Council Meeting

Good evening.

I'll call the uh council meeting for September 5th, 2023 to order.

And we recognize that the Laquanguin speaking people known today as the Esquimalt Nation and the Songhees Nation and their historic connections to these lands that continue to this day.

This evening we will hear from the public who telephone in during the public participation and the question period portions of the agenda.

If you wish to provide your comments to council regarding the development uh variance permit for 1517 and 1519 Admiral's Road, there will be a specific time to speak for this application when it is considered during the meeting.

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To begin, please indicate your name, address for the record uh speakers will have five minutes each during public participation and two minutes to ask a question or questions during question period and you'll be timed.

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So um just saying uh so we can dig into the agenda I will before we get into the agenda say that it's a busy end uh agenda for us, and we have um an in-camera meetings after this agenda.

Um can I get a motion to approve the agenda with the following uh move?

And I think staff, we had a suggestion to move uh some of our engineering reports closer to the actual item.

Yes, it was to uh please kindly move 81C in advance of 81A.

81C, yeah, to closer to move uh to 81A.

So that uh for council's consideration, the only amendment, unless I hear others, will be to move 81C uh to uh just after 81A.

Can I have a motion for uh approving the agenda, please?

Councilor Brown, seconded by Councilor Rogers, all in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed, motion carries uh minutes, receipt and adoption.

Uh can I get a motion to uh adopt the uh meetings of the special council and council meetings for July 17th, 18th, and 25th, respectfully.

So moved.

Moved by councillor Lemon.

Seconded by Councillor Brown.

Any errors, omissions?

Discussion seeing none.

All those in favor of adoption of minutes.

Any opposed?

Seeing none opposed.

Um Councillor Mattson, I'll keep on looking up to you just in case I get a gesture from you.

Thank you.

Uh for joining us remotely.

Uh mayor's report.

I'll be uh quite brief.

It was a busy summer summer, but I'm pleased to return to a full house for our first council meeting in the fall.

Uh I would like to uh extend my thanks to councillors Qualwich and uh uh Councillor McKenzie for filling in for me as acting mayors while I was on leave and councillor Rogers for filling in uh for me when I was um for CRD whilst I was away.

Uh so that being said, we can move to uh petitions and delegations.

The first up we have dr eileen pepler with the pepler group and uh we're honored as well to be joined by mayor desjardin uh the mayor of the township of esquimalt regarding healthy communities needs assessment toolkit eileen over to you just just hit the button for the microphone when you're ready okay good afternoon good evening and well, thank you for the opportunity.

I'm Dr.

Eileen pepler, and i work in uh municipal and cities health and urban planning.

And I'm here tonight to encourage and to further the dialogue of the need for neighborhood data so that we can begin to understand who lives in our neighborhoods, how unique the neighborhoods are, and how the earth how it impacts our health living in the neighborhoods, and also how important it is to link health and urban data together.

Would encourage the community to think about the impact of urban planning and its health and the health impact it has on the communities.

Barb Disjardens, the mayor of Esquimalt, worked with me in 2019.

She completed, and I'm going to ask Barb to speak about the benefits to their community and how it's benefited them from a medical perspective and in urban planning.

Okay.

Barb.

Mayor and Council of the Royal, it's my honor to attend your meeting by phone.

Thank you, Dr.

Pepler.

I'll just start with a little bit of background.

I will go over this fairly quickly because I think the presentation in front of you really will speak for itself.

But in 2016, Esquimalt had a number of walk-in clinics, uh, general practitioner clinics that our population could access with whether it was within our community or just in our surrounding communities in Big West and in View Royal.

By 2018, we were down to one clinic that was struggling to be a walk-in clinic as well as to have attachment, which means that they were general practitioners that had a caseload of people.

And we were just seeing that we were continually losing more and more clinics, and I was very concerned about the health of our community.

And so in order to go out and speak to other levels of government or to get mobilization on this issue, it was really important to understand why it is important to continue to try and provide health care locally in our in our own community in our own neighborhoods.

And so we hired Dr.

Pepler to do a health needs assessment, and that information was incredibly valuable in terms of telling us where our community was accessing health care.

It was shocking the amount of people in Esquimal that were going to emergency as their general practice office.

They were trying to access multiple walk-in clinics around the region.

Many, many had just fallen off the map.

What kind of health is our community?

And we found that we have a large number of people that had mood disorders, mental health challenge, people with multiple chronic illnesses.

And so the understanding of the complexity of the health care requirements for our community helped mayor and council to determine directions for trying to resolve that.

First place that we went to was Island Health.

Compelling argument, and we were one of the areas that then were able to receive an urgent and primary care center.

It was also data that was extremely valuable to take to developers.

We knew what the population was looking like, we knew what kind of facilities were required, and so we could go to developers and say, you know, here's here's what our requirements are, and within density bonus, do you, you know, are there opportunities for you to see provision of either space, reduced rent, uh how how could you help us support us in this?

This data that was collected was done in several ways using data that was out there from Island Health, but I think one of the most valuable ways of collecting the data was actually going out to the community itself and doing surveys.

And that helped to give us the clear understanding of who was going where or they were where they weren't going and why they were going there or weren't going.

And so the data allowed us to get a remarkable document in 2019 that really showed the map of our community in terms of its health.

Health affects everything.

It's the idea of urban planning around what kind of facilities do you want to support in order to bring your help your community stay healthy, for example, rec centers.

It speaks to your policing needs.

It speaks to so many areas of what we do as mayor and council and communities in terms of providing services to our community.

So in the end, I would say right now that our health needs assessment was done in 2019.

We are really looking forward to updating it because the value of having a pre-COVID assessment of health versus a post-COVID assessment of health is likely to be valuable not only to ourselves, but to many others to have that granular information.

And council has made it a priority to get that updated, and we will be moving forward on doing that and continuing to look at avenues of how we improve the health of our community.

Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Thank you, Barb.

This really started in as Barb said in 2019 when I started thinking and looking, and then in October of last year, we had a new we had provincial and municipal election or a municipal election.

One of the things I asked the mayors and all the councils on the West Shore, and most of them was what was the favorite thing that you loved doing during your campaigning?

And it was door knocking.

Why?

I learned so much about our community.

I learned how unique the communities are the neighborhoods are.

So, therefore, the health and urban planning data is very important because we look only at the health social determinants.

We look at the urban determinants separately and we don't pool the two of them together.

So I'm suggesting that the determinants do matter, and the determinants do matter because right today we have very complex issues.

We're trying to deal with density, we're trying to deal with medical shortages, we're trying to deal with public safety.

What kind of models do we need in our community?

Does one model need neighborhood policing or what do we go RCMP?

What kind of neighborhood policing do we need?

And the secondly, and more importantly, is how do we project in the future about the aging of our neighborhoods?

How do we know how many schools we need if we have no families coming in with children?

So that kind of data is really, really important and is critical.

And so I'm suggesting that we link the public safety, policing, housing, and all your neighborhood data into data science.

And right now we link business intelligence.

We use the business intelligence to make all of our investment decisions, but there's no science to the data.

And there's really no analytics.

We don't project.

We project into the future for our communities, for our residents, decisions using old data, data that we don't control, we have no issue, we have no answers, and sometimes we don't even know if we're asking the right questions of the right data.

Or are we asking the wrong questions of the right data?

So we've put together a toolkit for municipalities that we're asking View Royal to be the first to work with us on.

And it's a very complex situation, very complex topic.

I'm short of I know I have four minutes.

I'm not going to be able to boil the ocean in four minutes.

So I provided a binder to all the counselors, which provides the information from Isquimalt, the council minutes to the Isquai Malt, the presentation we had on the need for the municipalities to be data driven in March, and also tonight's presentation that is a fuller deck than what is here tonight.

And so what I'm asking is that there really is a need for better data, better tools, and better engagement.

The first thing I would also suggest is around the decision making and the prioritization of projects.

And the staff are inundated with projects.

How do we begin to prioritize those projects to meet the needs of the neighborhoods?

How do we know that A needs this and B needs this, but C needs it before A and B?

Those are the kinds of questions that we need to be asking ourselves as we invest in our communities.

I'm a resident, and I'm always wondering why I never why I don't get to ask and participate at the outset.

Why do I always have to come to meetings at the end to say I object?

