Committee of the Whole

Good afternoon, and I'd like to call the meeting of the committee the whole to order for March 14th, 2023.

We recognize the Lequang speaking people known today as the Esquimalt Nation and the Songhees Nation, and their historic connections to these land continue to this day.

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

For members of the audience, the council is a safe, respectful, and inclusive place.

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

When it is your turn to talk, do not speak disrespectfully about anybody else, including counsel or staff.

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

Please don't speak or act in an aggressive or bullying or harassing way.

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

For those participating by telephone, if you wish to provide comments, call 778-402-9227 and when prompted, enter conference ID 616-259-481-pound.

At the appropriate time in the agenda, I will then announce the last four digits of your phone number.

Ask you to mute the live webcast to avoid feedback.

Ask you not to use your speaker phone to ensure sound quality, and ask you to unmute yourself by pressing star six.

To begin, please indicate your name and address for the record.

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

This meeting will be recorded by participating in this 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, including the blue sheet and two very late ads?

Um moved by councillor Brown, seconded by uh Councilor Mattson.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

None opposed.

Motion carries.

Uh can I have a motion to adopt the minutes of the previous meetings, and they include our budget uh council of the whole meetings as well.

Moved by Councillor Mattson, seconded by Councilor Brown.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

I see your camera on uh briefly.

Counselor Rogers, were you opposing or sorry?

I'm I hi if you can hear me.

Um what I'll do is I'll just come in if I oppose, and otherwise I'll just be approving and voting in favor.

Understand.

Thank you, Councillor Rogers.

Uh so motion carries for the motion to adopt the previous minutes.

And I think that brings us to petitions and delegations.

And we have the executive uh chief executive officer of the South Island Prosperity Partnership.

Thank you for coming.

Okay.

This seems like this is working.

Okay, great.

Um such a pleasure to be here.

Mayor and Council.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to share with you a little bit about um what South Island Prosperity Partnership has been up to in the last um few years.

Haven't had a chance to be here since before the pandemic.

Um, and so I see you've you've definitely upgraded your your tech here.

Um so it it's great to be here lots has been happening over the last few years and of course you know many of you um have joined um in your positions uh since the fall so congratulations um on your election as well um I'll just get going and um I'm also joined here with uh Dallas Giselson he is our director um or soon to be executive director of community economies um has been with us since the beginning as well uh so before I get going uh very grateful to do our work on the territories of the Coast Salish people uh which includes the uh Lakwungan speaking people, the Saunich nations uh Sekem uh Malahat, as well as Qiannu and uh Saoq nation as well.

And we cover that that territory, that broader territory.

So since 2016, when we were formed, we we've had a very diverse group of members, which includes municipal members, First Nation members, industry and business associations, all three of our post-secondary institutions, some major philanthropy and nonprofit, and many of the largest employers of the region.

And we've come together.

Well, in fact, what the original impetus for setting up SIP was that the region didn't rebound very quickly from the Great Recession of 08-09, and it took quite a long time for the impacts to be to be sort of understood.

And what happened at that time is a lot of local leaders, a lot of the um uh mayors and counselors at that time started looking with the business community at what were the things that other places were doing to be more deliberate about building an economy and building it to be more resilient, more diversified.

And so that sort of became the reason for SIPS formation.

So today we started off with 29 members.

Today we have over 70 members.

We're very proud that we continue to have so many of those founding members throughout the whole seven years.

And our mission is to build a more innovative, diversified, inclusive, and sustainable South Island economy.

And the original sort of story that we we went around to all these counts, all the different councils and First Nation governments and sort of spoke a lot about why do you need to diversify the economy and why are we a regional economy?

And so we have so many unique communities, which is wonderful, but of course we're all connected.

And so what we did is we mapped out here the there at the time it was about the 20 larger one of the 20 some of the 20 largest employers through Vietex group, just one industry association and just mapped the where the employees lived and worked.

And so you can really see here that the region is a is a spider web of of uh sort of interaction and the the economy is just one economy.

So businesses, just like your residents, in many ways don't see the borders, right?

So where they live and where they work, particularly in V Royal, we know is is not generally the same place.

So I won't go through this all, but this was the constitutional mandate back in 2016 that many of your peers at the time poured hours and hours and hours over the verbiage.

And so these are part of our constitution and bylaws, and you you are each a member of an owner of those bylaws.

So we have a um uh a one member, one vote uh sort of philosophy or reality, and that means that no matter what the size of the municipality, it's it's a quality of vote.

And you know, this some this this slide really just summarizes, you know, in a complex way, why do we diversify our economy?

Well, it comes down to one thing in sort of a personal way.

It's we do this so that the kids can come home for dinner on Sunday nights.

And we started saying that sort of just casually back in 2016 and realized, well, actually, it does sum up realistically why we do it.

We don't want our kids to have to move to other places of the country to get jobs.

Uh, we hope to not have to go to Toronto too often to visit them if that's where they choose to go.

I'm just kidding, I had to take a jab at Toronto when I can.

Um, so you know, I have a four year old and a seven year old, and it's certainly my hope that there are options for them to start a business here or um take a job and so on and not not move far away if they don't want to.

So here's our impact.

Um, every year, uh religiously, we have done an impact report, which is they're all posted on our website.

If you wanted to, you could take a picture and follow the URL and see some of the evolution of our story year over year.

I am gonna have to speed up away.

I just realized my time here.

So here I'll just show you in the last year alone, we've really changed a lot in terms of the impact.

So you can see that purple chart is municipal contributions, which has remained pretty static, pretty stable year over year.

But what you can see is what that's allowed us to do.

And so that green chart really shows you that we're able to leverage now significant project dollars through the federal government and the provincial government.

So that that's that's looking at a sort of uh eightfold increase overall.

Um and that's made possible because of because of your initial contribution.

Um unlike back in 2016 when the uh economy uh was massively impacted at the beginning of the pandemic, we were able to bring together stakeholders within just a few weeks, and we formed something called the Rising Economy Task Force, which is a group of 120 stakeholders from across all the sectors of our economy, um, looking at things from ocean and marine to indigenous economy, retail and restaurant transportation, and so on.

This allowed us to tell our story better to other levels of government, so it allowed us to do advocacy, um, uh help direct stimulus where it was going to be most impactful, but it also allowed us to come back much stronger and much more quickly from the pandemic.

And I won't have time to go through these at all in too much depth, but I'll just give you a kind of a glimmer of the kind of work we've been doing over the last few years since the pandemic.

One is Rising Economy Conference, and this is something that we've also added local leadership day.

This is all about building a rise economy, a resilient, innovative, sustainable, and equitable economy.

So we've been able to bring the first year we did it fully virtual, and we had thousands of people from all the Pacific Northwest attend this.

And it really started making us realize that we had a lot more in common with different parts of Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

We could bring in some of what they've been learning, and we can also get our thought leadership out.

So that's sort of some of the you can see we've had 120 speakers, over 56 sessions, you know, lots of digital as well as in-person content the last few years.

And local leadership this past year we had over 60 different elected leaders from around the region.

And through our partners committee, which is where we work with municipal government, the representatives, they really have helped us craft that came out of our economic recovery strategy as well.

