sound check. How are you? >> Morning everyone. We're going to get started in one minute. Okay, everyone, we're going to get started. Uh, today is Tuesday, May 19th. This is the 24th meeting of the Environment and Climate Change Committee. Welcome. On behalf of Ottawa City Council, I wish to acknowledge that Ottawa is built on unseated, unsurrendered Anishnab Alangquin territory. The city of Ottawa honors the people's and land of the Inishnaba Alangquin nation and honors all first nations, Inuit and Matei people and their valuable past and present contributions to this land. I'll ask the committee coordinator to do a roll call of all members. >> Councelor Lula. >> Morning chair. >> Councelor Hill. Councelor Councelor Curry >> here. >> Councelor Kavanagh. >> Councelor Johnson >> here. >> Councelor Divine >> here. Councelor Tierney. Councelor King >> here. >> Councelor Brown >> here. >> Councelor Lowe >> here. >> Vice Chair Carr >> present. >> Chairmanard >> here. >> You have a quorum. Chair. >> Thank you very much for that. Are there any declarations of interest? Okay. Seeing none. Are the minutes from Tuesday, April 21st meeting of the Environment and Climate Change Committee confirmed? >> Confirmed. >> Thank you. Inquiry response. So, uh, councelor Curry had an inquiry and I understand councelor Curry, uh, you'd like to lift this onto the agenda. >> I, you know, Mr. Chair, I don't know if you have lots to say. I just have a couple of comments to make, so I don't want to take a ton of time, but that was what I was thinking. >> Okay. No, that sounds great. I think we'll we'll do agenda go through agenda clearing. I think we should lift the item because there might be a couple others that have uh questions or comments and we can come back to it. So, we'll come back to it first thing. So, with the will of committee, can we lift this item? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you very much. uh drinking water quality management system 2025 management review report. There are no staff presentations or delegations. Does anyone member want this held? Okay. Thank you to staff again for another excellent uh report and 100% uh score in the water quality health index. So that uh so that report recommendation uh is that carried? Thank you very much. The status update for the environment and climate change committee inquiries and motions for the period ending 7th of May 2026. Is that received? Thank you for that. Public works department. So we've got the organics processing 2030. There's a staff presentation and two delegations for that item. So we will come back to that. And minor amendments to the solid waste services bylaw. There there is no staff presentation. Uh there are no delegations. Uh does anyone on committee want to hold that? Okay. Can we carry this? Thank you very much. The rain ready Ottawa multi-unit residential rebate stream. This uh has a staff presentation. So we'll come back to that item and then we'll just get this done now just in agenda clearing the information. The IPD previously distributed the tree dedication program personalization. Uh, councelor Kavanaaugh has a uh has a motion resulting uh from work that staff have done on this uh from a previous motion. Um, with the will of committee, can we lift this item onto the agenda? >> Okay, thank you very much. Um, we'll go back to notices of motion later. And I just wanted to mention now that in other business there is a um a a motion that requires suspension of the rules because of a of time commitment. So, it's on it's on trees and working with FCM. We'll come back to that. Uh that's a motion that that I've drafted. So uh with that we'll go back to item 4.1 which is the inquiry response councelor Curry on energy efficient actions. Councelor Curry go ahead. >> Thank you. Thank you Mr. Chair. So first I want to thank staff uh for for this for the response and and the back and forth on you know how to actually display this information in the best way right because it there are many ways you can look at whether something is energy efficient or you know it could be there could be a better system or there could be just you know you think about your own home there could just be ways of stopping energy from escaping uh or heat from escaping. So it there were some back and forth on how to present this in the best way. I think it's a very helpful document, but I think what came out of it was the reality that as a city, we don't spend a lot of money on trying to make sure our own buildings are more efficient. I think we'd like to, you know, there's there's definitely the will. Everybody wants that, but it does take some money and investment to do that. Um, if you will recall in the energy evolution document, there was a, you know, let's try to make sure everyone is is conserving energy, but the, you know, starting with our own buildings is job one. And so in the discussions with staff, they they certainly indicated to me that there were more buildings that they could look at, there were more things they could do, but they only have a limited number of resources. And it it's sort of a catch22, right? Because if we invest in saving energy, we also save money. You know, the service review working group, we're always looking for how can we be more efficient, effective, save money. This is one of those ways, but I don't know that we invest enough in it. Um the other thing in terms of Hydro Ottawa is that Hydro Ottawa is always like Mr. Chair remember the street light program right and how effective that was. It was amazing uh how much the city saved. They're willing to do more and more of this work but again there has to be you know Hydro Ottawa can do this work but we also need the staff to work with Hydro Ottawa to to work on these projects to get them done. So that's where I'm talking about the investment in so that and at the end of the day there's a lot of savings. So, I just wanted to kind of make that point if if those of you who read the inquiry, I'm sure you all did. If that didn't stand out for you, I wanted to make it stand out. Um, I don't know if others have more questions or staff have more comments, but I do see a need for us to be investing more in this for our own buildings. >> Thank you very much, uh, Councelor Curry. Great comments, and I I fully agree. Um, really appreciate staff's work on this. And right now, I think members of committee will know that there's an there's an eight-year payback for a lot of these investments that are being made. Um, that is that is an incredible payback period of time where after that, it's it's net positive for the city uh in terms of retrofits and the savings that we have financially as well as lowering emissions. Um, so I had passed a motion back in 2025 in February that I know staff are looking at to see, hey, is that 8 years still consistent? Can we expand that a little bit so that we're still getting payback, but we're going to do more building retrofits in the future? Um, I assume that in early next term of council, this is this has got to be a bigger priority on our building retrofits given the savings, the emissions lowering, the the meeting of our goals. Can staff just comment on on that and how you're looking at this? >> Certainly. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Councelor Curry, for for your comments. So, um, Mr. Chair, as you had mentioned, um, staff are in the midst of developing a building retrofit strategy. So, as you can appreciate, we have over a thousand buildings um in in the city's portfolio. So, quite quite a lot of buildings for us to be exploring. Um you had mentioned to to date we've been able to invest in and around $4 million per year, especially this term of council in advancing some of those um some of those retrofit opportunities with those shorter payback periods. We are getting to a point where we are exhausting a lot of those different options. So certainly as you mentioned when we come back with that um comprehensive strategy that's looking at the different options for for advancing building uh retrofits and the the remainder of our building portfolio we will be looking at um a series of expanded payback periods. In addition to that, to build on um Councelor Curry's comments, we are also exploring a range of funding strategies um to help support that next phase of energy investments, recognizing again as councelor Curry had mentioned that these projects will in fact require larger and more flexible financing approaches. So that is something that uh Alyssa's team is currently um assessing and looking to other municipalities as best practices who might be a little bit further ahead. um as well um they've had early discussions as well with the federal government as an example on how they're approaching uh building retrofits for their federal building stock. >> Fantastic. Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments from committee? >> Just >> well Oh, yeah. Go ahead, Council Curry. >> Just two other things, Mr. Chair, that I also wanted to say is and maybe staff can make a comment on this. There are two other things that are that are helpful in in making sure we're more energy efficient. One is grid optimization where we're we're actually drawing from the grid at the most uh optimal times and the most green times and also building optimization where like I I listened to a presentation at Carlton University where it was actually unreal how they changed a line in the code that was driving, you know, the air conditioning for the building. And um I see people shaking heads and it it saved Carlton uh thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars um because of this simple uh change and when the fans came on or off, right? And so I just I'm hoping that when we do this this get this next report and we look for funding, we're also looking at that. >> Great point. Did you want to respond? >> Certainly. Um through you, Mr. Chair. Um so first I'll hand things over to my colleague Alyssa Lansfield who can speak to uh some of the work that her team um advances in terms of um um looking at savings opportunities to advance um uh energy savings. So they've been successful in about in and around $3.8 million per per year through some of those strategies. And then my colleague Dan Brisba is also um available to speak a little bit to the building automation control system. But I'll start by handing things over to Alyssa. through the chair. Thanks for your comment, councelor Curry. Uh yes, you're absolutely right. It is important um that we pay attention to when we are drawing electricity from the grid or or or energy of any type. Um we've really built a center of expertise internally, our corporate energy management office that is able to support each and every department that um has to make these decisions about their operations and how they operate their facilities or their um sort of other operational processes and and uh that team does support the rest of the organization with um exactly what you mentioned that sort of grid optimization making sure we're we're making good decisions about our demand and um saving money on electricity. Fantastic. Thank you so much for that. Um I'm going to go now to uh councelor King. Uh >> thank you so much chair and uh I really wanted to echo um uh the inputs uh from councelor Curry and thank her for uh the inquiry. I think it is important to really focus on uh new technologies uh grid modernization uh smart uh grid infrastructure and demand response and I really want to salute staff for their work around really identifying uh buildings uh the most uh energy intensive buildings for decarbonization. I think that's very important. Um I know that we we were talking about savings. I'm just wondering about the other side of the coin. Uh the report references approximately $2 million in external incentives leveraged this term. I'm just wondering what is the city's capacity to pursue larger competitive uh federal or provincial retrofit funding uh for example through Canada's uh infrastructure bank financing or emerging green uh bond mechanisms. And I was just wondering is this being explored as part of uh uh Chair Manard's motion uh in terms of a response to to his motion? >> Certainly, Mr. Chair. Um thank you for the question, counselor. Um so a couple things maybe before I I I jump into the answer there. Just picking up on a couple themes, councelor, while we have been talking a lot about energy efficiency, certainly the strategy that staff are developing, we'll be looking at those um alignment with the council's um goals under the climate change master plan. So, it's looking at not only decarbonization, but opportunities to enhance our energy efficiency, but also recognizing council's recent approval of climate ready Ottawa. It's looking at coupling resiliency measures um and investments as part