Thank you, Mayor Dave. Just stepping back a couple
of days. The BIA held their annual
It
was great about it was it was an opportunity to catch up highlight what was great
job they continued.
Fair Dave and looks.
Thank you, Mayor Dave.
But
didn't have my ear plugs.
Thanks, Mayor Dave, and welcome to everyone here in the audience and online.
Just to reiterate the BIA.
Be birthday spears here.
Right on the mic.
So the BIA, as Councillor Popp mentioned, their day GM and is having an event on Saturday
in town.
I'll leave the mayor to announce the one for Friday night or Friday as well.
But again, a congratulations, the presentation is going to happen just after announcements
here this morning is extremely well deserved. I'll leave the name until then but certainly certainly I have.
Hello, certainly a lot of experience with the recipient of this award having been the coach of both my boys.
There's high school here and very well deserved so looking forward to.
You know,
just off the top, thank you to 105.5, it's up to
those that were impacted by the ice
form. Their broadcast reached folks as far as pepper law that were able to come through and
utilize the showers at the pool. So thank you to the pool staff for making that space available.
Carging station in the spot where you'd be able to head out and send whatever email.
I don't know if it's just me, but it looks like Ward 3 has the best act debris by the sides
of the road for collections.
So thank you to the residents all across the township for making sure that crews will
be able to efficiently get that all cleaned up.
And just to touch on the report that's coming up, our facilities are humming.
We've seen an incredible amount of bookings come through recently, and that supports our
community because that means that it's not the taxpayer that's needing to to
cover those repairs. A big part of that is Joanne Haley has been doing really
great work and making sure that is sufficiently booked. And so thanks for all
that work. It's just fun to see great assets like those being well taken care of
and that starts with being able to have confidence in the booking. Thank you very
much.
Good morning everybody. Just keep going. Hope that it will work. Council will
remember that we had a presentation to do, it's called the North Durham Social Development
Council, Interagency.
The government came in and presented, encouraged, I offered to attend on behalf of Council.
We had that meeting last week across the road at St. Andrews, and it was really good that
there was 25 different agencies.
Some were independent, some were regionally oriented, some local, they were all over North
Durham, and it's just really interesting and encouraging to see them coming together
There it is, trying to knock down any bureaucracy
and do the best they can with the limited assets they've got.
That follow-up was completed
and we'll look forward to when the next one's going to happen.
That's it for this week.
Dave, thanks.
Chris, do you want to talk about Friday?
Oh, good Friday.
I'll start and certainly not my initiative or my event.
This was the Barton Farm Easter egg hunt got moved.
The ladies were running that decided that they've had enough.
And Dave had an idea who said let's make it a community. I'm just kidding. Let's have a community one. So a few of us are involved trying to get that organized. So it's Friday at 11. I think is what we chose.
18.
18. So two Fridays for now. Todd was just reminding me.
Open to everybody you can sign up online. Probably going to limit it to 150 people.
perhaps move that up a little bit if we can.
This is gonna be a fun event.
All ages, we're gonna separate the smallest kids,
maybe from one to four or five into one area,
and then let the wild ones run the park.
And we picked up some eggs from the previous organizers.
I think we got about 1,400 plastic eggs
or something in that nature.
Lots of fun to be had.
This wouldn't be happening without the help of staff
because it had some good ideas.
and they corrected us, I think you'd say.
And then staff is stepped in to help organize the cats
and get this all done.
So it's looking forward to Friday at Algonn Park.
So I'm going to take a little bit of that.
Thanks to the organizers of the Barton Farm's egg hunt.
They ran this for a number of years.
What way beyond what we're going to do,
they were searching for prizes for,
you know, a year in advance and just trying to make their dollars go further and just organized
incredible events. We just wanted to find a way to keep as much of it as alive as possible. So
that's what we're going to do at Elgin Park.
We've been through a pretty tough week. You know,
in Oxford, we had a number of residents that just got their power back yesterday, but we were certainly
not alone. This was the biggest storm since the ice storm in 1998. So just huge damage across
Ontario, unbelievable response from hydro one and all other hydro providers. Just working around
the clock for an entire week to get us to this point. I think the status is still about 50,000 people
with their power. Fortunately, a lot of those are sort of cottages and areas that don't have full-time
residents, but I know one person in this room just got their power back yesterday,
it went eight o'clock. And then to the community for coming together, whether it's scouts
or just neighbors helping neighbors, I know there's a huge work bee because there's a lot of damage on
interround algan pond yesterday with just a bunch of friends getting together with chainsaws.
So, again, thanks to everyone who stepped up, thanks to the province of Ontario for stepping
up in a meaningful way and an unbelievable response to the hydro workers.
I know the ones that turned on the Ramara last night were from New Brunswick, so just phenomenal.
The other one, we've got somebody who helps us all the time, pretty meaningful, already
he mentioned 105-5, but Dan Pollard is a guy who steps up in big ways across
County, moderates debates. He's at most events and Dan and his family have lost
their father yesterday morning. So just thinking about thinking about the family
as they as they navigate that. I don't typically announce things from this chair,
but Dan goes above and beyond and he's announced a public reality.
Just thinking of all the loved ones of Ron Pollard during this very difficult time.
So yeah, just on that somber note, did you want to mention the cleanup that I will start
today through the minutes, like with regards to the storm, I can step in just quickly on
it.
Go away, go ahead.
Yeah, the township has started.
So for all those that had brush and trees that have come down, just leave them out by the
front lawn, you can go to our website. There is some notice on it. So we'll be
starting to collect all that from the area. So if you've had some trees come
down, simply put the brush out there and we'll be looking after that for more
information.
I'm just going to talk a little bit about why we did that. This is
not what we normally do. We don't typically collect this sort of debris.
This
You know, the person who lives in this observation
and has four branches or one tree that falls down,
and how do you manage that?
Do you own a crew to chip one tree or a few branches?
Anyway, we knew that as a municipality,
we could do this more efficiently as a whole.
We wanted to make sure that we're serving our residents,
we understand it
more efficient.
If we can do this cheaper than everyone else gets,
I would be so.
Council supported it.
And again, thanks for staff for stepping up and making this happen, and thank you.
All right, let's jump on with the rest of the agenda here.
We're going to start with the presentation.
Do you want to meet me up there?
This is my first time standing over here at this podium.
And so now I understand a little bit more of the angst.
But we're here to celebrate someone that's been doing really incredible work here in the township of Artsbridge.
which is pretty common of the folks that step up in our community.
This individual has not only been a driver of supporting athletics in our community,
but has also, by way of hosting events and bringing in different athletic organizations across Durham region,
has been a good driver of tourism as well.
And so as chair of tourism, it excites me to be able to go to some of these events
and think of the folks that are now spilling out into our restaurants or touring many of our different
facilities to check those out. And so we'll get into a little bit more of that, but I'll pass it
over to Mary, Mary Dave. Thanks. And does the mic work? Hopefully, hopefully somebody's
looked back on high school. You don't typically remember that one math class,
the best one term
or the play ball.
Do you remember those,
those trippin'
into Hollywood
with the band or going to Cuba
with the rest of the
memories?
That's when you look back in high school
and it doesn't happen
from nine to three until two.
It happens after that.
That comes at a cost for the coaches
and I'm
out of the personal lives.
A couple different things here.
And thanks for highlighting it. Aspect, I've thought of it before, but thanks for highlighting it because we know when we fill up the.
And we've been a little bit secretive in the, in the name of the individual just so that we can maybe pass it over to Michael Citkovich, who has been working closely with this individual to share a few words. So Michael, if you.
And members of council for this opportunity, my name is Michael Citkovich. I'm a.
uh, have coach and official with, uh, with volleyball Canada, um,
the thank you again, council for the opportunity to 28 years later.
I'd also like to acknowledge my first ever boss, uh, council willie pop.
It's great to see you again, sir.
I've been fortunate in my professional career, uh, to present to city council in Toronto,
Ottawa, Brampton and Whitby, but, but this one's personal.
Oxbridge is known as the trail capital of Canada.
But in many ways, it's also the unofficial center of volleyball in this province.
largely due to the efforts of Tony Kiriaku.
A long time proud teacher at Uxbridge Secondary,
Tony has created a culture of success,
participation, and belonging.
To be a part of USS, you are also a member of the village.
Through his passionate coaching style,
USS won multiple Ontario High School championships in volleyball.
In fact, Tony is one of a small handful of coaches in the history
of Ontario High School sports,
to have captured off-the-championships
for both boys and girls.
