Committee of the Whole

Hello everyone.

Thank you all for coming today.

For those of you outdoors.

Anyways, uh, we have the committee to hold meeting is now called to order.

And I'd like to say that we're grateful to live and work on the unceded traditional territories of the Esquimalt Nation and Songhees Nations.

This afternoon we will hear from the public during the public participation portion of the agenda.

If you wish to provide comments by telephone, call 778-402-9227.

And when prompted, enter the conference ID 119-547-834- at the appropriate time in the agenda.

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So I think I've already called the meeting to order.

Approval of the agenda.

We have one late item.

Correspondence under 10 A to H.

Move.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

So now we have the minutes of the our previous agenda.

Second.

All in favor, against carried.

And there's no.

Well, the other thing I just wanted to say, I was looking for the chair's report, but before we get to petitions and delegations, which we have done, I just wanted to say that uh Mayor Screech is ill today, and uh I gather I'm acting mayor, so I'm chairing this meeting on his behalf.

So now we have public participation.

And as I noted, if you want to provide comments by telephone, call 778-402-9227.

So staff, is there anybody out there?

Uh Chair, we do not currently have any callers.

Okay, thank you very much.

So what's that, so I now close public participation.

And we will move into protective services and community services, and I will pass the chair on to Councillor Lemon.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I have no report, nor do I have business arriving from the previous minutes.

So we're going to move right into staff reports and welcome Superintendent Preston to the podium, please, sir.

Welcome.

Good afternoon.

Thanks very much for having me.

So I'll jump right in here.

Give you a brief overview of some of the calls from September.

Just kind of a general overview.

This was on Sooke Road in Langford.

It appeared a Mazda had crossed the center line.

I know this was uh early in the morning at about 2:30.

And um the driver um suddenly jerked into the oncoming traffic.

So do usually that means somebody obviously uh they fell asleep or um suicide.

But uh well, I guess we'll likely never know in this case here.

Unfortunately, uh tragic.

Um September 28th, we had a report of a silent alarm at Premier John Horgan's uh uh office.

Um we do get you know a number of calls uh from there.

Oftentimes it's um mostly protests and some unruly people outside.

In this particular uh case, there was an aggressive male at the front door.

Um he was arrested for mischief.

Uh they didn't want him uh charged, just wanted him uh to not return.

Uh the individual, the male, uh refused to comply and insisted that uh he would return to the premier's office unless he was arrested.

Um, which we I don't think I've ever seen that one before.

So he was he was arrested and uh taken cells and released on an undertaking to not go to the premier's office.

So he needed formal paperwork for that.

Um Langford, September 4th, uh received a call at Best Buy on McCallum Road saying that two males had uh just stolen electronics, and they flashed a knife at one of the employees when the employee tried to stop them on their way out.

Obviously, the employee let them leave.

Um it was a six-inch uh hunting knife concealed in a jacket, and he just shouted, uh, just let me out.

Uh it would almost sound like a very desperate.

Uh so it was a very smart move on the employee just uh to let him go.

And I know that we're still uh still working.

We have um a possible suspect, and we're working on that as we speak.

Um on September 27th, there was a vehicle broken into in uh on Goldstream, and um the vehicles had been uh smashed out and Pry marks all over the door.

We'd seen a huge increase, um, especially on Goldstream.

And you can tell when there's one individual, it's the same MO, and they were doing it uh time and time again.

So we put our resources, our property crime section and uh bike section on that, and we were able to identify who that was, and within 48 hours we had the individual in custody.

But that that individual was probably good for 20, you know, don't quote me on it, but 20 some files that we know of that uh vehicles that got broken into.

Um, and when we brought that individual into cells, we uh we learned that that individual also had COVID.

So not only did uh that individual have COVID, they're touching everybody's door handles uh and what have you, and uh contaminated our office there.

Thankfully, so far, um we've got one member off right now, but I they're getting tested, but we don't believe that uh it's COVID.

We think it's uh the flu or cold that's going around right now.

But um on September 20th, we had a break in uh at Merchant Way in Langford.

We heard the uh reviewed the um footage and showed a mail entry through the front door approximately 4 45 in the morning.

Uh stole about two to four thousand dollars worth of tools.

Uh traffic initiative in that area, uh 14 violations and 17 warnings by our traffic section in Langford over that time.

In Colwood, uh just one one incident there.

We had uh on September 13th, we had a report of a male in his uh late 40s.

Um wearing a helmet and a green hoodie with camo pants, ripping down federal election signs in the area of the 400 block of the uh highway.

Members were advised that the male was on a scooter with a trailer attached with lumber in it, and he was stealing the wooden posts attached to all the election signs.

Um the suspect was not located.

Lumber is expensive these days, so uh View Royal, uh September thirteenth.

The uh we had a report of a break in and uh into an underground parquade, which we've seen so many of those recently, uh located on 1950 Watkiss Way in View Royal.

The side door was pried open and the suspect entered the parkade.

While inside this uh while inside the suspect uh pried the door to a camper attached to a Black Ford pickup and no suspects were identified.

On the 14th of September, we had a complaint uh reported multiple break ins into storage lockers at 1590 Watkiss Way.

Um we spoke with the complainant who owns uh unit number seven and the building manager who escorted police to the locker on the fourth floor.

The door to the locker had been forced open.

Um most likely occurred overnight and is certainly uh probably uh part of a larger um group or individuals that are breaking into those lockers in the area, unfortunately, more routinely than you'd think.

Uh traffic initiative.

We uh wrote five violation tickets and 12 warnings uh during that month in uh View Royal.

As far as statistics go, you're um we've got a a 16% increase in call volume from last year in View Royal.

Uh we went from uh twenty we have twenty seven hundred and twenty-three general occurrences.

Um and this time last year we had two thousand three hundred and forty-two, so a sixteen percent increase in um in general occurrences.

Property crime.

Unfortunately, we had a 20% increase in property crime, which is 49 more files this time or this year than uh than last year.

And those are mainly theft from autos, mischief, uh shoplifting were the top three.

But I remind you, all it takes is one or two individuals uh for those numbers to go through the roof.

And unfortunately, like I said, Langford's been the latest victim of that.

It's been pretty bad out there right now.

Hopefully, there were two individuals that we've recently put into jail, and uh hopefully that'll simmer things down.

But we are seeing a lot more transient people from um I'm guessing downtown that uh started making their way out.

Unfortunately, you're normally the first stop um on the way into the West Shore.

Um we're definitely seeing more.

Uh I've personally seen uh a whole bunch of panhandlers that we've never seen before, and we've been pushing them along um as best we can trying to get them back to the services, uh the shelters, the wraparound supports that are available to them.

But there's definitely more and more.

We went to 168 times so far this year.

We've been to the hospital.

The casino, based on my bar graph, I can tell that you likely open sometime in June, July.

Um, because we've had 55 uh times we've gone to the casino this year.

And Mental Health Act uh in View Royal.

Um to date, we've gone to uh 99 mental health calls.

In fact, two hours ago we just went to one, and this is these are the real dicey ones that we uh we face.

Um there's a young male with uh a large knife that was uh had some mental health issues that was apparently on some drugs today.

We were called to that residence and had to defuse that situation and apprehend that individual and take him to the hospital.

But all too often those are the ones where if something's gonna go wrong, um you know, you've got somebody that's got mental health issues, they're on drugs and they've got a weapon.

Um and it uh it's a it's a windless situation.

So um one of the things we have done is we hired starting in September here, uh Pacific Family Services.

The uh the West Shore communities hired um Langford Colwood, and I I thought View Royal, and maybe they'll have some discussions about that.

But I know that um the communities here in West Shore uh hired two counselors through uh Pacific Family Services, and we asked that one of them be attached to us so we could actually have our own missed team.

We contribute, um, and I know uh View Royal contributes to that team as well, where um we have a regional team, uh mobile youth services team, which is a uh police officer partnered up with a um a counselor and other services, and they go around dealing with these at-risk youth.

We found here in the West Shore that there were so many of these kids, these fringe kids that were on the, you know, they're kind of at the fork on the road and and desperate and need some help and are reaching out for help.

And sadly enough, there there wasn't anybody.

They're on a list for months trying to see a counselor.

And uh, so we got one counselor that's just trying to reduce the backlog, and we also have one counselor that is working with us uh two days a week, soon to be hopefully three days a week, with our one of our community policing officers.

And um so far, I'll just give you a little update on that one.

So they've identified a mandate uh which was uh forwarded to the partners of school district 61, 62, safe schools probation and the uh VIC General Fourth Floor and various youth outreach groups as well in the West Shore.

They've attended the youth probation meetings, they've connected with uh child and youth advocacy centers, taking a full uh full tour, which provides uh a welcome and a safe site for victims.

Um they attended the Tri-District uh School Administration meeting to introduce themselves, um, has joined the closing the gaps youth working group, which works to bridge communication gap between social services, law enforcement, and the medical community.

And you know, I know for instance, there's a a 15-year-old um youth here that you know, photos had been circulating, uh, inappropriate photos uh had been circulating at her and you know, causing extreme stress to the point where we're talking suicidal thoughts, and we see that.

