Transcript - Rural Clean Water Renewal Approved - Comité de l’agriculture et des affaires rurales

Rural Clean Water Renewal Approved - Comité de l’agriculture et des affaires rurales – le 2 avril 2026

Test one, two, three. Test one, two, three. Begin the meeting in 1 minute. Good morning everyone. If you want to get ready, we're going to start the meeting here. Welcome to uh the 33rd meeting of the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee meeting or Rural Affairs Committee. Like to call the meeting to order. Uh we have received regrets from councelor Kits who's unable to make it today. Uh but I will ask that the uh coordinator do the roll call. Thank you. Councelor Kitz, Councelor Lulof. Good morning, Councelor Skolowski here. Chair um Vice Chair Brown here and Chair Kelly. Thank you very much. And uh perhaps I will start on that note. Uh most people will uh who are tuning in today realize that I am not the chair of the agricultural world affairs committee. Uh but I do appreciate our our chair David Brown allowing me to uh to chair a meeting and get some experience uh doing so. So I want to thank him for that. Uh I will uh begin our meeting today on behalf of Ottawa City Council. I wish to acknowledge that Ottawa is built on the unseated Anesnabi Alangquin territory. The peoples of the Anishnabi Alongquin nation have lived here for lived on this territory for millennia and their culture and presence have nurtured and continue to nurture this land. Item number two, declarations of interest. Are there any declarations of interest? No. Seeing none, uh, confirmation of minutes are the minutes from the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee meeting of Thursday, March 5th. Confirmed. Confirmed. Thank you. Our first item of substance item 4.1 uh the Oh, no. Actually, that's response to inquiry. There is a response to inquiry that was raised by councelor Skolski at the city council meeting of August 27th, 2025. It's my understanding that she does not wish to hold that item. So, we can move on. Uh, strategic initiatives department. This actually is our first item of substance. The Ottawa Rural Clean Water Program. We do have a staff presentation. There are no delegations registered to speak. And we Oh, unless there is one delegate registered to speak. My apologies. Uh, but we'll start with the staff presentation and then we'll move to delegates. Welcome. Thank you. Good morning. Uh, good morning, chair and committee members. Oh, I'll just wait for the slides to get up there. We good to go? I think so. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Uh my name is Tara Redpath and I'm a senior planner with our natural systems um team in the city of Ottawa's strategic initiatives department and I'm joined today by Nick Stowe who is program manager of natural systems. I also coordinate the Ottawa Rural Clean Water Program on behalf of the city and in partnership with our three local conservation authorities. Today's presentation will provide a summary of the program and of the 5-year review that was undertaken to evaluate the program's performance over the years of 2021 to 2025. The key recommendations for renewing and improving the program for the next 5-year period 2026 to 2030 will also be covered. Next slide, please. So, the Ottawa Rural Clean Water Program is a long-standing program that provides cost share grants to farmers and rural land owners for projects that protect surface water and groundwater quality. The program offers grants of up to $15,000 for 19 different project types that can be generally categorized under nutrient management, soil protection, water management, land stewardship, and education and innovation. The administration and delivery of this program is done through a partnership with our three local conservation authorities being South Nation, Rita Valley, and Mississippi Valley. We also have a two review committees that meet quarterly to review and approve projects while a program committee provides um direction to the the program and uh on the design and delivery of the program. The program also has an annual budget of $200,000 and this is funded through a special levy to South Nation Conservation. The program was last renewed in 2021 for a 5-year period. Promotion of the program occurs in a variety of ways uh such as mail drops, social media posts, newsletter posts through counselor and city staff or city newsletters, um ads in local agricultural newspapers, as well as in person at public events and fairs. Next slide, please. So the map there on the screen is showing the locations of all projects that were completed between 2025 to or 2021 to 2025. And that was a total of 271 projects. Uh the total grant value for those projects was just over $671,000. And in addition to that, land owners contributed approximately 1 million of their own dollars invested in these projects. The projects with the highest uptake over this period uh included forest management plans, erosion control, natural windbreaks and water course buffers as well as well decommissioning. So many of the forest management plans which you can see in the as the purple dots there on the screen were completed in areas of Ottawa with highest higher forest cover and less productive agricultural lands. Uh and we see projects taking place across all rural wards in that category. uh the erosion control projects show up as the orange dots. Uh we had many projects to create or enhance natural windbreaks and water course buffers as well which are shown in blue. So you can see a cluster of those blue erosion control projects and then the uh the yellow the orange erosion control and the blue uh windbreaks and buffers uh along a a stretch of the RTO river there as well south of Manetic. And a lot of these were completed on rural residential properties. Well decommissioning projects which are shown in lime green took place in all rural wards as well as even a few urban sites. Uh next slide please. So just to highlight some of the um some of the key things that were resulted from this program. Uh there's been some important gains in protecting water quality in rural Ottawa. So we have uh over 450 hectares of farmland have improved nutrient management with precision farming techniques and nutrient management plans. Uh over this period we saw um 112,000 trees planted along nearly 7 kilometers of water courses or as part of natural windbreaks. Uh we also had uh 1,752 hectares of forest protected through forest management plans. And uh the last thing to highlight is that the risk of surface and groundwater contamination was greatly reduced at 55 sites across Ottawa. And one last thing I wanted to highlight for the program uh from the past five years is that in 2021 we introduced a brand new project type for wetland restoration and we've since seen three projects for restoring wetlands completed and an additional five projects are currently underway. So the photos there on the screen show one of the wetland projects that was undertaken in Osgood Ward. Uh the top photo is showing the newly created ponds and then the bottom photo shows the wetland vegetation and the buffer area that is already beginning to establish. Next slide please. So the approach that we took for this review included holding interviews with conservation authority staff as well as city staff with related expertise. In addition, we sent online surveys to all program committee and review committee members as well as all past program participants. So those who received grants through this program. A scan was carried out for 34 similar programs that are taking place across Ontario to summarize trends from those programs. So in general, the Ottawa program is very highly regarded and it's it's being uh very well administered by our conservation authority partners. The feedback that we received from past participants was very positive. Um, however, there were some areas noted for improvement and this was identified through the review. So, although we do promote the program through a wide variety of channels, many of the participants who responded to our survey uh felt that it could be more effectively promoted, uh, most of the participants reported initially hearing of the program through their contractors or through local conservation authority staff. In addition, some challenges were identified with establishing and maintaining the program committee. So, these can be attributed to several factors uh such as just general difficulties in recruiting members from local agricultural organizations. Um a lack of engagement or constructive feedback has been observed when we're only holding our meetings on an annual basis and pandemic related restrictions on in-person gatherings were in place in the early um period when we were launching this committee. So that uh had an impact as well. And one last thing to point out from the overall review findings is that the program budget is currently carrying a surplus of over $100,000 into the 2026 year. These funds were not allocated towards projects or program delivery. So this lower uptake can also be attributed to uh the limited some of the limited promotion that took place as well as contractor availability and supply chain impacts that we experienced during the co 19 pandemic as well. We've seen cost increases um sort of across the board for some of the project types and overall budget pressures on household finances can be a limiting factor for some participants to uh to submit an application. So these surplus funds remain available for new grants in 2026 and we are also setting aside some to provide support for the living snow fence pilot which was introduced in 2024 as a pilot program. Next slide please. So moving on to the recommendations that came out of the review. Uh these recommendations are based on input that was received from interest holders through the interviews and surveys as well as the review of similar programs. And I just want to highlight some of the key recommendations. These ones that I'll mention all currently align with the current program goals. Uh the first suite of recommendations includes minor modifications to the guidelines for nine existing project types. So this would include things like minor updates to eligibility criteria to ensure that projects are having the maximum water quality benefits. Um, we've also recommended some modest increases in the maximum grant amounts and rates for a few of the project types to encourage uptake and to also recognize some of those increasing project costs. Um, a second key recommendation is the introduction. We're recommending introducing living snow fencing as a new eligible project type under this program and building on lessons learned from the pilot phase. We're also prop um proposing several recommendations that would enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the program's administration, such as updating the funding prerequisites that are related to environmental farm plans, as well as increasing the five-year funding limit per property from its current uh value of $25,000 to a maximum of $35,000. And this would offer a bit more flexibility to land owners who are interested and wishing to to undertake multiple projects. In terms of promotion, we would like to increase our targeted promotion and outreach to encourage uptake on some of the more uh some of the less popular project types. Uh we want to explore some new ways of engaging with land owners, maybe look at some larger signs to attract more attention as well as make better use of targeting targeted advertising through social media platforms. And another idea that came across was uh the idea of hosting local forums or farm tours to showcase some of the past projects and past farm locations uh to land owners. The program committee was something we had also heard about uh having challenges with. We are proposing that we replace the formal program committee structure, the governance structure with a more informal flexible approach to soliciting feedback on program design and delivery. So, there are lots of uh committee members and other committees that we can approach for input as needed, and we think that that would be more effective. Um, the last recommendation here is that we continue to fund the program at the $200,000 per year through the special levy for the next 5-year period. And move to the next slide, please. All right. So the recommendations uh outlined on this slide are reflective of the um feedback that we received from interest holders on the opportunities that exist to expand the program beyond its traditional water quality project focus and to broaden out and include uh more environmental stewardship focus and climate change adaptation and resilience. So this could include supporting private land owners with the creation and restoration of natural habitats. and some land land owners have expressed a desire to undertake these types of