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Green Revitalization and CCTV Approved - Committee of the Whole Meeting - Wednesday, April 1, 2026 - 9:30 a.m. - City of Richmond Hill
Richmond Hill · April 03, 2026
Good morning everybody. We're about to start our committee of the whole meeting. We have quorum. If I could have everyone seated and respectful quiet. Thank you. Morning. Good morning. Welcome everybody. This is the committee of the whole meeting for uh Wednesday, April the 1st. And it's not an April Fool's joke. We are actually here. Um um it's my husband's birthday, but that's also not an April Fool's joke, but happy birthday, Derek. Um so, uh today um we have an very full agenda before us. Before we get to that, I'm going to call this meeting to order. We have all members of council present at the bench in council chambers. Uh, next item agenda is council announcements. Mayor West. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, yeah, number of things I'd like to just mention. Um, first of all, tonight uh and tomorrow our is Passover. And uh so he sea to all of our uh folks celebrating this and to all of our Jewish community um may you have a a really wonderful uh uh festivities. Um it's also Easter this weekend. So to our Christian uh group in Richmond Hill uh including myself, we will certainly be uh celebrating Easter um as well. And uh I'd also like to point out this is Earth Month starting today and um we have many different uh activities planned uh over the next little while as we always do in Earth month including different community cleanups and so on. So I encourage people to uh to you know participate in the full range of of uh environmental initiatives this month because there's certainly lots to choose from. Um, and finally, I I would also just like to say a big thank you to everybody that was involved and all of council that came to the maple syrup festival on the weekend. It was a really great event. I probably one of the best ones that we've ever had. And uh this is the 10th year that we've uh had the maple syrup festival. It's grown every year, including this year. And it really was great to see everybody come together, particularly at this time of year uh and particularly in at a time in in our uh world where we really do need to kind of come together as a community to celebrate um and to and celebrate a truly Canadian um thing, maple syrup. And so uh thank you everybody in particular. Um the public works staff as always do a fantastic job supporting that event. So thank you to them. And um Andrew from the event services who I know all we all know is was fantastic and has actually um he's been with that event for all 10 years that we've had it. And to Kate from my office, thank you very much for all the work uh in organizing that event. So, thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Anybody else on council? Any announcements? No. Uh then I'll just make mine as well. Um thank you, Mayor West. Your maple syrup festival was superb over the weekend. you had an enormous turnout and again and also thank you to staff. Uh they do such an excellent job with this particular event as they do with all but with this particular event it's superb. Um I would also like to take this time to make a note of Passover and Easter as we enter sunset tonight. Um our Jewish residents are going to be celebrating uh Passover. So to all our Jewish residents, neighbors, friends, and family uh May you have a wonderful Passover festive fest festive dinner with your family and your friends. And may we all pray for peace as we move forward with Passover and as well as Easter. Easter upcoming this weekend. To all of everyone celebrating Easter, I wish you a happy and peaceful Easter. And with that, we can move on to agenda item number three, introduction of emergency and time-sensitive matters. Seeing none, we'll go to the adoption of the agenda. Could I have a member of council? Thank you. C uh councelor tree. All those in favor? Thank you. Yes, I'm going to do that. So, um we have an extra delegate. Um, councelor Louu, we have an extra delegate for your uh for your is it your motion? No, it's for the uh it is for your motion. Can we Is it okay with you if we add them to the agenda? 100%. Is that good? Absolutely. Thank you. And with council, any objections? We're good for that. Okay. So, he is added to the agenda. Thank you. Okay. Do we have any disclosures of pecunior interest or the general nature thereof? Seeing none, identification of items requiring separate discussion. So we have um 11.7 which is the uh uh draft Richmond green revitalization m master plan is is on the agenda and it's going to be discussed because it is a presentation and our three member motions 12.1 2 and three they are also automatically pulled because uh they will be discussed separately. So, um, is there anybody on council who wishes to pull any other item? Uh, Deputy Mayor Chan. Thank you, Madame Chair. I'd like to pull item 11.3. Excuse me. Request for in-ear budget increase for Dave Barrow Civic Square project. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else wish to pull any other item? No. Okay. So, 11.3. So, just give me a moment. So we will have an adoption of the remainder agenda items then. Um Mr. Clerk, do I need to have another mover? Thank you. Uh yes, Madam Chair, we do need a mover to adopt the other items. But for the public record, I would ask that that mover confirm that they are moving the alternate recommendation D for item uh 11.4 that was the independent electricity system operator. uh staff has circulated alternate wording for bringing forward the change in tariff of the fee bylaw. It's same thing just different wording. So thank you very much everyone okay with that? Okay councelor tree as well. Okay so we are moving all the other items on our agenda 11.1.2 2.1 2.2 2 uh 113 is pulled. 115 6 7 is pulled. 8 9 10 We have additions. Uh 1111 112 is correspondence. 1113 is correspondence and 14 is correspondence. And then we have our other business. So uh councelor tree has moved to move those items. All those in favor? Thank you. Seeing none and seeing none opposed, that is moved unanimously. Thank you. Okay. Next item on the agenda is agenda item number eight. We have a public hearing. Agenda item 8.1 SRCFS 26 uh0007 tax adjustments under section 57 and section 358 of the municipal act. This is a public hearing. Do we have anybody in council who wishes to step forward to discuss that second time? Seeing none. Okay. Do we have to move that? Okay. Could I have a member of council move the staff recommendations? Uh, regional counselor Joe Depalo. Thank you. All those in favor? Oppose? Seeing none, that carries unanimously. Thank you. We will now move to our presentation uh for today. Please note this is a 20inut presentation. Um the presentation is to be given to this morning by Michelle Dobby who is our manager for park and natural heritage planning regarding the draft Richmond Hill green revitalization master plan and that refers to agenda item 117 and um following uh Miss Dobby's um presentation I will then ask members of council if they wish to make any comments with regards to the presentation. and we will then move at a later later time to the actual agenda item. Miss Dobby, the floor is yours. Welcome. Thank you, Chair Silivitz, Mayor, and members of council. Today, I'll be presenting the draft Richmond Green Revitalization Master Plan, which we have developed with the expertise of our consulting team at Dylan Consulting. Uh, next slide. In terms of our project timeline, we began in the spring of 2024 with research and background analysis along with a self-guided walking tour and survey. In the fall of 2024 to the winter of 2025, park revitalization options were developed, including public consultation on those options. Between the spring and fall of 2025, draft master the draft master plan was prepared, including an underground utility study and a parking study. In January of 2026, executive leadership team was briefed on this project. And that brings us to where we are here today at committee of the whole where the draft master plan is being presented for public comment. Our target is to bring the final master plan to committee of the whole in July of 2026 in order for phase 1 and two detailed design to commence in 2027. That is pending capital budget approval. Uh next slide. We've used a variety of consultation approaches over the course of the project to date beginning with stakeholder interviews in April and May of 2024. a self-guided walking tour and survey with over 500 responses in the summer of 2024. A virtual community workshop on the draft options which some members of council attended. Stephen Oh, did I lose volume? No. Okay. Uh that had over 160 January of 2025. uh which is about three times uh what we get out for a regular in-person public meeting. So great attendance at that virtual workshop. And lastly, an online survey on the draft options for those that couldn't attend the virtual workshop which had over 500 responses. Next slide. The vision outlined in the draft master plan will maintain Richmond Green as the city's largest outdoor sporting and events park with renewed more self-sustaining horicultural focus along with enhanced connectivity to and within the park, establishing better wayfinding through a trail hierarchy, which I'll speak to later, improving canopy cover and shade throughout the park, introducing flora and species uncommon in the city. uh that will help us achieve our larger resilient Richmond Hill goals. Proposing our boricultural techniques to establish shade more quickly such as the uh new mini forest technique which I'll speak to the location of that further on in the presentation and serving the growing population with new outdoor recreational facilities. Uh next slide. The January 2025 options consultation sought input on two options which are both on the screen. Each of these options maintained existing park facilities which we all know are well-loved uh by residents along with moving some facilities to more appropriate locations. So for example, the skate park which is currently in the northwest corner of the park was moved to a more central location where the underused amphitheater is located now. and park storage was moved from a very central location in the old cattle barn to a less central location. New facilities were also added to address ongoing demand, including a 12court pickle ball hub and three volleyball courts. Option one, which is on the left hand side of the slide, has the following key differences in relation to option two. The existing circulation system was generally maintained with the exception of adding a new access point out to John McCrae which is on the upper left hand side of the slide and some modest changes were made to the event area which is the colored callout area on the lower part of the slide. Next slide. Option two on the right hand side was the preferred option and included a new circulation with with access out to John McCrae similar to option one, but also new access around the events area which will allow larger events to be held at Richmond Green in the future. And that's the colored call out area at the bottom. Uh don't worry, the iconic waterfall is staying. Uh next slide. The draft master plan concept is broken into a north, central, and south area with all the features uh itemized on the left hand side of the slide. The concept plan generally follows option two with a few key changes. Park storage is cited beside the operation center for ease of access. That's number 27 on the map uh just to the left of where the Tom Graham Arena is located. And the 12court pickle ball hub is located in the area of softball diamond number three. That's number 12 on the map, just to the north of the yellow area on the map. Next slide. I'll now walk through the three chapters of the draft master plan, which include an introduction chapter, a chapter on the Richmond Green revitalization vision, and a chapter on implementation. Next slide. Chapter 1 is the introduction to the master plan and includes background information, the study area, the master plan objectives, and how to use and read the master plan. Next slide. Chapter 2 outlines the vision, which as I noted earlier, will maintain Richmond Green as the city's largest sporting and events park with a renewed, more self-sustaining horicultural focus. This chapter includes the concept plan which I'll walk through over the next few slides. Next slide. The concept plan establishes a clear and organized circulation system. This is the blue and green lines on the map on this slide. That circulation system includes new pathways to connect the park to the residential areas to the north and west along with new access routes to serve the planned larger events area. So the blue line on the map is called the primary trail system. This system will include both well it will be designed for both uh cycling and pedestrian traffic while the green line is devoted just to pedestrian traffic. So that'll be the slower trail system. New gateway features are also added which are the red symbols on this map and those could include public art. Next slide. The north area will provide year-round sporting opportunities, including a new pickle ball hub. That's item number 12 on the map. Volleyball courts, which are just to the left of uh the pickle ball hub, number 11 on the map. Uh they're located where the batting cages are right now in the park. baseball diamonds, uh, which all exist today, but are number six on the map, and a mini soccer field, which also exists and is number 14 on the map, just across from uh, the secondary school there. There'll also be new pedestrian and vehicle connections along with a passive park area with the potential for a mini forest planting in the northeast corner. That is number 13 on the map. Next slide. The central area will be the vibrant core of the park with enhanced ice skating and water play trail. So this would be a similar idea as what what the city has just constructed at Bayiew um Bayiew Hill Park uh where the two facilities are together in one place uh to use our space more wisely. Uh that is number 16, 17, and 18 on the map. We will transform the underused amphitheater area, which is the yellow area on the map in the middle. Uh number 22, uh with a new centrallylo skate park, outdoor fitness equipment, and an updated basketball court. And there will be improved accessibility, safety, and circulation, including a new vehicular drop off area just uh to the north of where the soccer fields are located. And that is number 23 on the map. Uh next slide. The south area will be the cultural and event space hub of the park with upgrades to the iconic waterfall to improve water supply and circulation. That's number 37 on the map. A new event space and stage which is number 35. And oh, sorry, I missed the extension of the heritage walk trail. I'll talk about that first. Uh so the extension of the