flooding
came through floor drains, whether it was their sump systems,
the window wells, we had a lot of overland flow,
or really if there were some other sources. And I
think what we want to do with that is make
sure that we're mapping that information to see what some
of the patterns and what were some of the key
issues. I think intuitively we know where some of those
in Beamsville were. I heard from a number of you
that were out that evening. Next, we're going to be
working with our engineering consultant and primarily Niagara region to
look at the storm and to really model how our
systems perform. We're going to try to recreate it in
a modelling format. Um, so that we can determine how
we reduce it in the future. Importantly, and I think
you've heard us talk about some of the regional infrastructure
improvements that we're looking at on Ontario Street and in
and around on Terio Street. Um, I think we're going
to have to identify whether those need to be accelerated.
Whether some of those, um, improvements, some of those projects,
uh, would have led to reduced flooding in those particular
areas and specifically I'm talking about the Ontario Street Pumping
Station and the sanitary trunk main that really runs down
from the tracks down towards the pumping station, which ends
near Lake Ontario. And so at the end of the
day, bottom line here is, yes, it was a massive
storm. A lot of water in a short period of
time. Um, but we need to make sure that if
infrastructure needs to be accelerated, right now those works are
scheduled for 2030. Um, if those works, do need to
be accelerated, whether they're hours or the regions. We need
to push to make that happen. And I do see
Councillor Foster nodding. Um, but I think this is one
of those things that in short order, we're going to
determine what needs to get done. How it needs to
get done. And if the region needs to come to
the table, we'll be having those conversations. I've reached out
to Deputy CAO surgy as well as Ron Trip today,
uh, and I echoed similar comments as I'm making this
evening. So. Turn it over to maybe director Graham if
he's got some high level comments. He wants that. And
then of course the members of Council. Director Graham. Through
you, Madam Mayor. And to just build off what Mr.
CAO had said, we really did receive an unprecedented amount
of rainfall. Um, Beansville got hit the worst. Beensville North.
We had about, uh, 110 millimeters of rain in 100
minutes. And just for some context, that exceeds 100 year
design storm that a lot of the infrastructure is designed
for in turns in terms of its maximum service level.
So that's why residents may have seen various stormwater management
ponds, uh, where they may have been overflowing because that's
the design service level that, uh, they've been, you know,
built and designed to, to accommodate to 100 year storms.
So we did see a lot of flooding across the
community that probably a lot of people haven't seen before,
just given the degree of this magnitude of this storm.
Um, as Mr. CAO said, um, in terms of next
steps, we are mapping, um, out every flooding report we
receive from residents, various types of flooding. So we're mapping
them out. We're going to be assessing them in much
greater detail to try and learn what may have happened
in some of those areas. We'll be working with, uh,
our engineering consultants to also help as model some of
the systems. Um, we have a lot of data from
the rainfall that we can use to kind of help
create, you know, what happened and see what we can
learn from that. Uh, in terms of how things performed
and identify, uh, what else can be done in the
future to improve those situations. And we're going to be
working very closely with our partners at the NAGA region,
uh, as we go through this, this review. Thank you
very much, Director Graham. Do you have anything else to
add Mr. CAO. All right. Well, we'll open up the
floor now to councillors. And, um, you can just go
into the cues. You normally would, if you have, uh,
any comments to make on this. Well, I would be
very disappointed since you asked me, thank you very much
Council Russell. You go ahead. We're good. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Yep. That's the work. He's on. Thanks, Madam Mayor. Um,
through you two staff, again, very much appreciate the opportunity
to speak on this, uh, obviously, uh, again, being one
of the ward one residents, we received probably the most,
um, concerns raised in our area. I know I had,
as of today, 99 homes, uh, that reached out to
me directly about flooding concerns. Again, and it was all
three. It was, um, again, sewer backup. There was overland.
And then there was just, uh, some pump overflow. So,
um, there is again, the wide variety across lower or
northern ward one. I think what everybody just really wants
to know is again, what is that plan going forward?
So again, I talked to Councillor Bernie earlier today. I
guess there is a motion coming forward in Grimsby. Should
we bring forward a motion just to direct staff on
the specifics of a report to come back? Or is
staff already taken out on their side to, again, to
your point about the external engineering firm coming in. Is
that enough, um, to give you, uh, the direction on
what to bring back to either this council or future
council on, again, mitigation, um, again, problem solving. And just
again, overall, what happened? Is that, uh, is that where
we are right now? Mr. C. Hulk. Through you, Madam
Mayor, did the council. I mean, Councillor, you know, motions
are always something that council can look at providing us.
I would tell you the severity of the issue, the
amount of residents that were impacted by it. This is
the top on our list in terms of priority. And
so, um, I think, you know, you echoing that council
echoing that this evening, I think is sufficient in terms
of what staff's doing. We've already started to take action
on a number of those. We can definitely determine what
is the best way to make sure that that's communicated,
both externally as well as internally so that members of
council over the summer are kept up to speed and
up to date in terms of what's happening. But I
don't think the bigger issue right now than this. Today,
probably about an hour or so, go receive a flood
warning from NPCA now that covers the broader catchment. And
so we were immediately, I think talking to one another
in terms of just what other preventative measures can we
do, what sort of communication externally needs to happen on
that. And just to make sure that we're ready. So
I don't think we need a formal motion. Definitely we're
in Council's hands. Should you want that? But this is
on the top of our list. PONNERTON Thank you for
that. Um, second question, Madam Mayor. Again, talking to Councillor
Micolik earlier today as well. Um, and just again, as
far as again, terminology for disaster. Is there any metrics
that we have either in our bylaws or our policies
that would label something a disaster that may allow us
to seek, um, funding from other levels of government to
assist residents through situations like this. Again, I think if
we're looking at 200, 300 homes potentially that were impacted
by this. I don't know if that qualifies or if
we even have that sort of thing in our policies,
uh, that we could leverage. PON. Why don't I start
that question councillor and either Dave Charlotte or Matt who
have worked on these types of applications in the past.
We tried the last time we had storms, uh, that
really impacted a number of residents to look at, is
there some provincial disaster relief funding that we could tap
into and there wasn't. Uh, we don't have anything per
se in our respective policies that would address this typically
when we've had sex storms where we've had erosion or
we've had significant land damage. We've been successful on two
occasions actually to the tune of about three million dollars
collectively in terms of what the province provided. Uh, I
have reached out and spoken with, uh, the CAOs of
St. Catherine's, uh, as well as the CAO up in
West Lincoln and in Grimsby in terms of, you know,
is there an opportunity to do something here? We did
reach out to the region waiting for a bit more
information on that. I don't believe it meets the threshold,
um, but definitely, uh, should again, again, should, should counsel
one, uh, provide us some direction even this evening to
seek that out more formally. We can definitely, um, get
you a more formal response from the provincial government on
that. MONOC. Okay. And then just one follow up, Madam
Mayor, three of you. Again, would there be any strength
or to advocate at AMO for this type of thing?
To again, either make it, again, it may be a
more localized disaster funding model that could be tapped into
to such things like this. Um, that again, I'm sure
multiple municipalities across the province could probably utilise, especially again,
as climate change starts to, again, alter some of the
weather patterns that we've got. Is that something that, uh,
you would suggest maybe that occurs at AMO. Through you,
Madam Mayor, to the councillor. Absolutely. I think we can
ask we're meeting with the ministry municipal affairs and housing.
We can definitely add this to the list of items
that we can have a discussion with them on. I
agree with you. I think the threshold that is currently
in place at the provincial government is one that is
sometimes, um, difficult to reach or difficult to hit. It
is when you have large scale emergencies and it was
designed for things like tornadoes, things that are massive kind
of climactic, um, interruptions or disruptions to communities, uh, and
I think something like this as we start to experience
more isolated showers and micro bursts and things like this
that are happening, you know, in no way can we
create infrastructure. That is of the size and scope or
at least it would be cost prohibitive to do so
that would be able to accommodate this amount of water.
But when we do have issues like this, we need
to be able to tap into funding, uh, versus people
simply just going to their home insurance companies, which I
know I've heard some of the challenges with that as
well. So definitely something we can add to our ammo
delegation list and make sure that we bring that forward.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Sioux. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Councillor
Brunet, please go ahead.
We'll move you up. In the queue. Yeah. Uh. Councillor
Patrieva, put yourself back on, put it on and I'll
move you up. I'll just. Move him up. I. Think
you were next. Yep. He was. And now. We'll just
go here. Okay. Great. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Mayor,
through you. Um, appreciate the opportunity to be discussing this.
You know, obviously there's a number of families that are
having to deal with this. And, um, I do appreciate
the public works team and how quickly they got out
there to talk to some of these families. That, you
know, in some areas, uh, I spoke to a family
today. They've been living on Green Lane since they bought
since they purchased or built their house actually. It was
farmland in 1979 and they built the house and, uh,
have never had any flooding until last Monday. So, um,
it's pretty tumultuous for some of these people to have
to deal with it. They don't understand, um, you know,
how the insurance work. They don't know what a claim
involves. So I really appreciate the fact that, um, we've
made a great effort to get out there, um, but
my question through you, Madam Mayor, to either the CA
or to the director or maybe just Mr. Deani is,
um, you know, as we move forward, um, and director
Graham kind of touched on it. Um, we have made
some huge investments in our infrastructure. And I heard comments
about the cherry heights'storm retention pond. I heard comments about
the storm retention pawn at the corner of Bartlett in
Green Lane. And normally those ponds are bone dry and,
you know, last Tuesday, they were full to the brink.
In reality, those, that means they're working to their full
capacity and they're working as designed. But through you, Madam
Mayor, to whoever wants to handle it, um, how do
we get that communication out that, you know, the infrastructure
that we've done on Lincoln Avenue is actually working that
when someone sees, um, that rainwater going over the sidewalk,
on the curb and down the middle of the road
to the, to the culvert and to the, um, area
by good earth, that that is by design. That's where
we want to take the water. We want it to
flow down there so it doesn't go east, west into
somebody's basement. So how do we communicate that? So, you
know, residents really understand in parallel. Uh, it doesn't, it
doesn't ease the pain. It doesn't help, um, the stress
of, of having to bring a contractor in and redo
your house. But, um, in parallel. I think communication is
really important. And education. And I'm just wondering, how do
we get that? How do we get out that, uh,
to the, to the general population. Mr. Sayo, would you
hear. Three, Madam Mayor. Absolutely. And I think it's a
good question, Council. I think we've started a little bit
of that, but to your point, uh, is it reaching
everyone that it needs to reach to? Not everyone's going
to local media. Not everyone is going to our website
or other social media channels. So I think some of
it is really taking that old fashion approach and individually
doing what we've started to doing. I know I've started
doing reaching out to individuals one by one. And I
think carrying some of that message forward, um, because you're
right again, people are in the crux of dealing with
an emergency in their own homes, uh, they're not logging
on to a website to look for information or they're
not necessarily reading their local paper. And so I think,
uh, again, some of that's going to be just the
individual outreach that we do. But, um, I know Dave
and a number of his staff, uh, did work late
and have continued to work late talking to residents specifically.
And I think all of you are messengers in that
as well, in terms of being able to share that
information. So if we need to equip you as well,
we will do that. But I don't know if anyone
else on the team maybe wants to add something. Mr.
Dianni, do you have any comments. Thank you, madam Mayor.
And through you to the Councillor, just to sort of
dovetail on what the CO indicated, uh, I think our
communication approach over the last little bit, councillor has really
been focused on, uh, providing obviously some empathy and understanding
in terms of what our residents have experienced last week,
showcasing what we're trying to do to prevent this moving
forward, similar to the comments that the CO made in
regards to our public work staff and they're working with
the region. But I think in terms of next steps,
that could be something that we will definitely look at.
I know as a CO indicator, we had some conversations
this morning. The communication staff in terms of how we
can get some more messaging out there, uh, and I
think, uh, we'll take to heart what you just said.
So thank you. Thank you very much. Council Renee. If
I could just follow with another question. I know that,
um, I know Councillor Russell indicated that, um, from his
perspective, the calls that he's getting as award one councillor
that Beanfield was hit hard. And we agree with that.
But we've also, we've also been aware of a district
in Vineland and Tolman Drive. And they experience quite a
bit of flooding. So I'm wondering, um. I'm wondering what
the thoughts are on that specifically. I know we've had,
you know, we've had that on our radar. We've been
hearing it at ward meetings. We've been hearing it at,
uh, the Moses Rittenhouse open houses. And some of those
residents have been looking for some assistants. So I'm just
wondering if through Madam Mayor, the CEO could speak to
that specifically. POND. To the Councillor. I think your right
councillor. Tollman is one of those, um, areas in our
community and Vineland. That is the hardest hit and has
been the hardest hit. And I think you've heard me
say on a number of occasions. If I'm prioritizing capital
investments over the next number of years, Tollman's probably on
the top of the list in terms of what needs
to get done. Uh, some of that work is conditional
on the region. Uh, but I think we need to
look at what can be phased, what we can do
in advance of the regional work. And I think every
time we have issues like this, the region does need
to be brought up to speed. No different than what
we're going to do on Ontario Street. And the pumping
station in terms of 2030. Again, knowing that everyone's got
an infrastructure deficit in infrastructure shortfall. And we have limited
amounts of money. But to me, Tollman Drive remains the
top priority that we need to start advocating for and
prioritize when we look at capital works into 2027 and
beyond. PONO PO Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Councillor.
Councillor Pechiriva, please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you, your worship.
Um, and I'm going to kind of go down the
same tact as Council Brene and Councillor Russell. I'm going
to start off first with AMO. Um, we had some,
uh, success a few years ago when we advocated about
the change of the state of emergency. When it dealt
with social issues like mental health, addiction and homelessness. And
I think this is a great opportunity to come and
say, you know, as not only we experience it, but
other areas of the province, be it an ice storm
or flooding or fire. These things are here and now.
And we can say that, you know, they're reaching thresholds
of 100 year storms, but when they happen every couple
of years, that someone's reality. So I think it's, I
think it's very important that that becomes top of the
list for our ammo delegations. Um, secondly, with respect to
communication, um, I think we need to maybe take a
little bit of a pivot. Um, to try to separate
the three causes, right? So we've got overland flow. We've
got sewer backup. And then we've got, um, like streams,
creeks. And they're three distinctive possibilities. So whether we maybe
use an insert because it's, it's still hot on the
press. The Council priorities. And I know it's all printed,
but a little insert in there on, okay, this is
what she can do to combat yourself against, um, sewage
backup, right? Backflow prevention. And maybe we develop a little
program with, with, um, some money going back. Um, with
respect to overland flow, you know. Keep your swales clear.
