CAO UPDATE

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated February 8, 2024 from the Chief Administrative Officer titled “CAO Update” be received for information.

PURPOSE OF REPORT:

To provide Council with information from the Office of the CAO regarding material events and happenings at Town Hall.

BACKGROUND:

The Chief Administrative Officer’s monthly report for the Committee of the Whole meeting to apprise Council of the highlights of significant departmental activities of the Town.

INFORMATION:

Office of the Chief Administrative Officer:

Since starting in the position on January 9th, the CAO has been working on the following:

• participating in budget preparation meetings;
• meeting one-on-one with elected officials, directors, and with CAOs from neighbouring municipalities;
• participating in Collective Agreement negotiations with International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF);
• setting up financial approvals and signing authority;
• discussing possibilities for Development Cost Charge (DCCs) for RCMP building with partner municipalities;
• preparing for Strategic Planning session;
• participating in Asset Management Working Group;
• reviewing Benefits Plan with Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM);
• evaluating Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) and Project Management for West Shore RCMP Detachment Expansion project;
• attending monthly RCMP building meetings; and
• attending interviews for Community Planner position.

Human Resources successfully concluded the competition for a new Engineering Clerk to fill a position vacancy. The new staff member started with the Engineering & Parks Department in late January. A staffing competition to hire a temporary Community Planner to join the Development Services Department is currently underway; the position is set to close February 14.

The final Freedom of Information & Protection of Privacy request from late 2023 was concluded last month. A total of 56 requests were received for the year with the majority of the requests being related to property information.

Corporate Administration:

Front counter staff have been busy with the annual renewals of business licences, Type 2 secondary suites, and dog licences.

With the Capital Regional District’s new service provider (GFL Environmental Inc.) for blue box collection now based in Langford instead of Victoria, there has been a steady stream of residents from Esquimalt, Saanich and Victoria coming into Town Hall to get blue boxes and blue bags for their recycling as those products have only been available at the service provider’s Langford office for those residents. While it is recognized that recycling is an important service to support, both CRD and GFL have been asked to find other distribution venues than View Royal Town Hall for these three other municipalities due to the increased staff time to service over an additional 230,000 residents’ recycling products requirements. A check on the CRD website the week of February 5 shows that City of Victoria is now providing these products for their residents at their municipal hall.

The Microsoft 365 records and information management project team continues to interview staff on administrative and operational workflows. The sessions are providing valuable insights into systems usage and interdepartmental workings which will allow the team to build structures customized to the Town’s actual functions.

Staff are in the very early discussions with organizers for Canada Day 2024.

The Capital West Accessibility Advisory Committee, through partner City of Langford and available through all of the partner municipalities’ websites, hosted an online survey from December 8, 2023 to January 31, 2024 to obtain input into the methods of feedback and types of public engagement that the community may want to see. Results have not yet been provided. Related to this topic, an online survey has been prepared that will explore experiences with barriers in the partner communities. This survey will also be hosted by partner, City of Langford, and will offer alternative response methods as well.

Finance and Technology:

Finance The draft 2024-2028 Financial Plan was published for staff and Council on February 5 to inform the budget workshops scheduled for February 13-15, 2024.

Finance staff have also been focused on preparing the 2023 financial statements before the year-end audit scheduled for early April. These annual processes are an entire team effort and Finance staff appreciate the support received from other departments who provide timely information, critical to finalizing these tasks and meeting legislated reporting deadlines.

Grant-in-aid applications are currently being accepted for consideration in the Town’s 2024 Financial Plan. The deadline for applications is March 1, 2024, and staff have begun informing potential applicants through the Town’s website and social media platforms.

Technology Cybersecurity is always top of mind as we continue to protect View Royal’s information. Staff will shortly be launching a new campaign as part of our switch to Municipal Insurance Association of BC’s (MIABC’s) Cybersecurity Awareness Training platform. The campaign will teach employees to recognize, avoid and report threats, which is one of the strongest ways to reduce risk. After the training is completed, the platform will send random phishing simulations to users to help them practice being alert for suspicious activity.

Development Services:

The Development Services team continued to be busy for the month of January responding to a consistent number of zoning, land use, building, and business licence inquiries, and reviewing and processing development applications. During the month of January, Development Services (Planning and Building) received 10 new applications, which are summarized in the following table:

At the regular meeting of Council on January 16, 2024, staff presented a two-year workplan in response to the Province’s housing legislation and their mandated implementation timeline. The workplan includes substantial work on amendments to the Zoning Bylaw and Official Community Plan, development permit areas and design guidelines, an interim housing needs report, updates to the Development Cost Charges Bylaw and creation of a new Amenity Cost Charges Bylaw.

Staff also attended five Provincial webinars on Bill 35 – Short-Term Rental Accommodations Act, Bill 44 – Housing Statutes (Residential Development) Amendment Act, Bill 46 – Housing Statutes (Development Financing) Amendment Act, and Bill 47 – Housing Statutes (Transit-Oriented Areas) Amendment Act. These webinars gave municipal staff from across the Province the opportunity to ask questions on the new legislation and receive additional information on the various housing initiatives that are being rolled out by the Province.

