Committee of the Whole

Good afternoon.

I'll call the Town of View Royal Committee to whole meeting to order for Tuesday, July 9th.

And we'll start with a territorial acknowledgement that we recognize the Laquanguan speaking people known today as the Esquimalt Nation and Songhees Nation and that their historic connections to these lands continue to this day.

This afternoon we'll hear from the public during public participation portion of the agenda, and this evening we'll hear from the public during the public participation and the question period portions of the agenda.

For those participating by telephone, if you wish to provide comments, call 778-402-9227 and when prompted, enter conference ID 848-807-480-pound.

At the appropriate time in the agenda, I will then announce the last four digits of your phone number, ask you to mute to uh the live webcast to avoid feedback, and ask you not to use your speakerphone to ensure sound quality.

Uh finally, I'll ask that you uh press star six to unmute yourself and begin by stating your name and your street name for the record.

Speakers will have five minutes each to speak during the public participation and two minutes to ask a question uh during question period, and you will be timed.

This meeting will be recorded by participating in the webcast.

You are consenting to being recorded, and the recording will be available on the town's website for future access.

Can I get a motion to approve the agenda, please?

Moved by Councillor Uh Rogers, seconded by Councillor Lemon.

We got the night.

Okay.

Ventriloquism.

Uh and uh can I get a motion to adopt the minutes of our uh Cal meeting on the 11th of June.

Moved by Councillor Matzon, seconded by Councillor Lemon.

All those in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed.

Uh motion carries.

And I think that brings us to petitions and delegations, of which we have one uh for natural asset management and nature based solutions from the View Royal Climate Coalition.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

I would like to introduce our wonderful guest speaker today, Patricia Diac.

Patricia has a degree in electrical engineering from MUVIC and over 30 years experience.

She has recently completed UVIC's UN Certified Transformative Climate Action Program.

I feel thankful to be living in a town that recognizes the need to move ahead to do some things differently than we did in the past and to achieve positive climate action goals.

So without further ado, I'll pass the mic over to Patricia.

Thank you.

Thanks, Jane, Mayor and Council.

So this presentation will look at nature based infrastructure and natural asset management and how urban density with biodiversity is possible, new global and local standards for urban planning, and also next steps for View Royal.

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This information is based on a global consensus by organizations like the UN G20 BC government, Union of BC municipalities, Natural Assets Initiatives, Stewardship Center, and C40 Cities.

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The G20 has prioritized nature based solutions for cities because cities are the primary driver of global warming.

They generate 70% of emissions and suffer the most from heat waves and flash flooding over impermeable surfaces.

Nature helps reduce emissions and also save taxpayers money by protecting public health and infrastructure.

So it needs to be integrated with urban designs more than ever before.

It cannot only be managed in public parks and or outside urban containment areas.

And that's why city planners are starting to apply these new principles.

In terms of definitions, natural asset management is the evidence-based accounting tool for valuing natural assets so that nature based infrastructure can be incorporated in built infrastructure to increase climate resilience, lower costs, and lower risks.

It helps city planners define technical requirements and amenity cost charges for new infrastructure and housing developments that increases biodiversity, saves taxpayers' money, and supports our economy.

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BC, Calwood, SUK, and Nanaimo have committed to low carbon resilience already, and this includes nature based solutions and natural asset supports on both public and private lands and needs to be included in OCPs.

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What are nature based solutions?

They're natural and enhanced urban assets that are planned together with built infrastructure from the very start of every project.

They do not increase building costs, they just affect the footprint or sighting of a building.

They reduce emissions by 17% on average because they encourage more walking and biking and less driving.

They also help taxpayers and the economy by reducing climate change impacts.

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And this next diagram is from Vancouver Nature based infrastructure.

On the left is Pristine Wilderness, and on the right is urban area.

And until recently, the focus was managing natural assets on the left in isolated parks or environmentally sensitive areas or outside urban containment boundaries.

But this has made our urban heat islands' flooding, pollution, and biodiversity crisis worse.

So in the last eight years, new natural asset management standards have been developed to quantify the public services that nature provides.

And urban plants depend on wildlife like insects and birds for pollination and fertilization, which increases biodiversity.

So, being able to account for the value of natural and enhanced urban assets helps city planners define requirements for new housing developments.

So those assets can provide oxygen and clean air and water, reduce healthcare costs, reduce burdens and risks to infrastructure like stormwater systems and BC Hydro, and protect our tourism based economy, which depends on outdoor recreation and wildlife.

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What are some examples?

Here's a building in Toronto designed with five to six meter setbacks with room for trees, shrubs, and ground covers.

And the building on the right is in Victoria, which is not considered climate resilient.

It's directly exposed to road noise and pollution and requires more cooling and heating because it's 12 to 15 degrees hotter in the summer and colder in the winter due to wind exposure.

This increases burdens on our BC Hydro and healthcare systems.

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In Langford, neighborhoods like these are 12 degrees hotter than treat areas, and this has appeared in the news.

This man was concerned about his neighbors with mobility issues that would be trapped indoors at 45 to 50 degrees or see higher BC hydro costs from air conditioning.

Also imagine all these families with kids driving to find green space because there's none around them.

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The CRD also acknowledges the links between land use and climate change and the need to protect regional watersheds.

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Another critical fact is that the CRD is in the smallest, most endangered ecozone in BC, the only place in Canada it exists with coastal Douglass, sorry, with Gary Oak and Arbutus habitat and coastal Douglas firs outlined in the map in red.

And it's mostly urban with 75% of BC's population.

There are no remote CDF forests to protect because most of Vancouver Island is coastal Western Hemlock.

80% of the land is privately owned, and with 30 to 40% urban canopy targets, we need to include private land to meet our goals.

Here's a government close up of how small it is.

The yellow, and if we don't include nature on each private lot, we're going to face more uh extinctions, like the Western bluebird that was extirpated from the island in 1995.

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Action number one for View Royal is updating the OCP and incorporating natural asset management so we can plan natural and built infrastructure together.

The health of our region and watersheds depend on nature based urban designs like this one pictured by the CRD.

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Now let's compare BC housing guidance, the newest from last year, with its climate adaptation guidance.

BC setback minimums are two meters, but climate adaptation plans show we need room for trees, and a tree is five to six meters wide, and a car happens to be five to six meters long.

So with five to six meter setbacks, you get trees and shrubs and ground covers and a parking space.

Also, BC's maximum lot coverage doesn't account for impermeable spaces like walkways, which is a problem too.

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So, um, what could we do with the OCP?

Include objectives for nature based solutions, which involve natural asset inventories as an overall goal, and in multiple chapters like land use and urban design, housing, climate change, and built in natural infrastructure.

And every new development should meet these objectives, not only in environmentally sensitive areas.

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So far, 35 local governments in BC have completed natural asset inventories according to new 2023 standards, accounting standards.

One example is Nanaimo.

Nanaimo reclaimed Buttertubs Marsh throughout its downtown.

It now attracts 75,000 tourists and locals per year, bringing money into the economy, and the engineered asset cost to replace it, its flood management function would be four to eight million dollars.

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And our whole economy depends on the health of our watersheds and wildlife.

We're rated, we were just rated the number one best small city in the world by Conde Nass Traveler, and the natural environment was voted the number one best thing about Greater Victoria.

That's how important it is.

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So, in terms of health and housing, we could look at a development example in the Litoria Creek watershed.

As Colwood has stated, the use of Littoria Creek Park is expected to increase significantly in the coming years because Royal Bay doesn't have mature trees yet, and the park depends on the health of Latoria Creek.

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So far along the creek, there are built infrastructure plans, but no integrated nature based solutions plan yet.

The Canadian Standards Group says that nature based solutions require development strategies that consider flooding and erosion risks and river and watershed health.

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Here's the vision.

Also, impermeable parking lots and trees surrounded by concrete could create an urban heat island, deter wildlife, increase flooding and erosion, and cause pollution runoff into the creek.

An environmental report pointed to these high risks.

What changes could help the economy here, similar to Nanaimo?

We could make the building footprints smaller with the same number of use units or use grass pavers for parking or more vegetation to reach canopy targets like 40%.

These types of actions could save the health of the community, wildlife, and Latoria Creek Park.

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For comparison, let's look at Vancouver's green infrastructure plan for Yukon in 63rd.

Buildings are set back from the intersection to allow room for nature.

Tree shrubs and ground covers provide homes for wildlife, clean their air, and physical and mental health, and bioswales filter pollution.

Or next slide, please.

