Soundtrack 1 2 3. Sound track. One, two, three. Thank you very much, clerk. I much appreciate it. Welcome to the Emergency and Community Services Committee meeting for June 18th, 2026. As we have quorum present for today's meeting, I would like to call this meeting of the Emergency Community Services Committee to order. And a reminder that all electronic devices are to be switched to a non-audible function given that I'm the only one here. I better check my phone. And I do have it. Okay. So, we're good to go. Uh we have here Yeah, thank you. I got applause for that. Um thank you and welcome Councelor Moren Wilson and councelor Alex Wilson and councelor Nindo Nan. Thank you for attending today's meeting to ensure that we have the quorum necessary. I need a mover and seconder to approve the agenda as presented. So moved by councelor Nan and seconded by councelor Alex Wilson. Um madame clerk, are there any amendments um to the agenda? >> No chair, there are not. >> Thank you. Members of the committee, do you have any amendments to the agenda? Seeing none, any concerns about the agenda? Seeing none, we'd like to call the vote. This one is by hands. All those in favor? Thank you. That's unanimous. Moving on to item four in the agenda, which is declarations of interest. Are there any declarations of interest on any items before the committee today? Thank you. Seeing none, if at any time during the meeting you find yourself that you do have a a declaration you wish to make, just please let me know. Item 5.1, May 28th. May I have a mover and seconded to adopt the minutes of the May 28th, 2026 meeting of the Emergency and Community Services Committee? Moved by Councelor Moren Wilson. Seconded by Councelor Alex Wilson. Any questions on it? Council Moren Wilson, please. >> Chair, I don't believe I was at that meeting. Happy to second, but not to move. >> Okay. So, we'll switch it up. Was it Councelor Alex Wilson? You can move it. And Councelor Moren Wilson would second it. Thank you. Any questions or concerns about the minutes? Seeing none, um let's do it this way. Anyone opposed? So, that is carried. Thank you very much. Uh we're now moving on to items for information. Item 7.1 HSC26034 Hamilton Paramedic Service 2025 annual report. This is a citywide item. I'd like to call upon Chief Russell Crocker, Hamilton Paramedic Service to begin today's presentation. chief. And the chief is coming down to the podium and we're just trying to get it set up for him for his presentation. >> Being prepared is a good thing. And there we go. And we're all set. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Perfect. Thank you, >> Chief. Your microphone is on, so we're ready whenever you are. >> Great. Thank you very much. Uh, good afternoon, chair, members of the emergency and ser emergency community services committee. On behalf of the 500 paramedics, support and administration staff, and our leadership team, it is an honor to present the 2025 Hamilton Paramedic Service annual report. Prior to starting today's presentation, I'd like to acknowledge those joining us today. First, our executive leadership team, Deputy Chiefs Cliff Egleton and Linda Minus Connelly, acting deputy chief Grant Bur, and Lind Dr. Linda Button, author of our 2025 annual report. Additionally, we have our medical director and Hamilton Health Sciences physician, Dr. Paul Miller. Thank you all for being here today. >> Welcome. >> So, before delivering our 2025 results, I want to share a brief story that sets the tone for my presentation. Last September, a Hamilton resident named Heather, prompted by her daughter Ella, stopped to help a stranger's choking child. They clear the child's airway before paramedics arrive, literally saving the child's life. That is what community partnership looks like. Heler and Ella are not paramedics, but that day they embodied Hamilton's paramedic services values of courage, compassion, competence, and caring. Hamilton Paramedic Service does not keep the community safe alone. We do it together as a community for the greater good of our community. And that is the spirit behind the 2020 annual report and our presentation today. In this section, I will speak to our staffing compliments, our funding sources, and the impacts they have on the city of Hamilton tax levy. Hamilton paramedic services built on four main human resource pillars that include our paramedics, supervisors, our support administration staff, and our senior leadership team. All are equally important to accomplish our mission of providing timely, safe, and effective care. Hamilton Paramedic Service delivers two core services that require funding. First is our 911 emergency response with a gross operating budget in 2025 of $85 million. 47.5 million was covered by the province of Ontario with the remaining $47.5 million covered through the city of Hamilton tax levy. Our second core services our mobile integrated health program. It had a gross operating budget of $2.9 million in 2025, 100% funded through the province in Ontario and Ontario Health with no impact to our tax levy. There we go. Section two will provide a background on operational numbers that will inform some of the per performance metrics that we will discuss later on. In 2025, Hamilton Paramedic Service received 93,458 911 calls, a 5.6% increase compared to 2024. These 911 calls created 112,214 responses, a 5.2% increase. And these responses resulted in 64,065 transports to hospital, a 4.9% increase compared to 2025. The graph on this slide demonstrates an average response increase since 2023 of 4.58%, 1.2% 2% above what we projected in our Hamilton paramedic service master plan. Hamilton paramedic services acknowledges that service growth at this rate is not sustainable over the long term. And we manage this growth. Our team manages this growth by advocating for staffing as outlined in the HPS master plan. And in partnership with the Ministry of Health, we refine our deployment plan to reduce unnecessary responses. And we look to implement a secondary triage process that allows for the expansion of alternative response models other than ambulances and the flattening of the growth curve of FTEES over a longer period of time. Nearly 45% of all our calls are for residents aged 65 years of age and older with an overall top three call types being falls, breathing difficulties, and eskeemic events such as heart attacks and strokes. Understanding there was significant attention to overdoses, we highlighted these responses to convey the following message. Although opioid responses are up in 2025 by approximately 40%, they