Committee of the Whole

Thank you.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'll call the committee of the whole meeting to order and start by recognizing the Esquimalt Songhees nation upon whose traditional territories View Royal sits.

And the first thing I need is an approval of the agenda, please.

Second.

Thank you.

It's moved and seconded by Councillor Rogers and Lemon.

All in favor, opposed, that's carried.

We have the minutes under 3.8.

Moving option.

Thank you.

Second.

Moved and seconded by Councillor Kowalewich.

Any comments, corrections?

No.

Good.

All in favor.

Opposed.

That's carried.

And so we're going straight to um so I didn't do my public participation book.

So we have one per petition in delegation this afternoon from the West Shore Parks in REC.

And after that, we will have public participation, and they'll also be part public participation this evening.

So if you wish to call in, you're gonna dial 778-402-9227.

And when prompted, enter conference ID 605-307-000 pound.

And at the appropriate time in the agenda, I will then announce the last four digits of your phone number, ask you to mute the live webcast to avoid feedback, ask you to not use speaker phone to ensure sound quality, and ask that you unmute yourself by pressing star six.

And if you can begin with your name and address, please, for the record.

This meeting will be recorded.

By participating in this webcast.

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

So public participation for items this afternoon will come up after the West Shore budget presentation.

And then for this evening, we'll come as soon as we reconvene at seven o'clock, basically.

And then there is also a question period at the very end of the meeting where the public can also call in and ask a question on any topic.

And with that, I'm going to welcome Grant from West Shore, who's going to walk us through the budget.

Great.

Thank you, your worship and counsel for inviting us to present the West Shore 2022 budget and requisition request.

Can everyone see my screen okay?

We can.

Great.

Um, I on the call, I also have Wei Wu, um, who is our new finance and administration manager.

Uh, she just started on January 5th, so she gets the pass on the presentation today.

But I wanted her to uh get a chance to experience the uh the budget presentation and put some faces to names when she hears counselors' names or and so on.

So she's on the call.

Uh our presentation today will take you through a high-level summary of the 2021 financial projections, the five-year financial plan for 2022 through 2026, the 2022 capital projects, major expense increases for 2022, and the of course the requisition impact for all of these on each of the municipalities.

For 2021, we have projected revenues to surpass budgeted levels by 10% or 110% of budget and expenditures to be 2% less than budgeted.

A number of factors have led to these, most notably the continued tremendous demand for child care programs and summer camps and the hosting of a number of filming days for the Netflix production of MAID.

The key improvements over the budget for 2021, as well as a shortfall, one of the shortfalls that were listed are in the chart on the left.

So, as mentioned, we had the Netflix revenue, which was unexpected and definitely beneficial early on in the year when we were still in uncertain times as far as COVID closures went, so that went a long way to help us generate some revenue to offset some costing.

Both indoor and outdoor field rentals actually have surpassed by quite a bit.

I'll go into it a little bit a bit further.

But as you recall, we had quite a conservative budget and discussions with the board as at the time of the fall when we were preparing the 2021 budget and going into 2021, there were still a lot of COVID related restrictions going on, as we had for the beginning of this year and a little bit right now as well.

And so we weren't really sure where where those would go, how they would affect us, and what kind of changes would need to be there.

So we put quite a conservative budget, but when it came to outdoor events in particular, or not events but sporting events, um, there was certainly a spectatorship uh restriction that occurred, but not the bookings.

And so our fields have stayed in high use um pretty much all year, and um so definitely received more revenue and and rentals like they were pre-COVID.

So um what that's one of the areas that surpassed budget.

Um the pool is operated um better than than expected um through the year of a net um decreased cost of just shy of 110,000 for the year.

A lot of that is was a combination of things.

We've had some staff shortages that have caused some savings, but as well as once the pool opened, which was very uh generous of all the ownership to put um the restart funds towards this to get it back open, was definitely in high demand.

We knew when we were closed for much of 2020, but um it was definitely there.

Licensed care programs is mentioned, the expansion of upstairs with that uh the renovation to the new child care center has been really high.

And the golf courses remained high.

That was high the previous year as well, as golf was one of those ex those activities that um met all the all the demands of the restrictions as far as it was uh small groups, it's outdoors and so on.

So the the demand for the golf is has really had a big a big boost.

The only area where we saw um a significant shortfall from from budget was in the weight room.

A lot of that uh was when we were able to open, there was a hesitancy.

I think a lot of people, as anyone who tried to buy home gym equipment, would have seen people created their own gyms in their basements and their garages and so on.

And uh we didn't have have the return as quickly as we had expected um for the summer.

Um by we hit by the time we hit into the fall, we were actually starting to see returns and and um weight room usage, much like pre-COVID.

So we were seeing seeing that occur.

And then unfortunately, right in December, they got closed down.

Some of our evening slots are full, but there are restrictions on the numbers we have right now according to the current PHO order.

They're now back open.

Numbers are growing.

As I mentioned, you recall may recall, we purposely had that conservative budget.

A lot of those things were allowed us to open a little bit earlier, so it allowed us to generate more revenue closer to pre-COVID numbers versus what we had budgeted for the year.

In addition to this, I mentioned the COVID restart grant funds that were used to bring the pool back open that was closed for much of 2020.

This helped supplement the uh so there wasn't the tax effect of running that facility, as well as some of the other operations and programs that were eliminated due to COVID-19, such as low-cost programs and vacancies in finance and maintenance, as well as new sanitization equipment such as foggers and whole room sanitizers.

It was mentioned at the time that if not fully required, the remaining funds would be deferred to 2022 as the recovery from COVID was going to take more than one year.

With that in mind, if you see the graft on the right hand side, 209,513 of the projected surplus we've identified as remaining COVID restart funds.

And our budget includes deferring these to 2022 to offset some of those extra costs of bringing the pool back online.

And if you recall, for 2021, the entire $690,000 cost for the pool was covered by these funds.

So that's a 9.4% requisition increase of bringing that back into it.

And so by deferring some of these funds, we've dropped those down into it.

So it's a 4% reduction of the overall requisition, which you'll see later when I break it down as 5.14% for 2022.

2022 revenue expectations have been increased to align with what we realized between June and December of 2021.

Brings the society closer to the 6.4 million that was expected in 2020 pre-COVID before being hit with COVID.

The 2023 through 2026 growth is a result of an average of a 2% fee increase supplied each year as well as 2% growth applied each year.

And please note the deferral of the COVID restart funds right at the top of there under 2022 to offset some of those expenses.

Of course, as we as we try to generate and are able to open up programs and run more programs, staffing costs go up, utility costs go up, supply costs go up.

And also we we've got bargained wages that increase on an annual basis as well, utility increases that go up, the return to normal staffing levels, and the return to the established capital replacement reserve contribution levels.

You may recall that for 2021 to make to get the budget approved where we were, the board and staff worked together and reduced the contribution to capital, knowing that we would have to make a bounce back in the future to get those numbers back up.

I'll speak to this a little bit later as well, just in regards to our capital works reserve.

The result for 2022 is mentioned is an increase of 5.14%.

You will see that we expect to return to historical annual lifts of two to two and a half percent by 2024.

And of course, that is assuming that closures and capacity limits are behind us.

So we have a little bit of higher increase for 2023 in our projections moving forward, and that's just as we're making that steady recovery back to normal uh offerings and so on with the public.

The operating expense increases, some of the the key ones that are of a more of a non-discretionary nature.

We've got collective bargaining wages, $77,000 for salaries and $35,000 for auxiliary wages that increase for 2022.

We have hydro rate increases that of a value of approximately 21,000.

Parks water usage and rate increases of 19,000.

So a significant increase in the water rate, but also due to um expectations of what we've had some fairly drought, dry summers is we've had to normally we've got our ponds in the um golf course that collect water all winter, and we use those, but they're running out sooner in the year than than previously, and so our water or city water usage has gone up to water the greens and so on, as well as the fields.

Insurance premiums have taken quite a big jump of 35,000.

Um, garbage and sewer, and um for a total of 195,700 non-discretionary expenses or a 4.01% increase in operating expenses.

There are a number of major site maintenance replacements scheduled for 2022, um, which includes there's some lighting projects.

We've got some LED lighting replacements, um, pool filters, large field maintenance equipment, um, and a roof, among others.

Um, one of the key ones I wanted to speak to in there is we've listed the skate park under new initiatives, and funding for this is shown as grant and member contributions within the capital funding graph on the top right.

You'll see our our balancing or capital funding as we have 20,000 coming out of a fitness and equipment reserve, which we contribute 80,000 a year for.

So that goes up and down depending on what equipment needs to be replaced.