Oxbridge is the reigning three-time
Office of Boys Champion,
and the Tigers won the Girls Crown in 2016.
One fact, the last two university,
rookie of the year winners in Ontario,
were also coached by Tony.
He's been honored by Ontario volleyball
and local clubs for his dedication and success.
But beyond high performance volleyball,
Tony's love for the sport shines every summer
as he welcomes hundreds of new young
and Uxbridge athletes to his very popular Tiger summer camp.
Every Thursday, he also hosts development clinics for up and coming Uxbridge athletes.
Local children are healthier because they are playing volleyball.
Many coaches myself included volunteer their time as their own children play through the
club volleyball system and then they stop.
Tony's son and in a proud Uxbridge secondary alumni is currently a sophomore at the University
of California Irvine, where he shines as a member of one of America's top collegiate
teams.
Many thought that would be the end of Tony's club coaching, including his wife.
But this year, Tony enjoyed the shortest club volleyball retirement in history, and joined
me coaching a group of young women, many of whom had a negative experience in the sport
and questioned their participation in the game.
Through their passion and care, I'm proud to report your worship that approximately half
of these girls have now committed to play post-secondary volleyball next year, and a couple
of them have joined us this morning to pay tribute to Coach Tariaku. Beyond the game, volleyball
is also an important part, as mentioned, in sport tourism, and thanks to the popularity of the game
through Tony's leadership. Every weekend, two Ontario volleyball tournaments are hosted at
Oxford Secondary, bringing tens of thousands of dollars to economic impact to our community
over the years. You see, Uxbridge is volleyball, and volleyball is Uxbridge. It's been an honor to
share with you just a few of the highlights. So we're markable career of a
colleague and a very dear friend.
Experge has a champion, a role model, a teacher, and a coach, and a proud
tiger in Tony Kiriaku. Thank you, you're welcome.
Okay, we've got another delegation, and this is from Andrew from Hempson, talking
about the preliminary results of the township's 2025 asset management plan.
Thanks, Andrew.
Just before you go, I apologize for the mics, obviously with the
the power outages and everything that's happened a couple
of the level problems here.
Go ahead, Andrew.
Thanks.
There's a, I don't think your lights on, is it?
It's fairly directional, especially today, so.
Yeah, is there a deck that you know?
Okay, thank you.
All right.
Good morning, everyone.
Members, council, my name again is Andrew Marabella,
Associate Partner here at Hemson.
We were retained to do an update to the township's asset
management plan to comply with the 2025 requirements.
So go to the next slide, just to kind of recap and won't go
through exactly what S. Management is.
I've been in front of you, Council, before a couple of times.
So we'll just go into kind of where we're at.
We've completed or township is complete effectively all the
requirements up to date for their S and
management plan, which relates to their existing level.
All township assets that had to be completed by July 1 of
2024. This particular update is to comply with the last phase, which is due July 1, 2025,
asset management plan for all your municipal assets and the service framework. So effectively,
we're going to be talking to you about some target levels of service and how that can relate back
into the Act Council in the next month or so.
Yeah, I can get right into it. Is that better?
Okay. So go to the next slide. So just in terms of some of the key
requirements here for the regulation. So as I mentioned has to be for all
municipal assets has to be for both core and non-core assets and just
reminder of your core assets means roads, bridges, culverts, and stormwater
infrastructure. It also includes water and wastewater but recognizing that's at
the region of Durham. That's not going to be in the township asset
management plan. We have to do a level of service analysis
for all your assets over the next 10 years and we have to set targets for the 10-year period.
We have to do life cycle activities, all the associate costs with achieving those targets,
as well as we have to look at what those life cycle activities are and a appropriate plan
in order to get there over the 10-year periods. That's going to be the focus of this particular
update for July 1 of 2025. We go to the next slide just to provide some bit more context here.
the overall valuation of municipal infrastructure in the township is estimated at about $779 million,
or almost $780 million. Most of which is related to your road network, that represents
about 65% of the total. So certainly an increase since the previous year's iterations, as indicated,
we kind of did that update in 2022 for your core assets as required in the legislation.
We did
will bring all of them together as part of kind of a one umbrella piece here for all your municipal
assets, but again your roads, hard services representing the lion's share of that total value.
So if we go to the next slide, just kind of thinking about the next stage of this as we have a
replacement value as being a big part of it, then we have the condition assessments,
which look at the actual condition of all your municipal infrastructure. So the good news is we're
able to at least for some of the bigger ticket asset categories leverage a lot of the condition
parameters from existing information and documents that you've already done, particularly
by engineers.
So on the roadside, we have the Roads Bass and Manjum Plan, which is done independently.
I have your OSAM report for your bridges and culverts.
We've had some detailed discussions with staff in terms of some of the other conditions
for municipal facilities and some larger ticket assets that are uncovered by a traditional
engineering report.
So we're able to kind of pull on a couple different levers to get a good condition parameter framework for the quality.
Over the next slide, just kind of summarizing those results.
Generally speaking, overall the assets in the township are in good condition.
You know, about 58% are in that good to very good category.
There's about 17% in fair condition.
Notwithstanding that, we always have to be cognizant of those assets that are in poor and very poor condition.
which we do have to identify, but the overall weighted condition parameter here is good of
that $780 million, but there's still quite a bit of assets that are in that poor category,
very poor, largely still related to your road network and kind of underlying what some of the
items are.
But if we go just to the next slide, just kind of put that into a bit more perspective,
we have our total kind of condition parameters for each of the different asset categories here.
You'll see in most of the categories are good to very good still dominates most of the bars here, but there are some areas particularly in your roads.
Again, as I mentioned, which we saw the previous slide, the very poor category. Most of that is in the road network from a dollar perspective.
We see some other asset categories that have very poor assets that want to be linked to those.
Some of those is just the batter of an age-based condition parameter when things are at the end of their useful life.
based on when they came to service,
they fall into that very poor category,
recognizing some of that's gonna already be updated
and reflected in the budgets.
So some of that's just a natural turnover
of your municipal assets as they come through
the replacement cycle.
So if we go to the next slide,
I wanna spend a little bit of time
on the level of service requirements here
and really what the purpose of this next stage here.
We have to as part of this plan
understand what the current levels of services
are in the municipality, and then we have to identify what those proposed targets are going to be
over the planning period. And recognizing that in order to get from our current framework to our
targets, there are things that the municipality would have to do. Some of that is what we call
as a life cycle activity, so if it means increasing your replacement needs, increasing your
renewal activities, resurfacing of your roads, those are activities that the municipality can do to
achieve a target. Every activity usually comes with a cost. So if there is additional activities
These are additional things that the betownship has to do in order to achieve our targets.
Those are the costs that are going to be associated with it.
And then we have to understand if there's any risk associated with the proposed level
of service, and particularly if we don't meet them.
And depending on the maturity level of immunospecality, sometimes the risk can be quantitative, sometimes
it could just be a qualitative assessment of what those risks are, but certainly this
is the municipality and virtually all communities in the province first go around at a target
level of service.
So some of this will naturally be a build on effort going forward.
So we go to the next slide. I just want to comment briefly on some of the proposed levels of services and what we're trying to do here.
It's a pretty consultative process that we had with municipal staff. We talk with every all the different departments in the service areas and finance as well.
while trying to understand what would be appropriate targets and what would be appropriate levels
of service that we should be measuring in the township of Oxbridge.
And part of this, we just need to be cognizant of and won't go through every detail of the
slide here, but we try to rein it back into what's an asset management related impact.
We're trying to omit levels of services that are more operational, ones that don't have
an impact on capital assets.
So it really is about trying to write size it to an asset management area principle and
But things that could be adjusted for based on life cycle activities.
So can we expand our assets to meet our target level of service?
Can we increase our replacement needs of our infrastructure, which will better the conditions
of them?
So things that directly tie to an activity and effectively would directly tie to a finance
or a budget activity that we can then reflect.
So go to the next slide and I know the slide deck was provided as well as the staff report
that went into all the details here.
So I'm not going to go through five pages of levels of service but I do want to touch upon
At least some of the categories and some of the key ones that come within it so on this one
We have our levels of service metrics for non core assets and the page reflects facilities and libraries
So just to call kind of overarching comments here the province only provided
Levels of service measures that we need to track for the core infrastructure assets
They gave us very specific parameters on which ones we need to do you can add to that list but I didn't interpret it that we could remove
but aiding on the non-core assets.