Don't put a shed in it. Don't put a raised
garden bed in it. And things like that, like, much
like when the fires have hit out west, you've got
a fireproof your home. So you don't have these shrubs
that are flammable close to the home. And do a
whole, um, uh. Communication. Program around that on arming our
residents with what they can do and then how we
can help them to get there. And I think the
third one and the most important from, from my standpoint,
having stood out there and watched the water rushing down,
uh, the creek beside lencos. And then through the brand
new box culvert and around it like Council Bernet said,
it went down Lincoln Avenue. It went down the curb.
That's where we wanted to go. But people don't know
that the, the creeks are their responsibility. To keep them
clear. So whether we, we maybe adopt them as a
municipal drains or some oversight or work with Councillor Foster
and the conservation authority to develop some type of program
to educate and help the residents keep these things clear.
Because it only becomes top of mind when something like
this happens. Like there was a resident on Green Lane
that had flooding overland flooding. And you could see the
brown water right up to the back. So this poor
gal got hit from the back from the stream overflowing
and then got hit from the front. From the water
rushing down Green Lane because she was in the dip.
And, um, you know, she's looking after a brother who's
ill in the house. She had six inches of water
in the basement. So you can't call her because her
modems cooked. And then she had another four steps down
to like a sub basement. That freezers and chests. And
it was heartbreaking to see it. And, you know, she
couldn't try to contact the insurance and things like that.
And I know we've all been diligent to on posting
things, but, you know, we had the map come out.
And I think Council Russell posted. And I was about
to post. And then it starts, well, where is, where
am I? Why am I not there? So what kind
of does more bad than good if we can kind
of regroup on all this and, and get some messaging
out? Cause it's, it's up to us to control the
narrative. That's the thing that really bothered me that, you
know, the infrastructure's not, not working. And we've spent money
on parks and trails and not looked after this. Well,
that's not true. Right. So just need to be a
little more diligent now in the messaging. I think we've
got through the compassionate part. And that's still got to
be there. And it's still always going to be there.
But, you know, how can we help and what can
we do. To prevent it. Through you, Madamer, all good
points, Councillor, and all things that, um, are in progress,
both in terms of the community newsletter, as well as
a number of other things. So, um, every, everyone from
our climate, uh, environmental coordinator to operation staff are working
on providing some of those updates. I think you provided
some good suggestions in terms of other things that we
can be doing more proactively. I think, you know, I
can tell you we probably had, um, a little under
two dozen people. You know, following the storm, um, uptake
the backflow preventer program and the grants that we have,
uh, for residents on that. And I think, um, the
more people that are aware of that program and the
funding available, uh, for each individual home that wants to
put in that backflow preventer, I think the better. Uh,
and so we have talked about if we're over prescribed
how we're going to address that. And I think we've
got a plan in terms of, uh, the conversations that
director tunicatis, Graham and I have had recently knowing that,
uh, already we had had over 20 people subscribed to
that. So a number of ways I think we're going
to try to get the information out. And so I
appreciate your comments. And, and that's terrific. And two, I
just want to highlight the fact too that that staff
was out there during the storm. I mean, there was,
uh, you know, the fire truck at the corner of
Green Lane pumping. Mr. Neubauer was up at King Street
and Lincoln Avenue and was witnessing the water rushing firsthand.
And that, you know, people that have put in, you
know, contact information that, uh, staff is doing everything they
can to reach out. And then those circumstances too, when,
you know, their telephone line isn't working that they'll make
every effort to go and knock on the door. And,
you know, go with a compassionate year and that. So
thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Uh, through
you to our CEO. Yeah. Thank you, Councillor Russell for
bringing it up. Disaster conversation when I spoke to you
earlier today. I did consider this to be a disaster
similar to any disaster where there's excessive water. With sewage,
I can't even imagine the scope of that disaster is
I've not experienced that one. Um, thank you Council Brunet
for bringing up the vine land issues and Tolman. I
think the more of us that recognise that area is
being a problem area. The stronger the argument would be
for the region to and ourselves to step up and
take this, um, matter seriously in the future. Um, with
regards to. This, we're always hearing about, unprecedented storm. These
unprecedented storms seem to be happening quite frequently. And I'm
going to ask our director of planning. What sort of
data. Our engineers using when it comes to stormwater, sewer
water management. Uh, how outdated is this? Is this, um,
are the specs or the stats from 90 years ago
that this is happening almost on a regular basis to
the point where residents can't get insurance anymore. Does this
do these specifications or acceptances need to be reviewed and
updated? I've asked this before. Mr. Brooder. Yeah, thanks. Through
you, Madam Mayor. Yeah, it's a good question. I mean,
when we look at designs of new developments and new
development, when I say new developments, that can range from,
you know, a new house being built and a drainage
plan associated with that to a larger subdivision. Um, there
are design standards that need to be, you know, undertaken
and fulfilled specifically. I don't want to go too far
into the technical details, but, you know, we look at,
or the design engineers look at, okay, what's happening on
the site before the development happens. Usually there's already some
type of drainage pattern water coming in, leaving the site.
Um, that's supposed to be kind of maintained or, or
held capacity and flow ice so that what happens after
the development, um, water leaving the site is the same
as it was before. And the means of doing so.
I heard stormwater management ponds, um, sometimes there's underground storage
tanks. Sometimes there's upsized pipes under the ground to kind
of hold that water and discharge it slowly. So you
can match the pre - development levels. What the issue
is, is all these design parameters are associated with what
we call in the industry a hundred year storm on
the max side of things in terms of capacity. Well,
I think, you know, we can all acknowledge, um, that
those are happening a lot more frequently than every hundred
years these days, um, because of a variety of factors.
Um, the hundred year design is something that is industry
- wide at the moment. You're right. It's been industry
- wide for quite some time now. It's something the
industry is looking at in the context of climate change
and adaptation. But, you know, there haven't been new standards
developed yet. I think it's a little bit, it's a
very big undertaking because it applies very broadly. I'm not
sure what the implications are from an insurance perspective, but
that's what I can tell you is that, um, those
particular standards have been in place for quite some time
and they are being looked at because the recognition. You
take that storm. We got, you know, probably even a
little better than a hundred year design storm in like
an hour and a half. So, you know, these are
the types of things that need to be looked at
because of the, uh, increased frequency of these events. Appreciate
that answer. I think it's not so climate change. I
think it's an adaptation. I think we need to adapt
ourselves to expect these sorts of, uh, instances to occur
more often. You live in Florida. You don't have a
basement. I don't even know if I would want to
basement if I was living in an area that would
have flooding, especially this sort, you know, is frequently is
what I'm hearing. Um, another question I have is to
ourselves and to our CAO, like with respect to the
timeline of reviewing this with the region. And this sort
of thing. There's developments, new developments that are going to
be asking more of our existing or current infrastructure. Do
we, do we just keep going with all of that?
Like, um, do we put a pause on that? Do
we wait and look at this before we move forward
with future parking lots, future, um, condominium, future, anything.
Through humanity, the councillor. Anytime we have a new development,
uh, small or large and direct or brooder can definitely
chime in. In those particular cases, we're doing those types
of studies and modelling to determine, does the addition of
eight new homes, 10 new homes, uh, 50 new condos
impact our water systems. Maybe to go back to the
100 year storm, 100 year storm doesn't mean it's necessarily
going to occur one in 100 years. What it means
is that historically there was a one percent chance of
that storm occurring to that severity. And so I think
we could all, or we would all determine when we
look at, you know, rainfall statistics, that it's based on
PAST observations, not future observations. And I think what we're
seeing more now, uh, is the fact that how do
our other systems work that support it? I've said it
before and I think Councillor Brunet hit this particular point.
Uh, it is inconceivable to think that we could build
every pipe or culvert or pumping station, um, to handle
every possible storm. The costs would be enormous. And that's
just not how municipalities, um, you know, look at kind
of modern flood resilience. I think what we need to
do is determine are all our systems working well together
is the overland flowing is the influention that we're looking
at addressed. Our stormwater management PON's acceptable. And so I
use that example to talk to you about now moving
forward. What do we do with developments that are coming
towards us are coming online. I think we need to
continue to update and look at whatever town and regional
improvements can reduce that particular impact. But I don't know
if director brooder may have, you know, something to add.
I think he may be able to chime in in
terms of how we look at individual projects, uh, our
individual homes, but adding a few homes, you know, isn't
necessarily what's going to impact the system. We need to
look at it at a much more macro level. PONO
Mr. Brooder. Thank you, Mayor Easton. Um, yeah, I think
another thing to consider, I agree, you know, we definitely
have to exercise a high level of diligence when it
comes to new developments, which we are. Um, we're trying
to look at larger catchment areas too. When we get
a development application, not just that specific property trying to
figure out the overall drainage patterns in the area and
go from there. But one thing I did want to
highlight an additional point that I think might get lost
in this is I know we're talking about new development
and the extra contributions in terms of the impacts of
the overall drainage system, but also I would add a
lot of these design standards requiring this control on site
for new development for some of the existing and longstanding
land uses that are already there and have been there
for years. That wasn't there. So I think that's a
whole other factor that goes into this. Some of the
existing properties, developments that have happened. I don't know, you
know, decades ago that are there now. Um, I would
contend with you that even though, yes, we're seeing the
severity of storms happen more often than perhaps they used
to. I would also say though that the standards, although
we talked about may need to be updated, they're still
more stringent than they were when a lot of other
developments went in years ago. So I think that's an
important point too when you're considering kind of existing land
uses already there to new development. And it's just a
little bit of a clarification I wanted to make. I
appreciate that. I just, you know, when we talk about
the future and we talk about, you know, this and
that, that's part of the adaptation or that's part of
the, uh, the new norm that I think we all
need to look at, not just arm municipality, but any
municipality that, uh, sees a dark rain cloud, um, so
those are my comments. And the other thing is just
like, you know, there's even in Jordan itself, there was
a, there was, there was an individual that, you know,
he got flooded out because the surface water on a,
on a quite a pretty recent, um. Parking lot that
was constructed, you know, saying that this has never happened
before, this and that. And it's just, it's tough. To.
Knock on this person's door, knowing what they're experiencing. And,
you know, having the answer, well, everything, everything meets standards.
Well, some people are going to disagree with that. So
that's, that's why I'm bringing these sorts of questions up
at this time. Thank you. Councillor Renema. Thank you, Madam
Mayor. Uh, so my question is about, I have attended
on your behalf and with you, um, some great lakes,
St. Lawrence, um, cities initiatives, um, conference and some, um,
uh, some other events. And obviously, uh, one of the
things that's talked about is water and how to control
water. Um, I think the, you know, if you look
back over the last 10 years, Canada wide, the crazy
sort of flooding events, really intense flooding events. So, um,
I'm wondering if there's any wisdom advice on a precedent
that that group can provide. But my question is, Councillor
Miklick brought up insurance and Councillor Russell brought up AMO.
So I'm wondering if that's something that we can look
at discussing at AMO with the Ministry of Finance about,
you know, asking what that looks like. Canada - wide
and locally and how people are being affected by the
flooding and getting ahead of it and seeing if they're
anticipating any issues. And if the ministry can do to
assist. Because if you can't get insurance, that's tough. Mr.
CAO, would you have anything that you could add now.
Three, Madam Mayor, to Council Regime. I think when we
look at the work that the Great Lakes in St.
Lawrence cities initiative, uh, is doing, I mean, they are
doing a lot of work, as you will know, being
our rep on there around municipal climate adaptation. Some of
the infrastructure vulnerability issues. And specifically, uh, the watershed based
stormwater management. I think continuing to advocate and bringing some
of those voices to the table when we're at AMO.
I think it's going to be critical. Um, as we
move forward. And so I think, you know, we take
that comment, councillor, I think in addition to the other
comments, this evening. I think we need to be looking
at those particular issues and looking at the whole watershed
in particular, as well as some of the vulnerability assessments
that I know the Great Lakes in St. Lawrence cities
initiative is encouraging us to undertake with them. PONO Thank
you. Thank you very much, Councillor. And, um, maybe we
could just give regional Councillor Foster a little heads up
so that he could make a few comments regarding the
NPCA on some of these matters when you present your
report tonight. If there's an. Okay, we move on now
to Councillor Reimer. Go ahead, Councillor. Thank you, Madam Mayor.
Uh, a couple of questions. Um, first, maybe to Director
Brooder, um, I think it's important that we are investigation
determines the actual cause of some of these things. I
know people who have, who have been affected by it
aren't really going to care. But I think as far
as a determining, um, sometish happened already. And it's hard
to understand, but, but drainage, overland drainage. That's almost impossible
to gauge that for a hundred year storm. Right. So
if it's overland, we still need to know about it.
But I think the important thing is, and I'll ask
Director Bruder this, uh, the sewage backup. Was it not
discussed at higher levels or is it not part of
the building code already that some newer builds or possibly
will have those as part of the building code. And
their sewers and new houses or not. Sewage backup. Yeah.
Sanitary sewage backup. Dr. Bruder, sorry. Didn't explain. Yeah. Our
senators sewage would have the backplow for vendor as part
of the building code. PONOSIN, that's correct. Councillor, they would
with the newer buildings. Yes. They'd be subject to the
newer building code requirements, which require that. Okay. To touch
on maybe something as a follow - up May Reese
and just something that Councillor Pachiva, maybe some, some type
of program we could offer, you know, we've done that
in the past with other things. Um, to help those
who don't have that requirement. Any idea what time of
year that or what the year that became in, uh,
Councillor Root or Councillor Hooter. Director Rooter. What year did
that come in the Ontario building code just so people,
people would know when their house was built that they
have that protection in there. Through you, Mary said. And
I'm not exactly sure. Councillor, when that would have come
in, it'd be, it would have been in place for
a little while now though. Like I upwards of a
decade for sure that it would have been. I think
it's 10 years, but I wasn't sure the exact year.
Yeah. Around there. Okay. So thank you for that. I
just wanted to thank also staff for, um, there are
attentiveness on that day. I was in contact with director
agreement a couple of times on that day. And he
responded to a couple of instances. One, he knew about
already. But the other one he was, he was right
on top of it. And since staff out to, to
act. So that was, uh, that was good to see.
Um, I'm glad to hear we have a, an engineering
firm looking at these, again, going back to the causes,
um, and I would hope that they're not only looking
at the causes, but also some solutions. Um, and I
can't help but thinking we, we struggle, um, these last
two occurrences happened. One happened in 2025 and early April
and the last one in July. And we struggle getting
water off the escarpment basically to the lake. Right? Except
we have King Street, John Street, Green Lane, the CN
tracks and the QW on the way. That's, that's all
it's in the way. And then we, and now we're
talking with the NAGA irrigation initiative project. And we're going
to pump it all back up again for the farmers.
So it just seems, I hope there's some outside the
box thinking that, that we could somehow coordinate those two
retention PONs are there for a purpose. And they do
function very well. Maybe we expand some of those to
help some of our, you know, there is a, it
won't help every situation, but I think it will, it
will lead to a, uh, a positive effect, especially in
some of our trouble areas. If we could combine some
of those, um, and suggest that to the engineering firm,
that would be great. And one of the questions Mayor
Eason, if I may, to David, uh, David Graham, with
our infiltration and INI program, which has gone extremely well
in other municipalities are copying, um, I can't help but
think some areas would have been worse off than they
were. Um, does it help? We've talked about advocating at
AMO. Does that, uh, our program? Does that help us
or hinder us if we were to ask for money,
um, through infrastructure rehab program or something like that. Trying
to think of another way, another way to the money.