of that as well. Um to your point, certainly one of the funding opportunities we are um exploring is the Canada Infrastructure uh bank. Um also different types of procurement um opportunities such as energy as a service or other partnerships that may allow us um as a municipality to help reduce some of those upfront costs. Um in addition to that councelor um I think one of the things that advancing um these decarbonization studies and more detailed analysis of our most energyintens facilities it will position us well um as new federal um oper funding opportunities become available. Um as an example the build community strong fund um that is something we're still waiting on some of those details for. Certainly the federal government has indicated funding to support energy efficiency and resiliency um type measures. But certainly this work I think will will help position the city um well should or and when that funding becomes available and if these projects uh would fit within that eligibility criteria. Well, I do appreciate that work and I know that there are many members around the the table, including councelor Tney uh at FCM who will uh continue to lobby for more investments into uh these types of funds uh that would be accessible for the municipality. Uh but I really want to applaud the municipality as well for undertaking the work that's within its scope. Uh retrofitting our facilities reduces our operational costs. It reduces our exposure to uh carbon pricing. It extends the life of our infrastructure. It reduces the maintenance burdens on future councils and I think that that's the direction that we need to continue to pursue. Thank you, Chair. >> Thank you very much, Councelor King. Not seeing any other questions or comments. Thanks again to Councelor Curry for the inquiry and to staff for uh for responding to it so thoroughly. We're going to move on now to the organics processing post2030 item. So, I'll ask um Shelley McDonald and Heidi Scott to come up for a presentation. We'll have two delegations after the presentation and then uh committee can uh can have a discussion and debate. Good morning. Thank you very much for the for the intro. I'm pleased to be here today to share the results of the feasibility study and seek your approval on our next steps related to organics processing post 2030. I'm joined by Heidi Scott, program manager, compliance, maintenance, and operational planning, and Megan Farnell, senior project manager, environmental assessment. Next slide, please. We're coming forward today with a straightforward set of recommendations. We're seeking a short-term competitive RFP contract to and for that to allow both aerobic composting and anorobic digestion to be considered. We're bringing this forward now to ensure that there's no gap in organics processing service. This gives us the opportunity to reset our putter or pay from 75,000 tons to something probably closer to 55,000 tons in light of our new curbside collection contract implementation. In parallel, staff will continue to work on the long-term strategy, update our tonnage projections, gain clarity on the current energy markets, and consider how we might use our new solid waste site recently purchased. Finally, receiving the feasibility study for the future of source separated organics report for information. Next slide, please. It's hard to believe, but Ottawa's green bin program was launched back in 2010, and it's a key part of the city's waste diversion strategy with the goal of diverting organic waste away from the landfill. This contract uses aerobic composting to process source separate organics and produces a beneficial end product. This contract is set to expire in 2030 and it includes two optional one-year extensions. Residents have successfully diverted more than 1.2 million tons of organics from landfill to convert us. This has helped extend landfill life and more more importantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, there have been a number of recent policy changes. So, thank you to to this committee and council um that have uh approved that are supporting increasing recycling and organics diversion. This includes the introduction of the three item garbage limit, expanding the leaf and yard waste collection outside of peak seasons and the continued expansion of diversion in multi-residential and public spaces. Next slide, please. With the council approved saltways master plan in June of 2024, there are many actions linked to increase organics diversion activities and areas where the city currently has programs and responsibility. These actions consider existing programs and options that could be incorporated at the end of the current contract with convertis. We wanted to ensure to have sufficient one runway for time to build and implement the final solution. In order to evaluate the possible opportunities, staff initiated a feasibility study that evaluated the full range of options for managing source separated organics. And while the master plan pointed us towards exploring anorobic digestion, the feasibility study was really about understanding all of the available options. So, with that context, I'm going to turn it over to Heidi to walk you through the analysis and how it informs the recommendations before you today. Next slide, please. Thanks, Shelley. Um, so I'm going to walk you through the feasibility work, what we learned, how it informs the recommendation before you today. Um, so as Shelley mentioned, through the direction of the solid waste master plan, the city retained a consultant to evaluate long-term organics processing options. The intent of the study was to understand what a long-term solution could look like, looking at both technologies, including aerobic composting and anorobic digestion. Um, so very simply, uh, composting is the process where materials break down with oxygen to create a nutrient-rich soil amendment product. It's the most common means of organics processing while anorobic digestion is engineered to happen without oxygen and produces a gas that can be used for energy. So the study looked at both of these technologies along with different delivery models such as city-owned or private sector. Also looked at key considerations like cost risk and overall operational performance. Now, uh, Shelley mentioned since that work was completed, the overall Ottawa context has evolved a bit, and there are many solid waste changes, initiatives, and decisions that are progressing in parallel. But this study gives us a strong understanding of the available options um that we can build upon and those are summarized in the following scenarios. Next, next slide, please. So, I'll review these briefly at a high level. uh emphasize the key points as they relate to the direction of recommendations we're discussing today. Uh but recognizing these options will all be carried forward and revisited as part of our longerterm planning. So the study evaluated a range of scenarios looking at both technology and ownership options including private and city-owned facilities and both composting and anorobic digestion. What it shows is that private sector delivery, particularly composting, performs strongly from both a financial perspective and an operational one and represents the lowest cost option overall. By comparison, city-owned options, especially anorobic digestion at this time, involve significantly higher capital costs along with greater complexity and risk. um with the city also being responsible for managing and marketing end products. From an environmental perspective, both technologies achieve the primary objective which is diverting organics from landfill. So optimizing the use of the rebin program in the first place achieves the line share of portion of GHGs and the benefits from tiptoail with the organics management. Uh overall the study demonstrates that there are multiple feasible options. Uh each have trade-offs. Also confirms that the private sector delivery is a practical and efficient option in the near term. Um and at the same time we're not locking into a single approach longer term right now. So that will continue to be evaluated as part of the next phase of planning when future opportunities and decision of all of the moving pieces may position the options more attractively. Next slide please. So key takeaways. Um when we look at what this means for the city, there are a few uh key points from the study. First, it confirms that there are multiple viable options that exist. Um there is no single long-term pre preferred solution as it stands today. Second, it highlights the trade-offs between those options, including cost, risk, and market uncertainty. Third, it confirms that private sector delivery is cost-effective and appropriate in the near term and altogether supports the approach that we're recommending today, which is to proceed with a short-term competitive RFP. This ensures continu continuity of the green bin service uh competitive pricing and allows us to update our contract terms particularly around favorable tonnage changes as Shelley discussed earlier. and it also maintains flexibility with the optional 5-year extension if it is needed. It's important to note that the work from this study will become the foundation of the next phase of planning. And so with that in mind, uh the next steps reflect the staged approach. Um next next slide, please. So first we'll reassess the tonnage projections using our updated curbside data and recent diversion changes. This will ensure that future contracts are going to be aligned with our actual needs and avoid us overcommitting. Second, staff will work with supply services to develop a short-term 5-year contract with a potential 5-year extension to guarantee readiness for 2030. And this allows us to improve our contract terms and secure competitive pricing. And third, this approach provides the runway needed to continue long-term planning and return to council with a more informed recommendation as more information becomes available. There are a number of related initiatives and decisions that are underway across the city's waste system right now. And while each is progressing, we don't yet have a complete picture on how they'll all align or ultimately come together. So, this recommendation for proceeding with a 5-year RFP allows us to avoid locking into decades long solution before we have that full picture. And with that, I will leave it there and turn it back to Shelley for closing remarks. Thank you, Heidi. So, since the approval of the master plan, there have been some significant changes and insights received as shared during the solid waste update last October. Um recent audit results show continued opportunity for further organics diversion. So the team is currently working on an approach to encourage more residents to use their green bin. Our own experience and the insights from the feasibility study reinforcing that understanding that quantity of material to process is critical for any long-term contract or approach. In light of that and wanting to ensure the continued reliable service, we're seeking the shortterm contract to be issued which allows the planning and evaluation for the long-term approach to be fully completed for the best decision for residents considering environmental, social, and financial elements. We thank you for your time and attention and welcome any questions. >> Thank you very much for that presentation. We've got two delegations. The first up is Angela Keller Herszog, the executive director of cafes. The second delegation will be Akil, founder of uh the box of life. So Angela, you can come on up to the front here and we'll get the PowerPoint up and ready to go. Good morning everybody. Um, I hope you all had a long nice weekend. I must say that I certainly learned more about anorobic digestion this weekend. Um, so um, I'm here to make a delegation to talk about designing a clean system for the next generation. Next slide please. I think you all know cafes. Next slide please. So the basic caf's position on this is that we would like to ask the committee to strengthen both the RFPs to align with the council's already approved circular economy and climate commitments. Um, we are at a really important juncture in terms of designing how Ottawa is going to be dealing with our organic waste. So if if we just look at like little bits and pieces and where we can save like a million here and a million there, then the whole thing doesn't necessarily come together. So the focus of my presentation is actually to be looking at the impact on air, soil, and water because I think those are the outcomes that are actually the long-term important things to to think about at this design point. Next slide, please. So my presentation is going to talk about context, concerns, and then recommendations. Next