So we're creating basically a new division or department of SIP, and that's where we're taking advantage of a whole bunch of different um project opportunities to increase the funding and really direct it where it's most effective.

And I'll just introduce you to Christina Clark, who was with the Songies for 30 years.

She's leading this.

She's our executive director of the Indigenous Prosperity Center.

That doesn't look very clean anymore, but there's some of the projects that we're doing an Indigenous business directory for the South Island, a procurement accelerator, some work on intellectual property with respect to the cowitch and sweaters, which is very difficult to protect those kinds of uh that sort of knowledge and create business opportunities from it.

So lots of other pieces, but I'll give you another exposure to some of the other things we're doing.

We've also started something called COAST, the Center of Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies.

And this is also something we have a new executive director who's just started with us.

This is about creating a regional innovation hub for the ocean sector.

Many people don't know, but the Vancouver Island actually has 75% of ocean tech businesses in all of British Columbia.

So it's a significant economic opportunity for the South Island in particular and for all of British Columbia.

And our vision is that Coast is Pacific Canada's hub for the sustainable blue economy.

And our mission is to drive inclusive prosperity in British Columbia's sustainable blue economy through entrepreneurship, innovation, and expansive partnerships.

So our ocean economy is actually quite significant in British Columbia, although it's something that has in a way been lumped in with more of a marine industrial sort of character, and then sort of putting aside the ocean technology on the other side.

And what we found during the pandemic, uh it came forward as one of the top recommendations of our ocean and marine report.

And that was because it really is a tremendous opportunity.

There's so many companies in this space, but they all felt really isolated and siloed from one another.

So this has been a strong sort of galvanizing force, and we're hitting, we already have 120 members.

It's definitely picked up a lot of momentum in a short period of time.

The ocean economy is also growing faster internationally than most of the other sectors in the OECD, 20% faster than other sectors, growing to $3 trillion by 2030 from 2020.

And I won't go through this, but we have many different assets and institutional strengths here in Greater Victoria in the South Island.

We have the home to Canada's Pacific Navy.

We have BC Ferries, the largest, the world's largest ferry provider, ferry operator in the world, the Coast Guard, the shipyards, the Graving Dock, a very rich RD environment with Ocean Networks Canada.

Many of you have probably heard of that, about $100 million a year in pure RD.

So lots of impressive things, and as well as a prominent recreational marine, yachting and sailing region.

So, as I mentioned, got a lot of traction already.

We've got a lot of members, a lot of excitement and enthusiasm around it.

So we'll tell you more.

We've got programming, uh venture accelerator program in partnership with Biotech.

Um, we've got some work across Canada with the Ocean Startup Project.

Uh, so we're really helping build a bigger environment ecosystem in Canada.

And here, just an example, just some of the awards over the last uh seven years that we've received for a very quite a small organization.

Uh our core staff is six, uh seven people.

Um, and in the last few years, we've received many international awards for some of this work that we've been doing.

Thanks to you.

And I'd like to thank you on behalf of our whole team, um, Dallas, who's with us, but here are some of the other people that make up this team.

There's actually three new people here uh just in the last year through this project development work that we're doing.

And we hope to see more expansion over the coming years and hope to keep to engaging you and keep engaging you and dive a little bit deeper into some of the specific areas of interest you may have.

So I'll be I actually finished early, which was a shock I thought in the middle I was going to go over.

So leaving you back some more time.

Thank you for that presentation.

Just um turning to my colleagues to see if there are specific questions.

Council.

Thank you.

Thank you, Emily.

Um, View Royal has been a member for I don't know, from since the beginning.

Very beginning, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

I is every municipality within the CRD a member participant.

Um, not every member.

So uh there's a couple members that actually were hopeful.

We never had them as members before, uh, Langford and Michosin.

And so we've been invited, we've presented at Machosin.

They're quite interested in joining, which would be wonderful.

We've never had the opportunity to present to them before.

Um, and uh Langford is a similar similar story.

Um and uh we've lost one.

Highlands has been the only one that we've lost, and it was related to the the strength of the climate work that we were, or there was sort of the climate stance we were having it.

So we can dive into that if of interest.

Uh we did actually change our bylaws uh and include uh climate um uh resilience as part of our bylaws to hope to um kind of find some middle ground there.

We'll go back, we'll keep the doors open.

Okay.

Just one more one more question if I may.

Yeah.

So if if uh if Bure oil hypothetically wanted to strengthen its economic oomph, um were you know uh you know, rep, you know, representatives of the town or or representatives of the business community uh to approach you.

Yeah, would you be a good and helpful resource for discussing ways and means of of in increasing the the commercial base yes that's that's definitely what we're so since we've been around actually there's now I think it's six or six at least six or seven new economic development officers across the region um so I so I think actually we're we're we're quite happy to be able to spark um more economic interest um and collaboration at the municipal level uh Dallas is actually um he he his new title is going to be reflective of that the importance of working with the community economies that make up a whole healthy region and so looking at ways to sort of tap into the regional work but also strengthen at the local level there's a lot of different things that can be in place and can be done um and so we're happy to to dive into that we've also helped directly Esquimalt and also Sydney uh form uh they wanted to do some research into what specifically could be done so we supported developing an um uh uh an RFP um how to set up a sort of uh community level plan uh for for economic development and investment readiness and then and then helped kind of work through uh stewarding that and and moving that along so yeah we're absolutely a resource for you.

Terrific.

Thank you.

Counselor Matson.

Yes.

I'm just wondering, can you give us uh examples of businesses that you've been able to coax to come come to the island?

I can.

So well, actually, I'd almost I'll give you the one that I can remember because that that's uh Dallas's portfolio.

He's better with remembering the names of the companies.

Because again, this is prior to the pandemic.

The pandemic obviously created a huge challenge for what we call foreign direct investment.

Um there's when we did the study, um, we did in our third or fourth year an impact and organizational review, an impact uh third party examination of what we were doing.

And so we also quantified the economic impact of it.

So there was about seven main companies that were attracted.

Daytan is the one that comes to mind, uh Brazilian software company.

Um, and the economic impact analysis was done.

I'm gonna look at Dell's because I'm 37 million, I think was sort of what was determined was the impact and direct salaries from 2018.

Got it right.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Any other questions?

Yeah, well, um, I I've just got one, and that is what is the relationship between um your group and the chambers of commerce that are there?

Like, are they members?

Yeah, all five of the chambers of the region are members of South Island Prosperity Partnership.

So we're like a tent that you know, bringing in all of the economic stakeholders of the region.

We often work with the chambers and others on areas of strategic common interest.

So our membership is at a the on the private sector side, higher higher financial investment.

It keeps it at a sort of longer term perspective.

Those companies need to think a lot about the next 10 years.

How are how's our company going to be resilient in terms of talent and terms of um you know attracting people or transportation or really brings them into a place where you they're similar to a municipality in terms of thinking about do we have the right conditions for economic prosperity.

So that tends to be where we don't do uh what you call B B2B, like business to business networking and those things that the chamber's very good at.

Um, we don't really do that.

We kind of have a little bit more of a regional and a longer term focus.

And a big piece is liaising with provincial and federal government and bringing that perspective out.

Great, thank you very much.

And I think Councillor Rogers online has a question as well.