Or Toronto's urban tree guidelines.

They've specified more soil because cities can save a lot of money that way on water because trees surrounded by concrete suffer from heat and drought stress.

And the extra tree shrubs and ground covers also improve physical and mental health.

Together with bird-friendly building guidelines, they support wildlife corridors too.

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Some streets around the CRD, like these, could be improved in the same way.

We could make more room for soil and setbacks to lower tree watering costs, improve people's physical and mental health, and support nature in the city so people don't have to drive long distances to find it.

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Guelph has similar guidelines where their townhomes have six meter setbacks to allow room for mature trees, and their mixed use developments have three-meter setbacks for better urban tree health and lower watering costs.

Or this housing development in the Netherlands.

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All buildings and roads are planned to support the health of their waterway called their blue green, green blue heart.

And all the multi-unit buildings have front and backyards with trees and green space, and gathering places are nature focused, not concrete plazas.

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This is what it looks like at the street level.

Setbacks are five to six meters with room for parking trees and shrubs.

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What are some specific things we could do?

You could go to the show all the bullets on the slide.

We could integrate natural.

Could you next slide, please?

I think it will show the next bullet.

Yeah.

Integrate natural asset management into all asset management reporting, including nature-based solutions standards in all departments like planning and engineering and finance.

Next slide.

And for OCPs, we can specify 40% natural and green space for all new developments.

This would meet our 35 to 40% canopy targets and wildlife corridor targets.

And it would allow 60% of the lot for building footprint and parking and walkways.

And open space could be defined as green, not hardscape.

Next slide.

We need to define amenity cost charges that include park, walkways, and wildlife quarters, not just things like recreational facilities and front.

Next slide.

And back setbacks need to be five to six meters for trees.

And next slide, next slide.

Yeah.

And landscaping requirements should include three layers of vegetation and permeable pavers.

Next slide.

And finally, we need to create business and public incentives that are reflected in the OCP, like offering tax rebates.

They've done this in California to remove impermeable surfaces, add drought tolerant native plants, and replace lawns, offer sustainability grants for pollinator demo gardens, and distribute the three layers through trees, shrubs, and ground covers to help wildlife and plants create clean air and water for all residents.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for taking the time out and uh speeding through a very comprehensive brief.

I'm glad I had a chance to read it beforehand, but you did it justice.

Thank you for that.

I'd like to start with questions if uh the council has any.

You start with you, Don.

Yeah, just to comment the natural uh resources inventories, it makes total sense.

It's like johney mitchell's song, you don't know what you have till it's gone.

So Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, thank you for presentation no no questions just a comment thanks councillor brown quotes johnny mitchell that's a very first uh counselor sure thank you for this uh looking at view royal do you s you know I perhaps you don't live here but do you see any specific areas that this would would apply could apply to yes uh View Royal uh recently uh participated in a session that Sanich organized uh because they were embarking on a natural assets management initiative.

And there's um an annex an Annex C in that document that um that Jane pointed out that includes a list of uh possible priority areas for View Royal.

So we could um send that to you.

Uh make sure you have it.

Sorry, I can't remember the names of all of them.

Thank you, Councillor Lemon.

Councilor Rodick.

Yes, thank you.

Excellent uh presentation, and and I thank you for providing Calwood's uh example.

So uh we've got that context as well.

Um one of the unique things above you will is that we have the urban containment boundary, which Langford does not have.

And so that in in a few really having the best of all worlds, that's um and that's quite remarkable.

And and considering the uh watersheds, I think you're oh, do I need means you have to go now.

Anyway, um this is excellent timing because it it certainly should be foremost uh component in our OCP as we uh plan the uh the infrastructure and you know in key areas and and hopefully redesigned um uh council mattson pointed out Admiral's walk shopping center uh had agreed at the time to provide trees did they provide trees well they did and they're dead well they did they're gone so you know it's uh it's time to uh you know revisit and and uh bring an accounting of that one big question I I see a conflict between trees and solar panels.

The tree is causing shade in my solar panels.

I can't get electricity.

Can I chop it down?

Yes, that would definitely require more proactive planning and there's a way to have both and we would just need to work with um everybody involved like the homeowner and um the parks and engineering department to to figure out a solution to that.

Yeah thank you and and certainly um you know we also have instances where developers are uh building to the maximum of the lot and they are affecting the trees of the next door neighbor and all they have to do is get permission of the next door neighbor I think they need permission from the residents to all those people that benefit from from you know those trees that uh you know have a a really important value.

Definitely um there's a lot of um uh urban foresters and urban planners that point that out and catherine varis for example um wrote uh uh an article for the Vancouver Sun describing how um existing trees and need to be looked at so that underground utilities and the sighting of the building can be adjusted based on existing mature trees thanks council ratsman where are you going get back there get back there yeah I I I've just so yes, thank you very much for the presentation.

Um there are a lot of really good ideas in there that I think we should incorporate into our OCP um and as council we'll need to look at some of the things that there's sort of conflicts like we had one here on one hand it's we should get closer to the street, uh get our buildings close to the street because more it's sort of more like a household or something, you know, getting close to the street, even bigger buildings.

Uh but when we do that, we lose the opportunity for putting in trees.

So a number of these things I think that we're sort of we're we're we're doing.

We need to take a second sober thought and look at then.

Um and there's just a lot of really good ideas in here that I think we should incorporate.

One of the um I don't know how we get back to five and six meters, especially back, you know, for uh setbacks, especially on some of the things we're we're doing with that, especially the schmoo things, because we sort of push that up and we're supposed to get in more trees.

So maybe staff can eventually tell us how we can accomplish both uh those setbacks with the number of trees and the tree canopies that we'd like.

And uh if I could comment on that, Toronto has some new guidelines related to that.

Um, if buildings are very close um to the sidewalks or road, um, then there's commercial space in that area, and um there's room to allow for trees with um soil and ground covers between the road and the building, so that I think there's about um six meters there, but it allows for a walkway too.

So we could send you those diagrams as well.

Yeah.

Sorry.

I do have one question.

I wanted to know about the uh you you you talked about doing an inventory.

Oh yeah.

And so what would view roll need to do in terms of an inventory?

I'm I didn't quite understand that.

Yeah, the municipal natural assets initiative has been working with hundreds of municipalities across Canada and many in BC as well.

And uh they take an inventory of natural assets and enhanced urban assets, which are basically modified urban ecosystems that contribute to biodiversity and all these climate adaptation solutions.

And all that goes into a report that's combined with the asset management report that traditionally only includes built infrastructure.

And then they do an analysis of levels of service, levels of public service that they want these assets to provide, and then what levels of service objective could be having all uh all new developments contribute to biodiversity and heat adaptation by incorporating certain green elements into their plants.

So that could be one objective related to levels of service.

And these levels of service include things like biodiversity, climate resilience, stormwater services.

Council Matt just keeps turning off.

The other comment I just wanted to make is I mean, one of the things I hope we never do or never happens in Veroil is the what's happened in Lankford where they put all these buildings in.

They look like they're right to the property lines, and there doesn't seem to be any green space anywhere in the in in big areas of the town.

And I could only imagine what that does in terms of creating heat in that community.

Exactly.

And it makes it harder for the trees to survive too when they're surrounded very close to their trunks by concrete as well.

So just allowing more green space for these trees.

And they need cover, they need soil to grow, and they need ground covers to stop water from evaporating.

So yeah.

Thanks.

Council McKenzie.

Hi, Patricia.

Hi.

Thank you for that presentation.

I thought it was I loved seeing the photos.

It was quite inspiring to see the best practices and what it could look like.

And it actually kind of prompted me to think about green roofs again, because I saw a few of those in in the photos.

So maybe that'll be a future question for staff.

And um you might have seen too, we have a motion later on uh this evening about applying to the MNAI to go through the roadmap program.

So I think again, thank you for this because I think it sets a good foundation for that discussion later on.

Thank you.

Yes, green roofs are definitely in included in all these nature-based infrastructure diagrams.

And the only uh thing to remember about them is they can be more expensive to incorporate into a building.

And actually having green space on the ground level is important, but um when you're considering developer costs, it's just something to take into account.

But it's definitely an important um element in all urban designs now.

Thank you, Councilor McKenzie and thank you again for coming this afternoon and uh and thank you for the report wonderful job and I think that uh brings us to uh passing the chair to councillor Brown for um protective services oh sorry you're right I swept past that um so that brings us to public participation period is there anybody in the room that would like to address counsel Hi, my name is Linda Pecos, and apparently I live on Glenarley Drive.