It's really up to municipal staff, council,
and consultations with us to determine
what those appropriate levels of services might be.
So this is an effort of collective effort of us
and municipal staff.
And the list overall that we've come together
is pretty comprehensive for municipality of your size.
So just as a comment there.
So on the facility side we do have,
we have the comments on our technical level of service.
you'll see we'll have a column for current levels of service and then we have our our column for
target levels of service. The current level of service is effectively reflective of our
hormones over the last couple of years and and where we are today in terms of each of the measures
there. Our target is where we're going to be we're trying to achieve in the next 10 years.
Generally speaking for many of the service areas because the townships conditions are in pretty good
state. We are seeing most of the levels of service about trying to maintain that good
state of affairs that we're already in and partly again because you've done a fairly good
job so far.
structure there are elements that we are trying to approve upon and some of these trying to meet
So we'll look at the facility's category. I'll maybe I'll just comment and pick on a few of them here. The condition of our overall facilities is the biggest ticket category within the facilities one, and which is the third measure down. We are trying to maintain our assets in that good condition that we are here in. That's going to be our target levels of service. We have some increases built in about converting our programs or our facilities to an LED efficient facility, which we've identified by what the current standard is and trying to move that up on the
standard there. On the library program, we have a series of different measures that we've identified.
The last measure on the page is about increasing the condition of our physical election materials
from fair condition, which it's in now, to a good condition over the next 10 years. And about,
again, increasing the replacement frequency. I'll move on to the next slide.
Just to kind of look at some of the ones related to recreation and parks.
most of which are going to be about maintaining your existing position.
There's two elements here about increasing the condition of some of our machinery and equipment.
Looking at increasing the number of CSA playgrounds in the municipalities for the accessibility
standards, we want to be 100% compliant by the end of the 10 year period. And then as well as
improving the average condition of our overall land improvements and equipment within our parks,
would be for our current position being fair to a good position at the end of the period.
For the next slide, just to talk a little bit about some of the animal control, fire,
IT, and fleet service assets.
Again, most of these are about maintaining at least our current level of service position.
We have increases in some of the condition parameters within, and we also have about
particularly areas like fire, they're currently in very good condition, recognizing just the timing of when assets get replaced.
So, although we say the target level of service is good, it's about maintaining a minimum of good.
We don't want to see a dip below in the timing of when infrastructure gets replaced and the timing of when you manage your drugs.
That can all kind of fluctuate throughout a minute.
So, and then the last one on here, just to bring attention to the beat one.
So the cycle for replacement of snowplows to maintain a sufficient backlog, the current replacement schedule of your snowplows is on a 10-year period.
This process means that we have to identify the need to maintain or increase our service level.
We need to or should have a sufficient backlog of our fleet, so that would be about increasing the replacement cycle.
You know, rather than a 10 year replacement cycle, we're going to be moving to an eight year replacement cycle on them, which would mean we require a greater investment in them in order to replace on that targeted replacement schedule for those.
So then we'll get into the next slide on our core assets, which is about sidewalk stormwater and bridges and culverts.
I'll bring the attention to the bridges and culverts, where we have identified the BCIs
through the ocean reports or through the consulting engineers, in which your assets on the
bridging culvert's eye is in good condition.
We are required to measure the BCIs as part of your level of service framework through
this process.
We've identified that we want to maintain that good condition in your bridges and culverts.
So we're looking to target a PCI, or sorry, a BCI of a minimum of 70 over the period.
So we want to make sure that we maintain in that good bandwidth and just don't dip below 70 for most.
If we go to the last one, which is just on roads, just again, recognizing these are required elements here.
The big ticket one for the roads network is going to be measuring your pavement condition index network.
work. They're currently in fair condition and through the 2024 votes AMP by the engineers,
they've identified some targets within it, so we're looking to improve the pavement
condition index of our roads from a 63, which is in fair condition, through our target of
70 or minimum 70 over the 10 years period. And on the roads that have an average surface
condition for your unpaid roads, maintaining that fair condition overall throughout the
tenure.
So, again, moving to increasing the PCI on our roadway network.
So, just to kind of go into the next slide, and that was just an overview of the levels
of service that we have.
For all the levels of services in the asset management plan, effectively we have to look
at what the life cycle activities are, and again, the life cycle activities are the planned
actions needed to maintain those assets in the care.
There are costs associated with any planned actions and those are effectively funneled through your operating budget or your capital budget in order to maintain your assets in the state of critical care.
Life cycle activities with the appropriate life cycle activity treatment is going to be very dependent on the asset category and the type.
So we need to work closely with the staff now to identify what's the appropriate treatment activity and our budget expense in order to try and achieve those targets.
Although through this process and what you're going to what we're going to come back with council in the next month or so.
And although there's going to be a financing strategy and there's going to be a recommendation in order to achieve our targets.
It's going to be equally important that we monitor what those investments that we're making laid in back to our levels of service.
Because this is the first time I mean this value is tracking how a level of service and the financing strategy are effectively going hand in hand.
So, it's about taking into context what we're spending and how our levels of services are
changing every year, and if we're getting closer to our targets, or if we're moving away
from our targets, whatever the position is, it's about trying to understand how our investment
strategies need to change in order to get us back to that target.
And this is about a monitoring situation as well as much as it is a plan for today.
When we think about life cycle activities on the next slide, there are six of them that
are identified and primarily used for the purposes of the regulation.
We have non-infrastructure solutions.
We've got expansion activities, maintenance activities,
renewal and rehabilitation activities,
replacement and disposal.
Most of those from a, when you kind of read the title,
they're pretty intuitive in terms of what they mean.
The only one that maybe I'll just put a little bit of comment on
is the non-infrastructure solutions.
Those are more studies, investments in kind of people,
asset management programs, things that you can do as a corporation
that will help extend the life of an asset, make better use of an asset without actually
investing any money in the particular asset itself. The rest of the activities here,
expansion activities were about building new infrastructure, expanding capacity,
creating more space, creating more roads, um,
maintenance activities, but the only other one
that I'll mention, this is about things that are just generally going to maintain your assets in
the state that it's in doesn't extend the use of life of an asset. It doesn't really make the
asset any better, but if you don't perform your maintenance activities, your asset is likely to
fail earlier in the process, and it made it choose for life. So about a vehicle, if you don't do your
oil changes, you don't do any lake fluid replacements or lake food, your vehicle isn't going to last
this life. Those are activities that are done, usually funded through the operating budget,
needed to maintain that asset.
So just on the last two slides here, I just wanted to go through kind
of the sample life cycle approach that we're doing and just to kind of pick on the roads,
bridges and culverts as kind of our sample and we're working through the rest of them with
municipality but the level of detail that we're going to try and go through here is identify
what the calculated needs are and this is based on the recommendations of either the engineering
reports or through the database that we have in terms of all your municipal assets and when
there needs to be replaced and then we have our assumed life cycle activity approach so what
is actually going to be included for in the financing strategy that relates back to trying to achieve those
target levels of service. Just in simple context here, your Rhodes study identifies a long-term
sustainability requirement of $9.6 million a year. And that's what's needed in order to optimally
manage your road network. They'll give a range on the bottom end of the spectrum of a short-term
sustainability number of 3.6 or 3.9 million dollars a year where in the asset
management plan we're being somewhat more conservative obviously than the
long-term sustainability number where we're trying to tie our investment needs
back to the target levels of service that we've identified which is your 70
PCI and they've identified a need of about four and a half million dollars a year
in order to reach that 70 PCI and now part of what we have to do next is try and
bring in all those different cost-to-mean strategies and identify what that means on a net tax
levy impact for the municipality and come back to you with what that result is. But we're trying
to understand all the impacts at the asset level, so we understand what the true cost is our
in order to meet our target levels.
We have the same information from our bridges and culverts
coming from the engineers in terms of what's required, recognizing our level of service here is about
making sure that we are compliant with the oaths and reports and we complete all the necessary
So you'll see our calculated needs and our assumed lifecycle approach in this case is the same number between both of
what I will leave you with is just the kind of understanding of your current asset management spending on the operating budget, you spend about $4.2 million annually in terms of maintaining your municipal infrastructure.
Go through all your, go through the budget, identify all your maintenance items, all the
spending and the activities that you do in terms of making sure that your assets maintain
and stay in a good repair, where you've identified and kind of cost it up to 4.2 million and
looking at it by asset basis or the way your budget area is structured.
