Sound check. 1 2 3. Sound check. 1 2 3. Okay, good morning everyone. We are going to uh get started here. Uh I just want to make sure that we have uh quorum present. Clerk >> uh madame mayor we have quorum present. >> Excellent. And I believe we are now live. Is that correct? Excellent. Uh so as we do have a quorum present for today's meeting. I want to call the meeting of city council to order and welcome all of the members of city council who are with us around the table. Uh and um I think that we have councelor Wang online as well joining us. So, thanks all for being here. I also want to identify that um May is our only this is our only council meeting in May. Our one and only May council meeting. So, welcome to our one and only May council meeting. Uh May actually is a really important month because there's a lot to a lot to celebrate in May. Uh Asian Heritage Month, Jewish Heritage Month, South Asian Heritage Month, Polish Heritage Month, Dutch Heritage Month, and Armenian Heritage Month. All in the month of May. Uh each of these uh of course is a chance to recognize and celebrate the people, the cultures and the stories that help shape Hamilton. Our city is stronger because of this diversity and May is a good reminder to celebrate it, learn from it, and continue building a community where everyone feels like they belong. So on that note, we are going to go to our national anthem, which I think is a perfect segue to that. Please stand if you're able. Oh, our home and native land true love in all with glowing hearts may see the rise the true north strong and From far and wide, oh Canada, we stand on God for thee. Lord keep our land. Glorious and free. Who can we stand on God for thee? together. We stand on the Please be seated. The city of Hamilton is situated upon the traditional territories of the Eerie, neutral, Hiron, Wendot, Hodnachoni, and Missagas. This land is covered by the dish with one spoon wamp belt covenant which was an agreement between the hodnoni and anishabic to share and care for the resources around the great lakes. We further acknowledge that this land is covered by the between the lakes purchase 1792 between the crown and the missagas of the credit first nation. Today, the city of Hamilton is home to many indigenous people from across Turtle Island, North America. And we recognize that we must do more to learn about the rich history of this land so that we can better understand our roles as residents, neighbors, partners, and caretakers. Members are reminded that all electronic devices are to be switched to a non-audible function during council meetings. Uh members are also reminded of the fiveinut time limit when asking questions andor making state a statement and that no member of council shall speak more than once on any matter at a council meeting without passing a motion to do so. Uh we're on to the approval of the agenda. Uh I'm aware of two requests, one from staff and one from a member of council to lift items from within two standing committee minutes and consider them separately at the beginning of the meeting. This is not normal practice for city council. So I'd like to ask the clerk andor staff to speak to the reason for the requests and if it is in order given it has not been our normal practice. >> Uh thank you mayor. So uh you're correct. This has not been standard practice for us. It is the ability of uh the committee or in this case council to amend their agenda as they see fit. That can be moving items. In this case, it would be lifting two individual minute items, one from GIC and one from AFNA and just dealing with that particular minute item first. One of these request is coming from staff. Uh I'm actually going to turn to staff just to see if uh they're able to speak to the reason why uh or for the request >> through you, Madame Mayor. Uh we're seeking to have this ratified as soon as possible due to a time-sensitive matter and a pending announcement. So, madame mayor, the one from staff would be uh minute item 11.4 of GIC. This uh was the close session item uh HSC26038A uh concerning the sport training facility development update. Uh this would just be the open portion um that we would be approving. >> Thank you. >> The second item was a request from a counselor. >> Uh okay. Thank you. So the matters now before us um in terms of the uh amendment to the amendments to the agenda. Shall I do those separately or together? Okay. Separately. Um so then on the first uh amendment which would be the one that's um asking that staff are asking to move something forward. Uh we'll start with that. A mover moved by uh councelor Casar, seconded by councelor Spataphora. Uh, everybody uh in favor of that. Oh, sorry. Councelor Wilson, please go ahead. >> Oh, sorry. I apologize. >> Uh, thank you, Mayor Hath. I I'm sorry. I I need some assistance. If you could just repeat please the two items that we're seeking to move up with particularly the second one which I thought I heard you say was a counselor requested. I just I need some clarity. Thank you. >> Yep. So through you mayor. The first item again staff is minute item 11.4 of the GIC minutes. It was report HSC26038A. This was concerning the sport training facility development update. >> Right. Uh it was a close session item, so it would just be the open session motion that was approved. >> The second item is uh we have a motion that can come forward once we've dealt with that from council Cooper. And this is a motion to amend the agenda to move up minute item 9.1 of the audit finance and administration committee meeting respecting the motion concerning adjustment to the fair wage eligibility timeline. Uh but we can deal with the first one which is currently on the floor. Um, am I allowed to ask the rationale behind the the the movement? >> You can certainly do that. We would go to the mover for that or to the clerk. >> I would just recommend we deal with the first one and then wait till that one's moved. >> Thank you. I appreciate the clarity. >> Okay. So then what we are what we are uh what we are what's before us now is moving the first item that's from the uh in in from the closed minutes up on the agenda. So it's just about moving it up on the agenda. Correct. Okay. So that's where we're at. Councelor Clark, please go ahead. >> Can I get clarification? And I thought I heard we're only deal dealing with the open part here. The confidential part we'll deal with in camera, but I thought I heard that it needed to be expedited because of what staff are dealing with. So why not the two? >> Thanks, Councelor Clerk. I'll send it back to the clerk. >> Yep. So through you, mayor, uh approving the open piece does approve the close session piece and it would presume that council does not need to go into close session on that particular item. >> Thank you for the clarification. >> Thank you, Councelor Clark. Anything else on that one? Okay. Uh show of hands vote, I believe. All those in favor? Any opposed? That carries. Thanks very much. So we'll move that one up on the agenda. Uh we're now on to the second item that was uh moved that councelor Cooper has asked to be moved forward on the agenda. Uh so I think uh it councelor Wilson wanted to get some clarification on that. So we'll go to uh her first once it's on the floor. So that's moved by councelor Cooper and seconded by uh councelor Paul's. So we're open for discussion then on that one. Um councelor Wilson has asked and if you don't mind councelor Cooper please go ahead. >> Thank you chair. Um, the reason why I've asked to move this up is that there's uh uh people here today uh for this issue and uh and if they sit through the day, they're going to miss half a day of work and so I wondered if we could move it up so they could go to work this morning. >> Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion on that one? No. So, just in terms of moving that forward, uh can we get that vote then? All those in favor? Any opposed? That carries as well. Thanks very much. Uh so with these uh changes to the agenda um we are going to go to the first item uh that we uh decided to move up forward if I'm not mistaken. >> Uh so sorry not quite m uh so first we want to see if there are any further amendments to the agenda and if not um we just need a mover in seconder to approve the agenda as amended. >> Okay. Uh so are there any further amendments to the agenda? Seeing none, we have a move mover and seconder to approve the agenda as amended. Councelor Bey uh councelor uh Morin Wilson. Uh all those in favor? Any opposed? Uh that carries. Thanks very much. Uh okay. So now we are on to the items. Uh as dis well I guess first we should be doing the declaration of interest before we get into the discussion. So let's go with the declaration of interest. Members of council, are there any declarations of interest? Seeing none, uh we will then uh go on to ceremonial activities. No, we'll go on to these minutes first of these items first if I'm not mistaken. >> Trrenum, >> we can do either way. At present, we had them um to be lifted to be dealt with as part of the committee business, but if you'd like to deal with them first, we can do that. Well, it's it's kind of awkward because we have uh lots of people for different reasons that are here for different uh uh for different purposes. So, um in what we have is the ceremony activity first uh and and then we have the uh motions that were just approved to come forward. Is that okay with the movers? That's okay with the mover. Okay, we're going to do that first and our ceremonial activity and then we'll be back. Um so before we begin today we have uh 4.1 which is the uh welcome to the executive committee members for the international children's games. Uh and we um want to take a moment to recognize the special guests that are joining us in council chambers this morning. Uh pleased to welcome the members of the executive committee for the games who are visiting Hamilton this week as part of a site tour for our city. Joining us are Hugh Waters and Igor Tipole who are have traveled from Slovenia and Glasgow to experience Hamilton firsthand, tour communities and sports facilities across the city and meet with local partners. Hamilton has a proud history of hosting major sporting events and welcoming visitors from around the world. Sport has a unique way of bringing people together, creating connections across communities and cultures, and inspiring young people, inspiring young people both on and off the field to play. Uh over the next few days, we're excited to showcase not only our facilities, but also the people, neighborhoods, and community spirit that make Hamilton such a welcoming and vibrant city. So, on behalf of city council and all Hamiltonians, I want to welcome them to Hamilton. Very, very happy to have you here. Uh h hope you're enjoying our visit. Uh and I am going to ask you to come down to uh the podium. This podium here or that one just cuz the flags it's for a photo, right? So the flags being behind us would be a nice touch I think. Uh so uh have the guests come down to the podium and as they're doing so I'm going to call on councelor Paul's to say a few words of welcome. >> Thank you. And I want to thank the mayor especially because you've always been supportive of sports because you know what sports brings to our city and we have great announcements. So really from the bottom of my heart and all the council we want to thank you. Um I as you know the DICG stands for International Children Game and it's been held since 1968 active for 55 years and it was founded by a Slovenian sport instructor Method Clement promoting listen what it's promoting peace. Oh mayor we need peace. Peace and friendship. and over 600 cities across our country are recognized uh by the international and it's also recognized by the international Olympic committee since 1990. And I want to especially thank Ryan Hughes and Eric. They've been showing them. I went to lunch with them what a great uh tourism department we have under Lisa Habit. We have brought so many events here in Hamilton because our tourism is one of the best committee I believe. So I want to thank you. Thank you Ryan and Eric. Uh uh I also want to with excitement and a pleasure to introduce my good friends. We had such a great time yesterday. Eigor Tolley, president of the ICG and U Waters um I um ICG Secretary General. You know, I met them in Leyon and the first time I met them, I know they were people that cared about our cities around the world and cared about our children. Children between 12 and 15. What a critical age it is to get them involved in sports, in music, in arts, whatever it is. That's what our young people need. And I want to thank you. Thank you for having a vision. Thank you for listen when we met I told you all about Hamilton and my desire is that one day you would consider us as a host city because I want the whole world to know where Hamilton is. Hamilton is a great city. We do great things and under the leadership of council and mayor we can move this city forward. So thank you and I wonder if you could say a couple of words and then we'll take picture. Thank you again for coming. I'm looking forward to on Thursday to get together again. So >> good. >> You said a couple of words. You said to me half an hour. >> A couple of words. >> Half an hour. >> Dear Lady Mayor Res, dear city councilors, it's a privilege to be here again because me and my secretary general Hugh Waters, we've been here at the Millennium Games which were held in Hamilton in the year 2000. Uh but this is not the it was not the first time that we were here with the children from around the world because Hamilton was in 1994 the first city who hosted international children's games outside Europe. It became everything in my city, Slovenia, Yugoslavia at that time. And we started with a small game, one day game with only six, seven, eight cities from neighborhood countries. And now we became global recognized by International Olympic Committee. And so we we can really say that we are dealing with children up to 15 and then IOC is taking over. and uh because we know we were part of this Millennium Games in year 2000. We know that you've been fantastic host and what we have seen yesterday uh you have extremely good fascinating sport facilities and I'm pretty sure that the bit which is going to take held this year in during the games in Halia and Taiwan that's going to be positive that you're going to be a fantastic host in year in the year 2028. So we are looking forward to come again and bring the children with us to see your beautiful city. Uh and now half an hour for you. >> He gives the yellow card all the time. I don't know. Can can I just present so the lady may rest the 50 years of our our games with the gold badge >> and we are already preparing the new book for 60 years because we are going to celebrate 60 years of international children's games here in Hamilton during your games. So you're going to be mentioned in that book three times already. