Good morning everybody. Today is Wednesday, May 27th. I'm Craig Casar, War 12 counselor and deputy mayor. I'll be chairing this meeting. Welcome to the general issues committee meeting. Uh we have quorum for this meeting and just due to some schedules today, we are going to have bare quorum at certain points. So, just need to make everyone aware of that. And if you have to leave the room, please check in with the the LC. A reminder to please look at your devices. If you're in the room with us here today, make sure they are not going to make any sound so we can have a productive meeting where we can focus. So, let's get going. Well, I should mention who is here actually. Council Francis, Council Tatison, Jackson, Beanie, Paul's, Clark Cooper, Alex Wilson, Council Wang, and Councelor Nan. Okay. Thank you. And councelor Jackson, you go ahead. I will have to turn you on. There you go. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor Casar. Good morning. I just want to say to my colleagues, just found out a couple of days ago, a dear, dear friend of mine through church circles passed away and the funeral services this morning at 10:30. So, probably around 10 to 10 I'll be leaving. And after the interament and possible reception, I'll be back hopefully by 1:00. Didn't mean to cause any quorum difficulties, but just found out in the last 48 hours. Deputy mayor, thank you, >> Councelor Cooper. >> Thank you, Chair. I I will be attending the same funeral, so I'll have the same uh schedule as well. So, thank you for your understanding. >> Yeah, thanks for letting us know. >> Okay, we are going to move on to approval of the agenda. Madame clerk, can you advise items included in the addendum? >> Yes, deputy me mayor. All items listed as to be distributed have been added. There are three added delegations. Item 8.2 has been revised. There are three added pieces of correspondence. Uh motion 9.3 has been revised and item 11.3 has been withdrawn at the request of the mover and moved to council. >> Okay. Thank you very much for that. I'll need a mover and seconder to approve the agenda as presented. Councelor Bey, councelor Wang. Thank you very much. Any discussion on that? Seeing none, we'll go to a vote. All those in favor, show of hands. And that is everyone. Thank you. Declarations of interest. Are there any declarations of interest from members today? Seeing none, we move along to approval of the minutes of the previous meeting. Uh we have 5.1 and 11.1 which are minutes open and close session from May 6, 2026. May I have a mover and seconder to adopt those minutes including the close session minutes and that they remain confidential. Councelor Wang, Councelor Alex Wilson. Any discussion on the open minutes? Seeing none, uh, show of hands, please. All those in favor. And that carries unanimously. Thank you. That takes us to item six on the agenda, which is delegations. And we do have some delegates with us here today. Before we begin, our delegations, members are reminded that questions of the delegations are for clarification purposes only and not for debate or comments. And a note to our delegates, when you have f you will have 5 minutes to complete your delegation. At the four minute mark, you will hear a tone reminding you that you have one minute left and then another tone at the end to finish up. So 6.1 is delegations respecting report PED26011 Hamilton's carbon budget and accounting framework uh revised item 8.2 and note to committee will take one vote at the end of all delegations on this matter. So first up we have Miriam Sager in person. Miriam, I see you there. Come on down to the podium, please. >> Welcome. Go ahead. >> Okay. Uh good morning chair, members of the committee, um staff, and members of the public. Um my name is Miriam Sager. I want to thank uh city council, the office of climate change initiatives. Um and all who have worked on the carbon budget accounting framework. I hope it is adopted. Uh I live in Kirkindall in Ward One. In the last few months, a group of us have been starting um a a community resilience group, a climate resilience group uh initiative. We're trying to connect with neighbors so people know each other and know what to do when times get hard, when there's extreme heat, know where to go, uh if there's uh other problems. And I've been door knocking in the last couple of weeks. Nobody thinks climate change is a hoax. Uh people are concerned. Uh they appreciate a science-based approach as do I. The destructive storm we had last week, it was brief, but it was kind of scary. Uh the anticipated extreme heat this summer with just a taste of it earlier in May remind us of the heat and instability that are in our future. Uh in Kirkindall, we're lucky to be housed, have some green cover, and mostly though not everybody has AC, but none of us are in a position to move to Mars if or when the climate on Earth becomes too destructive for human life. It's been reported that back in 2022, some bunkerb building Silicon Valley billionaires sought advice on how to control their security teams in the post apocalypse. Uh this is our one and only planet. Uh we humans cannot survive on our own. Humanity as a whole needs to unite to deal with this big challenge. Everyone must do their share and not hope someone else will pick up the tab nor kick the can down the road. We are already quite late and the time to act is now. The tragedy of the commons is an economic theory describing how individuals acting in their own self-interest deplete share resources even when it is not in anyone's long-term interest to do so. Popularized by Garrett Harden in 1968, it highlights that resources such as fishing grounds and forests are overused because individuals gain the full benefit of usage while sharing the costs with the community. The um the treaty that we are all bound by the dishes one spoon covenant safeguards against selfish inclinations to take as much as we can for ourselves. We must share resources respectfully, take only what we need, leave enough for others, and leave the dish clean. Our clean, protective, and thin atmosphere is a precious shared resource. We know that carbon emissions degrade it. We must not pollute more than our share. We must aim ourselves towards net zero pollution as quickly as possible, even as the city grows. The initial investments of money, time, and effort to reduce greenhouse gases may be a nuisance, but ultimately it will save us energy, infrastructure costs, reduce pollution, and contribute to reducing the worst impacts of climate change. It'll even limit the rise in cost of living and affordability crisis uh such as uh insurance, home insurance, food, energy, and more. Please follow other municipalities that have already adopted such frameworks and serve as an example to those who haven't yet done so. Please adopt the carbon budget and accounting framework for Hamilton. Thank you. >> Thank you very much Miriam. I don't see any speakers. So thank you very much for your delegation. >> Thank you. >> Our next delegate is Luchia Ayanna Tuono from Hamilton 350. That's an in-person delegation. Welcome Luchia. She's just making her way down to the podium and when you get there, we'll get your microphone on and you have five minutes. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, and I guess just a point of clarification, I'm just going to be delegating as myself today as a resident. Uh, not representing any organizations or uh, committees that I'm involved in. Um, good morning counselors. Uh, my name is Luchia Yano. I'm here to delegate about the carbon budgeting and accounting framework. Uh I am a citizen member of the climate change advisory committee. So I've seen this process playing out as this policy is coming forward. I think that a lot of the presentation that you'll see this afternoon speaks to that. What I want to spend a little bit of time talking about today is kind of where I hope that successful implementation of this will lead us and that is to focus on the other half of Hamilton's climate action strategy. So we have the one piece which is about emissions mitigation. This tool is addressing some of the concerns that counselors have raised around the horseshoe around data effectiveness, efficiency, the information that's going to help the city find out what's working, ramp those up, see what's not working, and address that that's that's not the avenue to pursue. Where we also need to focus this effort is on the adaptation side. So when we take a look at what this twinning process is going to do, looking at that climate impact along with financial impact, the the question that comes up again is does this make sense? Does it make sense for the municipality to pursue a certain project? This is going to help address yes, does it? Is it effective? Is it going to bring co- benefits? Uh is it going to reduce fuel costs, etc., etc. I think there's a lot of strength in what's coming forward on that emissions side. On the adaptation side, we have similar questions. The world the world is changing and we have the numbers to back it up. Increased precipitation, increased freeze thaw. We have lots of tangible pressures that are impacting city infrastructure and we do have a huge infrastructure deficit. So when it comes to the most advantageous use of municipal resources to pursue upgrades, we need to have something just like this framework for the emissions side in place on the adaptation side. And I hope that direction from council might come forward to OCI to pursue that because when we're looking at doing upgrades, we need to be thinking 50 100 years the life of that installation into the future and say, well, what are the conditions going to be like? Does it make sense to accommodate today so that future Hamiltonians, which is us, you know, the people who are still going to be living here, um, don't have to worry about replacement in the future. And that also ties in a little bit to the carbon budgeting piece because having to tear out infrastructure you've put in and expend you know the the concrete and the fuel and all the sort of stuff to reput it in is not great for the city's emissions either. So I really really hope that uh successful implementation working across departments all the all the good things that are going to come out of the budget that's coming forward today um is is going to inform another tangible impact that people are going to feel in their lives when the city looks at things like are our parks designed for extreme heat? Are our combined sewer overflow sections being sorted out? and is the capacity sufficient for increased precipitation so we don't have problems in the future that we didn't think about today and that we didn't cut corners today where it didn't make sense to um and we'll be able to to show the public and have it be open and transparent hopefully to community partners. One of the things about this tool and one of the reasons and that Hamilton is pursuing this is not only to make it available to the city of Hamilton but to make it available communitywide. I hope that that will be the case. I hope that the city is going to be an advocate that institutions use this carbon budgeting and accounting tool to keep track of what they're doing. It's a free tool essentially that'll be available. And similarly on the infrastructure side, we do have a lot of private infrastructure. I hope that if a similar tool is developed that private institutions would be able to benefit from the work that the city has done. Uh my final point I suppose is uh my only criticism for the budget coming forward today, the carbon budget uh piece is that I do feel that the carbon offset policy is not stringent enough. I mean I I understand that staff have worked very hard on this. Uh I would be in in favor of a complete ban on uh carbon credits and and that kind of accounting mechanism because it's been shown to be ineffective. The money might as well be spent on actual uh stuff, right? Actual infrastructure upgrades, actual benefits locally. there's no need to spend money for firms for carbon credits somewhere else. Uh so with that I will uh wrap up my delegation and again thank you for uh listening this morning. >> Thank you Luchia. Just pausing to see if there are any questions from committee members. >> Councelor Nan on the screen behind you. Go ahead council nan. >> Thank you through you chair. Um could you just kind of go into that last point that you made? you said uh there if there's one area that you feel that could be uh amended or shifted just get into that a little bit again for me sorry you were speaking quickly and I wasn't able to take notes effectively thank you >> uh no problemmo so uh yeah through the chair the carbon offset policy that is on the agenda today contains a bunch of information like uh assessing what the impacts are and making sure that they are backed up so uh taking one step back the whole concept of of carbon offsets, carbon credits is essentially that people around the world can um basically sh use a market approach to share their progress. So if one area is making faster, you know, progress, they can basically sell that to a community that's making slower progress. Um, personally, I think this is nonsense. Um, and most of the climate scientists back up that this is not an effective use of our uh our money should be spent uh when we're we're talking about infrastructure upgrades, keeping that local and when we make upgrades locally, we shouldn't be looking to financialize that and try to sell our upgrades to some other municipality. Um, so, you know, I know that this is something that, um, OCCI has worked very diligently on putting together a very thorough framework um, that outlines all of the necessary checks and balances on any use of these of these potential uh, either carbon offsets or selling credits. Um, but personally, I mean, as a community member, I would have just probably rather seen this is not allowed and not have this big list of all the important due diligence that needs to happen. >> Thank you for clarifying. Appreciate that. Okay, thank you for that. Not seeing any further speakers. So, thank you very much, Luchia. Appreciate your delegation. Okay. So, may I have a mover and seconder to receive the dele delegations on this item? Councelor Wang, Councelor A. Wilson. That's a hand vote. All those in favor? Anybody opposed? Seeing none, that carries. We are moving on to item 6.2. Ron Wells from USW10005, Respecting Support of United Steel Workers Commemorative Signs, item 9.3. Ron, come on down. >> Welcome, Ron. You can begin anytime you're ready. >> Thanks. Uh good morning uh uh mayor uh deputy mayor counselors and everyone else. Uh my name is Ron Wells. I'm here today with uh Jim McCall, vice president Dan Bates, financial secretary of Local 105 uh steel workers. and we're here to ask your support for a motion to designate a street name in recognition of uh USW Local 105 and the historic strike against Stelco July 15th, 1946, 80 years ago, compelling the company to formally recognize the union as the bargaining agent for the workers. Uh, the Stelco strike stands as a defining moment not only in Hamilton's industrial history, but also the broader Canadian labor movement. It represents a hard-fought struggle for dignity, fair representation, and workers rights values that helped shape Hamilton into the strong, resilient, and proudly workingclass city it is today. The courage and solidarity shown by the steel workers during that strike laid the groundwork for safer workplaces, fairer wages, collective bargaining rights that continue to benefit generations of workers. Designating a street name in honor of USW Local 105 and the landmark anniversary would serve as a lasting public acknowledgement of the vital role steel workers played in building Hamilton's economy and identity. It also would provide an important educational reminder of the sacrifices to secure rights many now take for granted. Uh I'd also like to point out uh we have still have 600 active members working at Stelco of 105 plus we uh administrate the healthc care benefits for over 10,000 pensioners and their dependent with the vast majority uh living in the Hamilton area. So, I believe such a designation would be a meaningful tribute reflecting Hamilton's deep labor roots and its long-standing commitment to fairness, justice, and community solidarity. I have respectfully asked that Hamilton City Council uh supports this motion uh as part of our proposal of our 80th anniversary. So, thanks uh thank you for your time and your continued support for the people of Hamilton. Thank you, Ron. Well, we have at least one speaker, councelor Nan. Go ahead. >> Thank you, chair. Thank you, Ron, for coming in this morning and for delegating and also the work in the background with the mayor's office and my office in terms of um the request today. Um, chair, I'm going to try to balance because I know that this is an opportunity for questions and not necessarily statements and I'll make those at the time appropriate time as it relates to the motion, but I wonder through you, Ron, if you could talk a little bit about the collaborative nature of the commemoration. Um, can you tell us a little bit about what the steel workers are going to do to celebrate the 80th anniversary and what other ways you're seeking commemoration >> this year? Go ahead. >> Yeah, we we're having uh at Kman's we're having uh an event, a party uh and I think I've sent uh flyers out to all the city councilors. If I missed any, I apologize. Uh hopefully you can attend. And that's on July 15th, that's the anniversary. And I know uh Workers Art and Heritage Center uh the week of September 3rd to the 7th. uh they're having it kind of uh designated for the 80th anniversary and the historic strike. I think they got their roots from that uh piece of history with the labor movement. Uh is there anything else like >> Thank you so much. And then through you, chair, just um in terms of the motion that's coming up today, it's both to do traffic control uh cabinet wraps, which will be an opportunity to visualize some of the history, and then there's the commemorative street signs. So, anything you wanted to add around those two distinct things? >> Yeah. No, I I I we appreciate the uh someone suggested about the rap and that which would show kind of the history uh of the strike and with a little bit of uh verbiage and literature which would help you know educate people and you know they would learn the significance and it's just a good reminder to keep people aware of the sacrifices you know so everyone could uh live a better life now what the workers went through 80 years ago. Thank you so much for coming in today. Appreciate you. >> Thank you, Mayor Horvath is next. >> Thanks very much. >> Thanks very much. >> There you go. >> I appreciate that. Um, hi Ron. Thanks for coming in. I have two questions. One is um could you provide some information as to what kinds of things uh have been achieved by the labor movement that all workers uh are now able to take uh well actually people take for granted really um just even if you come up with like three things three top things that labor has been able to achieve that's improved the lives of every worker in the country and in in the province obviously. >> Yeah. Well, I mean, top of my head, there's a 5-day work week, and that's something that the workers fought and won back in uh 46. Uh the 40hour work week as well. Uh health and safety, I mean, Stad holidays. Uh they fought for equal rights for women's pay being the same as men's pay. Uh I'm trying to think a bunch of other ones. >> There's lots there there's a ton that just won't come to mind quickly. Yeah, I think when you when you say educating um you know the the wraps helping to educate around the strike itself in that time in uh history also about the achievements and accomplishments that labor has been able to uh bring to society at large. The second question is and it's it speaks to the uh the point you made about equality for women. Um, can you let the council know or let the committee members know and the public uh how the 105 particularly is connected to the women of the year uh history here in Hamilton and uh what's now called the women of distinction. >> Sure. Uh yeah, I think the first winner of that was 50 years ago when it first was established was uh Norma Birdie. She was uh the first and unfortunately the only uh female executive of local 105. She was a pioneer of uh women workers and being involved in unions and you know we used we have the Norma Birdie breakfast in honor of her every year at the steel workers hall in Barton Street and as you point out she was the first recipient of the uh woman of the year or woman of distinction for the city of Hamilton. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Thanks Ron. Thanks for coming in. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Next. Coun councel clerk. Go ahead. >> Sorry, Ron. Ron, if you can stay with us. We just have another question from councelor Clark. >> Sorry, Brad. >> It's okay. >> Um, it's not often that we have a union leader here to to speak to councils. Just a couple of questions. Um, workplace safety. Can you speak to the role that the unions had in developing the workplace safety legislations that we have today that we didn't have prior to 46? >> Yeah, I mean it's still that's still an ongoing involvement. I mean we're still fighting at 10:05 we have a very strong uh joint committee. Uh, but you're right. Back in 46, I I there's no safeguards on environmental or other uh safety. They probably didn't wear helmets. Well, I've seen pictures. They didn't have helmets on back there. So, it's come a long way. They used to wear asbestous clothing working with asbestous. I mean, the union fought to get that out of the workplace. And as you point out, they've been, you know, the main contributing driver of safer workplaces. I mean change doesn't start at the top. It usually starts at the bottom with the workers. So that that's one thing the union has fought for decades and continues to fight for safer workplaces for its members and for the greater community when it comes to environmental issues as well. And uh it's important I think that we highlight that it's not just for union shops. The worker workly safety that y'all fought for now is legislated across all corporations and and it took the efforts of the local union to start that movement. So I thank you for that sincerely. Um, and I just want to mention, um, I learned that the Hamilton and District Injured Workers Group in Hamilton has lost their funding as of June 30th. And so I've written and supported, um, the the advocacy back to the province, other counselors. It would be really helpful if you did the same thing. That that group really does help injured workers navigate the insane process that the WSIB can put people through. So, I thank you for all the work that you've done in that regard uh both on a personal level and as the leader. Thank you. >> Thanks. I appreciate you bringing that uh injured worker uh situation up as well. Thanks. >> Okay. Thank you very much, Ron, for speaking and being here on behalf of both 105 members, both past and present. Appreciate it. We have no more speakers. Okay. Uh need a mover and second to receive the delegation, please. Mayor Horvath, Councelor Wang. All those in favor, show of hands. And that carries. Thank you everybody. That moves us on to seven items for information. If there are no objections, could I have a mover and seconder to put items 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 on the floor together as they're all subcommittee minutes to be received. Mayor Horvath, second councelor Wang, is there any discussion on any of these items? I'll pause there. Just make sure everyone's aware of those three items. Councelor Tatterson. Go ahead. Counselor. >> I just want to noted that the ACPD meeting did not meet quorum. There was a request earlier in the term to the selection committee to um recruit more members. That wasn't successful at that point. However, um I just want to note it so that we uh take note in the next session or the next term if uh I'm here that the ACPD um requires their voices to be heard and when we can't meet quorum that that um severely jeopardizes that. Thank you. >> Thanks counselor. Having a quick look for other speakers. Councelor Wang, >> go ahead. Councelor, >> thank you. I wanted to highlight um item 7.3, the 2025 annual report for economic development division financial incentives and assistance program. I think that this is an excellent um update considering that we are going to be looking at and um debating the five year item 8.4 today, which is the five-year review of the commercial districts and improvement plan. uh just for committee to recognize that uh these funds go to helping our commercial corridors. They look at supporting small businesses along all of those commercial corridors and that in terms of the um attraction and the retention aspect of it. This is a very crucially important part of our economic development plans. So I hope that we can as we're looking at 8.4 that we can also refer back to this particular information item just to help us with our decision-making. Thank you. Thanks, Council Wang. Okay, so is there any other discussion? Okay, so we have a mover and secondary. We'll have a show of hands to receive those items. Council. Yep. Okay, we're good. That is unanimous. Okay, we are moving on to item eight in our agenda, items for consideration. First up is 8.1 report PEED26117 revised board of management for the Ottawa Street Business Improvement Area Wards three and four. Could I have a mover and second to put the item on the floor? Council Nan, Councelor Wang, is there any discussion on this item? Councelor Wang, go ahead. It's uh this is a sad bit of news but at the same time unnecessary piece because unfortunately the challenges with the Ottawa Street BIA not only have they received um a lot of these challenges with misappropriation of funds but there have been several fires along the street as well. So I think that this has been a prudent and swift action by the board in order to remove this individual. However, at the end of the day I am saddened to see that this has happened in our Ottawa Street BIA. So, I I will say congratulations to the new um board chair. Um and I hope that we can continue working together to find ways to really look at strengthening our fiscal responsibilities and management, especially as they're supporting small businesses along our commercial corridors. Thank you. >> Thanks, Councelor Wang. Next, Councelor Clark. Go ahead. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor Casar. Can I just ask a question of staff on this issue? Um, is there any mechanisms that can be utilized in terms of uh restitution um for the money that was stolen? >> Who would like to answer that question? Okay, we're just getting staff to a microphone and we'll get that answered for you. Council, thank you. Mayor, give us a moment. Good morning. Phil Caldwell, manager of commercial districts and small business. Um the there is an investigation occurring by the city auditor general on this particular matter. Uh some funds have already been repaid by the individual and they have committed to full restitution of the funds. >> I'm I'm sorry I didn't hear the last part there. kind of trailed off. >> My understanding is they've committed to full restitution of the funds uh in incremental payments. >> And is the auditor general monitoring that to ensure that it occurs? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Thanks, Council Clark. Councelor Nan, go ahead. >> Thank you through you, Chair. Uh echoing the statements of councelor Hang. It's really such an regrettable and unfortunate circumstance that the Ottawa Street BIA board found itself in. And uh just do want to recognize the rest of the board members who did take collective and swift action. uh small business owners have a lot on their plates and when they're choosing to be a part of a BIA board um that's added work and the way that the community has come together at the BIA uh in order to make sure that the integrity of the organization uh is intact that they're able to pivot in the ways that they need to to bring back the trust and confidence that residents and shoppers uh deserve to expect from BAS as well as their board members. So, just wanted to say thank you to those members who've uh lifted the load. Uh, also want to say thank you to staff for keeping councelor Hang and my uh office informed of the investigative process so that we could be clear with our residents uh who inquired about the entire situation and so that um people know that there is an accountability process here, there's an investigative process here and uh we will maintain our ability as an administration to make sure that this doesn't occur again. But my one and only question through you is about that last piece. What kind of mechanisms are staff contemplating in order to ensure this kind of situation doesn't occur again in BAS? >> Uh through the chair we understand that the auditor general is undertaking a comprehensive review on this matter and uh we stand by for the recommendations that he'll bring forward on that. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. Thanks, Council N. Thanks, manager Calwell. Not seeing any further speakers, so we have a mover in secondary. We will have an electronic vote. And that vote is up. We're just waiting for the computer to tabulate the results. it will be with us momentarily and that carries nine to zero and that nine number is significant because that is bare quorum. So just a note to committee members we expect to be at quorum for the next 2 to three hours. So we just appreciate if if you can be here and if you need to leave for any reason we need to make sure you're here for a vote because we cannot proceed without nine members here. So appreciate your cooperation. Okay, we will move along. 8.2 is item PED26011, Hamilton's carb budget and accounting framework. We have Trevor Imhof, senior project manager, climate change initiatives and programs to provide us the presentation. And we're just going to get that presentation on the screen and then we'll get going. Welcome, Trevor. We're set to go whenever you're ready. Thank you so much to the chair, to the mayor, to the members of the general issues committee, to city staff, and to members of the public. As always, I'm extremely appreciative of all of your busy time and be able to to present here on the carbon budget and accounting framework. Just wanted to provide a quick background to show how the carbon budget and accounting framework builds off past work as well as past direction uh recommended and given from from council. the carbon budget uh and the incorporation of a climate lens was previously identified and approved through Hamilton's climate action strategy strategy namely our community energy and emissions plan as a key enabling action uh in order to implement the the full strategy uh and to help accelerate the red reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. It was also identified in 2023 uh as part of the office of climate change initiatives key priority areas and we have been providing annual updates on this important work through our annual progress report that Dr. Lindu Cassic, director of the office of climate change initiatives gives on an annual basis. So now uh I want to help answer what I'm sure many of you and the public are asking. um what the heck is a carbon budget and accounting framework. Before I get into that um I just wanted to highlight um our shared vision and guiding principles and really highlight I won't read off the the screen but really wanted to highlight that um this vision and these guiding principles were created through a collaborative nature. It was not something that uh we developed in a siloed in the environment or in the office of climate change uh initiatives uh team alone. it was a collaborative nature with finance, with corporate facilities, with public works, with procurement, um, etc. in order to develop this vision. And I think really, if I can drill down the three most important things that this carbon budget and accounting framework really works towards, it's transparency, it's accountability, and it's evidenceinformed decision-making. So please keep those three things in mind as I go through uh the rest of the presentation and how it can achieve those three things. Okay. So what is a carbon budget and accounting framework? Very simply uh and this is a a definition by the inter intergovernmental panel on climate change. In essence, it's a total net amount of carbon dioxide that we as humans can emit around the world while limiting long-term global averages to a specified level. So through the intergovernmental panel on climate change through the sixth assessment report it highlighted if we want a high probability to keep global long-term average global warming to within the 1.5 degree threshold and really that was stated through Hamilton's climate change emergency as a very important threshold to stay within to avoid global catastrophic irreversible climate change and ecosystem losses. We as a world have approximately 400 gigatons of total emissions uh to emit um before achieving net zero. So gigatons barely means anything to me. So it probably doesn't mean much to you all. Um but really that's a it's a large amount of emissions globally. And then using the best practices and scientific calculations, our expert consultant uh which I have Yel Herbert on the line to help answer any questions about this, we downscale that to the community level based on a C40's methodology and looking at a fair share approach which is based on historical emissions, historical and ongoing GDP, so gross domestic product essentially how wealthy your city and nation is comparatively speaking to the rest of the cities around the world and as well as population. So you take those three factors and you calculate our community carbon budget which is estimated at 53 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. And so that's the total amount of emissions based on that fair share approach that we can emit communitywide uh before achieving net zero. Then as a function of that our corporate emissions which are corporate fleet vehicles, our corporate buildings is essentially a function of that community and you downscale that to 422 uh kilotons of CO2e. So what are the components of Hamilton's carbon budget and accounting framework? And I hope you see uh right at the very beginning we thought it was very important to embed change management best practices like ADCAR to build the awareness, the desire, the knowledge, the ability and the reinforcement in order to implement the carbon budget and accounting framework. Most importantly um in front of you uh members of the general issues committee we have two policies and these are the overarching corporate policies. Appendix B is the corporate carbon budget and accounting framework and then appendix C is the carbon credit and offset policy which I'll go into briefly in the next slide. I won't go through all of the rest of the tools, but these rest of these tools, templates, calculators, or what we're considering internal carbon management system in order to systematically and standardize how we assess climate impacts right at the very beginning project level that funnels through the budget process, which also I'll get to in a second. So the carbon budget accounting framework attached as appendix A to staff report PEED26011 that establishes the highle roles, responsibilities, the process, the timelines around the carbon budget and accounting framework. And I'll go in in term in terms of what that implementation timelines look like. The corporate carbon credit and offset is to establish clarification and guidelines because currently we don't have that across the city on how and when the city of Hamilton can purchase really based on the urgency of what uh delegate Luchia Eno was talking about about the concerns about the current carbon carbon offset. So really carbon sorry corporate carbon offset policy that's a mouthful. Um, so really it's to establish uh when and how the city of Hamilton can purchase the carbon offsets and credits towards achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions. And I I just wanted to kind of quickly provide this visual that I I do in my head is what is net zero really. Okay, so net zero is you take all of the actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible knowing that we're probably not going to get to absolute zero. there's going to be a carbon carbon gap and we know that through historical previous technical modeling while also increasing our carbon sequestration rates and so that kind of lever gets us to net zero. So that essentially is what we're talking about when we're talking about net zero. And so to help us get to net zero in the future by 2050 for example we feel by then we may need to purchase carbon offsets or look at renewable energy credits to essentially help with that gap. Um but that will be decided in a future date which I'll talk about in a second. So the alignment uh of the existing project and budget processes. Um I just wanted to thank finance as well uh James Agaric and all of his great staff including Kirk uh and other staff. They really helped us to understand the very complex uh budget process that the city of Hamilton undergoes. And so we hope we see that how we can integrate the carbon budget accounting framework seamlessly to avoid any any delays. Um and really it's a used as an evidence-informed decision-making tool and templates quantifying project level greenhouse gas emissions right at the uh project level going through the prioritization as divisions and departments already do adding in a climate ranking um and then transparently reporting that through two avenues. One is through uh a budget book uh through the the regular budget process. For example, city of Edmonton has a budget book for their budget and then a separate carbon budget book. we all know that you have uh enough to read already. Um so we're like let's not do that. Um let's put a simple appendex in the budget book that clearly shows a project and uh impact on greenhouse gas emissions and other future climate considerations. So council the public can clearly see pro each project uh and it associated climate impacts combined with key performance indicators that we've established for the carbon budget and accounting framework. uh the an the office of climate change initiatives uh will be reporting annually on the progress combined with the corporate and community greenhouse gas emissions inventory to ensure its impact on an annual basis as we always do. So I hope council and the members of the general issues committee has seen have have see this methodical approach um that we are proposing for the implementation weighing staff capacity staff knowledge uh with the urgency of the climate action. We're starting with the two division pilot um and based on that pilot would come forward in the next term of council for their decision uh to make the the decision to scale up citywide. again scaling with starting with large capital projects over 250,000. We would then move forward to uh through the 2029 budget process looking at all mandatory capital projects and then moving by 2030 to to essentially be able to assess all uh new and existing projects. I'll end here by just saying again in reiterating we didn't develop this in a silo. I want to thank all of the staff uh including finance and corporate facilities and procurement for their participation in the technical advisory committee. We've done many finance focus groups um and we also reported uh transparently through our director level steering committee and sought and and got a senior leadership team approval. Uh with