On the capital side, it's about 5.8 million dollars a year and some of that's related to
your direct contributions from your tax levy to capital, but it's also about looking at
what you're getting in from your deaf funding, your OSF allocations, and your gravel
royalties that come in that are directed to capital spending.
And in our financing strategy, we want to make sure that we're capturing all the different
funding strategies and all the different sources of capital, and how this is going to kind of
work its way out in the banking strategy.
So quite a robust program that you have both an operating capital, and we'll have to kind
of see where that leads us to.
So with that, perhaps I went a little over my allocated time here, but just in terms of
our next steps here, we're going to work closely with staff here to kind of update
the plan and come back to you with the AMP that talks about the levels of service, the
targets and the financing strategy and something, again, has to be in place for July 1 of 2025
from the deadline.
Happy to answer any questions.
That resonated.
First of all, Andrew, thank you so much for coming in.
We talk a lot about asset preservation.
We concentrate on infrastructure kind of across the board.
So thanks for giving us a measuring tape,
so we know kind of where we, right?
Truly appreciate it.
Before we go to questions from council,
I just have one.
Can we run back to slide 13 for one second?
Yeah,
yeah, can I get a motion to bring forward important a bird to your zero six twenty five?
I said, um, on favor.
Thanks.
So this was, um, on roads both, yeah, on roads both gravel and and heart surface.
us. Do we compare us bridge to other like size municipalities on our gravel hard surface
mix?
When you say compare like in terms of the condition comparison or the your treatment
activities. So treatment activities. So we've done that's a little bit different certainly
than our neighbors both in Pickering and especially in Svughog is we've made a very significant
an effort to hard surface all of our roads that are not dead ends. That's come at a huge financial
cost, but from an environmental standpoint, it's better from a resident perspective, it's better.
But part of what we sacrifice with that is that we've decided not to the gravel roads that we have,
we're converting, we're not putting new gravel on as much, right? So we kind of made that sacrifice
because we know that once we get to them we will solve those gravel and problems
kind of forever. But I don't know if your report shows that effort in any kind
of meaningful way when you compare us to others.
Yes, that's a good question. I mean we don't necessarily show it in a
comparison of that's going to be of,
but it
does have the benefit of obviously
to see you have more of a capital front,
but then you save on your end.
That won't show unless we come up with a measure
and we
progress you've made in changing over the year.
So in improving your obviously,
actually
have left at the end of the 10 year period.
Yeah, let's just to highlight that
from a staff perspective, it's true.
We know that has made our numbers look worse.
Overall from an asset management perspective,
even though I think everyone at the vast majority
of us think that's the right move, but it does go and certainly makes our numbers look
worse because of that sacrifice we're not doing some other things.
I will open up to other questions from Fed.
Through you to Andrew, thank you for bringing this to our attention. My first question is slide six, where we talk about 25% of our roads or are very poor. That is a dollar figure amount, not a roads count amount. That be a fair way to put it. So it's a dollar figure that's the 1991 point.
191 million is the 25% is am I right in it making that comment?
19 million correct is a taller figure mostly related to roads it has other
obviously as the categories in it but it's not an account it's what why I'm
bringing it forward is as I want to say that 25% of our roads aren't in poor
condition it's the dollar figure amounts like if if you look at it the wrong way
it's not it's alarming I mean we still want our roads to be in the best
condition possible. But at the same time, you're recognizing a dollar figure so that we can better plan and make
the other side of it is just refreshing back to, as we look at this, this number might have been
moderately different if we didn't have a boundary road bridge to fix. Because last year, as we started
to go through this exercise, I think we had just under 20 approximately 18 roads that we would have fixed
that were in the poor condition.
So when you do an asset management plan,
the roads that you fix completely
are the roads that absolutely have to be repaired.
And we were moving towards that as Mayor Dave alluded to
with our asset management reserve
that we use on a regular basis of 2%
that this is what we're trying to do to achieve better roads.
We were progressing in the right direction
and we still are.
This allows us to plan.
This is a planning exercise.
it's not saying our roads are in bad condition, are in horrible.
I just want to level set that because this is a tool that we're using to get better.
It's not one to say that our roads are horrible.
That's the one piece that the other thing that I wanted to ask about.
There was a number I was confused as we look at that number Andrew and then we move up on to our conditions of our assets as a related to bridges and culverts.
It's that they're in kind of more of the poor condition.
I'm assuming that's because the cost of bridges and culverts is more expensive when you
reflected on that number.
Because otherwise I'm not sure because it didn't really reflect the number of what it is.
And I don't think I'm explaining bridges
and culverts in our analysis are in good condition.
Right.
But if you look at it, when you reference in the document, it says that they're there.
I just want, anyways, I just wanted to look at it that way.
The other thing I'll say is the good part about where we're at is we've got Courtney Clark and Bill Reiner
that are looking at our asset management plan and our roads right now and the list of roads that we
have is into our budget for this year. But I think we've got a new set of eyes on what we're doing
it. So this is exactly the right time for us to get this information and move forward
probably doing. I know I'm kind of talking and speaking kind of broadly right now and
it's not a question, but I just want to reflect that I appreciate what you're bringing
forward to us.
That's all the questions I have, Mayor Dave.
No problem. I don't look at this as a negative. I look at this and say, but it's really good
that when, I'm going to say a bunch of us, the majority of us when we came on council,
we had, we were putting $150,000 a year into asset preservation. And now I think the
number Toby was 28-ish, something like so. Like we made the right decisions, the 2% of
So we've made the right moves. We need to continue to focus on infrastructure. And this will get better all the time.
I also look at some of the roads that we haven't done that we wanted to. You'll look at the tree streets in your neighborhood.
But the reason why we're not doing those is because the pipes under the moon
will never will never have read off this chart completely.
Because that doesn't always make sense.
Because we have to wait.
But, but it also sometimes it makes more sense to wait because we're ready for.
an example, one of our worst roads right now that gets used a lot is is
military. For us, if we had to replace military three years ago when we planned
on it, it would mean that we'd have to rip it up again this year to replace
underground infrastructure. Making good strategic moves, we need to continue with
this approach on each one's asset preservation. And again, I'm pretty happy what's where we're
going. I know it's that we'd like to see less red on this, but we're going in the right direction.
And I won't name names, but I did some comparisons to similar size and the qualities in our area.
And when you start looking at the fair portion, it's quite larger.
You know, it's a lot to start wanting to look at and manage.
And so when you look at what isn't good and very good standing for
us bridge, it means that we are able to target what needs to be more easily
than other municipalities that maybe have not managed in the way that.
First, thanks for it if I'm a couple of things.
One is, you know, it's a race against time.
Our assets are going to decay over time.
So, we do our best to try to get ahead of it.
I think a great example of a department beyond roads does a fantastic job with the help
of the finance team, of course, is fire.
Their ongoing planning, I know, Toby is always looking at how we're going to finance the
next vehicle.
So, all of that significant investment to make sure, in a reflected in your graph, to show
that there's something to that effect.
One point, Emily, if you put up this slide, the one's the condition of assets by category,
the bar chart.
That's it?
Thank you.
Then look up.
We're really fast.
Appreciate that.
Thank you.
Mayor Dave spoke to the fact that we've gone from, for round number of 150,000 or something
to 2.8 million or whatever it is that we've talked away against the resistance of the tax
of making those moves and it shows where we are as of today is is data available to show what those asset categories would have been in four years ago, eight years ago, 12 years ago.
Do you have that kind of information
to the through the mayor, not particularly, you know, we have the last few years.
And we can probably maybe do a comparison with that, but going back over a decade, it wouldn't happen.
I think the only thing that the only comment I would say that's exactly what the point of public service is because that will now have at least our starting point of target.
So, as you come forward as part of the regulation, you have to come back to California.
We'll start tracking every year where we're moving to the level of service and tracking a lot of this information.
Or looking now, we can go back.
There would be a change in conditions, I'm sure.
Absolutely.
Both from, as I was saying before, the natural decay of assets.
But also, you know, it's great that we've now got a baseline that we can measure going forward.
But it almost feels like this is the starting line.
The starting line was a long time ago, and this council has been committed to maintaining
those assets.
I just don't think we should lose track of the fact that we even, in fact, move this
bar up quite a ways over the period of time against resistance that says, quite of my taxes
go up so much, there's a good portion of why taxes go up as much as they do.
I'll get off my soapbox, but just to say repassion about the fact that we've been through
council just make some decisions with staff of work hard to get to the point.
Before you go, Todd, can I borrow that soapbox just for a second?
Okay, thanks.
It's not much to remember when I was first elected as mayor.
