Committee of the Whole

Hi everyone.

Welcome.

I'd like to call this meeting of the Committee of the Whole of June 10th to order.

First, I'd like to recognize that we are meeting today on the Lakwangan the territory of the Lakwangan speaking people, known today as the Squimalt Nations and Songhese Nations, and that their historic connections to these lands continue to this day.

So this afternoon, we will hear from the public during the public participation and question period portions of the agenda.

For members in the audience, the council chambers is a safe, respectful, and inclusive space.

All members of the audience are asked to refrain from clapping, cheering, or openly expressing your opposing opinions when others are speaking or when they are done speaking.

When it is your turn to talk, do not speak disrespectfully about anyone else, including council and staff.

Do not use rude or offensive language, do not make statements or allegations that call into question the character of anyone else.

Do not speak or act in an aggressive, bullying, or harassing way.

Council wants to hear from the views of those participating in the meeting in an open and impartial forum.

So to provide comments virtually during the part public participation period or to ask questions during question period, you will see a QR code or a URL on the live web streams screen or a URL on the town's website under live webcasts.

Scan the code and type in the or type in the URL through the form that pops up.

Type in your comment or question to be read aloud at the appropriate time by a member of our webcast team.

You will need to provide your name and street name on the form, or if you are speaking in uh council chambers.

So public participation comments are limited to five minutes for each speaker and must be related to items on the agenda question period is open to any question and is limited to two minutes for each speaker you will be timed this meeting will be recorded by participating in this webcast you are consenting to being recorded and recording will be available on the town's website for future access okay so we're going to move to approval of the agenda um yes, Councillor Rogers?

Yes, uh, thank you.

I'd uh with um um uh folks' approval, I move that we uh reverse or change the order of the staff reports so that item b comes before a b becomes a and a becomes B so that uh the phase plan process process update is before the draft vision and land use survey, reversing those two.

Seconded.

Okay, uh any comments on that?

No.

Okay, we'll go to a vote then.

All in favor?

Okay, that's unanimous.

Uh any opposed?

Nope.

Okay, that is carried.

So uh staff, we will be changing the order of those two items on the agenda.

Okay, uh, can we can I get approval of the minutes from the previous committee of the whole meeting?

Second.

All in favor?

Okay, any opposed?

No.

So we'll move uh to the chair's report.

Carried.

All right.

So uh one thing I did want to mention is that this meeting, this committee of the whole meeting, it started at 3 30 and it has been uh a tradition that it starts at 3 30 but at our council meeting we approve changes to our procedures by law that our draft procedures by law that will mean all our meetings so council meetings and committee of the whole meetings will now start at 6 p.m.

So our next committee of the whole meeting will be a 6 p.m uh with the approval of the bylaw coming at our future council meetings.

And the purpose just for those who might not have heard that discussion, the reason for doing that was to allow for more people to be able to watch from home if they're working at this time or picking up kids.

And also for future potential candidates who might not be able to take time away from work to come to Committee of the Whole meetings.

Okay, and that is it for my chair's report.

So I'll move swiftly along to petitions and delegations.

So our first uh delegation is um from the chief bylaw officer, and that's the CRD Animal Control Update.

Good afternoon, mayor and members of council.

Thank you for having me again today.

I hope that you have the stat report in front of you or available to you for the past three months.

Um what can I say?

Nothing really earth shattering that uh other than making every effort to maintain our availability and visibility uh in View Royal.

Um the stats were a little bit lower than I had hoped, but uh we have had some resourcing challenges with uh some long-term uh sickness as most organizations go through.

So we're working our way through that, and we anticipate that'll get resolved soon.

Um the things I normally like to bring to your attention are, of course, are during that last reporting period the the dog attacks.

So we did have uh four, which isn't a lot, that's which is nice for us.

Um we will start with the first one back in uh on March.

Uh looks like in March, we had two domestic dog attacks, which basically are dog on dog.

And um luckily uh nothing serious um uh during the investigations of both of those.

Um some redirect was given um to the dog owners.

Uh uh looks like one occurred while someone uh went onto somebody's property.

And of course, quite often owners have their dogs sort of running around on their property as they are allowed to do.

But uh as the person approached the dog perceived uh potentially this this it was a threat to the owner.

Uh nonetheless, we were um we were able to provide some appropriate redirect, especially I think one of them was a re may have been a repeat.

So and and uh one of them was a dog visiting.

So we kind of look at the big picture there, and uh, if a dog doesn't live there permanently, it's it's it's like somebody's friend or an associate visiting the dog is in an in a different location, it's not used to it.

So um warning uh warnings were given in both cases.

Uh then there was one where where a we call it a human attack.

Uh a person uh uh working for I think Elections Canada uh entered onto a property, and of course uh a dog was outside with its owner, and um it it the the person approached like obviously they engaged the uh the owner and and the dog reacted in a negative way.

Um there were some minor injuries uh and um as in that case it was a second uh occurrence for that dog so we were obligated to issue a ticket the appropriate ticket for a for a dog allowing your dog to bite someone and um it thankfully it was minor in nature.

Uh and the last one we had in May um was surprise surprise a uh Canada Post carrier um not all doom and gloom it's uh one of those things where you know you you you go onto a property and you see owners there, you just assume that the dogs are gonna be managed and it and unfortunately dogs are like that.

They are can be unpredictable, and it uh attacked the um the uh the carrier.

It was a minor bite to the hand, you know.

You're natural to reach out uh as a result of that.

Um the appropriate, it was the first time at this location the appropriate warning was issued.

Um from this, though, the I guess there's a silver line to everything.

The uh member uh management from uh the postal service has reached out to us for wanting us to uh uh provide them with some perhaps some training, some based on the experience.

I've got some very experienced officers on how to maybe approach and mitigate uh and basically see uh that that's a situation that can go south very quickly, so which is nice.

So there's a bit of uh, and I know my predecessor has sort of laid some of that foundation as well.

So it was nice to see that that they reached out to us and we're we're we're sort of planning on that.

We're trying, we've got a dialogue going and we're gonna we're gonna try and prepare something for them.

Um short of that, I think that is pretty much everything, other than if you have questions about the stats that are provided to you.

I'm prepared to answer questions.

Great, thank you.

I see a question from Councillor Brown.

There was this story on uh uh it wasn't a news story, it was a well it was uh Sterling um uh program on CPAC this morning.

They were talking about a a pit bull that came in a bit of doctor in a hospital.

That wasn't a VGH, was it?

Or did you even know about it?

They never set up aware of that one, and and I think and you know, I think I would re we remember that one.

I wouldn't report on that for you.

I mean without too many details, of course.

And just a quick follow-up, because I know um Theetis Lake Park, of course, is mainly in our area.

I know you do mostly animal control.

However, you do have staff that do patrols in Thetis Lake Park, and because of the good weather, uh, how's it been so far?

Uh so far pretty good.

Um Yeah, so far pretty good.

Uh I think we had an we might have had a near miss on that uh uh recently.

I but I don't think it formed part of this because I think parks the parks staff addressed it because they also have a provision within their bylaw to deal with sort of negative behavior by animals so we were contacted they liaise with us and we said well if you've got it under control but it was it was like a near miss but other than that people are being pretty good got all our parks staff trained up there they've been out there for the past three weeks so so far so good sorry to keep no I'm sorry to dominate I'm trying not to dominate the floor but uh just so you said near miss that would be I assume a a cliff jumper right is that where you talk no no no that'd be somebody walking dogs walking dogs in the trail okay two dogs coming by either gotcha and on an almost an almost attack yeah so that was just sort of shared with us by parks because we work with them of course directly so council lennon yeah thanks hi Mark um did I understand that you did I understand you to say there was a repeat occurrence of a dog attack uh yeah sometimes we get um situations where a person's dog has already come to our attention for some form of an attack but it could be very minor so this wasn't I I guess I'm I'm being specific here this wasn't the same incident that where a visiting dog and another dog attacked a posty.

It's got all of the all of the features here um last year in View Royal.

No, I do I do remember that one, but that was a separate one.

Got it.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions?

No?

Thank you, Mr.

Griff.

Move your seat.

Second.

Okay, all in favor.

Okay, unanimous.

And so that report has been received.

Okay, next is Inspector Rose for our West Shore RCMP update.

Good evening, your worship, council, and uh members of the community, uh both here and or online and staff.

Uh it's my pleasure today to provide you with an update of our annual performance plan and sort of what we've been up to here in uh the community of View Royal uh since January.

Um I'm doing so on behalf of Superintendent Preston who uh finds himself away right now, uh, but we'll be back uh within a week or so.

Uh so all the the data that I'm about to speak to occurred during the period of January 1 to May 31 of uh this year, so between January and May.

Uh most of the data I'll also preface is good news.

Uh you're gonna hear about a lot of decreases across the various uh crime types and trends and records that we do maintain and report on here at uh View Royal.

Uh the first one is that the overall demand or calls for service uh have decreased by about one and a half percent over the same period last year.

So we had uh 1,355 calls for service.

Um of those were founded, meaning they were investigated and found to have occurred with some substantive offense or reportable incident being uh disclosed to the police.

Uh that's about a 4% decrease over the same period uh last year.

Uh when we speak specifically to violent crime, uh there were 67 occurrences between January and May, and that's a 3% decrease over uh last year, which is always great.

Uh the most common offenses there included common assault, uttering threats, and harassing communication, along with a variety of other uh crime codes, but way smaller numbers during that period.

