This meeting of the general government's government committee is being held virtually. This meeting is also being livereamed and may be viewed online at ajax.ca/live. Friendly reminder to all participants to please activate your microphone only when recognized by the chair. I'll now call this meeting to order. We'd like to begin this meeting by acknowledging that the land on which we gather is situated within the traditional and treated territory of the Missagas. More specifically, the Missagas of Skug Island First Nation, signatories of the Gunshot Treaty of 1788 and the Williams Treaties of 1923. This land is and will continue to be home to the indigenous peoples. Let us acknowledge the mistakes and traumas of the past through authenticity and support truth and reconciliation. Let us engage and celebrate indigenous communities by being leaders of action in acknowledging the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's recommendations towards truth and reconciliation. Let us keep these principles close as we move Let's keep these principles close as we continue towards truth and reconciliation and as we move forward with kindness and respect as a community. We'll now call this meeting to order. Any members of committee have any disclosures of community interest? Seeing none, can I get a move the adoption of minutes for regular meeting May 8th, May 11, 2026? I see councelor Bower first. Thank you. Any questions, comments, concerns regarding the minutes? Seeing none, we'll start the vote. Okay, that passes. um committee, we have a few changes. I'm just going to walk you through it. Um item 4.4 has been um withdrawn. That's going to be presented to us um at council on the 22nd of June. Also, we're going to move up a few items. We're going to move up item 6.1, the presentation, the financial statements and audit report. Right after that, we're going to move up item 4.12, the expropriation of lands and interest in land Rossland Road. uh only because we have external partners online and we want to make sure we get them moving on with their day. So we're going to start with item 6.1 2025 financial statements and auto report. Um we have Steve Stewart partner audit and assurance Deote LLP. Mr. Stewart, are you there? One more time. Mr. Steve Steve Stewart. Yeah. Uh, Miss Melbourne, please. >> Uh, while uh Mr. Stewart is um um logging. I'm not sure if he's uh able to access the meeting or not. Um but I did want to say a few words. Um so, Mr. Stewart is here uh to speak to the financial statements audits and um he is able to answer questions of councel. Um and I hope uh he is able to log on. Mr. Ste, I do see that you're in the meeting. Could you use the button at the bottom of your screen that is ahead with lines emanating from it to turn on your microphone? Mr. Stewart, I'm not sure if you can hear us. Uh, three, Mr. Chair, I would recommend at this time moving on to item 4.12 and coming back to this. >> Looks like Mr. Stewart is here. Mr. Stewart, can you hear us? >> Mr. Stewart, if you are speaking right now, we can't hear you. You are connected to the meeting, so don't touch anything there. If you go to your left hand side that says audios or um settings, can you please make sure the right microphone is connected? Okay, we seem to be having difficulties, which is not a problem. Mr. Stewart, we're going to come back to you. I'm going to go to the next item on the agenda first. Okay, that was exciting. All right, we're going to jump to item 4.12, CSD-2026-15, the expropriation of land and interest in land Rossland Road widening phases four and five. Um, Director Cooper, did you want to set the table on this? >> Sure. I can certainly do that, Mr. Chair. Just say a few words. I think um, some of the council members may have questions, but um, essentially what's before you today is a report to, um, advance the property acquisitions needed for the Rosson Road project. Um, I guess what I'd like to emphasize as part of that report is we're really making every effort as we go along here to secure the property interest that we need for the project uh through negotiated agreements. So, it in a friendly and mutually uh satisfactory manner. So, that's been going on for the last few months. Uh, we do have a couple of our team members on the call today, our negotiator Paul Roberts, as well as our AJ uh AJ Gajgeria who's our lawyer. Uh, so they've been working together with that goal in mind for the last little while. However, what you have before you today, um, just, you know, in recognition that we're going into summer recess, uh, and an election followed by that, uh, it's necessary for us to essentially commence the expropriation process, uh, to be treated essentially as like a backs stop to ensure that the project timeline isn't significantly compromised by the property acquisitions. Uh, of course, as you've seen in the report, it's our desire to offramp every single acquisition from that process if we can. Uh we do think that friendly acquisition is in the best best interest of all parties here. Uh but there is a risk that one or more hold out properties properties um could result in an expropriation process that could take up to a couple years. And AJ can speak a little bit more to that if council uh wishes to hear about it. And so what's before you today is essentially just the steps necessary to mitigate against that risk. Uh it's very typical appro approach across the sector uh for projects of this size and complexity. and uh we're just happy to answer any questions the council members might have. >> Appreciate that. Thanks so much. We're going to start with uh the person who pulled the report, councelor Henry. Why don't you start? >> Thank you, chair. So, a lot of my questions have been answered actually within the last hour, I'd say, um from staff, but I just want to make sure um a few things that were mentioned here. If you give me one minute, bear with me because I'm reading off a screen here. So, I want to make sure that uh first of all to clarify um for the purpose of public information that on the south side of Rosland we are looking at putting in uh a multi-purpose pathway. That is correct. Not a sidewalk. Correct. Can someone verify that? Uh I believe that's the case. I'll just That's more of a design question. Um, I don't see Renee on here, but Dave Meredith is on the call, so I'll just ask him to answer that. >> Please go ahead. >> Yeah. No, through the chair to councelor Henry. Yes, that is correct. >> Okay. Because I know at one time it was a sidewalk. I think something has been changed. I just wanted to make sure. And then uh when we look at this project um and we're talking about um permanent easements putting on the property. I know there's been some discussions with the homeowners regarding that. I'm not going to go into all of that here because um there's been some emails back and forth. Things have been um explained to property owners within the last hour. So I'm going to kind of leave that alone. Um, I just want to make sure that the stage we're at right now, uh, aside from the property acquisitions, there's no foreseeable holdups. Aside from that, we're in a good place, right? Can someone verify that? >> Um, again, through the chair to councelor Henry, the report that we presented, I'm going to say about two months ago with respect to the timing for Rosland Road is still accurate. So we are still proceeding through the detailed design process and the timelines that we laid out which calls for mid 27 for the first phase um is still what we're working towards. >> Okay. I'm I I'm I dare to dive into this a little bit, but uh we do have things in place for um the homeowners with regards to septic tanks and whatnot. We have some um options for them that we're going to be offering. Correct. That's coming up. >> Yes. Discussions and I know Renee is on on the call if there's more detail that's provided, but staff have been working towards septic solutions for the each of the affected properties and that is something that is imminent. There is information as recently as this week and last week that um that staff have been working on. So that contact with the residents will be taking place shortly. So So we're in a pretty good position in terms of where we're at on that front. >> And if you could just remind me again why it is that these property owners cannot be put on um removed off septic and and put on um Durham Region sewer. Why why they can't be on water and sewer like the rest of us? You could remind me that. The south side of Rosland there. >> Yeah. >> The primary >> Yeah. The primary reason is between Oddley and Lorage. It's obviously within the green belt and the extension of municipal services is not permitted. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh I'm going to leave it there. I had a lot of questions that you folks answered behind the scenes and I really appreciate you rushing to get me the answers within the last hour or so and all the work done on Friday for that. So, uh I think we're in a good place now to proceed. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Henry. Could I get a mover for item 4.12? I see uh Mayor Collier. It's great. Any questions? Any more questions, comments, concerns from committee? Seeing none, we will start the V vote on item 4.12. Just waiting for Cyler M. Second call, councelor Tyler Mour. And third call, we'll stop the phone. Oh, got in at the nick of time. Catch more. That's great. So, that passes. We're going to try to go back to item 6 um one. Uh Mr. Steve Stewart, were you able to connect? Just hit the speak button on the bottom. You got you there. And can we can you hear us? Uh if you can hear us obviously can because you selected to speak. We still cannot hear you is the issue. Okay, we're going to go on with the rest of the consent agenda, folks. Um, everything was pulled except for item 4.5, the OES 2026-15, refrigerated outdoor ranks. Can I get a mover for item 4.5, please? I see councelor Bower. Thank you. Any questions, comments, concerns on item 4.5? Seeing none, we'll start the vote. Okay. And that passes. Going back to the top of the agenda, we have PSA-2026-14, the video surveillance and privacy policy. This is bulled by councelor Bower, followed by councelor Henry. Councelor Bower, do you want to select to speak? There you go. And councelor Ber. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you so much, Chair Lee. Chair Lee. Um, thank you Miss Williams for this report. Very uh interesting information. And I just wanted to um make a comment how um Miss Williams had come to a W3 resident meeting a few months ago to talk about this kind of information and it was very wellreceived. Lots of good comments and questions. So thank you for that. So yeah, I think so. Um so I just I had questions specifically about the Code Blue emergency phone units. I was hoping to get a little more information um about them specifically uh how many calls have been received when sorry let's start again what year were they installed and if I remember correctly the funding for those units came from um the province for security measures regarding um when we uh approved cannabis stores in the town. Is that right? through the chair. Uh to councelor Bower, you are correct. Um that is the case. However, my monitoring and stats come from the period that Mr. Williams has been in the position. Um so I can give information back to June of 2025. >> Okay. So Okay. So >> you share um share how many calls since June 2025 and you know what the n what I guess the most common >> uh call for help is. So uh down at we have two units just to explain it uh a little bit further. One is at Rury Park Pavilion and the other is here at uh town hall. the uh um surveillance down at the cold blue surveillance down at Rotary Park has received about 41 calls during the period of June 3rd to um end of May 2026. Um and the same with the Memorial Pool. A number of those calls are accidental activation about 70% unfortunately. Um however um there have they have been used for emergency use and in one case it uh probably saved a woman's life um by having the emergency services uh contacted immediately and brought down to Rotary Park. So it's about a 70. Maybe I'll put mine on. Okay. Okay. Thank you for that information. And then um what is the cost to maintain them? And then I see in the report there could be an additional unit installed at the MCC. What will be the costing for for that through the chair? The cost for the new um equipment will be approximately $1,500. And so I would assume back when they were installed, they were roughly about the same price as well. um to monitor on an annual basis. It's around $700 per unit to provide that monitoring service um down at well down the waterfront as well as here at town hall for the safety of the employees. Thank you very much. Um there's always we've received comments from residents about are they being used? Are they useful? Why do we have them? But and and from other residents regarding the use of them and Miss Williams made this comment at the meeting. I'm glad that we have them um and that we don't get a lot of use of that that people don't need to use them, but to know that they are there if someone is feeling unsafe for any reason, I think it's very um it's a great uh mechanism. So, anyway, I just wanted a little more information on that. So, thank you for that. Those were my questions. Chair, >> thank you. Next, we have councelor Henry. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, my question relates to the three CCTV cameras installed in the parking lots around the Ajax Plaza to support community safety. And I believe I read somewhere else in the report there was other cameras installed in other parking areas facing the plaza uh for safety and security. Is that correct? through the chair. Yes, we have a partnership with DRPS and so there are cameras within the plaza area as well as cameras along commercials drive um uh north of Hunt and south of Hunt as well. Um and then uh we have a new camera that's been installed at Harwood and Achilles. >> So the first set of cameras it shows in the report if I'm correct were installed around 2019. the ones in the plaza, are they front facing in the plaza or is there some also around the back >> through the chair? I' I'd have to ask my colleague, Miss Williams, to come on and provide um specific locations. I know we're going to try and not get into too much detail where they they're located, but front facing um we can provide some >> I just want to know how many Yeah. How many's in the front and how many is in the back roughly? >> Sure. So, we installed five cameras um along Commercial Avenue from Station to Hunt Street that are on the west side of the plaza facing the rear laneway along commercial. >> And how many were installed in 2019 in the report? The three installed. >> So, these are all there was eight cameras all installed in 2024. >> In 20 I thought the report said something was installed in 2019. Since 20 Oh, since 2019 the following. So 2019 is when the Lobo assessment was done which provided recommendations for the town. >> And and the actual cameras themselves 2024. >> Yes. >> So and I know we work with police. So I guess my question is like I myself travel along um the back of that street of the plaza quite frequently to go to ACC. I know that I've received complaints from residents about what appeared to be increased drug use and I've seen it for myself. If we have cameras there since 2024, why are we seeing increased drug trafficking if we're working with the police on this? through the chair to councelor Henry. Um we have these cameras there in partnership for when they are doing their investigations and they will contact us if they require that information. We are not proactively um monitoring and surveilling the the uh video unless requested through um for instance um DRPS or through an incident that we may have to look into from staff requesting. Um uh I think I have the data from last year. We uh the police requested surveillance 29 times from the town from one of our cameras >> for last year. >> For last year. >> So we don't go in, we don't look at it. We don't say, "Hey, we're seeing like a lot of drug activity in this area. We're seeing this. We're seeing that." And then call the police in. It's for the police to go do an investigation and come to us. >> Correct. >> Okay. and um >> or an insurance claim or if if for instance a st if we had an issue here around town hall, it's mostly um by the direction or by request that our Miss Williams would go in and and take a look at the footage that we have. So, what about when we're receiving um you know, the complaints in in and around that area from neighbors, not even neighbors, just residents in Ajax in general have increased over time uh with regards to the homelessness. And we've heard this this like I'm not giving new information here. We heard it at the last meeting uh public meeting about increased homelessness in and around the area, the storefronts, um how it's affecting businesses. We don't go in and look at that video footage and then go to the region and say, "Hey, we'd like to offer this footage to you and say, "Hey, we're having an issue in this area." Because we know that um the homelessness file falls underneath the region, not us. So, we're not going in and proactively looking at that and saying, "Hey, we're seeing it, too." And what what what are you doing about this? So through the chair to council Henry, we've been able to go in um based on uh requests um from a business or andor um uh from counselors about certain incidents and we were able to go in and to confirm um certain incidents that have occurred and especially in our partnerships dealing with the police. But we wouldn't necessarily just hand over video for any reason. Um that is that is that's an important piece of this conversation is that that would have to go through a process. Um and that process often involves going through our FOI department in order to gain access to that information. >> We wouldn't even share that with the region with the with the department handling. We wouldn't >> no through the chair unless there was a request and unless it was vetted. Um um these are the these are people's images and that's not um for that information should not be shared unless it's gone through our our policy properly. >> So even if we're not sharing it, are we not proactively for ourselves cuz it's our property like we own we own that property. Are we not proactively looking at the footage and then contacting the region and saying you know like I I'm not talking about this year. I'm talking about since the cameras have been installed over time as we saw more and more escalation of events in the plaza saying to the region you know we are seeing this cuz we have footage and we're seeing this and we need next steps taken are we not doing that >> the chair I think I've mentioned that if there's an incident um obviously we working with DRPS but if we need to confirm loitering or over a weekend if there was an incident and it's come to our attention we will go through that footage to um ensure the details are are accurate. Um but we are not proactively uh viewing video. We don't have the resources of the staff uh to do that. We have one individual managing all these cameras um in all these locations. It's not something that we are proactively know going through every every minute of every camera footage we have. Now, if there's issues and they've been brought to our attention and they need to be reviewed, most definitely we would we would go in and and look at the footage that we have. And aneidcotically um you know the footage is like we know we have the footage but I mean when it comes to our partners they know that the issues that are occurring specifically in that area um and many of the business owners and they've gone through our APF program a few years back I don't know the exact date but many of them applied to purchase cameras on their own um for their own businesses um from through our support from the town as well. Okay, my final question um would be relationshipship to the cameras placed inside our facilities and I I could be wrong but I don't ever remember walking into our facilities and seeing a sign saying that you were on whatever camera are do we have signs inside our facilities showing that? >> Yes, we do. On the outside of every one of our facilities there's signage. >> Oh, on the outside but not when you're inside the facility. No, the the policy only requires it to be on the exterior piece as you walk in to notify you that there is surveillance occurring. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you for the information. Much appreciated. >> Thank you, Regent Council Crawford. >> Thank you. Thank you for this report. Um, with regards to the uh just the parking lot, my understanding is those cameras are strictly between the police and and the town. Correct. That was a partnership that we started >> through the chair. Yes. The cameras within the parking lot in the rear of the plaza long commercial. Yes. Partnership. >> So even even if there was damage to a vehicle or whatever, a police report would still have to be triggered first before you would offer any footage. Correct. It's not like a like a a customer or a business owner couldn't just come to us and say, "I need footage." They would have to start with the police report. Then the police would have to ask for the footage. Correct. Um the police can ask and request for footage at any time with those with our memorandum of understanding with with the police in terms of >> but for the Okay. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. I mean >> so in ter Yeah, that's okay. In terms of a patron, if there was an issue with their vehicle, we would typically ask them to be like that would be processed through our FOI department. >> Okay. So they don't have to trigger a police report first. >> Uh Miss Williams, if you want to come on and with that detail. I I'm not sure that they do, but Miss Williams, if they want to ask for footage. >> Sure. Through the chair um to councelor Crawford. So, they could do one of two things. They could either file a police report through Durham Regional Police who would then reach out to obtain video or they could go through our internal insurance >> um because okay, the parking lot is town town property. So, they could also seek um yeah, go through uh town insurance as well. And if they were to do that, then the insurance then has access to the camera footage. >> It could be requested internally through through our insurance. Yeah. Through FOI or they sometimes request um that they do file a police report. >> It depends on >> Right. I only know because I've had a couple of people reach out to me. There's Okay, so we have 100, if I'm correct, 139 internal and 118 external cameras. Is that correct in total? I believe that that is what we have listed here in the report >> and and how who determines like where they go. Was that is that Robin or >> um well there's a there's a few factors that that that we use. one was this security report that was done, the global report um that we do mention at the outset. And then if there's any security risk or threats or if and if there's any reviews done to see if there's any what we call like dead zones where we're not getting the coverage that we need um for safety reasons. But yes, there's there's different multiple layers and including um now that we're going through a lot of our accommodation work that we're doing, we're able to review some of those situations and some of the scenarios and improve upon um our capacity in the video surveillance area. And you'll notice that um in that chart at the at the end of the report, we talk about what the 2B uh installed installation looks like and the numbers associated with that >> because I'm sure that some of that accommodation review uh has changed sight lines too, right? It gets opened up. >> Yeah, >> 100%. >> Um Oh, another question. I can't think of it now. It was a good one, too. Anyway, that's my age. Sorry. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you for that good hypothetical question. Misha Crawford, um I just have a very quick question. So, our footage is kept 30 to 90 days. Um is it fair to assume that there's physical and cloud storage for our footage? >> Through the chair. Uh yes. And then um anytime anybody accesses that footage, is there a log to say datetime reason why that footage was pulled >> through the chair? Um we just recently went through a whole review of an entire comprehensive review of our policy. And yes, that is uh included. So every time it's accessed, it does provide the the the information that you just uh presented. >> Great. That's all I wanted to know. Thank you very much. Um, oh, sorry. Any other questions from committee? Seeing none, can I get a mover, please? I see Ror Crawford. Thank you. And we will start the vote. Yeah. Still waiting for Mayor Collier. That's perfect. And that passes. All right, folks. Third time's the charm. We are going to try to go back to presentation 6.1 2025 financial statements and our report. Mr. Stewart, we're going to click you right now. Can you hear us? >> I can hear you. Can you hear me now? >> We can hear you. It's all yours, sir. Thank you. I apologize for that, but technology is not my thing. Uh I'm going to be very brief. I just want to report to uh the committee on the results of the audit. Um we're engaged by the town to perform an audit on the financial statements. Um management of the town is responsible for the preparation of those consolidated financial statements. Our job is to conduct the audit in accordance with Canadian auditing standards. We've now completed that work. uh all of our um our file is complete subject to receipt of the signed management representation letter which we will receive from management once the statements are approved. Um what I can tell you just high level the statements are prepared in accordance with public sector accounting standards. There were no changes to those standards from the previous year and so your accounting policies are consistent. Uh we do the audit in accordance with Canadian auditing standards. there were no changes to Canadian auditing standards and so our our audit approach was consistent with the previous year. Um the audit process takes we do approximately a week worth of work um in the fall to do interim uh work and primarily control testing and then we're in for a couple weeks in the spring to do most of our work. Uh I want to thank the uh finance team at the town for all their help. They make the audit go very smooth. they provide us with the responses to our questions on a timely basis. Um, and to summarize at the end of the day, um, we're comfortable that the financial statements present fairly the financial position of the town as at December 31st, 2025 and the results of your operations for the year then ended and that's it. >> Great. Thank you so much. We have a few questions. We will start with region councelor Crawford. >> Thank you. Uh my questions is about receivables. Is it appropriate to ask the auditor or do I go to Julie uh acting director Memphis? Sorry. Okay. So I'm assuming it's you. Okay. So receivables do I'm receivables are taxes that are behind. Correct. um the the taxes receivable. Yes. So there's uh two separate lines on our financial statements. One is taxes receivable and one is accounts receivable. So they have separated. >> Okay. So can you walk me through the plan or the process to collecting arars >> through the chair? So if you're speaking taxers, um we have a process here at the town where we do try to uh collect um and work with uh tax uh residents and businesses who are behind on their taxes for uh up to three years. Once that three-year uh mark hits and and you know we haven't received their payment in full, we will uh register the property for uh we'll put a lean on the property. At that point they have one year to pay their taxes in full and if that doesn't happen then um we proceed with tax sale. So um so that's a process uh in summary um there are currently about 25 properties uh right now in that process. Um and um that's our process. The one-year mark hasn't hit yet. So there will be some that will um come due in 2026 and some in 27. >> Um do we I I know we used to many many many many many many many years ago receive a report where you would get the process in uh like the total aars report that basically showed where they were in the process of collection. I we don't obviously go to a collection agency anymore or use bailiff or anything like that or is that what a tax sale is >> through the chair? Uh we we don't use baiffs. Um uh the tax sale is uh something different. So uh we we do we we go straight to leans uh on the property after the the time period has expired and then we proceed with the tax sale. So you said we roughly have 25 properties that is in that category and and still there's no way to uh separate whether residential, commercial or industry industrial >> like the tax class >> through uh through the chair to regional counselor uh Crawford. Uh that was a question that was asked of us uh when the when the report came forward back in the spring. Um, since then we've inquired of all our since since then we've inquired of all our local uh Durham municipality and nobody does that split. Um, but we did some analysis on our end um and and can confirm that the bulk of the arars are uh in fact residential. >> Okay, that's good. Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions to Dr. finance or Mr. Stewart I see reach council Crawford. >> Sorry I I have one more question. So when when we receive collection from a rears it shows up in what category on the financial statement if you can just is it become just part of the overall money then or like there's no showing of of that coming. Well, obviously the tax rece or the accounts receivable comes down and then the bank goes up. Is that is that basically how that is recorded >> through the chair? That is correct. >> That's it. That's the only there's no other line on the thing that says okay. All right. Just wanted to confirm that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Seeing no other members of committee. Uh thank you, Mr. Zur, and thank you, Miss Mim. All right. We are back to consent agenda. We're on item 4.2. to um FIN-2026-12 capital account closing report as of April 30th, 2026. This was pulled by councelor Henry. Councelor Henry. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um so my question relates to Roslin Road closing from church to Wesn. Now, I know that uh there's been some information behind the scenes and we were in um we were waiting for holdbacks and minor deficiencies to do the report. Uh forgive me. Is the report captured in 4.2? I'm not seeing it. Am I wrong? >> Councelor Henry, this is the closing of the capital reports. I just want to make sure we're on the same item. >> Capital. >> Yep. Capital 4.2. >> Yep. >> Director finance. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> Through the chair to councelor Henry. Um the project that you are referring to um is not part of this capital closing report as we as my understanding is that we just received um one of the last invoices that needed to be processed against that account. Um, and assuming everything um is is all good to go, um, you should be able to see that uh, capital project closing in our next report update. Um, but, uh, there were still some things to tidy up and loose ends uh, to um, address prior to to closing the capital project. >> Yeah, I for I foreseen that might happen because I I understood uh, behind the scenes what the issues were and what we were waiting for. So, can you just explain like kind of a little bit publicly why it is like we're we're doing the report now. It's not in there. It's it's been um backlogged for quite some time. And why it is we won't see that until the end of the year, the next reporting session. There's not there's not a a chance to bring it forward prior to correct. I think councelor Henry if I may just um this we these are just accounts closings from the 1st of January to the 30th of April. So there'd be at least a two-month delta from what you're talking about for the next >> I'm aware there there's some emails behind there's some emails behind um and staff are aware so if I can just finish my questioning staff are aware there I I just need some clarification >> I just want to make sure you kept on topic of the >> I am on topic it's very much >> April 30th 20 Okay, go ahead. >> Yeah yeah yeah the director is aware of what I'm talking about. We're good. So through the chair uh to councelor Henry uh the the process is that uh a project does not proceed to the official closing until all invoices have been received, work is complete, um designs are received if in in the case of um construction or fac you know building construction and so on. Uh the staff need to satisfy themselves that there is nothing left outstanding prior to uh closing the capital project and uh bringing this report to council with the recommendation of uh either funding being returned to reserves or additional funding requested uh to to close the project. >> Thank you. And if we if staff get ahead of themselves and they close it out and we still have holdbacks or uh deficiencies, then we end up being on the hook for it as the town mean meaning the taxpayers could end up being on the hook for it. So that's why we have to make sure that these are are dealt with prior to the close out. Correct. >> Through the chair. Yes, that is correct. And it is very difficult once a capital project is closed to have to reopen it and all that. So, um, we wait until everything is 100% complete, um, prior to recommending the closing, >> even if it takes a little bit of extra time. We do that due diligence just to make sure the taxpayer doesn't end up flipping the bill in the end >> through the chair. It is sometimes funded through the tax bill. So, I mean, uh, your question is is really on the the closing of, um, these capital projects, but we do do our due diligence to make sure there's no outstanding issues and and you are correct so that nobody comes back to the town requesting additional funds. >> Excellent. Well, thank you for that clarification publicly. Much appreciated. That's it. Thank you. >> Appreciate that. Can I get a mover for the report, please? I see councelor uh, Bower. Excuse me. You all chime in at the same time. Any last minute questions? Seeing none, we'll start the vote. I was the one holding up that time. That passes. Run to item 4.3 FIN-2026-13. Town's ethical procurement and investment practices. That's councelor Henry again. Thank you, chair. So, um, thank you for the report and, uh, there's a lot of information in the report, but I'm not sure it exactly captured what was look what was looking for in the motion. So while the report explains the current legislation framework and procurement requirements, um it does not appear to examine whether investment vehicles apply, screens related to human rights violations, child labor, arms manufacturing, ICE, and such. And I'm just wondering why that wasn't captured in the report. if someone could speak to that >> through the chair to you, councelor Henry. Um the municipalities and the procurement and investment uh requirements are legislated through the municipal act and through um the public procurement uh guidelines that we've identified in the report. Um you know, we we operate under council approved bylaws and within a very tight legislative framework. Um we the the issues that were brought up um such as ICE and and international issues um you know while while we make sure that all our vendors comply with Canadian laws um and and all the requirements uh you know municipalities do not have the ability to make decisions on um you know powers that are external to what is permissible within you know the municipal act. >> So there was there was no way through this motion to put any safeguards in place. There was nothing further that can be done. There's no bylaws that can be amended. Is that what you're saying? >> Um through the chair, I mean what we we we've taken a look at, you know, other municipalities best practices. Um, I've even um uh uh surveyed our peer municipalities. Nobody has anything in their documents, their policies speaking to some of the issues that were brought forward in um in the motion. Um at this point uh you know we we we completely adhere to the requirements um that govern our um our processes and uh unless there is something specific that we can um come back to you and report on um you know I'm I'm I'm not going to guess what what uh process um needs some further uh investigation. So to the clerk, if I wanted to make