Um, and this is not an isolated incident, it happens more and more, and so we've been able to reach out to that uh that child and um get her the necessary tools um to hopefully help her move forward and and on and provide that ongoing support that we talk about all the time.

So uh there are also um another youth in Dunsmuir Elementary, and they're meeting with um there's a youth who's too scared to report a sex assault.

And so we're Elementary.

No, no, no.

Dunsmere.

I'm sorry, yeah, youth from Dunsmere.

This other youth is not from the sex assault's not from the uh elementary.

Okay.

Yes.

Um, but we're meeting with the youth from Dunsmere as well, that uh some at risk youth there that we've been working with.

Um I just try to be very vague because I want to protect the obviously the youth in that.

But um but some of the other objectives there are to meet with some of the youth that are too scared to come forward, whether it be problems at home or in this case here, a sex assault was one of them.

Um so this provides a very non-threatening, the members not in uniform, they build those bridges, and um some of the other things we'll we'll make sure that you know the kids the the you know the kids are typically loners and and are our acting out and is needing a mentorship will be able to take them out for lunch or get them into programs or get them into other things that they can focus some of their uh their stress towards so anyways that's uh hopefully I'll be able to give you a a greater update about that but I am pretty pretty proud of the work that they're doing they're doing a great job so far.

That's great.

Can I just ask a question before I sure go to my colleagues.

All of the you know recent um reports of stress and burnouts and time off downtown.

How how are your people coping and doing?

Well, we're I mean we're no different.

Uh we're stressed, they're burnt out, as you can see, file loads keep keep going up.

Um, and then you've also got the mental health toll.

We actually unfortunately we fell into more of a physical ailments.

Um we've got quite a few off with very serious cancers, um heart issues.

Um it was kind of an anomaly.

I've never seen so many people off at once with serious physical ailments.

Um, we do have uh certainly a number of members that are off right now with mental health related um injuries, and then we've also got the the COVID babies that are coming out now.

So um I think we've got five members that are off right now on maternity and paternity.

Okay.

So yes, it's uh it's one of those things, you know, when I look at Vic PD and some of the issues they've got.

Um we're very fortunate we have a lot of support from all of our councils, and we have uh which doesn't go unnoticed by the way.

The members certainly know and recognize that we've got a lot of support from from all of our all seven communities out here in the West Shore, and it's greatly appreciated.

Um, I don't think it's lost on anybody's you know the feelings that a lot of the Vic PD members are feeling right now.

They're not feeling overly supported by some of the community, some of the uh the recent acts of violence against the members, and um that's obviously a concern.

We're 15, 20 minutes down the road, so you know that there's always going to be a spill over at uh and we just got to manage that.

Yeah, okay, thank you.

Um did you want to go into the report that you or have you encapsulated all of that?

You know what, I'd I'd rather just open it up for the questions.

Okay, colleagues, questions.

Huh?

I'd start with uh just a compliment.

Uh a few weeks ago I got uh renewed my license for my little trailer online and uh they never did send me the the little two little tags to put on my license.

And so I had to go through this process where I phoned up the RCP, they gave me a number, and then I had to then take this number and go down and see uh my insurance agent.

But so the next day I received a call from a constable just asking if everything was fine.

So um compliments for stuff if that's the treatment everyone's getting is in terms of you know, sort of like no no issue too small to actually come back and provide some comments to the the public, yeah.

Yeah, that's fantastic to hear.

And I actually I went to all the watch briefings, uh, three out of the four, anyways.

I gotta hit the other one here uh tomorrow.

But um that that's the one thing that uh made sure that I articulated that you know, all the good work that you do, um, people assume you've done nothing unless you let them know what you've done.

And so it's great to hear uh because I it's pretty much mandated you will call the complainants back, like like most you know, police agencies.

Um you want to make sure that the the individuals that are asking for help are acknowledged and making sure that if there's something we can do better.

That's why we've actually with our reviewers that we have our op support team so those are the old retired uh individuals that uh we have two of them working every day so they retired they came back and they help review files they actually do data control or quality control sorry and they call randomly just to make sure that um you're happy with the service that we provided and if there's anything we can do better.

And again I'm pretty proud to say that probably 95% of the time they say fantastic and nothing but favorable things.

So it's good to hear.

Okay.

And the other question I had is there been any changes in sort of the revolving door of people committing offenses and then have to be let go the next day?

No, I'd say uh no.

Uh it's unfortunate, but we haven't seen a huge uh shift in uh mentality at the courthouse.

Okay.

Thank you.

I uh I thank you for the letter that uh Mr.

Mayor and all the other mayors sent on uh behalf of all the councils um asking that uh that those matters be looked at.

Um I'm not sure if you saw that letter or not, but uh yeah, that was greatly appreciated because it is so frustrating when we work uh that hard to try to keep everybody safe and your property safe and they're out before their paperwork's uh done.

There was a second response which wasn't much more satisfying than the first.

I noticed that, yeah.

But you're trying.

Yeah, hi.

Um yeah, speaking about um the letter, we got a really interesting correspondence back from the minister, Mr.

And um, you know, giving the explanation of the recent um federal directions to Crown Council and their policies.

Eby, I think.

And um quite interesting how that that uh perspective is taken.

It's not supposed to be a consequence, you know, even and even how we uh you know consider conditions uh may be considered a consequence uh in on a person still yet uh to be proven guilty.

So it's um uh it's gonna be very interesting balance how how we're gonna strike that.

And if the uh the uh and I guess the the thing that we uh need to take up is if you're going to uh change the rules, give us the money that you know where we can do the effective um assistance control, whatever it takes to uh um still keep a community safe.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, with those policy shifts, right?

Um they need to attach some dollar figures to if they want to keep those policies because it's costing you guys uh a fortune and uh repeat offenders.

Yeah.

In the in the statistics, um, where it talks of um what view royals um numbers are for crime against um persons, offense against properties.

Um which ones are those um 168 uh attendees at the hospital?

You know, and I guess I just want to be clarified of those numbers that we see, um, you know, every time you go to VGH, is that that's a statistic to view royal.

Yeah, so let me uh tell you exactly what that encompasses.

So the 168 calls for service there, according to our um our analyst, is unspecified Mental Health Act, cause disturbance, abandoned 911, and assistance uh to other agencies.

Uh-huh.

So of that um it it's somebody's causing an issue, that's the address that we're going to.

It's the call for service.

Okay, so it's the call for service at the hospital.

Calls for service at the hospital.

So uh we always we always do statistics.

If it happened in Langford, we don't then charge the call for service to View Royal because it we take them to View Royal.

It's where it happened, where where we got called to.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

Yeah, I get it.

Okay.

So there's certainly a m a lot more than 168 times.

Yeah.

That we've had to, we've been already up to the hospital probably two or three times today with people.

Yeah.

Yeah, you know, it's I I guess I'm not sure again if that's um if that particular point um um is in your five greatest calls that have the most uh most attention.

Is that uh check well being?

Is that you know, because I you know you've got the five time consuming calls, uh check well-being, domestic in progress, suicidal, assist police, fire, and traffic.

It doesn't so which one is the one where you you spend uh take people to the hospital all the time.

Well, typically a check well-being is um or somebody acting erratically and you know they're doing mischief or they're an assault or something of that nature, and we get there and then we determine hey, this person's got some serious mental health issues and they're dangerous to themselves or or others.

Right, right.

Um I found that uh there were two crime maps um on pages seven and eight, and I couldn't tell the difference between the two of them.

I I don't have it uh in front of me here, but uh is it is it the big blob uh where it actually shows where each of the offenses occurred?

That's right.

You know, so view walls uh shown twice, uh, and you know, it it just seems a little confusing as to uh why we've got two maps.

So if there's two maps of view royal, sometimes um I know the analyst will will separate it.

Um I know that she separates it from the First Nations.

Is that what's being separated there?

Nope, nope.

It's still got the uh the VO Coldwood uh stuff.

So it would be interesting to know what uh what each of the maps mean.

Sure, I can look into that.

Yeah, and the significance.

Um I also noticed that in the um gargooming statistics that uh V World has twice as many uh sips as Coldwood.

Twice as many what sorry?

SIPs.

State of intoxication in a public place.

Do we have a sense of where the drunks are?

No.

That's that's curious.

I can appreciate uh Langford having uh a significant amount but well when you look at establishments yeah I get you know you're right when you look at you know licensed establishments um so does Caldwood have any pubs they do yeah Coldwood uh okay probably the casino John pardon me probably the casino there's a probably a lot of intoxicated persons there.

That's uh that's safe to say that there's definitely some intoxicated there.

But good.

We do find I I noticed that up by um uh McKenzie and the old island uh highway up up admirals there in that area, Admiral Walk, and that we we seem to get quite a few in that in that area as well.

Okay.

So uh the report also spoke of uh new members coming in.

How many how many new members have uh you had in the last we have had a lot of new members coming in here?

