Committee of the Whole

Good afternoon, View Royal.

I'll call the committee the whole meeting to order for Tuesday, October 10th, 2023.

And for a territorial acknowledgement, as we look over our agenda today, we recognize the Lakwin speaking people known today as the Esquimalt Nation and the Songhees Nation, and that their historic connections to these lands 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, which there are none in house except some of our guest speakers.

But if you're calling in.

First, first let me apologize for a glitch in the system for our last council meeting that our unmuting seemed to be having a bit of a glitch.

I uh have been told by Don that she has thrashed the system entirely and uh was unable to replicate the faults.

So if you're having challenges, uh Carl can assist with a form that you could provide your question with him and submit it, and then we will have that uh either comment or question read out in chamber.

Um so if you wish to provide comments, uh call 778-402-9227 and when prompted, enter conference ID 523-186-681 at the appropriate time in the agenda.

I will then announce the last four digits of your phone number, ask you to uh mute the live webcast to avoid feedback, ask you to not use your speaker phone so we can hear you, and ask you uh to unmute yourself by pressing star six.

Speakers will have five minutes uh each uh to speak during public participation and two minutes to ask a question during question periods.

The 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 forever.

Um so can I get a motion to approve the agenda, please?

So moved.

Moved by councillor Lemon.

Seconded by Councillor Brown.

Is there any errors or omissions?

Seeing none, um, I'll call the question to approve the agenda.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed, motion carries.

And uh can I get a motion to adopt the previous minutes uh from uh the uh September 12th?

So moved.

Moved by Councilor Rogers, seconded by Councilor Brown.

Uh any errors or omissions?

Seeing none, I'll call the question.

All those in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed, motion carries.

Petitions and delegations looking to staff.

I'm seeing none.

Uh, we can move down to protective services, where I pass the chair to councillor Brown, please.

Well, thank you, Mayor Tobias, and welcome everyone to the Protective Services portion of this meeting.

Uh, I do have a short chair's report.

I just wanted to report that uh Councillor Rogers and myself attended the uh cops for cancer event last week and represented town of U Royal.

It was an excellent event.

Uh each table had uh one of the riders with us, which was great.

Um, several uh uniformed RCMP members there ushering and looking after the uh the auction.

And of course, I think you had four riders, right?

Hidden or five representing West Shore.

So so that was awesome.

And the the ride for the first time exceeded over a million dollars.

And I think a lot of people from the auctions, for the way some of the items went very high.

They did their part to help raise it over a million dollars.

So that was great.

So please pass my kudos on.

And also uh Cole did an awesome job uh being the MC, Cole Brewer, Constable Brewer did a great job MC in the event.

Um it was great.

Just uh it well, of course, we had the the funeral was on for Constable O'Brien um uh the same day.

So I probably limited some of the members, but it was well attended by by the community.

It was uh it was really good.

Um also I'd like to thank uh uh Corporal Sager again for keeping us up to date on all the press releases and the uh public service announcements.

And I know she put sent out something recently about all the telephone scams that have been happening.

I know uh my wife and I both got uh calls on our phones the other day and one at the home phone, and she checked it out and found it was uh a phone number from Egypt.

So the first thing I thought for sure was it must be a pyramid scheme.

But anyway, on that note of um I'll turn it over to uh Superintendent Preston for his police report.

Counselor Mr.

Mayor Council thanks for uh thanks for having me.

Yeah I regret that I was unable to attend I I attended the funeral for Constable O'Brien so uh that's why I wasn't at the cops for cancer and uh Inspector Rose uh attended the cops for cancer.

So divide and conquer there was um yeah I think we raised uh during that evening uh $35 or $40 thousand dollars in that range uh for uh for the cause.

And I don't think there's any greater cause than pediatric cancer research and uh taking those unfortunate uh children to camp uh for camp day.

So uh yeah, we're we're pretty proud to be part of that.

And like I said, this year was five riders, the most of uh of anybody on the island here, and uh really well represented by West Shore here.

So um I'll dig into it here.

Uh just uh to go over some statistics.

Um we had 34 traffic engagements, 17 warnings, 19 tickets, uh, four were prohibited drivers, six uninsured uh vehicles.

We did six school zone checks done in September uh by the watch and the traffic unit in your area.

Um I'm just gonna go through some of the files here, as I usually do.

Um, we had a report of a sus uh suspect with a machete getting into a cab.

The machete was found on the ground ground in the vehicle.

The uh subject of the complaint was arrested for possession of a weapon dangerous to public.

Um the subject complaint reported to have thrown the machete out of the cells and released on an undertaking when sober.

On September 11th, police attended the shell gas station on the island highway by witnesses who observed agitated male who had a knife uh sticking out of his pocket.

The suspect fought with police when arrested.

The male was arrested for cause of service and possession of a weapon, uh dangerous to purpose, and was released uh on an undertaking and is also transported to uh Vic General Hospital.

Uh September 18th, we had a complaint.

Uh the complainant attended the uh the RCP's front counter to surrender suspect uh suspected drugs located near a residence on the 200 block of Island Highway.

It tested positive franphetamines and methamphetamine, and that was uh lodged for destruction.

So, of obvious concern that uh you know, we're seeing drugs laying around uh the community that are being picked up by the the general public.

And the obvious concern there is uh a young child that picks that up that doesn't know any better and then opens that package.

Um September 17th, we had a blue uh 2011 Volvo reported stolen.

Witnesses advised female drove uh off with the vehicle while acting erratic.

Other vehicles uh sustained damage in the near uh nearby area, and uh the suspect was identified as they were known to police, was located and arrested when she returned to the scene of the theft.

Um the vehicle was also uh located, dumped at the casino.

So this individual was actually um high on drugs, was uh at the fountain diner in Langford initially, stole the vehicle, smashed up vehicles, dumped it at the casino, was found at the casino, and somehow ended up back to the fountain diner in Langford where she was arrested at that point.

Um, we had a sudden death uh reported at Theatus Lake, corner attendant, and believed to be a natural cardiac uh arrest, natural causes.

We had a report of uh uttering threats near uh Atkins Ave and View Royal suspect was arrested uh and released on the way of an undertaking.

Uh we had members dispatched to the parking lot at Vic General Hospital to report of a car uh doing suspicious or car being suspicious doing donuts.

The police attended and found the car fitting the description of the vehicle, had no license plate or registered owner, and the vehicle took off at a very high rate of speed in a in a pursuit-like manner.

We didn't uh chase that individual.

Um September 27th, uh the 200 block of Highland Highway suspect arrested for driving with an invalid driver's license enlisted as prohib.

And that individual was uh charged with driving while prohibited and a seven-day vehicle impound.

We unfortunately had a uh drowning reported, uh I think that was fairly high profile drowning at Theatus Lake of an international student, and we had the uh body was recovered by View Roll Fire Department.

Um October 9th, we had a male uh running in and out of traffic near the six mile on Island Highway, causing a bus to stop briefly.

The male was paranoid but not deemed a threat to himself or others and left the roadway um walking on the goose.

October 8th, uh we had a reports of shots being heard uh near near the second lake at Theodus Lake.

Officers attended, located one family on a boat who also stated they had heard something but didn't see any firearms in the area.

October 7th, we had a suicidal male standing on the outer portion of Helmakin Bridge, eventually came back over the bridge, but ran on foot and was chased down and apprehended as he was trying to run into traffic uh to commit suicide.

This is the fourth attempt uh in the last six months of suicide on this bridge.

Uh, we've been speaking with the Ministry of Highways uh to try to put up uh higher barriers.

And I believe uh Mitzi Dean has also been involved uh with uh trying to champion that as well.

Um we had 9,600 block of Talcut uh road.

The homeowner heard a bang, front windows smashed in, uh smash indoor.

Homeowner was bear sprayed uh by unknown individuals as he went to investigate what happened outside.

The uh the SOC wearing a blue hoodie got into a blue sports car, and uh the victim was uncooperative uh during that file.

Uh thus far we've had uh a 15% increase in overall calls for service, 336 more files than we did last year.

So we have uh thus to date in view world, we've gone to 2,541 uh calls for service.

Um fortunately, the violent crime has increased uh 30%, so 26 additional files.

Last year we've had 113 violent uh incidents, and that's common assaults, subtraid threats, harassing, communication.

Those are kind of the top three that represent violent offenses.

Um, and unfortunately, like I said, we've had 27 more of those uh compared to last year.

Property crime is up uh 14 percent compared to to last year as well.

Uh that's 32 files to put that in perspective.

Um, thus far we've had 267 compared to 235 last year at this time.

The casino, we've seen a 15% increase plus 10 files uh last year.

We've gone through uh 76 times to the uh the casino for various reasons.

The hospital has actually remained pretty stable, it's just a 1% increase, so it's uh pretty much the same as last year.

We've been at the hospital uh for that.

And we've had a three percent decrease in mental health related calls at the hospital.

Um I'll probably stop right there and just uh and one other note.

I should uh I've been speaking with the CAO and and the fire chief about potentially putting um moving our First Nations police officer in the interim to the fire hall.

Um and if we're fortunate enough to get a second position there, um, which we've been asking for to help out with songgies and the squamalt and first nations uh in general uh for our area.

We yeah, I'm told that that area would be sufficient, enough room uh to to hold two members.

Uh so uh I bring that to council's attention because it'll likely come to to you to um solidify that, but uh I certainly support that.