projects. There are also opportunities to provide support for climate preparedness in rural Ottawa. So, at this time, staff are recommending that we would undertake a more comprehensive study to ensure that proposed new project types would represent best management practices and would also make positive contributions towards environmental sustainability and climate preparedness in rural Ottawa. This study would include consultations with internal and external interest holders including our residents. It would also examine options for integrating with other city programs and for aligning with council proof strategies such as climate ready Ottawa and the infrastructure master plan. So there are some general project categories that were suggested during the review and we would give these uh further consideration. Uh this includes things like um habitat improvements related to pollinator strips, grasslands, meadow creation, as well as a variety of ideas to support climate preparedness such as nature-based solutions to reduce storm water runoff, agricultural adaptations, and extreme weather preparedness. Staff are proposing to report back to committee and council in 2027 with the findings from this study and the consultations along with a suite of options and recommendations. These recommendations may include potential program enhancements and associated funding considerations. Uh, next slide please. So that concludes my presentation. Thanks very much for the opportunity to share this information on the program today and we would welcome any questions on the program or on the proposed recommendations. Thank you very much for the presentation. We do have one registered uh delegate so we'll go to that delegate and then we can move to questions for staff. So I will ask James Scott Marlo to uh to make your way down to the table. Thank you very much for coming today, James. You will have five minutes and I will give you a one minute warning. There we go. Um, smart precision farming in relation to Ottawa's rural clean water program. Slide two, please. Meet Ted E, associate professor at UFO. Ted is passionate about precision agriculture and smart farming. Slide three. Area X, home of the Ottawa Smart Farm collaboration to accelerate agri techch innovation adoption and impact. Slide four. Area X turns the Ottawa smart farm into an aggitech innovation plat um playground established by Invest Ottawa in the city of Ottawa. Slide five. Area X brings together autonomous systems, sensors, IoT, tech, telecommunications, big data, robotics, drones, CVs, and 100 acres of farmland. The largest secure test facility in Canada, completely fenced and gated, equipped with GPS, Wi-Fi, 5G, MMAs for telecommunications, and more. Slide six. A smart farming is a practice involving a systems of interconnected sensors, including ground sampling sensors, optical cameras, and more. Remote sensing is done to assess soil properties and crop health. Slide seven. Meet Jordan Wallace, founder of farmer and residence at the Ottawa Smart Farm and owner of GPS Ontario. Slide eight. Sorry to interrupt you. Just give me one second. I just wanted to make sure that we're uh we're focused on the the file that is before us and that we that staff had just presented on. So, we are here to talk about the Ottawa Rural Clean Water Program and the updates to that. Could you perhaps uh keep your delegation focused on that for now? My delegation is regarding the precision farming which is mentioned in um the Ottawa clean program your links about 30 times. Thank you. If you could just get to the point um my whole point is on smart farming. Can we go along? Can you just bring back focused on the My whole thing is focused on that. Thank you very much. Um are we slide where are we? GPS Ontario where all data is deployed in a simple dashboard to precisely gather and map monitor evaluate yield. Slide nine meet France Cole a member of the IEC and ISO and SEC. He's responsible for international standards surrounding IoT and digital twins. Slide 10. According to France, these standards involve the IOC smart farming initiative. Slide 11. Overlap with smart farming like to point out genomics, breeding crop production and biotech engineering, remote sensing and analysis. Slide 12. Who needs standardization? Third dot down. Remote sensing acquisition and data integration of enor enormous data sets leading to the shearing for optimization of precision agriculture. Slide 13. Who might have relevant standards? These include technical amenities on biotech, molecular bio biomarkers for food and agriculture, smart farming initiatives and agriculture electronics and more. Slide 14. Pertinent SDOS's include technical committees on environmental management, biodiversity, circular economy, committees on smart cities and soil quality. Slide 15. Bioengineering contributions include optimization of resource us resource usage precision agriculture delegation on the t the file that we are discussing which is the Ottawa clean water program I know that you've mentioned that this precision farming is mentioned in the report 30 over 30 times in several reports why don't you why don't you want to talk about precision farming Please focus your delegation on what we are here to discuss. We are here to discuss precision farming which is in your clean water management program. Thank you. Um bio um slide 15. Bioengineering contribution includes optimization of resource usage. Slide 16. Precision agriculture uses data acquisition of weather, soil, pest and disease and weed information. Slide 17. This is from the NRC's capabilities in food. Key technologies for the future in food include advanced materials, biiobased nano automation and robotics, crop biotech, IoT, big data analytics, and more. Slide 18. Uh I'd like to point out under crop productivity, seed development, controlled environment, plant growth facilities, also underwater, land, agriculture input, soil, water diagnosis, remediation, analysis of fresh water, soil, analysis, soil composition. That is your time, James. Thank you very much for your delegation. Thank you for cutting me off several times while refusing. Any questions for the delegate? Nope. Have you have yourself a great day, James? Moving on. Uh, are there any questions for staff? Okay. Uh, Council Brown, thank you very much. Um, in the presentation, you'd reference trying to advertise some of the the lesser known aspects of the program. Do we have a plan as to how we can share the word and really get it out there so we can drive some of that interest? Yes. Thank you very much for the counselor or for the question and sorry and through the through the chair. Um yes, we have several recommendations to enhance the promotion and communications for the program. Um some of the ones that we'd like to try is um working more closely with our community partners as well and working more closely with some of the contractors that offer some of these different project types or you know so for something like control tile drainage perhaps that's something we could work with tile drain contractors on and spread the word that way because we have seen lots of positive uptake as well and when when contractors are aware of the projects they can direct their their clients towards us for funding. Um we would also like to uh improve how we reach out to land owners perhaps in a way that's a little more organic. So if we have some tours available or develop some forums where um farmers and land owners can uh learn from each other and learn from their neighbors uh see some of the projects on the ground. We think that could drive some interest as well. Uh and one last thing I'll mention is uh just advertising in general. you know, we've we do um we do quite a bit of advertising already and we you know, all the program um participants receive a small sign that they can put on their laneway, but they those may not be getting the visibility that uh might be necessary. So, we're thinking of redirecting, refocusing some of our existing budget and perhaps uh buying larger signs to put in an area that would might be more visible, for example, or um you know, ideas like that. Making better use of targeted social media. um targeting in on geographic locations and and that type of thing. So, we have some options to explore for sure. All right. Thank you very much. Yeah, I think there's a great opportunity to leverage likely our partners at the Ottawa Federation of Agriculture, the OFA. Uh they've have the I guess the network already established. So, I think there's a benefit to working with them. The other thing perhaps might be helpful is if uh staff can provide a crisp write up that we could include in our weekly newsletters because there are some folks in the community that hopefully read those and it might be a great way to get that out there and wouldn't cost any extra if we help share that material. So just a few suggestions but thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much councelor Brown. Councelor Lulof. Yeah, I really like the idea of reaching out directly to the contractors uh that are performing this work uh on farms. I think that's great. Uh there's there's there's nothing like hiring somebody and them saying, "Hey, by the way, did you know that you can get a portion of this cost covered um by by a program being run by the city?" I think that that's a that's a very good way uh to get that information out. I'd also suggest uh on top of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture uh perhaps uh the Ontario Farmer uh magazine uh Farmario uh the magazine of grain farmers of Ontario as well. Um a small add there uh may may make a big difference especially if it's offseason um when farmers are paying a little bit more attention to those sorts of publications. Uh but um good work. Let's uh let's continue uh to ensure that our farmers are aware of these programs. Um like your ideas so far and I think uh that uh while we do have a little bit of work to do that this program has uh um has a lot of potential for for far more uptake. So thank you. Thank you very much councelov. Are there any more questions for staff? Councelor SC. Um hi thank you for this review. I think it's great. Also um I just wanted to also throw in some suggestions. So one I think that at rural fairs and agricultural fairs are opportunities for really visible like a you know a tent or a popup or a way that you can bring attention to a lot of city programs that are offered for the rural community. So I'll just throw that out there as another way and get in front getting in front of a lot of people. Um and uh and I also wanted to say that I think it's important that as a city we also know where the areas are um that you think need work and need attention. So one example would be like where you already know there's erosion problems like you know to proactively reach out to the community association in that area for example and suggest you know hey do you know there's a problem here if and there's money available to to help fix it. um because uh you know grants like this are great but they're they rely on either communities or individuals to carry that lift and so you know the extent to which we can relieve that lift for people um and even just bring the attention to them that there's something there worth worth um you know addressing is uh would provide a lot of value for folks. Thanks. Absolutely. Thank you very much councelor Skolski. Um thank you very much for a very thorough uh report and presentation today. I certainly appreciate it. Uh so seeing uh no more questions for staff uh I will uh read in the recommendation. So the report recommends that the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee receive the Ottawa Clean Water Program 2021 to 2025 review and renewed uh renewal. Document one, approve the 2026 to 20230 Ottawa Rural Clean Water Program as outlined in this report and described in document one. Number three, direct staff to undertake further study and consultation on expanding the scope of the Ottawa Rural Clean Water Program as outlined in this report and as described in document one and report back to council in 2027. Is this report carried? Carried much. Okay. Uh moving on to item 6.1, the rural community building grant program grant application review. There is no presentation. We have no requests to speak and have received no written correspondence for this item. Does anyone wish to speak on this item? Okay. Thank you very much. Uh the report recommends that the agricultural and rural affairs committee approve the recommendations in the rural community building grants program applications as detailed in document one. Is this item carried? Carried. Thank you very much. Okay. Moving on to item 6.2, two, urban design review panel procedural and reporting updates. Uh there is no presentation. We have no request to speak and have received no written correspondence for this