an amendment uh to the report, like if I left the report as is for now and accept it for information and at council wanted to make an amendment, that opportunity would be there, madame clerk. Is that correct? >> Correct. Through you, Mr. Chair, you can pull the item uh at council and introduce an amendment at that time if needed. >> Okay. So, I'm going to leave it for now. I'd like to do a little bit more research on this and I I thank you. I'm understanding what you're saying and I I never doubted that we're not operating ethically within our within our boundaries, but I am looking for more um what could be done and uh I'll do a little further research on that between now and the council meeting and I might come back to you with something. So, thank you. Thank you for the report. >> Any other questions from committee? Seeing none, can I get a mover? I see councelor Tyler Mren. Thank you. And we will start the vote. Mayor Collier just waiting for one more. And that is everybody. Thank you. And that passes on item 4.4 which was dealt with or was pulled, excuse me. Um 4.5 was moved and voted on. We're on to item 4.6 OES-2026-12 RFT number DPC2640 supply and delivery grounds maintenance equipment. This is pulled by councelor Bower. Councelor Bower. >> Uh thank you chair Lee. Yes, I had the same question for 4.6 4.7 and 4.9. Thank you for the reports. And I just noticed on the capital detail sheets under each report there were a few that uh requested the item and then it had pending new staff approval. And really it's just a admin question um just confirming that these these staff positions have indeed been filled prior to this request >> through the chair to councelor Bower. That is correct. You'll see some of them were in 2025, some in 2026. As was referenced from a timing standpoint, a lot of these are repurposed vehicles. So we were we've been able to sort of get by with what we've had without the replacements at this point in time. What we did was as many of the repurposed vehicles were part of the regional co-op, right? So we weren't going off sort of on our own from a procurement standpoint. So a number of these vehicles relied on the timing and information from our partner municipalities. So that delayed the 2005 projects a little bit in 25. And based on the timing, it was advisable to package them to get better pricing in 25 and 26 and combine the tender, which is what we've done. >> Okay, great. Thank you. I was just confirming the staff positions. And that was my only question for those three items. Chair Lee, thank you. >> Okay, let's be a little fancy then. Councelor Bower, could I get you to move 4 point Let me get it again. Oh, I closed it. Okay. Sorry. It's 46 7 and nine. >> Correct. On six, seven or nine. Seeing none, we will call the vote. Oh, council. No. Okay. We will start the vote on items six, seven, and nine. And that passes 67. So we're now we are now on item 4.8, the OES-2026-16, the Rotary Park Pavilion feasibility study. This moved by councelor Henry. Councelor Henry. >> Thank you. So, um, just to understand this correctly, we're asking for nothing here. The staff is asking for nothing of us but then to purely just accept that in the future we're looking at doing something here at Rotary Park. Is that correct, director? >> Through the chair to council Henry, that is correct. It is just an information report. you know, should the next term of council or a future term of council have an interest in pursuing this application and or or this building improvement and identify it as a priority, the background works been completed that we could then take it to the next step. But there's there's definitely no commitments made to the detailed design stage. There's nothing in the budget as it relates to advancing beyond the information report that's presented to you today. >> Okay? And in this report, um, I'm looking at I focused in and looked at two things which were washrooms and parking. So, if we should pull this in the future, um, is there an increase to parking here? Because I noticed there was options where parking was kind of looked like it could be moved around if I read it right. Is there is there increase to parking? Is there change in parking? >> At at this stage in the process, there is no change. this was specific to the facility itself. Should we advance to the next stage, we'd be looking at more of a a consulting team that would look and do an assessment of parking based on the uh future programming needs or requirements. That is not something >> he's good. What was it that you had to say? >> Sorry Christie, your camera's on. You're on. There we go. You might want to go off. There you go. All right. So, we'll go back to that. Um, so just for the record, I'm just putting that I'm just putting this out there that um parking there, you know, I don't need to say it, but I'm going to say it. Um, not the greatest, could always use more. So, I was a little concerned about any plan that would look at taking away parking from that area and accessibility to the building. I also focused in on washrooms. Did I see a change in the washroom layout in the plan >> through the chair? You would have seen a concept. there is a significant increase in size that is required right so all we've really done through the conceptual design is allocate the space for watch washrooms I know there's future discussions that need to take place in terms of all the details around how they function and operating and that's not the purpose of sort of the conceptual design phase that would happen at detail design um but yes there is an expansion to both washroom facilities as well as accessibility improvements that are needed to the washroom facilities as well. >> So, conceptual design page 179 um of I think it's the report or the the acceleration. Um yeah, the report 179. I'm seeing the bathrooms and I'm seeing it's in blue and I'm seeing like a little divider wall down the middle. I just wanted clarification because I know I'll get a question on this after the fact. Are we looking at unisex washrooms there? One big washroom or is that uh like what does that look like? >> So the actual concept does show one block which would be for some change room facilities and then there is one washroom that would be sort of the unisk concept. That's in terms of what's shown in the in the concept itself. That is really more based on to get fixture counts and understand sort of what costs would be. It doesn't have to take that form. It can still be male and female washrooms. Um and that's a decision that would be made down the road. >> But currently right now it stands as unisex washrooms in this concept design. Correct. I did read that right. >> In this concept that's what you see. Yes. I got to ask because sometimes my binocular vision starter plays around with me and I'm looking going, is that a line or not a line? And I want to make sure that I read that correctly. So, uh, when that time comes, we're going to have to have a chat about that because, um, depending on, you know, I think there should be some public consultation around that. I'm just going to put that out there. I think there should be some good public consultation about what that looks like and uh make sure that our residents are on board with that. >> Yes, we would agree and and we've incorporated the communication that there'd need to be a full communication strategy sort of if this project's moved forward. So, we would agree. >> Okay. Excellent. Thank you. That's my questions for that uh report. Thank you for your report. >> Thank you. We have Mayor Collier. >> Thank you, Chair, Mr. Meredith. Uh, Mr. Meredith, what do we pay for this? >> Sorry. For >> this concept plan, what do we pay for this concept plan? For this feasibility study, >> I would have to I don't know what the actual dollar value was. It was a combined feasibility study for both Rotary Park and St. Andrews, right? So it wasn't just I could get you the cost of it in terms of sort of what it was individually but I I don't have that number which would have been approved I think in 2023. >> Okay. What direction did we give to the consultant for this? Did we just give it to them and say come back with some ideas? Did we not give them any direction? >> We did. There's there's a couple of things that we looked at. Some of it was with respect to and a lot of this at this point in time is through staff dialogue and discussion. So with recreation and culture with building maintenance with our internal teams in terms of what the future or potential future programming requirements are at Rotary Park and what some of the options are. It's just a a feasibility to study to basically show what's possible. So essentially the key things that I can say is washroom expansion, accessibility, the introduction of a cafe slash beastro looking at outdoor seating opportunities overlooking Lake Ontario and then some of the I guess ancillary whether it's we've talked about tourism we talked about um sport rentals um canoes kayaks um what have you as options or opport opportunities. But um that's all this this does. As as mentioned, we haven't done any public consultation. This is an internal feasibility study that line aligns with council's strategic plan. So that is an item that >> I have to disagree with you on that. I don't think this aligns in my opinion with council strategic plan at all. I think whoever designed this is completely out of touch with the realities that we are facing here as a council. a $16 million silvercertified, lead certified building that really moves things around slightly and gives us a little bit bigger bathroom, but in reality nothing more that we already have is in my opinion a massive waste of money. I I I'm very frustrated when I read this report because this like I could have drawn this on a napkin. they oh got a beastro that's not what I had in mind for this area at all and you know a 16-year-old like as soon as I read lead certified silver building like honestly completely out of touch with reality whoever this consultant is to think that people have the money for a plaque on the wall like that anymore in this day and age we've spent And I got to think it's a couple hundred grand to put something like this together. I've seen enough of them on something that's basically probably never going to be built. Um if I was still going to be here, I certainly would not approve it in the budget. It just I'm very disappointed in this. I I think probably we should have gone to public consultation first and given this consultant some very very clear direction so we had something that I would think could be usable. I just Anyway, I know it's not I'm pointing fingers at you because you're the one on the screen, but honestly, this is not um at all what I envisioned when we went down this this road. I'm I'm actually pretty disappointed with it. And I I really I can't see it ever making to the budget process. What would be the next steps? I mean, you talked about public. It's $16 million to re rearrange some rooms and make a washroom bigger, but we don't really have anything more than we already have. What would be the next steps here? >> Um, first of all, a couple of things. In in 2024, um, I think it was $10 million and there was an escalation of$2 million to bring it to 12 million if it was built in 2028. the reference to the 16 in the lead certification is if we receive direction to go with a sustainable option. So, um again, it was to present both options for for council's consideration. So, that's what the two two numbers are, but in in sort of currently dollars, you're in around $10 million. Notwithstanding that, it's a lot of money. Um, and so where we're at right now is I don't see staff beyond this report until there's a discussion during the next term of council to determine whether this is a priority project or not um to incorporate in a future budget during the next term of council. But there is no plans beyond this point right now. >> Okay. I'm just looking at that chart on page 17 of the report of the consultants report and you know okay correct it was 13 million in 2024 but we're in 2026. >> Yep. >> So I I don't see that really as relevant knowing that it would take at least a year or two years to go through site plan and get a shovel in the ground. I'm going to use the 16 million 2028 number. But yeah, this is anyway I'll leave it there. It's kind of disappointing. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mayor Collier, for that reserved assessment. Uh, region councor dies. Sorry, regard. We can't hear you. Um, we're sending over text support. Just give us a quick second. dropped off. We're going to give her another chance to come back on unless Mayor Collier wants to give us further opinions on the Rotary Park Pavilion. Um, how about this is probably cleaner this way. Why don't we call for a three minute uh recess? I know it's early in the meeting, but Oh, okay. No, never mind. It looks like she doesn't have the question. We're going to keep going. We'll close off and then we'll do a quick recess at the presentation. So, can I get a mover for OES 2026-16, please? Move to receive for information. I see councelor Bower. Thank you so much. Any further questions, comments, concerns from council? Seeing none, we will start the vote. and that passes. We are now on to Sorry, I have it right here. Uh, that was 4.8. Um, yes, item 4.10, the soccer resources. Sorry, let me pull the exact wording. 4.10 OS-226-7 review of town soccer resources. Um, this was pulled by myself. Thank you staff for the um kind of answers to all the questions the motion had last month. Uh, just some further questions. So, we had a cost of I think like 38,000 if we were to put netting on all our soccer nets. And I agree that's a pretty expensive cost or 20,000, excuse me. Um, what happens if we put some netting on our most popular um, soccer fields? Do you know what I'm saying? So, I guess like I I understand not putting it on all of them, but there's certain ones like Nottingham Park in War 2 as an example. Is is there an opportunity or to just put soccer on very specific parks and just see how much that would cost >> through the Yep. to the chair. Um, I think within the report we've identified it's the netting is about $350 per net, right? So that would be two nets per field. So you're about $700 per field. So if you're talking say 10 of the 52, that would be about $7,000. >> Fair enough. So even at that point, it becomes pretty prohibitively expensive. Uh, not including all the liability issues. Correct. Well, I think from from my standpoint, it it is a bit of a level of service change and typically it might be better to feed these through an operating budget process so that you know we can budget for, we can allocate resources, we can you know put a bit of a um a level of service um delivery program as it relates to inspection, maintenance, all those types of things that would go along with it. So um I think from a staff perspective it would be um probably best to consider it through that process. >> No understood. Uh my next question I think is for actually director of Vita. Do we have any Ajax drop in soccer programs? So you know to use our artificial turf fields right now it cost $140 um as an hourly rate. Do we have any sort of drop in programs where someone can pay like 20 bucks pay for an hour and a half type thing or is that something we've never really looked into? >> Uh through the chair to the chair. Uh we don't do drop in soccer traditionally. Uh nor can I say that's been uh a high feedback piece for us in recreation. Um we uh we do some Friday night fun centers and different activities like that that are drop in that do incorporate a variety of different sport activities. Uh and we do have some uh some registered programs but nothing specific uh in terms of drop in but that's certainly something we can uh we can take back with staff and have some discussion on. >> I uh the reason this all started was I was getting a lot of feedback from uh different residents regarding soccer and soccer dropin programs and soccer use of nets. So it it yeah it did it did occur to us that we don't really have like you to your point a drop in program that maybe it is something where it's revenue neutral where we get the exact cost back from participants or maybe even make a bit of money but I know these turfs these fields aren't always constantly being used and if there's a chance to kind of use them to the best of their um usefulness I figured that's just maybe something worth looking into but maybe that's something you and I can take offline so I appreciate that. Um, any other questions from council? Seeing none, can I get a mover, please? I see council Tyler M. Thank you. Questions, comments, concerns, and we'll start the vote. Uh, Mayor Collier on the soccer field review to receive. Thank you. And that passes. Thank you. Okay, we have one more item before presentations. Item 4.11 OES-20226-11 project update. The hardwood widening uh hardwood avenue widening from Taton to Woodcock Avenue. Uh this is pulled by councelor Henry. >> Thank you, chair. through you um to staff. I wanted to talk a little bit more about this because it came to my um attention last week that we're going to be putting a medium in down the road and it's going to be preventing some left turns going into the mosque into the Montasauri school into the church and uh there was some conversations mentioned at the open house with regards to how traffic will flow. So, I do have a concern with what this will look like if we're uh redirecting traffic onto Woodcock or neighboring streets. Uh in particularly onto Woodcock because right now I'm already see receiving complaints about the speeding on that street. And uh if we're going to be pushing more traffic onto that street, what's the plan here? or the backup follow-through plan for speed mitigation. Are we throwing some speed bumps on there? What has staff looked at? Can someone address that, please? >> Who wants to take a crack at this? >> Dr. Meredith. really with respect to I can answer questions with respect to the d the design aspects but with respect to traffic calming or what's going to happen along Woodcock I'm not sure if Mr. Pandia is on the line and might be able to better provide some reply to that. >> And we got a director Robini as well. But um director Mary, why don't you answer the first part, then we'll jump to director Robini. Well, with with respect to the the design itself, we're at about the 60% design stage which really implements the EA which was filed with the Ministry of the Environment in 2024. Um there were PIC's held in 2001 and 2022. So during the subsequent two years, there were a number of things. There was a more detailed noise assessment that had to be completed which was done in 23. There was indigenous consultation which needed to take place. There was some staffing turnover in terms of the project manager leaving and recruiting for that position. So there were a number of things in that led to sort of that fall 2024 22 to 2024 time frame. Once the 30-day review period had lapsed at the ministry, the town initiated the procurement process for the detailed design in the fall of 24 and it was subsequently awarded in April 25. So for roughly the past year, we've been working on detailed design that speaks to some of the components in the project where we're at from a timing standpoint. um some of the issues with respect to utility coordination and storm water management. But I just wanted to sort of acknowledge that in the early on in the original PIC the consultant was asked to look at sort of all move all movements sort of in and around the the mosque area. It was reviewed by the consultant. that did receive its due diligence, but the preferred for safety for sighteline reasons when you've got signals at Williamson and at Grand View, it was not deemed to be safe or functional in terms of providing all movement accents in or access into into the mosque area. So, from from our standpoint, we're advancing the the detail design, which is what the PIC was sort of earlier in the week. And the focus of this meeting is really to provide a bit an update with respect to timing over the next year in terms of the sequence of events. >> And sorry, did you say originally it was in 2001 or 2021? >> 2021 and 2022. There were two PIC >> 21 2022. So um like we've got the mosque alone. I get it. It's one property. However, it's one property that houses hundreds of vehicles. In particular, Friday for prayers and we're trying to keep all the vehicles on the moss property because this is one of the most popular moss in all of Ajax. And we've got spillage of parking on to neighboring streets which we're, you know, we're trying to deal with and mitigate. And um now we're looking at limiting left turns. And I'm wondering how we're going to get hundreds of vehicles into that mosque area without folks going up and making illegal U-turns at the Grand View intersection, which is dangerous. And we don't want to see folks going into Grand View, coming back out, and then going north on Hardwood. So the problem that I see is that the spillage of that could lead to right turns on Woodcock down Woodcock loop back around legal turns there. And I know director Romanowski is going to answer that portion of it about the potential for um roadcoming, but I'm wondering how this intersection is any different from south of Rosland where the Longos Plaza is where we allow left turns into Longos and left turns coming north on Harwood into IDA. How it's it's four lanes of traffic there. How is it any different or any more dangerous where we would only be having lefts going one way into the mosque into the church and into the Monasuri school? We have double lefts south of Rosland where by the way a child was just hit recently. So how is >> Sorry, Councelor Henry. Um I'm just gonna Sorry. Uh Mayor Collier, do you have a point of order? >> You're raising your hand. Oh, sorry. I let you speak. Go ahead. >> Speak. >> Yeah, point of order. chair. This is not on the design. This is about the addition of storm water management, >> but the design is part of it. The design was part, you're talking about traffic movement for something that's going to be handled through site plan process. No, this is about the storm water and the addition of the $2 and half million dollar storm water management, not the design of Harwood Avenue. That's my point of order chair. >> Yeah. So, it's the capital cow detailed design. Um, council Henry, >> was it not was it not in the public information session that's tied into this? >> I went to it this week. I saw the big map on the table. >> If you again, the report goes into detailed design completion, the reconstruction, and then the additional storm water scope um identified. Listen, I will give you a bit of latitude, but I need you to wrap up instead of just your question is how are we allowing a left turn into the plaza? >> Right. I'll let you finish that question. >> Yes. South of when left turns into the plaza south of when we're not going to allow it. North of >> I think it's a fair question. Yeah, res it's not >> listen it's if it would have been relevant in an earlier conversation but again we have to keep to the agenda and the um the item on the agenda is again regarding storm water management but I will give you that latitude so if director um Meredith wants to answer that last piece why would why would one be allowed but not the other >> sorry you're uh you want to select to speak >> there you go >> yeah don't in all honesty have much contacts and background information on the access to the plaza south of south of Rosland Road. I do see Russell is on the line. Russell, I don't know if you've got anything to add, Russell and Renee. >> Yeah, thanks. Thanks Dave through the chair to councelor Henry. So the um Harwood Avenue south of Rosland is a straight section. Uh so in comparison to the section uh closer to the mosque property where they have the road curvature uh this the section south of Rosson does not have that same sightlight issue provided that the road there is on a straight section >> and is that is that the only difference because like we like for the rest I'm so sorry I I just wanted to get you that answer because you did ask the question but to Mayor Collier's point this is specifically about these storm water um addition. So if you want to keep your questions to that. >> Yeah, I can move on to the next question. That's fine. That's fine. We can move on question. >> Yep. Yep. Of course. So why why is it