equate to only 1% of our overall response volume. So the message is clear. As Hamilton ages and people stay in their homes longer, the demand for paramedic service grows with it. In 2025, our community or sorry, in 2025, community and social navigator paramedics welcomed 440 new at home clients. They performed 688 health assessments at our clinics. They interacted with 612 social navigator clients, conducted approximately 6,500 visits in the community, and were alerted to 2900 vital sign deviations through our remote patient monitoring program. In summary, our mobile and integrated health programs are 100% funded by the province and Ontario Health. They reduce ER visits through proactive community-based care, which improves throw to the hospitals and therefore reduces offload delays. And they deliver seamless mental health and addictions response in partnership with Hamilton Police and St. Joe's Healthcare Hamilton. In section three, I will now review performance across key operational and clinical areas. Hamilton Paramedic Service continues to maintain strong overall system performance in 2025 thanks to the efforts and professionalism of our paramedics and investments made by this term of council which has included 55 full-time paramedics. Response time in 2025 was 11 minutes 6 seconds, a 1.7% increase compared to 2024. offload delays equal 23,515 hours, a 5.9% increase compared to 2024. However, despite this increase, and this is most important, hospitals once again reduced offfield delay times in 2025 to 35 minutes, 3 minutes improvement compared to 2024. Once again demonstrating why they are provincial leaders in ambulance offload times. And finally, code zeros equal one in 2025, the lowest they have been in 15 years. As mentioned on the previous slide, response times increased by 11 seconds from 10:55 in 2024 to 11:06 in 2025. After review, it is believed that the following contribute to this increase. There was a 4.9% uh increase in response volumes compared to 2024, exceeding the expected 3.3% projections in our master plan. At the same time, our decision to not hold uh to not add additional response hours into the 2025 budget compounded this problem. Hamilton Paramedic Service met five of our six response times targets mandated by the city of Hamilton and approved by the Ministry of Health. The one exception to this was our sudden cardiac arrest response. The variance is attributed to the 2024 cyber attack and not being able to access Hamilton Fire Department's tiered response times. However, I am happy to report that in the first quarter of 2026 with data now sharing with data sharing now reestablished with the fire department, we are now achieving an 81% compliance in sudden cardiac arrest response. Thanks to city of Hamilton council investments made during this term of council and the commitment of our paramedics, response times for critically ill patients has improved in 2025. Hamilton residents benefit from hospitals that deliver specialized care unlike many other communities in our province. As a result, Hamilton Paramedic Service successfully resuscitated 101 sudden cardiac arrest patients and transported 827 total patients to specialized heart trauma and stroke specialists. In 2025, Hamilton Paramedic Service in partnership with the Center for Paramedic Education and Research and Dr. Miller delivered over 29,000 hours of training, certified 41 primary care paramedics in autonomous IV and additional six advanced care paramedics. Hamilton paramedic services quality and program program is grounded in just culture and high reliability principles as seen in both the airline and health services industry. In 2025, we noted an increase of 9% in both compliments and concerns by the public. And additionally, we saw a 50% increase in vehicle collisions and discovered damage. Overall, while service demand and operational pressures continue to increase, public feedback remains overwhelmingly positive, and we remain committed to learning from every event to enhance safety, accountability, and patient care. As public servants, our staff just don't serve the city of Hamilton community by providing medical care. They also volunteer their time to strengthen relationships in a community, build public trust, and give back to the community that has supported them. Oh, thank you. This year, Hamilton paramedics Hamilton paramedic staff participated in three major charitable events. The first, the city kids toy drive, a partnership with the Ontario provincial police during the Christmas time, collected 2,900 toys and raised approximately $9,400. The neighbor-to- neighbor food drive, also in partnership with the AOP at Christmas, collected 5,860 pounds of food and raised approximately $23,000. And finally, our Santa for seniors. They delivered 120 gifts to seniors in long-term home long-term care homes during the Christmas season that may have spent it alone. Our staff also participated in 49 community events that was supported by 140 staff through 180 volunteer hours. And finally, Hamilton Paramedic Service is proudly supported by a generous business community, both large and small, that consistently contributes to HPS initiatives that bring a a smile to a child's face and supports individuals and family families experiencing hardships across our city. In section five, we'll provide an update on our 20 2022 to 2031 master plan. I'm pleased to report strong progress on our plaster plan this past year. Some of the key items include increased rapid response unit coverage in Winona, Carile, and Freelton. We became the first paramedic service in Canada to be uh to achieve collaborative just culture program certification. As mentioned before, we opened Zachary's legacy clinical hub with Hamilton Police and St. Joe's Healthcare Hamilton. and we secured $50 in mental health grant funding to assist our paramedics throughout the year. I'd like to close our 2025 annual report by giving committee our three-year snapshot of where we have been, where we are today, and where we are headed. There we are. In 2025, I'm pleased to report that offload delays have stabilized and minimally improved. We're meeting our response time targets. There's been meaningful strides in advancing our HPS master plan, and we successfully implemented the medical priority dispatch system with our partners in the Ministry of Health. At the same time, 2025 saw its pressures. As we have seen, demand for service continues to rise and the number of Hamilton residents aged 65 years of older continues to grow. Turning into 2026, we have already made some great movement on