Council Meeting

Okay, thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

We'll call the meeting to order.

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

This meeting is being held under the auspices of Ministerial Order M192 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This evening, the public will be able to participate during public participation and question period portions of the agenda.

The number that you dial in is on your screen, 778-402-9227, and then you enter conference ID 945-892-652 Pound.

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

And at that point, you'll have be able to give us the benefit of your views.

And the chat feature is also open during public participation and question period.

And again, if you could provide your name and address in that, please.

This meeting will be recorded by participating in this webcast.

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

And can I get a motion to approve the agenda, please?

I have a okay, Councillor Mattson.

A lead item.

Actually, uh pre-meeting uh with committee chairs and appropriate staff is the item.

Okay.

How about bringing that to committee of the whole next week?

Do you think we could, but I just want to have it for discussion if we want to do it first.

Okay, so under new business, um councillor Mattson would like to add how did you word it?

Uh pre-meeting with committee chair and appropriate staff.

Okay.

So under new business pre-meeting with committee chair.

Okay.

Okay, so can I get a motion to approve the agenda as amended.

Similar.

Okay.

Seconder.

Sure.

Seconded by Councillor Lemon.

I was watching this.

Oh, I had my hand up.

All in favor, opposed, that's carried.

And then we've got minutes of February 16th.

Move adoption.

Thank you.

Seconded by Councillor Levin.

Is there any comments, corrections?

All in favor?

Opposed?

That's carried.

I don't have any mayor's report.

There's no petitions and delegations.

So we are now at public participation.

If there's any members of the public who would like to speak to us, we we did get there very quickly, so we'll give you a brief period of time to call in.

It's 778 402 9227.

So we'll just pause for 30 seconds and let you call in.

Is there any way staff can tell if there's anyone even hooked up?

Yeah, there's usually people watching, and staff can tell that.

Yeah.

But not that doesn't necessarily mean they've called in, right?

No.

Yeah.

I just wonder if staff can let us know if there are people watching out of curiosity.

Can you tell right now if there's anyone watching, sir?

Uh yes, your worship.

Uh the producers are telling us there are two attendees.

Okay, thank you.

Oh, there's one of them who just showed up in person.

Are there any callers on the line, Steph?

Your worship at this time there are not.

Thank you, Mayor Screech.

Okay, thank you.

And is there anyone on the chat feature?

There are no chat comments this evening.

Okay, thank you.

So we will close public participation.

We'll go right down to the staff report 8.1A, which is 17 Eaton Avenue.

Given what staff said today, move staff recommendation.

Okay.

So Counselor Matson's moved staff's recommendation and Councillor Rogers seconded it.

Any discussion, comments?

I'm here just things are progressing and we'll be done before too long.

Yeah, sounds like it.

I agree.

Okay.

All in favor?

Opposed.

That's carried.

And then next we have a couple of blues, which are just the approval of the grants.

So we have first off the UBC of Emergency Operations Center grant application approval.

Move approval.

Staff's recommendation.

Okay.

Thank you.

Moved by Councillor Rogers.

Seconded by Councillor Lemon.

Okay, everyone's good.

All in favor?

Opposed, that's carried.

And then we have the emergency social services grant application approval.

Move staff.

Okay, it's moved by councillor Mattson.

Seconded by I have a question.

Councillor Lemon.

Okay.

Counselor Lemmon.

Um the two municipalities that are referred to in the second grant, Chief.

Who's the other the other municipality is okay?

Good.

Thank you.

Everybody's good.

All in favor?

Opposed?

That's carried.

We just have one recommendation from Committee of the Whole.

Move recommendation.

Thank you.

Who wants to second that one?

I guess I'll second it.

Well, someone has to.

I'll second it.

So it's moved by Councillor Rogers.

Seconded by Councillor Lemon.

Everybody good?

Comments?

Sure.

Just for the two people out there, uh there's a 4.5% tax increase from 2021.

And two percent of that covers losses of income for the town based on the province owning or purchasing property in the town, and they don't have to pay taxes, which is equivalent to about $200,000 a year.

