Special Council

Welcome, you royal to the committee of the whole meeting of July the 14th.

I'm Councillor Jerry Lemon.

It's my turn in this rotation of councillor council chairs.

And uh this is the second last committee of the whole meeting of this council term.

So enjoy. So calling this meeting to order.

Do we have can we get an approval for the agenda, please?

Second. All those in favor?

Approved. And uh the minutes.

We have a motion to adopt the minutes.

Councillor Brown, Councillor Rogers, second.

All those in favor.

Well approved. And uh public participation period.

Uh do we do we have any?

Oh, we do we have anyone on public participation?

Just invite people.

Okay. Anyone want to come to the mic?

And um anyone in the room want to come to the mic and address an issue that is on the agenda.

Carl, anyone online that would like to speak to council on an issue that's on the agenda.

Chair Lemon, we have no we have no people online that have spoken at this time.

Thank you. Okay.

Petitions and delegations.

We have here Staff Sergeant Walsh.

Um, his first her first visit, his first visit to these council chambers.

Welcome. Go to the mic.

Thanks.

Uh good evening, and thank you so much for having me.

I am not Superintendent Gillespie.

He gives his best.

You can make it today.

My name is Ryan Walsh.

I'm a police officer here with West Shore RCMP.

I am currently the acting operations officer for the detachment.

But my substantive position is I normally oversee your investigative services section, so you're sort of plainclothes detective units.

So again, uh Superintendent Gillespie couldn't make it.

So he asked me to come and present the biannual report to you.

So I'll just be going over the uh statistics for the last six months.

I do believe there's a PowerPoint, and I've got some notes just to add some color to some of the stats there.

And then if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer any you might have.

So other than that, I guess we'll get started.

So thank you. Uh we can go as much as I like looking at uh Constable Matheson with his flowing long hair.

If I had longer hair, I'd get more photos.

Uh we'll go to the next slide, which is um the files and resources by municipality summary.

So uh for this year, you'll see that uh there have been 1,577 files or calls for service in the town of View Royal, and that accounts for 13% of the total call volume uh this year.

Um View Royal contributes 14.35 of the 124 sworn officers for the detachment, which accounts for about 12% of the total funding uh for the detachment.

When I talk about files, uh, by and large, those are going to be calls for service from community members to either 911 or an arm emergency line that are uh responded to by our patrol officers.

But files will also be uh proactive enforcement done by uniformed police officers as well as our investigative services section and uniform support team.

So that accounts for all the work uh that we do by and large.

Uh View Royal averaged about nine calls for service a day over the six-month period, and we typically take about 70 calls per day.

So in total, uh West Shore responded to 12,629 calls for service over the first half of 2026, which again equates to about 70 calls per day.

It's a 2% decrease over the same time last year in 2025, but I don't see that as being too statistically significant.

Of the 70 calls for service, we get about on average again a day.

50 of those calls are going to be during the day and around 20 at night.

And we do have, I'm not sure if you're aware of, but we have a mid shift that we schedule additional resources over those higher call volume times in the early afternoon and evening, just to account for uh some of that call volume.

Um the uh next slide.

I can be some a bit verbose at times, so I'm gonna try and account for your time and try and be quick, uh, save more time for questions.

Um when we break the files down by month, uh you'll see that they are averaging around 2,000 a month, which is pretty consistent in my uh experience here.

I've been an officer here for about eight years, and you'll see them start to tick up in June, and then what I expect is uh you'll see a greater increase, so it's not here in July and August.

The call volume tends to increase over the summer.

Uh, I might be getting a bit old, but uh generally the teenagers are out of school, and so that might account for some of the more call volumes in the summer months.

Uh, if we go to the next slide, I can talk a bit about the persons' offenses.

Um, so there were 752 total persons' offenses reported uh for the first half of 2026, so from January to June in the West Shore.

This includes all sort of violations against the persons, so assaults, uttering threats, harassing communications, assault with a weapon, and caught saying bodily harm, and sexual assaults.

Those are your top five uh offenses out of that 752 total persons' offenses over that period.

Uh, of the 752, that only accounts for 6% of the total call volume uh for the West Shore.

So of the 12,629 calls for service, only 6% of those relate to persons offenses, which I think is uh a relatively low number.

Uh, West Shore is generally a very safe community.

Uh, there is an increase of 9.14% uh over the same period last year, which averages out to about one more file every three days uh over that six-month period.

And if we go to the persons offenses for View Royal on the next slide.

Uh with respect to View Royal, persons' offenses are down 22% over the same time last year.

So even though we saw a jump overall in West Shore, View Royal is down for persons' offenses.

So we only have uh 68 this year versus 87 uh this time last year.

Uh and even though View Royal accounts for 13% of our total call volume with respect to the persons' offenses, they only account for 9%.

So uh View Royal, when it comes to assaults and uttering threats and things like that, is lower statistically than the average call volume for the West Shore.

So only against 68 of the 752 occurred in the township of View Royal.

Um if we move over to property offenses, overall in the West Shore, there were 1,497 violations against property in the first half of 2026.

Your top five again are shoplifting under $5,000, mischief under $5,000, which is vandalism or damage to property.

Theft under $5,000, mischief or loss of enjoyment of property.

So when you see mischief, loss of enjoyment of property, think uh perhaps vagrancy or someone who's loitering in front of a business and preventing people from lawfully enjoying that property.

That would be that sort of mischief call.

And then fraud under $5,000.

So this is an increase overall of just uh under 14%, so 183 files over the same period last year in 2025.

Um there is, and I want to mention um just for your awareness, um, I'm not sure if you heard of the ReVOI program, but this year the Capitol Regional District adopted the chronic property and public disorder intervention initiative.

So that was launched this year.

Um we're having our first meeting in August.

This builds on the success of the ReVOI program, which is a provincial program that deals with repeat violent offenders in the community.

This one is targeted against uh property offenders and um people who do disturbance type offenses, so those chronic people, as you've probably heard anecdotally before, a very small percentage of people account for a very high volume of the police resources and calls for service.

So this targets under the same sort of idea as the ReVOI program for violent offenders, property related offenses.

Uh the program basically involves identifying prolific offenders, uh increasing enhanced monitoring and enforcement, and then the engagement of various support services.

It's going to be run by our, I'm gonna say very highly successful crime reduction unit in this detachment.

Uh, and their first meetings in August, in which they'll be identifying offenders and then partnering with probation in the Crown.

Also, with respect to property crime offenses was not in the stats.

And so we're just kicking that off now that our resources are coming back from defeat the deployments.

We're going to look to start doing that.

And we've been very successful in the past with some of that prolific work.

If we go to the property offenses for View Royal, you've seen, I'm not sure that it's not up, but you'll uh there has been an uptick of about 13% in property offenses in the View Royal area.

And then sorry, I lost the slides, but uh the next slide relates to traffic.

If we skip ahead, uh so collisions in uh the West Shore.

Uh so we responded to 513 collisions for the first half of 2026, which is a 2% decrease from the same period of 2025.

Uh our traffic unit, I'm very happy.

I don't know if you have a chance to meet him yet, but uh Corporal uh Nathan Brown is our new uh NCOIC of the traffic unit.

Uh he comes with about 20 years experience, at least 10 of which has been in the integrated road safety unit as well as uh BC Highway Patrol.

Uh so he brings a tremendous amount of energy and knowledge to the unit.

I remember the first day he got here, uh, he wasn't even in uniform, he's just doing an orientation, and we had a pedestrian struct just outside our office, and he was outside running that scene uh in shorts and a t-shirt, I think.

So uh we're very lucky to have him.

Uh and on the topic of um collisions and traffic in in the West Shore.

We've had two fatal collisions.

Uh, one was in Machosen, the other was in Langford, unfortunately.

Uh our traffic unit does a lot of proactive work, uh, specifically targeting people, or believe to me, impaired drivers and things like that.

And our traffic unit this year re-jigged their schedule a little bit to enhance coverage for the municipality.

So they work five um five on, three off, and a combination of day shifts and evenings.

So we have coverage for traffic up until about three in the morning, I believe, to try and specifically look at uh impaired driving.

Um go to the next slide.

Uh so that's just traffic specifically for View Royal.

Uh, we had 84 collisions in the township of View Royal for the first half of 2026.

Uh 56 collisions involved damage only with no reported injuries.

28 result in some injuries to at least one of the persons involved.

There have been no fatal collisions, knock on wood uh in View Royal this year.

Um, and we've removed 79 impaired drivers from the roads overall, 15 of which have been in the township of View Royal.

There's some stats there on the IRPs, traffic violations, traffic warnings, uh, proactive traffic patrols, um, school zones, things like the lot.

Uh things of that like.

Um, next slide on mental health.

Uh so many, I will say of the calls for service to the West Shore RCP involve a component of mental health uh these days.

Uh we have a mental health unit that works proactively in partnership with health practitioners to ensure persons in crisis receive the supports uh they need, improving outcomes and attempting to reduce the call volumes.

We've also this year implemented or went live in March with an application called Health IM, which we're using for our mental health calls.

So Health IM is an application you can get on your cell phone.

It was developed, so it's a digital public safety system created by a network of researchers and health practitioners out east.

It was designed to improve outcomes for individuals suffering from mental health challenges, and the system summarizes previous interactions with an individual and facilitates the transfer of information between police hospitals and community mental health agencies.

It's designed to promote increased safety for all parties engaged with the individual.

And although it's not designed to reduce the wait times for police at the local hospitals when we make an apprehension, that is what has historically come as a result of the implementation of Health IM.

I am part of a committee with Island Health, and I've seen since the implementation a general trend in the reduction of wait times at our hospitals.

Though statistically, on average, your officers are waiting about three hours at a hospital with an apprehended person.

So I really think this program is going to help drive down some of the wait times at the hospitals and improve outcomes for mental health-related files in the community.

With respect to the relationship, you'll see about 12% at a View Royal as far as the calls.