It's uh it's a the location's perfect, it's um obviously with the fire department uh it's the security's not an issue and and at this point here I'm I understand that there's not sufficient area at Songhiz wellness center for coal uh constable brewer there to to be placed so I'm certainly supportive of that uh as we kind of embark on a new building and uh who knows what the future will bring from there.

So uh counselor if I could open it up to questions there.

Mayor Tobias go ahead.

Thank you Mr.

Chair.

Um yeah I had a um uh a call from your I guess appointed uh mental health unit uh supervisor today um and uh uh just understanding from her that the province hasn't yet put in place the psychiatric nurses that would be the support system have you got a timeline uh for that is there anything we can do to support yeah no i i i got that today initially they had asked uh my my understanding is that they were talking about putting counselors instead of nurses and we've asked for nurses so that backed it up uh uh about 30 days it sounds like it everything's in place for the uh in terms of putting the application or the the job posting out and i'm told that posting will go out um in the next three to four weeks that posting should go out with uh VIHA and then at that point it's a matter of hiring and then they have to give notice so realistically now we're probably January is what I'm being told um we're ready to go at any point uh with those clinicians and the corporal that you were speaking with uh earlier Lauren Ferguson who's heading up the unit um has started you know building the policies um doing all the background the admin and taking on some of the uh files that we can kind of deal with on a on an aside if you will so but um yeah we're I mean it's not going to be the silver bullet in terms of fixing our mental health issues but it's certainly going to provide a lot more support services for for those that are in need and so we're certainly looking forward to that.

But it probably won't be till January.

Sir Lemon, go ahead.

Thank you.

Superintendent, you mentioned a an incident on Talcut in which the victim was uncooperative.

So have you been called to that address before?

Is it I believe that's the one that uh if you're referring to have to go back from my notes here, but there's one that we're very familiar with 96 block of telecodes.

So I believe that is the one that uh I believe.

Don't quote me, I'd have to look into it, but I I know there is a repeat of that's the one you're referring to.

I yeah, the one which you he was the victim was sprayed with bear spray and then was uncoop uncooperative.

Yes.

Yeah, there is a there is a residence that's well known to police on that on that street.

Okay, thank you.

Oh, sir Rogers.

Yes, thanks.

I I had just alluded to this uh earlier this this afternoon.

And um I've spoken to uh Counselor Brown about this, and and I'd certainly would appreciate you uh looking into it and coming back next time.

And that's the whole aspect of some police stations using and and working with um residents and businesses who have uh security cameras and that they can voluntarily um if you like sign up um with uh the their police detachment and offer their their video camera uh should the uh uh the police have need of that uh for some investigative purposes or because you often hear on the news, um if anyone has any dash cam or uh video, whatever, whatever, um this may be uh an opportunity, but um I knew there's pros and cons and and uh I'd appreciate your thought and if you'd give us a yeah I mean obviously uh that would be very advantageous.

I believe that they're housed actually within a uh the city or and I had this in Kimberley actually it was a private business that actually that installed them all that then was able to with her cooperation um access all the cameras as well and supply those with their permission to the police.

Um the issue is we wouldn't be able like we wouldn't have the the resources to actually to store um all those those cameras or um so it would have to be done through a kind of a joint effort through the municipalities.

It's a great idea um because that is what all too often what we're looking for and and if we had it at our fingertips it would be substantially easier i will look into it i'm not an IT person um at all but I'll uh I'll certainly ask around and see what uh what could be done what the potential is what the risks are and get back to you on that.

Yeah it is it is a um a program that's offered through the policy uh so I think it was the Saskatoon police and maybe Miss Surrey uh but I don't know if it's the Surrey police or the RCMP.

But uh yeah it's a it's there's an application form people s can just uh sign up and and uh and offer their services and they and i i think these are as as common as doorbell um security alarm security systems but uh I'll leave that with you.

Yeah it's a good suggestion counselor I'll I will look into that.

Thank you yeah yeah just it's it's good to hear that you're gonna be using some of the space in fire hall I think that's awesome it's uh halfway towards the community police station but um obviously I well probably most of the time you would probably start and finish the shift there is that correct correct yeah so um yeah obviously be driving through V Royal so you get that uh um visit visibility yeah from the community and that won't stop you uh assigning one of the GD members on a regular basis to yeah I know and and again just because I know this we got some new council uh members as well.

Um yes, there is zones that the members will get assigned.

It doesn't mean that they're only going to those those zones for the day.

So, you know, we may have 10, 10 members on right now.

And if there's eight calls in V Royal, all eight members are in B Rural right now.

If they're over there and per capita, when you actually go back and you look at the stat, it's it's it's crazy actually how close it is to the proportion that you actually pay for.

So all three communities proportionately are contributing, but you know, economy to scale and you don't perhaps don't need eight right now.

But Callwood needs eight.

We have the ability to to be nimble and pivot that way.

But no to answer your question, no.

I mean, uh we'll certainly still have coal is a uh is a position uh paid for by the the province and the federal government.

So that position is solely to build bridges um with the First Nations communities.

His job is not to take files essentially.

It's just to be an ambassador and build bridges and build those networks with the uh the the First Nation communities.

Yeah.

No further questions.

Uh thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next is the building inspection report.

I don't know if this is just for uh information or did staff want to comment on that or or can it be a just receive and file?

Can I get a motion to receive and file?

Uh well Sarah, did you have your hand up?

Okay.

Mover shape.

Uh seconder.

Okay.

Cool.

Yeah.

But do you want to do the second and first and okay, second by Mayor Tobias?

Yeah, go ahead, uh, Counselor Lemon.

Yeah.

Um, to staff, uh, which project is the 59 million one.

Through the chair, it's the Aspire Development at the corner of Burnside and Helmkin.

And there's no uh new business, so I can uh move it on to uh counselor Lemon for the uh arts and culture.

Oh sorry, seriously, go ahead.

Thank you.

Um may I encourage uh uh the meeting to move back to public participation period, please.

Back to Mayor Tobias.

You're right, we skipped over it.

Thanks, Sarah.

Um we can move to public participation period now.

Of course, we can move in the room first if anybody wants to make any comments.

Carl, we got everybody on the phone.

I'm seeing shakes of head.

Mayor Tobias, we have no callers at this time and no emails from the general public.

Thank you, Carl.

Back to you.

And I'll pass it over to Councillor Lemon for her committee.

Thank you very much.

This will be short and sweet.

Within the last couple of weeks, I've attended the Greater Victoria Public Library Board meeting, and it was pretty low-key.

We discussed how to proceed with the strategic plan and the and the process to be used.

Likewise the CRD Arts Commission, very low key, and staff and the chair are visiting the arts commission has 10 of the 13 municipalities on on board.

And so they're visiting the the non attendees in hopes of of eventually or soon having be a truly regional arts commission.

As it is, you know, everyone in the region participates in arts Downtown that are that are or arts around the region, but most of them are downtown that are supported by this council, this town, and nine other municipalities.

So it would be great if they're successful and could get the non attendees on side.

So I look forward to hearing about that.

And other than that, I nothing, but I did I did want to address in case because it is, you know, we are live.

I just wanted to say that I am perfecting my makeup skills to hide what might well be a visible mark here.

The other guy was a six-year old with a stick.

And it's it's um it's been taking its time to heal, but but um we're working on it.

And that's all.

I'll turn it over to you now, Mayor Tobias.

Thank you, Councillor Uh Lemon.

I'll forego uh chair report and uh introduce the finance and administration portion.

Don't believe there is any business arising, and I'll go to 6.3.381 for the budget variants and projects update.

Thank you, Chair.

This is just our routine report.

Happy to answer any questions if there are any.

Councilor Roger.

So reading the conclusion, it appears that uh we were within acceptable variances and we're all okay.

Is that is that uh on target?

That is uh the conclusion of the report, absolutely, and we will continue to monitor as we near year end.

I move a sheet.

Second.

Uh moved by councilor rogers, seconded uh by counselor McKenzie.

Uh any discussion?

Comments?

Seeing none, I'll call the question.

All in favor of receipt.

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed, motion carries.

And I think that brings us to the fleet vehicle and equipment replacement plan update.

I think this is yours.

Thank you.

We will have asked the manager of accounting to present uh the report that he uh kind of shepherded all the way to conclusion.

Good afternoon, Mary Tobias, members of council, Stephen Vella, manager of accounting here at the town.

Uh each year staff bring forward a council of fleet vehicle replacement plan for your consideration ahead of budget discussion scheduled for the new year.

Uh, what's new for this year is that we've incorporated in the report, the replacement of self-contained breathing apparatus units, as well as fire hoses due to the magnitude and and nature of their funding.

As part of the town's commitment to asset management and fiscal sustainability, the intent of this plan is to forecast the timing of vehicle and equipment replacements together with their funding sources.

This ensures the safety of staff and the public and as well as levels of service being maintained, and that reserves remain sustainable over the long term.

The town's fleet consists of 25 vehicles, ranging in age from newly acquired to 32 years old.

Vehicle conditions were established relative to reliability, maintenance requirements, and other operating cost drivers.

19 vehicles or 76% of the fleet are rated from good to excellent condition, while six vehicles or 24% are in either fair or poor condition.

Contributions to the machinery and equipment reserve remain unchanged, while an annual increase of $24,000 is required to maintain the fire department machinery and equipment reserve at sustainable levels.