Or why are you doing this?

So I'm asking View Royal to invest in the community and invest by investing in your public in the health and the urban determinants.

Let's explore, let's understand what neighborhood exists, where the neighborhood issues are, and what do the neighborhoods think we should be going and where is the vision for View Royal in 2025 2030?

And are we on the right path?

Are we using the right data?

And the biggest thing for me is more inclusion.

We need to be included at the outset, not at the end.

And our toolkit suggests that you bring along residents from each neighborhood individually in real time, so we model what the neighborhood looks like today, the current state, we get some input, and then we can show the impact of the decisions on their neighborhood.

Then they get feedback.

That feedback is very important and is critical to the planning.

So I'm asking for from the key takeaways from this partnership is linking intelligence, data science, with analytics.

And we also give you the ability long term to keep those models so that you can post on the dashboards real live data.

And if there should be a change in the growth in one neighborhood, and the density needs to change in one neighborhood, you can do that instantly and in real time.

So thank you for I got one minute and 52 seconds, so that's for me is good.

I finished on time.

So my final conclusion is I hope the residents that are here tonight can appreciate why we need door knocking, why we need the neighborhoods to be included, and each of the neighborhoods to be involved.

So I'm asking for um View Royals Mayor and Council to entertain partnering with us as you develop your strategic plans for 2024, 25 and out to the future to 2030.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Peppler, and uh your worship uh Mayor Desjardins.

Thank you for joining as well.

Uh open it up for questions from council to Dr.

Peppler, uh Councillor Brown.

Thank you for your presentation.

I guess see a lot of value to what you're proposing.

Uh I just it's always concerns me for surveying, and I'm happy to hear it that the door knocking is part of it uh because traditionally you don't get a uh a large uh return on survey, so to get a proper sampling.

So that's good to hear.

And sorry, would you use neighborhood people to be part of the groups to not yes?

Um, in um in the UK and in us in some of the other jurisdictions, they use what they call a street captain program.

And the street captain program gets trained and works with us and helps collect.

They know their neighborhood better than we do.

So we hope that we aim to get about a real significant return.

Um, and I agree with you that uh mail out surveys is hit and miss, but also the mail out survey really doesn't bring it down to the granular level.

This way, if we have street captain program, we can do the neighborhood by neighborhood by neighborhood and bring in the neighborhoods uh by individual.

Yes.

Any other questions for Dr.

Pepper?

Councilor Rogers, please.

Yes, uh, thank you for the binder.

I look forward to uh reviewing it.

Um, and it's very helpful to hear from Scrum Wolf's mayor to get that context.

Okay.

Oh, yes, right.

I see in the binder you had approached Callwood in March.

Yes.

Right.

Can you give us an update uh what's happened since then in Callwood?

Yes, it wasn't really an approach to Caldwood.

Um, it was uh Barb Dis Jardens had been talking, oh, Barb Disjardens had been talking, the mayor disjardens had been talking at the mayor's tables.

And um the mayor in Caldwood called me.

I met him at church, as a matter of fact, and he asked me to uh come and talk to him.

Being a data guy that he is, and being an IT guy, he was really interested in how do we move municipalities to a data-driven platform, a digital platform in real time, so we can.

So it started that way.

And then as an academic, he asked me to come in and put on a presentation that would be more or less like data driven 101.

And so that's how that presentation came.

It wasn't specifically to Callwood because Langford was there, your mayor was there, and they and some of the counselors were there.

The RCMP were there.

And as a consultant to VICPD for the last five years, my question is how do municipalities determine value for money with the police models?

What kind of policing models do we need?

Where does the crime fit?

So, how do we begin to ask those questions in order to understand why the tax increases?

Okay, so that's how that came about.

Counselor McKenzie, please.

Not a question, but a comment.

I just wanted to thank you for your presentation.

I'm a huge proponent of evidence based decision making and policy, and actually studied it, so I could go on for ages about it.

But I I agree, I think we need to take that approach, especially to our OCP going forward.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Counselor Lennon.

Thank you, Dr.

Pepler.

Um I'm just wondering, was this was this Guimalt the the only municipality to try this approach or or experience to do this?

In BC?

Yeah.

Yes.

They are the only the um you know it was interesting because I've been in healthcare for four uh for more years than I care to remember.

And um I'm not an academic I came up through the system in a strange way and I've always wondered how they take regional and low you know brand this kind of data and try and tell me what I need.

And so um we've been trying to move the municipalities to this.

And the CRD has now approached us and said we're interested in looking.

So it's it's now time because I think the public are starting to ask different questions.

I also think your problem the problems we're facing are really becoming more complex.

So the 500,000 people that are scheduled to come into Canada next year, where are they going?

What's the impact on schools?

What's the impact on health care?

How many are coming into View Royal?

That kind of data needs to be looked at, planned for, and projected out so that we have the evidence to negotiate with governments on all levels.

This is what we need, this is not what we need to be told to do.

Thank you.

Really appreciate this.

Thank you.

And uh uh Mayor de Jardin had me at health care and primary care.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Counselor Mattson, just gonna check in with you if you've got a question because uh you're online.

Um not so much a question.

I just uh you know thanks for the presentation, and I also uh strongly support evidence-based decision making.

So I'm looking forward to reading the materials you provided.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Seeing how we've got uh a bit of homework in front of us with the binders, would council entertain a motion to welcome Dr.

Pepler back after we've digested the binder.

Um, and uh if we've got any other uh questions that might come out of that support?

Uh all in favor of having Dr Dr.

Peppler back uh uh at a at a time potentially in october um uh to uh to discuss further all those in favor thank you uh any opposed none opposed thank you dr properly thank you next on the agenda we have another petition and delegation and this one is uh by a miller from park ridge place on wildlife attractant bylaw Hello, your worship, Mayor Tobias and Council.

My name is Andrea Miller, and this is Melanie Austin, my co-presenter.

June 23rd was a very sad day that many of us will never forget.

Earlier that month, we had viewed pictures on a neighborhood WhatsApp group of a mother bear dutifully teaching her three cubs to climb trees and explore the forest.

Neighbors took pictures of the wild creatures balancing on branches as the mom sat by patiently.

Sadly, complaints were also coming in.

The mother was raiding garbage bins.

A neighbor said another's neighbor's food scraps ended up in his yard and it went on from there.

The conservation officer said the mom had a history and had previously been relocated from the Lankford side of Thetis.

He said there was a definite need to properly secure trash in our area.

He stated the tragic outcome could have been avoided with appropriate attractant management.

So we watched as the trap was set up to capture and destroy the mom, knowing the whole incident was our fault.

After a few days, the mom entered the trap.

Her cubs scurried up trees to avoid danger as she had taught them.

The conservation officer finally coaxed them down with help of a tranquilizer gun.

My daughter was too distraught to attend school that day and instead spent that Friday expressing her emotions by setting up a forest memorial for the mother bear, complete with a poem and pictures.

Other people expressed their emotions by grieving in various ways.

After the mom's death, there were weekly and sometimes daily sightings of black bears in our neighborhood until around mid-August.

Longtime residents who have lived here for nearly 30 years said it was the worst year ever for bear sightings.

Some neighbors believe the developments in Lankford, including the Bear Mountain area, are reducing wildlife habitat and forcing more bears into tighter spaces.

Bear sightings are definitely nothing new, however, and there are numerous sightings every year.

On my street, Parkridge Place in early August, a black bear strolled around backyards and checked out a Koi Pond.

For some seniors who live alone, including some of them in the audience tonight, it was a concerning situation and shows the importance of bears not getting into garbage and food waste and not lingering in the neighborhood.

The frequency of wildlife sightings is not too difficult to understand.

Our neighborhood is located in prime wildlife habitat surrounded by Fetus Lake Park on three sides, with the salmon bearing crayflower creek running down the south side.

Many lots back right onto the park with no fencing or division between the property line and forest.

This is where bears and cougars live and get the food needed to survive.

The CRD states on its park information signs that Thetis Lake Park provides vital wildlife habitat.

Wildlife travel between Thetis and numerous other parks in the area in search of food.

According to a study for the province's Bear Smart Program, bears can easily learn from one single experience that pushing over a garbage bin can yield a reward, human food.

Next slide.

With a superior sense of smell, bears learn the to associate the smell of food waste with the bin and the reward.