Don't have to give an address anymore.

This is the fun part of my day.

I spent an hour teaching my 16-year-old granddaughter how to drive today, and apparently those big red signs, she doesn't know what they are.

So it was fun.

Anyways, I'm bringing you this item just because uh I'm conscious of it of items going from cow to council.

This is coming to council next week.

I can't come.

So, Mayor and Council, I am attaching pictures of the area along Glenarley Drive from the sidewalk in front of the house at the bottom of Stormont Drive to the far gate of URL Elementary that comes out on Glenarley Drive.

This area is used for travel to and from View Royal Elementary School both before and after school.

A large number of parents and children come from the upper portion of Glenardy Drive and have to walk on the other side of the road where there's cars parked when people are picking up their kids.

And as parents picking up their children from school park on the street, walkers have to walk around cars.

A sidewalk would stop that from happening.

Because of the overgrown state that this area is in, all parents and children have to use the road area to walk.

This area is usually cut down for about a couple of feet once a year.

As the adjacent part of the schoolyard is the farthest away from the school, it does not always receive the amount of supervision that the other areas do.

With the overgrown undergrowth, undergrowth, it would be easy pickings for anyone with nefarious intentions to attack a child.

From my sundeck, I can watch this area, but not when it's overgrown.

We have already had one suspicious incident at that gate in the past.

Thank you for your consideration thank you Linda, uh, was there any questions for Linda I think it was pretty straightforward and thanks for the pictures I'll I'll make sure they got circulated around okay thank you Linda question certainly sorry question uh is the correspondence going to be coming to the next council meeting with Linda's material I I believe so yeah okay thanks and I think uh is there anybody else in the room that would like to address counsel on any issue seeing nobody, I will go to the phone.

Carl, is there anybody on the phone that would like to address council?

Mayor Tobias, we have no callers.

Thank you, Carl.

Uh, and over to you, Councilor Brown.

And good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to the Protective Services Committee.

Just before I turn it over to Spect our Superintendent Preston, just quick historical note.

In 1873, that's when the RCMP was started, and the first constable was regimental number one.

When I was 1971, I was in the 29,000s, and now you understand your new recruits in the 70,000s.

So that's how many people have been since.

So it kind of makes me feel old anyway.

Superintendent Preston, I'll turn it over to you.

Exactly.

How to aid yourself quickly.

Mr.

Mayor, Council, uh, thanks uh as always for having me.

Um I'll just dive right into it here.

We'll talk about uh traffic stats because that always is at the forefront of many of your constituents' minds and uh some of the efforts that we've been making to try to provide some traffic calming efforts.

Um so in May uh in view, we did nine school zone proactive enforcement uh patrols.

We had eight uh speed warnings, eleven speeding tickets issued uh that month, two excessive speeders caught, so over 40 kilometers an hour, nine no insurance, and two prohibited drivers.

Uh June, we have uh five speed warnings, eight speeding violation tickets, nine or sorry, seven no insurance uh violation tickets, and nineteen total tickets.

Uh, and that's just from our traffic unit.

That doesn't include our general duty members that are uh doing traffic enforcement as and and when they can.

Uh community policing has been extremely busy here.

That's uh this is their kind of uh busy, busy time of year.

They've been using their uh indigenous canoe, doing lots of canoe journeys, canoe work uh with the the youth in the community.

Uh National Indigenous Day, we were down at uh obviously rural roads.

Um our bike patrol unit uh has been working feverishly uh not only on the trails but also dropping into your local businesses just to ensure um that they are satisfied and feeling secure and safe.

Um our restorative justice program has been uh again very busy.

We have an extreme, extremely uh intelligent, ambitious, and just an incredible woman.

Uh Randy Johal, who's uh who's a volunteer auxiliary with us, and then she spearheads our restorative justice uh program and does an outstanding job in every respect.

Um I'll go into some of the statistics here.

So uh thus far we've had uh 1,654 files from January 1st to June 30th uh in in your jurisdiction.

So it's pretty much been the same.

It's uh it's only a 1% increase to 2020 files from uh from last year.

Um what is of significant concern though is uh a 41% increase in in violent crime.

And I'll echo some of the the files here.

I'll I'll give you some oversight or overview of some of the files that we've attended here in the last number of months that have uh should pause for concern.

Um, and particularly I've noticed it more on the pass-on sheets in View Royal than some of the other communities.

And I I know the natural question would be what do you attribute that to?

And I I really can't put my finger on it uh uh at this point, anyways, here.

So certainly a trend we'll want to keep an eye on.

Uh the property crime is a two percent decrease, uh, so just three files.

Uh we had 166 files to date.

Regarding that, we had an 18% decrease in files at the casino.

So we've had uh 40 times we've been to the casino from uh January to June.

The hospital, we have seen, and this, I mean, this possibly, as I'm saying, this could speak to some of the the violences uh we've had.

Um, an increase in files at the hospital as well as some mental health uh files.

So we've been to the hospital 137 times.

We've been called to the hospital thus far since January, which is a 23% increase from last year, and an additional uh 26 files.

There was 111 last year to date, and there's 137, which I thought last year was kind of a proportionally high number of calls for service to the hospital, but uh it seems to be increasing.

We've gone to overall at the in the jurisdiction of West Shore, all communities, we've gone to 960 calls involving uh mental health that we know of, uh, anyways, and and 182 of those have been in View Royal thus far this year.

Um, collectively amongst all of the municipalities.

We've apprehended 75 individuals because of mental health concerns that they're danger to themselves or others, and uh taken down to the hospital.

Nine of those have been in View Royal.

So uh basically one and a half uh individuals a month were taken to the hospital uh under apprehension from View Royal.

So that probably speaks kind of to the you know where where we are as a society and community, unfortunately, in terms of uh resources and uh the stress levels and financial issues and uh obviously uh addictions.

So I'll read through a few of the files like I always do for you.

So on May 17th, staff at the Elements Casino reported an intoxicated female who was refusing entry.

Got into your vehicle, left the lot, officer located the vehicle in the parking lot, the vehicle began reversing, almost colliding into the police car.

The driver refused the breath demand and was arrested for refusal and received a prohibition for 90 days.

The driver became non-cooperative, refused to follow directions, and they were taken into custody and lodged in in jail as well.

And their vehicle was towed for 30 days.

May 17th, the protection services at the hospital reported a male in their custody after finding him smoking drugs in the hospital bathroom.

He was at the hospital to visit a friend and admitted uh to his actions he was not a patient and agreed to leave.

We also received another call that same day, uh, reported that they had a patient in custody for kicking one of their employees.

Uh officers attended and the patient was placed under arrest for assault.

The patient also has a had a warrant and was transported to cells and provided a lawyer or a lawyer and they were charged.

Uh May 19th, we had a uh complainant reported their neighbor, Ether Condo building, had been intermittently going into his patio uh into his patio space since last night, yelling and screaming and not making much sense.

That individual was apprehended under the Mental Health Act.

May 23rd, the officer registered a motorcycle going 103 kilometers an hour in a 50 zone uh near Elements Casino.

Uh the vehicle was impounded for seven days and a $368 fine.

May 30th, while on school patrol enforcement, until the 200 block of Helmakin officer was alerted to an automatic license plate reader.

We had a prohibited driver, and so that individual was uh uh provided a was arrested and uh sent to court.

In uh May 31st, we had a machine uh machete wielding suspect, and this is kind of a troubling one, but we had a it kind of touches all communities.

We had a machete wield leading suspect who stole a taxi from downtown Victoria.

Uh they went on a joyride through Sanich View Royal, Callwood, Langford, and the West River members successfully uh deployed a spike belt on Gold Stream Ave.

And uh we were able to apprehend this individual and nobody was harmed.

Uh on June 7th, we had a report of an individual acting erratically, yelling nonsense, and was swinging a frying pan at the doors and windows of a public washroom building off galloping goose.

Um the subject had also built a fire beside a hydro box and had the firing pan on the fire, nothing in the pan.

The subject is known to the uh the police.

And uh we ended up apprehending that individual for mental health issues and taking that individual to the hospital as well.

Um we had a the a bridge inspector for the Ministry of Transport reported a uh subject from the file that we just talked about, uh, had returned uh after being released from the hospital and um returned to the overpass and was yelling and screaming at the bridge uh inspector, and obviously concerned for safety of him and himself, and so that individual was um taken to the Salvation Army.

Um you know, I'll pause there because I think there that speaks volumes right there.