Staff continue to balance the practical needs of the town with market availability of more fuel uh efficient and environmentally sensitive options.

Depending on each vehicle's intended use, electric vehicles may be appropriate, and the plan incorporates the financial impact of the town's move toward a greener uh vehicle fleet supporting View Royal's goal of carbon neutrality.

So staff recommend that uh committee receive this report for information uh in advance of budget workshops planned for February of 2024, and uh these workshops will allow for further discussion regarding the timing and funding options of the plan.

So thank you.

And with that, uh staff are available for questions.

Council Lemon, please.

Thanks, Steve.

Um, you might not know the answer to this, but do you and I and I should, but that's all right.

Yeah, the int the brush truck for 350,000, what does what does it do?

You're right.

I mean I I I wouldn't be able to speak to that definitively.

So I'm not sure if one of our uh our senior managers may be able to speak to that further.

Maybe Kim, but I don't know.

Yeah, Chief would be the one.

My my feel on that is that it was more related to wildfire fighting activities, and that's about as good as I'm gonna get you.

Okay, good.

Thank you.

I do know that that truck is usually kept local, I believe, like for regional, right?

Firefighting, but yeah, to Don's point, the wildfire uh issues.

Yeah, thanks.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Uh Councilor Roger.

Uh great report.

Um so you know, we we've in the in the summary, we've uh there's a recommendation that we've increase the um um the contributions to reserves.

And it sounds like that's uh specifically for um uh fire department um equipment.

Am I right?

Well, that does incorporate the the equipment that we've added, uh the funding uh for in the plan for those fire hoses and SCBAs.

Uh and there was also uh Chevy Venture, I believe, uh noted in the report that we're going to be looking at replacing in uh 2025 and then further replacement down the road.

I don't have that in front of me, but because it's beyond the scope of this report.

Okay, so the um the that with particular reserve that the way of staff are recommending an increase in contributions that handles both equipment and fire trucks.

Is that is that right?

Fire trucks uh based on on the the magnitude of their cost and if if they if we can absorb the cost uh through reserve funding, then yes, otherwise we look at debt or casino as we've discussed in the past.

Okay.

Okay, so um the recommendation is because I I do see in uh in the discussion on fire apparatus that we're we have we do need that if we're going to uh meet our continued goals.

Okay, that's that's great.

The um in terms of and I really appreciated the the discussion about the vehicles and um EV vehicles when and if they're they're appropriate for um and can do the task that we we want.

There was also, if I'm reading this properly, um some aspect if we're going to get uh EVs and moving towards those, uh, that we would need uh more charging stations uh to uh for those vehicles.

Is that something that we would need to do on site here or would we uh be able to do that?

Well, anyway, general question, what's going on there?

Well, I'll pass it over to Director of U Transportation Services.

Thank you, Chair.

Ivan, the young director of engineering and parks.

So, yes, uh, these parks vehicles are secured in a yard that's gated after hours.

Um additional EV vehicle be in our fleet, uh, we would need additional EV charging stations in that uh facility.

Um there are two other public facing charging stations, one at uh Helm's Annual Park and one just outside in the front parking lot, but those are not secured and they're often used by residents.

So um have we budgeted um and some kind of timeline in the next five years when we might need to um uh address the cost, uh capital cost for that installation?

Uh through the chair, staff will be incorporating that in future budgeting uh so for example i believe the next one in 2024 uh there's an east on frontier that might be suitable as an EV replacement so um the idea would be to have uh an upgrade to the year to incorporate that and uh at this time staff are looking at options and costings for the purposes of budgeting and one last question um the expensive super e1 number 38 fire truck is that um and is that cost that's um going to be budgeted through a reserve or reserve and casino that has been budgeted uh as coming out of casino uh a hundred percent uh at this point and I guess in in February you that'll be revisited once again.

Thanks for the reminder.

I couldn't remember.

Thank you, Councillor Rogers.

Anybody else with questions or comments on the report?

And we've got a motion on the floor to receive, I believe.

So all in favor?

Any opposed?

None opposed.

Thank you.

And I think that brings us to item C: Financial Plan Review Transportation Services.

Doug.

Good afternoon, Chair and Committee.

This report is the third of a series.

We've seen each other quite often in this way, haven't we?

It is a series of five.

So we're we're halfway there.

So we have been going through the operational budget kind of division or function by function just to have an idea of you know what kind of revenue might be um driven by these activities and the kind of the perspective on the expenses and what what we pay for in each of these services.

Today we're looking at transportation services we call it transportation services but I I appreciate that you'll want to understand what we mean by that and it really is a broad variety of activities.

If you think about as you're driving down Island Highway what do you see boulevards sidewalks curbs bus shelters street lights signs signals it's it's a wide variety uh and and you know you know quite it's not just pavement, right?

It's it's uh everything um associated with keeping our our transportation system safe.

I also want to uh highlight that in a small organization like this, people do double duty.

And by that I mean that we have personnel in our that are budgeted for in our transportation budget, and primarily that might be what these individuals are focused on.

However, the engineering department who looks after our transportation services also manages our parks services, also looks after storm drainage, also looks after and administers our environmental or our sanitary sewer systems.

And we we do a cost-benefit analysis of would it take more time to count the pennies allocated to each activity than it's worth?

And in in most cases, we say it's not worth it to try to have everybody write down exactly what they're doing every moment so that we allocate the budget specifically to each activity.

So generally, um, what you're seeing in administration in transportation services is dealing with transportation services, but there are some activities that I would say are some uh levels of efforts um that would be attributed to administering parks environmental service and you know building maintenance this facility right engineering services does that as well so I just want to uh highlight that for your information and context for the numbers that we see when we look at revenue um really transportation services does not generate a lot of revenue it just really doesn't um and and typically the revenue that you're seeing coming in here is often work done for others we call it work done for others so it's work that it only makes sense for the for our people and you know to to do it, and then we recover the cost, might be from the developer, it might be from Astraticorp, it might, you know from from various other places.

And at the end of the day, it still doesn't amount to a whole lot, about 1% really.

Expense-wise, you can see that generally the expenses is uh uh represents about 19% on average of Uroy's total operating expenses, with uh the majority of that for transportation and roads.

Uh 29% administration, uh please do take that in the context that I referred to a few minutes ago, and drainage about 9%.

That's our storm drain system.

And of that, uh because we are we deliver our transportation services primarily through a contracted services service for road maintenance, winter road maintenance, boulevard maintenance, that sort of thing.

Um you can see that 65% of the services delivered by you know either contractor or or we're directly buying goods and and services, and 22% by in-house personnel.

Utilities, of course, would be would would include the cost of the electricity for the streetlights, for example.

And that's all I have.

The recommendation is to receive the report.

Happy to answer any questions or uh direct ones that I can't answer to the director of engineering and parks.

No, counselor lemon has one, but I'll go first.

Um and that is uh when we're also moving to asset management.

Um are our roads considered assets and will there be and everything to do with them?

And will that provide us uh greater clarity for when things need replacing and more accurate uh budgeting, I guess would be the hopeful outcome of all of that.

Absolutely, yes.

Roads and um all of the services provided under the roads, sanitary sewers, um, water means, of course, are our CRDs, but um all of those roads definitely, and all of the things that we include or think of of uh associated with our roads are all VRoyal assets that are included and will be included in our asset management projections for replacement values and times, you know, timelines.

Thank you, Donna.

Just uh for uh Ivan, if you haven't seen it, that um Sanach is quite upset with one of the bus routes that they built all of their bus shelters uh and then they changed the route.

So the bus is actually going in the opposite direction, so all their bus shelters don't work.

So um a good reason to have a regional transportation authority, but also having a heads up from BC Transit when they can plan to change their route.

Uh councillor Lemon, please.

And they got it wrong.

Yes, and that road was closed for a year.

Question regarding bus shelters, Dorm.

When a bus shelter is vandalized, glass is smashed.

And we've seen that happen.

Is that our dime?

That is a really good question.

We do have insurance for some things, but I'm going to ask our uh director of engineering and parks to tell us what he knows about that.

Yeah.

Um, that's a good question, too, or is it depends on who owns it?

So BC Transit owns some, Patterson owns some, and then the town owns some.

So it really depends on which stop uh is being vandalized.

So further to that, um but what what's the what's the split on BC Transit vis-a-vis the town?

I don't have the numbers at the top of my head.

I believe BC Transit has the market share of the transit stops in Vero.

Um that is followed fairly closely by the um Patison stops.

Uh both of them have agreements with the town in terms of who maintains what.

So there are certain portions the town would maintain, that'd be the the sidewalks, the pad, garbage cans, but the actual stops itself, it really depends on uh who owns that shelter.

Got it.

Thank you.

Councillor McKenzie, please.

Thank you for your report.

Um, I will ask the question I always ask on this, and for the director of engineering, I believe, is there any opportunities to for cost savings if we needed to?

And the first thing that pops into my mind is the boulevards end up maybe switching to perennials in some places.

I know a lot of people call us out on those because they see a lot of work um being happening on the boulevards.

So uh yeah, if you wouldn't mind commenting on that.

Yeah, through the chair.

Um, in the short term, no, and the reason why I say that is because the boulevards are maintained under contract.