Once bears have started the habit of getting human food, their behavior patterns change.

Bears make the association between food and humans and become less scared of humans.

Then bears and humans are more likely to get into conflicts.

When problem bears are euthanized or relocated, they are soon, they can soon be replaced with another bear that becomes attracted to the same food and waste, food waste and trash.

So the cycle continues.

We are here tonight to make two requests.

Next slide.

First, we request a new town bylaw that could be modeled after bylaws in Port Alberni, Squamish, Radium Hot Springs, and many others.

There is a sample bylaw available from the province's Bear Smart program, which can be modified to suit any municipality.

Such a bylaw would require leaving garbage and food waste secure and inaccessible to wildlife.

Garbage and food waste would need to be stored in garages, enclosures, or bear proof bins.

Some bylaws state barbecues and barbecue tools must be clean and free of food debris.

Bylaws also ask people to pick up fruit that has fallen from their trees as it can often attract bears.

Next slide.

As at present, the town's animal control bylaw states a person must not intentionally feed or leave food out for the purposes of feeding wild or exotic animals.

This focuses on purposely feeding animals and does not address leaving garbage bins accessible to wildlife.

The Squamish Wildlife Attractant Bylaw addresses this with a section stating a person must not store, deposit, or place outdoors any refuse that is a wildlife attractant except when in a wildlife-resistant container or a commercial container or enclosure that meets certain criteria in the bylaw.

Closer to home, Port Alberni has a solid waste collection bylaw with a clear directive.

Each resident is responsible for preventing animals from accessing their garbage.

Households have bear resistant waste bins equipped with clips to secure the lids.

Clips are also available for other bins, those that are not for food waste.

There is also a list of rules such as ensuring bird feeders and beehives are inaccessible to wildlife and prohibiting wildlife attractants like meat and dairy from being placed in compost bins.

Most important of all are rules stating waste bins must be placed on the curb no earlier than the morning of pickup.

In our neighborhood, some people continue to put out bins the evening before pickup or even a couple of days in advance.

In Port Alberni, the earliest bins can be put out as 7 a.m.

In Squamish, it is 5 a.m.

Then emptied bins must be returned to their bear proof position that same day.

The bylaws have municipal fines that can be levied $100 per offense in Kamloops, $200 in radium hot springs, and different amounts in other municipalities.

That money can possibly go towards a bear awareness program if possible.

In addition to developing a bylaw, we would like the town to write letters to residents advising a good waste disposal practices and possibly including such information on the town newsletter, website, and any town bills.

Next slide.

CalMoops has a comprehensive page on its website, complete with animated video.

It's really cool actually, explaining the importance of safe garbage disposal and bear proofing.

We noted the website states CalMOOPs would be testing the use of bear proof organic bins through a one year pilot program.

About 300 homes were chosen based on their bear hazard assessment rating.

The pilot program will be focused on understanding how effective bear proof bins are, how willing and able residents are to use them, and the impact on the patterns of human bear conflict.

At the end of the pilot, staff will make recommendations.

In View Royal, it might be a great idea to have a pilot in our neighborhood and maybe surrounding streets like Marler Drive.

Well, now that I have begun talking about garbage bins, which is Melanie's expertise, she will now address that issue, the important issue of providing wildproof, wildlife proof garbage bins.

Here's Melanie.

Thank you, Andrea.

Next slide, please.

So to help with the successful implementation of the bylaw, we also request that our existing garbage and organic waste bins be replaced with bear proof ones.

This will allow residents to keep household waste secured, particularly those residents who do not have a secure location to store their bins.

Our current bins, shown in the photos here, are not bear proof.

We have spoken to neighbors who have seen their cans tipped over and opened by bears.

The bins have also been accessed by raccoons, and if not latched, are also a target for birds, rodents, cats, and other animals.

Implementing bear proof bins would also prevent these other animals from accessing residential garbage as well.

When animals get into the bins, they spread the garbage throughout the neighborhood and into the park.

So the provision of bear and animal proof bins would have the added benefit that it would improve the cleanliness and hygiene of our neighborhoods and the town overall.

Without bear-proof bins, the bylaw would be reliant on residents securing their bins through other means, storing in their garage or in a shed, or strapping the bins closed in some way.

We've heard from neighbors that there are some obstacles to securing their bins in these ways.

They've said they don't have space in their garage for the bins, others don't want the odor in the garage.

Some residents have tenants in their homes and don't want to provide shared access to the garage.

For example, my house is built up against a rock wall and I don't have a backyard where I could build a shed for my bins.

And our bins are not really designed to be strapped or clipped closed.

Even if residents could and did secure their garbage between garbage days, there are also times when the garbage bins are left out because collection is delayed and not picked up on the scheduled day.

This has been a common issue in our neighborhood.

When this happens, residents leave their bins at the curb, not knowing when collection will occur.

If the bins were bear proof, they would not be left as an attractant to bears during these delays.

However, ultimately, View Royal should work with the garbage collection contractor to avoid delays like this.

There are currently 2,834 addresses in View Royal that participate in the collection program, each with two bins.

Our current garbage bins went into service in 2008 with a 10-year warranty.

So we are five years beyond that time.

The older bins are slowly being replaced upon request by residents.

So far, 123 addresses have received a newer style of bins, shown on the right in the photos here.

But these newer bins are even less secure against wildlife and open even more easily.

Rather than continue to issue these new bins, View Royal should secure the provision of bear proof bins and replace the old ones with bearproof versions.

We appreciate that replacing all garbage bins for all View Royal residents could be considered a significant financial request.

We recommend that town council consider starting a program like this with neighborhoods like ours that are adjacent to Thetis Lake Park, with expansion to the whole town over time.

Money could be available through gas tax funding and growing communities fund, as was used by CastleGar for purchasing bins.

Next slide, please.

Provincial government program Bear Smart BC provides on their website some characteristics of proper bear-proof bins.

For example, lids and doors should be recessed, self-closing, and tight fitting.

Hinges and latches should be sufficiently strong that they can't be pried open by claws, and latch triggers should be unreachable by bears claws.

Two example products are shown on this slide: one made by Kodiak products and the other by Toder.

Next slide, please.

An alternative could be bins that can be clipped closed, as Andrea mentioned, and these are used in Port Alberni.

Other communities, such as Canmore, have community garbage collection sites where residents drop their garbage into larger, secure bins, which is an option that could possibly be considered as well.

Next slide, please.

In addition to providing residents with bins for their household waste, we also request that three public bins under the responsibility of the town of Uroyal be replaced with a bear proof variety.

These locations are in Chalmers Park, Marlar Park, and at the bus loop at the intersection of Highland Road and Watkiss Way.

The current bins, as shown on the slide, are open topped and are often seen to be overflowing with garbage.

These publicly accessible bins should be replaced with a bearproof variety, such as the ones implemented by the CRD in some locations.

The one shown on the right here has been installed at the Bellamy Trailhead in Langford.

Next slide, please.

In summary, we feel strongly that these two requests go hand in hand.

The bylaw is necessary to ensure that residents understand the importance of proper garbage management, and the bins are necessary to provide a means for residents to secure their waste.

In addition to these two formal requests, we would also like View Royal to proactively educate residents about the wildlife that share the spaces where we live and the measures that we can take to protect them and to avoid conflicts.

The neighbors that we have spoken to have expressed an interest in learning more about actions and behaviors that can protect bears and other wildlife while also allowing us to live safely in proximity to these animals.

Experts say that the best way to avoid conflict is to remove attractants and manage garbage properly.

This request for an attractant bylaw and bearproof garbage bins is one step in that direction.

We encourage town council to also consider having View Royal become certified as a Bear Smart community through Bear Smart BC, joining communities like Port Alberni and nine other BC communities.

This would set a wonderful precedent for other communities on the island and throughout BC.

Given the proximity of View Royal to important wildlife habitat, this issue is highly relevant.

Andrea and I and several others in our neighborhood are very determined to take whatever steps we can to avoid having any other bears euthanized in our neighborhood.

And we are asking for your help.

Thank you.

I'd like to thank you very much for the presentation and open it up to council for any questions.

Yes, thank you.

Council Rogers.

I'm not sure about a question, but maybe it's it to staff.