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Good morning. I'm from Hamilton in Scotland and Esther told me I was coming to open the Highland Gathering. But back in 1999, uh, and it might sound a bit dramatic, but I received a letter from Hamilton, Ontario inviting my city to compete in the Millennium Games. So, we took a team to Hamilton and uh, it's changed my life. I've been involved for 26 years. Uh my closest friends are in the ICG. Uh we had a boys team on a a boys and a girls football team. The girls captain gain 135 caps for Scotland. The boys captain is now on the coaching staff of Glasgow Rangers Football Club. And we keep a note of all the children who have been in the games who have become world champions or Olympians. And we know from experience that it's a stepping stone on an international ladder for athletes from cities like Hamilton to attain their highest achievement in sport. So we are both ex teachers. We love providing opportunities for children to meet to exchange cultures and as Esther says to promote peace because they keep in touch with people from all over the world for the rest of their lives. When I meet the kids that we brought here in 2000, they always talk about the visit to Niagara Falls, they always talk about learning line dancing up at the university. Uh these people are now 40, have traveled the world, and the first thing they talk about is the international children's games. So, we are hoping that our committee will recognize Hamilton as a host city for 2028. Uh Eric and Ryan still have a bit of work to do. Still have a bit of work to do. But we are hopeful that we'll be able to recommend to the committee when we meet that Hamilton are the the host city in 2028. And just before I go, Belair is reading this amazing book of 50 years, the most famous biscuit in Scotland from Tonuk's factory. I'm going to give her so she can have a cup of coffee and have a chocolate biscuit while reading the book. Thank you for having us. Thank you. >> I I just want to say I'd be a miss not introducing Mark Vu and Greg Maja. Mark Vu is part of the International Children's Game and Greg as well. And they're in the committee here in Hamilton. We have great meetings. When we have meetings with the International Children Game, I'm I'm part of the meetings. We have fun. You know why? because we really we really care for our children and as you all know I have four boys and grandchildren and it's so important to for them to see the vision what their future will look like. So thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you mayor. And again I really thank you. Yes. And where's your blue jacket? I wore it just >> we were told that we have to be official church. >> Oh come on. >> No ladies please in between. >> Okay. All right. Okay. Wait, let me just >> get that out of the way. >> Be quick. I have to breathe it in. Right. It's not going to help me. >> Thank you very much. Nice to meet you. >> Thank you. Well, one last uh round of applause and thank you councelor Pauls for doing such a great job as always when it comes to the international children's games and your uh your representation of our city uh at that at that uh platform uh for those events. So, thanks so much. Um, so now we have the uh, if I'm not mistaken, the two motions that we moved uh, forward on the agenda. Uh, and so let's do that. I'm just trying to find exactly where I am on this road map here. Uh, we'll start with the, um, minute u item 11.4 4 of the GIC minutes respecting HSC26038A concerning the sport training facility development update. Is there a a mover and a sec? Do we need a mover and a seconder now for that? Okay. Can we have a mover and a seconder? We have councelor Casar and councelor Spaphora. Uh any discussion on this item? Seeing none, uh we'll go to the vote. Are we going to an electronic vote on this one? Please put the vote up and we will wait for it to arrive on our devices. Oh, very quick. And that carries 16 to zero. Thanks very much. We're now on to the other item that we moved forward related to item 9.1 of audit finance and administration committee meeting respecting a motion concerning adjustment to fair wage respecting sorry not the motion this is the motion respecting adjustment to the fair wage eligibility timeline. Uh councelor Cooper I look to you for your motion. >> There we go. Um thank you chair. Moved by myself. uh seconded by uh councelor Crutch. This motion uh we brought forward around uh really around the the leg in the um uh the fair wage uh in linement to collective bargaining. We wanted to move it up to a one-year leg and we also wanted to harmonize the timelines when when the uh uh the compensation rates are set. I want to recognize today here u Noel Krusis, business manager of Bill Wright local 1916 and president of the Hamilton Brford Building Trades Council. Uh thank you for coming today. null. Uh Brendan Smith from IBEDW local 105. Brendan, thank you for coming as well. Uh Tim Lass from the Sheet Metal and Roofers Local 537. Tim, thank you for coming. Uh Gavin Macintosh from the Carpenters Local 18. Gavin, thank you for coming as well. Um Dylan Milson from the Elevator Mechanics Local 90. Dylan, thank you for coming. And uh Glenn Grady, the Elevator Mechanics Local 90. Uh thank you for coming as well, Glenn. And so, as I said, this is really just to uh create a lot a better alignment with their collective bargaining that they do. It's really the only uh people group that we don't align with their wage structure. And so, it really helps uh bring things more in line. So, um um I would also like to recognize councelor Crutch for all the work he's done on this as well. And uh and so, chair uh um >> Sure. Thanks very much. Appreciate that. So that's moved by councelor uh Cooper and seconded by councelor crretch. Any further discussion on this matter? Further discussion? Seeing none, uh I want to just say I'll hand the chair over to who am I handing the chair over to? Clerk councelor Casar. Um just very very briefly I want to thank both of the counselors for bringing this forward. This is something that has been an piece of advocacy work that the uh building trades have been doing for some time. Uh and the initial movement on this was welcome. Uh but certainly there has been a clear indication that there needed to be more movement on this and so making sure that this is something that's been um uh confirmed by committee I believe unanimously which is really quite uh excellent and I'm grateful to the members of committee that moved it forward as well. Uh it's very really clearly says that the council has a a position on this depending on how this vote goes. Uh that um fair wages are important and they've uh been a piece of this city for many many many years. Uh and um modernizing the way that we calculate the fair wage is uh is really important as uh as our economy shifts and changes. Uh and just a a reminder that uh although we have a number of members of the building trades here, uh it's been shared with me and it's something that I uh agree with is that it's all workers in construction that will benefit from the fair wage policy. And so once again, thank you to the members of the labor movement of the building trades for bringing this forward uh not only for their members but for all workers that are working uh in the uh in the trades. So we have a lot of hopefully uh construction on the horizon on a lot of different projects and uh and certainly uh this will be a welcome and positive change. So uh on that note, I'll uh take the chair back if that's okay. Councelor Casar, >> back to you. >> Uh councelor Crretch, did you want to speak to this as well? >> Thanks. Yeah, I appreciate uh the words about moving this forward. This started as a conversation this term of council. Myself, councelor Jackson and councelor Clark if I recall correctly perhaps also to councelor hang all attended a meeting um with respect to the fair wage policy because what has happened over the course of time because of the staggering nature of these policies is that at one point the policy was six years behind the ICI prevailing provincial rates. So last year or pardon me, yeah, it was last year, we moved that to a two-year leg and then the goal was to get it to a one-year leg through a series of meetings. And unfortunately, those meetings just didn't happen. So that's the reason we're doing this is we don't want to wait for the meetings to be scheduled and conversations to happen and it should drag on longer. So this is just us saying, look, we support this. We don't need to go through a series of meetings to get it there. One thing that's important to state though is that there's a lag. And so when I've been meeting with building trades and other kinds of individuals about this and people in the community have shared concerns about it, what they've said is, "Well, why is there a leg? Toronto has no leg, right? We just use the ICI prevailing rates." And for those who don't know what I'm talking about, unions across the province negotiate with the province around rates and then we have our own number that we use. Makes no sense. We should be using exactly the same number the province has. Those negotiations take a lot of time and by not doing it, it creates an inequity for people bidding. And you'd say, "Well, how does that work?" can basically what it means is that um non-unized folks who don't have the same obligations for benefits, for wages, other kinds of things can then try and come in and bid lower than unionized folks if they're not at the same at the same parody. So, this is a serious issue, right? And it means that it keeps unionized workers from considering contracts that they might do because they're not playing in the same field as everybody else is. So, that's why this is really important. And ultimately what we need to do here if we want to get ourselves to par meaning using the ICI prevailing rates we're going to need to have more staff working on this at the city unfortunately because right now when you look at Toronto's office who does this work it's a massive number of staff doing this work which is why they're able to keep up on it and do it. So we're going to have to think about that in terms of how we either make our operation more efficient or we hire more staff to support this so we can get up to the competing ICI prevailing rates hopefully in the next term of council. Thank you. >> Thanks Councelor Kretch. Uh councelor Jackson please go ahead. >> Thanks Mayor Horvath. Good morning. And um I think part of my purpose for being around this horseshoe is to provide some historical context. And I just want to congratulate uh councelor Cooper, councelor Cretch, and your leadership in the uh in the labor movement. Uh Mayor Horvath and just want to remember great leaders of the past. I think it was in the 90s when we were under regional government, the former city of Hamilton, great leaders like Pat Dylan and Joe Bey that led the charge to get the fair wage policy inserted and implemented with our HR department, with council's past support so that contractors in the future could not just cheapen out by giving low wages and just hiring subs that they wanted to. If they wanted city business, they had to go through our HR policy with the fair wage policy. And I just want to recognize and never forget great leaders like Pat Dylan and Joe Bey that led that charge. Thanks, Mayor Horvath. >> Thank you, councelor Jackson, councelor Nan, please. >> Thank you, Mayor. Also want to thank councelor Cooper and councelor Crutch for bringing forward the motion. I recall previous term of council uh meeting with the building trades and really learning to understand the the procedural uh challenge that existed and trying to move at that time uh some systemic steps forward to get us here. So really appreciating the work done, appreciating the consultation with uh those in the gallery as well as those in the building trades overall. A really important piece of work for us as a city to continue making sure that uh all Hamiltonians as workers thrive in this city when they have a job here. Thank you. >> Uh thanks very much councelor Nan. I don't see any further speakers on the list so we'll go to the vote please. It's an electronic vote. And that carries 16 to zero. Congratulations and thanks very much everyone for your hard work and for your support. Um we're now on to um item five which is the approval of the minutes of the previous meeting CL26-006 April 22nd 2026. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the April 22nd, 2026 meeting as presented? Moved by Councelor Casar, seconded by Councelor Cooper. Any discussion on the minutes, folks? No. Seeing none, we'll then go with a show of hands vote on that one. All those in favor? Any opposed? Uh, Councelor Clark, recorded opposed. Oh, we were just clicking your hand. >> Slow hand. Okay. Uh, thanks very much. That carries unanimously. Thank you. Uh we're now on to the items for for information. Uh 6.1 CC26-002, appointment of a deputy clerk for the city of Hamilton. May I have a mover and seconder to receive memorandum CC26-002. Um mover and seconder moved by councelor Crutch, seconded by councelor Nan. And I'm going to call on the city clerk to introduce the item. Just uh for members present and and you've mayor, this is just a reminder that the bylaw to appoint the deputy clerk is on this meeting, showing that authorization. And of course, a big welcome to Angela for her first meeting as deputy clerk. >> Congratulations, Angela. >> Congratulations. Uh thanks very much. I I don't see any speakers on the list, although I'm sure everyone is um together in and congratulating you uh Angela for your u your new appointment. That's wonderful. Uh okay. So then we have a mover and a seconder. Do we have uh a show of hands vote please? All those in favor? None opposed. And so that carries. Thanks very much. On to committee recommendations. Item seven uh on our agenda. Um we have the is there Oh, right. Because we've already done that part. Okay. 7.1 A public works 26-006 public works committee May 4th 2026 uh councelor Nam may I have please have a motion to receive and approve the recommendations within the public works committee minutes of May 4th 2026 and receive the correspondence items >> thank you happy to do so moved by myself and seconded by vice chair councelor Casar okay that's uh that's great thanks very much we have a speakers this Starting councelor Jackson, please go ahead. >> Thanks, Mayor Horvath. Uh 9.2, the Safari Road Municipal Class Environmental Assessment in Ward 13, I think. And I'll look to the clerk to help guide me, please. I need a separate vote, I believe, on Roman numeral 4, which was the amendment by councelor Casar, seconded by councelor Cretch, that basically u removed the staff recommendation B, and inserted instead that staff would look at alternative two, which was permanent closure of the road. So, I just want before I give my speech, I just want to make sure I'm asking for exactly what I need and my colleagues are clear through you, mayor, to the city clerk. Clerk Chennham. >> So just to confirm what you were looking for is the recommendation as it existed in the report. Is that correct? Ye >> yes that's correct. One main part city clerk Trenum through you mayor Horvath was changed with the councelor Casar Cretch amendment in Roman numeral 4. Now, if you're saying to speak to the entire motion and I then I'll be recorded as to 9.2 in its entirety, but there was earlier parts Roman numerals 1 2 and three that staff's direction and their uh preferred option recommendation were part of that and it was just the their staff's B part that the two counselors amended to more to do a more detailed assessment of alter alternative two about the permanent closure. I'm fine either way, but I was looking to you to make sure procedurally I'm I'm on solid ground. >> So through you, mayor, when the minutes are placed on the floor, uh what is up now for consideration is the