Um so far we've got five five or six recruits out of depot.

We've got um two others that have been transferred in, one from Golden, one from Castlegar.

We have a new staff sergeant that uh came in today from he was promoted from sergeant to staff sergeant here, and he got promoted uh from Campbell River.

Uh extremely well reported on.

Um, yeah, we've got a lot of new resources.

I'm I'm adding, I'm augmenting to unfortunately the people that have serious uh ailments and won't be coming back anytime soon.

So after 30 days, you don't pay for those resources.

Um, they go on to a provincial collater.

And so we can backfill those oftentimes, you know, we gotta manage it appropriately so that if they do come back, that we're not overstaffed.

But we haven't really run into that.

And same with the maternities and paternities, it's really tough to forecast.

So when you look, um, I think actually view royal, we're not doing too bad.

I think we're around of yeah, we were 90, 90 some percent full.

Um, but with uh the mats and pats, that may change a little bit here.

I think there was one more on View Royals uh that was heading off soon here on maternity.

Um, and then of course, next year, I know um Lankford's already committed three uh three new bodies.

Colwood is on the the books, I think for another one.

And I know I talked to Kim there as of last year.

I know that we were on the books here for one here as well.

So if that's if that stays the same, that's five new members that we have to attract into the West Shore.

What I will say is that we're actually having problems attracting uh seasoned members because of the cost of living.

And I know we've talked about this before, uh Councillor Mattson, about uh some of the initiatives.

And I know I've talked to Mayor Young about it and the potential for um, you know, with some of the bigger developers, whether or not we could do some rent, they could put that into kind of the negotiations for um the developers when they're restri or uh restructuring um you know some of the the lots in that if uh if they would be able to reduce some of the rent for some of the recruits that are coming in.

Just any way that we can try to attract, because it's $900,000 for our house right now here.

And you've got a recruit coming out of depot making sixty three thousand dollars.

So granted, after three years, now that we've got a significant pay raise, they're making you know forty thousand more than that.

Uh but for the first three years, how do you it's very difficult.

Oftentimes they're coming out with you know loans or debts or or nothing, and uh it it makes it very, very difficult to to staff.

Yeah, mm-hmm.

Okay.

So one last question with with um the new recruits and uh spaces that you hold, how are things uh for spacewise at the the police building we are uh starting to bust up the seams in certain areas there uh general duty pit area is it's all right right now um but at this pace we will we will be out of space within 18 months really um so we'll start having to look at um uh moving people out into outbuildings or seacans or our exhibits are full downstairs right now.

Um we are working on the the blueprints there for the new building and supposed to have something this week at some point.

Hopefully, I'll be able to and give that to Kim and and he can present uh to you when he thinks it's appropriate.

Um but yeah, we're uh at this pace here, we will be out of space real quick.

RCP visibility and they can do all the work out of their cars.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Well, I do I do encourage them to work out of their cars.

So you're welcome to have a trailer, Dave Fort Vitroya, too.

Yeah, thanks.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Counselor Clown.

Superintendent, I uh would just like to compliment you on the section involving diversity and inclusion and what you refer to as reconciliation or equity in some people's cases.

But uh it's wonderful to see that.

Uh excellent work, very detailed, and um happy to see that our local police force are are being so inclusive and and messaging that out as well because like we talked about earlier, uh, if you don't report out on it, it's it's hard to know what you're doing.

So thank you for including that.

Appreciate that.

Um thank you.

I just just very impressed to see that.

Thanks a lot.

Appreciate that.

Thank you.

I I'm just going to bring up an old entired topic, and that is NORCI, where I understand activities are alive and operating.

Are they flaring back up again?

Apparently so.

Apparently so.

And and what I do understand is that you and your people are empathetic and working hard.

Um but that particular party and friends don't care.

Yeah.

And um yeah, so there's and but but there's also something to do with forfeiture.

Civil forfeiture?

Yeah.

Okay.

So anyway, I just I'm I just could you leave that with me and I'll uh be able to have a sidebar with you or bring it back to you.

People are wary again.

It it was looking good, now it's looking like it did.

Unfortunate.

There you go.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Always appreciate your reports.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And that's it for me.

All right.

So I'll take over finance and admin for the mayor.

Thank you.

Nothing under chair's report, nothing under business arising.

And that removes this, moves us to uh staff reports.

We have uh council initiatives for 2022 and to 2026 financial plan.

Oh, hi Don.

Hello, Chair.

Hi.

Council initiatives is uh something that we do every year.

We provide an opportunity for council to identify for us in advance of uh you know the the draft uh financial plan those specific initiatives that council is most interested in.

That opportunity was provided to council earlier this year with a little bit of time, lead time for you to collect information and bring it to council or the committee of the whole for discussion.

So what you see attached to the report is the submissions received from council.

And we await your direction for which of those, if any, you would like to see staff take away for development of feasibility, cost estimates, you know, kind of the the how and how much we would do those particular things so that we can give you that information when you develop uh sorry, when you debate uh the budget in February.

Spencer.

Mr.

So I I get from uh the report that item one is uh the six mile road or six mile road bike extension.

It's is already taken care of.

Uh I hadn't intended to convey that, Chair, only that there is a related project in the budget uh to do with six mile road that is kind of ancillary to that.

So um, you know, while I and I and I did uh ask the director of engineering and parks whether or not he thought uh that uh you know the project that is currently in the budget would cover the bike lanes, and uh the answer that I as I understood it was not completely.

So there may be need to be some adjustment to that project should council wish uh to uh to to develop full bike lanes on that corridor.

Okay, so one of the questions I guess I have for staff uh in terms of these items, they're either really broad or or they can be narrowed down and uh and it says that you know we could debate these here, but can we is it possible for us to actually debate these without actually knowing costs or anything else?

Um I'm just wondering how you'd like us to handle this.

Our intention here is for council to express a level of support for all or some of the projects that have been identified.

If council does conceptually support those projects, the next step would be for staff to provide the information in a budget environment for council to debate the uh expenditures at that time.

Okay.

So would staff like it would also sort of determine what they look like?

Like a game real playground could be just about anything.

So I don't know how you'd I think at this point the um the origin of the projects is a member of council.

And I would assume that the counselor involved would have a concept that they might want to pursue.

Okay, so for my colleagues here, since these are all from Councilor Rogers, would you like him to sort of explain it to us what he means by these in terms of the scope and then us make a decision on whether we'd like staff to then go to the costing?

Does that work for you guys?

Sure.

Damien.

Sounds good.

Okay.

John?

Yeah, thank you.

Um I would uh first off on the six mile uh bike lane extension.

I'm really pleased to see that uh staff have done that with a the four-way stop.

Um and it it shows that we can indeed have bike lanes on uh on the six mile.

Um I guess um, and I guess question to the staff when do we plan to put the the uh the roundabout traffic circle uh atkins to the chair uh john rosenberg director of engineering um that program is slated to be designed this year and um it'll be presented uh budget wise for consideration for council for 2022 to be built about so it could be built in 2022 if council okay um and i guess i just wanted to make sure that uh indeed um the bike lanes were going to be part of, and and if they weren't um um i i members of council, I I encourage us to uh um uh ensure adequate funding so that the the bike lanes are uh placed.

Obviously, um the ENN galloping goose is a significant way to um to the neighborhood and uh to Thetis Lake, and um we all know that separation of uh for bikes is is an important aspect.

I guess the challenge would be um again, another question to staff is uh the sidewalks underneath the trestle.

Uh if can you have bike lanes and sidewalks?

And and uh that's part of the design as assessment, isn't it?

Um the the roundabout itself obviously hasn't been designed, but um what we're anticipating, and we haven't had our initial meeting, it's actually slated for uh early next week, is that we wouldn't put bike lanes on Atkins because the goose is right there, and we have connections to the goose from six mile from Atkins just to get onto the goose.

Um the six-mile cross section under the trestle and so on does pose challenges.

Um it wouldn't be part of the design, but coming into the roundabout, both north and south and six mile, will address some kind of bike capacity issue so that there would be the ability to transition from uh bikes back to taking the lane until we get the cross-section figured out, which is an ancillary project sometime into the future.

So that cross-section redevelopment that would show sidewalks, bike lanes, travel lanes, um, is a future project after the roundabout.

So we we don't really know what that's going to look like but we do know that's a desire by council to uh uh explore that opportunity present uh presentation and ask that um and i hope the council will support um uh that you know bike lanes be an integral part or built into um the whole uh roundabout uh assessment so that we've got a contiguous uh safety considerations um to the chair uh uh uh would you have us um act on each of these individually make a motion on each each of these initiatives individually.

Well I think that's what we are doing is the discussion and determining whether so the question i'd have through the staff in terms of from your perspective when is the best time to look from from what I just heard is the traffic circle and underneath the bridge won't include um cycle lanes because there's just not the not the room and but you'd be figuring a way of how to transition and that would be included in the plans.