item. Does anyone wish to speak on this item? Uh this item was considered yesterday by the planning and housing committee and following a brief discussion was carried as presented and the report recommendations are as follows. That the planning and housing uh committee and agriculture and rural affairs committee recommend council direct staff to request the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to amend the official plan amend um amendment 47 to remove the urban design review panel report from the list of possible requirements for an application to be deemed complete and number two exclude the urban design review panel report from the development applications studies and plans bylaw. Does this item carried? Carried. Thank you very much. Uh infrastructure and water services department item 7.1 municipal responsibility agreement for 1491 Manitic Station Road. There is no presentation. We have no request to speak and receive no written correspondence for this item. Do any of the members of the committee wish to speak on this item? Okay. The recommendation reads uh that the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee and the Environment and Climate Change Committee recommend council authorize the city to enter into a municipal responsibility agreement for 1491 Manitic Station Road. delegate authority to the general manager of infrastructure and water services department in consultation with the city's finance and legal services to execute municipal responsibility agreements outside of the development review process including the establishment of any um required financial asurances in accordance with provincial requirements. Is this item carried? Carried. Thank you. This item will also be considered at the Environment and Climate Change Committee on April 21st. flying through this. Item 9.1, office of the city clerk status update, agricultural and rural affairs committee inquiries and motions for the period ending March 24th, 2026. We have no presentation. We have received no request to speak and have received no written submission. Uh the report recommendations are that the agricultural and royal affairs committee receive this report for information. Is this item received? Received. Thank you. We have no inc camera items. Uh item number 10.1 information previously distributed urban design uh brief terms of reference and urban design guidelines update. We have received that. Um so are we going to open mic now or are we going to Yeah. Open mic. Okay. So we will move on to item number 11 open mic session. We do have three registered speakers for the open mic session. And where will we begin? I think we are starting with uh Bobby Vasley, founder and CEO of the Canadian Wastite. I learned a new word today. All right. So, we will uh turn it over to uh to Bob Bob, it appears that you are on mute. If you could just unmute yourself and we'd be happy to hear your presentation. I appreciate that. There's a um sorry about that. I'm having some type of questions. We'll start with a uh a a quick video that was put together by the city of Kingston which will introduce our mine site and the undue climate project that we're going to speak about. Thank you. We all know that that climate change is having a dramatic impact on the planet and on on our way of life. We're going to need to remove somewhere around 5 to 10 billion tons of CO2 from our atmosphere every year. Kingston is a community that's passionate about sustainability. We were the first city in Ontario to declare a climate emergency. Molastinite is a calcium silicate mineral is an ideal mineral for enhanced rock weathering. It reacts with CO2 that's in the rainwater and it sequesters that into carbonates which get put into the soil permanently. Undo developed some wonderful technology to measure, record, and verify the actual carbon that's been put into the ground. The new partnership with Canadian elastinite and undo, it builds on Kingston's values of being sustainable. The city of Kingston has a goal to become a carbon neutral city by 2040. We need projects like Canadian elastinite and undo to achieve our goals. In 2024, we'll put 50,000 tons of elastinite in agricultural lands. Rural Ontario plays such a a large role on the overall economy and in the world. This relationship with Aastanite and Undo is is truly an example of what partnerships are about that will be successful. It will be an incredible win for everyone. We're actually going to be a net environmental gain. We're going to contribute more to the environment than we're taking away. From the minute you drive through the gates and you see the anukshook and you see the wetlands and you see the natural landscape that welcomes nature and hering. Canada is very rich in agricultural land and in in minerals. The potential for Canada to be removing hundreds of millions of tons per year is very real. We're building out a scalable, permanent removal system that will take some of that CO2 back out of the atmosphere to help us keep a stable planet for future generations. Kingston's very proud to be home to Undo and we're pleased to work with them every step of the way. Welcome to Kingston. Welcome to Kingston. Welcome to Kingston. Welcome Undo. Welcome. Undo. Uh, thank the Kitty or the committee's patience for all of the Kingston uh, promotion in that. The city of Kingston put that video together to welcome this carbon project between Canadian last night and Undo. We're very much looking to expand this project into a much larger region which is the Ottawa region um which is strategically um it it has large strategic advant advantages both both globally um well I should say nationally and globally. Peggy Sue will describe a bit more about that and about the the uh the program. I'll just finish off by speaking a little bit about uh Canadian Last night as a company. We're here in eastern Ontario. We're the only mine wastite mining operation in Canada. Um we have just a little over 600 acres of land of which 55 acres is is being uh mined for the production of wastite. The remaining acreage is uh is enhanced. We've uh we've put in um forests, wetlands. the uh the net result of this and the other major uh carbon undertaking as a as a mining operation is this quarter will be fully electrified um by the end of June. So we will be able to produce 150,000 tons of wolastite material per year carbon negative actually carbon negative in in addition to the um the forests and the wetlands that we put in. We um we support Eastern Ontario contractors. We uh outsource our mining, extraction, and processing to a major eastern Ontario contractor, George Tackerberry Construction, who has a fair bit of operations in the Ottawa region. Um and the uh if if uh if the Ottawa region grows as we expect it will and Peggy Su will talk about uh UND's plans Canadian will last I will also invest several million dollars in electrification of trucking and allow us to set up some depots where we could bring the material into the Ottawa region. Uh again your your time is up but I I did neglect to give you a 30 second warning. So, if you want to take 30 seconds just to wrap up and then we'll go to questions. Thank you. No, I' I'd like to save the time for Peggy Sue who will uh who will follow me on this. Thank you very much. But you do have looks like you have a question from councelor Brown. Thank you very much, Chair and Bob. With all the welcome to Kingston, I think I should say welcome to Ottawa. Um Peggy Sue gets her five minutes, too. So, I'll I'll save some questions for Peggy Sue, but could you explain the the partnership that you've created with the city of Kingston because I think uh you know, sitting on this side of the table in Ottawa, I think there's a success story there that you're looking to replicate here in Ottawa. And you know, seeing some of our our colleagues on Kingston City Council who are are so uh open in their support of what you're doing, I I think there's a good message there. So, maybe you can go into a little bit of detail for us. Super. I appreciate the question. Um the city of Kingston the program I'll start off with the program. Um undo and through the sale of carbon credits is sponsoring agriculture farms to put well last night into their uh into their operations. The city of Kingston the only cost to farmers generally is just the cost of transport between the mine site and the farm operation. the um the partnership with the city of Kingston. City of Kingston is absorbing um a half of that cost and we rebaiting that to the farmers. In 2026, Undo is going one step further and and Peggy Sue will explain that. Undo is also covering the other half. So essentially with the city of Kingston um their farm constituents will be able to purchase um and have spread will last night at no cost to the program. Um I think the city was quite pleased with the initial results. uh the takeup has been strong and the um as dollar for dollar for the city investing in carbon offsets or carbon removal or carbon initiatives. I would say the city will will I think confirm this is by far the lowest cost durable carbon removal opportunity that the city has of any of the programs that they've undertaken uh in terms of dollars per tons. So, we're looking to expand this. Uh we're certainly looking for a a major uh major site. Um and the region of Ottawa fits that criteria perfectly. No, thank you very much. And just my last question for you, how many producers uh in the Kingston area were you able to uh partner with? So, in terms of farms, I don't know, sorry, I don't know the number of that. Uh Peggy Sue may be able to comment on that directly. Right. Thanks so much, Bob. Thank you very much for your uh very interesting presentation, Bob. Uh seeing no more questions for you, we will turn it over to Peggy Sue, who I see has uh joined us as well. Thank you. Great to meet you. And uh we'll turn it over to you for your fiveminute delegation. All right. Thank you so much, clerk. And um thank you so much, counselors, for your time this morning. Bob, thank you for that wonderful setting of the table. Yes, we are pretty excited to have this conversation with the city of Ottawa, which represents about 250,000 acres of farmland and that is that is a massive opportunity that we're looking to expand into in a way that supports this city's initiatives. Um so let's let's get into some of that. So um yes um Undo is a permanent carbon removal company and we utilize enhanced rock weathering technology um namely Wolastite uh which we uh procure from uh Canadian elastinite. Um our operations are based in Ontario. We have about a 20 person team right now currently based in Kingston. Um and I'm coming to you today as the general manager for Undo Cararbon Canada. Next slide please. Okay. Uh so for those um less familiar with what enhanced wrap weathering technology is and for those of you where last night is the first time you're hearing about this today um yes our technology focuses on enhancing and accelerating a a very natural process um that that is already happening. Uh but we are looking to speed it up significantly by taking this mineral, this silicut rock, elastinite, crushing it up even finer and spreading it across farmlands at variable rates based on a number of soil analyses that we perform on a farm-by-farmm basis. Um this is an incredibly durable form of carbon sequestration. We often ask, well, why not plant more trees? Well, we certainly have to plant more trees. There's no doubt. And we need more durable forms of carbon sequestration. And this is certainly, as Bob was saying, dollar for dollar, the most cost-effective and one of the more um uh permanent forms that currently exists. It's also one of the most um bankable on the carbon market, making it a very meaningful business model to bring into the climate solutions um space. Next slide, please. I may have gotten a bit ahead of myself. So, this will just be a bit of a repeat on what I've said around some of the advantes advantages of enhanced rock weathering given some of the other um technologies that are out there. Arbeck systems, yes, a forestation um in comparison to biochar and so on. So there's just a great amount of stability when it comes to the weathering that the silicut rock provides when it does u weather atmospherically take that carbon sink it into the soil and then down into our water systems and further down all the way into the oceans um durably locking it away. Um I'll I'll leave that there. Um next slide please. Okay. Uh just to give an idea of numbers to date um in Ontario alone we've spread just under 80,000 tons. Um just under 30,000 acres have been enriched with wastite and we've uh been able to serve 195 farms uh with this amendment um locking away just over 17,000 tons of CO2. Next slide please. Again, just giving a an overview of our Kingston specific operations. Yes, just under 10,000 tons of rock has been spread in 2023 to 