Transcript - Agretton Plan Advances, Parking Rejected - Town of Milton Council Meeting

Agretton Plan Advances, Parking Rejected - Town of Milton Council Meeting - 03, 16, 2026

members of uh council, ladies and gentlemen, the uh clerk informs me that it is now 7:00. So, I will officially call this meeting to order of March the 16th, 2026. Uh, and I would ask you please to stand and join with me in a moment of silent reflection, our national anthem, and I will read the traditional land acknowledgement. our home and native land. True patriot love in all of us. Come. hearts the true and free from Canada we stand on are for thee of land and free. Oh can the we stand on guard for we stand on guard just uh before I read the uh land acknowledgement. Uh the technology is great when it's uh working perfectly. But uh someone out there in the audience has got a tremendous voice. Whoever that was, thank you very much for leading us in that nice. We acknowledge that the land we gather on is part of the treaty lands and territory of the Missagas of the Credit First Nation. We recognize the traditional territory of the Hiron Wendat and the Hodn Shaune people. We also acknowledge the first nation Matei and Inua people who live on these lands today. We commit to working towards reconciliation. Thank you. Madame uh clerk, any agenda announcements and/or amendments? Uh yes, a few announcements for this evening. All written submissions that have been received have been circulated to council in advance of this evening's meeting. Later on in today's agenda, we have five statutory public meetings. The first is a special council meeting held under the planning act regarding the agretton secondary plan. The second is a public meeting held under the planning act which is also regarding the agretton secondary plan. The third public meeting held under the planning act is regarding temporary use bylaw application by sea son applicable to lands located at 9230 G line. The fourth public meeting is regarding a zoning bylaw amendment application applicable to lands known as 70726 line. And the final public meeting is regarding applications for the Milton Education Village, the Konosoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Madame Brightpoint Homes, and Madame Brownidge Homes. During the course of the live meeting, members of the public in attendance will have the opportunity to speak to these applications either in person or remotely. Members who wish to connect remotely can connect by dialing a dedicated phone line 1866 5110021. And these instructions will be provided later on in the agenda when we'll be holding the public meetings and information about how to connect will be scrolling across the live stream video. Lastly, we received a delegation request from Marshall Borner regarding agenda item 8.1. Town of Milton community risk assessment and 2026 fire master plan. This has been received since the council meeting agenda was published. Council will need to first pass procedural motion to wave rules in order to add this delegation to section six of the agenda. we have this procedural motion ready for for the chair to be dealt with at the appropriate time. Thank you very much. Uh madame clerk. Uh as our policies and uh procedures uh move forward, councelor Jazz will be in the chair to uh finish off the balance of this council meeting. But before I turn the chair over to him, is there any disclosure by any member of council this evening on the agenda? Being none, uh, Council Az, if you would assume the chair and, uh, just give us a couple of minutes to, uh, turn things around. Thank you. Thank you, uh, Mayor CR. Uh, my name is Sammy Jazz. I'm the regional counselor in Ward 3 in Milton. Uh, before we move on to the consent agenda, we have a procedural motion to add the delegation of Marshall her to our agenda under item 6.1 this evening. I have a motion moved by councelor Best and seconded by Gorg Mayor CR be resolved that the pertinent rules of procedure bylaw 014-2024 be waved to permit the addition of delegation for item 18 8.1. All in favor? And it's fast. Moving on to consent items. I have a I have a consent item moved by councelor Chaliner, a second by councelor Malibu. consent items 5.1 to 5.7 be approved. I know councelor Ellie has uh and wants to speak on 5.5. So I'll give her the floor and move on to councelor channel right after. Thank you Mr. Chair through you. I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank our staff especially our CFO Glen Cohen for extending this program um which was provided to us through the housing accelerator fund approved by the federal government. I think even the amount of $2,500 um per unit for building permit is a great rebate for our community. And the fact that we're extended extending it from March 31st, 2026, which was going to end this month, we are extending it to December 18, 2027, I think that is going to help the community and housing affordability in Milton. Thank you for that. Thank you, Councelor Ali. Councelor Chiner. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. just wanted to address um 5.7 with uh the treasurer. My assumption is that uh this has already been baked into the 2026 budget in some way, shape or form. And I just wanted to know, you know, do does council a future council have options in terms of delaying or setting aside uh the increase uh that is that is proposed or is it uh something that we uh we must accept as part of uh the DC charge? Thank you, Council Challenger. I'll go on to Glenn Cowan, our CFO. Uh so through the chair the figures are reflected in in the budget document. It's something that we do anticipate each year both in terms of the cost inflation and the revenue changes that would happen. It is within our own bylaw. It's within the council bylaw that we have the automatic indexing provision and there is legislation that allows council to make changes going forward that could reduce a fee without the need for the full background study and public input process. So essentially with the new legislation, whether it's changing the timing of the existing bylaw or any reduction that would freeze or otherwise reduce a development charge, there is essentially an accelerated process should council ever choose to take one of those actions. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Council Galler. Any uh further comments or questions? Mayor Gord. Yeah. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. uh on the same uh item and of course I know there's no decisions uh to be made uh this evening deal this but uh it's one of the issues that this council is definitely going to have to deal with when it comes back here and uh I've had very little conversation of course with the CFO but the uh the CEO and I chat frequently about what this may or may not mean to the town of Milton. So, I guess I'm going to ask uh our CEO just to highlight what we could expect either positively or negatively uh coming forward because there's some tough decisions that have to be made and I as one individual have some real concerns as to what may happen that could negatively impact the present day property taxpayer. Mr. sale. So just quickly um this this issue specifically deals with indexing which is built into the development charge. I think the discussion you're referring to is the later discussion that we have trying to get to a new bylaw at some point. Glenn maybe you can give a timeline on when that discussion might happen uh through through the chair. So with the item that's in front of council later in the agenda tonight, we're looking to change the timing of when we would likely bring the report back to council for consideration. right now was identified for the April meeting. We're suggesting it would come in May 11th or later depending on if there's other uh subsequent information we we gather through the public consultation process, but as of right now, we would expect that May 11th meeting to dive deeper into the future bylaw and uh what the options to council are for that bylaw. Thank you. Any further questions on this item? Seeing none, all in favor? And it's carried. Let's move on delegation part. We have one registered delegation. This delegation is regarding item 8.1. Marshall her town of Milton community risk assessment and 2026 fire master plan. I'd like to uh request Marshall her to step up to the podium. Welcome. Just a reminder, you've got just five minutes for your delegation. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Mr. Man, Mr. Mayor, counselors, and staff. I have read the town master plan, and with the exception of a few minor bureaucratic solutions to a couple of operating points, I found it and its recommendations to be very absolute to the direction we need to continue on. if we expect to meet the challenges of our community as we continue to grow. The program is not cheap. As a matter of fact, if you vote for approval of this master plan, I am assuming you are acknowledging that cost and will be in full support of budgeting time over the next four years to assign the necessary dollars to achieve the stated goals. Whether it is equipment, facilities, or personnel, you understand and support the deliverable values. Over the past couple of years, I've come to realize Toronto is our USA and Metroinks is our Donald Trump. It has been easy to build homes for people to sleep in and ship them people our product to earn value for the businesses of Toronto. Metro Links has provided that conduit, made great promises of providing a two-way all-day traffic corridor and never delivering. They have even taken significant clean industrial tax dollars from our coffers and left us with a vacant land in the heart of our community. As small as it seems, perhaps this master plan can act as the keystone for us to reclaim the significance of our community. This program has a cost factor and we have to pay for it. We have a choice. We can pay for it with residential tax dollars at a dollar of taxes for each $100 of residential assessment or a $1.50. 50 for each $100 of commercial assessment or the prize $2 for each $100 assessment of industrial. There's a bonus. Commercial employment rates are generally $18 to $25 per hour. Industrial rates often run $30 to $60 an hour or higher. The optimum ratio of residential to commercial to industrial assessment is 70% to 15% commercial, 15% industrial. Milton currently runs about 83% residential, 13% commercial, and only 2% industrial. As residents, we are carrying the tax burden of the services we need. Our safety deserves the quality and value offered in this master plan. Young people who are applying to be professional fire personnel in Milton deserve a career and future in our town. They young people should not be paying for their higher education that's required for a por person of today. Then combine this dollars with we as taxpayer are spend are expensing for training to have other fire services pillage them because these well-trained educated professionals see no current future current here. Why not you as council reset goals and look to the potential dollars being talked about with the new federal government's defense spending. Look to new Canadian business growth and ensure we in achieve our fair share. You set the goals and charge the appropriate staff to meet the challenge. a personal involvement. About 32 years ago, we experienced a family medical crisis at our home on Sunnyale Crescent and called 911. About a half a dozen part-time firefighters showed up at our door very early in the morning from station 3 on Dair Road. Last fall, there was a neighborhood occurrence involving a call to another to invoking another call to 911. And as would have it, this call was also answered by station 3, only now located at Salvaline in Derry. The call involved a gas leak, so the tasks at hand did not require the use of equipment, just mostly monitoring. I was able to experience the difference that 32 years made in the growth of the Milton Fire Service. On the second occurrence was a young man who our family has grown quite proud of. He started as a part-time firefighter rushing to make the truck and has progressed through the ranks to now being the captain of the truck that was at my front door. The next sense of pride was watching his newest full-time recruit, Alyssa, as she went about her duties, asking CAP questions on procedures and learning how they work together. This is our future. This is our community. Whether it is the fire service or providing responsible employment again, let's use this plan as our guide. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Her. Council Chowder. Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chairman. Just a point of clarification. I am supportive of of the master plan. You'll see that later tonight, Mr. Horner, but just a point of clarification in terms of council's commitment. Uh, no document can bind a future council financially. And so this document will be looked at on an annual basis uh from a financial perspective in terms of its impact on the overall operating budget as well as the capital budget. But uh I am supportive of what is proposed in the in the plan but every me every member of council um has the right to review it on an annual basis in terms of the overall impact on the budget. We have the responsibility to do that. I I appreciate that. But I happen to be 80 years of age. I've owned my own business and I've worked for companies. And whenever we do an operating plan, I always take a look. And if I vote for something, whether it's today or tomorrow, I vote with my intent that if I'm going to support it, then I am going to take real care to do it. And as I said within this, maybe it's not the residents who have to pay it. Maybe we have to change the type of business that we have in this town. Maybe we need some more industrial business. And I'm not talking about another Ford. I'm talking about maybe 10 or 12 small companies that hire 25 to 75 people that'll pay them 75 to $80 an hour and then pay our taxes to go along with it. Right now, we're we're living on residential tax dollars. U I would encourage you, Mr. Hner, to sit down with uh uh our new uh development economic development leader and have a have a chat about the kind of businesses that we're attracting into Milton. I think you'd be very pleased to hear about who's coming and and what they're being paid. Um, I've got over 40 years in business and there are other people's around or other counselors around this table who also have a background in business and I understand how the budget process works and how how changes have to be made and considerations have to be reconsidered. I was in technology for 32 of those years so you know what I'm talking about. Um, I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised about how uh this council and and staff are working hard to ensure that uh the dollars are there to support the requirements of the future community. I I've been 60 years in finance and I can assure you that if some kid came to me and and said, "I'd like a job with you." And you said to him, "What what have you been doing?" He said, "I went to school to be a firefighter and I'm now I want you to spend $25 $25,000 to train me so that I can work for you for a little while until a firefighter's job comes along and then I'm leaving." How what percentage of the part-time firefighters that we've hired in this town train have left, have gone to other communities, and we're paying. What does it cost us to train a part-time firefighter? And these are all good kids. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Horner, may you be seated. Thank you. And if we could just push that button. Thank you. Thanks so much. Move on to uh public meetings. We have five public meetings this evening. Uh we'll start with 7.1 special meeting Agriton secondary plan. For this meeting, I will now call on town clerk to review the procedure this public meeting. Uh thank you for this first public meeting. It's a special council meeting held under the planning act regarding the Agertton secondary plan. Council will consider related bylaws at a future meeting. If you wish to be notified of decision for this application, please sign the attendance sheet that's located at the back table in council chambers or you can make a written request to the town clerk 150 Mary Street or email town clerk@milton.ca. Following a brief presentation from staff, there'll be an opportunity for public comments from inerson and remote meeting participants. As a reminder for anyone wishing to connect remotely, the number to call is 18665110021. Thank you, Megan. Commissioner Hogan. Thank you, Mayor and members of council. This item before you tonight is purely procedural in nature. It is a requirement under the planning act to hold a special meeting of council when there is a proposed adjustment to a major transit station area. And the major transit station area we're talking about is within the Agertton secondary plan. You'll notice on the plan on the left, you'll see a very straight yellow dotted line. and that depicts the existing approved major transit station area. On the right hand side, you will see the amended or the proposed amendment to that boundary. And really, this is just a technical amendment to align the eastern boundary uh of of the plan and assist with the planned road network. Now, it's really important to understand that this amendment would not change the proposed densities for the secondary plan. We're still planning at very high transit supportive densities of 180 residents and jobs per hectare. Uh we have completed all of the required public notices, open houses, and consultation with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and other prescribed bodies. This is an overview. This is all we're talking about tonight. And the next item on the agenda will be specific to the secondary plan itself. And that's when we can get into more of those details. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Commissioner Hogan. Any questions of staff uh from council? Seeing none, um we'll move on to the delegations uh part on this application. I've been advised that Paul Lowe's wishes to speak. Thank you, Commissioner Hogan. Um on this item, welcome. Just a reminder, you have five minutes for your delegation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of council, it's pleasure to be before you tonight and I won't be 5 minutes. Um, I'm a planner, a principal of SGL planning and design and we represent Agretton New urban limited and they own approximately 240 hectares of land within the secondary plan area. The uh the majority of it, the vast majority is within the PMTSA. Um, and uh we've been working collaboratively with uh with town staff since about 2020. of about six years. We've had numerous productive meetings with staff to solidify the vision for the agent secondary plan and this change is largely because of those discussions and finalizing the land use plan which which sets that final uh final determination of the PMTSA. The PMTSA was just identified through the region's work uh to identify what the boundary would be. So the the more detailed work has been done to finalize that. So, we're quite supportive of the revised boundary and uh I'll be back, Mr. Chairman, to talk at the secondary plan level. So, thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Any questions uh or clarification for the delegation? Seeing none, uh I will now ask the town clerk to confirm if there are any further delegations who wish to speak on this application. I've been advised no. Are there any members of the audience who wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, I will now read the motion. I have a motion in front of me moved by councelor Best and seconded by councelor Malibu that staff be directed to consider all comments received at the special meeting of council in the preparation of the agrien secondary plan. All in favor and it's carried and it's now 7:26. We will take a quick short 5m minute break uh for all those uh observing Ramadan. Thank you. Thank you uh for your patience. We will start with 7.2 public meeting Aggerton secondary plan for this meeting. I will now call on the town clerk to review the procedure for this public meeting. Uh thank you. So this public meeting is also regarding the Agertton secondary plan. Council will consider related bylaws at a future meeting. Um, again, please sign the attendance sheet at the back of the room or make a written request to town clerk at 150 mary street or email town clerk@milton.ca if you wish to be notified about the decision related to this application. Uh, following a presentation from staff, there'll be an opportunity for public comments from inerson remote meeting participants. As a reminder for anyone wishing to connect remotely, the number is 1866-5110021. Thank you. We will now ask town staff radiator staff to provide an overview presentation. Thank you. Good evening, mayor, members of members of the My name is Ricky Haidider and I'm a senior policy planner here at the town of Milton. And with me, I have David Twig, the director of planning, policy, and urban design. We've been working on the aggretton secondary plan which is located between highway 401 to the north, dairy road to the south, green belt the green belt plan to the east and eighth line to the west and is focused around the proposed Milton trfolar go station. Next slide please. Thank you. The agretton secondary plan has been going on for quite some time with the process originally starting in 2018 to 2019 as part of the joint agretin travalar secondary plan processes. It was revised in 2022 in the region official plan to reflect the urban boundary expansions employment land conversions and the identification of the major transit station area otherwise known as the MTSA around the proposed go station. Since 2022, several changes have occurred which I will go into detail in the next slide. Phase three involves preparing the background studies as well as a secondary plan in cons in consultation with the landowner group as well as the town and a peerreview team led by MGP. Background studies were re circulated to the technical advisory committee in December 2025 with the changes reflected in the updated public circulation. Since 2022, several land use policy changes have occurred that required updates to the background technical studies as well as the secondary plan itself. The land use planning for the Tripolago secondary plan has advanced further than the Aggerton plan, which is why it's not a joint process anymore. Changes to the planning act related to MTSA areas have changed as well. The new provincial planning statement was released in 2024 and it redefined the permitted uses for employment areas. Land use planning responsibilities were removed from Halton region in 2024 and now the regional official plan is a official plan of the town. Phase one of the Milton official plan was adopted by council in March 2025 which reflected updated population and employment forecasts. The secondary plan also completes phase one and two of the environmental assessment process for pro. This is for new roads in the secondary plan. Now I'll speak about the evolution from the 2022 concept shown on the screen to the 2026 draft. As seen on this slide, the 2026 draft has increased the area to 359 hectares, increased the minimum residential target to 14,100 residents, increase the minimum employment target to 17,500 jobs, increase the minimum density target to 180 residents and jobs per hectare within the PMTSA. Specifically, the secondary plan has been updated with increased population and employment targets from the official plan review work and updated forecasts in the Trafalar secondary plan. It also includes the CP rail lands which were discussed in the previous report which also resulted in an adjustment to the eastern boundary of the PMTSA. There was a refinement of the road network as well and a conversion of some employment areas to business commercial to allow a wide range of jobs which aren't included in the employment area designation anymore. There's also an addition of a public land designation for public uses that will support both Aggerton and Trafalgar. And usually secondary plants require a tertiary plan component, but this that is not required for Agrtton because land use and heights are already identified in the secondary plan for the PMTSA. This slide shows the 2026 draft community structure plan. The MTSA is outlined in green and within the MTSA is a transit oriented node in magenta and the transit supportive community in light purple. Employment areas are in dark purple with the business commercial in the hatched purple. The public uses are in just purple and the natural heritage system is in green. A little bit more detail about the proposed structural elements. The public use designation will allow public facilities like a community center, fireh hall, and district park. The employment area will support traditional employment uses such as warehousing, industrial, as well as manufacturing which are consistent with provincial policy direction. The business commercial will allow for offices, retail, light industrial, and institutional uses. The MTSA allow outlined in green will accommodate a minimum of 180 residents and jobs per hectare. In the MTSA, the transit oriented node located around the GO station will have the highest heights and densities while the transit supportive community will have a mix of uses at transit supportive densities. This is a detailed land use plan within the PMTSA. In the dark orange, you have the mixeduse highdensity designation around the GO station. The lighter orange is the medium density residential 2. In the pink you have the neighborhood center mixuse 2. There are two elementary schools proposed in the medium density residential 2 centered around the neighborhood park. There are five village squares and two urban squares scattered around the PMTSA. This is the height schedule within the MT PMTSA. In the orange, which is the mixeduse high density, you have a minimum height of three stories and no maximum height. The medium density residential 2 has a maximum height of four stories except along Trafalar which has a maximum height of 20 stories. The neighborhood center mixeduse 2 has a maximum height of 12 stories except at the intersection of Derry and Trafalar which has a maximum height of 25 stories which is consistent with the Trafalgar secondary plan. Some more details about the land use plan elements within the PMTSA. The mixeduse high density is where the highest residential and employment densities will occur. Permitted uses include residential, mixeduse buildings, medium density housing, commercial, retail, official offices, and institutional uses. Neighborhood center mixeduse is a second area of high residential and employment density. It is intended to be the focus for commercial activity and permitted uses include office, commercial, institutional, and residential apartments. Medium density residential 2 includes town houses, stacked town houses and apartments, singles and semi- detached dwellings are not permitted. This is the proposed active transportation and road network schedule. It shows a proposed trail system. This framework supports active transportation and connectivity. In terms of next steps, we are currently at that stage for updated background studies and the secondary plan have been released to the public for their review, which is why we're here today. After comments have been received, the secondary plan and background studies will be updated based on agency and public feedback. We're anticipating that a final secondary plan and background studies will be come to council for adoption in summer 2026 after which it'll be sent to the province for ministry approval. Thank you for your time. Thank you uh councelor Best. Yes. Uh thank you for your presentation and uh just uh for clarification first of all could the clerk staff put the first slide up. Uh question for staff. I saw this advertisement should be up soon in last week's uh Toronto papers. Could uh staff give me an idea since the province is already promoting and saying that they're actually improving the ghost service. Do we have a status on when it's going to come and which decade? uh through the chair. I do not have a timeline, but what I do know is they are beginning the environmental assessment process to evaluate the two-way all day. But was there any mention of the Aertton GO station? Oh, through the chair. Absolutely. So, the Agretton GO station is a recognized project at Metro Links. Um in in terms in terms of what aspect of the 2-way all day is Aggerton part of that? Is that your question? Uh yes, please. So really I mean 2-way all day is is bigger than the Aggerton station, but the the Agertton station would certainly support two-way all day and make it more feasible. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. And I'm still trying to figure out what two-day service is. Thank you. And I have more comments later. council. Yeah, thanks Mr. Chair and thank you for the presentation. Just a quick question in relation to the uh diagram that was shown regarding the height permissions. Um there was one uh portion of that diagram that said that the minimum height is three stories but there wasn't any maximum height. Just wondering if that's because of provincial policy that prevents us from putting a maximum height on that. If not, is it possible to put a maximum height on that? staff will take that back and uh review that before bringing forward a technical report. Thank you. Nothing further councs uh from comparing Edertton to uh to Boone U and Trafalogar and what they're looking at in terms of the official plan uh through the charity counselor challenger. We are working on a hierarchy of building heights throughout the town with the highest building heights centered around our existing go station. That is where the highest heights will be located. Um Aggerton uh similar. Yes, there will be there will be um uh tall buildings there eventually one day. Um but the GO station, the existing GO station is certainly taking precedent at this time. And when you look in areas like Boone, we do have maximum of 15 stories in in all of the nodes. So it's really that hierarchy, but the the highest heights will definitely be going around the GO stations. Mr. Chairman, my follow-up question to that is is uh you know how they're supported by arterial roads. So, we've seen uh examples uh in my word as well as some other wards where we uh had u higher buildings on roads that weren't arterial. And my assumption is that we're learning from that or have learned from that and and uh future uh development of that style will be on major arterial roads supported by transit uh through the chair. Yes. Generally speaking, um, and and I'm not quite sure which building you're speaking of, but in general, our nodes are located along arterial roads. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. And, and, uh, I I can answer councelor Best's question. Uh, today is a is a typo and it's and it's a service that is strictly related to via between Toronto and Montreal. Takes a Thank you for the clarification, Council Challenger. Moving on to councelor Ali. Thank thank you Mr. Chair through you. Um just building upon the uh comments uh my colleague councelor Chaliner made. Um a question to our planning commissioner or the presenter. Um are there any talks of inter regional transit? Because I believe no plan is successful without a strong transit system that connects regions together. We cannot just build homes. We have to build industry economy and that cannot happen unless businesses are comfortable that their employees can take hop on a bus and get to Milton. And so I'm wondering if there's been any discussion with the region or the province to provide that kind of interlinking transportations. Uh thank you for the question councelor Ali. Um absolutely. Um GO stations in their very make just in the in the way that they're made up they are regional transportation service. So the Aggerton secondary plan is being planned around a proposed GO station. Having said that, Trfalga Road is also a major transportation corridor or or at least will turn into one and it connects Oakville, Milton, and Halton Hills. And we we suspect that bus rapid transit one day will be along that corridor. Who's operating that transit? Not sure at this point in time, but there's certainly higher order transit expected along Trfalga Road. Thank you. Any further questions for staff? Seeing none, thank you. We'll move on to our registered delegations. We've got two starting with Paul Lowe's. If Paul Lowe's could please make your way to the podium uh to speak on this item, welcome. Just a reminder once again, you've got five minutes. I know last time you didn't take five. doesn't mean you add five to this one. I don't need to add five to this one. Mr. Chairman, thank you again to be be for you tonight. Again, uh we represent Agertton New Urban Limited. Uh and as I said, we've had numerous meetings with staff. It's been a great working relationship over the last 6 years and we're really coming to uh fruition on this uh plan and we're really excited about the potential to transform this farm fields into a new urban mixed juice high density uh development and a truly mixeduse area. Uh I think everything we can be proud of but it's going it's a unique highdensity area because it's in a green field area. So this is not going to be like your typical subdivisions. This area will transform over the coming decades. It's not something we'll see tomorrow. It's going to come and some of the land uses may take longer than others just because of the market. But in the end, it will be a fully mixeduse uh transit supportive development that I think we all can be very proud of. Uh and it's but it's important to get that framework right now. uh because it's such a long-term plan and to to build those bones and that's what we've been working with staff with uh on that and we're quite supportive of the plan. I'd like to thank staff and the consultants Malone given Parsons for all the work that they've done and the hard work up to this point. Uh we'll continue to work with staff and to get this back in front of you. Uh we're very hopeful to be back early in the early in the summer for your adoption of this plan. Uh uh there's a few tweaks that we're still looking for to be finalized and we've been working with staff on that. So we'd like to uh to thank staff and we like to thank council for all the work that's been done and we look forward to the adoption in the summertime. Thank you Paul. Uh any questions of clarification for the delegation? Seeing none. Thank you Paul. Thank you very much. We have another Paul Demszac. I would like to invite Paul Demszac to the podium uh to speak on this item. Once again, you've got five minutes to delegate. Thank you. Uh good evening uh Mr. Chair and members of council. Uh yes, my name is Paul Demchek with Btori Planning and Management. Um I'm here on behalf of the owners of three uh different properties. They're all under three uh separate land owners. uh being the municipal addresses of 7499 Auburn Road, 7539 Auburn Road, and 7459 Auburn Road. Um these lands represent a total of 75 acres and they are actually just northeast of the current boundary limits of the Agretton Secondary Plan area. Um it was shown just a brief moment ago, but as shown in the draft land use plan, um these lands are subject to the GTA Northwest Transmission Corridor study, and we do intend to engage the ministry and coordinate, uh with my clients through that process. We also understand the town did not want to include certain lands uh within the Agertton secondary plan area through this process as obviously they were implicated um and could be implicated for a number of years uh through this transmission corridor study uh which obviously includes my my client's lands. Um our objective through this process is mainly to monitor at this time obviously the secondary plan as well as um a number of the detailed technical studies. We do want to ensure that anticipated future transportation as well as civil infrastructure will not only support the Agertton secondary plan area but also uh some of the surrounding lands that are uh reasonably anticipated to be designated for future employment uh uses within the fullness of time. Uh I would request that council also consider that um as part of their consideration for these matters uh which will protect for future employment lands uh within the town where they are intended and appropriately located. And in this in this case for my client's lands adjacent to major highway infrastructure. Uh we have also had preliminary conversations with Milton uh Milton planning staff and will continue to do so through this process and I do want to thank staff for their attention and assistance to date. Uh that concludes my comments this evening and and thank you very much for your time. Thank you Paul. Uh any questions for clarification from council? Seeing none. Thank you Paul. Thank you. Uh, I will now ask the town clerk if there's any delegations to be considered. Seeing none, any members of the audience wish to speak on this? Seeing none, all in favor? My apologies. Let me read the motion first, guys. I apologize. I apologize. Um motion is moved by councelor Best, seconded by councelor Malibu that report DS016-26 with regards to town initiated local official plan amendment Agertton secondary plan public meeting be received for information. All in favor and it is carried. Moving on to item 7.3 public meeting and technical report temporary use bylaw application by Shaun Soliner applicable lands located at 9230 G line. For this meeting I'll now call on the town clerk to review the procedure for this public meeting. This public meeting is regarding a temporary use application by Sean Sier applicable to lands known as 9230 Gine. If you wish to be notified of the decision for this application, please sign the attendant sheet located at the back of the room. Or you can also make a written request to the town clerk, 150 Mary Street, Milton, or email town clerk@milton.ca. Following a presentation from the applicant, there will be an opportunity for public comments from in-person and remote meeting participants. As a reminder, for anyone wanting to connect remotely, the number is 18665110021. Thank you, Megan. We will now ask the applicant to provide an overview presentation. You can please step up to the podium and provide the presentation would be great. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Chair, council members and staff. My name is Maria Jones and I'm a planner with Ken Devcon Group representing the applicant regarding the development of 9230 G line. Next slide please. Oh, thank you. The subject property is located in the hamlet of Campbellville in northwest Milton on the west side of G line north of Highway 401. Uses surrounding the site. To the north is the Mohawk Racetrack and Casino and Petro Canada station. To the south, Highway 401 in the hamlet of Campbellville. To the west, town west, Koa Holiday Campgrounds and the National Heritage System. And to the east, the NA NASA Wasa Tennis Center and Community Hall and Open Space. The following two slides are photos of a site visit that was conducted on the property. The subject property contains a Vances one-story building known as the Mohawk Inn. The structure was reta remained unoccupied since the motel and restaurant ceased operation in 2020 due to COVID. The building operated on the site for approximately 60 years as a hotel, restaurant, and banquet facility. Um the site historically accommodated significant parking and vehicle activities associated with guest with guests conference and community events. The building was also leased to local police and fire services for training purposes. The building was al um it is a long fun uh it has a long function as a highway oriented commercial use adjacent to the 401 highway. The applicant is seeking a temporary use bylaw under section 31 of the planning act for a three-year period to facilitate a truck parking on the existing hotel site. The temporary use would allow for parking of heavy vehicles such as transport trucks and other commercial vehicles. The purpose of the use would be to would be solely for parking, motor vehicles within the proposed parking area. No building servicing operations, freight handling or repair activities are being proposed. The temporary use bylaw 3 period would allow the owner to generate revenue while addressing servicing such as uh servicing capacity issues, water and wastewater and securing full site plan approval for a future redevelopment proposal. The three-year time frame would allow the owner to coordinate with future uh to coordinate the future site plan with the adjacent Mohawk Casino site, potentially fostering a partnership um for the proposed land uses to better serve the community. The existing Mohawk Inn would be developed, demolished, and approximately 154 parking spaces planned in this current location. The parking area would utilize a portion of the existing paved lands, ensuring that it does not impact the environmental features and wetlands further to the west. The site is designated agricultural area and green belt natural heritage system in the official plan. The site was granted um gr was granted grandfathered permission by the province to develop 25% of the total land holdings within the green belt equating to approximately 10.5 acres allowing development on the site. The proposed temporary use of truck parking recognizes the existing res rural uses, allows their continuation by permitting a currently underutilized commercial property to continue to be used on the existing development footprint. The temporary location of the transport trucks encou um encourages efficient use of um sorry movement of goods and re within the region and will not be removing agricultural lands from the inventory. The site is located directly north of the 401 which st spans across the Halton region into greater Toronto area and other regions in southern Ontario. The temporary use of a motor vehicle parking at this location provides an area for truck transport and trailer parking with easy access to the 401. Several properties along well flying north of Highway 401 are used for highway commercial, tourism, recreational, and industrial purposes. The existing agricultural uses are protected through the green belt natural heritage system designation on the lands. The town of Milton official plan designates the property as agricultural um and is identified as located outside of the primary agricultural area. It is designated as special policy 3 along with secondary properties. The current use is in the immediate area and surrounding properties are commercial and res recreational uses not agricultural. The temporary use is appropriate for the site as it maintains the current commercial intent by permitting additional an additional commercial use. The site has not been used for agricultural purposes for over 60 years and will not be removing active agricultural lands from the inventory. Um, special policy 3 spans across the property at the northwest corner of 401 and G line that specifically used the highway, commercial, recreational, and overnight accommodations. The proposed use is similar in nature to special policy area. Large trucks and recreational vehicles typically parked on the site during its past use as motel. Parking at this location is ideal to its proximity to the 401 and vehicles of this nature were previously permitted to park on the site daily. The lot size has been does um designed to provide large enough parking areas to accommodate parking of large vehicles without encroaching on the natural heritage system. As an inn, the property allowed parking of transport trucks and other commercial vehicles and were not charged charging the use of the parking area as they made use of the motel and restaurant facilities. Allowing the commercial trucking parking commercial truck parking on the site will allow the applicant and owner to charge for the truck's parking to generate income for a future redevelopment of the site. Section 39 of the planning act provided the basis for temporary use provisions which allow the municipality to pass a bylaw under the planning act to authorize temporary use a temporary use of land, building or structure for the purpose set out that are otherwise prohibited by the bylaw. The temporary use bylaw establish a three-year maximum on the temporary on the temporary approval with the potential for expansion. The proposed motor vehicle parking is a suitable option as a temporary use for the site as it is intended to operate for a minimum three-year period to allow the owners to prepare for a submission of a future redevelopment application. An interm period of three years is appropriate amount of time for the applicant to for the coordination of the with the adjacent land owners for the prop uh future proposal and to generate revenue for just for your uh knowledge your time is up but if you could wrap up that'd be awesome. Okay. Um sure. Uh there were a few issues that were brought up in the uh planning report that we wanted to touch on, but it's going to take way too much time now. Um these these issues dealt with um outstand out outdated environmental studies, the traffic report and um flood plane issues by the conservation authorities. these we we had a we could have talked about it but I don't have enough time. Um so based on an um so basically the temporary use application is intended to provide a modest interimm use that allows the property to generate revenue for studies and services solutions to prepare the planning approval of application filed for future redevelopment of the site which is intended to be a motel as it originally was. Okay, thank you. Um, any questions from council to the applicant? Seeing none, thank you very much. Uh, I'll move on to our first, uh, registered delegation, John Obststein. If I could please have John approach the podium to speak to this item. Welcome. Just a reminder, you have five minutes for your delegation. Thank you. I need these sometimes now. Okay. Uh, hello. your worship. Uh Mr. Chair, counselors, staff, and ladies and gentlemen, my name is John Obstein. I live at 9636 Second Line uh in Campbellville. That's Second Line Nascoa. Just that's make sure we know how to pronounce that properly. Uh in Campbellville, just around just around the corner uh from the the property in question. Um, I've been a Milton Campbellville resident for 53 years and I've been uh farming full-time in this area for over 30. The Mohawk in property has always been a hub and a gem of our community for as long as I have been around. It is it is my understanding that a few years back there was a process to update a very tired building and I remember my wife and I going to the they had a kind of a farewell event uh late into 2019 and then a couple minute a couple months later co hits and that I you know they at that at that farewell event they they said you know we're we're going to come we're going to close we're going to come back build back better and I know Everybody in the community was so excited about that because we knew that the the building it needed some help and some of the choices I know the the the cowhide seats in the restaurant if you're wearing shorts they kind of were they were they were itchy. I'm sorry that's that was not a choice but I remember they were going to build back better and then co hit like two two three months later and that threw a monkey wrench in all their plans. I know it threw a monkey wrench in all of our plans and our lives. So uh you know so as that leads us to here today and as my as I understand the plans are going forward to build back better now and this but of course there's going to be bills to be paid and if this is a request to park a limited amount of trucks so you can kind of know exactly how many are there and for a very short period of time three years for them to get their ducks in a row and and get, you know, I think this is something we have to consider. First of all, let me make this very clear, and I know uh the mayor has said many times, make this super clear for everybody in TV land. He always said that or out in the the web that I am 100% against illegal truck parking on our rural areas. As a lifelong farmer, it angers me when people illegally take over property, take a bulldozer, scrape off all the top soil, and put a burm up to hide their crimes and bring gravel and park trucks and trailers, ruining one of our most important resources, good farmland. I I don't remember who said it, but we owe our whole society to 6 in of soil and that the fact that it rains. So uh our our agricultural land is very important but this proposal is not that firstly they actually came and asked for permission. They didn't do it illegally and asked for forgiveness and we have uh it's a parking lot. It's been a parking lot as long as I've been alive. So we're parking on a parking lot. Kind of reminded me of when Country Heritage Park wanted to park cars in their parking lot and there was a whole thing from the escarment. I don't know if you remember that like 20 years ago and uh so which seemed like a no-brainer for a lot of us. So anyways, I especially uh you know, you think about this place parking on a parking lot half kilometer from the 401. If anything, this is the place where it's a gold standard where to park cars, park trucks other than anywhere else in the rural area. And so on a temporary basis, I feel that uh we can we can work with this going forward. I want to see the Mohawk property get back to where it was, you know, or even or way better. I drive by it now and it's sad and parking uh this parking plan is just the first step in a long steps to get it back to that. And uh I you know and and some people may be worried about this will open the floodgates to a lot of these applications coming for temporary parking. Again, none of these places are going to have be that close to the 401 be parking on an existing parking lot not hurting any agricultural land etc. So I think that's not something we have to worry about that much. And so you know I believe that we can help this business who is our neighbor and hopefully within those 3 years I get to see all of you wearing like those gold hard hats and a shovel and we're working towards something better that'll be great for our community. So thank you very much and I'll take any questions if Thank you John. Any questions of the applicant? Seeing none. Thank you John. Thank you. Moving on to our second uh uh second delegation, Shan Solinire. I've been advised that Shawn wishes to speak, so please approach the podium. Welcome, Sean. Just a reminder, you do have five minutes for your delegation. Thank you. And thank you for helping us out with that, O Canada. Oh, thank you. Yeah, thank you for the those kind words. Um your worship, it's very nice to see you. Uh counselors, it's nice to meet you. Some of you I know, some of you are brand new to me. Um, members of staff and also, uh, members of the community. Um, uh, it's a privilege to be able to speak to you today. Uh, tell you a little bit about my background. Uh, it was about 2010 when I acquired the Mohawk Inn and then I bought the campground and and our home property. and we've um you know really tried to um invest ourselves in the community in the betterment of the community. I I served on the OFA board for eight years and I was their rep on conservation for seven years and their rep also on uh regional council for seven and I chaired the wood lot owners association for Ontario for seven eight years and then I was the chairman of the United Way for three years and we doubled 30 years of results in in our three-year period and one of my favorite volunteer roles was when I was appointed as the honorary mayor of Campbellville, which as you know is a kind of a lovely tradition and I was very proud of that. So, the idea I I can't stand uh illegal parking either. And I like John, I I didn't really I wanted to shine light on what I was doing and make transparent to all my neighbors, give them visibility on what I was thinking and and what our plans were for the betterment of the town. And that's why I came forward. I always thought, well, I could just park trucks. We've always parked trucks on our parking lot. We had more traffic for breakfast at the chop house coming in and out of trucks and and horse trucks and CN trucks and the trucks from the Milton Hydro and also from the regional government set up their uh uh regional uh paving in our parking lot every year and put 40 60 pieces of parking of paving material and we always let them do it for free because they ate in the restaurant and they stayed in the hotel. So, we've had this long history and it actually was my desire to have a bit of a a stamp of approval from council or the town so that everybody in my neighborhood knew that I did things even beyond um what was ever expected because I've always parked in my parking lot. I never thought that I really couldn't. I wanted this whole truck thing was toxic around the neighborhood and around the town and it's upsetting when it's illegal. So I thought if I could set a better standard of leadership and be transparent and honest about it and come up with a solution that was good for everyone that everybody would respect it. So I went to see his worship and I I had a meeting with the town and I knew that there wasn't policy coverage for the staff. They told me right up front they couldn't they couldn't have a policy coverage. But the mayor encouraged me and said, "Sean, but this is not a staff decision. This is one for council and you need five of nine people to support you." And and so he encouraged me and that's why I've gone through this process and I loaded up all the studies we did. We did all kinds of environmentals. We did seven salamanders, frogs, all of that stuff. But it's times out because it's only good for a couple years. We did all of that. There was nothing to tell us we couldn't do a development. And then and then I wanted you to know that I always felt such support from this town before co I had been working with the province directly for about a year and a half and the minister at the time wanted to give us an M zo for a new development plan that we had. They studied our site for a year and a half and there was tremendous support from the province for our site. We're next to the largest racetrack in Canada and one of the largest top 10 casinos in the country and we're on the 401 and you can't even see them when you drive by. And we wanted to make it better for them and we came up with a plan for that. And the province loved it. And the and the minister at the time said, "If we get a letter from the mayor and from the MPP, and we got that letter from you, didn't we, your worship." He said that they had reviewed our plans, liked our plans. So did Parm Gilla, who was a minister at the time. So not long ago, we were going to have this done, and we thought we had full support of the town. So, imagine how shocked I was when we were told by the recent support that we were unable to redevelop our site and put up a new hotel. It was just incomprehensible to me. And I'm not arguing with it. I'm just saying that was such a shocking amount. I really needed to better understand why. And I would love to know why. But I'm saying to you that I wouldn't do something to hurt my community. That's why having a fixed number of of of parking things in there, I just thought it was something I could do now to pay the mortgage while we go through the process. I first of all, before I can make a site plan, I have to have a new service plan. I need a new wastewater treatment facility. Well, the regional government had already told me that I could do that with my neighbor, right? We if we indemnify them. So, we came, but we have to get that's going to take a year to get that approved. And then I can get a site plan application and to to show you our new plans. And the plans we have are great for employment. Great. It's absolutely permitted uses in the green belt. It's for tourism and it's for hospitality. And those are already permitted uses. We're not looking for anything else. We're not looking to expand. We knew when we bought the pro when we bought this 16 years ago that we could only develop 25% of the 42 acres and we don't even need we've never asked to move beyond that. We also know having been working with conservation recently after their February uh 12th letter we know that we can meet the uh criteria to get their permit and we also know that we can get the permit from MTO because we've been operating legally for 60 years. I just want you to know I need your help. I'm the restaurant tour who needs to put my tables on the sidewalk and I need you to support me in putting my tables on the sidewalk so I can serve my guests and I can get through this and you have the right and the power to do it. And I will and I believe that what I'm doing and I'm going to conclude in 10 seconds. What I'm doing is absolutely in support of our parking illegal committee. We've got people that have been fighting that valiantly and I support them and I'm literally what they've been for fighting for is somebody to come forward and do it right and ask for permission and follow the process. I would say that there are three points for your consideration. If they're worried about having a a what is it called? A president. Well, how about this president? We're the first driveway to the 401, the first driveway off the 401. We're actually an existing parking lot, and we're not going to use any farmland. How about that for a new gold standard for parking considerations? Use that. Don't Don't cave to the idea that any parking anywhere at any time for anything is bad. Even though I know it sounds bad, when I talk to everybody, they agree because I'm principled and I'm honest and transparent. And now I need you to stand up and help me so I can have a big development charge paid to you and get a mill rate that you'll be proud of and my neighborhood will support us. They don't want illegal parking and neither do I. That's why I'm here. Thank you, Sean. Thank you. Uh any uh please any questions for the delegation? Seeing none. Thank you. Uh our next delegation is Deepuk Alipat. If I could please have Deepuk approach the podium to speak on this item. Just a reminder once again you do have five minutes. Thank you, chairman, honorable mayor and council member, if you could if you could just please. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the time here. It's my first time addressing the town hall, so apologize if I make any mistakes. I'd like to thank all of you all for the service you provide to the Milton community. My name is Deepak. I've been a resident of Milton for 16 years. My family loves and we call Milton home. We've seen the town grow, enjoy the benefits that Milton has to offer. I'm a father of three. My eldest goes to Bishop Reading. My twin girls go to Garden Angel Elementary School. My wife works at the Halton Catholic District School Board. And I would like to request the honorable mayor and the council members to please consider approving Mr. Solenir's application for the following reasons. I don't know how many of you live south of Main Street on the Thompson Road corridor. I live by Darian Thompson and every day in the morning I go to drop my son at Bishop Reading. A few years back it was a few minutes to get to Bishop Reading. As the years went by, the time has been increasing. It's almost 20 minutes to get from Derry Road to Bishop Reading. Between 7:40 and 8:15, it is very frustrating to drive down there. And more frustrating is seeing trucks on the road when we're trying to get to the GO station or to get our kids to school. Milton is growing. I I just heard the Agertton presentation. It's going to grow even further. Traffic is here. We need to manage and plan to plan it accordingly to make sure that traffic is maintained properly. I've also been I'm I'm like our family loves to shop at Walmart. In the past few years, I've seen the Walmart parking lot being taken over by truck parking. I don't know if that is a legal parking or not, but I I did some Google search and they say it's allowed to park there. But it is taking away the shoppers parking spots by the trucks parking at the Walmart parking lot. I'm not I'm not here to complain about that, but all I'm here is to say we've got to manage truck parking. We see the increase in warehouse space along James Snow. Truck traffic is coming. It is I hope I really hope the town can somehow come up with plans to manage the truck traffic. We see trucks cross Milton east to west during the daytime. I think if we can manage it in a way where trucks go around James Snow steels and then all the way to Tainine that'll be helpful. But getting it going the trucks going all the way across the town it makes it very difficult for the high density population that we have in Milton. I would like to thank the the town staff council members for fighting the CN on the on the inter model and the terminal that's coming up but it looks like it's coming. The Supreme Court has already given a verdict on on it. I don't know if that can be fought if you guys are still uh fight trying to trying to turn that around but if that is coming the CN CN website right now says that the CN terminal is coming it's going to be partially operational in 2027. I don't know if that is true or not, but if that comes, there's going to be a significant truck um a significant number of trucks that's going through the term main route. So, again, I've known Sean for a few years now. He can sing. We all saw that. He's a great guy. He's got a piece of land that's very close to the 401. It's right off the exit. If we exit on G line from the 401 going west, you literally see the property in front of you. It takes the trucks away from the rest of the highly densited high highly densely populated Milton. And if we can manage it to the fringes of Milton. Again, I take this time. Thank you for your time for this. I' I'd love for you to consider um approving Mr. Solenir's application. Thank you. Thank you Deepuk. Any questions for the delegation? Seeing none, thank you so much Deepuk. I will now ask the town clerk to confirm if there are any further delegations who wish to speak. And that is a note. Are there any members of the audience who wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, I will now go to the motion. Moved by councelor Best, seconded by councelor Malibu that development services report DS-019-26 be received for information and that staff report DS DS-019-26 outlining an application for a temporary use zoning bylaw amendment to the town of Milton rural zoning bylaw 144-20 2003 as amended to facilitate commercial truck parking be denied. Any questions for members of staff or counselor council rest? Yes. Uh to planning department uh whoever can answer this one. The applicant and some several speakers have mentioned some of the concerns with changing in uh planning designations by the province and conservation authorities especially with the green belt designation and conservation. Could you highlight to everyone here exactly what the status is of both the conservation authority and provincial plans? Yes. Uh through the chair to the counselor. This property is wholly located within the protected countryside designation of the green belt plan and there are strict limits on new development. It is also fully regulated by Conservation Halton and any development would require a permit from Conservation Halton. And how long has the green belt plan been on this property? The Green Belt Plan has been on this property since 2005. Uh thank you. If staff could just uh post uh my uh slide. I consulted uh with the regional staff as well as the uh presentation that councilman Aakus and myself uh attended regarding the 41 expansion because one of the concerns I have is and I I have sympathies for the applicant. I've known him and the property for most of my life as well and there has been trucks parked on before. The problem we face now we could have that slide up is the traffic patterns have changed on this property. Yeah. If for everyone's information, yeah, we're talking the property right about here. And if you look at the designations here, this is from the MTO report that some of us attended last year. You've got yellow is caution, green's good. This area here is already in the red zone. Now, unstable traffic flow, backups, and anybody was around this area on Friday knows how bad this area gets. I understand parking here has been allowed, but not up to 154 parking spaces. And all you have to do is go up to uh Bronny Street North or Lawson Road to see how many truck movements there are to make left turns in and out of this area. You sure there has been in the past, but when you look at if we were to allow up to 154, you're looking at 300 traffic movements a day, one in, one out per truck to go out to work, to come back to work. This area is already congested. Plus, if you have a large semi-truck going in here beside the gas station, you're tra creating some traffic movement issues. And according to regional staff, there was already 13,000 vehicles a day, over 700 heavy trucks of a day, and that was as of October 29th of last year. Well, I understand the uh situation here, but based on the staff report and what we're seeing is a hotel would never be approved under current uh laws and even for if a permit were to get and we're seeing, you know, what the situation is the province these days. I doubt that's possible. So, I will be supporting the motion. Thank you, Councelor Best. Councelor Chowder. Uh yes, thanks, Mr. Chairman. I I brought forward a motion to actually approve uh the staff report. Um and the reason for that and you know every I agree with what councelor Best has said in terms of of um how busy it is and the fact that it's under two two levels of environmental legislation today and planning legislation that that uh essentially don't permit it. Um the 401 is being uh expanded although that that may not happen in the next 3 years. Uh but the reason I brought forward the motion is that uh quite frankly to councelor Best's point if we approve this tonight it's not going to be approved by by conservation Halton. I mean that's it's a no-brainer. But the point is, is there is there a way is there a better way uh for us to as a council and as a community express our concern about the fact that uh slowly uh legislation is killing uh that area. If if you were here in in the early 80s in Campbellville and a number of us were uh it it bears no resemblance today to what it was and that's a shame. And at some point, whether it's through our official plan, uh, our next official plan, or through some other mechanism, uh, it needs to be made clear here that economic development is an important part of this part of Milton as well. As is entertainment and the sad reality is, I wonder if Mohawk would even survive. We know they've tried to expand and they've been turned down. And so in some way, shape or form, if we truly believe uh in the growth of this area and its economic development and its and and its place being a place of possibilities and a place to consider, how are we best to express that? And that's why I brought the motion forward. Um we need to put uh our position forward somehow and I'd like I'd like council to vote on that motion first. Thank you for uh bringing your motion forward. Uh we will deal with your motion if the original motion doesn't go through. No, it's the other way around, Mr. Chair. So the motion is is floored by staff and for that reason it'll be dealt with first and then the if it gets smashed it'll move on to that honestly has not been the way we've operated around this table in the past. If somebody brought uh a motion, an amendment uh or a separate motion, it's considered first before the before a main motion or the or the motion that was um in the agenda is is considered. That's Robert's rules of order. It is our procedure to deal with the original motion first because it is a staff motion. But if council chooses uh to deal with the uh I guess an amendment first or or council challen motion first over staff's motion. If there's an appetite for this, we can call for a vote to deal with council challen motion first. So, yeah. Go ahead. So, you're saying that if if somebody put forward a motion to defer, it would be considered after the main motion's voted on. It's no different. I will refer to to the town clerks who answer that question. Sure. Uh, thank you. So for a procedural motion motion such as deferral, it would take precedent over the main motion since the motion is contrary to the original main motion which is the the staff recommendation within the report. We would deal with the staff recommendation first and deal with this motion following. If it were to amend the main motion, we would deal with the amendment first. Um but ultimately it it's up to council following our procedure. We would deal with the staff report recommendation first. Well, I'm going to I'm going to accept your ruling on that. I disagree with it. Um I know which way I know how this motion's going to go that I've brought forward. Um I can read a room. Uh I think it's important that that that council vote on it. Uh and then vote on the main motion. So I'll move that we that we vote on my my motion and then we'll get to the main motion. is to the ruling of the chair. You'll second it. All right. Uh, so I don't I don't have the wording in front of me, but if uh what it was it was sent to you. All righty. We will deal with your motion first. Uh moved by councelor Chner and seconded by councelor Kaui. Yeah, Mr. Chair, sorry to interrupt. Just to be clear, to move his motion forward is what I'm seconding. Yep. So his his motion has already been moved forward by Malibu. This is this is this is this is So give me one second. C Council Chadner is moving it to and I'm seconding it to have it dealt with first. And that's it. That's what I'm seconding. Yes. Yes. Thanks. All in favor? I think councelor manakus didn't understand. Would you like me to repeat what has just happened because I don't I don't want any confusion here as to what just happened Mr. Chair if I might just assist. Uh councelor Chner is uh is right. usually has always been the uh the practice when something as councelor Chower is bringing forward it's usually dealt with first and that's the reason why I said well let's deal with it uh now perfect move by councelor Shaller second by councelor uh Malibu and staff report DS019-26 outlining an application for a temporary yo use zoning bylaw amendment to the town of Melton rural zoning bylaw 144-20003 as amended ended to facilitate commercial truck parking be approved and that the necessary bylaw be considered at this council meeting. Any questions in regards to this motion? Would the mover like to speak in regards to the motion? I have called a question. Perfect. I just wanted to give you another opportunity if you wanted to. The secondary would like to speak to the motion. No, I have nothing to say on it. Councelor uh Mikakus. Um, so now that we're clear on what we're doing, u I'd like to say that the the motion to uh my concern is that we have a a challenge here. And the challenge is that the impact of this site might have been a good project a long time ago, but that was 8 years ago. And eight years later, that whole area has changed. And what we find today is when you drive off the 401 going north, within two seconds you are head you're stopping at traffic lights. Those traffic lights can back cars up all the way over to the 401. Getting out of the gas station that's immediate to the west on that anat road is an adventure to say the least. And that's just one location. Recently there was a fire and if you can imagine if there was a truck coming out and they were to stall which they do even though that house was lost it could have been something else. There could have been other issues as well but we dismiss some of these things. We're being asked to dismiss the staff report and vote in favor of a political decision. That is not my role. That my role is not to try and save a business. My role is to ensure that the sanctity of this process is always addressing the issue the the needs of the community at large. And this project does not. This project is actually going to be a hindrance to the community because Campbellville is faced with a quarry application where 300 trucks a day, pardon me, hundreds of trucks a day can come out of that site. What has not been mentioned here as well is that it's only half a kilometer to the Campbellville community from the from the site. In order to go eastbound, you have to enter the community. That is where the trucks, proposed trucks are for the quarry as well. It's going to get complex and it's already complex with the trains on the south of Campbell Avenue. We can stall sometimes and push traffic all the way to the 401 which is better than a kilometer and traffic at the bad weather on Friday pushed a lot of cars into the Campbellville area traveling everywhere trying to get around the accident. when they start developing the high redeveloping the highway, that is going to happen more frequently. Not accidents, but more trucks moving into the area, more cars moving into the area. Adding complexity to this community is not the right thing to do. It is the wrong thing to do. Personally, I'm going to vote against this motion. Thank you. Just once again, we're dealing with councelor Chaliner's motion, which is the opposite of what staff recommendation is, which is to approve, staff is saying to deny. So, what we're voting on is the approved component. Just so councilors are clarified. Uh, councelor Kauki. Yep. Thanks, Mr. Chair. And, uh, just, uh, want to echo concerns made by the area representatives, councelor Makakus and councelor Best. One of the things that I do see uh in the uh appendices for uh the staff recommendation comments from other entities like the MTO Halton region and conservation Halton. Some of these comments indicate that uh there's for example Halton Region states that uh they're they're not in a position to make a recommendation on whether this should proceed or not. So I wonder if that raises the question of if we should defer this matter rather than approving it or denying it at this stage. Uh I can probably consider an amendment to councelor Chaliner's motion if both of them are open to that to defer for other consultations to see if these commenting agencies can change or provide a bit more concrete level of uh direction. Um if not then I don't think we have sufficient uh you know based on all these commenting commenting agencies to to make a decision to approve it at this stage. Thank you for the uh option deferral. I'm going to go to councelor Best and then councelor Chower. Just a question of a clarification to planning staff. Mr. Chairman, councelor Cher mentioned about the Mohawk Park approval. I just wanted to ask staff what is the current status of the development plan because I know they spent almost 8 years putting together official plan amendment both of the town and the region. I just want clarification because to my knowledge it is approved that uh unfortunately it's economic circumstances which everyone faces these days. through the chair. You're talking about the Mohawk Casino. Uh I'd have to get back to you on the exact approvals and when they were granted on that site. Mr. Chairman, to my knowledge, the region did approve the official plan amendment for the development, including a golf course, hotel, and various other uses there. But unfortunately, Woodbine Entertainment, like everyone else, has some challenges. Thank you, councelor Best. Councelor Chowder. Yeah, if if uh councelor Cali wants to move deferral, I I most certainly will uh support that because I think there are a number of discussions that need to take place between staff, the proponent uh and probably the province of Ontario. Thanks. Yeah. Can I go to the CEO, Andrew? Yeah. Can I ask for a comment from our planning director regarding deferral? I think you're entering into some dangerous waters. uh through the chair. Uh if council does not make a decision this evening, the applicant will be in a position to appeal for lack of decision by council. And the timeline to make that appeal is March 22nd. If we defer or if council chooses to defer this application, it it risks it risks this going to the OOLT and council being completely cut out of any decision-m process. I would recommend strongly against a deferral chall I'm generally very supportive of of staff but guys I don't think it's dangerous and I don't think the the proponent is interested in going to lit at this point in time I think what he's looking for is a discussion this process has has been very concentrated it's very unusual that we have a a hearing and a decision made on the same night usually uh a hearing is takes place and staff come back with a report later for for staff or for council to consider. So um let's not to get too aggressive with the language or the or the possibilities. This is a serious matter. We're talking about the future of of a community and I think it needs quite frankly more thought time than we've given it. Um that said, I hear very carefully what what members of council have said. I respect their positions. Um, but I think that deferral is a consideration. Mrs. Zale, uh, council is at its decision to do whatever it chooses. But I will tell you, uh, with all due respect, that report has taken several months to develop. We've met with the client over many, many, many occasions. Um, there's a lot of thought been put into this. There's been a lot of other agencies consulted for it. Council can do what it wishes to do, but the moment is now. Um, and up to you guys. Thank you for those constructive comments, Mr. CEO. Um, Councilor Ali, thank you. I've heard the delegation and I've heard my colleagues who represent that area share their concerns and thoughts as well, and I know my colleagues representing that area are very well involved and connected to their community. And I trust their judgment on this, and I'll be uh not supporting councelor Cheliner's motion. So, so just to clarify, the motion on the floor now is the deferral. Uh, it is now Yes. Kaui and uh Chower and so so if there's Yeah. Councelor Malibu. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. I agreed to uh second the motion to get it on the floor and to give councelor Chalinar an opportunity to speak, but I was waiting to hear what the local counselors had to say and what their position was. So, uh based on the staff report, uh based what the local counselors are saying, I'll not be supporting the motion. Thank you, councelor Malibu. Anything further by any council? I will move on to the deferral of the motion. Moved by councelor Kkey, seconded by councelor chowder that the technical report regarding this application be deferred to a future meeting to give the applicant time to have further discussion with the town staff. All in f one second I just want to be clear here for a moment. I asked to see if the mover and the second were willing to amend their own motion. If them then leave me out of it, please. Thank you. Yep. All righty. We need a mover for the deferral. Any Do we have any movers for the deferral? Then it's lost. Now, we'll deal with councelor Challenger's motion that staff report D-019-26 outlining an application for a temporary use zoning bylaw amendment to the town of Milton rural zoning bylaw 144-20003 as amended to facilitate commercial truck parking be approved and that necessary bylaw be considered at this council meeting. All in favor? And it's lost. Going back to the staff's recommendation that the development services report DS019-26 be received for information and that the staff DS-09-26 outlining an application for a temporary use zoning bylaw amendment to the town of Milton rural zoning bylaw 14420003 as amended to facilitate commercial truck parking be denied. All in favor and it's carried. Thank you. We'll move on to 7.4 public meeting initial report 7072 sixth line for this meeting. I will now call on the town clerk to review the procedure for this public meeting. Thank you. This public meeting is regarding zoning bylaw amendment application to lands known as 70726 line 10003 1 377643 Ontario Inc. Council will consider related bylaws at a future meeting. Again, if you wish to be notified about the decision for this public meeting, please sign the attendant sheet at the back, make a written request to town clerk at 150 Mary Street or email town clerk@milton.ca. Following a presentation from the applicant, there will be an opportunity for comments from Inerson and remote meeting participants. As a reminder, the phone number is 1866 5110021 for anyone wishing to connect remotely. Thank you, Megan. We will now ask the applicant to provide an overview of the presentation. You will um good evening, chair, um council, staff, and members of the public. Thank you for the opportunity to present tonight. Hi, my name is Zachariah Buchard. I'm a planner with Glen Schnar and Associates, GSAI. Uh here on behalf of 70726 line application Z 2325, we are requesting a zoning bylaw amendment to facilitate uh an industrial warehouse uh development in an employment area. Uh the subject lands are just pictured here. Uh you can see they're located, sorry, they're in red there. Uh they're located north of Derry Road and on the west side of six line just over 1 hectare in size about 2 and a half acres and have just under 100 meters of frontage on six line. Surrounding areas is currently a mix of agricultural rural residential and planned uh and future employment uses. There's a notable feature on the site of a small tributary at the northeast which connects to um middle 16 milei creek um which is predominantly east of six line in this area. Uh it's a seasonal tributary. It's not um a full drainage feature necessarily. Um and then otherwise much of the surrounding area is within the employment area and planned for future employment uses. Subject lines themselves are industrial area and natural heritage system uh which permits warehouse development and our existing zoning is future development which does not permit um warehouse development or any development which is why we are requesting a zoning bylaw amendment. uh today. Uh just for information, this is an excerpt from the Derry Green Corporate business park secondary plan. Subject lands are again pictured in red. So you can see that uh the majority of the surrounding area in blue and brown there uh are employment designations. Industrial area and business park area. Uh the site itself is industrial area which as mentioned does permit warehouse development. This slide is an excerpt from the Dairy Green. Oh, sorry, excuse me. This slide is an excerpt from the town of Milton zoning bylaw. Um, if you can see on the colors here, just to the north, there's a brownish shoe that's future development. Much like the site itself, there's a uh a pink on the screen. I'm not sure if it's pink, but uh the M2 zone just to the south and west of the subject lands. Uh that is general industrial. And then around Derry Road to the north and south is M1 business park zones. Um, these properties are generally planned for future employment development. We are proposing in our amendment an M2 general industrial zone which would be consistent with the M2 zones immediately abuting us to the south and the west. Uh, this is just an overview of our concept plan. So, the industrial building is on the south there in purple. It's approximately 720 m or 7,500 ft. It's one story supported by loading spaces, truck parking, waste collection, bike parking, and personal vehicle parking. We're proposing uh the zoning bylaw requirement of 24 parking spaces. Uh you can see the existing natural heritage system in the dark green in the northeast there. So that dark green does include a 15 meter buffer. Um and that represents approximately 20% sorry 27% of our site area that will be protected uh from developments in this area. And then in light green, we have approximately a 3 m landscape buffer around the borders of the site to assist with transition and compatibility to adjacent uses and to the six line frontage. Uh we also accommodate for the future potential widening of six line. And then I just would note for the record that in our original concept and I believe in the concept that was circulated and posted on the agenda, we had a conceptual shared access to the south uh to the neighboring employment site. Uh we're no longer proceeding with that conceptual shared access. So just the one access proposed here 26 line. Um these are some images from our urban design brief just for for reference to better illustrate the site. On the left we have a conceptual landscape plan. Gives a greater sense of how the site could be screened and planted. We believe this site configuration is effective. It helps screen the the building itself. Helps to screen the loading area, the parking spaces and the waste collection in the rear from view of six line. And then as mentioned um there's a significant uh natural heritage feature plus buffer which is approximately 2/3 of our frontage along six line which provides a lot of adequate um green cover for the site. And then just to the uh the right of the screen here uh we have some images pulled from our urban design brief. These are um reference images for the site. These are not prepared for our application itself but just to kind of give a sense of the type of application of warehouse we're proposing and the type of landscape and parking there. Uh so this is just an illustration of our proposed zoning bylaw amendment uh how it would fit with the surrounding area. Again we're proposing an M2 uh special policy zone there consistent with the uh abuing lands and then we can see the limit of NHS there which would be protected in an NHS zone. So that's an overview uh of our application. We just received town comments this week. So we look forward to uh going through those and working with town staff on a satisfactory application. Uh that's our presentation. Uh my information is on the screen. If anyone has any other questions, happy to answer any council to public questions. Thank you. Uh any questions of the applicant from staff? Seeing none. Uh we'll now move on to delegations. Uh if any delegations wish to speak, I'll ask the clerk. No. Any members of uh the audience who wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, move on to the motion. Moved by councelor Best, seconded by councelor Malibu that development service report DS-020-26 be received for information. All in favor? And it's carried. We'll go to 7.5 public meeting, Milton Education Village. for this meeting. I'll now call on the town clerk to review the procedure for this public meeting. Thank you. So for the final public meeting this evening, this is regarding applications for the Milton Education Village, Konosoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, Madame Breitpoint Homes, and Mad Brownidge Homes. Council will consider related bylaws at a future meeting. Uh just a reminder, please sign the attendant sheet at the back of the table if you wish to be notified about the decision or make a written request to town clerk at uh 150 Mary Street or you can email town clerk@milton.ca. Following a presentation from the applicant, there will be opportunity for public comments from inerson or remote meeting participants. As a reminder, for anyone wishing to connect remotely, the number is 18665110021. Thank you. We'll now ask the applicant to provide an overview presentation. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of council, staff, um, and residents. My name is Emily Park from Corsiac Urban Planning here on behalf of Madame Holmes, uh, to discuss the proposed official plan and zoning bylaw amendments. Please do note that this is the second public meeting uh following the first held on January 26th. So um an additional meeting was required under the planning act um due to the expansion of the proposed uses for this application. This application relates to the Madame and Konestoa lands within the Milton Education Village. Um it's west of Tmaine and straddling uh Louis St. Laurent. I will briefly uh breeze through the next couple slides as uh it's been uh covered in the previous meeting. So these lands are designated urban area and growth uh sorry sustainable Halton plan growth area in the Milton official plan. A minister's zoning order is in effect meaning the lands have their own Milton education village specific zones in place. So the proposal remains generally the same since the last public meeting with the medium and high density uses um and uh a more dense mix of uses along Louis St. Laurent. And apart from this, a new addition to the proposal in the um village center as highlighted here um is a community focused meanwhile activation which means um including uses like uh retail, community amenities as well as outdoor entertainment, gathering, recreation, public art and so on. And so this uh the intent of this is to provide early amenities to residents and students while the early phases of the ME uh gets built out. And so uh to support this uh meanwhile activation space an addition to the official plan amendment is required. And so this proposes expansions of uses and permissions for retail um commercial entertainment and cultural uses allowing for a greater flexibility for uh both temporary and uh permanent uh uses and purposes all while maintaining the um same residential and commercial framework. And so the meanwhile activation or also referred to as the marketplace uh it will be implemented alongside the sales center um to draw visitors to the heart of the MAV um and with the sales center um anticipated just north of Louis St. Laurent. This early retail opportunity will help establish businesses in the community and support the early achievement of the MEV Village center becoming Milton's new um place to be. So, a vibrant area where people um of all ages can live, gather, socialize, and learn all together within these spaces. So, the retail uses will include a thoughtful mix of um anchor tenants and locallyowned non-national businesses to complement Milton's main street. Um animating the MEV and also um providing spaces tailored to the community. And this would also attract visitors all from uh all across Milton. And so once the retail spaces are substantially constructed, um the marketplace will then be redeveloped into its fully envisioned mixeduse multi-story uh format and tenants will be strategically transitioned into permanent spaces and early activation and retail will accelerate the public amenities and create a sense of place. uh with a created um selection of anchor tenants and local businesses supporting the day-to-day needs of Milton citizens and residents. So the Mzones are also being revised to accommodate the same changes and provisions. So just to wrap it up um the proposed application is justified and constitutes good planning. The proposal is cons consistent with the provincial mandate continue to generally uh conform to the ME secondary plan and its designations with the modifications that we've proposed. And this proposal increases flexibility of uses broadening the non-residential opportunities to support both early and long-term development of the community. And should you have any questions uh please do reach out to my contact or my colleagues uh on the screen and I look forward to hearing any comments you may have. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Chair through you. Thank you for the presentations. very exciting indeed to see this plans coming together. And I really want to thank Madame and of course our planning staff for really hearing us out and upfronting this retail and Willlet Square um so that we can build foot traffic before we even bring people in. I think that is fantastic. So thank you for working with us on that. One of the things I've noticed is that whenever we bring retail nodes in any community, uh we try to bring in a doctor's office, a medical office, um dentist, and then we do a grocery store, but what what happens is one grocery store does not want the other one to come in in the same retail plaza area. And as you know, with the growing population, we're bringing a lot of diversity. There are grocery stores that are the usual chains and then there are the ethnic grocery stores which cater to an ethnic population. So how are you going to make sure that all of those needs are met through these village squares and the retail opportunities because I can tell you there is a lot of need for ethnic grocery stores too in this area. Um so through the chair thank you for your comments. Um indeed it is very exciting. Um so as for the ethnic um kind of needs and uh for the needs for uh other many many types of groups um we are um I will definitely take that comment back and work um through that. But um we can say that uh we are working with a lot of local community um groups uh to see uh what kind of needs and um amenities are needed for the community um for the ME. Thank you. Appreciate that. I'll connect with you and your team offline and um share some information on that end too. Thanks. Thank you. Councelor Elli Kel's best. Yes. Uh thank you for your presentation. Similar question. Uh Madame is not known for being a commercial developer. Would Madame not only build but also be the landlord in this complex? And do you have previous experience? Because I don't know of any other commercial development Madame's ever built. So through the chair um thank you for your comment also. Um so this uh is a very um avantgard I would say. Um but uh it is very exciting because we do want um this area to become more vibrant and full of people and um it's going to be a long time of uh development. But if we do have these early uh interim um uses then we can um potentially uh by full buildout have a lot of uh uh foot uh traffic and everything going on. And so um there there are precedents that we have uh looked at um before um to initiate this uh uh procedure. So um yeah sorry thank you because uh I know our economic development staff will be very interested in talking to you because we have a huge demand for office space right now similar to councelor Ali's comments. Thank you councelor Best Councelor Marshall. So, I want to also thank you for your presentation and for the approach that you're taking to this development. Um, I think it's really exciting for the community. Um, I'm wondering if you can add a little bit more comments to what is being envisioned with respect to the cultural drawings, um, the public art space and things like that because I think that's a really uh, unique opportunity. It's giving me a little bit of, you know, Soho New York vibes and I'm just wondering what the vision is um, from your perspective. there. The chair, thank you for your comment. Um, I was just looking through the notes to see if I have any. Um but uh we looked at uh um sorry so regarding uh public uh art we don't necessarily have um so everything is preliminary right now at this stage. So um we do have visions for um a lot of things um uh day-to-day needs like uh small grocerers like you mentioned um and uh coffee shops uh um some um marketplaces, farmers markets um and also public art uh uh squares also. So um any suggestions are welcome at this stage and so yeah thank you for your comment. Perhaps we can also connect offline and we can chat it out a little bit further. Awesome. Any further questions from council to the applicant? Seeing none, uh I'll ask the town clerk to confirm if his in delegations. None. Anyone from the audience wishes to speak? Seeing none, I'll move on to the motion. Move by councelor Best, second by councelor Maloo that development services report DS-021-26 be received for information. All in favor? Bets carried. We'll move on to the presentation section starting with 8.1 town of Milton Community Risk Assessment and 2026 fire master plan. I'll now call on the fire chief Peter Gel to introduce the presenter this evening for this item. Fire chief uh through the chair. Tonight, we're presenting the uh a council report seeking the approval of the 2026 fire master plan and the updated community risk assessment. I want to thank Milton Fire Service Management team for their work on this update. Their feedback, effort, and commitment were essential in the shaping of the plan and moving the recommendations forward. I also need to and want to acknowledge Bear Consulting for their expertise in developing this plan. Joining us tonight we have Isaac Isaac Comedant the executive vice president online we're going to have Debbie Higgins technical adviser and Tim Beckett senior technical adviser. I'll begin