final vote. So for this body, that is the main motion as amended, which is clause A and B. And clause B has Roman numerals uh I I I. If you would like to go back to a previous recommendation or what was originally put in the floor in the committee, you would need a separate vote on item B to defeat that at which point you could move an alternative which was what was originally recommended in the report. So what is on the floor was the main motion as amended. That was the final vote from committee and that is what you're currently considering. >> Okay. Thank you, city clerk Trenum. I'll make it simple for my colleagues. I'll just speak to 9.2 2 as it was amended that came out of public works and I'll be speaking against it. So may I have my time quickly now? >> Yes, we can start now because you you shouldn't have to worry about the clarification in terms of your time. >> Thank you, Mayor Horvath. Thank you for that leeway. I'm sure uh this isn't even my ward, but what has bothered me from the public works debate last week, I got a letter from one of the seven land owners with their homestead. I'm sure others must have received. I believe everybody was CCD so it's on public record uh from one family Harvey Gizpre of 1590 Safari Road. He says on behalf of the seven homeowners alternative one do nothing is not a preferred option. Alternative two, and I'm reading from from his email, Mayor Horvath, of closing the road is not fiscally responsible due to the cost of real estate. To buy out seven properties, five of them farms with 100 acres or more. The cost of buying out these residents would more than likely double the cost of raising the road 6 meters. We're not in favor of this alternative. Alternative three, he's written they are very agreeable to the community of Safari Road of raising the road the 6 mters as well as increasing the width of the road making it more stable and bic bicycle friendly. Mr. Gizre uh concludes by saying in his opinion this is the best win-winwin situation, win for the environment as the animals have a safe way to traverse the road, win for the city, most responsible and cost-effective win for the community since the road will be open and drivable. Um, I also have Mayor Horvath. I'm sure we've all received and I love civic engagement whether it's for against something I'm doing or neutral. I just love civic engagement. And so I'm impressed by citizens beyond the Safari Road W1 13 area that have uh expressed their opinion. I think 99% of it in my humble opinion has been to go with alternative two, which is permanently close the road. I'm just shocked and dismayed in terms of how callous to the seven existing homeowners on Safari Road that just close it permanently so that emergency services, paramedics, firefighters, police can't get there. basically telling these seven I to my knowledge a little bit of research I've done generational families 100 acre farms some of them just tell them that we're going to close the road look for some other place I'm going to tell you mayor Horvath if that ultimately and I know that it's only exploration in the two counselors amendment but I've been around this horseshoe enough years to know when a direction's given often the case is that staff follow that direction and come back to find a way to make that direction, that amendment to work. So, my worry is that with that direction, that amendment that was put forward, staff will now have to go back, look at the upside and downside of closing the road. And all I'm going to conclude by saying, Mayor Horvath, is if that ends up being the ultimate decision, I can't imagine the expropriation costs of the forget about 8 million for raising the road and making it liveable for those seven homeowners. I can't imagine the expropriation costs this council or a future council, whoever's here, will have to pay out to buy those seven homeowners land. I'm against 9.2 as amended. Thanks, Mayor Horvath. >> Uh, thanks, Councelor Jackson. Uh, councelor Alex Wilson, please. >> Thank you through you, Chair. I'll just start with my apologies. I missed uh both public works and GIC due to a really unfortunate illness last week and so apologies. I probably will have to go on a second time just as a result. This is my only opportunity to speak to this file at council today. Just want to start uh with saying I really appreciate uh all the feedback we've heard from residents both on the road. Want to confirm uh the letters we've received. six households of the properties, 14 residents have all said their preferred solution um is to raise the road and they wanted to make that clear and I I want to make that clear at the start of my remarks that the those most impacted, those most on the road. Uh six of those households have said and sent a letter to us saying what their preferred option is. We've also heard from folks right around the corner a concession over by far not just folks in downtown or in urban wards about their concerns with this. The decision in front of us today is not choosing which alternative we are pursuing. That is something that the public asking us to choose alternative to has thought the decision has been and I think it's something that residents and media have even thought the decision has been in their coverage and I think it's led us to getting emails saying pick option one, pick option two, don't do this. The choice in front of us today is to in a which everyone has agreed to send on the environmental assessment work we've done to the province for further review. This furthers the work to raise the road. What also needs to happen as part of that is a 30-day public review of the actual EA. In that time period before we want to do NB, which is allocating the spending, putting this in our capital plan, residents reached out saying they have concerns. Those concerns might be environmental, they might be fiscal, they might just be, hey, we don't think this is the right decision. The decision in front of us today is when we get to the point of choosing between alternative 1, 2, and three, what information do we want to be accountable to? and what information do we want to have to inform that decision? We as council, because DA has not been made public, do not have access to all of the environmental and technical studies that have been done in detail. We have a one-page summary table that lists the relative value to answer some of the questions we've got from residents with their concerns. I fully support hearing and having the EA process kind of conclude hearing the province's concerns and then if the best outcome is to proceed with the option of raising the road, let's absolutely do that. But if we have to wait to get that environmental review actually anyway to have that 30-day review and there's not an urgency to committing $90 million of the 2028 budget in the next 30 days or if we could wait to that 30-day review here from residents make sure that those questions can be answered satisfactory then we go forward and if the outcome is raising the road we can do that with a lot more confidence that we did answer the questions that people had. We did look at uh the concerns around value for money, operating costs. Yep. We acknowledge that, you know, some of those numbers don't exist today and we've heard concerns from residents. We want to do some due diligence in getting those answers. This is not a decision to close the road. I absolutely echo councelor Jackson's concerns. This would be an awful process to do that. This is not that process. What we've got back is a costing that says uh these two options, one of these costs more than the other, and we've asked some questions about what assumptions were put into that costing. I can't answer those questions because I don't have the EA to break down what those assumptions were. Part of the motion asked to break down those assumptions on costing. So when residents say, "Hey, did you look at the lifetime cycle of the road costs? Did you look at um just the uh market value of the properties?" Like how did you make those numbers to come with that? We can answer their questions and be confident that we're making a good decision. So for me, I'm supportive of both proceeding with not delaying the raising the road option in any way, shape, or form by sending it forward to the provincial EA for review. If additional information comes back because we this is our preferred option. EA has identified this as the preferred option. Um despite council Jackson, oh we might try and make it fit as staff talked about at the public works meeting. Um they would have to submit a different report. we would have to if we decide we want to act on the information that we get back we actually have to resubmit materials to the EA and that's not a that's not a just oh we'll do it there has to be a reason there has to be an evidentiary we're making a new case we have new information and this is the basis for it so the reason I support option A is because I think residents do want to see this move forward it's not going to be constructed until 2029 at current pace anyway we don't need to be adding delays to this project but we don't need to be adding uncertainty or any contestation to this project unnecess necessarily either. People are asking really valid questions about value for money and about what is the science that's gone into making sure that this is the preferred alternative. I want to be able to answer those questions honestly and I want to be able to answer those questions with full confidence and not just an appeal to expertise that say we hired a consultant. This is what they said at high level. No, I haven't read the report in detail. I think that this decision to confirm the actual spending should happen after we've all had a chance to read the EA. That does not delay the actual outcomes with constructing this road. Thank you. Uh, thanks Councelor Wilson. Councelor Clark, please. >> Thank you, Mayor. Can I ask a couple of questions to start? >> Sure, please go ahead. >> Um, >> I'm trying to understand what I'm hearing from my colleagues and I've heard that the EA is not public. Is that the case? And if so, why isn't the draft EA public? >> Please go ahead. Oh, wait. Do we have somebody online? I'm sorry. I'm just looking to who wants to respond to that >> through the chair. Um, my name is Ben Salvichi, senior project manager of infrastructure programming and planning. Uh, and I've worked with the environmental assessment process. Typically, our process for recommendation A is placing to proceed with placing the environmental study report or project file report on public review. It is a very lengthy document and so based on current council timelines. Uh it's not necess or not always feasible to place that on public review in advance or ensure everyone has enough time to review the document. Um we've prepared in the past some summary documents to help guide that process a little bit. Uh, and it's also the consideration of um pre-posting a draft that hasn't been um at a high level at least reviewed by council to the public and allowing for the proper commenting place to or commenting period to take place following the the touch point with council. So, we've been using this process um at least for the last 8 years, possibly longer. Um, but I know we've had some discussions about whether or not that's the appropriate um process to take place. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, senior manager. Please go ahead, council clerk. >> Thank you. In item A, it basically says that you're filing the municipal class environmental assessment with the ministry. And in that, do you not have the preferred option? senior project manager >> through the chair. We do. So through that um section A, we'd be posting it publicly online, sending it to the ministry and allowing both the public review process and the ministry review process to take place. And that would have a full breakdown of all technical work and the recommendations included within it. >> Counc, maybe it's just me, but that seems a little bit backwards. Mayor, it it's been my experience when an EA submitted with the preferred outcome, nine times out of 10 it's the preferred outcome. And so why wouldn't we be providing as much information as possible to the public on all of the alternatives before submitting a preferred outcome to the ministry? through the chair. There is preliminary information available. So at each public meeting, we do provide a highle overview and those materials are currently available online. Um staff are also available for any questions that arise during that time. Uh I think the process we currently follow is again um in alignment with the typical EA practices within the city and and other municipalities um of releasing it all at the same time following the technical review understanding that the importance is placed on the overall technical review of the of the situation. Um, but there is public materials available online that provide an overview of the alternatives and and the assessment work that was put into place for those alternatives. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor CL. >> So, the 30-day public review period, the public will not have the full EA. They will only have the preliminary EA. and we are still moving forward with a preferred option without giving the public the opportunity to see all of the data that supports your conclusion. Is that correct? >> Through the chair, we will be releasing the full project file report for this project um pending the release of the minutes from the council meeting today either next week or the week after. And that's when the 30-day review period would formally commence. So the public would have access to all technical documents involved with the study at that time. Thank you. >> I guess the challenge I'm having Mary and I don't have any more questions. >> Thank you. >> We're submitting our decision and then there's a 30-day review based on what the government process is. What we're not consulting the the public before we make that decision. And the entire EA is not out there. I recall the upper red Hill Valley Parkway project and the original project was a road that just went right through the natural features and with the help of the conservation authority. We changed it so that there was an eco corridor so that um a spring was being preserved the animals and critters and and and everything can move under the bridge. And then we had an additional wetland that that was restored. >> So So councelor Clark, your time is up, but you can finish off this thought if you want or go back on. >> Um I have concerns about this process. I'm not sure I can support it. >> Okay. If you'd like to go back on, you can um ask for a second uh amount of time after we've had the rest of the speakers. Thanks very much. Uh councelor McMakin, please. >> Thanks, your worship. U I share the concerns that councelor Clark has uh wisely and typically shared um with respect to the process and uh this is a momentous potential decision. I am completely um um in in sync with u um my local counselor uh Alex Wilson and his comments about the timeline and the cost and why rush why not do do all our homework and let citizens do all of their homework first before making this this very important decision. I have one one question I would ask. How do the seven residents along Safari Road currently exit and enter their own properties? >> We send that over to staff >> through the chair Daniela Parasi, director corporate facilities and energy management acting for Jackie Kennedy. Um I'm going to invite >> I can't hear I think she's a little too far from the mic. Sorry. >> Um I'm going to ask staff online uh Megan or uh Deepanka Sharma to answer this question please. >> Uh thanks Director Peresv. Um please go ahead senior project manager >> through the chair. It depends on the time of year with the flooding. Um, currently the road is closed between property accesses, although some of those adjacent to the flooding or the road closed portion. Uh, do have to drive through water to access their properties. So, this changes throughout the year as water levels rise and fall. Um, but some of them do have to currently drive through um varying levels of water to access their property. Thank you, >> Council Me. >> Yes. Thanks. What's the highest level of water that they need to drive through? >> Do we have the answer to that question? Project senior project manager >> through the chair. I don't have that answer off the top of my head, but I was out on site uh I think two weeks ago and it was at least 6 in. Thank you. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Thanks, Council Me. Uh Councelor Casar, please go ahead. >> Yeah, thanks Mayor Hoverth. I just wanted to just weigh in some of the comments I made at public works. Just on the context of this decision because it is a momentous decision, it is significant and if you take the the specific context away, we know that there's a huge concern on affordability and spending in our budgets and we have a roughly $100 million a year spending deficit for our roads and transportation network. So 8 million $89 million is significant chunk of that money. So if we know we have that deficit every year $100 million in maintenance is not being done. We have to make some tough decisions and the decisions are only going to get tougher as time goes on. So presented to us here is a very tough decision. And the motion which I put forward on behalf of councelor Alex Wilson who wasn't there at the meeting as stated was let's get more information to help us make a very very difficult decision because if we spend money here you know we're potentially not spending money elsewhere on roads that are used by you hundreds or thousands of users every day. So, not to diminish the needs or the desires of these families and these properties, but there's money that we need to spend all across the city. And there are roads in all of our wards that are in great disrepair, and we don't have enough money to spend. So, this is, as councelor Alex Wilson said, this isn't making a decision today. This is to have information in order to make a better decision. And the conversation I've had with staff and my feedback was, you know, the EA process looks at a very specific instance, in this case, a road that's underwater, and what should we do about that, but doesn't consider that broader context. So, as governors, I think it's really important that we consider the broader context. What's the best way to spend $8 million on a road network? And the the motion, the amendment asks for that information to help make a better decision with information considering life cycle costs, not just immediate costs, but every time we build a road, we have to maintain it 30, 40, 50 years later. And those costs continue to build up. So, it's asking for information. It's not making a decision. I just wanted to provide that context. Thank you, Mor. >> Uh, thank you, Councelor Clark. Um, I have councelor Alex Wilson for a second time. Uh, but we have some first-time speakers as well. Um I'm sorry. >> So that's moved by councelor Spataphora then and seconded by councelor Paul's uh for uh councelor Wilson to speak a second time. Show of hands please. All those in favor. Any oppose? That carries. Thanks. Please go ahead. >> Thank you. Really appreciating the commentary. I just want to confirm and I don't think it's been said but just really be clear. I think staff have done an excellent job at consulting the public and following the EA process. there's been an optional PIC that they added into this work. Um, what I want to say is that I think as a result of this, it's become more complicated than I think folks realized back when this first started uh prior to this term of council when some of these pathways first going and the questions residents have been asking. It's not that they haven't been getting answers. I think it's that they've been asking for more information than is available at the summary or the rollup level. And so I don't think anything untoward has happened with respect to consultation. I think there's been exceptional efforts to really answer people's questions and meet them where they're at. But as many folks have noted from different perspectives, this is a complicated decision and I think just as people are asking their questions and the questions are kind of going not just didn't environmental assessment happen, but I'd like to understand the results of that environmental assessment and I'd like to ask questions about the assumptions you made in it. That's not a question that can get answered in a summary PDF or a one-page table. Um, and so I think that's just why really supportive of the process that's happened. But I don't know that the provincial EA process that set out, this was a category 2 EA, so we went to a different scale than we would have had a category 3, for example. Um, I don't know that that process has given us the best decision-making tools, which is why the nearing to the decision-m process were there. Last thing I'll say from me is I think the worst thing we could do is vote today to allocate the $8 million to the road and then in a future budget year when things are really tough and we're trying to save some money, go, "Oh, well, we didn't fully cook this. We didn't get all our questions answered. Maybe we put this one off a year." Once we get this scheduled in the 29 capital plan, it needs to stay in the 2029 capital plan. It has been delayed long enough. Residents been on a journey for so long. And so once we know what we're doing as a city and we've answered all those questions, I think we really need a multi-year and a multi-term commitment from council to stick to the plan and fund every year of that plan because otherwise this disaster for residents just keeps on going. And so I think that's why I really want to make sure that we're starting with a confident step forward because it's going to be multi-year investment decisions that we have to keep ratifying in each budget so we can't delay later. Thank you. >> Uh thanks very much uh uh councelor Wilson. Um we have uh councelor Cooper and then councelor Clark will ask for a second opportunity. >> Thank you chair. Um at the committee level and I'll mention it here as well. I stated my concerns were the fact we haven't gone back to look at the root causes and it speaks in some ways to what councelor Casar is mentioning as well. Um I had an opportunity to catch up with uh director Smith and uh and uh he had done some work with growth management. We have a history here of dumping. We have a history of trucks being charged. Okay, that's that was told that was outside the scope of what we're doing here. And I have concerns because we can build as many roads as we want. We're going to keep building roads, but we can we can call it a um a biodiversity area. Well, really, when we're talking about dumping and water being redirected, we got to go back to root cause. So, I can't support this because what I heard at committee levels, we haven't done our due diligence. We haven't gone back to root cause. And I agree with the idea that we could just be wasting money by picking any of these options. So, I'd like to see us do our homework. I have stuff coming this afternoon from growth management and bylaw on this and I got this quite easily and I I don't understand why why that work wasn't done so I can't support this. Thank you chair. >> Uh, thanks Councelor Cooper. Uh, we have um a Okay, so we have a first time speaker and councelor Cretch. So, councelor Cretch will go first and then councelor Clark will be we'll seek your um your uh approval for your second time. Please go ahead councelor Crutch. If I could ask senior project manager Kelluchi about a couple things that'd be helpful. My understanding in reading these documents and also having read previous documents and speaking to people about this is that yes, there was some dumping that occurred here. There was some dumping that had to do with um a cul near a culvert I believe. I want her her interpretation of what the dumping and how it relates to this because my understanding from the EA is actually that regardless of the dumping the issue remains. Senior project manager Saluchi >> through the chair there are a number of different factors in this um including property changes increase in flood events or storm events frequency of storm events um so it's not just one source necessarily I will say again the environmental assessment definitely focuses within the right of way um and so we're looking to address those specific issues thank you >> right but if you could speak specifically to whether the root cause of this issue is the dumping or not. I'd appreciate that. Is it is it is it something you don't know? Should I ask somebody else here? It's been something we've addressed before and my understanding is it's not the root cause of the issue. It is was a cause of some problems in the area, but what's happening here is it's related to rainfall for the flooding, other kinds of issues that no matter what we do structurally with culverts um or with mitigating dumping is not going to change the outcome here for Safari Road. Maybe that's for director Winters who I see is appearing on the screen. >> Thanks, Counc. I did see coun uh uh director Winters join the conversation. So uh uh if you can add some uh clarity to the questions that councelor Cretch is asking please go ahead director Winters. >> Good morning council. I absolutely can. Uh Nick Winters, director of the Hamilton Water Division. Uh and so for that clarity, it is Hamilton Water who has been responsible for conducting a municipal drain assessment uh through a council appointed engineer uh to investigate the outside the road allowance and road corridor drainage issues um that are present out in the Safari road area. And so our municipal drain engineer has conducted a thorough inspection. Um they haven't identified that illegal dumping is a contributor to this drainage uh challenges. Um they have identified a number of of different uh challenges uh including impacts to natural water flow and surface drainage around that proincially significant wetland corridor. Um the contributing factors identified include damaged, undersized or non-existent culvers in some places as well as obstructions, natural flow such as beaver dams. Um and so that ongoing municipal drain uh work uh is going to continue to dig into those root causes. Um, and we will have information in front of uh committee and council uh in late 2027 after we've satisfied the department of fisheries and oceans uh considerations for permits as a result of that municipal drain assessment. >> Thanks, Director Winters. Please go ahead, councelor Crutch. >> Thanks. And just to clarify in plain English, if it's okay, what you're saying is the dumping is not the root cause of this issue. What you're also saying is that there are some issues with respect to damaged other kinds of culverts. My understanding is that that will improve the situation, but fixing those municipal drainage concerns is not going to solve the problems we have with respect to wetland flooding, beaver dams, and other kinds of issues that are contributing to the flooding. Is that right, >> Director Winters? So through you uh Mayor Horvath, uh the we don't have the final recommendations of the municipal drain engineer yet and and so there's a process that still has to get us uh to that point in time. Um the potential establishment of a municipal drain, providing the the city of Hamilton with authority to maintain that area on behalf of the various stakeholders including the city of Hamilton, it will help. Um but until that municipal drain assessment is is fully completed uh we won't be able to say with certainty how much better things can get. >> When do you expect it will be completed? >> We are anticipating uh that we will have a report in front of committee and council in third quarter of 2027 based on current timeline. >> Thank you. So briefly I'll make comments so I don't have to go in a second time. just to say that it's really important that we focus on what's happening here today at today's meeting because we are not going to be making any major moves here for some time. There's a series of things that are going to be going on. A municipal drainage assessment will let us know about the culverts in terms of what we can do as a city to support this area's drainage. And what this motion is asking for quite simply is more information about the option to it's on the table. If we're concerned about, which we say we are all the time here, concerned about listening to residents, residents are asking for that information. And if we use councelor Jackson's number of 99% of the overwhelming number, that's a lot of people who've written in to say, I just want the information. So, we're not making the decision today about what to do. We're making the decision about what information we're going to bring to the the decision we're going to make. Why wouldn't we bring it all? >> Thanks, Councelor Cretch. Uh, councelor Clark, for a second time, can we get a mover and seconder for that to happen? Moved by councelor Morin Wilson, seconded by councelor Casar. Please go ahead. Councelor uh uh Clark. >> Oh, sorry. All those in favor? Any opposed? I just trusted that call people would be collegial. Please go ahead, councelor Clark. >> Thank you, mayor, and thank you to my colleagues. What still is rubbing me the wrong way and I I want additional information. I want to know exactly how Hamilton Water and Public Works are going to mitigate the flow of the water from the wetland, the proincially significant wetland over to the other side. I don't know how that's going to be done. Quite candidly, the information that I've seen so far does not take me down that road. And so, here's my problem. We are submitting our class EA to the ministry with a preferred option and it opens up for 30 days on that submission. It's been my experience more recently with this government that EAS that are submitted even after the 30-day comment period, they make a decision before they even have a time an opportunity to review all of those com comments. So, I'm concerned about that. I agree we need more information. What I don't agree with is a submission to the ministry until you have that information. And that's why I think the cart is before the horse. I drove Sephoria Road last night. I was headed out. I had HCA business out in Pus Lynch. On the way back, I drove Sephoria Road. It's a nice drive. Lots of hills. Lots of hills and then some really flat areas. And in those flat areas on both sides of the road, there's wetland, but the road is a little bit higher than the wetland until you get to this section of Safari Road and the road is no longer higher than the sides. And so I have to question if we're going to move forward with putting the road in, we need to understand very clearly how you're