key items. I want to once again thank council and this committee for their investment in 10 paramedics in 2026. An RFP has been issued for the primary design of our central reporting station and we've undertaken a lean review of our division to create efficiency and eliminate any waste. However, 2026 also brings real challenges that I need committee to be aware of. Our mobile integrated health funding is not keeping pace with inflation. We are seeing increasing dynamic responses across the community situations that require more complex multi- agency coordination that includes specialized training for paramedics and auster environments. And finally, we have an outstanding collector agreement with our paramedics and offic 256. Looking ahead to 2027, I'm genuinely excited what's possible in this service. We'll work to realign our staffing model with the HPS master plan. We are planning for the introduction of a special operations unit. We'll also be working with the Ministry of Health to introduce secondary triage at dispatch. And finally, we will continue to grow the number of patient care models with our partners like Dr. Paul Miller that are available to Hamilton residents. So in closing, Hamilton Paramedic Service remains committed to the highest standard of care in our community. Everything this report reflects the dedification of our paramedics support and administration staff and our leadership team. With committee and council's continued support, we will be there for their residents in their time of need. Thank you once again for allowing me to provide the update today and I'm happy to take any questions. >> Thank you, Chief. So, if you could take the presentation down so I can see my members. Thank you very much. There they are all smiling. Uh, do you have any questions of uh the chief on this report? Um, okay. We'll go to Council Moren Wilson first and then Council Alex Wilson. Council Moren Wilson, please. >> Thank you, Chair, and thank you for that very informative presentation. Um I'm wondering if I could ask through the chair uh to Chief Crockett the near the end I believe it may have been the second to last slide or last slide. Uh one of the challenges referenced was the increasing dynamic responses. I'm wondering if you could unpack that for us and the consequence uh that that's having on um your model and uh what it may speak to in terms of future challenges trusting it will not be resolved this year. Thank you. >> Thank you councelor Chief. >> Perfect through the chair. Thank you counselor for the question. Um as society continues to evolve and uh we think of some of the things that are going on. We have um things like social unrest that are occurring within our city. Uh we have other situations that rescues whether it be uh water rescues, whether it be uh potentially silo rescues in the farming community, those type of things. Um in addition to that, as I'm unfortunately, as everybody has seen most recently, um police officers have been wounded, uh administrating a high tactical response. And really part of this is about how we integrate more closely with both our police and fire partners. And this is really about the mission. And the mission for police should be to hold in and secure and protect public safety. For the fire department, they're there to conduct the rescue. They are specialists in that. And really, this is about implementing us into those situations. So we are on the front lines, what we would consider the hot zone, and making sure that people receive the highest level of medical care no matter what the environment is. And because of that uh this is where we look forward to these special respons uh special response teams where we train paramedics in these type of environments. We protect them accordingly to meet our uh legislative requirements under the occupational health and safety act but with the focus of providing care immediately to first responders and the public in these situations. >> Can counselor please. >> Thank you. Um, so if I could repeat back what I thought I heard because I just want to make sure I have a full understanding. Uh, I heard society continues to evolve. It shall ever be thus. But, uh, there was reference to social unrest, uh, rescues and police officers being wounded. Um, could you unpack the first one, please? Social unrest. Are you speaking to the the crisis, the crisis conditions that this council has formally identified in houselessness, those who are deprived of housing, mental um, health and substance use, or are you speaking to something else? Please and thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Chief. Please. >> Sorry, through the chair. And yes, sorry. Sorry. When I say social arrest counselor, um what I'm referring to is sometimes when we have large events, uh there's certain behaviors that obviously come out of those large events. Uh sometimes we do have planned protests that occur within our city um that have to be uh responded to. And uh those are more the things that I'd be looking at. So kind of large grouping of people that are coming together um that sometimes once again we have a increased response during those times. But also as we have a responsibility, our paramedics typically remain in the outlying areas. So when there is an injury or is an illness in those situations, there's a potential for a delayed response. Uh whether that be for a member of the public uh or whether that be for a police officer or a firefighter. >> Thank you, counselor. >> Okay. So that's that that assists me. So you're referencing unsanctioned events through the chair. >> Chief, >> uh through the chair, uh both sanctioned unsanctioned events. My understanding is that there is uh for say protests that are sanctioned and they do have a a uh that they can do that but there is potential for unsanctioned events as well. My understanding is uh that we would attend both. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. That that's helpful. Um and collectively uh these um items that you've referenced are impacting the health and well-being of your service members. it's affecting collectively or it's compounding to affect times and um therefore ultimately perhaps costs. Is that the conclusion? I and I don't mean to be glib. I just I'm looking at causes and consequences. Thanks. Those are my questions. >> Thank you, councelor Chief, please. >> Yes, through the chair. So, um just to and sorry if I I probably haven't described this well enough. So these special operations units are very common uh in Ontario and really throughout the rest of the country and internationally and uh they're meant once again for these situations or these auster environments as we would call them where paramedics historically have remained in what we consider the cold zone. So know where where the action is and because of that that is our way of meeting our requirements under the health and safety act. Whereas what and and there because of that what happens is is there could be a delay in care um in a situation because we are not in that hot zone whether it be with the fire department or police department and because of that there is the potential uh for care to be compromised whether that due to a medical emergency or a traumatic injury. >> Thank you. supplemental. No. Okay. Thank you very much. Councelor Alex Wilson, you're up next, please. >> Thank you. Really appreciate the report, not just for some of the demographic information it provides, seeing what are the common types of responses happening in our communities, who's who's going respons, you know, that type of information, but also how you're responding. So, seeing the appreciated uh, you know, the planned increases in response times to rural areas have come through. Um I think that helps deliver faith when you know residents can be told a couple years ago we're going to increase service or here are the investments we're going to make and then later uh those investments come forward. So just really appreciating how this was delivered and really appreciating that the amount of volunteer time that the whole service is providing to the broader community is one of the KPIs that get that get included in this report. I think that's really valuable. Uh my question was to do with uh one of the last few slides and just better understanding I think you spoke about uh one of the patient care models uh that's currently in existence that's kind of been explored and developed or piloted uh that's been incredibly successful. Uh it talks about exploring further patient care models. Are there priority models or types of outcomes that you're looking for uh in that or are you able to kind of highlight what types of partnerships you're hoping to be able to report on in future annual reports? >> Thank you, Chief. >> Yes, through the chair. Thank you, councelor, for your question. I wish I could invite Dr. Miller up here because I definitely think this is his specialized area, but >> you can if you wish. >> I can. Okay. Well, I'll take a stab at it first and then maybe I'll invite Dr. Miller down. So >> um so patient care models um basically they are approved by the ministry. So when we have a certain group of individuals for example pallet of care patients is one of the patient care models that we work with Dr. Miller and the center for paramedic education and research on. And the purpose of that patient care model was if we do get a response to a person that is in a pallet of state um where sometimes the family doesn't know what to do our paramedics can show up and give pallet of care right then and there. not transfer the hospital and we do that under the opice of Dr. Miller's license as a physician as well as the approval of the ministry of health and in addition to that the uh center for paramedic education and research with Dr. Miller uh also looks to have a variety of uh patient care models that we're currently in discussion with. So, for example, a long-term care patient model. Once again, with the intention if we respond to a long-term care home that we consult with the physician and look to leave that patient in the long-term care home with the appropriate uh supports and then pass that patient off to another person. And once again, with the intention of that's better care for a senior citizen and we're not taking them to the hospital, therefore uh decreasing the flow in that. So, maybe with that, I'll pass over to Dr. Miller and see if he has anything to add just because I know this is something that he's deeply passionate in. >> Thank you, Dr. Miller. Pull the mic towards you. It'll bend. There you go. Perfect. >> Thank you, everyone. Um, for a bit of broader context, it's been very recent change at the Ministry of Health that has empowered paramedic services and paramedics to treat and discharge a patient from an environment that the chief has explained, whether that's a palative patient at home, a low acuity patient, perhaps one in a nursing home. uh we've talked quite extensively here already about substance use and mental health patients that require a specific set of resources and that specific response in some cases shouldn't include transport to hospital or could be provided in a new and innovative way. This is a change at the higher levels of the Ministry of Health. It's reasonably new. It's taking time for paramedic services to uh and base hospitals and all of us to come to grips with what that means. the training that's involved, the clinical excellence, the quality assurance pieces uh to ensure that the needs of the patients are being met uh as well as avoiding transport to hospital. And so uh those models the chief has explained there's several of them uh and there's potentially more coming. Um as we look at the needs of the community, we look to the paramedic services themselves to tell us what their highest needs would be and then to triage how we would train paramedics in particular with this new work. The the important part for I think council to hear is that there is a very significant amount of training that's involved in bringing paramedics up to the level of understanding what a patient discharge looks like, what a referral looks like. It's work that has been going on quietly in the background, but as we formalize it and regulate it, uh do quality assurance and QI around it to ensure that patients needs are front and center, uh there's a big educational and I think cultural lift um for frontline paramedics. It's exciting times. Thank you, doctor. Uh, back to you, Councelor Alex Wilson. >> No, thank you. I was looking for what a couple of those uh priority health needs might be that we would look at models and I I did hear that in both answers. So, thank you. Um, and I think that just the final comment about upskilling and these being difficult challenges that require education. uh really appreciate that tone throughout this presentation and throughout that the entire workforce is looking at in the paramedics division is looking at how we can upskill and how we can meet these challenges that we're facing in a in a community health model understand the unique point of service uh the unique kind of place they are um and not just kind of