Yeah.

I expect that'll be the news in the report when we'll certainly make that clear through the the note that goes out with the taxes, and I'm gonna speak about it in the newsletter as well, which is coming out.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

Yeah.

So okay, call a question.

All in favor, opposed.

That's carried.

And then we have minutes from West Shore Parks and Rec of January 21st.

Move receipts okay.

Okay, second.

Comments, questions, congratulations on being vice chair.

Yes.

Thank you.

And it I don't know if um vice chair has any comments to make.

Well, we're certainly uh look at looking at reopening some of the facilities.

The pool's open again, and there's swimming lessons and some family swims, leisure lanes.

Uh we are reinstituting some of the community programs for those uh in need to uh to get activities for their children.

Uh so slowly offering more programs and uh uh actively filming um I believe Netflix is there again, and so we're receiving some revenue from that.

Um so some good things happening.

Okay, good stuff.

Well done.

Volleyball, yeah.

Even volleyball.

Well, there's an outdoor volleyball uh yes down below.

Yeah, great.

Okay, I'm gonna call the question on receipt.

All in favor, opposed, that's carried.

And then we have 9.1a, which is the 80 Chilco Ridge Place tree, um, where the lady is objecting to fulfilling the requirements of our bylaw, which is the two to one replacement.

So I just wondering why did that come down.

I think she wrote, I think if I look, is she writing?

Yeah, she is writing directly to council.

Just acknowledging that she's completed that or no, I think I think staff, I think she's objecting to the requirement to replace for on behalf of her mother, it's not the property owner, but her mother is the property owner, and this is the daughter from Langley, and she's complaining to us about the requirement to replace the trees.

And I and I suspect staff told her that only we could waive that.

Okay.

Is that is but is that fair, Director Rosenberg?

That's correct, your worship.

Uh she did actually appeal to me first, and I denied that appeal uh from the requirement from the original letter.

And through that appeal, she asked for her options.

I said the only other one was to go to council and ask them to very bile.

And John, do we use we we generally do require it for dead trees and people do replant them?

That's correct.

It's uh dead tree.

Even if you have a dead tree and then the wind blows it over, you've got to apply for a permit to remove the rest of the tree, and then when you remove the rest of the tree, uh we uh require you to put a two for one replacement in.

Okay, counselor Rogers.

Uh Director Rosenberg, do you have uh you advised the um uh Mrs.

Ms.

Kennedy that uh she has the option to um contribute to the tree planting program elsewhere in View Royal?

I believe she does uh she's aware of that option as well, yes.

I'd have to go back and review the notes but I I we generally make that a a part of the conversation as well so then it's a dollar value of 150 per tree yeah so it is possible that she could plant four trees there and and make a donation for four more that's correct yeah yeah that would be something I would accept counselor matts and just following up with uh director rosenberg you said that we remove the tree does the town actually remove dead trees or is that responsibility of the homeowner?

Oh, they remove the trees.

We just uh it's our requirement for what they have to do.

All right you you just Andrew, you just said we removed and I was curious.

Oh, okay.

Sorry.

Okay, no problem.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, Councillor Rogers.

Sorry, uh Director Rosenberg.

So what happens if uh the individual um decides to convert one of those dead trees into um uh what's the what's the word?

You know, a living tree for wildlife?

Habitat tree?

Yeah, habitat tree, thank you.

Uh what would be that?

Uh uh the the is it still gonna be a four to one if they convert one of them into a wildlife tree?

It's still two to one, yes.

Uh that's just to prevent them from having to grind out the stump or anything like that.

So it's still considered uh uh a removal.

It's just um it saves them some money sometimes because one that the tree doesn't go all the way down to the stump and they don't have to grind out the stump and the rest of the ancillary work that sometimes uh occurs with uh re removal.

Mm-hmm.

Thank you.

Move receiving.

So we need a motion of some sort on the floor.

Oh um do you have a question?

Um no, I don't.

I just said a comment, and I and I think that our policy um speaks to our commitment to an a um urban tree canopy.