Um, the work, do you think, director Graham. Director Graham.
Three, Madam Mayor to the Councillor. Uh, I think that's
a great idea. Um, I think what it demonstrate that
we're doing what we can. We're trying to be proactive
in mitigating flooding with our, uh, INI reduction program. I
think council has done a lot of good work with
investing in that. Um, I know when we do our
modelling assessment of the storm, the flooding would have been
a lot worse if we wouldn't have done the INI
work that we've been doing over the last, uh, number
of years to help remove excess flow from the sewers.
So I think that's important to note. But, um, yeah,
I think it would be viewed councillor as, you know,
we're doing what we can to help. When you're making
that ask. Thank you, Director Graham. And. I think in
our messaging too as well, I think some people misunderstand
that backup situation. We talk about infiltration, but I don't
think they put two and two together. That stormwater is
in our sanitary sewage. That's why that happens. It's not
everybody uses the washroom more. Right. Like there's, there's a,
there's a reason why. And that's, that helps. There's lots
of reasons why that happens. It shouldn't be. There should
be zero issues with your standard territory sewer when the
reigning, right? It just doesn't, that's not the way things
work. But I think in our messaging somehow we could
get creative and kind of encourage people not to put
some pumps in the sanitary sewer and those kind of
things. Like that's all those add up. Right. So downspouts,
all that kind of stuff. So thank you very much,
Marrison. P Councillor and Deputy Mayor, and Councillor Timmer is
your next. Thank you very much, Maryston. So when you're
at the bottom of the queue, most of my questions
have been answered. And, um, I'm, I'm really happy that
we're having this discussion because there was a lot of
misinformation. And I think we're kind of clearing a lot
of that up here tonight. And, um, the, um, the
points of Tolman Drive being added to the priority list
for 2027 budget is, is really a good thing. That's
coming out of a terrible situation. Um, you know, I
had family and friends as well that were affected by
the flooding. It's, it's one of those things that we
didn't predict. And, um, hopefully through the review, we'll learn
if the areas that we can correct. And we can,
um, make some changes moving forward. Um, I think communication
is key though. And I think it's been a very
good discussion tonight. So I don't have any further questions.
Uh, AMO, the delegation of AMO makes a lot of
sense. Perhaps the kind of disaster relief funding available that
we could apply for. I'm not sure on that. But
I'll leave that up to our staff. And, uh, that's
it. That's my comments for tonight. Thank you, Mayor Easton.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Councillor Timmers. And Councillor
Russell and Councillor Patriva. I'm looking for a unique, not
never heard before this evening. And, uh, one shot each.
Okay. Go ahead, Councillor Russell. Pressure's on. Thanks, Madam Mayor.
Three of you to staff. Again, kind of touching on
what Councillor Pachiriva and Council Bernet had mentioned earlier, but
not to the same degree. Um, there are a number
of hotspots that we are well known throughout the Town
Town of the Drive. Golden Horseshoe estates, um, again, some
of the areas along John, some of the areas along
Green Lane along both creeks. Is there a way to
prioritize, um, some of the staff work to make sure
that, again, the ditching, things that we can take care
of ourselves without any external funding, or acetical contractors, that
we can prioritize that in the next little while, um,
again, if it's ditching, if it's creek maintenance and removing
trees, uh, some of that debris, I know director graham
has already done that again on again a number of
occasions that we've reached out. But is there something that
we could do on a more grand scale to try
to make sure and mitigate this as much as possible?
Or is there any service in, again, requesting additional funds
for external contractors to come in and start doing some
of that ditching along some of those either North Sorth
corridors where we are getting a lot of funneling, um,
and at some of the pinch points where we are
seeing some of that overland pooling. Is there any, any
thoughts to that whether or not we should focus or
prioritize that. Go ahead, Mr. C. Dale. The amount of
mayor to the councillor. Councillor, I think you're, you know,
in a lot of ways echoing the conversation, uh, Dave
Frank Buffalino and I had earlier today. We are prioritizing
those areas now in light of just the most recent
flood watch that we received. There are things that we're
going to be doing. I see Dave nodding. And so
I would suggest to you, um, we're going to be
prioritizing those areas. And I think looking at, um, putting
our resources where they need to be right now, uh,
for the foreseeable future till we can get some of
this work done. Okay. And just one quick follow up.
Is that something we can do in - house or
do we need any external assistance. Through you, Madam Mayor,
to the Councillor. I see Dave nodding. I think most
of it can be done in - house if we
do. We'll be sure to update Council and probably go
out and seek those external resources or go to some
more municipal partners. But I'm comfortable to say I think
we can do most of that in - house. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Councillor Pachiriva, go ahead,
please. Thank you, worship. And, um, you know, I was
perusing the, um, the ammo program. And lo and behold,
on Sunday at one o'clock, uh, ministry of the environment,
practicing leadership in a flooding, a municipal exercise workshop. So
in a realistic flooding exercise and workshop municipal leaders and
staff will navigate escalating impacts on critical infrastructure, public safety,
municipal services and community recovery while working through the decisions
leader's face during a flooding event. Participants will experience how
municipal exercise is encouraged discussing mutual aid, prioritizing resources and
collaborating with provincial and community partners, participants will also get
hands - on experience working with the provincial supports available
to municipalities before, during, and after an emergency. So I
think that if, um, if director Deanny can arrange that,
um, session for us, the, I'm drawing a blank on
what we call them. Delegation. Delegation, thank you, Anna. Uh,
Councillor Murray, that it's, it's, you know what, it's right
there. It's set on a T for us. So. Let's
make it happen. And I plan to get there to
attend this. So I'll take copious notes. Very good. Thank
you, your worship. Thank you very much. Did you have
anything more to say? I know through you, Madame Mayor.
I just know Paul's making notes. So I think he
heard the Councillor Loud and Claire. Very good. I'm glad
everybody's on the ball here. So, um, interesting. I have
a couple of comments. Besides some possible, um, input from
NPCA. Although I'm sure the staff have already been talking
with them. But the, um, I'll be very interested to
know whether or not the emergency team at the ministry
that it's really, I think it's a year and a
half or, I don't think it's quite two years old.
So I don't know what the state of all their
policies is. Councillor Pechiriva, you brought this up. So we,
um, we could speak with Kathy McGrath about that. And,
um, if there's, um, if there's an opportunity for us
to have a side meeting, not necessarily a delegation, but
a side meeting with one of the key staffers from
that ministry that might be helpful as well. Yeah. I'm
happy to hear the comments about the I and I
reduction because we've spent a great deal on that. But
once again, it comes back to communication. How well do
people understand it? It kind of makes your shake your
head when the roof leaders going into the sewers. And
then you end up at the backup. So that's, that's
a little bit of a mystery. But again, this is
new. There's a lot of things about this that are
new. This was a great discussion. Thank you, Councillors, for
bringing forward all of your suggestions ideas. And, uh, further
and detailed discussions about what was actually going on during
the night of the 21st. All right. We'll move on
now to number eight, which is announcements by members. We
seem to have been doing an awful lot of attending
of this that. And the other thing you are limited
to three items. And let's start the queue.
Okay. I don't see anything. Oh, we do. Councillor Mickelo,
go ahead. Thank you very much. I thought it was
worthy noting that, uh, we attended several members of council
attended the, uh, the designation of the old oak tree
and Victoria Avenue celebrating the, um, anniversary of the old
oak barn. Yeah. 400 year old tree. I never thought
we would dedicate her. I never thought we designate a
tree, you know, as a, as a, as a municipal
leader, but, uh, it was a, it was a well
attended celebration. I thought, uh, everyone did an excellent job.
There's cupcakes for everyone while we were at it. It
was, uh, it was a beautiful day. So I just,
uh, wanted to make sure that that didn't skate through
without a comment. Quite right Council Brunet. Thank you, Madam
Mayor. Very quickly, um, I was pleased to, uh, to
travel down to the Niagara Parks power plant last Thursday,
July 23rd as a board member for NAGA Peninsula Energy.
Uh, there was a funding announcement that, um, staff had
been working on this application for probably 18 to 24
months. And, uh, we were successful in receiving 2. 7
million dollars to support the modernization of our electrical distribution
system across Niagara. Why is this important? Well, we've been
having a lot of power outages. And there has been
a lot of discussion about, um, Niagara Penitential Energies, um,
investment. Um, Councillor Timmers and I both sit on the
board. We've been along with you, Madam Mayor recently up
to the Spring Creek Transformer station where they're investing 38
million dollars up there to ensure that, uh, we meet
the requirements for power. Uh, this doesn't, um, this doesn't
mean that we're not taking these power outages seriously. Uh,
we are, because the businesses and there are residents that
have been impacted by the outages that have been occurring.
And as we talk about flooding, uh, power outages seem
to be happening on more frequent basis as well. So
I thought it was important to, uh, to point out
that, uh, we were successful in receiving 2. 7 million
dollars from the federal government, um, MP Chris Biddle was
on hand to bring information from, uh, from that, uh,
that funding stream, uh, and Niger Penitential Energy is contributing
an additional 3. 5 million dollar. So thank you, Madam
Mayor. Thank you very much. And, uh, that's a very
important. Very important comment, uh, very important area that more
and more people are talking about Councillor Timurs. There we
go. Thank you, Marison. Um, I just wanted to add
a little bit, um, about the grand oak tree. You
know, I've been on the heritage committee since I was
elected to council and Councillor Brenier sits on that with
me as well. And for about 10 years, I think
people got tired of me talking about the grand oak
tree. And we finally were able to designate that tree.
And I just wanted to make the comment that it's
the first tree in the town of Lincoln to be
designated. So it's pretty special. And, um, it's designated through
the Ontario heritage act. So it will always be protected.
And the history and the beauty of that tree is
just phenomenal. So if there hasn't seen the grand oak,
you definitely need to go down there and take a
picture of it. But I was so unhappy that I
had to miss it. I was travelling at that time.
So I missed it after 10 years. And I want
to thank Monica Colquier, our staff who really, um, did
a lot of the heavy lifting and helped to make
this happen. So anyway, thank you for allowing me to
make those comments, Mary soon. Thank you very much. Now
we move on to item number nine, and that is
proclamations. We have no proclamations this evening. Idem 10 is
recognition and achievements. And our first item for recognition and
achievements is the recognition of the Town of Lincoln sponsorship
of the Lincoln Soapox Derby. And we have Gourd Gary,
Lion Gorry, Lion Kenseuthward in attendance. Gentlemen, please come forward.
If you have a few words that you'd like to
say. Thank you, your
worship. Members of Council, Administration. Uh, our presentation is going
to be much shorter than it has been in the
past. As you know, your worship, it's been about two
and a half hours. Each presentation previously. Anyway, um. I
think there was some wine involved in it, too. Could
have been, could have been. Um, we, uh, we want
to thank the Town of Lincoln for its participation with
the soapbox Derby. This is our, um, this was our
ninth year this year. We had a couple of years
out with COVID, of course. It went off splendidly well
this year. We had no accents whatsoever. We added one,
one element this year. Uh, to the Derby. And that
is a PIT crew and racer day. And we do
that two weeks prior to the soapbox Derby. On PIT
crew and racer day, we tear all of the cars
down. We make sure all of the steering linkages are
correct. We make sure that the, uh, the brakes are
working. That the pads are, are there. We seem to
be going through many more brake pads now than we
ever did in the past. And the reason for that
is really simple. We seem to have much smaller children.
And as you know, we wait the cars up so
that they are 200 pounds. The car, the driver and
additional weights. We have made the decision that we're going
to bring that back to 175 pounds, uh, this coming
year. Simply so that we don't have to add so
many weights and it'll keep the brake pads a little
bit longer. We can get through an entire Derby day
with the, uh, with the brake pads intact. So with
that, just a couple of things. I said that the
Derby went off splendidly well. One of the things for
me that was the greatest aspect of the Derby this
year is that I had my partner in the, in
the Derby in full functioning mode this year. Um, most
of you or many of you will recognise that Ken
was suffering from Guy and Bari syndrome last year. And
if you don't know what that is, take a look.
It's debilitating. He's way ahead of schedule. And I'm, I'm
so very thankful for that. Can starts the, uh, the
races. We have a new announcer on that now. He's
a police officer. So that kind of keeps everything sorted
out. And, um, and Evan does, or Kevin does a
tremendous job with that. Um, Ken's wife, Jennifer, my wife
Colleen, uh, do the, uh, the scoring for every race.
And to give you an idea of how. Tightly contested
the soapbox Derby is. The difference between. Number one racer
and number two racer, Ken, this year was just about
one third of a second. On two heats, one third
of a second on two heats. So they, they, uh,
the kids, um, they're into it. There's no question about
that. We'd like to see every member of Council at
the Derby. We had, uh, we had four members of
council. Your worship, you were excused this year, of course.
You had that tree come through the roof and all
that good stuff. Uh, we'd like to see some administrative
people there too. And, um, and, uh, those of you
in the gallery, come take a look at the soapbox
Derby. It's a whole bunch of fun. Right, Tony? So
with that, we have, uh, we have some presentation that
we would like to make. And we have some gifts.
So your worship, if you would come forward for just
a moment, that's that one there. Yeah. That's the wine.
Get a hand. On this. So. Here, do you put
the. Photographer here. So on behalf of the Lincoln Soapox
Sturm Association, we want to thank you for your dedication
and support to the soapbox Derby the last, uh, since
the beginning. And we look forward to the town being
our title sponsored in the future as well. Thank you
very much. And we have a souvenir t - shirt
for you. Thank. You. Guaranteed to fit. Maybe. And we
have a, uh, we have a t - shirt for
all members of council as well. They all the same
size? No, perfect. They're all sized accordingly, I think. Thank
you all. Thanks very. Much.
I can't tell you. I mean, many people in this
room have volunteered for many, many, um, special events over
the years. So you know how much work it is.
To start something from the ground up. And let me
tell you, they've done a great job. So it's a
wonderful opportunity for youth. And, um, they do have some
big racers. And the first couple of years, Ken and
I can I, but, uh, Gordon, I used to race
each other, but I swear he let me win. But
it was kind of fun. I'd never done anything like
that before. Okay. Um. Thank you very much, Deputy Mayor.