heritage walk trail is the blue line through the middle. um of the map on the slide uh which is number 28 on the map and then new event space and stage which is number 35 and 36 on the map and there's a rendering just at the top of the slide that shows uh the wonderful new axial view that will be created down the heritage walk path towards the stage and the storm pond in the background. There will also be a renovated or new internal gateway building uh which is number 33 and 34 on the map. Uh that will be agricultural 2 either in renovated or new form with the botchi staying along with a new washroom and park storage area. And then lastly, a new operation storage building uh in proximity to the existing operations yard which is number 27 on the map. Uh, next slide. Chapter 3, which is the implementation chapter, prioritizes two phases to address the city's most pressing needs, which are recommended to be advanced to begin in 2027 in this year's capital budget and forecast. Phase one, which is the pinkish purple line uh on the map, includes the 12court pickle ball hub, new volleyball courts, and upgrades to the picnic pavilion, washroom, and mini soccer field. Phase two, which is the blue line on the map, includes renovating two senior baseball diamonds, new gateways and pathways, a passive area in the northeast corner with potential for mini forest planting, and finalizing the mini soccer field renovation. Park elements not included in these two phases may be considered in future 10-year capital budget and forecast in alignment with the city's asset management plan. Next slide. In terms of next steps, the draft master plan will be placed on the city's website for a 30-day web-based comment period. All comments received will be considered by staff and the consultants in preparing the final master plan, which is targeting the July 2026 committee of the whole. Thank you. And that concludes my presentation. You very much miss Dobby. Um, okay. Now, should I have someone bring this forward first? No questions. Okay. So, members of council, do you have any questions or comments regarding the presentation? Remember, the the actual item is coming forward later. Go ahead. Uh, Mayor West. So, I've had a number of conversations with staff, so I don't really have any I just had one question that came up with this. um in the um the area where the the new stage is going to be by by the storm pond. You said that's phase three. I I don't imagine that we have any particular um idea maybe at this point as to when that could potentially happen. Do we? Uh I know phase one is going to be the pickle ball uh area and that's great. Uh we need to get that done as quickly as possible. But the and phase two I presume won't be very expensive because we're just renovating ball diamonds. But phase three will be the meat and potatoes of this. So do we have some idea? Uh no, not yet. It's just the two phases that are being advanced through the master plan. The other elements would be uh considered through the capital budget and forecast later. Okay. All right. That's fine. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mayor W. Anybody else? Council U. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, just a few questions. Um, year round pickle ball courts and and volleyball. Um, what do you mean by year round? Is it going to be a bubble or is it going to be a structure through Madam Chair? Thank you. Oh, sorry. Through you, Madam Chair. Um the decision on the enclosure facility for the pickle ball hub is coming through the draft tennis and pickle ball strategy. Uh which will be brought to committee of the whole uh through a separate item in a few months time. Uh we are on target for the June 17th committee of the whole right now for that report. Uh but we are still uh investigating that through that study. So TBD here. So the idea is to have a year round facility. Um it will be an enclosure. The type of enclosure and how long that will be there is is still to be determined. And the courts at the um through you madam chair. So the courts at the uh snow storage will be are we keeping that on top of this or that's going to be gone? So that will also be addressed in the forthcoming draft tennis and pickle ball strategy. But um the thought right now is that it would likely we would likely maintain the temporary courts until our larger pickle ball provision rate um gets closer to what other municipalities are sitting at right now. All right. Thank you. Uh last one. Um with all these additions um is parking going to be an issue? Have you uh contemplate increasing parking space? So we did undertake a parking study um through Dylan Consulting. They have uh traffic and transportation specialists. Uh they did do the counts uh at the most popular times of usage in Richmond Green including uh the big rifest that happened that year. Very popular event. Um they did not determine the need for additional parking spaces. Uh but this is also part of the reason why uh the new plan is proposing a much more comprehensive circulation system to give people choice in terms of how they get to the park. Hopefully more people will walk or bike or take other alternatives to the car in the future. Uh but the parking study did determine the parking supply is adequate including as the new facilities are added. Okay. Thank you very much. That's all my questions, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you counselor. Anybody else wish to make any comments about the presentation? Seeing none, I have just one. Uh Miss Dobby, first of all, thank you very much and for all the work that you and um you and your your staff have put into this. It's a excellent presentation. Your last slide spoke to the 30-day period of extra public consultation. in you uh electronically. Can you tell me how uh we intend to get that message out to the public? Yes. Uh so we are working with communications to do our typical uh social media blasts. Uh we also have a notification list for uh the project. So people that wanted to be notified, they will be ebblast. Uh there will be the banner on our website letting people know where to go to comment on the draft report as well. Uh those are the main measures that we're using. Thank you. And what about the specific stakeholders like for instance for pickle ball for soccer? Would would they be getting anything uh specific as well? Uh yes. I think the majority of them agreed to be added to our notification list. Uh so they will be getting the notification eblast and um definitely if they want further meetings uh staff are here as well. Okay, thank you so much. Um again okay that's okay if you may chan you want to squeeze in. Thank you. I I didn't mean to squeeze in but in the spirit of talking about community in terms of infrastructure for the future while we all know uh pickle ball tennis is coming up but this have been a topic we've been talking for years and thank you madame chair also mention about the community and so you struck me on slide number 15 the very last bullet um opportunities for community involvement and partnership now I know we're talking about way down the line 10 year capital plan just to the extent it's possible through madame chair um that uh would manager um you like to share or shed some um thoughts about what we're thinking about community involvement always but partnership wise through you Mr. Madam Chair, go ahead. Uh, sure. Uh, through you, Madame Chair. So, that section of the master plan is is speaking to the typical community engagement and partnerships that we like to involve the community in for a park. uh tree planting. The new mini forest area in the norththeast corner uh is a different style of planting um that the public hopefully will be interested in trying out. Um this is this is one of the parks that when you look back at it, the the canopy is not at the level that it probably usually would be for this age of park. Um, so using some different techniques to try to help the trees to grow quicker with the community, uh, is one of the the big things that we're hoping to do in this park. Thank you. Um, yeah, I I I think there may be opportunity we might be able to comment later on when we get to item 11.7, which is the subject. Uh so I'm not going to uh raise that uh uh uh question or comment at this time but but interesting I turn back to uh slide number 10. Um there is that focus on self sustaining horicultural focus because when when when it was mentioned about the trees and things and so on that got me thinking um how self- sustaining. But we we'll leave it until 11.7 we discuss it. But thank you for helping me to further understand the opportunities particular for partnerships. Uh thank you. Thank you madame chair. Thank you sir. Last chance any takers? No we're good. Okay. Oh we do have councelor tree. Thank you so much. Uh this my last call. Uh I see the new um um meeting or event spaces. How many um um visitors we are expecting for the zone of the 24 25 areas? How many visitors we are expecting? 5,000 or 500? That's new event space. The new event space, how many how many people could it fit? Yeah. Um Oh, I will have to get back to you on that one. We did calculate that, but I don't have the number off hand. That's it. Thank you, Councelor Tree. Okay, one more time. We're all good. Okay. Absolutely. Could I have a member of council councelor Louu? Thank you. Uh to receive the presentation with thanks. All those in favor? Any opposed? Seeing none, that carries unanimously. Thank you. Our next item is are our delegations. Now we have um six delegations uh who are uh virtual and we have one that was added that is inhouse. So um the six that we're going to recognize first are all speaking to item 11.7 the draft Richmond green revitalization master plan and uh we'll go to our first delegate. Are we ready to do that Mr. Clerk? Yes. Okay. Good. 10.1. Okay. Our first delegate is Mr. Chris Song. Are you there, sir? Could you acknowledge one? Oh, there you are. Your microphone is off, sir. unmute yourself. There you go. Welcome, Mr. Song. You have five minutes. Hey, uh I appreciate your hard work and uh know regarding uh the mass planning of Richmond grill. I thank you so much for putting 12 of pickle ball which is great because uh you know I used to spend more than 20 years for tennis and I realized you know tennis is uh you know too much you know uh too dynamic to elderly people as a reporter I found out that is very very good at sport to elderly people and as well as the ladies for the uh the I mean the sport uh you know uh effect is almost the same as the tennis but the dynamic level is a way way easier than the tennis. So putting more uh on top of that you know one tennis court accommodate more than three typical court as a less investment then higher result we can get it. So my suggestion is I like uh you know Rick Mondial city of Rick Mond is more aggressive to putting more uh court that's it that's it Mr. That's it. You're completed. Yeah, that's it. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, sir. Next one on our speakers list is Eigor Senovo. You have five minutes, sir. I see your window. Could you put your camera on? Unmute yourself. Oh, sure. Good morning, sir. Can you can you you you don't have to, but do you want to put your camera on? I'm trying, but it doesn't work, unfortunately. Prefer not to. That's okay. You have Yeah, you have five minutes. I I Yeah, I just want to echo what previous participant says. There's not enough places to play peekaboo. I mean it's a great to hear you going build some cover it and open for I guess 20 like 12 months facility because for now we have none and literally no other options to play uh whatever it's exist in the community centers it's a joke it's not real pickable so just want to I hope it will not take years like many other projects That's my That's it. Thank you, Mr. Sinovoy. Appreciate it. Thank you. Next on our speakers list is Xiaoy Pao. Do we Madame Chair, um that delegated hasn't logged into the meeting at this time electronically. So, uh I think it's best to skip to the next one and if they happen to log in, then we can go back. You got it. Our next speaker therefore is Terresa Mito. Teresa, you have the floor. I see you in your square. If you could unmute yourself. You have five minutes. Hi. Uh, good morning. My name is Tesa Mato. I'm secretary of the Richmond Hill Pickle Ball Club. Um, I'd also like to comment on the Richmond Green master plan. Um, particularly as it relates to access. Right now, Rouge Woods is the only city facility that supports indoor pickle ball in a meaningful way. Demand for the space is high. Uh, but access is very limited. Um, at the same time that while access to the only true pickupball facility is so limited, we're aware that there are other permits that are being granted in this facility. Um, these permits include four activities which could easily be accommodated in other community centers and in some cases the permits are actually being issued for pro forprofit users. Um, the Richmond Hill Pickup Ball Facil uh Club is a nonprofit organization and we work hard to provide residents and locals outside of Richmond Hill access to pickle ball programs, leagues, tournaments, and um, learning opportunities. Um, so we're looking at how that space is being allocated. Even as a short-term measure, it would really be helpful to h to improve access for residents who are currently unable to play if those facilities were um granted to to local residents to permits for local residents. Um I also wanted to ask about alignment within the master plan. We've been told that the tennis and pickle ball strategy is still underway, but the plan has already identified the need for 12 pickle ball courts. Um, from a resident's perspective, there is some uncertainty there. How is that number determined if the strategy hasn't been completed? Um, is it intended to reflect demand or is it simply a starting point? If it's if demand continues to grow, as we've been seeing, it it is important to ensure that there is flexibility to expand on that plan. More broadly, the plan refers to year round recreation, but it's not clear what those timelines will be. From a user perspective, that makes it difficult to understand when meaningful improvements will actually be available to residents. I would just like to encourage that access be improved where possible in the short term and that long-term planning reflects how quickly demand is evolving. Thank you for your time. Thank you, madam. Next person on our speakers list is Mr. Robert Livingstone. I see your square. You have five minutes, sir. Hi, U Mr. Mayor. counselors. Um, happy Easter. Uh, so I'm Rob Livingstone and you might recognize me or know me from uh I'm a volunteer member of the um sports hall of fame committee here in Richmond Hill. Uh and uh also get involved in the sports awards. Um but I'm not here representing those. I'm representing uh well I'm a longtime resident and I'm an advocate for the pickle ball community here at