So um, by implementing cost reduction measures now, um, while practically speaking it may cause cost reductions we're still under contract by basically uh per boulevard and that's a fixed number so if we reduce the the the the maintenance cost now we wouldn't see it until basically next uh next contract amendment essentially great thank you thank you councillor McKenzie Councillor Brown please thank you don't this is kind of a uh minor question but I'm just wondering the charging stations do they generate any revenue or is it kind of cost neutral?

And also how how much usage do they get?

We just have two, right?

Yeah, uh through the chair.

Um a report was sent to council probably maybe a year ago or so um about that actual topic.

And the short answer is that it's basically cost neutral.

Uh council Rogers.

Yeah, thanks.

Um thanks, Ron.

The uh there are the two um um pages you have uh that show the um operating budget and yeah, it's like a graph and a circle.

Can you can you just go to those um like the first one?

And one more up.

Okay, so for that one there, um, you know, it it says one percent, one percent, one percent.

What's one percent?

That is the uh relative proportion of revenue brought in by the transportation services division.

Okay, next one.

One below that.

So what are those dark blue lines?

So that's the relative expense of the total operating budget for that transportation services represents.

So transportation services basically is a is 18, 19 of the total view royal operating budget on the expense side.

Okay.

Thanks for the explanation.

But if someone were to re-see this, um, they may not um it may not be directly or easily obvious.

Um, so when when when we have that, it it's it would be helpful to have some other text to explain what what that is.

Okay, so that would that would be useful.

Um so we we contract a lot out to um uh is it main road or uh it's uh Victoria Contracting Master Municipal Corporation.

Yeah.

So with with that contracting out, and I'm just trying to think of economies to scale.

Um, you know, they obviously still removal and boulevard maintenance and uh other sorted uh um responsibilities.

Um do we have any sense of uh the number of staff and vehicles that um we would need in View Royal to do that service ourselves?

Probably not, and the reason why I see that is because uh one is level of service so getting it through municipal versus getting it through uh a contractor contract does um explicitly say times like call-outs and and of that sort so uh the first thing to really consider is level of service and the second thing to consider is what kind of staffing is needed uh to maintain that from a municipal level um that's as about as far as I can really state right now because this this is the first time I've heard of this question and I would love to give you more information on that but that requires a little bit more research.

I thank you so um indeed, you know, we we um I and I don't know how much with that municipality is comparatively speaking, you know, that they're providing their own service uh machinery and maybe they have all the acreage necessary to have these trucks and space storage is as we do not.

But it's um I think it's it's helpful for people who uh remember maybe at at some point uh we can have that analysis and and that public information so they are able to put that into context there in terms of the uh efficiencies and economies of scale that staff are working towards that I can maybe provide more uh information just from a from a high level and um certainly right now, uh, in terms of space, uh the amount of maintenance vehicles we have as we have right now, uh knowing that we contract out the market share of work, and we're pretty much at capacity for our own space.

And so if there was to be uh an internal kind of road maintenance portion, um, that would require more space.

Uh the real estate is only one portion of the of the equation, the other portion is uh staff.

So um a lot of our uh contracted employees, they actually have their own customer service department as well.

Um, they take the complaints and then they administer them uh through their own means and methods.

And so to have a an internal kind of public works would um significantly increase staff resources that are required.

And you know, our staff, as as uh Director Christensen has alluded to, um our administrative staff don't only do transportation, I mean they do uh garbage collection complaints, they do solid waste, they do uh public works, they do uh parks as well.

So it's uh it's very multifaceted, and I do uh appreciate the the one and a half staff that we have um to administer those.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Councilor Rogers, any other questions?

Comments?

Seeing none.

Uh do we have a motion on the floor for that?

I'm trying to refresh my memory.

I believe we did.

Second, uh moved by Councillor Rogers, seconded by Councillor Lemon.

All in favor.

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed, motion carries.

And I think that brings us down to our action list update, Kim, for the third quarter.

Thank you.

I don't have a presentation for you.

You have the action list as part of the report.

The intention of the report is to provide council with a status of the various resolutions that council has passed and the progress with which we are proceeding through those decisions made by council.

The uh recommendation is to receive the report.

Thank you.

Uh moved by Councillor Lemon, seconded by Councilor Rogers.

Any questions for Kim?

I I think I'll I'll send some questions in through email.

Thank you.

Okay.

Anyone else with questions on the action list?

And Kim, is this um also posted uh on our website or available to us?

That's kind of it is not.

It is not.

It is only available through the agenda.

Okay.

It's not a document that is um updated uh in real time.

We generally try to update it just prior to council receiving it i mean some departments may on a real time basis update it but that's not been the requirement thanks kim then if council is happy we could move to a vote uh is this going to be an email question or a real question council roger sorry uh i'm trying to you know i looked at uh there's one and it made reference to um if the matters addressed with C 122.

How do i find c one two two isn't is it you know and that's one of the nice things if it were electronic, you know, being able to sort by column or a sort by, you know, um a staff in a in a shorting fashion.

Um is there any clues to how I can find that particular you want to receive it on the agenda in a different sort?

Uh well I um okay, you know, the let me ask the question then.

You know, in um with respect to um gosh, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to find it now.

Okay.

On page two, second is a future report on the North East Park area, and this is the Burnside neighborhood area, West uh hospital neighborhood.

And you know, it said these works are incorporated as part of a project C122.

Um, but I don't know where C122 is.

So there should be a reference on the um third column from the left.

Mm-hmm.

So those those are numbers that are assigned to the resolutions themselves, and they should be in numerical order.

Okay.

The intention of the report really is only to let council know what is the status of each one of the items as opposed to it becoming a this uh a discussion item.

If if council is particularly concerned about the lack of progress or the speed with which we are accomplishing the uh the different decisions by council then this is your opportunity to make comment um we believe that we give the correct priority to the list that is to say we think we understand which ones are the hot items that need to be attended to and if we're not attending to them in the correct order or if you have a particular concern to one of the items you could email myself or or Jennifer Lynn um and we can provide you with an update on specifics of each of the items or any of the items that you have.

Yeah.

Uh in my my and my question the fact that um it's referenced you know that particular one references C122 but I can't find C122 in this unless of course Sarah phoned it.

That is a capital project one two two so that it'll be in your budget book projects are capital uh projects and so that's the C for capital.

Okay.

Yeah great thank you.

Thank you uh Sarah uh any other questions I'll call the question um move that we receive all in favor any opposed seeing none opposed thank you Kim thank you.

The CAO update is uh is also a um a document that we provide uh each committee of the whole.

I don't have a presentation for you.

Um one item that's not in the uh in the report, I got an email this afternoon.

We've been without a um a level three building inspector since November of 2020.

And I'm happy to say that we now have a level three building inspector.

Our building inspector, Mr.

Patterson, was successful in completing the requirements.

And so we can uh perhaps breathe a little easier given we've been under a lot of pressure relative to level three items.

Congratulations, Mr.

Patterson.

That's uh that's amazing news.

And uh uh thank you, Kim, for being creative as well, because I know in a very competitive market, particularly for building inspectors, that if uh there's not one, then we have to create the conditions to make somebody successful to achieve that.

And I think um I think all of that all of us that work on the outside realize what that creative HR looks like.

So thank you for your leadership there.

That's that's uh wonderful news.

If council members have questions regarding the report, the team is here to respond.

Council Rogers.

Uh no particular questions.

Uh just uh again, uh great thanks for the um the effort of staff and and uh to arrange the um revitalization of the uh Atkins Tunnel artwork.

Uh I know that the public has sent in their thanks for that, and uh I think that that's really excellent to see happen.

Also uh great to have the uh the best shelters uh coming along, the pads uh going in.

Uh that's perfect and and hopefully we don't repeat sanites' problem um the um lastly peninsula seems great to see their work um the evidence of their work is is quite obvious with hospital creek and to take that that um restoration achieved a hospital creek we will probably see uh those benefits in V Row Craigower Creek pretty soon so again thanks for the coordination and cooperation on that thank you councillor Rogers Councillor Levin I just want to thank you and acknowledge that this is very likely your last CAO report.

So thank you, Kim thank you thank you.

Thanks, folks.

Uh did we get to a motion?

Uh too many motions, receipt.

I think we've got a mover and a seconder.

All in favor receipt to the CAO's report.

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed.

Motion carries.

Um I think this brings us back to new business.

We're down to new business.

Um and uh wanted to bring this one up.

Of course, UBCM is concluded now.

Um I know there was a bit of a frenzy trying to reduce our operational costs, particularly as a council, uh, and restrict opportunities uh to attend um conferences that are only getting more expensive.

There's no question about that.

Uh, even the registration fee for UBCM, I think was something like $1,700.

And then you add on the hotel and even add a discount and your transportation.

And uh I know we've been uh each counselor uh has traditionally had about $5,000 to um, you know, attend those things that we need attending.

That goes by very quickly.

So likely you get one shot out of the deal, uh, particularly if there's travel involved.

Um, so I'd like to revisit that.

And I I know a note staff's recommendation that we move that to the the budget um uh deliberations that we're going to to do later on.

And I I certainly support that, but uh nothing more than to bring it up.

UBCM uh I think was a worthwhile worthwhile uh for me to attend.

Uh associated with that uh was the uh BC municipalities insurance uh annual general meeting, which is um uh you're voting on the essential leadership and and any directions that that they require in their AGM.

Um but I certainly looking at the what I know right now, AVIC will be in Victoria, so there'll be very little cost associated with transport there, obviously parking or or or meals and registration fees.

Um UBCM again will be in Vancouver next year.