The next item on the agenda is the Mayor's Metal
Recipients. And, um, we have, um. We have, we're doing
these in a number of different ways. Tonight, we actually
have, um, the garden club here, represented it from the
garden club, Lincoln Garden Club. But we also will be
going out and visiting people where they work and visiting
people, um, on their farms, uh, to recognise the contributions
that they make to our community. So not everybody's coming
into the chambers. However, tonight we have Angela Collixto from
the, uh, Lincoln Garden Club in attendance to receive this
award on behalf of the garden club. The Lincoln Garden
Club is a registered nonprofit organisation and there are part
of district nine of the Ontario horticultural association. They've been
in town since the 1990s, the early 90s. And even
though they shy from standing in the spotlight, they've been
keeping the tome beautiful for many years as well as
inspiring new generations of gardeners. The club has made up
of passionate gardeners, very knowledgeable people and volunteers who care
about the community and they provide educational opportunities for young
people. And they selectively choose spots around the town that
they beautify. The club sponsors scholarships at Niger College and
the Niger Park School of Horticulture. And in 1992, they
donated. A greenhouse to the Beamsville District Secondary School and
sponsored a scholarship for horticultural student each year. They donate
plants left over from an annual plant sale, which is
held each May. Now just imagine what it must be
like to be a small group of people who do
things like donating a greenhouse. How would you do that?
This is not a small thing. And it is so
important to our community, which is so embedded in agriculture.
And to sponsor a scholarship really remarkable initiatives and quite
dedicated community members for sure. They have planted and maintained
gardens across the area. Including balls falls conservation centre, as
well as here at Town Hall. They also maintain a
garden at the experimental farm on the Vineline Research Innovation
Centre site. And we're instrumental in the Millennium Forest Project
at that site. They are also a valued partner with
the Town of Lincoln for the Lincoln and Bloom Garden
Recognition Program. Angela, it's so great to have you here
with us tonight. If you would come forward.
Just go. Right in here. I actually just want to
thank the Town Blincon for the recognition that we're getting
tonight. And that I'm speaking for on behalf of the
Lincoln Garden Club, an horticultural society. And I also want
to thank the ton of Lincoln for being one of
our partners in crime. Uh, for the projects that we
have undertaken. I would like to invite all of you
to see the Millennium Forest, which is one of our,
um, flagship projects. And unlike the other speaker, you have
to wait until the next soap Derby. This time you
can just go to the Millennium Forest anytime you want
and enjoy the 135 or 137 trees now, uh, and
I think there are no two or probably the only
two trees that have, uh, you know, in other words,
what I'm saying is there are no two trees available
that are the same in the forest except for probably
a couple, uh, but having said that, thank you again.
And I'm delighted to receive this and it will filter
down to our members. PONO POUTONO.
Is just reminding me that they don't just plant flowers
and select and plan gardens, which they did here all
across the front of the town hall. But they also
designed the signage that went up. Because they, um, they
wanted to make sure that as time went by, that
people understood how these things were dealt with. Can I
just add. One sometime for not to say. That the.
Town. Going. On right now. And everyone
is invited to send pictures. To the town you're entitled
to send at least 10 per person. And at the
end of the program or the event, like maybe around
end of August, we will have a random draw for.
Crisis. And. Everyone that's submitted pictures. Are invited to. A
town picnic. On climbing. Centre. At the early part. Of
September. Right? Yeah. So please, please send your pictures. Thank
you very much. Thank you, Angela. So there you're all
inspired. Pictures and food. Very good. All right. Um. We'll
move on now to item number 11, which is delegations
and presentations. And I'd like to invite regional councillor Rob
Foster to come forward to the podium. And I must
say that, um, since regional, uh, councillor Foster has been
our regional representative. He has missed very, very, very few
meetings. He is here at almost every Council meetings. So
thank you very much for having such a good attendance
record. Rob. Thank you, Mayor Easton. And, uh, so I'll
put a timer on because I have about a 20
minute thing tonight. So. First off, just from the earlier
conversations, I wanted to say on behalf of chair foster,
um, they were very happy with the heritage committee designating,
uh, the grand oak as well. Um, I'm very, very
proud of the fact that my son, um, stepped up,
um, into that particular role. It really fits well with
his educational background. And a lot of the work that,
uh, that he's done for the town and for the
NPCA in the past. So anyway, that was a great
event. Um. I want to talk a little bit about,
um, the discussion around water. Um, that you guys had
earlier. So, um, I wanted to start with the I
and I program and, uh, I think, um, you brought
it up Councillor Reimer. I don't know if you did
as well. Councillor Patrieva, but the, um, Mayor Easton and
I, uh, spent a lot of time saving that program
at the region. Um, that was one of the ones
that was on the chopping block about a year and
a half ago as we were going into budget. And
so ourselves along with the mayor of Fortiri, did a
lot of work on that to make sure that the
INI program continued on. And just for the sake of
the audience, the eye and I program really is taking
a look at downspouts that are going into the sewer
systems that shouldn't be going into it. Um, the leakage
that's going on within all of our programs within the
thing. And. I give the town of Lincoln full credit
and I look back to my days on Town Council
as well for making that a priority to make sure
that we have a solid water system. The event itself,
um, I was sitting at home, um, listening to the
rain literally pounding, um, on the roof. Um, my neighbourhood
was really quite lucky. Um, we didn't really have much.
I don't think there was, there was much overture in
your area too, Adam. But, um, it was interesting because
everything worked as designed, um, through the back of our
area, um, so much rain came down, um, the flooding
came up in the back of my property. But then
it drained away within like about three hours. So, so
everything worked in that area the way that it was
supposed to, which was, which was terrific, um, as I'm
watching it. And I'm like, oh, okay. Well, sooner or
later, uh, it may raise my neighbour, a couple of
neighbours had, uh, water issues in their homes because the
rain pounded on their homes and ways that had never
been pounded on before, um, and so they had leakage
coming through spots that, um, our houses were all built
in 1988. So there was places that just need to
repair. So now they're going to have to take a
look at it with their homes. Um. The day of
flooding, I was in discussion with regional staff, uh, from
about an hour and a half after once I realised
what had been going on with it. Um, and, uh,
I talked to Phil Lambert down at, uh, the region
who's responsible for, um, the wastewater management in particular. And
it was overwhelming. And it wasn't just in beamsville and
it wasn't just in violin. It was in St. Catharines.
They had, uh, they had flooding. They had grimsby as
well. Um, opposite side of the peninsula, by the way,
there was nothing. There was, there was practically nothing hit
there. So really bizarre, um, storm to say the least,
um, as I put this back up so I can
read it. I didn't know you guys were going to
talk about this tonight. So sorry. Garbage collection councillors, a
few of you reached out to me on the garbage
collection. Um, I got in touch with Mr. Copoulos. Um,
he was already, um, well down the road with staff
at the region to, uh, look at doing some extra
work. Uh, I know there's some disappointment with some people
in town about, uh, some extra garbage collection not being
done in their area. But, um, what did get put
in place is no additional costs that's coming into play
for us. So I believe staff from the town and
the region talked about it. And so the worst hit
areas were the ones that, um, that the extra garbage
pickup was doing. So, um, so that piece of the
puzzle. I like some of the comments earlier about, um,
communication. Both the NPCA, which issued the flood warnings once
they realised what was going on. Um, and also, um,
the, uh, the region and the town. I thought the
town actually was able to get out good communication when
it was all said and done. Boy, the social media
stuff that went on that was just false and wrong.
So, um, for goodness sakes, if you're going to be
going and trying to figure out what's happening, be very
cautious of where you're getting information from, uh, particularly social
media. Conjecture is not fact. So, um, I think we
should keep that in mind. PONO. Just the last thing
on this for you. So the NPCA Mary Easton brought
it up. So. We all have to remind ourselves a
little bit. The province of Ontario has made significant changes
to the way planning works. Um, and most of the
onus on planning has come back onto the shoulders of
lower area municipalities. We saw that happen. The region is
right out of, uh, the game when it comes to
zoning and when it comes to planning. There is an
official plan at the region, but that is taken care
of by this local area municipality. So you guys are
the ones that make the enforcement things. When it comes
to environmental things within the community, that also comes into
play. You have to be aware of that when you're
looking at any of the subdivisions that are being built,
your staff, that's one of the very first things that
they go through and deal with is they're looking at
these things. Um, the NPCA is a commenting agency. And
so when it comes to various areas that are going
into play, I do like the idea. I think it
was Councillor Patriva said, you know, maybe getting the NPCA
involved with, with understanding how to make sure we have
our ditches done properly, all this other type of stuff.
Not a problem. And in fact, I think they would
be, uh, I know for a fact, they would be
quite happy to have those discussions to come in and
through. Um. But there's not much you can do when
you have four and a half inches of rain in
an hour and a half. And I think, um, everybody
just has to sometimes take a step back and realise
this stuff happens. Um, anyway, those are my comments on
that, Mary Easton, for that. Thank you very much, Councillor,
for taking that off the cough. I appreciate it. Yeah.
Um. So I got some really boring stuff to talk
about. Um, DC, uh, once again, um, so the region
is in the middle of doing the DC bylaw review.
I'm part of that committee, but we haven't met yet.
We did meet as a council back. Was it about
a month ago, Mayor Easton, I believe. And the whole
idea is that it has to be upgraded based on
all of the new things that are actually coming into
play with development charges. Um, all of us are going
to be talking to all of these ministries when we
get to Ottawa for the AMO conference on what a
lot of these things really mean and how they come
into play. There's supposed to be a new DC charge
bylaw in place by October of this year for Niagara.
Um, I do not see us meeting that, uh, that
timeline. Um, but. We shall see. Um, work has to
be done with that. Um, I put on to my
notes. Just to let you know that, um, DCs are
going to play a pretty important part of the South
Niagara wastewater treatment plant. The first phase, which is worth
about 35 million or something like that at this point
in time. That's going to be 90 percent DCs that
are coming into play with that. That's the engineering. That's
the full design that's coming into play. And that's well
on the road, by the way, as well. But the
funding package is going to come from DCs. We're going
to have the new dollar figure coming forward to us.
And I, what did I say when I first started
talking about this with everyone, uh, they came in with
320 million originally. And I said, it's going to be
well more than a half a billion before this is
all said and done. Well, once again, I was right.
Um, uh, 509 million is the latest figure that we're
looking at. I still am a strong believer that it's
going to hit about 600 million before it's all said
and done. This is a significant investment that's being done
in Niagara. So, um, anyway, that's, that's on the go.
Um. The couple of things that are coming up, uh,
what is today, today's Monday. Coming up Thursday night, um,
so nobody's ever happy with DCs, by the way. There's
a, and I have a false hit on my statement
here. So you can stroke off Niagara Falls and say
St. Catherine's. But we had a request coming back because
of a new hotel being built in St. Catharines. And
they feel they shouldn't have to pay DCs because it's
the first new hotel in 50 years. Well, okay. So
now regional counsel has to make a decision on it.
Um, the city of St. Catharines is willing to give
up the DC money. Um, through the programs that are
there. But, um, we've exhausted the funds for this year
already. Um, on the DC side of things. So, um,
and that was part of our cost saving piece of
the puzzle that we did through our budget process this
year. Um, being aware that they should be, um, they
should be, uh, capped. Um, the business in well and
that has funds that they're requesting an incredibly interesting business.
But again, it's been capped out. So we're going to
have to have a long discussion Thursday night. I'll be
quite fascinated to see how that shakes out. I'm going
to be interested to see how, uh, differing areas of,
uh, of Niagara vote on this particular issue Thursday night.
So. That's it for me tonight. Thank you very much,
Councillor. And councillors. We do have two questions. So I'll
go ahead Councillor Murray. Thank you very much, Mayor Easton.
Three through you to Councillor Foster. Thanks for the good
information on the DCs. I wanted to get a little
bit more clarity if I could on the last note
that you had the deferral of the DCs. So, um,
when you say that the funds are not available with
maxed out use, my understanding of that. So please do
correct me if I'm wrong is that the region said
we will defer or are removed X number of dollars
of DC funds for this fiscal year. And that has
been maxed out. Is that what you're saying? So. We
had a pretty significant budget year that came into play.
And by the way, whoever is going to be the
next mayor of this municipality, whoever it is that's going
on, this is going to be the big issue that's
going on at the region is how to go and
actually deal with these pieces of the puzzle. Like DC
charges like the tax instrumental grants that are coming into
play. To be perfectly frank, we can't afford it. Okay.
Um, we do not have the taxation base across the
board to handle this. Um, so the problem for us
is going to be what should or shouldn't be being
a part of this. We made a decision back, I
think it was Mayor Easton about four years ago where
we said, no, we're going to be shifting to affordable
housing and we're going to be shifting to a variety
of things. And we had a council that overrode the
whole thing. They basically said, nope, nope, we're going to
continue with the way that we're doing it. Much to
our votes being the opposite. Um, but they, they continued
on with the, with the process of handing out money
the way they are. The, the problem is, is that
it makes up a significant portion of the regional budget
now. And it's not going away. It is continuing on,
I would say a trajectory that looks kind of like
a lunar takeoff type of thing. Okay. So, um, so
they're in asking for a DC grant. It's a deferral.
They've got coming into play, but also, um, you know,
these things they're looking at actually not wanting to pay
DC's in certain situations. And unfortunately, you know, maybe two
years ago, it would have been a slam dunk. It
would not have even been thought about as it was
going through. But we had to put a cap in
place for this week. Cannot continue spending the way that
we have been spending on this much to the chagrin
of some of the municipalities here in Niagara. Thank you
very much for that. So, so then, um, I just
see that as an enormous challenge, luckily not my challenge
to solve as I'm not on regional counsel. But, but
this idea that some, some, um, new developments, businesses are
otherwise two years ago didn't have to pay DCs. And
now that's, we don't have a, uh, a comparability of
relief. So remember with these grants, this is not a
matter of not paying DCs. It's you and I as
taxpayers are paying the DC value that comes into play.
There's nothing to do with, with them, you know, sort
of being able to walk away. It's the businesses that
are getting the break. They're getting a grant. Okay. And
that's coming directly out of yours and my taxpayers money
that's going into the region. Okay. Is it fair? I
actually think it's grossly unfair that's coming into play. Is
it needed? Well, you know, it depends who you talk
to. You know, um, there's maybe a lot of good
economic develop reasons for going and doing this stuff. But
this is the type of thing that we have to
balance every day as politicians. You guys have to do
it. I've watched your council the last eight years as
the Regional Councillor. And I've admired the way that you
guys have approached a lot of these issues. You've taken
a look at balancing the economic development aspects of things,
but also making sure that it's, you know, affordable for
taxpayers. Boy, it's a real fine line that you have
to go through and deal with this stuff. It's the
exact same thing at the region. Um, we've had to.
And by the way, and I will, because nobody else
would do it. I'm going to pat myself on the
back because, um, I will tell you at the region,
we have had some incredibly good tax years from the
regional department's point of view. We have put through taxation
that is not unreasonable. Um, uh, I would suggest you
there may be certain aspects of Niagara region that we'll
call it maybe policing. That has certainly caused a lot
of grief. Um, in the taxation area. So. But it's
a matter of balancing all this stuff. This is what
we do. This is why we get elected as people
on these things. And by the way, you know, like
I'm really quite sad that, um, the regional councillor position
is going away. In the last, I'm sorry I'm wandering
away from your question, but, um, in the last two
weeks, um, I have taken so many calls on so
many issues. Within the municipality, the pieces that flow over
into the NPCA, all these other types of things. And
it's like there's certainly is an awful lot of things
that regional councillors do do. Thank you very much, Councillor.
