Committee of the Whole

Okay, thank you very much.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back and happy new year to everybody.

I'd like to start the meeting by acknowledging that we are within the traditional territories of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nation.

And with that, I don't think we have anything to add to the agenda.

Um so if everyone's good, I just need a motion to approve the agenda.

Thank you.

In favor, opposed, that's carried.

Is Councillor Mattson with us?

I appear not at this point.

Councillor Mattson is um supposed to be joining us remotely.

And I I suppose I also missed the little bit about um that so public participation and is there's a public participation this afternoon and also this evening, where the the public can comment on any I can't I'm out of practice, any items that are on the agenda today and so when the appropriate time in the agenda you will dial 778-402-9227 and when prompted enter conference ID 851-192-760 pound.

And public participation for this afternoon will come up almost immediately.

So if you're wanting to talk to anything on the agenda this afternoon, please call in now.

And then this evening will be after we reconvene shortly after seven o'clock.

And so with that, I will move to um minutes of December 14th, please.

So moved.

Okay.

Moved and seconded by counselors Lemon and Rogers for approval.

That's carried.

Any comments, corrections?

No.

All in favor.

Opposed.

There's no petitions and delegations.

So public participation period.

Do we have any callers on the line staff?

Your worship, we do at this time.

We do have a caller with the last four digits 9040.

Okay, thank you.

So caller with the last four digits 9040.

This is your opportunity to speak to an item on the agenda.

If you would like to do so.

Please give us your name and address at the beginning.

Caller with the last four digits 9040.

Possibly press star six to unmute yourself.

One more opportunity to the caller with the last four digits 9040.

If you press star six to unmute yourself, this is your opportunity to speak.

Okay, so I think we'll carry on and um I'm gonna hand the chair over to Councillor Lemon for Protective Services.

Thank you, your worship.

And uh we'll begin with Superintendent Preston of the RCNP.

Welcome, sir.

Thank you.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

All right.

Lovely to see you here.

Thanks for uh having me.

So uh as far as the detachment goes, some of the um new things to report.

The new inspector uh has arrived, Inspector Stephen Rose.

So he is uh on the ground working and he came from Parksville attachment.

Uh, we'll bring him by one of these uh meetings for you to speak with.

Um we have our year-end stats uh for View Royal.

We're up 15 percent, 471 files uh compared to to last year.

So we had 30 3617 general occurrences uh compared to 3146 uh in the years prior.

Uh comparatively speaking, from the year prior is 11 11 percent increase in violent crime, a 12% in property crime.

And um the hospital, that one is crept up again at the uh the end of the year here, and it's really not not a big surprise, just the uh the amount of mental health as everybody can see.

Uh, we had we were at the hospital 25 times in uh in December for various calls.

Um the casino, we were up um we were there 12 times.

So 30 between the hospital and the casino, we had 37 calls for service in the month of December.

Um I'd say that's the the second highest amount of calls per uh at the hospital in that month.

Only March was uh was more.

And obviously the casino, uh, we saw the spike in kind of June, July when it started opening up again, and it's fairly consistent around a dozen times we get called there uh a month.

Um, you know, I think you can just see it, and I'm sure my friend Paul can can attest to it.

Um just the amount of mental health late last night, for instance, when we uh the the shift change around six o'clock, they literally had four domestics on the go at the same time.

Um and you know what, people are at wits end, they got financial woes because of uh work, because of uh all the restrictions and what have you.

And I think people are just at uh at each other and at what's end, and we're starting to see more and more of that spill over into our line of work, unfortunately.

But you know, it's pretty tough to navigate through four at once when you've got seven members working and you need two people at a call uh minimum for domestic.

So it uh it puts us in a pretty precarious spot.

Um, and I don't see it getting any better.

Um, as far as resources, uh, you know, we've been very fortunate actually in in a similar to I think Saanich PD, where um we haven't seen a giant increase all at once with uh members and staff being off with COVID.

It's kind of been a trickle effect.

I think some of the other police departments, uh, I think even Victoria and Winnipeg and a few others there, they got hit real hard real quick.

And so we've been pretty fortunate.

We've been pretty diligent as well with all our our measures.

But I think it can strike uh, you know, obviously it can strike anywhere, anytime.

So we are prepared for that.

Um, we're keeping our plain closed units intact, but they're ready to uh to jump onto the front lines if all of a sudden we lose a watch because um I mean we even though you do your best with the watches, they do work in close proximity, and there's only so much you can do in our line of work to try to keep the social distancing.

Um, and so, anyways, if if we all go down, we do have contingency plans in place.

As far as the um, you know, the recent events with protesters.

Um, obviously, I think many of us, including myself, are getting a little tiresome of uh some of the protesters holding the rest of the community a hostage.

And um, you know, to that end, I just want to assure council that you know we were prepared.

We had uh members on every ramp yesterday, we had uh the TAC troop down here, we had our ORT team, which is our obstacle response team.

So those when you see people tying themselves and chaining themselves and all that, we have members there that are trained to actually uh deal with those individuals safely.

But uh we will practice uh zero tolerance for for that type of social disorder.

Um, you know, we're all about uh somebody's right to protest and free speech, but you do it peacefully and uh respectfully and and you don't handcuff the rest of uh society so that they lose, especially right now when when people are obviously um already hard enough up for work and what have you, they don't need to miss any more work because of this.

So, anyways, I just want you to have confidence that uh we will address it uh swiftly if it should come into our area.

Um you know, just going around some of the uh the different areas here, Langford, December's December uh 21st, and I think this one hit the paper quite a bit.

There was some individuals going around shooting pellet guns and hitting people.

Uh one individual almost you know came close to their eye.

They had to get it um taken out at the emergency.

So they were probably one inch away from losing their eye.

Um that investigation is still ongoing.

I know we're reviewing some um some video, I believe, and uh looking for other leads here to try to identify these individuals that were and it wasn't just a one-off.

I know they uh they continued into other jurisdictions and did the same thing as well.

Yeah.

Um our traffic sections uh fully operational, so there's four members there working uh during the month.

They gave uh 17 violation tickets in in uh Langford and 14 warnings in Callwood they gave two violation and 21 warnings in View Royal they gave two violation tickets and 12 warnings uh in the month of uh December um view Royal uh in particular we had a complaint on December 4th complainant uh called a report of a crypto fraud we're starting to see more of this uh the complainant met a girl on Facebook uh dating said you scammed him into investing uh $50,000 uh of money into uh a fake cryptocurrency.

So we'll those are incredibly tough to investigate, and uh there's likely not a whole lot that we'll be able to do to assist this individual other than uh public education.

Um December 7th, we had a staff member uh of the surgical center on Helmcken uh called to report a disruptive patient who was scheduled for surgery on his wrists, but then got into an argument with the surgeon prior to, and he was kicked out of the hospital and didn't get his surgery done.

Uh I haven't had I've never seen that one before, to be honest.

Uh something new.

Um December 13th, we called received about a disturbance and a possible threat with a knife.

Uh the police were able to locate three individuals under the island highway overpass uh on the ramp high women on the south, and all parties were separated.

The argument uh was settled and uh without criminality.

Um December 21st, we had a unattended mail on the front porch of the View Row resident caught uh the attention of one specific thief during the early uh morning.

And when a bold attempt uh to steal the package was caught on the homeowner's camera surveillance, that video footage, which was excellent footage, was uh forwarded, and the suspect was identified and arrested as a result.

Other than that, that's uh I don't have a whole lot more to report here right now.

Okay, good questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Todd.