going to mitigate the movement of wildlife, how you're going to mitigate the movement of the water without adding more contamination to it. And all of that should be public and in the EA at the moment. Mayor, I don't see it. So I regrettably based on that I I simply can't support this. >> Okay. Thanks Councelor Clark. I don't see any further speakers to this item. Uh and so we are on the motion or sorry the item in the minutes that um are before us as per what came out of committee if I am not mistaken. So just so that everybody knows what it is that we're voting for or what we're voting on rather is we're voting on that um that item if it's is it pulled for a separate vote. Has that been happened yet? >> So we'll treat it as a separate vote mayor. I just want to confirm that uh the vote is going to be on both clause A and B or if there's Yes. Okay. >> So not separated out just the the minute as as a whole. Okay. Uh I just uh I'd like to actually pass the chair over to councelor Casar very very quickly. This is a complicated issue. So thank you for taking the chair. Uh it's a complicated issue. It's a complicated matter. Uh what it doesn't need is overpoliticization. What it needs is responsible, thoughtful um work by ourselves and by our staff. And I think that we're underway with on the staff side. notwithstanding reservations in terms of the uh uh historic way that not only our city but other cities handle these kinds of matters with the EAS. Uh the the fact of the matter is from my perspective. Uh we need to be thoughtful and responsible. Uh that's our role here. Uh I'm hearing unfortunate things about information that's being provided to uh to cause people to be very very very concerned um at a time when that's that's not uh where we're at in the process. and that's disappointing. Uh but having said that, I I am going to support what the committee uh has recommended in terms of the uh what's before us today. Uh because uh I I agree with the members around this horseshoe who have talked about uh the responsible path forward being one of information, one of uh having u more uh uh understanding uh a greater perspective on uh on the complicated uh file that's before us. uh and I'm grateful to the staff for the work that they've done uh and look forward to a time when we have all the information before us uh which will uh help us to uh to move this uh issue forward to uh to really deal with the concerns that have been raised by the community and uh and by the homeowners in the area. Uh so on that note um appreciate the opportunity and I'll take the chair back councelor Casar. Uh so the item has been moved or sorry been pulled the the minute and it is now before us for our vote. Oh uh councelor McMin, please go ahead. >> Sorry. Can you Let me just I got you. >> Sorry. Thanks. I just want to be clear what a yes vote means and what a no vote means. >> Okay, here we go. Uh thanks Clerk Trenum. Uh before us is the um the minute which is the main motion as amended at committee >> as amended. And so can you confirm that that's uh what's before us then? >> Yeah, thank you mayor. So as you see it right there, bullet point uh V motion as amended. A that the general manager of public works be authorized and directed to file uh the Safari Road Kirkal Road to Valins Road Municipal Class Assessment Project file report and that B that SAP be directed to report back to public works committee prior to initiating the capital project submission to future capital budget with a full assessment of alternative 2 including the following. Uh, thanks very much. You clear, Councelor McM? >> Yeah, I'm still a little confused, but yes. Thanks. >> Okay, if you're if you're confused, we should probably clarify before you vote. >> Well, a no vote is to gather yes vote is to gather more information. >> Yes. A yes vote is to gather more >> without filing um our preferred options. So, do >> No. No. My that's not my understanding. My understanding is the staff process is the staff process and it's going to >> Can I just can I get some order please? >> Okay, >> maybe we'll go to the clerk. >> So this was the initial question um and why an option is to separate clauses A and B. Uh clause A again would file the municipal class environmental assessment and allow for that 30-day public review period. Class B is what asks for the staff report back uh as opposed to what was originally moved which was that upon completion of the review and the completion of the Ministry of the Environment Conservation Parks review period uh and resolution of any section 16 order request the general manager of public works be authorized and directed to proceed with the implementation of the preferred alternative. So, at present, you're voting on both clause A and B together. If you wanted, if anybody wanted, we could vote on the clauses separately. If you defeated clause B, you could go back and move clause or the original clause, what was recommended in the report. >> Okay. So, are is that clear then for you now, Councelor McMaken? >> Yes. >> I I I'm doing my job here. I can see the uh people that have asked Alex Wilson and councelor Moren Wilson. I would ask councelor Moren Wilson to go first because she's not had an opportunity to speak. >> I'm sorry. Let's I I know what you're I I hear what you're saying. I'm going to ask Councelor Wilson um Moren Wilson who's not spoken to this yet to uh to have her opportunity. Please go ahead. I'd like to defer to the board counselor, please, because he's going to ask the same question that I am, but in a way smarter way. >> Uh, okay. So, uh, councelor Alex Wilson, I think you have a question that you wanted to have clarified before. >> It sounds to me that committee's wondering about the EA process and the impacts of submitting it to the province, what the like, hey, what's the impact of going forward or not? I don't think any one of us is best like SPM Salvi has that information has shared it offline with myself and other counselors who've asked. I think that'd be helpful if everyone had that answer. Thanks very much both uh for the the uh addition there. Can we ask the uh senior project manager Salvuchi the impact of not passing would that be item A in the minute uh which is the moving forward with the uh environmental assessment process? What would the impact of not doing that not filing be? Do I have that correct? Councelor Wilson. No, you you put it in your own words. Thank you. Um, just if they could comment, why are staff recommending A and if there are risks associated with not doing it? I know there's a future report back and then if we did proceed with A, I think folks are wondering, are we locked in? So, both sides, what happens if we do it? Are we locked in? What happens if we don't do it? What are the risks? >> Thank you. Senior project manager >> through the chair. Um, if we do not place the environmental study report on public review, then we will not be able to deem the environmental study report complete or the project file report complete. Um, what that report is saying is just based on technical findings. This is the recommended solution. It is not saying council must implement it, which is why there's a second part of the report. Um, so part A is just the completion of the environmental assessment process saying here is our documentation and council is supportive of us releasing that information to the public. Um, it just documents everything. It is again not a commitment for actual implementation but due to the trigger of the project. So, uh, regrading of slopes, raising the road, installation of new culverts and and eco passages along the roadway that requires assessment work to be completed under the environmental assessment act. And so, this is us posting our due diligence in assessing those options. So, it's really just publishing information to make it available to council and to the public. Um and again um for implementation that would either be um section B of the recommendations or in future budget years where that line item is reviewed. Thank you. >> Is that everything you needed councelor Wilson? Okay. Thanks very much. Appreciate that. I think we have some clarity here. Uh councelor Clark's looking for a third time uh speaker. So councelor uh Morin Wilson, councelor uh McMin, all those in favor? Any opposed? Uh please go ahead councelor clerk. >> Thank you mayor. In item A can I hear very clearly is the EA that is being submitted to the province does it include a recommended alternative a preferred option >> through the chair. It does um recommend an alternative based on all technical work completed through the course of the project. Thank you. And what's that option >> through the chair? Based on all information gathered, so technical studies, public engagement, planning, justification for the project, it recommends option three, which is raising the road in the installation of culverts and eco passages along the corridor to ensure continuous water movement as well as wildlife passage. Thank you. and help me understand so that everyone gets this. Full assessment of alternative two is in B down below. Preferred alternative oper number two is not raising the road is it >> through the chair. Um option two is not the preferred alternative. So you can understand my confusion because in one side we're sending it to the ministry with our preferred recommended choice and then later in the exact same report we're asking staff to report back on capital submissions on a different option altogether. So very confusing. >> Thanks Councelor Clark. Um, okay. Councelor Moren Wilson, uh, you, um, gave up your opportunity last time back to Councelor Alex Wilson, so I'll recognize you as a first- time speaker. Please go ahead. >> Thank you, Mayor Horbeath. Um, if I could just pick up uh, from where councelor Clark left off and just trying to understand the process in submitting the EA with a recommended alternative. It goes out for public consultation. the public has a an opportunity to try and get through some technical understand technical reports. Is it the prerogative of the elected municipal council upon receipt of the information asked for in the amended B to then put forward a different alternative? And therefore, would a new EA have to be done in accordance with the assumptions that may or may not uh inform that discussion at that point? Just looking for some assistance. Thank you. Senior project manager Svuchi, please. >> Three of the chairs. So the development of the environmental assessment project we completed is a tool to help council make a decision on implementation and budget. If we were to stray from um alternative three, we would have to do additional uh documentation work to ensure that the decision-m process is transparent uh to both the ministry and and the public. So the exact scope of that additional work would be confirmed once we determine um the exact direction for the project overall. Okay. Thank you. And to be sure then um that would be a prerogative of the elected municipal council as opposed to one in which um say the government of Ontario said well you've submitted this recommended alternative and we're just going to um we're recognizing that uh as the legitimate publicly expressed alternative. I'm just trying to make sure I understand consequence through the chair. >> So through the chair. So the role of the ministry would to ensure compliance with the environmental assessment act. So this project was triggered based on potential scopes of work that we then undertook technical studies for. This report that we are um aiming to publish is the results of that technical work. The actual implementation is up to council. So the technical work that the ministry approves is different than what council will approve for implementation. It could be the same but it could also be a different outcome. >> Okay. Thank you. Thanks councelor Wilson. I don't see any further speakers on the list. Uh so just wanting to confirm with the clerk. So the clerk the clerk that was a reference to you councelor Clark. Um just so that council knows council knows again what we are uh voting for here. Uh please uh go ahead. >> So thank you mayor. Just to confirm then uh it is the motion as amended at present as there's been no request to separate A and B. Uh so that would be to submit the EA to the ministry and to direct staff to report back to the public works committee on alternative 2. >> Okay. Thanks very much. We'll put that vote up, please. Oh, not enough memory to open the page. >> What about >> So, we broke the system with all of this conversation. Uh, that carries 9 to 4. Thanks uh very much everyone. Uh, we are now, if I'm not mistaken, on to the balance of those minutes. Is there anything else on the public works uh committee minutes that people would like to uh have voted on separately or or discuss? Anything? Seeing none, then we'll uh we'll have the balance of the minutes vote up with thanks to the committee for their work. And that carries 13 to zero. Thanks very much. Uh we're now on to 7.2 and 12.3. Uh PLC26-00006 planning committee May 5th, 2026. Councelor Tatterson. May I please have a motion to receive and approve the recommendations within the planning committee's open and closed minutes of May 5th, 2026 and receive the correspondence items? >> Yes, Mayor. Uh moved by myself, seconded by Vice Chair M. Wilson that PLC260006 being the open session minutes of the planning committee meeting held on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 be received and the recommendations contained therein be approved. That the closed session minutes of the planning committee meeting held on Tuesday, May 5th be approved as presented and remain confidential. That the following correspondence items be received. Item one, correspondence respecting report PEED26091. Minute item 8.1 concerning application for an official amendment and zoning bylaw amendment for lands located at 471 Moxley Road Flamro Ward 13 from E. Barnes Smith and M. Smith resident and R. Angish, the Angish Group. And number two, correspondence respecting the motion contained in minute item 11.1 containing public participation in land use planning processes and that's from G. Nicholson resident. Thank you. >> Uh thank you councelor Casar. Uh those minutes now being duly moved and seconded. Is there any item that any speakers would like to any members would like to speak to um amend or have uh voted separately on those minutes? Seeing none, we'll then go to the vote, please. Uh that carries 12 to zero. Uh thanks very much committee for your work. We're now on to GIC 26-007 general issues committee uh May 6, 2026. So this is 7.3 and 12.2. Councelor Casar, may I please have a motion to receive approve the recommendations within the general issues committee's minutes of May 6, 2026 and receive the correspondence items. >> Thank you, Mayor Horvath. That is moved by me and seconded by former deputy mayor council Tatison. >> Okay. Hey, is there uh anything within these minutes that members would like to speak to, amend, or have voted on separately? Uh, councelor Tison. >> Hi. Yes. I'd like to speak to item 7.3. It's the um accessibility committee for persons with disabilities minutes from April 7th. Um, I spoke with um Brian Holl Hollingsworth. He's director of engineering services. he made a presentation on tactile working sorry tactile walking surfaces at curb ramps and depressed sidewalks. And so um I was basically they made this presentation to ACPD um with the aid of a PowerPoint