Staff, have have we considered or uh talked to other municipal neighbors, Highlands, for example, um, about um this issue and and what kind of preventative measures could be um available to us?

Uh through the mayor, not at this time just yet.

Yes, certainly.

It's um uh i I there's a lot of very good points.

Uh the one thing I worry about is or wonder if um if we continue to have plastic bins um even with latches, um a strong bear would likely be able to tear that thing apart if uh the attractant was that appealing.

Thoughts?

Well the bear-proof bins that are approved by various organizations have been tested, you know, uh to to withstand the force of a bear.

They have various ways to test it.

And one of the things that I read was if you can open your trash can with a with crowbar, it's not bear proof.

So the ones that you buy that are certified as bear proof, you will as a even as a human trying to open it with a crowbar and such, you will not be able to.

So they've been tested out.

They're certified by various groups.

I have the name of one somewhere in this big binder.

Um and I did you ask about what hi the Highlands District is doing?

Sorry.

So I did phone them.

I did phone them because I think Mayor Tobias had earlier mentioned that.

They have a different service than we have.

So I gave them a call.

They didn't, their trash pickup is not a municipal service.

It's all private there.

And so that creates a little bit of limitation when people have their trash service done by private companies with uh with no municipal involvement.

Although it still can be, there still can be a bylaw applied, but it's it's different.

So they do in long story short, they don't have any wildlife attractant bylaw there in Highlands.

And if I uh if I may ask you another question, have you approached the CID and TS Lake and their trash banks?

Yes.

Um we I have some letters going back and forth, CC'd to Mayor Tobias, so he he probably knows.

I'm going to actually send, I'm waiting for additional replies to my last letter where I had asked a number of questions.

Uh because definitely they need to do something with their bins that are on the beach.

They're just open bins.

They've they've retrofitted their bins that are further into the forest, but not on the beaches.

And we're going to keep pressing them until they get changed.

If and if I may suggest, um, it's really a good idea to make positions and petitions delegates like you did with us to the CRD, to the parks, uh, and uh so that staff and and the regional directors can hear issues.

Excellent.

I might just call Mayor Tobias after to find out how exactly that's done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And you wouldn't have to do much more work, although it'd have to be shorter in your uh for your petendell, but uh you've done such uh great research.

Thank you.

Uh Councillor McKenzie.

Yes, it was really an unfortunate event, and I I appreciate you both coming here, taking the initiative to come here and all the research that you did.

I think lots of good ideas, and I wonder if it would be appropriate for council to refer this to staff to continue on that research and see what is feasible.

So, do we need a motion to do that?

Yes, okay.

Um that I like to raise a motion that we ask staff to uh take this away and and prepare a report with some suggestions on what we can do.

Sheckon.

Uh now that the motion's on the table.

Yeah, there's numerous bylaws to check, which you've already done.

Any discussion?

Uh Councilor Brown.

I know the CRD has a very comprehensive one, and there is a section there for feeding wildlife.

So that could be quite broad, right?

So um that's excellent that staff would look at it and bring us report back.

Thank you for your presentation.

Thank you, Councillor Brown.

Counselor Brown.

Yes, uh, uh staff, I'd be particularly interested in in uh the the various excellent points that were raised.

Uh the bearproof containers, the idea of doing a pilot.

I'd like to hear what Camloops are doing since uh they're doing that pilot.

Uh like to um open up a dialogue with CRD and TheS Lake and ensure that uh there's a joint initiative to address this.

And I really like the idea of a bear smart um uh aspect on the website so thank you for those suggestions if there's no further questions I think we can now vote on it all those in favor of uh deferring this to staff to bring back a report any opposed seeing none opposed thank you very much for your presentation thank you thank you very much thank you and I think uh next up on our uh petitions and delegations is CRD Transportation Governance Engagement with uh sinclair.

Good evening, uh, your worship and counselors.

Uh, thank you for inviting us here to talk about transportation governance.

Uh, maybe I'll start with uh introductions.

I'm Kevin Lorette.

I'm the general manager of planning and protective services.

I did get an opportunity to present to council earlier this year as part of the CRD executive leadership team.

And at that time, we extended the invitation on transportation governance and could share more information.

And extremely happy that the council has taken us up on that.

Uh, joining me today is Ms.

Emily Sinclair.

Uh Emily is our senior manager of regional and strategic planning.

And also joining with us in the audience here is Ms.

Mr.

Jay Dillard, uh, who's a research planner, and he's tracking the discussion and uh making note of any questions should we have to report back on any.

So uh next slide.

In terms of uh today's presentation, we will cover the uh rationale for the work on governance and the background on uh information on transportation in the region.

We'll we'll uh then walk through the workbook on how to fill it out and then look at next steps.

And we'll close out with a discussion and any questions that you may have.

I do want to make note that uh there is a lot of information to cover.

So uh if there is any specific questions on anything that we've presented, we can always go back to a specific slide uh in more detail.

Next slide.

So just starting with the project rationale.

We're here today because uh the CRD board uh has identified transportation as a priority, and and it's we also hear that from the residents in the region.

And the board in this year's term, as we went through our strategic planning process, set uh a board priority for us to report back on the options around transportation governance uh for the region, including uh up to and including a transportation authority.

And so that's the work that we're undertaking and why we're here today.

Uh, staff and the CRD board do need to hear from local governments, uh the electoral areas, and our agency partners who deliver transportation services to understand what changes that you want to see to help us achieve our shared transportation goals.

Next slide, please.

So, in terms of our transportation goals, uh these are set out in our regional transportation plan, and they were confirmed by our board in 2021.

Uh, the goals are to ease uh the congestion in our morning and evening peak periods, uh, to support higher rates of uh walking, cycling, and transit use.

And then finally, uh, with transportation accounting for 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the region, it's really looking to curb those emissions.

Next slide, please.

In terms of what the CRD currently offers, we do deliver this work in a few ways.

We provide regional scale policy planning and data collection, and we do that through our regional and strategic planning department.

And then also through our regional parks department, we operate the regional trail system, and that includes the Galloping Goose, the Lockside, and the ENN Regional Trails.

The trail system also includes a proposed trail on the Southern Gulf Islands and Salt Spring Island.

The CRD also plays a coordinating function by hosting a transportation working group that's made up of staff representation from the municipalities, the electoral areas, and the agency stakeholders.

This group shares information and works towards consistent approaches to planning, policy, and service delivery.

And then finally, the CRD does play a governance function as well through the CRD Transportation Committee.

This committee reports to the CRD board and provides oversight for the items listed on this slide.

Next slide.

Perfect.

Thank you, Kevin, for that.

The next section really is transportation 101.

I could spend a lot of time presenting on this, but I am going to try to move through it fairly quickly.

So what we see in this slide is a definition about governance.

So you've heard me talk about governance.

What does it mean?

Governance is about decision making.

It's how decisions are made, who is involved, who pays, and who's accountable for implementation.

In the CRD, the current governance structure is mode specific.

And so what that means is that we have a number of different jurisdictions and they all have responsibility for delivering one or two modes.

And you can see that represented visually here by the green boxes.

The challenge with this is that the CRD as the regional district has very few tools to help advance regional transportation priorities.

And that's why we're here doing this transportation engagement is to understand what are the tools that are of interest to local governments, to our electoral areas and agency partners to help us achieve our shared transportation objectives.

So it's not um in order to have all these different jurisdictions working together on the same thing.

The CRD offers a regional transportation plan that encourages all those different jurisdictions to act together.

We do that in two ways.

One is through the regional multimodal network, and that's the map that is shown here, and that's also available in your transportation workbook.

And it's also accomplished through a series of outcome statements that are included in that transportation plan.

All of the jurisdictions that I showed in the previous slide are responsible for taking actions to help achieve the objectives in that transportation plan, and we do that collectively by doing things like making planning and policy decisions through building infrastructure, delivering services, and offering programming.

Local governments have a big role to play in terms of their land use decisions and also in offering behavior change.

Diving one level down, the CRD board approved a series of regional transportation priorities in 2021, and staff group them based on who is best placed to deliver these services.

The advocate bucket or category here is things that the local governments and the regional district can't deliver.

We rely on other people to deliver it.

And so that's where you see priorities related to transit, related to highway safety improvement, and to Salt Spring Island and Southern Gulf Island connectivity.