Um, you know, there's an individual who obviously needs care.

We take the individual to the hospital.

The doctors no doubt have to make difficult choices as to who get the beds and who the you know.

I this isn't a game of pointing fingers and blame at our our medical system.

It's it's obviously limited, it has capacity.

But here's one where you know we apprehend an individual who's you know clearly a danger to themselves or others.

We bring them to the hospital and they're released, and you know, moments later they're now endangering somebody else who's just trying to work and themselves uh on a bridge.

And so these are the frustrations that you see and hear if you talk to our members.

If you everyone have a coffee, we can we can go into more detail.

But these are these are some of the significant concerns uh that every municipality is facing right now.

Um June 7th, we had a park ranger report, a uh an individual down at Theatus Lake.

Um the individual was impaired, and we were uh in issued in talks in public and transported to uh to Vic PD's area because they had an unendorsed warrant as well.

Um on June 8th, we uh members have responded to a report of a stabbing on Cooper Road.

Medics attended on um attending to the victim.

Victim was taken to the UV General Hospital in serious but non-life threatening condition.

The uh the offer officers located the individual in the home and arrested the individual for assault causing or assault with a weapon, sorry.

The June 9th, we had an officer observe a car unable to maintain the lane swerving multiple times.

It conducted a traffic stop at six mile, and uh the individual had one beer allegedly.

However, they did fail their breath test.

So arguably they obviously had more than one beer.

Uh Thetis Lake again, we had another individual that was intoxicated, uh, but again had a warrant and was arrested.

Um June 16th, we had an officer notice uh the truck driving in a suspicious manner at high rate of speed.

Again, another individual that had failed uh the the uh roadside screening device and apprehended the vehicle 90 days.

And June 16th, West Shore RCP notified by Vic PD of a shooting in the squimel between two vehicles.

The officer responded to Vic General Hospital after two male subjects were represented at the hospital with gunshot wounds.

Both West Shore and Vic PD attended, and they believe that it was linked to an earlier shooting.

And so we've been working with uh with them on those files.

So I'll pause there and uh open it up for questions for you.

Thank you for your report.

Does anyone have questions?

Counselor Lemon.

Thank you, Superintendent.

Nice to see you.

Um at the last at the last committee of the whole meeting, um, I asked Inspector Rose if the province had consulted with you and other other um police departments um regarding changing the license plates so that there's no longer dates on them.

And he's he suggested that he didn't think so.

No, there wasn't any consultation.

And uh hearing that there were was it nine just you know, just sitting there and there were sitting there in your in your park car and there were nine without insurance.

And then you know, last week I was driving on the Coca Hala and that kept resonating with me.

I mean, you know, if there was a catastrophic accident, you don't know now who's if who's insured and what the kinds of outcomes would be.

And there's got to be a huge societal cost to this.

Um so if you found nine, that's probably well sixteen actually.

Or six.

Well, sixteen between the two months, just May and June in in your role.

So sixteen in in two months in your area.

It is.

And that's such a small percentage.

Undoubtedly.

So I you know, I I guess I you know, I don't know what you do, but I guess one place to start is for us to put together for starting with um AVICC perhaps a resolution calling on the government to reinstate the stickers or some way of you know, you being able to know beyond the three you know, pieces of equipment you've got to detect um who's insured and who's not.

Well, and you know, I think there's two pieces to that.

One is obviously, you know, we have the good people, uh the you know, good honest uh citizen that simply just forgets that you know they misplaced the the notice in the mail and there's no intention there's no there's no intent for them to not pay their insurance and then there's others that hey there's no sticker it's um you know it's kind of like willful blindness out of mind I'm not gonna pay it and then there's thirdly the the fine in this province is extremely low.

It's cheaper to run with no insurance than it is to get the the fine.

Um and so you know I I don't know I'd have to go uh and have a a conversation or maybe I'll bring uh the Corporal Jacobson here who's in charge of the traffic unit to see because I think he's he's been around long enough and seasoned enough that he'd know you know kind of the the ratios of who's being like who he believes is perceives is honest that you know they simply forgot uh to those who are just trying to ride the new system because hey it's not on the back of the car the police aren't gonna notice um and it's because we have the the traffic section this is why they they catch them more often than our general duty is because they have those automatic license plate readers I think we have two of them in that attachment and so they they regularly drive those vehicles and so you can imagine if all of our cars had those on uh but you're right it is scary that you know you're gonna be in an accident and you're not gonna be protected potentially.

Yeah, I I I would imagine it puts my on um you know extra extra burden on your people and um it's it and and and on all of us, you know, it's that guy in front of me, you know, or that guy behind me tailgating me, is he insured?

No.

Legitimate concern.

Yeah.

And just um this isn't a question, but our, you know, you sp you spoke about um you know apprehensions and going to hospitals.

So our resolution um calling on hospital staff, specifically security guards, to um to take over the babysitting from you um has been accepted by UBCM.

So that'll be coming up at the convention in September.

I can't thank uh counsel, uh mayor and council enough.

Like, you know, it's it's funny because all the councils always ask, well, how you know how can we assist, which is greatly appreciated, how you can assist the police, uh non-monetarily, of course.

And and this is one of those exceptional cases where, yeah, you know, we have our members right now, and they're, you know, tonight, today at some point, somebody's gonna be sitting at the hospital for two plus hours, you know, between two and three hours uh instead of being on the road trying to keep your community safe.

We're we're babysitting, um, playing security guard up at the hospital.

You know, and and if they could also, you know, potentially look at change in the act so that perhaps it's the you know the the charge nurse that can um you know address the issue right off the bat instead of waiting for the doctor.

We we are fortunate, and I and I didn't mention uh that our mental health unit that we have with the two nurses is going exceptionally well, and we actually have a third that's coming on as a part-timer and so you know these calls at uh many of the calls I think they've been to 500 of the 900 calls so over half the calls that are coming in now for mental health our mental health team is going so there's a there's a nurse and a police officer that are going and so um I know our rates of apprehension are actually certainly lower which is great because the nurse is able to provide a different perspective and perhaps has some background uh knowledge and is able to access some information that perhaps we're not able to.

And just they they're subject matter experts.

We're not experts in in that area of uh of medicine for sure.

And um so yeah, it's it's you know what what hopefully we'll be able to achieve by keeping track of the results and the successes is that we can have 24-hour coverage with nurses or at least more coverage.

Obviously, having two nurses for all of the West Shore, it's it's fantastic.

We're very appreciative of the province, uh the health authority stepping up, but it would be nice to have uh a health nurse assigned to each of the four watches, even if they worked just peak policing hours, so that uh uh it would be so again just I I tell you that so that you can plant that in the back of your head for if other communities are thinking on the same lines and if there's things that you you know could write and advocate for uh for your community, that is one councillor rogics yeah.

Two points.

Um, first picking up on um on the issue of uh license plates readers, um Langford's put a resolution that's going to UBCM uh you know requiring and and uh calling on the province to uh put automated license plate readers in every police car so that's a cost borne by ICBC if they can't take care of the problem if they won't do the problem uh or address it then uh license plate readers automatically the information could go automatically to um ICBC and they can take uh action like they should.

I like it yeah so accountability direct back to ICBC.

Uh second point on on um the hospital um you know and and I think the whole discussion point was having a peace officer that uh you know uh your members could hand over uh to and and really the whole essence is that we need statistics.

If we're going to go to um our membership um all 2000 other counselors that are going to vote on this we need evidence we need information we want them to vote in support that uh for and because it's not just uh you know vgh it's all the other hospitals around so we need a very good strong business case uh and uh we'll that's on September 16th and so if in a couple weeks or a couple months uh we can get some numbers um that would show just what's happening in our particular West Shore um then I think we could make a very good case that the province uh start um working with the hospitals and bringing in peace officers to take charge.

Yeah and I think that would be achievable in many areas although not in rural areas.

So again anything can be crafted it could be you know by in a geographical area you know like the lower mainland and the you know the greater victoria area because I think when we go to those northern spots and council brown can probably attest to this that um the smaller communities and hospitals tend to provide quicker service to the uh to the the RCP officers uh it just I think they just we're we become in the part of the lineup in the in the big cities unfortunately and I know Vancouver police department I know that they have huge issues with you know at the hospital and even getting ambulances but there's lots of things like that.

So uh I think it would just have to be geographically specified.

But yeah, in terms of getting you the information that you need, absolutely.

We have that, we have that information uh we have it at area chief level as well.