presentation. Those recommendations were received at committee with some resistance. And I just wanted to have a public, you know, response from director Brian Hollingsworth to um talk about the difference between putting these plates down as opposed to using what we use currently in Hamilton, which is grooves in the concrete. >> Uh thanks uh councelor Tatison. I'm not sure if Director Hollingsworth is with us or not. He's not. Uh so we'll have uh uh director uh parasif please go ahead >> uh through the chair um I'm gonna ask someone in engineering services to respond this question. I see we have uh Deepankar uh Sharma online. >> Mayor, >> I'm sorry. I >> Susan Jacobson was ALS or Susan Jacob was also there. >> So I I'm I have the person who is going to speak to it. I don't I'm sorry I missed the name. >> Susan Jacob. Please go ahead. Please go ahead. You want Did you get question? Would you like it to be repeated? >> Yeah. Yeah. Can you please repeat the question? >> Absolutely. Please go ahead, Councelor Tison, and put your question. >> Just seeking comment. There was feedback given at the ACPD meeting that um there was resistance to employing the steel tactile walking surface indicators because of the slipperiness and the um issues with rolling wheelchairs over them as compared to what we have currently in Hamilton, which is grooves in the concrete that um serve the same purpose and were preferred by the members of the ACPD. So, I'm just seeking a response and comment from how staff took that information and what they're going to do with that from the ACPD committee. >> Please go ahead. >> Thank you for the question. I'm Susan Jacob, manager of design in engineering services. I attended the meeting along with Brian Hollingworth. There were requests from the ACPD committee to provide more information or some working group meetings with them. So we had a subsequent meeting after that after the ACPD committee and we will be also doing a presentation of the various tactile walking strip uh indicators that is available and it's a CSA approved um tactile warning strips will be um displayed for them to have a touch and feel about it and express their um desire of which one to uh go ahead with what we also heard from the working group was that they would prefer to use something that will be very similar to what will be implemented for the LRT corridor. So the LRT corridor is going to utilize the CSA standard, the walking strip standard that is approved by the CSA which is a Canadian standards association. that will be the same um walking strip that they were uh willing to look into further for the Main Street uh project. >> And so are you going to be coming back to the ACPD committee with more information and with actual um examples to show? Okay. Thank you very much. Yes, we will be presenting some samples and we are also taking it to the CNIB meeting as well which is a Canadian National uh uh association for the blind. >> Thank you very much. >> Thanks manager Jacob. Anything further, Councelor Tison? No. Okay. Thanks so very much. Uh I don't see any further speakers on these minutes. So we can uh go then to the vote, please. That carries 15 to zero. Thanks very much. Uh 7.4 is AFNA26-00006 Audit Finance and Administration Committee meeting of May 7th, 2026. Councelor Bey, may I please have a motion to receive and approve the recommendations within the Audit Finance and Administration Committee's open minutes of May 7th, 2026. Councelor Bey, do you have a motion? >> Waiting for the mic to come. Thank you. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, wait, wait. Now I screwed it up. >> Are we good, >> Councilor? Bey. Oh, please go ahead. >> No, we're off now. >> We're out now. We're back. Okay, here we are bringing forward the committee minutes from the audit, Finance, and Administration Committee. That is the meeting held on Thursday, May 7th, 2026. AFA26-006 item 7.4. and that uh we receive the minutes and that the recommendations contained therein be approved. My seconder is vice chair of AFNA Mike Spataphora. >> Uh thanks very much. I see there's a speaker list uh being populated here. So we start with councelor Nan. Please go ahead. >> Thank you mayor. on item 7.1 uh the development charge indexing. Um both of these report or I guess this report was initially brought forward as information and staff recommendation was for it to be received and I understand that committee then further amended the work to include lifting up one of the alternatives. So I had a few questions as I don't serve on AFNA though I did uh quickly review some of the deliberations there but if I could through you um get staffed please confirm how much of Hamilton how much has Hamilton already reduced DC's I thought we were already at a 20% reduction for private development for residential >> uh thanks councelor Nan uh James Garrick please >> through through the mayor uh Mike Sigar general manager of finance corporate services the city of Hamilton has a variety We have development charge discounts and exemptions including statutory discounts and discretionary discounts. Uh council also approved a 2-year further 20% discount. Uh and committee recommended amending that 20% discount to 24% to offset the impact of the DC indexing for 2026. >> Thank you. And um so my understanding according to the financial impacts of that alternative that amounts to a 5.52 million impact to property taxes to subsidize the private development for the duration. And could could you clarify the duration as well through you may >> GM Zagar please >> through the chair the um the term would be a one-year term uh subject to further consideration uh as it relates to 2027's indexing. And with respect to the financial impact, the impact is estimated by staff at approximately $5 million subject to any funding that the city may realize through some federal provincial funding programs. >> Right. Thank you. And through you, mayor. So, the tax impact in terms of property taxes would be felt by property taxpayers. What year? >> Through the chair. Uh I I should point out uh 70% of the impact is on the water budget. So it would be uh rate impacted, 30% on the tax budget. Uh staff will look as we develop our 2027 budget as to whether or not there's any clarification from senior levels of government with respect to offsetting. If there's any offsetting funding, we will reflect that and then look to incorporate that either in 2027 budget or future budgets. >> Thank you. And then uh just so I'm really clear, I did read through some of the other components in the report and it speaks to reducing DC's mean that municipalities have less money to fund infrastructure and specifically in this case such as water, sewers, and then also roads. um and continuing to shift the cost to property tax owners. Um is there any evidence to date and I do appreciate that that every level of government right now is in the process of trying to work within the reality of a current economic climate that has chilled the development industry. Um but is there any evidence right now that's pointing to these DC reductions resulting in new builds in the city? >> James Garrick >> to the chair. I I can um ref refer to the uptake with respect to our 20% uh DC exemption. Uh it's leveraged approximately $3 million in local investments. As to whether or not that move projects forward that would uh have otherwise been stalled or continue to stall, we don't have that information as staff. I will share on the non-residential side what we do know from the non-residential uh development community a further measure that the city took was to reduce the interest rate on DC deferral agreements. So these are agreements that allow developers to spread out their development charge obligations and we've reduced that effectively to zero as a further measure to support the local labor force and the development community. We do know that has been a factor as it relates to some developments proceeding. >> Thank you for those responses. uh mayor I will not be supporting uh the recommendation to bring in a further 5.5% impact to property taxes especially given the ongoing um conversation around this table that many members um you know diligently want to bring forward the fact that they want to keep property taxes down but then are going against staff recommendations where this would um you know further frequently amending our B DC bylaw creates uncertainty for develop ers, this is a one-year uh alignment. Uh the expectation for a one-year alignment would that would be that there would be subsequent years of that ongoing realignment and I think that that's a really unfair burden to place on our property taxpayers. Thank you. >> Thanks, Councelor Nan. Councelor Crutch, please go ahead. >> I was just asking for a separate vote on this item and I think that's already going to happen. So, I don't think I need to say anything. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh councelor Clark, please go ahead. Oh, sorry. Jeez. >> Then I shut you off by accident. >> Okay. Thank you very much, Mayor. I appreciate that. Just a couple of questions for clarification. So, first, in the minutes here, it doesn't show what the decision was. It shows that we're amending it as amended, but it doesn't say clearly so that anyone that reads this what the changes would be to the indexing. So my understanding was that we were not going to do the 4% indexing. Is that correct for one year? >> Can I get clarification, James Garrett, please? >> Through the chair. I I'll go through the mechanics a bit. Uh and hopefully that provides clarity. I only have five minutes so >> so uh I'll try to be very quick. Uh committee approved the indexing of 4% for 2026. However, committee moved forward with an alternative which is to offset that 4% through an extension or expansion of our temporary DC exemption amending it from 20% to 24%. So the indexing proceeds but then there is an offset uh by an increase in the temporary DC discount an exemption of 4%. So effectively there would be no impact to developers uh in that the offset uh would mitigate the indexing impact for 2026 going into up to May 31st I believe of 2027. Thank you for that. I thought we also discussed how we prevent this from being uh offset by municipal property taxpayers. There's the Canadian Ontario Partnership Program. I think I've got the wording right. Um and um we were going to look for ways to ensure that that did not happen so that we were sending a very clear signal to the federal and provincial governments that we want to be a party of that application process. Can you just clarify uh that that part please? >> James Garrick. >> Yes. uh through the chair, through you, Madame Mayor. Uh committee did express an interest in uh leveraging federal and provincial funding to offset the impact to local rateayers and taxpayers. Uh staff are happy to work with counselors in terms of a motion. Uh we have a potential draft motion that for a subsequent committee meeting or for this one. uh but uh I don't believe it's timesensitive that we would advocate to senior levels of government to offset the impact uh of uh the amendment to the temporary DC's through federal and provincial funding programs. >> Thank you. But we did have that discussion and there was going to be a draft motion coming back with that language. Is that not correct >> through the chair? That is my understanding of an interest to bring forward a motion to mitigate the impact subject to confirmation from senior levels of government. >> Um, mayor, I I know that you understand this. I know that most around the table understand this. The housing crisis, it's now also a financial crisis. And so what we are witnessing in Ontario is a significant increase in personal credit bankruptcy or creditor protection applications. We are seeing a significant increase in default on mortgages and foreclosures on mortgages because people simply don't have the money to pay those high interest rates that now exist that didn't exist 5 years ago. Um we've heard from and I know the mayor has participated in these discussions. The prime minister indicated that um during his campaign that he wanted to see development charges across the country where they existed to drop by 50%. Um we made it clear through AMO councelor Wang can speak to that that we can't do that without support. There has to be some kind of financial offset and that's where this 8.8 8 or8 billion fund came from and so what our intention was in the meeting mayor was to send the signal we didn't want to increase our DCs because it sends the wrong signal and then have you and the government relations department reach out to the federal government and say upfront we're ready to play we want to be in the front of the line here we have some major infrastructure projects that most certainly if they funded it it would drop the DC requirement significantly. And so that was the intention and I hope councilors will support that knowing how we're planning on moving forward. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thank you, Councelor Clark. Uh councelor Alex Wilson, please. >> Sorry. >> Thank you. Uh through you, Chair, just a process question off the bat because this came from information reports and then was a council amendment kind of taking the options we asked for. Could staff just clarify what their original position was on indexing? Uh do staff support proceeding with indexing? Did staff recommend one of the alternatives? Just trying to understand what that recommendation is from our staff. >> Jim Skar >> through the chair. Staff did recommend indexing uh development charges in an effort to preserve our uh development charge uh reserve uh capacity to move forward with growth enabling projects when it was necessary to bring those projects forward. staff did provide three options. Uh two options and then an open-ended uh seeking direction from committee with respect to options as it relates to mitigating the development charge indexing impact. Uh those were presented to committee and committee proceeded with the option uh as discussed. >> Thank you. at committee uh the discussion uh paytoplay came up quite a bit when describing specifically uh access to provincial programs. It was used by staff, it was used by committee members. I'm just wondering given it was it was quite the common phrase used in that debate, could it be understood what the implication of paying to play means in the context of this program >> through the chair? Uh I believe that was a a phrase I used uh at committee. Uh it relates to the Canada and Ontario um uh grant program, the $ 8.8 billion over 10 years. uh through media releases and this is the exclusive source of information that staff have with respect to that program is our interpretation is that priority municipalities the provincial federal government will choose priority municipalities as it relates to those municipalities that are eligible for funding uh must satisfy an expectation with respect to contributing to the relief of development charges somewhere in the range range of 30 to 50% uh was was referenced. That in part formed part of why staff put forward alternatives. The the 4% gets the city of Hamilton a little closer with respect to the 30%. However, I will highlight that the city of Hamilton provides a variety of development charge discounts and exemptions over the 20% and I would hope that we would get credit for those programs as well. So the pay-to-play reference and and that was my reference is that our interpretation, staff's interpretation is in order to be considered for grant funding, A, you must be considered as a priority community. We don't know yet what that process will be. B is the municipality will have to have already discounted development charges. The risk is that municipalities proceeding with discounting development charges with the hope that those funds will be offset. Again, it is not clear uh timing wise when municipalities will get that assurance or whether there will be a period of time where the municipalities assume that risk. And so the pay is in reference to municipalities having to provide a discount upfront. The the play is in order to be considered under that grant program, we must satisfy those qualifying uh requirements. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Councelor. >> Through you, I'm just going to use my last 90 seconds for commentary if that's okay and then I don't go on a second time. Uh I'm not in favor of moving forward with this. $5.5 million is 10% of the new spending in the 2025 budget. Uh this came forward not via notice of motion. It came forward completely procedurally appropriately. It was on the floor. Someone moved a motion, but as a result, it just didn't go through the typical notice provisions. You know, this is a 10% of new spending of the last year's budget being made and there's not been a huge line of sight to the public on this one. Um I don't believe that this is a resident priority at the tune of $5.5 million. I appreciate that there are real realities going on in the sector and that as we go through economic challenges everyone hurts and that does include home builders in that puzzle. Um, some of the commentary I made was, uh, having experienced a housing collapse already in my lifetime, like most of us have around 2008, um, one of the lessons I really took away was that the public by and large was frustrated that developers, banks, etc. were first in line for those bailouts when the economy got difficult and that instead they were looking for support to go in different places. If we're saying that times are really tough in the construction sector and we want to be offering a bailout, I think that's a different question um, than how are we funding our infrastructure. Um, to me, the programs that have been developed by the province and the feds feel a little bit like infrastructure hunger games at this point. And I don't think that sending uh $5.5 million as a community, you know, sacrifice is the right is the right way to participate in the program. Um, I don't support paying to play. Thank you. >> Uh, thanks Councelor Wilson. If I can have your indulgence for one minute just in terms of where my understanding is having been to big city mayors recently uh Ontario big city mayors uh in terms of the process of coming up with the actual program and what it's going to look like the details how it's going to be dealt with is still underway. So there is no final just so people are aware there is no final uh kind of um plan that's been put in place yet but the big city mayors and I'm sure all of AMO is very seized with uh actively um um having an ear with the government in terms of some of the issues that have been raised around this council table. So just that you know it's not just us that have some of these concerned concerns others do as well. Uh and the program is still in design phase and so there's been a commitment to continue a dialogue with municipalities through big city mayors uh as well as anything that this council might want to send uh or staff in terms of their uh their uh I don't know pathways to to um to providing information through their professional associations. At at the end of the day the program has not been finalized. So that's as a couple of weeks ago when I was at uh uh at big city mayors in Pickering. So just a little piece of information for folks uh to let you know just to add some flavor to the um what count what GM Ziggger said in terms of the uh unknowns at this point. Um apologize for stepping in there on you councelor Casar, but please go ahead. >> Yeah, no problem. That's helpful context. Appreciate that. Um you know there's often talk about certainty and having certainty to operate. You know private sector wants that. I think here we would like some certainty and we're operating in an uncertain time right now on you know financially how we can persist and build what we need to build. Um I have a couple questions through you may merit to GMZ Garrick just on some clarity because I'm ambivalent on this topic and listening to our colleagues. Uh first of all with the committee recommendation the 4% indexing is not being added this year. I heard the GM say it was for one year. So is it added is do we catch up in the following year or are we now 4% behind going forward indefinitely if that is correct. >> Thanks councelor Casar. Uh James Garrett please >> through the chair. Uh I'll try to do better. I clearly failed the last time I tried to clarify this. The uh committee did approve indexing development charges by 4%. So that will continue in perpetuity for the period of uh June 1st of 2026 to May 29th of 2027. Uh committee also approved a adjustment to the temporary DC's discount exemption from 20% to 24%. So effectively offsetting the indexing for that period of a time. So indexing the municipality will benefit from the um compounding benefit of indexing in perpetuity but for the period of June 1st 2026 to May uh 31st 2027 subject to council approval the indexing will be offset through the increase in the temporary DCs. >> Okay. Thank you. So compounding over time remains there. So we're not it's just a temporary loss. And secondly, through you, mayor, I recall when the 20% exemption, the temporary exemption was approved, part of the feedback from staff was, well, because of lower development activity, the budget we have for discretionary exemptions isn't likely to be fully consumed. Therefore, the 20% exemption actually would not in require additional funds. Is is that do I remember that correctly? And maybe clarification if it's not entirely right. >> Absolutely. Thanks, Council Gasar. James Garrick >> through through the mayor. That's correct. Through our 2026 budget process, uh staff uh recommended and it was adopted through the budget is revising our development charge discount and exemption budget to reflect what's currently occurring in in the sector. And so we were able to reduce the uh level of funding required for DC exemptions and discounts in 2027 inclusive of the 20% discount. >> Okay. Um so I understand that. If I could ask a followup, do we have a sense on where we're tracking on what the versus the total budget for discretionary exemptions and what has been consumed so far? What I'm trying to get to is is does this DC additional indexing exemption actually require new money or is it already money that has been budgeted because I think that's an important fact to understand if directionally I understand specific numbers likely aren't available. >> Thanks. You know big picture you mean right? >> Big picture. >> Thank you. Uh GMs Garrett please >> through through the mayor with respect to we we do have some preliminary and audited figures for 2025. uh approximately 3 million for the development charge uh temporary uh 20% discount. Uh that is part of an overall uh financial um commitment of approximately $75 million as relates to 707 sorry 2025 forecasted actuals for 2026. I haven't uh any updates with respect to where we are trending for 2026. >> Okay. Thank you, Mayor. >> Thanks, Councelor Casar. Councelor Moren Wilson, please. >> Well, let's just start by stating the obvious. There's no real political upside for voting for uh an enhanced uh DC reduction because it can be framed as we're uh bonusing or privileging uh private developers who happen to make gobs of money uh a decade ago and so um why are we doing this now? So first of all, I don't think public policy should be based on, well, you made a lot of money then, you're not making it now, you should have saved it. We don't apply that to any other industry, including the auto industry. Secondly, we're not recommending, as councelor Casar has pointed out, uh we didn't go against staff recommendation. We endorse staff recommendation. We're moving ahead with indexing of 4%. we're not losing the compounded uh accumulated um financing of that. Thirdly, um I I understand completely understand the frustration here with the rules of the game. This is both a uh workforce development effort and it's also a housing development effort. We didn't make the rules of the game that we rely heavily over 90% on the private sector for housing. We didn't make the rules of the game from the province and the federal government uh that they're going to lean into that particular sector for housing. If it was up to, I'm sure many of us, we would have advanced uh the following. Many homes are still beyond the capacity of people to afford now and into the future. If we're really serious about workforce development, then why don't we shift those workers over into the opportunity to build affordable housing? But that's not what's on the table. And as I said in committee, we voted unanimously then and here for uh accelerated fair wage. We have me many members in the industry who are facing no wage. Um, so I I just want to be transparent and frank about it. Those are the cards that were being dealt with. If I could ask through the chair to GM's Garrick. Um, I thought I you you wrote down the priority community in this program has yet to be defined. Is that correct? through the mayor. That's correct. >> Thank you. And I thought I heard you say uh that one risk is that or or one hope and I I really need clarity on this. Uh I have written here a municipality will have to have already decreased DC's in order to be considered as part of this program. Could you um did I hear you correctly? Through the chair, >> Jim. >> Through the chair. That's correct. Our understanding is that within the range of 30 to 50% seems to be uh what senior levels of government are looking for municipalities to contribute with respect to the the broader uh challenge for development community. And my uh previous comment was in addition to the 20% and potentially 24% subject to committee's decision on the matter before committee is that we provide a suite of other development charge discounts and exemptions. And I would hope and we would look to demonstrate that the city of Hamilton far exceeds that 30% floor through all of the measures that we've taken. >> Thank you. And um that is one reservation I I had or concern throughout this discussion was as often the case. Uh municipalities we which are seeking to try and problem solve within the rules that have been set out for them um often get penalized because the uh the program then is informed by priority communities who have done nothing and they're getting rewarded for doing nothing. Um, and that is my concern. It's kind of offset by the fact that I've, you know, some of the more politically um, influential communities like Vaughn and the like are doing something and I don't know if this government would care to test that water. Um, uh, those are, uh, just a sort of a a summary of my efforts to try and be pragmatic and transparent. Um um it is uh a choice. We need more housing supply. We know we're expressing concern with the vacancies of properties and underdevelopment and no development happening across our city. Uh we if you speak to developers and take the time to do so, uh they will go into great length about uh their financing systems and their loaning systems and their efforts with banks. It's tough. >> So, thank you. appreciate uh my apologies for going over time. >> That's okay. Uh thanks very much. Uh we have a number of speakers on the list including councelor Nan, but it would be a second time. So we'll put her to the uh uh end of the list that we have in front of us and she'll ask for that vote when the time comes. Uh councelor McMin, please go ahead. >> Yes. Thanks. Thanks, your worship. Um, I want to um articulate u my um belief that the um counselor to my left, my my good friend councelor Wilson has has stated um you know we talk a lot about dealing with the cards we've been dealt, not the cards we wish we had. We also spend an inordinate amount of time when we dig a little deeper on uh housing issues talking about the need for a shared sense of partnership with the senior levels of government and and have occasionally been um marginally to maximally critical of perceived lack of engagement. Um, why is that important? Well, it's important because we finally have the two senior levels of government who are attempting to come to the table. Um, I'm sure others have as well, but I've had many conversations with our federal colleagues about what needs to happen and articulated u my own preference um that uh when they consider developing policies um that they be aware perhaps of the need to continue to shuffle the deck and direct um the support um primarily uh to lower cost purpose-built housing. Um I'm not keen to be subsidizing multi-millionaire homes or multi-millionaire houses. Um um but I am keen to see an intelligent um uh collaborative effort uh to work together to identify the housing we're most in need of and to do whatever we can to provide it. Uh that includes uh training more bluecollar workers, acknowledging the tariff restraints uh uh particularly around steel, softwood, lumber and uh aluminum uh uh taking that crisis um and trying to find some positive ways to move out of that. The government um has um both both levels of government have moved to support reduction of taxes on new homes. That's positive in my opinion. It could be more positive if it was a tad more focused, but that's why we need to continue to try to shuffle the deck. And so this gets us into the game as the general manager has said. Uh, I thought that was appropriate rhetoric. Um, the um the 8.8 billion dollars of fulfillment of um a pledge that was made by our new prime minister in the last federal election uh is an important initiative. The fact that he was able to get the province of Ontario on side is perhaps even more important. So I think we need to stand in solidarity with the concept of working together and also uh with a clear understanding that the impact of um a uh a home building uh recession where companies are going bankrupt and and well-paid um bluecollar workers are potentially losing their jobs. I can explain that I think to my constituents. Um you know it's u it's a matter of you know when something good happens in one part of the economy it it bonuses every part of the economy. So I I like I like moving forward in in the way that's been described and and will certainly support doing so. Thank you. >> Uh thanks councelor McMin. Councelor Crutch please go ahead. I think I have one question for GM Zagger before I make a few comments and I'm hoping I can get just a very straightforward answer here. I understand that we've planned for DC credits through the budgeting process and I understand the math that you're doing. I guess what I'm just trying to get a straight up answer is is what have we what are the costs? not net cost, gross cost, just what has it cost us to as a city to provide that 20%. And then I believe you've already confirmed that the 4% would be 5.52 million. So I'm just trying to add those two numbers together. >> Jim, >> yeah. So uh