Engineering:

Sewer & Drain Work continues on the Packers PS Upgrade Capital project despite snow and heavy rain. The sewer force main alignment work has been completed.

**Packers PS sewer forcemain work**

Drain service repairs were conducted at a View Royal Avenue property due to blockages in the system. The blockage was cleared while also preserving the health of nearby trees and with a thank you from a resident!

**Drain service repair at 290 View Royal Avenue**

Streets & Roads:

The Town’s contractor and Parks workers responded to a winter snow event that occurred in the third week of January. All roads were cleared within 24 hours of the ending.

Construction on the new roundabout at Six Mile Road and Atkins Road continues to unfold. BC Hydro is finishing up their ancillary work, which entails new underground ducting and electrical equipment.

**Construction on the new roundabout at Six Mile Rd and Atkins Rd.**

Developments:

Servicing works have commenced for the 9 Erskine Lane development. Frontage works are expected to commence in the near future.

Parks:

January started off with the removal of the seasonal lighting at Helmcken Centennial Park, George’s Corner Park and the Town Hall.

The first snowfall also caused some excitement this month. Parks staff spread ice melter at bus stops and intersection let downs before the storm hit which helps with ice removal when the temperatures drop. Snow clearing also took place at the Town Hall, bus stops and other parks related locations in the municipality.

With parks staffing being short during the snow period due to the seasonal flu going around, the remaining staff went beyond the call of duty during this rare circumstance, at times working on the weekend to finish snow removal duties around the Town’s parks.

**Parks Staff with tractor and sweeper wheel attachment in action at Town Hall.**

Pruning of trees in the Parks system is in progress. It does not take long to accumulate a large pile of branches from the trimming in just a few small parks. The branches are stacked up in the Helmcken Centennial Park lot and then one of our contractors comes by and chips the pile.

The addition to the Right Field/1st Base side fencing on Diamond #4 at Helmcken Centennial Park is complete. This will make a huge difference in keeping the foul balls contained within the diamond. Fencing height went from 1.2m/4ft to 9.1m/30ft to accomplish this.

**New fencing on Diamond #4 at Helmcken Centennial Park**

GIS:

Our GIS staff has been busy providing visual maps for the Town including Development Services (as part of their recent staff reports and ongoing work to address the recent provincial Bills), and Emergency Services as part of regular mapping maintenance.

Protective Services:

Protective Services continue to be busy throughout all divisions. January 2024 realized a record month in the Fire Department for calls for service with a 57% increase over the same reporting period in 2023. We are seeing an upward trend in calls for service which continue to see overdoses and fires involving encampments. Working with our partners in RCMP, Ministry of Transport and Island Corridor Foundation, the work continues to dismantle and clean up areas in the Town susceptible to the camps.

The training and staff development division within the Fire Department recently completed a recruit intake for paid on call firefighters. It is expected that six recruit firefighters will fill existing vacancies. Currently the department has 21 paid on call firefighters. The obvious challenge for the department is retention of members, as several island and lower mainland career departments have hired members from View Royal.

The integration of Colwood, View Royal and Langford Fire into a cohesive Westshore Fire Service will be realized in February. Surrey dispatch has received instructions and dispatch logic updates from all three Fire Chiefs. This initiative will have tremendous benefit to the residents in the Westshore with solidification of years of preparation and discussions to find the right balance and meet minimum industry standards for response to fire emergencies. The Fire Chief will report back on successes and challenges associated with the initiative.

Collective bargaining with the newly certified career firefighters at View Royal continues with moderate progress to date. Additional bargaining sessions in February and March are scheduled and we are anticipating a first collective agreement sign off in the coming months.

The Fire Prevention office continues to deal with some significant files specific to life safety violations in local business and Victoria General Hospital. Overcrowding of hallways in the hospital with patients and equipment continues to create preventable challenges. The Fire Chief has meetings scheduled with senior provincial government staff and VIHA to conclude solutions, so the hospital is compliant with BC Fire Code regulations.

The Bylaw compliance division continues to be busy with investigations and complaints. Several files dominate the workload along with day-to-day investigations. The Bylaw Officer has been reviewing several existing bylaws to ensure they reflect current climates and expectations. To that end, 2024 will realize the amendment and re-write of some bylaws currently on the books.

The Bylaw office received 557 complaints in 2023 with 78% of the files being concluded within 3 days of receipt. As per Council’s expectation and by policy, we continue to seek voluntary compliance to issues, resorting to tickets and legal action for offences, minimized as much as possible.

The Emergency Management office has secured two significant grants in Q1 of 2024; one for Emergency Support Services supplies and the second for a Fire Smart coordinator for the Town. Since the office was created in 2006, the division has secured nearly half a million dollars in Provincial funding to benefit the Town’s and First Nations’ programs.

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the report dated February 8, 2024 from the Chief Administrative Officer titled “CAO Update” be received for information.

SUBMITTED BY: Scott Sommerville, Chief Administrative Officer