that I want to say thank you very much and I'll happy to open up for questions. >> Thank you very much Trevor. You are perfect right on 10 minutes. There's the ding. We do have a speaker list. First up is councelor Clark. Thank you, Deputy Mayor Casar. Um, I've heard the terminology carbon credits um throughout this report and I read it. What are the standards for the declaration and purchase of carbon credits and who monitors to ensure carbon credits sales and purchases are achieving the end goal >> through the chair to council car that's a very important and good question and I think part of the reason why um and just to be clear too is the carbon credit and offset policy is very clear on the first page where it says the city the city shall not um buy or purchase carbon credits or offsets until 2050 and until all emissions are reduced as much as possible. To answer your specific question, I don't have the names off the top of my head, but perhaps if Yel Herbert um has some examples of the companies, my understanding is through the voluntary uh carbon credit market, there's roughly four third-party companies um that act as um I'll say uh facilitators that will look at what projects are offering carbon credits, quantify those carbon credits um through different certifications um and then put them on a voluntary carbon market which then we as the city or other people or other organizations seeking to purchase those credits um could purchase those credits. they're out there through our research though um and based on international I'll say issues of purchasing and through these third party certifications let's just say there's a lot of questions that have been raised uh about the actual actuality of purchasing or the quantification of those carbon credits. >> Yeah, if I could just get the answer to the question, do we know what group is actually monitoring it? It scares me a little bit if you're telling me that there's three or four third-party corporations that are doing this and basically carbon credits are something that seems to be traded. There's value to it, but no one's explain to me what the standards are for establishing that value. Do we have that information or is it something that you could provide at a later date >> through the chair? I do want to offer our expert consultant Yel Herbear a chance to potentially uh ask those qu or answer those questions around specific off the top of my head. I I can't recall if there's any like ISO standards or certifications related to the voluntary carbon credit market. Um but if if he's unable to more than happy to take that back, >> please deputy. >> Yeah, thank We have you here on the screen so please go ahead Mr. through the chair. The uh there are third party certifications for voluntary offsets. Um but as Trevor pointed out, there has been critique of how much integrity some of those offsets have, even those that are third party certified. Um so and there are broader questions of how the offset markets work. Um, and there are some regulated offset markets that are different than the voluntary offset markets. But I think the risks of um, offsets are really the rationale for why Hamilton is proposing not to use offsets, at least in the near term, and to really focus on direct emissions reductions, which is really the essence of the strategy that the city is proposing. So really avoiding offsets because there are risks associated with them is is what is being proposed here. Thank you. I I appreciate that. And I know we're not really supposed to look at carbon credits until 2050, but I wanted to have a better understanding as to what the scope is and and who the heck is monitoring it because I've read a lot of stuff that is a wee bit scary. >> Um how many finance staff are involved in this pro process >> through the chair? Uh in terms of like individual staff, um we've had two to three finance staff involved on a regular basis through the technical advisory committee. Um we have let me if I can go back. Am I able to go back on my slides by any chance? >> Okay. Oh, thank you. If Yeah, I just wanted to go back to the engagement slide, the last slide. Um so two to three staff on a regular basis helped to advise um us as we develop the the integration strategies of the carbon budget and accounting framework. Um we've had focus groups which included roughly five to six finance staff from both from a director level um down to we'll say the business administration so the BA uh level supporting planning and economic development for example um and then I believe through the technical training um with which includes the calculators u we had roughly I'd say eight finance staff um part of that technical training um and a few meetings uh with the big boss GM I am Ziggger. >> Um, chair, I'm kind of over my time. Can you put me on for a second time? >> We'll do that. We'll come back to you shortly. >> Thank you. >> Our next speaker is councelor Wang. >> Thank you. Thank you, Trevor, for this presentation. I have been looking forward to this presentation for a very long time. Also speaking about finance and I'll maybe also including the big boss of finance in on this to um what are some of the other benefits of carbon budgeting in terms of from that accounting framework that we might see benefit from >> through the chair. Thank you and and happy to to take take the start on this uh through the chair to to councelor Wang. I I'll break it up into two clear benefits I see. Combined with all of the added benefits that we'll have in terms of standardizing and be able to quantify our carbon budgets to make transparent decision-m u that takes those long range lofty climate goals that seem impossible and really distilling it on an annual basis. There are other two important key benefits that I wanted to highlight and and I didn't get a chance to at the end. Um, one is by being able to calculate and quantify the climate implications um, and the emissions right from the very beginning of project development. That in my mind puts us in a better opportunity to go after federal funding or other higher levels government uh funding opportunities because we've essentially got our quote unquote house in order with the information in order to uh appease the long list of environmental criteria that so many federal uh for example Federation of Canadian Municipality and other infrastructure Canada uh funds require. So that's one. Um and then the second one is around again providing that excuse me information uh and that calculation upfront and again getting organized on that should um and this was actually a question right from the very beginning. I remember um Kirk uh and and Brian asking this is how can this support future um green bonds or social bonds or debenture programs for example? And I I I'll admit this is a starting point of that. There's a lot of complexity uh in there. Um but I believe it equips us with the knowledge and the information and staff training to really be able to move forward on uh using that information, packaging up those actions into a potential future green or social debenture program. >> Excellent. Thank you so much for that. I will continue to ask those questions around green municipal bonds at budget time. GMC Eric just saying um I'm looking at slide eight. It says that the initial adoption is and a two division pilot. Do we know which divisions? I don't recall you saying that in your presentation >> through the chair to councelor Wang. Thank you for that clarifying question. Um in our previous reports um that we did progress updates, we did highlight um it's our desire to see corporate facilities and energy management and public works as those capital facility project holders and and responsible uh staff. Um so we can begin uh testing the the process through those I'll say large scale capital projects. And then the other division is transportation planning and parking from a transportation long range planning policy standpoint as well just to kind of get our feet wet from both a large scale capital and a policy operational standpoint as well. >> Excellent. Thank you so much. I also have a question from a resident. So they sent me an email and asked me to ask this question. Um as much as they're they understand that carbon budgeting is still in its early days and it's really around getting our own house in order. Um they talked about would this help with evaluating p private companies and institutions getting money or waving fees from the city to ensure that they are reporting their emissions and making progress in reducing their climate pollution. So I think that this is on the us support us going out bringing putting monies out there and whether we're holding that level of accountability to those organizations that will be receiving municipal funds >> through the chair to councelor Wang interesting and complex question and I'll try to divide it into two things. One is um what delegate Luchia mentioned is it is our desire and the great work that our expert consultant has done is these calculators are going to be open source free for any business to use. Um and similar to our internal process that we hope to uh as we look through project development to project prioritization um to uh council approval through the budget book to execution which means procurement for example embedding those requirements into our procurement documents for example. So, and I don't know if this is going to answer uh that question or not, but I I foresee um staff or council or or others um could include those requirements or those calculations um as a requirement for uh issuing funding to other organizations. Um and again, through the training that again is all going to be open source that will empower businesses to be able to do those calculations. >> Excellent. Thank you so much. Those are all my questions. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. >> Thanks, Councelor Wang. Next up, councelor Wilson. >> Thank you. Uh through you, chair. I also have a question on the credit system, but given there's been a lot of focus there, I just kind of want to maybe focus on the the overall picture first. So, at a high level is what's going forward in the next year, just kind of rolling up a summary is there's a continuous improvement change to the budget process. Staff are now going to bring different levels of information earlier going to bring information earlier in the process to the budget process. So, we'll see that in our budget books, but also hearing there's benefits and potentially being able to get grants or be able to get external funding because we know the environmental impacts of these projects sooner. Like, if you were to just describe this really, really simply, is this for just changing the types of information that are available in the budget process? We're not picking and choosing any projects today. We're not spending money. We're just changing how we evaluate projects in the budget process. Not what the decisions are, just what the evaluation process is. >> Through the chair, to councelor Wilson, exactly right. Um it's not about um picking one project over the other. It's not about impeding uh any projects moving forward. It is a transparency and accountability and evidenceinformed decision-m tools. So it's providing the evaluative framework that doesn't exist right now. um and providing that in a transparent way um that will then flow through the budget process so that senior leaders, council um can make I'll say more evidenceinformed decisions as it relates to climate and prioritizing or deciding on and how that competes against other key priorities across the city as council always does um through a decision through the budget process. >> Thank you for that. And then I just want to say very supportive of the process overall. Um, understanding the comment about needing a policy, even if that policy is called maybe a credit policy, it's really a how not to use credit policy for the next 15 years despite the title. Um, could you just It seems to me that the fundamental assumption behind it is, hey, we using your hands earlier, we're going to have some leftover. The hands aren't going to perfectly balance. We're going to need to maybe um invest in projects outside of our own corporate scope. My understanding is sometimes those projects look today like hey we bought some parts of the rainforest and we kept it from logging or we kept it from protection etc etc. Uh we invested in renewable energy generation like those are some of the places where credits go. I understand the assumption that we're going to have something left over fundamental to the policy and we're going to need to deal with that and this is our way to deal with it. I get that. Why is the proposed way to deal with it I guess things in other places as opposed to things in our community? So why don't we expand the Beverly Swamp or why don't we do something with Koots Paradise or work with a conservation authority or work on solar panels, you know, and like I guess our home energy retrofit program, our hero program, that's something we're doing on the community side with emissions. Why aren't we scaling up those efforts um as opposed to kind of the the carbon crediting system? So I understand what the gap is and I understand you need to address the gap. I'm just trying to understand why is this the proposed way to address the gap even in the later longer term vision. through the chair to councelor Wilson. Uh a great point for clarification and I think we are on the same long-term uh page where to be clear the what what the carbon credit offset policy doesn't say is that even by so thou shalt not what it does say is thou shalt not buy carbon credits by 2050. Um what it doesn't say is if and when in 2050 we want to buy carbon credits that we have to buy it from somewhere else. So between now and 2050 um and uh my retirement date is I think 2046. So I hope to get this done before then is reduce our emissions while also improving our carbon sequestration sinks like the expansion of the beverly swamp like the saltfleet wetlands to grow our local carbon sequestration rates andor create a local ability for companies farmers for example um to uh to develop uh naturalization projects um through certification that companies local companies so So, it's it's almost creating a future local market, but it would be my hope um that as we're reducing emissions, we're also growing our carbon sequestration rate that achieves the net zero so we don't have to purchase carbon credits from uh an organization or entity outside of the city of Hamilton. >> Thank you. Three, Cherry, I heard the Ding. I'll just say in the Tames Valley Conservation Area, there's the Desk GB conservation impact bond. that's getting private finance to invest in the local community to fund those conservation efforts as opposed to the community investing externally. And so just very excited about those types of things as we're thinking about this as opposed to us necessarily doing that credit. Um but thank you really excited about this. >> Okay, next council nan. Go ahead. >> Thank you chair. Also thank you so much for the work and uh the presentation today. Uh just a few questions. It's been a lot of conversation in the community about the importance of transparency. Can you talk to me a little bit about how this framework helps improve transparency in terms of how the city and our community is doing as it relates to climate action? >> Yeah, thank you through the chair to councelor Nan. Uh thank you for that important question. Um and so first let's talk about transparency. So we have these long range net zero targets. Um and we do have technical modeling on how we're going to get there. But essentially what this framework does, it distills that long range target into an annual budget process. Um, and then through the budget book and through the budget reporting process combined with the annual reporting that the office of climate change initiatives do on an annual basis, we'll be reporting our progress both from a community and corporate standpoint of our greenhouse gas emissions. and perhaps and it's my expectation that we'll probably be in what's called a carbon surplus. So we'll be surpassing our annual carbon budget until we further take accelerated action that from all levels of government. And I wanted to hit on that point. And so it is a key it's it's about taking those long range goals and and transparently reporting on our progress on an annual basis. >> Thank you. I think that's a really key piece of this work. um our residents are often saying like you know what's actually being done what is the impact how uh is the investments the choices of as it relates to our investments as a municipality resulting in real action and I think that that's an important piece that every level of government should be able to articulate clearly and I'm I'm glad that this process helps get us there for our residents. Um, can you talk a little bit about um how well I guess if you can confirm the major sources uh of emissions in Hamilton that are leading to our total carbon budget or impacting it at least um and what the co- benefits of accelerating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is for our community in terms of the co- benefit pieces >> through the chair to councelor Nan Um yeah, an important question and want to be transparent to is currently um this is a corporateled initiative again to get our own house in order to continue to be that leader in climate action. Um these as mentioned before these tools and calculators uh will be available uh across the city for major institutions. Um these policies are not meant to and will not impact any community institutions or businesses for example. Um again what it does is provides the tools. We do want to um offer a voluntary disclosure project in future years for businesses uh to report their annual emissions um should they wish to. Um but just to answer your specific question and I think it's no surprise as we report on communitywide greenhouse gas emissions and later uh this year we'll be reporting on the most recent communitywide greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, we um developed a sectorbased greenhouse gas emissions inventory that broke out the major sources. The the major sources of emissions that are quickly using up our carbon budget continue to be heavy industry, namely integrated steel mills within Hamilton. And that's really based on the understanding that not all fuel is created equal. Um and so when I do guest lectures at McMaster University, I try to kind of very simply state not all fuels are created equal. Coal super bad. Coal and coke oven gas super bad because it has high emission factors. Not only combine that, it has harmful carcinogenic um air pollutants that come from it including benzene and benzoapyne. And so as we support and help to in any way possible um because I'm a realist and I say say this all the time too is we want industry to stay here. We want to innovate industry um them to move forward on their decarbonization objectives because there's co- benefits there by reducing coal and cocoa use essentially hopefully phasing it all out uh in the near term that helps us stay within the carbon budget while also um dealing with the issues of benzene and benzoapyne emissions through example historical or outdated or expired sight specific standards for example. >> Yeah, very relevant example. Um if I could through you chair could you comment on and I appreciate that that the focus here is around carbon um and I apologize because I didn't get through all the details in the report and if this is to be later contemplated or not part of the framework at all please clarify. Um another natural resource for us to make sure we're consistently reporting back on is our natural bodies of water. Um, how is water integrated into this framework? Um, and is that part of maybe tagging on to councelor Wilson's point that as we surplus our ability to take localized action that perhaps it's in that opportunity that we reinvest towards some of those natural bodies of water that are critically important to us. And how might that help shape the standards we expect as a municipality when things like uh mega data centers come forward in their proposals to our municipality and there's deep deep concern about water usage and the potential draw from our neighboring bodies of water >> through the chair to councelor Nan interesting and I'm going to try to answer that question in in two two twofold one is uh this carbon budget accounting framework is meant to be flexible to integrate other climate considerations through the climate and equity lens tool. Um, and so we can through the climate lens tool consider other environmental implications such as uh degradation of water quality or uh water consumption for example. Um, and I want to be be transparent and honest right now it doesn't do that. um but it could if we wanted to and I think it empowers staff to begin thinking about those considerations. Um but then also from a just going back to councelor uh Wilson's comments and questions around the carbon sequestration rates is water. We know water has some carbon sequestration's ability low rel relatively speaking from a a wetland growing or or trees of forest growing but still something there. Um and I think um from a carbon sequestration uh carbon sequestration rate um we'll look to quantify what those carbon sequestration rates are in the future from a natural environment standpoint. And then as a final note and I apologize for for trailing on here is there are actions already in Hamilton's climate action strategy that speaks to the protection of natural bodies, natural environment um both from a degradation standpoint but also from an enhancement standpoint. Um, so definitely I think more conversations and happy to have that councelor Nan with you and others around how we can better accommodate those uh those points. >> Appreciate it. Those are my questions. >> Okay. Thank you. And to second time speakers, councelor Clark. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I have a few more questions. I hope we can have brief answers so I can get them all in. Um, I think this one is for the big boss. Um, is the implementation of this carbon credit programming taking any staff away from the work that we're doing to finalize our financial statement records and audited financial statements >> through the uh through the chair uh Mike Sakar, general manager of finance and corporate services. Uh no. Uh the intent is to take a measured approach and a staged approach. Uh to pilot this this initiative with the two departments to uh amend our capital detail sheets to add in this consideration a factor in the prioritization of capital projects and then to summarize that information in a separate table or appendix in the capital budget uh book. So uh we are taking a measured approach with respect to capacity challenges. >> Thank you. In terms of taking a measured um process I guess um how are we assessing the work that the city has already done and the millions of dollars that we have spent to lower greenhouse gas already? I asked this question back in the budget and I still have not received an answer. So will we learn that through this process? >> Not sure who's going to answer. >> Who can answer that question? >> I can start if that's okay. >> Trevor >> through the chair. Thank you, Councelor Clark. Happy to to start and hand it off to GM Ziggger if he has anything to add. Um and and that's actually one thing I I didn't mention in terms of the co-benefit questions from councelor Wang is in my mind I see this as being a systematic and standardized way of not only how we consider capital projects for greenhouse gas emission reductions but for and once fully implemented all projects moving forward. So when we get questions, very good questions from council about, hey, how much are we spending on climate change? Uh there's no standardized approach of which projects are considered climate action. This framework helps to achieve that in my mind. >> Thank you. That I appreciate that. And uh I know it's challenging trying to pull it together from all different departments, but residents ask us and it's difficult when we say, you know, we have revamped our buildings, we're buying more electric cars, like we've done an awful lot in terms of trying to get us um to to where we are today and and we are leading many other municipalities in that regard. Mhm. >> Does the climate budget process fall within the municipal budget process under the strong mayor powers? Not sure who would answer that one. >> Through the chair going to defer that to James. >> Yeah. Through the chair. Um the tool is is principally uh is intended principally to be utilized by staff. Uh so as it relates to the pilot in the two departments uh it'll be uh employed through the capital priority setting exercise and staff will propose projects through the budget process and um factor in this particular measurement in terms of the ranking um and that is how it will be reflected in priority setting. It'll be uh factored by city staff as it relates to the projects that are being put forward for council's consideration. >> The Thank you. Thank you for that, Deputy Mayor. The initialization of this process, I am assuming that it is being funded through existing budgets and existing personnel. >> Cher, go ahead. >> Through the chair, the council clerk, I can take that one for sure. Um, correct. because we spent so much time working with finance around developing the process. It really is just sprinkling integrating those tools within the existing budget process. GM Zaric did confirm before uh no additional staff resources were going to be from finance being rep prioritized and it is our desire and it is our projection that this does not result in any increased budget enhancements or requests or additional staff requests. >> Thank you for that. Can I um ask an ancillary question to that one? Does the embedding of the carbon budget into the procurement process, do we have any expectations or estimates as to whether or not it will impact the cost of our tenders? So, will our procurement costs go up because we're requiring this type of carbon budgeting process? through the chair to councelor Clark um in in short is we don't know yet but in essence this tool is a scenario planning tool where staff have the ability to an example we used was a new recreational facility where staff are designing it through a standard OBC Ontario building code requirement um what this tools doesn't do unfortunately is automatically calculate the cost of what that is so if we want to propose a 40% enhancement on energy efficiency of that of that building. Um it will be the responsibility as it always has been of staff in order to uh estimate those budgets. Um and it would be my hope that we work with finance of and I I don't have the answer. >> We don't we don't know. >> We don't know and we're still figuring out how best to provide those scenarios uh through senior leadership team to council in order to make those informed decisions. >> Um thank you for that. Two more questions. uh the carbon sequestation, carbon sinks. In the old days, we called them carbon sinks. How are we calculating including the conservation lands, the forest, the wetlands in terms of um carbon credits for the most part >> through the share the council clerk? In short, we we don't right now. Okay. >> Um yeah. >> Uh last question, item D. And if I may, um I know the actual recommendation is not on the floor. share. Um, but when I'm looking at item D, it says implement a two division pilot phase of the carbon budget counting through the 2027 budget process and report back to general issues committee in Q2 of 2027 on the pilot phase. Is is that the correct dates that we're shooting for? Cuz that is very tight. That's like three months to report back on the success of the program >> through the chair to councelor Clark. Um that is the the correct timelines that we're proposing. Totally understand. It's tight. In a perfect world, we would have been here uh in December of last year. Uh but we wanted to do our due diligence and and seek senior leadership team approval. We have been spent like we've been working on this for two years now. Um and I think through this two division pilot phase there are a lot of lessons learned um that will inform I'll say the future implementation and the scalability of how fast we implement the rest of the divisions. >> I guess the challenge I'm having is the language in that section of the motion. It literally states it'll be a part of the 2027 budget process and report back on the results of the pilot phase and proposed recommendations for scaling to other departments in Q2 of 2027. I I'm not sure how that's going to be accomplished. And if we don't meet that goal, we will be severely criticized. So to the senior leadership team um maybe perhaps between now and council assess you always want to make a goal attainable. It's one thing to be aspirational, but if it's not attainable, we fail. And so I would rather have that date further out to ensure that we are actually coming forward with a presentation that proves one way or the other the success of this program. To try to do that in three or four months, I personally I don't think is possible. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for raising that question, councelor Clark. and GM Zaric is going to respond. >> Yeah, through the chair. I appreciate the question as it allows uh further consideration in the context of this being an election cycle. One option is to amend that to Q3 to allow for the full budget process to fully evolve into 2027. allow staff the time between the adoption of the budget and allow staff to reflect uh and assess the successes and opportunities as it relates to the pilot and report back in Q3 which would then allow further time and consideration to feed into the 2028 budget process. Uh so uh an option is to amend to reflect Q3 of 2027. Okay, thank you for that answer and actually technically we need to put this on the floor before we can take any action on that. So I missed that step. Um, which is good timing because I don't see any further speakers. So thank you very much senior project manager. So I'll need a mover and seconder to receive the presentation put the report on the floor. Uh, councelor Wang counsel Nan and then councelor Clark I think you were indicating that you just wanted to move the suggestion from GMZ Garrick. Oh, I'll put your Go ahead. Your mic. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I I appreciate what GM Zagaric is saying. If and if we could amend the motion in item D to switch it from Q2 2027 to Q3 2027, um it gives them more time to to come back with that report. Um and then the next year's council can make some decisions in terms of how they wish to proceed after that. But I think it's important that we give time to the staff to get it done given all the other things that they're trying to deal with to get our audited financial statements out. >> Okay. Thank you. And I'd be happy to second that. Okay. So, we will vote on that amendment first. >> So, the amendment vote is up to change the timing from Q2 2027 to Q3 2027 for the completion of the budget. That's item D. So, the amendment first, then we'll get to the full report. The vote is up. And that carries unanimously. Thank you everybody. And then this next vote is to receive the presentation and to approve the report as amended. The report with the recommendations. And that vote is up. And that also carries unanimously. Thank you everybody. That takes us to 8.2A correspondence respecting report PED26011, the Hamilton carbon budget and accounting framework. So, we have a number of correspondents. I'll need a mover and secondary to put the correspondence on the floor. Councelor Wang, Councelor Pauls, thank you. Is there any discussion on the correspondence? Seeing none, we'll vote by show of hands to receive them. All those in favor? That's everybody. Thank you very much. That carries. That brings us to 8.3 report PED25101A revitalizing Hamilton tax increment grant program application 92 and 96 John Street North and 81 Wilson Street Hamilton in Ward 2. Could I have a mover and seconder to put the item on the floor? Councelor Titus and Councelor Pauls. Is there any discussion on this item? Doing a brief pause looking around. Seeing none, we will need an electronic vote to approve. We'll get that up now. The vote is before you. That carries nine to zero. 8.4 Four, report peed 26089, 5-year review of the revitalizing Hamilton's commercial districts community improvement plan and associated financial incentive programs. Uh, Phil Caldwell, manager of commercial districts and small businesses, will introduce the presentation. Welcome back, Phil. Whenever you're ready. Good morning on this side now. Uh Phil Caldwell, manager of commercial districts in small business in the economic development division. Um I'm pleased to introduce PED 26089, the 5-year review of the revitalizing Hamilton's commercial district CIP and its associated financial incentive programs. I'm joined by my colleague John Paul Loyano, who is our senior project manager and who has been leading the review and will provide a brief presentation this morning. uh staff undertake these comprehensive reviews of our CIPs on five-year cycles. This CIP, which supports revitalization of our older commercial, urban commercial districts through targeted incentive programs for property owners and businesses, was last reviewed in 2021, and so is due for a review. The review comes at an especially important time as small businesses and our own revitalization efforts in our older commercial areas continue to be challenged by current economic uncertainties and a stalled housing market which are vital to supporting existing commercial businesses and creating demand for new businesses in these areas to support their success. This review has focused on evaluating program performance over the past over the past five years, ensuring that the CIP and its programs remain relevant and responsive to current market conditions, as well as identifying opportunities to modernize and enhance the programs by removing red tape and improving administrative efficiency and customer experience for those seeking to utilize the programs. And with that, I'll hand it over to John Paul to carry on with the presentation. delay. >> Whenever you're ready, John Paulo. >> Yeah, just seems like there's a little bit of a delay in the Just make sure it works. Okay. Uh thank you, Phil. Uh good morning, committee, uh staff, and any public in attendance or watching. So, further to, uh Phil's introduction, let's just really get started. uh into generally what a community improvement plan is. I'll be referring to them as as CIPs. And essentially, they're a voluntary planning and economic development tool that allows municipalities to direct investment into uh specific areas of the city to address things like economic revitalization, um environmental remediation, aging infrastructure, things like that. Um and if it's not for uh CIPs, municipalities wouldn't be able to provide financial incentives either to developers, small businesses, any kind of uh commercial entity. So these permissions come from the planning act and there's also specific policies in the city's official plan. And as part of this, I'll call it CIP process. Uh councils also um approve what we call uh community improvement project areas. And these are basically boundaries, specific boundaries where the improvements are being targeted and therefore where the programs that are attached to the to the CIP um are are eligible to be used. So like Phil mentioned, what brings us here today, it's basically that that 5-year review that we do. Um these are important check-ins to make sure that we're meeting council priorities uh and also that we're still uh delivering effective um programs for our applicants. There we go. Uh so again, the the CIP being reviewed today, we there there are uh more than one CIP uh at the city. The particular one we're reviewing today, revitalizing Hamilton CIP. Um I'll be referring to it as the plan. Uh and as we'll see in a few slides, there are about 10 financial incentives associated with this uh with this plan uh being both loans and grants. And it it really builds on a history of uh revitalization. It really focused on downtown in the early days, but now you'll see that it it is expand expanded essentially to the entire uh urban area of the of the city. And uh in that last review we did introduce uh a number of sort of new ideas. We have really strong programs that are uh for the most part being carried forward here uh through our proposals and um those thing th those include things like housing affordability, environmental sustainability, those types of things are are being carried forward. And again, the purpose of the CIP or or this plan is to uh really focus on the revitalization of our commercial uh our important commercial areas uh through through private sector investment. Uh we want those buildings in those commercial areas to be marketable, to be to be safe, um to be to be to be functional really. And ultimately what we're trying to do is increase the assessment growth and and tax revenue for the city. So the next two slides I'll just go over really quickly the the program areas. So these are basically where the the programs are in play and more specifically just as I was referring to the the uh the the community improvement project areas the seas. These are the geographic boundaries with within which uh the programs and properties within these um these these areas are are eligible to apply for for programs. Um I'll just mention here obviously you can see the the detailed boundaries. These these boundaries are available on the city's open data GIS for the public uh to to to see if their properties fall within any of these areas. and obviously the detailed mappings attached to the to the bylaws that that implement this. This is sort of a good summary uh where we're at right now. Uh on the left you have the programs. Uh those are the 10 loan and grant programs and on the top you have the the sepas and this basically is a good sort of cheat sheet just to to understand um you know if you fall in any of those sepas then you have these particular programs available to you. Uh before getting into what I'll call our proposals, what we're what we're presenting here today to to get approved and endorsed, um just a few of the successes here I think are important to um to just go over. Um, one of them uh in particular being that uh since since 2021 uh the the program spec specifically with regard to our tax increment grant program um the program has supported $436 million in development uh that could be built or or to be built. So that basically equates for that equates to for every dollar in tax increment grants the city has committed that has resulted in commitments of 47 uh dollars uh from the private sector. So I think those are pretty good ratios. Uh I'll just go over this quickly. Um, we can chat about it, I guess, as well in the the question period, but this just goes to show some of the consultation we did or or all of the consultation we did with the specific dates. We had public information sessions. We've had a a social media uh marketing campaign to to get the word out. We had an engage page up and we attended sub some uh subcommittees uh to present uh early on to to get our ideas out there and some of our thoughts. some of the some of the common themes that that came from this review I don't think were necessarily a surprise to to staff um for for small businesses for example all the cost sharing programs that we offer uh are really critical uh so they they help uh substantially uh with regard to our tax increment grant programs um as I'll get into in