Transcript - Archery Range Proposal Presented - Council Meeting - Wednesday, March 11, 2026 - 9:30 a.m.

Archery Range Proposal Presented - Council Meeting - Wednesday, March 11, 2026 - 9:30 a.m. - City of Richmond Hill

Good morning everybody and welcome to the council meeting for Wednesday, March the 11th at 9:30. Uh I'd like to call this meeting to order. We are gathering on lands that have been home to First Nation people from time in memorial. We acknowledge that what we now call Richmond Hill is on the treaty lands and territory of the Missagas of the Credit First Nation and the Missaga and Chipua nations of the Williams Treaty. We also recognize that we are on part of the traditional territories of the Hodnoni and the Hiron Wendad. We'd like to acknowledge all First Nation, Inuit, and Matei people from across Turtle Island who now reside in the city of Richmond Hill. We are committed to rebuilding constructive and cooperative relationships. So, with that being said, if you can, I'd like you to stand now for our national anthem. Please. Hallelujah. Heat. Heat. Okay, thank you very much. Um so at at this time we have one public forum uh delegation Uni Young um who will be talking about uh the ET seat and Archery uh Toronto. Uh and so uh Uni come on up to the podium. Uh you're not a stranger to this council, but um just to remind you, you've got five minutes to uh address council. Thanks very much. All right. Uh good morning, Mayor West and members of the Richmond Hill City Council and city staff. My name is Yuni Young and I come before you as a resident of Ward 3 to commend this council's commitment to parks, recreation, and culture. The establishment of Bayiew Hill Park demonstrates something important. When infrastructure is done properly, it changes more than land. It changes atmosphere behavior. It changes the spirit of a neighborhood. Modern recreational infrastructure addresses one of the defining needs of growing cities, the need for public third spaces. Spaces outside home, outside work, where community life unfolds. Richmond Hill embraced a destinationoriented purpose-driven approach to parks planning. Our parks are not only passive green parcels, but intentional civic environments. I recognize that the council is currently weighing important questions regarding long-term infrastructure spending. And as Richmond Hill grows, every investment must demonstrate value and sustainability. Projects that strengthen community life while uh remaining modest in cost have become especially important. It is in that same spirits of intentional design that I bring forward this proposal. At present, Canada only has one fully public open access outdoor archery range at scale, the etc archery range in Toronto. Another public range has once operated in Burnaby, BC, but has since transitioned towards semi-private access. I stand here as a member of the etc ton archery folk of Toronto and a member of the Toronto Asiatic Archery group that uses those premises. I have seen what the space creates. Youth and seniors, pets and families, newcomers and different cultures, different backgrounds and one shared discipline, opening dozens of deep conversations in intercultural exchange. But the Seton range is vulnerable. It sits in a floodprone valley floor with minimal permanent amenities. Recent construction associated with the Ontario line has introduced major structural elements onto the site directly. While the certain uncertain future of neighboring Ontario's sign center places the broader lands under provincial developmental pressure. Whether closure ultimately occurs there or not, Canada's only fully public outdoor range lacks long-term structural security. And that's not criticism. That's just reality. And it presents Richmond Hill with an opportunity not to react but to lead. We could become the second municipality in all of Canada to establish a fully public open air archery range and the first to design it intentionally as a modern resilient civic asset embodied in park planning from the outset. An outdoor archery range is a comparatively modest investment. It does not require stadium lighting. In fact, none at all. The primary infrastructure consists of engineered back stops, lane demarcation, safety fencing, and signage. Amenities include tables and seating, perhaps a pavilion, features that are already common in any city park. In other words, a facility that delivers meaningful recreation, potentially attracting archers across the GTA and even all the way to Peter Bro without imposing a heavy capital burden. A purpose-built range here would not only inherit the vulnerabilities of older facilities, but it could also be cited outside of flood planes, integrated into park circulation, and supported by appropriate amenities, designed from the outset for longevity. This is not a request for extravagance. It is a request for exploration, a feasibility study or site evaluation, a community consultation and alignment with safety standards. If public archery infrastructure in Canada has proven fragile, this is a moment for foresight. If council believes that this idea warrants further consideration, I would respectfully ask that this matter be referred to city staff for a preliminary physibility review within Richmond Hills parks planning process. So let us plan deliberately and let us build effectively and let us lead intentionally. Thank you. Thank you very much Uni. Okay. Um bringing us back to council. The next item is council announcements. Anybody for council announcements. Uh councelor Silvitz and then councelor tree. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Uh good morning everybody and welcome to council chambers just before our March break and everybody watching online. Um I just have one announcement. Um the W five civic engagement committee uh will be having its uh first meeting of this year and um that takes place on Thursday, March the 26 at 7 p.m. It's a virtual meeting and at this particular meeting we're going to be led by city staff and we're going to be discussing urban forestry programs and services to the city of Richmond Hill. And I look forward uh to to that uh to that evening. If you wish to register, please do so either via my website or my social media uh pages and um you need to register in order to get the zoom link and I hope to see many of you there. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much uh councelor tree. Okay, thank you so much u so last week we host our seventh uh music concert charity event for supporting the kids hospital uh from Jefferson Community Association. So we have around more than 30 young kids join this concert as Euro. Thank you so much for mayor David Wise also deputy mayor Godwin also MP MP from uh federal government join support this event. So the fundraising event was uh reserve more than $600 deducting all the cost we have around five grand and all sent to six hospital support them. Thank you so much for all donors and also the uh sponsors to support the human. Thank you. Okay. Uh regional local council deputy mayor Chan. U thank you uh Mr. Mayor and uh believe it or not March break is coming. Um, so, um, I heard that maybe snow coming on Friday, but, uh, people might have noticed, uh, believe it or not, in addition to the, um, outdoor, uh, skating rink to the extended weather permit, uh, actually uh, there are a number of places, including, uh, I'm sure our local counselor, uh, in W three, like the Bayiew Hill skating one, which is, I believe, the newest one on Spadina Road, open every day from 10:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. and it's free also indoors. uh for families looking to stay in the city and have something fun before winter really really goes away is at Xafi Arena on uh uh Monday, March 16th uh 4:35 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. an hour and another hour and afterwards from 5:45 to 6:45 p.m. And um on Tuesday in the Richmond Green area, Tom Graham area Arena, 2:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. and it's other hour from 3:45 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. And um and my understanding is that I got a note to share maybe hopefully it's not too early. Um York Region is going to implement a Uturn restriction signs at uh on Milbour Lane at Bington Road uh in our city uh in the coming weeks. So it's just advanced notice. I'm going share that with what one later uh as well because what one council is just looking at me. Um so here that's all the uh things I want to share at this point in time. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh anybody else? Okay. Seeing none. Um I I just there's a bunch of things that have been going on, but the one thing I'd like to just talk about today is uh I want to thank the David Suzuki Foundation for a couple of things. Um we had the David Suzuki and his uh wife Dr. Tara Cullis uh come to our Richmond Hill Center for the Performing Arts for a a show. They had a uh a play that they put on called What You Wouldn't Do for Love. It was excellent. Uh really different. um and um wasn't sure really what to expect, but it was it was very well done and yet another great show that uh we get to see at the Richmond Hill Center for the Performing Arts. Um I had the pleasure of meeting him uh during that time and and I was um I have to be honest, I was a little bit starruck. He's uh somebody that I've looked up to for a good part of my life and and he's certainly been a a prominent figure in in Canadian environmentalism over a very very very long time. He's actually turning 90 uh this year. Um but uh the thing that was really the highlight for me of that um that weekend was having him and the David Suzuki Foundation and his wife Dr. Kullis uh show up at the Bay View Hill Community Center for an invitationonly um event that they had with uh they invited all kinds of the the um environmental groups, environmentally minded people just for a round table to talk about uh resilience in cities in in and they you know they chose Richmond Hill because of uh you know our track record uh for what we've been doing in the past and it was a really great honor. I was very very proud to see so many uh great environmental minds in the room at the same time you know all pulling on the same rope in the same direction and uh so I just want to give a shout out to Dr. Suzuki and his um his foundation for that work and he is carrying on uh his uh cross country tour um with his show in other locations um throughout Ontario and the rest of the country as well. So congratulations to him and again thank you very much for choosing Richmond Hill uh to have that uh honor bestowed upon us. So uh that being said I'm looking for introduction of emergency and timesensitive matters. No others. Okay. Uh adoption of agenda. I need a motion to adopt the agenda. Uh councelor Shu councelor tree. All those in favor opposed that carries. Thank you. Disclosures of pecuning interest in the general nature thereof. Okay, seeing none, uh, adoption of previous council minutes, uh, council meeting February 25th, 2026. They're riveting minutes if you really want to read them. Excellent. I love the font. Okay, I need a motion for that. Councelor Silivitz, Councelor uh, Tree. All those in favor? Opposed? That carries. And, and by the way, that's not a reflection on the author of the minutes. It's a reflection on what was said during the meeting, of course. Right. Okay. Um items uh requiring separate discussion. So we have a an agenda before us. Um we could actually uh adopt everything on consent if that's the wish of council. Anything to be pulled? No. Councelor uh Leu, you want to move that? Okay. I need a seconder. All those in favor? Opposed? That carries. Thank you very much. Uh councelor Silvitz. Yeah. So, we've just adopted everything on consent, right? It I think that's what I can sense that councilor Leu wanted to do the bylaws, too. Yeah. Okay. All right. Um All right. So, we have a the only other item before us then is an in camera item. So, I I need a I think it's probably a good idea that we go in and have a discussion about that. So, I need a motion to go in camera. Uh, councelor Selitz, councelor Tree, all those in favor opposed that carries. Thank you very much. Uh, so we will be going in camera. Uh, Mr. Clerk, do you want to just explain the reason behind that? Uh, happy to do so. Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, council has resolved to move into close session to consider matters relating to labor relations or employee negotiations with respect to the council staffing and access policy. And this is pursuant to section 2392D of the Municipal Act 2001.

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