Thank you, Mayor said. Councillor Pachiri vote. Please stick to
the report. Thank you. Your swan song.
Okay. Very good. Um, so following along in the standard,
the first one about the hotel in St. Catherine's. That's
a deferral. So they're willing to pay the DCs, but
just defer the payment. Is it for. Because I never
read, like, is it for five years? Is it 10
years? And then how does that over, how does that
affect, um, the situation. So knowing that they're coming, I'm
not too sure about the business and well on, but
yeah, just, just curious from your standpoint. PONO, I would
suggest you that both of them really are not happy
about paying DC. So that's what the crux of the
matter is. So we're going to have a fascinating meeting
this upcoming Thursday night talking about that. So. Because like
sometimes regional council can be pretty exciting. So I might
tune in Thursday night. And like you say, um, the
shortfalls picked up by you and I, and the people
in the room. Yep. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Thank you
very much. And Councillor Mickeluck, you're next. Thank you through
you two Councillor Prosser. So, um, with respect to that
wastewater treatment plant. And yeah, 360 million that revokes you
mentioned. And then now it's 508. We're thereabouts. And you're
saying that it's probably going to end up being 600
million. You mentioned something about DC's funding a certain amount.
But what is that formula look like? Who's paying for
this wastewater treatment plan. They're getting a significant, uh,
they're given a significant expectation, you know, come tax time.
Who's paying for this, uh, treatment plan. Well, I would,
I would start by saying I'm not the absolute master
at this whole financial wizardry that goes on in and
around DCs. And how municipalities make use of them as
they move into the future. But the reality is, is
that, and the thinking process is, um, developers and development
pays for development. That's what we have followed along. And
that's one of the, one of the pieces is DCs
that come into play with that. And so we know
that there's going to be literally thousands of homes built
and thorled. And in Niagara on the lake and in
the edge of St. Catherine's and in Niagara Falls that
are going to be coming into play where DCs are
going to be coming into play with those, uh, those
places being built. And so there's sometimes, um, again, perhaps
maybe Mr. Kirkopoulos can explain it better than me. But
sometimes there's, um, situations where essentially you're borrowing from the
future to go and make all of these things work.
So, um, so that, that piece of the puzzle, um,
is well laid out. Um, and by the way, that
South Niagara wastewater treatment plant has to be built. It
has to be built for the whole development process that's
going on within that part of Niagara. So, um, I'm
sorry. I don't know if I answered your question, Mike,
but, um, no, it's just, it's, it's a. We're almost
talking like a 200 dollar, 200 million dollar difference from
what we originally, um, were expecting. And we had not
even really there yet. So I think though, and if
I, if I can jump in over top, you just
for a second, you know, the, the, the 320 million
that, we started with was, what was that 2029 when
that came into play. So there was this little thing
called COVID came into play. And, you know, the cost
of everything has gone up. And we take a look
at this now from, from all of our own buying
and handling point of view, the cost of everything have
gone up dramatically. So it doesn't surprise me that it's
hitting that. And it wouldn't surprise me if it goes
higher. Um, I think that's just the reality of, of,
uh, today's construction environments. You know, I'm just trying to
make sure there's a benefit to the existing taxpayers. Through
all of this. That's what I'm searching for. Through you
Mayor, another question and it dances around the NPCA discussion.
And, you know, I've talked on the side with Councillor
Reimer or Deputy Mayor Reimer for a minute. What role
does the NPCA have with respect to private properties, their
ditches, their watersheds, their maintenance. You know, they're, they're importance.
They're impact to getting that water to Lake Ontario. I
know that the NPCA has governing authority over development. And
I don't know. Uh, you're shaking your head. Yeah. So
do they have any influence? Do they have any strength
in when we ourselves as a municipality or looking at
this sort of thing trying to get the water to
Lake Ontario. Could the NPCA influence or.
So the Niagara Peninsula conservation authority like all conservation authorities
are there for the conservation protection and, you know, understanding
the water that's coming into play? I mean, we're involved
with, uh, with the lakeshore, um, uh, NPCA has been
an actor participant in the group that Mary Easton is
involved with, you know, making sure that, um, all of
these water courses are known and understood and are functioning
properly. But they don't do everything. Okay. Like, um, you're
getting into an area that's kind of interesting. Once you
start talking about drains, um, within a municipality. Drains have
a certain context that comes into play and how they
behave and how the municipality has to deal with that.
Private landowners have going through their particular properties. You know,
we don't have a bunch of people at the NPCA
that are going out and going to private landowners and
saying, you know, you shall dig your ditch out here
because otherwise it's not working property. That's not the way
that any of that stuff works. Um, we do the
NPCA does a lot of mapping. They do an awful
lot of understanding of what the environmental protection areas are.
They make sure that the municipality anytime Matin is team,
um, require assistance on the planning side of things and
how water is going to run. And the courses and
stuff like that, the NPCA is a commenting agency and
all those things. But, um, that's, that's pretty much as
far as it goes, Mike. So just follow up to
that. Perhaps should that be part of the NPCA's role
moving forward in the future. To work on those sorts
of things. And two, look at. And two. Address these
sorts of things. Interesting idea. I can tell you, and
I know Mayor Easton knows, um, we're going through this
with the conservation authority. The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority is
being amalgamated into the Western Lake Ontario region conservation authority.
Um, I happened to be one of the members of
the transition team that's coming into play with that. Um,
as is the CAO, Leilani Li Yates, who you guys
have had here a few times, Top Notch CAO, I
might add, uh, but we're working with Hamilton. We're working
with Hallton when we're working with the credit Valley to
go and put together what this new conservation area, conservation
association area is going to look like. Um, the problem
is really pushing things on the planning side of things.
Okay. Like that's, I think that's their fundamental bottom line.
This is what we want to do. We want to
make sure we have consistent planning. We want to make
sure that the conservation area is there to back up
what it is that's going on in that particular area.
So not a bad idea. I like that. That'd be
an idea I would take along. So thank you. If
you could, just because like when we talk planning that
we're talking in this case existing, uh, down the, you
know, down the stream sort of stuff, but, uh, up
the stream has to rely on making sure that down
the stream works. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank
you very much. Councillor Reimer. You're the last speaker. Go
ahead. Thank you, Mayor Sin. Um, thanks Rob for being
here again tonight. Just with regards to our, we talked
about the last time you hear our favourite discussion is
wastewater treatment plant. Is that any portion of that qualify
for provincial funding through Hughes funding or is there, is
there something else through the bill and escapes me? Maybe
director brooder members which one it does because the bills
come out. But for building homes faster. Is there something
where that applies to? And just, is it, is it
better for the reason to do it or does it
demissalies play? Like where does that line, you know, where's
that line come? We talked a little bit about on
a practical level where it's infrastructure start. But for funding,
can they also apply for their peace, uh, through you,
Mary's. So actually that's a great question because it kind
of circles off the whole evening. Thank you. Um, it
goes back to the original discussion boat flooding and all
this type of stuff. Region's responsible for the trunk lines
that are coming into play. So when everything is exiting
out of the town system, that's being fired off to
the wastewater treatment plants. The water system, um, the region
provides water up to the connection with the, with the
local air municipality to go and do all that type
of stuff. So, um, your question on, uh, sorry, with
the, I took right off top. Yeah. Sorry. With the
funding. Is it does it qualify for any of the
provincial bills that they put down. They usually attach a
funding model or opportunity with it. Of course it does.
Like this, it's something that should ideally be funded. The
problem is, is that, um, there is so much infrastructure
deficit in the province of Ontario. It's, we're seeing some
of these programs they're putting out. And it seems to
be going into certain parcels, um, we haven't seen any
yet towards the wastewater treatment plant. But the region has
been doing a good job, um, and the local municipalities
have been doing a good job. Of doing the advocacy
with this, um, with the province. So, um, personally, I
foresee good news coming along here at some point in
time. But it's likely going to have to be other
government funding that's really going to go and do that.
So, okay. All right. Thanks Council Frost. Thank you, Marison.
We could say councillor that, uh, the DC, the program,
the phase one program, that it is a form. Because
if I recall, within the last year, there have been
many petitions to the province. And there has been no
package that they get actually advertised as suitable and applicable
for the wastewater treatment plant. However, the DC funding for
the phase one is one that we're all contributing to.
Because as you recall, we didn't select a particular project
because of the way we had done our business differently.
And we had received a great deal of provincial funding
and federal funding. So however, we are participants in the
South Niagara Wastewater treatment plan to the level of 90
percent with remaining temper cell That's for the region as
a whole. So there, but it's, um, it's not a
package that people have been going around selling. In fact,
that basket has been quite empty of money. I think
it was just nothing. Thank you, thank you very much
Councillor Foster. And thank you again for your commitment to
this council and for the excellent work that you've been
doing at the region, how you've applied yourself to things
that matter to length. Well, thank you very much, Mayor
Easton. I do appreciate that. And I got to tell
you one of the highlights of being the regional councillor
is coming and talking to you guys. So it really
shows how boring my life really is. Thanks, guys. All
right. Thank you, Rob. So there'll be no for the
discussion. I have a motion moved by Councillor Pachiriva, seconded
by Councillor Reimer. The Council receive and file for information
the following delegation regional Councillor Foster and Madam Clerk. Would
you please open the vote. Thanks, Madam Mayor. And the
vote's open. Yes.
I'll close that boat. And that carries, thank you. The
motion is carried and we move on to item number
12. Um, items for just consideration. There are none this
evening. And we move on now to the motion to
approve previous Council minutes, considering the Council Minutes of July
6th, 2026, to members of Council have any questions. They're
being none. I have a motion moved by Councillor Reimer,
seconded by Councillor Murray. The Council approved the minutes of
the following meetings with Council Council Minutes of July 6,
2026. Madam Clerk, would you please open the vote. PONOTA's
Open? PONO. I'll close that vote. That carries. The motion
is carried. We move on now to recommendations from standing
committees and consider the following committee of the whole minutes
of July 13, 2026. Do members of Council have any
questions. PONOTONO. Seeing none, I have a motion move by
Councillor Russell, seconded by Councillor Brene that Council approved the
following recommendations from standing committees, Committee of the whole minutes
of July 13, 2026. Madam Clerk, would you please open
the vote. PONTON.
Close it and that carries. Thank you. That motion is
carried and we move on to item number 15, which
is notice of motion. And we are now considering notice
of motion brought forward by Councillor Pachiriva, seconded by Councillor
Timmers that was introduced at the last meeting and will
be brought forward this evening for consideration. Councillor Pachiriva, would
you please provide comments. Thanks for worship. Um, Councillor Timmers
and I are pleased to bring this motion forward because
we believe Affordable Housing is one of the most important
issues facing our community today. As the municipality, we may
not have all the answers, but we do have an
opportunity to be part of the solution. The motion does
not approve a housing project tonight and set it as
staff to explore whether a portion of the form of
BDSS precinct could support a nonprofit Affordable Housing Development as
part of the broader master planning process. Any future proposal
would still come back to council following technical analysis, community
engagement, and partnershipsions. And I just wanted to dispel to
something out there, uh, in the community. Again, it's about
controlling the narrative. The town of Lincoln is not building
a building. They're not being landlords. They're not operating a
building. What is happening is, um, the motion is the
biggest impediment to building one of these is the land.
And that's what we have. So a third party like
indwell, the YWCA, Bethlehem Housing, they will build an operator
or in pork Colbert where it's port cares. And they
built an operated, the facility. The former BDSS property. Is
a unique community asset. And we have a responsibility consider
how can best serve Lincoln, not just today, but for
future generations. Exploring affordable housing alongside recreation, community services, and
other community needs is a thoughtful and responsible step forward.
Um. I look forward to hearing my colleagues thoughts. And
I hope you'll support this motion. Thank you, worship. Thank
you very much, Councillors. And I will read the motion.
Whereas some of the most important work undertaken by local
government is creating the conditions for people to thrive. And
that begins with ensuring residents have access to a safe,
stable, and affordable place to call home. And whereas access
to Affordable Housing remains a significant and growing need in
the town of Lincoln and throughout Niagara. And as fundamental
to supporting a healthy, inclusive and economically resilient community. And
whereas increasing the supply, diversity and affordability of housing, is
a strategic priority of the province of Ontario and the
Town of Lincoln. With municipalities playing a critical role in
facilitating housing opportunities through planning, partnerships, and the strategic use
of municipal assets. And whereas innovative partnerships, strategic use of
surplus municipal lands and a shared commitment between governments, community
organisations, and housing providers can help address one of the
most pressing challenges facing communities today. And whereas the former
Beamsville District secondary school, BDSS site, represents a unique municipal
asset with the potential to support a mixed - use
community hub that responds to identified community priorities, including recreation,
community services, and Affordable Housing. And whereas the successful delivery
of Affordable Housing will require a strong partnerships with non
- profit housing providers, senior levels of government, and the
broader community, together with appropriate funding opportunities and a development
model that ensures long - term financial sustainability. And whereas
staff have commenced preliminary analysis and discussions, including mapping out
and expression of interest, EOI, regarding the feasibility of incorporating
affordable housing as part of the long - term redevelopment
of the BDSS site. Now, therefore it resolved that Council
affirm its commitment to advancing Affordable Housing Opportunities within the
Town of Lincoln by directing staff to reserve and evaluate
a suitable portion of the BDSS precinct for a potential
non - profit Affordable Housing Development, including exploring innovative partnerships
with non - profit housing providers, senior levels of government
and community partners with the location, size, development model, funding
opportunities, and partnership arrangements to be determined through the master
planning expression of interest process. Technical analysis, community engagement, and
future council consideration and approval. I will allow, ask our
clerk to open the boat. Oh, we have a big
board here. All right, we're going to start. You have
something for the DSA Councillor Pechirita. Nothing for you. Okay.
Councillor Renejema, go ahead. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Madam
Chair. So I'm reading, so I know that we talked,
I think it was July 13th or something like that
about, um, or is earlier June, in June, about the
next step is that we will be releasing an EOI,
an expression of interest out to the community. Um, that's
referred to in this motion. Um, so I'm thinking the
intent. And correct me if I'm wrong, is to make
sure that in that ELI, there is very clear direction
that a portion of this property is going to be,
um, focus on affordable housing. Um, I'm wondering what. Is
going to come out of this motion at this point
though, because, um, I was hearing that, um, staff is
just going to evaluate a suitable portion of, uh, evaluate
the BDSS precinct to find a suitable portion of land
for Affordable housing. But then I see the word. To
reserve and evaluate. So is, are we just asking staff
to evaluate the property for a suitable portion of land
to be designated for Affordable housing? Are we asking them
to reserve it and designate it for it? So as
the decision going to be made before the EOI goes
out, um, what portion of the property is going to
be used for Affordable Housing? Or is it just going
to be sort of a suggestion? We'd evaluated this is
what we're thinking. And are we thinking this. Out of
this motion will happen this term. That makes sense. Yes.