Uh property crime, there were 115 uh founded occurrences during the report period, which is a 17% decrease over the same period last year.

Again, uh great to hear that we're seeing uh a decrease in in offenses uh that include the top three being mischief under 5,000, shoplifting under 5,000, and fraud under 5,000, uh being the greatest number of those.

Uh shoplifting has definitely fallen for the most part across the region or across the West Shore, and that's because our crime reduction unit took a very proactive approach over the past year, working with funding obtained from the provincial government through the site funding to work with loss prevention officers in some of the businesses and commercial spaces that are are targeted the most.

And so by having officers work specifically on or in those sites, we were able to apprehend a significant number of people that were committing shoplifting offenses.

Hopefully that message is starting to get around which is ultimately resulting in those decreases this year.

Um, we often speak specifically to uh two facilities, I guess, within View Royal, one of them being the casino.

Uh, there were 30 calls for service over the time period noted, and that's a 17% decrease as well over the same period last year.

Um, most notable offenses there include impaired operation of a motor vehicle uh and suspicious circumstances or suspicious people that were being reported as up to no good.

So they were called in by members of the public, and then of course we attended and identified them to determine what they were doing.

Uh, the second one is the uh hospital, so VIC General.

Uh, there were 102 calls for service in the reporting period, which accounts for again a 17% decrease over the same period uh last year, which is always great to see.

Uh, the vast majority of the calls there include uh Mental Health Act uh calls for service, uh, with 29 of those 102 being related to the provincial statute.

Uh speaking of the Mental Health Act, uh, at the hospital, uh 21 files uh specifically related to mental health, and that is no change uh between this period and the last period of report.

Um, and in contrasting that to mental health related files in View Royal as a whole, uh where there were 96 related files, this uh resulted in a 1% decrease.

Pretty much the same, but a little bit uh lower.

Uh the overall demand for or by View Royal residents of the Westro RCMP for the period uh was 11.93%, or about 12% of our overall call volume.

And currently, View Royal contributes about 11% of the resources to the integrated detachment.

So you're pretty much on par, which is uh which is great to see.

I'll speak briefly to some of the proactive events that uh we've done and then highlight a few uh more specific details about files that have surfaced uh over the past month.

So over the past month.

Uh specifically speaking of traffic enforcement, there were six speeding tickets issued and six uh warnings for speeding uh in the month of May.

There were seven uh drivers apprehended with no insurance, and we continue to see that across the various communities.

Um there seems to have been a substantive uptick in individuals driving without insurance across the region.

And the only commonality we can find as to why that's transpired is the removal of the validation sticker or the requirement for a validation sticker to be placed on motorist vehicles.

Um we have ways, of course, still apprehending or locating those offenders that are driving without insurance, but it's a little tougher.

Obviously, that changing color from year to year was easier to spot by all officers on patrol.

Now only those that either manually query the license plate or use the automated uh license plate reader are able to see that it's a vehicle without insurance.

There was one prohibited driver apprehended and an unusually high number of collisions in the past month.

There were eight uh within View Royal, and one of those uh was a fatality, which which I'll mention uh in the details here shortly.

Um as far as community engagement is concerned, our community policing unit and our bike unit's been very active over the past uh couple of months.

The bike unit was in uh View Royal at the park and ride on June 4th and did some education there, um, encouraging project 529, which is an anti-bicycle theft program, and also encouraging the wearing of helmets by bicyclists.

We've launched our LeChez Spirit canoe program again this year with a plethora of activities and groups, both organizations and within schools that are going to be participating in that.

We'll also be at Indigenous Peoples Day down at Royal Roads with our canoe coming up here at the end of the month.

Four students from Royal Bay attended that program, and we dedicated two police officers for the entirety of that week during spring break to act as camp leaders.

We held our semi-well, I guess we've done it two years running now, our barn dance in Callwood as a fundraiser this year for the Cops for Cancer in Tour de Rock on May 9th.

And I'm happy to say that it raised just over $7,000.

So our appreciation certainly goes out to all of the attendees as we sold out that event and have now started talking about hosting it in a larger venue for next year so that we can continue with that program success.

Our community policing officers uh participated in Red Dress Day and uh walked with school District 62 students.

And then we also hosted on Mother's Day the annual Sarah Beckett Memorial Run, uh, which this year drew about 450 runners.

Uh beautiful weather, beautiful day, uh, and a great day to uh remember our colleague.

Um as far as a couple of specific files, just to give you a snapshot of what uh those 1100 or so occurrences relate to.

Here's a few examples.

Uh May 2nd, uh there was a report of an individual acting beh unusually on Chief Robert Sam Lane around 11 in the morning.

So members attended and identified that individual and looked determined that uh he was wanted on the strength of arrest warrants out of uh Victoria's jurisdiction.

So he was arrested and taken uh to the Vic PD cells to appear in court.

A couple of days later, on May 7th, uh there was another report of a suspicious male on the island highway near the six mile road uh causing a hazard was yelling and uh interfering with traffic.

Members attended and found that he was intoxicated and subsequently arrested him for causing a disturbance.

Uh so he was held until sober and able to care for himself.

On May 15th, we had a report of a suicidal person on the Helmican Bridge around 1 30 in the morning.

Uh officers attended, and after some negotiation, we were able to apprehend that individual under the Mental Health Act and take him to the hospital.

Unfortunately, um, when at the hospital, it took some time to get triaged.

So our officers spent a number of hours there again.

And I know I've spoken to this specifically in View Royal, but also at the other municipal council tables, just identifying that we continue to experience substantive delays in triage.

And I know that that's experienced by my municipal police partners across the region.

And we've we've continued to meet with Island Health and hospital emergency room staff to try to find solutions to that, but have yet to find a path forward.

So with uh with time and a lot of heads at the table, hopefully we'll eventually get there.

Uh but for now it results in substantive delays.

Uh May 15th, uh there was a member, a traffic member out on patrol in the Eagle Creek village, and uh he was operating one of those automatic license plate readers, and subsequently uh apprehended a prohibited driver um who was operating a vehicle.

Uh, May 22nd, there was a collision between a vehicle and a cyclist in the 1900 block of Watkiss Way.

Um's attended investigating subsequently uh issued a violation ticket to the driver of the vehicle, as uh that was the offending party and not the cyclist.

On May 24th, uh there was a substantive collision uh between a vehicle and a cyclist at about 5:20 p.m.

just north of the six-mile road.

That is the fatality that I referenced a few moments ago.

Our municipal traffic unit continues to investigate that file, and a reconstructionist attended that scene as well.

We have been able to rule out that there were any drugs or alcohol involved in that incident.

However, the uh the investigation overall is continuing uh forward with the examination of other physical evidence and uh data gathered uh from the vehicle.

Uh on May 24th, there was a report of a person in crisis on the Six Mile Bridge.

Uh members were able to attend, and again, after some negotiation uh and discussion, um, apprehend that individual and take them to the hospital.

On May 26th, there was a report of uh a theft from a vehicle on Burnett Road, um, some trailer batteries and uh um were stolen, sorry, from from there.

On May 30th, there was another collision between a pedestrian and a vehicle in the Eagle Shopping Center parking lot.

Uh that file continues uh to be under investigation, although alcohol involvement has been ruled out, um, which is good to hear.

Lastly, May 31st, police responded to multiple calls of uh of a person in crisis and unclothed um at a at a residence here in view royal members attended and subsequently uh apprehended that individual and took them to the hospital as well uh to see a physician uh as i transition i will mention uh that after negotiation and conversation i guess with the elected officials uh and also feedback that we received both through an online uh survey and a town hall that we hosted at the Legion in uh Lankford um the officer in charge has communicated the upcoming year's um priorities or policing priorities to the communities via memo um I'll just mention those here in passing just for the community at large and just to refresh the mind of counsel on what they will hear about in subsequent reports.

The top five priorities include reducing organized crime and drug trafficking, reducing property crime, mental health and crisis response teams, enhancing road safety, so traffic enforcement, and then lastly deterring uh youth crime.

Uh it has been raised at a couple of the other venues that uh there's a strong desire to continue to seek community feedback regarding policing priorities, but also an opportunity for the public at large to interact with uh the local detachment and not necessarily only, you know, quarterly or annually as we work through the establishment of policing priorities.

Moving forward, that's certainly a goal that we have, which is to not only host those engagement opportunities, but to move it around the West Shore so that we get into the seven communities that we support and provide policing services for.

With that, that brings to a close the formal portion of the report, but I'm certainly open to any questions that council may have.

Thank you.

I know uh councillor Lemon had a question.

It's not actually well, I'll make it a question.

Um Inspector Rose, um last September at UBCM, the membership of all the councils and mayors in BC endorsed a Bureau um uh resolution to um calling on the government to address hospital wait times and the you know the the languishing that our police officers or time the time that police officers spend languishing in waiting rooms and uh clearly nothing's changed.

And if you have, you know, the government has its own priorities, don't understand them, um, but that doesn't seem to be one of them right now.

So if you have any other ideas of how we can uh can help you?

I'd love to hear.

Certainly, Council Lemmon.

I mean, advocating um on behalf of not just the police, but more importantly, those that find themselves apprehended under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital, but also for those healthcare professionals that work in hospitals and are seeing substantive demand for their services.

I think that's where we really need to be advocating.

Show up there because of a lack of access to family medicine and family physicians.