Um affordable as a shot deal.

Um and FCM this year, I believe, is in Calgary.

So again, not uh arguably your flight to Vancouver might be more expensive than your flight to Calgary, depending on how you're flying.

Uh so they're achievable.

And I just wanted to put that uh out there.

The only thing I would ask council to consider is that maybe we have a discussion more fully during the budgeting process, but it would be great to know in advance who wants to be an AVIC contingent uh contingent, a UBCM, because there were times where I could have used support that there were two concurrent things going on at the same time that View Royal could have been you know represented or at least hearing those things.

So um AVIC is also one of those things, although I don't think there's much uh the things are separated out a little bit better than than UBCM where they try to stack them in.

Um, but uh looking forward to have a fulsome discussion about that because I think there's even with saving money, I think we're in roles to provide governance, and increasingly that governance is um representing the town, uh, either you know, having our say in resolutions uh or uh or some greater discussions about uh creating new resolutions that that occur uh in the event.

So um food for thought, but willing to open it up for a bit of a discussion now, but no decision I don't think needs to take place until we hit the budget time.

Counselor Brown.

Yeah, I know that uh counselor Mattson Rogers and myself were delegates for supposed to be on that committee for the insurance.

So obviously you had a goal because you're the only one there.

So I could see there's there'd be times when there's a conflict.

Um, and I obviously there's three years left in our terms, and there's six counselors.

So my suggestion, again, I know we'll discuss it more fully later on, but if if two counselors and yourself went to to the uh AGM, it would be good.

It would also be nice to see the agenda well ahead of time because sometimes there may be specific items on that agenda that would be really interesting to certain people.

I know when I used to go to the uh uh school board annual meetings, the STE meetings, uh um lots of times there was items that were really I thought they were really good, but other times there was I'm looking at it, it's repetitive sometimes.

Make it the same item three or four years in a row.

And uh there were some years there, and I decided I I wouldn't go because there wasn't really anything that interesting.

Uh and even staying the whole day or the whole week, or was it four days, right?

I think sometimes you if people left on the third day or second day, there's another way to help reduce the cost.

Thank you.

Councillor Levin.

Yeah, thank you for bringing this up.

I I think resolutions um are if if we occasionally, as we did last year, put forward resolutions, we need to be there to speak to them, whether it's at AVICC or UBCM, or both in some cases.

You know, some of them are very fitting that they, you know, because they're they they they have impact the island and with the you know if they go from there with ABICC support, you want to have your proponent there to speak to it as a resolution.

So I think, you know, to your point on on governance, um, you know, we we appear, you know, less objective and less consequential, I think, on a provincial stage without some presence.

Yeah.

Thank you, Councillor Lemon.

Any other thoughts?

Councilor Rogers.

Uh yeah, thanks for let's and I agree with staff.

Let's have the discussion when we have a real sense of what uh the next fiscal year is they're gonna loom over us like with bad English.

Yeah and I think we can uh refer that.

Uh councillor McKenzie, did you have a comment or a thought so when this when we previously discussed it, I I agree that it's not only for um um I guess like personal development to attend these.

It is also for for the town to represent the town to make connections that then allow us to make effective change in in the community.

So I am fully on board with um having more people attend those kind of conventions.

Can I get a motion to refer this to um well we can we can just say ask Dawn now that uh we budget for 100% um you know for attendance for next year and and to dawn by 100%.

That means I think the the way we had budgeted before was 5,000 per counselor, was it not for uh representation?

It was a little bit more than that.

It was between five and six, and and each member was able to allocate it according to their own wishes.

Okay, thank you.

That that's uh that's helpful so that we can bring that up during uh budget uh meeting, but can I get a motion that will plan on a hundred percent uh attendance for 2024?

So moved.

Uh moved by counselor Lemon, seconded by Councilor McKenzie.

Uh all in favor?

But can I squeeze the motion?

Pardon me.

I will oppose.

Um okay.

I I don't think that we know what um the um 2024 budget will be like.

And how how we've already had the request that we contribute $25,000 more to um uh fire equipment.

And uh that's that's just one small thing to to go for 100% of this when we have no sense of the of the budget.

I mean we can have that discussion, absolutely, but we haven't seen the budget, and I would not want to even um propose that we do 100% like all seven members go to UBCM.

That's that's not there's not a lot of municipalities that uh are willing to go to that expense.

Having more greater attendance, I agree.

But uh pinning 100%, assuming that and uh giving the suggestion, 100% attendance of all seven councillors to UBCM absolutely opposed.

There's there's uh that's not reasonable to the taxpayer I I think the staff recommendation Council Rogers and I hear on this is 100% attendance in 2024.

What I've interpreted that to mean is that we would cover off uh with representation UBCM FCM and um and um AVIC not necessarily all of us would go to all of them but there would be representation from the town uh for all three uh of those um conventions so it better um I would be uh urging the mover and secondary to say that we would um enter in discussions and increasing the amount um but um you know as as the motion stands uh i don't think we're doing the taxpayer any benefit um by even suggesting even even attending um fcm that's um that's a huge expense so um it's problematic i mean i i guess it'll be coming up to to council this particular motion but i would be definitely speaking against uh the motion if it's at 100 percent as it stands now okay so i think we've voted.

I note that you're um not in favor, Councilor rogers, and this will obviously be revisited when we get into budget deliberations, um, exactly what that looks like, and we can have a fulsome discussion, I think, on representation.

Um, so thank you for that.

And I think we go to candidates in future election item B under new business and councillor McKenzie, would you be happy to talk to that?

Yes, thank you.

So this is uh by future motion, but I wanted to raise it uh sooner rather than later, just because I know if we do decide to go with it, it would involve a bit of work.

And so just to give you, and so we don't need to discuss it tonight necessarily, but just to let you know, um, thinking ahead already to the the next election.

Um yeah, just given that we grew in size with council, we want to make sure that we have a good selection of uh candidates.

We're not just you know having people by by default, I guess, and also increasing the diversity of of our councils.

So what thinking what we could do um to help with that.

And there was some examples, such as in uh Vancouver, you know, doing some mock council experience.

So I I note here that staff say that there are they are will be discussing increasing candidate pools at um upcoming regional corporate officers meetings.

So um yeah, this discussion can wait until after that, if that works.

Uh thank you, Councilor mackkenzie.

One of the thoughts that I had before the next election was to provide a separate form for potential seek potential candidates and have an open forum where they could ask counselor counselors and the mayor what's your commitment in time look like what does you know all of the questions that you don't um you know get from reading um uh extensively kind of that shared experience of living and uh thought that would be um you know uh would try to expand our pool a little bit but I think yours goes beyond that councilor McKenzie so I'd be happy to have that discussion when it comes up um because I I think out of um all all of council there'd be some of this that that won't run uh for for the next election there there may even be opportunities for a by-election in this period because nobody knows what what the next few months brings in people's lives that's just reality um so yeah I'd be definitely supportive of this any other comments or questions counselor Brown yeah I think it's uh important for all of us to to promote that all the time so whether you're in a um service club or I know mayor to buyers you made an excellent uh speech at the VRL elementary school I have a neighbor that's in grade five and he asked me some questions about council about why we were there.

And you know, I was there.

I didn't say anything, but you did.

And he asked me questions, what was the mayor doing and stuff like that.

That's when he agreed five kid.

But anytime you get a chance to to in the public, uh any events we go to, um, and friends, you're gonna they're gonna ask what you what do you do?

And that's important to encourage and and to get people from the broader community, certainly.

I I agree a hundred percent.

I I think you're confusing a speech with me legitimately asking what a mayor should be doing, and I got no.

Well, I kind of wondered.

I don't really know it was good.

Uh thank you, Council McKenzie.

And I think we've got a late item, and that's uh an advisory committee discussion.

Um and I think, you know, a bit of a background to that uh was uh, you know, the original advisory committee um appointments that we looked at.

I guess it would have been November of last year.

And, you know, was the committees meeting our need.

And it's our obligation every once in a while to look at how we're structured as a council around the committee of the whole and what our assignments are that we review, of course, on a regular basis, but also the roles of the advisory councils, particularly of concern were I think uh not meeting was was a concern at the time or having meetings canceled, not having anything on the agenda.

Recently, we heard in our agendas that people were concerned that they didn't have the right expertise to be reviewing a document.

And um uh I spent some time talking with other mayors, and they do quite an extensive onboarding session.

And one of the things that they talk about is that we want your opinion as a person, as a resident, not as a subject matter expert, where we've got subject matter experts.

We're looking more like does a roundabout make sense here?

Or where is it on our priority list?

You know, uh those other things and thinking um, you know, outside of the decision making uh general uh issue.

So uh I had earlier prepared um a possible plan uh that we could execute.

We've sent that to committees.

Um we heard back some feedback from just too many committees uh within that, but they like some of the the parts of the structure.

So I think where we're at now is we come into a time where we'll be looking for revising our committee members, which we've delayed for a year, right?

That which should normally be under review.

Um and I think in November for the the new folks to start in January, we're going to have to line up um a uh what we want to do next.

Do we want to dust off the plan that I came up with and modify that to meet our needs?

Uh, because there's two things there's the general plan and there's also the policy um uh about it.

Uh some other concerns we've heard that uh folks wanted to meet in per or some folks wanted to meet in person advice online.

And of course, do we have the staff resources uh to accommodate that?

