RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated September 4, 2025 from the Chief Administrative Officer titled “Departmental Update” be received for information.

PURPOSE OF REPORT:

To provide Council with information from each department regarding material events and happenings at Town Hall.

BACKGROUND:

A report for the Committee of the Whole meeting to apprise Council of the highlights of significant activities of the Town.

INFORMATION:

Office of the CAO:

The CAO has been working with his counterparts in Langford and Colwood to further the police detachment expansion project. Several meetings between the CAOs, Mayors and the Integrated Project Delivery Team have taken place over the recent months. Progress towards establishing a Capital Regional District sub-regional service to finance the expansion continue to progress, and the validation process continues to accelerate.

Mayor Tobias, Councillor Rogers and the CAO met with a representative of Destination Greater Victoria (DGV) to discuss the benefits of having recently joined the DGV and strategies to attract a hotelier to View Royal.

Recruitment of a Deputy Corporate Officer has been completed, with the advancement of internal applicant, Jennifer Cochrane to the position. This will leave an opening in the Executive Assistant role which she has held since 2011. Congratulations to Jenn!

The Annual Report, providing highlights and achievements for the year ended December 31, 2024, was adopted by Council on July 2, 2025 and is now available on the Town’s website.

The CAO and the Director of Parks and Engineering have been attending the CRD Working Group on limiting bear attractants, which is working on regional initiatives to prevent negative interactions between wildlife and waste handling practices.

Corporate Administration:

Council adopted an amendment to the Town’s Procedure Bylaw on July 2, 2025, changing the start time of Council and Committee of the Whole meetings from 7:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The first meeting under the new start time was held on July 8, 2025.

The Town’s biannual newsletter is in production and will be sent out in the mail early next month. This fall/winter newsletter will provide information to residents on happenings in the Town. As well, the Town’s monthly electronic newsletters – available through an RSS feed from the Town’s website – are another opportunity for residents to stay informed.

Canada Day was marked with an event held at the Craigflower Manor site. Once again, the Town of View Royal and the Victoria Highland Games Association co-hosted the event which had both indoor and outdoor performance stages for music and dance, community booths (the Town’s Archives, Habitat Restoration, FireSmart and the Emergency Services programs were represented in a community booth), Manor house tours, a face painter, a balloon clown, and even some traditional heavy games. Among these, the Archives brought a unique element to the celebration by inviting the community to engage with history in a hands-on way through My Pocket Archives - a small, printed booklet that gave people space to tell their own stories.

In August, the Archives held the three-part series ‘What should I do with my stuff?’ which was well received with requests for another round later in the year. Attendees appreciated receiving guidelines on creating a personal archive as well as the group discussions.

A Statement of Work (SOW) was signed with Elantis on August 11, 2025, following the award of the RFP 2025 C-004 M365 Project in June. Starting in September, Elantis will begin implementing a Microsoft 365-based records management system using Microsoft Purview to unify information governance, legislative compliance, and the administration of cybersecurity and risk management throughout the digital environment. This project will modernize how the Town manages electronic information and optimizes corporate efficiencies.

Finance:

In July, the Town welcomed two new additions to the Finance department, a new Deputy Director of Finance and Senior Accountant/Business Analyst. Their arrival has provided long awaited depth to the existing team, whom we commend for their remarkable efforts in maintaining service levels despite limited capacity during the first half of the year. The focus going forward will be to continue to train our new Finance staff.

In July and August, Finance staff worked to collect outstanding delinquent property taxes. These are taxes that were levied in 2023 and remain outstanding. Legislation requires that a tax sale will be held on September 29 at 10:00 AM if delinquent taxes are still unpaid. Staff are confident that remaining outstanding delinquent taxes will be paid in time to avoid a tax sale this year.

Finance staff began the process of preparing for the Fall sewer utility billing, requiring thorough analysis of water consumption data provided by the CRD. An updated Sewer User Fee Bylaw to recommend reliable and supportable sewer rates, which will sufficiently recover the costs of both View Royal and CRD’s sanitary sewer systems is expected to go to Council in October, with invoices following shortly thereafter.

The IT focus continues to be on security-related projects and keeping systems up to date. Staff are currently planning and scheduling the firewall redundancy project. These upgrades will help improve performance, security, and reliability. As well, the PC refresh project is moving forward alongside Windows 11 upgrades and is on track to meet the October deadline.

Development Services:

The Development Services team continued to be busy during the summer months responding to a consistent number of zoning, land use, building, and business license inquiries, and reviewing and processing development applications. In July and August, Development Services (Planning and Building) received 29 new applications, which are summarized in the following table:

In July, the Town launched a new survey to collect community feedback on the Official Community Plan’s (OCP) draft vision and goals. The draft ideas in the survey are based on what we heard during Phase 1 engagement, including workshops, open houses, surveys, and mapping activities. The online survey will be open until September 7.