In the Act bucket, those are things that local governments or the CRD, either individually or working together, can take action.

And so that's related to things like active transportation, transportation demand management, safety policy, and the like.

And then we also had a pivot category.

That's where governance and longer term objectives were identified.

Now with the new board term, governance has become an item that we've prioritized.

The next series of slides are really meant to illustrate the interconnected nature of travel in the region.

This data is from our 2022 origin destination household travel survey, and that will be released in mid-September.

And what it's showing is that a lot of travel in the region, and this is represented by the circles on this map, happens within subregions.

View Royal is part of the core subregion, and that's where the majority of trips in the region happen.

The core includes obviously View Royal, as well as Victoria, Saanich, Oak Bay, and Esquimalt.

And a considerable amount of trips happen between the core subregion and the West Shore.

The West Shore includes Calwood, Langford, Machosen, Highlands, Souk, and the Wandafuca electoral area.

Going one level down, we also have data about where people are going in the morning and afternoon peaks.

What this shows is in those morning peak times, there's quite a bit of travel that's happening internal to View Royal.

You see that in the little arrow that looks like a circle, and then we also see where travel is happening.

Those are the top four destinations for View Royal.

And all this to say is that residents do expect a high degree of mobility in their everyday lives.

People live and work across local government boundaries.

They want to be able to move easily across the region, and they expect quality service regardless of who's delivering it.

So with that in mind, I'll spend some time talking about the workbook.

This slide shows the iterative progression of change that is needed to ultimately arrive at a new transportation authority.

This slide is shown as levels because at this point in time, CRD staff do not have enough information to turn these levels into proper concepts that can be analyzed for implications.

That's where this engagement comes in.

We are looking for input from local governments and our agency partners to be able to build out these concepts.

So, what do the concepts mean?

Generally speaking, the level one change is to be able to consolidate disparate transportation functions into one transportation service that's fairly internal to the CRD.

The second level is to expand the CRD's authority in terms of what it can do.

This really relates to a number of different tools around funding and a number of different tools around programming and transportation demand management.

And then in level three, that's where we're talking about the new authority that Mr.

Lorette mentioned earlier in the presentation.

What's important to note here is that level one and level two decisions are things that the CRD board and local governments together can make decisions on, and it can be done through the creation of a new CRD service establishment bylaw.

Changes in level three require the province to make changes to legislation, and that is outside of our control.

So it's introducing another decision maker.

What's important about this is that if the CRD board and municipalities want to make change in this term, it has to be focused on level one and level two because that's what we can control, and it indicates to the province a concrete first step that can be taken before we go asking them to make legislative changes.

Okay, so you've heard me say we're engaging the 13 municipalities, the three electoral areas, and our agency partners.

And I do want to note that First Nations have been invited to participate and can be scoped into the program when they choose to participate.

What we're looking at doing in this engagement, so scope here is really important.

We're looking to test support for matters where greater regional focus is needed to advance priorities.

We're looking to identify decision making preferences related to things like planning, funding, policy, service delivery.

And we're also looking to explore opportunities and constraints to governance change so that we can together build a value add narrative for why it's necessary to make changes to transportation.

What's out of scope for this presentation is updating the regional transportation plan and making changes to the multimodal network.

We're not trying to identify new transportation priorities.

Those were identified in 2021 and have been validated.

And as I mentioned, we're not trying to amend authority set out in legislation.

In your engagement workbook, you have introduction and background.

There's the questionnaire as well as a glossary.

What's being asked of council is that council completes one survey to be submitted with a resolution of council endorsing the response by September 29th.

And you may have noticed this as well if you've looked through the questions, is that they are focused and quite pointed.

This is intentional, and it's been designed this way to limit the amount of subjective analysis that my team will be required to make, or the CRD board directors will be required to intuit.

And so for that reason, we are really asking that you try to stick to providing answers within the context of how the survey is developed.

If for a few questions it's difficult to reach agreement, or you're finding yourself saying, Well, I want both, you can very sparing, very sparingly make note of that and explain your rationale in the open ended comment section with the caveat that if you do this, if if this is done too much across all of our stakeholders, it will be difficult to analyze the results and help us scope the changes that we need to be scoping.

So, with that in mind, just some examples of the way that the logic of the questions are asked.

So there's seven questions in the survey.

The first question is a series of trade-off questions.

And what you're being asked to do is consider whether a local or regional approach is needed to be able to tackle a particular transportation issue.

And we have asked for this local regional, it might seem a bit binary, but it's being asked for a reason, for two reasons actually.

One is that my team wants to be able to identify where there are areas of agreement and disagreement across the 13 municipalities and our partners, so that we can start understanding where those areas of focus are most important.

And the second one is that the types of tools needed to support a local government take a local approach are different than the types of tools needed to support a local government taking a regional approach.

And so we need to know if there's a preference in order to be able to properly develop those concept options that can then be scoped.

I could stand here and give you ideas all day, but if I don't know what your preferences are, it will it would take us a long time to move through that across all of our municipalities.

So I acknowledge that it might be tricky, but there's method to the madness.

The second question is a bit more straightforward.

You're being asked whether you agree or disagree with a series of statements.

Questions three and four are select all that apply.

So you can select as many or as few as you want.

And really we're looking at trying to identify opportunities through those questions.

And then five and six, we're back to asking you to prioritize by being able to identify rank and order of preference what you what you would prefer to see.

And again, this preference is important so we can start comparing where there's areas of agreement and disagreement across the region.

And then question seven is the open ended question.

Four next steps uh we're right here in summer of 2023 undertaking this engagement.

Uh through the fall, my team will report back to the CRD board on the level of consensus uh or agreement or disagreement across the survey responses and then be able to provide some recommendations about what next steps we're taking.

Put in context of the board's 2023-2024 term, uh, the fall of 2023 and into 2024 is looking at developing options, uh, doing analysis, bringing us to a point, hopefully pending direction about service establishment.

There will be more opportunities for engagement and seeking input from council through this process.

If all things go according to plan, we would then look for 2025 to be implementation and delivery.

And then again, pending direction, we would be looking at business case development to try to think about whether we want to move to that level three about a transit authority to set the next board up for success.

So that's what the long term picture looks like.

Success looks like that by the end of the board term, the region has taken a concrete first step towards addressing these regional transportation issues.

And that can be in that level one area of consolidating transportation functions, maybe moving into that level two area of expanding what we can currently deliver.

And what I do want to leave you with is that other jurisdictions have made efforts at setting up transportation authorities.

This slide is really just to show you that there are many different ways to set it up.

And so there isn't a wrong way of doing it.

There's not a right way of doing it.

The best way of doing it is the way that works for all of our partners.

And I think with that, I'll open it up to questions.

This is good.

Thank you for the presentation.

And thank you for staying up past your normal working hours.

I'm sure you're having to do that with all the municipalities going through.

It's always uh it's an aggressive and bold move by the CRD.

I'm I'm disappointed that it's going to take as long as it is because I think everybody is uh looking at some advantages of working together and coming up with common things.

And for all of us, we appreciate that there's even a change in lighting or a crosswalk lighting standards in between municipalities.

Um, all of this, these things could lead to um things that did happen and they're related to safety, such as uh a loss of life in sanach on a pedestrian on a crosswalk so there is no need to convince me personally that we need greater standardization across the board just to begin with.

Um but I'll open up to uh counsel for uh any questions they have of the CRD.

Councillor McKenzie.

Thank you.

I feel like a lot of these questions I would want to be informed by the public on.

Um so I was wondering and I didn't see it in the presentation if you're doing any public engagement uh on this decision as well.

Through the mayor at this point in time, no, we are not.

And the simple reason is because uh the scope is too large to be able to take something like this out to the public.

And so what we are relying on at this point is for uh councils to be able to be using public processes like these, um, and and uh to to be able to inform some of those initial decisions as we move forward with some of that concept development, we'll need to come up with a second phase engagement strategy.

Um but you're not the first.

Uh, there's there's other counselors who have raised this uh in other municipalities as well.

Thank you, Councillor McKenzie.

Councillor Lemon, please, and then Councillor Quelich, please.

Thank you.

I I I don't actually have a question, uh, but I do want to thank you for this opportunity.

You don't I think it's well known that VROIL is perhaps the most critical pinch point for transportation in the region, and yet we are repeatedly denied a seat at the um transit commission table.