And so they're tending to leave what would be discovered or treated over a series of months or years with a family doctor until it gets really bad, they show up and present and emerge.

Um, and so what we find as the police bringing in apprehended clients is simply we have to fall in line with those other patients that are seeking critical care.

Uh, and given that an individual that's been apprehended is usually imminently and immediately cared for by the police, they're not always ranked that high.

Now, I would suggest it's also extremely traumatizing to that person that's been apprehended under the uh the Mental Health Act to have to sit in handcuffs under police guard in a setting awaiting that triage and health care uh provision.

Um, unfortunately, that's that's where we find ourselves right now.

Uh, one of the things that I'm exploring, and I I've just received in in the last week or 10 days some data from our detachment is where we route those apprehensions.

So, as it stands, as a matter of courtesy, um, we take youth to one of the two area hospitals and we take adults to the other.

Um, but there's no requirement in the Mental Health Act for that.

And so what happens is because we're taking adults uh down to the Jubilee, we're actually leaving our policing jurisdiction.

That complicates our ability to relieve that officer, to have them um uh supported, or if there's a need for backup, it makes it a little tougher because they're actually in the Victoria Police jurisdiction.

So I'm currently exploring whether we, as the police agency providing service, is going to change that.

Again, to attempt to draw attention to the importance of us simply meeting the requirements of the Act, but also indirectly creating some pressure on the hospital to encourage those that make decisions to uh to triage or prioritize police attending.

Um because the police agencies going all going to one hospital with apprehended clients also creates that that choke point, right?

That bottleneck in service.

So if we actually took clients to the uh nearest facility, which is what the act requires, we may be able to alleviate some of those challenges.

It's it's something I'm looking at right now, uh, with an implementation date, you know, to be determined, but the data certainly supports us staying within View Royal with all of our apprehensions, because then I can have other officers respond, I can have other officers uh give the initial officer a break if needed, because it's not uncommon for us to have occurrences of four to six hours of wait time.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Sorry, Counselor Brown.

I'm just wondering, I always ask the same question, but are you up to full strength right now?

Um, if we look at our total number of positions at the detachment, they are all staffed.

Um we do have some uh staffing members, as my colleague from Bylaw mentioned, uh, who are on you know shorter long-term medical leave, uh, so they're not what we would consider rotable or operational.

Um, all of our positions are staffed.

That's the good news.

Some are away.

And just remind me, because I used to have my own detachment too, but is it still a case that we don't they don't get backfilled?

If people are long term disability or even short term disability for that matter, they don't always get backfilled.

And the reason I ask is I know you're aware of it, but if uh you're not a hundred percent full up, at the end of the year, we get some money kicked back to us.

That's that's the only reason I asked the question.

Uh traditionally, I mean I've been at West Shore since twenty twenty one and I don't think either of the municipally the municipal funding partners have had to expend their complete uh budgeted amount for policing you're correct in that we often through the year uh have various positions across the municipal funding partners that aren't staffed uh and as a result some of that money that was allocated is uh isn't spent um I think I'm sure Steve's happy about that gets the money back.

Any other questions?

Yes, Councillor Matson.

First off, uh, thank you for the report and the statistics.

Very informative.

And very delighted to hear about the drop in uh calls.

Anything you can attribute that to specifically no, other than there's a slight decrease.

Some of the municipalities have seen slight increases.

Uh view royal across the board, as you heard, has had a dip.

Um I don't have any direct correlation to to cause.

Okay, thank you.

Um it's two more short ones.

Hey, you mentioned that a driver hit a pedestrian and the driver was at fault and he got a ticket.

So I'm for someone who's who's a cyclist, I it's not very encouraging when you hear that the guy just got a ticket.

This this doesn't lose a license.

So what does it mean to get a ticket?

Uh no, I mean there in any time that the police attend a collision uh between two vehicles, between a vehicle and a pedestrian or a ped uh vehicle and a and a cyclist, uh they investigate to determine the cause of that crash.

Um like anything, you know, there are levels of enforcement action that can be taken, um, and they depend on the circumstances that led to that crash.

It can be treated as criminal, uh, in which there's a contravention of the criminal code and a more substantive series of events that led to you know the incident.

Uh, many, and I would say the vast majority are resolved under the provincial statute being the Motor Vehicle Act.

So if there's a contravention under the act, then it results in the issuance of a violation ticket for whatever offense was committed that the police officer deemed to have been the cause of that crash.

There are occasions as well, I should note, uh, where the police investigate and determine that either both parties contributed in some fashion, uh, or there was no definitive cause that can be determined, in which case there's no charge either under the provincial or federal statute.

Um, and that's articulated by the investigator.

The veracity or the seriousness of the charge, I mean, that's something that's dictated by federal and provincial levels of government, not the police.

We simply apply the law.

Yeah, I was quite happy with the uh the list of priorities, but I'm just wondering, are you bringing these the priority lists back to the municipalities to approve?

Uh no.

Uh no.

So there was input sought from the various municipalities on what the priorities ought to be.

And then by combining that with the data from the public, including the public forum, um, those top five I just mentioned were identified as covering the majority or encompassing the majority of the concerns brought forward by all the parties for this upcoming 2025 26 year old so other than us complaining if we don't like one basically it's just up to the RCMP with input to us or from us.

Well they were established with input from councils uh across the the West Shore.

Yeah.

Okay thanks.

Just give it a bit of a hard time.

Uh councillor Rogers?

Yes, thank you.

Um so with respect to um uh the youth on our West Shore, um we've we've been very encouraged about the programs, the activity programs at the West Shore recreational, um particularly Friday nights and so on.

Uh has that translated into any reduction of of uh youth crime in the West Shore?

I can't speak to uh whether or not youth attending uh the WandaFuca programs directly contributed.

Um I can only speak to sort of the overall call volume that we've had involving youth and or crimes involving youth.

Um and in today's data, I didn't break out youth specifically.

So if that's something that uh you'd like to see counselor, that's something I would have to prepare and obtain separately.

Thank you.

Youth isolation and and um you know the stresses and so forth, um, internet and otherwise, um, social media pressures.

So um, yeah, that would be a good idea to try and get a sense of that.

Um, and on the same line, uh, we keep hearing from um on the news and the radio and and uh certainly uh from the West Shore of uh internet crime, scams, impersonations, so forth.

Um, any any programs that um RCP are considering and working with other agencies to try and curtail that?

Uh currently we don't have any programs that we offer specifically at West Shore beyond education uh that you'll often see come from our uh media liaison uh officer, um, where we're encouraging people to not do these things, or if we receive a series of reports, um, we'll do a press release that says this is the latest and greatest scam.

Be mindful, make sure you know who you're talking to, don't give out your banking information.

Um otherwise, we refer most generalized complaints uh to the national reporting line uh who collates and decides what the way forward is on those trends.

Um we've made a proposal and we did in this year's ask for new resourcing at the detachment to start to build out uh an economic crime unit that could work um on more of those substantive cyber-related offenses um there was some funding um discussed and and we're in the I guess it's in its infancy in creating a unit um that prioritizes and folks on those types of crimes but we're not there yet thank you um one last question the um uh I've lost track when are the body cams going um um to every officer body cameras uh we're currently slated to receive our in-person training during the months of July and August uh so by mid-August, we should see all of our frontline officers uh with chest-mounted body worn cameras.

And my again, my recollection was that the federal funding for that for two years, and then the municipalities will pick that up.

I believe that municipalities in their most recent correspondence from uh RCP headquarters from our uh finance staff would have seen an increase in their overall cost per member to cover uh body worn camera, the physical asset and training.

Thank you.

I don't recall getting the memo.

So we'll probably want to follow that through and and see whether um how that impacts our bottom line per officer.

But yeah, no, that may rest with uh either your CAO or or maybe uh director of finance.

Mayor Tvis.

Thanks, Jared.

Uh just a um comment and a follow up on counselor Matson's question about kind of the governance.

So just to remind council that the RCMP is answerable by contract to the CEO, which is the mayor's, the mayor's never have gotten together historically and petition their councils to uh set service levels.

We had our first meeting, I guess it was over a month ago in Langford where we started to walk through what that look would look like.

Because this is an information opportunity for councillor Rose or inspector to come to council.

It's not governance.

He's just giving a report.

So the only opportunity we really have as municipalities is to um uh set the service levels um uh and and and work with them on their budget, and that happens annually.

So it's a nascent growing kind of how do we get the the kind of a a very challenging subset of municipalities and two first nations together to help the RCMP with what our priorities are because our priorities here might be different than Langford's or uh or or Machosen's for instance um different sets of problems so we're starting on that we'll probably bring a report back to council before christmas and and how we can best achieve within the constraints that we've got right now on how to really because I think uh the detachment is looking for input, but they're we're kind of fumbling on how how do we do it right with this many municipalities that's kind of scattered with two First Nations with limited resources.

How do we get that right?

And there's not so many models in BC we could call to and say they've already done it.

North Vancouver is one of them that's kind of there with a variety of municipalities of First Nations, but um uh we're trying to work on it for the first time in 30 years.

Thank you.

Okay, I see Councillor Brown, you have one more question?

No, I'll comment just a kudos to Nancy Sager.

She does a great job representing the RCMP in her press releases and her um online TV and radio uh appearances, and she keeps us in the loop too, with the press releases, including stuff about uh media or scare our scams with the internet and that.