then that the the root storm water this this uh foreseeable bump in the road for the timeline wasn't um discovered prior to because we're supposed to be moving in to the widening of Rosland Road but it seems like a little bit of a bump in the road. What what happened there? Can you explain that to the residents? >> Sure. Through the through the chair to council Henry and if Russell or or Mr. Fernando want to add any information, but when the EA was approved and when the detailed design was awarded, it was contemplated that there would be a super pipe within the right of way to convey storm water for the widening south. So that would be a pipe that would be built within the boulevard. through the detailed design there are significant utilities most notably I believe Nbridge that does not allow for the construction of a super pipe within within the right of way itself. The consultant looked at options. The root crescent option was the option that was best preferred in terms of how we would deal with the additional volumes as a result of the detailed design. So that is sort of the basis of it. Originally I would have contemplated a different storm water management scenario. Russell or Renee if you want anything to add or or not. >> Yeah that's that's accurate Dave. Okay. So, um, Chair Lee, are you there? >> Always. >> Excellent. So, when when I'm looking at this report, it says project update Harwood Avenue widening from Taton to Woodcock Avenue. That's the subject of the report. So, within the subject of the report, >> the title of the report, >> the title of the report. So within it, it does talk about the widening of Harwood Road. So I should be able to ask questions in regard in relation to the left turn lane. And furthermore, I should be able to ask questions for the residents of the area with regards to traffic going into other directions because if I don't ask them here and now, residents are just going to ask them after. So I'd like to know if there's a plan to ask. Okay, councelor Henry. I I I get where you're coming from. The title of the report seem would would seem to indicate that yes, everything is on the table, but that's not the case. They're specifically talking of the additional storm water management scope that's identified within this widening. That is what this report, this piece of the report's all about. Um, again, you are happy, >> but it talks to cost. >> It talks to a consultation of Harwood Avenue widening is now scheduled to commence in 2027. staff update the associated construction project based >> right but that doesn't necessarily mean every single thing >> okay but the financial implications everything's about the storm water management pond I'm not trying to be difficult again I'm I'm trying like a point of order was was brought up I I agree with it you we are delving off from the storm water management pond you asked your questions about the storm water management pond absolutely fair game I'm just saying any other questions specifically regard the widening or any concerns about that should be brought up to staff directly and then feel free to communicate your answers to the public afterwards. It's just not regarding this issue uh in this meeting. >> So nothing about the traffic uh rerouting. >> Um >> correct. >> There's no answers for that. >> Listen, you are this has been done once before. You are welcome to challenge the ruling of the chair. That is absolutely within your purview. Uh and then it can come to a council decision to vote on that. Now I'm going to challenge it. >> So for the second time in history to the same chair, there has been a decision uh council challenging the chair the decision of the chair. Um on the challenging uh looking at the clerk, is there a debate on that? >> Uh yes. So through you Mr. Chair, uh counseling committee shall hear the reason for the appeal from the appellant. So, councelor Henry will provide you with an opportunity to provide your reason and the reason of the decision from the chair and then we shall decide on the question without debate. So, no further debate after both of you have an opportunity to speak further and the decision of committee is final. >> Sure. No problem. I mean, I I I'm not going to add anything. I I think I was pretty clear on the reasoning of mine. Um, councelor Henry, did you want anything further? >> Yes. I'd like I'd like to say that considering that this meet that this um agenda point is relevant to the public meeting where there was a large map put out in the table that clearly visually showed Harwood uh widening project and where a lot of these questions came from that public meeting from residents from property owners from the mosque itself I think it's fair when the report itself does talk to about accessibility improvement It speaks to the widening itself. I think it's fair to ask these questions now openly in a public forum. I don't think it's far off the scope of the report at all considering it's related to the public meeting and those questions were asked. >> Um >> I think that's fair. >> At this time, we'll ask for decision of council. We'll put it up on your screen. Uh there's no debate. Uh Mayor Collier, I think you've Okay, Mayor Collier has point raised point of order. I councelor Henry, please let me moderate the meeting. Councelor May taking enough time. Um I just want to ask chair, is it a yes to uphold your decision? >> Right. Right. So, a vote a vote in the affirmative decision >> to uphold the challenge. >> So, a vote in the affirmative, a yes would reaffirm the chair's decision. A no would um take councelor Henry. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Councelor Tyler Morren, you're do you have a point of order? >> No. Okay. So, um you can't This is non-debatable. So, I'll ask the clerk to start the vote then. Oh, wait. Council Tyler M does have a point of order. >> One moment, please. >> He uh you can't have a point of order on the point of order. Okay, Council M. Sorry, there's there's no debate. You'll get we can speak after this. Um sorry, back to the vote. The vote is open. Thank you, Cather. We're just waiting for your vote. Okay. Okay. The ruling stands. Uh back to councelor Henry who sells the floor. Do you have any questions regarding the storm water on the widening? >> Nope. That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I'll get a mover for or uh sorry register Crawford, do you have a question on the widening or the storm water on the width >> storm water pond? How on earth did we miss a pond in an EA study? Um, does Director Meredith want to take that or >> through the chair regular Crawford the through the EA they did address storm water management through the incorporation of a super pipe along the boulevard of >> right >> of um Harvard Avenue itself. It's not until you get into detailed design. You start to have all the details with the utilities and you look at land requirements and you understand turning lanes, but you're at the detailed design stage and it's significant infrastructure that it's not possible to put that super pipe. So that's when it was deemed to look at an alternative option and the root crescent pond retrofit was was highly recommended. So, and that's really the purpose of the report was just to change that scope of work and how that impacts the overall timelines. So, we would look to finalize the tender documents, issue the bid documents probably in the September time frame for the recrescent retrofit, which needs to happen before the construction of the road can take place, which is why we're into mid next year for the road construction. So, that's sort of the sequel event and that's what this report was intended to um provide. >> Thank you. Sorry, just having some tech issues. Um, great. Any other questions for Director Meredith on the report? None. Can I get a mover, please? I see councelor Bower and we'll start the vote. And that passes. Um that was 4.11. We did 4.12. Um all right folks, we're going to call a fivem minute recess to 2:30. Get the presenters a chance to line up their presentations. We have two and then close session. Uh back at 2:30. Thank you. And we are back. Thank you everyone for coming back from the recess. Um at last we left off. We had just voted on the consent agenda. We're on presentations. We had already done 6.1. We're to item 6.2 RCS 2026-04, the active living update. Director Vita, I'll let you set the table. Uh thanks very much. I'm going to just turn it over to our active living supervisor, Kevin Smith. Kevin is going to be providing an update on some of the successes that we've had uh in our various fitness areas and across our active living section over the uh over the past couple years. Mr. Smith when you're early. >> Yeah. Hi. Sorry. I'm Good afternoon, Councelor Lee. I'm Charlie Lee. Sorry, I'm just uh trying to share my screen. Just give me a moment. Sorry. I was all all done and ready to go. Thank you for your patience. Okay, we see it and you're all good to go. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, chair, mayor, members of council, and staff. It's a pleasure to share an update on active living, the programs, partnerships, and people that are helping our residents move more and lead healthier lives every day. From our fitness centers and group classes to free community events, active living is one visible way the town shows up in residents daily routines. And I'm very excited to walk you through where we are today. are active. My apologies. I had u chair that my slides from the chair are delayed a little bit. Um but I'll continue on with my uh with my wording. >> Our active living. >> Can you keep going? When it catches up, it'll catch up. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. We did a test run earlier and it was kind of back and forth a little bit. Um, our active living team sits within recreation programs and active living with an active living supervisor, dedicated coordinators for group fitness and the health and fitness centers, fitness and health centers that oversee day-to-day operations of their respective areas supported by admin squash convenor three full-time fitness consultants and over 50 part-time instructors and consultants. The structure strengthened by the new full-time positions added in November 2024 allows us to deliver consistent high-quality programming across all our centers. I'm pleased to share that active living membership revenue continues to grow strongly. Overall revenue reached $956,000 in 2025, up 12% over 2024 and up 30% since 2023 with the fitness and health center combo in group fitness memberships leading the way. The shift to flexible one-mon memberships in January 2024 has added a boost to overall sales while maintaining an increase of 15% in annual membership terms in 2025. Up to May 31st, 2026, we're tracking modestly above 2025 numbers for the same period. These results reflect strong community demand for our programs and the value residents are finding in our centers. Along with revenue increases, fitness and health center participation has grown 55% from 2023 to 2025 across our three locations. MLAN continues to be our busiest site accounting for 56% of total usage thanks to its larger footprint and equipment capacity. Ajax in core performance zone at Ark make up the remaining 44% and both these locations have seen considerable usage with Ajax up 70% and core performance zone up 52% over the same period. These results show that residents are engaging with our fitness centers at every location and we will continue to provide the best fitness services and staffing to welcome this demand. group fitness participation drop-in programs which include Aquafit, step, yoga, and Zumba, plus many more. Participation grew from approximately 59,000 in 2024 to 65,000 in 2025, a 10% increase. Residents are choosing our classes in greater numbers across every season with strong spring and fall peaks complemented by our register programs. We'll continue to focus on smoothing seasonal dips and expanding access so even more residents can benefit from healthy community building opportunities. Sorry, I'm just a couple one slide behind leggings. My apologies. Adding more context. Membership revenues. Membership grew across nearly every category in 2025. The fitness and health center remains our anchor