Yes, uh hi, thank you very much for coming.

Um, what kind of uh coordination do you do with the rest of Vancouver Island uh in terms of bringing business and uh making stronger in that cooperation?

So with Vancouver Island, yeah, thanks for the question.

Uh we we really do represent South Island, uh so Greater Victoria Capital Regional District, and that that's kind of our that's why we were created sort of in our bylaws.

So we don't, you know, extend it except for and how it is sort of rooted here.

So I'd say we work a lot with like you know Valle or companies that are up island, especially around the indigenous Presbyterian Center or coast, um, where there are partnerships, but they're really to not to to sound selfish, but for they're for the benefit of the South Island economy.

That's kind of our our swim lane.

Hopefully that answered uh the question, Councilor Rogers and thank you again for coming.

I've seen no other questions.

So um uh yeah, I I know that uh we'll be discussing it a little bit uh more in the future, especially uh some greater participation on as Councillor Lemon alluded to and increasing diversification for some of the commercial and industrial activity we can have.

That would be fantastic.

So anytime if anyone wants to go for a coffee or just chat it out or informally or working group, you know, let us know.

Thank you so much.

Okay, thank you.

Your worship.

Oh, sorry, we missed we missed the public participation.

The most important part of the entire agenda.

How could I have missed it?

So uh now we can go to the room if anybody had any comments that they would like to address counsel with.

Yes, sir.

Uh Mike Wilcher, um 5914 Erskine Lane.

Um I apologize if this is um not being brought up at this meeting, but this evening's meeting, but I'm not able to be attended in any way this evening's meeting.

And if anything I'm saying is incorrect, of course, I would hope you would correct me, but I'm sort of operating in a semi-information vacuum to find out more details on this.

And what it has to do with, um, and it's a concern to not only myself but a lot of the residents of the townhouse complex where we live, is the as best as I can find, the um decision to cut the idea of sidewalks on Watkiss Way out of the five-year plan.

So not only to um kick down the road any design planning, but also to remove it entirely.

Now I don't know if any of you have walked along there.

I try to walk there because of course we want to encourage pedestrian use.

We want to try at least on paper the town says would be pedestrian friendly.

It's dangerous to walk along there.

There's just no other way to say it.

Because of its design, it's uh almost encourages people to exceed the speed limit.

And talking with some of um the residents in the complex there now, and I imagine by extrapolation, when there's a thousand more people living there.

Um, there are a lot of people right now, anyway, who say we will not walk along there.

We will drive our car.

And if Vureal wants to discourage or people from taking their car everywhere and encourage them to use other modes of getting around, removing the idea of a sidewalk seemingly forever, as far as best as I can see, is not a good plan.

It almost makes a mockery of any words that ViewRoyel says about pedestrian, uh trying to be pedestrian-friendly in any sort of way.

Because it just it just isn't.

I know that sidewalks are expensive, concrete is expensive, but the sidewalks that they eventually got years ago on Burnside are not, as I can best recall, concrete sidewalks.

First, they put a raised curb and then they laid over asphalt on them to raise them.

Even a raised curb would give, if nothing else, a sense of there's some separation between that speeding traffic and those of us walking there.

You're gonna have all these people living there.

Why would the town say, yes, let's put in a thousand more people on Erskine Lane, but let's not make provision for allow them to comfortably safely be able to walk to Eagle Creek.

They're just they're just not it's not gonna happen.

And to because I saw there was a comment uh Councillor Brown that you said, well, a lot of the road lies within Saanich, and why should we do that?

Well, I could say two things to that.

Um I don't know where boundaries lie exactly in, but if the plan was to put it on the north side of Watkasway, why not the other side of the road?

And I say I don't know the whys and wherefores of that, but I just throw that out there.

The other thing is when I hear those kinds of questions, well, I don't want to do it because that's not ours.

It's it makes me less um inclined to uh not think of being in favor of some kind of amalgamation.

Because we have this sort of no, this is mine, this is yours, and we don't want to do that because it's gonna benefit you more than it benefits us when it benefits everyone ultimately.

So I encourage you, and I know it's tight times, and I know probably a good part of the motivation is you guys have to pare things down to minimize any tax increase.

And I realize and appreciate that.

But let's not just cancel the idea completely.

Some say, okay, we we have to put a pause on that right now.

Kick it down the road.

But don't say, please don't say never, if that was the intent as as I read it.

And if I'm wrong, I look forward to being enlightened otherwise.

So thank you very much.

Thanks, Mike.

I can answer it a little bit.

Um I think uh council was very diligent in looking at the budget and trying to create spaces for savings anywhere it could.

Um, and perhaps what was left out of that is an explanation that we didn't have a fulsome appreciation of other monies that the the the town would be receiving.

Out of that is a that's been announced publicly as a 4.66 million dollar uh injection from the provincial government as part of the growing community fund we don't know the details of or the or the strings associated exactly with that funding yet and that will evolve so we know the amount uh we don't know the other parameters what we can spend it on uh what our other obligations are associated with it so I think our move to to uh wasn't one to cancel the requirement of a sidewalk I think the move was a cost saving one and that um it would be my um thought to bring before council a list of things that uh are priorities for the town and and put those in a ranked order uh um for um you know the contributions that we'll be receiving from the provincial government, as well as any capital left over.

Um I I think council realizes that the the current state of both Stone Ridge and Irkskin Lane um justifies a connection uh safely to particularly Eagle Creek and the rest of the town.

And certainly with the extra population that's underway uh now with holes in the ground on Irkskin Lane, that will demand um that the those safe passages will be very uh well utilized.

Um so rest assured it's on council's radar um that the decision uh to remove things were probably a little bit uh too active with a pen without an explanation about why I am uh understanding whenever there's sensitivities because I've got a number of calls and emails about um the cancellation of the sidewalk so I think within context um and without speaking before it comes to council we're going to reprioritize the things that are being funded out of other people's money and capital left over and have a broader discussion about what we can do and include uh because those were monies that weren't known at the time that we made the decision if that helps.

Welcome everybody.

We didn't go to the uh answers.

Anyone else in the room?

Okay.

Nobody.

Anybody online, Carl?

Mayor Tobias, we have no callers at this time.

Now it's over to you, Councillor Bay.

Thank you.

Just jumping the gun there.

Sorry, a little anxious there.

Yeah, so this is the Protective Services Committee.

And uh my I don't have a report as such today, and I don't believe there was any business arising from previous minutes.

I see that uh email came through that the RCMP uh are not going to be here to do a uh a verbal presentation tonight.

Uh I'm sure Inspector Rose and Superintendent Preston are fighting crime, so that's probably the reason.

Um, however, all of us have received an email about with the with the report.

About the report and there was this separate email that I'm not sure that went to everybody, Kim.

I think it went to you and myself regarding the position.

I did forward both emails received from Superintendent.

It's on my I got it here sent to everybody.

Yeah and if you haven't looked at it yet that was a very late late ad that wasn't really kind of on the agenda but it's uh uh the uh the superintendent uh regrettably um couldn't make it because he was hosting a chiefs of police uh meeting at the same time and counselor or uh uh constable rose is actually very sick today, so he couldn't make it either.