So I I know I personally appreciate it, because people know we're on council and they think we know everything that's going on, and we of course we don't.

So uh yep, just pass it on to her.

Uh Corporal Sager is stellar at the role uh that she fulfills.

She's doing a great job.

I certainly will.

And in fact, uh for counselors that may or may not have, I would I would certainly offer out there there is an opportunity, and ha it's been extended in the past for you to come out and meet the staff and participate in a ride-along um with the officers where you get to see some of the absolutely stellar humans that work for you providing police service here across the West Shore.

Uh Nancy is about one of them that you see regularly uh because of her public profile.

Um, but we have many, many people with the diverse skill set that uh make West Shore the great workplace that it is.

Great.

Thank you, uh Inspector Rose.

Move your seat.

Thank you for coming and giving us that update.

I don't think there was a verbal update, but all in favor.

Okay, that was unanimous.

So that's carried.

Now we'll move on to our third presentation, and that's from Mr.

Nursey from Destination Greater Victoria.

Great.

Thank you very much, Mayor and Councilor and Councillor McKenzie for welcoming me this afternoon.

I believe this little uh slide deck may be in your package.

Um I'm just here to provide some updates from kind of the official tourism board of the region and um uh available to answer any questions.

Uh first of all, I'll just uh start by recognizing that our office, just like many, um, does its business on the traditional territories of the Songhees and the Kasapsa Nation.

It's very important to us to develop strong relationships and to work to provide economic opportunities in in the future.

Um for the next slide, please.

Uh many uh folks have a kind of a conceptual.

Oh, pardon me, one more slide.

If if we could advance one more slide.

This uh graph kind of shows the functions of a tourism board or destination management organization undertake.

Um, and there's a little graph, kind of like a quarter, almost like a clock.

Um, and I just wanted to share that um maybe people have a conceptual idea of what a tourism board does, but we're fairly large and well-resourced with 950 business members, which I'll get to in a moment, and supported by uh transient lodging tax from uh Victorian Sanich, um, but we do serve the the entire region uh through a membership lens.

We do a lot of different things here, including all the things on the list, the list here, and I'll get into one of these uh destination management planning in just a few moments.

But we really are more than a marketing organization or operate visitor centers and things like that.

We deliberately plan for the future and try to execute in a coherent and logical uh manner and are governed by a 17 uh person um board of directors uh elected from industry and also appointed from municipal councils of our of our funding organizations.

Um if we can move to the next slide, please.

We view the region through a a customer lens, even though there are 13 municipalities.

Um, our visitors, whether it be convention delegates, sports tourism delegates, or individual business business or leisure travelers, don't really understand that, you know, and uh they're just here to have a good time and have a wonderful experience uh and support support businesses.

This map represents um both our uh blue kind of tourism businesses.

We also operate the Greater Victoria Sports Tourism Commission, that's the yellow memberships, and then the darkest circles represents a cluster of 10 businesses, and then the lightest ones are one.

But we have 950 business members for the region, and we are quite selective in who members are.

They need to be kind of direct tourism related businesses or kind of one step removed suppliers into the tourism business.

We're not like a broad chamber of commerce or other things like that.

It's a deliberate choice.

If we could kindly move to the next slide, and I'm just a little bit distracted because my phone is ringing, so I'm just gonna let that that that go.

Um, we are a not-for-profit organization, and in British Columbia, uh tourism boards are typically not-for-profit associations that require support of hotel communities and also um governments.

You know, we we occupy an in-between space, which provides us a platform to mobilize our membership and to work with governments uh to help do uh the right and pause of things.

Um ultimately tourism boards are service organizations that help fill a kind of a market failure issue because so many small businesses have a hard time on-ramping into the international marketing and tourism scene because it's such a fragmented industry.

If I could uh move to the next slide, please.

Uh I just want to give you a couple of opportunities to discuss specifically with your world because we haven't necessarily engaged much directly in the past as we haven't had a lot of direct reason to, but because um we think things are growing and evolving, and I just wanted to come provide a briefing and an update.

Um uh wanted to discuss opportunity around a gorge waterway tourism strategy and also hotel development, which may or may not be of interest to this municipality, but I just wanted to provide some information on that.

Um, just some quick stats.

Um, next slide, please.

Um, you know, they're up there in terms of contribution to GDP, it is the second largest private sector contribute contributor in the region at 3.5 billion, um, as measured by Statistics Canada data uh through Intervises, which is a uh a tourism and transportation consulting firm.

Um, you know, 25,000 jobs directly supported in the Greater Victoria region.

Another piece of research that we have suggests that one in four households have at least one member of their family directly working in the visor economy.

Um, that could be a mother, father, child, whatever it may be.

Um, and that doesn't include the supply chain.

So a big, big and important industry, you know.

So it directs, if not businesses, small or large, certainly you'll have many of your residential taxpayers and renters supported in our industry.

Next slide, please.

And it's an evergreen plant because we don't own or control anything.

We work with our stakeholders on ideas, and there's lots of different opportunities in it.

It's an 85-page document.

If anyone wants to have a coffee with me and go over it in detail, I'd be happy to arrange that.

But I wanted to surface kind of two ideas that came out organically through this process, which may be of interest not only here in V Royal, but potentially in the West Shore as a whole.

So if we could kindly move to the next slide.

And Sandage was the idea of looking at the Gorge Waterway through a deliberate lens around recreation, activity, sustainable tourism, engagement with local nations.

In a growing region, it's understood that kind of the downtown core and there's other tourism assets around it.

But there's a very um more so on the Victoria side of things, but there's very active hoteliers, restaurateurs, and others.

I know in this part of Uroyal, there's been interest in kind of from kayakers, birdwatchers, and things of that nature.

So instead of like just having things happen organically, wouldn't there be some benefit in terms of bringing together the four municipalities that touch a Gorge Waterway, the First Nations, and the private sector interests, and actually do a bit of a sub plan, um, an adjacent plan to get some interest and and do things.

So, you know, there's a there is a desire to do this from some other municipalities that we've talked to, so we wanted to come and brief you.

Um, no specific, you know, date other than to perhaps kick something off later in the year.

Um, we are, you know, actively engaged on this entire plan with uh the Cassapstan and the Songhees Nation.

It's an idea at this point, although it's an idea that our board of directors is very interested in and no kind of preconceived notion as what it could look like other than we think that there is a need to talk about the future of the visor economy and that if we don't do it around the Gorge Waterway, there's also a desire to do something for the Sanch Peninsula as well too and agritourism so it's not the only kind of sub-plan uh in our comprehensive plan.

But we wanted to explore the um the benefits of a co-created tourism strategy around the the Gorge waterway, and of course, wanted the municipality like formally involved.

So there could be a like a letter coming to you know, you know, uh invite you all to participate uh through a kind of a non-ob non-obligatory lens, um, but there is desire to take a look at this.

If I could um uh move along to the next uh slide.

Um, so yeah, so that's that's basically what I just said.

Um so I'll I'll be mindful of your time.

The other area that may or may not be of interest is hotel development, and that could be a short, medium, or long-term uh proposition.

Other municipalities have approached us as we are experts in this space about diversifying their property tax base a little bit from residential towards commercial uses.

There is a chronic shortage of hotels in the area.

Um we've developed about a 30-page prospectus that can help uh developers reach, you know, go deeper into their um due diligence a little a little quicker.

Um, and you know, we also have a finger on a pulse of kind of what's going on along the region, consumer segments.

There's different types of hotels.

Um so if you if you or your staff want to have a kind of an educated, you know, informal or formal discussion about that.

We recently informed a sandwich decision around an RFI RVI that they've issued that you may have seen in the press around a piece of land that they own because they are attracted in diversifying their tax base just a little bit, right?

So I wanted to just share that as a possibility um for future discussion.

And I think if we move to the next slide, I am wrapping up.

Uh I am indeed wrapping up.

Um, so uh we're always available and I'm happy to take any questions now.

Thank you very much.

Yes, Councillor Brown.

Yeah, thanks for coming.

It's nice to see you.

Uh, not on TV, you see you live.

So you're a live person.

Um obviously uh multiple municipalities have chambers of commerce, yes, and you have the South Island Prosperity.

Um just a couple of questions.

Um do you work closely with them or are they in a totally different or there must be some overlap there?

There's some overlap.

So I was actually on the first um when the South Island Prosperity Project, which was called something else at the time, I was actually on the hiring committee for the first I was on the first board and I was on the hiring committee for the first executive director.

Um, but they're not expert in this space.

This is a very unique tourism is very unique and very diverse.

And so I always talk about whether it be government or not-for-profit organizations, swim lanes, right?

You know, if we all stay in our respective areas of co of expertise, you know, we we don't get into trouble or cross over each other.

So we kind of own the tourism space, right?

So um uh and every time we're a paying member, we've probably invested over $100,000 in SIP over the years.

Um but we do collaborate, we do keep in touch, we do talk CEO to CEO, but we're most specifically experts in this field.

Yeah.

And chambers of commerce, you know, they're advocates, and we definitely work together on issues, public safety, infrastructure priorities, and things of that nature.

But again, we're the mark, we're the destination marketers and planners.

Yeah, yeah.

Counselor Rogers.

Yes, uh thank you very much for coming and and um some great points.

Um I we look forward to uh exploring more the the gorge tourism uh plan.