This includes files such as Check Well Beings, Missing Persons, Mental Health Act related files.

It's a 9% decrease compared to the same period in 2025, which is good.

And then the mental health related files out of Victoria General Hospital.

There are 27 files of the hospital with the mental health component in the first half of 2026.

So the 115 files of mental health component represents 7% of the total of View Royal files, with a core of those originating from Vic General.

And then the last few slides, I think talk about the hospital in the casino.

So Victoria General Hospital, there are 146 calls for service at Victoria General Hospital for this first uh quarter.

That's an increase of 11.45% or 15 files over the same period last year.

Generally relating to Mental Health Act or unspecified assistance of checked well beings represent the three highest sort of call volume types, uh, 14, 11, and 8%, respectively.

And then with respect to the casino, uh, there's only 62 calls for service to the Elements Casino for the first half of 2026, although this equates to a 77% increase or 27 files over the same period 2025 is still very low as far as call volume and 62 files in six months is six files a month, or you know, two weeks maybe if that uh so it's not high.

Uh and the top reported incidents are uh impaired operation more vehicle counter currency uh, which I like to see them calling if they suspect someone's impaired because we'd love to take them off the road.

So uh is there another slide or did I catch them all?

That's it. Fast and Furious, my apologies.

Uh, generally I talked too much.

I appreciate it.

I've just got a quick question before I go to my colleagues.

Uh, the calls, the mental health calls.

Yes, ma'am. VRoyal.

Those weren't specifically View Royal residents.

That's because the hospital is in View Royal, correct?

Uh well, a large portion of those originated from the hospital.

If I go back to the numbers, I think.

There were 115 files with the mental health components.

So those might not necessarily be Mental Health Act files where we make an apprehension, but a file that had a mental health component.

And then a quarter of those were originating from the hospital.

So the hospital does account for a large portion of that just because it happens to be in the community.

Okay, good. All right. Um Councillor Brown.

Well, thank you for your report.

I I've had complaints from neighbors and myself to include a uh traffic issue.

So if I hear that, should I be going directly to uh Corporal Brown and then saying this is that brought to my attention for or should I go through the superintendent, let him bounce it down?

Uh you can go direct to Corporal Brown. I can get his phone number if you like, or through me as well.

Um the issue is is the the new uh bus on shoulder lanes on the island highway.

The one going to Deakin Road, which is where the C or D uh water is, and six mile road, where people are you can you can go into the right bus lane to make a right hand turn, but people are doing it two and three blocks in advance, and then they're cutting back in, using it as a shortcut.

So it's uh a disobey traffic device, I think.

Because it's a left turn right turn near me.

I believe uh I'll I'll talk to Nathan again about that, but that was brought to my attention right before perhaps by yourself, uh sir, but I can't recall.

That was brought forward by this council, I believe, and I did advance that to Nathan as one of the things he was gonna look at when he landed here.

So I know he's still getting a speed out from uh under him.

Uh, but that is something he was looking at.

Uh yeah, I know our staff, I know um Ivan might know this too, but they're I know they're doing a study because the access and egress from that shell station is also a major traffic uh potential hazard because there's two exits onto that, and the one exit, you as soon as you turn, you're in the right turn lane, and then people realize, oh my god, I can't go straight ahead because the lane doesn't carry on.

So they either cut over, cut somebody off, or they have to go right on on six mile road and to go around the roundabout and come back, which most people aren't gonna do.

So uh it's a major traffic concern.

And and of course, from the shell station coming out of there, turning right on you can't turn uh you can't turn left on a six-mile road.

So um I don't know what the answer is.

Uh in my opinion, I'm not an engineer, I I did spend some time on traffic, but um you need to close that one exit off, or or maybe he has to close the whole station down because really um it's a major traffic hazard.

And I'm surprised I I know I looking at the stats, I know there's a lot of accidents in that corner, not just as a result of that, but it's gonna be more for sure.

Um, and I'm just surprised uh and road rage as well, because people are are are cutting back over and cutting people off, and they're they're getting the half peace sign and that kind of thing.

So um absolutely well, if you um if we can touch base after, um I can update.

So I'll run all the morning briefings, so I'll update all our uniform uh general patrol officers uh so they're aware of the issue, and anytime they're doing proactive enforcement in the community, they can look at it, and then I'll have Nathan sort of look to proactively put together something to give it.

If he wants to call me, that would be fine too, or I could call him and and discuss because I s I've lived just off six mile roads, so uh I see it myself every day.

Yeah, absolutely.

Any other questions? Counselor Rogers. Yes, uh, thank you for the report.

Under the uh property offenses, um, I'm particularly interested in uh theft from motor vehicle, and I think this is in in Vancouver, there's a lot of instance of um uh theft of uh catalytic converters.

And I'm wondering if um that's a uh a concern of the the RCMP and uh and uh policing general in Victoria.

Uh I would have to check with our analysts, but I haven't seen any reports recently of thefts from catalytic converters uh in the West Shore.

I do know um my memory's not what it used to be, so I won't be exact with the days, but two to three years ago we had a rash in the Capitol Regional District, West Shore included.

Uh and our crime reduction unit partnered with Vic PD Strike Force, and we did an undercover operation, identified the person responsible for that.

Uh and I think we were successful in charges.

Um but uh yeah, there was a rash, and sometimes that's what you'll see with property crime.

Again, you'll get one person who uh does that, and then uh you know, the difficult part for us is again identifying the offender and then trying to figure out where they're they're being uh in indeed um uh it caught my attention because it was a new item um coming from the past uh in the lower mainland.

So it's a possibility that uh you know it's it's gonna catch the eye of uh other uh individuals.

I I can say we did have a rash a few years ago, uh for sure.

Uh we did catch them.

Uh we did uh like I said, we did partner with Vic PD uh on a a bit of a project on that, and we were pretty successful.

And I haven't seen anything since.

But I think we've we hadn't hadn't we done some PR work with um um you know those that would normally buy scrap dealers normally buy these and uh they've got a lot gotta be a lot more uh diligent in checking yeah they they should be and I do believe uh as I'm not an expert in the field that this was a huge issue scrap metal thefts were a huge issue so I did uh 13 years in Surrey before I transferred to the West Shore eight years ago and we had I remember following someone on surveillance with ski boots and spikes in them as he climbed a power pole to steal wire um like they were stealing everything uh and and selling it for scraps.

So there was a change in some legislation uh directing the people who do buy scrap metal to report those sales.

Uh that I think they have to ask don't quote me but I believe they have to ask for identification certain things they have to do they have to report that uh to the police jurisdiction uh to mitigate some of those issues.

Yeah counselor Roger or Matson.

Yes again thank you for presentation.

Uh do we have specific areas in the town where we have uh where collisions are a bigger issue are they are they happening if in in any particular area and also in terms of break-ins etc do we have uh where where are the problem areas in View Royal in terms of your c getting calls uh I I don't know that I have that information off the top of my head.

Can I can I get back to you on that because I I like to get I don't want to be anecdotal with my answer.

I want to be specific.

Uh so specifically you're looking at collisions and break and enters Okay.

Yeah, I uh um I don't know, I I can't think off the top of my head a specific area in View Royal, but I can definitely run some numbers and get our analysts to check to see.

Uh we do have two analytical teams uh or two analytical members who who look at that and we'll look at and try to identify hot spots so we can push that out to our patrol officers so we can be sure to be in the appropriate communities.

We want to be intelligent with our time.

Um I just nothing comes to mind as a specific like hotspot.

This is where cars are being stolen or these are where the businesses are being broken into, specific to View Royal.

Uh it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but I I I'll check.

I just don't have that on hand.

I think our pubs close at eleven o'clock, so you're not getting the the two o'clock in the evening sort of damage that happens in some cities.

I think I've just lost it.

Um forget that one then.

Is that it? That's it.

Okay, good. Um anything?

Oh, okay. I don't want to long response.

Looking at the different kinds of offenses, what is loss of enjoyment caused by mischief?

Uh so that one would be when you look at mischief, typically it's it means vandalism, so it's damage to property.

Uh, but you can create, you can hit the offense of mischief by preventing someone's lawful enjoy enjoyment of property.

So if so I think the best example would be like again, the vagrancy example.

If you had a business and someone was loitering outside the frontier business and obstructing your customers, that would be the criminal offense of mischief.

They haven't damaged your property, but they're preventing people from lawfully enjoying it in the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

Got it. Good. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Oh yes, quickly came to you.

A few years ago, we uh had a presentation in terms of organized crime in the West Shore.

And we haven't heard anything for for years, but and I'm not sure if you know, public at the at the meeting is a good time to discuss it, but uh is that an issue anymore?

Like organized crime, yeah in the West Shore.

I will should I answer this?

Like I said, I came from um Surrey, where I policed for 13 years.

So I'll say that if you're grading on a curve, uh West Shore is lovely, and I have no intention of ever leaving uh or going back to the lower mainland.

Uh that being said, organized crime is everywhere.

Um, you know, the people who are trafficking controlled substances, uh, the violence that brings, uh, that certainly exists.

There are organized crime groups who are operating in the capital regional district.

Is it as systemic or prevalent, or does it have the same level of violence that you see in the lower mainland?

Absolutely not.

Um, and we are pretty good, uh, especially in the West Shore.

Again, when we talk about site funding, I had again sought out and received provincial funding to have our Uniform Gang Enforcement Team from our Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit on the mainland come out on two occasions just to do proactive enforcement on those type of groups in this community to make sure they don't find this an inviting place to be.

So uh we want to make sure that we stay ahead of that curve.

Um it exists, it exists everywhere, but is it the same problem that it is elsewhere?

No. Uh but I'd love to do if you if you want a presentation, I'm happy to come back.

Um Counselor Rogus, you have real quick.

Is um the RCM3 bike program is that uh still going on with the uh trails and so forth?

Absolutely. Yeah, best unit in the West Shore.

Good answer. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Nice to meet you.