I'm just curious on the in the highway encampment that we have, which Paul's gonna report that they had a fire there that they had to attend to.

Do you get many calls to do with that in general, or do you feel that there's it just seems and and I'm just curious about the link between the amount of petty crime that seems to be happening in the town, and there seems to be a lot of it of bicycles being stolen and garden hoses being stolen and that sort of thing, and and whether there's a link between that potentially and that long time encampment.

I'd be shocked if there wasn't, you know, when I you when you see a lot of uh, you know, the homeless individuals that uh their encampments and you see the carts, the shopping carts full of exactly that the garden hoses, uh, the garden rooms, uh, the you know, just uh the odd odd items, you have to assume they came from somewhere.

And uh yeah, oftentimes we you know it's it's tough to pin it to to where because oftentimes it doesn't get reported.

Somebody gets their garden hose stolen, they they don't bother, you know, don't even bother calling the police.

But uh, you know, we do our best to try to get these these individuals to resources to you know the shelters or mental health uh you know or what have you.

But uh we've definitely seen a ripple effect from from downtown where they're overrun, and and we we continue to see more and more of it out here.

Yeah.

The the other thing I was curious about was during that cold weather snap.

Did we run into any issues with the lack of anywhere on the West Shore for you to be able to take people?

I I think we took uh a couple individuals to the shelters downtown there.

Yeah, I think so.

Thank you.

I'm pretty sure we did.

But uh it wasn't an overwhelming problem, no.

Right.

Okay.

Okay, good.

Yeah, uh, thanks.

Uh in terms of the uh the thefts that we um we spoke of, um uh we saw a lot in Lua mainland uh theft of catalytic converters.

Is that an issue here in in the West Shore in Victoria?

Yeah, we uh from time to time you'll see a spike in that.

So we have seen that.

And and I think uh our property crime actually arrested an individual earlier this year for that.

Um so yeah, it all depends on who's out on conditions at the time.

Right, indeed.

Um again, still a shocking numbers um of individuals that are at the hospital and and um that you have to um uh be there for and look after, I guess for lack of better term, supervise.

Um and and Mayor Squeeze, maybe you can help me with this, but uh a number of mayors this morning were on CBC and they were talking about uh specific housing, uh the need for uh specialized housing for um addicts and and um um mental health uh cases and so forth.

And I think calling on the province to uh go beyond the talk and start getting some action plans on on that.

We would that would certainly benefit.

It yeah, that must have I think that's the urban mayor's caucus, which it may helps is part of, and they're really pushing for far more highly supportive housing.

Yes, yes, indeed.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we mean from a policing perspective, a complex care facility.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's it.

That's you know, um, mental health hospitals, that's that's what we we need to be able to take these individuals where they can get their specific needs looked at, not put not drop them off at a house because they or a you know a subsidized house or what have you.

That that really doesn't uh I'm sure that helps to a degree, obviously, but it certainly doesn't help the uh the long term problem of of remedying their their mental health condition.

Certainly if um uh if mayor helps and and those folks um if there needs to be a a letter from the municipalities as if you will and and in support and be part of that team to uh spur this on and get it going, because it has such a huge resource issue for for uh our RCP staff.

As well as they uh for the for the uh for the good of the uh the individuals themselves.

Yeah, agreed.

Yeah, maybe we can see um what the appropriate wording and and uh how we could help that along.

Sure.

Okay, yeah, great.

Thanks.

Okay.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh Superintendent Preston, uh I know it's a challenging time right now for some of your employees during COVID.

Uh we here at council, you know, we know how challenging it must be uh in the office.

Uh what kind of safety measures and uh work from home plans have you implemented to help your employees make them feel comfortable?

Yeah, we've uh we've actually accommodated as many municipal staff as we can.

The issue is obviously with frontline policing, it's as you know, very difficult you can't really police that from home.

We have done it so that we've staggered some of the shifts upstairs as well.

We stagger the building we um you know we've done all the things you can think of in terms of the the building itself.

And then we've got some pretty strict guidelines.

Uh the RCP's come out with nationally and and with an e division just to make sure that you know you're following all the proper health guidelines and you got all the proper PE, PPE and and all that's uh that sort of thing.

The reality is is that you know we believe that we'll likely all probably um get this thing at some point.

Um so it's just a matter of trying to make it so that it's manageable so that we don't end up like Winnipeg Police Service, uh, which was pretty tough spot there.

Thank you.

And lastly, I just wanted to compliment the external communication strategy that uh has been implemented since I know uh Constable Sagers on uh leave, but it seems like uh whoever picked up uh her spot uh has been doing a great job.

I see lots of positive stories, uh uh events and uh updates that uh probably will support and affirm the support of our public uh here on the West Shore.

So uh I just wanted to pass along that compliment.

Is there any uh you know, while I got you here, is there anything that uh any concerns that uh need to be addressed that uh obvious concerns?

Thanks, Councillor.

I appreciate that a lot.

Not I don't think so.

I don't think so.

Okay, I apologize in advance if my comments in the Times columnists this morning lead lead to every off ramp and view rock being blockaded tomorrow morning.

But no idea.

They will be picketing the highways there.

Yeah, that's right.

Okay, well, thank you very much.

Just I'd I've just I've just one question, Sherman Superintendent.

When when you attend up to four domestics in a day, is there is there a safe house transition house um resource in on the West Shore or is is is there one in the region and that's downtown.

I I believe I thought it was actually in Saanicho in the West Shore that you not that I know of uh no I I don't know that offhand but I thought there was one in Saanich that you ever used.

Yeah I think so.

Okay okay and um I I this might have been in November but I think it was December and I was the first first car heading onto the um the overpass on Helmkin as a young woman stepped over and and uh it seemed she was going to jump and it was some you know I it it it it's I I made a beeline out of there um and it there was some real skill some real skill to turn you know such a worrying um harrowing um incident into you know well you know what I think um you know to give the right uh kudos I I actually think that was a Vic PDF that was the Vic PD yeah but yeah I made sure I I I brought her down to the R asked her to come down and see me and uh I thanked her in person and made sure I gave her an RCP sweaty uh sweatshirt.

I tried to recruit her while I was there too but uh how'd that work?

Uh all joking aside I I wanted to make sure that she uh she she actually doesn't have any, like she's not a crisis negotiator, she's just a really good human being and and in a phenomenal job.

So kudos to Vic PD on that.

Okay, great.

Good.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you.

Have a great day.

See ya.

It's and on that, it's interesting on both cooling centers and warming centers, right?

I mean, it's it's getting close to the when you think the population now with Langford Culwood and View Royal is approaching 70, 75,000.

It's sort of getting surprised.

If it wasn't inexcusable for before, it's becoming even more inexcusable.

We have no facility like that.

I should think in our community.

So it's something we really have to think about how we address.

But hadn't we thought about the rec center for that?

Well, we we were going to get together with the different municipalities just when COVID hit and have a meeting about how we could do it.

And it just kind of I don't but but the Rec Center is potentially, but there's still a lot of co costs involved there and staffing necessary.

So take a lot of thinking through.

Yeah.

Could talk to our director.

Chief Chief Hurst, welcome.

Good afternoon.

Happy New Year.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.

Um your public safety report for November and December of 2021.

Um just two fires and out in November and early December.

The one that the mayor mentioned, uh the fire over in the 1700 block, Trans Canada.

That's a homeless encampment across from Adams Storage.

Quite a large trying to think of the right word here.

Quite an encampment of a house made of pallets and boards and whatnot.

It's the second time that that area is burned out.