Um that's the uh the one thing we're V role uh as the the bookend if you like yes um you know if you think of the the gorge um and the Victoria Waterways loop where you can paddle around the squamol and Vic West in a 17 kilometer paddling area and um being able to go and then stay at uh Fort Rod Hill.

So that there is uh enormous of uh opportunities there.

So yeah let's develop that plan.

Um and in terms of hotels we do have um we had a report that says we could have uh you know fifty-five, sixty-five rooms yeah in the in V Royal.

Yeah.

And uh some developers in hotel chains are are interested and uh I think your expertise um uh would be very much needed.

The um one of the things when I was down at the the downtown Victoria Tourism Center, there was no map no um above Row.

You drive through it.

It's nothing.

We you know people that you know our our attractions, um our restaurants, our heritage, our recreation, all that is isn't on the map, is and and that's much of our own fault.

Um can you help us with that?

Yes, I'd be delighted to work collaboratively offline on that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So what's the benefits of a m of a membership?

Yeah, so membership is an interesting thing.

Um, I didn't want to like be here to do a pitch.

That's not kind of my style.

Um, but you know, there is two ways organizations like ours are resourced.

One is through hotel lodging tax, and we currently receive that from Sanich and Victoria.

But often we and we are moving down the path with a couple of other municipalities, but don't want to prejudge prejudge those decisions.

We're all resourced as a result of that.

But for those small municipal smaller municipalities that don't necessarily have a large tourism base, a membership purchase gets you, you know, seats their tables.

We have seven committees actually, um, whether it be transportation, finance and membership, sports tourism, sales and marketing, a couple of risk or governance, so I shouldn't count that because that's my performance review.

That's a different committee.

And then we have like um uh one specifically on hotel issues.

So, you know, if you wanted to assign a counselor, you know, a squam will assign some counselors, Central Saint is engaged with us, and of course, there's all the promotional stuff that comes along with that and also statistical work that we can do.

And it's also supporting the cause, really, is the other piece.

So there's various benefits.

Obviously, it's it's a huge benefit the more municipalities that can participate, um, like uh with the uh South Island uh prosperity.

So what is the annual amount uh for membership from for the squad?

499 for limited membership and 800 for a full service membership.

Well yeah, okay.

Very small.

We'll find out and I'll be happy to make a motion at next uh council meeting.

So thank you very much for coming.

Yeah, my pleasure.

And I'm always available to chat with anyone.

Thank you very much.

Yeah.

Oh, oh of course, Mayor.

Mayor Tobias.

Yeah, thanks for all.

It was uh great.

Can you provide a little bit of your insight?

I know that um uh it tourism, particularly this year on both sides of the border, is a bit uh chaotic.

Um is your estimation that we'll see more Canadians visiting Victoria in the coming year because of some of the apprehension of crossing perhaps traditional tourism lights?

So it's gonna be a great year.

In fact, it already is.

We're halfway through the year and we have visibility into the rest of the year.

So to provide a quick, if you'll allow me, 30 seconds, the foundation of the business is actually the conference business.

Um an annual con uh convention delegate, just like when you go to UBCM or any other trade association you've done.

A convention per person, you know, the value of everything, the catering, the spear cues, the speakers, and everything.

It's actually 500% a leisure traveler, right?

Because they're usually on an expense account, they'll spend more freely and all that type of stuff.

So we spend a lot of our time, about 20% of our budget, building the conference base, and they spread throughout the region, and it's an exceptional conference year this year.

Then you layer on American uh visitors that are you know the next highest spenders and Canadian and international travelers.

So we are gonna see more Canadians for sure.

But what's interesting is we're actually seeing slightly more Americans, and we are most definitely seeing more kind of um international travelers, uh, European, Australian, but that's on a small base, right?

You know, there's about 11 small countries that represent 15% of our source markets.

So even though you'll see and hear more Germanic speaking and Australian speakers, and that's wonderful to see, um, it'll move the needle a little bit.

So we are seeing kind of that import substitution from Canadian travelers, but they're the lowest yielding customer segment, just as it happened during COVID, those two summers we were allowed to travel.

So that's a great short-term mitigation strategy, but it's not a long-term strategy for success.

We need that diversified portfolio, which we constantly work on.

Yeah.

Any other questions?

No?

All right.

Well, thank you, Mr.

Nurse.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Yep.

Have a great day.

And now we'll move on to our final presentation.

This is from Linda Mackey and Mike Riley from the Rotary Club of the West Shore.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

My name is Linda Mackey.

Thank you for having us today.

I'm a local resident here on the uh the West Shore.

I was about to say North Shore because that's where I came from.

I'm a parent and a small business owner in Collwood.

And I just want to tell you a little bit about why we're here.

When we first moved to the West Shore in 2016, my family and I, uh I specifically noticed one of the things missing on the West Shore is an outdoor pool.

Having grown up in Vancouver with several outdoor pools, this was quite shocking to me when I came here.

And so I was quite surprised.

So as a mom and a community member, I saw how deeply this impacts, this gap impacts our youth, our seniors, and our sense of community.

So that's what sparked this initiative.

And now as the project lead, I'm proud to be working with the Rotary Club of the West Shore alongside residents, coaches, educators, and health advocates to bring this vision to life.

Next slide, please.

And it's nice to be back here.

I gave a brief presentation a few months ago just to sort of whet your appetite for for what it is that that we're doing.

Uh we presented last night again to Callwood to try and keep the uh communication open.

So, Rotary, of course, has a long history of backing transformational community projects.

Um, and the same thing tonight, just a quick update.

I know Councillor Brown, you know that very well.

Um, and this one is going to be no exception.

We're excited to share that we are looking to work in collaboration with West Shore Parks and Recreation to bring this shared vision to life.

And our goal is to now bundle an outdoor and an indoor aquatic center together.

Uh, Rotary would lead the development and fundraising of the outdoor pool, and the municipalities would then spearhead the development of an adjacent indoor pool and community space under the West Shore Parks and Recreation banner.

And as uh our committee likes to say, if you have to dig one hole, you might as well dig two.

So, by aligning our efforts, we can create a comprehensive aquatic hub that will serve the region for decades to come for both recreation and competitive.

Oh next slide next slide please great.

So why does the West Shore need this pool?

So the West Shore is one, as we all know, the West Shore is one of the fastest growing communities in British Columbia, but we're behind when it comes to essential recreation infrastructure.

So we keep hearing the same thing.

Swim lessons are overbooked.

There are no outdoor cooling centers during heat waves.

Seniors and those in recovery lack accessible aquatic therapy.

Families want affordable local recreation.

And this isn't just a nice to have.

It's a community health and resilience issue.

And why this matters, key community drivers for public pools, so water safety, foundational life skill, wellness, fitness, recovery therapy, socialization, especially for youth and seniors, structured activity through training and competition, relaxation and play, essential for mental health, diverse needs, including employment, volunteering, and special needs access.

So this was based on the VAN SLAS strategy from 2019.

Next slide, next slide, please.

Next slide.

Oh, I just talked about that.

Sorry.

Oh.

We're a little ahead, but we can talk to it.

I switched the slides around.

Well, our vision inspired by Vancouver's iconic Kitts Pool, the West Shore Outdoor Pool will be open-air and multi-purpose, sustainable and inclusive, designed to host recreation training, therapy, and events.

And as Mike explained earlier, the initial concept would be Olympic-sized main pool and two additional pools for warm-up therapy or training, potential indoor and outdoor combinations, and complementary gathering spaces.

And more importantly, a long-term maintenance endowment will ensure sustainability, and we plan to fund it entirely through grants, sponsorships, philanthropy, and service club support, not by raising municipal taxes.

Next slide, please.

Okay, perfect.

So since our we began the project in October 2023, was the first time that we approached Cullwood Council because it would Collwood was the logical place to locate this just in terms of beach access and available land.

Cullwood Council at that time unanimously supported hosting an outdoor pool and initiating a feasibility study.

And in 2024, we formed a dedicated Rotary Pool Committee and began attracting other members of the public and interested supporters to that to help us out because neither Linda nor I are pool management development construction experts, uh nor I'm not even all that keen on swimming, frankly, but uh it is uh so there you go.

Um but so now now we've moved to 2025, and the goal is to begin this feasibility study and to start to secure early stage funding.

And the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive uh from parents, from seniors, from swim coaches, educators, and youth organizers.

It's not uncommon when I'll we'll give an update and I'll get an email asking how much will the locker room fees be.

So well, I think we're a little ahead of the game there, but I I know that there's certainly that demand.

Okay.

Next slide.

Yep.

Still me?

Yep.

So based on our early research, uh comparing other outdoor pools, and I'm only speaking of the outdoor pool at this point, which is what I see as the rotary's responsibility.

Um, the full build is expected to cost upwards of $18 million, give or take.

It's hard to come up with real estimates because there hasn't been an outdoor pool of this scale built in North America in at least 40 years.

There have been some retrofits and some some uh refurbishments, uh, and there's certainly a movement where they'll bring a pool structure in for a competition, which is a sort of a free prefab structure, and then you build an arena around it, and then once the competition's gone, uh away everything goes.

But in terms of uh an outdoor recreation pool that like like we think the community could really need, it's hard to real come up with real numbers.

But the next step would then be to have a professional feasibility study to identify viable sites, draft conceptual designs, refine operating cost estimates, and build the foundation for major grant applications.