Yeah, it's a pleasure. Any time. Take care.

And Mr. Gru, you're up next to talk about animals. At everyone.

Good evening, uh Mayor, members of council, and uh you royal staff.

Thank you for having me again.

Uh first off, my apologies for just uh handing off uh some stats for you here.

Normally you would get these well in advance.

I will preface my presentation tonight, not really making an excuse, just the reality.

We're going through pretty much a categorical change in animal control at the CRD, and uh everything from the contracts down to our uniform and our vehicles, so which means we're training some people.

So I notice on this uh current um stat sheet that there is an addition to something that was requested by council, I think, in the past, or something I discussed and I said is coming.

But then I also notice we're also we're omitting a major part there, the parks patrols uh that will all get rectified in hopefully for the next uh quarter uh reporting.

Um yes, the uh we we have a new model, we have a new contract model that we'll introduce to you when the time comes.

Um, because I believe we have our our contract still good till the 20 2027, and uh we may we may come before that, but we will have that, and it'll provide some clarity as to why all these changes we've made.

Um we've already gone to a number of other municipalities who have a who uh uh updated their contract with the new model, and we're steaming ahead.

So we will get to you guys in time.

Um, so I'm gonna draw to your attention really the only thing I see of of significance because it's been pretty good here.

We um we feel very blessed that uh in View Royal, not only during our patrols are people pretty good to us.

Uh there hasn't been a lot of um like dog attacks.

I think there's one, I think there was one in uh June, and it wasn't really a uh overly uh serious attack.

Uh it's an it was an attack nonetheless that resulted in some some injuries to uh to a person.

Um but we were able to to investigate that and uh the resolution was a dangerous dog caution so they got a warning even though we had we now have aggressive uh uh dog declaration now uh with within the bylaw and I thank you I thank counsel for for uh approving that uh we are seeing the benefits of that change in all the other uh municipalities big time so it definitely gives us another tool to work with um and an example would be in this particular case uh if something were to happen with this it's uh it was a it was a dog on a leash incidentally who was just reactive just leash reactive to somebody approaching and apparently uh the the person walking the dog a younger per much younger uh announced that don't get too close to my dog but they didn't hear it and and the dog just reacted and jumped up and some some some bites no stitches but some bites nonetheless some small bites um if that were to occur again just based on the totality of it maybe occurring in the same year um they've been advised like we you know it depending on the severity if it's really a serious serious bite of course we we still have our dangerous dog declaration to to rely on but in this case it would be a it would be no now it's been declared as aggressive now aggressive means your dog has to be on a leash at all times all the time even in an unleashed area he's got to be on a leash but and this and in this case the dog was on a leash, so it's not really gonna make a difference.

And what the added bonus is the owner of the dog was very cooperative, so much so that the person who was aggrieved or injured um I really appreciated that they stepped up and they're and they're gonna mitigate uh the issues going forward.

So that it just there isn't a repeat.

So again, that was really the only significant uh issue within uh View Royal when it comes to you know something serious.

Um rest assured, we have been, I don't know how many of you have seen us, but we have been in your parks.

Um and I think I mentioned to you last time that we inherited the regional trail system, and um with that, uh, because I I heard my colleague here before me uh uh confirm that the the bike patrol is out, and and I can attest to that because we're actually sort of indirectly working with them.

We have a great relationship with them.

Um we've we've got more clarity on our role uh on your trail, uh, in and trail here within View Royal.

We know the metrics, and just for clarity's sake, I thought I would let you know um we have we have authority with the current uh parks bylaw for the regional trail within View Royal, but the metric is basically, and I'm not 100% sure on this because there's a there's several of them.

Um we only go pretty much a meter out from the actual trail.

Some parts of the trail throughout the CRD, we actually do 15 meters from the middle of the trail out.

So when you see people when you're walking and they're there's encampments in close proximity to the trail, um we often get called first.

Uh but what we do is we we have a whole this whole new program that we're cutting our teeth on, and we will go out and do an assessment.

We have a whole protocol for it now.

If we get out there and we determine that this isn't within our authority, it's outside our authority.

We actually are liaising with all the bylaw departments and basically sort of collaborating and working together because it's a common issue to all of us.

So I don't know if you're getting any feedback from anybody.

We have we've received both positive and negative, uh, because some people think we should just take it all, take it all on, you know, the homeless encampments, that sort of thing.

But we are we are sort of limited based on our authority, but we don't just walk away from it.

As a matter of fact, we had one, I believe, in View Royal today, and uh the officer just before I came here said, went out there, it's beyond our area.

But because they all have some excellent uh skills in engaging uh people, had a conversation with the uh individual and basically sort of read the ride act, said, Listen, you can't really be here.

Um just letting you know, and we're we're gonna be reaching out to the bylaw department here in View Royal because we work with them regularly.

So if you're here tomorrow, you're gonna get a visit, not just from them, but likely from the police.

So that's happening.

So you're you may hear some good, bad, and indifferent in all of that, but that is definitely something we're doing now.

At the same time, they spend a certain amount of time doing that, and then they're they've been advised to segue over into the parks.

And the the next hopefully the next report, you'll see where we're putting our efforts in the hours in.

But we are we have been going to the parks, and you'll see the stats hopefully the next time.

And short of that, um, yeah, the yeah, that's about it.

I'll I'll take questions if there are any.

That's great, Mark. Good to good to see that the animal owners of URL are very responsible. Um, Counselor Brown.

Thank you for your report.

Just one question.

Uh the C or D animal shelter on Elk Lake, or right across from Elk Lake, I know it's a leased uh arrangement with the owners.

Um is that still the situation, or or is the C or D considering purchasing a portion or all that property?

It is, yes, it is still leased.

Uh as a matter of fact, we have recently renewed it because we had to.

Uh, but suffice to say that we have made several attempts to acquire that property outright.

And we're not giving up.

We we it's it just makes sense that if the current owner is amenable, we will we will purchase it from her.

Um, and I and and we even have a clause in the existing contract that says before she can just sell it off under her feet, we get the first right of purchase.

So to answer your question, we're trying, but we have looked elsewhere, and we just recognize that it's uh it's it's probably more reasonable to secure that property and then look at the short term and then of course the longer term, which might be once we own the property, build a new a new facility.

Just just uh for people listening or attending, the uh if you don't if you're not aware of the properties, it's a kind of a hobby farm type area.

So it's really good for emergency preparedness because it can facilitate holding a larger animals, cows, uh, sheep, horses, and things too.

So uh it's got uh fenced in properties, so it's really nice um that they have that facility uh rather than just having a you know building with a bunch of of cages for cats and dogs, but thanks very much for your report.

That's a good uh good um um feedback because uh when I first arrived at this role, uh I entered into uh uh an agreement in MOU with uh the SPCA as part of our business continuity plan.

So you're you're you're right on.

Like we we have contingencies so that if something were to happen elsewhere, we can actually use that facility and and trust me, we've tried to leverage that with the owner.

And it's not that the owner is being unreasonable.

The owner is, you know, everybody has their time when they're ready.

Um she had a you know a family issue occur in the last year.

So we had to sort of respect that.

But uh I I think there'll there'll come a time.

Thank you.

That's the uh Rogers.

Yes, uh, thank you very much.

Looking at the uh dogs at large uh numbers, um there seems to be an increase.

Are these dogs at large um generally on the street, or would they be in uh the municipal parks where they're supposed to be on leash?

Honestly, be a little bit of both.

I mean, I I can't I can't say with any certainty that it's 50% on the street or or or 50% in the park, but it's usually a combination of both.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Next question, if I may.

Um the uh the harbor area uh isn't inundated with wild rabbits.

And uh I you may have zero here, but there's um you know quite a few in in the lower harbor area.

What's the um methodology when someone calls for assistance um with animal control?

Well, again, rabbits are technically wild animals, so they sort of fall outside our purview.

Uh we often will direct people to different NGOs uh that may be interested in uh you know uh uh retrieving or getting the rabbits.

I mean, do we get rabbits delivered to our shelter?

Yes. And and then and then we have we we make arrangements, we try to reach out to local farmers or or even people who are interested, or um animal uh other NGOs that um that take in animals just as a volunteers.

Okay, these these are wild rabbits, they're not chicken cuddly domestic.

Well, they're out running wild out there, they're they don't have collars on them, they don't they're not chipped normally, so yeah, they they yeah, we do get the odd domesticated yeah uh rabbit and talking nose.

Yeah. Okay, thank you. Okay.

Yeah, they they're brown and they have little white fluffy tails and they are pervasive.

And uh in my yard, I've had three warrens at a time.

Um yeah, they're yes, they're they're multiply like rabbits.

Thank you, Mark.

Appreciate your part.

Okay, thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I've been the young director of engineering.

Uh this is just a uh what we heard presentation on our transportation master plan.

We've just undergone uh engagement number two, which consisted of a survey uh and a lot of uh outreach through social media.

We had some sandwich boards in in some key uh gathering spaces such as Admiral's Walk, uh, Wonder Fe Correct Center, and had to think um just under 150 responses through the survey.

Uh the attached, what we heard summary is still in draft form.

Uh you'll notice that uh the appendices are not attached.

Um we will be attaching that shortly, and it will be posted on the engage view roll website for public consumption and uh council's consumption.

So the purpose of this is to essentially apply the next steps that were identified in engagement one.

So engagement engagement one was essentially to set the tone and add a transportation lens to the day-to-day issues that impact view all residents during their travels.

So it's gathering information, understanding where they know and where they think uh issues are.

And then essentially, uh engineering staff played a little bit of the waiting game because we, as you see it in this uh in that triple Venn diagram.

You've seen this before.

Uh, we we need we had to basically follow the OCP and let that run its course uh so that we can grab some of the visions and some of the uh goals and objectives from that, and that'll help allow us to identify direction and then get uh public uh comments on those.

So engagement number two is essentially to uh identify the goals and objectives to solve the day-to-day issues.

Next slide. So, why a mission statement and not a vision statement?