We'll start with CAO Crocopolis. Go ahead. Through you, Madam
Mayor, to the Councillor, maybe I'll answer the last question
first, Councillor. I don't see anything happening this term. This
potentially is the last council meeting. And that's why I
think this is before you. So I don't see anything
necessarily happening this term. We are working on the parameters
and generally what EOI will look like. I think when
we present it to Council a few months back, we
talked about that EOI going out later this year, uh,
early next year, but really allowing the new council an
opportunity to look at what's in that expression of interest
and to have a chance to weigh into it. In
terms of your question, uh, we aren't saying this amount
of land needs to be designated for Affordable Housing. What
we're saying is affordable housing will make up one of
the things that we want to see in that broader
precinct. And so I think in a lot of ways
this motion, uh, reaffirms what council said, what staff said
that evening when we presented that presentation. And that is
a Neoy will include for all intents and purposes. A
reference to Affordable Housing. Uh, there is existing. Affordable housing
in that broader precinct already. This is a look at
potentially expanding, not necessarily that one in particular, as I
know there is some confusion in the community based on
the emails I received today, but rather looking at, is
there an opportunity for us to build something in that
particular site. And we've always said the skin in the
game for lack of a better word that the municipality
has, uh, is land now in that broader precinct. PORRO.
So I'm happy to hear that because that was one
of the questions I had when we talked about EOI
at the last meeting, you know, how are we going
to shape it so that's clear that that's one of
our priorities. So if that's the intent of this, then
I support it. Thank you. So I just want to
clarify something. Mr. CAO, would you define this as, um,
simply intent. Or something much stronger than that. Through amount
of mayor, I think it's, it's both. I think it's
the intent. You know, an EOI needs to go out
and we need to evaluate what comes back in that
expression of interest. I think I said that evening on
a number of occasions that I don't want to presuppose
what the size is. I don't want to presuppose the
type of, um, funding model, uh, the type of provider
who will look at that particular site. I think the
number of different options we can look at. But the,
you know, its intent in directing staff, I think to
very fulsomely look at this and incorporated into the EOI.
Obviously that's coming back to council. Council will have the
final decision. So I, you know, I think I want
to put a finite point on that. Ultimately council will
decide. But yes, in our expression of interest, we will
include affordable housing. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Councillor Brune,
go ahead. Uh, thank you, Madam Mayor. Through you, first
of all, I wanted to thank Councillor Pachiriba and Councillor
Timmers for bringing this motion forward. Uh, the number of
us around the horseshoe that have sat on the, um,
in different iterations of the housing committee, I think going
back to 2017. So it's been a long time in
the process and I want to thank all the individuals
that are in the room and those that aren't in
the room that are waiving the flag for affordable housing,
um, throughout the community. Um, so through you, Madam Mayor.
Councillor Pachiriva, um, spoke to one of the things that
I wanted clarification on, uh, because I think there are
a number of people, uh, within the community that are
talking about the fact that the town should not be
building or operating affordable housing. So, um, suffice it to
say, uh, Mr. CAO that we are seeking operators and
partners and we are not builders and we are not
operators. Thank you, Madam Mayor, to the Councillor. That is
correct. Council. So through you, Madam Mayor, I just was
looking to see if the CAO or, or possibly Mr.
Brooder could clarify just one thing. You know, we have
heard since word got out that we purchased the land
from the DSBN, you know, that the town has financial
obligations. The land did not come free. Um, I think
we paid, I believe, 2. 85 million dollars or somewhere
in that vicinity. And we have an operating, uh, we
have a loan, which I believe has a five year
term. So we do have a commitment and we have,
um, you know, we have debt that we need to
repay. So through your metama, I'm just wondering if the
CAO, and I don't want this to interfere with, you
know, this motion in any way, shape or form. But
for clarity purposes, um, you know, there are a number
of objectives that we're trying to do here. We're trying
to, uh, ensure that, you know, the BDS as precinct,
uh, will, will be a site that we can make
sure serves the community for the long term. And it's
sustainable. Um, but there are people out there saying, you
know, when will the debt be identified and when will
the debt be repaid? So I'm wondering if either the
CO or, um, Mr. Brooder can speak to, you know,
whether these objectives, you know, can be working in parallel
or just how, um, the town of Lincoln, uh, will
be looking at this process moving forward. Mr. Kirkopoulos. Do
you, Madam Mayor, did the councillor. And I was asked
this question earlier today, Councillor, and my answer is the
same. Really, it's a concurrent train as I look at
it. Or two concurrent trains. They're not mutually exclusive. We
realise we've got a five year window in the time
on that five year window is progressing. We have a
2. 85 million dollar. It's a larger loan through IO,
of which we've used the 2. 85 plus some legal
fees. Uh, our priority is to pay that back. That
doesn't mean we can't be looking at a small portion.
Either of that site or the broader precinct. You hear
me using the word precinct because in that precinct, we
own other lands besides BDSS. And there are other vacant
lands. And so I don't think we should presuppose it's
just that site. We may want to look at what
the broader precinct and determine where and if something makes
sense in that particular area. So to answer your question,
those aren't mutually exclusive. We will continue to look and
ensure that our obligation to pay back, uh, that floating
loan through infrastructure on terrio. And for everyone that doesn't
know infrastructure, Ontario is not necessarily like your typical bank.
It's run by the, or it is an arm's length
kind of offshoot of the province of Ontario. And so
the rates at which we borrow money, uh, how those
are structured are very different. But I owe as the
lender of the money to us. We have a five
year window to pay it back. And that remains paramount.
And our number one priority. At the same time, we
need to look at the obligations. We have the commitments
to the community to build affordable housing. There's some opportunities
now with the federal government and the province of Ontario
to tap into particular funding. Um, we are doing a
lot of, you know, I would say work and analysis
right now to determine what type of provider, what's the
model look like talking to existing providers, both in Niagara
and outside of Niagara that have done this existing contractors
and trying to learn and ascertain what we do. And
so those aren't again, mutually exclusive. You know, that is
seem to be a confusing point out there for some
people that we need to do one versus the other.
That isn't the case. One will take a lot longer.
And we will look at, you know, parsing off that
site to pay back the, you know, the money that
we owe prior to the five year window. I do
see Director Bruder with his hand up. So he may
want to chime in. Go ahead, Mr. Brooder. Thank you,
Mayor Eason, through you to the Councillor. I just, I
wanted to just point out one other thing. Um, you
notice in the motion, we don't have any specific model
or any specific parameters necessarily affordable housing opportunities can take
very different shapes and forms a wide variety of them.
Um, when you take that in the context of the
available, um, vacant land there, we're talking about the vacant
piece alone probably around seven acres or so on those
lands. So I think really it presents, as our CIO
stated an opportunity to look at these things concurrently, I
don't think it's, it's one or the other, obviously priority
is dealing with the dead peace. But that doesn't presuppose
an opportunity still to manage to create an opportunity or
fit in an affordable housing project that we find viable.
So. Just want to clarify that point. Thank you very
much. Yeah. Just, just in, in wrapping up, you know,
I realise, you know, the complete transparency tonight. There's no
decision being made. The decision will be made by the
next council in the next term. Um, but I think
this is an important step. Um, and, uh, I hope
that the two proponents of this motion will be asking
for a recorded vote. I think it's important that we
note that, uh, and I will be supporting this. Thank
you, Madam Mayor. Moving on now to Councillor Mikkelik. Thank
you very much. Um, through you to staff through you
two, uh, Councillor Pachiriva. What I'm looking at their where
as is, um, as Councillor Brunet mentioned, like, you know,
I've sat on this, um, board as well. This committee
as well. Once upon a time and back then, we
looked at a number of properties that we had owned
at the time. These were, we were looking at surplus
lands. That's where can we do something like that? You
know, what sort of thing? So when I'm looking at
this where as and strategic use of surplus municipal lands,
I feel like the use of the word surplus in
this instance is devaluing the land that we acquired. It
was never surplus. It was purchased. So I'm just wondering
if that use of the word surplus should be in
this whereas. Because typically whereas is our standard whereas is
where in this case, uh, the use of the word
surplus, which this land was wired. And paid for with
debt.
Back. End. Okay. Thank you. Um, through you, your worship
to Councillor Mickluck. The reason why surpluses is in there
is because when, uh, Council Timers and I first brought
this motion forward back last year, it was looking, um,
we were looking at the BDSS site specifically. And then
from listening to council, they said, look at the precinct.
So the precinct is everything from the Lincoln Centre around
to Bombery Park. So some of those lands are in
essence surplus. That's why that word is in there. And
around context, I don't want to get into a discussion
where we go around and round and around and wordsmith.
I think if the intent is there and we were,
we worked with staff Councillor Timbers and I to be
really strategic on this to have it open - ended.
So that's why that word's there. So it's not devaluing
the school property itself. But it's going from corner to
corner. PONO. I'm going to ask Mr. Kropo is to
comment on this as well. Go ahead. I threw you,
Madam Mayor. And thanks for the opportunity, Councillor, or Madam
Mayor. And to you, councillor. Just a point of clarification.
The process that we undertake in order to sell land
or transfer land is something that we refer to as
declaring it surplus so that we can then sell that
particular land. So it's not necessarily anything with respect to
devaluing the land or how the land was acquired. But
rather a way that municipalities under the municipal act are
able to consider the sale or transfer of municipal land.
So it needs to be declared surplus. And then we
are able to transfer that. So, uh, I don't want
you to think that in any way this devalues the
land or somehow, um, looks at the land, uh, any
less than it is, uh, and at the end of
the day, um, puts us in a negative position. It's
just the municipal act wording that is required. By my
mind. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for that clarification. I
just, I just remember back in the day we were,
we were like excited. We were hoping we were one
of the pillars. It was one of the reasons why
we acquired that, uh, BDSS site, you know. And we
had surplus land, but we couldn't find any surplus land
suitable at that time. Another question I have through you,
um, either Councillor Patriva or our CAO is in the
where eyes, in the final whereas staff have commenced preliminary
analysis and discussions, including mapping out expressions of interest regarding
the feasibility of incorporating affordable housing. Where are we with
this? We've, we've owned the property for a year and
a half now, um, we've known that we were going
to acquire the property for a year prior to that.
We were taking a run at acquiring prior to having
the memorandum of understanding MOU. For probably, you know, we
were talking about a kicking the can for two years
prior to that. Where are we realistically with this, um,
mapping out of an expression of interest. When can we
actually expect this. Go ahead, Mr. C. A. POULO. Through
you, Madam Mayor, to the Councillor, I'll start and turn
it over to Matt. And I know, um, you know,
Matt's been working on the various planning items and the
specifics in terms of some of the modelling and identifying
the site and what that site would look like. Um,
but a lot of that analysis is just that councillor,
uh, we are looking at the site. You're right. We've
had the site since January of 2025 in our hands.
Um, there were a number of processes that the school
board needed to go to. We've been doing a lot
of engagement since then. I'm not going to rehash the
presentation from two months ago as it relates to BDSS.
And, you know, the broader precinct and some of our
actions other than to say, uh, that we are working
on that EOI. And it will be ready probably the
first thing that the new council will look at the
minute you're sworn in, uh, and we have a few
dates in front of you. That'll be one of the
first things that we bring forward. Uh, but I'll turn
to Director Brewer on more of the specifics or the
mechanics of that EOI. PONO Mr. Berter. Through Mayor East
into the Councillor. Yeah. Just in addition to what our
CAO just said, um, we've also had some kind of
some important kind of foundational discussions with, uh, Niger Regional
Housing. They've been involved in other kind of opportunities structures
of agreements and whatnot, um, with other providers, I think
of something like port cares and trying to model after
something like that. So we've had these preliminary discussions already
to understand how it works. There's a lot of moving
parts, especially as you heard earlier. We're not, we're not
landlords here. Our role is mostly the land. So then
you have to figure out, okay, you have to have
a contractor. You've got to have an operator and so
on and so on. And we've had discussions with all
of these. Um, with the purpose of ensuring that the
information we get from those is what we can show
in the EOI that we bring back to council. So
we've had many of those discussions. They're productive. There is,
there's a lot of good partners and staff working at
Niger Regional Housing. We've been in contact with them on
and off, um, for quite a while now. So, um,
as our CAO said, we expect to come back early
in the new term. PONO. Thank you very much. And
then finally my third question. I don't think any of
them have been pretty pointed. But, um, when we talk
about, um, searching for a, you know, acquiring a proper
suitable sort of partner with all of this, how are
we going to determine what makes what looks like a
good partner? What sort of matrix are we going to
do? Who's going to make that decision. Let me try
to ask 15 questions in one. But like how, how
are we going to, how are we going to determine
like differentiate a tire kicker, a dreamer and endure. Who's
going to make these sorts of challenging decisions when we're
talking about municipal land that has a value to, it
has a cost to it moving down the road. It's
just a matter of you've been dreaming on this for
a while. A little bigger warship and through you to
the councillor. You know, when we look at structuring the
EOI moving forward, I think, you know, there's, that's the
important piece. It's going to have to be the evaluation
criteria. There's probably going to be, you know, a scoring
system, a waiting system. It's going to be based on
maybe experience of service providers and contractors that apply. Maybe
it's going to be based on a performa that they're
able to provide in support of their application. It's all
about the quality of the application and demonstrating that there's
an ability not just to undertake the initial works, but
also see the project through from start to finish. Um,
as for who's making those decisions, uh, I think there
probably needs to be a little bit more discussion there.
Um, haven't quite mapped out exactly what that looks like
yet. But again, it's going to be something when we
have an EOI completed that council is going to see.
And they're going to be obviously involved in that decision
as well before we go forward with it. But again,
that EOI, in my opinion, anyway, will include some structure
and some scoring criteria and waiting as it pertains to
affordable housing. So we can evaluate a provider based on
their track record. Um, and previous experience. PON. Thank you.
And appreciate that answer. I think that's going to be
a significant piece to this. I think that's going to
be extremely important to get anything over the finish line
or even anything to the starting lines. So, and, you
know, with, it's looking like this is going to be
at least three, four months from now. And then maybe
another. So I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, you know,
I'm not getting ready myself if I get reelected for
any sort of ribbon cuttings too soon. So I want
to make sure everybody here is patient with this that
it doesn't happen that quickly. The fact that we're even
here, I think is pretty remarkable. Thank you. Thank you
very much, Councillor. I'd like to hear from the CAO.