with a brief introduction of the the report and then I'll kick it over to Isaac for the uh the presentation on the fire master plan itself. Um so tonight is we're bringing forward the midpoint update of the 2026 to 2031 fire master plan. This uh update reaffirms our focus on the fundamentals, public education, fire prevention and enforcement and effective emergency response system for the town of Milton. The plan gives council, SMT, and the fire management team a solid road map on how we can continue to meet the community's protection needs right to 2031. This work is backed by our updated community risk assessment, which is a legislative requirement and a key tool for understanding where Milton is today and where we're headed in terms of risk, growth, and service demands. From that assessment, a few priorities rise to the top. Risk informed service delivery using real data from the community risk assessment to guide our goals, service levels, and decision-m strengthening the first two lines of defense. Continue to enhance public education and fire prevention supported by consistent enforcement of the fire code. Sustainable valuedriven services ensure we maintain service levels responsibly with long-term sustain sustainability in mind. These priorities line up with Ontario Fire Marshall's three lines of defense, public education, code enforcement, and emergency response. The same down same foundation we rely on every day. The timelines in this plan will re re will be reviewed each year to reflect the pace and type of the growth of the community as required under and this was a little different than the previous fire master plan which was very prescriptive. This one is flexible and it's meant to be flexed up or down as the community growth or as we assess community growth and then as per the FPPA council ultimately determines the service level of fire protection services for the town of Molton. This update plan identifies opportunities to reduce risk and improve resilience across the town. So with that, I'll kick this over to Isaac for more uh detailed conversation on the fire master plan. Thank you, Chief. Uh members of council, um honorable mayor, uh thank you very much for having us uh present tonight. Again, my name is Isaac Commandante. I was a project manager and content adviser for the fire service master plan. Excuse me. I have here with me tonight uh virtually is uh Debbie Higgins and Tim Beckett. I don't see them on screen yet. Are they there? having trouble with the clicker here. Here we go. Okay. My apologies. Okay. So, the fire master planning process. So we reviewed as much as we could as far as the aspects for the fire services is concerned and with the fire services we reviewed the fire administration, fire prevention, fire inspection, public education, training, fire suppression, apparatus, facilities and emergency management. We also we also reviewed how your current services are doing right now and identify any any areas of improvement. We also looked at fire service locations, your fire and your fire apparatus. Okay. What is a fire service master plan? Essentially, it's a road map and as the chief uh mentioned, it is going to go to 2031 and it's highly recommended that you look at it every year and again it is based on the fluctuation or the movement of your community. So that's the reason why we recommend you use you look at it every year rather than the five years that we recommend with our upcoming recommendations. the fire services master plan. It's actually driven by the community risk assessment which we also did and we looked at nine service nine different profiles for your fire for your community risk assessment. We looked at your geographic profile, your building stock, critical infrastructure, demographic profile, hazard, public safety response, community services profile, economic profile, past loss and event history. And just for your just for your uh information, the community risk assessment is legislated by Ontario government that you have one done every 5 years. So the process that we that we took to complete the fire service master plan, we did a community and fire fire station tour. uh we did targeted interviews and we also did community comparative analysis. So now I'm going to turn it over to uh Tim Beckett to complete the slide presentation. Hey, good evening everybody. Um so as the chief kind of mentioned, we we focused on a number of strategic priorities. Tim, we can't hear you. Uh just see if you uh have your uh audio muted. Nope, this is fine. Uh, it might be on our end. Hello. Oh, his audio is on. Hello, Tim. Say hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Debbie, can you unmute yourself? Hello. Just want to see if I could hear you, Debbie. Hello. Can you hear me? No, we can't hear you either. E either, Debbie. I can hear you, Debbie. I can hear you, Tim. We can hear each other. Got a text. Okay. So, our IT can hear you, but we can't hear you in chambers. Just give us a minute. Yeah, just give us a minute. a presentation on our end. Um so as the chief had uh mentioned earlier um you know a lot of this plan went into the strategic priorities. The first one was really around a riskbased service delivery. So looking at uh how the community delivers is based on the application of your community risk assessment. You know, evaluating the risks right across your municipality. So it's not just an a blanket application. And we look at the development of targeted goals, objectives, and service levels related back to all those risks. Um next slide. Strengthening the first two lines of defense. Um, as the chief mentioned about the three lines of defense, we really put a focus on public education and fire prevention to support the whole aspect of enforcement of the fire code. Um we want to look at how we reduce the risk, enhance the community resilience and then rely on a whole aspect of fire protection uh and the suppression operations side um to back up that uh dynamics of the first two lines. Next slide. And the third strategic priority looked at sustainable and valuedriven services. And it was really about the long-term sustainability of the fire uh uh service and looking at uh the most effective and efficient levels. We really wanted to put a focus on, you know, protecting public safety but at the same time understanding the fiscal responsibilities that the municipality has. Next slide. Um each of the strategic priorities are supported by program specific goals and we looked at each one of your program areas and divide uh identified a number of strategic goals uh specific goals to each of those. Next slide. 26 uh observations with 37 key recommendations. Um, you know, we we looked at a a time frame for each one of those, ensuring that um the, you know, it was reasonable, but also allowed the flexibility um of staff capacity, your corporate priorities on an annual basis, the pace of community growth. So, you know, as we talk about because of growth, this is required. If the growth doesn't happen when it's uh anticipated to and and either is moved up or pushed back, the plan is flexible enough to do that. And as well looking at budget approved uh uh budget uh approval by council uh each and every year. Next slide. Goal number one looking at administration really uh started to uh put a focus on um you know industry standards and the risks associated to Milton. We examine the balance between public safety and fiscal responsibility ensuring that public safety was maintained at the same time you're able to afford what we're suggesting. Um we've suggested a a 300 second travel time. Uh this allows for a MiltonMade solution. Uh it this is a combination of a you know a slightly uh increased travel time but starting to target with the ability to balance risk reductions through proactive fire prevention and targeted public education programs based on the risks that we're seeing within the community. Next slide. The public education um goal number two uh was really about you know looking at targeted programs evaluating the communities the vulnerable populations utilizing GIS mapping AI to to build into your programs so that you can deliver programs that meet the community needs and each and when I talk about community I'm not talking about Milton broad I'm talking about each one of the demographic needs within a community um and and different geographical areas will require different programming. Next slide. uh fire prevention and code enforcement uh recommendations under the utilization of predictive analytics uh phased in proactive inspections so that um you're targeting uh your highest risk areas first and then eventually on a regular basis you're able to go in and do a proactive inspection looking for compliance to the fire code and then recommendations to align staffing levels to meet these program needs over a period of time. Next slide. Rule number four, operations. Um, address the current and future risks of uh alternative residential units or additional residential units, ARUS. Uh, again, we're seeing a large number of those uh start to happen within the community and we just want to make sure that fire services is uh able to address those. maintaining service agreements for tech rescue disciplines. Um looking at your neighbors, looking at thirdparty uh providers to ensure that you have a service that's able to be delivered by um through the fire service when required. Looking at pre-planning, aligning your risks with your CRAAS. So starting to look at those ones that are are highest risk uh to lowest risk and making sure that you get out and the operation staff understand what needs to be done. We took a great uh in-depth review of station six and station 7 looking at the potential growth and the ability to for the community to uh to provide protection in growth areas. Station six we've identified you know to uh to have open within 60 to 72 months and station 7 is uh was beyond the 72 months based on the growth indications that we're seeing right now. um phased in hiring for each station and that phased in hiring will then allow opportunities uh you know while the stations are are being prepared you start to phase in hiring now you can uh you can operate an additional apparatus that will uh address your effective response force will start to look at uh the aspects of um additional rural coverage and deal with concurrent call loads in in certain areas. So, by putting staff in early, you start to address some of the needs without putting in some of the uh the the bigger capital cost right off the bat. Next slide. Emergency management. We we we reviewed uh you're looking at, you know, businesswide uh community or sorry, continuity business continuity planning. Uh making sure that you have plans in place when when all else fails. We learned a lot from co and uh this is just an opportunity to to really put a focus on uh putting these continuity plans uh into uh into documents and then strengthening the capacity to prepare and respond for all types of emergencies and ensuring that you're there's a number of recommendations around um emergency management and the the aspect of your emergency operation center. Next slide. communications. This is an opportunity area um for to explore uh and look at it as a business unit to expand services to other fire departments. Um doing so would we're uh and as growth happens within your existing station. Um you've you've kind of outgrown that for future expansion. Um so to look at virtual solutions on a temporary basis and the potential to build a new purpose-built center with tying tied into one of the new stations and right now maintaining a minimum twoperson model is uh is suffice but as the growth continues you're going to have to continue to look at how you address staff and that's laid out in the in the plan. Next slide. Training and professional development. um you know looking at resources meeting the needs of programming meaning that you have the adequate uh props that are required and that includes uh the exploring of a new uh class B training facility that is beyond the 72 months but uh you know we've identified it as uh an area to keep a focus on and then also making sure that your staffing requirements meet the needs as they as you continue to increase staff and increase programming for the firefighters. Next slide. Facilities uh apparatus and equipment. And this is really about exploration and you know looking at how you explore a formal partnership public works or transit for shared space for mechanical support. You're continuing to outgrow the space that you currently have within uh station. uh um and you know it it needs a a greater but to build a standalone for fire uh would probably uh cost a lot more and if you can look at partnerships with public works or transit in a in an area that's already built up you have a a greater um return on on investment in that. Next slide. Next slide, Isaac. So, that was a quick uh quick overview of the the uh fire master plan that we worked on. Um look forward to any questions that council may have through you, Mr. Chair, u or the chief to talk about next steps. Thank you. Any questions of members of council? Council Challenger. U thanks Mr. Chairman. First of all, I want to thank uh the chief for uh his time going in depth on this uh the master plan. As I said to uh the resident, I'm in support of it. The only uh request I have for them to give consideration to is uh if they could possibly put together some sort of of preliminary budget over that period of time. Uh they've identified the costs of capital, the cost of of human capital through the time period. They've identified positions and all that kind of thing. But what does it mean on an annualized basis? and if they could give consideration to possibly providing that information to uh to council would be appreciated. That that's the only comment I had, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Council Cher. Any further questions by Yeah, Council Kauki. Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. A question for the chief in relation to the performance standard set by the industry um in regards to response times. Just wondering if that's going to be regularly reported back to council just so we can measure success of our uh master plan and delivery of it. through uh chair and thank you for the question. Yeah, that would be part of that first initial recommendation is updating or establishing regulating bylaws to set performance objectives and at that time we would approach council with a a review cycle that council would approve to bring that data back. Thank you. Thank you councelor Kauki councelor Elli. Thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you for the presentation. A lot of it made a lot of sense and I really agree with councelor Chaliner's comments about you know making sure that we are aware throughout the process where the budget ask is going to be because that is critical um to the taxpayer as well as council decision- making. One of the things that I wanted to know is this is a great document. We have all read it. How will the community know about this? How do you plan to educate the community about these findings and these recommendations? there is a I don't know what to call it but a narrative in the community that we are underst staffed that we don't have enough firefighters and that you know we are at a very risky situation um I think disseminating this information will help allay a lot of those fears so do you have any plan in place thank you through the chair right now we we do formally roll this out to our firefighters and we'll do presentations and our part-time firefighters to the public. That's something that that's a takeaway we can we can go back with and and talk to Stratcom about. Commissioner. Yeah, just to follow up on that through you, Mr. Chair. Um I know the chief is working with um strategic communications as well on some public messagings. I I'll call it more general public messaging. Uh and certainly we can highlight the points from the master plan. um you know try to parlay those parlay put those together um where we can because I certainly take your point counselor Lee about um making sure that the community hears um you know what are what council's approved what their intentions are that their community is safe that the that the data we use the data to form the master plan the resource levels all those things so we'll take that back for sure thank you commissioner Scott any further questions Councelor Best. Yes. I was going to ask a question as the chief knows, but councelor Choner beat me to it. Just in terms of the consulting team, have you also reviewed the situation we now have of new alternatives such as ARUS, highrises, and more trade movements in the community that could have effects and also could require additional training and equipment? Yeah. through the chair. Thank you for the question and absolutely it was especially with the uh the the report was written while ARUS were coming in and the high-rise issues was was uh at the time as well. Um so in the report it's heavily mentioned and recognize the new emerging trends and that's where you'll see some of the staffing levels more or less reflect on that and further to support rural Milton as well. That's the other side of it. Thank you. Any further questions? Seeing none, I have a motion moved by councelor Best and seconded by councelor Malibu that Milton Council receive the town of Milton community risk assessment and the town of Milton 2026 fire uh master plan and that Milton council adopt the town of Milton 2026 fire master plan with the timing of the recommend recommended actions included therein subject to annual review based on the pace and composition of growth within the community. and further that staff be authorized to implement the accompanying strategic priorities, goals, and objectives and recommended actions contained within the fire master plan subject to any approvals required through the annual capital and operating budgets. All in favor and it's carried. Moving on to 8.25 transit service annual report. I will now call on Tony Delisandro, director of transit to provide a presentation for this item. Good evening, chair, mayor, and members of council. I'm here tonight to pro provide a brief overview of the 2025 transit services annual report, a highle summary of progress, what challenges we're navigating, and where we are headed next. Perfect. My presentation will include an overview of strategic guidance shaping system growth, key initiatives recently launched, as well as the external forces that have been influencing some of our services. I will then highlight system performance and trends and conclude by providing a brief summary of our 2026 divisional work plan. Our work continues to be aligned with the town's strategic plan and vision for 2011 of connected transit and mobility with an aim to improve connectivity across our community. Support and enable growth through transit oriented planning and development. enhance quality of life principles by providing reliable and accessible mobility options that promote independence and advance the town's broader strategic objectives. 