The estimated cost for a study would be between 10 and and twenty uh thousand dollars and the in my role as being the the fundraising chair for this, I know there is a the latent demand for this, but it's very difficult to go to other uh service clubs and private organizations and start to talk about this while it's still so conceptual so moving forward with the feasibility study will give us the ability to start to get some more money promised towards this we do have some interested corporate partners the branding opportunities are there and as Linda said alongside that because I we don't want this to be a burden for you know future generations of taxpayers at the same time to build an endowment fund alongside that which would then fund the approximate $150,000 a year of operating costs, which would also include you know the the cost for you know the two dollars and fifty cents or so to attend the pool for the afternoon.

Next slide.

Next slide.

So the funding pathways, we're looking at federal and provincial infrastructure grants, the Canada Community Building Fund, Sport Canada and Heritage Sport Infrastructure Programs, institutional partnerships with Royal Roads University, UVEC, and Comosan, of course, Rotary led fundraising through corporate philanthropic and grassroots initiatives and the multi municipal funding model.

If we're able to attract a large international uh event to this as well, we can piggyback this with uh with some of the development of that as well.

And as Mr.

Nursey uh did mention, that sport tourism is a large economic draw for for events such as this and would benefit all of the municipalities in the West Shore.

While of course, we're looking at it this being a West Shore hosted facility, it would be a draw across the CRD and uh areas north of the Malahat.

Um next slide, which is you.

So, how can we make this a reality?

So we're not asking for the 18 million today, we're just asking for your leadership in the next steps to endorse the vision, help fund or co sponsor the feasibility study, join or support a regional working group, or be a voice for this project across your networks.

This project reflects our values, forward thinking, inclusive, and resilient.

Next slide.

So more than just a pool, it's a legacy.

We want to make the West Shore a world class destination and community.

And this project is about more than swimming.

It's about giving our kids and grandkids a healthy, vibrant space to gather, grow, and thrive.

It's about creating a legacy of wellness, equity, and connection.

Thank you so much for your time and for being part of this community powered vision.

Thank you so much.

Anyone has any questions?

Thank you.

Question on the side, uh, Councillor Matson.

Yes, thank you for the presentation.

Um I know the city of Victoria is talking about redoing that crystal pool, and you're talking like they started off at 80 million and now at 200 million or something.

So that's a lot different than you know, 18 to 20 million for the outdoor.

It's the indoor pool that would be quite frightening for most municipalities.

So I'm wondering if it's actually necessary to have both, or you can you just do the outdoor pool without the indoor pool.

Um well to speak to our vision.

Um we have a committee of people from various walks of life and businesses and that are wanting to support the project and they're bringing their expertise to this as well.

Um a lot of them are from the swimming community.

So the idea is to make this um, you know, uh Olympic-sized pool so that we can actually host competitions and um various sporting activities alongside swimming lessons and you know, you name it, whatever we can do kayaking um you know um scuba diving lessons anything of that nature um and so the idea is that having a complementary um indoor potentially indoor and outdoor um secondary pool is part of that it just is something that has to be part of having an Olympic sized pool you need to have at least one other pool for training purposes or therapy and that kind of thing um but you can speak to whatever else you're yeah.

Yeah, I if if I can yes would be the answer to your question of obvious of course, we could build an outdoor pool.

Uh the thought is that we know the demand is there for more indoor pool facilities.

As soon as we build one, we already need the next one online.

So if we're going to go down the road of the trouble to plan and build an outdoor pool, why not leverage that towards a secondary facility that fulfills those needs at the same time?

Okay, I have uh Councillor Lemon Brown and then Mayor Tobias.

Well, I am a swimmer, and and my heart, my heart skipped a beat when you mentioned it in connection with the West Shore Parks and Rec, which I think you said.

But am I am I are we am I right to assume that you're actually thinking of locating it in in Culwood's Benchland area down at Royal Bay Beachland?

No.

No, it wouldn't be there.

Just for from geological um perspective, it wouldn't be a good spot.

Okay.

Okay.

So but we haven't um determined exactly where it would be.

I don't know, you mentioned Cullwood and being close to the beach and and uh okay, you got so it's somewhere in View Royal.

I wanted it to be that.

You know, if you're if you're entertaining a competition for where it could go, I'm I'm all ears.

Uh but I think at this point, uh it while it would be visually idyllic to have it down at the beach, it would just be impractical because of the exposure and the wind, and it's awfully cool down and down at the lagoon, even on the best days.

So uh having the kits pool is a much more sheltered area, so it it wouldn't it wouldn't be there.

Yeah.

Councillor Brown?

Yeah, cut two questions.

I assume it's a freshwater pool, right?

You're looking at not a saltwater pool.

You remember what I said about how much the locker fees are gonna be?

Uh it at this point again, the feasibility so i if we could if we could have a a a saltwater pool, I know that's an attraction for a lot of people.

If we're leveraging an indoor pool and there's going to be recycling of water and and and shared heating and and uh facilities like that, I it will probably not be a saltwater pool, but cart before the horse.

And just going to rotary, I know because it's international uh club, and would it be eligible for any grants uh from Rotary International or not?

Yeah, because this actually does fulfill a lot of the social uh development needs that rotary's one of Rotary's principles.

Uh in researching this, it's we've learned that outdoor pools are one of the great social levelers in in North America.

That as we have continued to become more and more uh you know uh uh s set in our socioeconomic status, wealthy people tend to have access to pools no matter what, and only wealthy people are building pools, and that's been the trend since the 1970s, which then means that uh the folks that are don't have access, and maybe uh the means towards that uh don't have the ability to congregate with everybody together, and unfortunately that tends towards people of uh visible minority classes, and uh that the that's the thing about a pool is it brings everybody together regardless of their means.

I'll go to uh Mayor Tobias first and then come back to you, Councillor Wren.

Thanks, Chair.

Um couple of questions, a little bit about me.

I I actually got to nationalism an outdoor pool in Nova Scotia um after uh a a long time.

So I completely get that it's uh an outlet that you probably wouldn't get in um soccer or hockey or other things, kids getting involved competitively as well as swimming lessons.

Um a couple of questions.

Is there an outdoor pool in the lower island that's kind of a municipal open outdoor pool?

Does one exist?

Not that I just the closest though.

The nothing down here and and anywhere.

They're all indoor pools.

There's one other outdoor pool in Coma, in Courtney.

In Courtney, okay.

But further up island and not not down here.

There is an outdoor pool at uh Bear Mountain, but it's very small.

Okay.

I mean, it's like super expensive to even go for an outward.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's just not a very it's not conducive to a larger community.

It's an example of one that does appeal to the well-to-do.

Sure.

Sure.

So it doesn't solve that problem.

What what has it been your relationship with West Shore Parks and Rec?

Are you in discussing stage now?

Because I think what's difficult for me to understand is that the West Shore um uh rec center, the Wonder Fucker Rec Center is a unique animal within um the CRD because most other areas are a CRD subservice, like um uh the Rec Center in Souk or Panorama or what have you.

So I'm just wondering how advanced your discussions there have been with uh with uh West Shore uh Parks and Rec that we're also a funder and supporter.

Yeah to date our our connection with the West Shore Parks in Rec have been through counselors that sit on that like Dean Jansen from from Cole Woods.

Uh so he's been to continuing to put us in connection with some of the planning which again is still very preliminary but some of our other participations have been as each of the council uh municipalities have put on their um uh their vision days.

Uh we've participated in those to make sure that as the stickies go up on the walls, that outdoor pool is one of the most common so that they get the message.

Good.

Good.

Thank you.

But we're we're certainly looking for more leadership and connection with that.

Uh councillor Brown.

Just an example of a really successful outdoor pool is one in Burnaby.

It's on Rumble Avenue in Burnaby.

It's at Burnaby South High School.

It used to be McPherson Park Junior Secondary.

And if my memory's right, I'm all dating myself here, but I believe it was 1965 it was built.

It's still active and well attended today.

My father was on the parks and recreation also town councillor in Burnaby.

And that pool never lost money.

It always made money.

And because it's sort of school grounds, the school of course could use it for their phys ed classes.

So um another ad advantage of having it, you know, at least in close proximity to to a school.

Yeah.

Sure.

Uh Councillor Rogers?

Councilor Rogers?

Yeah, thanks.

Okay.

Um you know I it's an interesting that you're focusing on the West Shore.

Frankly I you should be so focusing on the C R D, the entire CRD.

You know, when when we hear about um the um um you know there's nothing south of really Comox Courtney whatever, um this is, I think a a regional initiative uh that should be considered.

And you know, quite frankly, when you guys were talking about it and you said Olympic size, then I'm thinking Commonwealth pool.

And on the uh the drive up to the, you know, there's Elk Lake, and then there's the rowing club, and there's a big field where you can plunk in an Olympic size pool.

That would be quite convenient, quite accessible to the crowds of individuals, and probably the easiest way to bring a freshwater outdoor pool.

I cannot think of anything in the West Shore just on the land acquisition aspects alone.

The um we are um uh the West Shore is undergoing its own huge um assessment of recreational opportunities and costs and so forth, and all of us counselors are gonna hear all about it on September 29th.

And we would probably be having this hear it sitting down for the price tag that that's uh gonna be coming at us.

So you're in very serious competition here.

So and you know, when when we think of kits, I know kits, but it isn't Olympic size, and it isn't, you know, that kind of swimming.

It's a paddling play area.

So I I I can't grasp the vision of that and Olympic size swimming for for what you're intending.