Um so we can uh recommend we make a motion to receive both of those and uh uh uh for for information and uh it may impact some uh discussion down the road about a position that was also a fatality of the budget.

Uh that was uh there there's an explanation, a separate email in there for that justification uh as well.

Can we get a motion then to move the the written port, or do you want to just table it?

I mean, you probably no one's had a chance to read it.

So can we get a motion to table?

Or receive, yeah.

So moved by counselor counselor Manson and Councillor Lemmon the seconds.

All in favor?

Nobody opposed.

Thank you.

So, Chief Gru, you're up.

Thanks.

Thanks for coming.

And I I heard that you're filling the shoes well.

Thank you.

Good to hear.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council members.

Thank you for having me today.

Uh, prior to starting, I guess I uh I would like to uh echo the sentiment by a previous speaker in recognizing and appreciation uh appreciating the uh Coast Salish First Nations peoples and allowing us to live and work in their traditional territories.

Uh my name is Mark Guru, and I am the uh Chief By Law Officer for the Capitol Regional District uh managing the bylaw and animal care services for uh and we're situated in Lankford for those of you who may not be aware, but we cover quite a broad area.

Um yeah, right to right up to Port Renfrew and into the Gulf Islands.

Uh specifically here with view with respect to View Royal, and sorry, I apologize, I meant to recognize former colleagues from View Royal staff.

Hi, everybody.

Um in any event, uh, yeah, we uh we are contracted by View Royal to do animal uh care services, animal control, uh, and enforce the uh the animal control bylaw that View Royal has in place.

Uh and I hope that you have just we did some stats that we submitted to uh two weeks prior to the meeting.

So I could just quickly go over it and uh and if you have any questions, I'll certainly table those and uh and I'll also present any highlights that I think are maybe of significance.

Um you'll notice uh the hours on the first page uh indicating the patrol hours uh for both the the month of January and February.

So I chose those two months to have sort of front and center, but uh I believe you have the last year's overall stats for the year so in case you have any questions i can certainly refer to those um not a not a lot not a great deal going on i mean view royal uh seems to be a fairly compliant location which we're very pleased um probably uh some of the highlights that we had that are on here uh we did have uh four I believe four dog attacks so two in each month and those are things that we usually like to bring to your attention and just just for your awareness um I mean thankfully there's so there's two I believe dogs on dogs and then two were uh humans were impacted or possibly bitten.

In in all cases except for one, uh we we have a process and and we you know we we start by trying to get compliant gain compliance and of course educate people and and and and more often than not it's usually a case of just not properly handling their dogs and when dogs can be reactive.

The one that we did have was an attack on a human and because the dog had a a history of biting uh we were obligated uh based on a fulsome investigation to issue a dangerous dog declaration.

So with that you you might see when you're walking around, you might see someone will have this sign in their window or on their gate, and it's it's a picture of a and this is dangerous dog.

So that's the process we have, and and so we monitor that, and we of course we we make sure that it stays up there.

So we once we know where they are, we during our patrols, we make a point of conferring it, it remains there for the public's awareness.

Um, short of that, I mean, um uh there really isn't much more.

It's only been two months.

Of course, with the winter months, it's there's not a lot of people in the parks, although we still go there and and as the hours uh indicate.

Uh, but you can expect going into this uh uh summer months and warmer weather that uh those hours will increase substantially.

So that's it.

Uh counselor Madsen and then Councillor Rogers and Counselor McKenzie.

Have any questions?

anybody have any questions?

Oh uh so welcome.

Um yeah, I'm just curious on the report here.

You've list general hours, but I'm I'm not sure what they are compared to I guess the other time is actually patrolling in the park.

That's a good question.

Uh honestly, I don't I'm not even sure what uh what that represents, um not yet, anyways, but it's a good question, and I'll certainly endeavor to find out what that re what it does represent.

Sure.

With the relevance being nearly all the hours are general hours.

Yeah, I I I I sorry, I I'm more focused on the total hours at the bottom but I'm sure the general hours represents something unfortunately I don't have my admin uh senior admin clerk here today because she was unavailable but I'm sure she'd be able to answer that but I'll certainly uh make a note of it and hopefully be able to answer that next time if if you if that's okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councillor Rogers Yes thank you for coming um had a uh concern an ongoing concern from a neighbor who um uh is very distraught with her next door neighbor feeding wildlife, raccoons, and then of course the rats come and and uh she doesn't seem to be getting any uh progress or satisfaction um in addressing the uh the issue.

Uh it seems like every time uh there's a complaint uh the the uh CRD phoned the individual and the individual cleans things up and there's no issue.

So, but it is uh the the neighbor tells me, and Counselor Brown, you're you're aware of this.

The neighbor tells me it's still an ongoing issue.

I wonder if you could uh speak on how we can get this matter addressed.

Uh I am familiar with that location.

Uh we do, I mean, we we do respond when we can and when we have sufficient evidence to follow up.

I think the problem with that location is if if we're speaking of the same place, um the the fact that the property, the the the growth, the overgrowth of the uh foliage on the property uh precludes us from being able to basically go in there.

I think they have a gate and it's locked.

So it's, you know, the owner has basically put measures in place to minimize the ability of anyone, including our department, to actually catch them in the act of doing this.

The problem that we face is, you know, rodents.

We did find out during an investigation, a previous investigation, there are other uh issues within proximity of that residence that could be contributing to that.

Unfortunately, it's all being focused on that one resident.

But we did determine in the past, i.e., if if someone has chickens nearby and they're feeding chickens and there's chicken feet on the ground, that will exacerbate the issue.

So for us, um being able to actually catch the person actively feeding the wildlife is it's not easy.

Uh but when we get the call, we do make an effort.

We don't we don't just call the the homeowner as a courtesy, we call the homeowner and we say we're we're coming by to have a look.

And I haven't heard anything different, but she has been uh cooperative, and when we get there, we don't see evidence of it so it's it's not it's it's not cut and it's not black and white it just isn't it's one of those every every community cut sort of has their long term issue but we do make an effort and and we do put the owner on notice that we will conduct random patrols and if we see evidence again there has to be the evidence to follow up so that's that's where we're at with that.

Okay thank you I appreciate the update and I appreciate the difficulty you're you're facing.

Counselor McKenzie.

Yes, hi.

Thank you for coming.

Just out of my for my curiosity, um, you spoke about the process where um with the dog that you would uh ask well require them to put a dangerous dog uh poster thing in their home but what about when they're at the park or elsewhere what are there any other kind of restrictions or limitations that um are placed on those dangerous dogs uh yeah yes there are actually it's a good question a lot of people ask us that yeah with the dangerous dog declaration comes certain obligations uh each community has their own little nuance to it but for the most part uh once the dog is declared dangerous it has to be on a leash and muzzled in a in a public place.

Okay, thank you.

Just a quick follow up.

I at one time we used to have a a significant a different kind of license for dangerous dogs, a different color.

I don't know if you still have that or not, a dangerous dog license.

Uh I'm not aware of that.

I just know that they do there's a different fee ascribed to that license, but I'm not sure they actually get a an uh a tag but I'll certainly look into that to see if that is still available.

I'm not aware of that.

Yeah one time we used to have that and then of course the the 75 or 100 dogs whatever it is in the C or D would have a distinctive red tag.