oh it's getting people to hospital or it's about transport or it's about this but saying how can we provide really wraparound care within that. So really really appreciating um all the continuous improvement that's been clearly flagged throughout this presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other speakers first time? Seeing none, Councelor Nan, if you could just take the chair for a second. Uh just a couple of questions uh to the chief through you, vice chair. Um the special operations unit. I'm I'm struggling a little bit with the understanding of what the definitions are for the terminology that you're using. So you're saying a hot zone, a cold zone. >> Sure. Um, when you're referencing a hot zone, are you referencing an active shooting, could you just clarify that, please? >> Sure. Through the chair, and thank you, counselor, for the question. You're right. I probably didn't do a great job explaining some of this, and my apologies. So, uh, an example of an active shooter. Um, and that is one situation of many that we could talk about. So yes, um in the sense of an active shooter, the hot zone would be literally in whatever situation that is within that environment that the shooter is still active and with particularly special operations paramedics, they work in collaboration and integration with example with the emergency response unit of Hamilton police. So if there is an injury to an officer or there is an injury to a suspect in that case or even member of the public, they are immediately there providing care. Historically what happens is we are placed on a standby well outside of where that is and there can be significant delays as you can imagine if the if the scene hasn't been clear or those tactical officers haven't cleared that scene, nobody's coming in or out. So it really does delay care by paramedics. Um but these situations in addition to the active shooter um another great example is a trench rescue. So where you know the fire department may have a prolonged extrication of somebody that's stuck in a trench and they've suffered significant injuries. Um paramedics are trained within those trench rescues and the same type of uh health and safety techniques uh that firefighters have. So but they're providing directly care to the patient while the fire department is conducting the rescue around them. So, it's really looking at all these different types of specialized situations where we've typically been on the outskirts and putting us directly in there to prying advanced care to those patients in real time. >> Thank you. A follow-up question if I may. Um, vice chair, how are we ensuring the safety of our paramedics if they're in a hot zone? It's it's not the same. I I understand if they may not have cleared the scene and someone has been shot and they're down and and they need in essence rescue. >> Um and you can act, it's not an active shooter. They've verified that their shooter is no longer on the scene. Um, but when it's an active shooting and you're not sure exactly where the shooter is, how do we protect our paramedics if they're going in to provide immediate trauma rescue? >> Um, yep. Through the chair. Thank you, counselor. Um, so this is where the specialized training that I spoke about comes in when we said specialized trained paramedics. Uh so for example in the situation that we're talking about where if it was an active shooter scenario uh we effectively uh select a number of paramedics that are trained and effectively outfitted the same as a tactical police officer. So we provide we meet our health and safety act regulations by providing that training the appropriate safety apparel and they coordinate that response through the tactical officers. So they're literally within the ERU team. If there's five officers, they would be a six. But their core responsibility and their mission is to make sure the safety of the officers, to make sure the safety of the public and the suspect in certain cases. And the same with uh for example, I mentioned trench rescue uh with Hamilton fire, but probably the better example that we've seen in previous years is high angle rescue. So when we had a lot of issues at the falls, >> um Hamilton Fire Department would repel down. They would kind of do everything beginning to end, but there was significant injuries to some of those people. This would effectively just give our people the training and the safety gear to repel with the fire department, stabilize the patient where they are, provide optimal advanced care, and allow the fire department to conduct the rescue. >> Uh, thank you. One last question, and I'm sorry to delve into procedural matters, but this is all new and and fascinating, at least for me. Um, historically, at least my understanding was that fire department, they had their own uh communication system. Police had their own communication system, paramedics, similar. So, if you're now putting a special operations unit into a hot zone, are they sharing the communications so they can hear what the police are saying? How how do we coordinate that? Because you're not exactly in a meeting. It's you're there's a distance between you and you're all trying to do the same thing. How does each service understand who's there and who's doing what >> uh through the chair and and counselor, thanks for the question. I'd love to spend some time with you because this is actually fascinating. So just just to give you some context um these type of services are actually uh very common uh probably out of urban cities. We are the last in Ontario to start this initiative. Every other urban city in Ontario and even much smaller services than ourselves with a lot less risks in the community. Uh these teams are already in place. So we're a little bit behind the ball but we're going to catch up. I assure you of that. uh in regards to inter agency collaboration this is one of the discussions we had with fire and police um is yes improving that communication so for example with the emergency response unit in other jurisdictions you are correct effectively our paramedic would be working on the same radio system they'd be issued a police radio to work within that unit of the ERU >> so therefore the inter agency collaboration and communication is all on one frequency >> uh in regards to how that would work with the fire department typically because we're coordining in a much more open space. Um that just interaction be face to face because we be coordinating with the rescuers right there and maybe not under a necessary um the cloak of darkness for lack of a better word. So