Could it be hybrid if somebody wishes, you know, Council McKenzie to your earlier points about if somebody wanted to be a committee member, but they're uh challenged with balancing home care or child care or or jobs or whatever, but they could uh you know participate online.

Um and so these are all questions that have bubbled up from the committees themselves.

So the in the first place was my observations about the effectiveness of a committee.

Um and we're asking them to do a bit more, and I think rightly so, Councilor McKenzie, about some things going through committee before they get to us, uh, which I do support, particularly if it's a report or something.

And and I would challenge us, if that's the case, not to refer the thing back to a committee if it came from a committee initially.

But there's some greater questions, and I was wondering uh what council's thoughts were on how we would like to tackle it.

Um, because I I tried to propose a a plan uh and we've had some feedback and adjustments with it.

What do we want to do now?

Because not only um am I and other members of uh council feeling that perhaps it's underutilized, that we could be doing a better job, but we're now also hearing it from the committee that they would like to see some changes too.

So just wondering your thoughts, comments, questions?

Um Councilor Brown and Councillor Lemon.

Personally, I prefer the the status quo, but using them more because we rarely, if any, ever refer stuff to committee.

And a good example is uh these uh AGMs and stuff we're talking about.

I mean, they'd have to have some background information on what they do at those conventions, but it'd be nice to get some feedback on that.

And it wouldn't, nothing to come back to us is binding.

I mean, I know it's not really official one, but I know Alison there are on that represents the council on that.

But uh we we could definitely use the committees we have more.

We already we kind of added one with the AC.

So um I don't think there's a need to add a uh a whole bunch of new committees, um, unless someone in the current committee say, Well, no, I really would like this focus strictly on environment or strictly on parks.

But personally, I haven't heard that.

And I don't think we want to have a lot of committees and not a lot of interest.

I'd prefer to have lots of interest in and just a fewer number of committees.

Councilor Lemon.

I I think Councillor Brown made much of my the point I wanted to make, but I I a question to you when you when you first presented the the new commit proposed committees um i think there was a lot of interest out there you know in around town um but i haven't heard that since um i haven't had anyone come to me and say you know what i'd really love to be on you know that committee your you've been um um asked to um be the liaison for um so i might i have you heard have you heard a much feedback in the in the months since you put that forward?

Yeah, I had about a dozen people interested in different specific committees.

So I think, you know to to don't point, we've got some people that we're not keeping them busy enough.

But I would argue that, you know, um Councillor McKenzie is probably inundated with uh emails from the environmental side of the committee and the V Royal uh Climate Coalition as well as that environment, you know, there's lots of interest kind of there.

Um, what I was hoping to be able to provide is that there's some people that um I don't I'm not interested in parks as much, but I am interested in environment.

I'm not interested in development so much, but I am interested in in transportation or something, right?

So I I don't think we have the right formula right now.

I'm not sure what is, and we don't have to solve it all in a single year.

We could probably tease out what would it look like if we teased out environment and allowed like parks and rec to have a separate committee and maybe others to say the same.

And I'm open to anything.

So I think there's an argument to say that people aren't getting involved with committees because they're not the right committees or they're not focused enough.

And so I think there's that aspect as well.

And for a large part as well, we're going up against uh going against our own policy for the amount of uh of time that people spend on our committees, right?

Um I did a term as a chair and a term as a member uh of a committee, and that was a development and planning committee, I think in 2015.

And I kind of after I was chair, moved left some space for others to come kind of in behind me and do that.

But we've got many of our members who have been there uh for a while that we've got to be able to refresh with new members, and and uh I think it's a great way to segue into councils if we want to bring up that discussion, and it's a a gateway drug to becoming a counselor or mayor, maybe.

So uh it's something that we could explore as a way not only of engagement but of uh of giving people experience in kind of the realm.

Um Councillor McKinsey.

Yeah, I I think from my attendance on PreAC, I I think it's been working quite well.

Um, I can't really imagine separating out even further like environment and and things like that because there's as it is, we already sometimes overlap with CDAC.

So for instance, there was a discussion about a potential playground in a park.

So that fell into ours, but then I also saw it was on the CDAC.

Um, so that's yeah, I think that might be an issue.

And um for me, the issues are more around how the committee can raise an item.

That's uh I've been told, you know, they're they sometimes feel like they can't raise a new item for the the agenda, um, which I think has gotten a little bit better.

And then the other thing is them happening at the same time, pre ac and CDAC, because we can't counselors can't even attend different meetings.

So those were those are more of my two issues that I've seen, but um I'm okay right now with pre ac and CDAC, just the two committees.

Thank you, Councilman.

Council Rudd.

I'm not okay with just the two committees.

Um I I think um transportation merits its own.

The um and and you need a particular skill set um for that, you know, to be able to read traffic reports and um um uh there's i i think there's enough complexity that uh when the matter goes to cdak they don't have two hours to do it all the transportation portions can take two hours particularly if we're going to expect them to get on site and really assess the uh the implications of what's being proposed and the implications not only for traffic but pedestrians, cyclists, transit.

My concern was um was I think quite evident when we did the active transportation plan and that was referred to committee.

You know, quite frankly, I don't think they had the skill set to really understand, really delve into even the baseline report, you know, because there was a lot of material there and uh I thought the uh the discussion and revelations were very limited.

I think they did an extraordinary job um with the uh mural um deliberations and discussions that was really uh an excellent meeting I was uh most pleased but you know when um when you have committee members that feel compelled to endorse a staff report because they don't feel that they have the expertise or the time to get into the nitty-gritty, then I think the public's disservice there's an element of disservice to really having a full, wholesome discussion on it.

So um if uh and and I do think that the policy we have is limited.

I think it needs a revision uh to uh bring back some ingenuity, some creativity, um, some self-determination to these these uh these committees.

I'm not happy with the status quo, and I hope that um as we evolve through this that we can get um some of that um our residents will really feel that they can uh benefit and benefit the community for.

No, I'm not happy with the status quo.

Thank you, Councilor Rogers.

Any other comments, thoughts?

Um what what I'd recommend we consider is maybe um uh from what I've heard from you, um maybe tread cautiously by expanding committees.

We've asked committees several times for their input on the committees.

We've also heard some other stuff recently about some of the desires for committees.

Can I ask that council reviews some of the feedback they've had and that we table this until the November meeting, which kind of um ties in with um with uh around the timing for the selection so we can see what we want to do and direct staff toward that selection, as well as um I think I I would like to have Councillor Mattson's and Counselor Qualitage's uh input in on this as well.

Counselor Brown.

I know we we advertise, which is good.

We see what kind of interest you get, but I wonder in their advertising if we could just ask citizens, is there a specific area or areas of interest where you'd like to serve on a committee?

And maybe they'll come up with something, maybe three or four people say, yeah, we really like transportation or we have a background in transportation.

And then because I I don't want to put it out there and then nobody applies.

And and going back to what what what Councillor McKenzie has said, it is a good training ground for people to move up into some see if they're interested in becoming a member of council.

So it's also a way of of uh promoting interest.

Well, I'm just wondering, you know, just roughing off of that, uh, Councillor Brown, I'm wondering if we want to have a survey about an engagement about engagement.

It sounds kind of meta, but um essentially asking people how they would like to be participate in local government um and and incorporate some of those good questions that you you had there.

Like uh if you were um thinking about uh uh you know being on a committee, what would that look like to you?

Uh and and then particularly how can we benefit from that committee as well.

Um Councillor McKenzie or Councillor Rogers, you had your hand up.

Uh yeah, thanks.

I I do um agree with staff that um the this is probably a uh strategic planning uh aspect.

And and um uh I don't want to um have it as as a committee of the whole agenda.

I hope that we would um this is important enough uh to increase um our our um public's input in in it giving advice to to council let's take it seriously let's have a workshop on it and let's um uh because looking at other municipalities and and how they do with their advisory committees and and their uh policy and so forth some good stuff out there i'd like really like us to have a look at what's out there and and um be the best we can be okay so uh the only the only reason I wanted to refer it to November, and I think we can do both actions because um uh November we can have uh an opportunity to uh review and I'll remind folks by email just to please revisit and I'll put in some links for those discussions to uh to to have as well as the advice that the committees have given us on the topic of the committees.

Um and then uh we would uh hit that with a staff recommendation that we revisit it in uh early December.

Um can I hear from staff?

Normally the cycle for our committees is I think their last meeting is November, or we open it up in November for new candidates traditionally.

The ads run in January, and the current terms run typically until the end of February, and then the appointments are done with the effective date March 1st.

So that strategic planning would dovetail into that timeline as well.

So any changes we made if we come up with another committee or or whatever, then uh then we do that.

Um council have you with that approach that we would uh table this discussion just to include uh two other voices for November, get their input and then uh have staff plan to uh put that on to our strategic uh planning uh in December.

I'll I'll move it.

Second.

Uh all in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed.

Uh that carries.

And I think that brings us down to five minutes to five.

And uh we've got no correspondence related to this.

And uh we just need a motion to recess until 7 p.m.

For those folks who are online, we will be back at 7 p.m.

Hopefully with uh councillor Qualwich as well joining us.

Uh moved by Councillor Brown, seconded by Councillor Rogers.

All in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed, motion carries.

Good evening, V Royal.

Welcome to the evening installment um of the October 10th committee the whole meeting.

I'll call the to reconvene.

And I think we have no petitions and delegations.