I'm almost right away.
one of my first after-hours duties was frozen pipes in the library. So we had a failing
HFAC system. We had to close it a couple times in the summer because it got too hot. We had frozen
pipes, a bunch of damage because it got too cold.
We had a tower that was failing. We had bricks
that were fallen off and we decided as a council and because of a man in the back
that instead of hiring a library CEO, we had a vacancy and instead of hiring a library CEO,
we would without that position, make a man to wear one additional hat and we would focus all
that money on fixing the library. And because of that, we replaced the boilers, we made sure
the children who were fixed all the PTAC units, added insulation where we needed to fix the
brickwork. We completely rebuilt the tower from the inside out. And we're in way better shape
been that building that we've ever been. And when we had the F2 tornado go through,
a tower would have taken not quite a direct hit, but some pretty significant wins. Without
rebuilding that, we could have been in even bigger trouble than we were already with that tornado.
So it's our responsibility sitting here to make sure that we're spending the right amount of money
going without the right, some services to make sure that our infrastructure is in a way better shape, so just want to highlight that this is not accidental.
This is because and our staff step up in huge ways, so thanks for that, and then we have that across the board with a bunch of other facilities.
We've we've got folks from our museum here that continue to be really creative with how they make things happen.
Well, thanks, Ben.
Go ahead, Todd.
Sorry.
I just had to jump in.
No.
And my comments, certainly, follow that.
And what you and the other counselors have already mentioned.
Think one of the key aspects.
And this is what is great about having this type of.
Richmond, I would have to staff.
I've been, but to continue the education of public.
On what this actually means.
as a simple example to the point that you made mayor in regards to why is this
street not being paved yet? There's why there's work to be done for ground prior
to if we tear it up now we're turning it up two days two years and just
making
sure the fact communication is
everything that council has been talking
yes
right at the moment there's a few streets or concessions that haven't been
over
all the residents out in please when we pave a road or and are working
towards paving. Excuse me and it makes a big difference.
Just one more thank you back to Andrew. This information is exactly what we need
when we go to AMO or Roma where we demonstrate that we've got needs that have to
be addressed as a relates to infrastructure.
I mean, we've done it already,
but now we've got updated numbers
that we can look at, and when we have delegations,
we can continue to, I mean, everybody's asking
for the same thing at the poor enter and 40 municipalities,
but this demonstrates that we're doing,
the work behind the scene centers.
And we use that to chat with Minister Bethlyn Faulty
and let him know why we need businesses.
Thank you for the document.
I agree with you on that. The only thing is if we pulled up this information for many
of the other 444 municipalities, their numbers would look a lot different. Andrew, would
you agree?
It depends on which municipalities, but I mean on the broader scale, your condition
is especially when you get into Roma, where it's more of a less brand new infrastructure that
was built by development.
So, it just, again, we have taken on some big projects that are extremely downtown culvert.
He's school and very bridges and then all the distraction and work that happened around the tornado, but we need to continue to do the hard work. Our staff have to continue to do the hard work together.
So let's continue to be focused and not forget about acid proliferation.
Other thing that we need to be really careful of as a council.
Add infrastructure.
Have to maintain.
Let's be really careful with adding sidewalks where maybe we don't need sidewalks.
That's really careful not to add lights or all the other beautiful bells and whistles that we want.
We just need to be.
Everything we build has to be maintained long term.
And we have a lot of needs above the new step. So just just think about future councils that we.
Andrew, thank you for anything else you want to tell us while you're here.
I know nothing else is in particular.
All right. Yeah. What do we vote on the report? You want to move it first? Yeah. So I'm on
favor.
I'm going to go. I'm going to open finance.
Starting with 7.2. This is report number
TR-0 425 from Sue in regards to our final tax levies.
If there are no questions or comments
on or for just to move the recommendations.
Thank you very much.
First, I might have expected you to comment on
the total amount of tax that goes to the region.
Have that handy?
I just, I have high expectations of the year
that you might have mentioned the 33.4 million dollars.
That you can see the picture we could see.
Okay, again, we talk about that a lot.
Typically, especially in the next few years, you're going to see public
works projects happening all over the place.
You think of transit changes that have been made.
You think of the additional policing services.
Not happening and certainly I'm doing, I'm doing my part, but Bruce thanks for stepping up.
Other comments on that?
All in favor of, oh wait, we didn't get a motion on that, did we?
Okay, all in favor of that report?
That's carried.
Thank you very much.
We are now at 7.2.2, and yeah, this is for the BIA.
Can I move that?
Yeah, I'll move that.
May I add a quick comment?
Of course.
It feels like this BIA, you know, we're so fortunate to have a BIA board that's been working hard,
you know, since the inception of Oxford.
I feel like this one in particular has been working really hard with all the additional challenges we saw a global pandemic
We've seen tornadoes ripped through our downtown core this group keeps coming together and doing incredible work
And they're trying to do it on a very fixed budget. We saw a small increase. I believe it was the first
increase since 2014
So just a really mindful group and we're wanting to make sure that the events are moving well
So just to move the recommendation, thank you.
Thanks for that.
Any questions or comments, go ahead.
Well, if you look at it as soon as report and the amount,
I mean, nobody ever wants to add to the cost,
but across the entire BIA area and the amount of money that it costs.
I mean, every dollar matters to
somebody who is a businessman.
Any
other questions?
Any unfinished business? Any other business? Any questions from the press end of the public?
We moved out ahead during the delegation.
Oh, okay. Thank you.
But thank you. It might be a little laggy. So I just realized that we didn't miss it as you said it. So any other questions from the president of the public in the room or online.
All right.
Hearing none.
Heritage arts and.
Very much.
I'd like to open heritage arts community program.
Programs committee.
No correspondence.
We have one report.
8.2.1.
Report.
DS 1325.
of Jake Locke for the bill that he's a senior building.
This has to do with
the designation by the law. Right, you know, church at 1,800 Regional Road. This was, this came
through the Heritage Committee and the Udora United Church, it was by their request and we had no
But the opposing this, they're thrilled that this is the
case.
I grew up in Udora, this was our community
to church, my brother got married there.
Certainly half my dad's out of the family's
nodding area was once called Stodden's Corner.
So certainly lots of my family's history in that facility.
As a Udorian, I would say, thank you.
Yeah, just again, a thank you to Jake for the work done on this file, but a little amount of work.
I think he's been on the file.
Well, off for us, as you said, it has been a file ongoing for a while.
So a great step forward for preserving architectural heritage in Oxbridge.
I would have a motion to receive a move.
Any other questions?
Those in favor.
Thank you.
Is there any unfinished business? Any other business? Questions from the press?
I spoke to me to get a brief summary of.
Yes. Deb would it be you? Deb would be able to give you that information, Roger.
Thank you. You're very welcome. Any questions or comments from the public?
there being none, I would like to hear it teach.
Yes, thank you very much Councillor Beech to open the parks facilities and tourism committee.
There is no correspondence today but we do have a report which comes from Caitlin Jones,
our manager of cultural services. What would we like to do with that report today?
Yeah, I'm happy to move the recommendations but also Caitlin, thanks for all you're doing
on this file. I know you you also wear a lot many hats and we get an awful lot of bank for a
buck for my tourism perspective and it's just going to increase when you think of the
where we're going to go in the future especially as we add assets like the new urban provincial park
and and other items like that our downtown is going to get better. There will be more reason to come
And thank you for looking at
that comment.
We're seeing more of it now that there's some turmoil to the
faith of us.
And so Canadians are choosing not only to support local
through their purchases at grocery stores and their
shops, but they're trying to decide where they're going to head.
And there was a recent article that came out last week
from another blog article.
Quite a few are coming out that named
And I think it was number three of the top five cute towns to visit in Ontario.
So you're starting to see more of that happened.
And anecdotally, my wife works downtown at the bridge and she's seeing a lot more folks
come through.
A couple came from Hamilton recently and decided to stay in at the bridge.
So we're wanting to do more of a tour of this part of our community and it's always great
to go visit Skuevog and Brock as well.
But they had enough assets and enough things to do here in town where they made a day
of it. And so, to your point, Mayor, we're, we're tourism ready. That matters. And so just
thank you so much to Caitlin and her team.
And I'm not sure, Councilor Baker, if it goes to you or perhaps to Caitlin, I love that
magazine that got put out recently.
It's cold, doesn't matter. But did a great job of promoting the assets that we have, including
for those folks that came for visits from Hamilton.