That grant and community member contributions, which right now we've got some donations are building, we've got uh some title sponsors that are interested, as well as we've applied for a federal infrastructure grant that would cover 49% of the project.

The remaining funding would come from a combination of those donations as mentioned and owner contributions.

Those owner contributions are still staying at the same amount that was presented before all the councils, I believe it was two years ago.

So we've still remained in that amount.

Unfortunately, the cost for the project keep growing.

At an owner's meeting in the fall, when I met with all of the mayors, we discussed this, gave them an update update on it.

At that meeting, the the owners indicated that there's definitely a strong desire to have this project go.

They see the need for the community.

It's a great location for it.

However, due to all sorts of different funding considerations as a result of COVID and other impacts, full funding wouldn't be an option.

But we're waiting for the results on that grant submission.

We've recently been updated that is still ongoing.

Unfortunately, they haven't made a decision yet, but we're not out of the the running so far.

But if it is unsuccessful, that we are to pursue another other financing to try to get this to come to fruition.

And so myself and with your CIOs have I've contacted our bank as far as looking at options, what that would be.

And I believe actually it was Mr.

Enema from View Royal actually contacted MFA to find out what that process would look like as far as if the loan came through through that aspect.

So we're definitely trying to get this going.

We've got it in the in here, so it's reflective in our financial plan is as um as the one of the the big discussions at the time was when it first came forward, this was about $350,000 less.

It's growing quickly in cost due to costs of supplies and so on, and everywhere is growing.

And the longer we wait and may price ourselves out of being able to actually do the projects, we're trying to get that um moved forward.

So as mentioned, just a bit of a breakdown on how what makes up that 5.14%.

So 1.42% or 69,000 is related to operating.

If you recall on a previous slide, it was upwards of 4%, was actually operating increases.

So we've been able to, through expectations on performance as well as fee increases, drop that increase in operating costs from just slightly over 4% to 1.42, a 2.26% increase for major repairs and maintenance expenses.

And then also at that owner's meeting in the fall, we discussed, which has come up every for a number of years, is the challenge we've got with our reserve and be the ability to maintain the facility.

We're quite strong operating, but we've got it's a large facility with very expensive equipment and that having that reserve and being able to maintain the asset infrastructure.

At that, there was the request by the ownership to add an additional 60,000.

And if we grow that as 60,000 per year, we're fully funded within 20 years.

So that's an additional 1.14%, which brought it up to the 5.14% for the year to be able to increase that contribution to capital.

As mentioned, just as a note, it would be an additional 4% on top of this, up to 9.14% if we didn't include that carry forward of those restart funds.

And a significant portion of that, as mentioned, is the pool due to the fact that the entire cost, 690,000 cost of that pool was covered, was outside of the requisition last year and part of those restart funds.

Converted assessments.5%.

And so you'll see you've actually had a bit of a reduction or certainly less growth in in your requisition amount as compared to the other ownership.

These are the individual requisition amounts for each owner.

As mentioned you'll see view roll is reduced by 1.38% or 10,547 for 2022.

Your assessment grew by by 0.5% versus the others at the average of 7.14 that's what leads to this.

So it's a much lower than the average which then reduces VROL share of the requisition um because it's below that average average amount the next two slides look at the per capita increases for each owner using the latest capital regional district statistics um view rurals is a decrease of point of 92 cents per resident for the year that estimated taxation impact based on your budgeted 2021 taxation impact is a reduction of uh 0.11 uh percent of the uh um from the previous year as far as the taxation goes related to West Shore Parks and Recreation Society for VROIL.

This slide looks at the capital works reserve forecast as been as I mentioned earlier and has been brought forward in previous years.

We continue to show a depletion of reserves in future years.

A big contributor to this is we had three years in a row where there was no requisition increase.

And so there wasn't an increased contribution to this as capital and of course buildings, roofs need to be repaired, and so on.

So that's a large driver to where this has happened.

Increase to contributions in this budget has moved the depleted out.

So last year we looked at being depleted in 2023.

We're now looking at depleting it in 2024.

We'll continue to submit increases to the reserve contributions each year as well as are working with a consultant.

This started in the fall, unfortunately has been delayed.

But with working on an asset management plan, that will be brought forward to the ownership to review and for consideration as far as trying to ensure we can get that funding to maintain our assets.

And furthermore, successful years like this last year with budgetary surpluses will continue to fund reserves as is shown on here in 2022.

You'll see a surplus that's related 2021 of the 346,000, and that contributes to this reserve.

So if we have performance that's better than expected, that continues to add to this as well.

The 2022 budget includes the application of these fees effective this coming September 2022.

Staff do a thorough comparison of all of our regional counterparts as well as the West Shore YMYWCA to ensure that we're in the running, is that we're not pricing ourselves out of the market.

Victoria is not all that big of a location.

If if we're significantly more expensive to use the pool as an example, someone will just drive to a squamoat, they'll drive to another area.

So we keep those in mind when we're doing our fees, as well as at the same time, we've taken an approach over the last few years to try to ensure we're increasing our fees at a similar rate to what the requisition increase is.

Right now it's been a bit smaller just as we're trying to grow, coming ourselves out of COVID, but we'll get back to that process where we're trying to spread the load of that increased costs between so we're equally spreading it over the users and the taxpayers to try to lower that burden.

Okay, thank you, Grant.

And that concludes um my presentation.

Questions?

Councillor Rogers?

Thank you for the uh succinct report, and um it's nice to see that view oil's not going to get much of an increase.

Um but uh uh your your page um uh 15 on the reserve continuity um uh certainly looks a little alarming when uh it appears at the end of the day um for 2024, we'd only have 9,000 left.

Um does it is I wonder if that shouldn't be uh marching red as opposed to yellow.

Um is is there a way uh and I guess that's gonna be um hopefully some consideration of the owners and and the board to uh improve the looks of that so we don't have to follow in such a um tenuous situation.

Any comments?

Yeah, uh through the chair.

Uh yeah, definitely.

And that's part of this asset management plan is coming forward with that.

So we've got um our operations crew has a fantastic 25 year capital plan.

Um the missing pieces, which is evident by this by this graph, is the it's not fully funded.

Um, and we do hit a funding shortfall coming up.

Uh, a lot of those big projects, as mentioned with not receiving uh not having up or um a budget increase for a few years is the the way to make budget is capital projects were removed, and so we've got some really heavy years coming up.

That 60,000 a year, as long as we keep growing that um by that amount, if the ownership is is um wanting that, that will lessen this as well.

And we'll make adjustments as we go through to what the projects are.

Right now, this is what is in 2024.

Of course, we won't go negative.

So if we get to that point and there's no change, we will make adjustments to what those projects are and make ensure the board and the ownership is aware of what that could potentially mean as far as wear and tear on the facilities.

But um this is definitely foremost in our um, certainly in my mind, anyways, in uh and the board's mind, um, as needing correction as we move forward.

Thank you.

Just a follow-up question, your worship.

So um, and and maybe your worship you can help me with this.

Um when when and I appreciate and and I'm thankful that um it was the um direction to report another 60,000 on reserves is that per year so well is that now for all those years an additional 60 000 i guess certainly starting this year grant what what exactly that that was the capital asset management plan right that required the 60 000 per year yes yes yeah that's the to make to to be get to get to that funding level we need to grow by that 60 000 every year so we'll continue to add that extra two percent into the or one point i forget the number I should have in running but uh we'll continue to grow that amount each year yes yeah thank you counselor matts and um yes thank you and very good presentation grant appreciated that uh two questions for you um what was the inflation inflation rate that you built used to build in for your you know future projections and uh i gather wage or potential wage increases are coming i'm just wondering if you could if you what what amount you put in for that as as a percentage sure um um through the chair so we have for inflation we had two and a half percent is what we used um for that um the way the way things are going that's possibly a little shy i'm guessing um so we may need to to um to work on that as far as wage increases, we we're actually ahead of the curve of our counterparts.

We um did our negotiation negotiations last year, so we had a there was a one and a half percent increase for this year and a two percent for 2023, and that's that's where our current contract is right now.

Okay, so no future contract to no more negotiations for a few years.

No, not for a few years, yeah.

In here we always build two percent into wages, we tend to use that as an average, uh, but our current contract is a one and a half for 2022 and then it's two percent for 2023.

Okay, thank you.

What's the cutoff date for the assessments that you use just out of curiosity?

I might have to defer to Dawn on that one, but I think it um it's the previous year, so it will be for 2022's budget, it's the 2021 assessment.

So I assume it's the calendar year of 2021.

Right.

Well, that would explain it because we did actually lose assessed value yes last year, which would but this but this year it's gone up, so we're gonna see a correction, obviously.

But um on my left?

Okay, thank you.

Okay, damn any questions?

No.