product climbing 22% and accounts for about 40% of our memberships. And although a modest reflection here on the graph that'll be coming up soon, um, family memberships were up 44%. Reflecting a strong interest for flexible household friendly options. Humble memberships, which include all membership services, rose 25% while swim moved up by 10%. Group fitness had a slight increase. Unfortunately, squash saw a modest decline, possibly in line with a broader shift to pickle ball. and we're actively recruiting a squash convener to provide additional support to squash programming. Overall, the mix of membership options are responding well to residents needs. The slide that will be coming up again community impact. This slide highlights the range of community-f facing programs that active living delivers throughout the year. Each year, these initiatives reinforces our commitment to making recreation and fitness accessible to everyone across Ajax. Memberships. At the heart of everything we do is our membership base. We currently have 31 3100 active memberships and the shift to one month membership terms has been a gamecher gives the residents the flexibility to try our facilities without a long-term commitment and we're seeing that translate directly into stronger interest and overall revenue growth. The fitness and health center membership remains the top choice especially among students and teens. So there's a real opportunity there to build build lifelong habits early. Our cardiac rehab program for 15 years, the cardiac walking program partnership with Scarbor Health Network continues now offered three days a week between the Ajax and MLAN community centers. This is a wonderful example of how recreation works with healthcare. We're providing a safe, supportive environment for residents recovering from cardiac events to rebuild their fitness under medically guided supervision. It's low cost, high impact, and a program that provides close to home access for our Ajax residents. June is Recreation Parks Month. Every every June, we roll out free programming and participate in the Durham Region Passport Initiative to celebrate Recreation and Parks Month. This is our chance to open our doors wide and invite residents who may not have tried our services before to come experience what we have to offer. It generates great buzz in the community, encourages residents to try something new and who may end up becoming members down the road. Also taking place in June is our free outdoor fitness sessions, including Zumba at Pap Bailey Square and Yoga by the Lake. Our first Zumba event held on June 5th had 118 participants dancing their way to a great workout. Our next event is yoga on June 18th. These programs bring fitness directly into the community in a fun and accessible way. They attract residents of all ages and fitness levels, and there's no membership required. It's about meeting people where they are and showing them how fun being active is. From July 2nd through September 6th, residents aed 13 to 17 year years get free access to our fitness centers. This is the third year third year offering the program with 152 teens activating a membership in 2024. This opportunity assists to give young people act keeping young people active during the summer months, giving them a safe and positive environment and introduces them to fitness routines they can carry into adulthood. We pair this offering with our Durham Region Grade 5 action pass, now in its 19th season that runs in line with the school year and encourages grade 5 students and gets them comfortable in our spaces earlier for lifelong health benefits. Beyond our regular fitness programming, we participate in community events such as Trail Fest where we provide fitness warm-ups and educational tables to promote active living. We are proud to maintain additional partnerships with community living Ajax Pickering Whippy for membership access and interactive space, the Durham District School Board Ajax High School Squash Program, and the recently added smart living series with the Ark Library branch. These events and partnerships help us reach demographics we might not sorry we might not connect with through traditional gym memberships alone adding to a more active ajax. Our snowshoe loan program completed its 10th season and is a great example of removing barriers to outdoor recreation during the winter months. Residents can borrow snowshoes at no cost which encourages families and individuals to get outside and stay active even when the weather might otherwise keep them indoors. It's a small investment that pays off in community engagement and reinforces our year-round active living mandate. In addition to the public facing initiatives, we are proud to be part of the town staff wellness committee to assist in supporting a healthy workplace, including nutrition lunch and learns, walking challenges, yoga sessions, and an annual wellness fair. Taken together, these programs demonstrate the range and depth of what active living brings to the community. We're not just running fitness centers. We're building a culture of active living that reaches residents at every age, every fitness level, and every season of the year. Looking ahead, active living is focused on four priorities. Number one is strengthening retention. As members move to the flexible one-month terms, it is imperative we walk, we welcome, and support these new members and provide a foundation to continue their fitness journey for years ahead with us. Second, exploring the integration of fitness technology and self-tracking devices to enrich the member experience such as datadriven coaching using sleep, recovery, activity volume, and heart rate for optimizing exercise prescription. Third, aligning our program and education with emerging health trends, including the growing role of strength training alongside GLP1 medications and while advocating exercises of preventive healthcare need. Lastly, but not any less important, building on our community momentum, maintaining and creating partnerships to expand access and offerings to all residents. Together, these priorities position us to sustain our recent growth and continue delivering strong value to residents. Last slide got there. Thank you, uh, chair and members of council staff for your time and continued support of active living. Thank you so much for that presentation and always happy to support active listening living. Excuse me. First we have councelor Tyler Morren questions the presentation. >> Thank you chair and thank you Mr. Smith Kevin for your presentation. Glad to hear that revenues are up among users. Um so it's about a million dollars but pushing almost a million dollars in revenue. So how does that work in in in regards to cost recovery? So, um, if a person is paying X number of dollars, how much does it cost? Is there a percentage within the report that you can share with the public that states that? >> Um, do you understand my question or did I state it properly? >> Okay, I'm sorry, I wasn't sure. My mic was on. Sorry. There is the chair to councelor Dylan. Um, great question. Um, in fact, maybe a decade or two ago, we we worked through that with a consultant in terms of trying to determine what the the cost per member was, taking in consideration electricity, um, all all the infrastructure of the building among staff, you know, the cost of the pool because memberships include pool. Um, we kind of got somewhere, but not really. Um, so in terms of a highlevel comparison, um, I don't have a exact number for you, but you know, happy to get it. If you're looking for in terms of offsets of staffing just like the the the tangible like high level costs in terms of staff um that would include also getting facility staff the customer service staff look at if that's >> followup quick followup is so you're saying uh but you can confirm that revenues don't cover the full cost of what it what it is to have somebody as part of the gym. Um our our goal in terms of registered programs that we do offer through group fitness in the fitness and health center um are cost recovery full. We look for ideally about a 20% operating surplus out of those and those include yoga, pilates programs um in our membership. >> Sorry. >> So so just so I'm clear, you're saying that there's actually revenue if somebody signs up for Pilates or for yoga or joins the gym. And with the with the revenues that we're taking in, there's actually a surplus. >> What's a surplus or any word? But we look for to definitely cover cost. Usually there is a um an additional amount that's there in terms of revenue. Um that's just we just don't look to strive if if the if a determining factors if a program is going to run or not. If we're covering staff costs, we will continue if there's no not even a dollar more in terms of what we would classify as operating surplus. Um, but we wouldn't run the program if we were a dollar less necessarily in terms of covering staff costs. >> Okay, good to hear. Uh, I didn't know that. Actually, >> if I can jump in and through the chair to uh, counselor Tyler MREN, what uh, what Mr. Smith is referring to there and for any of our registered programs, be that fitness, aquatics, um, sport, uh, any registered programs, uh, we always operate those programs on a cost recovery basis. So, um if the program isn't earning the revenue to pay for the cost of the instructors, the materials, the supplies to put on that program, um the program, uh would not run. So, uh and that's the same for any of the registered programs within Kevin's uh active living section as well. >> That is that including the pool and swimming lessons and all that? >> Yeah, for any of our registered programs, including aquatic swimming lessons. Yes. >> Okay. Excellent. Good to hear. Thank you, chair. >> Thank you. Um, so as an active member of the Ajax Active Living community, I have a few questions. First question is, have we ever considered um comping our our trainers if they sign up members to a full year membership? And it doesn't have to be like a huge amount, but even like a five or $10 bonus, so to speak, anytime they sign up a member might encourage our trainers to become more sales advocates, thereby generating more revenue for us. Have we ever considered that? >> Um through chair to chair. Um no, we haven't. Um I'm not aware of any mist that do offer an incentivized um type program like that. Um something we can explore for sure. um if that's going to drive increased um sales, something that would be of value to to consider. But um yeah, >> even if for example like someone upgrades from an ARC pass to a full community pass, then like you know they get like three bucks. I don't I just think there's an opportunity where the um the the municipality can see more annual memberships because that's where we make most of our bread and butter, but at the same time the um these part-timers, majority part-timers can also see like an extra bump and see kind of be motivated to kind of help us in this endeavor. Uh my next question is are we satisfied with the tiers of pricing right now? So I know there's you know monthly pass, annual pass, arc has its own arc only pass. Are we missing any are there any gaps in terms of our membership opportunities where we've gotten feedback saying, "Oh, yeah, you know, I'd sign up, but I wish I could only sign up for swimming or whatever it is." Like, do we are we ultimately satisfied that we've kind of captured all the different um slots so to speak of um memberships >> to the chair? Uh yes, I I think from January 2024 we implemented the one month and having that flexibility and the subsequent uptake over the past two years going on two and a half years now. Um it's been uh probably exceeded our expectations. Um so it really gives that flexibility and we're seeing a drive to that. Um it is a great vehicle to get people in the door though. Um and then work on that kind of retention piece as you alluded to earlier, move over to the annual membership piece. So when they go to renew their membership, they have there's an incentive there for them to um move towards an annual membership that gives them a little bit extra time. So there's that extra bonus there. >> And last question, and this is a very uh selfish one. Any any talk of putting a clock with a second hand at the MLAN gym? >> Definitely can look into that for you. >> All right, that's all I ask. Appreciate it. >> Yeah. Do you use the one or you seen the one at at core performance zone? Is that working? core performance. No, no, not like not the small ones, but just like the central clock with the second hand. It just helps when you know taking my long breaks between sets. But again, that's a very selfish ask. I will uh we have a we have a report to receive for information on the table. Can I get a mover for that, please, from council? I see councelor Bower. Thank you. Any more questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none, we will start the vote to receive information. Great, that passes. Now we're on to the last presentation before close. 