So to be heard here is very welcome.

Then Councillor Brown, please.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Loving.

Councillor Quelich.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Very comprehensive.

This is a topic that has been in discussion for many, many years across the CRD.

I truly believe it already has passed the globe and mail test with our residents.

There has been minimal pushback.

The fact that a capital region this large has no transportation authority is shocking, to be quite honest with you.

Municipalities not communicating with each other, different standards of uh traffic uh from all shapes and sizes can create chaos.

As we see, BC Transit really is the only leading uh leading entity right now.

And they're getting whatever they want because they're the only people asking for it.

Uh and and it's fine, there's been a lot of improvements, but we do need other voices.

We need uh our residents of View Royal and all of the CRD to have a voice on behalf of the whole region.

We're growing.

Uh traffic is not improving.

Um, our biggest uh fix has been the McKenzie Interchange, uh, which has been celebrated.

Uh that's been our really only major accomplishment for about 10 years, if you think about it.

Uh, and that was actually a provincial uh initiative that we work encouraging, encouraging.

So, I mean, this is to me, it's an easy decision.

Uh, I'm with uh the mayor.

I think we need to move faster if the support's there uh and up the timelines councilor brown yeah thank you i appreciate the the survey um i understand that all the counselors will be filling in and collating our results and the fact that some of the some of the questions were pointed it's very good because the last thing I want to see is our town of V Royal number 11 in size of the municipalities gets swallowed for our own local needs and concerns that's a big concern of mine not only in transportation but in other issues as well um there's a lot of services that could be provided by CRD that aren't.

And I understand that transportation is very important, and it is very important to the residents, but it's also very important for the town of V Royal to be able to to have a strong say in what happens within V Royal.

Thank you.

Councillor Rogers, please.

Yes, uh, thanks for coming and uh thank you for the opportunity to do the woodwork.

Um it's an interesting point with um uh getting the uh public's input.

Uh and I hope that indeed does happen.

But I I see it was extraordinary value in the form of counselors, form of counsels, bringing us all together.

We haven't done that for four or five years, and COVID's no excuse.

Um it was it's an excellent forum, and we've done uh some great work, and I really hope this is an example of us uh once the workbook is is is done and analyzed, um, that we can um really start to um hit the ground running and and bring bring it all to us all together.

The um I I think there have been significant advances.

Um the fact that uh View Old and Sands and many municipalities now have an active transportation plan, uh that's in in conjunction with uh with the regional plan.

Um the fact that um uh the Ministry of Highways is now building the rapid bus lanes.

Uh that's the the next largest initiative uh that we've seen since 1997.

Uh and those rapid bus lanes will do a great deal in in uh providing a transit solution.

But I certainly agree with my fellow counselors that speaking to transit is like speaking to a deaf, or with with we don't feel we're getting any results on frequency and certainly important bus services like the number 40.

Now, a comment with respect to uh your your plan here, you're suggesting that there should be no changes to the um regional multimodal network, but I'm concerned that uh in the map that you showed us on page seven does not show the ENN trail.

There's the galloping goose, there's the lockside, but I do not see the ENN trail, which is a major deliverable for V Royal and uh and hopefully for its extension going out to uh Western Communities Langford.

So if if you can give me some assurance that that trail uh would be also included and respected in this initiative, I'd be uh really pleased to hear that.

Through the chair, um yes, that is something that we would take a look at.

This is another question that's come up through other councils.

Uh what I expect is going to happen is that as an outcome of doing some of this work, uh, we may wish to take a, you know, as part of our implementation to take a look at that regional transportation plan.

We just don't want to get sidetracked uh with that discussion, but absolutely point taken.

Um, it's it's an important um act of transportation.

It's a missing value.

Thank you, Councillor Rogers.

Uh I don't think everybody, Councilor Matson, did you have any input, sir?

I'm okay.

I've just had some computer issues here, but uh I was able to hear.

I I'm I'm fine.

Looking forward to filling out the the form as long as it are sort of proceeding doesn't mean that we're going to be required to do anything until after we've already come by until we come back and talk after reading the materials.

Thank you.

Uh Councillor Matson.

So timeline for the um the workbook, just to remind you through the mayor.

We are looking for completed workbooks by September 29th.

And you wanted individual surveys, or did you want council to do one survey just to be clear?

We are looking for council to at the end of the day submit one survey that is endorsed by resolution of council.

You realize how much you're asking, don't you, for seven of us to agree on an entire survey.

Through the mayor, yes.

And we are looking for, you know, over a hundred people to be able to agree when we towed up the 13 municipalities, the three electoral areas, and the agencies.

We need that level of agreement to be able to take that step.

Fair enough.

I feel like um I'm part of uh a British comedy film.

Uh, if it comes down to that.

Uh uh, but we'll figure a way to do it.

First pass the post.

Uh, if you got any suggestions, please let us know.

Counselor Brennan.

I have one completed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Brown.

Well, thank you very much for the presentation.

And I think it's uh something that we'll obviously uh lean to staff on and try to do something that we can collaboratively together agreeing on.

It might be a different uh thing, but uh I think uh the the questions themselves are pretty simple enough that we should be able to, if not reach consensus, um uh have a majority there.

So thank you for the presentation and thank you uh for the initiative.

Thank you for having me.

Okay, uh next on our uh agenda is uh I think we've got uh public participation period.

Uh we'll go in the room first for anybody that would like to address counsel on uh on anything at all.

Uh I would ask that if it's specific to the development variants permit uh for Admiral's Road, that you do it for the part of the uh comments from the public there.

Anything else though that might be on your mind, I would certainly invite you um to approach the microphone and start with your name and address and uh feel free to address council.

Jeff Miller, 2446, Park Ridge Place.

I very appreciative that council is uh directed staff to look at the bear safety uh aspect.

Um it is a concern for those of us who live in that neighborhood just because of the access.

And hopefully, you you royal will be a leader in the CRD by moving forward with uh a bylaw of this nature, and uh we'll basically cement our uh leadership in this area because there are a number of communities that border on these wilderness areas.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your comments.

I think uh how many of you here, just out of curiosity, are here because of the bear issue and uh so I did just just check it.

Uh that's good.

Uh and I and I'm I'm really pleased that you all came out to uh to support each other and the fact um that that it does matter.

We're building deeper into bear territory.

And uh even though we have an urban containment zone that we recognize and the park is there, uh we're building into wilderness.

We're the problem, the reason why we're having problems is we're we're in the bear's house.

Um not that they're in ours.

So uh completely understand and I'm fully confident that our staff uh is able to learn from other municipalities and make it back.

But thank you for your comments.

And is there any other comments on any other topic?

Or it could be related topic.

Go ahead.

And just start by saying your name and your address.

And if you could put the microphone on so the little red light comes on, it's just a button right on the main base of it.

There you go.

Elena Miller, two four four four four four four four six Parkeridge Place.

Um, in regards to the bear issue, I just wanted to state that with these bylaws, new and current generations alike will learn and develop knowledge, responsibility, and caring for these animals we coexist with.

As black bears are considered a keystone environmental species, we must do everything in our hearts to protect them and their habitat.

Black par black bears are an icon of bravery, loyalty, and peace.

Our treatment of them shows our moral truth.

Setting a good example will educate children and future generations, which will slowly allow nature to heal from our damage.

Inspiring our youth by engaging them in protecting wildlife, the environment and family systems is a proactive action to create peaceful thinking.

Thank you.

Very well said.

Any other comments?

I think it turned it off.

I just wanted to address the bearer concerns.

Just yeah, there you go.

So I I'm I appreciate the idea of considering certain neighborhoods for sure to have that type of um garbage that prevents again bears from um pushing it over and getting the treats, but again for it to be imposed on the entire municipality, it's the cost I'm concerned about, right?

So uh I would just ask to have you guys really consider again that pilot project.

Great idea, maybe getting a uh survey as to you know where those neighborhoods would be to kind of target because they have a really good point, right?

Uh however, it's just the cost of this time.

Oh, good point.

And I I lean on our um staff who usually do a really bang up job by providing us with some really good options uh in those areas that might be vulnerable.

So some things to us to consider, but your point is well taken.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Okay, good.

So just anyway.

Uh hello, Mayor and Council.

My name is Jordan Reichert.