25. What's exciting about that is that this coming year we're going to be spreading um in the first half of the year 65,000 tons of rock and at the end of this year 165,000 tons of rock. We've worked with 24 farms of variable sizes. Our farm sizes are getting larger. Um, we've locked away just over 3,000 tons of CO2. Um, next slide, please. These are our spring goals. This is what we're looking at. Just over 5,000 for 26. Um, and just about 300, excuse me, 3,000 acres in our pipeline. Um, we've identified 11 new farms. Um, and we've got some some very significant potential already in our spring, which is a a challenging time to spread an amendment. um as as all farmers will know. Next slide, please. These are here for the council's reference. These are some of the testimonies from the farmers we work directly with. Um it is very much a white glove service. We work directly with our farmers. We ensure that their interests are served, that we are working within their crop cycles. Um the point of this is to utilize a unique thank you business model to funnel money from various industries. the tech industry, larger corporations via the carbon market to then serve Canadian soil health to help regenerative farming practices and and we're pretty proud of that unique business model. Um if you would please the next slide and I'll I'll end with this. Okay, so the benefits um back to the city of Kingston. Yes, dollar for dollar. uh for every one from the city of Kingston, we have been able to invest about 12.5. And at the close of this rebate program, which was for $200,000 uh for the past two years, we will finish and close out this program 6 months ahead of time this June, which will have served uh about 40,000 tons of material and roughly about uh 10,000 acres of farmland there. So, we're quite we're quite proud of this and we would so love to be able to bring this initiative in a way that is um most conducive to the city of Ottawa. Um thank you so much for your time today. Thank you very much for your delegation. Uh I see a question from you from councelor Brown. Thank you chair and thanks Peggy Sue. So I appreciate seeing how many uh operators have have partnered with you. um you've done a good job job explaining some of the climate benefits and the science uh behind it, but could you talk about why a farmer might want to do this? What's the benefit to the crop health and the soil health? Absolutely. And thank you for asking. I apologize. I I ran short on time. So, um yes, the benefits. So, um often we get compared to a lying source. It's what's next nearest. It's what is most understood in a farmer's repertoire. um are a little different, but um let's start from there because it's interesting. Most farmers are, if they can, they're testing their soils regularly, seasonally. Um and they're seeing those drops in pH, what sort of additives they need for the season to boost their yields and so on. Um but most farmers are seeing a pretty high um you know, up and down throughout the season of their pH based on what their crop is doing. And so the you know, that's that's lime. Lime's your quick spike, your quick weathering agent. It does the thing. Um, but it puts you right back down at the end. Well, last night, however, because it is slower weathering, we act as a buffering agent. We also have a number of macronutrients that come into the soil and our special sauce really is um the the components around soil strengthening, regenerative soil practices. So, improving drought tolerance, um making silicon available uh to those plants for that uptake. We do all of that testing um of plant tissues, of soils so that we can uh prove this um season after season. Open soil systems are very hard to measure, but we're all over it. Um so instead of a farmer getting this kind of a variance, we get a much more even keeled um controlled buffering of their pH and that does have significant impacts to their reduced reduction in additives and in their in their yield being more protected season after season. Did that answer your question? It did. Thank you. And my uh my second question to you, I noticed one of the testimonials had said uh this one farmer in Markham was or has been spreading well last night for eight years. So do you find that you've got some staying power with the farmers you've been able to partner with? Like they keep coming back year after year. So that's part of the learning curve for us is um we are not a year after year amendment. Um we are right now looking at the 3 to fiveyear application uh rotation which is a little different for a farmer. Um so we we have farmers who will have us spread an amount of their fields first and then the next set of fields and then the next set of fields and so that um rotation. Um, but we actually that's next on our our piece is seeing if if we can speed up that application cycle because our farmers the staying power and the word of mouth of this community is very strong. Um, and and we're finding that farmers want to have this amendment more frequently and applied at higher densities um because it is a lower slower weathering and it is a great buffering agent. No, thank you very much for your delegation today. I was able to speak with Rebecca Erd who's a resident here in the city of Ottawa and she's a great proponent of the science and and the benefits that it could bring. So appreciate you and Bob taking the time delegating today. Thank you. Thank you David Brown. I appreciate that. Thank you for your questions, Council Brown. Thank you very much for your delegation, Peggy Sue, and for your time here today. And uh since council Brown did just uh mention Rebecca aired, I will take the opportunity to mention that we have received correspondence from her uh which has been circulated to the members of the committee and is on the SharePoint for anyone who wishes to see it. Uh we will now move to our final open mic delegate. Uh she's no stranger to the committee, Shirley Dolan. Welcome. Thank you very much. So I'm going to start off by thanking you very much for this opportunity. It's a pleasure to be back speaking to you again. And today my topic is the Alto highspeed rail project and its impact on the city of Ottawa, its residents and businesses. As you know no doubt know it's a 60 to90 billion dollar project spanning decades with the ultimate goal of reducing travel time between um Toronto and Quebec City uh corridor. Um you mentioned the Ontario Federation of Agriculture earlier and uh they have asked for a pause that urges the government to immediately halt the proposed project to allow for a thorough economic, social and environmental impact assessment and also meaningful consultation with affected agriculture, forestry and community uh rural communities. So many rural communities so far have published official statements expressing their concerns and opposition to the project. I'd like the city of Ottawa to do something similar. So that's my ask for today. Um, one of the municipalities that has expressed concerns very very nicely is Christa Lowry who is the mayor of Mississippi Mills. She has written a letter to MP Scott Reed uh which I would like to share with you and I think it's appropriate because they're a very rural municipality and a lot of the things that she says I think should ring true here. Um so let me just bring up um so number one she talks about transportation and municipal services perspective. What I'm talking about here is things that could add to the city of Ottawa's budget. So, for example, she talks about the potential severance of local and county roads. Uh, a fully fenced, grade separated, high-speed rail corridor risks creating dead end or o or orphaned road segments and could result in longer travel times for fire, ambulance, police services. There's an impact on school buses, snow clearing, waste collection, and the increased ongo ongoing operational costs for the municipality. I think we would have the same the same issues. Um number two is the impacts on agriculture and rural use land. Uh so Mississippi Mills has a strong agricultural base as do we and they have deliberately strengthened protections for prime agricultural land through their official plan as have we. When I say we I mean the city of Ottawa. um bisecting active I'm going to move this down a bit. Bisecting active farmland particularly without appropriate grade separations can significantly disrupt farming operations by restricting access dividing fields creating orphan parcels and interfering with drainage systems. These impacts threaten not only individual operations but also the long-term viability of agriculture as an economic and cultural corner stones uh cornerstone. She talks also about sensitive watershed systems, wetlands and natural heritage features. Earlier on we had a presentation about the rural clean water program. I wonder if this program has considered the impact of the high-speed rail on that program because I think it could be significant. Um, drainage and water management impacts are particularly significant in rural settings where changes to service and subsurface water flows can affect farmland, municipal drains, private wells, and downstream ecosystems. The long-term costs of migrating these impacts often fall on municipalities. Um, think I want to skip to this one here. Fiscal responsibility. Yeah, that is time. Shirley, if you could just take 30 seconds to wrap up and then we can move into questions. Okay. I I think my point is that uh and I I I may send you this uh because there's a lot that I didn't get to. Uh it's going to have an impact on the city of Ottawa and not only rural but uh urban as well. And I could come back and talk about that another time, but uh I'd really encourage you to ask Alto to put a pause, the federal government to put a pause because I really do think there's a big impact there. So, we have a question from councelor Brown. Thank you, chair, and thanks, Shirley. Um, Mayor Lowry is a a great communicator for her constituency, and I know she works closely with uh Chair Kelly. um if she's been able to reach out to her federal representatives. Are you aware of any advocacy efforts with some of the uh the federal members of parliament in the city of Ottawa? Uh what I just read you was a letter addressed to uh MP Scott Reed. So, I don't know if there's been any response, but as you probably know, uh, MP Scott Reed has a petition, uh, which is, I think, over a little over 10,000 right now, uh, asking which outlines concerns, many of the same ones that, um, Mayor Lowry has expressed. No, thank you. I don't know of any other MPs that she's reached out. I personally have reached out to uh my MP um uh Bruce Vanjoy. Uh we had a nice meeting. Um I don't think he's ready to halt alto uh but uh we did have he his his belief is that we can have high speed and we can also work on improving uh the via rail system. I'm not so sure that that would happen, but he thinks that can happen. Perfect. Thanks so much, Shirley. My pleasure. Well, politicians do tend to be optimists. I will say that. Um, and before you go, Shirley, I just want to I know that you you ran out of time. Uh, so I'll just ask if if there was any if there's one one point that that you weren't able to get out that you wanted to uh to get out, and we'll give you a minute to to do that. Okay. I I'd maybe like to mention the new expropriation laws uh which is part of C bill 15 which I believe just I don't know if it's got royal ascent yet but it's it will soon if it hasn't. Um, I attended um um a a an online presentation by uh a a legal group in Toronto, Davies How. They're experts in expropriation law, and they gave quite a good uh presentation on what the new impacts are. And I would encourage you to reach out to a firm that specializes in expropriation law to learn about what's happening. There's four major changes. I'll just mention one which I think is the most egregious and that is the new federal right to first refusal. And what that means if the federal government comes and knocks on your door, they can say we have the right to first refusal. So if you want to sell this property, come to us first. That essentially locks up your property for, I believe, up to eight years. So you can imagine what that would do to a farmer or a business uh or anyone trying to um sell their land. One of the aspects of putting that on your title is that you cannot do any improvements to your property. So, if you are hoping to improve your property to make it more uh attractive to a buyer, that's off the table. So, I'll just mention that one. There are others as well, too, but I think that's the most egregious of the four changes. Thank you. Thank you again for your delegation, Shirley. And I I'm glad you mentioned Crystal Lowry as as councelor Brown said, we we do have the opportunity um and and I have over the last three or four years to work with her at least on an annual basis uh