So staff, should we have a motion to support the budget and to go to council?

Okay, so is anyone prepared to make that?

Okay, so support is moved by councillor rogers, second by councillor Kowalewich.

Okay, all in favor, opposed, that's carried.

Thank you, Grant.

Thanks for coming and walking through that, and thank you for all your work.

And let's hope we get that grant for the skateboard park.

Definitely.

Thank you very much.

Thanks.

So next up we have public participation.

The number to call in is on your screen, 778-402-9227.

And enter conference ID 605-307-000 pound.

Staff, do we have any callers on the line?

Your worship, we have caller last four digits 0569.

Okay, thank you.

Caller with the last four digits zero five six nine.

This is your opportunity to speak to an item on the agenda today, if you would like.

Good afternoon.

Zero five six nine.

Hello.

Hello, are you able to hear me?

We sure can, yeah.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Hi.

Um, thank you, Mayor and Council, for this opportunity to speak.

Jane Devonshire here from two forty two Glenairlie Drive, speaking on behalf of the VRCC.

I'm going to speak to the agenda item six point one point three B, Energy Step Codes.

I'm truly excited to see the community climate action strategy coming close to fruition.

I'm particularly pleased to see that the staff and council are taking a serious look at the energy step codes with an eye to accelerating the timelines.

The provincial government target of twenty thirty-two is far too late, and we will be toast by then.

Right now, the South Island Climate Action Network, SICAN, is working on advocating for the LCES or low carbon energy systems bylaws.

We are advocating for Step Code 5, but permits a Step Code 3 build if no fossil fuels are used in the building.

Step Code 3 is already coming into play this year, so this is easily achievable.

Eight municipalities have enacted have enacted some variation of this LCES bylaw, most prominently North and West Vancouver.

Victoria is currently looking into this as well.

Within SICAN, we have teams starting to approach Esquimol, Callwood Sanity so far, along with the BRCC and V Rural.

I understand that the CRD has a working group looking at the step codes, and I hope that they will see there's a lot of support for this.

I think industry is looking for a regional approach, and the District of North Vancouver has enacted such a bylaw.

If the CRD does not enact a regional bylaw, let us be the little municipality that can and does get it done.

Let us be the catalyst for change on South Island and build back better.

We are in a severe climate emergency, and every gas hookup blocks our building stock into another 20 years of climate destroying GHG emissions.

This methane gas is 86, let me repeat that, 86 times more potent than CO2.

I sincerely hope you consider making the step code change within our community climate action strategy.

Climate change waits for no one.

I also hope that staff will carry our voices to the local government workshop potentially scheduled to meet tomorrow, February 9th.

Thank you so much for your kind attention.

Thank you, Jane.

Thank you, Mayor Screech.

Do we have any other callers on the line, Steph?

Your worship, we're not showing any other callers at this time.

Okay, thank you very much.

So I'm going to close off public participation, and I'm going to hand the chair over to Councillor Lemon for Protective Services.

And um I have no report.

Thank you, Your Worship.

Uh Superintendent Preston, you're up.

Lovely to see you, sir.

Lovely, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Council, thanks for having me as always.

I think we have a number of slides here today, but I'll I'll start off just by giving you a quick overview, a quick update of uh some numbers here that uh are relevant for your community.

So in January we went to 238 calls uh for service.

A lot of traffic-related complaints uh this month.

Uh we took three impaired drivers off the road in View Royal uh in January.

We also had 16 reported motor vehicle collisions uh in View Royal as well throughout the month.

As a as a request from the V Royal Elementary School, Constable Brewer was teaching Dare there uh this month, so it was nice to see the members back in the schools again.

Uh, he also took um a whole bunch of the kids from the View Royal and uh Esquimont, Songhese First Nation, and and this area as well to the Grizzlies game.

We partnered up with the Grizzlies.

So they they offer up tickets, and Cole was kind enough to take them on the uh the weekend, and we'll continue to do that.

In fact, we partnered up with the Legion on that one, and they brought the 10-passenger van down.

I think it was um Norm from the Legion that came down and was uh acted as driver and uh chauffeur, and uh we'll continue to do that as well.

Um so just a couple of significant files here that uh shouldn't say just a random sampling of files.

So January 14th, we received the uh report of a stolen vehicle near uh Presley Place.

A few days later, that vehicle was recovered out in Souk.

However, uh the tools inside remain stolen.

We have no suspects at this time.

January 17th, uh we received a report of a theft from vehicle in uh Burnett Road area.

Approximately $2,500 worth of plumbing tools were stolen from an unlocked vehicle.

21st of January.

Um, while a officer was conducting patrols in the 200 block of View Royal, a um our automatic license plate reader, which is on our traffic vehicles, and so it reads you know every plate that's coming by automatically and spits out whether or not somebody's prohibited uh or no insurance uh no insurance.

Uh that one picked off a prohibited driver uh in that area.

That individual was arrested and uh served with an appearance notice for March for court.

On the 21st in West Shore, we received a complaint from a social worker reporting uh sexual interference uh disclosure regarding a um a family, a father, and a child uh scenario.

We uh obviously were actively engaged in that investigation and will continue to do so.

On the 27th of January, uh we received a report of a missing person while hiking in Theatus Lake.

The person uh had recently moved from here from Europe and got uh uh lost.

A good Samaritan assisted in bringing them back to their vehicle.

And on the 31st, uh West Shore responded to a three-car motor vehicle accident in the 1700 block of Island Highway.

One of the vehicles was uh not drivable, and the other two had minor damage uh to their vehicle so lots of lots of uh motor vehicle stuff unfortunately this this month here we were not as uh diligent and uh hero like as the fire department saving a seal um like they were so um there is metals for medals forthcoming for uh no doubt but were we really saving a seal with less staff uh yes yes he does he'll he'd be happy to point that out um we had 14 uh calls up to the hospital.

We had uh 10 mental health related calls, which is actually great uh news in the sense that it was only it was down 52 percent from the year prior.

So uh perhaps maybe some of the release of conditions here, people are not quite as kooked up.

Um, but we did see a 50% decrease in last month.

So hopefully that's a trend that'll continue.

Uh overall, when we look at uh the 28th 2018 uh here we are, uh to 2021 stats, you'll notice a marked increase here.

We got 500 about 550 more calls for service in due royal since 2018.

So just a steady increase there.

Um I don't think that's a a surprise.

Although I do I do believe that it's uh you know the same increase as Langford had um last year.

So it's it's it is significant for a small community.

Um I'm really kind of unable to speak to why it's gone up so much, but uh it has.

I mean, I know all the communities are growing right now.

So the percentage of incidents in uh West Shore last year it was uh 15%.

So 15% of our calls for service were in um View Royal, and um 19% in uh Caulwood, Machosen 3.8, Highlands 1.4, Malahat just under one, the reserves 3.3, and uh Langford was fifty-five percent.

Um just trying to see.

So, yeah, so like from last year, your calls for service increased 15 percent.

Yeah, sorry, go ahead.

Well do you want them to advance to say next year?

Yeah, you can scroll scroll through it, it's fine here.

These are just uh can you excuse me?

Yes, uh question.

You know, there were the three charts that you provided here, and they all looked identical to me.

They are identical, they're just they're just a different way of showing them.

Uh the statistician, that's how uh they wrote them.

Some of them actually have the numbers built in, some of them don't have the numbers built in here.

Okay, good.

I thought it was a test.

So um currently uh you guys are paying uh view Roles paying for 12.35 percent of the the resource.

Um it'll be 13 if uh you know we did ask for one body from View Royal, which would put you at uh 13.35%.

And every year you guys are in that 13 to 15 percent range, so it's a couple percent lower, but it's still within the range of um uh I think relevancy in terms of the other communities for um you know you're in a partnership obviously with Calwood and Langford, and we won't talk about the province.

Uh obviously tomorrow the numbers do come out for um stat scan, so we'll see if a chosen goes over, and we'll be having a conversation with uh the province here uh soon.

But in terms of your shared resources and what you guys pay for you know uh I'd venture to say that it's it's you know if you can increase the the body this year you'll be um certainly in the in the range with everybody else I think Langford might be a little overcontributing a little bit but some years they undercontribute a little bit and I think that's the nice thing about the partnership it'll never be an exact number um so being off a couple percent it's just not allowing the you know one community to fall way behind in terms of uh their participation and relevant to the um calls for service any any questions on these uh initial slides here?

So I don't know that this is accurate, but um you can you can keep scrolling through there.

Um I'm not sure if this is one of the slides on here, but it talks about uh cost per it has your population at 11,829 and uh cost per capita at 125 dollars per per person, comparatively speaking, 207 for Callwood, 267 for Langford.