the moment. And um basically I'm I'm encouraged that the plans are moving forward for Richmond Green, the muchneeded plans, but um I hope you'll consider some of my comments moving forward. Uh and I'm going to speak to why I think we need more than 12 pickle ball courts as part of that plan. We need some growth in that area. I'm an international sports business journalist. So I typically cover the Olympics and and major multisport events. And when I go to the Olympics, I usually have a side quest where I talk to our Richmond Hill athletes that are there um to to discuss with them, you know, their experiences with Richmond Hill. And um in Paris in 2024, I spoke to we had three Olympians there. We had uh uh Brian Yang, he's our badminton player. Um he spoke fondly of counselor Chan when he when when I spoke to him for his support. Um, we also had Jeremy Hassen uh with table tennis. We had Sam Shakar in beach volleyball. But the message I got from them is that they had a great experience living growing up in in Richmond Hill, but they train elsewhere. Um, our Babon and uh, and table tennis athletes train in Markham. Um, Sam trains in Toronto. They didn't have the facilities here like mostly train in those places. because they didn't have the facilities here to train in Richmond Hill in uh in Cortina, Milan Cortina last month. Um we had Jordan Bennington. He was our, you know, our our only Olympian there. Uh but I spoke to a Mexican figure skater who was on an Olympic scholarship for Canada to to train in Canada. Uh and he lived in Richmond Hill. He stayed in Richmond Hill and he really enjoyed that. But also he trained in Markham. So um you know the message there is that our aspiring young athletes they go elsewhere to achieve their goals to to train for sports because we just don't have the facilities and you know we used to send multiple athletes to the Winter Olympics. This time we only had one. Um I don't think that's what we want. I remember last year watching the four nations faceoff hockey tournament and there was an on-screen graphic of the starting six players for for team Canada and two of them and they listed their hometown. So, two of them had their hometowns as Richmond Hill out of six from right across Canada. I mean, that was pretty uh um that was a good moment. A lot of pride in that moment seeing that. But um and that included Conor McDavid who who was born technically in Richmond Hill, but New Market now claims him. So, you know, I don't know if we could claim that, but it was still good to see that on the screen. Um, but I don't know, you know, if we don't keep up our infrastructure from young people, we might not get there again. Last year, I was writing an investigative article on international pickle ball because I was aware that they are are seeking to uh be part of the 2032 Olympics or the 2036 Olympics. They want to be one of the sports competed at those games. and and I quickly learned two things that uh pickle ball is going to grow exponential over the next few years and that Richmond Hill is really not ready for that growth. I spoke to some International Olympic Committee members who think pickle ball is a great fit for them because of the three elements they look for when they when they choose sports. One is universality. So, it's enjoyed uh in a number of countries around the world. Um accessibility. you really only need the paddle to play for the athlete and it's a relatively small and lowcost footprint compared to many other sports. Um and the diversity the participants are among all ages um genders and ethnicities you know that that describes pickle ball but um that's uh sorry that ding was a timer. You have one more minute. Okay. Okay. So pickle ball is a good fit for Richmond too. The growth in North America in uh or in Canada from 2022 to 2025 has been 57%. United States that was 300%. Schools are adding pickle ball into their their fizzed programs. And um inclusion in the Olympics is going to further fuel growth. Uh pickle ball Canada survey found that the top obstacle to participation was lack of facilities. It's worth noting that with the Olympics, there'll be more funding uh uh through to pickle ball Canada, from the IOC, from the government and council council needs to recognize that these changes are happening. There's going to be explosive growth growth and we need to support this. Um you know, the community is changing and the demand for sports that we used to have like in the sports hall of fame, figure skaters, hockey players, baseball players, all that's changing. In May when we have the sport awards, you'll see there's new sports there. We have to change the way we look at it. Um, so just in closing, uh, because I know my time's up, we we need more than 12 courts. We need to really address that growth. Um, and we need to support our local athletes in our community. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next one on my list is uh Michael Bulcott representing the Richmond Hill Pickle Ball Club. Mr. Bcott, you have five minutes, sir. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Okay, just give me one second here. Um, thank you and good morning, uh, everyone. Um, my name is Mike Bokeut. I'm the president of the Richmond Hill. Um, sorry, pop-up just showed my screen here. I'm the president of the Richmond Hill Pickupball Club, one of the largest pickup communities in York Region in Ontario. Uh, this past week, we just went through 3,000 members in the network. Uh, I will be speaking to the Richmond Green master plan. uh but I will I will be relying on the draft copy of the report that was sent to me uh which is has a little bit more details in it than the uh presentation that you just saw. Uh according to the draft plan, it states that its purpose is to respond to recreation trends, meet community needs, improve year- round use, and repurpose underutilized facilities. Uh this is by far the best and right decision uh for that major park that we have here in Richmond Hill. Uh what is described in the draft document is a year-round destination park. Yet much of the land remains allocated to seasonal use and sits underutilized for a significant portion of the year while high demand yearround activities like the proposed pickle ball hub are limited to 12 courts. Um so when you look at the report and you look at some of the inconsistencies um it would be very helpful to have a specific timeline for these proposals and particularly for the courts. Um the city's proposing 12 pickball court hub while a tennis and pickball strategy is still underway and won't be completed until 2027. With regard to the proposed courts at Richmond Green, it's important to get the get this right and by that I mean right sizing it. If the park is truly meant to be a central destination park, the then right sizing the pickle ball facility is going to be critical. There is no other activity, game or sport that delivers what pickle ball does today. As the previous speaker highlighted, it appeals to both genders, all backgrounds, all demographics. It's played morning, afternoon, evening, and it drives consistent high utilization of space. It's not theoretical, it's factual. Pickle ball is the fastest growing sport in North America for a reason. We see it every day in our programs and I know in the city programs as well because we hear about it. Programs are full. Weight lists are growing. Players are leaving Richmond Hill to play in other municipalities that are building for this demand. And New Market is a perfect example of of what can be done. They started with six courts outdoors and they added six more portable courts out outdoors and now they're building a 20 court indoor facility that looks almost identical to what was proposed at David Dunlop Observatory Park and that will be ready this time next year. In Richmond Hill, council approved the David Dunlop Observatory Courts in 2022, but they were cancelled in 2023 and then we had to wait 2 years before we'd even begin a tennis and pickleball strategy. Now, we're aware that the strategy results will not be ready until 2027, while permanent infrastructure decisions are being made today. That is a significant risk. And this is and and if this is undersized, it will be at capacity the day it opens. And we've already seen New Market and Markham cap their membership for their clubs because of limited courts. If you build 10, you'll need 20 in a year. And those are the numbers that have come out in numerous reports that have been done even by Monteth Brown who's the consultant for this pickle ball strategy. Uh their reports have basically stated that you have to get the sizing right and if in the future covered or sprung structures is being considered then getting the size right today becomes even more important because we will not easily be able to expand it later. This is where right sizing timelines and accountability are very important. Without them, we risk repeating the same cycle, delay, defer, and pass this issue on to the next council. Meanwhile, costs will rise, suitable land becomes scarce or prohib prohibitively expensive, and access for residents remains limited. We have one opportunity to get it right. to build a facility that truly functions as a year-round high-use destination or one that we outgrow almost immediately in reference to pickle ball because once we pour the concrete the decision is locked in and if we get this wrong the next council won't be asking whether to expand they'll be asking why didn't we build it in right and first time thank you thank you Mr. Boart. My next uh person is the one that was added, Yuni Young, who is in council chambers. Step forward and you have five minutes. All right. Uh good morning, Madame Chair, Mayor West, and members of staff and city council. Before I begin, I would like to briefly acknowledge uh councelor Scott Thompson's motion today on exploring disc golf. This is exactly the kind of investment that uh explores and reflects strong fiscal discipline. It's low cost. It's durable infrastructure. It has minimal maintenance and most importantly high repeat public use. We already see this model working in Toronto, especially near the Ceton Park archery range, where simple, well-designed uh recreation devices create consistent activity and long-term value for the community. These are kinds of investments that quietly pay dividends over time, and I would support that direction. Now, I want to turn to the broader picture that we're facing today because this motion does not exist in isolation. We're discussing a budget of over $500 million in the city. We're asking residents to absorb higher taxes, higher water rates, and rising storm water fees while at the same time acknowledging that infrastructure pressures are growing and future obligations are increasing. And now in this same meeting, we are being asked to approve a sudden increase of approximately $1 million to complete the Dave Barrow Civic Square. This is a project envisioned as a gathering place, destination, and long-term investment to community life. So, I ask council to pause and reflect on what this tells us. Even our priority projects, those that were planned, justified, and approved, are now coming back with significant cost increases. That is not a criticism, but it is a reality. And it raises a serious question. If even our major strategic investments require reassessment, should we not apply the same scrutiny to smaller discretionary ones? Because today we're also considering a $100,000 investment for five CCTV cameras. Now, a 100K and 500 million budget may seem small, but that's exactly how drift happens. not through uh one large decision, but through many small ones that are never fully examined. So the question is not can we afford $100,000. The question is are what are we getting for it? We have been told that these cameras will deter crime to assist investigations and improve safety. But I ask where is the evidence in Richmond Hill that they have done so? We already have cameras in place. Uh but what has been their impact? How many crimes have they prevented and how many cases have they meaningfully resolved? Because without that data, it is not a this is not a datadriven expansion but an assumption and assumptions are exactly what we cannot afford in a tightening fiscal environment. If this is a data-driven approach, then that data should be clearly presented. If these cameras are effective, we should be able to see it in the data from the York Regional Police, whether in measurable deterrence or in demonstrable de investigative outcomes. If that evidence exists, then it strengthens the issue. But if it does not, then we should be cautious about expanding further. There's also a second issue that deserves attention, and that is the true cost of these systems. The upfront figure of $20,000 per camera does not reflect the actual full life cycle cost. Modern CCTV systems often heavily rely on digital storage, often cloud-based, in which introduces ongoing subscription fees for data storage, access, and management. That means the cost does not end at installation. It continues yearon year as an operating expense. And yet, this motion proposes funding from a discretionary reserve, effectively treating it as a one-time capital expense. That is at best a mismatch. At worst, it is fiscally reckless because we would be using a one-time fund to create a permanent recurring obligation with clearly accounting for in the operating structure. And this time when the investment does not generate revenue, it does not reduce future liabilities and it does not strengthen our tax base. It's a cost with unclear return with ongoing commitments because we're at the very same time we're investigating projects like uh the Dave Barrow Civic Square is designed to bring people together and activate public life. Uh these are the and create the kind of environment where safety is reinforced naturally. There are investments that multiply value over time. They increase activity and strengthen community presence uh that improve the live experience of the city. So when costs rise just as they have, we revisit them and we question them and we justify them again. So I'm simply asking why wouldn't we not apply that same standard here? If we are willing to scrutinize a multi-million dollar increase in a major civic project, then surely we can uh scrutinize a $100,000 investment with no demonstrated local track and ongoing costs. Today that clarity is not yet there. Thank you. Thank you. I'll just go back to Xian Pow. We have not heard from that delegate. No. Okay. So, that completes all of our delegations. One moment. I've got to get my Okay. So, next the next item on our agenda is the all the committee and staff reports that are that have been pulled forward. Um, Mr. clerk. I would meet I need some guidance here. Do you want us to go uh to councelor Chan's 11.3 poll or do you wish us to go to the uh the delegates? Uh thank you madam chair. Our practice is to deal with the agenda items related to delegates first. Okay. Uh and then the rest in order um so uh it' be my suggestion that 11.7 would be Thank you. Now so yeah so we will we will go to that first. Yeah. 11. So, um, I need a mover for that, please. 