I know that um Jason Ladman, the deputy chief, and Delmanic, of course, the chief, they have that information in Victoria.

And as does uh I'm quite confident Dean Duthy in uh it's uh uh Sanich.

Thank you.

Thank you for your report, Superintendent Preston.

Um thanks again.

Thanks very much for having me.

Next is the public safety report.

Um I'm waiting for Chief Hurst to zoom in.

He's not gonna zoom in from Norway.

Oh, I'm disappointed.

Move receipt.

Uh Scott, did you want to say anything on this or just uh motion to receive?

Motion to receive.

Uh second.

Councillor Mattson, Councillor Lemmon, second.

Oh, sorry, you had a question?

Um, you know, there was the uh whole issue that um in in the staff report with respect to dam safety and and uh uh process of how to handle the emergency scenarios.

Um I wonder if we can get a a focused um um report from staff on on that, really certainly from Paul next time.

Um because um what I'm hoping is that we can bring CRD um uh CRD parks and CRD emergency services, um, and even in the province, because this is a very old earthen dam and it's uh maybe low risk.

Well, it was low risk two years ago, maybe not now because they've got new seismic uh data.

Um, but we have a very significant uh structural issue that uh is outstanding, and the province needs to upgrade that dam.

So we need to put a strong business case for that.

Thank you.

Sorry, is that a motion?

Um well or no, I just think that the staff could bring back that information.

Um let's have a point of discussion on the staff report and then bring in the other resources later.

Yeah, I know the from my experience at C or D, I know the um emergency services people there.

Um would would be great to have them come and talk specifically about the dam.

I I guess if I may, just the point is with the CRD parks, they've got to make a decision how to make sure the water doesn't overtop the dam, dam three, the beach.

And so what they do is they release the water on the other side down Craigflower Creek, which probably contributes to the uh the flooding, uh the driftwood and the blockages that happened that flood Marlow Drive.

So we have a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario that we got to stay on top of and resolve.

Thank you.

Next is the building inspection report.

I don't know if any staff have reported that or not.

If we're not going to get a motion to receive so move Councillor Matson seconded by Counselor Lemmon.

All those in favor?

Passed Thank you, Councillor Brown.

Um if it's all right with my colleagues, I will turn all of it into, including the new business piece, into my chair's report.

You good with this?

Okay.

And uh that is a report specifically um from arts and Culture support Services, our annual impact report, um, in which reported that in 2023 there were two point there was 2.6 million dollars invested in the arts through CRD arts and culture services.

93 grants were awarded.

So interest in arts has really taken off perhaps even more than before the pandemic.

But since since the pandemic, people are getting out to shows and galleries and uh showing real real interest and enthusiasm.

Um, but I just want to talk for a little bit about this some of this is covered in the report, about how, you know, what the commission does and mostly what it does, and it's made up of representatives from View Royal, oh gosh, um, Veroyal Highlands, um Saanich, Suke, Oak Bay, um, pretty much everywhere except Collwood and Sydney and Langford.

There you go.

Thank you.

Um, so the grants awarded are for activities and events that are going to be staged in or related to those areas.

Certainly most of them happen in Victoria and Saanich, but Bureau is a participant.

But the role mostly is approving funds and saying yes and saying no.

The real the real workhorse is the arts commission, which is volunteers who are devoted to the arts and spend countless hours going through the many, many, many applications for funds.

And I think really the only benefit, you know, the only monetary benefit is that they don't have to pay for tickets to all of the events that they they uh you know have said yes to.

Um so there's different, there's different kinds of grants, there's operating grants.

Um, and uh the next deadline for those is September 2024, and those are for operations.

Um the requirement is that it's public programming in the arts is the main mandate, and it needs to be a registered nonprofit for at least the last two years, have presented public arts programming in the CRD for at least the last two years, and uh have received at least one CRD project grant or an equity grant.

Um there are projects, series and extending program grants.

These are one-time projects or a short series of events and extended programming within a year with various activities, such as artistic growth, development of an art project, production of an arts event, arts activities.

Deadline for that is spring 2025.

So it's a long way for long way out for people to start putting their applications together.

Among the other grants, and some of these are more or less new since my arrival on the commission, incubator grants, and that's to support development and nonprofit arts organizations, particularly supporting new and emerging organizations.

So it really gives people, gives organizations a start.

It can be used for short-term staff, mentoring, workspace, training, and other supports to get themselves off the blocks.

And they are for organizations that do not have an arts mandate um and the uh but the applicant and and the applicants must not be actual individual artists uh so funding could be used for arts projects and events taking place in any of the paying areas and I'm trying to think of an example of one of those and there are equity grants where's my equity grants information oh golly I had it here I really do not like this surface probe it doesn't work for me at all equity grants well you'll have to forgive me because I'm gonna have to dig around for that.

Um because I don't have the actual um okay here we go um okay yeah there for programs by and for communities that face collective barriers to accessing funds so marginalized marginalization that could be race gender sexual orientation transgender gender status disability or something else um and these grants support artistic growth and development to production over an artistic project presentation or circulation of an artistic project and other activities um so that's you know, that's just a summary of what the commission does, what the what money goes to, the many, many, many groups that it goes to.

And uh, you know, it's surprising sometimes that organizations that are, you know, such um so it's such steadfast, um, so steadfast in the arts community, sometimes, you know, they just don't get the grant because they they haven't invested in, you know, the the time that it took to completely fill all the requirements within an application.

So quit questions to can you just wait one one minute because I'm just this is this is still my chair's report.

What okay, okay.

Well, okay, we'll take a question there.

Um no, go ahead.

Go ahead.

Don't go ahead.

Uh on last Friday I went to call creek park for rock of the ages the band that was playing in callwood has 16 events that are free to the public uh every year and uh Sydney does it as well uh sanish does it multiple events they're free to everybody just bring a chair uh little kids to old old timers my wife really enjoyed the 70s and 80s music uh i didn't recognize the songs um but uh just i don't maybe counselor rogers you can jog my memory we went to V Royal Park with that gentleman from Vancouver and we kind of looked at potential spots for a band shot, but I can't remember what was he specifically looking at himself.

I don't remember.

Yeah, we were uh looking at shade uh the shade awnings.

Oh, right.

Yeah, you know, to produce uh shade from you know, um, like like they'd have preschools and and um it would just provide a uh a band covering, if you want, you know, for for performers as well.

Because I was out in Sydney on Sunday and they have the band shell there.

It's very small, I'm sure it's not expensive, but that that would cover do the same purpose, right?

Would it not?

So uh we looked at a far corner over by where the uh above ground vegetable plots are uh down there's quite a large area out, of course.

Uh Viral Park's huge.

Um I think that'd be a good venue, even if we our new communications person could check look into that.

You know, you know.

Uh there might even be a band that's starting out that might even do something like that for free, uh, to start off.

And I think it's great PR, uh, great people meeting and talking to you and chatting to you.

Wow, um amazing.

There's probably about 500 people there, but when I go to the ones in San Antonio, there's probably a thousand people.

They have food trucks there.

Um it's a nice event and it's and it's it's free.

So anyway, just just the thought.

I agree.

Music in the park is i it's something we talked about at council many times over the years, and and it's not, you know, no nobody's brought forward anything more, but I think it would be lovely, and that's the natural venue.

Long as it's not country.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Or yeah.

Yeah, or punk.

Counselor Rogers.

Yes, thank you.

Um, yeah, being on the on the CRD uh arts commission, um, the uh advisory council is astonishing.

They're absolutely amazing.

The work that they do in in terms of uh determining the uh and the and the checklist requirements and and how they determine uh who gets what money ton of credibility they're uh highly respected.

Yeah.

Okay, so got a question for you on page 21 of this report.

Ugh.

Okay.

Hold on.

Page 21 of this report.

I've got to go back to my page 21.

21.

I don't see the numbers.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah.

I was just, you know, uh when you saw and I didn't get it, the project grant to View Royal for the Hispanic Film Society of Victoria.

I'm looking at Wonderheads.

Uh the one below that.

You're on the oh, okay, right.

So for some reason, View Roe was the project.

Did we apply for that project grant on behalf of the Hispanic Film Society?

No, we wouldn't have.

I think that's the location of it.

That's the location.

The location.

So we had uh so this was an event in View Royal.

It must have been.

Yeah.

It must have been.

Yeah.

I know nothing about this.

And and so I was I'm curious to see it, whether we were the grant to applicate or better application, but I I guess what concerns me is um how much of these are Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, Victoria, Victoria.

I mean, the list goes on and on.