There was no one in the structure at the time, and the the person didn't come back.

Left one resident over there, gentleman that's known to us.

He's been there for several years.

Now he's subsequently, as I understand, uh he's under uh medical care now in the hospital, being managed, which is good.

We uh we worked with VHA to and the RCMP to get him the help he needed.

He's one of those, he's one of those people that kind of fell through the cracks.

He's not a drug addict.

He doesn't uh he's not that he's not in that uh world.

He just has he has mental health issues and he needs help.

So we got him the help he needed, and as far as I know, he's still under care and he hasn't moved back onto that property.

He doesn't have any intention.

Um, we had a plan in place for early December to have that whole area cleared out, and then highway one, three, five, ninety-nine, ninety-seven, and twelve washed out.

And and the malahat.

And anybody who is involved in cleaning out that has been working on the other.

But we do have a commitment for January to get that area cleaned out and the trees cut up and opened up.

Very similar to the McKenzie, um McKenzie Pat Bay area where they clean that out where you can see right through.

So there's nowhere to camp nowhere to hide.

So hopefully by January we'll have that uh cleaned up.

Um move on to bylaw.

Um two projects that uh Jim's working on.

One, uh shipping containers.

There's just a proliferation of them around the community.

They show up in driveways and then they don't disappear.

I think what's happened is people are converting probably garage space into living space, and then they have no room, so they're putting shipping containers.

So Jim's been working to get rid of those, the ones are you know, the obvious ones in the front yards that are that uh yeah I think there's probably one that was close to you um and the second formerly close to you yes that's right and Jim's been working on the uh public spaces uh bylaw getting um fees and charges and all those straightened out that'll be coming forward probably in February with some changes you'll notice uh Jim also created a zone map just to give council a bit of a perspective on where sort of our bylaw complaints uh are situated just by a couple of different small precincts um there's no rhyme or reason, but it just gives you sort of a picture of View Royal and and uh where our busier areas are and where it's a little quieter in um in the town with respect to bylaw.

When I look at the annual stats for the year down a bit from last year, but I see the the majority of that is um parking tickets.

It seems the initiative that was going on with Mr.

Grew before Jim got here has resulted in a bit of an education and people are people I think are starting to learn that they can't park uninsured vehicles on the road and abandoned vehicles and and whatnot.

So uh Jim's been working pretty hard to get those areas cleaned up I think that's going actually quite well.

Um just to echo uh the superintendent's um comments on COVID.

It was quite a year.

21 was, I think, I I yeah, it was I probably the worst year of my life.

I think everybody, just a terrible year for everybody, 21.

And I'm hopeful that 22 will turn the corner.

I'm really proud of the department.

So far, we have had touch wood.

We've had no cases of COVID within the ranks of the department.

We've had some people off with colds and flu.

Everyone's been tested.

Um, and if they're not feeling well, they're not coming in.

So we're we're still managing to keep our head above water.

Um, but I am fully aware that probably within the next three to six weeks, most, if not all members and British Columbians will end up with some form of COVID or some form of cold.

That said, uh, and again to echo Todd, we do have plans in place internally.

We have plans in place with Calwood and Langford, how we're going to manage emergencies.

Um we are following the public health orders to the to the letter of the law.

Um masks in the building.

The building is again locked down, people working individually in their offices, no intermingling of shifts, day shift out the back door, night shift in the front door, no guests in the building.

Um, and it that strategy seems to be working.

I I'm really pleased.

Uh, I'm also pleased that our entire department is vaccinated, double vaccinated, and I believe most have their booster shots.

So we've had buy-in, everybody's working towards uh, you know, not only keeping themselves safe, but the residents and the people they serve, which is great.

Um, obviously, 21 tough year passing to John out in Callwood, the fire chief out there.

That was last week.

Um and I understand they have named new fire chief in the city of Callwood.

So they do have a new chief with a start date of January 17th.

It was an internal uh hiring.

They promoted from within, which is exciting.

Um you'll see Christmas, I think, was probably the busiest Christmas we've had on record uh in View Royal.

Um the you know, you read about the opiate overdose crisis uh in the paper, but it is again, as I say, every month it's alive and well with several deaths over the Christmas holidays uh due to opiates, several suicides this year, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day suicides uh that the crews had to attend to.

And it's not unlike really any other time of the year.

It's just it's a little it's a little more stressful when it's it's Christmas Eve or it's Christmas Day, and our hearts go out to those families for for whatever issues those people were suffering from.

So it's it's not easy any time of the year, but Christmas is an exceptionally difficult time of year.

Several fires in View Royal and Calwood and Langford on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Christmas Eve.

It just seemed to be a busier year this year than normal.

Um, the association had a great year, uh, their annual food drive.

The the residents of View Royal were extremely generous.

Uh they collected $7,000 from residents and thousands of pounds of food for the food bank, which was uh, I think that was a record year for them this year.

Um, and again, just to uh to touch base uh with COVID, um, you know, we're hopeful the next six, five, six, eight weeks we can get through this and we'll see a surge and a spike and hopefully we'll come out the other end okay.

I know other departments are starting to suffer pretty extensively um in the region, and we're still managing to keep our head above water, but we do have plans in place to uh maintain fire protection.

So if we don't, you'll be the first to know, along with the CAO, what our plan is moving forward.

Uh with that.

Questions?

Questions.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's counselor.

Thanks, Paul.

Um, happy new year and thank you.

And um uh yeah, interesting how Christmas uh could be uh such a busy time indeed.

Yeah.

Um and I'm I'm impressed with um uh the staff and and what they've been able to achieve um and uh their commitment to stay as safe as possible with with the COVID.

You know, COVID plus flu can happen and and um you know it's um it you know it's uh almost a touch and go.

Yeah.

So have you um also worked and coordinated with the other fire departments, Colwood and Langford, if um any one start municipality starts getting hit with um you know a shortage of staff?

Absolutely.

So uh about I guess January 1st Colwood moved to um the same model that we have in V-Royal with four people in the station at night.

So minimum staff in the day, four people overnight, where they're not calling in people into the building.

It's just those four people in a single engine response.

If they need help, they're calling from Langford and Vie Royal.

Uh Langford's been there for years, and we're into about our second or third year of staffed at night.

So we we will only call in people in an absolute dire emergency.

So we're relying on Callwood and Langford, just trying to keep the exposure down to a minimum.

Now, if we get into a situation where we do run out of staff or we have no staff, then we can rely on Callwood and Langford under our mutual aid plans.

And and those will be very quick discussions where if you know one department's sick and one department's healthy, then we can we can help them out with staffing and and just cover off the emergencies.

We'll also have to we'll also have to prioritize calls.

You know, if you have a hurt toe, we're not coming.

I I said the other day it's the two H's, house fires and heart attacks.

If it's not life and death, then we might have to prioritize the calls we go to just to limit our exposure.

We don't need to be leaving the station unnecessarily at this time.

On that, um again, we hear from Vancouver um uh the lack of uh yeah, I not the lack of, but the difficulty um and and delays of ambulance attendance.

Um getting a sense that Victoria's suffering the same challenges?

I'm that that is one concern that we have.

Um, the you know, in my opinion, just based on some of the issues we've had um with the hospital and overcrowding, full emergency departments, ambulances backed up in the parking lot, that all trickles down.

Um, and when you end up overwhelming this, you know, the hospital system and the emergency system, it backs up into the first responder and we end up uh waiting longer.