The best way to achieve that, hook up with the Commonwealth, hook up with the CRD, move it that way.

I'd um quite and I'm just being frank with you.

That's the way you you and every other rotary and and service club who are amazing will be able to team up and accomplish this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah, this project actually began um like I said a couple of years ago when I suggested it to Mike.

And it's evolved into this Olympic size pool idea.

So initially it was just where are the outdoor pools?

So yeah, I mean it'd be great to have uh an outdoor pool up by Elk Lake.

It would be great to have an outdoor pool in Collwood.

It would be great to have an outdoor pool in downtown Victoria.

So I mean we're West Shorey people.

So um and this is our focus.

So that's what we would like to pursue.

Yeah.

That's why we're here.

So yeah, let me say though, here in View Royal um yesterday I noticed that uh there was someone swimming in Helmican Bay.

There's a lot of people that like to swim just in the ocean.

There's certainly along the gorge that, you know, the the gorge folks have been working very hard to have uh swimming in the gorge and the clean water initiatives and getting docks in that regard.

So um as well as obviously all the lakes like Cetus and and so on.

So in and I'm thinking of year-round that aspect.

Um I don't really see there's gonna be that much swimming in January, but that's only the polar bears.

Thank you.

Well, if I could speak to that briefly, I mean the whole idea is that this facility would be year round, and that's why we would want to have an indoor, smaller indoor pool so that we can um facilitate people who want to swim all year round plus i mean the outdoor pool could be a potential because of the weather here we could extend the um the time for swimming um but uh yeah i mean i'm not a lake swimmer myself but i think the biggest concern i'm we've been hearing is from families they just they can't get their kids into swimming lessons so we definitely there's i mean that's a huge huge thing on its own um not to mention uh the competitive swimmers you know they have to drive i don't know long distances to get to the pools to do their training.

So there's just not enough facilities to uh facilitate all the different uses for swimming pools.

So, but yeah, thank you so much for having.

Great.

Uh, if there's no final questions, yes, thank you so much for coming and presenting uh this idea to us.

Much appreciated.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay, so that brings us down to public participation period.

Um, so we don't have anyone else in the room to start with.

So I will go online to see if Carl, if we have had anyone write in online for questions or comments.

Chair McKenzie, we have uh no messages.

Great, thank you.

Um okay, so that brings us.

Uh we have no uh business arising from previous minutes, so that brings us to reports.

And earlier uh we approved a change to the agenda to bring uh 8.1b forward.

So that is the OCP phase one process update, and I believe that is with Leanne.

Thank you, Councillor McKenzie.

Can everyone hear me in the chamber?

Yes.

Great, thank you.

Um yeah, so uh this evening I am giving a presentation on the official community plan of the phase phase one process update.

And the reason why staff is coming forward with this report today is because, well, in response to uh the council meeting on May 13th, um, just with respect to some of the feedback and the comments that staff received on the housing capacity analysis and land use scenarios, as well as the draft vision statement and goals.

And some of these concerns sort of is really going to sort of trigger in terms of how we're going to move forward with this project.

So tonight's meeting or tonight's presentation is really going to look at three different options on proposed options on how to move forward with phase one of the OCP.

Next slide, please.

So, as uh council may recall that the OCP is update is highlighted in the 2023 and 2026 strategic plan, as well as in the 2024 to 2028 and the 2025 to 2029 financial plans.

Next slide.

So before I dive into the different options, I just wanted to provide a brief summary of the project, sort of the timeline.

As council is aware that the OCP update was originally initiated in 2020.

The project was put on pause until after the 2022 municipal election.

In February 2023, staff brought forward a council report to restart the project.

At the meeting, council passed a motion not to proceed with the current version of the 2022 draft OCP and instead organized council workshops to review the 2011 OCP and consider next steps.

In June and July of 2023, two workshops were held with council.

In the meantime, the province passed some legislation on small-scale multiunit housing and transit-oriented areas.

The town had to update the zoning bylaw by 20 June 30th, 2024 to align with the provincial legislation and which impacted our timelines with the OCP.

Next slide.

In the summer of 2024, staff launched a community engagement survey to help inform the communications and engagement strategy, which was a deliverable that came out of the council workshops.

And a What We Heard report was presented to Council.

In October of 2024, staff presented the OCP project scope to council, which is to carry out the OCP in three phases.

In December of 2024, Council awarded the project to urban systems.

In January 2025, staff presented a formal engagement plan to council and a draft and guiding principles survey for review and feedback, which was launched in January along with the project website known as V Royal 2050.

From January to April, the project team completed two engagement touch points with the public on community values, growth, and aspirations.

What we heard reports shared with were shared with council, the OCP advisory committee, and the public.

Next slide, please.

At the committee of the whole meeting in February 2025, staff presented the project scope for the land economics study update for the committee's information before the work began.

And at this this meeting, um, staff also presented the what we heard reports on how we grow.

So the results from the community growth survey, the draft vision statement and goals, and the overview of engagement week two and uh engagement touch point three, as well as an overview of the vision and land use survey.

Council expressed some concerns regarding the housing capacity analysis, the draft land use scenarios, and the draft vision statement, and uh in advance of um seeking feedback from the public.

And so council requested that a third land use scenario to meet provincial housing legislation and no other changes to the 2011 land use designations be prepared and included in the vision and land use survey as a third option.

Next slide, please.

So this um this slide here just shows the the um the process, the sort of the the timeline for the ocp over the next three phases and so as as um we all know that phase one is focusing on the vision land use and housing and that there has been um three two touch points already and then a third touch point uh was um planned for the middle of May um to to be launched in the middle of May into June and that uh has been put on pause next slide please so at the third uh May 13th council meeting council shared some concerns and feedback on um the next sort of the next um that are going to impact the next steps of the OCP process.

Moreover, council provided comments on the housing capacity analysis, the draft land use scenarios, draft vision statement, and goals, and um and you know, raise concerns about how to move forward within the current scope of the project.

And before staff continues with phase one and as well as continue with public engagement, staff need some firm guidance from council on how to move forward with phase one.

And uh so staff is bringing forward um three three different options for the committee's consideration based on what we heard at the May 13th um council meeting.

So the first option, um, so and I'm just speaking about phase one.

So speaking about how to move forward with our land use section and the housing and land use policies in uh in the 20, well, in in that's going to update the 2011 OCP.

Option one would be phase one, um, or pardon me.

Option one would just focus on OCP amendments to comply with provincial head uh legislation.

So I will get into um the uh important important points uh of each option and takeaways um in the following slides, but I'm just presenting the three options here.

Option two are the um carrying out the OCP amendments to comply with the provincial housing legislation and then review the land use designations along the Western Gateway Corridor and lands in the lands that are designated town center in the 2011 OCP.

And then phase three would um uh comply with the provincial housing legislation and continue with the original, well, with the with the current scope of work and and deliverables um that were approved um last October for this project and um the reason why I've broken up the um like option two and option three in two parts like one to comp uh OCP amendments to comply with provincial housing legislation and then continue on in looking at the other um like land use designations on the Western Gateway corridor town center or even the rest of the town is because um we're now at a place where um given given that we're we're we're um entering the summer months, um we are now going to have to decouple the um OCP amendments um in order to uh comply with the provincial deadline of December 31st to align our OCP with the housing needs, our interim housing needs report.

So um I will get into this a little bit um more in the following slides.

Next slide, please.

The so option one again is to do OCP amendments to comply with the provincial housing legislation.

So this would just focus on changing the existing residential and large lot residential land uses, land designate land use designations in the 2011 OCP to a new small scale multi unit housing designation to allow up to six units, and then establish uh new transit oriented um area designations to comply with the TOA legislation.

We would update any relevant policies to ensure consistency with provincial legislation, and then we would we could we would still look at our vision statement and goals and then refine any existing land use and housing policies in the 2011 OCP that are actionable.

Next slide, please.

Key takeaways for this option all other land use option, all other land use designations would remain the same in the 2011 OCP.

So uh we wouldn't we wouldn't look at any uses, heights, or densities in the other land use designations.

The original scope of work would be revised and the OCP would align with the 20-year housing need only.

Encourage um this, this, you know, the the um outcomes of this is that it would encourage growth to be at a lower density within this within the established neighborhoods.

And um by not looking at the densities in some of our mixed use areas, this would probably make it um economically unviable to create mixed use neighborhoods without adjusting the density piece.

Um, there would be no further public engagement on land use designations except a public hearing during the bylaw adoption process, um, just because these this option one is just meeting provincial legislation.

Um we're mandated to make these changes.

We don't have a choice, we won't be doing any further engagement on it.

It'll just be at the a public hearing that we we do our legislative, we have to do that.

And then we bring forward a 50% draft um at a later date.

Next slide please so the next option is OCP amendments to comply with the provincial housing legislation review the land use designations along Western Gateway corridor as well as the lands designated town center so we would carry out the specific changes outlined under option one and we would you know start start those now um so that we can um get a bylaw in front of council um to amend our um the the the OCP the current OCP designations to align with the provincial legislation.

And then we would continue on in looking at reviewing and updating the land use designations for the properties along the Western Gateway corridor.

One thing we we've we've heard from council um in the past is potentially consider extending the Western Gateway Corridor from the intersection of Island Highway and Burnside Road west to the Calwood border.

And this would also potentially apply to the option three as well through through engagement.

But we would, I'm just adding this here because that is something that we heard for this particular area, given this would be an area focus as part of this option.