Uh, I'm the West Coast Campaign Director for the Animal Alliance of Canada.

We've been around for about 35 years doing work um with in terms of policy development and wildlife protection across Canada.

And it doesn't matter if it's bears or deer or geese or raccoons or what have you.

We try to help municipalities, provincial governments, federal governments find the best way forward to establish cohabitation.

You know, it's interesting.

I haven't been in this chambers before, uh, so it's great to be here and um you know listen to the really positive discourse on this.

And I want to thank Andrea and uh Melanie for their presentation.

Uh when I look at the map uh up there, I I really see how the genetic tradition of bears um across the CRD and beyond is coming into conflict with the contemporary geography that they must now face.

You can see that there's very limited green belts or ways for them to get to you know vitally important areas, including the ocean inlets and such.

So it's it's a change that they've adapted to, but that continues to be a point of conflict.

And I think Andrea and Melanie really did a good job of um going over the need for comprehensive policy development that recognizes that it's not just uh the municipal level that this needs to be done, it has to be done in partnership with the CRD and the province, and the province does provide a great deal of resources through the BARE awareness program, which hopefully will be adapted.

And of course, if staff do a report, I'm sure they'll do a municipal review or scan to find the diversity of policy and also make recommendations that are the best fit for View Royal.

might be the um you know within the purview of the province um when they do come into various municipalities they are uh sort of uh I guess uh we kind of become a service provider in a sense um to ensure safe passage and um you know that's maybe the best way to think about it because um they're not necessarily you know citizens in that sense but they but they do have um you know citizens here obviously have a concern for them and it's it's in it's important that we discuss these issues and represent them because we know in politics if we don't talk about it it doesn't exist and that's why beyond bears, I just want to kind of bring into the conversation that we comprehensive wildlife policy is often lacking at this level because of what's required for implementation.

But it's not just ensuring bears, you know, that there's bear proof containers.

Um, there's education around feeding wildlife.

Um, you know, dogs are kept on leash, cats are kept indoors, um, that we're ensuring that people, you know, ensuring that development doesn't encroach on boundaries.

Um, but that also means ensuring that we have strong wildlife education and policy uh when it comes to uh deer, uh to raccoons, to geese, and all other wildlife, because it shouldn't just be, oh, this came up as an issue and now we're going to respond to it.

It should be a proactive thing because that's gonna save losing lives in the future, it's gonna save um conflict that you know often continues to arise in municipalities, and everybody benefits from having a more comprehensive strategy than just a putting out fire strategy.

And I do entirely respect the neighbors' uh comments around the cost of this, and um definitely looking for those key areas is essential to target, but we have to remember that we don't ask this question of cost generally too much when it is a human life being lost to a traffic incident or something else that we can change through policy decisions.

And so I do think that we need to recognize wildlife as being and biodiversity as being vitally important to our communities and ensure that the appropriate uh resources are there to have a comprehensive strategy.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your comments.

And and before any bylaw uh is passed by council, it goes through numerous readings where there's uh public participation um encouraged uh during those opportunities.

So um so we'll wait for that from staff.

But thank you for your comments, sir.

Uh anybody else in the room with a comment for council?

Seeing none, uh Carl, I'll go to you on the phone.

Is there anybody on the phone that uh has a comment or for counsel?

Near Tobias, we have a caller, last four digits five five seven seven.

Thank you, Carl.

Um caller uh with the digits five five seven seven.

Could you uh unmute and uh address counsel, starting with your name and address, please?

Caller with last digits of five five seven seven.

Can you unmute and address council, please?

Carl, are they still there or do you know?

Mayor Tobias, they're still there, but uh perhaps they want to speak on one of the later issues in the meeting, or maybe they're away from their phone.

Okay, thanks.

We'll move on.

We've got a lot on the agenda.

Um so the next item that uh comes up for us is the CRD Transportation Governance Workbook, I believe.

And I think Ivan Served.

Thank you, Mayor Tobias.

I've been Leong, Director of Engineering.

Um, just kind of piggybacking on the CRD's presentation on transportation governments.

Um we have about four or five slides here is basically a supplemental to the C or D's presentation, almost a primer is basically to provide yourselves with info that could be used to respond to these questionnaires based on um view royal policy initiatives uh and and other documents.

So as mentioned by uh by Ms.

Sinclair at the CRD, there are generally three sets of questions that uh that needs executive attention from council.

Uh trade-offs from local versus regional, um questions about regional governance structure, what it could look like, and what opportunities and challenges there may be with transportation governance.

In essence, when it comes to the Bureau context, uh the questions that staff would like to ask of ourselves is which focus would have the greatest impact on improving V-Royal?

Uh, should a new governance structure should it strike a balance or place more emphasis on improving regional priorities, and ultimately what matters most to the town of V Royal.

So I have here is is generally um a select set of documents that uh council can use to inform themselves uh when they want to answer the questionnaire.

It may not be an exhaustive amount of documents, but it is these are probably documents that have the most significance.

Um you'll notice here that there's the active transition network plan that was recently um adopted by council.

There's the uh baseline conditions report, which provides uh further details on the network plan.

Uh strategic plan has some high level documentation with respect to uh transportation in the region, uh BC Transit uh advocate advocacy, uh etc.

Um, the financial plan will uh explains what uh staff have uh planned for the next five years.

Uh and then there's also other uh documents such as the uh BC Transit, um uh the uh Esquimalt View Royal uh Plan, and as well as a myriad of ministry projects that are happening within the previous VRO.

I have here slightly grayed out the Transportation Master Plan Technical Update because that was adopted quite a few years ago.

However, there are some items specifically with vehicular traffic that is still relevant.

So staff will still encourage you to take a look at that document.

So this slide here is just an outline of how staff have provided input to each question based on the documents that we have in hand.

So to give you an example, uh, for question 1A with respect to prioritizing investments in local versus regional, what we have here is uh a reference of three different documents, and then um in the in the right-hand column we have uh the the viewer context.

So um again this is not an exhaustive list, it probably points out the uh the most significant points.

Uh, and hopefully this uh helps you um kind of uh answer the questions with uh with a view royal context.

So the recommendation of the report uh is that each member of council complete this questionnaire and return to staff for collating and presenting at the committee of the whole meeting expected next week.

Um it takes a bit of time for staff to collate.

So, so generally speaking, we try to finalize the reports around Thursday, but that's a couple days from now.

And given commentary about trying to get the answers in a timely fashion, it may take a bit of time.

I will try to work with Kim to see what we could do to provide you with a little more time.

But that said, we do hope that the documentation that's uh is identified in that staff report helps with your uh responses.

And then at the community of the whole meeting, the plan is to collate all of the answers and let's try to um let's try to work through having a unified answer.

Happy to take questions now, also happy to take questions later.

Uh, we'll try to send this questionnaire out to council in a in a good format.

I think we've done similar formats for active transportation commentary.

You might go around the lines of that.

But uh in the meantime, uh, what questions may you have?

Thank you.

Uh Ivan, I I think uh it's not so much a question, but a concern with governance.

So all of the committees in CRD report ultimately, like our council of the whole to the board of directors.

My concern, and usually there's two types of vote: there's weighted and non-weighted, right?

And weighted is by population.

So if this goes to a governance, there may be things that aren't in the best interest of View Royal, such as turning Old Island Highway truly into a highway that may not be in our best interest, that through CRD governance, it would be a done deal.

So my concern with the governance, I'm I'm for most of it, but with the decision making power that the West Shore has, and in View Royal, we have a weight of three.

vote uh we lose hands down.

Um many of the times though Victoria and Esquimalt and View Royal and the West Shore all vote kind of together.

And the Saaniches for whatever reason vote uh perhaps a little bit differently depending on their perspective.

So my issue isn't uh necessarily about the steps of the governance.

It's in the end, which I agree with a lot of it, will we be able to maintain some of the things that we like to maintain in View Royal?

And the answer is that that may be challenged.

So what we're concrete looking for to you Thursday preferably by close of business day counselors will have their surveys completed and into Ivan directly?

Uh Mary Tobias, that is correctly.

I'm thinking that we might be able to do something through like a Teams format that was done before.

Yeah.

That might be easier.

At the end of the day, I we understand the time crunch, so staff will do everything they can to make it as um comfortable it is for council.