Now, those calls, uh, as I understand it, a lot of the lower acuity calls are the ones where crews are waiting a long time for an ambulance, and that's where I have the ability to siphon out those lower acuity calls and not go to them.

Um higher acuity life and death calls, we'll get an ambulance right away, and that person will be transported.

But uh unfortunately, the lower acuity, the the sick person, the slip and fall, um, you know, the broken arm, we can't afford to sit on a patient for two or three hours.

I mean, there are there are departments in the mainland that are sitting on patients for 10, 15, 20 hours, and they're switching crews out waiting for an ambulance.

We haven't seen that here in Victoria yet.

We're we're very fortunate.

But I fully anticipate uh that in the next couple of weeks we're the ambulance service is going to have a real challenge.

Um they're having difficulty right now answering 911 telephone calls.

I can't imagine when Omicron winds up.

Uh it's gonna affect the crews on the road, and then I think we're gonna be uh we're gonna be in trouble.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, certainly uh I I know we want to stay on on top of this and and uh yeah.

I mean, obviously, counselor, we're gonna support BC ambulances as best we can with everything we can as as partners, but we're gonna have to focus on fire protection as well.

Right.

With with uh the COVID um and uh the ex um kind of measures and um that you have to put in place, how is that uh impacting the the uh staff training?

You know, you there's so much training that has to be done and and what's the impact of that?

So night shifts, every night shift does two hours of training a night.

Okay.

On shift.

We've we postponed again our large departmental earls.

We did one a month.

Um now it's we've we've postponed those again to keep everyone out of the building, but every every night shift crew has to drill uh for two hours a night.

So we're still maintaining our training.

Uh there's still lots of online opportunities and and looking at the training report from Heath, things are still happening, people are still adapting and moving through it.

So we're we're keeping up there.

Um, and then I'm hopeful once the spring comes along, we'll be able to transition back to some sort of normalcy.

Okay.

Yeah, another question.

In in um your statistics, um the alarm bells, and you know, there's always something happening, alarm bells.

Are those repeat offenders?

And um, I remember we had talked about uh trying to bring some uh some attention to uh address the nuisance calls.

Are we okay on on those nuisance aspects?

Yeah, believe it or not, those so under the bylaw, you get your first false alarm free.

Your second one is 150, and then your second or third call is $500 fines.

We find quite quickly, once they're informed of the fining mechanism, most of these are first-time offenders.

Okay.

Anyone that's over, they they are issued a coupon that is redeemable at the front counter at the town hall for payment.

And it usually corrects and solves the problem pretty quickly.

And I noticed some of your statistics.

Um 2021 was the third busiest year in the last 10 years.

Yeah, it it it it died off there with the COVID, of course, and that was a lot of medical.

I think the number of note, and I and I just sent this off to uh to Chief Aubrey in uh in Langford, um mutual aid and automatic aid runs.

We did a hundred a hundred fire call runs out to Calwood and Langford Um for the year.

So you know, seven to ten, seven to ten a month.

So the calls that we're having in Vie Royal they're they're coming.

Yeah.

Um and that's being reciprocated.

But that that's sort of part of the program right now.

I think because we're only running four people in each station, we don't have the luxury of having 30 volunteers show up, so I have to call them and they have to call us.

But it's working.

It's uh the people are in the building, it's not like we're taxing the volunteers and pulling them in from home.

So it's actually working quite well right now.

Thank you.

Thank you, counselor.

Anyone else?

Sure.

Thank you.

Um congrats on the highways encampment.

I think that's really good news if that gets cleared out and help on that.

Yeah.

Congrats also on the the food drive.

I smiled when I saw the various Santa pictures and thought that nobody could accuse V Royal of not being a diverse community.

We are a diverse department.

We are absolutely and um on a more serious note, I've had a couple of people from opposite ends of town complaining to me about people living in cars.

Are you getting more of those calls?

Or you know, I I'll check with Jim.

The the RV issue is still you drive around V Royal, you'll still find a couple of them.

And they they know within about you know, at the 71 71st hour, they start the vehicle and they drive somewhere else and park for another 71 hours before Jim knocks on the door.

Haven't noticed much in cars.

I'll ask Jim to see what the Yeah, it'd be good just to get some feedback on that.

Yeah I think it I think it's I think it's tough all over.

It's it's terrible.

You know that's good for us.

There's an affordable home in V Royal.

I think last week there were three homes for sale in V Royal and that's it.

That was our typical home all over a million dollars now.

Yeah um Chief could walk walk me talk me through shipping containers.

What is what does compliance look like if if someone is planning to move for example and they put everything in to a container in their driveway.

Yep.

Presumably for the short term.

Is there's a um a permit need to no you can you can have it dropped off, delivered, you fill it with your stuff and then it's hauled away.

You we expect usually a week or two and it's gone.

Okay.

You you'll get our attention when you drive by and you see it's there for a couple of months.

For months and months.

Or uh usually, or it'll be a neighbor will phone and say, hey, there's been a shipping container in this guy's front yard for the last six months.

Right.

Uh we don't generally go looking for it, um, but it became an issue.

I was driving into work one morning and it would just seem there it is still.

Yep.

So they were all given everyone in V oil who had a shipping container was given 90 days to get rid of it.

So we're probably into probably our second month.

And Jim has made contact with every single one.

So they will all be going.

Right.

So in the case where a shipping container is in front of or in the driveway of a rental yep you would obviously contact the owner of the property.

So okay if I may how long you know are shipping containers they're just legal you can't have them or is there a period of time we can have them for 30 days.

Under the bylaw you can't have them they're they're considered a temporary structure you can't have them so we're we're allowing MoBox to drop off you know and we expect somebody's gonna have them 15, 20 maybe a month yeah that they load and unload.

Yeah but I think what's happening now is you know all of a sudden now there's tents over top and there's lumber stored on top and they they become a fixture.

And people live in low they may be a residence, yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

When you see power running into a shipping container, you're going to hear a trouble.

That's a clue.

That's a clue.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

That's great.

Okay.

Thank you one other question Paul, are you're sticking around for budget?

When is it?

Oh, they sorry, the um next next item is is the um you know the 2021 budget overview.

And do you have a specific question for me?

May I ask questions on uh for Paul?

In Paul, in can I stop you?

I can send him an email.

But Paul, some of the in in the um uh in the fire department, there were a number of non-core um capital items in 2021 that um we still had 100% to spend.

Any insight?

Yeah.

Um I hate to use it's kind of like using words like pivot and transition, but the word is supply chain.

Yeah.

Most of the stuff that we ordered in our budget was August, September.

Okay.

And it just it might have been on the Zim Cluster burning out in front of Victoria.

Like we we talk with distributors because we want to clear these numbers off the books.

That's what we're getting.

We don't want to carry over.

We're getting is is yep.

And it's somewhere in Wisconsin and it's it'll get here in March.

So that's our challenge.

We can't we we've ordered it, we can't get it.

Okay.

Yeah.

And thank you for the graphical um on the bylaw too.

Oh yeah, I I thought you'd enjoy that, John.

It's because we got too many counselors and do you know how busy it is in the uh harbor course?

Because we got so many counselors.

So do we have a motion?

I'll move receipt of A and B.

Second.

Second.

Did I hear second?

Yeah, John.

John, okay.

All those in favor, none opposed.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thanks.

Well, have a great day.

And we go to finance and admin.

And the very first report up is the staff report budget variants.

Um, Don, did you want to speak to this at all, or is it just here for questions if we have any?

Uh yes, your worship.

It's just there for questions.

Certainly.

I can um be happy to do the best I can at answering your questions.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions for Don?