So I'm not sure I mean I've been out of it for two years now so no I'll I'll look into that and report back.

And if there's no other just one quick question.

Well, thank you again for coming.

Um, I noticed the hours are are down.

I know sometimes that's that's call-oriented.

So um I know in the summer, of course, more and more people are out walking their dogs, and it would be nice to see uh a presence in some of the parks.

Uh uh, you know, so-called downtime if if there is, but uh it'd be nice to see uh uh more of a presence in the summer in particular at View Royal Park and Porters Park, uh Centennial Park.

Yeah, well you can expect that.

I mean, I uh I've reviewed the stats uh with the staff and uh we went over that and we we uh we know what the expectations are and we're we wish to you know maintain them and if if anything try and exceed them now that we've got more staff uh as a results of some other contracts, so we might have a little bit more flexibility, more bandwidth, and we hope to do just that.

Great.

Well thank you, Mark, appreciate it.

Thank you okay next up to this move uh thank you uh councilor madsen second second by counselor lemon thank you all in favor any opposed leanne good so good afternoon, Mayor Tobias and members of council.

The development services team is very excited to bring forward the Building By Law Update project.

I would like to introduce to you my colleague Avi Wu.

She has been our auxiliary building inspector who has been helping us on our step code work as well as leading the project on the building bylaw update.

A lot of work has gone into this project over the last year.

So I would like to welcome you all.

Um, Avi.

Thank you.

Oh, I love you, bye.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm here to present some information on the draft building bylaw update project.

The draft bylaw is attached with the council report and will replace the current building bylaw number 786.

In this presentation, I'll be discussing some key changes in the bylaw, and we'll um follow up with uh sorry, lost my point there.

Um I will also outline the outstanding tasks and other bylaws that's needed to amend um that needs to be amended to support the project.

The current building bylaw was enacted on January 4th, 2011 and has not had any substantial substantive review since the adoption.

As you may know, the town of View Royal is insured under the Municipal Insurance Association, commonly known as the MIA.

MIA recommends us to use their draft model building bylaw, and there was an update in 2018.

So this draft bylaw that you see is based using the model building bylaw and some View Royal specific clauses.

Using this MIA model bylaw will strengthen the policy defenses that we're all very uh concerned about.

I'd like to provide some background on how this project was started.

Then we discuss some improvements that we want to see, such as what we asked for as submission, how to better resource how we review complex building permits, and how to clean up old permits.

The provisions in this draft building bylaw is providing the framework for these steps, which I will go through in the presentation.

The following slides will follow the report and the numbering.

The brackets after the heading are the reference sections in the draft bylaw.

Please stop me if you have any questions on any of the items as we proceed.

As indicated, the fees and charges bylaw number 958 and the municipal ticketing information bylaw number 643 must be amended in conjunction with the revised building bylaw.

All three bylaws must be enacted concurrently in order to continue charging fees for permits and for their enforcement.

To support these bylaw changes, we need to perform a few administrative steps that has uh that have resource implication.

In order for staff to properly complete these administrative tasks, we are recommending the bylaw enactment date to be September 5th, 2023.

We'll be discussing this deferred enactment again in the last slides when we do the next steps and recommendation.

Okay, so I'm uh going to go through a few of the key changes that will follow the report.

First one is on scopes and exemption.

We've updated the specific scopes of work where building permits required, and to also include scopes of work that do not require building permits because they're not applicable in the building code, such as for fence, fences, tents, pavings, etc.

Secondly, we have provisions for refusal and revocation of permits.

The framework to refuse or revoke a building permit is a foundational piece of a robust building bylaw.

This was missing and is now added.

Permits are revoked when they are issued in error or for serious violations after permit has been issued.

The building inspector must have the approval of the CAO prior to utilizing the step, which is the safety measure.

We will have new clauses for demolition permits.

Staff are proposing requirements to manage a demolished site should the construction not commence within six months, including clearing and making level the site, installing security fencing, and providing an in-term landscaping plan.

The interim landscaping plan will require a security amount to ensure that it takes place.

In this draft, we're clarifying when we want to have professional engineers' involvement, which includes for building envelope designs, retaining walls over 1.2 meters, which is changed from the current 1.5 meters in height.

Furthermore, we're adding the requirements of a separate independent check for structural design of a complex building.

And that is already in the professional engineers guidelines.

So we're just enforcing that.

We're changing a bit on how we do our intake screening when a permit comes in.

In the process review that I mentioned, staff would like to see a more robust intake procedure prior to taking in the building permit application to better manage their workflow.

Where there's a development permit or servicing agreement, we want these to have acceptance before the project is processed so that staff are giving priority to projects that are issuable.

The flip side is we can refuse a building permit where the submission is deemed to be incomplete, not substantially meeting the building code or other requirements when we screen through the project.

Next, I want to introduce the certified professional program, commonly known as the CP program to View Royal.

Using CPs is a very well-tested program for administering issuance of complex building permits, and is adopted in Vancouver, Surrey, and Abbasford.

CPs are architects or engineers who have passed a very rigorous CP course and have additional building code expertise.

By bringing the CP program to the town, it will provide an added layer of expertise for permit issuance of complex buildings.

It is further proposed that only CP projects will be allowed to do phased permits, which is usually broken down to excavation, foundation, and then the full permit.

An added layer of professional involvement, and that has proven to be problematic in some sites that we have seen.

I want to stress using CPs remain a choice for owners should they want to get the excavation going prior to finalizing other project details.

The option is always there for owners to follow the normal process of a full permit.

Keep going.

Okay, next um want to talk about cost of construction.

We're clarifying how we define the cost of construction to include most hard and soft costs that are generally under construction contract.

We use the cost of construction to calculate building permit fees.

With this change, the building permit fees may be higher since the cost of construction may include costs that are currently not assumed under the bylaw, our current bylaw.

We're also adding a step of re-evaluation of construction costs at occupancy to account for any missing permit fees.

Next is on excavation security.

This is a more realistic cost should we need to carry out the work to backfill and excavate a site.

I want to introduce what is known as bad faith clause.

It's a tool, is an added tool in our toolbox for enforcement.

This is where we stop services pertaining to any permit activity when the same owner or constructor has violations in another that's not been satisfactorily resolved.

So it's sort of a last ditch when we're going to do that.

On expiring and extension of permits.

The current bylaw for construction has the current bylaw allows for construction to be completed in one year, and the building inspector may extend this period with no specific time window.

The new proposal is for permit to be valid for two years and allow two separate one-year extensions, making a building permit valid in total for four years for construction to be completed.

After that, should there be outstanding work, the remaining work is carved out to a new permit, and the code at that point will apply.

I should flag that they can also apply to council to extend the permit.

These requirements will apply to all permits and will set the clock to clean for us to clean up abandoned issued permits in our system.

Similarly, we have a method on expiring permit applications.

We are adding an administrative expiry terms of 60 days for an applicant to resubmit the information that was requested on the review notice and 30 days for them to pick up a permit once the permit is ready for issuance.

The current bylaw does not have these dates and will keep the permit process more active with these additions.

Lastly, we want to add some provisions to handle revisions.

This is for changes that people want to do after a permit is issued.