slide, please. Though you probably know and staff has reminded us that the solid waste master plan directed that we should be investing in anorobic um digestion for our green bin organics. The climate master plan and energy evolution also sees the renewable natural gas as a very important pathway for community emissions. Um there was also I think a $1 million bio gas optimization study in 22 that um showed there could be uh very significant positive net present value not just expenditure and in the overall guiding principles of the solid waste master plan there there is the idea of treating waste as a resource a circular economy perspective. Next slide please. So I think that we've listened to a lot of indigenous land acknowledgements for many years now and we heard one this morning. So we are the caretakers of the land, the air and the water and I think we have an opportunity to design a clean system or at least a cleaner system for the next generations. Um the status quo that we have today is that the air is getting polluted through greenhouse gas emissions. Um there's still a lot of methane coming out of both trail road and other landfills. We may be losing the RNG opportunity depending on choices for soil. Um there is a product called and I always forget what it stands for so my notes tell me NASM NASM it means non-aggricultural source material. So the thing that comes out of convert our current aerobic um digtor um no sorry facility is is not good enough to be like considered compost or soil. Um but like where does it actually go? Well, we're told animal bedding, but where does it go after that, right? It eventually ends up in the soil and then it ends up in the water. Um, and that means that there is microplastics and and who knows what else that we're con continuing by the ton to introduce into our environment. Next slide, please. Okay, that's a duplicate slide. Next slide, please. Sorry about that. Um so again looking at the concerns for soil and water um the feasibility study has a few like sentences here and there where they acknowledge this and they say if there's a desire to have an unrestricted enduse product implying like you can use it for agriculture then changes to the quality of the feed stock would be required could be required. ired. Um so again we need to design the whole system so that it works together and the opportunity to do that is now. So we are at this design point. Um yeah anyway um next slide please. I'm tempted to make the same point over and over again. Um looking at the greenhouse gas situation there are significant um tonnage of CO2 um compared to aerobic composting um dep like depending what you compare it to you can say this is trivial or this is major right so the feasibility report calculates it to be like 3% of total corporate emissions currently on an annual basis is is that a lot well I mean how many other investments can we make that boom would be saving 3%. So and by another calculation it's about uh I think a a quarter of our fleet emissions right now. So again boom there's an opportunity. Next slide please. So the recommendations that cafes brings to this committee is that we argue that or we ask that we should strengthen the RFP evaluation criteria to reflect council approved climate priorities. That way we can get a better alignment. We would like to see scored criteria for net GHG performance um including fossil emissions avoided from renewable energy and B pathways towards category AA aa compost standard output that there are technical um >> Angel just ask you to finish up uh you're out of time so just you get to the second recommendation. >> Yeah. So the second one is to report back to this committee within 18 months on a feed stock quality and circular economy strategy for the green bin program. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. We do have questions for you uh Vice Chair Carter. >> Thanks very much uh Angela for coming. Have you ever been over to uh the converted facility? >> Um no actually. I can guarantee you'll want to shower for the next week if you go over there. So it's a lovely spot. Um but uh very uh anyway I went to see the process early on when I was over there. Just a question with respect to um your presentation. You talked a little bit about the staff report and how focused on cost and um the recommendation of course is it's uh you know the status quo. It's it's the cheapest. You said you read the feasibility study over the weekend and uh learned quite a bit. Um and you looked at the financial analysis. Are there assumptions in that analysis that you think that council is is missing? Is that kind of or things that you think that we should be aware of? >> Thank you. Thank you very much for the question. Um yeah, actually um this is quite a handsome study. Um there is a lot in here. My background is as an economist and I understand net present values and things like that but there was some financial assumptions and and the way it was presented that I found really hard to understand and I had to like kind of work at it. So I think that if you go into the technical memorandums um they explain their assumptions some more. So, for example, the current tipping fee at Convertis is at around $150 per ton and by 2030 it'll be about a dollar like $167, I think, something like that. But then the consultants come along and they say, "Oh, well, let's just assume that private sector would have a tipping fee of $90." Oh. Um, and they don't really explain like why we would be getting a private sector like bid or proposal that would be like a like a 40% cost reduction. Like it seems to me costs are going up and up with inflation, right? And and that assumption is like a lynchpin assumption for calculating their financials. Um and then makes a a massive amount of difference and you kind of go whoa. They also like I would have expected that we would be getting an overall like net present value for an anorobic and an aerobic project, right? So how much does it cost? There is one number where if the city does aerobic it would cost 90 million but the other numbers are not really there. But there are a lot of numbers in terms of the scenarios being compared that are saying well here's if the city does it and it's public or here's if the private sector does it. And the very consistent finding of this study is that it's much better if the private sector does it. So then you start like looking at okay why this outcome. Um and first of all like the city has assets we have land right. So the consultants say, well, you know, to kind of jolly this along, it would be nice if the city were to just like provide the land to the private sector so they don't, you know, have like a slowdown in terms of finding land because that could slow them down by two years. Well, that is actually like a like a a gift, a huge subsidy. So the level playing field is you could say leveled, but it is like a public subsidy to the private sector. And then you start looking some more and you see that oh >> just real quick I I think we've gone off what the question originally was and maybe was it you councelor car that asked a question? >> Yes. >> May maybe you want to >> let let me just finish this point and then there could be follow-up questions. There are there are other questions too but so yes for finish >> I'll just finish this point in terms of the costing of equivalent services for anorobic and ad by private versus public right and the point that is made and that's the hinge point is that well if the private sector does it we don't have capital costs and then you kind of go well how does that work surely the private sector also has to amortize capital costs. They can't just donate it to the public sector. So then like there's something fundamentally wrong again because they say that oh the capital costs of the private sector are in their operational tipping fees but then the tipping fees are on this super low assumption and it's it's like the private sector doesn't have capital costs. So there's something I think that is really fundamentally questionable that then drives the conclusion that the private sector is vastly better equipped and and and can do this much more cheaply than the public sector. >> Okay. Thank you for for making that point. Councelor Vice Chair Carr, did you have follow-ups? >> Okay. Yeah. So we'll definitely follow up with staff on some of those. Um, councelor Kavanaaugh. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, so this propo the proposed extension of the RSP is a 5-year contract with potential 5-year um extensions. Um, so given the context of Ottawa, what's the realistic market that would be that would respond to an RFP um with a contract like this? um who's the best one to look into this for uh for the 60,000 tons per year for the contract. >> Um thank you for the question. So there there was a market sounding exercise done as part of this study again one of the technical memorandum and um I think almost unanimously like a quite large number of um market participants said that ad an anorobic digestion is the way the city should go in terms of this short-term extension. I think that there are no other anorobic um anorob no aerobic sorry aerobic with oxygen composting facilities in in the Ottawa area or within like like less than 50 to 100 kilometers. So the only bidder really that would bid for a 5-year contract would be Convertis. And part of the reason is that if you offered like a 20-year contract or a 30-year contract, then you would get new market entrance who would say, "Okay, I can capitalize the the cost of my new facility over that time." But you can't possibly enter the market and hope to capitalize over 5 years, which means that there's this barrier to entry. So then you say, well, why are we doing a competitive procurement if there's only one bidder? like is that really competitive or are they going to start drawing monopoly rents from us? So I I think actually it would make a lot more sense to have a like a request for expressions of interest and then if there's only one then you just go straight to a contract renegotiation. >> So you think we should do a longer contract? That's what you're saying like that it we we' get more biders if we had a longer contract. I I think ultimately you definitely want to go and staff are are acknowledging that. It's just that they're kicking it down the road by 5 years, possibly 10 to give them more time to study. So basically the staff recommendation is we need to study this more. It's complicated. Um and so I think that for the short term if staff is not able to make an investment decision then I think we should go to this expression of interest and then if it's just convert we just go straight to uh a negotiation and then if that's unsatisfactory then alternatives would have to be found. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much uh for those questions. I have a question for you too, but I'm actually going to ask it of of staff uh because I think it's it's best placed to staff and appreciate the delegation very much. Any other comments or questions uh today? Okay, thank you Angela very much for the thorough presentation. The next uh delegation that we have up is Akil and Zakil I believe is online. >> Hi, sorry I couldn't make it in person. I'm quite sick and I don't want everyone else to get sick. >> Great to see you. Uh you've got five minutes to uh address the committee. >> Thank you for the time. Um so my background, my name is Akil. Um I love composting. Over the last 7 years, I have been running a business in Ottawa teaching people how to compost. And I think my experience, I'm not an expert. I'd never consider myself an expert but I do have a lot of knowledge around the sector just because it's something that I have obsessed over. Um my background is I want this planet to be more s sustainable. I am a tree hugger and when I learned about composting myself as a climate person I didn't realize that when my waste went into landfill it did not compost. It releases greenhouse gases. So, as an engineer, as a sustainability guy, this was this this was a big blind spot in my own knowledge, and I'm just saying this because a majority of people in our city do not understand that when compost goes into landfill, it releases methane. Um, greenhouse gases are just not a motivator for green for behavior change. And this is something that I I know because I've spoken to tens of thousands of people, um, taught thousands of people how to compost. And so what I want to talk about today is is compost and um and talk about it from a different lens. Right? Food waste belongs in our food systems. It does not belong in waste management. If you want to look at motivating factors, if you want to look at holistic lens of what this product is, in nature there is no waste. When