Maybe two from West Shore, two from the South and the Gulf Islands, and two from Sydney or Sue, pardon me.

Frankly, I think it's time for council to reconsider its uh tier membership in the CRD Arts Commission.

I know that Highlands and Machosen are tier one, which is significantly less than tier two that we're paying into.

So the per capita expense of viewer residents in this, you know, particularly when you you see what's going on for free in Langford and Colwood.

Um and I I think it's time that we um we give some thought to go drop down to tier one and then put the rest of that as a grant funding to the West Shore Arts Program.

So and unless the CRD, supposedly Regional Arts Commission, is going to take a much greater interest and commitment to the West Shore for uh infrastructure and and um you know pavilions and whatnot, uh Renalto's uh prime focus, obviously, as chairs is the McPherson and the Royal.

That doesn't help too much, and and I know a very few of you are residents that are now heading into town.

Um so it's um it's time to give a sober second thought as to how we're expending the monies and how we can best allocate um our funds to a regional perspective, not just downtown.

Thank you for that.

Um if I may ask staff don't what is our annual contribution as tier two members?

Do you know?

Uh through the chair I don't have that number just off the top of my head I'd have to get back to you on that.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

If if you could that would be that might give us some you know it actually might be um rather than you know staff maybe if um we can just ask CRD how much are the members what each what are the each members paying because it's based on a per capita, tier one, tier two, dependent on on how many people and and property values.

So let's ask the CRD, let's bring that those numbers back to the next meeting and let's have a wholesome discussion ahead of our budget discussions, ahead of when we have to tell the CRD we're opting out.

Okay.

Thank you, Councillor Councillor Rogers.

Mayor Tobias.

Thanks, Councillor Lemon.

And I value um your point, Councillor Brown, about some of the free concerts going on, but after seeing what's behind Canada Day, it's not really free, right?

The amount of work that actually goes in behind that for volunteers.

And I'm just wondering if that ties in, Councillor Rogers, to your point.

I mean, we up here can advocate that we would like to see some free concerts going on, but is the fact that none of the activities that are going on in View Royal simply the fact that people in View Royal didn't submit grants?

Unless we have that information that they were submitted and turned down.

I I mean uh we would love to see a lot of these things go on, and and I think Councillor McKenzie brought up a market as well.

The amount of sheer organization and horsepower that goes behind organizing that and having people on the ground that are willing to either volunteer or be paid to do it is is is significant, right?

So is it the fact that somebody has applied and been turned down in View Royal here?

Or is it the fact that um you know, we we nobody's coming up with ideas to to host things and and seeking counsels or seeking uh funding for it?

I don't know which is it too, Councilor Lemon.

Could you speak to that?

No, I can I I I don't know.

I and but what I can do, and and of course the next meeting's not until the end of September, so I'll need to remind myself is ask the the representative from the arts commission just how many um applications she sees going going past her that actually come from V Royal.

Certainly none of them come from us.

Um but if there are any how many organizations and honestly, John, that's that's the first, you know, the Hispanic Film Festival is the first that I've Yeah, I know.

I mean it could be a who knows, it could be a typo.

View O Victoria sounds like alike.

Um, so I think the other thing too is that let's find out what's involved for tier one, tier two.

I know tier two allows us to be part of the arts map, but all they got is the love wall across the street, and they don't have our other art uh you know in uh that's in the town.

But they're not keeping up to date for some reason of what's going on in terms of our art sculpture.

Yeah, the the those events, I mean, yeah, there's obviously there's fence behind it, but they're they're multifaceted.

I mean, they fill what counselor McKenzie would like, you know, uh a market, uh food trucks, uh people promote their programs.

E ESS, for example, could be out there, fire department could be there, uh the police could be there with their crime prevention programs.

Uh so yeah, you get a captive audience.

So you you're fulfilling a lot of uh needs in one place at one time.

So and I'm I'm not talking 16, 16 events for call it.

We don't have the tax base to call it as.

But if we even s tried it, and even if we had the band shell for the shade at that park, we maybe you could do a remembrance day ceremony there.

Just an example.

But uh I think it bears looking into and and our new communications person maybe that's something that um they they could check into uh just just an idea.

I know they're going to be busy but thank you uh it is a chance for us to promote and we could uh getting more public input for for our committees at there as well I'm going, I have a few more um stats, very few, that I'm trying to pull up here.

And this this was, I I missed the last library board meeting because I was at a celebration of life, as some of you know.

But um on the agenda, and this had been presented at a committee that I'm I'm a part of a couple of weeks earlier, as some statistics from um across across the the uh library system for 2023.

And in um 2023 there were 137 seven 137,713 active cardholders.

And the I I think some the the increase and interest in the library is really real really interesting.

Um there's a 17.6 percent increase in new cards.

So 22,340 people have cards or applied for and got new cards in 2023.

2600 of those were under age 18.

Physical circulation, almost 4 million books, discs, and so on were circulated.

Almost three million checkouts.

The digital circulation is enormous.

Well over two million in-person visits to libraries, 1.7 million.

Electronic visits, 1.7 million.

But I wanted to see how most we pay into the central branch, but I believe most of our library holders of Bureau probably use Wanda Puca.

So the Central Branch is of course the the number one has has the top membership across across the system and uh central central central uh but the wan depuca is number three and so there are 14 248 active cardholders using one de fuca in 2023 there were over 2000 new cards created 412 of those for under 18s um 151 000 in-person visits um 10 00 uses of their public computers um nearly 300 000 checkouts um so it's it's a busy, busy branch and uh you know um it's we we don't yet know exactly where View Royal Um residents are are attending.

And it's difficult to know because we can use any of them.

You can use the Gowdy branch, you can use the Central Sandage branch, and any of them.

So, you know, if you're passing, if I'm passing by and I have books in the car, I'll just drop them off.

Or I might even just pop in.

But there is there is a an effort underway to gather um postal codes just to give us an idea of how many how many library card holders there are in View Royal.

Still not accurate because some postal codes cross boundaries, but it, you know, when that is done, that'll give us a more accurate reading than we have now.

It's underway.

I think.

When will that happen?

It's underway.

And I think it's and and Councillor Rogers, I believe it's early underway.

Okay.

Counselor McKenzie.

Thanks.

And you've uh reminded me that actually when you go into the libraries, at least at WandaFuca, you don't need to swipe in or anything to show your past.

So I know for instance, I'll go and sit there with my computer or book the private room, and I don't need to show any anything to do that.

But um so it might be useful if they did have that kind of thing so that we could know who who's using it and where they're using it.

Yeah.

Yeah I don't you know I I I think that would take away from the per it's it's a greater purchase purpose of being the community's living room you know as a a gathering place and a safe place for all people many of whom don't have library cards questions okay I'll all right, well, I'll wrap it up then and and uh pass it on to Marc DeBise.

Thank you, Councilor Lemon.

And I think this brings us to finance and administration 6.3.

So uh I think we can go down to budget variance reports.

Uh if there's no comments on it, we can uh receive, but I can get a moment to receive before we start.

So moved by counselor Matson, seconded by Councilor Rogers.

Any discussion?

Seeing none, uh all those in favor.

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed, motion carries to receive the budget variants and projects update report.

Council resolution follow-up list.

Um second quarter update.

Can I get a motion to receive second by counselor brown seconded by counselor mattson uh comments or questions there are a couple of updates Scott I'll brief you on that I think we can uh um they've either been resolved or overtaken by events but uh I'll have a a list of this and I would encourage you if any of you are on the action items or were curious about a piece we could probably handle this administratively as well to um to get updates that we need so if there's no comments or questions on it or that you don't see something there that you think should be there um please uh let uh scott and i know and we can at least get it on an another agenda all those in favor of receipt any opposed seeing none opposed motion carries and this brings us to your report Scott uh thank you mayor to bias uh I I rule it being called my report because it's actually uh uh overview of monthly activities but uh to carry on the tradition we'll call it the CAO report um covering the last month.

If there's any questions arising from what you've read uh now's the time to ask.

Otherwise, you can uh contact me after the meeting.

And I'll just put a plug in.

So the last Tuesday of the month is our CAO meeting with Scott.

So if that's not apparent on your calendar, if you see something in here that you want to follow up with Scott on, then please do that.

But I'll go to Councillor Lemon first with a question.

Yeah, thank you.

Um Scott, did you have much many applicants for the communications position?

We did have a few applicants, but I might pass that over to Sarah Jones, who uh was involved in all the interviews.

I don't recall the exact total.