And when you get into the the high-end boutique police forces like Saanich, uh you're you're into 286 and in Victoria at 530 uh dollars per per capita.

Yeah, there it is, that number there.

No, I do um that would be a little skewed in the sense that I believe it's uh the the 7030 split and the others are 90 10.

I think that would account for a little bit of that uh that number.

Right.

And you'll enjoy that uh that discount until you hit 15,000.

Unless you can miraculously do what chosen is has done over the years and keep it under that number for somehow.

And the next slide there.

So as you can see, the um the rural caseload per officer is is a little higher um than the other municipalities.

And I just noticed that in in the last, like I said, in the last few years, uh that your numbers have definitely increased.

You know, probably not the same as the other municipalities.

I'm not sure what that rationale is.

Is that a hospital?

No, I think that's been fairly consistent.

I'm not, um, I mean, I guess I I'm not completely sure of some of the housing um, you know, the types of housing that you've you've added into the area.

I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, or you know, the fact that um we know that Victoria's had some significant issues uh downtown, and perhaps you're the first stop uh on the way into the west.

I really can't explain.

We have a ton more of the petty crime than we used to, right?

Yeah.

Household.

I agree.

Um bikes being stolen and hoses being vandalized and propane tanks being stolen.

I know.

I mean, that used to be a rarity, and now it almost seems quite common.

Yeah.

And you and you, you know, we we're starting to see more um street people, um, homeless people in in the area here that are obviously looking for for resources and housing and and what have you.

And um so I I don't, yeah, I can't explain the the calls for service, the increase uh, you know, in particular why yours has gone up more than than everybody else's percentage wise, other than speculating.

Yeah, um, you know, with the statistics that you you you get, you know, I'm just wondering if you can, uh someone there can run a program and take out hospital, take out highways, uh, you know, to try and level the playing field and and get a sense of what um absolutely.

Yeah.

Um, you know what, you'll in the annual report, you'll actually you'll get that and it'll give a more thorough breakdown of of what the calls for service were, kind of a more blend.

Yeah.

And that should be out in the next two weeks here.

We should be able to have that to you.

Um that it was that one.

Yeah, I think that's it for slides.

So as I've mentioned before, um, and I've come to you, oh, and actually I wanted to mention one point to the the caller uh in public participation, should be happy to know that um that the Tesla that I've talked to you guys about are electric vehicles.

Uh the uh the pilot for the country is here, and I think I've mentioned that to you a number of times.

It is it's arrived in Ottawa, so it's currently being fitted up with one other vehicle that'll be in Ottawa, and then we'll have the other vehicle here on the West Coast.

Um, and we also have two more electric vehicles, uh, a Ford uh Lightning on order and a Ford Mach E.

So West Shore will be, like I said, the test site for the country with electric vehicles, uh trying to greening green our fleet and um being a little environmentally conscious, as well as uh looking at efficiencies.

Um we spent a lot of money, and gas prices don't seem to be going down, so uh this should certainly benefit the communities.

Did you say Tesla?

Yes.

So we're the so the detachment is getting a Tesla plus two other We're getting a yeah, we're gonna be piloting a Tesla, uh Ford Mustang Machie, and a Ford Lightning uh pickup truck.

So I'm currently in the process of putting electric uh charging stations in.

Um took about two years because you're dealing with federal government.

But after two years, uh it seems the police departments down in the states that have done it, they start realizing savings because it costs about $20,000 more for the vehicles and the fit-ups.

But we save that in gas each year um and maintenance because they require less paid.

And so after two years, I should be able to come back to you and say, now I'm saving you ten thousand dollars a year um for the next five years or 10 years of the vehicle's life.

Terrific.

Yeah.

Good, good.

Good.

Sorry that was getting a little off track there.

So um the the ask um this year was for for one extra RCMP officer from View Royal.

There's one from Callwood and three from Langford.

Langford's confirmed there three Callwood is confirmed in principle and I'm hoping and optimistic that uh View View Royal will be able to contribute.

The positions will be utilized for um the View Royal position would be for a sex assault a special victims unit which is going to be uh focusing on domestic violence as well as um sexual assault investigations.

I think we're we're becoming the size of that attachment, and those investigations are just they're too sensitive.

And if it was your son or daughter that had been sexually assaulted, I think you'd want somebody that has adequate training, that niche, and be able to properly investigate that.

And so that is the two bodies that we're trying to put towards that, one police dog and two more bodies to field uh back on the watch to feel the increase in call volume.

Um Todd, I I noted that the sexual assault clinic is losing or going to be stopping its counseling services.

Will would any kind of counseling service be incorporated within that?

I don't know.

Um, I would I would think that would be uh an absolute priority that we'd be able to partner with somebody for that.

Um we don't want to leave somebody that's gone through that type of trauma without that that level of service.

So um absolutely that would be uh something.

So just to put it in perspective, last year we had uh 10 um sorry, 13 sex assault investigations in V Royal alone, and 75 domestic violence files.

So this type of unit would oversee, they wouldn't be doing all of the domestic violence, but they'd be overseeing the domestic violence to make sure that proper investigations and proper uh victim management is uh being completed.

But they would be looking after the uh the sex assault investigations.

And we've seen in other communities where those files haven't got the attention that they need, and the victims, unfortunately, have been the ones that have been re-victimized by the by the lack of attention.

Um questions on that.

So uh so I I'm happy to make the motion that we support a new officer for the West Shore detachment starting November 1st of this year.

Okay.

Second or second.

I really uh I really appreciate uh your support.

It doesn't go unnoticed.

Thank you.

Good.

Do you want to speak to it?

I I don't honestly, I feel like I need to speak to it.

I'll wait and see if my colleagues have to say, but I yeah.

I'll reserve my yeah, I it it's uh I think the uh the numbers justify you know the information that you provide us.

Um I I think it's um I'm pleased to hear that uh you know you've already been doing the planning on on where these officers, um, these FTs, if you like, will will be going into.

And I'm really pleased that we're putting an extra resource, that expertise into uh the sexual assault uh aspects.

So um I realize it's necessary.

We should do it.

Thank you, Council.

Uh Counselor, did you want to speak to it?

I know uh that the cost of policing continues to rise.

The sophistication and disclosure requirements of uh major cases uh are in high demand by by Crown Council and by our criminal justice system, and it's becoming uh more challenging to prosecute than ever before.

So uh to me, this is a no-brainer to support this, in particular uh those survivors that you're speaking to.

Appreciate that.

Thank you very much, Council.

Councilor Matson, did you want to speak to it?

Um yes, thank you.

Uh I too will be interested in seeing the numbers if we can extract uh the hospital and and uh trans Canada to just to see what the impact's been.

But I thought we'd already voted on this um a week or so ago.

No, no, we no we discussed it at uh at a CAO meeting.

Uh it hasn't it needs to be in the public realm.

Okay, no, I I thought we'd already done this, but all right.

Okay, well, personally, uh I'm proud of my counsel if we if we uh uh just let this another question after we pass the motion.

Okay, all right.

All those in favor.

Opposed motion passed.

This is another follow-up question.

So uh if I hear you you're um still working on the province to uh come to the table and negotiate their fair share.

Yeah, I think uh obviously there's conversations to be had surrounding um a new building, and with Machosen going over, I think that will be the kind of the crux of or the uh the start of negotiations with the province uh and machosen as to what your relationship's going to be, and that's really between the municipalities and the province.

Uh and and you know, together.

I mean, uh from my perspective, I see quite a harmonious uh relationship.

One that's I think I've told you before, one of probably the best in the province that I've seen and heard of.

And I'm pretty well connected throughout the province within the RCFP in terms of the three major municipalities here sharing resources.

You know, you look at other municipalities uh to have 24 hour policing, you'd need around 20 officers.

I just heard that today from our strategy branch.

You know, so you wouldn't be able to have 24 hour policing here, we'd have an on-call.

Um, but on the flip side, the other municipalities wouldn't be able to have some of these specialty units um that they enjoy.

You'd all pretty much just have frontline policing.

And so as a result, if you guys working together harmoniously, you can stand up sex assault units, drug sections, property crime, um, GIS, community policing, traffic, and you can have all those units because you guys can work together.

And you see so many of these other municipalities uh and those relationships fracture and they can't get along, and you know, it's unfortunate it's constituents that lose.

Um, they don't they don't enjoy those those specialty units.

I I don't know any other community um and detachment in the province.

You're a very unique detachment here, and and they always use this one as a case study and uh and for how hard it is, but you've actually um you made it fairly easy for me.

Um just because the three of you guys get along so well.

Uh maybe not on everything, but uh certainly in the policing world.

So I appreciate that as well.

Three of which guys I'm sorry.

The three municipalities if I didn't include obviously the First Nations as well.