at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference and she is actually the zone rep uh for for our area at Roma. So definitely a good person to have uh in your corner uh when it comes to these sorts of things. And so I I do believe that uh I'll be making contact with Christa and starting a conversation between um her and I or or the rest of the the committee as well if they are interested. But I I know this is a topic of great importance in in rural not just rural Ottawa but across the region um and all the areas that could potentially be affected. So, I uh I knew at some point we'd be we'd be hearing about this and uh and I I'm sure that we will be having a conversation as a group and in terms of how we can respond and and what we will be responding with. So, to be continued. Thank you very much, Shirley. Thank you. Okay, that concludes our open mic session part of ARAC and we will move on to item 12, which is motions of which notice has been previously given. Uh the first item is 12.1 uh motion councelor Brown review of rural transit area A funding model and feasibility of private mass transportation partnerships. Uh and I do uh I am aware that there is some amendments to the motion. So I will ask councelor Brown uh at this point to read in the amended motion. Thank you very much Mr. chair and I appreciate your collaboration on this and the collaboration from councelor Skolski and I believe the revised motion will ensure that we touch on all the different concerns across rural Ottawa. Whereas demand for expanded mass transit options in rural Ottawa has increased as rural communities continue to grow and more residents commute to employment, education, healthcare, and essential services. And whereas the city's rural transit funding framework, including the rural transit area A and B funding models, is intended to allocate costs across the rural wards in a fair, transparent, and evidence-based manner, including consideration of service levels, usage, geog geographic equity, and ability to pay. And whereas there is a need to assess whether the current rural transit area A and B funding models accurately reflect actual service levels and benefit received ridership demand and ensures comparable treatment across rural wards and villages. Whereas private mass transportation companies already operate in the region in surrounding municipalities and should be evaluated for their potential to supplement service for rural commuters and improve connectivity between villages and major hubs. And whereas any supplemental service should be assessed for integration with the city's transit network and standards, including accessibility, safety, reliability, customer experience, and fair and transfer interoperability where feasible. Therefore, be it resolved that the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee recommend council direct city staff to review the rural transit area A and B funding models and report back to the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee, including A description of how the model allocates services and costs among rural areas and wards and with the inputs driving those allocations. B. Options within each board to improve alignment between rate payers and bus service receivers, ensuring fairness and transparency. C. Potential adjustments to address any misalignment with estimated impacts by rural ward or village and any budget implications. Be it further resolved that city staff be directed to evaluate the feasibility of working with private mass transportation providers to supplement rural transit service for commuters and to enhance connectivity between villages and major mobility hubs. for example, parks, uh, park and ride lots, town centers, rapid transit stations, and key employment areas, including, uh, a procurement and contracting opportunities, including whether existing city contracts may be leveraged or expanded with estimated costs, risks, and timelines subject to the city's procurement bylaw. B, minimum service standards and requirements including accessibility, AODDA, safety, reliability, customer service, data sharing, performance metrics, monitoring and reporting mechanisms to ensure accountability. C. Integration considerations with OC Transfer and the broader network, routing, coordination, schedules, branding, wayfinding, and feasibility of fair and transfer integration, including Presto where applicable, and implications for OC transport operations, governance, and labor considerations. D. opportunities for a time-limited pilot project in one or more rural corridors or villages, including recommended locations, expected outcomes, evaluation framework, and proposed funding sources, including clear success criteria and decision points for scaling, modifying, or discontinuing the pilot. Be it further resolved that staff incorporate the work already underway in response to councelor Brown's amend amending motion number 2025-62-10 from the July 2023 uh July 23rd rather 2025 city council meeting into the work and report required by this motion and that a single consolidated report be brought forward to avoid duplication satisfying the reporting requirements of both motions and be it further resolved that staff report include a recommended phased path forward where feasible. an implementation plan identifying decisions required budget impacts including both operating and capital and a proposed timeline for any pilot or pilots andor to implement proposed adjustments to the rural transit area A and B funding models and be it further resolved that staff report back when practical. Thank you chair. Thank you very much councelor Brown. That was a long one. Uh so there are two registered speakers. Uh we will go first to Jerry Pearson. Good morning and thank you for having me. Um, I didn't do a presentation this time. I just figured I'd take the time to uh go over kind of what I've learned over the past couple years since 2024. um was speaking with uh probably a couple hundred residents as well as some of the businesses. Um recently um I did I do have a friend that does live in one of your wards um she actually just got laid off from work and unless she can find a job really quick. She's not going to have a vehicle to drive anymore. So at that point in time there's either going to have to rely on friends or somehow go on to the social insistence. So what I would recommend in my eyes not just because I'm a private company that would like to do this service but because of the residents alone there is a high need for this. um just in her instance, if she doesn't find a job soon, she's going to be stuck and be looking at moving back into Ottawa where fair or prices are pretty high for rent. Um another instance was when um the school board changed some of the borders. There was parents that had to contact us because their kids can no longer take school buses. Um, now being a the transportation for the students, you're looking at roughly about six about 5,800 to 6,000 a year uh just per one child to be transported. So, a lot of parents, especially gas prices, food prices, and that, they can't afford that. So, then what do they do? They're now stuck with how am I going to get my kid to work if they can't get the bus and now I have to be late for work and run the chance of losing their job. Um I I can go on with instances like that uh from word one right through to word five uh speaking with people. So I won't take up the whole time. I just wanted to speak with those instances where this is something that needs to be done and not possibly done. It does need to be done and sooner than later. Thank you. Thank you very much, Jerry. Uh we'll go to councelor Skolski for a question. Um thanks for coming. Uh Jerry, can you please clarify? I I believe I'd seen you at a at a delegation in the past, but can you just provide some context into like the what you're what you're proposing and and the type of service that you imagine would be um would would serve what residents are telling you. Okay. So, what I'm proposing is an actual full on um not just an AM PM service, an actual full-on local service where the buses don't go just in the morning or just in the afternoon. It's going to be continuous. So people don't have to worry about what time do I have to go in at 5:00 in the morning to catch my 10:00 doctor's appointment or or whatnot. So there would be fixed my with my vision is there's fixed routes with on demand service. So people like that aren't close to where the stops are, they would be able to use an application that we've been working on um to say, "Okay, I need to be picked up at this location along the fixed route." The bus stop or bus would stop within that area to pick the person up and take them. And then going home, you have the ability to say, "Okay, can you just drop me off here?" it it's kind of almost like just a a regular shuttle service type thing. Um but within a long like a fixed route and depending on how many buses and the locations you're looking at anywhere from half an hour to maybe an hour between buses. No problem. Councelor Brown. Thank you, Chair and Jerry. Thanks for coming out again. Um, you know, part of our unique geography being so large is that what might work great in the rural East End might not work good in the rural southwest end in my area. Something that we hear often from members of this committee throughout this entire term of council has been how one size doesn't fit all. And I still believe that to be true even when we're talking about each of the rural wards that we each have distinct requirements and needs. And some areas are experiencing a tremendous amount of growth like mine. Some haven't seen a lot of growth in the last few decades. One thing that I I find very positive is that there are smaller municipalities that ring the city of Ottawa that are looking into some of these small niche services to provide the type of service that their residents need. So, can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing in your industry with some of these smaller municipalities and why you think it might benefit some of the rural villages in the city of Ottawa? Certainly. um just with like North Grenville alone um coming into Ottawa to I believe they come into Lime Bankank but they also service Kempville. Um just within the last year they've grown just due to the fact that um again the pricing of gas so people are now able to take that service into Ottawa instead of having to drive then pay parking and whatnot. So with them they have grown. I think they've just added another uh bus and looking into adding another one within the next I believe it's 6 months. Um so something like that just having a service within the rural words. Yes, one size doesn't fit all. And that's where the flexibility of a uh private company is able to Okay, well, Ward one needs maybe two buses, but then W five needs six, W 21 needs four type thing. We can definitely work within those. Um and then service basically brings everybody into say lime bank trim uh trim road and it would basically help bring people into even OC transo and alleviate traffic. Yeah. And I think that's one component of this that I don't want to be lost. You know, ultimately the goal is to get as many people from where they are to where they need to go and get as many cars off the road. And flexibility is something that any large organization struggles with. So, the city of Ottawa does struggle with providing the exact same service on Wellington Street as it might be able to provide on a main street in the village. I don't think that's a realistic expectation, which is why again the the theme of one size doesn't fit all is something that resonates not only with rural residents but with members of this committee. My last question for you. When I speak with my counterparts, you know, Reeves and mayors of some of these smaller townships, they're eager to look at something that's a little bit more regional because it provides that shity for their uh constituencies that this service might be able to continue to exist in the future beyond a pilot. But for that, they need a larger ridership base. I think rural Ottawa may provide that recognizing that the vast majority of rural Ottawa has no daily OC transpose service. Um so are you hearing something similar with uh the conversations you're having with some of these other municipalities? Um actually just a few weeks ago I did present for uh Clarence Rocklin um kind of like the same service to add Ward One to it. um they are looking into um having some sort of service because I did do a uh survey for that that area uh ward one as well as Rockland and I got close to a thousand uh signatures where people were either for the service very few were no we don't want the service um and then the majority were they wanted to use it for work as well as recreation like personal stuff like shopping, going to visit friends, especially with