plants and animals die, they fall to the forest floor and decompose and become soil. That's the circle of life. When humans have come in, we've introduced these complexities and now we've treated as part of the the landfill. We've complexitized this whole situation and we've forgotten um that when you throw food into the soil, it turns into soil. And I say this because I had a shop in Little Italy and my my neighbor was a 93 year old Nana. And when she found out what I was doing, she was like, "Why you do that? Why don't you just like throw it in the backyard? That's what I've been doing for like 75 years. We had no rats in our neighborhood." So, anybody who says that, you know, it causes rats if you do it properly, like she knows how to do it, you don't get rats. Anyway, that is what composting used to be. It used to be about feeding our soil to grow better food. We've forgotten how to do that. I have spoken to thousands of gardeners. I go to community gardens. I see their compost piles. They don't know what they're doing. They're just throwing stuff in a in a heap and they're saying it's going to compost in the next 5 to 10 years. And that doesn't really happen. So composting belongs in our food systems. When we talk about composting from a lens of food and sustainability and biodiversity, that's where we start to create behavior change. And something about compost that some people don't know, um it can hold two to five amount times its weight of water. So we're talking about flooding every year in um in Ottawa. Imagine if we had all of this excess compost that we needed to use. And I say excess because there is no such thing as extra healthy soil. We can put them in bags. We can deploy them by the river and we'll see really good success in flood prevention. That's just one of the benefits. But what I want to talk about again is like a multi-pronged approach to organics diversion. And what I mean by multipronged is we don't need to look for a silver bullet like we have with converters. We I have not been to convert but I have a film crew that went to converters. They came to me to film what we were doing and I could smell it on them. It was it's not how composting should be. Let me tell you this. Um, so a multi-pronged approach to composting is to look at it from a soil building perspective where you have home composting. You encourage people to compost at home. You teach them how to do it properly so that they're not willy-nilly throwing things into a black bin and then complaining about rats and mice. Um, you focus on community composting which happens at community gardens. We already have the infrastructure spread across the city. Teach them how to compost. get people from home to bring their compost organics to the community garden, build it into soil. You have compost hubs distributed at five to seven different sites across the city on farmland because who needs healthy soil the most? Farmers growing food. When we do that, we don't need one big facility that doesn't do it properly. you have six to seven wellmanaged good composting sites that actually have a return on investment because I would buy compost that was made properly. I will not you you'll have to pay me to accept the NASM from converters. It's not it's not compost. It's just like processed food scraps. Um and so to make all of this happen, I think a fundamental >> I'll just ask you to uh to finish up just to wrap up because you're a >> fundamental starting point we need in Ottawa is a compost training center. a space where people residents can come and learn about composting. They can see how it works. They can see what good composting is because nobody knows what good composting is. And I have when I show people about good composting, it blows their mind. They're like, "Oh, wow. I never knew this is what it looks like." So, I think we can copy some other cities like uh Calgary and Winnipeg that have a compost education center. Victoria has one, and that should be a great starting point. It costs like $200,000 to set up. It's pocket change, but it can influence the millions of people living in our city. >> That's uh that's a very uh helpful recommendation. I'll go to councelor Kavanagh who has a question for you. >> Yeah, thank you. Um no, I appreciate that your interest in this. Um I what I'm hearing is we need more education that uh people need to understand where everything's going and I I I believe that too. So is is that what I'm hearing? cuz um not everybody can do their own composting, you know, um for different situations, but um if they understood it better and they could participate in the green bin, etc. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. I really appreciate your your intervention. Thank you. >> And sorry, can I I al if I have the if I have a moment, I'd like to answer your question that you asked Angela about the private sector. Um I have been asking myself this question forever like why is there why is there no competition in composting? Why is it such a monopoly business? Like there's only there are very few players across the across North America doing this. And one of the challenges I would say is it's it's risky to start a composting business because it the ones that are successful have built it around community. The businesses that are running for the that have not had convert or go they've not switched investors. The ones that are stable mom and pop businesses have built their businesses around community where the customers appreciate the product they create. The community wants to give them their food scraps because they understand where it goes. And these are the businesses that have gone on for 20 to 30 years. And they are doing this because they believe in um what they do. and Ottawa has 60 70,000 tons a year of organics. Um there are very few big composting companies that would accept doing this and produce high quality compost. It just >> I'll just say thank you very much for for the delegation. I appreciate uh the extra time there and uh and points you're making. Thank you for for being here with us today. Okay, we're going to move on to questions and comments uh of committee members for staff. Um, I know there'll be people on the board. I have a a brief direction um that staff have accepted. I'll just read that in. It's that with respect to the report that staff be directed as part of the planning and preparatory work supporting the city's long-term organics processing strategy to consider the feasibility of city-owned organics processing facilities. And in addition, as part of the planning and preparatory work, staff will consider the recommendations that were part of the cafes delegation during the May 19th environment and climate change committee meeting. Uh, with that I'll go to uh um actually I'll just ask is that accepted by by staff? >> Yes, chair. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Uh, with that I'll go to councelor Lulu first on the board. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Um, so to staff um you know given sort of the the rockiness of uh of our relationship with the with this file over the course of the last um well, I suppose just over a decade. I'm wondering what are the key lessons learned um given our experiences thus far that we'll be able to apply uh moving forward uh when when seeking out a new partner. >> Thank you for the question. I I think it's going to be in the strength of the contract and working closely with supply services and with legal in order to um understand what we're asking for, what we're committing to, and our confidence in our data and and tonnage is is fundamental. So, understanding what tonnage we have to offer. Uh because these are long-term contracts and that tend to build. So, as city the city of Ottawa grows, we're expecting our tonnage to grow as well. So it it's those fundamental um taking information that came from the the 2018 audit report as well working closely with supply and with legal and with our updated tonnage numbers will set us on the the appropriate path moving forward. Would you say that tonnage has been the biggest pitfall that we've had to deal with um under the current contract? And and what other challenges um have we faced that you feel can be remedied throughout this process? It's a great question and and sorry I'm I'm pausing a bit because this this contract started in in 2010 and I don't believe any of us were around the the horseshoe or uh actively on this file at at that point. Um, so I think we we have over the last I want to say 5 years or so been working more closely with with Convertis. Uh, we have been able to um increase our leaf and yard tonnage that we're processing at Barnesdale, which is a win. Um, and I'm just looking over at at legal right now. Yeah, I'm struggling a little bit, counselor, in order to provide you with with additional details. Could you repeat your question, please? >> Sure. Um, so you mentioned that tonnage was a major issue. Uh, and I will mention that my my good friend from uh, Beacon Hill, Sirville, I believe, was here uh, at that time. So, we do have somebody at the table who was there. Maybe I'll ask him these questions offline. U, but other than tonnage, uh, what are some of the other pitfalls of the current contract that we've been dealing with since 2010? Uh, he he was a baby, by the way, when he was when he was first elected. He's he's still quite young. I'm not I'm not, you know, trying to cast his versions here. um and and wondering what other uh pitfalls we've seen within the current contract that we would be able to remedy or things that we'll be paying attention to as we uh as we go out to market and uh and look or or perhaps as the direction states uh pull this in house. Um what what other issues are we going to be looking at to ensure that we have a far more successful and and fruitful um uh arrangement moving forward? So ju just want to to maybe re restate a little bit that we have had um successful processing of our organics material. Uh so with that I think the um we have had um success with the the tonnage of green pin material that that has been processed and and so residents have been able to to rely on the fact that the green bin material is going to convert us for processing. So I just want to make sure that that that is clear. I I think for us internally, I think it's it's a matter of us um understanding better what the what are those opportunities. So, with the the new curbside collection contract, we basically are cleaving out the leaf and yard material. Um last year through the the separate collection during the peak um spring and fall, we collected about 17,000 tons. So, we're expecting that to possibly double this year. And then with that we're able to produce uh top soil which we have used at our trail uh waste facility construction site for capping which is basically um been a great example of a circular economy type initiative. So we're not using virgin material but materials that residents have collected that we've processed at Barnesdale in order to to offset some of the costs for our construction capping projects at trail. Um, I think the other piece that we're looking forward to is with the the output. So, if it's an if it's an AD output, if there is gas, there may be opportunities for us to be exploring combining that with our landfill gas. So, looking at trail and then having that commodity that then can offset the the capital costs associated with that work. So that's a real win um for the city as well as uh from an environmental perspective as uh um Miss Herzog basically spoke about with the the environmental benefits when it comes to to AD. So the additional time there's a there's a number of things that were that we number of irons that we have in that fire right now and and giving us this slightly additional runway in order to kind of work out what might be the art of possible positions us to to basically confidently bring back to you here's how we're going to to deal with two major files. So landfill gas as well as organics processing moving forward. >> That's great. I really appreciate that. Yeah. Know given um you know the issues that we've discussed at other committees like food insecurity, many people have taken u to growing uh their own food uh on their own property uh if uh if they have the property to do so. Uh in previous iterations of of this uh municipality and the other municipalities that make up the amalgamated city of Ottawa, um some of the previous municipalities uh empowered uh individual residents uh to do their own composting at home by providing them uh black bins. I think that uh many of us remember that. I still have a city of of Gloucester uh black bin uh black composting bin beside uh beside my house. has any um I think councilor attorney has one too in his backyard. Um I still