Yeah there's it's just more the the province, uh the provincial areas and um yeah.

I guess uh just a comment, you know I I agree it it it's really good that we're able to do that, but I also don't want the province to step away and say okay okay you guys are taking care of it.

Um you don't need us.

I think um I think things will come to a head sooner than later here.

Uh I think keep us posted.

Yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

I'll move receipt of Todd's report.

Terrific.

Thank you very much.

Again, thank you for your support.

Thanks, Todd.

Appreciate it.

Second.

Motion passed.

Report received.

Marathon man.

You're up, Chief.

I have no report.

You will you do?

Are you are you are you not going to speak to the building?

Yeah.

Hey.

Or do you want to talk about the seal instead?

Oh.

Director Chase.

Ah.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

So you're that's wrapped.

So it shouldn't really be under my jurisdiction anymore, should it?

That's fine.

Okay.

All right, good.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Thank you, Counselor Lemon.

Uh I'm Lindsay Chase, Director of Development Services, and with me today is A.V.

Wu, our auxiliary building official, who will be presenting the report on step code.

Oh, well, welcome, Ms.

Wu.

Thank you.

Uh may I have some assistance with the slides, please?

Is that happening?

They should be up in just a moment.

Yeah, I forgot.

Producer, do you have the slides, Andy?

Things always go wrong first time.

It does seem to happen that way, yes.

All right.

Good afternoon.

Uh I'm AB Wu.

I'm here to present counsel with the report of the NG Step Code.

The following slides outline the highlights of the report that was in front of you.

I will be presenting information regarding some general update on the SEP code in its current uh state.

In addition, I will highlight what some of our regional local governments are referencing in the SEP code and greenhouse gas reduction efforts.

There is currently a working group with staff in the regional local government, and I'll be providing information on what they're up to and where V Royal staff is participating in that effort.

Lastly, I will present some next steps for council's information.

Next slide, please.

This slide is a reminder to council about a report that was presented in April 2020 and the direction that council provided staff regarding the step code, which is to meet step two for part three buildings and step three for part nine buildings by 2022, which is where we're at now.

Next slide, please.

Council has probably seen this graphics before as one of the is one of the ones that the province is using to explain what are the steps in the step code and the expected energy performance that should go up in steps.

The province introduced the energy step code in 2017, and it's anticipated we will reach step five or net zero by 2032 with incremental steps in 2022 and 2027.

So currently in the BC Building Code, we're in step one.

It's anticipated the province will introduce step three by the end of 2022 for part nine buildings, and step two part three buildings coming up.

Local governments are doing.

So Victoria, Sanish, and Callwood are all quite similar in what they're asking for, which is step three for part nine.

And Oak Bay is slightly different in what they call large multifamily, which is step two.

Otherwise, pretty much people who are part uh local governments who are participating are looking at step three right now.

Next slide, please.

It is timely when I started gathering information about the step code with the contacts that I have with the local government staff.

There is a working group with local government staff that was just launching an initiative to look at a more coordinated municipal response in adopting the STEP code.

In preliminary discussions with industry stakeholders, such as the builders and designers, they are wanting to have a somewhat uniform approach in what steps apply to what buildings and the timeline for adoption.

This is the reason why the working group started.

So far, there are three events planned, which is outlined on this slide.

The first event is a local government staff workshop planned for tomorrow, and then the two separate workshops with industry, which is planned for the last week in February.

Next slide, please.

This diagram is on page five of the report.

This diagram is provided by the working group on a suggested engagement process.

The industry workshops are part of the education sessions in this diagram, and a survey is under development, which may go out in parallel with or after the workshops.

The solution labs in this diagram is another workshop where they will be reviewing the findings with the stakeholder and then maybe a broader engagement session after, depending on the timing of everything.

If council wishes, we can bring back a report in March after the workshops with some options for council to consider on adopting the higher steps than what the provincial building code is requiring.

Next slide, please.

So to summarize, staff can bring back a report in March after the industry workshops to report on the feedback with the development community and will provide options to council to consider if View Royal wants to engage in the discussion on higher energy steps and greenhouse gas reductions.

Should council want staff to look into the higher steps after this report, then staff can bring back another report in June on how to adopt the higher steps into bylaw and policies.

We will need to bring in a delayed adoption date to accommodate files that are already in stream.

With this effort, staff will be needing to update our forms, web page information, and any documentation, and uh and we'll communicate these out to our stakeholders.

Next slide.

So that concludes my presentation and that uh that counts that the committee of a whole receive this report for information.

Okay, thank you very much.

Uh questions.

Counselor Rogers.

Thank you for the report.

Um thank you for also listening.

The uh you gave a few examples of the other municipalities.

Um I think you listed um uh what four.

Um, but I'd I'd be curious to know what um squimal and soup and sensible sandwich um uh as other examples.

And I'd like to, you know, I'm sure you guys, when you come go to have your meeting tomorrow, I'm hoping those all the representatives from all 13 municipalities will be there.

And um, you know, that's that's uh you know just looking at the at the four, it it would give me better context.

Um I think the other thing too is that when we um you know making the motion back in and 20 April 2020 um uh to meet STEPCO two, you know, I think uh things have uh dramatically differ uh become different, uh more critical uh since that time in two years.

Um I want to be able to um see that we accelerate uh the step code in in uh in view oil.

Um I know we've we've heard from Jane about uh going to step code five.

Um you know I'm not so sure about going to five, but I certainly would be interested in going to four.

Um and uh it all was part of our direction for GHD reductions uh that we councils uh recently made the very ambitious, very um uh important step.

And I don't think we're going to be able to achieve that uh if we don't uh start moving on our step codes.

Uh I also note that in the climate action strategic uh draft plan uh there's um that discussion as well um and I I note that going to step codes doesn't um really address the uh GHD issue um as much certainly if homes are a lot more efficient they have a lot less heating use and and so forth but um I would be interested, because again, we've heard examples where um municipalities will uh give the carrot in the stick approach.

Uh if you just want to do step code, we say five.

If you want to do um uh put in heat pumps, then we'll consider a lesser step code.

So I would um hope that when staff go to this uh local government workshop um we work out the details of that uh so that we can regionally uh have an approach with our uh building community um to get all of them behind a standard approach so that we are indeed all working towards reducing uh the GHCs in an accelerated rate.

So I'll leave it at that for now.

Counselor Colwich.

Thanks.

And uh Council Rogers, excellent, uh, excellent point you're bringing up.

Is uh and this can be more of a question, I guess, to Director Chase.

That's something that I was gonna mention as well.

I think I I know what our guest wants out of this.

Uh certainly you're here to, and great presentation.

You're here to give us best uh a best uh practice for the best possible um building uh step codes that are that are ever achievable.

Um I guess what I'm wondering is is how how would that affect uh potential developers who come into View Royal and say, uh, you know, next door I can I can build XYZ and over here I can't.

Uh trying to, I'm trying to just get this kind of break it down to your your your average development application and how that would look to us and to you.

Thank thank you very much, Counselor Kowalowich.

Yeah.

Okay.

I think that there's a few a few components to this.

First and foremost, we are attempting to work regionally so that we understand what the implications would be if the town chooses to not be in step with other municipalities.

The good news is that the regional working group is actually bigger than just Victoria, Saanich, um, and Oak Bay.

There are a few other municipalities that are participating and are and and they are all looking at at the same thing, uh, which is what happens uh or actually I think it's really the question of is it actually a disincentive if one municipality has a higher step code requirement or offers alternatives to a higher step code where you have GHGI how or low carbon low carbon housing being offered or so is it is it a disincentive or not?

And I think that there's probably two different pieces to that.

One is that the higher a step code um number uh or or step that we are at, the more energy efficient housing is.

It may cost a little bit more to produce, but the flip side of that is is that the operational cost of it is quite a bit lower.

So you know those are and those are I think selling features these days for the vast majority of potential potential future residents.

So I'm not sure that the argument that it is in fact a disincentive is really that substantial.

If we are going to be applying step code to in-stream applications, that requires substantial redesign.

That is very costly for developers, and that may be something that pushes them away.

But if we have a long leadout for them, there is definitely an opportunity for them to be able to respond and just kind of build build that in.

Um very upset with us at that point.

So at this point, we're in a fact-finding fact-finding mode.

We're going to do our best to figure out what the options are for View Royal, get the landscape of what's happening around us, and then we'll bring back information and council will be able to hopefully make informed choices at that point.

Does that answer your question?

Thank you.

I am looking forward to some of the results from the upcoming uh workshops and uh making a decision to best uh balance the future needs of View Royal and making development appealing here and welcoming uh while also being mindful of the environment.

It's not going to be easy, but uh we'll we'll take it one step at a time, no pun intended.