The OCP uh actually has the vision statement.

It's uh we had a uh discussion on this.

It's it doesn't make sense to have two vision statements.

Um, best to kind of have a funnel of form follows function.

Let's follow the OCP uh vision, which is to um establish View Royal as a thriving, welcoming, inclusive community where people live close to nature, services, and amenities that foster health and well-being.

Uh, and then through that, the OCP actually uh provides six transportation and mobility options, which include uh emphasis on connections, equitable and safe transportation choices, uh network that prioritizes residents' needs, provides options, and has uh alignment with climate.

So the vision statement is typically used to identify the desired state, and the mission statement is to describe the what and how to reach the desired state.

Next slide. So the mission statement we have identified received 71% support from the respondents, and it's uh states View Royals Transportation network supports our growing community and region with a progressive, affordable, and equitable system that promotes safe, enjoyable multimodal travel for people of all ages and abilities.

A bit of a mouthful, but it does cover the six um objectives in the official community plan and does provide a lens of how we want to move forward with our transportation master plan.

There were some comments on this vision statement, uh, one being uh the term progressive and safe multimodal travel.

Uh there are some comments about uh both the over and under emphasis of active transportation.

Staff's recommendation is to keep this vision statement as is, or the sorry, mission statement as is.

And the reason why is because it's best to keep the mission statements at a high stratosphere.

The comments that we receive regarding this mission statement will be best served to be as part of discussion items for future um goals and objectives that will be established in a transportation master plan.

Next slide. So we propose three goals with four objectives each to uh respondents to rank, and all of these goals and objectives kind of follow that funnel of taking the OCP, the vision, and the goals and objectives, and then we basically these three goals are essentially the roadmap to achieve the desired state.

So uh I don't think these are any surprises.

Goal one is to manage congestion, improve reliability, goal two is reduce neighborhood impacts, goal number three is to promote transit.

In terms of goal number one, uh the first two uh prior objectives that uh received the most votes as a priority were uh infrastructure-based, so that'll be infrastructure that improves liability, reduces bottlenecks.

Uh also to improve active transportation and transit infrastructure and initiatives.

I did start the signal timing operations uh objective, and the reason why is because it did receive a lot of second place votes, and actually signal timing can uh embed itself as a very important part of uh infrastructure upgrades.

Next slide. Goal number two to reduce neighborhood impacts from through traffic.

Uh many of these objectives received uh a lot of emphasis as a priority.

So from us, we believe that goal number two is fairly important to the community.

Reducing neighborhood impacts from through traffic will would involve uh mitigation measures near schools and parks where uh we do get um peaks at certain times of the day.

Uh we receive a lot of comments about keeping regional traffic on thoroughfares, which also means trying to keep uh commuting traffic off of the residential roads.

Route hierarchy did receive also a very, very high amount of uh votes, and root hierarchy uh just to condense it and to simplify it, basically is diversion strategies.

So, like physically taking people commuters off of the residential streets, and there's many um there's many ways that can be done.

Next slide. Final one, this one is not a surprise to us.

Uh higher service improvements, essentially, was what the people wanted.

So, um, better service, probably better on time performance.

Next slide. So there are some themes that did arise from this.

There's this chart basically defines the the themes that we knew was going to be mentioned versus the ones that intrigue us.

And we do really enjoy the ones that intrigue us because that's what creates the uniqueness of our transportation master plan.

It's what allows us to create a master plan that is uh for the people, which is per what the OCP has mentioned is something that is wanted.

So, what we knew was going to be mentioned is essentially connectivity to regional uh active transportation networks, ENN Trail, uh Galvan Goose.

That was all identified in the active transportation network plan.

Uh promotion of public transit again, that was all that was also emphasized in the active transportation network plan.

Uh 44% of residents or respondents do not use transit but are interested in using this.

We also knew this in the active transportation network plan that there was a drive to uh improve transit.

Um, the reason people don't use it now is because it's not there to their satisfaction.

And uh many respondents live with traffic injustice as part of their regular life.

So 43% basically deal with it on a daily basis.

Uh comments that intrigued us, uh, the one that really intrigued me is the juxtaposition between active transportation infrastructure, possibly worsening conjection congestion versus a lot of people actually saying we need more active transportation infrastructure to allow us to have better choices so that we actually avoid the congestion outright.

So that'll be an interesting.

Uh the transportation master plan.

Will will navigate that fairly interestingly.

I'm actually looking forward to it.

A lot of comments about rail and incorporation of green infrastructure as well.

Can you take a question now? Sure.

Just a quick one for well for me and for the audience.

Uh just describe what an active transportation infrastructure is.

Yeah, it's a um, Madame Chair.

It's a it's a it's not it's not a specific answer.

Um active transportation is a very, very wide ranging, and for the audience here, the best thing to do is to read our very, very thorough active transportation network plan.

But essentially, it allows um uh people to uh choose other modes of uh transportation, and part of it has to do with improving infrastructure.

So uh it could be a bike lane, it could be navigating people to a regional trail, it could be uh sidewalk, it could be improving uh bus shelters and bus paths.

So it's an overly wide ranging, it really depends on the community, it really depends on engagement.

Thank you. Thank you, Carl.

Next slide. So next steps uh is essentially drafting the transportation master plan.

We have an interim uh deliverable that we will post to our engage BC website, Engage View Royal website, and that's the baseline condition support.

Uh it'll be fairly interesting.

I'm sure a lot of people will be uh will enjoy that report because it basically tells us the state of uh the network now and has a uh traffic safety component too.

Engagement phase number three will happen um when we near the completion of a draft transportation master plan, and that will allow uh opportunities in person for the community and council to comment.

And finally, there will be the finalization of the transportation master plan.

Next slide. So the recommendation is that the report uh titled Transportation Master Plan, what we heard in Gauge Number Two be received for information.

But that's it. I'm happy to take questions.

Thank you, Chair. Questions, Councillor Manson.

Yeah, over the years we've had a number of plans coming out looking at what roads could look like, should look like, and will will those and some of them have were consultants and visions, but have never been thoroughly endorsed by council.

So will those types of things be included in the act of or in the plan?

Uh yeah, madam chair, yes.

So uh what will be proposed are road cross sections.

So here's the lanes are bike infrastructure, cycling or uh pedestrian infrastructure, and that'll be both uh be presented to the public and to council for comment.

Council Rowtose.

Yes, thank you. Um green infrastructure, what does that mean?

Uh yeah, it's uh Madam Chair, it's very similar to uh definition of active transportation.

It's uh fairly broad.

It could include trees, which I assume will be an important part given that we're trying to improve our urban forest canopy cover, but it could include other things like stonewater management.

It could could include other things like green space within the road network.

We won't get into much detail on that because we're here to talk about transportation.

Um but it there will be some uh policy wording in there to help uh future decision makers and current decision makers on how to navigate green infrastructure into our transportation network.

Thank you.

Uh I have another question, but I don't know if you're going to be able to answer.

Just an observation.

The um uh of 143 people that took the survey, 73% were VR residents.

However, it said that 22% uh lived outside of View Royal.

So it was kind of uh the numbers didn't really quite add up.

They were viewer residents, but they lived outside of URL.

So uh that that was kind of curious.

Um the um we did a baselines conditions report for the active transportation.

Is this um new one that's coming?

Is it um uh a um uh a reassessment of the same kind of details?

Uh but I'm chair.

No, the active transportation and transportation itself are fairly different.

So this takes into into consideration intersection performance uh safety audit.

Um so it takes it's less about uh active transportation and more about navigating uh the inclusion of vehicles within our network.

My last comment.

Um uh I noticed that uh and just good staff representation at the CRD uh transportation forum, a transportation service.

Uh it was interesting in in reading uh that report uh in um the homework that we had um showing that um the uh the ideas and hopes of visions for present growth um for the active transportation cycling and walking but um the biggest focus i think was um the fact that the transportation sorry transit percent share has been stagnant over the last five years and and i think that's one of the reasons that um um you know the the idea of bus shelters and and uh uh doing more to improve um our that percent share and i i hope that we'll see that in the uh transportation master plan there to bias thanks uh chair um ivan good report i i was i'm always looking to be surprised by stats when i see them uh it was an interesting correlation and i don't know what slide it's on it's uh goals and objectives buy-in um carl if you could go there it's fair affordability and prioritization in uh in a graph can you bring that one uh paige up yeah the uh that one there uh and this is more of a comment uh Ivan and and probably for for counsel is that for fair affordability uh um taxpayers in view royal I think are requisitioned two million dollars a year for BC transit that's what we pay um as part of our funds going out for BC transit for fair affordability we are above 80 percent of the most subsidized public transit in the entire world right now.

Aside from Estonian with Luxembourg who cover 100 percent of it, that's where we're kind of sitting.

The real interest here is high capacity transit advocacy.

Like make our services work for us, whether it's rail or higher capacity.

So I think there's a direct correlation because of course the province is cutting back extra money for expansion.

I mean, they're lucky to get status quo right now from the government to maintain.

So really we've got to focus on a bus system that works.

If any of you have been in other areas, including Vancouver or Ottawa, the bus system is absolutely incredible.

It's on time, it's clean, it's full capacity.

Um, and it doesn't matter what time of day it is, it just seems to be going.

We are starting to increase our capability, but our really our budget capacity isn't going.

So this is a good takeaway for this council and the future council to see the amount of support there.

They want a public transit system that works, is is my takeaway from it.

And the town can only do that through advocacy, and the town of View Royal also has never sat or never been selected to sit on the Victoria Transit Commission in the history of View Royal.

Um Machosen was selected, however, with all of the bus service Machosen gets over View Royal.

So that's uh that's my beef, Chair.

Thanks for putting up with me.

We have a motion to receive.

Sorry. The chair, can I ask a question?

I'm I'm sorry. Councillor McKenzie. Please go ahead.

Hi, Rice. Um, thank you.