And uh I I you know that I'd I would I would have known that we if if staff had recommended um that we um have her plant four trees.

Well that's what's gonna happen by moving receipt.

Is that a long-winded secondary?

We're moving receipt.

We're not we're not moving that um okay we do anything.

I'm happy with staff's position.

Okay.

So it's moved by councillor rogers, seconded by counselor lemon.

Right.

Okay.

So I I have a comment too.

I I do agree in this case.

I'm I'm not sure in general that I agree if a tree has died of natural causes on I mean maybe 'cause I know you're planning on re-looking at the tree bylaw at some point, and it it does seem a little onerous to get out to get someone to get a permit to remove a dead tree.

Um, but that's that's just commentary on my part.

So maybe when we look at the tree bylaw, we can look at it.

John?

Your worship uh uh staff's concern with that is a lot of trees we remove are uh say uh in decline and they require a two for one permit uh replacement.

If it then is free to wait till they're dead, I think we'd have some safety and liability issues that would uh magnify because people who have declining trees will wait till they're absolutely dead, and now we've got all these trees that potentially could be wind blown down as people wait for them to become completely dead.

So it would be staff's recommendation to think long and hard about changing that recommendation or the consequences of it.

Because I I do believe it would entice people to say, Well, let's wait till they become almost dangerous so that we don't have to pay for the replacements.

Maybe there's some happy or comfortable medium ground or some.

Yeah, good point.

Yeah.

It will be part of the discussion now when staff brings a bylaw back for consideration.

Okay.

Okay, so all in favor?

Opposed.

That's carried.

And under new business, we have something that counselor Mattson wish to discuss.

Sure.

And uh you know, I'm happy for people to think about this, but uh back in the olden days, we if you were a chair of a committee, you'd get a contact, you talk had the opportunity to talk to staff in advance of the meeting, find out what's going to be on the agenda.

And if you felt there was missing something in the agenda, you could ask staff to put it on.

Uh and you would get an idea of, you know the rationale from staff in terms of the item before you see it sort of on the Friday before the Tuesday.

And I used to quite appreciate, you know, just chatting with staff to talk about what's going on and and anyways, I felt more involved in the committees because I mean one of my concerns about some of the committees being a chair of the committee had doesn't really mean too much, except you you sit up here and you talk for the you know 10 or 15 minutes or that this item is on, rather than actually being a part, sort of working with staff on in that particular area.

Like so, like so.

My question is, do we want to actually have discussions with staff in advance of meetings?

So that uh as a as the chair of that committee you're better informed, and if you think something's missing to work with staff to get it put on either that next agenda or at a future agenda item.

Okay, I I mean I I personally think if you've got you know, like say under planning and development, that if you've got things on the agenda, I don't think it's a bad idea for the chair to have a discussion with staff the Friday before.

I mean, we certainly do it at CRD, for example, just to get a reality check from staff or any problems that there may be, or you know, etc.

etc.

Um, so I can't Kim Do you or Sarah?

Do you have any thoughts on that, or do you want to take it under advisement and report back that committee of the whole?

I think we should report back to council.

Okay.

So maybe a committee of the whole, we could just have an informal discussion about it.

Okay.

Okay.

And so with that, we come to question period.

Um is there any callers on the line at all, staff?

Your worship, we do not at this time.

Okay, thank you.

And no one on the chat feature.

Thank you, Mayor Screech.

We do not have any questions this evening.

Okay, thank you, Steph.

So we need um director Jones a closed meeting resolution.

There's a need to have a meeting closed to the public, and persons other than the immediate members of council, officers, employees of the town, and those identified under section 91, subsection two of the community charter shall be excluded on the basis of section 90, subsection 1a, appointment and G litigation.

Thank you.

Mover?

So move.

Moved by Councillor Rogers.

Seconded by Councillor Lemon.

All in favor, opposed, that's carried.

Thank you, everyone.

Quite a production crew for a 17-minute council meeting.

Is that a record?

I don't think it's a record, but it's it's pretty close.