Do you matter Mayor to the Councillor? I mean, one
of the things I just want to echo is that,
um, council ultimately will be making a decision. We did
talk about bringing the UI back sharing that with council,
uh, in the term in terms of who often assesses
matrices. I mean, usually that's a staff team that we
put together as well as external, uh, expertise or external
consultants, uh, external, um, individuals, contractors, whatever it may be.
I know we've met with a few. Some is recently
as this week. Um, if I look at, you know,
affordable housing projects and feasibility assessment matrices, uh, I have
one from the region, uh, that I've just pulled up
in front of me. And, you know, just to give
you an idea of assessment areas that we look at,
things like affordability and community benefit, financial feasibility. Municipal, financial
impact, planning and site feasibility, deliverability and readiness, infrastructure and
servicing long - term affordability and developer capacity and risk.
So I want to put your mind at ease councillor,
or at least reassure members of council who may be
having a similar thoughts, that the number of things that
would go into that, um, and then this suggested weights
that we have with each of those in order to
make that particular assessment. So, um, we will be in
front of you again, as I said, uh, with more
information as we move forward. But this is a key
step in moving, um, an affordability housing project forward. Thank
you very much, Mr. Grakopoulos. We'll move on now to
Councillor Murray. Go ahead, Councillor. Thank you very much, Mayor
Easton. Through you to potentially, um, our, our, our colleague
who has moved this motion or perhaps to our CAO.
I think that the issue of Affordable housing is important.
I think nobody in this room doesn't believe that that's
true. And I think we all believe that the availability
of all levels of housing in our community is what
creates a whole vibrant and healthy community. However, everybody else
in this room also knows that our municipal revenue systems,
as in property tax levy, are not designed to fund
projects like this. Now I recognise that we're not talking
about funding a project. However, this is a regional provincial
and even federal mandate. And they have revenue streams that
are not tied directly to property values that are better
suited for funding a project like this. So then what
can we as municipality do? It's in this motion in
that, um, we can promote affordable housing by removing barriers
by working to develop partnerships by providing opportunities and by
advocating to other levels of government, which we have already
done and which we have already committed to continue doing.
So everybody at this table has already said on more
than one occasion that the BDSS precinct is our best
and brightest opportunity for Affordable Housing in our Town. And
that if we miss this opportunity, we have made a
big mistake. We've all said that. That's not news to
any of us. So staff have already initiated tasks like
talking with potential partners. Affordable housing has consistently been a
part of our conversations around what's going to happen with
this site. An EOI regarding a feasibility has already commenced.
That's, that's in this, that's in this motion. So then
I have two points, two questions that I'd like to
ask. First of all, is I'm not sure that I
understand why now, why this? And by that I mean,
we're already doing everything that this motion is asking for.
We have committed. We are, we are moving forward. We
have talked with partners. We are already committed to advocating
at other levels of government. So everything that you're asking
us to do in this motion has already been initiated.
So I don't understand. What this motion creates or achieves
that isn't already in place. And then the second piece,
which is maybe a second question or part of the
same is we have to recognise that although this is
our land, land has a cost. And there's an opportunity
cost for using this land for affordable housing instead of
for another project. And that's fine. I think it's important
that that's where we're using our funding for. But how
do we anticipate offsetting that cost so that it's not
downloaded onto the municipal taxpayer because we've already said our
system isn't designed to do that. Okay. I'm going to
start with the CAO because there's policy issues here that
we should clarify. And then if it's necessary, we'll see
what, um, the mover and seconder have to say. Go
ahead. Through you, Madam Mayor. And I'm probably going to
push it back to Councillor Pachiriva because from everything you've
said, you're absolutely correct. We've begun a lot of that
work. Uh, emotion and the political nature of motions. And
what we've seen around this table on numerous occasions where
Council wants to actually draw a line in the sand
and put something forward is something that you all do.
Uh, we take that direction and we move forward on
it. But you're absolutely correct, Councillor, that, um, we are
beginning a lot of that feasibility work. Do I need
direction to do feasibility work? No. But oftentimes you direct
me to do a lot of things. I don't need
direction for, uh, but you do it because I think
Council wants to put a finite marker forward and you
want to show that you have a level of commitment
towards something. And so I think the nature of this
type of conversation, the importance of it. Sometimes the diametrically
opposed views that we often find with projects that are
a little more contentious. It means Council wants to be
taking some of these steps. There are certain things legislatively
as the mayor said that Council will have to have
a say in in terms of when we start looking
at, uh, the disposition of land, the declaration of land
being surplus, how much land, um, what sort of rebates
potentially we get into with affordable housing providers. And by
rebates, I mean, you know, the town becomes a conduit
between the region that actually provides the funding and a
particular builder in order to do that. There's 25 year
agreements that need to be in place and so forth
that often happens. So it's not money coming from the
town per se, but it is regional services, regional supports.
Um, if we're out there advocating publicly, uh, sometimes having
direction from council is an important piece of that. Uh,
so that we're not just out there talking about a
particular project without that council backing. But I'll look to
Councillor PACHARIVA if he wants that. Why he feels the
motion is needed now. Notwithstanding, we're doing the work already.
Go ahead, Councillor Patrick. Yeah. Thanks to worship. And I
think first and foremost, it closes the loop on the
first notice of motion. Councillor Timmers and I brought May
26, 2025. That night council was not comfortable because our
CAO and our Director of Planning weren't here. So like
the CAO said work is driven by motion. And we
thought it's important that it comes back. Uh, there's been
groundswell in the community of Affordable Housing Lincoln of the
work of our housing select committee. It provides validation to
the work of not only this term, but when Council
Bernet and Councillor Mickeluck and Council Rinchamora on there going
back to 2017, right? It's some momentum and momentum is
now growing. And the time to close all this and
make it formal. Is now. And your second point about
opportunity cost. I'm the biggest, and that's why we included
precinct. That was the big thing that came out of
that night was the word precinct. Don't tie your hands
on the BDSS site. Allow it to go from the
Lincoln Centre around to Bombery Park. I'm the biggest blue
sky are in the world. I can dream in technicolor.
And what I potentially would love to see is something
similar to the Legion in Portugalzi. So maybe it's the,
um, senior centre on central that's redone because it's getting,
you know, that it needs work. And the housing goes
on top. So then your opportunity cost is zero. Because
it's not using up any land. So that's, that's why
this is so open - ended. And that's why maybe
these, these expressions of interest hopefully will shake some trees
and have someone come with something thought - provoking that
may be can solve two or three issues. So Councillor,
that's why now, and that's the opportunity cost. So thank
you. Thank you, Wish. Thank you. Mr. Kirkopoulis has a
response. And then Councillor Murray still has the floor. So
we'll be going back to her. Through you, Madam Mayor
and I apologise, Councillor. I didn't answer your opportunity, cost
question. I just focused on the first part of that.
You know, I'm not going to pretend otherwise that there
is in value and an opportunity cost to land that
could be sold at fire market value. And we know
what potentially fair market value looks like in there. Obviously,
um, reducing that cost or eliminating it completely for affordable
housing does have a cost to it. But I think
the question is what creates the long - term value
for the community. And oftentimes, uh, just in a conversation
this morning, uh, with someone who's in this particular realm
who does a lot of the construction, you know, you
need to look, we do a lot of things, as
you've heard me say on a number of occasions, uh,
that don't necessarily either break even or generate the most
revenue for what we do. I couldn't operate ice rinks
and arenas at what it costs me to recoup the
dollars that it costs on a per hour basis. I'd
have this room more full than it is tonight if
I wanted to increase them and recoup the dollars similarly
for libraries and a number of other services. Now some
people will not and say, well, yeah, those have been
around a long time and they're the traditional services municipalities
provide, but 300 and change to operate an hour of
ice versus the 175 I charge. You start seeing how
there's definitely a discrepancy in that. So I think the
question council needs to look at is how do we
create long - term value in the community? And sometimes
we have to put these types of value propositions forward
and how these types of value conversations. So that's how
I'd answer. I think that, um, that opportunity cost question.
Murray, you're a floor. Thank you. Um, I appreciate those
answers. I appreciate the fulsomeness of the thought that's gone
into this motion as well as the work over the
last three years or two and a half years after
we first of all discuss purchasing it. And then after
purchasing, I would also just want to suggest to Councillor
Pachirima that the previous motion that was considered before this
was, was quite a bit different than this motion as
well. So I just want to clarify too that, um,
one of the reasons I feel like that motion didn't
move forward was perhaps because it hadn't evolved as much
as this one had. Um, and, and then also, um,
you know, the idea of it costs to create a
community service and that we all need to support, um,
the better societal good. I'm on board with that. I
agree with it. But I think we just need to
be really cognizant and aware of what we have, what
we are agreeing to pay for. And that's fine. And
it's, it's good. Um, but, but let's go into it
with our eyes wide open. That's just pretty much where
I, where I wanted to go with that. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you very much Council Murray. And I would
add to that, that unfortunately we can look, um, many
municipalities in Niagara and find real data. On how much
it is costing them to survive through encampments. And they
can certainly identify the costs. And they are overwhelming. Our
opportunity costs would be gone out to the window in
no time. And those are real numbers that are out
there well documented. So thank you for your question. Councillor
Russell. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Very quickly, um, again, I
like the open endedness of this motion. Um, again, I
think it does, uh, again, give us a lot of
flexibility. Again, at least the next term does when, uh,
they make, uh, that decision. My only question is again,
when it comes to the reservation point, um, to the
RCAO, do you think that when we get to that
point of making the reservation and actually starting to think
about the land itself, are we going to put a
timeline on that, uh, use of land so that the
end date. At least just to try to keep a
book in so that whoever those interested parties are, they
have a date to work towards instead of just having
like a vacant piece of land until, um, again, for
years to come, uh, while people are trying to work
on the math, uh, and making sure that the model
does work is they're going to be an end date
that Council can reevaluate whether or not it is actually
a viable, um, opportunity. Or if it's just, uh, we
need to reconsider how that land gets used in the
future. Do you, Madam Mayor, to the Councillor. I think
we need to have, um, parameters and goalposts at Councillor.
I don't think we can have moving goal post or
no goal posts at all. I think it's important that
we have that, um, and I think, uh, it's important.
And what I heard today again, meeting with someone who's
in this particular realm and who does this type of
work is that sometimes it's the municipality causing the whole
dog, not necessarily the private sector that's looking to do
something. So I think where we can, um, the municipality
needs to get out of the way. Um, once our
portion is done, but absolutely we need to have, um,
goalposts and timeline set on, on either end of this
to ensure that the work gets done, uh, because with
all work, uh, like this, uh, and we're talking about
value and property values, um, time is sometimes money. Uh,
and the value of property often changes as well. So
we do need to have some posts so that we
can start to do the necessary financial planning that we
have to have. Okay. Thank you. Good, thank you very
much. And next is Councillor Timmers. Go ahead. Thank you,
Mary Stin. Wow. I'm going to keep it really brief.
So, you know, good discussion tonight. This has been a
long time coming. I've been on the, um, housing select
committee. And prior to all the different committees we had
around this topic since the beginning. It's been a long
haul. And we've known all along what we need. The
one thing, the most important thing is an X on
that map. We need a spot. We need the land.
So this is what we're looking for. A formal commitment
with this motion. It's a good motion. I appreciate everyone's,
um, work on this over the years. I want to
thank the, um, housing select committee members that are here
tonight. Some are online. Also, um, Affordable Housing Lincoln who
started to come to our meetings and really, really did
some great advocacy out in the community. And it shows
by the number of people that are here tonight that
they support it. So I will be supporting this motion
and I would like to, um, call for a recorded
vote when that happens. Thank you very much. Thank you
everyone for being here tonight. Thank you Councillor Timmers and
Deputy Mayor Reimer, Chair Turn. Thank you Mayor Houston. Thank
you to Councillor Patrice. Even Councillor Timurus for bringing this
motion forward. It is thorough and it's complete. And I
support it. Um. Our purchase of BDSS has never been
about being a landlords or builders. I don't remember. It's
ever talking about that and are bringing it up in
discussion. It's always been about taking control, showing leadership and
exploring opportunities for a piece of property. Uh, like BDSS.
This is something that's going to shape and affect our
downtown beamsville for generations. Um, and so many decisions we
make, I think we forget. It's not about the residents,
not only about the residents of today. But 30 years,
40 years from now. In 20 years, they're going to
look back and say, you bought this piece of property
for what. It's the same as the discussion we have
with Councillor Foster, both the prices going up. That cost
of that property that we purchased to do all these
things or these opportunities, the potential to all these things,
I think is minimal. Um, I do have one question
and I'm not sure if it's too early to ask
this in relationship to this motion. Um, two director brooder.
It's a two early to talk about a secondary plan.
Is that something that we need to. Work alongside of
this? Not asking at all this to be part of
the motion. That's not my point. But just maybe throwing
it out there. Do we not need that in order
to have other, you know, like the, like commenting and
things like other input on this type of thing? Or
is that, or is that too early for that type
of conversation through you, Mayor Easton. Go ahead, Mr. Brooder.
Thank you, Mayor East. And through you to the Councillor,
I don't think it's too early to bring it up.
But the way I see it is I think that
the next step and, you know, that's what we kind
of outlined in our previous presentation. I think we have
to go the eel route first. And the reason I
say that is I think we have to establish from
a broad level. Um, you know, what do we really
want to see out of this particular site? Obviously one
of the things we want to see is what's being
talked about a little bit tonight. I think from there,
then you go into working once you've got maybe an
organisation or maybe a group of organisations that you're going
to be working with on the site or what have
you. Then from there, you can kind of work hand
in hand to make sure you develop a policy framework
that works. Obviously with public consultation being a key component,
I think of the second, it's a different situation, but
the secondary plan we did for prudims, for example, you
know, we worked very closely with the developer team to
try to come up with something that was a suitable
for, you know, public benefit and for members of the
community, but also in line with, uh, what was realistic
for the site according to the developer. So I could
see a similar process here. And a follow up, if
I may, Mayor said, and, and Matt, just along those
same lines then, once, let's say this EOI looking had
the UI is finished and completed. And we have with
the, with the land use then, you know, like as
far as. Practical areas of what we're going to use
or potentially use the piece of property for, then that
would incorporate into our secondary plan. Does that make sense?
Or is that along the. Mr. Bruder? Yeah. Um, Drew
Mayor Easton. Yeah. Generally speaking, I think that's correct. Obviously
when you get into that developing the actual land use
policies that tie in with the EOI. Yeah. There's going
to be some further refinement. You know, what happens or
what submitted at the AOI stage? Is that going to
be the final product? Maybe not completely, but it informs
the next step, which is a little bit more detailed
oriented when it comes to a secondary plan or a
master plan or something like that for the site. Okay.
Thank you, Dr. Reeder. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you very
much. There's no other speakers. I have a question of
the CAO. This has to do with speak up Lincoln
on a number of occasions tonight. There were, I think,
very laudable efforts by Council to ensure and yourself to
ensure that there's accurate information. Could we post, or maybe
we have, I didn't check in the last few days.