So I just wondered whether the intention is that we are going to finalize the TMP in this term, or if not, what phase will we be completing?

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair.

The the initial schedule and goal was to finish the translation master plan, or at least get the draft in front of council by October.

Um, it did rely on certain uh stage gates within the official community plan, so such as the visioning and the goals and objectives, and that actually took quite a bit longer than what was initially scheduled.

So uh we will likely bring forth a draft uh translation master plan and a final transformation master plan after October.

Uh we'll do our best to see what we can do by September.

Um, but uh opportunities are pretty scarce at this time.

Thank you.

Good question. Uh we have a motion motion to receive.

Uh moved by Councillor Matson, seconded by Councillor Rogers, actually.

Um, all those in favor?

Motion passed. Thank you.

And I just want to say it's always impressive when we have so much engagement and outreach, and that's the impressive part.

And only one percent by my calculation of residents responded.

And I don't for a minute take that to mean that 99% are going to be satisfied with the outcome.

Thanks, Haven. Uh parks and trails.

Director of Development Services.

Yeah, thank you, um, Councillor Lemmon.

I don't have a PowerPoint presentation this evening, um, but I will provide a quick uh overview of the report that is in front of you this evening.

The purpose of the report is to present the committee the draft terms of reference for the Parks and Trails Master Plan, which is an encore project in the 2026 to 202030 financial plan.

In the financial plan, Council approved the Parks and Trails Master Plan to be completed this year.

Well, to start beat to begin this year and to be completed next year in 2027.

The project objectives in the project summary that is attached to this report are to undertake a park and trail needs assessment, review existing parks inventory, and undertake an analysis of existing parks and trails, including their condition, accessibility, and uses usage patterns.

Review the 2017 parks master plan and identify its strengths, opportunities, and needs for improvement.

Also identify existing and new amenities and facilities and opportunities for upgrades, accessibility improvements, and indigenous cultural presence.

Identify current and future locations of parks and trails, including acquisition and park dedication, trail standards, as well as an implementation strategy.

Also create a decision-making framework for assessing assessing land use, acquisition and dedication of parks and trails.

And lastly, to develop a high level asset management and infrastructure replacement framework to be used during future budgeting and operating operation planning.

The next step is to prepare and request for proposal that we will upload onto the province's BC bid website to attract interest from qualified professionals to assist the town to undertake this project.

Council has requested that draft terms of reference for projects are reviewed by the committee prior to posting the RFP on BC bid.

So attached to the report are the draft terms of reference.

They are a more comprehensive list of objectives and terms that the original project summary because the RFP provides more details on the intent of the overall project summary in the financial plan.

The committee is invited to provide feedback on these draft terms prior to completing the RFP for the project.

Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Mayor Tabas, start with you.

Thank you, Chair.

Leanne, thanks for this.

Does this include?

And I know there's no specific reference to a specific park, but we've got a couple of areas that we're looking to develop.

Game road park?

Game park.

Does it spell that out as part of the master plan?

And my question is chicken and egg here.

How can we have the master plan without having some notion of what we want to do with those parcels?

So what relationship is that?

Through the chair, great question.

So the master plan should technically come first because a few of these projects that are sort of in the wings right now is really depending on the completion of a parks and trails master plan.

As part of the Parks and Trails Master Plan, we will be identifying some specific amenities that could potentially be considered as part of some of these parks.

But the and then also providing some overarching guiding principles for these parks, but then the more of the focus focus parks planning for like game game park as well as a little road park will follow.

My guess is that in the financial plan, the project summaries for those those two specific projects do reference the completion of the parks and trails master plan.

However, they might move forward concurrently in tandem, just depending on timing of some of these some of these projects that we but it is uh it will be helpful to establish the parks and trails master plan because a part of this we wanted to establish a decision-making framework, which will then help with decision making and um and asset management and things as part of the new uh game road and and little road park.

Thanks, Chair, and just uh I I guess my comment, my concern is you're now it's built out to as much as it's gonna be.

So we have the highest density of population with the least developed park space, even though the town is sitting on it.

My concern is that that's not really good service.

I mean, the folks up in uh, you know, in the Theatus area, of course, have Tetis Lake Park and Don's got his own private park next to uh his house so you can watch uh salmon spawn we've got portage park but our area that we've included the most population we've got zero plan for and our master plan really doesn't address it so just an area concern for me that we're sitting on assets that we're having people move in next to a hay field not that's a bad idea but if there's other needs that they have that we haven't identified um so that's just a concern area for me chair uh council menson sure thanks so Steph you know I'm always complaining that we're spending 140 000 here 140 000 there but uh we have a 2017 plan which I'm not sure was fully implemented but one of my concerns is like all our parks have been pretty much built up uh except for the the ones that were just mentioned do we need a full a full plan or should we just be working on those two properties or are the ones that the parks that we know are just uh underdeveloped and should be looking at so I'm concerned that we just going over ground that we went over in 2017 had a bunch of plans and we're still implementing those and be we're gonna be just sort of redoing some more big overarching plans and the some of the properties that we should be looking at specifically, just we might be better off spending that money there.

Through through through the chair, um, thank you.

Uh, thank you, Councilor Mattson, um, for your question and comments.

So um, as uh it is it is good practice to update plans every master plans every 10 years.

The town has evolved and has grown significantly since 2017.

And as Mayor Tobias noted earlier, that there are areas within our town that are significantly deficient in park space.

So as part of this plan, we will be identifying areas that are not necessarily identified in our 2017 parks master plan that would where we could look at where appropriate areas that can look we could look at um acquisition and expansion.

Um again, our current plan does not have a decision-making framework, which I think is very important for council and staff as part of making these really important decisions around um parks planning within the community.

The um council may wish to note that uh staff did bring forward a report um several months last year actually to apply for a grant um for this, and so we are we're we're we're waiting, and um I think council will find out very shortly.

So um it is very important work.

Um it also still also stems from our official community plan as well.

This is um something that is has strong language in our in our new OCP.

Well, not new yet, it's still in draft.

However, um, there are policies that speak to that as well.

Just to follow up, I I guess my concern is as with the mayor's me, maybe we should be spending some additional resources on those particular areas to come up with the plan for those ones because we've already come up with plans for all the other parks, and you know, granted we can fine-tune things, but if we have specific areas where we have more people and space that can be developed, we should be looking at those more in depth than going over the whole community again.

Council Rogers.

We've been in our um capital projects, we've there's been a few that we have postponed uh waiting for the um um the an update of the parks master plan, which is uh 10 years old.

A good example is um the Centennial Park.

Obviously, we wouldn't want to just uh spend um eighty thousand dollars or whatever uh on that park, but uh we have the advantage of having a holistic view of all the parks and trails in in uh in V Will.

And uh when you look at the existing uh parks and trails map, the little tiny one that you have to blow up and um uh the uh the change that has has occurred in in the 10 years is very significant.

And uh so that if if there's anything, one thing that we need to do is update the uh the existing parks and trails master plan.

And uh staff have uh made a an excellent point.

Um, and and same with Mayor Tobias, is the um um the unutilized undeveloped uh areas like game park and that the visions of having uh when we put all the housing on on Erskine Lane, uh, they may have a little park, but uh there still hasn't been a sufficient park and play area um for for that area.

And uh obviously the hospital trail is still uh uh out of date, uh uh undeveloped, not lit, unsafe, rocky.

So um uh this is it's very timely.

And one of the new things that we've just brought uh into uh into focus is tourism.

Tourism with hotels, but it's also that we want tourism to stay and give uh our our businesses uh um you know some some revenue.

And by doing the uh the parks and trails map and the parks and trails facilities with a tourism focus of interpreting the uh the parks that we have is uh and and giving them trails that we talk about having loops, trail loops, um, and in the uh the western um uh gateway.

So I I think um it's highly uh important to be able to do all this.

And one of the one thing with the 2017 parks and uh parks and parks map.

So 2017, all we did was parks.

We didn't do trails.

And that's so it's even longer, probably 20, 25 years that we've done anything but trails, which is um highly important.

It gives us a a uh, and when we consider the um Bill 44 and all the housing and all the individuals and the four units that are coming, um, one one wonderful portion of the OCP is that we've been able to quantify so much acreages for for every thousand or whatever individuals.

So that's where obviously uh that we need to uh plan um uh where um parks needed to be expanded or new parks being built one of the things that staff did a question we had the 2017 parks plan we have an action list are um have we asked the uh the consultants to look and see what uh was incomplete or not done in that um on those action lists uh through the uh through the chair we would uh undertake that work as part of the um as part of the parks and trails master plan we haven't no consultant has been selected yet um so we would uh we would yes absolutely undertake undertake that work and uh the uh some of the c the content uh you know i i'm sure there'll be some of the some of the content in the 2017 plan will find itself in the new parks and trails master plan um however there's um there's also some some outdated policies as well so it's a it's an opportunity to bring it up and and and move us forward for the next 10 years indeed um again wayfinding for tourists and and it's not just tourists but it's also visitors to in uh from up island or around uh victoria here you have cattlers come up the gorge they have no idea how to get to the harbor you know are they going to try and get their kayak across the the road and and run into traffic do they know that they can go and use the ENN we have no park signage for wayfinding to get those paddlers safely to from one body of order to the next and um choco still needs an off leash park we promised that in the last last council and we still have not delivered that and um uh I I see that in the um terms of reference we talk about if there's no if off lease parks have have have not been added to since we're 5,000 people so um I would uh strongly ask uh uh staff to change the if in relation to the off lease to um assess the need and the solutions thank you we're good thank you counselor Brown I'll try to be quick I mean we have so many different parks here some of them are what I call pocket parks uh just a little green space with the uh swing set or slide in some of the neighborhoods we have some massive parks and Centennial Park obviously there's ball fields and everything there and and of course View Royal Park is massive so uh and actually the mayor mentioned uh game park and game park is a very natural park and so some of those parks you you don't want to do much with them.