students. Um, the younger generation, they can't afford their own car. Mommy and daddy can't aren't willing to buy them that. Um, but because there's no type of transportation, they're now um stuck with mom and dad having to drive them to go see the friends on the weekend or the evenings or or even like after school sports. Um I did also uh last summer I also spoke with the uh mayor for Smith Falls. He was interested but again it all came down to uh funding um to have a service bring from Smith Falls into Carlton Place and then in in reality into Ottawa. Um, those are the two that did reach back out to me that I have spoken with and and it just seems within around Ottawa, Smith Falls, Carlton Place, even Perth, there there's a need to bring people into into Ottawa, and there just isn't that type of service for most of these places. No, and I appreciate that and I appreciate your delegations and the work that you've done over the past few years and I know you've partnered with some great residents up in Ward 5 who want to see options on the table and ultimately the goal of my motion is to get the information on the table so we can have an open and transparent conversation. I appreciate all of the uh the support that you've put towards it and all of the time that you've invested. So, thanks so much Jerry. You're welcome. Thank you very much, Council Brand. Thank you for being here today, Jerry, and and for your continued work on on this file. uh you can see that uh there is a demand in rural Ottawa for this and and you had mentioned several things in your delegation that really resonated with me and and the residents I represent in 2022 when I went started going doortodoor I I didn't realize how how important access to transit for for my residents was but it but it certainly is. And one thing that highlights that is the um West Carlton Secondary School gets out at 2:15. And you see uh and I've been told this as well is that the buses that go from West Carlton Secondary School into Canada because West Carlton does serve uh parts of Morgan's Grant in the public school system that those buses are packed after school and you can't get a seat on that bus anymore. uh and that is students going from the secondary school in West Carlton into Canada to you know shop or see friends or you know a lot of the times it's to to get a part-time job because there's not a ton of those uh in rural areas. I see Rody Bolivar is here. is the uh the head of the the executive director of the Carpro Corridor BIA and and that is something that they've brought to my attention on a regular basis and and I want to echo uh councelor Brown in terms of the the difference in of rural Ottawa to the rest of the city. Uh W five is the same size as the entire city of Edmonton. Uh and there's you know the population is is is low and it's not concentrated in in particular area. So delivering that service is a lot different than it would be delivering it in the city. And so um I think you heard the one sizefits-all um doesn't fit all catchphrase h gets used here at the agricultural rural affairs committee a lot. We heard it a lot during the rural summit and so I think what you are coming to the table with resonates very well with with rural residents. I know that they there is a demand but my residents don't necessarily want to spend $1,000 a year extra on their tax bill to do that. um and not everyone in the ward uh wants wants that service. So I think what you bring to the table fits what we heard at the rural summit fits what rural Ottawa wants to see and I appreciate you being here today. Um not seeing any further questions for you. So uh you are uh you are relieved Jerry and appreciate your time. Uh and we will go to uh Noah Vineberg uh next. Thank you very much. Now you have five minutes chair and members of the committee. My name is Noah Vineberg, president of ATU Local 279. Let me be clear. We support improving rural transit. We support better connections between communities. But this motion does more than that. It introduces private delivery as a path forward before we have fully explored and supported solutions within our own public system. And that matters because transit in this city is not an open market. Under the city's own authority and bylaws, no one can operate a transit service without authorization from the city and the director of transit. So this is not about filling a gap. This is about making a choice. A choice to begin shifting public transit work outside of OC transport. There are real alternatives alternatives that have already been explored. The recently resigned associate general manager examined expanding service using our own existing models. using a smaller fleet, excuse me, expanding the fleet, using smaller vehicles, building service within OC Transport. That approach improves service, it creates jobs, it creates opportunity. That is how you strengthen public service, not by carving pieces of it out. Because once you move towards private partnerships, you introduce new problems. You create inconsistency in service. You create inequality in access. And you create barriers between services that should be fully integrated. We see it in our own system. The complexity, the red tape, and the lack of flexibility that comes with a P3 and rail and more recently in the drop in the snow clearing that got contracted out. That should be a lesson, not a model to expand. Microtransit is not new. We have seen versions of this for decades and the results are consistent. Higher cost per trip, lower efficiency and limited ability to scale. A bus becomes more efficient as more people use it. Microtransit becomes more expensive. In many cases, it becomes subsidized taxi service and not a real public service. Ottawa already has a system that serves the residents based on demand. Rural areas already receive service. that service can be expanded within OC Transpo fully integrated one network one standard. If this was about improving service we would be talking about OC Transpo delivering it. Instead we are talking about contracting it out and that has consequences. Loss of control, loss of consistency. We are not opposed to solutions and we are not opposed but we are strongly opposed to shortcuts. Start with public service. Build it with OC Transpo. Engage the people who deliver it because privatization is not a solution. It is the beginning of bigger problems. Rameli, thank you. Thank you very much for your concise delegation. I will go to Councelor Brown. Thank you, Chair, and Noah, thank you for coming out today. This may be the first time that we've seen someone from the ATU uh rep come and and speak to us, so it's good to have that conversation, and I know you and I spoke last year as well briefly. I I think for us on this side of the table, we can't get locked into an eitheror conversation because Ottawa is just too broad. I did a quick measurement this morning in the urban transit area where riders receive that daily consistent transit service. That geography is smaller than the ward I represent. And that's just me, not including councelor Skolski, councelor Lulof, councelor kits or chair Kelly. And so when we talk about scaling, I think there's a real conversation to be had there. But I don't know how we scale appropriately across an area that becomes uh a little more population dispersed the further you move out from the center of the city. And I think that's the circle that we're having a hard time squaring here. When we talk about contracting out, I recognize and respect that the city has made decisions in the past that lock us into a particular path. But nothing prohibits us from having a conversation both with OC Transpo, its union, its members, and the taxpayers of this city. This is about having that conversation and for me getting the facts on the table so we can make an informed decision. A lot has changed in the last 25 years of amalgamation. I think now it's a it's a great time to have this conversation. Um, but so I'm clear, you're not here delegating on behalf of OC Transport Management today. You're here on behalf of your members. That is correct. Okay. Um, and I know staff are on the call. I believe Pat Scrimmer is going to join us. So I I know I'll have some questions for Pat. Um, would you, I guess, acknowledge from our perspective that Ottawa is maybe just too big to provide the exact same service on every street corner and that it's okay to be a little bit different depending on where you live in the city. Nobody is disputing the difference. Um, if I may go back to the first point, you're correct. I am probably the first one to attend from ATU at this particular committee. Um, after our brief conversation where I introduced myself to you at council, I would have hoped that that would have sparked the opportunity to share conversation together going forward. That did not. And we've continued to this point with a motion without ever considering ATU's opinion on the matter. That I have a hard time with. Yes, I'm not speaking on behalf of OC Transport. I'm speaking on behalf of my members. We acknowledge that there is a difference. We acknowledge that there is a need. But the responsibility to fill that gap is not giving it to a private contractor. That's on OC Transpo and that's on US council to direct OC Transpo to expand to explore those solutions to collaborate with the people that are involved prior to finding other solutions. That is where we have a difficulty in this conversation. No, thank you. I appreciate that. And you know you your job is to speak on behalf of your members. Our job is to speak on behalf of the taxpayers who have to fund the entire service. And to uh Chair Kelly's point, there are many in the rural area who oppose expanding the boundary because it does come with massive costs, which is why I think a user pay system if that's something we can examine, might target the service we need in the villages that require it without burdening others. But uh Mr. Chair, that's all that I have. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Uh, seeing no other questions, I may take an opportunity to provide some comments and a question myself. Uh, so we will go to questions of staff after the delegate. Yeah. Um, I just there's a couple things that that I had a hard time wrapping my head around that you said. Of course, I I understand your position. You're here to represent the the members of the union and and what you do. And I I don't necessarily see uh Council Brown's motion as uh trying to to cut uh OC Transpo out of the conversation, but I do believe and and I think that was reflected in my comments earlier that we are really looking to look at all options that could potentially provide that service as as that is our responsibility as a as a committee and counselors is to represent our residents first. Uh so and and this is a service or the proposed service um would would bring people from rural Ottawa to transit hubs within the boundary. Um, so can you comment on because you seemed to indicate that this is a system that would operate completely outside of OC Transo and of course the structures would and the funding would, but it would bring people to park and rides and major transit hubs that would then use OC Transfo who are not using it right now. So can you comment on on that aspect of it because I the way I see it, it would actually enhance and bring more people into the transit system in the city which would bring in fairs and and allow us to enhance service. Again, it's about the consistency and it's about being part of collaboration and being a seat at that table. That has not occurred to this point. This motion seeks funding to explore an alternative option when the real options within what is available under the bylaws has not fully been explored. That is where we stand today. Yeah. And I understand your your desire to fully explore that. And again, I I think we can do both at the same time, explore both options. Uh but I have heard you comment publicly in the past that private is never the solution. Did you mean to say that? Absolutely. Within the city of Ottawa, our experiments with private has gone sideways. So then what would be the point of the conversation that you are seeking? The point of the conversation is private is never the answer. What's the conversation we're even having? Am I going to be permitted to respond without being interrupted? I didn't interrupt you. Privatization is not a solution for public service. when we've done it on the train and now we're seeing it in the snow clearing, it has not gone properly or well, it gets overridden in funding and we lose the quality control. Thank you. Seeing no other questions, thank you very much for your time today. Thank you, Nelson. So, we can move into questions for staff. And I am under the impression that councelor Skolski has questions. You no need to raise your hand. We'll go to you. Sorry about