Yeah that's correct um that is definitely a separate project to figure out that entire cross section because those widths are a challenge underneath the uh two bridges that are there currently so that would be an additional project that is slated to occur within that corridor but just not um as part of the roundabout at this time so but we will like I say make sure that you can transition from the existing six mile uh cross section to the roundabout and back out again so you'll have the ability if you're someone riding a bike say coming from the four-way stop down to the roundabout to transition into the roundabout transition out of the roundabout and then back into the existing cross section so and then at a future date uh when we look at that cross section throughout the corridor that's when we'd uh tie it all in together okay do I hear you saying it in terms of looking at cycle lanes in general for the road it'd be better once better to do it once we are into that later transition stage?

I would say at this point, what I'm saying is that it's a separate project.

So you'd be asking us to add another project into that corridor in addition to the roundabout, which is to figure out the ultimate cross-section design for the length of the corridor.

Um that in itself would be a significant project for sure.

Right.

And would we have to ask highways permission to 100%?

The roundabout design is going to be built uh to highway specifications at this time because they currently are the owners and they'll have the opportunity to comment on that design for sure.

So we we did make that part of the RFP is that um current MOT design guidelines were to be adhered to with regards to the building of the uh roundabout.

Just in terms of cycle lanes, though, would we also need to go through highways?

Correct.

Yeah.

I I I if I may share.

See the the thing is that um the ENN mostroom connection is done.

It got completed two or three months ago, and already doing the bike count, we're seeing those numbers are going up.

Significant numbers coming in from Langford from Souk and part of the destinations is the Slake.

The um and I think you know that if we don't design this carefully, um when full consideration of all modes of transportation and cycling, uh, we could be having um uh you know uh a bad design where we have uh cyclists at risk uh coming in and out translate uh transmitting transitioning uh from a roundabout um in into that um uh area and I think it's also uh it's a matter of cost savings if we got the work and it's gonna be a considerable amount of cost to to put the roundabout in if we got that then uh I would think it would be uh wise to invest and make sure that we get the maximum safety on that road so I guess through the staff do we need a reality check from highways in terms of whether they'd even allow cycle lane I mean how does that work with them I mean before you go to trouble of or we go to the trouble of trying to design something, do we need to work with them and through them?

Definitely ultimately, uh as long as Howways owns that corridor, um, one of the things that highways has mandated is lane widths for uh truck traffic because at the end of the day, as much as uh the ministry has recognized um alternative modes, um, there's still their priorities to make sure that traffic's moving, um, and that's vehicular traffic.

Um, so for instance, when we looked at designing the four-way stop, our initial design had the lane widths at 3.3 meters.

Um, and their comment back was no, they need to be at 3.5.

That's our minimum standard.

It can't go any nearer.

So when we start looking at bike lanes and travel lanes and sidewalks all underneath those bridges.

If we have to keep to all of the ministry standards, um, it could prove challenging to the extent that you can't have it all.

You have to pick what you're not going to get.

Is that um perhaps some kind of um multi-use path on one side for everybody to use for two-way traffic?

Is it sidewalks only on one side and bike lanes on both sides?

Um, those are the kinds of things that you'd have to look at.

And I would suggest that that project certainly can make sure that we can transition in and out of those bike lanes for the roundabout.

But to do the rest of that work would be a significant undertaking.

And I would suggest if we want to go in that direction, that we delay the roundabout construction and spend our time on that additional design work and design the entire corridor as one project and then lump it out as uh construction project after that, um, if that's the desire of council.

That would be the probably the direction I would go in.

So you members, I wonder if um staff could bring back uh uh uh some details of what those uh implications are.

Um I mean it's it's a good discussion.

I I'm not suggesting that we uh make a hard and fast decision now, but we if it means delay, um uh what are those implications if um I can look at that.

Yeah.

So I'm assuming there's general agreement we'd all like to see safe to speak, sorry, cycle bicycles to be able to go safely up and down six mile, but the best way might not be cycle lanes on either side of the road, and maybe that's something we leave to staff to provide some more information on.

Yeah, I definitely won't be able to make the budget deadlines to get all those questions answered uh in the next two weeks.

So realistically, we're not gonna get this because it's so it's gonna be a lot.

Whatever we decide to do with cycle lanes is gonna be very expensive.

We're not gonna get and it's very unlikely to happen next year financially.

So do you want to just sort of leave it with staff?

Yeah, I'm thinking second, John.

Kim, thoughts?

I'm having troubles with this one.

Well, from a staff perspective, I guess at this point, really, all we want to do is is the projects that have been identified are not on staff's horizon at all.

And the opportunity now is for council members to put it on their agenda conceptually.

And if what we're looking for is a resolution either saying we support items one, two, three, and four, and want staff to proceed to the next step in preparation for budget.

Or if you want to approve only one or two of them, we need you to let us know.

And so what we're looking for is a resolution, much of the one described in the uh report.

Okay.

Okay.

So just to start us off, you know, I think all of those things are good items.

Whether we can afford to do them this year, what they would look like, I I'm not sure.

So I guess I'm I'm looking for support, uh uh Chair and and um in terms of the years of implementation um possibly uh 2023, but I I do want to get it on the books and and part of a um uh a plan uh for six mile road.

I d I don't want us to uh um simply ignore it.

It it is uh important enough to put in for within the next five years.

Okay, so what I'm hearing is these items might look fine on the items, let staff figure out when the best time would be.

Yeah, the bike lanes certainly are not going to be ignored.

Um you already have within that corridor study report uh review of the cross section to see what we can do with regards to pedestrian and cycling and vehicular traffic.

It's already in the horizon in that corridor study.

So it is going to be looked at for sure.

Okay.

So in terms of that motion we've decided to include number one in there because it'll be eventually dealt with.

Whenever that may be.

Yes.

Burnside Road Sidewalk West, I do know that our speaking if I may speak sir.

If I if I if I may speak to that um staff had uh we applied and received 50,000 grant for a plan of an active transportation master plan.

So you know, maybe John can elaborate on that for us but um my my hope is that uh again this is a a key component of um um for active transportation sidewalks.

Um I don't know if you know that particular stretch, but it's um um it it's you know even though we have sidewalks of one side, the other side with um uh Knock and Hill Park, um there is non existent.

And when I was talking to uh Dean Murdoch, we were doing a walk on the Santa side.

We were standing there right in front of um um the Westland Orchard, and the person had come down from the park and there was no visibility.

They could not see the cars coming.

They stepped out, and we had to yell at the individual to get back onto the sidewalk or back into the bushes and um because the individual was attempting to cross the road.

There was no visibility, no sight lines, and he was coming out of a out of a park trying to get over to uh um uh the other side.

So uh I think this says one of the biggest problems with CRD's uh sidewalk uh cycling master plan is trying to figure out the municipalities to work hand in hand cooperatively um and address um you know this this situation.

So if we went from high street to whatever the street is, 150 meters each, um I again I'm I would just urge council to support that this be uh one of those points uh the staff work on and include in the Active Transportation master Plan for future consideration.

Okay, so again, it's not gonna be we're not putting there's no intent to put it in this year's or next year's financial plan, just that it'd be listed somewhere in the transportation plan.

John.

The conceptual design of that corridor is actually within the master transportation plan now, and it does have sidewalks on both sides.

So it is in that plan.

Um for sure.

The um active transportation network plan would look at that part of the corridor as it's you know a collector/slash arterial type road that brings traffic into that helmkin the intersection, which is a critical corridor with regards to transportation.

So definitely that area would be looked at as part of that plan for sure.

So I take it that it's dealt with.

That is, yeah, it's in the plan, and and uh I guess, you know, again, if it's in the plan, um, uh I I'd be very curious and know how uh and where staff might uh be placing this in terms of a safety priority on on such a busy corridor.

That hasn't been determined at this point.

I mean, we can we can pick many, many areas where we decide to do that.

Part of that active transportation plan will allow us to start determining hierarchies as well as the pedestrian connectivity plan when you start looking at where are pedestrians going, where's the potential for pedestrians to be going in the future, looking at development and tying that all in?

Um at that time, it'll then pick up a hierarchy of projects that would be listed based on various um strategies.

So, yes, it's included and it will be looked at and prioritized.

Thank you.

Is it okay with you folks?

Yeah, yeah, it's not coming out of this year's.

Yeah.

Good.

So do I do I also detect that there's a trend here that both the game road park playground and Watkins Way should be included on a list somewhere, but not necessarily done this year.

Yeah, if I if I can just speak to um uh the game road playground, um that is something that um a number 14 uh Erskine Lane, the strata is there, um, had um wanted um as um as a uh use of the community amenity funds.

Um you know, as you know, number nine is gonna have a playground um but and I think number seven as well but it's it's for both it's private so the children of um and when you look around there's really no other playgrounds aside from that on on Ego Ego um school um but again it's it's uh you know it's not really our playground and and it's uh I think it's also something that um is something we missed in um the parks master plan because we did not consider the amount of density that was going to be going on in Erskine Lane.

So uh um well we do have an official community plan coming up, review coming up.

So that could certainly parks master plan.

Well, and you know the official community plan, and that could include the the need for additional parks in that in that space.