Then when I look at the statistics
about the number of visitors that we have
that are within 40 kilometers versus beyond 40 kilometers away,
how do we get that magazine further from home
so that people pick it up wherever they gather those things,
maybe travel Ontario, those type of sites
to see it and go, wow, I want to go to Oxbridge.
I'm not sure, Kate, can I aim that to you?
or
Caitlin's coming to the mic. That's one of the soft results. And so I'm looking at marketing
from
the hard work that you do.
Publications wanting to pick up the new story and start to share it.
Caitlin's doing more hard work on that and she'll be able to touch on that, but the benefits of this
group regularly coming together. Not only in charge of tourism, I'm sitting on our BIA and leading
I agree we're able to quickly identify what's working well and what is going to play well with
the Toronto Publications. That's the that's the soft ability. Morning everyone. So a couple things
that we've done to target over 40 kilometers away with this guide is I just received an email
from Ontario Travel Guides asking for all of our publications like this morning. So that will be
going out shortly. We do have like 48 boxes of the guide currently at the museum so they're ready
to go. I just need to mail them out. We also offer it online this year so it's able to be sent
digitally to everybody. It's available on Discover Experge as well as the Township website and then we
also worked on a Discover Experge billboard that went up in Toronto through the Globe and Mail and
and a print ad in the global mail.
Prism has come a long way since I've been on count.
And I mean, in the first two terms,
I had the privilege of being on tourism.
And central counties did so much for us
to help to be able to learn how to do the catchment data,
to be able to, you know, the geofencing
that really brings in so much more data
that we really know what's going on and it is so exciting what's happening and the amount of
people that are recognizing like even they call and you know looking at so many different items
within it the you know the type of sponsor partners cross visitation just gathering all the information
even when you compare and look at the charts for the coffee shops, et cetera, et cetera,
this is so much further ahead than it was 10 years ago. And I'm so proud to, well, I'm a
lifer here. And to see the expansion and the enthusiasm for tourism and what it can bring
to, you know, to this municipality and in the future having places for people to stay.
That's going to be a ground.
I'm breaking difference for this municipality. Thank you. Again, I'm just thinking back onto some conversations that we've had when I were in this room and the rest of you weren't. But we talked for half an hour, I think at one point, arguing about whether or not a logo or a snippet of video that had our only brewery in town at the time in it.
whether it should be pulled from a video that was being sent out.
What we now know, and what this council knows,
is that people don't necessarily come to Oxford
to walk down one of our streets.
They come here to see the Blue Heron bookstore,
or maybe to buy their shoes of Johns,
or to go to noon nine by ten,
or the second wedge, or slab town,
But our tourism has to do with our businesses and yeah, we might not highlight every
a station, but but we will highlight those unique businesses that become and we all know
that now and and again, this council sees tourism as an asset in our future more than
any other council that I can remember.
Thank you.
Thanks again for that. So box first. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mary. Counselor Snuts. Yeah, just again another example of great work and leadership in the devil.
Okay. Thank you.
Any one else. Thank you. Great report. Thank you very much. So do we have a motion? Yeah. Great. And all in favor. All right. That's great. Thank you very much.
Any unfinished business?
Any other business?
Any questions from the media or those in attendance?
Just for the folks online, thank you.
I have no skin in this game at all but I'm not representing anybody other than the fact that I live in the neighborhood.
Where is council's concern? What's the status of the hotel?
Yeah,
so, so this council in a fairly quickly approved the zoning change for the hotel, we are waiting for, I think the site plan.
First to approve it, but we, we approved that 18 months ago.
And again, I don't have the data, but it's a long, long time ago that we approved it.
It then goes back to the owner of the land who then decides what we do next.
But we have, we approved it in record time unanimously
to make sure that that was a go.
Too bad we can't transfer so.
I think it's easy for us to put up our hands.
It is maybe harder to find people to fund it.
So the last thing we want to do is slow down.
You want to go closer to the mic just to make sure you get caught.
It appears to me as certainly in our neighborhood as it's local the reactions of the hotel
ever a hole in the
actor and
that's a great point and I don't have the statistics with me, but there's a major impact to a community that doesn't have lodging.
We've seen creative ways of trying to fix that, so wooden sticks having their cabins for
examples, very popular.
But yeah, anytime that you can have groups come and stay in your community, it changes
things like the Hamilton couple that we had come out to Oxbridge, very glad that they
were able to stay with us for the day.
What would that impact look like if they were able to wake up and have breakfast at the golf
course or at B&L?
So I'm looking forward to those options, man.
Yeah, thanks.
Again, I'll just...
I think my numbers might be off, but this is sort of the range.
I think the average person who comes to a community like ours spends about $70 if they come for the day.
If they spend the night, I think the number goes to $250 or more.
So it gets up significantly, you'll also find that anytime while all kinds of municipalities
are trying to shut down Airbnb's and things like that, for the most part, as long as they're
the right type of Airbnb's, we are encouraging it. We want there to be places for people to stay,
we don't want whole house parties because that's a little different situation, but we are looking for
ways that people can come and stay in Oxbridge, especially when it comes to some of the more
creative ways.
What's that?
When it comes to in-laws.
100%.
Yeah.
Again, mine lives in my basement.
So I don't know.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Mine are in Owen's sound listening right now, I'm sure.
So, no.
And that's it.
And so the beauty of tourism is not only does it showcase what we've got here and provide
support to our businesses, but it allows us to keep those businesses here in
town. We're a relatively small population, and the more that we can support our
businesses means that when we want to walk down to urban pantry and have a
meal, they're still there. When we want to shop at one of the only independent
bookstores in Southern Ontario, they're still there, and so the tourists help us
enjoy our community a little bit more. Councilor Beach? You just made me think of
is that even as residents, when we have families,
I had a case where we had some family
from a really a come down, they ended up,
you know,
like different things like that, family from Fergus,
came to town, they visited a couple of different places
while they were here, restaurants and other places.
But we as Oxbridge residents can promote
Relatives, when they come, do not only see us go out and enjoy the work.
Thank you very much. Any other comments from Council before we turn it back over? Any other comments from either folks in as or online?
Seeing and hearing none. Any questions from the media today?
Any seeing and hearing none? I would now like to close the Parks Facilities and Tourism Committee and hand it over to the environment and sustainability committee.
Thank you.
Thank you, Councillor Pickering and I'll open environment and sustainability
for today. Oh, correspondence and point two, no reports to committee.
One finished business.
Is there any other business? Sorry, I'm skipping through.
Yeah, I've got a piece, Councillor, if I may. Just doing a walk through of Ward 3 is beautiful.
Now that we've got spring to start to see some of the green spaces that are starting to pop up with all the hard work that have been put in over the fall in winter.
So just a thank you to the environmental groups that helped support that across Ward 3.
And then we also saw a bird friendly conversation that took place at the bridge social last week last Monday I believe.
And so just really nice to see that committee supporting a lot of the different initiatives that are happening across.
Just specifically, Ward 3.
Thank you.
Yeah.
That is very encouraging in the environment sustainability committee.
It does a lot of great work as we've recently been seeing.
And I'm terrific.
I'm so happy to be involved in that.
This is the only all of you like.
Is there are there any questions from the press?
Questions from the public today?
Hearing none.
I'd like to pass this over to public works.
Active transportation committee.
Thank you. I'll open public works and active transportation. Our first item is 11.1.1 from the town of
Whitby, correspondence with regards to removal of tolls on Highway 407 East. If you've been down
that way and try to get anywhere during rush hour, you'll find that you're very blocked up and
it's becoming an impediment to get into where you need to go. Looking to my southern traveling
I'll give you a motion. It was, it was supported by, um, the premier and our, our, our MPP minister
Beth and Falvey, that they will be moving those tools on, on, or seven East. Um, so this
is very welcome. They haven't actually sat yet. So I, I would expect to see that. I did have
of a brief conversation with Pravmeet Sakarya,
who's a Minister of Transportation,
but that didn't come up on the chat.
I expect to see it.
It'd be really interesting because they're
doing some signature action on Winchester Road,
and they want that to use that as well.
Hard to get the comments from you.
So the action on this point, Mary Dave,
what would you like to motion?
I think just a motion to receive those.
Thank you, any questions or comments
on Meredith's motion, all in favor. That is carried. Thank you. The next item we have is
report from Ben Kester with regards to a draft parking study. Questions or comments from committee?
I guess I'll start off certainly. I know you'll have some comments as well
So, I think it's important that we make sure that the study fulfills itself.