We would revisit the location designation of the town center in the 2011 OCP and update any relevant land use and housing policies in the 2011 OCP.

The key takeaways for option two, same as option one, all other land use options, pardon me, land use designations would remain the same in the 2011 OCP.

The original scope of work would be revised, and the OCP would align with the 20-year housing need only.

There would be some further engagement on Western Gateway Corridor, the town center, the updated vision and goals and land use and housing policy, and then a 50% draft would be brought forward at a later date.

And as I noted in the noted in the previous slide, to meet the provincial deadline of December 31st to align the OCP with the 20-year housing need and other provincial housing legislation, staff would initiate the OCP bylaw amendments to reflect these changes and that now and continue working concurrently on the Western Gateway Corridor, town center, and the other items that I mentioned.

Next slide, please.

The um oh, I've already talked about this slide.

So we can go to the next slide.

Thank you.

So option three would be basically continue, continue as the original scopes.

So other than uh because of where we are in the timeline and we need to expedite expedite some of the uh the OCP amendments associated with the to meet housing legislation, uh we would be bringing forward um probably two separate bylaws to deal with one to deal with amendments to align with provincial housing legislation, and then another bylaw that would um uh would uh deal with their all everything else with respect to land use and and and policies.

And so we would again we would carry out the specific changes outlined under option one.

We start that now, and then we would finalize and promote the vision and land use survey, which uh council will have an opportunity to review and provide feedback in the following presentation if council decides to move forward with option three.

Um, organize open houses, pop-ups, and other forms of public engagement to gather feedback from the public on the draft vision statement and goals and the three draft land use scenarios.

We would complete a comprehensive review and update of the land use and housing policies in the 2011 OCP.

So again, this this option aligns with the project um the current project scope, and uh based on what we heard from the public on community values, aspirations, and growth, we would continue with engagement to seek public input on the land use scenarios and then make revisions to the designations to the vision statement and goals based on what we heard from the public and council and the OCP advisory committee.

So we would continue along the same timeline that was originally approved.

Next slide.

So here staff presented the next two draft land use scenarios at the May 13th council meeting, which reflect the initial feedback received from residents through surveys and open houses, pass direction from council, town staff, the legislative requirements, existing market conditions and development activity, as well as existing land use patterns and infrastructure infrastructure servicing capacity.

And we're not seeking input from council tonight on these land use scenarios.

It's just a remind I just wanted to show these slides that that these are the the three options that pardon me the three land use scenario options that would form part of option three where we would uh seek uh public um input on next slide.

And then next slide please and um after council presented uh the um the engagement i guess the third uh this yeah the engagement week um proposed engagement week at the last uh council meeting in well i the may 13th council meeting um council requested that this third map be um prepared uh which is just as i noted earlier which is the 2011 OCP map and the only changes is um introducing the small scale multi unit housing and a trans transit oriented area land use designations and so um this was prepared after that meeting.

So I just wanted to uh share it with you.

Next slide.

So the key takeaways with option three would be staff would continue to work with the uh within the scope and budget of the project present in the RFP and originally approved by council.

And then additional engagement would occur and a 50% draft will be brought forward in the future.

Next slide.

So last Monday on June, which was June 2nd, staff presented the three options at the OCP Advisory Committee meeting just to keep the committee informed in terms of the uh of phase one.

And um at the meeting, the committee was asked to make a recommendation to council on which option they they um preferred, rec recommend.

And so the committee recommended that council approve option three in accordance with the following motion, and here it is on the screen.

Next slide.

So there are, you know, there are impacts and implications associated with whichever option council decides to move forward with.

But in terms of community impacts, if council proceeds with either option one or two, then the public would need to be informed of scope change and other feedback to date may or may not be incorporated as previously communicated in the engagement material.

And then also just over $70,000 has been spent on consultant studies, staff time, uh resources, and substantial public engagement.

And so any changes to the project scope may impact budget in the future in the future.

Next slide, please.

So this last slide um so the recommendation um staff hasn't brought forward like a preferred recommendation.

Staff is just presenting the three recommend three options for council's deliberations and um but um the recommendation is is that council approve one of the following three options to move forward with phase one of the OCP review and update and and provide some firm direction to council this evening or firm direction to staff this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you Leanne um I'll start off with uh a couple questions and then I'll uh look to my colleagues for questions.

So my questions relate to option two.

Uh would option two require a change or would we rework the land use survey that we're going to be looking at in 8.1a um and to just focus on the uh Western Corridor and the town center?

Or and then my second question around that option two is do you know approximately how much of an additional cost that would be uh on top of the 70,000 we've already spent?

Um thank you for that question, Chair.

So yes, we would have to rework the survey um if council chooses option two, and that work would be done in-house.

Um we and I guess the question is is that does um the the pro the proposed land use scenarios that have been drafted by urban systems uh does council want to move forward with those proposed land use designations um along that corridor or would council want to go back to the drawing board to seek more input like more visioning um before we come forward with these sort of land use scenarios um it just it just depends on um council's uh um wishes and in terms of the question of budget uh if council um just uh um is fine to um seeking seek um input on the proposed land use designations along the island along the western gateway corridor um then uh that are shown in land use option one and land use option two then uh we would yeah we can just make those changes in house but uh if council wants to do any additional mapping um we do have to rely on urban systems and that will cost um the town more.

I mean, we do have a set budget for phase one um but it is um going very quickly and um it's also important to note that land use option one and two do not identify the RV park as a town center.

But option three, pardon me, um, the land use option three, which is essentially the 2011 OCP with the SMA and TOA designations, still shows RV park as a town center.

Thank you, Leanne.

Okay, I'll look to my colleagues for questions only at this time.

Uh Mayor Tobias.

Thanks, Chair.

Um, Leanne, do you have enough time?

Is there enough runway to actually get the survey out and get all the work done for option three?

Because if I understand this right, we have a deliverable that council has to approve in December for uh for the province, and that's our land use part of the OCP.

Is that is that correct?

Um yeah, and that's a really good point, um uh May Merit Tobias.

So that is why, so under option three, that is why um we would sort of decouple um the the land the amendments to the OCP to uh to align with provincial legislation.

So we would just bring forward those amendments separately um and quickly um for count for council.

So we uh so what we would be doing is we would just be updating the current 2011 OCP land use designation map to align with OC provincial legislation.

And we would also have to tweak some of the policies and we would just do that work.

In the meantime, we would also continue engagement and everything else that we know we were planning to do for you know the rest of of the the town, the community and um we were recommending that in order to meet the deadline.

So there's no issues with deadline if we sort of separate the the the amendments that way.

Um I think I hope I answered your question.

Yeah, I'm just wondering we we've got a deliverable that the only thing the province requires to see is the bills incorporated into our um into our OCP in the land use planning portion of that and update the rest of the associated bylaws.

That's the only thing that the province expects of us by um by December.

And uh so regardless of what we engage the public on, we can always amend that after we've amended it, can we not?

Like if we come up with um uh um uh a new idea, moving a town center, whatever it is, outside of the legislation, this activity is still going on.

We could do it in an amendment in January, as long as it doesn't mess with the provincial um stuff, we can do it then in the OCP process, could we not?

Yeah, that's correct.

And so um what we would just do right now is basically do the bare minimum that we have to do, because what we do know is that when if we uh align, align, pardon me, if we align our OCP with the SMA zoning, it will meet our housing need, like theoretically, like on paper.

Um, and that and that will meet the legislation.

So we can do sort of the bare minimum there, uh, and uh we can bring that forward pretty quickly.

Uh and uh yeah, and then we can continue and then like through, you know as we engage on the draft land use scenarios if the public if council if the ocp advisory committee says you know what like yeah i um we don't want the town center here or we want to change you know we don't we we we don't support this particular land use designation we want it we can fix like we can work on all of that as part of the engagement but this would but we will be doing that we have to do the bare minimum in order to meet the deadline right so there there could be a fourth option is what I'm suggesting that we just submit what the what the province needs us to submit in December, meet that and continue on with engagement and the work of of future OCP buildings.

They can be mutually exclusive, correct?

Yeah, that would be option three.

Correct.

Right.

Thank you.

That's all the questions I have, Chair.

Thank you.

Counselor Mattson?

Sure, thanks.

Um so I I like the concepts of option one and two, and really don't like three at all.

But my question is more specific.

Um with either option one and two, we go back to the 2011 OCP designations.

I've sort of lost what a lot of lot of what those are and the heights and densities require are around what we did in 2011.

So I get my question is if we uh did either option one or two, uh it then becomes our approved OCP.

How does that the heights and the densities along the corridors, for example, like are they just etched in stone and people have carn blanch and well if somebody comes in with uh you know I can't even remember how high these are.

Like on uh Island Highway, for example.

Are those heights automatically given to the developer, or would they have to still go through the OC or go through the uh a bylaw change just because it's in the OCP?

Yeah, through the through the cherry.

Uh if um if the town doesn't upzone those lands, then it would they would still have to go through the regular rezoning process.

Okay, because right now they're all single family along the the corridor.

Yeah, yeah.

And then uh a lot of those lands along the corridor are I believe designated um mixed residential or neighborhood mixed mixed use, and uh which supports up to four stories for apartments, um, and then three, I believe three stories for townhouses.

So as part of option one and option two, we would not make any any changes to to to those um or review any of those unless council asks us to.

Yeah.