117. 117. Yeah. Yeah. Council you 117 Richmond, we're moving to Richmond Green straight away because we're we're doing it after the delegates. Do you wish to move that, sir? Okay. Yeah, that's yours. Um thank you very much for the presentation and the report. Um to be honest uh when I first uh have a chance to uh look at it, I am delighted and uh you know it's leave me very little room to criticize. This is a very wellthoughtout uh plan and I commend staff for that. Um I think you know um with our delegates today I think u maybe we should rethink about the size of of the pickle ball courts but I'm sure you know it's been a it's been a a thorough um consideration about the size but uh I still also have the question about you know is it a bubble structure how enclosed is it going to be u maybe through you madam chair um to staff I we heard about the delegates asking about the pickle ball and tennis strategy. Um so which comes first through you madam chair uh through you madam chair. So staff brought forward the draft master plan for Richmond Green which is one component of the larger tennis and pickle ball strategy. Um as I noted before the draft tennis and pickle ball strategy will be before committee of the whole in in June of this year. uh which will help everyone uh both council and the public understand the larger multi-pronged approach uh that will hopefully be uh accepted um as a strategy for the city. Uh but Richmond Green is one piece of the puzzle. Um through through that larger tennis and pickle ball strategy consultation, we did hear support for this location. uh we're putting out the draft master plan for input to help us to understand when we when we bring the draft strategy is there still support for this location as one of the hubs uh but I guess it's kind of a sequence if uh to answer your question they both need to be brought kind of together to to help everyone to understand the bigger picture. Thank you. So I look forward to discussing about the the plan in June and then we'll kind of like decide how many cords how we going to deal with deal with this. Thank you. Um you know Richmond Green is no no doubt a destination park. Um you know for all these addition I think is is not only for Richmond Hill it's going to be Richmond Hill and beyond. Lots of people going to come to Richmond Green which is a great thing. Um and uh and I really love the idea of having an outdoor fitness um equipment. I think council has been asking for that for a long time and finally we got some. And um and for the stage, sorry to have to bring you up again. Um Debbie, um the stage, is it a permanent stage through Madam Chair? Should still be perhaps you should stay there. Sorry, I will. My bad. Sorry. I I'll get my notebook so I can make the notes here. Um the thought is to convert where the gazebo is right now to a permanent stage feature uh in order to allow larger events uh to be better programmed in in that area of the park. All right. Thank you. And uh and I'm sure you know with all these additions um there are opportunities for um sponsorship partnership and maybe naming rights you know for is that possible? Um so do you madam city manager? Uh through you um miss Mrs. Chair. Um yes absolutely uh we'd be looking at all three of those uh when we get into constructing components of the park both on program and facility and per our naming rights policy any recommendations on naming of park components would come back to council. Thank you. Great. All right. So I'm loving it. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you councelor. Okay. Hey, I have a speakers list for the first round. My next speaker is Mayor David West. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh I agree with Councelor Leu. I was really impressed when I saw this. I mean, it's already a great park and it's just going to get even better. And what I'm seeing in that um in that design is literally something for everybody in Richmond Green. And it's already functioning as a increasingly important destination park in Richmond Hill, but it's going to become even more important in Richmond Hill. and probably beyond. I do want to just talk very quickly about pickle ball because I all of the delegates were for that particular topic. Um, and I I'll start off by saying I haven't had a chance to talk to the delegates uh directly and I'm happy to to talk to them uh if they want to reach out to me uh at some point between now and whenever. But I I I want to make it clear a couple of things. Number one, the tennis and pickle ball strategy is coming on June the 17th. It's not some long time from now. It's it's soon. And the pickle ball community needs to understand that because we are, you know, moving forward as quickly as we can on pickle ball and we're making sure that we are getting it right, trying to balance all the needs. So, that's number one. Number two, this facility in Richmond Green is not the only facilities we are going to be building in Richmond Hill. And the tennis and pickle ball strategy will outline everything else. Today we are not talking about tennis and pickle ball specifically. We are talking about Richmond Green. The reason that that we are that we're talking about that is because of the motion I put forward to finally get this facility nailed down to a location. So it's going to be in Richmond Green. Um it's it's working exactly the way I had asked for it to work when the motion came in. It will be there, but it will not be the only facilities we build. That's to be determined in June 17th. That's when these delegations really uh will have actually something more to talk about. Um the goal for pickle ball is to have utilization rates or or user rates, facility rates to be comparable to other cities. Um, and uh, anyway, as I said, I I'm I'm not going to talk about it more now because this is not what we're talking about today, but I'm more than happy to talk to any of the delegates or anybody else for that matter. Um, okay. So, getting on to the the thing, the topic at hand, it is fantastic. This is a very important and defining part for Richmond Hill. I did have a quick question that I spoke to staff about um making sure that there are spaces in this park for public art because I think that there um really is an opportunity for that. Um and they have assured me that that's all part of the plan. There are kind of spaces there that that we could put uh things in at a future date and I think that's great. the stage area I think is really good uh and it it will help that area to be more efficient with regard to larger events that we're increasingly being asked to host in in Richmond Green. And I would add that it will act in conjunction very nicely with Day Barrel Square because in Day Barrel Square we're also going to have facilities for people to get together, be together and come together to host events. and Dave Barl Square will happen first in terms of the the renovation of the um the stage area. Um but you know it will happen uh shortly after that at Richmond Green. Um I would say with regard to pickle ball uh you know the exact details and number of courts and so on will probably be refined at some point uh through the master plan but also through the um pickle ball strategy. And keep in mind that the part that has the pickle ball in it is the first phase of redevelopment in the master plan, which is very important because we need to get that pickle ball going. But I would ask staff to take a look and see the this the popup courts that we have. I think that with the long-term plan to to put a road through the the snow storage area will mean that those pickle ball courts that the pop-up courts will have to move. But I'm I'm just wondering if and I I don't need an answer, but I wonder if there's an opportunity to move those courts at some later date to the remaining part of the snow storage area because having additional courts, they won't be the premier courts for sure, but having those additional courts for play in an area that's essentially a big uh bit of hard surfaced area uh might be a good use of that space. But I'll leave that as a comment, which is what we're being asked to do today. Um, anyway, I I did that quickly, but I I just want to say I'm really pleased with this. This is um a really great design. Um, and I believe that a lot of the park, including the FAA phase one, but even phase two and possibly even phase three, could be done in relative relatively short order, um, to get that park up to the point where it needs to be because it's certainly being well used now. Um, you know, I remember seeing that park initially when we first bought it and it was in the middle of nowhere and I'm thinking, why did we buy a park here, a piece of land in the middle of nowhere? Well, nowhere has now gone away and it is in the middle of somewhere and people are using it in a big way. So, I know I'm over time, but thank you very much for your indulgence. Thank you, sir. Next person on my speakers list is uh councelor Shu. Thank you, Madam Chair, and uh thank you for the presentation and the good work. It's so exciting. It's always exciting to talk about fun stuff here. Um we are talking about the Richmond green master plan here uh and most of the delegates is talking about the pickle ballore strategy. I won't say is it was wrong but to to a certain extent is it's correlated. So my first question is also about the pegle board. Uh just get back to the master plan to make it more closer. Uh we can see there will be a 12 court coming and on the north side the master plan still keep the six existing baseball diamonds. My question is why not converting one or two baseball diamonds into pickle ball court to accommodate the high demand of the pickle board. That's my questions through madam chair. Thank you Miss Dobby. Do you want to answer or city manager, commissioner, who wants to take for you? Uh, madame chair, we do have the director of recreation and culture uh here uh as well as our commissioner that can speak to the high use of the ball diamonds. Yeah. Um so that is also a very uh lucrative sport uh in Richmond Hill and Richmond Green um is a desirable location for those ball clubs. They were very vocal as well through our parks plan. Um, and uh, it's a premier um, tournament site uh, in Richmond Hill. So, they're opposed to any removal of their facilities to accommodate an additional sport, but I'll let the director or commissioner uh, add to that. Director Hearn, do you wish to comment? Commissioner three u m madam chair um actually I think the city manager summed it up well there well used baseball diamonds so taking them out would be problematic in terms of um keeping our baseball service level and and baseball diamonds are very big facilities difficult to move else elsewhere thank you okay uh through madam chair as mentioned in the presentation it will be a year round use for the big board so would it be possible to to put up a doom or bubble in the winter time to make the pickle ball year round use for that for this. I'm not sure if it's a part of the master plan of the strategy of the pickle ball. I'm not sure if it's the right timing to ask this question, but I think is it worth exploring to put up a bubble on the baseball diamonds for year round use for pickle boards. Madame City Manager, chair, um it is uh the the pickle ball strate strategy uh will outline some benchmarking in terms of uh operations, but certainly uh staff's next step after that plan is approved is to look at how the implementation uh can be accommodated. And of course we've already tal we are talking about a bubble uh versus a permanent facility versus seasonal uh outdoor facility as a as options. Okay. Look forward to have further discussion on the poker uh pickle ball stuff. So my next question is about uh referring to the map and the plan. Is there any plan in place to put up a huge sign facing the incoming traffic? Richmond Green Park. It's a huge sign just facing the increment traffic like this just at the area of the heritage walk uh area 21 garden area because I'm just getting a reference from uh California Disneyland there's a big huge sign facing the incoming traffic is so so so exciting. So I'm just wondering if there's any huge sign on the planes. Thank you. Other one for you, Madam Chair. Uh we haven't gotten to that detail yet, but I mean it's a comment we can certainly take back. Um yes, just my last question is about the budget. I know uh this master plan doesn't mention any budget yet pending the 2027 capital budget approval this November and December. So but do we have a rough idea of the cost at this stage? True madam chair because we are also planning the uh Dave Barrow square at the same time. So I think money does matter for the two big planning planners are going at the same time just a rough idea madam chair misspie so in the big attachment to the staff report uh there is a section on costing and It does break out the cost for uh both phase 1 and two on page 53 in table 4. Uh around 12.1 million approximately about 1 million. It's a total cost for only phase one and two. Phase one and two is are are the phases that this report recommends move forward right now and it will be shown on the capital budget. uh until the end of this year, right? For the next year. This this report is recommending that they be placed in the capital budget in 2027 this year. They're not there right now. Okay. Clear. Now, that's all my comments. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, sir. Next on my speaker list is Council Davidson. Thank you, Madam Chair, and through you, Madam Chair. Thank you to staff. This is such an exciting um it's going to be such an exciting park. Not that it isn't already. Um, great. And, uh, sadly after this winter, I'm as excited to see snow storage as I am a volleyball court. But I I did want to mention I I I know the folks at pickle ball, they come and they tell us how important it is. And I don't I don't think anyone here denies how popular pickle ball is. But this is a plan that offers something to the over 200,000 residents here that have diverse interests, different activities. Um, and I think unfortunately in any city there's never enough space. So I hear we don't have enough pools. We don't have enough ice rings. There will probably never be enough of anything for folks who are really into a specific sport. But I feel like this plan offers something for people of all ages. Um, and I I want to say I'm I'm glad we're not ramming things into every nook and cranny because if you walk around Richmond Green now in the summer in particular, the flower boxes, the the the gardens, they're they're absolutely beautiful and we need that space for people to stroll. And kudos to Operation Staff because um it's an absolutely gorgeous location now. And I'm super excited to see things like a volleyball court. There's one at Lake Wilcox. Um, and it's it's o it's always busy night and day. So, I think this is a great plan for a community of over 200,000 people of different ages and different interests. So, I'm excited to see um it get done. So, thank you. Thank you, madam. Next on my speakers list is Deputy Mayor Chan. Thank you very much madame chair and um let me say this my colleague have said it um thank you staff for doing that um that is certainly that um keeping in mind this is a concept master plan if I understand correctly that's why after next week's council if it's adopted then there'll be a 30 day for uh community to comment uh including what we can do better in terms of where the pickle balls, whether it's table tennis, whether it's whatever. So, um thank you for uh showing actually one of the slides. This is what we have today is three year in the making. It's not just come out yesterday. I think that it should be recognized. the staff will recognize for the efforts and um it's one of the webbased survey that I've seen with such a high responses 500 may not be a big number to people but for people who have been looking at this kind of uh self uh kind of um uh reported uh kind of survey that is pretty high results. So I I want to give the staff pad at the back and I also like this zone approach. So the zone for every purpose and other thing is that um I I kind of raised it earlier the renew to more self- sustained horiculture focus. I need to touch base with stuff uh later but I did mention about I'm hoping there might be opportunity. I know uh there may be limited spaces now because each zone is kind of spoken for from a conceptual level but maybe opportunity for hopefully that that would be help to self- sustain for some kind of display of uh I always have that mindset of maybe different uh flowers or whatever from from from other um sources that we can talk about. So I want to bring up because time of comment I don't need responses now because at the end of the day um as the mayor is saying is and article is saying this is a park a destination park not just for Richmond Hill it's somewhere to go. So I hope we have opportunity to have some other um uh uh burification uh like people go to high park for cherry blossom. Think about it. I'll come to Richmond Green Park for cherry blossom if possible and that certainly generate pride in our community and really um promote I would say a sense of belonging as mentioned in the report and generate potentially dollars uh for nearby business with people drive up and down 404 um to come to see it. So th those are comments and um I'm glad that um council shu raised the uh question about money and um I think one of the delegates also mentioned that um we want to look at carefully. I do understand um something I do learn all these years is there's class D estimate and I saw our engineer of nodding by the time you get to class A which I'm going to touch on later on another topic the number might shift quite a bit or usually upward um so I think we have to keep in mind on that um so 12.1 already phase one and two now one aspect I don't need response is that I I hope that with the apparently increase of number of access to the park might help to relieve somewhat I don't know on the Elgen Mills congestion because and events coming up um that quite often I've seen uh both mostly on the westbound side the traffic might go all the way up even past uh Lesie so u whether is a way finding was a way to promote more use through the further up north uh through the Bell uh uh uh Bill Bell Park. Um so that's something to think about and I know there's only 40 seconds left. Uh I just want to end up saying make it happen. make it um as much as operational efficient you could and help to hopefully contain the cost as much as the class D when you move to class A somewhere down the line. I know it's a 10-year project. So keep that in mind. Thank you very much. Keep going and um look forward to having five zone. Oh, one last comment within the 10 seconds. Sure. Go ahead. That I know that that may be a small thing. I'm glad to see here I think is in number three base softball diamond there will be a permanent washroom you can use year round I know that area and it's very frustrating at times when nature calls it's a small thing a small thing comes thank you thank you sir next on my speakers list is councelor Thompson well thank you very much and uh I do want to thank staff for this report uh and like the rest of my colleagues I'm very excited to see uh this project come to fruition. I mean, this really is uh a gem for Richmond Hill as a destination park. Um and that's that's what I'm looking at here, but I also recognize that the conversation is kind of morphed a little bit into another area called pickle ball. Um, and I guess what I I want to say is that like everybody else, we we recognize that there are emerging trends in recreation and uh and we are trying to do everything to accommodate those trends. Uh for instance, I know that uh in the summertime when our arenas are don't have ice in them, we are actually putting in uh popup pickle ball courts to try and accommodate that demand. So I like, you know, that that councelor Shu raised the question about the ball diamond just to see is this something here and and we certainly understand the the demand that is there as well. But given that staff are looking at opportunities such as what they've done with the arenas, I'm going to summize that staff are also looking at potential opportunities to do the same for perhaps um other sports that are not fully year round. So, if we have facilities that, you know, could be a potential fit for popup pickle ball that happens in the wintertime, I have no doubt that our staff are trying to see if those opportunities exist. So, those are really my comments. Uh, I wanted to really just keep this to the uh, Richmond Green revitalization because that's what that's what we're all looking for is to is how this can be a destination park. So, those are my comments. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Thank you, sir. Is there anybody else who wishes to speak on the first round? No. Okay. So, let's just go to myself and then we'll go to a second round. Uh, um, Mayor West has indicated he wishes to speak. Um, thank you again for presenting this. Um, as with everybody else who has spoken here on the bench, very excited to see what's coming through with our Richmond Green uh, master plan and the destination park and um, uh, C in council use ward and it is uh, it's going to be spectacular and um, it is already spectacular I think as council Davidson said. uh but what we are aiming to do in the future very very is very very important and I just as as some of my other colleagues have have mentioned here I I don't want to um concentrate only on one sport here which is pickle ball but it it was brought up it was uh discussed here by all the delegations and it will be discussed again in June as we move forward with the tennis and pickle ball strategy however given some of the comments I would like to ask Commissioner Steele a question if you have those if you have this on hand. Um otherwise we can we can do it I can we can refer to it next week. Um there's this there's this concern which we all acknowledge that there must be more pickle ball courts and the city must provide more pickle ball courts. Can you tell us over the years where there has been an explosion of pickle ball, do you have on hand courts, how many multi-lined courts have we managed to have in existence now to to date, not even counting the 12 that are that are in this plan. um to to accommodate to the best of our ability the pickle ball um community. I don't want to put you on the spot, but if if you have those numbers through you, Madam Chair, I actually do have that open on my screen. So, um there was a there was a um a a summary prepared in 2025, so it may be a bit out of date, but we noted uh two dedicated pickle ball courts at King's College Park. um seven multi-linined tennis courts at uh various facilities including uh Town Park, Morgan Boille Park, Grovewood Park, Oakidge's Lions Club Park, and Russell Farm Park. Uh and then the 10 seasonal popups at Richmond Green. We also last year opened indoor courts at two of our arenas in uh Elgen Barrow and hopefully I'll get this right, it was Bond Lake Arena, I believe. Um and then we have indoor courts at various facilities including Rouge Woods, uh Baby Hill Park, and Richville. Thank you. I I appreciate that. I I believe that that's a it's a very important part of this discussion. And while I fully understand and acknowledge that um our pickle ball community uh wants uh uh needs uh more court um we also have to talk about balance and I think that was discussed as well. We have many many sports we have over 200,000 residents who live in Richmond Hill. The latest count on one of the York Region boards um is 217,000 and that is just going to continue to grow. We understand the concerns of the pickle ball community, but I believe my question to Commissioner Steel is very very apppropo because it does it does show I believe the work that we have done and the work that we are continuing to do to ensure to the very best of our abilities through budgetary constraints as well through a 10-year capital plan which has to address everything not just one one item. that we are indeed doing everything we can to to ensure that this one specific community is being serviced. So, I just I just wanted to put that in there. But, um I thank you again. This is um an amazing piece of work and I want to thank everybody who's been involved in this. Um, I look forward to to everything that's going to be coming uh to uh to fruition ultimately as we move to council uh next uh next week and um it'll be uh it'll be approved or not. Um so with that, I'll go to a second round. Um Mayor West, you are on my speaker list. Yeah, thank you. I I just wanted to say something that has come up in this conversation that I think I need to address or I think would be helpful. And this is a lot of this comment is to my colleagues on council because what I'm about to say is uh about the finances of this and it may be a little uninteresting to the rest of the the population. But um I it's really important to realize that when we're doing projects like Richmond Green, like Dave Barrow Square, like a lot of our other parks, these are parks that are being created or recreated because they're related to the growth of our community, right? I mean some of it's revitalization but a lot of it is really because we are growing we need to use our spaces more uh you know in a more concentrated way and so therefore we need to invest money into doing that and that money does largely come from development charges parkland cash and loo all those types of things and you know I I put out a statement the other day and and this is just an example of why I spend so much time talking about how incredibly important it is to keep development charges in at the forefront because if we don't pay for projects like this through development charges, then we either are not going to do it or we're going to have to raise taxes and neither of those things are anywhere close to acceptable. So, as we navigate, you know, the different things that have happened with different levels of government and the pressures to decrease development charges, and I get why that's important because we need to incentivize housing to be built, but at the end of the day, it's really important that we I think it's really important that we recognize that development charges are still very very important to fund cities. And these types of projects that we're talking about today are exactly the kind of thing that are would be very much more difficult to fund if we have to give up more and more and more development charges which is what has happened in the last little while but what's you know we c we really I fight for this a lot because I know how much more difficult it will be if we uh if we don't you know win that fight. So anyway, I just wanted to say that the the project is great. It's very very exciting and frankly it needs to be paid for in a sustainable way and and I I think that you know there there's a threat to that and uh we need to make sure that we have the adequate growth funds. So growth pays for growth. Thank you sir and thank you very much for inserting that into the conversation. I think it's very very important. Uh so one more check on the second round. Anybody else? Okay, seeing none, uh so we have on the floor uh moved by uh councelor Louu, agenda item 117, a that staff report SRPBS 2607017, including the draft Richmond Green Revitalization Master Plan is attachment A be received for information purposes and B that all comments be referred back to staff. Members of council, all those in favor, seeing none opposed, that carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Okay, getting back to my list, Mr. Clerk. Mr. Clerk, thank you. I I predicted you were going to ask me. So, Madam Chair, it's my recommendation based on both practice and the fact that we actually have an external guest here to answer questions. Yes. uh because we had delegations for uh councelor Leu's motion that we move to item 12.3. Okay. Absolutely. That was my question. Thank you, sir. Okay. Um I want to acknowledge that we have senior members of uh York Regional Police in our council chambers. Thank you for attending, sir. And uh we appreciate your uh your being here uh to answer any specific questions that that may come that may come about. That is totally your purview. So, we're going to move to um agenda item, let me just get this right. 12.3. So, we're moving to agenda item 12.3, which is the member motion brought forward by councelor Castro Louu, funding to support additional closed circuit television, video camera, CCC TV in Richmond Hill. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um um before I start uh I would like to have uh the clerk please put up I have a revised motion um there's no significant changes I just added three whereas to address the privacy uh concerns and also there's a typo um instead of us is up to so um so that's all the adjustments um thank you for indulgence uh madam chair and uh yeah thank you very much for uh for the delegate for being here today and share your concerns. And uh I would also like to acknowledge uh um York Regional Police Deputy Chief at the Silva and also Superintendent Alexander um our pancake flip uh flipping uh champion this year. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you for being here. You know, um your presence here. I know there's a lots of criminals out there uh you need to deal with, but uh for being here today, I'm really really grateful. And I'm sure um some of the questions that have been raised uh will be answered um um by by colleagues and also u um your regional police. So um council members um I'm here to ask for a support of uh of this motion to add five CCTV cameras in Richmond Hill. It is in response to what we are hearing directly from our residents across Richmond Hill. concerns about crime and public safety have become more frequent and more urgent. People are paying attention. They're reading the reports. They're seeing the headlines um and in many cases experiencing it themselves. Residents are telling us they feel less secure than they did in the past. And increasingly they are asking us what we are doing not in the long term but in uh but right now to address it. So expanding our CCTV network in partnership with the York Regional Police is a practical measured step that directly addresses these concerns. In 2023, York Regional Police began deploying CCTV cameras across the region, including 10 here in Richmond Hill. Those deployments were based on crime data, targeting areas where cameras would have the greatest impact. And the results matter. York Regional Police have indicated that in areas where CCTV has been introduced, there have been measurable benefits. These include reductions in crime as well as significantly improved investigative outcomes, faster suspect identification, better evidence collection, and stronger support for prosecutions. However, we all know that crime patterns evolve. The reality is that gaps still exist. This five additional cameras proposed in this motion are about closing those gaps, not just geographically. The integration of the ALPR, the automatic license plate recognition technology, allows police to identify those vehicles in real time. That means officers can move from reacting after a crime has occurred to intervening as it is happening or even preventing it altogether. I also want to acknowledge that residents can care deeply about privacy. So that is why it's important to highlight that these cameras will only be installed in public spaces. Their views will be deliberately restricted to avoid public dwellings. Footage will be used solely for law enforcement purposes, retained for no more than 72 hours unless required for an investigation and managed in full compliance with all applicable privacy legislation including the municipal freedom of information, the protection of privacy act and the Ontario human rights codes as well as the guidance of the information and privacy commissioner. From a financial perspective, this is also responsible investment funding would come from the community enhancement and economic vitality reserve fund. Resources specifically intend to support in initiatives that improve quality of life of our residents and most importantly there's no direct impact on our property tax rate. So in conclusion, this effort is not mine alone. I would like to thank the mayor, the city manager, and also the deputy chief for their guidance and valuable contributions in shaping this motion. I'm particularly grateful to the city manager for identifying the funding source and to the mayor for his ongoing support throughout the process. I also appreciate the many residents who expressed their support through letters as well as colleagues who shared their concerns over the past week and uh that's why I made some adjustment in my motion. Safety is something our residents experience every day and it is our responsibility to ensure that we are doing everything we can with reason to support it. So I respectfully ask council members support this motion so that we can continue to take proactive responsible steps towards keeping Richmond Hill safe, secure, and strong. Thank you very much. Thank you councelor. Appreciate it. Um okay we have a speakers list and the first person on my speakers list is councelor tree. Go ahead sir. Thank you so much madam chair. Thank you so much for our management for our come here and support us as well. I just based on my past three years experience. So I worked with community regarding to the safety issues. This may be the my very high uh requirement from uh most of our community members seeing what's going on about our community breakins, car stolen etc. So in the past three years I I believe VRP did a fantastic job reducing the car stolen rates loud and I know you you guys were so hard on the street as well. So uh this CT want to have a few question I'm not sure who should ask. The first one is as I was seeing the motion here. So 2023 we already have 10 CCTV installed and this going to be another five additional CCTV. Is that right? Thank you deputy chair. Deputy Chief D Silva. Welcome sir. Thank you madame chair and uh good afternoon or good morning to all of council uh your worship. Uh pleasure to be here and pleasure to be joined by uh superintendent Colin Alexander. So if I understand the question again um and just uh in terms of just uh correcting there are nine CCTV cameras currently installed within Richmond Hill. Um there is we consider uh obviously two district the entire area policing jurisdiction which covers a portion of Markham and Vaughn which is included. So the actual 10th one although it's within the boundaries of two district it is within Markham itself. So there are currently nine CCTV within um uh Richmond Hill itself. So to your question um can you repeat that? Yeah, totally we have nine now. So in the future if we pass the motion we're going to have 14 in our city, right? Correct. That is correct. Okay. Also n question is for the cost. I believe uh when this news released last week a lot to resence I see from social media questioning about the cost here this of the CTV cost around $20,000 going to be five around $100,000 is that going to be the one time efforts or it will be annual renewal well thank you for the question so um each site and if I break down each site uh a site is a location the cameras themsel elves are about $4 to $5,000 each. But there is also the actual installation cost. There's the wiring and then because each camera is on its own cellular SIM card, there are additional costs for the actual SIM card, but that capital cost is not what we're York Regional Police will continue to cover that cost in terms of the ongoing operational cost. So the investment today would only be the capital cost to actually get those locations up and running. Nothing beyond that. Perfect. I I'm expecting that as well. So from the benefits of community the safety perspective, this is only one time efforts ongoing maintenance and cost will be supported by VRP in the future. So I I think compared with cost, compared with benefits, this is really a good investment for city on behalf. Another question regarding to the um the question for uh the privacies. Uh I I was reached by your residence around one year ago regarding to CTV as well. So can those evidence being used for charging because I was told CTV only captured uh over speeding issues. Canal using for legal and crime. Is that true or not? So, uh, CCTV, if an offense, uh, does occur or if there's an investigation that prompts us to actually use the footage from CCTV, it absolutely can you be used and is used as evidence um, for prosecution when we um, charge any individuals that we find committing a crime. And I'll give you an example. So, uh, councelor Lou, you you spoke about being proactive. So one of the key pieces in terms of CCTV that is different for York Regional Police is it is not just the traditional means of you know when you see one camera that is broad. We've actually introduced ALPR which is license plate reader technology and the one thing that we do uh that is different than everyone else is the fact that we actually compare it to a stolen vehicle hot list. So the minute a vehicle drives through any of our ALPR equipped locations, if the vehicle is stolen, our real-time operations center gets an immediate notification and then the process to being proactive and engaging in actual criminal activity and deterring it is the actual benefit. So when we talk about privacy, we adhere strictly to the privacy commission's guidelines. It is 72 hours. After 72 hours, if an officer does not request that specific video to be held, it is gone. We do not hold the data. So, the privacy commission uh does have a report on the use of CCTV and York Regional Police adheres to that uh report uh firmly. Okay. My last question maybe regarding to the data driven. So, all the CTV we run for I don't know how many years. Is there any specific data showing us uh how many percentage of crime scene being stopped or captured through the CCTV program? Is there any data or statistics? Yeah, so we did um we did present to council in 2024 after a year of data. We did see a 6% measurable result. In 2025, we saw a 4.1 measurable uh result. But just know CCTV is just one tool in the toolbox. There is a layered approach to everything that we do in terms of visibility. Our officers are out there being proactive. We have different initiatives. So when we think about public safety as a whole, it is not just CCTV. CCTV actually enhances our response. It hamp it uh enhances our investigative uh ability. But in totality, there is units that are working proactively. there are prevention pieces that are actually happening. The community itself is actually participating and uh deterring crime in terms of neighborhood watch and all of those pieces. So to date we have seen measurable uh success and we continue to see success in terms of CCT CCTV. I could tell you um over the last several months we have a statistic there's been 76 stolen vehicles that have been captured. Not all of them have met been um we've been able to get to because obviously the network is small. We have 37 sites across the region. So building out a program of ALPR and CCTV is actually quite vital because it actually gets us to a point where perhaps multiple intersections as these criminals are are going and committing crime, we'll be able to actually track them a little bit more um a little better. Good. Okay. Thank you so much. I think I believe this is going to layers of layers of protection and measures. CCTV is only one of them. Definitely if it can more layers of protection and proactively that's going to be great. Also from cost perspective look at the cost for Tesla right 50k 60k. If this cost four or five additional CTV only cost $100,000 that's basically two cars. If it can capture any one or two of them yes that's a longtime savings for community for property owner as well. So I fully support this motion. Thank you so much. No thank you. And to your point, um, I I look at if we're able to prevent one victim, one carjacking, one hold up, one breakin, enter, it is funds well invested. I'm a little biased when it comes to that, but I wanted to share. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Deputy. Appreciate it. Uh, next on my speakers list is Mayor West. Well, thank you very much. And uh first of all, thank you very much to councelor Leu uh for for working together to to get this done and and thank you uh CEO uh Joselyn and and to you uh deputy chief Silva. Um I think uh you know crime is something that we have been talking about a lot and and our residents have been talking to all of us and and there isn't a lot that we can do in all cases and there's advocacy that I will continue to do and so on and so forth but there are things that we can do on the ground. the region of York uh recently in this budget and the last budget increased YRP's resources by a significant amount and we're seeing results like there's there's just no question about that and that has been fantastic. So these are the things that we can do. They're on the ground. They're in our community. Um, so this I I really have no doubt in my mind that by by doing this investment and the other investments that we've already made in Richmond Hill, um, we're we're actually better leveraging the investments we've already made in YRP, we're giving them more tools to do their job and that's really really important. Um, we have seen uh, results. We you've uh, given some statistics. I have one here that's 7.9% decrease in crime between 23 and 25. Um, you know, because of technologies like these CCTV cameras. Um, I think it's hard to measure when something doesn't happen, but I have no doubt in my mind that there is a deterrence that goes on. I I was at the uh the um headquarters the other day getting a tour of that that operations center and it's unbelievable uh the tools that we now have to go after people who are breaking the law. So, if you're out there listening and you're breaking the law, I think you probably should stop because you're going to get caught. Um the there's there's real specific reasons to have these cameras and and you know, you've explained some of them. Um, and I I just want to touch on the community vitality reserve fund. That fund is a reserve fund that's a discretionary fund that is specifically for this purpose or purposes like it. So, it's very appropriate for us to be using that. And if I am not mistaken, and Treasury, shake your head if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that reserve fund for the most part is a fund that came from the sale of hydro years and years ago. and we will spend pretty much the interest on that. The interest will come back. Then we'll have more money to spend in future years. So the reserve fund itself is not being depleted the way we've been using it. We're using it strategically. This is an example of where we're using it strategically. And the final thing I just want to say is that, you know, it we will determine where these these cameras are going to go. And I have some ideas, I think, on where they're needed and and we'll work with the police on that. But this is important. This is a network of cameras. Whether or not there's a camera here, there or over there, the point is that we have this network. The more that we have in the network and this five will help to bolster that, the more of a effective tool it will be in in combating crime and deterring crime. And you know, you mentioned, okay, well, one of the 10 cameras in two district is actually in Markham. And yeah, okay, you know, we'll call it almost Richmond Hill wherever it is. But but the thing is that you know that camera and all the other cameras even in York Region are still part of that network and and we can call on any of those cameras when something happens to help to investigate uh uh a crime. And I think you know that's one of the tools that we gave to YRP in the last two budget budgets is an increase in our investigative uh capacity. So I think that that's really really important that we're that we're doing that. So, I I want to say thank you very much uh for that. I really appreciate that we're able to bring this this motion forward. Um I will just give one more quick shout out uh councelor Leu was too humble to say this, but in acknowledging um uh uh Superintendent Alexander about being the pancake flipping champion uh and that's two times in a in a row at the maple syrup festival. Councelor Leu humbly would also not tell you, but he was also a champion as well. So, congratulations on those. But thank you very much for uh being here and thank you to the both of you for uh making time to come here to answer any specific questions. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor West. Next on my speakers list is Councelor Chu. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I totally agree this is a good intention to install and fill up with more CCTV in some specific high crime area is a very good intention. Just a few questions. I understand that the money will be spent uh from the community enhancement reserve fund. So just wondering what's the current balance of this reserve fund and are there any pending projects currently slate to be fund by this specific reserve that would be delayed by this $100 allocation. Just wondering if our reserve fund allows true madam chair who are we refer who are we directing that to oh treasury go ahead ma'am sorry madam chair to councelor she so the current balance of that reserve fund it's well over $50 million wow we do have 50 well over 50 um so we do have a number of programs that we um use this reserve fund for and those programs are going to phase out over the years. As the mayor alluded earlier, we are primarily using the interest to fund these programs. So, this $100,000 would also be taken out of the interest that's being earned from the reserve fund as well. Thank you, Miss Lee. This totally not a problem for deserve. So, uh as mentioned by one of the delegates today, so how about the life cycle cost such as uh software licensing fee or something like that or long-term maintenance fee? Um just want to clarify one more time. Would it be covered by the YP or the city in the long run through Madam Chair? No. Uh sorry through you, Madam Chair. Um the it's a one-time capital investment. The ongoing maintenance cost will be absorbed through York Regional Police Budget which is ultimately funded by the region and the municipalities. Okay, good to know. Uh so as the cost is shared by the all neighbors is a tax based money across the city but only used in five specific areas. So we have to to uh make it financial accountability. Uh if this motion has been approved any regular reveal to see the effectiveness of the CCTV such as a consistent decline of a crime rate to prove is worth going. No absolutely. So uh that that's a great question and through you madam chair once again I apologize um year to date um and once again I I can't say that ever you know crime has been reduced and attributed directly to CCTV it is we have you know from boots on the ground to investigators there's lots that uh lots of things that contribute to a reduction in crime but I can tell you yearto date break and enters specifically in two district right so I'm taking all of two district 40% % reduction. Break and enters and commercials 49 uh% reduction. Theft of motor vehicles 48% reduction. Violent uh weapons related to firearms and the firearms is obviously it goes from 6 to 4 but a 33% reductions. Theft over 5,000 27% reduction. So through the investment that has been made in York Regional Police, not only in staffing, not only in technology, we ha we are seeing significant measurable results. And once again, a part of that community safety web. I look at CCTV as being a part of that. So, we have had uh success directly in Richmond Hill in relation to two stolen vehicles in Richmond Hill. And uh to uh to your worship uh your comment about the web uh on Doncaster and Young as cars are coming northbound. Well, guess what? You get triggered on an ALPR northbound on Young Street. it's coming into Richmond Hill. So that web is quite critical to uh to the success and and and to the community safety. So as a whole year to date, we've seen measurable results in 2025 and in 2026 we continue to see measurable results and that is to due to the hard work of our members in every single part of our organization. So okay, good to know. So are these uh all five extra CDTV cameras going to move around to different location after a while? So, not all five will move. Um, once we do have that investment, uh, it's either fixed or a mobile trailer. Uh, the form and function of that is probably up for some discussion in terms of how council sees it best utilized. So, as as the owners and operators, uh, we will work with obviously council. We believe that having a mobile or a couple of mobile trailers give greatest flexibility in terms of different uh you know crime tends to move and a fixed location once they're fixed it's they're fixed for for a reason but I think the opportunity to actually have some mobile trailers mixed in with that gives council a little bit more flexibility within your local writings to see what that looks like. Okay. Uh so uh referring back to the motion says CCTV cameras are only used in the publicly accessible area and won't capture views uh to into any private properties. As far as I know most of the crimes like breakins like uh autotheft happen in the private property on driveway inside a private property. So how this public camera helped the police to identify suspect something like that or in investigation something like that? Can you elaborate more about how helpful for your work? Thank you for the question and through you madam chair. Um most of our um applications in terms of the cameras are actually intersection based. The mobile ones we've leveraged right within the community and they're very focused on the roadway. So it it's directional. So if you look at actual ALPR, the type of cameras that we're using are specifically focused on public areas. And then we actually um black out any type of um home business that may be impacted. So that never appears in the actual footage of the camera right off the start. But it doesn't mean that that car, that plate number will be a suspect. No. Correct. But uh as part of the privacy concerns, 3 days after um that footage is taken, it's completely erased. We don't have any access to it anymore. So the day-to-day operations of the public, we don't maintain. The retention policies within the privacy commission are very stringent in terms of 72 hours. Okay. I see. I notice that there are over 130 correspondents to push this motion and most of them I'm I'm just wondering if most of the correspondence belongs to the same community or same specific area I have no idea just okay go ahead um thank you cu I think all we we could say on that is the public record reflects the correspondence and their addresses and how that's received or how it's promoted uh is not generally an issue for the public record that we would consider. Okay. Actually my question is uh because it's we are using the test money if we only funding or subsidized to a certain specific area. It seems that not fair to the whole city that's my idea. So I'm just want to clarify this motion is served for the whole city that that coming five location will be across the city but not on a specific area. That's my questions. Period. Madam chair. Um, you know, I very much would like to have it all in W three to be honest. Um, he's honest but the reality is not it's not. Okay. So, it's uh it's decided by the YRP um to uh based on their crime data. Um you can add um that on if you want. That that is correct. So, uh we actually dictate where the cameras um would go based on violent crime. So the metric that we use is evidence-based. So although uh there may be a heightened uh amount of crime in an area that may and I'll give you an example. So when we have residential shootings, if we see that there is and I'll give you an example because it did happen in Richmond Hill at the theater. So we had a number of incidents at the theater, we actually um put one of our mobile CCTV cameras for that specific purpose. So wherever the data leads us, it could be one or two, it could be like if you have three carjackings in area that uh may be enough to warrant that response, but it actually doesn't really it incorporates incorporates the entire um geography of Richmond Hill. So it's not just focused on one area. So do you have any rough idea where this five city TV will be going? uh we've just currently done uh we've asked or I've asked for an assessment uh in all of the region for 2026 to see where the locations would be. I don't have that information yet. Okay, good. So uh my my last comment is I still believe pushing up five extra CDV actually is not enough compared to this our city size only five more is a little bit but I understand we have to make a balance between our budget and also the um public safety about this but at least um I I would still support this motion because it's better than doing nothing. At least we do something for our neighbors if our reserve fund allows. That's my last comment. Thanks so much. Thank you, councelor. Next person on my list is councelor Davidson. Thank you, Madam Chair, and through you, Madam Chair. Thank you for coming. Um, one of the joys of being a first-time counselor is meeting police and seeing how open they are and willing to help the community. It's really a pleasure to work with YRP. I think everyone on this council is a huge supporter of YRP. But I do have some questions. Um, I saw I went through the stats that you mentioned about um different types of crimes being down. Is are cameras what's the preventative part of a camera? We're saying we're trying to make everyone feel safer, but aren't we really just trying to figure out how to catch people after a crime is committed? What's what's the safety part aside from getting someone from doing it again? Through you, Madam Chair, and thank you very much and pleasure to meet you. Um, the preventative part. So according to uh the privacy commission's guidelines, we have to put up signs everywhere there there's a camera and um we are very transparent. So on our community safety portal that uh you probably have all accessed every single new camera we put on there. So from a prevention uh perspective, it actually does deter crime. So I give you an example. Every single year we have a project called Project Behave. It is along the James Street corridor between Major Mack uh and Norwood right along Wonderland. We have CCTV camera because of street level robberies. So what that does from a prevention standpoint and we've seen this wherever there's cameras there is an understanding that the um likelihood of being um identified and being brought to justice is that much greater. So the evidence does show in areas whereby uh CCTV has been installed there is an apprehension at times to actually commit the crime. In terms of the actual minute data I do not have that but uh anecdotally and what I've read and what we've um researched there is there is a correlation in terms of CCTV and actual uh deterrence of crime. Thank you. Um, as for the location, well, actually, I'll go to the budget. So, correct me if I'm wrong, but in 2025, the YRP budget was increased by 7.7. In 2026, it was increased by 12.7. So, that's a 20% increase in the last couple of years. Was money spent on cameras, if you see it as a priority when the budget went up, were was extra money put towards cameras like these that we're considering purchasing? In 2025, we spent $600,000 and the year before we spent four. So, um this is the first year. So, the province has given municipalities well the region or police services grant funding. So, um last year it was $255,000 and we matched the $255,000. So, we've leveraged all of that. This year we've actually overextended ourselves in terms of CCTV cameras because it's not just the cameras, it's the ongoing maintenance, it's the installation, it's the signs, all of that contributes to the total cost. What I can share with you is for 2026 um our budget request is going to be once again uh to increase our footprint within uh CCTV and I mean for 2027 because the province is actually um we don't have that grant funding um for next year. So we don't have anything to apply to. So that grant grant funding has actually been completed and we just have to rely on the overall operational and capital budget that we um put before council uh last year. Thank you. Um so I won't ask where these are going because I'm sure you don't know yet, but how does my ward Oakridges benefit from any of these cameras if there's none in my ward? How can how does the whole community benefit beyond the very specific area where things where these cameras are placed? As a former resident of Oakridges, there is one at Young and Reata. So there is there there is one on Young Street. Um and as um as worship indicated, this is a network. So knowing that in Aurora there's one at Young and 16th. So just think about the layered approach in our response when we get uh a hit on a stolen vehicle or a vehicle that is that we know that is going to commit crime from moment it crosses that intersection. We get notified. We have to validate that that actual plate is actually stolen. the dispatcher has to create a call and then we have to get to the scene once it gets south. So, let's just say it's driving south uh on um from Bloomington. It goes through uh Young and Riata in Oak Ridges. The next camera is way south. So, you know, our ability then to track um is difficult, right? So building out the network, I think every single intersection, every single location that has one actually stands to benefit every single ward and every single municipality. Uh I can tell you if they go uh south on down Doncaster, we notify the Toronto Police because obviously they're going to be equally impacted and no different than the OP as well. I don't know if that specifically answered your question, but uh what I can share is the more cameras that are out there, the better we're able to actually respond and maybe prevent some of these occurrences from happening. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, basically, just because you may or may not catch somebody at that exact spot, there are many opportunities for these cameras to be helpful down the road, literally and figuratively. Correct. All right. Thank you. Um I do have one question. Does this not create a two-tier system of law enforcement? If you can afford the cameras in your municipality, you get better law enforcement. I I would say that we have one approach and that all communities are are actually treated equally. The fact is every single municipality was given the same opportunity to enhance cameras. So in Stoville, they've approved three. So every single municipality in Vaughn, they they approved more. Um, so every single municipality was granted and afforded the same opportunity to actually enhance CCTV and it's up to each and every municipality to do that. As a region, uh, as York Regional Police, we have specific funding in terms of cameras. We've distributed them across um, all of our municipalities in what we think is um, a very evidence-based approach to doing it. And that will be the same approach that we take um with the cameras that we add in Richmond Hill. What I can share with you is there is lots of opportunity to place the camera, right? Um and through you manager. And my last question just crossed my mind that if we fund these through uh Richmond Hill money, reserve funds, wherever the money is coming from, does that not make it easier for YP to say, you know what, we we want to get some cameras. Richmond Hill pay for their own, so we don't really need to put anything money any YP money there. Let's look at the communities that can't afford extra cameras. Where's the budgetary equality if we start chipping in extra above and beyond our tax dollars? That that is a great question and what I can share with you is we take the approach so in 2026 if my budget allows for nine cameras I look at the nine top intersections in order. So if Richmond Hill is on there 1 2 and three that's what goes first. The ones that are over and above they're over and above. So we don't change that premise. We do not dictate. So although the municipality may fund whatever that list is that is what we follow and then additionally what is offered then that gets put into the individual municipality. So in in like in Vaughan, they're buying mobile cameras. Those will be moved around um no different than Richmond Hill. They've experienced um you know, obviously some residential shootings. And then we we tend to sort of dictate uh some of those as a deterrence because unfortunately as soon as you move those cameras, the criminals come back. Thank you. Um that's pretty much my my questions. I do want to just if you could briefly say what's the importance of of community involvement including possibly can you just explain the uh security camera registry that YRP has because I feel like we could add thousands of eyes to the streets. Can you just briefly explain what that is and then that's the end of my questions and how it's not an invasion of privacy. No, absolutely. Thank you very much for that. We've we've often said, you know, uh community safety is a shared responsibility. We have uh so many officers, but we have, you know, 1.3 million residents that span across our entire region. And every single one of those um you know, citizens either living in a house or having a dash cam. So the community the the security registry all that does it allows officers to know that you have a camera that has footage that should an event happen that we can go to you and ask you for that specific footage. So if we had a carjacking just say within one of the neighborhoods and you as a citizen has registered your camera we do not have access to it. we can't gain access to it. We need your permission to actually obtain any video. All it does is it gives us the expediency to go to you as a citizen to say, "Hey, did you actually capture anything that would be valuable in assisting us in terms of gathering evidence that would solve this crime?" and many many I can't tell you via like breaking enters uh accidents we we like we solve crimes based on video and um that part if I can do a plug right now if you do have a camera please go on to wwrp.ca CA under the security camera register, register your camera. Um, all it does is give us a phone uh number and a contact for us to actually reach out and say, "Hey, in in your review, did you catch something that may be evidentiary in nature that would assist us in actually solving a crime?" I hope that answers your question. Yeah, it does. Thank you. And I I encourage residents to do that. Um, well, thank you. And I've had my questions answered, so thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Next person on my speakers list is regional counselor Joe Depala. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um and and and thank you, Cast Council Leu, for this motion. It's really good. I think this is what we need to do. Um at the last two years, there's been almost double-digit increase in the cost of YRP that we've absorbed at the region, and it's resulted in three or 4% property tax increases. the it's the same residents paying for um you know the region cost and the city costs here and but it's it's necessary and it's working. Uh the statistics coming out of YRP are are are fantastic in the last two years and the decline in uh uh crime rates and especially violent crime rates. So um all these initiatives are important. Um, I I fully support the increase in in spending with YRP. Uh, there's nothing we can do until the till the federal government gets serious or has less of a tolerance for crime and bail reform. We need the we have to stop with lenient sentencing and immigration screening. All those things are federal. There's nothing we can do. We have to absorb the cost and our residents want it. They want safer communities. So, um, and the the way it works is cities like Vaughn are willing to spend a little more and we have to do the the same thing here. Um, there's nothing Mayor West and Deputy Mayor Chan and I can do to advocate for more policing in Richmond Hill unless we're doing something like this and contributing to capital costs. But it but it's great that uh, you know, long-term operating costs are absorbed by YRP. It helps them do their job. It's fantastic that we've got residents nearly every front door has a a monitoring system that that shoots out not only on their own property but down the the street. And um with all with the proper cooperation, we can continue to um reduce those crime statistics and continue to to make our community safe. It it's worth it. I wholly endorse this and it's the appropriate use of the um economic vitality and and community enhancement fund. This is this this is what it's for. Capital expenditures that uh you know the using our interest that we're uh you we've achieved on this fund to to make expenditures like this to improve the community um without bearing a year-over-year operating uh additional cost. So uh it's fantastic motion. I fully support it. Thanks very much. Thank you, sir. Next on my speakers list is Deputy Mayor Chen. Thank you very much, Madame Chair. And um thank you uh York police deputy chief dil and our two district commander, superintendent. Thank you very much for being here and thank you counc new uh for the motion and I I think generally speaking that um that having more tools in the York police tool boxes that would generally help certainly uh I hear the word deterrence and actually lower crime. I think that I eventually say everyone in the room and and the 220,000 people in Richmond Hill would say yes, go for it. Anything that helps to bring down the crime uh not just in terms of rate but also incidents um and to the extent I can share with uh other members of people here and um um my colleague at region uh mentioned it actually in York region. I recall May 30th last year, we have a special council meeting at York Region whereas York Region Police Chief Maswin and the team were there and uh actually trying to also indicated the kind of measures that uh York Region Police are taking and CCTV have been specifically mentioned by the chief. If I recall that uh because I asked a question would the consideration be given uh with funding is there to increase a number um uh I stand to be corrected but the video you can look at it I think the chief said yes uh so this is in that same direction and my colleague at the region is right for the last two years 2024 2025 2026 York council um collectively uh increase the York budget um we by really significant uh in terms of dollars and percentage because we all are reacting in a sense to try to bring down the crime and thank you for the men and women working well with junior police and bringing those uh numbers down. I I think that's a challenge and I can see that linking having more of the one tool would necessarily be only sole factor to bring down the crime. that may be a bit challenge to to prove. Um, in principle, I'm support of the motion. Thank you, uh, again, I mentioned to council new again and thank you for confirming uh, deputy chief. Uh, we actually a conversation just over the weekend. Yes. Uh, where the cameras are, but as mayor and you just mentioned there's a network, so it's important link together. There's only two things that I I I'm thinking I should share uh in my support of the motion is that to a certain extent um the committee members need to need to know more in terms of um transparency. I'm not suggesting not being transparent because I have committee members that uh being aware of this uh where's the money coming from although it's in motion but thank you nobody explain better than you deputy chief because it's not just putting up the camera it's all these things that associated with that so I think that communication transparency is one factor to consider um then the other thing is that maybe Kong kind of alluded to uh is that it has to be evident based in terms of where the future locations are because the last thing I I I want to happen is that appears to be potentially perceived as a stigma stigmatization. Oh, what do you mean by putting in my area? Uh and and uh but I do understand um that deputy chief was saying I did noted that the two cameras on just right here uh on East Beaver Creek and the um um and the um I call them midterm turnover um and um right at uh Perfume Norman Perfume Avenue uh because of the shootings and and and then the theater. So I just that's something to be sensitive to and and so I like the mobile concept in support of this but eventually it has to be better communicated um perhaps with some RLP be transparent when moving here but also perhaps it could be mobile so that he has more um efficiency in terms functionality going around the area in the city. Um I just want to share also that uh community consultation is certainly something we need to uh get. Uh I do hear from community uh because in in the last few days I just sent to uh people um uh uh uh that I uh share email address with me about um a thousand uh people uh I sent out to I got 118 response and I would like to share that uh majority uh 75% of people 118 responded uh which is pretty good 11.8% 8% of thousand u saying that yeah 75% say yeah have it um however it come to the $20,000 per unit uh it comes down support become less only about 61%. So that's why I prom that maybe people need to understand um that okay um this is what is for this is part of the tool I'm just raising it in terms of communication uh for the transparment transparency the money the stigmatization but uh definitely having more uh I think in the long run would help because I I the other key word is I'm hearing uh in addition to transparency deputy mayor excuse me deterrence deterrence that's help please that's And I I know I'm over but I just want to say go for it but make sure it's evidence based and be communicated. Thank you. Thank you sir. There anybody else who didn't speak on the first round who wishes to speak? Seeing none. Okay. So coming to me um thank you gentlemen for being here. It's deeply appreciated. Thank you. Um and all the work that you do um as our police service. Um, I would venture to say uh not only one of the best but perhaps the best in North America and I think your whatever you do speaks for itself. So, thank you very very much. Um, this uh I I fully support this member motion and uh thank you councelor Leu for bringing it forward. Any questions or concerns that I had have now been answered um and responded to. There's no question this is um this is about uh sharing the responsibility within the community and uh getting five more cameras can can really really make a difference. Um it's good to know that they're going to be spread out because if they were all going to be in W three, I'm afraid I would have to fight you on that one. So um good to know. Um this is very responsible and prudent I believe um as as a as a municipality for us to do this. Uh there's verifiable data which has now been given. One of our delegate was concerned about that and I'm satisfied that the verifiable data that has been given to us and that is um available publicly can absolutely answer any any questions um of concern that may still that may still be uh uh still be there. Um, so just checking all my notes here. That's it. Um, anybody else who wants to speak on a second round? Okay, seeing none, uh, uh, councelor Lou, do you want to wrap up? So, thank you very much. Um, it's a very good discussion and thank you for all the comments and, uh, once again, thank you very much, uh, deputy chief, uh, for answering all the questions. There are lots of great great questions. Um, you know, at the end of the day, um, public safety is priceless. Um, and and I I'm sure when residents feel safe, they're more engaged, they're more confident in their city. So, um, I I stand by my motion and uh, and there's it's not a silver bullet. Everybody understand that. So, but it it's a proven um tool in modern policing. That's for sure. And uh, it's is also is a network. Um so no matter where the next five locations are uh it goes beyond license plates you know it it's track the uh the travel um direction the vehicle types and the association between vehicles and locations and and and and timing and stuff. So um so thank you very much for all the comments and I um I'm really looking forward um to have a unanimous vote on it. Thank you. Thank you sir. Okay. So, um Mr. Kirk, just one one uh uh thing I need to ask you. 134 the 134 pieces of communication. Yeah. Sorry. Um I I need to make a a little amendment. So, okay. Um my apologies. That's okay. Because according to the uh deputy chief um and thank you deputy mayor for reminding me that uh in in the third whereas um can I change it to 9 CCTV in in Richmond Hill instead of 10? Okay. Actually correct. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Okay. Anything further, counselor? No, thank you. Okay. So, um, Mr. Clerk, we have 134 pieces of correspondence that came in. Do we need to accept that together with We've already received them. Great. Thank you. Okay. So, in front of us, moved by um, councelor Louu is his member motion. Funding to support a vote. Do you want to record the vote? Okay, we will record the vote. funding to support additional closed circuits television video cameras CCTV enrichment hill and a vote a recorded vote has been called by councelu. Uh thank you uh through you madam chair voting on the members motion by councelor Leu. Councelor Leu yes thank you regional local counselor Chan. Yes. Thank you councelor Thompson. Yes. Thank you councelor tree. Yes. Thank you councelor Davidson. Yes. Thank you, councelor Shu. Yes. Thank you, Mayor West. Yes. Thank you, Councelor Silhouette. Yes. Thank you, Regional Local Councelor Depala. Yes. Thank you. That carries unanimously. Thank you very much again, gentlemen. Thank you. Um, so, uh, I've been informed by the clerk we are approaching the noon hour. Uh, so according to our, uh, procedur bylaw, we need to break for lunch and we'll come back at 1:00. Is that suitable? Okay. Thank you very much. We are adjourned until