It it's a dead end road there's a basketball hoop I don't know who put that up whether it's ours or whether one of the neighbors did I don't know but it's got little trails through it uh beautiful trees very quiet and it's actually quite a large park too but if you're gonna develop what are you gonna put there ball fields I don't think so um that's the nice thing about it the the the many variety of parks we have that's why it's nice to have a plan and then you you uh when budget time comes you sort of deal with one by one by one types of parks and and what fits in with that particular neighbor because what fits in with one.

Not everybody wants a little uh uh lot-sized park uh with a swing set and slide.

Other people do want a natural park with walking trails and and beautiful trees and flowers.

So um and we are we're very very fortunate.

We have a lot, not only the parks themselves, but some of the connector trails are amazing too that uh people don't even realize that they're there.

But anyways, thank you for that, Chair.

Uh Councillor McKenzie.

Yes, thank you.

Um, just with my uh West Shore Parks and Rec hat on, um, with our new parks and recreation master plan, how um, or I think that this project maybe should look also to that, um, just to see if there's opportunities or duplication of when we think of parks, like uh more the recreation side of things.

Um and so my question is do we want to add that to the scope of this project?

And also would that include indoor recreation as well?

Because um, in that plan, I noted that View Royal is the only municipality of the five that doesn't have indoor recreation facilities.

Um so whether that should be included in the scope of this project.

Uh three years, yeah.

Through the chair, thank you, Councillor McKenzie, for your question.

So um council strategic plan um focused um is to develop a parks and trails um so a parks master plan and a trails master plan um to to make this project cost effective for the town.

We have merged the two to create one master plan, so a parks and trails master plan.

Um we uh you know we currently don't have any um other than some of the recreational facilities within the um I would say like the Helpkin Centennial Park where we have the baseball there's there's a building there and a base, but we don't really have like indoor recreational facilities in the town um absolutely um the uh west shore parks and recs rec um their new master plan will be a resource that we you know we would look at for sure um should council wish to sort of expand the scope um that is something that we can it consider however that hasn't been the scope um since um council established your strategic plan for the community as well as the project summary um for this particular project so it just and then the and so um the the I think the Parks and Trails Master Plan can definitely um um refer to you know recreation and perhaps recreational facilities um but I think it's it's it's um in terms of where we are uh it's probably best to refer to the the wet um West Shore Parks and Recs plan.

So if I can just follow up on that.

Because I'm thinking of for instance if the Strawberry Vale Community Hall or the View Royal Community Hall or the Glintana Village Rec Center if there was an opportunity to purchase one of those um that the town might want to consider that as well as part of this thinking a very quick one there'll be a three part infrastructure um again, I'm really glad that the uh the pre the terms of reference talk about uh the infrastructure, the existing infrastructure, because those toilets are bad and um um people were disappointed that the centennial dishwashroom was closed.

So I don't know what the hours are, but uh for some reason it was closed and and uh at that particular moment, but condition is really poor.

If we can also look at what other municipalities have done in terms of their parks, adding art infrastructure into parks.

And I would really like to see that um in tied in with our arts program, please.

And my last point, accessibility uh for those uh having uh accessibility issues, uh critically important.

Um the um yeah, I mean if if if I mean I can't think of the name of the park girl fan, but uh from going from the parking lot to the park, there's a huge barrier, and anybody with a with uh a wheelchair or one of those mobile scooters could not navigate.

So we have to have a real keen eye to assess the accessibility.

Point. Um just just uh if this gets goes to RFP, would the success would the successful proponent do the it the engagement or would that be our staff?

Uh through the chair, um engagement will be um uh uh done in-house.

We have the staff capacity to do that.

We have the expertise um within on the development services team.

And uh it was uh very obviously very very successful.

We'll use our engaged view royal website as as our project website.

And uh the consultant would uh do um assist the town in creating content.

However, it would be uh development services staff who would be leading the engagement.

Good, thank you. I'm happy to move the recommendations.

Uh Councillor Rogers second, although motion passed.

Moving on to Royal Roads University.

So who's speaking to this?

You, Leanne? Yeah.

Thank you, Chair.

The purpose of this report is to introduce council to a potential partnership between Royal Roads University and the town to undertake a Veroyal public market study.

At the council meeting on July 2nd, 2025, the Director of Community Learning Partnerships at Royal Roads University presented on the community learning partnership program that provides opportunities for collaboration between academia and municipalities.

Following the presentation, Royal Roads University faculty invited staff to participate in a discovery workshop to identify potential project types that may benefit the town and be of interest to faculty and students to take on as course projects.

Undertaking a re Royal Public Market Feasibility Study was a project that was discussed at the workshop.

The town has an opportunity to expand its partnership with Royal Roads University by engaging in a in this project as it is identified in the 2023-2026 strategic plan, the current end draft official community plan, and the current Parks Master Plan with the Bachelor of Business and Administration Program in Innovation and Sustainable and Sustainability.

The project will focus on researching options for a public outdoor market in VRoyal and include a cost-benefit analysis, what we heard report, and options report for the town.

The project would occur over a four-week period between March 15th and April 9th, 2027, so next next spring, where a class of 12 to 15 undergraduate students will work in teams to undertake some activity that will some key activities such as analyzing community survey results, researching and interviewing market operators and subject matter experts to identify gaps and best practices and evaluating a potential sites using defined criteria and on-site observations.

It would also require approximately eight to ten hours of staff time to support the project.

Given the condensed timeline, staff would create a launch of community survey to identify needs, preferences, and opportunities in January 2027.

There are no other costs to the town for this consulting work.

The outcome of this project would provide the town with an evidence-based analysis, innovative ideas, and actionable recommendations to inform decision making on a potential public market.

Due to other competing council priorities, staff have not had the time or capacity to undertake this work over the last several years.

If this project is successful, then there may be opportunities for ongoing partnerships and consulting opportunities with Royal Roads University in the future.

And we also have Lisa Caton of Railroads University in the audience this evening um should uh should the committee have any any further any questions uh for?

And I'm happy to answer questions as well.

Thank you.

I love this um and can think of a couple potential sites so you to be clear the only cost not to diminish it but the only cost is a day and a bit of staff time uh through the chair yes the it would be in kind support with staff time um to to prepare and launch a survey and then we pass it over to the students and they will they'll work and we'll just provide support there'll be a kickoff meeting uh with staff and uh and then we'll just provide you know some some support but uh no more than eight to ten hours mayor to bias i'm uh thank you chair i'm happy to uh move support of this as long as we include probably the most important topic and that who might coordinate and or volunteer to support the market um our biggest challenge lately has been finding volunteers and people that will take this on from the community um and I know Esquimealt market has had some other challenges be highly supportive of it as long as we include that in your discussion like what do we need to organize what do we need to run how how might that work um uh but uh I think it's a great uh opportunity to use the cohort from rural roads and uh put them through their paces and drive them like you own them give them hard things to do.

What do they know about parks? We have another study too they can lie for any questions?

We have support so yeah I think there's a question before we get there if I may so um you know, Mayor Tobarish raised an interesting point.

And will this uh uh give an analysis of um you know in that sense of who's going to operate and uh what's the cost uh if you can't get the volunteers or cannot rely on the volunteers, you know, what is the staff cost to uh to do this?

So I'm if that's part of the study, yes, I'm happy to hear it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Mayor Tobias moved, counselor Manson second, all those in favor.

Resounding. And thank you.

And now, second favorite topic, um feasibility assessment for View Royal Primary Care Attachment Clinic.

Uh thank you, Chair Lemon.

Um, before you this evening is the approximation of a feasibility assessment for the View Royal Primary Care Attachment Clinic.

Um I wanted to mention that Lauren Friesen from Aroga uh Lifestyle Medicine is here um to help answer questions, of which uh there are still many outstanding.

Uh back in January, uh council directed the mayor and CAO to continue discussions with health care providers, property owners, island health, and report back to council with updates.

Uh with the intended purpose to increase primary health care coverage for the residents of E Royal.

Uh back in June, uh the following resolution was passed, and and Mayor Tobias made great progress in finding a proponent uh to to operate a clinic, and that we work with a ROGA Lifestyle Medicine uh to undertake a detailed feasibility assessment for the primary care attachment clinic, including preparation of a class C cost estimate for the purpose of the grant application, governance review, partnership analysis, funding strategy, and report back to council with our findings.

Now, one thing I learned shortly after embarking on this in early June, um, trying to find cost estimates for class C is that the grant application, uh, the grant program we were after was probably not suitable.

And so that's it, that's a big change for council.

Uh, a grant-funded project versus funded out of reserves makes a big difference to the project.

Uh Lauren and I have been in discussion uh pretty much every week since, and uh a couple other potential locations have come up.

And so I'm kind of glad I didn't embark on a class C estimate for a location that might not be what we we've drilled down to.

So we don't know exactly what uh the renovations for a space might cost until we've determined the space.

No, a ROGA is looking to get a commitment from the town uh before they lease a space, and we've got some work to do before we can invest in a clinic.

So I thought the best path forward was to continue work on the legal agreements, uh, what's called a partnering agreement, uh, which allows a municipality to work with a nonprofit or a for-profit operation to provide services for the residents.

Uh it's it's some work required to put that in place.

And meanwhile, uh Lauren will uh narrow down the potential locations.

Um the the clock is ticking.

We're hoping to get an answer to a ROGA by the end of August.

And as council knows, we have one more meeting this month.

Um, so we won't uh we won't be ominous with the thoughts of a special meeting.

But um the information I do have is contained within the report and there are still some outstanding questions which hopefully Lauren and I can uh field this evening and do the best we can to answer.

Scott are there other grant options or possibilities I have not been able to identify a grant that's suitable at this point.

There are uh you know lists of them published and I review that weekly but uh as of publication date and as of this evening uh nothing that I'm aware of questions counselor Matson sorry have you chatted with the Victoria Foundation one time I was at a meeting and where they said this is the type of thing that they would be able to support in terms of the infrastructure.