They've done a great amount of work.
work on it.
I think we do.
Certainly one of the things that stood out to me is that they mentioned
was the more accessible parking. All short in this area within the study, so I wanted to just
make sure that we highlight the proof that. And I think that is too fold. I think it's certainly
we this has gone to the accessibility committee and I think it certainly has to stay with them
going forward as well because what I would consider or what I think they would consider
accessible parking isn't just putting
stamp on the ground pit.
Have the curb cuts and whatnot in order for those people
get out effectively. I think that aspect of it needs to be built
make sure it's captured and within the study for those spaces.
It does mention stuff and a part of it does mention
in regards to the size of the parking spaces and whatnot. So I think they're sure
Maybe some more further clarification on what that means in certain areas is a different
size is based on, you know, a capital for pickup trucks but certainly a lot of pickup
trucks based on being a farming community and certainly the size of parking spaces may
be needed different in certain areas that maybe just needs to be flushed out a little better.
The cash in lieu of, it does speak to that, which is great, the increase that's required
there.
And I'm just going to fire out of these just so that they get captured for food of thought
going forward.
The on-street parking fees, the possible ability of that type of aspect, maybe consideration
to the fact that don't focus on our thoughts, but on the on-street for when it would ever
go to paid parking. That way it will hopefully direct people to those lots. And then of course,
wait finding online with that technology wise so people can easily find where those lots are
because I think a lot of people don't realize where they are, especially those coming from out of town
that live here. Evie charging, obviously we're still looking to make that happen. And I think
on the focus areas, again, the municipal lots,
Greg.
So little things like that, I think there's a key focus
that needs to be added in regards to cycling,
that facility parking.
Actually not addressed at all.
That needs to be added.
I think we are moving a little bit more towards a proactive approach on parking, and I think that needs to continue as opposed to reactive.
Proactive aspect going forward. Of course, it does direct. Keep focus to the angle parking issues that we all know.
Address not only from a safety standpoint, but also from just a street escaping and moving forward.
aspect to active transportation through the, I mean,
that is sort of the, the ramble that I have for the moment, but certainly I think it's a great first.
I wouldn't call it a final draft, but it's certainly a really good solid draft that just has a couple areas that need refocusing and I think.
I thought maybe I'll address some of those as well further to our downtown revitalization project itself specifically.
Thank you, Chancellor Snooks. Any other comments? Mayor Dave, please.
What we learned in this is that we have a lot of parking.
The kind of proof is that it's not often you have to drive very far to find a car.
They're trying to find a parking spot in Oxbridge compared to finding the
people a lot of work to do.
Okay. Any other questions or comments from committee? I'll provide a couple more comments
and then we can vote on Mayor Dave's motion. So I do agree with Councillor Stokes on
most items and I won't talk to some of them again. The accessibility piece is one that I think
that the accessibility committee has been noting for a while, I think, well, and it's a complex,
not complex, but it's a situation where we look to our partners who supported us in the
downtown revitalization. I'm referring to the region of Durham, and this was also funded
through downtown revitalization for the study as well in the 1% levy that we did a couple
years back. So we will have to talk to the region as it relates to accessible parking.
the report does flag AODA requirements are not being met.
Perhaps we could get a little more depth on that with what that might look like.
And I think the Accessibility Committee would be appreciative to understand that a little bit better.
The other thing that I would say is as we looked at,
this was an important report as Mayor Dave alluded to,
as was the Centennial Park Ecos day that we needed to get down at the same time.
I think as we look at Centennial Park and what we were looking to as a goal, we were
looking to perhaps have that more as a destination as one of our districts.
And I think this one is still referring to pushing some of the parking that would be
at the northeast corner in our parking lot there behind the aforementioned coffee time
circle K into that space.
So I'm not sure if the report is rarely marrying up to where we're casted.
And then the other piece to that is that we are looking to partner with Metrolinx if we look back a couple years and I know that this is hard for, you know, a contractor is looking
to work in association with Metrolinx and perhaps have a parking lot.
So to Mayor Dave's point as we look at future thought and we do have parking I think some of the we don't have parking feelings is because people want to park directly in front of certain locations.
The Heritage District and Metro Links is one that we have to look at as we look at our
partnership moving forward and then, you know, it's point. I think we did have some funding
for EV, the ways back that we haven't really put in place. I think largely because that
covers the most of the pieces around Centennial Park and if we do have a change into more
in other municipal lots around town, I'm not going to go back into the other pieces.
So, if we're looking for comments from that, I think that we could keep overall, I think
that it's generally well done. There's just a few.
Any other comments? We do have a motion on the floor from there, Dave.
question
through you for you and to and to Mayor Dave in regards to the
recommendation to enough to have further feedback from those two main
aspects that you're speaking to that you spoke to as to Metrolinx and that area
as well as Centennial Park or should we actually add in a little bird aspect to
to sort of focus in on those two areas specifically.
Maybe, maybe go ahead, Mary-Dade.
Yeah, thanks.
So certainly we will take the opportunity
to work with Metrolinx and get some additional parking
where it makes sense.
Obviously things are changing there.
And then from an accessibility standpoint,
let's get their feedback.
But we also need to make sure
so that we continue to move as quickly as we can to getting our downtown built out.
So I think we can continue to move with this study while we work on the next steps
of our art.
Yeah.
And I think that's a fair comment that Mayor Day is providing.
The accessibility needs committee meets as soon as the document with them ask them to provide
some feedback.
I think we can reach out to stakeholders at the region,
share this with them and show them where they're at,
as it relates to the accessible divide.
My perspective is I think a lot of the parking ask
is with regard to regional roads
because that is most directly involved
with most of the public park.
And I can think of in front of,
again, I think we need to find out from Lee
what are where we're deficient and the accessibility.
I think so. We also need to be watching our accessible spots and making sure that they're actually being used appropriately.
Certainly this winter we had cars parked in our accessible spots for peaks.
right? And I don't know if that's the intent of our accessible spots. So we do need
to think about how we do this going forward. We also need to change the perspective that
so you won't always be able to park 10 steps from the business that you want to go to. I think
there was an interesting staff that somebody put out when you look at the difference between
shopping in a big box location to shopping in a downtown core, typically you park
further from the business that you go to, you walk further in the location and we all seem
to accept that very willingly, that we walk, you know, 100 meters when we go to theirs or more,
but we won't walk 30 meters when we shop in a downtown version. So we just need to kind of
change your shift the way that we think and from an accessibility standpoint we
need to really think about make sure that we have the appropriate spots in
the appropriate places but that we don't have spots that don't make sense as
well, because quite often, you walk by 10, you know, and
accessible spots as you're walking to a location. So it just
has to be appropriate. That's my taking. You're asking for
the right mix. And if you could just maybe jump up to the
mic for a moment here, Councillor Snook's question, it was a
little bit back now, but just as your hand delivering this back
to Lee and Councillor Schluix's question about do we have everything we need? Is there
anything else that you see that we should speak to here today on?
Thank you. Thank you very much, Ben. Okay. Any further questions or comments about Mayor
Dave's motion? Hearing and seeing none all in favor. That is carried. Thank you. Is there
Any unfinished business? Is there any other business during and seeing none? Is there any questions from the media? Mr. Varley, please.
Thank you, Councillor. My question is not about what's just appeared on the agenda.
Questions about the accessibility meeting.
I
don't think it'll be held here. I think it's held in the boardroom, but it is open to the public.
3.30 is yeah so our deputy clerk is our staff person on that so 3.30 is our
time 3.30 to 5 is it? I
will be able to come up.
Any other questions? Any
questions from the public?
Hearing and seeing none all in favor or sorry my
apologies we already voted. I will close public works in active transportation
and hand the mic to planning and economic development. Thank you very much. I
I will open planning and economic development.
I have three corresponding correspondence letters.
The first one, 12.1.1 from Durham Region
in regards to smart mobility,
the 2024 annual report in the 2025 work plan.
Do we have any questions, comments on that?
Demoted, back down.
I don't think my suggestion was gonna be
and Councillor Poppa, I'll look to you. Should it be referred to the AT committee and ask them
to come back? I know Phil's tied in with the regional AT committee.
Up your reasonable approaching. Get a report back from AT.
I think it makes sense. We haven't heard anything on this subject yet at our meetings.
So I think just forwarding it there and then Phil's been out of the country for a little bit.