Okay.

Um, Councillor Masson, any comments?

Yes, thank you.

Um so Ms.

Wu, thank you very much for your presentation.

Appreciated that, and congratulations for your first first time in front of council.

I think that back in 2020, when we we passed that motion, and I don't think it was very ambitious when you sort of look back to what we're we're projecting in in terms of uh carbon emissions and and what's happening in some of the other municipalities.

So I I share uh councillor Rogers' concerns that we aren't moving quickly enough, and I have a concern that you know spending another seven or eight months before we get all our ducks in a row, uh is just too long for the number of sort of buildings that are planning to come on stream in the next little while.

The other question I had was again talking about buildings in stream.

So I I gather from what uh Director Chase had said that as long as the development permit hasn't been approved, we could impose uh a higher step code.

Okay, so Councillor Chase, if you could just sort of correct me on that one.

And I understand the the concerns about the uh you know if somebody who's already sort of designed the building and then you change the step code, then there's some inconvenience and and cost for them.

But I just wanted clarification in terms of what we could do legally, even if we decided not to do it.

I I don't think I'm in a position to be able to provide a legal opinion on the on that exact issue.

Like if we changed changed rules, I think that um we can certainly bring back information that directly answers that question.

Um and I'm I'm yeah, I don't know the answer, so I'm I'm not I'm not comfortable speculating on on what the the legalities of it would be.

I think though that from the the potential of pushing away development applications or having development applications languish, um establishing a date that um things are coming into effect and establishing what an in-stream application is is one of those important things that council will need to need to turn their attention to as we as we move forward in particular if you're wishing to advance uh implementation of step code and low carbon building so step code though isn't a zoning issue it's a development permit issue um step code can be yes step step code is a building code issue yes however it can have zoning implications because of different requirements for overhangs different requirements for the thickness of walls can impact setbacks, those types of things.

So that's that's where where when we when I'm talking about necessitating building redesign, meeting the step code requires different building techniques to be used.

So it may then also impact form and character of buildings.

So I'm also hearing you say that we could put them in place next week, but do we have to change the the building code because we require a different different building than they could currently build now, plus uh other issues.

If council wishes to advance step code, that actually needs to be done by bylaw.

So so it is it is possible to do.

However, I would I would urge uh council to consider all of the implications associated with that.

And and we'll we'll we will bring back future reports that explore what those implications are uh just again for my colleague just for preference i'd probably prefer to get some of those implications you know sooner rather than than later because i i feel there's an urgency to this but i i certainly don't want to put people in a horrible position in terms of people are developing in our community prefer to report back in march we we need to request a report back in march if we're if if if we would like a report back from um the working groups.

Yeah.

That would be march.

But I think it's happening from the presentation, is is what i understood the if we can confirm that i my my impression is that she said if we would like.

So I think we need to receive the report and then request report back to the end of the day.

Director Chase, can you just clarify that for us?

I I had the impression that we'd be getting reports back in March and then a further one in June.

We we we we have we have uh already put it onto our schedule to bring reports back in in March and June.

And it is possible that we can advance those um uh understanding.

I I've noted council uh council's concerns about the urgency of this matter.

So we'll we'll do our we'll do our best to bring it bring it quickly.

Thank you, Director Chase.

Do we have a second or yeah, second with just a couple more comments?

All right, and okay, do you want to speak to it?

No, I'm I'm good.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um just one second.

Director Chase, just going back to that thread regarding when projects are in-stream.

And I and perhaps you, you know, perhaps this is putting too fine a point on it because you've made your point that you probably can't answer.

But I'm wondering if in-stream refers to before DP or before rezoning.

I can take a stab at that.

So at rezoning, we require um what we're really addressing is land use and density.

And council has been very fortunate in that our development community likes to give you all of the a fair amount of detail.

Moving from rezoning to development permit from the applicant's perspective necessitates a much higher level of detail and much more thinking about what the project is actually going to look like, feel like, and be built like.

So this is an application for DP, you kind of have your form uh set at that point in time, in particular, setbacks, building height, those types of things.

And then it's the movement from development permit to building permit.

Um, and at building permit they need construction quality drawings, um, which really uh really puts the the the point uh the point to how the building is actually going to be constructed.

So it it is uh to my mind it it's not the rezoning applications.

Although, interestingly, the legislation does allow us to consider as part of a rezoning whether or not council wishes to apply a higher step code to that particular project.

Um, and that that can be that can be done at time of rezoning, even if the rest of the municipality isn't at that particular level of step code yet.

Okay, that's great there's like like there's like there's some really interesting nuances here and some tools that I we we're we're really looking forward to bringing bringing all of that information back to council for discussion terrific okay thank you and uh we look forward to that report and just said one last comment uh staff I'm I'm I'm really encouraged thank you very much for um uh you know all of you coming together uh on the workshop and and recognize the importance of this and um and I look also forward to uh the further workshops on on uh part nine part three uh just clarify for me um schools hospitals municipal buildings CRD buildings what groups do those fall into i can answer that answer the mayor um the schools and other buildings are they are part three buildings however the energy step code um if they're really aimed for residential buildings uh in the steps and and and the measurements that they do take they are energy standards that non residential buildings can um build to under Ashray and whatnot, and I won't bore you with the technical details um so there's somewhat parallel uh efforts to make all types of buildings energy efficient.

Um but the provincial step energy step code uh program, if you want to call it that, they are it is aimed at uh residential buildings, including apartment buildings and condoms.

Yeah.

So um again, you know, just asking that when you have that discussion, uh let's let's think about uh the CRD, new CRD buildings that are going to be built or new municipal halls, fire halls, and um and schools and hospitals.

And I I think we need to have that discussion on those areas that have you know used.

They're large and they consume a lot of energy, and they also have a responsibility beyond just developers and building townhouses.

So I I hope that um you look at that.

The other thing I'm harking back on in uh is the old good old days when we had leads, leads platinum and I'd um or gold, and I'd be very curious to know what um what step code would be a Leeds platinum.

Um I I have a little bit of background to that through the mayor.

Um it is a separate program.

Leeds was designed to give the rating that they do the the silver, gold, platinum based on a set of measurements um that that is very different than what the step code measured.

The step code basically measured only energy use as a functioning building or what would be perceived to be a functioning building.

So it's comparing apples and oranges in some way.

Certainly a platinum um lead building would be very energy efficient.

There'll be at least a step three and above, but they don't really compare because they don't line up in the same way.

Okay, thank you.

My last comment.

Listening to Richmond and observing their um uh great initiatives on on the whole step code thing, um I get the impression that uh the province is now the one that's dragging us down, and I think the weakest link is the building code.

So I hope that uh from uh coming out of your uh meetings that we can also start putting some movement in particular on province to step up on the step codes.

Thank you.

All those in favor of receiving the report, opposed motion passed.

Thank you very much for your report, Ms.

Wu and uh to staff will look forward to the next report and perhaps the one after that.

Appreciate it.

Over to you.

No, you've got the building department report, which our chief has been anxiously waiting for.

There he is, or maybe he's not.

No, he's not, it doesn't look like he is okay.

Okay, I'll I'll move receipt of the building department report.

I it's the directory's head.

Yeah.

Oh, of course, yeah.

Right.

We forget.

Right.

Director Chase, I'm not handing over the chair.

Um I just move receipt of the report.

Hello.

You want to speak to it, or you you know you just want to say that there were there was not much to report in the month of January, and I'm I'm hoping that future months will have uh better numbers associated with them.

It clearly wasn't a booming month.

Um all right.

Only for plumbers.

There you go.

Uh do we have a motion to receive?

Yeah, second right.

All those in favor.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay.

So now we're into finance and admin.

And um, the first thing up, Councillor Lemon, I think you wanted to give a brief update on the.

No, I did.

Um, excuse me, I've just got a little bit of a G VPO reserves.

I do.

And do is is um Director Christensen around?

Is she on the line?

So we'll here she is.

Hooray.

Hello.

So at a at a um committee of the whole meeting, I believe it was last month, there was a uh report from the uh GVPL and um well it's the budget.

And there were questions raised about the reserves, which which I I I admittedly were um confusing from my point of view and clearly to the rest of councils.

So I contacted um Paul McKinnon, and rest assured the reserves are in fine shape.

Um they just weren't reflected in that report that we had.

Um so according to Paul McKinnon, the direct director of finance for the library, um in 2018 the reserves were at 11.9 million, and now for the library in 2021, they're at 17 million.

So there's been considerable increase since 2018.

Um there's a decision made by the board in May of 2020 to allocate allocate 1.3 million to contingency to be used to offset municipal contributions over the course of five years from 2020 to 2020 um due to the uncertainty of the pandemic.