There was an OCP Review Advisory Committee meeting on August 25, 2025. The committee reviewed and provided feedback on a draft Western Gateway Corridor survey and provided comments on Council’s motion related to a new policy statement that encourages new development four-storeys or greater to incorporate commercial or public use space. The draft Western Gateway Corridor survey will be presented to Council in September in advance of a third round of engagement planned in the fall.

Engineering:

The three Parks students will be completed their tenure with the Town at the end of August. The Parks Department has been appreciative of their help. The students were passionate about parks, and hope that the skills they acquired help them in their future endeavours.

The Engineering student will be recommencing work with the Town in September. The student initially worked with us in the summer and had to postpone their work due to an extraordinary opportunity to try out with Rowing Canada’s National Team. We welcome him back and he will be of great assistance in helping the team out with sanitary sewer and road public works during the wet season.

Sewer & Drain

The Town’s consultant for the Drainage Master Plan Project has been busy surveying and proving out the existing drainage infrastructure to improve the accuracy of our assets. Doing so will significantly improve the drainage assessment.

G&E is currently working on the emergency repair to the sewer main on Watkiss Way between Creed Road and Marler Drive.

Streets & Roads

Pavement asphalt repairs were completed on major roads and painted road lines were renewed across the entire Town.

Don Mann is undertaking pavement shoulder widening on Watkiss Way between Game Road and Erskine Lane for safe pedestrian access initiated by the residents of Game Road.

An additional traffic loop detector was installed at the Island Highway/Helmcken Road approach to improve the afternoon traffic flow.

The boulevard street trees on Island Highway near View Royal Avenue were trimmed and pruned, and a small pavement sink hole on Kingham Place by the Centennial Park parking area was repaired.

A new bus shelter was installed on Six Mile Road south of Chilco Road as part of the Town’s Bus Shelter Improvement Capital Project.

Developments

242 Island Highway: a new bus shelter has been installed courtesy of Pattison Group and in accordance with the Town’s Bus Shelter Improvements Project.

Parks:

Parks Department staff noticed an issue with an outside roof beam at the front entrance of Town Hall. Upon exposing the inside of the beam there was significant long term water damage and pests in the overhanging roof beam. Emergency repair measures were immediately conducted to ensure public safety, and structural repairs were completed in August with surficial repairs to be completed in September before the wet season. Due to two water issue that have impacted the building envelope this year, staff will be retaining a consultant to conduct an inspection and condition assessment of the roof for the purposes of preventative maintenance.

The Greater Victoria Green Team (GVGT) hosted thirty-four community members at the Nursery Hill Park for the removal of invasive broom and daphne, fifteen cubic metres of invasive scotch broom and daphne/spurge laurel were removed, and 302 m² of the park was revitalized.

The GVGT hosted twenty-nine community members at the Stoneridge Wetland for the removal of invasive blackberry and parrot feather, and at another event more than eleven cubic metres of invasive Himalayan blackberry and parrot feather were removed, revitalizing approximately, seventy-five m² of the habitat.

Protective Services:

Operational Updates:

• The department experienced its second busiest July in its history, with crews responding to 145 calls for service.
• Fire of note: Crews responded to a trailer and shed fire at Fort Victoria. Fire damage was limited due to the fast response from crews, including engines from Esquimalt, Langford, and Colwood.
• The pre-delivery inspection of the new fire engine was completed in August and is scheduled to be placed into service in late September.

Administrative Items:

• Work is ongoing to update the Fire and Life Safety Bylaw to align with the Fire Safety Act.
• New roster management software – Vector Scheduling – was implemented. The software streamlines roster management and aids in payroll. Work is underway to implement other modules to assist in records management related to training and equipment tracking and replacement.

Inter-Agency / Regional Collaboration:

• Work is ongoing with Langford, Colwood, and Esquimalt to streamline the auto-aid agreement. A recent initiative has all CREST radios programmed to common channels, operating off the same talk group.
• The RCMP Lower Island Emergency Response Team conducted training at the VRFD Training Ground.

Community Engagement:

• The FireSmart Program continues to provide home inspections and education.
• The department hosted a screening of 'Incandescence,' which focused on the Monty Lake Wildfire.
• A community tree chipping event was a success with forty-eight households participating.
• Items for the Sprinkler Protection Unit are arriving, funded through a provincial grant.

Upcoming Priorities:

• The department will be implementing the Job Performance Requirements (JPR’s) as outlined in the Minimum Training Standards. These standards support a framework where firefighter training requirements are directly linked to the level of service provided by the Fire Department to the community.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated August 29, 2025 from the Chief Administrative Officer titled “Departmental Update” be received for information.

SUBMITTED BY: S. Sommerville, Chief Administrative Officer