So there's there's only seven questions in one long format, right?

Seven kind of binary questions, and then the the seventh is a long form comment.

Yeah, okay.

I'm not too sure if they have a character limit for that uh last question.

Counselor Rogers will not be allowed to go first.

Um so uh okay, so we can do that.

If if uh is anybody not being able to maybe fulfill seven questions by Thursday close of business.

He's already got it, yeah.

Any other comments for Ivan.

Not uh okay.

Uh then thank you, Ivan.

Thank you very much.

Actually, I have uh I have a question.

Councilor Matson, go ahead.

Um Yeah.

I I obviously I noted the question area here there.

Question how do we uh actually get this to Ivan?

Like, do we fill it in online and send it to him?

An easy way, he easier way he can get us something to fill in and get to him.

Yeah, I think Ivan's got a master plan of maybe getting it on Teams through a survey there.

Uh but he'll he'll you you should expect correspondence in your email account on on the how to's.

Yeah, I think Mayor Tobias, I'm thinking that if I had seven different copies and then each one is has a respective council's name on it then they just each recessive council just fills that out just lets me know.

Um just don't I have to think about making sure you you don't overwrite other people's so we gotta figure out permissions that way but uh uh I will spend the night tonight thinking about it and I'll have it to you as soon as I can thank you thank you Ivan Councilor Rogers.

Yeah, point of clarification then.

Um for so we but we can't hand it in in a in a paper format.

We'll all need to do it electronically.

Is that is that the best way for you to tabulate?

Don't dear.

Are we solutioning for staff at this point?

Let me come up with the solution for us and we'll we'll get her done.

Um if everybody's okay with that.

Um then let's let's do that.

Uh Ivan, anything else?

Mayor Tobias, that is it.

Thank you for your time.

Cheers.

Counselor Brown.

Yeah, I faithfully read my agenda and saw the item on there, and and Councilor Rogers reminded me today, so I sat down for about an hour, a little bit over an hour, and filled it out by hand.

So I prefer to do it that way.

I'll be remoting in for the September 12th meeting.

That's another reason for me to want to do it early.

Thank you, Councillor Brown, for being diligent in getting in early and making us all look bad.

Um so I think uh our next item is the development and variance permit for 1517 and 1519 Admirals.

What sorry you're right we we actually suggested that we're gonna go and do Atkins roundabout first before that I believe.

Uh Sarah correct me if I'm wrong.

Uh we would be now doing development variance permit uh for 1517 and 1519 Admirals.

Okay.

I th I thought we made a change to the agenda to pull uh Atkins up it was to move item C ahead.

Oh, that's right.

My my my C is paper though, so perhaps yours is different.

I had C as the transportation governance and then I had A as the development.

So we're alre at development variance permit and uh staff.

Are you going to speak to that?

Good evening, Mayor and Council, community planner, Sterling Square presenting this file.

Fairly brief presentation.

So purpose of the presentation is to introduce a development variance permit application to reduce the minimum required parking on site.

side when we're looking at parking for a site like this we have multiple different uses in uh in the building on the left hand side which is where the uh uh where where this application has uh arose uh so uh business license came in uh for a business like uh for a uh a new restaurant and uh in staff's review uh we flagged that uh a variance for parking would be required.

Um the variance is a bit confusing on the right hand side or the left hand side to reduce uh parking from 290 spaces to 247 this is going back to the previous development permit for the site that was approved in November of last year, that said there was 283 spaces that needed to be varied down to 247.

Uh the reason it's 290 uh 290 spaces right now is that there are five spaces that are required for the uh new restaurant, and then there's uh two additional spaces that had to be accounted for as part of the Canadian tire uh use.

So, as I said, when we're doing uh reviews internally for business licenses, uh building permits, um, staff are required to look at parking because of the change in use uh that was flagged uh from restaurant or retail to restaurant.

Uh staff flagged that the uh parking had to be uh increased by five spaces.

Given that there's no space to do that on the property, uh the applicants asking to uh uh for a variance.

Um in terms of uh discussion in terms of how this can be uh supported.

Staff believe this can be supported because uh history to date, there's been no application uh or no complaints uh for this use or any similar uh uses on the property with regards to parking complaints.

Uh the businesses permit uh permitted on the site, and uh in addition to that, the uh Canadian Tire, when they were doing the development permit last year, they had made a uh submission for a parking study.

And that study uh went into quite a bit of detail in terms of the future use for the site, and uh just in summaries, staff don't see any concern with uh further varying the parking uh by an additional uh seven spaces from uh what was already uh permitted uh last year for this site.

So staff have uh a single recommendation, and that is as follows.

Uh so count that council authorized the issuance of a development variance permit 2023 08 for 1517 at Rules Road, including the following variants to section 5.10 of zoning bylaw number 900 2014, which is to reduce the number of required number, which is to reduce the number minimum required number of parking spaces from 290 spaces to 247.

And that concludes my presentation, but happy to uh take some questions.

Uh just uh clarify, so with this amendment or allowance, then the restaurant can go ahead and and open for business.

Am I saying that correct?

To the mayor, correct.

That is uh very good uh summary.

So should council approve the variance tonight, uh staff uh would proceed with the review of the business license and building permit.

Uh the reason that those are currently uh stalled is because there has been a variance that's been flagged.

Uh so should council approve this, the uh business license and building permit would go forward with uh uh review and says coming approval by by staff.

Okay, thank you.

And one of the things that was impact and and I guess hindsight when council moved to approve the reduction of uh parking spaces for Canadian tire.

I didn't even think about the effect of that little other strip mall that is obviously affected because that's why we're we're here and talking about this now, right?

So um the things that you don't know when you make a decision I guess but that being said um so this this does have a significant business impact and that there has been an investment in to create a restaurant which in my understanding in previous iterations had been a restaurant before or different changes in that business structure had had had provided restaurant, but that wasn't the issue because the parking spaces were there because we hadn't reduced them at that point.

Um so thanks for that clarification, Steph.

Council lemon, you had a comment or question?

I I think you answered it, Mayor Tobias.

And then I I was wondering if the restaurant was part of the Canadian Tire, but no, it's over there in the dairy, Dairy Queen quadrant, correct?

Through the mayor.

The uh yeah, the the restaurant that's being uh proposed is next to Dairy Queen.

Uh there are, I believe, four businesses in that strip.

They've changed over the years.

Um that was actually if memory serves correct, that was the first building on that site.

Um the site is operated as as one in terms of uh uh ownership and in terms of parking, so it does does pose challenges for changes in use.

Um, but there has been uh I I believe uh 10 years or so of uh uh restaurant use in that that space uh counselor quellit on staff's recommendation uh we've got a movement is there are we ready to vote on it uh now is there other comments I have a question about some yes would we be receiving uh a parking or a parking space fee for each of the new five that were given uh that that we're not requiring uh as well as the other 40 or so were you talking about Canadian tires uh proposal that was previous this is just an allowance for I know but we've reduced a few parking spots I mean we sort of increased it because we found that they were short and um we normally when someone we give somebody a break on parking they also have to sort of pay that fee for each parking spot that they removed.

So I just wondered where we were with the payments for the parking spots in this.

I I think we we were the ones that reduced them in Canadian tire when we approved that the reduced them overall.

So what we're doing is just leveling the playing field right now, Counselor.

I think this isn't this isn't a real reduction in parking spots.

It is for this, but the reason why it exists is that we approved to reduce the the parking in Canadian tire uh with the last one without considering the effect of uh it on any of the other um uh businesses in that side of the strip model.

Uh well okay.

Normally when we reduce the parking spots required, there's also a payment by the applicant for the for the each spot that's removed.

I just wonder if we're getting uh I'm just gonna refer this to staff for a second.

Uh to the mayor.

Uh I think what uh councillor Matson has referring to is the cash and loop payment which was received as part of development permit uh 2022-05.

That is a as-of-right uh regulation in the zoning bylaw so Canadian tire did that of their own choosing uh they paid uh I believe twelve thousand dollars per parking stall that is a clause in the bylaw that uh applicants can choose to to use to the best of my knowledge I don't know of when the town has asked for payment for a a variance um I I don't uh yeah, I don't I don't have any further comments, but I just wanted to provide that commentary on that point.

Thank you, staff.

Uh councillor Mattson, that answer your question.