But so reserves were drawn down but all is well with the reserve situation um compared to what and you know what I would go back to that particular budget submission from the library except my iPad has been out of um commission until five minutes before this meeting started.

So sorry I can't go back and identify exactly what the confusion was, but perhaps our director of finance can um not to not to put words in, thank you through the chair.

Um not to put words in your mouth, Councilor Lemon, but my understanding was that there was a concern about drawing down the reserves and and perhaps the future sustainability of that practice because I think council is well aware that there is a an appropriate level of caution around drawing down reserves.

I appreciate that.

And uh but certainly uh I think in the the case of the library, um they do not have um significant assets as in large buildings to support.

And I think that kind of plays into this decision as well.

So I I just uh agree with uh Councillor Lemon that um I I think uh watchfulness is a good approach as uh we we do trust that the library board is is doing the right thing.

Thank you.

It is it is kind of interesting though that the library board would decide to draw down on reserves to and use reserves to offset operating without wanting to get into a big conversation about that.

I may but I may just do some investig- I'm I'm curious about that.

It it seems an interesting philosophy.

Yeah.

If if I may, I it it was uh and perhaps I mentioned this, um a a safety margin in the event of the pandemic pandemic affecting municipalities so gravely that we were unable to hold our own.

I go ahead I but I I mean obviously it's not our place to no but it's you know I I guess you know we just wanted to speak up express concerns you know for the long term that the the library will continue to be viable and and and ensure that it's going to have the reserves because those reserves you know do so much um uh in terms of building maintenance uh particularly if um when they they own the building and and have to that responsibility of maintenance when things go sideways you know like a hurt uh hurt fee heating system um i i also was uh interested uh and thinking about it we were very lucky that west shore was was eligible for the bc provincial restart during the covet times and yet the library Greater Victoria Library wasn't well I mean they were they not West Shore got it because we as councils agreed right all five West Shore councils agreed to provide a portion of yeah of our so the library could have actually asked us and we would have considered that, I think.

Right.

Okay.

Yeah.

But they chose to do a different tax.

Okay.

Yeah.

Fair enough.

Interesting thing.

Thank you.

So was that helpful that yeah.

No, she's got confidence there's money in the bank.

Yeah yeah.

Yeah.

Good luck.

Oh, that's good.

Thank you.

Thank you, Don.

So we're going to move on to 6.23A, the budget variants and projects update to January the 31st.

Was there anything in this that you wanted to bring to our attention, Don?

Or this being the first uh report uh of 2022, uh your worship, there's not that much to report.

Um, but we did want to keep uh council informed.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions?

No, I'm happy I got the package, so I'll go from there.

Okay, so just a motion to receive.

Similar.

Second.

All in favor, opposed, that's carried.

And we have the financial plan insights dashboard.

Oh, we're gonna get a display of this.

Thank you, your worship, and uh the rest of council.

Um, council already this afternoon has had quite a quite an um lot to think about, and I'm I'm hoping that this is a little bit of a a lighter presentation.

You can kind of sit back and just relax, and I and I'll try to keep it as brief as possible because I know there's a long way yet to go this afternoon.

Council will have received, if I can look in front of you, a bit of a gift today when you arrived in council chambers sitting at your desk.

I think there's a bit of a 200 plus document in front of you that I know you will be very interested in spending a lot of time with over the next week in advance of our budget deliberation sessions next week.

What I have pro what I have in front of you right now is a little bit of a tool that we have built internally initially for staff, just because if if council sometimes perhaps might seem overwhelmed with the amount of the volume of information in in a budget document and in the budget process itself, staff too sometimes struggle with the sheer volume of information and things that we need to think about when we're preparing the budget.

So I prepared this little bit of a budget tool, primarily in initially just for staff, but I thought that council may be interested in playing with it as well.

And in addition, I always want to think about that I want to do our part in my dream towards perhaps not a paperless society, but perhaps a less paper workload.

The more that we can do online, the less perhaps that in the future we can get used to and maybe not print quite so much.

So what you're seeing is just a budget tool.

This is very similar to the budget variance dashboard that we rolled out last year.

It uses the same technology and it kind of looks and feels, I think, a little bit similar.

How do you get to it?

You get to it through a website link.

And we're gonna provide that to council by email for now.

It can be published on our website if council wishes, but only after my proposal is that we would only think about doing that after council has gone through the budget and made the changes that it wants to, you know, that it makes on the on the budget through the budget workshops.

You'll notice at the top left corner there it does say it is the proposed financial plan.

So it does match the booklet in front of you um in in terms of content.

For now, we ask that uh we will share the link with you, but we ask for you not to share the link to others just because the budget is fluid.

I do note that I think this budget document is already out of date because I believe I heard council make a a decision earlier today that will affect the numbers in this budget.

So as you can tell the budget is a very fluid thing and and this um this the document in front of you as well as this tool reflects the numbers as they were when it was built.

So we do ask you not to share the link until after the budget is finalized and we certainly could if council wishes provide access to this tool for a short term perhaps during the term of uh engagement with the public after the budget workshops when we when we uh go to the public with the citizen budget engagement tool we could link this this tool as well um to sort of engage the public a little bit more and get them interested in in um you know kind of what uh the budget contains in a more detailed fashion than the citizen budget would so what is it i'll just go through it quite briefly briefly it it is organized similarly to the booklet that you have in front of you it provides the same information but in an interactive way that allows you to kind of narrow down what you're looking at and allow you to focus on one aspect at a time.

And I do apologize the the tool itself is not meant to be displayed in a large room like council chambers.

I bet uh councillor Mattson may be having a bit of an easier view of it than perhaps you are, as far as you are away from the screen.

But when you're sitting at your computer at home and it does work on the iPad as well, you will see that you know the font size and everything is quite easily readable.

It has really just three sections, and two of them are so similar that we're going to spend most time, most of the time what I'm going to say about one will apply to the other.

So first, when I look at the top here, we are on the non core and capital.

NC represents non core and capital.

So we're looking at non core and capital projects.

This corresponds in your booklet to tab two and three.

Tab two being for non core, tab three being for capital.

In those tabs, there's also the funding.

So there the second page of this report is projects funding.

So together, these two pages in the tool represent the content in tab two and tab three.

The difference is that you can filter down this tool so that you can only see the area that you are specifically interested in.

For example, if I just wanted to see parks, I'm going to click on this yellow box, which represents the park services, and the list is going to immediately filter down to just those those projects that pertain to parks.

If I then go to the top and click on perhaps just the capital filter up here, you're going to then filter down this list even further to say here are this just the capital projects in parks.

You can further filter by the drop down box on the right by a specific project.

So I could type in a search word here and I won't do that right now, but you can certainly, if you're looking for a specific project, you can filter by that as well.

Additionally, you can see the so you see the project priority, you see the project description, you can see the project reference number, and all of those project summaries are in your tab 5 of your booklet, but you don't even need to look at your booklet because you can actually click on the little link right here, and what's going to happen is that project summary is going to open for you just right in that tool itself.

And then to go back, you're just going to close that tab in your browser and it'll be right back to the tool again.

So what this means is that really not only do you have the listing of capital and non-core projects, you actually have a direct link to all of the project summaries that are in your tab 5 in your in your booklet.

The um if you if you are clicking in here, just a little hint.

Um right now I'm filtering by capital.

If you get confused about, well, you know, I didn't mean to put that filter on, I clicked somewhere where I shouldn't have.

There is a little reset button on the top right that'll return all of the filters back to the default setting.

The thing that's different about this page is that when you hover over a number on any of the projects, it's gonna pop up with a little pie chart that shows you where the funding is coming from.

So this particular project is funded.

Uh, the dark blue is casino revenue, and the the light blue is grants and contributions.

So you can go through each and say, Oh, I wonder how that's funded.

Oh, here is here is what that how that is particularly funded.

So it gives you kind of a combined view of that, a holistic view of that project in its entirety.

If I go to the second page, which is the projects funding, again it looks very, very similar.

It has the list of the projects, it has the project summaries that pertain to those projects.

You can again link to that same project summary by clicking on the on the link.

The difference here though is that the filter is by funding source.

So I'm interested in looking at all of the projects that are funded by gas tax.

I just click on the little pink blocks and I'm going to see all of those projects that are funded by gas tax.

Similarly, for reserves, perhaps for casino revenue.

So all of those funding sources are there, and it gives you a list of all of the projects that are funded in that way.

Additionally, at the bottom, there is this link called Appendix 6 Projected Reserve Balances, which gives you the contents of tab six in your booklet.

So that document is just linked here as well.

Any questions so far?

I suspect a whole lot.

Well, give me enough time, and perhaps it would.

I can hardly wait to try it.