I would say there was probably over 40.

Good.

Fantastic.

That's great.

And and are are we at the short listing stage?

Uh yes, I have signed the offer letter and just waiting for the applicant to sign, and then we'll have a new employee.

Brilliant.

Thank you.

Halftime, of course, but uh so just to manage everyone's expectations.

Good.

Thank you.

Thanks, Councilor Lemon.

Counselor Rogers, do you have a question about the report?

Excellent.

Uh Councilor Matson.

Yeah, just this is the Fire Smart Coordinator position.

I guess there was a grant for a one-year term, and one of our current members uh must have quit his job to take this position.

And so my curiosity is whether there's some sort of indication that they want this to become a full-time position.

Or will one year do it and we don't he'll do a report and then we're fine.

I think there's a lot of work to be done, and if we can be successful in reapplying for the grant, we'd we'd certainly do that.

I think there was more than one year's worth of work, but uh it's a grant funded position, so I would not expect it to carry on without that grant funding.

Okay, thank you very much.

Council Rogers.

Thank you.

Um at the at the top of the page, um uh there was comment about uh you attending a meeting with Langford and Cowward on the Lyme e scooters.

Uh that's correct.

So that's a company that rents out e scooters, right?

Um e scooters and bikes.

Pardon me?

And e bikes as well.

Uh-huh.

So are they just governing around or would they doing a West Shore deal?

I believe they're going to contact the CRD to see if they can do a CRD deal.

But uh actually wrote I wrote this line in before I attended the meeting in anticipation of attending.

So uh my my apologies for not including the e-bikes.

Yeah, it's it's interesting.

The the one thing about e-scooters is uh in you know Europe and LA is that they've uh told them to go away because the e-scooters are you know litter all over the sidewalks, they don't pick them up and um it becomes just a garbage problem.

So it would be um that might be a level of accountability that we'll have to make sure these companies are gonna retrieve them when they're left and not in the ditch.

Uh yeah, I I'm familiar with that issue in uh you know closer places like the Okanagan.

Um however, Lyme had a fairly good solution.

Uh they do reposition, so they have someone that that uh goes around and uh moves the scooters and e-bikes to locations where they're used.

And they do charge for them.

Um so they charge by the hour.

And so if you don't return them, uh whatever credit card you've rented them with will continue to be charged.

Um next question uh with respect to the table of um various numbers and so forth, and dog licenses issued.

Is that a licenses issued from the town, or is that all the licenses from on dog licenses from the town and the CRD?

That would be page three.

Through the chair.

Um View Royal sells uh actual CRD dog licenses.

So these are just the dog licenses that were sold over our counter, not the ones uh that were sold uh online through the directly to the CRD with residents in View Royal.

Yeah, thank you.

Okay.

Um really happy that the UBCM Emergency Preparedness Gorge Sea Level Rise uh initiative with the municipalities is underway.

That's excellent.

Um BC Transit and the um bus shoulder project is creating chaos um along six mile, sorry, the island highway up to six mile, you know, and um apparently um you know it's b backing up onto the highway.

How long is that uh anticipated to um uh to create such gridlock?

We have any sense in in our town uh through the chair, no anticipated uh idea just yet, but we can certainly reach out to BC Transit as part of the regular meetings we have them to determine that at the end of the day they're only working on one half of the road right now they work on the s on the south half of the road later on which would alleviate traffic so it shouldn't be for the whole project time when would the um they tell us uh when they're gonna start work on the Trans Canada and particularly well section when they blast out the hill uh haven't con I got an update from the Ministry of Transportation yet with respect to that project but I believe that's their timeline still stand per the previous news so um if we're to go back to previous uh kind of releases on timelines, that still applies.

Uh Scott, I'm very concerned about the vandalism that's going on in Porter's Park, and and thank you for bringing that to our attention.

Um, are is it ongoing?

Is there any ways that we're able to get a handle on it and and lessen the property damage?

Um that's a great question.

I mean, it's uh it's not patrolled at night.

Uh it's on the RCMP's radar.

We've we've let them know about it, but uh just keeping our eyes open for any suspicious behavior, which we would of course report.

And shoot on site.

Okay, thank you.

My my last comment uh again, nice to see um pictures of the green team uh photos.

Uh I hope that next time we can have pictures of uh Chris and his team, the view of invasive uh invasive removers.

Um, you know, they do some great work and it'd be great to have some photos acknowledging their fine work as well.

Thank you.

If there's no other questions, councillor receipt.

Moved uh receipt, second uh moved by councilor lemon, seconded by councillor Rogers.

All those in favor?

Any opposed thing, then opposed motion carries.

Um before I go ahead and we kind of sum up, uh Sarah and Scott, would we have enough time if we wanted to move into a special and then closed before we break at six?

We would not have enough room.

Time okay uh i expect you'd like director taylor um to participate in the meeting and she's not currently on the on the okay okay i understand okay uh then we will uh carry on as planned so we've got no other thing between a uh evening break so can i get a motion to adjourn until 7 p.m please so moved moved by councillor makenzie second by councillor brown all those in favor any opposed seeing none opposed motion carries will uh recommence at seven thank you good evening and welcome back um to the council of the whole meeting for tuesday july ninth um i'll call to reconvene and i think uh just as a reminder um we've already stated the territorial acknowledgement for the meeting and that if you're calling in by uh phone you can call 778 402 9227 and use conference ID for or eight four eight eight zero seven four eight zero pound um to um um to speak to counsel during one of two opportunities and the first thing I think we'll come up with really quickly and that's a public participation period and then there's a question period that follows that uh I think that brings us down to public participation period because on the second part we don't have any petitions and delegation sir okay so if there's anybody in the room that would like to address counsel on the issue related to the agenda um please do.

And just start by stating your name and your street name.

Right.

My name is Raz Isaac.

I live on Fish and Place.

And I'm speaking on behalf of the View Royal Climate Coalition on agenda item 9.2.4A, the Natural Asset Management Roadmap Program.

We're sweltering in yet another heat wave, and time is of the essence to mitigate and to adapt.

We understand that our staff resources are limited, but they have taken a cursory look at our natural asset management, so it's already on their radar.

We were delighted to see that in the Saanich Natural Assets Inventory Report that was brought to Saanich Council last night.

Our View Royal staffer, Ben Lubberts.

I hope I'm pronouncing his name correctly, had participated in one of their workshops on April 9th.

We're so proud of View Royal for stepping up to participate along with Victoria, Central Saanich, Esquimalt, and the CRD.

Colwood did not participate as they had already completed their municipal natural assets inventory in 2022.

Here is a quote from Colwood regarding the MNAI.

The city recognized the financial benefits for the residents of Colwood in managing our assets in the most cost effective and resilient way.

Natural assets are land based, streams, ponds, ditches, trees, and green spaces.

Therefore, they appreciate in value, unlike man-made structures which continually depreciate.

A natural progression for View Royal would be to select three staff members to take the natural asset management roadmap program.

A team of highly trained staff members would be an invaluable asset for the town as we head into the OCP review.

This could be transformative as we weave natural assets into all areas of our OCP and design the best view royal of the 21st century that we can.

A View Royal that is climate safe, healthy, and livable.

As for commitment to staff time for the program, it truly is minimal and would not start until mid to late September if we are fortunate enough to be selected.

The timeline of the program for each cohort is three to four months.

However, it takes staff just two to four working days to complete the tasks.

Examples of which are attending the launch webinar, 1.5 hours, and the virtual roadmap workshop, 2.5 hours.

As for funding, the NAM roadmap program is valued at $2,000 and is heavily subsidized by IPE, reducing the cost to local governments to only $850.

When the headlines from Forbes are screaming, quote, climate change will cost the global economy $38 trillion every year within five years.

Sorry, within 25 years, scientists warn, quote, close quotes, $850 is less than a drop in the bucket.

In future, perhaps it would be prudent for us to create a contingency climate action fund to cover an opportunity such as this.

If we don't act now, we may risk losing this wonderful opportunity to get our staff trained.

It would require substantially more staff hours to tackle this roadmap on their own without this expert support.

Our own staff capable capacity now.

In Safe Klein's book, A Good War, Mobilising Canada for the Climate Emergency, his signed note at the front says this is the task of our lives.

Two of his key strategies are we need to adopt a wartime mindset prepared to do what it takes to win, spend what it takes to win.

Nature is showing us at every turn that she desperately needs help.

She's gifted us wonderful natural assets like trees and waterways, and it is our responsibility to nurture and protect these priceless assets.