No I'm familiar with the organization I I haven't reached out for a grant yet we were hoping to nail down a few variables before we uh we start reaching out um having a cost estimate um knowing knowing the exact location um working on um the feasibility of can we get doctors which I I feel pretty confident after speaking with Lauren that we can get doctors certainly the need is there um but uh no I I haven't haven't gone out looking for other potential funders.

I guess my my only other comment is just in terms of for for our guest who's here.

I I'm very supportive of this and I know there's still some hoops to jump through, but I just wanted to advise you that at least this member of council thinks that this is a great idea.

And given some of the monies that we spend and how much money we actually have sitting in uh contingency and I think this is a really good expenditure of funds for the res for the outcome that it would achieve.

So looking forward to uh working with you advice.

Uh Scott, you've identified here some of the other things that we need to get as well as your annexes uh like uh establishing a society uh for next steps the recommendations that you're putting before um council to get ready to make a decision I guess what would that package include like if if council was to give you uh an okay this evening what would be the things that we would discuss and decisions to be made at the next council meeting uh the decisions to be made um would be to s to actually see the agreement of what a partnership agreement looks like um whether it's with a nonprofit or a for-profit doesn't really matter at this point um but there would probably be the two options for what it would look like what the differences would be um what what the protections would be for the taxpayers' funds that go into the renovation and how we could ensure that the uh that the objectives of the program are met um whether it's patient attachment or number of years of service provision.

Um what what happens if something goes sideways um and things don't work out?

How do we protect the taxpayers' investment in that clinic?

Um that that's what the package would entail.

So you're looking for fund some funds for legal opinion for this?

I I have funds um for legal review, but uh consider this somewhat of an update.

Um potential off ramps if uh if council only wants to move this forward if there is grant funding available.

Um I know uh counselor Matson's pretty pretty gung ho to move ahead uh either way, but I wanted to do a temperature check with council and and make sure that they're they're still warm to the idea.

Another question if I can share, is that could we do concurrent activity, meaning that it would really cost us nothing to establish like uh a final draft that council could look at for um I forget what you call it, uh the the society's charter, all the paperwork that we need to submit if this thing was to go ahead at the end of it.

If we decide not to, we've still got everything to go ahead with a a society that would provide the governance for a nonprofit clinic.

Um could those things be done concurrently?

Uh yeah, I I I think Mayor Tobias, you've been very helpful in in sort of drafting the outline of what that could look like.

But again, it it it doesn't matter in a partnership agreement, whether it's with a nonprofit or a for-profit, it's more about the services provided um and the careful stewardship of of the investment.

So would your uh thinking be, Scott that the partnership uh would that be directly with the roga or would there be a nonprofit society in the middle?

So the relationship would be between the town and the nonprofit and then a rogue would have a relationship with the nonprofit but there's not a direct relationship with a roga or would that matter?

It it doesn't matter to me.

It depends on how council wants to have input into governance but I I think what I'm hearing is it would be good to pursue both options and come with two separate agreements concurrently.

Thanks chair.

Uh councilor Roger yeah thanks um yeah I I'm trying to figure out what the costs are I think there's if I'm not mistaken there's 775000 that's a one time cost uh and then 1400 per year at least now considering what am I right is that 1400 per year after that uh yeah through the chair that's pretty much bang on there would also be some uh administrative cost related to reception um probably uh some contribution towards uh lunchroom space washrooms uh like shared space but um yeah you're you you've got it thank you so uh next question just one moment lauren did you want to go up and and answer some of these questions.

Okay. Yeah.

Yeah um thank you um that upfront cost will largely be determined on the how the space comes together.

So just to clarify, we have an offer to lease at Eagle Ridge on the second floor.

It's been there for a little while.

We've been working with the landlord.

We're waiting on them now to get back to us.

They're looking at I think at a level of detail we were a little surprised about.

But they have to do some demising.

There's some infrastructure, making sure the you know plumbing lines, all of that kind of thing.

So they're doing a careful job on that.

But we do expect to hear from them soon about that space.

A second space also in the building is potentially coming available.

We're looking at uh potentially one of the tenants moving on.

And um, but that's not it's not clear.

It's just nice from our perspective to have kind of two options that could work.

Um the second option, both option, both options actually have some advantage in that the sum of the build-out is usable as is, the second one more so than the first.

And so we're we're looking at all of these things, and that will really drive what the capital cost uh will will require.

Um, I think the operating cost of that 140,000 a year to create an attachment clinic to serve, you know, have the capacity to serve the approximately, you know, we're estimating maybe 5,000 people that will want to attach over a period of time.

That's probably going to be in the ballpark uh for that.

Um and I think as well, there's there's opportunity to look at this in two ways.

You know, from from our perspective, operating it, if there's less on the capital and more on the operating, because we're just amortizing some of those costs over a period of time, that may be an option as well.

So I think there's then there's also some operating grants that I know are available for primary care, particularly for nonprofits.

I think that will that'll become clearer as as we go.

So that actually perhaps there's less of a um requirement for View Royals contribution as time goes on.

But I think it's safe to say that 140,000 a year is is a pretty good number.

And the capital costs up front, it it may be less than what we had initially determined depending on the space that we end up landing on.

Sorry, are there patient fees?

No, no. Um, there's no there's no paywall practice.

This would be fully funded through um through the the province through MSP fees.

You know, it it um and one of the things I'm struggling with on on this is um um you know we we've got these two amounts uh that are going to be borne by VO taxpayers.

And uh so I look at that and then I'm looking at the prioritize populations.

And uh first off, residents of ROIL.

Okay. First responders serving Veroyal.

But wait, we got first responders in the whole West Shore region.

I mean, we would be, you know, so we're paying, you know, for that.

We're employees of the town hall and affiliated municipal organizations.

I mean, so all those individuals and these affiliated municipal organizations, so I'm adding up these numbers that the view of taxpayers are going to be funding.

And then we have the current and formal members of current and former members of the armed forces and their families.

And Councillor Rogers, if I made sure that is just a draft.

Okay. Right. So that has not been approved.

Council would approve that draft.

So that's separate from kind of the discussion here.

Anything we want that to be, it can be.

That's words on paper so we can refine it.

Okay.

Right. And certainly if you know if we're focused in on the on the taxpayers, that's that's fine.

I understand, but you know, it was part of the documentation in this, so I I take it as as gospel.

Um, so therein is how we're going to be able to in the long term justify to the taxpayers uh that and and indeed from what I read, uh it's it's quite remarkable the range of services that uh that you would be providing.

My last question would this spell the demise of the clinic at Eagle Creek?

The clinic, the walk-in clinic at Eagle Creek?

Well that's not our, I mean, that's not our business, but I I don't think it'd be the demise at all because there's there's there the demand for primary care and other services, and from my understanding, um that clinic is near capacity.

The family physicians there are full and over full.

So I don't think anything changes from their business at this point.

Thank you. Um, but to that point, have you communicated with the clinic management owners slash?

I do have some information on that.

It closed as a walk-in clinic.

It closed. It made the headlines.

It's in the news.

It is no longer a walk-in clinic.

It is simply a practice, I think that's there.

But it's not open to the public.

It's not open to anybody else.

It actually made the news that View Royal was losing so many of the patients.

I think it was a couple of years ago, anyway.

Um, but but uh so it's not uh clinic anymore.

No, and I didn't mean sorry, I didn't refer to me as clinic, I meant to you know the the actual patient um the actual as it exists today.

Okay, thank you.

Um in the report there's mention of Callwood, and you're you're working with Callwood.

Are you are you doing something similar with Callwood Lloyd?

Um one of our co-founders, Dr.

Pawarchak and and Dr.

Selujah, who was attended last time, they they were consulted by Callwood in the development of their um clinic, and Dr.

Poarchuk continues to serve as their medical director.

Um so I guess we we have experience in this kind of thing.

That's not an aroga business, but we have our our founders have been very supportive and have consulted with Callwood and other communities.

Um great, great.

No, that's good.

In my interpretation of what I read, I it it read to me like you were working with and in COVID.

Good. I'm happy with that.

Um, and I had one more question and I can't remember what it was.

Um staff recommendations.

Yes. Council Counselor Matson's moving. Do we have a second or time? Um all those in favor of receiving.

Chair, may I ask a question?

You disappeared, Counselor McKenzie.

I looked up when you weren't there, and now you are.

I'm sorry. Yes, question can ask a question.

Um well, I guess it's a kind of comment question.

Uh so I I know there's still a lot of debate around you know whether the issue is around lack of space or around lack of doctors.

Um so I'm kind of leaning towards the latter.

I I think it's more of a uh a lack of doctors as opposed to um the answer might not be doing this.

Uh I wondered if staff well, actually, I think staff said they need more legal opinion on this.

Up it's a lot of money, like 770 uh thousand dollars.

And what happens to that equipment?

What if there's not doctors?

What if there's uh the there's the nonprofit um becomes insolvent?

Like I don't know if there's a market for this secondhand equipment um after that.

So that's a big concern for me.

And for that reason, I can't support this at this time.

There's so many uh unknowns and risks, and I'm not confident that the space is the issue.

I think it's the lack of doctors.

Um staff Lauren, do you want to comment on that?

Sure. Um we're we're very fortunate um that we have a real strong pipeline of physicians and nurse practitioners who are interested in joining us.

I've been interviewing doctors for a variety of roles, specialists as well as family physicians weekly.

And I'm pretty confident that once we formally begin recruiting for this, that we'll be able to staff it.

And one of the things is because Aroga has a large group of specialists, family physicians, nurse practitioners like to be part of that kind of organization.

And I and from I've been in healthcare for over 35 years.

I've never seen it's almost unprecedented, the amount of interest without us actually formally recruiting.

I'm always asking, how do you find out about us?

And uh so uh literally we have a long list, and I'm sure we won't we will be able to staff it.

Um and again I want to emphasize that the 775 was for the full build-out of the space, you know, looking at a 2500 square foot kind of clinic.