And when we do a revision of the uh parks master plan, if it's if council is advised that we would like to see it somewhere, that when we then do another review, or should we somehow get money this year that we don't anticipate, uh we could, you know, if it's on the very high priority, we could look at that too.

But you know, I don't even know how many people there are in families in 14 Erskine.

It's it's though it's not for just 14 Earthskine, it's also um Stone Ridge and the people that are in Talcott, you know, those, so this is a broad uh area, and and we're not even sure that the the playground proposed for number nine is going to be adequate for the two uh large buildings uh that's there.

So it's um um I we have community amenity funds.

I think this is a uh and because it's not part of the parks master plan, we really can't use DCCs for it.

So since the neighborhood has expressed uh a desire for a playground and it's not DCCable, and we can't use reserves, we can, but we do have CACs.

So I would urge council that uh at least we begin um you know, a a look, take start taking a look at it with a uh possible construction in 2023.

So I think what we've asked staff to do is to put this on the list of of projects and not for this budget cycle maybe next budget cycle come and tell me give us an idea of what something would cost and I mean there's a lot more to it than just putting playground equipment into it and and I guess we'd also want staff to advise us you know what what has to date the demand been by uh by residents for such a for a playground.

I again none of that I'm too sure about.

Okay.

I'm happy with getting it on the list um uh uh for so that you know we don't forget about it and and uh because I think the public expects that uh amenity all right mark this way off leash well um as uh you know that's as we know as we did the walk about um if we do decide to take ownership of that land it's uh it is a i think most appropriate uh use and and again i'd like just simply to put this on the list um so that we're we're formalized the uh the whole idea of uh if we get the property it's would be a great use of it um to my way of thinking that particular spot might be a better spot for a playground more visibility um easier for easier for parents to know where their kids are going, see where they're going.

They can walk there from stone Ridge, they can walk there from Talcott, they can walk there from Francis View.

Um I'm not sure it's you know it you know would I would I take my dog there?

Probably not um but I might take my grandchild to a site that was higher visibility and protected and where it was more accessible um and visible.

The problem is though that um uh we cannot put playground equipment any any fixed equipment on top of a water main and this land has the water main underneath it so the whole the under the whole stretch is all water main pretty much so yes under all of those blackberries is all water main well you know it it it would be interesting, but um I think the the uh if the province is going to re um uh negotiate with this, they may not uh be happy about fixed equipment um uh could we but before we start designing this, maybe you can just get staff to write comments later.

Uh to my knowledge, the water main actually doesn't run under that area.

Um so I I think we're clear there.

There is a um cathodic protection uh area that you definitely can't build on.

Um the rest of it, I I do understand you can't put anything permanent.

If you ask me whether playground equipment was permanent, I would say it isn't.

Uh you usually bury it four feet concrete in case some kind of bollard type area.

So you could pull them out.

I mean, you wouldn't want to do that, but if 10 years down the road when the lease expired, uh we did not renew it and had to pull the equipment out, we could pull it out and reuse it somewhere else.

So I wouldn't deem it to be um what I would call permanent, but uh so you could put a playground there.

Um we have looked at that area and and thought about a community garden playground, off leach dog park.

I mean, it does sound like an area where you'd probably want to engage the public to see what uh they felt was best uh attributed there, but um again, those types of decisions will certainly change what you have to do with the topography of that area because it is quite steep.

So playground, for instance, has to be flat, community garden could be terraced, uh, a dog park could be sloped, so it would really change um the cost of developing that area depending on what amenity you chose to put it in there.

Okay, just what I'm hearing is conceptually we like the ideas, but we would need further information in terms of from staff in terms of reviewing what where the best location is, as well as getting public input before we made we went to the next step to to to actually cost these things out.

Damien I was just gonna mention that during the tour, I think the finer details are still being worked out on that piece of property as well, and how it will be cleared and the financial division happening for that.

So that'll have an effect on our decision, I think, moving forward.

So um for for consideration.

Okay.

So just for clarification, we want we don't want any of these items on this year's budget or for next year's budget, but we want them included in the overall planning system.

So that you know conceptually that we're like these, but yeah, not the best, but not for this year.

Yeah.

Well, the the outcome of council's resolution would drive staff's workload in terms of next steps.

If council has support for all of these opportunities, then staff will look at the feasibility of them, establish budgets for them, and then they will come back to council as part of the budget process, and council at that time can make decisions about where in the financial plan they should reside.

So part of it is for the game road playground and the walk is way off leash.

John just pointed out they may or may not be the best places for them, but conceptually we want those amenities.

But where they are, we're so I guess we're asking staff to sort of take these conceptual ideas and sort of come back later with.

So based on the presentation from Councillor Rogers and the initiative described in his submission, staff will be looking at the substance of that submission to understand its feasibility and the budgets for it.

And staff will come back during budget deliberation with the feasibility of that initiative and the cost of that initiative.

We won't be doing a series of different opportunities.

We're specifically going to address the wishes of councilor Rogers as presented to council.

So Damien, actually, actually, I think I don't think we want to do that, do we?

No.

Basic, basically you were thinking what I'm hearing staff saying is that you know they'll they'll give some rough dollar estimates and um and present them in in a five year plan, and we can choose to shift it somewhere in that plan.

Um, but at least um uh you know, if there's general support for having a playground and office area and all those things in that area, um, then you know this it it's just giving some high level conceptual uh costing to it.

But what I heard staff say is they would look for based on the information you provided looking to cost out a an off leash park on what's way and we said we're not sure that that's the best idea at this point and similarly with the playground in game road we aren't sure we want them at this point to go to the trouble of costing it when we're not sure we want them I mean we'd like them somewhere but whether those are the best places and what they should look like etc we aren't aware so they they need something to actually cost like flushed out before they can cost it.

Staff, is that's something question through the chair?

Is that something that you're gonna be able to do is is give a high level on on on these for you know the budget considerations our intention today is to understand what additional work you want from staff.

And so the initiatives that have been described will be the focus of staff's work.

If you choose that we do that, if you don't support the concept at all, then I would expect that a resolution would be that we do not do, I don't know, number three or number one.

But bottom line is we're trying to prepare for the budget process, including those initiatives that members of council have brought forward.

And we have four in front of us, and they will be our focus.

Okay, so just for my colleagues here, my understanding is we don't want these included on the budget this year.

Correct.

And then we will deal with them in a way we we'll put them in a place I think John wants to put them in a placeholder right now so that they aren't forgotten but and then we figure out how best to work on them maybe to to clarify yeah when I say budget I mean financial plan which would be years one through five of the plan.

Yeah that's all I'm asking.

But even the game but my problem is even the game road playground I don't know we don't know what it is what it looks like and I wonder whether that's even the best spot for it John Mueller I think there's a couple challenges.

One being the the six road I cannot make the the the deadline with regards to getting you answers uh the Watkiss way off leash dog park would be very difficult to determine pricing with topographies.

Give them some ideas of things we could uh give them from an opportunity.

The same with the game road playground area that um not as part of the five year financial plan this year which obviously could be added next year but during the 2022 year we can engage the community stone ridge um the different areas 1950 watt castelcut area it's much in the same way we did with the Chilco Park dog park idea and then come back to council with uh the responses to that to see what direction staff would go on with regards to trying to determine budgets and development of the area that's what so do we need a motion to that effect once a motion to that effect so we don't need to deal with one and two because we're already dealt with.

Correct.

Right.

And so three and four.

Well, the motion to put it on a staff action plan.

I think that's what John.

Is action plan the the the word that is that a term that would work or I think that's what uh Mr.

Wisenberg said.

Or should I just put a parks and rec and let them work it out?

Bring that up for discussion at Parks and Rec.

Yeah.

Good thought.

Good thought.

Okay.

Can we do both?

Put them on the staff action plan and refer to uh PRAC as well.

If it's on the action plan, we can make uh discussing it with the advisory committee part of that process.

Super okay, perfect.

Okay, Damien.

I'm a little apprehensive to support putting anything on a staff action report when we don't really know what the handy dart uh final plans will be for that area, in particular Walkers Way, and that could have an effect on the game road uh action plan for the playground.

So I would I would support a more wait and see approach and table this uh until we know more about the handy dart, and then we could you know really get behind both these initiatives if if and when um things we could put them on the action plan to be addressed once the game work issues all has been yeah finalized.

I can agree with that.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

I wanted to encourage you to pass a resolution that's impact the budget process.

Yeah, right now.

And any items that you want to defer, you defer, and then they will come out eventually, particularly for the property on Watkins Way.

We will learn more about the property and we will learn more about the support that we can expect in terms of that property.

And so I would recommend you focus on those things that you want to see in the financial plan development process.

We don't want anything in the financial plan process, but we want those other items.

Put those items three and four put on the uh action plan and brought to parks and Rec after Watkas way is all dealt with.

So what I'm saying is let's not have a resolution about the action plan at this point in time.

Do you want us to wait down until we get to the action plan?

Item number three.

As soon as we get it, we'll have an action plan.