6.3 RCS 20226-03, the digital recreation guide. I believe this goes to Louise Sulier, uh, manager of customer service administration. >> Good afternoon, Chair, Mayor Collier, and members of council. I'd also like to introduce my colleague Michelle uh Gillis who was the project manager for this initiative from IT. So, we're here today to present to you about the digital recreation guide. So, this is the town's new customizable and personable uh personalized program guide. Sorry, there's a little lag with the the presentations. My apology. I'm just going to keep going. So, as most of you will know, this replaces the printed guide, which we haven't produced since the spring of 2020 because of the uh pandemic. Obviously, everything stopped, but it >> Louise, sorry, I'm going to pause you right there. I don't think we've actually loaded the presentation yet. It just says waiting for a sharing source. I think you actually have to select the screen. >> Down here, try. >> Yeah. >> Uh, yes, there will be a lag. So, we anticipate that, but I still want to make sure we see the presentation. Do you see the presentation now at all? >> I still do not know. >> There now it came. Okay. >> So, we can see the PowerPoint screen now. Louise, if you want to share. There you go. Good to go. >> Thanks so much. So, as I was saying, as most of you know that we replace the uh this is to replace the printed guide, which we haven't done since the spring of 2020. But one thing that we had was we still had customers and residents come into the counter asking for something so that they could sort of go through and look for different program activities. So what we did was we worked with uh it and we've created a digital guide. So being able to use the uh technology and this is going to replace the printed guide. So the bonus of this is that when it's the printed guide, if the program is any sort of changes or it cancels, any of the programs are canceled, then the guide sort of, you know, is is not up to date. So this provides a real time sort of personal and interactive way to browse through our programs, check availabilities, and you can actually connect uh to registration. So again, it's just customized access. It produces uh near realtime updates and enhancements without the need to fully uh republic republications. And again, you'll see when we're going to do the demo that it's sort of step by step. You can pick your activity, your location, your age group, your dates. It also has mapping. It connects directly to Activenet, which is our registration system. It's mobile responsive and there's uh kiosk capability as well. Perfect. And so we've delivered this completely in-house. There's no external vendor. So we have the skill set in it to create this. Uh that allows us faster enhancements and uh ongoing support as we work on it. Uh and allows us actually to build on that for other potential solutions in the future. Uh we're hoping to have a reduction in program related inquiries and faster program discoveries. Uh this is meeting our strategic IT plan and the lean goals by enhancing our digital customer service. They can interact with computers, tablets, smartphones. We're leveraging uh the technology become a really datadriven organization. Reducing waste as Lu mentioned. We aren't printing the guide except for the 55 plus, right? >> Um so that definitely reduces a lot of the printing and publication costs and it's really streamlined for our customers. uh and we're able to provide faster real-time updates. So obviously when a paper document goes out, that's it. Um but in this case, we can be constantly pulling and refreshing information for all of the residents. So I'm going to go ahead and move over to the demonstration. So just bear with me here. Okay, I'm going to just change. Pardon me. I'm new at this one. Okay, it's um I guess this please let me know if you can see the web page. >> Yes, we can see the web page. >> Okay, perfectly. Perfect. So, all of the residents will come to this digital recreation guide page and it will allow them to go to the guide itself, but we do have a video here that explains it. It's very well done. It's quite succinct. So, I'm going to go ahead and change it to full screen and go ahead and hit play. No, >> sorry. Let me try that again. >> Michelle, the video was playing. Is there an error on your end? >> Can you hear the sound? No. Did you share the sound when you shared your screen? >> I believe so. Let me just try that again. >> Me stop and share the screen again. Just waiting for the popup to come up. Okay, perfect. There we go. And let me just restart the video. I apologize. Looking for the perfect recreation programs to suit your family's interests. Me, too. and I just discovered the Town of Ajax digital guide that should help me find exactly what I'm looking for to keep my 7-year-old and 13-year-old busy this season. Let's navigate the digital guide together to see if we can learn how it can help plan suitable activities for the whole family. To start, I'll navigate to ajax.ca/digital guide. Here, I'll find step-by-step instructions to help me get set up along with the answers to frequently asked questions. Next, I'll click on the continue to digital recreation guide button to open the wizard and create my custom recreation guide. If registration's open, I can come back and click the register on Active Ajax button once I've decided which programs I want to sign up for. If registration hasn't opened yet, I can add the programs to my wish list on Active Ajax. That way, I won't have to search for them on registration day. My 13-year-old is really into dance and my 7-year-old likes all kinds of sports, so I'm going to make those selections from the program categories list and click next. Our house is not far from Oddly Recreation Center, so I'd really like to find something at that location if possible. I'm going to select Ark from the list of facilities and click next. Now, I'll select both children and youth from the age groups lists and click next. I prefer to find something for them during a weekn night. So, I'm going to select all the weekdays and enter a time range between 5 and 8:00 p.m. in the day and time section. Then, I'll select view search results. Now, I get a list of programs that match my criteria. The key is to filter my search as much as possible. Instead of clicking all on every page, I want to ensure I'm clicking on specific activities, categories, and age groups I'm interested in. This is so I don't end up with an overwhelming list of programs. If I still want to filter my list further, I just go to the drop- down menu, select sports, and it would remove the dance programs from my list. I can get more targeted with my filtering by separating the specific activities I want listed with commas in the search activities field. I can also click the previous button to go back and make adjustments to my search if needed. It's important to note that the results that are showing are only a snapshot of what's available at the time the search is made. This can change quickly as more people register. I can see if a program in my list is already full or click program details to go to the active Ajax website to learn more about that specific program. Once I'm happy with how my results are filtered, I click download PDF. My customized recreation guide will appear with all the programs that fit my criteria. I can email a copy by clicking the email PDF button and entering an email address. I can send it to multiple email addresses by separating each one with a comma. I can also save it to my device using the download button. Print a copy by clicking print or click new to start a new search. My customized guide even includes direct links to Active Ajax where I can add selected programs to my wish list for when it's time to register. Registration dates appear on the top of the second page of my customized guide in the general information section. All town of Ajax community recreation centers are equipped to email me a digital copy of my custom recreation guide or print a hard copy if necessary. The digital recreation guide. Smart, simple, and made just for you. Discover the recreation opportunities available to you in Ajax. >> Perfect. So, thank you so much for watching the demo. Apologies that we couldn't get the sound working at first. And we're wondering if anybody has any questions. >> Thanks for that presentation. Um, opening up to committee. Any questions? Seeing none, I believe there is a report attached to this. I have to move receive for information. Clerk, sorry. Yeah, there's a Can I get someone to move to receive for information presentation? Uh, councelor Reor Crawford. Thank you. Um, any more questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none, we will start the vote to receive information. Um, great. And that passes. Can I get uh we're now dealing with the close session item. I have to say the reasons we're going to close session which are in the main. Sorry, this one's on me. >> Nope. I will find it. Actually, clerk, why don't you uh let us let us know why we're not going to close session. >> So, three, Mr. Chair, we'll be going to close session today for item 7.1, letter of agreement with Ashley Manor Housing Corporation. This is to discuss proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land by the municipality or local board which is under section 2392C of the Venus plaque 2001 as amended. >> Great. Can I get someone to move to go into close session please? I see councelor Tyler Mren. Thank you. Start the vote to go into close session. Councelor Henry mayor Collier to go into close. Oh, sorry. Uh, councelor >> dies going to close. Perfect. Nope. It's good. We know you meant that. Um, okay. That passes and we are now in close session. We're going to give staff a few minutes to kick people out. Okay, thank you. We are now back into open session and we have the following um direction. Um that one or Oh, sorry. This is moved by Mayor Collier. Mayor Collier, you still get to move this. >> Good to move. >> Thank you. I'll read it out loud. Number one, the council direct the mayor and clerk to execute a non-binding letter of intent uh with Ashley Manor Housing Corporation to advance an affordable housing development on a portion of town owned lands as outlined in attachment one. Two, staff be directed to report back to council with a conditional agreement of purchase and sale for approval prior to any conveyance of land. And three, that the mayor be requested to send a letter to the members of the board of Ashley Manner Housing Corporation expressing the town's position that any development should be uh for senior housing. Mayor Carol, any further uh context to provide any comments? >> Just I I think this is a really worthwhile project. I'm happy to see it come forward and uh absolutely um going to support it. Thank you, Chair. >> Thank you. Any members uh any further members of committee wish to comment on this? Seeing none, we'll start the vote. Just waiting for regional council Crawford. Regional Council Crawford for a second time. Regional Council Crawford for a third time. Okay. And that passes. And I believe the last order today is a German. Can I get a mover for a German? I see councelor Bower who's been quick on the draw the entire day. Any questions, comments, concerns on a German? Seeing none, we'll start the vote. I voted no. I'm having a good time here. That passes. Thanks everyone. Have a great day. We'll see everyone tomorrow at the special council meeting.