that's one of the pieces why we want this inter agency piece together cuz something even as simple as we talked about an active shooter when you look at the three emergency services we all have very distinct roles to accomplish that mission and so the police have their role we have the role obviously from medical side but even help managing you know whether there be fires that maybe happen in the facility and that and giving a firefighter the potential um to be part of that team saying you're managing all these other things while our focus is on our individual missions. Yeah, I would be interested in an offline conversation because the concern would be uh ensuring that all three services when they're involved in that type of highstake situation can hear each other because things can change relatively quickly. It may no longer be an active shooting, but then something comes up where it is again and everyone's in harm's way. And so without having that communication system, you you cannot function cohesively as one unit. So I'll leave that with you and the other teams as we go along. Uh thank you. This has been a very interesting report. Much appreciated. Uh I'll take the chair back. Thank you very much, Vice Chair Nan, for that assistance. Uh seeing no further questions on this, I need a mover and seconder um to deal with the presentation and the report. Moved by councel Nan, please. And seconded by councelor Alex Wilson. Uh seeing no further questions, is there anyone opposed to receiving the presentation and the report? So that's carried unanimously. Thank you very much. Now moving on to section uh 7.2 HSC26040 Benai Brit youth digital literacy outstanding business item. I'd like to call upon Jessica Chase, director of children's and community services to provide the committee with an overview. Jessica, >> thank you. Through the chair, um my name is Jessica Chase. I'm the director of children's and community services. Uh the report that's before committee today is an information report related to youth digital literacy. It was developed in response to a council motion following a delegation in February from Beny Brit which is a national human rights organization. Following this motion, our team engaged with our Hamont youth steering committee who reported that youth are often exposed to online harms and have limited access to digital literacy supports. I do want to acknowledge that our colleagues in communications are also conducting a review of corporate social media policies and will be bringing back a subsequent report to council in Q3. I also want to make council aware that while it's not in the report due to timing as it's just emerged in the last couple of days, um we are aware that the federal government has recently introduced bill C34 um also known as the safe social media act. This is proposed leg legislation looking at platform access and accountability but is still at the very early stages of the legislative process. I also want to acknowledge that digital regulation and national programming is a federal responsibility. However, there is a role that the city can play in terms of prevention approaches, youth supports, and alignment with our community safety and well-being plan. I'd be happy to take any questions. >> Thank you very much, Jessica. Much appreciated. Are there any questions? Councelor Moren Wilson, and then councelor Nan, please. >> Uh, thank you. Um, through the chair to director Chase. I just want to make sure I'm I'm clear on the deliverables. Uh so in the report it references the direction that came from committee A and B. Um you I thought I heard and I thought I read with respect to the municipal role in reviewing policies on the use of uh what platforms we use perhaps um that is coming in Q3 under the guise of communications. Did I did I hear that correctly? Through the chair. >> Does it please >> through the chair? That is correct. >> Okay. Thank you for for clarifying or for confirming that on a um report back on efforts to advance a national youth digital literacy campaign in consultation with youth strategy team. So acknowledging that any national campaign would have to be uh driven uh by some sort of national uh leadership entity. But I want to make sure I understand the second part. So staff have engaged with um active youth here. They have identified the youth have identified a a clear uh risk. Um and what I'm not clear on is what's the consequence for a local action within this domain? What will be coming forward further on that a part? Thank you, council director. >> Through the chair, um we would look to align it with our community safety and well-being plan and continue to engage in conversations with our Hamont youth steering committee. I think there's also an opportunity as we brought forward a report um about a month or two ago related to hate prevention and response and are working closely with a number of community partners including Hamilton Police and the Hamilton Anti-Racism Resource Center. um there's an opportunity for us to continue to ensure that we're engaging the voices of youth in the work that's coming forward related to hate prevention and response, which includes things like public education and awareness. So, thank you. I I am illprepared, but I'm I'm glad the director referenced the um the previous relatively recent direction on hate. Um, I'm sorry to be a stickler on this because on page two of the report, I just want to make sure again I'm clear on the deliverable. There's a caveat. It says, "This report provides early context only. Any proposed endorsement, partnership or resourcing will be brought forward separately if required." Could you help me understand the if required? What What What is that conditional on? I'm not sure I understand it. Thank you, council director. >> Yes. Through the chair. Um that would be if council um were interested in directing staff to engage in advocacy or engage in further partnerships beyond which we've highlighted um related to the existing partnership with our Hamont youth steering committee or partnerships that we have um with HARK and with police on the work that we're doing on hate prevention and response. So if there was anything further the council wished to direct staff to do in that regard, uh that would require further investigation. >> Counselor. >> Okay. So further direction would be needed in order for there to be clear action on whether we consider digital platforms part of our hate mitigation work. There would be have to be clear direction on whether we deem the um kind of material which you have confirmed