use mine. I think it's I think it's wonderful to be able to to do that on your own. Has there been any thought uh to you know restarting that program and empowering uh individuals uh at their own residents uh to do their their own composting as well as a way to uh to uh uh to divert organic materials from the landfill or are we concentrating uh only on centralization? So, thank you for the question. So, certainly from the the curbside collection perspective as well as the multi-res properties that have currently been on boarded, having a um a one large uh approach really should then from an economics perspective be the best bang for the buck. There are though some multi-res properties that basically it is been um proving to be challenging in order to set them up with with the green bin program. And so we are exploring what a an on-site type approach may be and probably looking at something similar to to what was was done earlier on prior to having kind of a critical mass of of residents that could allow then a full-scale green bin program like like we currently have and and those may be the um that's the work that the multi-res team is is currently looking at. So for those those spots that we haven't been able to onboard our full green bin program, what are those uh smaller scale opportunities and then wanting to understand what is the output? So is the output to a community garden? Is the output to a uh a local spot that that basically is is growing uh fruits and vegetables in order to to try to kind of keep it keep it or or or for for those residents to see that benefit of of basically what they're produ producing. And that also helps with the education and understanding basically that these food scraps can be um created into that that soil enrichment that then can be placed on their on their community gardens for growing and and teaching them how to to grow their carrots and tomatoes. >> So what I'm hearing is that there's no consideration being given to you providing these sort of um individual compost bins uh to homeowners >> at this point. No, council has basically we we are committed for the the green bin program that looks at um um residents basically putting them the materials into their their green bins. We haven't been asked to to propose or offer a um a black box for curbside residents >> whether to do their own. I mean, it stands to reason that we may be able to reduce costs by allowing people to compost or encouraging people to compost on their own properties. So, I would ask that that would be considered while you're while you're looking at uh at this if if that's possible. And chair, if you'd like u a direction uh to to consider that, I'm fine to do that. If they if they can take verbal direction, that's fine, too. But just to consider that program uh it may reduce costs and allow uh people to uh empower people to uh compost at home and also provide uh decent education value as to as to um um how how composting can help enrich gardens. Thanks. >> Yeah, counselor. I think that that makes sense to me certainly. Uh I'm hoping staff are willing to take direction on that. I think that education component, the piece about the compost training that the delegation raised as well were were good points and could help us on the financial side too if we get it uh if we get it done right. So our staff willing to to take uh direction on that? >> Yes, absolutely. >> Okay. Fantastic council. >> Thank you very much. Uh Vice Chair Carr. >> Yeah, thanks very much. We don't have anyone from the consultancy firm here, do we? No. I just um with respect to the um financial questions uh that I asked the delegate um and respect to some of the risks that she identified, did the staff have a response to any of that that you could share? >> Thank you for the question. Um yes, there's one of the main um considerations that was brought forward during the delegation was about the the price point for doing private aerobic composting. Um and that number was developed by the consultant based on their experience. There are a lot of companies more so in southern Ontario um more towards the Toronto area and then they bumped that number up even higher to consider the Toronto the Ottawa context. Um so the Toronto area and southern Ontario is seeing a much cheaper overall tonnage and so that was the key point. It is it does make a big difference um to have that lower cost. Um but they did bump it up to be as conservative as possible to to give us a higher number to consider what it could be. Now with a shorter contract doing a 5-year that um you may not see that sort of number. Um but this is what they were looking at for a 20-year contract. Okay. I appreciate that. Um thank you. I'll leave it there for now. >> Okay. Thanks very much. Uh, councelor Tuni. >> Great. Thank you very much, Chair. And yes, I'm the barnacle. I was around what the green bin of 2010. Uh, I'm looking at some of the crowd. They were kind of smiling. Uh, because we went through the the lovely pain of trying to get people off weekly collection, which was a real challenge back then. Um, we had bags of garbage on our lawn and stuff, but people got by it. Um, so we should encourage it even more. So, just a couple of quick questions today. Uh, first, my council colleague, uh, Lulaf pointed out the trash pandas are really good at getting in those green bins. Um, have we looked at other municipalities to see, uh, like what's the level of our green bin accessibility right now by by those wonderful bandits that keep getting into my my green bin on a regular basis. Thank you for the question. So, right now, not hearing a lot, especially if the bin hasn't been broken. And so, basically, happy to to work with you or your residents if they're experiencing an issue to basically see about what we can do to either replace it or um >> set them up uh more more set them up better so that the the bandits were not feeding the raccoons, etc. >> Yeah, exactly. Thanks. And it's my fault because I think I have one of the more classic bins with the orange handle. So, if I was a resident in the neighborhood and I'm getting, you know, the the trash panda is in there all the time, could I simply contact 311 or the counselor and they'll swap those? It's one of the best services we have. I got to be honest with you. You guys are so good at it. Is that is that a correct assumption? >> Yes, absolutely. So, there is an online form that residents so that basically they don't even have to call anyone. They can go online and basically put in their address and we'll get it to them as quickly as possible. I'll send you the link. >> Thank you. People love Yes. counselor shoemaker shoes, the whole nine yards. That's my bad. Um, you mentioned staff support uh in regards to the cafes uh item being added to it. When you say staff support, what does that entail? Is it is it extra cycles? Is it budget or it seems pretty man anyway, but I just want to make sure that that it's not impacting any of the direction that council has already put in place. This would just add to it. Correct. >> That is correct. very much the caf's recommendations are in line with the the approved solve waste master plan. >> Excellent. And last but not least, we keep eyes on patterns because of course we've gone with circular well the province has mandated circular materials. I frankly think we better do a better job on the recycling side of things, but whatever. Um, now they've changed their schedules, they've done things. Do we notice any impact on green bin? Because unfortunately if you don't make life easy for everybody uh suddenly more waste goes in garbage. Like you guys all talk to each other correct between recycling, garbage, compost just to see what the trends are. So residents did a phenomenal job. So thank you to members of council for pushing out the new messaging when it came to the change in the curbside collection contract. So we are basically align things to be similar. So on the day that your garbage goes out, that's when your blue bin goes out and organics can go out every like week on a weekly basis. So our next setout study, we're doing those more frequently in order to get a sense of how um how residents are doing and what their what their habits tend to be with their with their setouts. So we expect the the next setout study to be happening later this fall. >> That's excellent. I'll keep an eye on I think that's valuable information for this committee. Thank you very much, Chair. >> Thank you very much, Council Tuni. Councelor Kavanagh. >> Thank you, Chair. And uh thank you for your direction. That that was great. I appreciate that very much. Um education. I was asking I was going to ask about education as well. I don't think there's enough. Um I think we're missing out on a lot out there. Um, I see it anecdotally and um I I just want to it's it's one of the considerations for the project and I just want to know what the plans are because um it it's still important to continue. It's not a one-time thing. It's a continuum. Um it's really unfortunate that schools don't have their own recycle programs and we don't have that generation of kids getting that information. So what can we do in place of that? Thank you for the question. So, um, you've been recently notified that the the new three stream bins are going into each of your your parks that were selected this year. We're also rolling out uh diversion programs into our city facilities. And we're also undertaking a uh a review on behaviors and and attitudes when it comes to green bin use. So then that way um previously, if you remember, the it was the yuck factor. So then we incorporated the plastic bags in order to try to to help residents use their green bin uh more. So there's still that opportunity and and through that there will be education. So I guess what we're trying to do with the the roll out of the three stream bins and parks as well as in city facilities and then you're at home regardless of where you are within the city, you have the ability to to use the green bin. um working on the the signage in order to try to make it as clear as possible when when people go to to get rid of their waste that they they do see that they have choices uh in order to help encourage them. So, I I don't disagree that that education and and messaging that that'll come and keep coming. And we we hope that with the the the work being done on the the the green bin behavior um that will that will bear some additional tools that we can be sharing in order to help our residents uh make best use of the green bin as well as uh recycling and our other diversion programs. >> Thank you. I appreciate particularly in the parks and I'd like to get feedback if they're being used properly. I think you can tell us because that's one one of the concerns I have. I think they in the smaller parks it's more probably better um because it's more in a neighborhood, but in the bigger parks where people bring a lot of takeout and all that kind of stuff there there's going to be a a big learning curve for people um that probably weren't doing much at home uh for whatever reason. But um that that's going to be the biggest challenge but um also probably the biggest gain if we if we get through. But I think it would be good if we could get feedback on how the programs are going, especially in the larger parks. Is that possible? >> Yes, we can do that. >> Thank you. >> Thanks very much, councelor Councelor King. >> Uh, thank you, Chair, and I really do appreciate uh the direction that you've brought uh concerning looking at doing this work in house. I think it's important for us to weigh all options. I definitely appreciate councelor Kavanaaugh's uh uh comments on education. I would agree there as well that we need to really enhance uh education for uh the the public and uh also considering the comments that councelor Tyranny made uh really want to thank staff uh for the responsiveness of um replacement of bins. Uh I know that um you know in in many ways that's how 311 should work. you call 311 and nearly uh within the day or the next day you uh get a replacement bin and uh I've heard uh many residents reach out to me to personally say that that's an amazing element of the service. So appreciate that. Uh notwithstanding the fact that we do have a direction uh looking at uh the potential of uh this uh process being provided inhouse. Uh the current contract includes as we know a put or pay guarantee that requires the city to deliver minimum tonnage or pay for unused capacity. So I'm just wondering if we do go with an external contractor, how will the new contract be structured to protect the city from similar financial risk, particularly given uncertainty in source separated organic volumes post leaf and yard waste separation. Thank you for the question and uh I think it's a really