Okay, so I was trying to get a closure on this, and I figured that was the easiest way of doing it, not including these things in the financial plan by putting them off to those other items.

So there was method to my badness here.

But we'll wait to the action plan.

Do we have an action?

We have an action plan down here, don't we?

Action list update.

Okay, so I'm yes.

To clarify, the the action list that is on council's agenda is the current list of all actions that council have provided us by way of resolution, mostly in response to reports that are much more wholesome than a discussion that we've had here today.

All right, so Ken.

I understand that.

So we aren't going to be doing anything with item number one.

There are no items to be put on.

But so how would you recommend we put items three and four on the action plan?

Because I gather some members of council won't be happy until we I would recommend that you request a report on those two subjects at some future date, and we will report then, and you will make a decision based on the merits of the subject matter, and it would end up on the action plan based on that decision process.

Yes, I can get behind that.

Okay.

Is everyone happy with that?

Do you want a motion to that effect, or do you he can just do it?

He does.

He does.

I'll make that motion.

I'll second.

All favor against carried.

Okay.

Guys are killing me here.

Uh financial policy review, um staff report, October 4th, Director of Finance.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

And through the through the chair to the rest of council, this again is uh part of the process that we do every year in advance of the financial plan.

And what we do is we do look at all of the policies that are you know kind of have an impact to the financial plan, um, you know, either directly or indirectly.

And you see on page two of the report a list of those either formal policies or practices that we follow, and you know, kind of what the purpose is and when they were last updated.

So when we looked through this list, we became aware of three items that occurred in the last year or so that would affect one or more of the policies that impact the financial plan.

So in 2019, council passed a cash in lieu of parking bylaw, a reserve establishing a reserve for cash in lieu of parking.

In February of 2021, council revised the community amenity contributions policy, and that will has an effect also to the reserves and surplus policy.

And then in 2020, the Committee of the Whole directed staff to develop a police operating reserve policy to guide future reserve contributions.

So there's definitely a theme there.

I thought I would put them all together and review them to with council and suggest and recommend some changes to our reserves and surplus policy based on those three requests.

So I'll go through each one in order.

So the easy was the easiest one first.

The Cash in Lue of Parking Reserve is a bylaw that was passed in 2019.

And really just amending the reserves and surplus policy to fit this one in to that information just confirms that this reserve is treated exactly in the same way as other similar reserves.

So basically, you know, about interest accrual and uh what the proceeds, where the proceeds come from and the purpose of the fund itself.

So you see the amendment uh in the body of the report.

Also attached to the report is the reserves and surplus policy with the changes in red.

So you will see that in section 2.8.

That there's an addition to that section to include the cash in lieu of parking reserve, as well as the appendix that you know further outlines the minimum and optimum levels for reserves has been amended to include that reserve.

So that's simply all that's happening there is that we are taking a bylaw that was passed, establishing a reserve, and making sure that that is included in the reserve and surplus policy.

The second one is the community amenity Contributions Reserve.

And this one came kind of arose.

This change was suggested by a revision of the community amenity policy in February of 2021.

And it suggests that the use of the funds coming from community amenity contributions that are provided in cash can be used basically for a variety of things in the future, basically at the discretion of council.

It would go through the through the process.

And because of the purpose in the policy is now in the draft bylaw reflected in that draft bylaw, also attached to this report.

The community amenity contributions policy kind of doesn't it's it's the the purpose of the funds can be that for which the funds can be used is broad enough that I created a kind of a new section in the policy because it's not specifically just capital use or operational use, operating funds use, it's both.

It could be both.

My example for this might be that those funds could be used to build a bus shelter, a bus stop shelter, which would be a tangible capital asset, so that would be a capital purpose uh reserve.

But it could also, you know, be used to subsidize a program for increasing, you know, multimodal transportation or something like that that might be more of an operating nature.

You know, think in terms of perhaps bus passes or something like that.

So that's not a capital purpose, it would be more of an operating purpose.

So I've created in the amendment to the policy a section called multi-purpose reserve funds.

And this would be the only one in that category.

And it would be a reserve to establish the fund for the purpose of any capital asset or service that provides a public benefit, and you can read the rest the rest of it there.

And that's straight out of the community amenity contributions policy.

So just to recap that one, the policy changed to kind of broaden the use of those funds, which drove the need to have a reserve established for the purpose of administering those funds, and that led to an amendment to the policy to make sure that that reserve is treated in the same way as other reserves.

Yeah, I I've got a problem with um uh CACs being established for capital asset or service, because the way you've described the service as an operating, um we only have a finite number of dollars in the CACs.

So um, and if a service is ongoing, operational, I don't um I don't like the idea of of um spending uh CACs on an ongoing item and um whatever that might be, a hundred thousand a year, and soon we have no CACs whatever council decides, basically.

The policy, thank you, Chair.

I'm opposed to um you know using the phrase or service, because now we're going to be um we have the flexibility, I guess, but you're now um putting CACs given that opportunity for CACs to go into operating on an ongoing basis, and I think that's an inappropriate use of a reserve fund.

Certainly, and through the chair, I I certainly respect respect that.

Um the establishment bylaw simply reflects the policy.

So um and and certainly there is nothing uh to prevent council from um saying we will never approve anything for these funds uh other than for capital expenditures, but it does provide that flexibility for that, you know, at this point in time, you know, I I'm having you know trouble myself kind of imagining what you might use these funds for for an operating nature.

But the way that the policy is written and the way that I've matched the reserve establishment bylaw to that policy just simply allows for the fact that that could occur in the future should council wish for it to happen.

It doesn't mean that it should be used for that or that it will be used for that, but simply that it could be.

It would not prohibit the use for anything of an operational nature.

You know, you might think of that um as maybe not limited, you know, maybe operating isn't the right word.

Maybe, you know, if there was to be, you know, some sort of a contribution that any kind of a contribution that does not result in a tangible capital asset would really technically be counted as an operational expense.

So so I appreciate that it's you know hard to come up with an example maybe of that nature, but um and and certainly if at any time in the future that council wishes to uh amend the policy, the community amenity contribution policies to restrict it to tangible capital assets, certainly that's that's certainly the discussion of the council of council.

Okay Don, Don.

So you don't have to we have we understand the components.

So I guess just ask my colleagues.

So how do you feel should service should we make it wide open or should we just restrict it to capital projects?

And that's as simple as we could probably put it.

Damon I think having flexibility is always a good thing for decision making.

I'm inclined to agree with counselor rogers and and think that we could amend it later.

There's always you know when you have a new council if if in the event there are you know new people who are real pr procedure readers and and and uh policy readers um it it it might seem quite literal and not um recognize that that is not the norm to use it for services.

So I do I I do I am inclined to agree with counselor rogers and amend it back in the event there is a need.

Okay, and because any future council can change it to whatever it likes just by changing the policy and then the bylaw.

Having it as having it open and flexible from my perspective is not a bad thing because again, it's whatever the council day decides to do, they just would have a couple more hoops to jump through to to change it.

So it's two to two on this one.

So staff, uh we're gonna have to bring this back when David gets back.

That that one section.

Yeah.

I I I think the uh you know we could talk about it uh being flexible and it, yes, I think it needs to come back but you know being flexible means that you're you're spending um there's that significant risk that you're spending a finite resource right okay ongoing capital so is that anyone's are you finished with the report or is that is that all the items there is one more item chair the third item is uh the police operating reserve and this was uh direction from council that uh council was interested in developing policy about the police operating reserve so the discussion in the report uh uh it was not intended to determine any kind of reserve contribution amounts going forward, but simply to provide a little bit of guidance on what sorts of things we should be thinking about in regards to the police operating reserve.

And as counsel, I'm sure is very aware that uh when the population of U Royal hits $15,000, there's likely to be a fairly steep spike in police operating costs according to our contract, our RCMP contract with the province.

So this reserve is meant to you know kind of phase in over time that spike so to make it a just a little bit more of a softer blow to our taxpayers.

So you'll see in the list in the report the number of things that should be taken into consideration when developing a reserve contribution for that purpose, and you can see them there, things like you know, how long is it going to be before we are we think we're going to reach the population of 15,000?

What are the costs?

What do we think the costs are going to be?

What are the inflation rates?

Are we going to need more police members at that point in time being based on an increase in population?

And how many years does council wish to uh you know kind of soften that blow?

Do you want it over two years or three years or six years or ten years?

How many years should that be?

So that's that it provides a framework for the for the conversation about how much that reserve contribution should be or the minimum or optimum levels of the of the reserve should be.

Um, but the the statement that I've included in the policy um identifies that at a minimum the annual contribution to this reserve should be the excess of policing related revenue, including the amount taxed for policing over the total policing operational expense.

So I know that there has been some uh discussion with counsel before about how we budget for the number of members that are authorized with the RCMP.

However, in any given year, the RCMP hasn't been always able to fulfill those membership positions that have been authorized by the budget.

Well, what happens when we do that is we end up taxing for that amount of money to provide the policing member members that we have authorized.

And yet if in reality those those positions are not filled, it can lead to a surplus.