Yeah.

Councillor Rogers?

Yeah, thanks.

Uh Don, a similar question to what I asked uh Chief First.

You know, I I say that non-core, you know, we had budget budgeted of 155,000 and um 165 was spent in the capital we budgeted 2.6 and 747 uh thousand was spent.

Is this a uh like Paul saying, a um a supply chain problem or other or just simply uh deferrals because of uh staffing and saving money?

Yeah, uh you know, certainly um the fire chief's response was valid for for some of those items um that you may be referring to, and certainly uh for some of the items that concern uh you know his his department.

I might say that for the non-core projects, there is a little bit of a difference for some of the items, and that is where the non-core project, if you will, was actually less of a project and more of a change in our structure.

For example, the fire services volunteer staffing restructure.

We don't track that as a project.

And so it was very difficult to report it on here, but we do include it because that was a budgeted non-core item.

So that's why it's showing as zero spent against a budget.

But indeed, the project has been completed in that the restructure has happened.

We just don't have costs to show you pertaining specifically to that item.

So that's one difference from what the fire chief said.

The other one was, of course, where a project did not proceed because the funding wasn't approved.

The grant wasn't approved.

So in that case, we still list the project because it was a valid project, and likely we will either reapply next year, so you're gonna see it again.

But in this case, of course, the project did not proceed, so we have zero spending against that project.

So those are some other reasons for different types of reasons why you might see a budget with net with um a hundred percent of the budget still available.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

No, I just need a motion to receive.

All in favor, opposed, that's carried.

So moved.

Okay, moved by councillor Rogers, seconded by Councillor Lemmon.

Thank you, Don.

And next we have the action list, the fourth quarter update.

Um again, it's really just here for information for us.

And um John?

Yeah, I do have a question on the uh the first one, page one.

Um, and it was um uh in this assessing the intersection of Helmcken and Watkins Way.

And um it was good comments there, very worthwhile.

And and I see there was an approximate um eight thousand dollars to review the intersection.

Um I just wondered uh does council need to help in in approving that those funds and and get this assessment going.

I don't think so but Director Rosenberg can speak to it.

Thank you worship no um we we can contain that especially now it's it was it would be within the 2022 budget we uh council assuming things don't change from previous years uh engineering has an allotment for consultants throughout the year um we use those particular funds this year uh to look at the shoreline and island highway um intersection, which should be coming to council sometime this spring, and the Jedberg and Helmkin intersection as well.

So this is one of those ones where we're kind of sitting on it right now because we um we've been approached by Eagle's nest, the development in the corner, Burnside and Helmkin.

Um and part of their process will be to look at that intersection.

And if we don't have to spend those funds, we won't.

But if they end up not moving forward, then we'll use the funds and uh take a look at the intersection.

Okay.

anybody else?

No, I I was I was wondering about three Helmkin, but it just got answered.

So thank you.

Good.

Thank you, John.

I just need a motion to receive to move.

Okay, moved by Councillor Rogers, seconded by Councillor Lemmon.

All in favor, opposed, that's carried.

And we, I guess, just before we carry on, given that we're going very well here, is there any reason why we couldn't do the tree bylaw this afternoon before dinner break?

I mean, I know that maybe we shouldn't move a recommendation, but we could go through it with staff, then see if there's any public participation on it.

Um, and then I'm just thinking in the interest of time, because clearly we're going to be done here in 20 minutes.

John, are you fine with that?

Yeah, I can make that work.

Okay, thank you.

I'm fine with that.

Okay.

And the web producers can have that ready.

Can can I suggest we determine if councillor Matzon can be available or on the line?

I know he was.

Well, I'm not not saying that we're not we're we're not going to adopt it before, but he's still gonna have the opportunity for I I can text him and tell him, but I I think my general answer would be if you don't tell us you're not coming, um that you snooze you lose.

So I can certainly text him and tell him we're gonna be covering that.

Um good.

He he's trying to download teams to the biomes five.

Not something you can do with so put it on to himself.

Is that he's working on that now?

Yeah, so we're moving to the strategic plan update.

Sarah, did you want to talk to that?

Or again, is it just here for it?

It's available for questions.

Uh it's there for information at this point.

Okay, do we have any questions?

Just uh a couple of comments.

Sure, go ahead.

Uh you find my way here.

Uh darn it, just a sec.

There you go.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I'm just texting counselor maybe sure.

Um, I just wanted to comment on um, and this is our page seven, and it was the uh BC Transit uh higher level of uh transit service.

And um, you know, I'm I'm certainly pleased that uh transit has is supplying or providing service uh improvements at the East Lake.

Um, um but we're I would suggest that we're not done yet because the the hours of frequency is is still um what once an hour, you know, really quite pathetic, uh and certainly not um um of a frequency that would um um satisfy users during the the busy summer season.

So um you know anything that we can do to encourage uh transit to make sure the number 53 is on a more frequent basis, um I think that's that would be quite necessary.

And also for the for the neighborhood um having reliable service and and perhaps when when we do have the roundabout uh put in, um which I knew is an important aspect for for transit, um, we might uh might get that.

So that was one comment, your worship.

Um if Councillor Lemmon?

Yeah.

Um, um I have a question about the um heat pump conversion grant.

Uh does anyone know the uptake?

I do not I do not um know um the answer to that question, uh Councillor Lemon, but I can look into that.

And uh they they are supposed to report back to us periodically.

Um I'm not sure if that reporting period has closed yet or if it ran until let's say you know October to the end of January.

So it should be soon.

Um but once we get that, we'll let you know what those numbers are.

That would be exciting to know.

Yeah, great.

Thank you.

I think on the the transit, we may want to lobby our representative on the transit commission, which of course is Mayor Martin.

I know I got a few more things.

And that would be easy enough to do.

I see that's going to be uh probably discussed in the financial plan, but um I was pretty shocked to see it's a hundred thousand dollar price tag uh when we were considering uh doing a couple of pilot signages items uh for portage and and uh the oil part for five thousand.

So it's um, you know, that's that's a heck of a hit, and and I guess we'll have those discussions when it comes to budget.

Um I also note that um you know Safro actively working on the step code uh three and two and so forth.

Um, you know, it it's rather interesting because um and I'm I'm hopeful that we'll when the climate action strategy um uh uh document comes from the uh consultants and uh given council's uh support for a really um proactive um reduction of GHTs, um, that we will may we may see and and hopefully we'll see a um an acceleration to of step code to make sure that we're going to be meeting our greenhouse gas targets.

So that's um that was on page 12.

Um and let's see, I I see that there's a couple of um items where it didn't have any status.

Uh, for example, on page 13, uh, collect uh local inventory of oil, natural gas, propane residential users, and and that was supposed to have been done in 2021 as an in-house project, but there's been no comment on that.

Which one is that?

Uh that's on uh page 12, and where um staff were again based on on the GHCs and carbons um uh suppose related to the heat pump, uh collecting a local inventory of um which homes have oil, natural gas, propane could be candidates for um heat pump conversion, and that was an in-house uh initiative for 2021 last year.

I remember seeing a report of some sort back on the Director Chase.

Thank you, your worship.

That unfortunately is something we can only provide an estimate on.

And we have provided that estimate courtesy of the Capital Regional District.

It was estimated that there's somewhere between 60 and 90 residences based on overall fuel usage.

We don't know how accurate that number is.

We have no way of requiring utility companies or oil delivery companies to provide their client lists, which is really the only way we have to verify that.