important one and brought up by councelor Lulaf as well with some of our uh risks with the existing contract. So this is why it's so important for us with all of the changes that are happening within the waist system um to ensure that we have the flexibility that we are not getting into a restrictive putter pay. Um, and part of doing that is having um re-evaluating through these changes that we've made and updating our tenage projections so we have a more accurate picture of what we the capacity that we actually need and can pay for. >> I appreciate that. I think that that gets to the crux of the issue uh with the previous contract and uh gives uh us some clarity. I know that councelor Luof was uh uh asking questions in that direction but wanted clarity that um you know we really think through uh the next contract if we do go with an external contractor. Thank you chair. >> Great questions councelor. Thanks very much councelor King. Um I've got a few questions before before we end and appreciate the the work. I'm going to uh ask some pointed questions. Um right now uh we've got a five-year extension option as part of the recommendation. So the 5-year plus a 5-year extension, so potentially a total of 10. If we're doing that short-term contract, why is that extra 5-year extension needed? And why not like a one-year extension that we had with that first contract, those two one-year extensions we've >> so thank you for the question. I will start and uh allow my colleagues to finish if I've forgotten anything. Um so working with supply services and given our current uh Ottawa landscape in terms of our major acquisition in terms of changing policies with the collection system um we felt that the five-year is what we are targeting. Uh but this gives us an additional uh flexibility and safeguard to ensure that we have the time that we need to be able to implement a long-term successful solution. and we felt that working with supply services this this contract term would give us that flexibility. >> Okay, that's appreciated. On the on the long-term successful solution, most city doc the city documents, the staff report on the solid waste master plan, energy evolution, other other documents site um anorobic digestion as the future processing method. This is going to get us closer to to our goals. Obviously, potentially producing renewable natural gas that can offset and help us with costs. uh potential combination with with trail and the way that we're working um in other facilities um like rope there there's potential options here. So is that how staff see it that that is so consistent with pre previous staff reports that our longer term future uh really relies on that that ad. So thank you for the question and uh if I'm interpreting what you're you're saying correctly um and as I discussed earlier the the options for the future um with the synergies that we can have by colllocating at cityowned facilities and with uh planned city infrastructure in the future actually brings that list of options um forward. It makes them a bit more attractive than the current Ottawa context. So certainly very important to make sure that we can evaluate all of those options in that future context so we have a more accurate and uh favorable picture to bring back to council. >> Okay. Um that's great to hear. Thank you for that and really appreciate it. The potential savings in the short term with this contract, do you see some potentially coming as part of this renew? I given the tonnage expectations to go down, I assume the city is expecting some significant savings in the short term depending on where we where we end. And I'll follow that up with the the great delegation by by Angela around um the well there's tipping fees question, but also the the bidder. Are we expecting the only bidder to be convert in in this case or do we expect more biders as a result of the a competitive competitive process? So it's kind of two-prong question there. Um so I will start with the latter portion um with through the through the market sounding uh we are aware of at least more than one bidder. So we are expecting more than one bidder within the region um and hoping that that will uh ensure that we are getting competitive pricing. We're testing the market and the ability to update our contract terms which is super super important. And then I may let Shelley uh answer with respect to the savings that we're anticipating. So yes, if we're if we're reducing. So right now currently our minimum putter pay is 75,000 tons. We're expecting that to go down possibly to 55 to 60,000 tons. So yes, we are expecting a a financial savings with um with this 5-year uh short-term contract. >> That that's fantastic to hear. Um with regard to a couple delegation, well one delegation raises any the soil quality in the green bin program. Um what what is that looking like? Obviously, there's been uh changes to it over the years. Is this being purchased up? Is it being utilized in a good way? What is the soil quality like in our in our green bin program now? >> So, I can start with this question and certainly uh happy to have anybody jump in if I've missed anything. Um but so currently with the private sector operator Convertis um their NASM product that they're produced is regulated by the province. Um so we don't necessarily have visibility on um on what the what the exact constituents that make up that soil quality but we know that it is to be going towards a beneficial NASA use. >> Okay. I think the the second delegation really pointed this out around the the need and thanks to councelor Lovs for pointing this out too, but the the need for more education uh a compost training facility potential in the future u maybe as part of that long-term option really great encouraging that within within our city and to to get better soil options both for individual uh renters homeowners and the the larger apartment buildings. So um really appreciate that the direction that came forward and thanks for for your work on this. I'm hopeful that uh this results in both a short-term savings and then a longerterm goal um that that you've spoken about in the report. So uh any other questions or comments on uh on the report? Okay. Um so are those recommendations carried? Fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. So, our next item is item 8 uh 8.1, which is the Rain Ready Ottawa multi-unit residential uh rebate stream. Uh there is a staff presentation on this item, so I'll ask staff to come up and uh and present. >> Good morning, members of committee. Um so my name is Nicole Hoover Banach, director of climate change and resiliency services and I'm joined with by my colleague Connor Renov um who is the I like to say the esteemed um rainready Ottawa program coordinator and the purpose of today's presentation is and report is to provide committee with an overview of staff's recommendation to expand the RainReady Ottawa program to include a new multi-residential building rebate dream and we're coming here uh with this recommendation. This is further to council direction uh that was provided when the program was approved as uh a permanent program in 2024. So the presentation will also provide a brief update on overall program progress and some of the outcomes to date. Next slide please. So, as many um members of committee know, uh Rain Ready Ottawa is a multifaceted program that combines education, outreach, industry engagement, and partnerships, and financial incentives to improve storm water management and water quality in priority areas across the city. As a key climate ready Ottawa initiative, um it helps residents build resiliency to increase rainfall impacts caused by climate change. To date, the program uh has helped hundreds of homeowners protect their properties while supporting healthier local watersheds. And again, today's report um we are here proposing a new reate rebate stream to better support low-rise multi-residential building units within the existing priority areas and to help rain or make rainready Ottawa even more successful. So, I'll hand things over to Connor. Um before diving into the details of the proposed uh rebate stream, he's going to provide a quick overview of the success of Rain Ready Ottawa to date. >> Thanks Nicole. If I could get the next slide, please. So I wanted to start off by highlighting the successes of Rain Ready Ottawa to date. Uh since the approval as a permanent program in 2024, Rain Ready Ottawa has continued to scale up and drive action by residents. So within the six program components, we continue to see a lot of success and uptake. Our MERB assessment process has helped identify issues uh and proposed 15 properties in 2025 and was used to help inform the stream proposed today. The industry training continues to see more Ottawa firms make the transition to sustainable landscaping practices and help give residents more options to make improvements to their property. Our education, promotion, and outreach activities are helping change the behavior around storm water management and imparting new skills to residents to help them also take this work on themselves. We continue to install rain gardens at community buildings across the priority area and I know some of you were able to come out and get your hands dirty to help us out with those and those are contributing to protecting and and better managing storm water at those critical community amenities while serving as an example to residents of what they can do around their home to protect it and protect our critical waterways. And likewise, inspired by, you know, the example and our own successes, other municipalities across Canada have implemented similar programs over the past couple years, including Edmonton, Hamilton, and most recently Toronto. Next slide, please. So, zooming in particular on the residential uh rebate side of things. Um, this is one of our most effective tools. The existing residential rebate supports the installation of lot level storm water management at residential properties through rebates of up to $5,000. This includes downspout redirections, rain gardens, soakaway pits, infiltration trenches, and permeable pavements. Some examples of which are on the right side of the screen. So, we can see, you know, a nice example of a new uh permeable pavement driveway put in, lovely rain garden, and the humble downspout redirection putting in a lot of work. Um, to date, uh, we've received over 250 applications and we've supported, uh, 525 projects that are currently underway or completed. Collectively, these projects are diverting and infiltrating 16 million liters of storm water annually, equivalent to over six Olympic size swimming pools. And through the Raybate stream, we've also leveraged significant private investment totaling $3.5 million to help install these projects. Next slide, please. So, our application, our project counts continue to increase year-over-year. We continue to see that success. We're getting lots of great distribution as well across the priority area indicating the success of our outreach program and again the interest that we are seeing across the priority area in implementing these systems. Next slide please. I'll now discuss the proposed new rebate stream for the program. So again, as Nicole mentioned, this was something that council directed staff to explore as a part of the pro permanent program approval. Uh this was done as the pilot review identified that there was a gap within the rebate stream when it came to owners and tenants of Mr. buildings and that they were not adequately served by the existing rebate structure nor did it provide sufficient clarity as the permissibility of owner initiated retrofits and we were therefore sort of seeing some low uptake amongst these properties because they were unsure if you're an individual owner whether or not it was applicable to them. Likewise, their different governance structure and split allocation responsibility for exterior improvements or the fact that improvements must be coordinated at a large scale add an additional layer of complexity. Uh this confusion around the eligibility and required permissions uh contributed to that low uptake. Um and again we also want to see some increased uptake across that priority area in order to continue to meet those storm water management retrofit goals. We undertook an analysis utilizing impact data to see that what you know was the scale of more properties in the existing priority area and indicated that there was a large pool with over 23,000 units distributed across 233 communities and complexes representing about 16% of the eligible residential properties. So they offer a unique opportunity to accelerate progress toward our retrofit targets through larger scale multi-propy retrofits with large concentrations of MERBs in some ws in the