And so what we're saying by this in the policy is we kind of formalize the practice that we have been doing over the last several years, and that is when that happens, we respect the taxation component of the taxes raised for the purpose of funding police officers, and to the extent that we don't need it to fund police officers in any given years, year, that goes to the reserve for the purpose of this reserve, and that is to fund the future caught policing costs.

So this just kind of formalizes the practice.

So, Don, the question I'd have is so there's a number of different things you've put in there that we would basically tax people for for to put the money aside for the future.

But if we're now taking those funds that because we're historically, I guess one and a half or if we pay for one and a half or two officers, or tax for one and a half, two officers we don't get, would we need to tax to to change taxes for those other items if we're now putting the policing funds that we don't use back into reserves?

If I understand your question correctly, you're suggesting that we shouldn't be doing both.

We shouldn't be purposely setting money aside for that future spike in police costs as well as the difference between or the or the amount of let's say let's just call it policing surplus that we might have in any given year.

Do I understand that correctly?

Yes and no what I'm saying is if we're say putting the equivalent of one officer or constable we're taxing for the equivalent to one taxable it never gets filled because they're always behind.

Money should be included in the calculations of what we're gonna need.

Yes, absolutely that that is that is what I'm saying.

I'm saying that you know the other ones because you know that historically you've got a hundred thousand or a hundred and fifty thousand for a constable that isn't going to be used and we'll just put that in the include that into whatever the reserve you're putting we're collecting for the day when we have to pay the 90%.

Yes I I see these things as working together.

You know the the first thing we're going to do is we're going to establish how much should we how much do we need and and then the other part is we can get the money that we need to soften the blow of a spike in policing in a couple of different ways.

One is to purposely set money aside, which of course is going to come from additional taxation.

However, we it's recognizing that the other way is to say, well, wait a minute, let's look at the money that we have already taxed in a current year.

And instead of adding to it to increase that year's contribution, we we instead use those funds to contribute them to the reserve for the same purpose.

So I I'm agreeing with you that that we wouldn't we wouldn't do both of those in a given year.

We we we would have a target in mind, and keeping that target in mind, understand the impact of any current year surplus on on the need for the reserve.

Okay, so from my perspective, that's a good idea.

Okay.

Everyone else is happy with that too?

Yep.

So Kim, the only item.

Uh do you want us?

How do we do this if there's no agreement on the second unless Jerry's changed her mind?

No, I haven't changed my mind.

I was gonna say I would move that we forward this report to council and let council vote on it.

Yeah.

Okay.

Happy with that, Kim.

The the decisions that that council makes here are are just recommendations to council.

Yeah.

So you can choose to make a recommendation or not.

If if you choose not to, then we will put it on the council agenda.

All right.

Ron?

Uh if I may, Chair, thank you.

Um while I have matched the establishment bylaw for community amenity contributions to the policy, it it doesn't necessarily need to be so.

In other words, the policy can say whatever the policy needs to say.

If council makes a decision to say no, the money that we set aside must only be used for capital, that that can happen too.

Yeah.

So what we're just going to do is uh receive this, it'll go forward to council.

Received.

And then we'll make the decision at council.

Okay.

Okay.

So so move we receive staff's report.

Second all favor again carried.

Yeah.

If I'm doing a horrible job at keeping us on time here, guys.

Mm-hmm.

The budget variance project uh update report September 30th, 2001.

From the manager of accounting.

It it is, I can speak to this as well.

Uh and I'll try to keep it very short, Chair.

Thank you.

Uh this again is now the uh the monthly version of the report that you used to get quarterly, um, although you did get the component that was capital projects um monthly.

So this report has it all.

It's got all of the information and the analysis on the consolidated financial plan and how we're doing to date.

You'll see a table there that explains any of the significant variances attached to the report is the consolidated financial plan with the year to date results and comparative for the prior year.

Uh and then another uh schedule after that is the list of non core projects and how we're doing on those ones, as well as the next page, then is the capital projects and how we're doing on the capital projects to date.

Um, more information than would fit on the page can, of course, be found on the budget variance dashboard for both non core projects and capital projects, and of course, our operating results as well.

Okay.

So happy to field any questions.

Anything we need to worry about?

Generally, how do you feel things are going?

I am anxiously still awaiting the uh report from uh the casino from uh BC lotto uh to tell us how much um revenue, if any, that we uh will we have coming to us uh casino.

I'd hope to have that for this report, but unfortunately, we have not yet received that.

Um, and uh other than that, no, we do have work to do and we're as we build towards year end.

Um, but uh I and I do note that in one of the variances that I have noticed is that um we do have uh permitting both building and and some uh development permitting revenue in excess of what we thought we would get at this point, but I do want to emphasize caution in getting too excited about that because um we do defer whatever revenue is associated with projects that are not yet completed.

So so I just wanted to to caution about that.

But but really from a revenue perspective, which is is where I look closest at at this point, um, you know, I think we're doing pretty well as as can be expected.

Um, and I have no concerns on the expense side either.

I think our our uh directors are very good at keeping on top of their budgets.

Okay, thank you.

Does anyone have any questions?

John?

Uh no, not a question, but uh maybe a comment.

Um I noticed that uh for non-core uh we've only spent 72,000 of the 455,000 uh thus far, and of the capital projects we've only spent uh 414,000 out of 2 million.

Um and I I guess um uh the question I have on page seven uh is the V Rail Parks development.

Um so far 100% of the parks budget 158,000 remains.

And um I'm is there any chance of getting any work done in V Royal Park for the remaining of the year?

I can speak to that.

Those are conceptual plans that we're building on for um the stormwater management and the drainage and the swales for the bioswales.

And yes, those are being worked on by consultants.

Thank you.

Any chance of getting a drinking fountain.

The drinking fountain is somewhere in British Columbia.

We thought two weeks ago it was in Victoria, but apparently it isn't.

So we're being told that they do have it.

It it did come out of uh eastern Canada.

Um and actually that's an email I sent to Kevin today because I was thinking it was gonna come up today.

Um and he wasn't able to track it down.

So we will find out where it is, and um when we install it, we'll basically winterize it.

But uh it should be in place this year okay thank you.

And Chair, if I may, um i i do urge just a little bit of caution when looking at those totals at the bottom just because and and some of this information is provided further on the on the budget variance dashboard because you can't tell from this report that things like um you know under the transportation services the sidewalks project that is the Atkins Road sidewalk uh that's an $843,000 capital project that isn't going to happen because the grant did not get approved right and and and there might be some corollaries with that in in some of the other projects that these projects are on the budget for you know pending a grant uh approval or maybe perhaps some other thing to happen um and so they do comprise our list but um you're not going to see any actuals spent against that budget this year okay thank you so can we have a motion to receive second all in favor it gets carried uh the fleet vehicle replacement plan update the this uh report will be brought to you by I believe Steve Vella is in the room the manager of accounting he's worked hard on this one thank you, Chair.

Members of council, Stephen Vella, Manager of accounting here at the town.

I'll just review some key points covered in the vehicle fleet replacement plan update.

This plan was initiated in 2018 and is refreshed each year as part of the town's commitment to asset management and fiscal sustainability.

Planned vehicle replacement is preferred over reactive replacement as the result is a smoothing of the annual cost of the taxpayer, whether the method of financing is from reserves or debt.

The annual reserve contributions to the machinery and equipment and fire department machinery and equipment reserve accounts remains unchanged and will sustain positive reserve balances over the next 20 years.

The town's fleet consists of 25 vehicles, ranging in age from newly acquired to 30 years.

Condition assessments were conducted in consultation with the directors of engineering and protective services based on reliability and maintenance requirements, with 13 vehicles or 52% of the fleet being in very good or excellent condition.

With the evolving vehicle market and where appropriate, the plan incorporates the financial impact of the town's move towards a greener vehicle fleet supporting View Royal's goal of carbon neutrality.

And lastly, staff recommend that committee receive this report for information as planned budget workshops in February of 2022 will allow for further discussion regarding the timing and funding options of this plan.

So that concludes my summary.

When it comes to the the 20th year, it's still in it's not in poor condition.

We don't just replace it, we just do we just sort of drive it till yeah generally each each year through the chair um the practice is that the director is responsible for their uh portion of the fleet will we'll look at the plan um with somewhat fresh eyes and say you know can we get any more uh value out of what's there uh or or is it time to replace the the vehicle so it's it's a living document uh the plan is is refreshed every year pretty much based on their input okay thank you yeah any other questions John yes thanks um yeah thank you for the report I'm focusing on the uh fire apparatus.

Um as you noted, we had uh anticipated we'd use the casino funding, but uh then COVID came along and and took that ball out of the park.

So if I understand things then, um we're we're gonna go to debt um uh financing um 77,000 annually for starting 2024 and um what is the other one?

58,000 uh starting in 2027 or 26.

How long are those um uh debt financing periods for?

Those are 20-year terms.

The 20 years?

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, but by doing so, uh do I get the impression then from your report that at least allows um our uh vehicle reserves to be in reasonable positive shape?