Could we post accurate information on speak up Lincoln in
regard to the way these questions are being asked in
some of the suppositions that are being made? Where do
we stand with that? I think we need some, uh,
we need a consistent communication access for the public. Mr.
C. A. PO. To you, Madam Mayor. Um, yeah, I
think the simple answer is yes. I think we can
find a, it may be simpler way. Um, and maybe
it's not just speak up Lincoln in terms of how
we communicate this to make sure that some of those
clarifications are made and captured appropriately. So. Okay. All right.
And I'm just, I'm assuming that that would include providing,
uh, relevant correspondence to the select committee so that they
have that consistent information as well. Okay. Well, thank you
very much councillors. Great questions and good discussion. And, um,
I'm very, very pleased to see this motion coming forward.
So the motion has been read. Madam Clerk, I would
ask you, uh, open the vote. And it has been
requested to be recorded. P. That's been noted. And that
will show up. Thank you. And I will. Open the
vote. Yes.
I will close that boat. And you will see on
the screen that that, uh, carries unanimously and that will
be noted in the minutes. Thank you. Thank you very
much, Madam Clerk. The next item on the agenda is
the reports of municipal officers. And I have Mayor's report
to present this evening. And, um, I would begin by
saying, good evening to everyone who is listening or is
in the gallery. I'm sorry. Um, as I begin my
Mayor's report this evening, I first want to congratulate all
of the students across Lincoln who have completed another school
year. And especially those who celebrated a graduation. It is
an exciting time in your lives. With new opportunities ahead
and probably a little uncertainty as well. We wish each
of you every success in whatever path you choose. And
wherever that path may take you. I also want to
acknowledge our teacher's school staff and families. These milestones don't
happen with photograph deal of support along the way. And
thank you for everything you do for the young people
of Lincoln. The July 21st storm was discussed in some
detailed this evening. However, I want to also put on
record that this was an extraordinary amount of rain and
wind in a very short period of time. And different
parts of our community experienced it in different ways. For
some families, the impacts were significant, including the flooding of
homes and properties. And I know how upsetting and stressful
that can be. To everyone who has affected, please know
that you have been very much on the minds of
all staff, all councillors. And we want to, and we
hope that as the days go by, and you're provided
and access the support that's available, that it eases your
minds as well. I want to sincerely thank our town
staff, fire department and the Nigeria region, emergency responders, and
everyone who worked through difficult conditions to respond to calls
flooded roads overwhelmed systems and residents who needed help. There
will always be lessons from events like this. We will
continue to look at our infrastructure, how our systems performed,
what we can reasonably do to make Lincoln more resilient
as these extreme weather events become something communities everywhere are
dealing with more frequently. So please continue to report your
individual circumstances and make use of the information and supports
that have been made available. I think, as you've all
heard tonight, all of Council was heavily involved and certainly
many, many of the staff. On October the 26th, we
will be having our next municipal election. And the clerks
department has been very busy preparing the systems that will
be needed to ensure that everyone who is eligible to
vote has that opportunity. The nomination period open may one,
and we are beginning to see candidates come forward from
mayor and the six Councillor Positions. And I'm very happy
to see some of those potential councillors sitting with us
this evening. I encourage residents to become engaged and learn
about the candidates and most importantly to vote. Local government
touches our lives every day, often in ways people don't
immediately recognise and you're participation matters. Several weeks ago, I
announced that after 12 years as mayor, I will not
be seeking re - election. Together with my earlier six
years as award - one councillor, it has been an
extraordinary privilege to have served this community for 18 years.
Since making that announcement, I have received many very kind
messages, conversations, and acknowledgments. Some have brought back incredible memories
that I thought that I had forgotten. I'm sincerely grateful
for them and for the support and consideration that has
been extended to me and to my family over many
years. There will be another time for me to say
more about that journey. I'm sure we still have work
to do if tonight's meeting is any indication. In a
mode of looking back and forward recently, CAO Microcopolis provided
Council with an update on the progress made against our
work plan. And staff have also prepared a broader review
covering this entire 2022 to 2026 term. This is something
that we take very, very seriously. And when you look
at everything together, Lincoln has much to be proud of.
The approach we have taken has really been quite simple.
Listen to the community, establish priorities. Build a strategic plan
and work plan around those priorities. And most importantly, get
on with delivering it. That has resulted in significant investments
in roads, water, and wastewater infrastructure, parks, recreation, libraries, economic
development, housing, community services, and many other areas. It is
also allowed us to think differently about some of the
opportunities before us and to take on projects that perhaps
a municipality of our size would not traditionally have trachen
on BDSS is certainly one of those opportunities. None of
this happens because of one person. It happens because council
establishes direction, professional staff execute that direction. Residents participate and
our partners work with us. And I particularly want to
acknowledge the tremendous support that Lincoln has received from other
levels of government and our many partners. MPPSEM Ustrehoff MPD
Nellison Regional Councillor Rob Foster, regional CAO Ron Trip and
Regional Staff, along with many ministers, agencies, community organisations and
others have worked with Lincoln over the years. We deliberately
built a strong government relations program because of municipality, our
size cannot accomplish everything on its own. Those relationships have
resulted in millions of dollars of investment in Lincoln, and
more importantly, projects and services that have made a difference
in people's lives. The collaboration has been one of the
great strengths of Lincoln. In the matter of a changing
environment, there is something else I have been thinking about
a great deal, particularly as we enter another municipal election.
And that is the way that residents receive information and
how it has changed dramatically during my time in public
life. Traditional local media is much smaller than it once
was. Social media has filled some of that space, but
it is also created in an environment where information moves
very quickly and often without the context or editorial oversight
that once existed. We've talked a little bit about some
of that tonight. How information can get off the track.
How information could go from something that is very right
to a whole lot of questions about things that have
no fact base. As a municipality, we've worked very hard
to communicate regularly and openly to our residents through Council
meetings, staff reports, newsletter, speak up Lincoln, social media, public
meetings, business communications, our new podcast, and many other channels.
There's probably more information available about the work of the
town today than at any other point during my time
in office. That doesn't mean we always get a perfect.
We don't. But the commitment to communicating openly, consistently and
providing the facts has been very deliberate. Election campaigns can
sometimes make this more difficult. Candidates for all naturally have
different ideas and opinions. That is democracy, and it should
be encouraged. But during elections, the law can also be
said about decisions that have been made sometimes without the
history, financial information, or the full context behind those decisions.
As many of you who are watching this meeting tonight,
will no one understand we have spent a great deal
of time in this one meeting. Ensuring that some of
those things, if not all of them, were covered as
we worked our way through the agenda. My advice to
council, staff, and those seeking public office is that we
always take the higher road. Don't get drawn into every
comment or criticism. Provide the facts. Explain the decisions. Correct
misinformation when it is important to do so, and then
continue doing the work. Residents deserve to understand not only
what council decided, but why it was decided what alternatives
were considered what it costs and what the consequences would
have been if we chose a different path. We won't
always agree. We aren't supposed to. And public service isn't
about winning every argument. At the end of the day,
we need to remember why we are here in the
first place. It is because of a commitment to service
and a belief that we can contribute something to the
community we call home. That applies whether you are the
mayor, a councillor, or someone putting their name forward for
the very first time. Take the higher road, respect the
institution, and remember that the community is bigger than anyone
election or any one of us. That is that, in
my opinion, is what public service should always be about.
On the matter of leadership, many of you have heard
me speak over the years about leadership around this horseshoe.
Good councils need different perspectives. Different experiences and people who
aren't afraid to challenge each other. Without that mixture of
representation, our review of the community can become very narrow.
My own approach to public service has always had started
with empathy. Trying to put yourself in somebody else's shoes,
understanding their circumstances, and then working toward a better outcome.
Perhaps some of this comes from my background in healthcare.
You learn to look at the whole system. You begin
to understand how the pieces connect and think about the
impact of decisions before and after they are made. Not
just come up with quick solutions, throw it at the
wall, and then wait and see what happens. That can
be a very, very painful process for anybody that's impacted
by that kind of decision - making. Municipal government isn't
different than health care. Rhoads connect to growth. Growth connects
to water and wastewater. Housing connects to economic development, recreation
connects to health. Libraries connect to education and community. And
all of it connects back to the quality of life
people experience every day. So when you are having a
conversation about what to take out of the budget, I
can tell you that every decision positive or not positive
has a major impact on somebody somewhere. And so that
puts another layer of difficulty on all decisions that you
will make if you sit around this table in the
future. Our job, however, is to understand these connections. And
whenever possible, to leave the community better than we found
it. So as the next council, as Lincoln in the
next council start turning the page for the next chapter.
I believe the next council will inherit a municipality with
a very strong foundation. There will be difficult decisions ahead.
Housing, infrastructure, growth, affordability, climate resilience, financial sustainability among them.
Those decisions will require thoughtful leadership, good information. And the
willingness to sometimes look beyond the immediate issue to what
is best for Lincoln 10 and 20 years from now.
There are also cause to delaying decisions. We know this.
We have experienced this within the last two to three
years. Infrastructure does not become less expensive by waiting. And
sometimes the greater risk is doing nothing. That is why
our official plan, asset management plan, master plans and long
- term financial planning are so important. They provide the
roadmap that allows councils to make decisions based on evidence
rather than simply the issue of the day. And I
want to acknowledge that. Pending some business that may come
forward in September tonight may in fact be our final
regular Council meeting of this term. And if that's the
case, I don't want this meeting to end without saying
thank you. To my colleagues on council, all the councils
from 2014, I thank you all. We've not always agreed,
nor should we. But we have shared the responsibility of
making decisions for this community sometimes very difficult ones. And
I am very proud and you all should be very
proud of what we have accomplished together. I also want
to especially recognise CAO Mike and all of our senior
staff, the senior leadership team, many of who have supporting
roles with the mayor's office. The amount of work that
happens behind the scenes is sometimes difficult for the people
to see. For the public to see. These are people
who have worked through emergencies, just like you had this
past week. I wish you could have seen how the
independently organised themselves in this building to ensure that calls
were taken that information was accurate, that people that walked
in unannounced were greeted and supported. It was really something
to behold. They are dealing with significant growth. The challenge
is significant. Changing legislation. I think the province is speaking
to us more in a month than sometimes they would
in a year. Financial pressures and some very ambitious projects,
including the hospital. They have given counsel professional advice, sometimes
advice we may not have wanted to hear and then
carried out the direction of council. To Mike, in the
entire senior team and really to all town staff, everyone,
thank you. I have tremendous respect for the professionalism for
the trades, for the commitment that you bring to Lincoln
every day. I have watched, as you have counsel, Lincoln
change considerably in the PAST 12 years. It has grown
up. It needed to. We are in a very good
place at this time. We have built infrastructure, strengthened our
finances, expanded recreation and community services invested in our downtowns,
built relationships with other governments, and taken on projects that
at one time might have seemed beyond the reach of
a municipality our size. And we did this keeping the
youth of our community and the seniors of our community
and the families of our community Top of mine. None
of that belongs to one mayor. One council, or one
CAO. It has been a team effort. I am proud
of the culture we have built between Council and staff.
For anyone new protected. Council should ask questions. Challenge assumptions,
establish the direction of the municipality and then allow our
professional staff to do the jobs we hired them to
do. They're here because of your strategic initiatives. Treat them
with respect. And defend their professional role. A healthy organisational
culture takes years to build and can be damaged very
quickly. And there are hefty costs that go along with
that. For those who will sit around this horseshoe in
the future, my advice is fairly simple. Think beyond the
next meeting. Listen carefully, particularly to people whose experience is
maybe different from your own. Understand the costs and risks
of acting, but also understand the cost and risks of
not acting. Leave your ego outside this building. Remember why
you are sitting here. You are elected. Now you need
to sit in the chair and learn about the job
and be respectful of it. Because there will be many
assumptions that you will come with that will not apply
at all. You may be quite surprised. Remember that it
isn't about any one of us. It is about leaving
Lincoln a little better than we found it. I'm equally
grateful. To the residents who have challenged us encouraged us
participated and trusted us along the way. But if this
is our last meeting around the horseshoe, I simply want
to say thank you. Thank you to council. Thank you,
Mike. And our senior staff. Thank you to every employee.
Thank you to our community partners and other levels of
government who have worked alongside us. Thank you to my
family. Who have shared me with this community for a
very long time. And most importantly, thank you to the
people of Lincoln for giving me the extraordinary privilege of
serving this community. We still have a few months left.
And there is still work to do. So as we
always have, let's get on with it. Thank you.
Thank. You very much. I have a
motion moved by Councillor Mickelik, seconded by Councillor Renema. That
Council receive and file for information the following Mayor's Report.
Madam Clerk, would you please open the vote. Lotus open,
Madam Mayor.
Cancer Timurs. That's. Okay. Thank you. I'll close that vote
that carries, Madam Mayor. Thank you. The motion is carried.
Item number 17 is confidential matters. We have none this
evening. However, we do have two bylaws for consideration today.
Do members have any questions on the Bibles.
I see none. I have a motion move by Councillor
Brunet. Second of I Council Russell. That leave be given
to approve the following bylaws. 2026 - 41, a bylaw
to establish lands legally described as one part of LOT
21 broken front concession, Clinton, designated as parts 1 and
2 on plan 30R - 16477. ST and TWR -
0612677. Lincoln. And two, part of LOT 21, broken front
concession, Clinton, designated as parts 3, 4, 5, and 6
on plan 30R - 16473. ST and TWR0612677.
Lincoln, as part of a public highway under the jurisdiction
of a corporation of the Town of Lincoln known as
Blzard Drive. Bylaw 2026 - 42, a by - allowed
to authorize the conveyance part of the Road Alan's Between
concession 1 and concession 2 Louth. Designated as part 1
on plan 30R - 15292 in the Town of Lincoln
Municipality of Niagara. Madam Clerk, would you please open the
vote. Vote is now open. I'll close that boat and
that carries Madame Mayor. Thank you. The motion is carried.
We will now confirm the proceedings of the Council meeting,
and I have a motion move by Councillor Timmer, seconded
by Councillor Pachiriva that leave be given to introduce by
- law number 2026 - 43. A bilaud to confirm
the proceedings of Council at its meeting held Monday, July
the 27th, 2026, being read of first, second, and third
time that bylaw number 2026 - 43 being acted and
passed, and that the Mayor and Clerk sign and sealed
the bed said bylaw. Madam Clerk, would you please open
the vote. PONOOT OPEN.
That carries. Thank you. The motion is carried. I have
a motion move by Councillor Reimer, seconded by Councillor Murray.
If the Council meeting on July the 27th, 2026, be
adjourned at 2100 hours, I think, on the dot. And
so we will ask the clerk to open the vote.
Vote is open. And. I will close that boat, and
that carries, thanks. All right, thank you everyone. This concludes
our Council meeting for this evening.