We're specifying when staff wants to see pre-approvals prior to these changes being made on site.

And that will include changes to volumetric shapes, form and character, grading, siting, parking, unit counts, etc.

Other changes may be recorded in a record drawings without pre-approvals.

We're already doing alternative solutions, which is a tool in the building code where the design does not meet the prescriptive requirements in the code.

We're proposing to add a fee for the review for cost recovery.

On plumbing permits, we made some changes to consolidate the provisions to administer the plumbing permits that we do right now.

Going forward, we're going to specify only licensed plumbing contractors can come in to get plumbing permits.

Homeowners can continue to do limited work in their own homes with the homeowner plumbing permits, so we haven't changed that.

Staff are proposing to set up an alternative acceptance systems if needed, where a licensed plumbing contractor can certify their own work without an inspections.

And we can ask another licensed plumbing contractor to verify that work at the owner's expense.

Lastly, we want to introduce what is called a monitoring check.

These are specific for complex buildings where the building inspector is performing a monitoring check.

This goes hand in hand with the professional reliance model that the MIA is recommending in the bylaw.

This will further exclude the review of building envelope, mechanical systems, and structural elements that are under the design and review of a professional, a registered professional engineer, because our staff does not have these expertise.

We're making changes to address safe work sites.

The building bylaw is amended to clarify that the owner is responsible to comply with work safe regulations to manage construction parking and material storage, provide sanitary facilities, and dealing with hazardous materials.

Currently, work safe regulations stipulate asbestos abatement work must be done for buildings older than 1990 if asbestos is present.

We are also making changes, administrative changes on how we deal with occupancies.

A building inspector can now use what we call a final inspection notice to authorize an occupancy should there be outstanding items that need to be completed that are not life safety related, such as for paving or landscaping.

A building inspector can also issue approval for what we call a shell building, which is usually in the commercial and industrial application, where the finishing work is done under another building permit.

Lastly, a building inspector can authorize occupancies of a residential complex buildings where there are unfinished suites.

And we've set that at no more than 10% of the total number of units to accommodate situations where future owners of the strata unit want to finish the suite off under a separate permits.

And we're adding this in.

Temporary buildings may include construction trailers, school portables, or prefab housing unit.

It is prudent to include some provisions on temporary buildings with this draft for future project proposals.

I want to note that all temporary buildings will need to meet zoning bylaw and other applicable bylaws when they are installed.

On pools and swimming pools, we don't currently have any reference of pool safety in any bylaws.

So we like to add a section in the building bylaw to ensure safety.

Pool regulations are mostly about fencing to minimize accidents.

Lastly, the work without permit penalty.

The current building bylaw charges double permit fee where work has started without a permit.

We are proposing a minimum penalty of $1,000 and a maximum penalty of $25,000 to further enforce it as a deterrent.

So these are the items I want to highlight.

The next couple of slides are about fees.

So in reviewing the building bylaw, we are also reviewing all the fees and charges associated with building permits.

We like to charge some service by per hour rather than the flat weight, flat rate for some services to account for lost time and cost recovery.

So this table that you see is a comparison with other neighboring municipalities with Calwood, Victoria, and Esquimalt.

As you can see, we are picking figures that are in the same ballpark as others, just within the range of others.

We're also needing to change the MTI, the ticketing bylaw, to uh to account for um some of the the um enforcement that we want to do.

Uh again in this table, uh we're using figures from Caldwood, Victoria, and Esquimalt.

And um I want to add that a bylaw officer can ticket more than once under the MTI if we need to do enforcement.

This last slide uh have other administrative changes.

I won't read the list out to you as in the report.

Uh but if you have any question, I'm glad to answer any of these.

Thank you for your report.

Does anyone have any questions?

No.

Uh I have a next step, just a couple more slides and next steps.

So you want me to pause here to do the slides or either way?

Okay, I'll I'll just finish off.

Um yes, so our next uh next steps.

I said in the introduction that there are many administrative changes that need to be in place to support the revised process identified in the draft building bylaw.

This is including, this will include revising application forms, updates to the permitting software, and changes to the town's web pages.

Therefore, we'd like to propose an enactment date of September 5th, 2023 to ensure there is sufficient time to complete all the implementation requirements.

We're not introducing additional changes to because this update is mainly administrative in nature.

Locally, we know that the city of Victoria and the District of Sanich is moving towards energy step code for and and low carbon for part 9 buildings later in July of 2023.

And for part three buildings, July of 2024.

The province is also going to introduce a new zero carbon step code for May of 2023.

And it will be an optional step code for local governments to consider.

We'll be reviewing these changes and we'll bring forward a report to council in the near future on the step code.

Lastly, we will bring the draft bylaw with the changes in both the fees, fees and charges bylaw and the MTI bylaw, all in one package for first, second, and third reading in the near future for council to consider.

So at the end, we're recommending council uh that committee of the whole to receive this report for information.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Um Councillor Madsen, you have a question?

I was simply going to move proceed.

Moved by Councillor Mattson, seconded by Mayor Tobias.

All those in favor?

Okay for discussion?

Okay, yep.

Yeah, go ahead, Mayor Tobias.

And Councillor McKinsey, you're next.

Thank you.

And great report.

Uh really well done.

Um appreciate it.

Um couple of questions, uh, particularly on the tree protection.

I know Sanich and in some cases View Royal has um uh erected kind of the snow fencing with two by fours around uh that's a requirement to have uh done and kind of ensure that a safe distance from all sensitive areas, not only trees but sensitive ecosystems.

Will that include similar provisions in our bylaw change?

Uh yes, Merrick.

Uh currently in the draft, um I won't hold up time while I look it up.

Um, that we do have a cross reference from the building bylaw back to the tree protection bylaw within the process that staff have worked out, um, the different steps and checks and balance in place for staff to go out to check those uh tree fencing that you mentioned.

Great, thank you.

And um hydrology, I know that particularly for new construction.

I went out to see a fellow in Atkins um this weekend, and it it would be hard to prove he's got a stream running through his backyard, he's been there for 40 years.

He doesn't know if it's the cumulative effect of all the construction that went on in Thetisvale.

But all he knows is that he has a stream running through his backyard.

Uh, and it's very hard to look at the downstream literally effects of construction.

Um, but I wonder if uh kind of an a hydrological assessment is done through any of our building inspections for new builds because we divert water flow in underground streams that we don't even know we're gonna affect.

And I don't know how to solve for that, but um is there a provision in in there for that assessment?

And I think Leanne had a comment.

Thank you, Mary Tobias, for your question.

Um, any areas where there's a sensitive water course or drainage is has been is generally captured in our development permit area, and so when there's a proposal to do some work within that development permit area, the um the owner, the applicant, would have to provide us with a hydrology report or environmental assessment or whatever will be required depending on the type of work and the type of environmentally sensitive area, and that would be looked after at the time of development permit, and at that time, the qualified professional would be providing the recommendations on how to minimize impacts on the streams and things like that, which would be carried through construction and during the construction process, it would be monitored and things like that.

And if there are any issues, obviously the town would be notified and we would be dealing with those.

Yeah.

Thank you.

But that wouldn't so I just want to say, but that wouldn't fall within the building bylaw.