So that brings us right down to public participation period.

And I know we don't have anybody in the room.

Carl, have we got anybody on the line?

Mayor Tobias, we have no callers this evening so far.

Okay, so uh welcome uh Councillor Kwalowich and I'll hand it over to you for the parks and Rec.

Good evening.

I'd like to call the parks and Recreation committee to order.

Uh I do not have a chair's report, uh, and I will hand over the floor to Town of View Royal staff for a report on parks space for commercial use.

Thank you, Chair.

Ivan Leoung, Director of Engineering and Parks.

Uh, so I don't have a presentation here, but I can summarize just in brief uh the purpose of this report.

Um, basically, uh at the one of the previous council meetings, uh staff was to prepare a report on the implications of allowing some commercial activities such as food trucks, markets, um, outdoor fitness yoga meditation classes, uh, musical performances to occur within a view rural park.

So um, luckily, one of our staff is uh had an event planning experience in Victoria.

So uh she was able to help me out with the research required.

So we basically research uh many municipalities within the capital region as to what they do for commercial activities and food trucks and then basically compared that to our bylaws policies to see what gaps exist should council wish to move forward with this.

But after a bit of an evaluation of certain metrics like such as parking availability of um of space uh mitigation of conflicts and the town was able to identify seven potential parks for small kind of commercial activities, uh, fitness yoga, uh, and then two locations for food trucks.

Uh, it's all there in the report based on the evaluation.

Um, there is quite a few things that needs to be done in order to allow for these to happen, though, be quite simply because um these parks are not uh zoned as a permitted use for commercial services.

So uh the zoning bylaw would need to be updated as a result too, in accordance with the community charter.

Uh the fees and charges bylaw would need to be updated as well.

Um, it is recommended that that's engagement be done to understand what uh the the bureau of residents would like to see in terms of amenities, uh, especially for food trucks, picnic areas, and that and all of that will kind of inform on what kind of capital costs and lifecycle costs and maintenance costs and staffing would be required so this document is um for 13 pages is is still high level and the reason why uh we kept it high level is because we're seeking direction from council as to how to move forward so um it's it's all there in the report happy to take any questions thank you Ivan appreciate that uh council the report is before you do we have questions or comments uh merit thanks Ivan uh excellent report and probably just the right level as well um you know, to get us uh started.

But I think in any of these events, there is a cost associated with the hosting because planning and coordination, unless you hand it over uh the extra facilities that we need, whether it's washrooms, accessibility, uh cleanup, I would imagine is is also a huge thing, uh, policing, ambulance, as well as the that.

So yeah, being mindful of that, um I'm I'm thankful that you put it together, and it's really good to see what other municipalities are doing, as well as a really good study of where we could potentially host um um these things.

So happy with uh with the report and um I'm still digesting it and working uh my way around it.

A comment about uh I know Councillor McKenzie had also brought up a food market, and there is a food market uh or a farm market association of British Columbia that uh offers advice on setup, but the key that they spoke of highly is you need a dedicated coordinator, whether they're volunteer or whether they're paid, because it just doesn't magically come together, particularly for the farm market.

You need like a full-time person in there to do it.

Um, but there are some monies available too, and I can afford you that, Councilor McKenzie, if you would like.

But thanks again, Ivan.

Counselor McKenzie.

Yes, thank you for the report.

I thought it was very thorough.

Um I I think my conclusion out of reading it was that I would like to see us maybe do a pilot before we invest any sort of money into the infrastructure.

I know it's like for the trucks and things like that.

But I think just to see how many people want to use the space, how many businesses want to use it, I would keep it open to all the parks that you've listed that are potential.

And to see to see where people want to hold hold the events.

And then maybe in the future we review it and evaluate if we limit the number of parks.

But yeah, I think a pilot might be useful.

Thank you.

Councilor Rogers.

Yeah, uh likewise, great report.

I really like the way you've um I um looked at different parks on the on the columns and uh way the uh pros and cons of colons with destination parking and um pedestrian cycling access, and so on.

It's um I totally agree.

I think a uh pilot is uh is a logical thing to do.

Um and I wondered if we might want to think of uh jiving this or coordinating it with the Centennial Parks Master Plan Review.

Um I know that um with the uh um the baseball tournament that we had and and uh the number of uh patrons that we uh that did occur came to come there.

And I do know that um uh the Bowell Association is uh desperately wanting to upgrade the food alternatives uh to what they have right now.

Uh supply and gas and all that stuff in an antiquated building is really a problem.

And if it was something that we could jointly support the ball uh tournament organization for their funding and so forth, uh put money back into the field in terms of that master plan and still provide a uh uh uh you know tasty alternatives to the many folks that are there.

Um that might be a logical place for um uh for a pilot.

What another column that I was thinking uh that might be a consideration is uh, and I'm glad you put residential proximity, also business proximity, because I I was thinking would uh would, you know, and again, Centennial is great because it doesn't have any local businesses that it would be competing against.

But um, as I thought of the uh new park on Burnside, um, wouldn't that be an interesting idea?

But that would maybe uh because it would help be an alternative for cyclists and so forth, but it would be a competition, I think, to the the uh the nest or whatever that um coffee shop is.

So that's uh that's another consideration that um uh to to weigh.

But I would personally like to see the pilot as um as a um a component of a centennial parks master plan.

Thank you.

Councillor Lemmon.

Thank you.

Um truly to to echo everyone else.

Really, really thorough, good report.

Thank you, staff.

When I think of food trucks, for me that's kind of synonymous with an event, you know, a cultural celebration or a community celebration.

So it and that to me limits the kind of space that where we where we could handle that.

I don't see, for example, a food truck going to, you know, yoga in the park.

So I perhaps if, you know, as a pilot, and and I'm just, you know, this is just I'm just going forward here.

As a pilot, if we if if you know there was some kind of larger community gathering, perhaps arranged by the community, perhaps it doesn't have to fall to us.

Um, that would be a good testing site, testing ground for food trucks.

That's all.

Anyway, great report.

Thank you.

Lots of food for thought, and I'm still digesting.

Council Brown.

Yeah, I think it's a great opportunity.

Also a great report to get some music events.

It'd be awesome to get some music events if we could coordinate with the other municipality.

You know, Sands does it, Esquamble does it, Sydney.

I'm trying to think of some of the other ones I've been to, but they have really good music events.

Obviously, we wouldn't want the two of the same day kind of thing, but uh great opportunity for up and coming bands and uh and it does attract the people, especially when it's free, free event, and then the food trucks will come as well, I'm sure.

Thank you.

But great.

Thanks very much.

Uh pretty clear message for you to go away with.

Uh, I've got nothing more to add.

I concur with uh my colleagues.

I think an exploratory pilot uh project-ish type uh endeavor is probably something that we all uh can support.

Can I get a motion to uh receive the report from staff?

Second moved by councillor Rogers, seconded by Lemon.

All in favor, opposed, that's carried.

That concludes the parks and Recreation committee.

I will hand the chair to Councillor McKenzie.

Thank you.

I'll call the environmental committee to order.

I do have a little bit of a chair support.

I just wanted to give some uh a gist of what uh was discussed at the CRD Intermunicipal Climate Action Task Force that I attended at the end of September.

Uh so the CRD are is working on a lot of things, um, currently working on extreme heat vulnerability mapping, uh, climate projections for the capital region, and as part of their e mobility programming, the CRD is working with BC Hydro to identify uh locations for public charging in collaboration with different municipalities.

So perhaps if we know of anywhere that we can feed that to staff.

And out of that, you might have seen Victoria raised an interesting motion that kind of put an action onto CRD to come up with some innovative ideas on how we can reduce the CRD's GHG emissions.

So yeah, there uh CRD has to take that away and figure out how to do that.

And then we had a discussion around uh the zero carbon step code.

They actually had a picture of our media release on the screen in the meeting.

And when we went around the table, um all the municipalities were either having their staff look into it or had done it.

So I think we're definitely a leader and a lot of people are looking to follow us.

So and finally just to give a plug for uh quite an interesting program that the CRD offers um it's called the Regional Home Energy Navigator Program.

So everyone can access in the CRD can access it for free.

If you have a single home I it uh gives you resources to determine how to improve the energy um consumption in your home.

So yeah.

Um, and I think I have no other items under me.

So for the planning, development and engagement, I will hand to um oh do I oh yes, sorry, there we are.

Um for staff report, I'll hand to the director of engineering for urban forest strategy terms of reference.

Thank you, Chair.

I'm the young director of engineering and parks again.

So uh this report is uh about the urban forest strategy terms of reference.

So at the time of uh budget deliberations for 2023, council has directed staff to um provide counsel with the terms of reference before going out um for RFP.

So uh again, same idea as the previous report.

A lot of research was done on the urban forest strategies that were done in the surrounding municipalities that are recent in nature.

Also taking a look at some of the nice to have ones that were done in the mainland.

But all the information's in there, we did our best to try to gauge how much we can get done with the bit with the budget allotted.

But that's about as far as we got.

Um, as part of the RFP process.

Should we go down that route?

Um, we will go back to council for award.

But uh, terms of reference, the draft is there for your review.

Yes, uh Mayor Tobias.

Happy to take any questions.

Uh I've got a couple, uh Ivan, and thanks for this.

Uh, very much appreciate the opportunity to look this over.

Does this include um Thetis Lake Park at all as well, or do we just consider that CRD and CRD would handle it?