Yes, given the uh the the large price tag of these vehicles and the ability to stretch out the payments over the 20-year terms, it does allow uh for us to continue with contributions into the reserves and finance those smaller ticket items uh out of the reserves over the long term.

Um, and in the meantime have these uh regular at present low interest.

I mean, today we're looking at 2.82 percent um financing costs through MFA.

Um, but yeah, that's that's the intent.

Okay, I'm coming back to the fire apparatus uh paragraph, you know, which I think is really interesting if um any amalgamation or cooperation from other municipal municipal fire departments, uh, and if there were amalgamation or cooperational range, you spoke of um the possibility of adapting a rationalized combined plan.

So if Lankford, Coldwood, Sanjay, Squamo, whatever, if they've um uh depending on what the apparatus is, that we can you know get the service without buying the trucks?

Well, if it's a shared uh shared costs, shared use of the vehicle, um Don may have more experience be able to speak to that a little bit here, but um obviously in uh consult with uh the director of protective services and then his peers throughout the municipality or throughout the region, um, an agreement would be in place to to share costs based on a rational um use, right?

And and uh calculation.

Yeah, so the way Paul described it once, say for example, if college needs a new ladder truck rather than drop 1.4 million for a ladder truck, they won't get it, they'll just share our ladder truck and the next big piece of equipment that we would have had to purchase if they already have it.

That way neither of us actually have to sort of go purchase again for something that isn't used all that frequently.

Exactly.

We still have agreements.

So and kudos to staff for undertaking those endeavors.

So any other questions before we motion receive?

Thank you very much for the report.

Uh motion received.

Second.

All against all in favor, against carried.

Thank you.

Thank you.

What's next here?

Strategic plan update.

That would be you.

That would be me.

So the document that you have in front of you is not strange to you.

We've used this format for quite a number of years.

The intention is to update council on our progress with respect to the various items within this document.

The title of the page is Enhanced Livability in View Royal.

And the item specifically is the engagement of BC Transit to pursue commitment for a higher level of transit service, including improvements to underservice areas.

And the comment that we provided is that service improvements to Cetus Lake area have been implemented.

Design of rapid bus lanes on Island Highway has been completed, and it's anticipated that construction begin in 22-23.

And so the next update would be on the following page, and it is with respect to development of an active transportation master plan.

Staff were successful in applying for and receiving a $50,000 grant for the plan, and it will be started in 2022.

The project proposal is included in the 2020-2024 financial plan and is slated to be completed by the early spring of 23.

Following that is an update with respect to development of a housing affordability strategy.

The OCP will include a chapter on housing using the housing gaps and needs study to help address housing gaps.

So it is that development of the OCP process that will drive the affordability strategy.

The next update is a couple pages down, page number 82.

And the item updated is the create a map that identifies sites and corridors and gateways that are likely to redevelop based on the difference between assessed land value and value of improvements.

In 2021, we completed the land economic study, and the official plan, official community plan revision will feed information in terms of the results of that study and the identification of properties that are good candidates for redevelopment.

Again, a couple pages down looking at page number 84.

Update and adopt an amendment to the 2012 Community Climate Action Plan.

The update is that the Community Climate Action Strategy was initiated in August of 2021 and is anticipated we will be complete in February of 2022.

On the following page, an update to develop a resident owner program to improve energy efficiency of existing housing stock, i.e., oil room, gas furnace window replacement.

This item is complete in a sense that a grant program for heat pump conversion has been initiated and is effective on October the 1st.

On the following page, work with car share companies to establish presence in G oil.

Staff have initiated contact with MODO and met in August.

There have been some issues identified since a successful co-op implementation does include a density requirement, and they do want to avoid gaps in service.

For example, the distance between here and the next service, SQMOL would represent a gap.

And so there will be some delays in terms of how that can be carried out.

The next item updated is the development of a sea level rise in storm surge mitigation and adoption policy.

The initial policy is developed and approved by council, and additional refinement is likely in response to new information that we get as it arrives.

The update for the wildfire interface, zone assessment, and update and development preparator guidelines is to be delayed till 2022.

We did not receive the grant funds required.

We will reapply next year.

Hopefully, we'll get the funding and we can proceed with the work.

On page 87, we have an update for the asset management plan.

Asset replacements funding plan report was presented to council in June.

Long term financial model to support the management decisions and policy development are included in the financial plan.

Following that, development of the long term financial plan that incorporates implications of the asset management plan, the project proposal is included in the financial plan.

And so that is a work in progress.

Investment program.

Uh 2022.

We will see the project proposal is scheduled for 2022 as part of the financial plan.

Two pages down.

We have uh host at least one council to council event with each First Nation.

We did have something scheduled with the Esquamo Nation, however, that's being delayed till spring as a result of COVID.

On page 92, the first update is with respect to increasing volunteer night shifts.

We've implemented the schedule as of July of 2021.

Uh requiring employees to complete at least one Justice Institute of BC Emergency Operations Center course.

Again, COVID has had an influence on that objective.

No in-person training is available due to COVID 19, so we will explore online and in-person training options for 2022.

The update of our business continuity plan is to be determined.

It's in progress.

A consultant will be required for the information technology component of the plan.

A project proposal will be put forward for the 2022 to 2026 financial plan.

The update of the emergency response and recovery plan has also been delayed from 2021 to 2023.

Our intention was to respond to legislation.

And the promise has deferred the amendments to the Emergency Program Act.

And so we will be delaying the project until that legislation is complete, and we expect that it will be done in 2023.

And those are the highlights of changes to our strategic plan up to the end of the last quarter.

Jerry?

I I would just like to say thank you and bravo, especially to all staff involved.

Particular interest for me was the progress made on the climate action initiatives.

So thank you.

Sure.

If I can make a uh a comment and suggestion.

On section B, the community and economic development uh page.

It's it's you know, I've only got the paper and it's page 10.

Um, we have the update sustainability checklist, you know, for 2021 in-house.

Just a suggestion, because we do have the contract for doing the community climate action strategy.

And I think that that plan would help very much to uh give us uh good grounding for updating the sustain sustainability checklist.

Of course, sustainability is all about you know environmental considerations, green and g grand uh GHD reductions.

Certainly makes sense.

Thank you.

Okay, so with that suggestion.

Stop can change either.

No stop will be changed now.

Okay, okay.

Motion received.

Second.

I'm too moved.

I don't know who's seconded.

I'll second.

So thank you very much, Staff.

I noticed there's a long list of completed items on this list.

So uh thank you for your your work, it's much appreciated.

And your efforts are recognized and appreciated, although every now and again sometimes wouldn't think so the way we try to drill you up here, but underneath that is uh a deep appreciation for staff and all the hard work you do.

Thank you.

So thank you.

Um action list update, second quarter from the same executive assistant.

Yeah, that's me again.

The action list is intended to provide council with a um a snapshot of today's date and the progress that we've made on all of the different action items that we received from council over the last number of uh years.

The uh the oldest one on this list looks to be uh 2019 February, and um a large number of the projects show as complete, they are highlighted in gray.

All the ones that are not highlighted are still in progress.

If council has any questions about the progress of these items, it's not intended that the items themselves be debated at any lengths.

It is intended that this be just a progress snapshot, and hopefully we're making progress on the items that are of highest importance to council.

Thank you.

So do members have any questions on the items?

Council John.

Yeah, thanks.

Um uh this is on uh page four of the action list.

Um it's very tough.

And and uh staff, this is with respect to um the number nine development, and they're underway now, uh, and the whole aspects of having that uh trail, the hospital trail.

And I I see that uh the work is in progress.

Um, and uh so now is number nine.

Uh any uh any updates on uh being able to successfully uh get public access through uh that trail to the bus stop.

Um I I can offer council a great deal more information.

We have met with the owners of um number two hospital way.

We've um had a meeting with the COD and they're very supportive.

And we what we're waiting for is um to get some form of agreement with the owners of number two hospital way because we will be creating a statutory right away which um overlays existing rights of weight that are currently in place.

However, um the owners are seem to be resident to agree we need to have a follow-up meeting with them to encourage more action.

Yeah.

Especially now things are happening.

And my understanding is that um the developers of number nine are are have have worked with number two to have parking uh for their construction staff at uh on that site.

So hopefully this might be the the time another to get this thing going.

Thank you.

So motion received all favor against carried.

Uh CAO report from oh the chief administrative officers.

So many hats.

Thank you, Chair Matson.

Um yeah, this is another one.

The administration has seen a lot of increase in freedom of information and privacy type requests.

September total requests meaning to information regarding view of oil.

Thank you, Sarah.

The average yearly total for FOI requests received is 38, and so we're significantly higher than our annual average.

Administration is also already planning for the annual rollover of files, both in terms of the uh the space that's made by eliminat files.

Um and that's that's what three months ahead.

We are also going to have a training program for our staff.

We are currently developing a plan for presenting records course to staff before the end of the year.

In the finance department, so our utility invoices will be sent to property owners in October with payment due date in November, so our public can be on the lookout for our bills.