that. I'm having some technical difficulty. Thank you. Okay. So, for me, this motion is really about two distinct things. So, it's about ensuring the value for money for tax money. uh that those who pay for a service receive one and where they don't that there's greater transparency about what the taxes are funding in rural areas and two it's about exploring ways to complement the services that we already have. So I think it's really important that we're clear we are intentionally looking at private operators because we have heard I have heard loud and clear that having empty city buses in rural Ottawa is not what people want. people are looking for a nimble ondemand service that are paid for by users, not the tax base at large. So, I think that that came out in some of the comments in this exchange, but I just wanted to reiterate that this motion is doing two very distinct things. So, um we need to get the most for what we pay for and we owe it to residents to explore ways that needs can be met with complimentary services. residents see success in other rural municipalities with private on demand mini buses. And I get questions all the time about why we can't have something like that here. That's exactly what I hear. Why can't we have this here? So, this motion will give us the information that we need to inform a discussion around that issue. I do have some questions for staff on this. So, first, is this motion implementable in the timeline that is presented? Um, Mr. Mr. Chair, I just want to confirm you can hear my audio. Okay. Yeah, we can hear. Okay. Thank you. Um, yes. Uh, we can meet it by the the within the terms of the revised motion. Okay. Has the city of Ottawa ever explored private supplementary options in the past? And can you and if so, can you just elaborate a bit on what those findings have been? Uh so first of all uh before amalgamation and in the first couple of years after amalgamation the city contracted well before amalgamation it was individual municipalities. After amalgamation the city did contract with companies to provide several transit services. Uh over the years that followed the decision of council was either to end those or that to bring them into staff operation. In addition to that, uh quite a number of private companies were running bus services into downtown Ottawa, serving stops along the way within the municipality. Uh but most of those stopped because of low ridership at the beginning of COVID and have not yet resumed. Okay. Um so it's been a pretty long time is what it sounds like since we've really explored this. Is that a fair characterization? uh since contracting by the city. Yes. It's been uh I would say over 20 years. Yeah. Uh for but for private companies like the earlier delegate was speaking about operating and carrying people in the city. Uh we were doing that right up until um right up until co Okay. Um can you clarify when was the last time that routes like these shopping buses were reviewed? Uh they're reviewed quarterly. Quarterly. Yes. Oh. Um and can you just uh elaborate on whether there is minimum service level expectations built into the transit area A? Yes, there are as set out in the decisions taken by council when the uh uh shortly after amalgamation when the current system was set up. Can you just elaborate a bit on what those uh minimum service level expectations are? Uh there's uh two categories of service that were decided on at that time and one uh about a few years later. Uh the first was the uh what were called at the time rural express which we now call connection routes that run from uh the larger villages uh that are within the rural transit area a uh places like Vars Manetic um Carl's bed springs and and several others to to the central part of city. Now they they run to their nearest O train station. Uh and those have one to three trips in the morning, one to three trips, sometimes four trips in the afternoon. Uh we also ran at the time some local connector buses that were intended for uh after school or evening uh services. Only one of those remains now. The others were uh dropped at the decision of council. The one that remains is an afterchool trip that runs from Richmond to Stitzville and runs every afternoon. And then in a separate decision taken later, uh, council decided to expand what had been, uh, a one day a week shoppers route from Northgore, cars, and Manateic into the urban part of the urban part of the city to expand that to five of those uh, from different parts, different villages around the city. So there's a different one once a week route for shoppers and people going to appointments on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Each one's different. And then in addition there's uh paratransport service which is provided uh across the entire uh extent of the city. Is there any standard related to the proximity of the kind of the rate payer to the nearest stop that's available or anything like that or is it actually just a minimum number of buses that would enter the area? The decision taken by council on funding was uh subject of much discussion at the time among council members and then uh in following multiple rounds of uh of consultation and then they decided on a geographic extent for the property taxes rather than the uh it being tied to a proximity to the bus stops. Okay. Um that's that's good for me. Thank you. Thank you councelor Scholowski. Councelor Lulof. Uh thanks uh for for your answers uh today, Pat. Um could could OC Transpo given its current context and the amount of buses that we have available every day offer what um uh this uh private company or a private company could be offering in the rural area for a lower cost or at all with the amount of buses that we currently have available? Uh it would depend on the decisions of council, I'd say, whether um whether council took a decision as part of any expansion to uh to purchase more buses. And um and uh I think as as the second part of your question about a trade-off in costs, it would really uh dep depend on the the costs that a uh a private company would quote if it were to be contracted or uh if the private company were running it on their own and just funding the whole operation from from their own revenue, then uh then there would not be no um that we might not know what the cost would be. I think probably the the the problem that I'm struggling with the most here is that council has directed to purchase more buses. We're just not receiving them. Um so I mean in the market right now there's just not enough buses being provided to the city of Ottawa despite the fact that they have been paid for. So I mean even if we were to say okay let's let's do this like are those buses even available for for delivery? So if like we were to receive uh the entire suite of uh of fleet that we have ordered, would that provide us with enough buses to run both the system that we have right now and to expand into the rural area in a meaningful way uh in the way that that that we're looking to receive some clarity on through this motion? The buses that are on order today are for our existing service. uh if the service were to be expanded whether in a rural area or in the urban area uh there'd be additional buses required. So the buses that are coming that I mean I don't know how many maybe you have that at hand how many we're waiting on uh from from the industry. Uh we're we've got on order I'm going to say it's about uh going from memory it's about 390 buses that are on order and about 100 of those are here so far. Okay. So if we're getting 200 more buses and we currently have nearly 500 buses on the road. Maybe I should clarify. These are all replacement buses that are replacing. All of these new buses that are on order right now are to replace uh life expired buses. They're not to expand the fleet or expand the service. Okay, understood. But I mean, we are running um some of these buses that are going that are going to be replaced by these by these ones that are on order currently. So it's not like So could could we potentially extend the life of some of the buses that are being replaced by these new ones that are coming in in order to have a larger fleet to run a program like this? It may be possible. Uh some of these buses are well beyond their normal retirement life. Uh for some of the ones that are in better shape or younger, uh it may be possible to put some money into a life extension on those buses. Um, but that might only be for, you know, 3, four, five more years, not not the full uh 15- year life of the bus, of course. Yeah. No, that makes sense. Okay. I think that like all of these sorts of ideas and options should be explored as as part of the conversation that we're going to have about this. Um because what I'm what I'm what I'm worried about is that okay sure council directs let's let's buy a hundred more buses to be able to run a a rural program and then industry not being able to provide that for 5 to 10 years. I mean we're already uh dealing with quite a few delays uh when it comes to delivery of new buses. Uh, I don't want to just exacerbate that problem by it's it's it's I'm not saying that you're being deliberately just disingenuous, but to say like, okay, council can make a decision to purchase more buses, but if there's no buses available for us to be able to purchase, then that doesn't really make much of a difference at this point. You know what I mean? Yep. Not to be argumentative at all, but I would say that any any any private company would be competing for the same um in the same marketplace with purchase a new vehicle unless they already have a fleet that that's just sitting there right now that they're looking to use. Yes. Yes. Um I'm just I don't know that that's the case anywhere. Um, if there were buses that private companies owned, we would probably already know about them because they probably would have tedered them to us in our search for secondhand buses. Yeah, that's that's fair. No, I don't find you argumentative at all. Uh, and and no, I appreciate uh appreciate that. I just want to get a kind of a clear picture of what this what this could like uh could could look like. So, while we're doing this sort of analysis, I think that these sorts of um that this context also needs to be clearly explained uh within any uh report that comes forward to be discussed. Um because I I do want to make sure that we're making the best decision um and getting the best bang for our buck. I think it's pretty clear um that over the course of the last uh 6 years or so, many people have decided to take up rural living. uh whether that was because of a uh newly revoked promise of being able to uh work uh work remotely uh or uh just uh for for a different uh lifestyle or one that fits uh the lifestyle that they want to live a little bit better, which means that there are people um that we could be capturing um with with public transit that we're not. and and given the the extension of of line one and the desire um for us to get more people um on uh on the train uh and on in in the bus system uh post that launch. Um I think that we need to be looking um at uh you know expanded service into the into the rural area and so having an idea of what that could look like whether it's a private option or having OC transport do it is is important. I know that there's an inquiry in right now uh in the east end from um from our friends in Rockland and and other uh townships nearby that would be interested in contracting service from OC Transpo to be providing these sorts of connection style or shuttles from the rural area into the train uh to to promote um uh a modal shift. Uh and I think that that would probably be good for us and good for the system and and frankly good for our transportation system um at large. Um so I think that having you know very clear picture of what that could look like um uh would would be important would be probably the most important part of this discussion. So just appreciate uh if uh if that uh analysis could be done so we can have a a more wholesome discussion when this comes forward. That cool. All right. Thanks. That's cool. Thank you, Council Lulof. Council Brown, thank you very much, Chair and Pat. I'd like to thank you and your team for all of the assistance that you've provided in in crafting the motion and providing that expert level of advice as we we try to get to a place where something positive can happen. Um, I want to make sure that committee and the public are clear as to what we're talking about today. And we're not talking about a particular service type or service level today. What we're talking about is going back gathering that data so staff can come back and present those findings. Is that your understanding of the motion as well? Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Um I know for my own ward in the past there has been RTA service provided to villages that now are in the RTB area. And I'm speaking specifically about North Gore um and cars because uh the service didn't warrant um or the ridership rather didn't warrant that level of service and a decision of council was made uh to remove that type of service the daily commuter service from these villages. So, I know changes can be made, but we usually do that with stats, with figures, with data, so we can ensure that we're making informed decisions. And that's what uh the intent of the motion that I've tabled today is to do. We want to make sure that we're making these informed decisions. Um the challenge that I have, of course, is that it's very easy to get members of council or the public into two camps. You either want public service or you want private service. I honestly believe there's an option here where we can see uh benefit of both of those being provided in the city of Ottawa. I want to ensure that if we move forward, we're respectful of the decisions that council has made in the past, but we're not shackling ourselves to it's either OC's way or no way because I think we lose out in the rural area if that's the attitude council determines to take. Of course, staff will do whatever council directs, and I can appreciate uh the role and the position that you and your team are in as we move forward hopefully uh with this motion. Are there any other implementation challenges that committee should be aware of that aren't covered in the motion or that might not be uncovered with the direction that's being sought here today? Uh so, Mr. Chair, I think that's what the the the motion would ask us to do is to find whether there are any constraints and uh points that would guide council's decision. And that's what we would do. Um, as uh as I laid as we laid out in the the staff comment on the original motion, um, you know, we're we're somehow, you know, we we need to make our our conclusions consistent with the current direction that we have from council. And uh we would point out to you if there's um anything that you've asked us in this motion to uh consider that would be at variance from current council policy uh so that you could consider whether you were going to advance any uh any change to policy. And of course, as I said in the earlier or as I said in our our discussions and in the the staff comment, we'll be working within the framework that the province has. The province is the responsible authority for intermunicipal transportation and um so we respect uh their laws for anything that would cross municipal boundaries. Thank you very much. And my last uh question to you just to confirm if committee does uh pass this motion today and council carries the motion as it's uh t been tabled today at a rack staff are able to undertake this work. We are right. Thank you very much. Thank you chair. Thank you very much uh Mr. Scrimmer for being here to speak on behalf of OC Transport today and for confirming that this is implementable on your end. And I want to thank Councelor Brown for his efforts in this regard. um you know I've I've played a minor supporting role but he has driven this motion and the conversation and I want to thank um everyone who's been involved in the conversation. This is an important topic in rural Ottawa and uh and I want to make it clear and and echo um what councelor Brown has just said is that you know this this does not make a decision on how we move forward in rural Ottawa with transit but sets up the conversation uh in the right way to explore all possible options for service delivery for people in rural Ottawa. uh which is the job of this committee is to consider first and foremost uh what is in the best interest of rural residents and uh and how we uh implement that plan. So um much appreciated uh for everyone's involvement in the conversation today and I I do uh fully support the motion and hope that all of my colleagues will do the same. So with that said, is the motion carried? Carried. Thank you very much. So, moving on to uh I believe we have a motion from councelor Skolski which will require a suspension of the rules. So, I will pass it over to councelor Skolski now for that. Thank you, chair. So that the rules of procedure be suspended to consider the following motion at today's meeting as the matter is time-sensitive as excess soils will start being moved again shortly with the onset of construction season especially once the spring load restrictions are lifted. So whereas the management, transport, reuse and disposal of excess soil, also known as fill, is governed by Ontario regulation 40619 on site and excess soil management. And whereas under this regulation, sites receiving more than 10,000 cubic meters of excess soil must be registered in a public online registry administered by the resource productivity and recovery authority or the RP. And whereas the province does not require municipalities to be notified when a large excess soil reuse site is registered within their boundaries. And whereas the province does not require that a fill management plan be prepared or made public for large reuse sites, but only recommend such plans as a best practice. And whereas mand without mandatory municipal notification or required fill management plans, municipalities may be unaware of significant soil importation activities until impacts occur. And whereas the uncontrolled importation of large volumes of excess soil can generate subst sub substantial truck traffic, large uh pardon me, road degradation, dust, odor, noise, erosion, storm water impacts, invasive species spread, and potential groundwater concerns. And whereas in the absence of advanced notice and proactive planning requirements, municipalities are limited to reactive enforcement of ini of of existing bylaws after impacts to residents, infrastructure, and the natural environment have already occurred. And whereas several Ontario municipalities have adopted bylaws or site plan control measures to address excess soil reuse activities in order to mitigate negative impacts and close regulatory gaps. So therefore, be it resolved that the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee recommend council direct staff to so one staff to report back by Q3 2027 with the review of how other Ontario municipalities regulate or oversee excess soil reuse sites including mechanisms such as site plan control, hall route agreements, fill management plan requirements, road use agreements, and nuisance mitigation measures. And as part of this report and within the confines of applicable provincial statute and regulation, staff provide recommendations to council on how best how to best strengthen the city's regulatory or oversight approaches to access soil reuse and disposal sites so as to close gaps that otherwise limit the city's ability to ensure that these properties are managed appropriately. And in the interim, by the end of Q2 2026, staff bring forward for council's approval an amendment to the site alteration bylaw 2024448 requiring owners or operators of excess soil reuse sites or of registered projects using such sites within the city of Ottawa to notify the city and the local word counselor within 5 days of registering with the province. Thank you very much, Councelor Skolski. I'm not seeing any questions for you or for staff. Uh, is that motion carried? Carried. Carried. Thank you very much. Uh, we'll now move on to notices of motion for consideration at a subsequent meeting. Uh, and I do believe we're going right back to councelor Skolski who has one for herself and one on behalf of councelor kits. And I will leave it up to her as to which one to start with. All right. Okay. Well, let's do the one for uh this is um on behalf of councelor kits. It's called improving road safety at 10th line road and wall road. So whereas the intersection of 10thline road and wall road is a rural intersection experiencing increased traffic volumes due to ongoing growth and development in the area. And whereas recent collision data provided by the Ottawa Police Service indicates an emerging trend with six reported collisions in 2024 and 2025 combined and highlights the importance of ongoing efforts to support driver awareness and road safety. And whereas the intersection meets the city's traffic signal warrant criteria and a permanent solution such as traffic signals or a roundabout is anticipated to be considered through the 2027 budget process. And any interim measures would be subject to staff review, prioritization, and available funding. And whereas the city is implementing interim safety improvements at this location, including enhanced warning signage, larger stop signs, pavement marking changes, and lighting adjustments. And whereas the intersection does not currently meet city's requirements or provincial recommendations for the installation of flashing mounted beacons. And whereas flashing mount warning beacons mounted on signs are a relatively lowcost intervention that can improve driver awareness and reduce the risk of angle and high-speed collisions at rural intersections. Therefore, be it resolved that staff be directed to install mounting flashing warning beacons on signs at the intersection of 10th Line Road and Wall Road as an intram safety measure. And be it further resolved that funding for this work be allocated from the ex existing general traffic services operations budget. And be it further resolved that staff continue to monitor collision data at this intersection and report back as part of future budget considerations for a permanent intersection control solution in consultation with the ward counselor. Okay. And then, oh, you're just gonna be me reading. Okay. Here we go. Um, so the next motion, uh, this is for rural home infrastructure upgrade financing program. So, whereas rural residents in the city of Ottawa rely on private infrastructure, including drilled wells, septic systems, and permanent standby power systems to safely occupy their homes. And whereas having running water and functioning sanitary systems is an essential upgrade that can put an unexpected pressure on family budgets. And whereas climate change is increasing pressure on private water and wastewater systems, including more frequent and severe drought conditions, extreme rainfall events and power outages that directly affect rural households. And whereas this year's exceptional drought conditions have highlighted the vulnerability of private wells, and the growing need for resilient water infrastructure in rural communities. And whereas the city of Ottawa already operates the Better Homes Ottawa program, which provides financing to homeowners through a local improvement charge model that allows upgrades to be repaid over time through the property tax bill. And whereas this financing structure has proven to be an effective tool for enabling homeowners to make major investments that improve environmental sustainability and climate resilience. And whereas the Better Homes Ottawa loan program is scheduled to undergo comprehensive program review, including alignment with Federation of Canadian Municipalities Partnership requirements. And whereas there is currently no comparable financing program available to rural residents to support essential infrastructure upgrades such as well, septic systems, and permanently installed standby generators. And therefore, be it resolved that city council direct staff to include, as part of the upcoming Better Homes Ottawa program review, an assessment of opportunities to expand or adapt the program to support rural infrastructure upgrades, including private wells, septic systems, and permanently installed standby generators. And be it further resolved that staff be directed to evaluate the feasibility of delivering such a program through either an expansion of the existing Better Homes Ottawa financing program or a new standalone program specifically designed for rural properties and private servicing infrastructure. And be it further resolved that the that staff report include options for financing using a local improvement charge or similar property based repayment model, potential funding sources, including federal and provincial climate adaptation and resilience programs, eligibility criteria that prioritize climate resilience, water security and protection of groundwater resources, and a proposed implementation timeline and estimated financial impact to the city. and be it further resolved that staff report back to the appropriate standing committee and council as part of the better homes Ottawa loan program review anticipated in Q3 2027. Thank you very much councelor Scowski. We look forward to uh discussing those at our next meeting. Uh are there any inquiries? Seeing none, is there any other business? Seeing none. All right, we are adjourned. The next meeting will take place on Thursday, May the 7th, 2026. Thank you very much everybody.

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