Uh that's a very good question.

So because part of Theus Lake is within the town boundaries, it would be included.

Um throughout the journey of this report, uh, staff would engage with the CRD to make sure that there is no overlap or if there is any shared resources so that we can focus less on that because they're already doing that job and then we can we can uh spread resources elsewhere.

So that's uh the anticip what the anticipated action items are.

Um thanks for that because I know that we just um had an update last week and about to revisit it tomorrow um on it, and it seemed like we might even be ahead of them a little bit when it comes to developing a strategy.

I know that uh last year they had LIDAR uh available as well.

So would be the plan to incorporate some of the data sets that we might already have access to to um this strategy as well.

Yeah, through the chair, I believe so.

We'd be using the data that uh the CD shared with us a couple of years ago.

Um I do know that it utilizes uh GIS data um which may have been based on LIDAR.

Uh the value of more current lidar is dependent on the land changes that have happened recently.

So um in some neighboring municipalities that have developed it quite rapidly they were they had to um basically spend extra money to do uh more LIDAR quite simply because the data from two years ago was no longer relevant.

So that's likely not the case here in View Royal.

The amount of development that's happened here is bit is a little less so, and we can make some assumptions based on that.

But um part of this RFP process will will to be in to allow um successful proponents or bidders to take a look and um figure out what they can do with money, and that if they if they wanted that additional service of more LIDAR, then that would be something brought forward to council at that time.

Okay, last question that's two part, if that's okay.

Um I I've noticed that uh with the CRD releasing their preliminary um uh heat mapping, uh literally heat mapping and not just the procedure of of looking at something, but actually heat mapping from the asphalt.

It was really clear when I was looking at they've released it for um the regions, and it was really clear that anything that was unforested was glowing red.

Um and anything with three canopy was less so to a point where it was almost cool.

And I know CRD is going to release some of that.

Could we integrate some of their work into this plan as well if it's data sets that already exist?

And I'll hit you with my second part.

Short answer is yes.

So the terms of reference of the draft that we have here would require the successful consultants to consider climate change in their urban forest strategies of where to plant trees.

It's a little more generalized than looking at pavement.

It also looks at open spaces and parks and that.

Certainly, it could be something that uh can be asked of the consultants to also consider within roads and pavement.

Um, and that's not only public property, but also can be private property based as well.

So I do know that the terms of reference does include a recommendation for or for the successful consultant to recommend changes to the OCP with respect to urban forestry and that could that could also inform on that.

Perfect last part.

And and thank you for that.

The one of the the areas that a biologist brought up to me was the types of trees we're replanting in that often our our our birds and and everything won't nest in trees that might look good to us but aren't one of our native species.

So we're thinking we're doing good, but we're actually restricting their habitat even more.

Will that be included?

Kind of a biological native species lens on our strategy.

Yeah, so the one of the components of the urban forest strategy is to find out a way to improve and enhance not only the urban forest, but its habitat and to um maintain and provide resilience to the biodiversity that we have.

But there are anecdotal evidence, for example, cedars being in decline as a result of climate change.

And those are elements that uh and that's elements of the type that uh we would want the urban forest strategy to inform us on.

Thank you very much, Ivan.

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, Councillor Rogers?

Yes, thanks.

Um reviewing the background and and the materials that we're providing, I think that's really great.

Um, particularly, of course, the uh the climate action strategy, and and uh you know, as as we're hearing from um from others on on what the CRD is working on, um, the heat mapping is is certainly a concern with the the drought and and the survivability of of the species that we've uh known yesterday.

And what um how far out um are we asking the um uh the agency to project forward in terms of uh what what our forest there are we are we doing what would look like at 2035 2045 um you know and um the methodologies to plan and protect um yeah through the chair that's ballpark i think i don't know the exact um exact year look forward that we're looking at but most urban forest strategies that has been reviewed have looked under a short term lens so within zero the 10 years and also the long term lens so looking at 2050 uh our likes of that um certainly uh you know, when looking further into 2050, 2100s, uh, some assumption assumptions need to make be made in terms of temperature and and heat.

Um, but the the data is out there that's uh consultants are able to uh project to probably the next 20 or so, 20, 30 years as to uh what plans, um what strategies that town can can do.

And we certainly we've we've heard about the um uh the health benefits of uh shading and um and you know protecting the trees for that, but I also appreciate in the out to uh in objectives uh uh two to F, whatever the page is, um, assessing the the changes to um develop a methodology of calculating dollar value and carbon sequestration.

So that's uh I I really appreciate that value being uh placed on, and that will help guide us, I think, in in ensuring a a reasonable protection and uh um you know going forward.

The um I'm also looking towards um the engagement and deliverables.

Um again, I look forward to a baseline condition report.

If it's as good as the the uh active transportation plan, this this will be uh I think very useful.

Um the community survey, excellent.

Um and the in-person engagement, um you've got the is that uh where at the end the public gets to have an open house and see what um what it's all about.

A public open house is uh one tool that is considered in-person event.

There are also other tools available.

So at this time, um the idea is to leave it up to the consultants to tell us what's the best form of engaging in person.

Because there are other ways of informing in person that's not necessarily an open house.

Okay.

Well um I know that uh REAC parks our parks advisory committee is is very um focused on this and and I'm sure very happy to see this thing going forward.

So I I'm I'm looking forward to you know when when time comes that we're able to make this referral and and hopefully they're going to be available to hear that presentation and and give us um the the benefit of their thoughts as well.

Hopefully that'll be part of the process.

So thanks again.

Looking forward to it.

Great.

Um, any other questions, Councillor Lemmon?

Quickly.

Uh thank you.

Uh yes, that's correct.

Uh staff, this is this year's money, right?

Okay, so the so the RFP would go would would go out within well before the end of the year.

Yeah, I I I wish I could say that as soon as council adopts this, that I just send a send button, but it requires a little bit more work, but it's gonna it would come pretty soon.

Probably will require a little bit of carry over into next year's budget.

So I'm talking to I'll be talking to Director Christensen about that.

Okay, good, good to know.

Thank you.

Thank you for the work.

Great.

Any other questions before I ask for a motion and then open it up to discussion?

Okay, so moved by councillor Rogers and seconded by Mayor Tobias.

Opening up for discussion.

Any further comments?

No, uh I'll just add mine.

I just want to caution that I hope this report um really or the report that's produced really focuses more on the future and recommendations and not at so much on the current inventory and data.

Like I think it's important to have that but I I don't think that's what we what's the most important.

I think it's more okay what do we do about it.

Um and I know there's already sources of different data for that.

And I know the View Royal Climate Coalition has done a bit of analysis with what's available.

So yeah, if if that makes sense, just kind of not focus the majority of the report on that.

I think it's more about the future.

Um okay, so uh there's a motion on the table.

So all in favor.

Okay, opposed?

No.

Okay, and that's carried.

Thank you, Chair.

Okay.

And now um I will pass for the planning, development, engagement committee over to Mayor Tobias.

Are you taking over for Councillor Rogers or um Matson?

I I will.

Um uh course, Councilor Matson is uh out sick um this uh week.

So uh I don't have any chair's report motions or business arising from previous minutes, so I think we can go down to uh Leanne, were you going to present on the secondary suite type one and two permits?

I'll start that again.

Good evening, Mayor Tobias and members of council.

My name is Leanne Taylor and I'm the Director of development Services.

This evening I will be presenting on the town's current secondary suite program.

The purpose of this presentation is to provide the committee with information, analysis, and recommendations for proposed changes to type 1 and type 2 secondary suite permits and proposed bylaw amendments to the existing secondary suite permit bylaw, the fees and charges bylaw, and the municipal ticket information bylaw.

First off, I'll give a bit of a background.

In 2006, the town established a secondary suite program, which included the adoption of the secondary suites permit bylaw.

The intent of this bylaw is to require a homeowner with a suite to obtain a type 1 or type 2 secondary suite permit, which are defined as type 1 is a permit issued for a secondary suite that complies with the BC Building Code, and these are the permits that we issue today.

Type 2 is a permit issue that were issued before September 1st, 2007 for a secondary suite that does not comply with the BC Building Code.

Should an homeowner wish to carry out any upgrades or renovations to their existing suite, they would be required to comply with the secondary suite regulations in the BC Building Code of the day, provided that a building permit is required for the proposed works.

Every person wishing to obtain a permit for a secondary suite must do so by making an application to development services and paying a fee of $150.

Once a permit is issued, it must be renewed annually before March 1st.

The owner must complete a renewal application and pay an annual fee of $100.

There are currently 201 type 1 permits and 245 type 2 permits.

And I just want to note that the town no longer issues type 2 permits.

That was just at one point in time when the secondary suite program was established.

And it was to give some of those suites that a bit of a grace period for those secondary suites that may have not complied with BC Building Code and were constructed likely prior to the incorporation of the town of V Royal.

V Royal and North Stanich are the only two municipalities in the Capitol region that require secondary suite permits.

In North Stanich, every homeowner of a single family dwelling that contains or is to contain a secondary suite must hold a valid and current secondary suite permit.

Upon issuance, provided that a permit has not been revoked or suspended, that's the secondary suite will be permit will be automatically renewed annually on January 1st without a charge.

The one-time fee in North Stanich is $100.

For the other 11 municipalities in the region, only a building permit is required to confirm compliance with the zoning bylaw and the BC Building Code to authorize a secondary suite.