priority areas such as WS 2 10 for example. Go to the next slide please. So these are some examples of the buildings that this new stream will be directed towards includes town home stack town home uh low-rise apartment style and in some instances even detached uh condo co-op rental complexes. Uh you can see for example uh that image in the top right again a neighborhood with a large concentration of these is the Hunt Club East community and so that's where we see that opportunity to really accelerate progress in places like these where we have a lot of these communities. They contain a mix of those unit types that I mentioned. They also have large green spaces, parking areas, private rights away and that means that they experience significant stormwater management problems but they also offer a significant stormwater retention and management opportunities when it comes to retrofitting them. Next slide, please. So, to support the development of the MERB rebate, staff undertook targeted public engagement focusing on owners, tenants, and managers of condominium, cooperative rental, and nonprofit affordable housing properties. Three techniques were utilized. Inerson MERB assessments in 2025, so we went out to these properties, met with owners, looked at the building, and you know, understood their challenges and gave some suggestions at that point in time. a survey on engage Ottawa and focus groups with representatives of these targeted property types. So, cumulatively through these processes, we engaged with owners and representatives of over 100 MER properties. Feedback through all of these initiatives indicated strong interest in and a need for retrofitting support. Many MER properties are experiencing problems associated with poor storm water management, but lack the financial resources and technical guidance to make decisions on whether or how to proceed proceed. nonprofit affordable housing providers emphasized in particular their financial constraints supporting the need for enhanced rebates to improve equity and tenant health and safety at these properties. Staff also looked at comparable programs in North America to see how MERBs were addressed within these programs. Mer properties were most common in more mature programs were present. Separate streams offered additional rebate funding and or project types for Mer properties to implement. The next slide please. So therefore feedback from the engagement period and our research into comparable programs helped inform the following proposed changes to the rebate components of rain ready Ottawa. The first uh set of proposed changes is to the existing rebate program. And this just focuses on clarifying the eligibility for owners of individual condominium and cooperative housing units, formalizing that they can access the existing $5,000 rebates for ready improvements to their units for use uh to anything they have sort of exclusive rights to to make improvements to. Uh now the more exciting bit is that new multi-unit residential building stream which will focus on common area projects for rentals, condominiums, co-ops and not uh with rebate maximums of up to $30,000. This will also include a new project option bio swells so uh vegetated strips that are well suited to go along those private riders way and parking lots that they have. Um this will be restricted to low-rise properties uh those that are less than three stories. uh this is in alignment with uh part nine of the the Canada Building Code and likewise other city programs like Better Homes Ottawa. So again, ensuring alignment with other comparable programs when it comes to nonprofit affordable housing uh based on their feedback and proposing a slightly higher upset limit of $40,000 as well as adjustments uh to individual um rebate calculations per project type. So giving them more options and helping address some of those financial constraints that they experience. Next slide, please. So with those proposed changes in mind, uh staff explored furthermore three options. The first was to only modify the existing residential rebate. The second was to modify the existing residential rebate and pilot a new stream for Mer common areas. And the last was to modify existing residential rebate, pilot a new mer stream and provide higher rebate amounts to affordable housing. Staff recommend proceeding with option three as it is anticipated to have the greatest impact on MER properties and includes additional nonprofit affordable housing supports. This option is anticipated to result in three to four MERB applications annually resulting in the installation of an additional 50 to 100 on-site storm water management projects annually. Uh again giving us the capacity to see more action at scale. The new stream will be run as a pilot within Rain Radio Ottawa and as a part of the next program review currently targeted for 2029. The results of it will be analyze and recommendations will be made for the continuation or end of this stream staff. Uh and then if I go to the next slide please. Uh with regards to the budget for this new stream, there is no additional funding being required at this time. The new rebate stream will be delivered using the existing program resources and funded within its approved $500,000 annual program budget. Uh so the MERB stream itself will be initially allocated $100,000 annually uh with adjustments made based on demand that we are seeing. It is none anticipated that offering this new stream will anticipate the availability of funding for the existing residential stream. Get the next slide please and I'll hand it back over to Nicole. >> Great. Thank you so much Connor. So to sum things up, um Rain Ready Ottawa continues to demonstrate strong uptake um and measurable outcomes across all program components. The proposed um multi-unit uh rebate stream um addresses a clear gap in the current program and um as Connor had shared, we do feel confident that it can be implemented within the existing approved budget. Uh expanding eligibility to multi-unit residential uh buildings would um help support council's broader storm water management and climate resiliency objectives. And the proposed approach also incorporates as Connor had shared an equity and lens an equity lens uh by improving access and supports for affordable housing providers and residents um more vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate. So with that um Mr. Mr. Chair, I hand things back to you and um happy to take any questions from members of committee. >> Thank you uh very much for that presentation. Um got a few questions. Councelor Divine. >> Uh thank you, Chair. Um Connor, good to see you again. Uh Nicole, thank you very much for that presentation. Um so my office um and I we've been a fan of of Rain Ready since we first heard about it. Um and at that time we were focusing um at least that um approach to resilience on you know uh private land. I've been very glad to see the expansion facility um on elements of of L development outside private onto public land. Um so I'm very happy to see the expansion of this program and so I'm going to take you down a path here and then I do have a question. Um um you know that I've you know I don't want to say bored you to tears but I've I've nagged you like crazy on permeable pavement and I know that that is a portion of rain ready. I'm very proud that we now in the city we have an integrated road sewer program uh project um in councelor Brochington's ward incorporating that kind of le on public right ofway first of its kind in Canada. Um, we recently heard from Transportation Association of Canada that there is a policy gap when it comes to LIID on rights of way. And not only is there a policy gap, but the city of Ottawa is now in a position to show leadership in that policy gap um rather than follow. Um, in the last little while, I've had extensive conversations with my counterparts in Montreal on their approach to storm water management, with my counterparts in Denmark on their approach to storm water management. I'm so happy to see what you are doing with the expansion of the rain ready program, which again is limited to private land. Nicole, I heard you talking about how this program fits into our overall climate uh or sorry, I heard you talk about this program in regards to our overall uh climate resilience strategy. Can you speak a bit more globally when it comes to this program or involvement in our rightway project that I just mentioned? Um can there do you foresee a broader expansion of the various rain ready attributes and how they might apply to not just private land but to public rights of way as well so that we can scale up the you know the uh the stormwater management capacity of the city. >> Mr. Chair, thank you councelor for the question. What I'm going to do is I'll actually ask my colleague um Haran from infrastructure and water services who's here today to come um help address the question. Um certainly I think as you mentioned and through conversations that we've had um the opportunities that we're seeing um implemented within the rainy Ottawa program. Certainly interested in looking at those more broadly at scale. But perhaps I'll hand things over to Haran to be able to speak to what his team is currently looking at in that regard. >> Thank you. Thank you chair and thank you uh councelor for the question. Uh as as you're aware there are many components here that are similar to rain ready that we need to be implementing within the city. Um, rain ready is fits in one category where we have retrofit studies for existing areas that don't have storm water management and we have impacted or or um yeah impacted I guess is a good word urban water courses that then drain to either the Ottawa River or the Rita River. And so Rain Ready is one of those solutions. That is one of our last remaining solutions because we can't move homes to put in large infrastructure projects. Uh we we did have one large storm water management facility in the Pinerest Creek uh wershed, but we need more uh low impact type storm water management in these areas. Rain Ready is part of that. that as you mentioned that's on the residential side. On the on the non-residentidential side, there are other things that we need to be doing. As you mentioned, we're piloting low impact development techniques in rightaways. Rightways make up a lot of the imperousness in these areas. So, that's an important part of the solution. And then we have storm water management for land development projects as we normally have that go through site plan control on the rightway side. Um the difference, if there is a difference, is that this needs to be done at scale for it to be effective. There are ways to use low impact development that are targeted to specific needs. If there's poor drainage in a park that has a lot of imperousness, you might use low impact development techniques to improve the drainage on the park, but with right ofways, it's usually not a acute issue that you're trying to resolve. It's a largecale long-term improvement to the system. Uh I sorry may maybe you were also asking about uh low impact development guidelines. So we are in the process of uh uh completing those. I believe there is a memo that went to counselors on May 13th. Uh I might be wrong about that. Maybe it hasn't come out yet. as as an update to your motion to to provide an update on the progress of that. And we are uh as as as we are required to by the province asking for low impact development techniques to be considered in master planning for new green field growth. That's slightly different than intensification or existing lands. Um there are multiple solutions for green field growth, but low impact development is part of that system of solutions. >> Uh thank you. I may have missed the the memo you referred to that uh as response to my emotion. I'll certainly go look for it. So there you were talking about right away um working in in conjunction with you know with um private residential development. I'm not sure if you're the person to ask but again going back to the global broader climate resiliency approach on storm water management. Another element that I had that we had been working on last year was um revisions to the storm water rate policy. Uh because at the time when the stormwater rate adjustment was being uh developed, it was looking at all private um commercial retail parking lots as pvious. Impervious, I beg you pardon, as impervious despite regardless of whether or not it was permeable pavement or not. And we were able to get an amendment to that approach. Do you happen to know, and you might not be the people to ask, do you happen to know if are we on track for the adjustment of that stormwater rate policy so that when it does come into effect that it is taking a broader and a bit more of a contemporary