We do not track oil train oil tanks in any way um in the town nor have we ever done so unlike other municipalities where there have been uh a requirement for permits for oil tanks historically so they have a great deal of historic data courtesy of um the fire department I'm thinking sanawch in particular uh we just don't have that level of of data available to us it's not data we own and it's not data that we can readily access.

If I can speak coming uh yeah I appreciate that um you know before 1988 um when RUA was under the guise of the CRD um it would have been pretty difficult to know where the oil tanks are.

And maybe the fire department has it, maybe the CRD has it, but that would probably be all on paper.

You know, I guess this isn't just an issue for um the um you know, for heat pump conversion, and but it's also an issue when you have an oil tank leakage somewhere and you've got to determine uh where the you know as it ends up in in some outfall um storm water uh where that um the oil is coming from, the oil tank leakage.

And how how would we uh be able to um track that down if we don't know uh and have it's like you would think that we'd we'd be able to have that kind of record or should have it, even if the after the town was incorporated in 1988.

That is not data we have we have ever collected.

There is no permit for an oil tank in the town.

So I'm not sure where that data would come from.

I do note though that it is the property owner's responsibility, and the Ministry of Environment is quite uh quite clever at following up on uh leaks, etc.

Uh, and they they would certainly be um interested in that, and I'm sure that we could count on their support to address that type of issue should it should it occur in View Royal.

I think the horror shows that we've read about in Sanage, you know, the gorge, for example.

I mean, they haven't had a clue where those originated, right?

It's taking quite a process to trace the oil back and discover which home was in fact responsible for it.

I don't think we're unique in not necessarily knowing exactly which homes have oil tanks.

Yeah, I don't know.

And and I I I I made a question to staff.

Yeah.

Staff, do any do we know of any homes at this point?

Um do still have um oil tanks on on new installs.

We wouldn't know if there's a heating source like this year.

I'd be very surprised.

I know.

I'm not aware of any this year.

Um, the vast majority of new new homes that are being constructed are either putting in a heat pump uh because it is the most efficient way of heating a home and it provides the option of cooling in the summer months, or it's baseboard electric.

And those are those are the two primary sources of heat and or cooling in homes in homes today.

Natural gas.

As long as it meets the code, we are able to approve it yeah so i guess we're should um on on this particular matter if we've staff have done best efforts then we we can just call it complete yeah i suppose that's true i know that a report or some notation did come back to us at some point last year and just as a housekeeping yeah you know yeah I think it came from CRD I think there were some CRD figures.

Yeah the information did come from the CRD yes they they share they shared their estimates with us um with um significant qualifications as to the the the uh plus or minus um uh that that may be associated with any numbers.

Right.

So so perhaps staff would want to just close that one complete with uh the noting your CRD's estimates.

Sure, we can certainly do that.

Thank you, Councillor Rogers.

Okay.

That's about all I have your worship.

Yeah.

Any other questions, comments on the strategic plan update?

No, okay, nope.

Go ahead.

What this this is you know perhaps um not entirely relevant, but in a meeting yesterday there was a suggestion that we have a um kind of public um a way for the public to see how Bureau was doing with its GHGs.

One thought was one thought was perhaps I could have barometer like the United Way used to do and have that at the at at the fire hall.

Um someone else suggested an app, which might be less public.

But anyway, it's something that I think that we might want to discuss and consider as a community that's you know striving to be private neutral.

So presumably that may fall out of the climate action plan when we get there.

Perhaps.

Director Chase.

Thank you, your worship I'm I'm curious to understand if there if if uh that meeting was discussing corporate emissions or community emissions.

I I think it was more general yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

How we're doing as a community because I I you know I I think there's an awareness where we're at corporately so but um it would be encouraging for you know the community at large to be able to see and encouraging and encourage them to you know keep doing better um as we move up on the barometer or down whatever way the ground goes we can certainly take a look to try and understand what kind of data might be um useful um to report out on and also the time frame because i don't expect that ghg numbers are likely to be released every year um our our sources of data are is generally the province, um, and they seem to be operating on about a five-year cycle or longer.

So maybe it could be a discussion point and a consideration or how how you know we can have put a public face on this.

Good, thank you.

Okay, so I just need a motion, please, to receive item C.

Okay, moved by Councillor Rogers, second seconded by Councillor Kowalewich.

All in favor, opposed.

That's carried.

Um next up we have the CAO update.

Are you gonna go through that, Sarah?

And Kim's absence.

At a rapid pace, your worship.

I just want to make an initial comment that I absolutely despise that photograph of that you put in there.

But other than that, carry on.

Well, see, you're very photogenic, I thought, actually.

So thank you.

Yeah, that's true.

But but to me, what was the most exciting news from this uh mayor and mayor and council is the the fact that two classes from View Royal Elementary of kindergarten kids walked up here on December 8th, sang two little songs to us, and they presented two handmade cards to the mayor, thanking uh View Royal for the work that has happened in making it a wonderful place to live.

And um, we we gave them candy canes, a little oranges and stickers, and it was so very sweet to see those kids once again.

And in the past, they've come in and they've had little handmade ornaments for our tree, but this year uh clearly we couldn't do that, but it was just so nice that and and the day was great weather for them to come down and to hear them and to see them.

Such cute little muffins, they're so sweet.

Um, so also happening in December, the admin department um helped council with the uh festive lights contest with 16 entries.

I think that was well received again this year, and uh, we had a long service recognition event, which we do now every December.

We marked 80 years of service combined with with these seven employees, so that was great.

We also recognized our volunteers sending out almost a hundred little cute boxes of chocolates, acknowledging the work of our volunteers.

And also a lovely display in the foyer of a 3D representation of a photo showing people skating on a squamalt harbor.

Now when the photo went in, there was no snow, and then maybe maybe next year the the winter photo will just only be sunshine and palm trees, and maybe this was just the harbinger of the snow that we've then had later in the month.

I don't know.

Um but uh there you have it.

So it's it's certainly been a busy month in admin.

In finance as well, it was an interim audit, and as anticipated, it was done 100% remotely.

Work is being done to close out 2021 financially with fiscal year end preparation of the financial statements and also work being undertaken with financial plan workshops coming up in February.

Those are already on your outlook calendars and they're listed here as well.

And a little bit of discussion and some stats on people making their payments by year end and how they're doing it electronically so showing some of the uptake there.

And for development services, we spoke a few minutes ago about the community climate action strategy.

Work continued with that.

Targets were set at the community of the committee of the whole meeting in December.

So the targets would put View Royal among one of the leading municipalities in the region with setting a hundred percent reduction level by 2050.

We have also done work in development services building into phase two or the next phase of the consultation for the OCP work.

In engineering, it was King Tides in the month of December, which saw some flooding in Centennial Park, and it was quite challenging at that time.

We also discussed last month the LED BC hydro light conversion, so it's uh certainly uh increasing uh the visibility of our sidewalks at night and our roads at night, and uh they last a bit longer, require less maintenance.

So these are good things.

A little bit of new equipment coming in there with um and and compatible with some of our existing machinery.

And we did discuss in December our great Christmas lights and and displays that we have around town.

And GIS is doing work with asset management to improve our data with our databases, and also some of the work that they're doing makes it easier for tracking when they're when staff is out in the field.

And most recently the annual drainage and head wall inspections have been conducted with the um a GIS uh product put out by ESRI um for Arc GIS, and we can collect it now on tablets, so there's a lot less double entry of the data when they're doing that work, and that is work that was done in December just to mention a few of the highlights great thank you sir any questions on the CAO report John yes please um in the um uh you gave the numbers for the sewer um payments I'm just trying to find out yeah the invoices so um 21% um were outstanding um do you know how much of a value 21% was is that was that the small uh bills or you know, because I I'm trying to think of what the the total invoice bill would be for the entire town, and 21% is uh one-fifth of our of our uh tax collection.