In these disturbing times of heat waves, unnatural wildfires, droughts, atmospheric rivers, and flooding, the residents of View Royal need reassurance that the town understands the urgency of the climate emergency that we declared in 2019, and that everything must be viewed through the lens of climate change.

We ask tonight that you please support Council Mackenzie's motion concerning the NAM roadmap program.

Our small but mighty town of Uroyal has been a trailblazer with the Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty, Sioux Big Oil, and the Zero Carbon Step Code.

Let's lead by example yet again by participating in the NAM roadmap program.

Thank you for your kind attention and just a PS.

We'd like you to know that we're gifting Seth Klein's book to the town.

And I just need to know who to give it to.

Thank you very much for your delegation.

I appreciate that.

Jane, did you want to speak too or is uh does she speak beh on your behalf?

Seeing that there's nobody uh else here, uh we could have had the opportunity.

Carl, have we got anybody on the phone that wishes to address council?

Mayor Tobias, we have no callers.

Thank you, Carl.

Um so I think that brings us down to parks and recreation.

I don't see Councilor Qualwich online, correct, Sarah?

Um, so I think uh I have nothing but to skip down to uh new business, which is where Councilor McKenzie's item is amendments to the tree protection bylaw.

Councilor McKenzie.

Yes, thank you.

I tonight I'm gonna be well, I would like to raise a motion that council direct staff to identify quick changes to our tree bylaw to protect more trees, including non-protected species, specifically as part of development or building permitting.

Second.

Thank you.

So we continue to hear residents uh vocalize their disappointment with how many trees are coming down for redevelopment.

Case in point, the Grand Infer in Portage Park.

And I know we are working on an urban forest strategy, however, that is a big project.

It's very wide in scope, and it will take time before we see changes to our tree bylaw.

So we simply don't have time to wait for that project to be done before making changes to our tree bylaw.

In the interim, we're gonna have a number of redevelopments, applications due to this new provincial legislation.

And I'm not talking just about protected trees.

All trees are valuable in providing shade and helping to cool us down and to help with any noise mitigation.

So I'm looking to staff to identify if there are any quick changes.

You know, they might have some ideas on the top of their head.

It could be reducing the diameter of trees that we consider protected from 30 centimeters, or it could be having more of these decisions come to council to consider.

But I think we need to do this before that the forest uh urban forest strategy and to do that uh as soon as possible.

I just have a question, counselor uh McKenzie, completely supportive of it.

So this motion is actually kind of an in-term strategy on how to deal with um with perhaps an ineffective pre-by-law until something else might replace it.

Yes, that's correct.

I I know coming out of the the consult consultants' work on this urban forest strategy that we will have changes, but we need something very soon.

And I think it can be very small changes to the bylaw.

I don't think we're talking massive things.

Like I said, reducing the diameter just a little bit to protect more trees, I think is a simple change.

Thank you.

Council Matson.

Yeah thanks.

Yeah so one of the things I mean I agree that if we can find some quick fixes really good something we can do.

But but this we have a more fundamental problem I think and that's not so much uh some of our current staff, but in previous years we heard that it was like development at all costs because you know we've got a housing shortage, and so we can whatever we can do to get more housing in was fine.

Because and I heard that over a number of times, including issues over parking, don't worry about parking, what's more important parking or housing, uh trees.

It seemed like everything that was in a building footprint, like the official envelope, was fair game to be whacked down and it would be chopped down, you know, whether it needed to be or not.

And so in terms of some of our you know, redevelopment that's going to be going on, what I'd like to see staff do is take a look and when somebody comes in with a uh an application, get them to actually explain why it's necessary to cut down some trees, even if they're in the building envelope, because there's lots of opportunities sometimes to just move the house over, save the trees.

Uh probably the best example I've seen in View Royal, and I haven't seen all of them, is the house right beside where Jerry lives, where uh uh the builder went in there, he left most of the trees, fit the house into onto the lot, and it's just a beautiful lot, very nice house.

But these are things we can do rather than you know, we've seen time and time again, somebody goes into a lot, they chop down everything that there is just because it's in the uh building potential building footprint area.

And so maybe staff can sort of look at that when proposals come in and require people to explain why it's necessary to cut down all those trees.

And and I will support the motion.

Thank you.

Good, because you seconded it, I believe.

Um counselor Levin.

I'm glad you brought this up and I I also completely support it.

And one of the things, you know, when I when I when I visualize where this might apply, I'm thinking to the place where Jerry used to live and a development that is proposed on that street.

And some beautiful, beautiful Hawthorne trees that just there's three of them and they just go into full um magenta bloom every year.

And they are targeted for removal.

And I think of the presentation we had this afternoon, in which we we saw examples in the Netherlands, for example, of um of of setbacks that that left left trees, left room, left green, and and it's doable.

It's doable.

And uh so I thank you for this, Councillor McKenzie.

Um I support it.

Thank you, Councillor Lemon.

Uh Councilor Roger.

Yeah, thanks.

Uh certainly in support of the uh the motion.

Thank you for bringing it forward.

And um the the the quick ideas are um um are going to be something that will cost.

So I think it's also part of the quick ideas is to increase the uh financial requirement of um uh um developers as they are uh if they feel compelled and and we have no reason to prevent um the uh removal of the trees, then we're going we should be um increasing not only the uh amount to pay for the trees replacement but also apply um uh if you like a a warranty um on the trees that they are planting and um you know and and it's longevity of of watering, watering the trees as well.

So some kind of five year maintenance contract uh is is something that um uh we should be looking at.

Um we have lots of opportunities, uh boulevards and View Road Park to plant more trees.

I noted in the squamalt um, you know, they are in a very active uh process of of uh planting trees in their boulevards.

And that um again, if that's going to be costly for the town in terms of doing and watering, then let's fine figure that pro um prorated amount per tree and uh just make that as a line item for for doing business.

And I think we've heard um this afternoon that uh there is indeed good warrants, uh good meanings of or um reason to increase the uh frontage.

If um three meters isn't going to get us the trees that we need to uh produce a canopy, then let's increase the frontage and the obligations of those uh um and so these these are the fine tunings, not of the tree protection, but also the rezoning uh applications as well.

So um uh and in parks.

So I think it's not uh and I think the motion is not just with the tree by law, but any and everywhere and anywhere that we can increase the uh the number of trees, increase the pan canopy and and the ambience of our um community the better.

So three chairs, let's get on with it.

I'm I'm with you, Councillor Manson, and supportive of what you had to say, but what you had to say is not in the motion.

So either we amend the emotion to um to include those things, particularly um outside of um some of the areas lists.

Yeah, replanting.

Yeah, it uh indeed it's it goes beyond, and and I think that's um um one of I'm hoping uh hopefully we don't have to amend the motion, but the whole intent is that we should go beyond.

Maybe it was it could have been.

Uh I I'm often not looking over uh at you, Councilor Mattson, so you're starting to sound the same, if that makes any difference.

Uh perhaps it's been the the number of years you've been on council together, I'm not sure.

Uh I've got a a quick question for staff on this motion.

Scott, is this clear enough?

Because I think it's the will of council before we go to a vote, that I I don't think the will of council is that the existing bylaw or enforcement for tree protection is effective.

And we're looking at something in the interim to increase its effectiveness in advance of Ivan's urban forest strategy.

Is this clear enough or do we need to be more concise?

Thank you, Mayor Tobias.

On April 16th, there was a motion very similar to this.

So I will seek clarification.

On April 16th, that a report be provided outlining options to help improve the protection and retention of mature trees on public and private property.

So if I understand correctly, it's the urgency that council does not want to wait.

The guidance of the tree protection or sorry, the tree canopy report, that you'd like to put a few more tools into that bylaw in advance of that report.

I think that's that's correct.

That's what we'd we'd um the council would like to be able to uh have staff armed with the tools that council approves to maintain the canopy that we have whilst you know we wait for this study to uh potentially enhance um the canopy.

Ivan and then uh councillor rogers.

Thank you, Mayor Tobias.

Yeah, just with respect to the the April um motion.

Uh the this work's already been done or being done right now.

We're expecting a report in sometime September, October.

Okay, I think the the concern is if we have another development coming in tomorrow and passed and ready to break down, do we have the tools sufficient enough for for staff both in in planning and development services to execute kind of the will of council to maintain the mature canopy that we have?

Yeah, Mayor Tobias, that's something that uh director Taylor uh um CEO Somerville and I can discuss, see what can be done legally and certainly go from there.