view on whether or not permeable pavements on commercial parking lots can be seen as pvious and therefore get the lower storm water rate? >> Mr. chair. Um I think one of those things we we certainly can get back to you. The last conversations we've had with um Mr. Muini and his team is that they are on track uh further to uh their presentation to committee and council last year chair. >> Thank you both. Thank you all for you. Thank you chair. >> Thanks very much councelor councelor Kavanagh. >> Yeah thank you and always pleasure to see you Connor and uh thanks for coming out to our open houses and uh and coming up on our spring tea. Um it's you always get good conversations because people are super interested in this topic. Um and I think we have to grow it. I'm worried that we have a backlog and I think we as a council have to look at the budget because uh this program should be expanded. It's been a huge success. Um and um my area has been a target because of the the creeks that run into the uh river. Um, and um, you know, I just want to know what kind of backlog we have. And with the new program, um, uh, I'm, you know, I'm excited about it as well. And, um, I'd love to see some examples and go there so that we can feature them, for example, in our newsletter and tell people, you know, so they can see it. Um, so I just wanted to ask about that. Um and my other question is um and I believe you answered this when we met um OC's involvement in it. Thank you. Thank you for the questions. Yeah. So there remains capacity to continue accepting applications. We don't have a a backlog when it comes to rebate application itself. So you know any resident who is interested, they're definitely able to apply. We've got the space. The intent of this is to really help us further maximize the budget that we have right now. Um, I know there were a few activities in the past that were overs subscribed, but we've made adjustments. We have the capacity. We've got the e-learning that can provide that uh space that I know it was the the home assessments that we did in person previously that that had a crazy weight list, but now we've got other opportunities that residents can take advantage of to learn on their own time. We've got some new exciting ones coming up as well that they can take advantage of. Um, with regards to examples in your ward, definitely happy to pass those along. Uh I'll follow up after the fact with regards to those. Um and when it comes to OC's involvement in particular in development of this new stream, they were a part of our focus groups. Uh last year when we did the inerson MERB assessments, we went out to about seven others properties, met with the property managers, their staff and discussed the various issues that they were experiencing and that really helped us refine the approach that we are proposing today when it for those properties. >> And Mr. chair, if I may add on there as well. Um, councelor, to your point about the budget. So, we've seen about in and around $50,000 per year is what is remaining. It is capitalally funded, so we're able to roll that over to support um the program. The team has also been pretty successful in finding efficiencies um throughout other program area budgets that we've been able to reallocate and anticipate we'll be able to continue doing that to support this rebate. Um and just um again the the intent here is to to pilot this approach and really to understand the uptake. Um so over the next few years um as we get a better understanding of the uptake certainly as part of the program the plan program review we'd be bringing back um any further recommendations with respect to to budget. Um we'll leave it at that. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. I don't want anyone to be left behind on this or any opportunities actually to be left behind on this since uh since it's a growing issue with um with heavy rainfalls. Um people need to know how to manage it. So appreciate the work. Thank you. >> Thanks very much uh counselor and yeah, thanks to staff uh for all of this work. It's supported over 500 projects. Uh it's keeping many many millions of liters 16 million liters of storm water annually out of our water courses. So, uh, a huge a huge, uh, hugely effective program and popular program and I hope we can continue it, uh, to grow in the future, uh, as well as, uh, potentially the the budget depending on on uptake. Um, so I think, uh, with that, is the item carried? Okay, thank you very much. All right, we're moving on. Um, there are no in camera items for this meeting. We do have um the uh tree dedication uh motion which was lifted and then there'll be a notice of motion from uh from councelor Carr. But first on the tree dedication motion um the item was lifted. Councelor Kavanaaugh I'll move it over to you to read in the motion and then we can uh have a discussion about it. >> Thank you. Um and I want to thank staff for working on this. Um, we did revise the dedication program. Um, and I think there was unintended consequences in terms of how it affected residents um, by having a tag that was numbered. That was a very impersonal uh, way to remember someone. And we had to change that and make it so that there was a reason for people to come to a tree and uh, feel very special about it. So, I'll read in the motion. Whereas the city's tree dedication program, formerly known as the commemorative tree program, represents an important community service. And whereas the program is highly valued by Ottawa residents seeking sustainable and meaningable meaningful ways to recognize loved ones in commemorating milestones. And whereas the revised tree dedication program approved by council in June 2024 and implemented in 2025 removed the option to include a person's name at the physical location of the tree. And whereas the staff have reviewed the feasibility of enhanced personalization options including a larger tag and inground plaque both of which would allow for the inclusion of a person's name. Therefore, be it resolved that the Environment and Climate Change Committee recommend council approve the Forestry Services phase out of the of the use of numbered tags within the tree dedication program and place them with the larger tag format that provides for the inclusion of the dedication type, year, and a person's name with implementation to begin in July 2026 for trees scheduled to be planted in the spring of 2027. Be it further resolved that the environment and climate change committee recommended council approved that forestry services reinstate an ingground plaque option within the tree dedication program for residents who wish to have an alternative to the larger tag with implementation to begin in January 2027 for trees scheduled to be planted in the fall of 2027. Be it further resolved that forestry services be directed to review and update the applicable user fees for all tree dedication program options through the annual budget process and ensure cost recovery including consideration of all direct and indirect program costs such as staff time, materials, installation, and ongoing maintenance. And thanks again to staff for their for their assistance. Thank you very much, Councelor Kavanagh. Appreciate all your work on this uh to get to this point. Any questions or comments from committee and uh this will be fully cost recoverable so there won't be additional costs to this city. Um is that motion carried? >> Great. Thank you very much. And the IPD received >> Thank you. All right. So, we're on to notices of motion. Uh Vice Chair Carr, I'll pass it over to you. >> Yeah, perfect. Thanks very much. short one to be considered next meeting. Whereas Ontario does not currently have a deposit return program for non-alcoholic beverage containers. Whereas Ontario has the lowest non-alcoholic beverage container recovery rates in the country. Whereas provinces with a deposit return program that includes non-alcoholic beverage containers report recovery rates up to 85%. Whereas the city of Ottawa recently passed a motion calling on the province of Ontario to expand the deposit return program to include non-alcoholic beverage container. Therefore, be it resolved that environment and climate change committee recommend that council call on the province of Ontario to expand the deposit return program to include non-alcoholic beverage containers, i.e. write a letter. Be it further resolved that a copy of this motion be sent to the premier of Ontario, the minister of the environment, conservation and parks, local members of provincial parliament, and the association of municipalities of Ontario. >> Okay. Thank you very much. That'll be considered at our next meeting on June 16th. Any other notices of motion for today? Okay. I'm not uh I'm not seeing any. Um so we're going to move on. There is uh other business. There's a motion that is of timesensitive nature. So um I'm going to ask um Vice Chair Carr to uh to take the chair while I read in um that motion. >> Excellent. No problem. Um council uh chair I guess I'll call you councelor Menard. Councelor Manard, if you could please read in your motion, that would be great. >> Sounds good. So, the the motion is is a bit more urgent. Um, it's going to allow for a continued fruitful partnership between the city of Ottawa and Envirro Center to advance tree planting across the city. And to that end, the motion's requested to demonstrate that the city is aware of Envirro Center's funding application to FCM uh for the uh Growing Canada's Community Canopies Initiative to plant 3,500 trees over 2 years focusing on private uh but not residential land including businesses, institutions, hospitals, and retirement homes. So, I'll read it in now. Uh so, be it resolved that the rules of procedure we've already uh I guess done that uh be suspended. consider the following motion in order to meet the FCM grant deadline. Whereas FCM municipal where excuse me FCM has a funding opportunity called the growing Canada's community canopies initiative and whereas the city of Ottawa is focused on building a green and resilient city by preserving and growing Ottawa's tree canopy and whereas Envirro Center is interested in undertaking the trees for Ottawa project in partnership with the city of Ottawa. Whereas over 50% of Ottawa's urban forest is on private property and just under half of Ottawa's urban areas comprised of privately owned non-residential land. Whereas Envirro Center's proposed trees for Ottawa project will complement city outreach and stewardship efforts to diversify tree planting programming by working with housing providers, educational institutions, hospitals, retirement homes, business parks, and property management groups. And whereas the project proposes to plant an estimated 2,300 trees up to a total cost of 800,000 of which 400,000 will be supported by the growing Canada's community canopy grant and the remaining from Envirro Center. And whereas the city of Ottawa will contribute a small inkind contribution of staff time with their expertise. And whereas to be eligible for this funding, non-municipal applicants must provide a resolution drafted and adopted by the municipal council partnering on the project. Therefore, be resolved that environment and climate change committee recommend council acknowledges that envirro center is applying for a funding opportunity from FCM uh the growing Canada's community canopy initiative for the trees for Ottawa project in partnership with the city of Ottawa. And be it further resolved that environment and climate change committee recommend council also recognizes that the lifetime contribution from the growing Canada communities canopies initiative will not exceed 10 million for the tree planting within our municipality inclusive of a maximum contribution of 1 million for infrastructure activity costs and that if approved and this project uh this project will be counted towards that limit. Um so I guess FCM sets a funding limit per municipality of of $10 million. So that project would draw from from that total. The city is not committing funds to to this project just to be to be clear because it was a bit confusing that last be resolved. I'll hand back to >> Thank you very much councelor. Um are there any questions from members? >> Um so are we suspending rules? Is that what you're asking? >> We suspended rules at the beginning of the meeting. >> Perfect. >> Do you have any other questions? Nope. >> All right. Um, is this motion carried? Thank you. Over to you, chair. >> Okay. Thank you very much for that, vice chair. I appreciate that. Is there any other business uh from folks? >> Okay. Any inquiries? Excuse me if I missed that. Okay. All right. So, we are adjourned. Uh, so the next meeting will be on Tuesday, June 16th. I hope everyone has a great day. You too. >> Thank you.