in a specific slide developers uh show the ones who are putting in their own equity they they show they they still need these tax increment grant programs. Um, with regard to specific areas, Kennallorth and Barton in particular, um, those those revitalization uh, programs are are still very important and we've heard that people want those to continue. Uh, and then with regard not so much to the plan uh, necessarily, but more administration, um, we we heard two things. um the administration of the process is not consistent, but we've we've heard this before and we're already working towards uh making those uh approvements that are even outside of this review. There was some uh illusion to that in the um in the annual report and we've attended um open for business subcommittee. So, we're working uh through those improvements. And then with regard to uh we we did hear one thing that not all residents know about our program. So, we're going to make a concerted effort here uh depending on the outcome today to to uh to really beef up uh the marketing and and giving more sort of digestible products for the uh for the public. Uh this is essentially a summary of the outcome of the review and I I'll go through each of these. Uh so I think the first really big thing to to go through is with regard to um the the the ma maintaining downtown incentives and and why this is uh an item here is because essentially uh there was a motion attached to the last review that that asked staff to uh give an analysis um on whether or not the revitalizing Hamilton tax incurring grant and the loan program associated uh downtown should be should be kept. Um, so it's staff's opinion that it should be. Um, it's just not the uh the appropriate time given the economic conditions. Um, in fact, I think I would say if these programs hadn't existed um now that I would probably be recommending some form of these programs through through my review. Um, and I I don't think I need to um necessarily get into that whole economic discussion. you've you've had many people come here uh uh to to speak to that even there was a a presentation by CMHC yesterday at the planning committee so I I won't go into that I think you've heard that enough but I will provide one quick example uh and this is from a developer these are rounded numbers but this is a real project and essentially what what this is showing is that had it not been for the tax increment grant program the project just would not have worked. So in the sort of first row uh which was which is A that's referencing a condominium development and the next two um sections B and C are with reference to a a um a rental tenure same project rental tenure. And uh essentially the takeaway just to to be quick here, we could always go back to review it. Um is that there's so much equity needed in a rental project uh like the the the developers own money um that uh that that you wouldn't you wouldn't have that with let's say a condominium development. You have sales, you have pre-sales you can use as equity. Uh here here with a rental project, you just don't have that. So, our tax increment grant programs for developers that are putting in their own equity uh is is critical. So, now getting into uh a few other of the proposals, um one other thing we're proposing to uh recommend to amend one of the programs is with regard to uh public parking. Uh and it's been re reiterated to us many times that of the the importance of reliable public parking. Uh and that's from our downtown office tenants. um and uh and and and local business owners. And really what we're proposing here is a modification to an existing tax increment grant program and uh to incentivize developers as part of their their development to include public parking. Uh and this is not obviously surface parking. This is parts of uh of a development. So, you know, within the podium or or underground parking and there are some tables here that show the modest increase in in terms of the grant. Um, and I just I just want to say uh a few other things with with regard to this uh public parking piece. Um, we're not here to uh we we know that um or or I should say we're not here to um uh induce additional uh vehicle trips downtown. Really what this is trying to do is replace uh surface parking and uh to help uh urbanize uh our public parking and trying to uh make sure that any inefficiencies in parking are not impacting our our local economy. >> Hi John Paul I'm just cognizant of the 10-minute timeline if you need some more time. >> I just need a couple more minutes. Yeah, a few more slides. Yeah. >> So I'll move that by councelor Wang. I'll second that. Council be will second that. Just show of hands to give five more minutes. >> Yeah. Okay. That carries. Please continue. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh so the next the next uh thing we are proposing is is with regard to delegated uh authority. Essentially there is an existing delegated authority bylaw but we want to make some modifications to that to improve some efficiencies. That's what we've heard from from applicants. Um, essentially all tax increment grant programs uh would be uh would go to the the GM level for approval and then everything over $500,000 whether that's a grant, a non- tax increment grant or a loan would still continue to come to council with a with a recommendation report. Um just to to add a bit more to this um we we have very detailed programs. So in these programs we have very clear terms terms on our requirement. So that's why we're comfortable recommending this delegated authority. Um these programs are obviously uh endorsed and approved by by council. Uh additionally uh for example with tax incurring grant programs there's very little risk uh to the city. So the actual grant is not issued until the the development is complete. But not only is it complete, uh, also until taxes have been actually realized. So, uh, there's there's very little risk. Um, in interest of time, I'll I'll be quick here on on a few other things. With regard to the actual mapping, there's no real changes, just a few mod modifications to include some park parking lots that are already budding existing sepas. Um, with regard to our loan programs, we're trying to make them more compatible with uh existing CMHC programs. So we've had a modification with regard to uh to equity. Uh and then just two more slides uh in terms of what we're proposing here. Um, with regard to our cost sharing programs, um, not too much to change in terms of the commercial district revitalization grant program, but there there is, I think, an important, uh, eligible cost being added with regard to SEPTED, crime prevention through environmental design. So, I think that's um, not a huge commitment in terms of cost, but could have a really big impact. So, I think that's a a good addition to the program. Um and then with regard specifically to uh Kennallorth Revitalization and that associated uh grant program um there hasn't been really the the uptake in that program that we were anticipating uh or that even the community was seeking as well uh which is you know an important part. Um and so we've we made a couple modifications. Uh so we are intending to uh hope if it gets passed to change the cost sharing structure from a 50/50 cost sharing structure to a 7030 costing cost sharing structure and then um to further um address some of the uh the lack of uh um interest in the program uh specifically along Kennallorth Avenue North uh introducing this new idea of uh creative industry specific grant stream. Uh and the idea here is just to almost give Kennallworth uh sort of identity uh to to try to help um maybe you know maybe it ends up being you know one one creative industry gets in there whether that's like a dance studio or whatever um and then you know uh other other similar industries follow. And then finally the last two uh to mention here uh we have an existing office attraction program uh but it hasn't had great uptake. It's it's currently alone uh and it really did focus on attraction. So getting office tenants from outside the city or office uh office tenants moving to to bigger uh office space would would be eligible through this program. So what we did instead is propose that um it now be a grant uh and then also expand the scope so to speak to uh to touch on that retention piece. Uh so not just the attraction but also the retention and to refocus that downtown. And then finally uh there is a new art mural program. Uh we do currently uh provide grants for art murals, but this would be a new dedicated art mural program. Uh it made more sense just to speak specifically to the requirements of an art mural. Uh and it will now also be uh administered by uh tourism staff with with our with our help. Uh that's just a summary. Uh again uh just to identify some of the changes. And then finally importantly um so we come here with this GIC report before going to planning committee just to make sure all of essentially all of council uh understands what we're doing and then per legislation we have to go to the planning uh committee to satisfy planning act requirements where we are where we will have our required bylaws and we're targeting that uh before the end of Q3 just to make sure programs are finalized but also to meet any of our uh notice requirements. Okay, thank you. Happy to answer any questions. >> Yeah, thank you very much. We do have a few questions. First up, council clerk. >> Oh, first of all, actually before we do that, we're going to take a mover and seconder to receive the presentation and put the approval of the recommendations on the floor. So, council Wang, councelor Tatison, uh we will Yeah, that's a electronic vote. >> Oh, yeah. We're not going to vote later. Questions now. Thank you very much, >> Councelor Clark. Go ahead. Uh, thank you, Deputy May. Can I get my 30 seconds back? Just >> not 40. >> Um, >> could staff advise me where in this volume in this documentation is the recommendation to increase the delegated authority to $500,000 instead of the usual $250,000? >> Yeah. Yeah. Through the chair. So we haven't proposed or we haven't uh included the bylaw to to do that. Uh so what what we're doing right now is just uh uh presenting our our sort of case for that to improve efficiencies. Um in terms of where it where it is like it's it's part it's part of the report. Um but there's nothing attached like if you're looking for like a particular appendix with the actual bylaw that sets it out. That hasn't been done yet. that would come uh at the planning committee if if that uh depending on the the feedback from today. >> Uh yeah, I I have concerns about changing set policy that we already have in place. So um I'll deal with at the appropriate time, but I would suggest that if it's a change to policy, it should be in here as a recommendation and not buried in the report somewhere. Um, I'm a little bit confused on the commercial district housing opportunities because what it seems that we're doing is we're offering um loans of up to a million dollars to folks um to convert office space into housing. 50% of that loan can be spent on housing and 50% on common elements. But in the same breath, we have a program to retain office space and workplace space in downtown. Can someone explain >> how we can have two >> Yeah. >> different policies affecting the same downtown? >> Yeah, sure. Through through the chair, um the that loan program is not specific to converting office space to to housing. Um it is there to to create housing. Um then there's a separate grant program with regard to the uh office conversions. I guess I must have read it wrong. It says commercial district housing opportunities program provided financial assistance for interest to promote the improvement and development of dwelling units in commercial. I get it's in there but >> okay it's just confusing. Um, appendix C, um, if I may, Deputy Mayor, this is mapping, um, that we have for the different districts that we already have these grants and loan program in place. I see there are some additions where it's a continuous expansion of the program area, but I'm very curious. On a few of these pages, um, page seven of nine, there are two red squares on specific properties in the area of downtown that are not contiguous to the district. So how are we doing that? Because those are individual properties that we are now saying qualifies for this. >> Yeah. through through the chair. I I I understand the confusion there. So what that's actually showing um uh those are actually parts of other seas uh community improvement project areas. What happened was um >> it says here with the red sorted to cut you off proposed SEPA property additions. So these are being new properties being added to SEA. >> Yes. Yes. It's it's um it's it's not clear and I apologize for that. So what what happened there was in in the one particular let's say uh slide you're looking at or or mapping you're looking at it's for a particular CIP area and then um and then it it doesn't get shown um that that property was part of another CIP CIPA sea. So I I could I could assure you and and and we I could even before council send uh revised mapping, but basically all the red squares are um are abuing existing CIPAs. And I know it doesn't show that right there, but I could I can revise uh the mapping to show that. >> And Deputy Mayor, I'm looking at page eight of nine on the left hand side. Uh one, two, three, four. four properties that are not contiguous to the existing district and they're individual properties that you are adding. So, how do we get around the the question that we're providing some special treatment for that property owner? We tend to do these programs on districtwide. So there is no hint that we're providing an individual special treatment, but now we're adding properties that are not not contiguous to the districts that we have these grants in. >> Yeah, I don't I maybe when I when I get back I could I could uh pull up the mapping, but I I can definitively say and I don't know if Phil you have the mapping there that these are uh are abuing existing uh >> not sorry through the chair. One is the properties that are highlighted are municipal parking lots. So that's why they've been added is that to open up the possibility as the city's been looking to surplus parking lots throughout the city for our programs to potentially play a role in whatever it is council's deciding those lots should become. Um so that's the intent of those additions. They're not private properties. They're all municipal park surface parking lots adjacent to these. In terms of the mapping matter, um, as an example, on page eight, page eight of nine, there's a boundaries. A number of boundaries are shown. These are our commercial corridors. You'll see that off of Ottawa Street, there are two red boxes that appear to be not contiguous. that is actually added boundaries to the Ottawa street sepha but it's not shown on this map because this is meant to show only the corridors. So what should have happened is that when we're talking about only these corridors those red areas should have been removed because they're shown as part of a different map later on in the same document. Yeah, I still have concerns because I'm seeing a lot of red squares that are just shown as proposed SEPA property additions. It does not indicate which ones are parking lots. Um, and there are several that are not even close to being contiguous to the district. So, um, between now and planning, you may want to clarify this mapping because right now it it looks very suspicious. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So, I thought I'd heard a commitment to do precisely that. >> Yes, exactly. Yeah. >> Okay. And that'll be circulated to all of council. >> Yeah, for sure. >> Great. Okay. Thank you for asking those questions. Next on the speakers list, Council Wang. >> Thank you, John Paul. I know how much work this was. So, I am very thankful for you and the team for doing this work because of the amount of engagement that you've had, not only with my office, but also with some of the businesses within my um with my within my uh neighborhoods. I wanted to commend you on slide 15 talking about the added eligibility for the SEPTED, the crime prevention through environmental design. Some of the businesses along Ottawa Street, Kennaworth Street have um let let me know that they with a lot of the challenges with uh today's sort of societal um challenges that they felt that they weren't being properly um supported in this and because the existing the older program was for something totally different and just doesn't make any sense. So I'm super happy about the SEPTAD being added. So could you potentially talk a little bit more about how um businesses could potentially take advantage of that particular program should this program move forward? >> Yeah, through the chair. Uh they they would do that how they normally sort of interact with us with with applications. um they they what what should happen or what what needs to happen uh if they are choosing to use um uh to to go down the SEPTA route is they would have to have a SEPTA headed audit. >> Um I mean the the I'll just take a step back. All the fine details are are still sort of to be to be ironed out, but uh there there is a draft uh program attached to to this report and essentially yeah they would have to um undertake a SEPTA audit uh and then that would identify essentially things they can do around their business or or building and um and then th those would be would be eligible um to to be to take part in the in the program to receive a grant. supplemental to that then how does our say graffiti because that's not the same as a subted but graffiti does seem to attract or potentially um promote um some of this these challenges so how does that work because the graffiti program is a completely separate and distinct different program so how does that map together then >> yeah uh through the chair so so yeah so I'll just say you're right a lot of the uh things we intend to do through our programs are are to help defer graffiti. Uh so so you're you're right on there. Um with regard to the graffiti specifically, it's not necessarily a separate program. It's it's part of this program. It's a it's another sort of element to the program. Um and there's distinct uh uh terms around graffiti and a distinct budget around graffiti. So um as it sits right now there that program uh is um eligible, I think, for $200 per uh graff graffiti uh incident. And that doesn't that doesn't take away from their um their overall grant that they can get within the program. >> Thank you. Uh my next um comment commendation, no uh comment or very >> appreciative comment is um the work around the introduction of a new grant stream for creative industries along Kennorth Avenue. I I know that we had previously talked about how Kennorth Avenue there just doesn't seem to be the same uptick in um the grant programs not uh but when we think about the history of what happened at dream street North and Lock Street and any of these other areas uh there was it seemed like it just like kind of snowballed and continued but we're just not there yet with Kennelorth Street. So I really I'm really quite appreciative of this. I think I want to go and dig a little bit deeper in how you should this move forward. How would you enable or see the communications effort to actually get these incentive programs out further? Because I know in my office, we actually hired a summer student. We talked about it with the employment survey folks to actually handrop flyers to all of these different um businesses. So, it just felt like whatever we were doing was just not um effective. So can you talk a little bit more about the communication strategy on how we would roll this out? >> Yeah. Yes. Uh through the chair. I think some of the well Kennallworth has uh a lot of things kind of going against it. I mean the the sort of land uses the the car parking lots along the street um are are not helping. Um, and I think we understood as well that there was maybe some hesitation for some businesses just to use the program cuz they're just not sure uh the work needed or just how long it will take to get the money or there's just some hesitancy to to uh to working with the city. Um, I think some feedback we've received um uh regarding our our programs is that they're a little bit worry. Um, and that's that's in to some degree intentional because we have very detailed terms and that's why I made the comment that I think council should be um confident when we're suggesting this delegated authority because we have very uh specific requirements uh in our program. Anyway, what what I'm what what's coming from that is that we have to I think have more digestible um uh sort of uh not not public facing but sort of uh additional material to to hand out to the public so that they understand quite easily what it entails um what they're going to get and sort of their time commitment as well. Uh, again, we've heard this uh before. You know, small businesses are doing a lot and they just don't want another administrative piece to their to their day-to-day. So, I think that's kind of the key there. It's like we're we're here to make it as easy as possible. Um, here's what your time commitment is. Um, and uh, you know, go through scenarios of what they can get. Um, these are, I think, really great, generous programs. So, um, uh, I'm I'm actually a little bit surprised that, uh, they're not more utilized. So, it it probably is a little bit of uh a marketing push that's that's needed. >> And and through the chair, if I may just add, um provided this is is approved whenever we get to planning committee with that stage, um we would be looking to do a refresh, if you will, and a relaunch of the programs across the community. And that would entail a strong communication push, also utilizing more effectively social media, which is not something we've done very well. Um, economic development is generally focused on LinkedIn and those kinds of things, but we've tested and found some success with some communication channels on Instagram and things like that that are reaching a broader audience within the community that have been successful. Um, so we're reooking at how we're communicating the programs and we're going to launch something more wholesome that we hope will get more attention. >> Perfect. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I plan on going on for a second time. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, counselor. Next, Mayor Horvath. Uh thanks very much. Um apologize for coming in uh halfway through or at the tail end of the uh the presentation and discussion. Um I have two things that I'm kind of curious about. One is you you talked about the um how you communicate the um information to perhaps make it more digestible uh for the uh property owners, businesses, etc. Um, I it brings to mind the work that was done uh by the planning folks with the way that they changed how the public uh information gets published in the in the newspaper around where you are when there's a uh when there's a development coming and uh where you are in the process and how you know how that um how that's made it a lot easier for people to understand the planning approvals that are being asked for and the process that the city's undertaking and what it is where it is that the public can get involved. So is is that something that would be possible is to look at that model uh because it is quite uh it still requisible. It's much more understandable. It's much more accessible to everyday people who don't live in in this kind of space. Right. So is that kind of what you're looking at perhaps >> uh through the chair? Absolutely. where we need to better recognize I'll step back that there are very much legal aspects that are important to the programs that need to be maintained and so the terms attached are are have a fair amount of legal ease for various reasons to protect the the city in various instances but we can do a better job of translating that into more common language uh when we talk to applicants and when we engage with the public and that will be an aspect of what we're doing for sure. >> That's that's really great to hear. The other thing just as um a suggestion I was down at the bike day fest festivities this morning and engage Hamilton is is asking people to put little stickies on a a piece of cardboard asking them how do they get their information? Where do they get their information from? Is it is it LinkedIn? Is it uh social media? Is it podcast? Is it the spectator? Like where is it coming from? And so that would be I hope something that would be shared amongst the entire uh city in terms of when there's an attempt to kind of you know meet with people or when you're trying to get some kind of community feedback uh that information would be beneficial to all departments and divisions I would I would think. So just a suggestion. Thanks very much. Thank you. >> Thanks Morv. Uh second time speaker council clerk. >> Thank you deputy mayor. Just one final question. So on page 6 of 37, it speaks to um the changes to the revitalizing Hamilton tax increment grant to promote the urbanization of the city's downtown parking supply. So we've encouraged property owners to um develop park their parking lots and put towers up and they've been doing that. In this case, we're proposing that we would provide incentives for them to provide public parking as a part of their underground parking complex. How do we ensure that once it's built that it is maintained as public parking and doesn't get transferred to parking for the the the uh apartment building, condos, whatever the case is. >> Yep. Uh through the chair. Uh so the the the the very details of that are still to be determined but we have thought of we have thought about this um and I'll just say even before getting into uh any any real real detail um all of our tax increment grant programs have uh legal agreements attached to them. Uh so so there's um there's protection from this from for the city uh there as well. um but the the thing we're trying to do um I I'll just maybe reexlain it. I haven't I didn't have too much time in the presentation. Um is provide public parking. So this is not to incentivize any private or required parking. This is sort of parking that is accessible to the public. There'll be terms attached to it to to uh ensure that it is uh available 24/7. Um and through the uh development process. So this is very early on. they have to identify that they want to incorporate this into their project and with transportation uh planning's help uh we'll we'll ensure that we're okay with the location and that it makes sense for the project. Um also what we intend to do with this is to uh monitor it. So um let's just say we get 10 applications tomorrow and they all want to include public parking. Well, if we're over supplying then that's defeating the purpose of the incentive. So, we're also going to be monitoring it through through the um the development planning uh process. And then with respect to just ensuring uh that um they keep it uh we're sort of debating now on what gets put into the legal agreement in terms of of of timing. So, it could be like a requirement to provide that for example for for 10 years. Um and then um and then I'll just say uh as well again there will be specific requirements in that legal agreement that gets um executed prior prior to to any any grant being issued. >> Yeah, I I wish you well with that approach. Um it's been very challenging to ensure that in the future we can hold developers accountable for the money that they receive from the city and then they are no longer providing the service that we granted them money for. And so my fear is that private parking lots experience many challenges. Um we know this because we own our own parking lots. um and that at some point the property owner is going to say this is worth too much trouble to me and just shut down that parking lot and open it up to um the residents. So, uh I'd be very keen on seeing what language is in that agreement. >> Yeah, if I may chair just add add one more thing. So, ideally uh with this um is that it'll be operated by Hamilton Parking uh systems. So that that would be the the the best case scenario. So then it's within the the the city's hands to to operate and then that's how we can ensure that it's public parking. Uh we recognize that that's not always going to be the case or that it may not be feasible for the for the city to to operate that. >> But I see uh director Steve I don't know if you want to Malloy add anything to that. >> Sure. Thank you. and through the chair, uh, Steve Mallaloy, acting director of transportation planning and parking. Uh, you make a great assertion, counselor. Uh, that's always a concern if we're going to be providing some funding for public accessible parking. We want to make sure that there's stability in that parking supply. Um, and now 10 years is a short period of time um for any operation. So, those are the negotiation things of what we want to accomplish um in the downtown. Um as part of that uh it could be uh um municipal parking system to manage and uh manage that but we were just an operator of that and that would be our responsibility and it we could be agnostic on that. It could be a operator. We are one operator who could be taking that on um and we would be very cognizant of what our responsibilities would be. um the the the asset management of it would be the responsibility of the owner and we would be purely the operator and maintain our assets but not the structural assets of it. So there is an advantage to that. Um but we would definitely want to make sure that there is accessible parking and that the management of it is over sustainable period of time so it benefits the public. >> Thank you. And last point chair, we would need to consider what revenue throw through or flow through is there to the property owner. So if they're running a private lot, then they would charge and they would take that money and they'd use that money for the upkeep. If we're running it, then there has to be an agreement whereby they earning revenue. Otherwise, the incentive disappears very quickly. Once it's built, the incentive is gone unless there's some type of financial agreement attached to it. Just a suggestion. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Clark. Other second time speaker, councelor Wang. >> Thank you. I'd like to understand our 5-year cycle. In the next 5 to seven years, we are going to experience significant um improvements, investments like LRT. So, um, my ward in particular has a portion of LRT that runs that is not in a business improvement area, also not in a SEIPA. Um, but yet it it's perpendicular to two seas, the Ottawa Street SEPA as well as the Kennallorth Street SEPA. And there may also be an opportunity for say Parkdale because Parkdale is also considered a commercial corridor. LRT runs right across all of those. So, how does how do these um how do we think through incentives for LRT? Because I think about the small businesses that are going to essentially have significant challenges with LRT construction, but because those three C three commercial corridors run up to LRT, they're also going to experience a significant amount of challenge as well. So, how are we really thinking through the the long-term strategy of this, especially because we're on five-year sort of review increments? Um, and so, how do we stay nimble and help um anticipate the challenges of small businesses uh before? >> Yeah. through through the chair. So, the the 5-year cycle is is not like a legislative uh time period. It's something that I think we we've implemented um over over time. Um but if you've seen let's say in the last five five years we've been at committee um a number of times to either introduce new new programs or or amendments to the programs. So uh staff's always thinking about uh improvements. Um we're always responding to council motions as well. So um this is not a static document that's going to have to wait the 5 years. Um we've like like I said we've we've addressed many issues even just in the last 5year cycle where we've come to council um a number of times. So that's a good point. I I think probably as especially as the LRT uh moves forward and there's a lot of uh different things happening. We probably will be here before the 5 years. Um and we we anticipate or or we're we're ready to do that. That's just something we understand that might happen. >> Okay. Then um operationally then will businesses that are say at the intersection of say Ottawa and Maine or Kennoworth and Maine uh where again countorth not have a sea no BIA and but then Maine that area does not have a sepha and then feasibly we might have incentives to support small businesses along the LRT. Will they be able to stack? Can they stack um these incentives on top of each other or does that automatically mean that they are cancelelling each other out? I'm I'm a little I think I'd like a little more clarity around how businesses might be able to access these incentives um given all of the different challenges. >> Yeah, I I'll just I I'll start maybe just talking generally and then maybe pass it it off to uh to Phil. But um just generally speaking um our programs are are stackable. Um what we do is we make sure though that the eligible cost that they're sort of using to get the grant that's not being used in multiple programs. So um if there for example is uh an eligible cost that's in one program and not the other um then they could use that other program. Um it just can't you can't use the same cost in multiple sets of programs. So, um, we do a sort of auditing, uh, to make sure there's no, um, unintentional, uh, or or intentional double dipping. Um, yeah, so we're very very cognizant, uh, of that. But if there is a project that can use multiple programs, then that's that's intentional. >> Okay. Yeah. >> And through the chair, uh, I'll just add just for clarification, Main Street does have a SEIPA. Um the only area on the LRT route that is not a seipa I believe would be from the Red Hill to Eastgate. That's the one area that is not covered by one of our existing seas. So there are programs available to support businesses along the LRT route. Again emphasizing that the programs we have under the planning act are for physical property improvements, permanent improvements to properties. What the programs can't do right now or even under provincial legislation is support with business losses, uh, rent, soft costs, things like that or staffing costs that, um, businesses might experience. We've seen in other jurisdictions, the federal and provincial governments come to those discussions, especially in Toronto through the cross town, I believe it was, um, where the city can't do it, those entities can. And so we have been engaged with the LRT office around what are the conversations that might be had with Metroinks about additional supports that could be uh brought forward we could implement through our programs or through the BAS or other groups um to provide additional supports beyond just physical property improvements and those discussions are still continuing. >> Okay. My last question through you, deputy mayor, is a question on um this existing process because as we heard uh it's coming in front of planning committee where the bylaws are actually coming forward at end of Q3 this year. Um so is there still opportunity to um dig a little deeper because essentially this is still in draft form until that happens. So um is there still opportunity to participate and contribute more ideas in a sentence? Yeah, through through the chair. Uh I suppose technically yes. Um I think if if uh committee here agrees with the concepts, we wouldn't want to change those too much because I think uh the ideas and the the intentions I don't think are uh we were planning on changing those to planning committee. Uh but yeah, the the very granular details sure I think those could be be updated. Um yeah, hope that >> Thank you. Okay, those are all my questions. >> Okay, thanks Councelor Wang. Seeing no one else on the speakers list, we do have a mover and seconder already to receive the presentation and approve the recommendations in the report. So, we'll go to an eastcribe vote. And you should see that vote now. And that carries 10 to zero. Thank you everybody. 8.4A is correspondence from Amanda Stringer, West End Homebuilders Association respecting this report. Uh so we will need a mover and seconder to put the correspondence on the floor. Councelor Wang. Councelor Pauls. Thank you. Is there any discussion on this correspondence? Seeing none, a show of hands to receive it. And that is everybody. Thank you very much. Moving on to 8.5 BIAC 226-005 business improvement area subcommittee minutes May 19th, 2026. Could I have a mover and second to put the item on the floor? Councel Wang. Councelor Alex Wilson. Any discussion on this item? Councelor Wang, go ahead. >> Thank you for that. Uh, I wanted to also I'm pretty proud and pro a lot of this stuff right now, but at the BIA subcommittee, we heard a presentation around the Common House Cafe and the Common House Cafe has it will be going through a different uh change because uh Christy from Apothecary will be ending her tenure there. Yeah, I know. I just Nobody saw it, but councelor uh deputy mayor definitely made a sad face. Um, we are very thankful that Christy has been participating, but I'm also super super thankful to the uh, small business, the Hamilton Business Center for their use in this um, their leadership in the program and then their leadership across the province in supporting small businesses. So, I just wanted to make that uh, comment that it's uh, great to be able to see that level of work that happens. And then there's also an opportunity to copy and paste this into other parts of our city. So I think that this is really amazing and I'm really thankful for uh learning more about this program. >> Thanks Councelor Wang. Not seeing any further speakers. So we will go to the electronic vote. The vote is up. and that vote carries unanimously. Thank you very much. 8.6 CM260006 corporate continuous improvement program. May I have a mover and seconder to put the item on the floor, please? Councelor Wang. Councelor Alex Wilson. Is there any discussion on this item? Councelor Wang. >> Sorry, Deputy Mayor. I have lots of questions on this agenda these days. Uh I I'm I'm interested in knowing more because it does look like we are asking for um some funds to uh go towards a consultant endto-end review. So what is the expected outcome from uh that consultantled uh review? >> Uh thank you for the question councelor Wang. I'll pass this on Cyrus acting city manager. I'll pass this on to uh Pat Leechman um for her to comment or include any members of her team to provide that answer. Thank you. >> Way up at the top. Go ahead. >> Uh yes, good morning. Pat Leechman, director of enterprise portfolio management and transformation. Um, thank you for the question. Uh, so we have an opportunity using the funds that council identified during the budget process uh for an opportunity to do some continuous improvement work in an area that's been highlighted by a number of different organ a number of different parts of the city including procurement themselves looking for that opportunity to create more efficiencies uh in the procurement process. Uh so this was done uh with procurement's voice at the table to have that understanding of how we can so from an outcome perspective more efficient processes uh faster um uh ways to ease uh the procurement uh I have the word burden in my head but I way ways to make it easier for staff to procure services and goods uh while still meeting the intent of the procurement policy. Uh so it would be creating efficiencies and driving um outcome that would would create faster procurement opportunities. >> Okay. So my follow-up question for you W mayor is um what about the other aspects of continuous improvement like I think about like in the in the days of your it was a suggestion box and then you read the said suggestions out of suggestion box and then that is what translated into something new. So, what's the what's that opportunity beyond procurement um for continuous improvement in service delivery from the city of Hamilton? >> Yeah, great question and through the chair. Uh I'm excited about this program. Um I've seen this run in many other organizations. It it's been here in the city in in a in pockets and this is now the opportunity to roll it out across. So, exactly what you said, counselor, uh there is an idea hopper. There is a way for suggestions to be gathered uh to be put in from any employee across the city. We haven't formally launched the idea hopper yet. It will come out uh shortly after this uh hopefully report is approved and we move forward. But that's that's the momentum, right? The person that knows how to improve their job the best is the person doing it. And we want their voices and we want them to to train them and to have eyes to recognize these opportunities or to have a forum to be able to bring them forward and whether it's as um projects or uh opportunities to just do it those quick and fast ways to just put improvements in place. You are so correct that it's hearing their voice. It's getting those suggestions into a a mechanism where we have visibility on them and where uh supervisors, managers, directors can take hold of some of those and really make some things happen. I've never seen a program like this fail before. it it's always if you get people excited and they have a way to be able to get their ideas heard and implement them and get recognized for them and and move forward. We we build a better and stronger city with a culture that is now continuous improvement focused. And as I say, this is not new. There's there's pockets of the city that are already doing this very well. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. This is uh welcome news. My um hope is that we will move further beyond in a consultant report to actual implementation. We have good people that work for the city of Hamilton and they have great ideas. I I do see that sometimes it fails. Sometimes it doesn't go up the up the ladder um quickly enough or maybe we just fail when it comes to actual implementation. But I think that this is a real opportunity for us to show um not only our residents but also our city staffers that we are listening and that we can do better and we can do more with what we have. Thank you. >> Thanks, Councelor Wang. Councelor Clark. >> Thank you, Chair. So, I I appreciate all of this work that that we are doing. We have initiated this earlier through the budget process looking for efficiencies across the corporation. So the first question I have, it's been my experience that a division who that has been functioning with a specific corporate culture within that division over a long period of time, they don't see necessary necessarily where the improvements could be made. It's fresh eyes on that division that tends to find the efficiencies. So can you help me understand how that would work in this process >> through the chair? Uh thank you for the question counselor. There's a number of ways that that can happen. The program focuses on a tool tool set called lean six sigma that drives the opportunity for belts and employees uh to complete initiatives or projects either within their area or with GM director manager approval to go and do work in another area because they are that fresh set of eyes. Uh I've I've seen it work very well in the past where belts or those trained in these tools actually um had to go and do a project uh in a different area for that very reason. So we have the opportunity uh to to do that um through the tools themselves in terms of customer journey mapping, process mapping, uh using various other other tasks and tools to help us understand the situation. Um that will also help make more visible where the opportunities are. Um, it's important that as we look at the idea hopper, as we look at how things get into the idea hopper, there are a number of ways that we can help groups through an approach, a a standardized facilitated approach to do exactly what you're asking, counselor, in terms of helping um divisions or sections look at their world a little bit differently. there's a structured question process that can help with that as well. >> Thank you and I appreciate that. Um and I'm familiar with that that program the lean six and and and it has worked very well in private sector organizations and a few public sectors u also um with regards to two things with procurement since it's going to be a part of this discussion. Um, what's how long does it take for a vendor who's done work for the city of Hamilton to get paid for the work that they have done >> through through the chair? Um, typically staff aim towards uh inside of 30 days. Uh, but I will note that we are still recovering and rebuilding from the cyber incident. And so from time to time it extends beyond 30 days. When those are flagged for staff's attention, we look to resolve any outstanding balances within days to a week. Um but typically we aim towards within 30 days. >> Would we at any point have hit 90 days >> through the chair? Absolutely. There will be times uh and uh this is a coordinated not not a procurement. This is a cross-dep departmental uh effort uh with respect to receiving the invoice uh having the appropriate approvals from the departments and program areas and then having that uh advanced on to accounts payable. Uh it is uh there will be circumstances where invoices will be aged to 90 days and in some cases beyond the 90 days when those are raised or flagged we do expedite those uh with program areas and across corporate services including our council payable team. The reason I asked those question is I've heard from some of some vendors and what they have done now is they tack on more money when they're filing for tenders with the city because they have to finance the project. So they're paying for it. If you hit 90 days and 120 days and they still haven't got payment, they're out of pocket until they get paid. And so we need to consider that in the procurement process to try to make that much more efficient so that um hopefully the costs that we're incurring uh drop um h how will we the last question how will we and I think this is a very important question itemize monetize efficiencies and savings that we've occurred through this process. How how will we be able to demonstrate through some sort of matrix that as a result of this program, we've improved this many programs, we we've saved this amount of money for the taxpayer. um that type of almost granular data. But um if we don't present that to the public, they won't understand whether or not we've actually secured any efficiencies >> through the chair. Thank you for the question. Um great question and and there's a lot to that. So from the way we've set things up and the way it's run in public works in the past, um I'm sure it still is there as well. Uh so it's important that that finance uh on the larger initiatives be involved so that we can validate where there's actual um hard dollar cost reduction savings. Uh so when we look at savings they can be considered as cost reduction cost avoidance. So the ability to not spend future cost um but that does not reduce a budget or a revenue generation increasing revenue. So when we look at initiatives that can can tackle it can look at it from any one of those or all three could actually be part of an initiative. So when we look at driving that um and as as well as other metrics it becomes um more visible uh to the public to council to senior leadership um how many initiatives are being done across the city and it's already happening today. uh you you've heard in this council chambers about the Bloomberg uh work that's being done in peed. That's an amazing example of a continuous improvement project that's that's just got incredible uh stretch to it. So when we look at it from that perspective, it it's about just almost recording what we're already doing today. Just capturing it in a and and that's part of the program as well, capturing that backend to say this is what we've done. where there are bigger dollars associated, that's where in the past we've always had finance validate that and the budget owner agree that things will be reduced from their budgets. I guess the biggest one that I recall is when the street lights were changed over from highpressure sodium to LED. Um there were there was a huge continuous improvement project done around how that work was done. Um it may sound very basic to change out street lights but there was quite a process to do that in a very efficient way plus the change over of the lights which caused a budget reduction. So, we're always looking for those opportunities for either cost avoidance, cost reduction to budgets, or revenue generation. And and so um just a quick followup, I appreciate all that and I understand everything that that Pat has said here today and I support it all, but I'd like the group to really think about how they will report back to council and the public on what was achieved through this process. I think it's very important that we itemize it to the best of our ability. So, I I'll just leave it there as a closing comment, but let's not lose sight of that because I think it's very important um for us to show to the public this is the accomplishments that we have had. People are asking for value for money. This is how we get value for money through this process. Thank you. >> Yeah, just one more quick followup for me. Thank you through the chair. Uh, I I didn't maybe make it concrete, but we do have a log that will capture all of that and be able to record it so that we have at our fingertips all the good work that's been done. I apologize, councelor. I wasn't clear there. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Uh, Mayor Horvath. >> Uh, thanks very much. Um, Deputy Mayor, uh, I I just kind of following up on this um this, uh, line of, uh, you know, exploration. uh is it fair to say that this process will lead to KPIs that can be reported out? So whether it's financial, whether it's customer, whether it's operational, um is it is that something that would can be built in so that that you were we're not only doing the measuring but we're doing it in a very uh disciplined way and that those KPIs can then be um provided to council to public etc. Uh, thank you for the question, Mayor Horvath, through the chair. Yes, absolutely. The intent is with senior leadership's blessing, with council's blessing, those metrics that make sense to communicate out to the public. Absolutely. We want to be able to share that good news story and and put that out there to say as a city, we have we have this. We we've got this and we're making great great improvements moving forward and can demonstrate that quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Okay, seeing we don't have any further speakers, we have a mover and seconder. We will go to the electronic vote. The vote is up. Okay. And that carries unanimously. And that brings us to our final item for consideration before we get to motions. And that item is 8.7 LS26010 2026 property and liability insurance renewal. May I have a mover and seconder to put the item on the floor, please? Mayor and councelor Pauls. Is there any discussion? I'm not seeing any. So we will go directly to the electronic vote. The vote is up. That carries 10 to zero. That brings us to motions. Item 9.1 is Alexander Park Baseball Association Grant Ward One. Councelor Alex Wilson. Could you introduce your motion and your secondary? >> Through you, Chair. I'm moving this motion on behalf of councelor Moren Wilson, although was a former uh resident as part of the Enleywood Neighborhood Association. Certainly can see the merit of this. The seconder is councelor Wang. Uh this is an allocation from the ward one capital discretionary account towards the Alexand uh towards the Alexander Park minor sports association um which has served the Anleywood neighborhood and brought award one community for 80 plus years. This is to help with equipment storage in the Church Hill Park clubhouse. And I'll just skip to the therefore be it resolved which is that uh a grant be provided to the Alexander Park Minor Sports Association to be funded from the Ward One Capital discretionary account and upset limit including contingency not to exceed $2500. That funds would be exempt on the one-time basis and not counted for any formula relating to the city enrichment fund and that the mayor and the city clerk be authorized and directed to execute any required agreements and ancillary documents with such terms and conditions that are set by the city solister. Um, as the word counselor, uh, councelor Moren Wilson obviously isn't here today. I can do my best to answer any questions that do come up. I know staff have also been involved in this. Um, there's some joint, uh, funding for the skate park between ws 11 and 13. It's a bit of a share to many, so we'll not in the ward have some line of sight to what's going on in the area. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. We do have a speakers list. Councelor Clark, go ahead. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. I'm simply going to vote against it. Uh, I continue to have concerns about the disparity between different programs within the city of Hamilton. From my area, it's only 560 or $516. I can't remember exact number that we're permitted to provide for sponsorship for leagues and sports teams. So, I I can't support that based on this. Thank you. >> Okay. Seeing no further speakers, we will go to the vote. The vote is up. >> That vote carries. 9 to one. Moving on to 9.2. Feasibility of a 50 meter pool in the city of Hamilton. Mayor Horvath, would you like to introduce your motion and your seconder, please? Um, Deputy Mayor Casar, I have I don't think I have a seconder for this motion at this point. Oh, councelor, thank you so much, councelor Pauls. I appreciate that. Uh, so the motion reads as follows that and it's titled feasibility of a 50 meter pool in the city of Hamilton. Where's uh access to aquatic facilities is an essential component of complete communities supporting public health, recreation, sport development and water safety for residents of all ages and abilities. Whereas 50 meter pools, long course facilities are critical for competitive swimming, high performance training and hosting regional, provincial and national competitions and are currently limited in availability within Hamilton and the surrounding region. Whereas Hamilton continues to grow uh and with that growth comes increased demand for recreation infrastructure, including aquatic facilities that can meet both community and competitive needs. Whereas the city of Hamilton's recently approved recreation master plan does not currently include the development of a 50 meter aquatic facility. Uh whereas this exclusion reflects the significant capital, operational and land requirements associated with 50 meter pools and the need to prioritize limited municipal resources across a range of recreation and community infrastructure needs rather than a lack of community interest or demand for expanded aquatic capacity. And whereas there may be an opportunity to explore partnerships or shared use models with other municipalities, post-secondary institutions, school boards or private sector uh or the private sector within Hamilton or the surrounding private sector partners, sorry, who may be pursuing or considering the development of a 50 meter facility within Hamilton or the surrounding region, thereby helping to mitigate financial and logical logistical constraints. Therefore, be it resolved a that staff be directed to undertake a feasibility analysis on the development of a 50 meter aquatic facility uh in the city of Hamilton, including consideration of potential locations and site requirements, capital and operating cost estimates, funding models, including opportunities for external funding and cost sharing, partnership opportunities with other municipalities, post-secondary institutions, school boards, and private sector organizations, opportunities for shared use or multi-purpose facility integration, and community need and demand, including input from local aquatic organizations and user groups. And B, that staff report back to council no later than Q12027 with the findings of the feasibility analysis, including recommended next steps. And I'll speak to it very briefly. Um I've been um speaking with the aquatic uh council uh the aquatic sport council of Ontario uh and um there have been a number of municipalities in kind of this side of the technically of the GTA. So kind of the west end if you will of uh of this part of the uh the province and there are there's very little access to this kind of facility uh overall. uh there are a number of kind of municipalities in this region that are interested in uh in this kind of a facility because the need is so great and there's simply no uh available facility. Uh although because uh of what I've put in the motion, it's very clear that it's hard for a single municipality to undertake the required uh uh costs and uh maintenance and operations of of such a facility on its own. Uh and so rather than um simply uh walk away, I thought it would be good for staff to provide some information as to what's the feasibility of uh of of uh something of this nature uh being uh brought to Hamilton. Uh no commitments here at all, just uh information so that staff uh can kind of put it on their list of things to do and and bring back something that uh council can make a educated and informed decision about uh in in the next term of office. And so um because it's something that has uh has been identified for some time, I suspect that there may be partnerships out there that might be willing to participate. The motion does say in the city of Hamilton, but I think uh the including recommended next steps would be broad enough to you know provide other uh configurations if you will in terms of location etc. Uh so that's the um the reason why I brought it forward and I'm hoping for support uh for staff to be able to take some time to look at this. >> Thanks Mayor Harvath. And we do have a speakers list. First up is councelor Nan. Go ahead councelor Nan. >> Thank you through you chair. Just a couple questions to staff. Uh happy to support the motion. I think it's really important piece of work that needs to come back. Um, currently within the recreation master plan, there are some governing principles that were used to assess and make recommendations and a big part of that was equity. I'm just curious how staff might is that implied inside of the feasibility review? That would be my first question. uh through the chair through the chair Grace Mater General Manager Healthy and Safe Communities. Um online with us is uh director Seavore um and he's been uh working on this uh in the background as well. So I'll pass it over to him for a response. Counselor. >> Director Seor, go ahead. >> Thank you through the deputy mayor, Steve Savor, director of recreation. Uh thank you for the question counselor and yes in terms of any uh future review or analysis we would also continue to look at it uh from an equity perspective as we have done through our current uh recreation master plan analysis. So any any work that we would do would have that continued focus um moving forward as well. >> And if I could through you chair if you could just break down the definition of equity in that lens perspective. So my understanding is that we it would be a review of where uh amenities do not exist, where amenities are lacking, where there may be a deficiency of aquatic recreational activity. Um and uh you know I know that we have to balance opportunity with need here. Uh but I think it's also really important given some of the delegations that have come forward over the year uh about the fact that residents in the lower city have to travel way further uh than many other residents in order to access um aquatic appropriate aquatic facilities. For example, uh residents in the in in my area and can in in war, the students don't have a pool that they can walk to where they can participate in swim meets or the schoolwide swim meets. um that they can't uh access uh appropriate size pool for swim teams to be able to get their entry point in order to get to a point that they would consistently use a 50 or 50 meter foot sorry pool. So, if you could just comment on that, please. >> Uh through the deputy mayor, you you are correct, counselor, in terms of uh all those items that you indicated from an equity perspective and including programming, distance, uh accessibility, in terms of uh um access to facilities. Those are things that really need to be cognizant within our review. um because there have been um I I guess historical uh issues in terms of having um not not a good uh response to those pieces and so we are very cognizant of uh including that within our review uh and making sure that it is uh part of that inherent um analysis of of those opportunities. >> Thank you so much. Satisfied with that. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next speaker, Councelor Pauls. >> Thank you. >> And I want to thank the mayor. This is amazing. and uh for having meeting with the aquatic council. I wanted to second it because I want you to know I have a granddaughter who got a full scholarship in the states because of swimming. But I want to tell you it was hard. She had to travel sometimes all the way to Windsor. Windsor has a 50 meter pool. And they and all the parents would say, "What about Hamilton?" And now I have another uh granddaughter who's in swimming. She's only eight. So, I have a 20-year-old and then I have four boys. So, all the children are all different grandchildren, all different age. And uh they're approaching me and when they knew the mayor was doing this, they were so excited just to get information because I think our city is ready. So, I'm looking forward to it. And again, thank you, Mayor Orva, for doing this. >> Thank you, councelor Pauls. Next up, councelor Clark. Um, thank you, Deputy Mayor. I do thank the mayor for um um the motion and I will support it based on that. It is a feasibility study. I can state only from my experience in Ward 9 with our Valley Park swimming pool. Um it is over capacity all the time. I have so many residents, many seniors that just want to get into the the Aqua Fit program and they can't. there's there's not enough capacity. So, these are issues that that we need to pay attention to. I know Glenn Brook has been desiring a community center in pool for as long as I can remember. Um, and they come into Valley Park, which means Valley Park is over capacity because we're serving a much broader area now, including folks from downtown. I know the pool in Councelor Francis's ward is over capacity. Um and and that's a brand new facility that we we had put in when I was the counselor down there. So I think this is a great idea. Um not sure where we will find a place to do it. Um but I think there is large demand um for this type of facility. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thanks, Council Clark. Councelor Tison. So to the staff, um, Director Seavore, we have three proposed rural rec centers with pools in the master plan. So would any of these rural rec centers be considered um for that location? through the deputy mayor. I think uh in terms of uh looking at this uh particular request uh that would be part of our review in terms of the the three um community recreation centers that we're planning in the 10-year uh capital plan as potential locations. Uh I think it would be too early to indicate for certain that uh it would be uh a candidate site. Um we would have to do some analysis. As you know, we are planning uh for uh potential locations for pools in all three of those uh areas. However, a 50 meter pool, as uh as the motion has indicated, was not uh substantiated within our recreation master plan. So, that would be something that we would have to consider and review as part of this analysis. >> Okay, I can appreciate that. And deputy mayor, I appreciate that we are a major city in Canada and we do not have a 50 m competitive pool. I appreciate that the mayor is making efforts to find partnerships with other jurisdictions, other institutions, do whatever we can, but our resources as a city are finding. So from my point of view, we have a 100,000 residents living in and close to rural communities in Winona, Upper Stony Creek, Glenn Brook, Ancaster, Flamro that need better access to a community indoor pool. Honestly, and I just have to state this, my residents don't need a 50 m pool. They need a community indoor pool where their children can learn how to swim and take swimming lessons in the winter all year long. These community indoor pools need to be our priority before we divert finances and energies and start to look at an Olympic size pool. So at this time, I know that this is just a study, but at this time, I want all our focuses to go to those community pools so that kids can learn to swim and then be competitive later on. So at this time, I don't know that I can support this motion. It just focuses for me on the wrong priority and for me, this is the wrong time. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Councelor Tatterson. I don't see any further speakers. So the motion has been moved and seconded. We will go to the electronic vote. voted. >> That carries 9 to one. Thank you. So, notices a motion. Do we have any notices of motion? Oh, sorry. I skipped over one. My apologies. We are at 9.3. United Steel Workers Commemorative Signs. A very important motion. And we had a delegate of course earlier today. Mayor Horvath, could you please introduce your motion and your secondary? >> Thanks very much. Uh, Deputy Mayor Casar. Uh, it's boo by myself and seconded by Chancellor Ninder Nan and it's titled United Steel Workers Commemorative Signs. Uh and it says whereas the 1946 Stelco strike led by United Steel Workers Local 105 began on July 15th, 1946 and lasted 81 days becoming one of becoming one of the most significant labor actions in Canadian history. Whereas the strike represented a pivotal moment in the fight for collective bargaining rights, union recognition, fair wages, improved working conditions, paid vacation, the 40-hour work week, and the check off system for union dues. rights and protections that would go on to shape workplaces across Canada for generations to come. Whereas the courage, solidarity, and determination demonstrated by Hamilton steel workers during the strike helped establish Hamilton as a proud union city and strengthened the broader Canadian labor movement during a defining period in the country's industrial history. Whereas the strike drew widespread spread support from Hamilton residents, veterans uh returning from the Second World War, rail workers, dock workers, community organizations, and then Mayor Sam Lawrence, uh reflecting the deep connection between Hamilton's labor movement and the city's identity and values. Whereas the city uh whereas the United Steel Workers Local 105 has continued to play an important role in Hamilton for decades through its advocacy for for workers rights, workplace safety, fair employment standards, and community solidarity while representing generations of steel workers who helped build Hamilton's economy and industrial legacy. Whereas 2026 marks the 80th anniversary of the historic Stelco strike, providing an important opportunity for the city of Hamilton to recognize and commemorate the lasting contributions of steel workers and the labor movement to the social, economic, and cultural fabric uh of the city. And whereas the industrial uh whereas industrial drive is located in the heart of Hamilton's industrial sector and in close proximity to the former Stelco lands and the United Steel Workers Local 105 Union Hall uh making it meaningful and appropriate an appropriate location for a commemorative street naming recognition. And therefore be it resolved that staff be direct a that staff be directed to work in collab collaboration with USW local 105 to design a commemorative sign street sign and commemorative traffic control cabinet wrap recognizing the 80th anniversary of the Stelco strike. B that the staff be that staff be rec uh directed to install the commemorative street signs at the following locations. Uh one sign at the intersection of Willox Street and Industrial Drive. One sign in at the intersection of Dew Street and Industrial Drive. One sign on the existing signpole located midway along Industrial Drive between Willox Street and Depw Street. One commu commemorative sign to be presented to the United Steel Workers Local 105 Union Hall. Uh C that staff be directed to install the commemorative traffic control cabinet wrap at the intersection of Willox and Industrial Drive. That the cost associated with the production of the four commemorative signs estimated at $1,000 total, 250 per sign, be funded as follows. One sign funded from the mayor's office budget. one sign funded from the Ward 3 operating budget and two signs funded by United Steel Workers Local 105. That the cost associated with the production of the commemorative traffic uh control cabinet wrap estimated at $500 be funded by the United Steel Workers Local 105. that the public works that public works staff be directed to work with United Steel Workers Local 105 and the mayor's office staff to coordinate the installation and unveiling of the commemorative signage and wrap in time for any anniversary recognition activities. Um so as you'll know that from the if I can just a few words uh councelor or sorry uh deputy mayor Casar um as you heard this morning from uh from Ron Wells from the steel workers uh this is something that they came to my office uh uh asking about some uh some uh feasibility. uh and uh we immediately began to work with them to um to do exactly that uh to to put together what they needed to see this um this uh idea realized. And so I want to thank 10:05 uh uh Ron Wells particularly for delegating earlier today. Um I want to say that the uh advocacy has been uh significant. Uh the strike, as you know, was a defining chapter not only for the Hamilton labor movement, but for workers rights across Canada uh during the uh uh the uh industrial history of of our nation. And the motion speaks to the uh the impact of that uh sector uh that industry on Hamilton and Hamilton's growth, but really it's national. It was a national it still continues to be nationally significant. I think 60% of all steel uh here in Canada is is uh produced uh and and fabricated here in Hamilton still to this day. And so uh there's no doubt that 105 has played an enormous role uh economically, socially, and culturally. Uh we want just want to make sure that we're doing our part to recognize uh and remember uh remember this important anniversary in a in a very symbolic way. So again, I want to thank councelor Nan as well for the work that she's done uh with the union to um to help bring this motion forward and uh hope for your support. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mayor Horvath. We do have a speaker list. Councelor Nan, >> thank you through you, Chair. Thank you to the mayor and her office uh for connecting my office for the to this opportunity to support this important commemoration. Uh very important for many former and current W3 neighbors who are have been uh 105 members. Uh it's an absolute honor to be able to contribute a small portion of my office funds towards this. um part of the legacy here. Yes, of course, Delko, the former Stelco site, uh and the current one, um you know, are within the boundaries of Ward 3, but the workers were rooted in the community as well. And so many of the pre-organizing activities that took place happened as as community and workers still organized today. And that's in their neighborhoods, that's at their local coffee shops, that's at their local third spaces. And um in the history and legacy of the strike uh here in Hamilton, um the strike vote took place at the current Playhouse Theater uh which is still open and operating on Sherman Avenue. And then thousands of supporters as well as the striking workers later rallied at Woodlands Park and Woodlands Park has some commemorative pieces that were brought in a couple of summers ago during the pandemic as well. And so to continue the ability to make place uh and mark place with history is an important part of city building and it's a small gesture on the part of what a municipality can do to recognize uh seinal components of the contributions of how our residents have influenced not only our city uh but the entire country. uh so happy to make this small contribution towards just one other way to be able to continue to honor the legacy of Hamiltonian workers. Thank you. >> Thanks, Councelor Nan. Up next, Councelor Clark. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. It's important that when we're looking at this um 80th anniversary, it's a historical story. Um, this story, if you go back and look at some of the the newspapers of the day, this was a story that was being published across Canada. Um, it was highly controversial. It split the city in in two camps virtually. Um, and there were thousands of people who worked at Stelco at that time. It wasn't like today where we're I think we're down to 600 or 800 employees. There were thousands of people uh that were a part of this. Um I remember as a kid uh hearing the stories from my grandfather, my greatgrandfather um because they lived it. They went through it and it was really difficult. It was hard on their families. It was hard on the community. Um but they stood strong. And what that strike ended up doing was really begin to create um labor relations laws in Ontario and and in Canada right across all of the provinces. So this is a significant anniversary. um when we're developing these and I and I trust the mayor and our staff and and local 105 um the signs may be a logo in my mind 80th anniversary but there needs to be some com commemorative plaque somewhere that tells a bit of the story. Not sure how you're going to do that in a plaque because the story is huge. Um, but as we age and as we move on, there needs to be something that's marked there so people don't forget what happened in 46. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Clark. I don't see any further speakers, so we will go to the electronic vote. And welcome back to Councelor Jackson, who is thumbs up. Yes. Thumbs up from councelor Jackson. >> All right. Pleased to say that carries unanimously. Thank you very much everybody. Okay. We have one item left on our agenda. It is a confidential item. So I will first ask committee members if there's any desire to go into close session to discuss the item. I'm not seeing any. Oh, Councelor Jackson, go ahead. >> Thanks, Deputy Mayor. Is this about the um the jurisdiction between two bodies? >> Is it to do with the board of health? Correct. Well, I've been one that has been very concerned about the blurriness between the two bodies. So, if legal or some other um department has something to share that might be to my edification, I honestly would like to just go in camera to hear why they put it on the agenda and why they felt that it was important committee hear it. But if if I'm the if the only one, then so be it. But I think it's important. Thanks. >> Do do you wish to go into those? If so, we can. Okay, we will go into close. That is perfectly fine. >> Council clerk. >> So, can I get an understanding as to why this is in camera? Sorry, guys. >> Sure. Uh, city solicitor Shields, I think, could answer that question. >> Thank you. Through the chair, Lisa Shields, uh, city solicitor. Um, so this was a motion that came last year um to staff um during the transition from the board of health to from the public health subcommittee to the board of health. Um and so it fell on me as a city solicitor to report back. There is legislation, several pieces of legislation that are being interpreted to the context of what is the jurisdiction around the various um uh the city's role as well as a board of health's role and how where the dividing lines are. >> Again, I I mean I can't vote to go in camera for this. Um this should be public. The the legislation is public. The city has moved in this direction. they should be very very clear in terms of what we have done and whose roles and obligations and responsibilities are there. Um it's not something in my mind that should be discussed in camera. So I'll just vote against it. >> Okay. Uh so uh there are some options here. we could go into camera as planned and it is possible to then potentially make the release the report publicly afterwards. That could be a request and for advice on that from the solicitor. So there are options but if there is a will to go into or desire to go into camera I'll need a mover and seconder to do that >> moved by councelor Jackson seconded by councelor Paul's. Okay. So that is a motion for the following. Pursuant to section 9.3 subsections E and F of the city's procedural bylaw 21-021 as amended in section 2392 subsection E and F of the Ontario Municipal Act 2001 as amended as a subject matter pertains to litigation or potential litigation including matters before administrative tribunals affecting the city or local board and the receiving of advice that is solicitor or subject to solicitor client privilege including communications necessary for that purpose. So we will go to an electronic vote. Thumbs up from council Jackson. >> Okay, that carries 9 to two. Okay. Uh members of the public are advised that during the close session portion of the meeting, the live stream will broadcast the close session in progress screen. The broadcast will resume when the close session portion of the meeting is complete. As we are now moving into close session, I would ask all members of the public, delegates and external participants to please exit the WebEx meeting. As well, any staff that are not directly related to the inc camera items are now also asked to please exit the meeting. I'll also remind members of council as per section 8.7 of the procedural bylaw, the use of personal electronic devices during closed meetings is strictly prohibited. However, the use of city electronic devices during closed meetings are limited to text communications only with the city's electronic devices not being used as a telephone, recording device, or camera. Staff from the office of the city clerk are exempted from subsection 8.7c when using electronic devices for recordkeeping purposes. Okay, welcome back everybody. We are at 11.2 LS26011, jurisdiction of board of health and city council. May I have a mover and seconder on the following, please? That report LS26011 respecting the jurisdiction of the board of health and city council be received for information and remain confidential. that report LS26011 respecting the jurisdiction of board of health and city council be circulated to the board of health as a private and confidential information item and C that legal staff prepare a public version of the report to be added to the June 3rd council agenda. Moved by councel Clark, seconded by councelor Alex Wilson. We will go to an electronic vote. Thumbs up from councelor Jackson. The vote is up. >> And that carries unanimously 11 to zero. Thank you everybody. Uh with no further business, this meeting is adjourned at 12:50 p.m. Thanks everybody. >> Thank you.