That's sort of a separate process.

Okay, thank you.

And um just uh another question that we've had because we've had a lot of construction going on in View Royal, and a lot of um uh you know, stakeholders, residents that are living close to the construction had concern about the level of noise, including Saturday morning.

Um, is that included or any guideline for noise uh associated with the building permit about when work can actually happen and not um thanks for that question so that those sorts the the provisions around noise we have a noise bylaw what right which that would fall under and we'd be monitoring that that activity under our noise bylaw okay but there'd be a reference to that when they sign off on the permit so they know about our boy noise bylaw because uh otherwise how would they know yes, I can answer that.

When we looked at the uh permit process, we looked at key steps where conditions of a building permit can be added um so that would be uh in general, we can add that.

And my last question was Councillor McKenzie had brought forth a deconstruction bylaw similar to that of Victoria's, where we're trying to reduce the amount that's going into the landfill and separating wood.

Would that be a condition that then you add to a bylaw?

Because normally, if it's a renovation for a permit, somebody has to, or even a new construction, somebody in this day and age has to tear something down before they build something new.

When we issue a building permit, that's usually a generic at the end um that this permit is issued uh in accordance with the building bylaw and all other applicable bylaws.

So should such a bylaw comes into effect, then it can be one of the applicable bylaws and the just to follow on on that because the root there's lots of refuse from a new uh construction site as well so it would be good to link that up to the bylaw not just deconstruction but what you know are we diverting as much recycling as we can to renewables as part of the building permit as well I don't know how to capture that though maybe in the deconstruction but maybe not um thank you Mary Tobias yes so we are um in in hopefully next at the next committee well not the next committee of the whole meeting but the first one the one in May um we're hoping to have the representative from the city of Victoria to come and speak to us about um the city's um demo demolition deconstruction bylaw and it sounds like this is uh uh something that our council is interested in so um we can with with the direction from council we can start exploring these these different um ways of of doing it here um but right now we're just sort of in that exploratory stage perfect thank you and thank you for your report counselor McKenzie uh thank you yes for the report um I had I have a couple questions.

One of the things that stood out for me was the length for the permit um the expiry and the extensions um in total lasting potentially four years.

And that would be for um potential a big development as well, couldn't it?

Is that uh it's a generic timeline, so it can be applicable for house as well.

Okay.

Yeah.

I should add one of the reasons why we did that is um a lot of times uh a building code cycle is around four years.

So this way uh you don't have someone getting a permit and building for such a long time that the building code has already gone to the next edition.

So we're catching up with uh very current requirements.

Okay.

Uh I I'm not sure if I understand because to me the four years is quite long, a long amount of time.

And sorry, do you mind clarifying what you were just saying?

Um most of the time, um, four years is more than enough for a project to be completed.

Um, what I was hint uh what I was saying is about a building code.

Um building codes are have a new addition every um every four years in general, four to five.

Um and new requirements may come in.

So we are trying to catch up with that time frame so that you don't issue a building permit and someone takes a long, long time to build, and they're still building to a very old building code requirements.

This way, by making it four years, when they don't finish the work, the remaining work would have to comply with the new code.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for explaining that.

Um, I think in my mind that it's quite a long time, four years, um, especially where we think of some developments where you know there's people currently renting and they're waiting to see what happens there.

Um I is is it based on or is it in alignment with other municipalities, how long they um grant extensions and uh expiry?

Um the two years um plus two extensions, two one-year extensions, that is a very common um framework for municipalities to to have a valid building permit.

Okay, thank you.

And then uh the other thing I'd like to clarify is the timing of the um the finalization of the bylaw because I'm aware that PREAC is looking to see if we can potentially progress to step code five more quickly.

So if I'm understanding, there will be time for those recommendations to come first before this bylaw is finalized, or is it to the intention to update it when that happens?

Uh through the mayor, I um I think it from a timing perspective, it is there is a sense of urgency to get this building bylaw adopted and up and running from an operations perspective and administrative perspective.

Um we don't know what council's direction is going to be on step code and if there's a desire to um to expedite step code here at the town.

Um there's generally consultation associated with that with with the industry and various stakeholders as well.

So in a way, that is a separate project, and we can update the building bylaw once um council decides on how they would like to advance step code here at the town.

Okay, thank you.

Thanks.

Sarah, you had your hand up.

Do you have a point?

Councilor Rogers?

Councillor Rogers.

Oh, sorry.

Yes, thank you very much for the report.

Um the discussions with the uh step codes um and um the uh zero carbon um option that the province is looking to provide us as in uh in May of 23.

Um I'm just wondering in your discussions with um having experts to um cover professionals that would cover complex issues, is that uh part of step codes and and building envelopes and and measuring heat loss and so forth?

Are those the kind of things that we want to hand off to professionals rather than staff for doing it?

Uh yes, um it the two types of projects um I would simplify it by saying part nine buildings are mainly houses, and then part three buildings are mainly the complex buildings.

For houses, we are ready at step three in our current building bylaw.

So when we're looking into the next steps, because we want to see what the province is going to do too in the net zero step code, what does that look like?

Because now they're looking more into low carbon as opposed to building envelope that gives you the energy conservancy.

With the professional reliance, they are mainly for complex buildings, and they will be looking after the energy efficiency as well because the step code requirements is a very more complicated than just building envelope.

It would include mechanical systems and other systems like that.

They are integrated.

So for complex buildings, we are going to rely on the professionals for everything, including energy.

We have energy advisors involved with houses.

They're not necessary professionals.

Sorry, when I meant professionals, I meant engineers or architects.

The energy advisors, they're certified.

So we'll be getting documentation to say that to demonstrate the houses are energy efficient in the steps that we have set up.

And for that, um, depending on where we're going with it with the higher steps, we're just gonna see different types of reports and and their um in their metrics when it comes in.

Right.

It would seem to me that uh builders that are um building houses and they say they've got a step code five house, uh, the it would also be incumbent upon them to prove it when uh a buyer is interested in that house.

Is that correct?

Uh through the mayor, yes, that would that would be correct.

So it'll be in the um the mid-construction blower door test they have to pass, and then the certification at the end that the energy advisor would have to provide to us.

Um my last question.

Okay.

Um, and I don't know if this is part of the building code bylaw or not, um, but setbacks of buildings.

Um we get such large buildings going into um into onto lots now.

Uh they take out all the trees and there's no room more room to uh put in a tree back in aside from bonsai.

Um so uh my like is this bylaw to do with the setbacks, or is that another um uh bylaw that we should be looking at to make sure that we are really addressing the tree uh protection and replanting.

Uh through the chair.

The thank you for the question, Councillor Rogers.

Um, that would be setbacks is something that we would review, evaluate the time of rezoning and uh and the development permit and the impacts on on trees.

So it's at the at the early rezoning development permit stage, not the building.

And and those sorts of provisions aren't in the building bylaw, those are in the zoning bylaw.

Right.

So if there's a concern about uh from council, then we can look at the zoning bylaw, not this one.

That's correct.

Thank you.

Good.

Any further questions?

If not, I'd just like to say uh I appreciate the fact for the extensions because there's any number of reasons why a project might have to be extended.

Uh at least if not, it's uh just getting the workers out to do the work.