2025 marked a pivotal year as we began implementing phase one of the council endorsed 5-year service plan which was approved by council in 2024. This work aligns to a prospective transit investment target of providing one service hour per capita by 2041, which ultimately means delivering more convenient and frequent routes, longer hours of service, and a network that is designed to support both existing and future growth. All of this, of course, remains under council's authority and discretion to adapt and adjust transit service levels where and when applicable and throughout the annual budget process. 2025 was a significant year for operational progress. We launched several phase 1 initiatives of the 5-year service plan which included Sunday and later evening weekend uh weekday services as well as fixed route expansion into Boone Milton Education Village at the Veladrome and Sherwood Community Center. We also implemented key connectivity and reliability enhancements designed to improve service connections internally as well as with GO Transit services. From a fair policy perspective, we adopted some fair adjustments, a new single fair electronic product through our mobile ticketing platform, and matching the region's subsidization of the Halton Split program, further reducing affordability barriers for eligible clients. While we've made meaningful progress, there were several external influences that have impacted ridership and service demand in ways that were outside of the town's control. The most significant influence to conventional ridership was the introduction of a cap on international students, negatively affecting post-secary enrollment. This was particularly evident this year and a common trend among transit systems in Ontario and at municipalities with post-secondary colleges. Other notable factors include persistent hybrid work patterns which extend service peak periods and increased day-to-day trip ridership uh variability. a broader regionalized labor market reinforcing the importance of strategic crossboundary connections and inter inter agency fair and service integration. And finally, we are seeing a growing reliance on specialized transit particularly from AODA eligibility and subscriptionbased trips which can have implications for future capacity and budget. To address these factors, staff have instituted and will continue to plan for a variety of flexible service options to balance diverse needs with long-term financial viability. Shifting gears to system performance. This slide represents year-over-year revenue passenger trips or linked trips that exclude transfers for both conventional and ondemand services since 2018. While annual ridership has declined in 2025, overall ridership trends continue to show a posit a positive trajectory. More specifically, annual ridership trips in 2025 were 10% below 2024 levels, but 56% above 2023 and 60% above prepandemic levels in 2019. Overall, the system continues to trend upward alongside service improvements and growth over time with the decline in 2025 ridership primarily due to post-secondary enrollment. Case in point, this slide demonstrates the direct impact of post-secary enrollment on route one service uptake. As a reminder, this route serves current and Laurier satellite campuses as well as parts of Ontario Street North, Steels Avenue, Region Road 25 North, and the 401 Industrial Park. Route 1 saw a 22% decline in ridership, largely driven by enrollment variability and semester timing, as you can see on the screen, starting in Q2 of last year. It is important to note that this market also has a broader regional reach with over half of all route 1 trips transferring with GO Transit services. To address short-term demand and capacity needs, staff are planning service adjustments in 2026 to rightsize some route one service while maintaining important GO connections and local bus transfers. We will continue to work with our partners at Konesoga College and Lauria University to monitor enrollment patterns and demand requirements into Q3 and make any necessary adjustments. Conversely, specialized transit as I mentioned saw significant and sustained ridership growth in 2025. ridership increased 45% in 20 versus 2024, 64% in 20 versus 2023 and 78% compared to prepandemic levels. This result reflects broader demographic and mobility changes tied to the growth of eligible clients and the expansion of subscriptionbased trips. trips that happen regularly on a day-to-day or a week-to-eek basis for medical, employment, and community support needs. Staff will continue to monitor capacity levels closely, particularly if specialized transit ridership continues to grow at a comparable rate through 2026. Looking at ridership composition based on the way people pay their fair or the method of fair payment, 96% of riders use fair products rather than cash and 92% of all fair products were sold through token transit which is our mobile ticketing platform. This shows strong adoption of digital fair payment tools with which really simplifies boarding and improves operational efficiency. We also continue to see a diverse core market with youth and adult concessions making up the majority of fair payments. Lastly, regional integration remains important with 22% of all trips involving GO Transit connections. This reinforces the importance of coordinating our schedules with with their services. In partnership with Halton Hills, Route 21 provides service along Steels Avenue connecting the Milton and Lisgar GO stations with stops at Toronto Premium Outlets and stops in Milton, Halton Hills, and Missaga. RERSHIP continues to remain stable, illustrating the importance of this type of intermunicipal service. Stop level boarding and aligning counts demonstrate strong engagement at both GO stations, the Amazon Fulfillment Center, and Toronto Premium Outlets. These patterns likely illustrate an increasingly diverse and broader labor market with growing evidence of reverse commuting into Milton. From a financial perspective, annual expenditures increased 14% compared to 2024. This increase primarily accounts for service expansion that was implemented in September, additional specialized transit capacity needs, higher utilization of the split affordability program, and higher thanex expected winter maintenance activities. Revenue programs partially offset expenditure increases that were driven by contributions from both Konesoga and Laurier University, developer revenues from subsidized pass agreements, and fair policy adjustments. As a result of the decrease in conventional ridership caused by post-secondary enrollment variability, the town experienced an overall reduction in fair media sales revenue and a net expenditure in line with annual wrership. Looking ahead, the 2026 transit division work plan builds on previous year achievements and initiatives to adapt, realign, and advance service priorities. Key projects include implementing phase two of the 5-year service plan, which includes more schedule reliability improvements and growth into Boone and Derry Green. Developing the annual transit accessibility plan, updating our transit service design guidelines, which will formalize service triggers, warrants, and measures to enhance transparency in service planning and when we make service adjustments. We'll also continue advancing critical long-term projects to maintain operational resiliency such as treat transit uh fleet procurement and replacement for replacement and growth and environmental assessment TRP process for the future transit maintenance garage facility. The purpose of this particular project is to prioritize and establish a clear pathway for the town to undertake a competitive procurement process for the future delivery of contracted services with a town-owned maintenance facility. The intent is to seek more competitive rates without the contractor requiring a fixed garage asset. Later tonight, council will be considering a service contract extension with our current service provider PW Transit Canada Keys to align with funding and project timelines of that particular project. In closing, 2025 was a year of strategic progress. Under council's direction and support, we laid important groundwork through service expansion, improved reliability, and enhanced accessibility. and at the same time pivoting and adapting to address external impacts where possible. 2026 will continue to build on the momentum established as we implement phase two of the 5-year service plan. And this concludes my presentation. I'm happy to take any questions. Council Cher. Uh thanks, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple questions. U so the first one is around conventional. So if you strip out um what's going on with students and you saw a reduction in student affairs in 2025 u everybody else was it flat did it grow u where were we in 2025 with respect to non- studentent travel through the chair uh we were fairly flat um systemwide we did see some growth uh early on in uh some of our uh cross boundary routes Um but mainly the majority of the impact that we saw in ridership was related to uh students on particular route 2. So that represents about 42,000 trips that were impacted as well as across the system as a whole related to that particular uh market. Okay. Uh second question, Mr. Chairman, u the on demand service, is it providing you with um any hints as to where you might establish a regular route or are we not there yet in terms of the volume of on demand? Uh through the through the chair. Uh so we used on demand service as a transitional service. So we do have warrants to kind of trigger when fixed route services will will happen. Um for example, uh route one used to be in the 401 industrial park used to be an on demand area. we converted that to a fixed route service. Um and so that you know there there is some success uh associated with that. There are some other areas in town where we use on demand as a initial triit initial uh transition area style of service in new growth areas where we really can achieve uh implementing a large bus in small roads that it may or not completely be completed. Uh so there the idea the intent is to ultimately change and transition when that demand occurs. Okay. My last question Mr. Chairman is around the Stills Avenue route. Um and I'm just kind of curious as to what percentage of the riders are from Halton Hills versus Milton. Um yeah through the chair. I don't have that information with me. I do can I can say that there are there is a mixed it's a mixed bag of mostly Peele residents and Milton residents and some Halton Hills residents. So I would say a majority of uh riders using this service are Miltonians or residents from Peele either Missaga or Bmpton connecting with this service. Halton Hills benefits from this service really through the Steels Avenue corridor. And while you do have some ridership from Halton Hills, the maj overwhelming majority um is through those two jurisdictions, but we're happy to provide that level of information if we have it. Yeah, that raises just one more question, Mr. Chairman. I apologize. U and that that's around how it's funded. So when we got into this uh the Stills Avenue route um we didn't really have the opportunity to have a conversation at that point in time with the province uh or the region of Halton both of whom are responsible for regional transit and I would classify still the Steels Avenue bus as a regional transit system ultimately it's serving two different uh regions um and uh at least three municipalities maybe four right uh is there any possibility Tony of getting any kind of funding uh for that that route from either the province or or one of the regions uh through the chair. So just to clarify, currently we have a uh funding model share with Halton Hills. So Halton Hills pays 50%. Uh and the town room pays the remainder. Uh currently at this time we have not had any further discussions with any higher levels of government to provide support for that particular route or any other regional connections. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not going to be critical of what happened with the budget. Uh quite frankly, I expected worse and so that's probably through good management that we aren't that bad. So, thank you. Thank you, Council Chowder. Councelor Malibu. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Hello, Tony. How you doing? Doing great. How are you? Okay. So, if I understand this report uh accurately, Despite increasing service levels by 21%, despite adding more than 13,000 additional service hours and along with our increasing population, ridership on Milton Transit decreased by 10% in 2025 compared to 2024. So based on those numbers, what are you anticipating for 2026? Do you see this trend continuing? Do you predict that ridership will increase in 2026? through the chair. So just to kind of unpack that in a couple of ways. So we implemented a majority of those service hours in September. So typically the service level changes that council adopted through the budget process included service on Sundays as well as later evening service. We expect the uptake of that to come over time. Uh so within the next 12 to 18 months. So the majority of that uptake will come throughout 2026. Um we are seeing the tail end of the enrollment patterns from Konos Stoa. So we have a good at least understanding of what our projections are at least up until Q3. We will further re-evaluate with between them and and Lauria University on what their enrollment patterns are looking like in the fall. Um but in the meantime, we're fairly um uh optimistic of achieving over between a million and a million 1.1 million uh revenue passenger trips for the year, which would get us slightly above 2024 levels. Okay. Uh thanks for that. But I'd be interested to see what the wrership uh projections were for the uh service levels we implemented in 2025 uh and compare them to the project wrership numbers that council was provided with when we approved the uh the additional service levels. Uh that's all I have. That's all the questions I have, but I have some comments at the appropriate time. Thank you uh councelor Maldiff councelor Kulki next. Thanks Mr. Mayor for that and thanks Tony for the presentation. Just a few questions in relation to portions of the presentation uh in regards to route one that experienced that decrease in ridership. Uh you mentioned service adjustments will be made. Do you know what specifically that looks like? Uh through uh through the through the chair. Um, so we we have made some schedule adjustments where we're aligning some we're removing some trips. Um, and we're realigning some of our those schedule timings to connect with other with other routes. So we were operating approximately a 20 minute service on that route. We will be moving it down to a 30-inut service on that route. So a bus every 30 minutes, which still maintains connections with all our all the other routes, but it does reduce some services between 15 15% or so. So if I understand that correct, just frequency of the timings of when a bus arrives is changing there. It is the frequency most likely, but there are no changes to uh route design or uh bus stop locations and and things of that nature. Gotcha. Um additional question in relation to the uh to build off of what councilor Malbuff said regarding that 10% reduction. Uh it's still nice to see a very large amount of ridership on our transit. That's exactly what we want to see as we continue to grow with the high densities coming in as well. Having said that, uh, and we've had some discussion on this is I do think that the opportunities we'll have to continue ridership incrementally increasing is going to be with those regional connection points. uh is is there an opportunity here knowing that we have a 10% decrease and with the federal changes towards the postsecary uh students that are uh coming in or lack thereof uh is there an opportunity to expedite regional connections to maybe Oakville hospital go-kart pool lot those type of things especially given the uh age group of the individuals using our transits usually university students and and high school youth uh through the chair So, we we continue to follow our 5-year service plan to that outlines um kind of the service level as well as the service expansion plans uh over the 5-year period. Um from my understanding, from my recollection, uh those connections, those other broader regional style connections that you're referring to were outside of that 5-year plan. Um you know there there has been some changes that have occurred over the last few last year as you mentioned about as as as we all mentioned and have seen with regard to policies uh around immigration and international student gapping. Um there's something that we can definitely evaluate. We do uh speak with our Oakville counterparts regularly um and and we can definitely um you know speak about that but we would have to take that back and review that and and get back to you. Thanks. And just to conclude here as well, do staff plan on surveying those that are using our buses the most in terms of what they could, you know, benefit from if transit investments or improvements were made in a certain area uh through the chair. So, we have not surveyed our our clientele. What we've have done is still leveraging the engagement activities that we're doing. We've done is a five-year service plan and try to prioritize accordingly. And uh lastly, just to comment, I think it might be uh in the best interest for transit uh department, your your staff as well to you know go out into the community to to seek what those improvements or changes could look like so that we can see an upward trajectory in our ridership uh uh and not solely like you know see a decrease coming down. We don't want to see that. So thanks thanks Mr. Mayor. Councelor Lee. Thank you Mr. Mayor through you. Uh thank you Tony. First of all, a note of thanks to you and your team for doing a fantastic job. Every time I have reached out with resident concerns, you've gone above and beyond to make sure that they are catered to and they've found some solution even if we are not able to provide them locally to navigate the transit system and get to the location they want to go to. So, uh, credit where due. Um uh and to the comments made by my colleagues about regional transit. Those of us who are on the regional council will agree there is absolutely and Tony you're too nice and too kind. There is no appetite within Oakwell in Burlington. The thing the reason why we have Halton Hills and Miltonou is because there is political will on both ends. We lack that with other Halton municipalities. So hopefully come October we will have some changes and that will possibly happen uh especially in Oakville. Um and on that note I wanted to say that there's a lot of demand for universitygoing students to have busing to and from the growing areas and the old established areas to the carpool or areas. So that includes Highway 25, that includes your Martin Street, um, Steels Avenue, that area. Students going to McMaster, Waterlue, Laurier in G. And wondering if that can be used as a leverage to kind of further the conversation we're having with the region because we'll have to have an MOU with Oakville to get those done. So those are my comments. Thank you, councelor Ellie. Those uh those were comments not uh questions. Uh then uh councelor Marshall um just two kind of uh going to say prospective questions maybe um I like to always touch base with respect to the Presto fair integration where that is on the horizon if it is on the horizon and whether or not um there's any disadvantages for not doing it sooner than later. through the chair. So, what I can say is that is it is identified in and in our forecast. So, it's been identified in our five-year service plan. It has been uh included in the five-year uh sorry in the in the forecast uh budget. Um there it's it's the uh to answer your second question, the perspective around doing it faster or not is not just our decision to make. It is a collaboration and further discussion with Metro Links uh and and the Presto office and where we fit within should should council and and we we proceed where we fit in the progression of implementing and adopting Presto. Um so it's a little bit of a two-way two-way communication that's required. And then maybe just a comment for consideration. And I don't know if you'll have anything to say, but I I saw in our uh fire presentation that they're looking to coordinate possibly with public works. And then I see in your presentation we're talking about a transit facility. And I'm just wondering if departments are talking and looking for any efficiencies that might be able to be built in in that manner or if you can comment on that in any way. I can respond to that is yes. But councelor Marsh, you've got the floor. I'll accept the yes. Thank you. Okay. Uh Mr. Chair, uh councelor Melbof has indicated that he's got a few comments and no further questions, but Tony might just want to remain there because you might want to respond to some of the comments and then Mr. Chair, back over to you, Councelor Melbof. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Sure, nobody's surprised that I have some comments, but uh so Mr. Chair, members of C, I'm concerned with what we see in this report as should every member of this council with the 2025 increase in both service levels and operating hours as well as the increase in our population. We should have seen an increase in wrership. Instead, we saw a decrease. These numbers indicate to me that many who use transit in 2024 chose not to in 2025. They found alternatives to get around. Transit numbers are going the wrong way and the economy the way it is, I predict numbers will get even worse and and that concerns me. Later on, we'll be dealing with another report to approve a contract extension. a contract extension would could result in a 54% cost increase for transit over the next three years. And I'll have more to say on that when we get to that report. Hey, uh Tony, I'm not sure if you got any response to that. And again, councelor Melo said there were comments. So with that, Mr. Chair, back over to you. Thank you so much, Mayor CR, for taking over. Fantastic job while I was away. I was told um I have a motion moved by councelor Best and seconded by councelor Chaliner that the 2025 transit service annual report be received. All in favor and it's carried. We'll move on to items for consideration 9.1 development charge and community benefit charge bylaw revision uh to timing. Have a motion moved by councelor Best and seconded by councelor Malibu that the timing of the presentation to council of the proposed development charge and community benefit charge bylaws be deferred to May the May 11th 2026 council meeting or later as described more fully in report ES-013-26. Uh I will now call on to the CFO Glenn Cohen for any introductory comments. Uh through the chair and the February report we brought forward. We were very specific in the resolution about the April date. After further public consultation, we'd like to provide a little more time for further uh consultation with the various stakeholders. So, hence the resolution just because we were as specific as we were in the February report. Thank you. Uh Mr. CFO, um Council Chower. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. I'm supportive of uh the support of the of the report, I should say. Um however um I'd like to ask through you of the of the of the CFO with respect to the clarity comment in the executive summary. So I suspect that all members of council have had discussions with uh various people in the community about what is proposed. Uh I think we all know what's going on with the economy. Councelor Maloo alluded to it. uh you know there's a lack of confidence quite frankly in in the real estate community partly as a result of the cost of a mortgage the cost of building u the economy is is very weak uh the last three weeks have not been helpful either with with the war in Iran and its its impact on on oil u but there are there are longer term issues and and quite frankly it leads me to believe when I when I look at the the clarity paragraph that perhaps at that point uh as staff and as council we need to be considering delaying uh the uh approval of of the development charge that is proposed uh for at least a year maybe 18 months uh but I would say a year and come back to it and I want to know you know what does uh Glenn need from us to engage in that kind of consideration. I have a couple things, Mr. Chairman, that I think that that he needs to think about. And one of them obviously is what capital what what growth capital plans do we have that might be impacted by leaving the development charge where it is today and not moving to a new charge for 12 months? Can we move some of our capital projects around? um what kind of feedback has he been getting from uh the public and the development community with respect to what what is proposed and what council will be looking at in May. So through the chair all good points and we will have uh extensive information in that final report about what we've heard what we're recommending and what the other alternatives are. It will touch on what potential development charge rates could be, the appropriate time to implement them, um as well as any other sort of transitional or um other factors that we've identified that council may want to consider um if it were to introduce a new charge um and and how we could best do that, you know, with council's guidance. So, um I I hear and understand all the the comments. We've heard similar comments through the process and by bringing it forward in May, we'll have opportunity to dive deep into those questions with still that runway before June when our current bylaw expires in the event that there's any additional scenarios or discussion council may want to have. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. And I would just ask one more consideration with respect to what what intelligence we look at. It might be helpful to take a look at what is the what is the level of construction activity uh planned for 2026 in the town of Milton in 2027 and are we seeing u the development community peel back some of their plans in terms of uh when they plan to break ground uh because what we're being told is they are so you know are they and and what's the impact of that that would help I think frame the decision for council Thank you. Any further questions by council? Seeing none, I'll call the vote. All in favor and it's carried. Move on to 9.2 purchasing various. I have a motion moved. I moved. I have a motion moved by councelor Best, seconded by councelor Malibu, that the delegated authority to award the purchase of one fire Bradis vehicle which has a budgeted amount of 1.9 1,938,835 inclusive of net HST be approved as outlined in schedule A and that the contract renewal of for the second year of the joint micro paying program to Duncor Enterprises Inc. in the amount of $910,632 exclusive of HST be approved as outlined in schedule B and that staff be delegated the authority to approve the renewals for years 3 through five of the joint micro paving program as further outlined in schedule B and further that the manager procurement be authorized to execute the contracts as outlined by the purchasing bylaw and the mayor and the town clerk be authorized to sign any required paperwork now call on our CFO to make any introductory comments. It's one of the shorter purchasing variouses we've had recently. Uh happy to answer any questions on either of those two items. Thank you. Any questions uh from council of staff? Seeing none, I'll move on to the vote. All in favor? And it's carried. Move on to 9.3 milk and transit service delivery contract update. I have a motion moved by councelor Best and seconded by councelor Chner that councelor approve a contract extension to to culis-pwrit Canada for a period of 3 years plus three one-year option effective July 1st 2027 under the existing terms and conditions and subject to infl inflationary and growth related changes to the costing framework and that the manager purchasing and risk management be authorized to execute the contract and the mayor and town clerk be authorized to sign any required paperwork. I'll go on to our CF. Actually, I won't go on to our CFO. I will go on to if there's any questions from council staff. Seeing none, all in favor. Oh, sorry about that. My apologies. I speak faster than the hand goes. Fast. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Indeed. Councelor Malibu. Yeah. Just a couple of questions for Glenn. uh for the CFO on in the report on page 805 it shows a projected uh contract cost increases for transit of 23% in 2027 another 15% in 28 and another 9% in 29 which amounts to a 54% increase over 3 years. My question is how binding is this contract? How flexible is it? If the trend we saw in 2025 writership continues, does this extension allow us to react to less of projected writership through the chair? Yes. The forecast that you see in there is relying on future growth in our system and most of that growth is subject to future council decisions through the course of this the term of this contract. uh our existing contract has allowed for us to work with the with the vendor to identify the correct number of operating hours in the service. So just to put in perspective I think the report report speaks around 2.9% is the average for inflationary before we add in all those other growth factors and if you look at the uh the cost per hour it generally changes by around 9% in the first three years of the contract. So um you know that's to give an order of magnitude of status quo and each year in the budget process we'll come to council looking for approval for what the right level of service will be for the subsequent year. Great. Okay. Thank you for that. I'm just a little concerned about telling the the contractor what this council's looking at at approving. So that's that's my concern about what I see here. Okay. But uh I guess the same holds true. Should hypothetically if the we move towards a regional transit system are we restricted by this contract or the same rules. Um so I think I probably would need to understand what any sort of transition would be. I think it's safe to say well we'll well there any sort of progress in that would need a runway at a local level before anything could happen anyways. And so the fact that we've kept this to a three-year to start with options beyond that um is it seems like a a reasonable starting point knowing those other steps that would have to occur and we do have as I mentioned some flexibility in the contract with service levels and things that uh that we've been able to historically work with the contractor on. So but I have comments when if there's other questions. Thank you councelor Malibu. Councelor Challiner. Uh yes. Uh just very quickly, uh the important metric is the uh is the cost per hour and and we're one of the lowest which uh I hope we're able to maintain. But uh if we're looking at, you know, expanding into other communities, I go back to the comment I made to to Tony during his presentation. We need to take a look at, you know, how can the province play a role? How can PE region play a role? How can Halton Region play a role? And I, you know, I understand what councelor Ellie has said and I understand her frustration. Um, but the point is that we're not supposed to be operating a regional transit system. We're operating against policy and uh it's supposed to be paid by another level of government. And you know, I understand and completely support councelor Melbour's concerns about the cost. And I think we need to figure out how we can get to the other levels of government uh in a constructive way uh to get them to become partners, financial partners, because so far they're not. And we're seeing the demand uh and quite frankly, when you look further further east of us and further west of us, there are regional transit systems operating Thank you. Uh, councelor Challenger, anyone? Councelor Best. Yes. Further to Are you looking for comments or questions? Just want to make sure I get that. What would you like? Well, genuine just following councelor Mal. I give you one of each. Yeah. I I was losing track of because he was turning the other way from the microphone. We Well, what's happening here is councelor Malibu does want to make comments. So, you are you want to make comments or questions? Well, just comments first before I'm trying to head him off. Sure. Go ahead. Goodbye. In this case, as the mayor knows as well as councelor Ali mentioned yourself that, you know, there is no appetite at the region and I agree. You look at Durham region, they have far better service for smaller communities such as Whitby and Ajax similar size as ourselves. You and they were way ahead of us years ago. In terms of the wrership, well, it's been explained the students, you know, and I've you work on Seals Avenue as well, and you could see the wrership is going down from the students due to the changes in the federal and provincial policies. So, we have to work our way through it. I understand the concerns, but we have to work out and that's one thing that uh is coming up. We have a provincial budget coming up on March 26th which I was going to highlight to my regional council comments and we're watching that quite closely because as you've seen in Niagara region things may be changing quickly. Thank you councelor uh best councelor Malibu further comments. Okay, very briefly. Uh, okay. My concern is the trend we're seeing in in 2025 ridership. Uh, and here we are being asked to increase the burden for Milton taxpayers by could be up to 54% over the next 3 years to provide a transit service that the vast majority of our residents do not use. Fewer than 3,000 of our 140,000 residents actually use Milton Transit. throwing more money into transit is not the answer. We have been doing that for years. One of the signs of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. And that is what we are doing with transit. I believe it is time that we step back and take a serious look at how we are providing transit and start considering other alternatives because it's getting unsustainable. Thank you councelor Malibu for your comments. I'd like to go on to Mr. CEO for some comments. Yeah, just quickly, um, running a transit system is one of the most expensive thing a municipality does. Uh, and it's incumbent on us to do so. It's not an optional sort of venture for us. Uh, to councelor Challenger's comments, we will continue to pursue the provincial government specifically on it, but one of the things that we are told um regularly is that they're not offering operating money. they're operating offering capital projects and we're open to accepting them whenever we can. Uh but our our real challenge is the operating costs. Um two other things that I would remind members of council. One of the reasons why the town of Milton did so well in CO is that we had a transit operation that was flexible using our contractor and Tony and his people did a fantastic job scaling it down which was something that other municipalities couldn't do. And so I think on the whole I think we should be uh happy about the position we're in. It's an expensive proposition. We all know that. But we do have the ability to control cost better than most. Uh the cost per hour weighs that out. The flexibility of that system to be able to be contracted depending on uh if somebody comes and saves us with a regional system or something like that. And so um the cost per hour is very reasonable when compared to other municipalities. the flexibility within the contract and the way we provide that service puts Milton in a very strong position. So, it's not perfect um but but I would offer it's better than most. Thank you, Mr. CEO. Any further comments, questions? Seeing none, all in favor? And it's carried over 9.5 restricted acts delegation of authority provisions. I have a motion uh moved by councelor best second by councelor Malibu that the necessary bylaw included on the March 16th 2026 council meeting agenda be considered for approval. I will now call on to the town clerk for introductory comments on this item. Thank you. So, this is a regular report that comes to council in election year. Uh council may enter a restricted acts period either at the close of nominations and or following the municipal election results. When we refer to lame duck or restricted acts, it's when it can be determined with clarity or certainty that the new council will include less than 3/4 of the outgoing council members. So if council were to find itself in this situation, it could limit council's ability to make certain decisions around employee appointments, disposing of property, and making uh certain major expenditures over a certain threshold. So to uh ensure business continuity, staff have recommended passing uh a bylaw that temporarily delegates authority to the CEO if these restrictions do take effect and where other dele delegated authority may not already be in place. Any actions taken um under this delegated authority will be reported in Q1 of 2027. Thank you. Uh town clerk, any comments or questions of staff? Seeing none, all in favor? And it's carried. Sorry. Can you turn on your mic and say that counselor best regional updates? Any updates from regional counselors? Councelor Best. Yes, we have a regional council meeting next week on May or March 25th. Two important items, the drinking water update as well as the master plan for active transportation, which we're hoping to see some more links throughout the community with extension of some of the regional roads. So, uh, more to come and, uh, I think the provincial budget will be more impact than anything else. Any further comments from by, uh, regional counselors? Seeing none, moving on to statements by members. Are there any, uh, members, uh, of council that wish to make a statement? Seeing none, moving on, confidential session. There are two items in confidential session. Any members of council wish to go into confidential session? Seeing none, I have a motion moved by councelor Best and seconded by councelor Malibu that the recommendation containing staff reports 003-26 be approved. Any comments or questions? Seeing none, all in favor? And it's carried. I have a motion moved by councelor Best and seconded by councelor Malbouth that the recommendations contain a staff report DS-023-26 be approved. Uh all in favor and it's carried. Now we'll move on to the bylaw section. I have a motion moved by councelor Best, seconded by councelor Malibu, that the bylaw numbers 016-2026 through to and including bylaw 020-2026 be read, passed, and numbered, and that the mayor and the town clerk be authorized to sign the said bylaw, seal them with the seal of the corporation, and that they be engrossed in the bylaw book. All in favor, and it's carried. And now it's journed. Thank you.

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