So he recently got back. I think it's I
don't think we have further action for it. I think he would probably reach back up
But if there was some I'm just saying that we don't have to bring any
Perfect,
that sounds good
It's the notes I had as well, so
All in favor of that motion
That passes. Thank you
second 12.1.2 from the township of
Angela, Angela is in silent.
Thank you. What she said, it's in regards to additional
residential units in the Oak Ridge's Marine. So any questions, comments, or what we would
like to do with that. Okay, thank you. Let's forward this to our planning department and see
if they want us to do something similar. We've sort of found creative ways to do this, but
That's, there might be another way that can help us build out some of our rural properties appropriately.
Okay, that sounds good. Anyone else with comments or thoughts on that?
All in favor of that motion.
That passes. Thank you.
12.1.3 from the town of Whitby. Again, we've had a number of these over the past couple of months,
but impacts in regards to the international student program changes to local post-secondary programs.
Any comments, questions, or thoughts on what we should do with this course?
Oh, sorry. Councillor Popp.
Thank you.
The President of Durham College is a clarinet in this morning doing a delegation on exactly this. This is an interesting subject we already did have received. I believe the initial resolution from Ajax, and I believe it was Ajax and would be following suit with the right now. I spoke to it at the time when it came to us on our previous agenda.
It's going to have a significant impact. And if we look at it, as when it was forward,
Durham College has 116,000 alumni, 70% of them remain rent within the region of Durham.
They continue to provide work as to the area. And one third of their current curriculum is my
understanding will allow people to stay in the country if they choose to work.
So I'm not going to
ask for any action on this part, but these are some stats that I thought would share. I think
if we look at some of the, you know, some of the businesses as well
as some of the people
who reside here but work there. So it is going to impact us moving forward. And in the presentation,
obviously it's easy for me because my wife is the president. There is going to be a further impact
to the college movement which could further diminish the amount of
our one of the biggest drivers
is in the region of Durham, is it?
Yeah, I think I'll just jump in and say, obviously,
not only Durham College, but Ontario Tech, Trent University,
and multiple others have an impact, significant.
The federal government decided to meet foreign students
because we had a housing crisis.
It's like all of these things make sense.
You just have to figure out how they all work together.
So we're in the middle of a federal election.
I'm guessing we're going to see some changes with that.
We also are in the middle of a trade war that
is having impacts across the country and in Ontario as well.
So that's just a guy.
I just want to make sure we're really strategically
using our voice where it makes sense.
We typically focus on experts only.
And this will have an expert only impact.
I just don't know if more pressure is better in this case on how we do this. I just want to think about that, but I don't, I'm not, I spoke, but I don't necessarily have direction.
Thank you, Meredith.
Councillor Pickering.
Yes.
So thank you.
There is an impact to our bridge.
We know that students are funneling through.
We're working on building a hospital, so other opportunities to find qualified folks to come over proud graduate of Durham College.
I wonder if we receive and forward to our very bright CAO so that if there is an opportunity further down the line, we will have noted this and it will at least be on her desk and then we can maybe bring it back to staff.
Sorry, just one more thing to add, Mayor Davis correct that it was the federal government
that made the changes to the student population coming into the country.
It is the province that actually funds the colleges and universities too, and the funding
model has provided some interesting challenges to it as well.
So I'm just sharing that, and again, I'm not going to advocate strongly on it one way or the other.
I think when we have our opportunities to talk to things around our provincial representatives, we do that, and I think we do that in a positive light to share what it is.
That in mind, I'm not going to make a motion on that.
Yes, thank you, Councillor Popper.
So with that, there has been a motion by Aaron Pickering, all in favor.
And that passes. Thank you.
There are no currently any reports to committee, no public meetings at this time.
Hopefully we do have one next.
Unfinished business.
Bring in seeing none. Do we have any other business?
Hearing and seeing none, I will.
Yeah.
I will
open admin and special projects. We have a correspondence from the region of
Durham regarding at regional council about the use of swastikos and contents there about
rewarding that. If you're interested a little bit of context is that a number of communities
have been hit with these symbols of hate. The one councilor brought forward a motion to
banned the swastika and that got approved. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of research
that went into that motion. So for the research indicated that the swastika on its own is not
a symbol of hate to some organizations. So they came back and I'll just say reworded it or softened it
perhaps because the member of the community that came forward made it very clear that in
his environment that it's not an all-assemble of hate.
So, our regional staff did a full dive into the background and the meeting of the Swastika
and really the intent of the regional council, the broad forward, the original motion, would
have been better worded if they talked about Nazi symbols of hate.
So we had a third's majority to revisit the issue and it's now placed as a reference to Nazi symbols of it.
There's really, in my opinion, there's no action locally to be taken, and this is actually being communicated up to the federal government.
Just to note that the previous council had made a move to ban.
and each
bridge at least had a similar bylaw.
Yeah, I'll give you a motion to receive this one.
And then we'll see what the federal government does with it.
But I'm really comfortable with where our by-law is.
And I think that gives us quite tools, hopefully.
On favor?
That's Gary, thank you.
Next up is a communications from the town of Whitby
regarding the community care in this one-connect program.
I'll just provide a little context around that.
We did have a presentation at age friendly, and Pam, feel free to jump in here.
Um, regarding what's.
James Mulosh. Thank you.
I came in and talked about what he wants to do.
Pam, maybe I should throw it to you in fairness.
You and just fine.
Okay.
I'm.
Okay.
I'm the great intention.
The bottom line is.
community care, through this OneConnect program, would like to provide enhanced services
for seniors that are getting to a level where they need additional care, potentially,
the intent would be to provide these services to, in James's approach, to offload the need
for hospital care or long-term care.
So, it's proactive supports to turn it, and much less expensive to do that.
But James is going to all communities looking for support on this.
He's also meeting with the region this week.
And I spoke with the Commissioner of Social Services about it.
And she's supportive of it, not sure if it's financially or not, but it's in support of
providing his enhanced services.
I'd suggested to Mr. Mulosh that his timing is good, given that a new long-term care home
is on the cost of breaking ground, and that he might want to work with that operator to
establish a space to provide those services. There's also other spaces available on that campus
of care that he could establish shop as well. He wasn't aware of that and was thankful to have
the local information. I'm not sure at this point if he's looking to act or if he's currently in
the advocacy committee or advocacy state. I'm really sure.
I saw James briefly just after your
reading and stepping to see.
I think this is a wonderful opportunity to help to me like he was
in a bit of the advocacy stage. As you mentioned he's looking to
earner support to be you know
continue to be a strong community supporter in an area that is only I think
it's amazing.
Look at I think ideas like this bring better ideas for
everybody in motion to be
James it was
It was wonderful listening to him, and he was taught the
word.
My suggestion, if I can put a friendly, do you want to do a council process?
I would be that we support this.
It's really just supporting Mr. Blasch's advocacy, Whitby has done it.
I think Ajax initiated this some time ago.
I don't know about the other communities to the south.
So if council's okay with it, I would add a friendly to it.
if I can do that, procedurally, some of the questions.
To come back with a made-in-oxverage resolution,
and then refer to the appropriate
age-friendly advisory committee action plan,
because there's the 40 steps plan that we have,
which exact steps does it connect to
the way it would be did with theirs.
But yes.
I make that motion.
I did really, you'd think I'd learn after this many years,
but can you make that motion?
Thank you. Yes, absolutely. I appreciate it. Thank you. You think I know. Okay. Any questions about that? I appreciate the support on all in favor of Pam's motion. Then that's carried. Thank you.
Thank you. There are no reports to committee. Is there any unfinished or other business?
Questions from the media on that or from the public hearing
none. Then I will close it. Men and Mayor Barton. I'll hand it back to you.
Okay, thank you very much.
Deb, should we take a break before we do in camera or?
Oh, okay, so let's do those ones first.
But we'll do five minutes come back because we do have.
Oh, yeah, so let's.
Oh, I'm giving us motion to move in the camera on favor.
Yeah, and we'll take a break and come back.
Thanks.
Just nod when we're good to go.
But I think that's a nod saying you heard me.
All
right, can I get a motion to come out of camera?
move by Zed on favor. That's carried. And then we have I'm gonna need a motion and we'll do
these all at once. The first one is to move the recommendations as amended during council of
report CL 1725 report CL 1625 report confidential report 1.3 confidential report CL 1825
and the update in 1.5.
Can I get a motion for that?
Moved by Willie.
Questions or comments on any of that?
Okay, all in favor?
That's carried.
Thank you.
Motion to adjourn.
Moved by Zed all in favor?
Carried, thank you.
Okay.
Deb, thanks.
.