So I'm happy to see that in there, and thank you for your report.

Uh I have uh someone to move the recommendation to receive uh Council Mattson and Council Lemon second.

Homeless campfire this afternoon.

So a little delayed.

Before you is the public safety report for January and February of 2023.

As usual, staff have quite a full report.

Just a couple of issues of note before I turn it back to the chair for questions.

We're finally catching up on our inspection program, which was set back due to COVID during 2020, 21, and 22.

We're back up to a uh inspecting 100% of our properties now, and uh we're in the about the 95 percentile for compliance, which is nice.

Um, just one significant fire of note in uh January, uh just some arson, an arson fire down on Craigflower, which extended into the parking lot and took out uh several cars.

The RCMP are investigating that.

Our training division's been busy as usual.

Um, lots of members going through their 1001 training.

Uh we had uh 21 of our members come out uh for the weekend to do a recruit evaluation uh program.

So our membership actually evaluates the applicants and recruits for um for suitability.

Of that, we have taken on uh seven recruits.

They started last week.

Uh six of the seven are 1001 and uh 1002 trained, so we won't have to make any financial investments and then on those uh candidates, and they'll be on the trucks uh within six months, which is very encouraging.

As usual, Troy and his emergency program is very busy, as are the emergency support services.

That'll help us immensely.

By law was uh relatively quiet but on par for uh January and February.

As you know, uh our bylaw officer Jim Henley left for a uh position with the Coast Guard.

Um obviously missed, but I'm pleased to announce that we've hired a bylaw officer that started uh Monday morning.

His name is Brad Cameron.

I'll send you uh his details.

He started Monday after a uh exemplary career with the provincial government of almost 40 years, so we're really pleased to have Brad joining us.

Uh he's already got several files under his belt in two days.

And um he's working hard to get uh to know uh some of our problem areas and some of our um some of our residents that hold bylaw enforcement dear to their heart and and call on a regular basis.

So Brad's looking forward to meeting those people.

Um he's had a pretty successful couple of days.

Statistically, um, just on par, basically on par with last year for call outs.

Nothing really extraordinary to report.

Of course, as I always mention on our monthly reports, our our opiate issue is still alive and well in VRL, unfortunately, and several deaths over the past uh past two months attributed to that.

Um, so we're we're hoping at some point to see a relief and a resolve on that issue.

I open the floor to questions, counselor.

Any questions?

Uh Counselor Lemon.

Where was the homeless campfire?

It was across my apologies.

It was across the road from the uh new hydro or transit handy dart.

There's a piece of land beside 2311 sliver of land.

So we're gonna be working with uh MOTI to do a similar program where we clear out all the underbrush.

Right now, these camps are hidden.

Uh that is MOT land, so we're gonna work with them to get that cleared out, like we did with the area across the road.

Large uh established camp in there.

Uh they were burning off copper wire this afternoon.

The fire spread and took out most of the camp.

So police attended, MOT are aware, and they're going to go take a look at it tomorrow.

Yes.

Hopefully, we can get that one cleaned up.

Council Batson.

Thanks for the report, Chief.

1001 and 1002 trained individuals.

Where did they get their trained?

From what I've gathered, the I believe two of them just finished at the Justice Institute in Vancouver.

And uh the three other individuals, I believe it was a combination, I think it was Texas, Arkansas, some of the other um companies that offer that training.

And the one candidate is going to be working through the 1001 training as a new recruit starting starting fresh off.

Two of the candidates are BC wildfire firefighters.

One is a primary care paramedic.

And trying to think we have a journeyman cabinet maker.

And some people that work for Medivan.

So we've got a quite a mix of people.

And I believe, if I'm not mistaken, these are all uh residents of URO.

So fortunately, I I believe I'll check on that, but I I believe they are all residents.

So it's actually worked out quite well.

Thank you.

Counselor Rogers had a question.

Yes, thank you very much.

Thanks, Paul.

Um I noticed the um staff of uh having reports with CRD on um uh dam uh safety and um I think what is the uh terminology just trying to look for it dam emergency plan review um uh can you expound upon that at all yes I can thank you counselor rogers for bringing that up Troy has been working uh with CRD.

Uh the as some of you may or may not be aware, Thetis Lake Park is completely created by a series of three dams, two to the north up near prior lake, and where the main parking lot is, from the main parking lot to the main beach is one large uh berm dam that holds back the entire lake.

So CRD's done a uh they've had a consultant do an evaluation of the you know hazard and risk assessment of that.

I have that report on my desk.

I got it last week uh and I'm going through it.

Um and we do have extensive meetings coming up with CRD to go over what planning looks like.

As a result, they'll be doing uh annual inspections.

We will be coming up with a mitigation plan if one of those uh earth and dams fails.

The probability is low, but it would be a high quant, high consequence event uh for the one earth and dam that faces six mile.

Um, but once that report has been finalized, I'll get that on the agenda for council to review.

Yes, thank you.

That's uh really pleased that you got the report.

The um did I see something about a drone project in your um gonna do something about a drone in that report?

Well, that one small line on page 118?

Yeah, that one.

How did I know you weren't gonna miss that?

So, what that is, is it's not an I it's one of our um emergency radio uh people uh has obtained a drone and he's taken the training.

Um I think what we're gonna do is some evaluations uh to check for viability and see if that works.

But I know he's gonna he's gonna do some work um with his radio program and some of the ESS volunteers.

And if anything fruitful comes of that, then I'll uh obviously I'll present that to uh the committee.

Okay, thank you.

Um my last question, please.

The um in the statistics, um, are are the statistics just the incidents that happen in View Oil, or are those also the incidents where Viewell is going to other municipalities in the in a shared support service?

Good question.

Uh on um page 121 of 668, the line that reads uh mutual aid automatic aid, it's the second from the bottom.

Uh it'll show 17 runs.

Those are those are calls where we've responded into uh call with Langford or a squimalt uh for mutual or automatic aid.

Um but they are categorized as what the actual response was.

So that number 17 doesn't form part of our annual count.

We we extrapolate what that call was.

So if it was a car fire or a building fire, then that's that's categorized as the actual response.

So that second number is the the responses out of district.

Thank you.

Mayor Tobias.

Yeah, I was just wondering amongst all of your new volunteers, Paul.

Did you have any building inspectors express interest in becoming volunteers per chance?

No.

No, unfortunately.

I'm pleased.

I'm pleased though that we do have a a level two building inspector that started with us.

So that's I've met uh I've met him and I think we're gonna have a a pretty a pretty good relationship.

So I'm I'm I'm excited about that.

It's nice to see that position filled.

And we'd we'd I think council would look forward to receiving any drone imagery you could get from your trials because I think some other departments could probably use it to whether it's planning or parks or uh whatever, could uh maybe able to uh leverage some advantage of aerial photography that was um easy to obtain.

Thank you.

Do I have a motion to receive Chief Hurst report council mattson seconded by counselor McKenzie all in favor no none opposed thank you members and the next item is the uh building department report uh is there anything to add or just a report can we get a motion to receive the report councillor madsen second her counselor lemon all those in favor none opposed believe there's any new business, so we that concludes the Protective Services um committee.

Over to me.

Counselor Lemon.

Sorry?