here that youth consider to be perhaps hateful, offensive and otherwise. Um there would have to be clear direction on whether that has to be considered within the deliberations of the community and safety health and safety um wellbeing work. I I just if I could just get a clearer for me my understanding it's my misunderstanding what is required for further action on this matter to be brought because I'm prepared uh happy to take it offline and to do it with the director but I just want public clarity on that. Thank you. >> Yes through the chair. Um so the development of a youth digital literacy um program is not included uh explicitly within our community safety and well-being plan as a priority. However, the it is um a broader priority tied to our community safety and well-being to look at hate prevention and response. Um so if council was looking for something more explicit that was directly related to youth digital literacy, we would be looking for um further direction. >> Okay. Thank you. I'll connect with the director in that regard. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh any other council? Councelor Nan, please. You're up next. Sorry. >> Thank you. Uh through you, chair. Um thank you for the report. Just a couple of questions. Um on page one, the third bullet bullet references that the Hamont youth members report frequent exposure to online harms and limited access to consistent modern digital litery literacy supports. Um I'm curious to get a little bit more clarity on that statement. So, is this regarding our Hamlet youth social media platforms being a place where we've been exposed uh to online harms and um concerning content? >> Thank you, council. >> Or is it that the members of the steering committee from their lived experience are experiencing this? >> Clarification would help. >> The chair happy to clarify that. Um it is the latter counselor. Um so in engaging in conversations with the Hamont's youth steering committees, we had about 25 youth that we engaged in conversations with. They shared from their own lived experience that they have been exposed to online um harms or content. Um was not specific to city platforms or our Hamont youth social media accounts specifically. Um I will also add um that the feedback that they shared is consistent with what the data that we have looked into has shown as well. So for instance stats Canada data reports that approximately 70% of youth um have indicated that they have been exposed to um online content that could incite uh violence or hate. >> Thank you. And if I could further director, anything related to extreme misogyny specifically as it's not referenced as part of the original delegation being really specific and then the report goes on to identify other forms of um hate as well as um misinformation was quoted in the report um and other content. So just wondering about that in the context of what we're hearing reported out of some school boards >> through the chair. Um we didn't explicitly hear um or collect data that was specific to misogyny but certainly I think it is one that uh when we hear from youth I would say that it is included in what uh they're telling us that they hear around being exposed to online harms but I don't have separate data. >> Okay. I wonder then at some point, chair, while this work gets fleshed out in terms of um the specifics of how we might be able to either support the Hamont youth crew or then subsequently Hamilton young people who participate in the programming that Hamont Youth puts forward. um whether there's a way in which we can integrate extreme misogyny as a category as we know that that has been having specific impacts um on young boys being targeted specifically in terms of that radicalization uh that had been previously referenced in the context of uh racism. The second question I have chair through you is related to misinformation because that was referenced in the report as well. So if um the director could just comment on um what is what is the definition of misinformation there? >> Good question director. >> Through the chair um through the conversations that we had with youth at the steering committee um they talked about exposure to a number of different online harms. Um and they did identify misinformation that may exist online. Um so this could be things like um AI generated content or deep fakes. Um they talked as well about the importance of understanding privacy and data collection um and developing the literacy to understand what is um what is misinformation that does exist online. >> Excellent. >> No, that's that's really great. I'm glad I asked for that clarifying um clarification because it sounds like as always young people are on it. Um so in terms of next steps then director I I know you answered that in relation to councelor Wilson's point. So maybe is that is that what you prefer is that we go offline to discuss ways in which we might be able to support moving this work forward. >> Director Chase >> through the chair. I'd be happy to work offline with uh with yourself or other counselors that uh wish to look at what would need to be brought forward. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. Any further questions? Seeing none, I need a mover and second her to put the report on the floor and it's to receive the report. Moved by councelor Moren Wilson, seconded by councelor Alex Wilson. Anyone opposed? Seeing none, that's unanimously adopted. Thank you. Next item is 7.3 HSC26047, Drowning Prevention and Swim to Survive Program and Waterfront Access. This is an outstanding business list item and I'd like to call upon director Steve Savor recreation to provide the committee with an overview. Director, >> thank you through you, Chair Clark. Steve Savor, director of recreation. This information report uh is in response to direction from the December 3rd, 2025 uh general issues committee meeting. Uh the uh this report provides an overview of the city's waterfront uh uh waterfront water safety measures and opportunities to expand the swim to survive program. The city maintains water safety at designated beaches and waterfront areas throughout regular maintenance, water quality monitoring, uh public's um public signage and infra uh safety infrastructure. Planned improvements include the installation of additional life-saving equipment at waterfront locations in 2026 and the evaluation of enhanced safety measures through the blue flag certification program that we're working on. The report also highlights the city's continued support of the life-saving society's swim to survive program. Despite