I will have to turn to the director of finance for the answer to that question.

Uh yes, and unfortunately I don't have the answer ready for for that question.

Don, are you available?

Um but in any case, um because sewer payments, uh sorry, sewer billings, when they are transferred at the end of the year, they're transferred to property taxes.

So collection is definitely assured.

It's it's not like um you know, these are receivables that are at risk.

They will go on to the tax bill that is sent out in June and they will be paid uh just as other taxes are.

So while I don't have that answer, I do want to assure council that sewer payments will be collected.

Thank you.

Um if I can uh then switch to engineering.

Is is this the um typical expected, or did this one break any records?

Thank you, Chair.

I'm not aware of it breaking any records, but it's certainly not our norm.

I I do know historically we've had that parking lot flood before.

So, but it's it's not a common occurrence, that's for sure.

It's uh bit like a Sumas Prairie.

Um and and does that has that created any structural problems um for any of the buildings or part perhaps no, we're pretty lucky because we're uh I'll say antiquated with regards to our infrastructure in the building there with the concession.

We don't have it's not you know um built with drywall or any of those things that would damage with water.

So it's we have tile in there that doesn't heave with the water.

Um we've got block walls, so the block walls generally already impacted, and and we really only get about two inches, three inches this last time.

So it takes a while to get up there.

So it hasn't really been an issue so far.

Um, we won't truly know till it dries out and see if there's any kind of inspect and you know uh expansion or contraction.

Because if we get a combination of some uh moisture and then some freezing, it may cause us some issues, but in the past it hasn't.

So we're hoping uh the record stays the same.

Um I don't know, your worship, um, and and staff, were there any uh concerns or complaints for the neighbors?

Uh I'm sure they also got uh impacted by the water.

You know what?

We didn't actually hear anything from the neighbors, so um basically did um how the neighborhood something like that.

I would say that um our lands are a little bit lower than those lands up in the white pine area in that you kind of have to walk the hillside to get there, and we've got a ditch that separates the two uh properties.

So I'm guessing all the stage ditch, so I I don't think so.

Um and I guess when when when we talk about uh reconstruction or you know, would they re redeveloping uh Centennial Park?

Um, is gosh, I don't know.

Um is there any way of redesigning the parking lot so the water doesn't come to the surface?

Uh is it like building a higher parking lot?

Um, I don't um uh yeah, I mean I mean, I I think part of that master plan process, uh to be honest with you, I'd be more concerned about the field aspect.

What are we gonna do with those fields and the ball diamonds and those types of things?

Um we can raise the parking lot, um, but we'd still have to do if we're going to put the water underneath that asphalt structure and not have a release point, I'd be concerned about that uplift.

Um, and for the occurrence, again, I've been here 10 years and I think this might be the second time it's happened.

It may not be the best place to spend our money at this time because it's just not causing us.

It the pavement hasn't really suffered from it uh in previous years because it's always hidden under that area.

Even when you don't see it, it's down there.

So I don't think it'd be a significant issue.

If I was going to look at drainage in Centennial Park, I would look at it more from a field performance point of view and whether we should be raising those fields up, you know, 12 to 18 inches, something like that, and putting in some kind of subdrain that pulls that water away from that field.

But it depends on what the field looks like in the future.

Maybe you know what we find out is we don't need all of those baseball diamonds and get re get rid of a diamond, or we can allocate it in a different form.

So I until we actually get through that uh master plan, it'll probably give us some answers.

So when we would do with the plan, let's think about the oh, definitely that'll be part of that process without a doubt.

Um two more comments, if I would maybe um you know the the new street lights, um uh the LED, it's it's remarkable.

The two lights on on Prince Robert has greatly illuminated uh so that everything's being reflected.

And and I'm I'm a little concerned about the the um dark skies because the amount of reflection on white buildings um is is quite surprising.

And um uh it projects didn't we discuss these last month?

Yeah, but it but I you know I it does reduce I'm not I'm I'm guess I take issue with the fact that it helps reduce light pollution because I think the the amount um of light that's um I'm I know there's a difference of energy consumption, but I think the the intensity of the lights is creating a lot more upward um reflection.

Um so are you saying that BC Hydro you can contact them and they'll assess that?

Um certainly if we told them to assess every single light, no.

Um but as an individual homeowner, if you're calling concerned about your particular light at this moment, they're willing to look at that.

I don't think they're looking at um uh a global type community effort once we go to night skies because the minute they said yes, it's a concern with our town, I can guarantee you that many, many towns across the province would be doing the same.

And BC Hydro is not about to do some kind of provincial campaign on that.

So I I I don't see them responding to that kind of global request.

I yeah, that's my concern of dark sky.

The um equipment, there's beautiful pictures.

Uh, were we able to use those uh for uh snow removal and cleaning sidewalk?

100%.

We're gonna get to that later okay.

But I just wanted to confirm that well, yeah, yeah.

That is on the agenda later.

Yeah, it is.

Let's not have that discussion now.

Well, it's good to know.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

No, okay.

Thank you, Sarah.

Thank you for the report.

Lots of good work going on.

So I am teasing a bit about the picture.

I think just when I looked at it, I thought, God, I look old.

But anyhow, that's good.

I do look like a smurf.

Yeah, maybe that's okay.

So we need a motion to receive the CAO report.

Thank you.

Moved by Councillor Rogers, seconded by Councillor Gualovich.

All in favor, opposed, that's carried.

So then we have, I'm presuming we're just looking for a motion to um approve for recommend to council the approval of the library's budget.

Is anyone coming to speak to it?

I don't think so.

They can't.

May I?

Yeah.

Certainly, if we would like to have someone come and speak to us, they would be more than more than pleased.

Um they go they got the do we need someone to come speak to it?

It it's a minimal increase.

Um there you go.

Yeah.

I guess um, you know, you know, you're right, it's a it's a minimal increase.

Um my concern is um, and I I don't know, uh Council Lemon make his peak speeches, but uh my concern is the how much of the uh contingencies um are being spent.

Um you know there was nothing that was put into reserves that I could see.

Yeah, it's uh 780,000 was taken from reserves, and um it sounds like the contingencies will last um for four years and and then they're down to fifty-six thousand, you know, pittance.

And um so I'm I am worried that um there's been no increase on capital expenses.

Um you know, the yes, the so I'm really, really worried about um the long-term uh effectiveness and and um uh planning uh for the library.

And I understand uh you know the the situation with with COVID, but um you know it was when you look at a four point seven operating percent uh increase was look four percent and it's down to two percent then it was covered for surplus that's one day they're gonna have to make up well certainly certain maybe maybe we do want um to have someone come and speak then that that's or just send that message yeah i i would lay that i'm i'm not i wasn't on i'm not on the finance committee so i wasn't deep in those discussions um but i would be happy to uh relay your concerns or we can you know have someone come yeah, the the idea of having someone come to present the budget wouldn't be to question the library board's long-term decision making, I don't think.

Right.

I think that's two very completely separate separate things.

So I mean if if there is specific concern about that, then I think that that question could certainly be sent via our representative about how our so I mean we already know the answer to that in that you know municipal councils frown on large increases, and therefore the library board is expected to keep their increases minimal, and because we've asked it before, but we can certainly send that question via our rep.