And I suppose that as we're going through the process and we're making decisions on uh the amounts allocated and uh up or down or reallocating in different years, and and we've made those decisions on um I don't know, February the 15th.

Um perhaps sometime in the future, maybe even the next meeting, we'd be able to come back to this and see the changes that we'd made uh or suggested previously.

That is a dream for sure.

I'm not quite sure we're there yet, um, just because uh after one meeting I'm almost preparing for the next, but that's certainly something I would I would love to see.

That whether or not it's achievable this time around, I'm not sure.

Yeah.

Well, it's certainly a you know, one of the important things when we were are doing this, um, you know, there's that adjustments on the fly and you know, telling us where we're at and how it's affecting the bottom line.

So uh that would be nice.

Yeah.

Uh I'm also wondering, a beautiful presentation.

Um it's like Christmas.

I look forward to trying it.

Uh the um how would would this also be available on the grants and aid?

Oh, I hadn't thought about that yet.

So no, the answer is no, not yet.

Um I'd I'd be interested in in uh thinking about that a little more.

Okay, thank you very much.

Lovely, lovely to see.

I will show you one more page if if there are no other questions on the projects pages.

Yep, go ahead.

All right.

So this next one is really not going to display well in council chambers.

It displays much better on your computer at home or or perhaps on your iPad.

What you're looking at is really uh the contents of what's in your tab four, which is the the guts, the details, the the number heavy section of your document.

And this was actually the one that I thought, man, nobody's looking at that section because it's hard to look at.

There's a lot of stuff there.

But by putting it in a tool like this, I'm uh we're going to be able to chunk it down again a little bit for you so that you can um you know kind of focus on the areas of specific uh specific to your area of interest.

So, what you can do here, it works similarly to the other pages, but this time instead of collect uh selecting capital or non-core, you're gonna select either revenue or expense.

So let's say you're interested in, I just want to look at expenses.

That's that's really where I want to focus.

And perhaps what I want to do, I'm going to filter by function, I'm going to deselect the select all, and then perhaps I'm going to focus on protective services, right?

So now it's it's narrowed it down, it's a lot less numbers to look at already.

What you I'm what I'm looking at is really only two years, 2022, in which we can see the actual, which is not terribly relevant so far in 2022.

We can see the core, and we're going to talk more about what that is when we get to next week.

We can see the core year over year, the listing of non core, operational cost of capital, which again we're going to talk about more next week, the total budget, the budget year over year dollars and percent.

And then we have the 2021 year for comparison.

When you want to look at other years, you can flip the select year drop down to 2023, and it's going to update automatically.

The difference, of course, in the future years is that the actual columns are blank.

You can, for interest's sake, flip back to a prior year, and it's going to show you what the budget and the actuals were for 2020 and for 2019.

So all of the information is there, just like in your booklet, but in a little bit more of an interactive way.

The additional thing that you can do, you can see right now you're looking at protective services expenses.

If you could read this clearly from that distance, you would see fire services, emergency planning, building inspection, other protective, so on.

But there is a little plus symbol that might be hard to see from there.

That when you pop down the plus symbol, and it works the same way as in the budget variance dashboard, that you can drill down to the next level, and then you can drill down to the next level, to the account level detail, which is all exactly the information that you have had in the past.

But initially, and I'm going to go over here and reset the filter.

Initially, it's not quite so overwhelming because you're at kind of at a at a higher level, and you it allows you to drill down into the level if that's what you want to do without kind of overwhelming you with all of the details.

And and that's that's really all.

Uh I do hope that um council will take an opportunity to have a look at this.

I'll be sending out an email with a link um later on to later on today or tomorrow morning.

And uh certainly stand by to assist you if you need any help.

Thank you, Don.

Counselor Lemon.

I I just have a comment, Don.

And I don't know if you're writing your own code, but it seems every year you come to us with a new way of making it easier and some new online program.

So I haven't seen this one yet, you know, right here, but I will thank you in advance for trying to make it easier for us.

And may I thank council for the approval?

This all of this is available to us at uh what what we would call low code.

It's not no code, but it's kind of low code for the for the likes of me to be able to do it.

But when council approved the decision, and I've said this before, to go to Office 365 or Microsoft 365, these are the tools that came with that decision.

And to be honest, I didn't even realize what we could do when we made that decision.

Um so so really it was a little bit of foresight there, and we use the tools way more um uh extensively for staff analysis than even council can see right where your enthusiasm is certainly infectious as well for thank you any other questions thank you Don yeah we'll look forward to looking at it and then obviously discussing the details more as we move into the budget next week absolutely thank you so just need a motion to receive so moved thank you all in favor opposed that's carried and of course the highlight of our meeting.

We now go to our CAO report.

Thank you, your worship.

So this report discusses the activity in January and um as usual, a January 31st deadline drives significant front-counter activity at town hall with the renewal of business licenses and secondary suites.

In addition, during the month of January, we have the usual annual file turnover.

And so our staff are busy.

Older files are being boxed and moved to on site storage.

And while those at the end of their life cycle are being prepared for secure destruction.

At the same time, of course, we're creating new files for this new year.

We did advertise for the town's two advisory committees in January with appointments and reappointments to be considered by council shortly, probably next month.

Um, administration staff are coordinating staffing competitions to hire a new building inspector, and of course, uh the director of engineering uh position is also to be filled.

Uh, staff continue to monitor the COVID 19 situation and messaging from BC's provincial health officer as new variants have emerged.

Health and safety are top of mind with physical distancing among staff being continued and improved mask options provided.

We do see a more elastic approach evolving in the communications from the province and BC Center for Disease Control, and we're looking forward to the uh the restrictions being made lighter overall.

The finance department, the 2020, the 2022 to 2026 financial planning process is scheduled to begin February 15th.

Finance staff are also focused on preparation of the 2021 financial statements in advance of the year-end audit scheduled for early April.

In addition, in terms of the financial planning process, grant and aid applications are currently being accepted for consideration in the town's 2022 financial plan.

The deadline for applications is March 1st, and staff have begun informing potential applicants through the town's website and social media platforms.

Staff continue to focus on cybersecurity and internet technology with or information technology with planning underway for further pushing test campaigns and continued training for new and current employees.

In development services, major policy projects such as the community climate action strategy are nearing conclusion.

A draft of the strategy is on the agenda this evening.

The OCP update is progressing with online workshops and a second survey launched at the end of January.

In addition to using the town's website and social media platforms, posters were placed in four parks and a mail out inviting participation in online workshops, and a survey was sent to 3,960 property owners and 790 rental units.

The three workshops are good participation, and a what we heard report will be on the March Committee of the Whole agenda.

The search for the new billion inspector continues, and in the meantime, staff are turning their attention to policy in the area of building construction.

A report is on this agenda regarding the STEP code and how town is how the town is beginning to work collaboratively with other municipalities to advance energy efficiency in new buildings.

On the development side, there are rezoning applications, development permits, and development variants permits and process.

Applications to the Board of Variants have been slow over the past year, though the Board of Variants convened in December for a half-day training session.

Board members and staff felt this is a productive learning opportunity, and these volunteers look forward to reviewing future applications.

In the engineering department, following a series of weather events, poor regional road conditions and vehicle malfunctions, the residential curbside garbage and kitchen scraps program is back on schedule.

I'm sure our residents are pleased to see that.

The town entered into two works and services agreements in January for the subdivision of 148 Atkins Road and for the development of 2379 Lund Road townhouses.

The off-site works at ABC Transit's handy dart site have commenced with the realignment of the Galloping Goose Regional Trail.

The goose would be closed between Burnside Road West and Telcott Road for the next several weeks while the trail is realigned to create a shallower incline.

Trail users are being diverted to Watkins Way during the closure.

Spring is almost at hand.

Tree well and shrub bed maintenance is now underway.

Preparation for the spring season includes pruning, removal of the weeds, and mulching.

Mulch is a great weed suppressant and assists in keeping moisture in the ground.

Maps were created to supplement the 2022 OCP workshop presentation and the January COW discussion on View World Sidewalk Snow Clearing.

The View Royal GIS portal has been updated to include 2022 engineering incidents and tree permits, which can be viewed in their respective dashboards.

The engineering and park viewers have been updated.

The street furniture layer has been symbolized to distinguish the distinct types of infrastructure owned by the town.

And that concludes the content of the CAU report for January.

Thank you, Kim.

Questions for Kim.

Councillor Matson.

Yes, thank you.

I was uh I I noted that on the previous presentation, I didn't see any reference to the new sidewalk snow removal uh uh equipment that we talked about earlier.

So I'm just wondering if that's that's in the mix or staff are still going to be bringing us back a report on that.

Perhaps our director of engineering and parks can comment.

Thank you.