reduced uh provincial funding this year, the recreation division plans to maintain current participation levels through existing operating budgets. While opportunities to expand the program through additional funding and operational considerations related to facility availability, transportation and school participation would need to be addressed. In addition to participating in the swim to survive program, the city delivers a variety of water safety and drowning prevention initiatives uh throughout the year to promote safe recreation and build water safety skills within the community. We have staff from recreation division here to uh to answer any questions related to the programming and our efforts and our continued involvement in the swim to survive program. Additionally, our colleagues from environmental services are here in attendance and available to speak to any questions regarding uh the safety measures that we've employed uh in place in our city waterfront. >> Thank you very much, director. Councelor Nan has indicated councelor. >> Thank you, chair. Thank you for the report. Um just wanted a little bit of clarity on items that are identified underwater safety measures and safety equipment. Uh page six of 10. The first bullet point references in spring this year buoy housing units will be installed along pier 67 and 8. Glad to see that. Uh recognizing that reports are often submit needing to be submitted weeks in advance um from a meeting. Wondering we're one week out from the spring ending. Um, have they been installed or coming soon? >> Steve, >> through the chair, Cynthia Graham, director of environmental services. Uh, counselor, I don't have that information right in front of me, but I will um get an update from staff and confirm. >> Excellent. And then I'm curious through you, chair. Um, I thought I I thought I recall part of the conversation last December, including the potential of working with public health, recreation services, and communications to be able to put out some, uh, water safety educational videos as it relates to the location of those safety equipment, uh, how to use and deploy the safety equipment. Could staff comment back on is that integrated into the work plan or um does that need to be added in? >> True. The chair to the counselor. Uh yes, this information is something that we're working on with our colleagues in communications and public health. Uh interestingly enough, we do have uh upcoming uh drowning prevention week uh July um next next month. uh that will be a a big launch in terms of uh information from uh life- saving society and how municipalities and and service providers can uh provide additional information. I think that's a a logical piece in which we can work and build upon, but we will be working on additional measures throughout the year as well. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. Any further questions? Seeing none, I need a mover and seconder for us to receive the report. Moved by councelor Nan, seconded by councelor Wilson, Moren Wilson, sorry. Um, this is a show of hands again. Anyone? There we go. It's unanimous. Thank you very much. Uh, I think the last item that we have is 8.1, which is delegated authority for the Hamilton Paramedic Service Citywide. I'd like to call upon Chief Russell Crocker, Hamilton Paramedic Service to provide the committee with an overview of this report. Chief, please. >> Perfect. Thank you, chair, and through the chair. Uh, the purpose of the report is to request delegated authority for the general manager of healthy and safe communities and the chief of Hamilton paramedic service to execute and complete arrange agreements and other business matters related to the Hamilton paramedic service on a timely basis. Many opportunities in the paramedic services industry require quick responses. The ability to enter into agreements on an agile basis will increase opportunities for the city of Hamilton to participate in beneficial research grants and feedback opportunities that may be missed if there's administration delay. The delegated authority is also requested to secure community health care needs and ensure that applicable legislative requirements are met. And in considering this, we request that the general manager of the healthy and safe communities be authorized to negotiate and execute all agreements related to Hamilton paramedic services, including funding, research, data sharing, software, professional service, staffing, and student practic. And the total costs do not exceed $250,000. that the Chief of Hamilton paramedic service be authorized to negotiate and execute all paramedic service agreements that include funding research, data sharing, software, professional services, staffing, and student practicums provided agreements are satisfactory once again to the city solicitor and total cost do not exceed $75,000. And finally, that the chief of Hamilton beer paramedic service or delegate be granted authority to provide feedback, respond to surveys, and participate in or assign participants to committees and working groups on behalf of the city with provincial ministries, Ontario health, health service providers, professional associations, and other governing bodies on matters related to paramedic services. >> Thank you, Chief. uh counselors. This is as a result of a review and we found that there was this um oversight missing and so this would put in place the delegated authority and they're still responsible to comply with the approved budget of the council. Any questions from any of the counselors? Seeing none, I need a mover and a second um to approve this. moved by councelor Alex Wilson and seconded by councelor Moren Wilson. Um, and this is an electronic vote, so please vote by computer or by showing of hands, but it is a recorded vote. That vote carried 4. That's uh a quick response. Thank you very much, clerk. Okay. Are there any motions from any of my colleagues? Seeing none, are there any notices of motions from any of my colleagues? Seeing none, I hope you have a wonderful afternoon. Oh, sorry, I'm being waved at. Someone's over here is trying to move a motion. >> My apologies uh through the chair um not trying to move a motion. I just do have information from staff about the installation of the life-saving measures on Pier 6, 7, and 8. Uh it is on staff's work plan. uh not yet installed will do so before the end of June. >> Thank you. That answered one of the questions that was asked. Thank you very much. >> Okay, now you can have a wonderful afternoon. Thank you so much for attending today. Thank you.