Yeah, yeah, I I I'm happy to approve the budget.

You're right.

Um I got no problem with the two percent it's um and and it looks like that's the way it is across all the way to the end for the next four years, but then bam, all of a sudden there won't be any reserves.

So yes, yeah, no, I agree.

Well, I mean, we we can certainly, you know, we we can we can make a motion to approve the budget in principle and relay our concerns at the same time about what appears to be depleted of reserves um at the end of the five year plan yeah or something to that effect and and just to draw a parallel to worship um i had the similar concerns with the west shore parks where we you know we're using up the reserves and and uh the building maintenance was under considerable threat yeah no i agree well i think the west shore parks and budget increase will um alleviate your concerns there a little bit.

So then the motion would be to approve the budget in principle before or approve the budget and but relay our concerns about depleted reserves in the long term.

Okay.

I will take those to the next meeting.

Okay.

So are you good with that?

Okay.

So that's moved by everyone's okay.

Councilor Rogers and Councillor Kowalovich.

All in favor, opposed, that's carried.

So I I mean I have tried to text Councillor Matson.

I mean, my suggestion would be to go into parks and and let John present on the tree bylaw.

We can ask questions, and then at seven o'clock, if Councillor Matson has any questions or the public has any comments, we can also we can deal with that then.

Would that kind of makes sense to everybody?

Oh, I'm getting a text message from council.

Oh it says listening and then strange loose language but um something about teams and I won't say the word before that but welcome counselor matts and I take it you're on the phone can you come too on your phone I think yeah would you maybe just call them they might have him muted he says he's gonna listen to discussion so that's okay so he's he's listening so that's good and then at seven we can so I I'll hand it over to you counselor rogers to chair the okay part on the proposed tree bylaw.

Yeah, absolutely on iPad okay perfect.

And so uh yes, uh I'll gladly hand it over to John, please.

Thank you, Councilor Rogers.

Uh I do have a very short PowerPoint presentation.

Start off with a picture of a tree.

Uh I know uh I generally don't like to do that fluffy kind of picture stuff.

I just like to get right to the business.

But Jennifer Smith, uh our one of our engineering clerks, has done an outstanding job on uh this tree bylaw, and uh she tends to think of these things to make me look a little better.

So I appreciate that.

We're bringing forward the uh bylaw to be reviewed again by uh the committee.

Um if you recall last uh May we brought it forward um with some some suggestions.

We had uh, I think uh your worship, um, you mentioned it was a very lengthy discussion um about trees and the permit.

It went on fair fair length of time, but uh staff was able to get a real feel for what council wanted to see and a revision as part of that process.

We had a legal review and the bylaw that's presented for consideration um next week with council um reflects that those comments from our legal opinion that we uh received from that.

Um what I plan to do is just go through um kind of the highlights of what we've changed.

Um when we presented the package, we also gave you the um changes of the existing bylaw to the new bylaw.

Quite confusing.

So hopefully you're focused more on what the bylaw says now as opposed to what it used to say.

And I hope that we've been able to uh incorporate all the changes you're looking for.

So next slide, please.

Uh we made all those changes.

So we really just talked about uh changing the trees, the list of the trees.

We added a couple, we removed uh uh a few, um, nothing big.

We added um birds, nests, and so on, raptors and so on within that.

Um, we removed the significant trees.

Um, we don't have a list of significant trees.

Um, any tree that's bigger than 12 inches in diameter or of a certain species would be captured within the protected bylaw.

Um, so significant trees have been removed.

Um, we did some changes to the size of the uh branches that you could prune.

Uh, we uh did some changes to emergency removal.

We increased the uh water course works so that if you're within 30 meters instead of 15, um you have to have a permit.

It used to be 15.

We've amended the penalties.

Um so your your everyday type MTI fines by um community charter can only be a thousand dollars.

So if you looked in that fees and charges and the MTI changes, we've reflected some of those changes within that on the chain on our requests.

And then we've also added the ability within the community charter under the offense act, we can go to 50,000.

Um, those types of offenses would be subject to um court matters, and and just because we pick a number, um, what staff's working on now is uh studying the best approach for the town.

Um, and it would be some kind of appraisal by uh an expert if we were to have, say, uh a significantly large tree or say a group of trees that were taken down maliciously for view purposes or something like that, we would bring in an expert.

And what we're trying to determine is what that approach would be.

There's several different ways to make that approach.

You can talk about a cost approach, an income approach, a benefit approach, i.e., the the benefit of the view, what did that cost, and what's that appraisal.

So we're trying to figure out what will best suit the purposes of the town to make sure that um one um the the infraction doesn't occur again, and two that it's um enough of a penalty to to make sure that people understand that we take trees seriously here in the removal if uh it's not sanctioned as that's good so thro through the chair so on that if if say we had someone take down a tree that was borderline but it was a protected tree if there was no massive implications would staff just decide somewhere in that range of what fine you were going to assess on sort of a day-to-day basis currently we have the ability up to a thousand dollars in the MTI bylaw.

Right.

Just to, you know, let's say somebody accidentally uh took out uh 25 millimeter Gary Oak in the backyard.

Um, I don't see us finding them $50,000 for that.

Um, but let's say they had, you know, uh a bunch of straggly, you know, what they thought were straggly just twigs, and what they actually were is a bunch, it was a Gary Oak growth that was back in that corner.

Then, you know, we we'd want to make sure that we sent some kind of message about that so the rest of the public would be aware.

So that's the kind of conversation where, you know, we may bring something back to council on that.

And that would at this point it's a prerogative of myself up to a thousand.

Anything larger than that, if we're talking, you know, say a massive tree like uh uh or like especially a growth of trees, and we staff would definitely come back to council on that.

We'd be an in-camera meeting discussing where we should go, uh, what approach we're gonna take.

But in the meantime, we're gonna try to come up with something that kind of suits our day-to-day needs with regards to figuring out a value, and then the approach that we take when it becomes those rare occasions.

I again I've been here almost 10 years, and I don't recall a tree that's been removed maliciously that uh was significant in value.

So we don't want to, you know, spend you know, you know, tens of dozens of hours trying to figure out a process that may or may not occur, but we want to have something available to us uh with regards to an approach.

So that's how that's the way we would probably look at it.

Okay, thank you.

And if I can just um connect with that, you know, there's one thing about malicious removal, but there's also malicious damage.

So uh we're not just talking about, you know, there's gonna be a heavy skill on both aspects, right?

You know, when we talk about malicious damage, what we'd look at is is would it drastically affect mortality of the tree?

Right?

So it may not have killed the tree today, but if it's going to kill the tree three days from now or three years from now, because say they spiked the tree or done something like that, then in our minds that would be just as malicious as a removal.

Thank you.

All right.

Any other questions on on the penalties or anything?

Since we're on that specific point.

No, no, no.

Are you able to elaborate on a couple ones?

Uh so you answered my first question on significant trees, but amended water course, 30 meters.

Yeah.

So the previous bylaw, if if you were working, say let's say you had a shoreline property or uh uh you lived um say near craigflower creek or something like that if you had a tree in your backyard that was within 15 meters of craigflower creek you'd be required to have a permit regardless of uh species or size or anything like that well what we've done now is increase it to 30 meters so if your tree is within 30 meters of Craigflower Creek you'd now require that same permit okay and so that does that cover like reparian lines as well correct that's that's that same kind of idea and this is to match the I believe to match that repairing requirement of 30 meters we used to be 15 along the say the like I say the ocean water type places so we've done it to 30 to match.

We do have a question.

Thank you.