So we wanted to make sure we're we're representing what the cost could be, and and we're hoping it's not as much.

Um and I think it it depends.

Obviously, we need to do detailed work to get there.

Um so we have a mover, and who seconded?

Uh I'll I'll second if I can ask two quick questions that I don't know the answer to with one.

So if we go with a lease with um with uh Eddie Go Creek, can you explain?

Sometimes you sign the lease, but you don't start paying the monthly lease for a while.

Can you tell me what the original plan was?

In the offer to lease that we have with um with the with JPG is um some of our dates coming up.

We do have a date where we can it's a go-no-go kind of date.

Right now, that's set of end of August, and we have a bunch of conditions that we have to satisfy before we sign on to you know the actual lease.

We may need to push that date back a little bit more because they've been slow coming back to us.

We we you know we have our own due diligence that we need to do pricing, some of the things that we would do with with View Royal as well as for the rest of our clinic.

Um, so that's the first important date.

Um, then there is the build-out of the facility.

And right now, the April 1st, 2027 is actually the date where the rent would would begin.

So we potentially sign the lease in August. We're not paying the monthly dues or whatever until April.

That's right, and that build-out period, right?

If we can fill it, finish it sooner, if we can get started sooner, obviously that would be a good thing.

Um, so whenever that date happens where we actually take full occupancy and get started.

One of the things that may be an option again, depending on how the space works, we may be able to do a bit of a soft start before that, where we can integrate some new primary care capacity within our facility and get started to start um attaching people even before the facility is fully open.

That'd be something we could talk to, you know, uh staff and and counsel about further how we want to how how we want to get that going.

But obviously, the sooner the better in terms of it beginning to attach um patients and I guess my follow-up question is let's say I'm a newly arrived doctor think about coming here from the US and I don't know anything about a roga but I know something about the South Island uh primary care and they recruit me but hey there's an opening at a is how does that work we communicate regularly with you know different groups as well and um and actually I know South Island their group has some doctors some UK doctors who are looking to move to the island as well so I think we would we'd probably engage in some further conversation um yeah so I I think there's a there's opportunity some of the other things of course are you know we we've onboarded I think it's five um American physicians and another three or four we have another I think we're onboarding another six physicians between now and the end of the year um those are specialists um typically and about half of those are from the US but there's continue to be a strong flow from the US and these are very high highly qualified excellent physicians um we also have residents who come and spend time with us so we love to bring them on board so it is a nice flow that we have did we have a seconder yeah uh counselor matts and key our second okay there we go um all those in favor counselor McKenzie you're opposed yes okay um uh you yeah, we received their report.

Thank you.

Uh thank you, Chair Lemon.

Um before you this evening, we have our quarterly council resolution follow-up list uh for your review.

Is that it? Okay.

Well then I'm going to I'm going to highlight uh mention in your report and congratulate our um which corporate officer on her certification as a corporate officer.

So congratulations, Elena.

And um I'm also going to you know belatedly congratulate Dave Potmaroth.

I've I was able to see him twice last week and and um he was putting in extra hours and working on the weekend to get to wrap up his career.

And um I I know there's a competition underway and I hope we get a good one.

It was a Saturday.

Anyway, um do we have a motion to receive?

Second. You had that was it?

You moved okay.

All those in favor's passed.

And uh finance administration, do you have anything to report, Mayor Tobias?

Uh unless Steven tells me that the the taxes were not collected.

Department department.

Oh. Yeah, you did.

That's just it.

Yeah, and she just did it, but there it makes it what did I miss?

Madam Chair, I'm happy to introduce the departmental update.

Okay. Yeah, we we did the council meeting follow-up.

Um before you is our monthly departmental update.

Well, I've done that. Yeah.

Now we're back on track.

I I wanted to know when Dave's last day was and do we normally have some way of recognizing him, you know, force him to come here and we can all say nice things about him or something.

Uh we had a lovely going away party for Dave, and then he volunteered to work for an extra two weeks.

So um in some ways, Dave has been gone for a couple weeks, and then we filled him full of sugar and cake and compliments and respect, and then he decided to work for an extra two weeks, uh, which we really appreciate.

So uh more of a you know, we we check in with the retiree, um, see what they'd like to do, and uh you know, some some will have a whole day and a parade, and others uh others like to quietly go off into the sunset.

But uh we got him a nice parting gift, uh a gift certificate for a tool set um in case he breaks any of his impressive collection of tools.

So to my thinking, that was actually the report that we received.

Was that to your thinking too, council?

Oh sure. Okay, so now so so the council, the uh the council resolution follow up.

Do we have a motion to receive?

Move.

Second moved second, moved by moved by Mayor Tobias, seconded by Councillor Rogers.

All those in favor opposed.

Motion passes.

I have nothing for A or C, I don't believe tonight, sir. Okay.

Um Protective Services, Councillor Brown, you got anything?

I'm just happy we got a report uh from Staff Surgeon Walsh and uh Chief Boy Officer uh Mark Grew.

So you had two uh two retired staff surgeons and an active staff circuit here at the same time.

Uh and I'm looking forward to uh seeing shovels in the ground on the detachment, and and that's it.

I'm next with um with uh arts and library, nothing on arts and a tiny bit, well not it's substantial, but I can't say um there will be an announcement this week, end of week, on a um new CEO to the Greater Victoria Public Library.

Uh I I was in interviews for replacement for Maureen Sawa, who has been the CEO of the library for 15 years.

Um, and there's there's there's been a selection made, a uh a um person has accepted, and uh so I can't tell you, but watch the news.

Um and counselor McKenzie, anything on environment, parks, and recreation.

Yes, just a quick one.

So for the West Shore Parks and Rec, uh, the meeting in June, we had the final parks and rec facilities master plan presented to us and it was approved.

So now we can uh now the next steps is around communication and and uh you'll see it soon.

Great, well done.

Thank you. Uh planning and development counts through counselor.

You you haven't had anything for a while.

Do you have anything?

Well, no, we're not there's not there's nothing much new to report.

I gather I just looking at the report CAO report, and we've got uh a variance permit, board of variants and a building permit, five of those and four plumbing permits.

So I I guess after staff, we've got anything substantial coming up, what's happening with uh the the one at the end of Island Highway on Prince Robert is have we heard anything uh other than they're chasing all the residents out?

Um through uh through the chair, we have uh no active development permit application for that site.

And have you heard anything? Any rumors or rumblings? Okay, thank you.

That's it. Okay, counselor Rogers, anything in public works transportation.

Yes, thank you.

I'll I'll pick up on on some of the points from the um department update report.

Um first off, uh congratulations on uh getting the the two punk stations at Kins and Glenarley, amazing work.

Um the photos are terrific.

Um the Atkins sidewalk and um and from one end to the other is is uh really amazing including the bus pads thank you for doing that um uh it it is so significant that i'm i'm hoping that we can organize a um a neighborhood celebration with uh tent cake and and um and invite the dignitaries and those that were help funded the program so uh let's let's talk about that and and see if we can arrange something in in the fall it's worthy of uh of public acknowledgement you've really brought the safety to that community so let's uh I hope we can work on that I met with um uh two representatives of the better transfer better transit organization um and they were very interested to hear what V oil was doing uh um to promote transit in the community we are he they're looking forward to reading the uh the transportation master plan that's coming along um one thing though that um our staff you can help me with when is the aspire going to finish that sidewalk in front of their building it's been there for months do we have a date Madam Chair we don't have a date however um staff have encouraged them to get a schedule and it looks like well I I drive by that twice a day and uh they're doing work on it which is good I think they're working on the corner and um yeah we'll go from there it has been slow uh but uh we need to we keep tabs on them to make sure that it's uh a safe site that's all we can review at this time.

Yeah, it's unfortunate that we give them a building occupancy permit for for the the length of time, the inconvenience too, and uh and even for their their own um clientele residents who can't walk along that street safely and uh get pushed out into traffic, it's uh quite abysmal.

So um I'm maybe we need to uh bring some other powers into play.

Pardon me at any rate.

The um last point, transit um appreciates the idea about um expanding the Helmicken Park and Ride um uh once um uh Minister Highways moves out, so they're working on negotiating that.

Thank you.

Okay, and now um it's a new business, and we have two notices of a motion, both from you, Councillor Rogers.

Do you want to read them into the record?

Yes. Uh first uh with respect to Evo stations in View Royal.

Um, that British Columbia um Automobile Association, BCAA, Evo's e-bike share be incorporated into the 2026 or 27 Transportation Master Plan, and that staff work with BCAA, Capital Regional District, and the Ministry of Transition Um of Highways and Transit to uh install EVO satellite stations along our two regional trails as soon as possible, as um as the town creates its own share um bylaw framework for e-bikes, e-scooters.

Yeah. So um that's um that's the motion.

The uh there's a second one on Bureau Colwood Wilford Multi-Use Trail.

Do you want to read that into the I'll read that one?

Um this is respect to the Wilfort multi-use uh trail that runs between Viewell and Callwood.

That Viewell Callwood Wilfort multi-use trail be incorporated in the 2026-27 Transportation Master Plan as a short-term proper capital project with the town of UL and City of Colwood and CRD collaborating and cost sharing on the project with joint applications for grant funding.

And that the new CRD, it follows the new CRD three-lane separated design specifications as we see in the Galloping Goose Trail.

And further that there be CRD automated traffic counts with wayfinding signage in relation to the regional trails to and from Colwood and Lankford.

John's legacy. Question period.

Yes. Anyone in the room, I'm looking at you, uh, have a question on anything.

Nothing. Uh Carl, are you there?

Chair, we have no messages on the board this evening.

Okay, thank you very much.

So that's it. Can we have a motion to adjourn?

Moved by Councillor Rogers, or Councillor Mattson, and uh seconded by Mayor Tobias.

Motion to adjourn.

Oh, all those in favor.

Motion passed. All right.

Good night, folks.

Thank you.