through you, Madame Mayor, with respect to 2025, our 20% temporary discount represented a cost of $3 million and that's unudited. With respect to the forecast that's in the report, staff work with our colleagues in planning and economic development and made some assumptions with respect to the number of units and square footage for non-residential uh developments. And that represents the approximately $5 million financial impact and that is just a forecast that's based on some assumptions of development activity in 2026. >> Yeah, I think I didn't answer ask that question too clearly. I understood what you said previously, which is what you just said. Now, maybe that's all there is to say, but my understanding is that that $3 million is based on an offset of some kind. We either budgeted some money or we had some other monies that we allocated so that the net cost to us is $3 million. I'm asking for the whole number regardless, including the offsets in the budget. >> James Garrick, >> I'm sorry. Through the mayor, if the council could repeat the question. >> Sure. I may have misunderstood. What I thought you said earlier was we budgeted some assumptions with respect to development charges credits. That budgeted number allowed us to keep the charges keep keep the cost lower. What I'm trying to do is find out what was the budgeted number that we used to keep the costs lower and then what was the cost because if I'm understanding it correctly, there's a gross cost there. Then there's our net costs. So the net costs are $3 million. I'm trying to understand what the gross costs are >> through the chair. We don't uh appreciate the clarity through the chair. We budget uh for all of our development charge discounts exemptions. We don't budget by exemption or discount. So our overall budget was I believe approximately $45 million on our tax supported and a equivalent $45 million on our water budget. And do we spend that amount of money in terms of offering those credits >> through through the chair for 2025? Our unodudited forecast is approximately $75 million. >> Okay. So, if I understand correctly, and I'm just trying to make sure I understand the numbers here. So, our forecast for spending for DC credits is $75 million in 2025. Um, and then we have additionally, this is additionally 5.5 or five million for the 4%. So in total, we're talking around $80 million with these two things together >> through the chair. The 75 million relates to 2025. This impact would impact half of 2026 and half of 2027. >> Okay, that's a little clear. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm sorry if I misunderstood you previously. I was just trying to make sure I add this all up. >> So we it's a lot more money than just a few million dollars we're talking about here in terms of the incentives and credits that we're offering and we've budgeted already. So, I think it's important and I think it's important to say that at this time there hasn't been evidence provided directly from the development industry to this council saying here are the credits that were provided. Here's exactly how they were applied. Here's how the homeowner benefited. Here's how many houses were sold as a result project by project. because why? We don't require that. There's also no financial accountability whatsoever for these incentive programs in terms of understanding what the profit and loss is in the development industry for these incentive programs. And so I'm just saying the financial accountability just isn't there. We can keep giving these incentives out and there can be um possibly uplifts to people and possibly jobs and possibly all kinds of things. I'd like to see the evidence. >> Uh thanks Councelor Crutch. Good timing. Councelor Cooper, please go ahead. Thank you, chair. Um, when you start to look at our job market locally, it's under siege. We've seen what happened in steel. Only 20% of primary produced steel is used in Canada. We have 60% coming over the border and and and over the ocean uh that's being used by our steel fabricators. We've seen thousands of job loss. Auto sector's been devastated. A lot of those people are being retrained in the trades right now. And when you look at our own local economy, what's happened in in in the last year, 1,900 trades jobs have been lost. Who are those people? They're the people who are sitting up in our our audience today. So that's two and a half times the size of Stalco. Just put in context for folks. You start talking those spin-off jobs. Are we talking 10,000 jobs? And so, you know, you look at this and we say we're talking about an ocean 4%. Let's talk about the people it's impacting. And so when you start looking at those numbers and the impacts we're having, we can put our local economy into a death spiral and yes, we can have a lot of people unemployed and then we have a different problem because then people can't pay the property taxes. And so I I think as councelor Wilson said, we have to kind of look at the human component of this as well. And when we talk about, you know, does this do do these um amounts that we're we're we're saving um do they go through to the the homeowner? Are they broken out? There's new provincial legislation that actually says whether the HST, development charges, whatever it is, it gets broken out in the bill. So we actually see the flow through to the homeowner. And so there's not just profit taking happening at the developer level. This is about jobs. This is about the flow through. We need to get those homes moving. And right now, you look around Hamilton, you see the cranes down, you see the tool belts, uh the two belts down as well. And so we have to look at this from the human aspect and what it means to our local economy. So, um I I I really believe that that we need to uh we need to support this. >> Uh thanks Councelor Cooper. Councelor Tatison, please. >> Just a question to Jim Ziggger around the $ 8.8 billion that's potentially available. Is that just across Ontario or across Canada? >> James Garrick. >> Yeah. Through the uh through the mayor. Uh that is a Canada Ontario commitment uh over a 10-year period. >> Okay. So over a 10-year period we might be getting $ 8.8 billion spread out across Ontario. Correct. >> Through the mayor, that is my understanding. >> Okay. So the way I'm looking at it is if there's 16 million people in Ontario and there's currently 640,000 in I would say Hamilton. And if I do the math, that's about 4%. So when I do the math on that 4% and I look at 8.8 billion, we're looking at potential windfall of between 300 and $400 million over the next 10 years. Is that reasonable to look at the math that way? >> Cherrick, sorry. >> Through you, Madame Mayor. Uh, I would say it's reasonable in that in the past staff have have done a similar calculation just based on population. If it was distributed on a per capita basis, that would be reasonable. However, we don't know how this funding program will be structured and whether the funds will be based on a per capita basis or uh some other basis. All we know as as has already been stated, it'll be for priority municipalities and municipalities that have uh contributed to development charge support or relief >> and at that 4% then and that's and say if I just halfed it to say 2% of the of we what we got because maybe there's different needs in different areas that would represent between 10 and 20 million a year potential that we could from the provincial government and this program. Would that be reasonable to assume that as well? >> James through the chair. Uh again, if it was based on a per capita basis and if the city were to receive some portion of what the city otherwise would have been eligible on a per capita basis, uh that would be reasonable. I I will just flag as well is through our 2026 uh water budget process, we have made some assumptions with respect to federal and provincial funding of approximately $120 million. So we would hope that through these programs that local rateayers will see some support with respect to these intergenerational infrastructure projects. >> Well, thank you GM. I can appreciate appreciate that and like the other counselors here have looked at it. I didn't make the rules but I'm sure willing to pay to play by them and if it's into the benefit of the residents and I think that it is when you look at the numbers. Thank you. >> Uh thanks uh councelor Tatison. Uh before uh we have councelor Nan speak, I'd like to pass the chair over to councelor Casar just to say some very very brief remarks. Uh thanks councelor Casar. Uh, I would say this. I've appreciated the conversation around the table. Uh, I think we have to look at the moment in time that we're in, uh, to make a decision that will be beneficial hopefully to our community. And they we don't hold all of the answers. We don't hold all of the cards. Uh but we we do have an obligation to take seriously uh the efforts that are being made by the federal and provincial governments to uh step up to the crisis that we have in uh in infrastructure not only in Hamilton but across Ontario and across the country which is why this program exists as well as the desire to get people back to work. apppropo uh councelor Cooper's remarks and I would also say that um that the folks that were in this chamber uh absolutely are are being impacted uh with the slowdown in uh in uh construction and housing particularly but construction overall. The other reality is that there are other companies and businesses that are also part of this sector uh and I hear from them from time to time that they're laying off and it's really hard uh for those smaller uh companies, consultants, etc. planners uh th those kinds of businesses uh are uh are also suffering and that's happening in in Hamilton and I'm hearing from people uh as well in that regard and so you know it's very rare that we have uh three orders of government trying to solve the same problem and and actually working together to do so. Uh and I think we need to be a part of that uh a part of that um uh effort. Uh and I think not being a part of that effort sends the wrong not only the wrong signal uh but could leave us worse off. Uh and so although we do have some unknowns and although we don't have uh what we uh need even at this moment in time in terms of support uh from uh from other orders of government on all kinds of fronts which we talk about around this table uh quite regularly. uh when an opportunity uh arises uh we need to step up. Uh and if that means a little bit of uh discomfort or or a little bit of um uh of uh uh maybe not being as comfortable or as as uh as proactive as you would want to be on some of these types of bigger picture issues overall. uh we have to speak to the moment and we're in a particular moment in time uh and I will be supporting uh this as well uh because it's uh from my perspective what we uh what we need to do uh to um to play our part to get uh housing built uh to get people back to work uh and to um uh to help uh make sure that our economy is uh is firing as um as effectively as possible. So um on that note, I appreciate the opportunity. Thanks Council Gar. I'll take the chart. chair back uh and uh councelor McMin, have you spoken to this yet? >> You'll need Okay, so we'll go to councelor Anan then. Uh do we have a mover and second or to have councelor Nan speak for a second time? Councelor Spataphora, councelor Crutch. All those in favor? Any opposed? Uh that's carried. Thanks, Councelor Nan, please go ahead. Thank you colleagues. Appreciate the second opportunity. U as non AFNA committee member um this is the only forum that I have to ask questions and to make comments. So, uh, appreciating that we have an obligation to take seriously the crisis facing us and appreciating that the city of Hamilton has been putting in so many efforts to do exactly that in terms of putting in our effort and making sure that the feds and province see it very clearly so that we can be a municipality of choice to participate in these programs as they design them as they walk it. guess um the federal government committed to making municipalities whole for 50% of DC reductions on multi-residentials during their 2026 economic statement. Okay, we know what to expect from the feds. The provincial portion is a portion that remains in flux without any details despite the very good work of AMO, the big city mayor's caucus, the FCM Ontario caucus that continues to request that the provincial government consult with municipalities directly in structuring the program to provide the certainty we need as municipalities in order to ensure that our taxpayers are really clear about how these DC exemptions benefit our community and what the burden is going to be for our property taxpayers. There's no clarity at this point. And the total pot is, as councelor um Tatison's questions clarified, $8.8 million over 10 years. And that's 4.4 from the provincial government. There's no clarity, again, no clarity from the provincial government that this is going to go towards residential or multi-residential. What form of residential? Will it include commercial? Will it include industrial? Will it include farm exemptions? We don't have that clarity clarity to date and my concern is that without that uh we have unfortunately experienced too many scenarios as a municipality in this province where the the city has not been made whole. Um I guess my other concern and my preference would be to be more fully informed sitting around this table about where we stand in seeking that being made of made whole. Um, and so I guess my final question would be to general manager Zagger resulting in that 20% discount to private development plus the many many other exemptions that you referenced that are itemized in the report from AFNA committee. Would you feel confident today in saying that we have a cumulative exemptions bringing us to that 30 to 50% threshold? And if so, is there an estimation? My preference would be to have that information before us before seeking further direction to give the municipality the ability to negotiate or are making whole by the province, but I don't have that information in front of me today. James Garrick, >> thank you. >> Through you, Madame Mayor, I'm confident that we are somewhere within that range of 30 to 50%. I can't definitively say where we sit given that we have a variety of programs. if it's a development in the sea that that is I believe in excess of 50%. And so um again confident we're within the range uh but in terms of how that will inform decisions from senior levels of government I believe that's what we will have to wait and see how that will factor into any allocations and the setting priority communities. >> Thank you. and through you mayor um GM Zerk when will you have that number more solidified? You had referenced a draft motion seeking to integrate this 4% into the total ask to the province for making us whole. Um but at what point does that information become packaged to bring forward to the province and do you need direction to do that or are you already doing it? through the chair uh staff uh are already compiling information uh not knowing what the program but uh wanting to ensure that we are effectively communicating what the city of Hamilton has already committed to uh with respect to supporting the sector. Uh with respect to the motion uh again happy to work with uh I believe it was councelor clerk and madame mayor who were uh who were provided a draft motion. So timing of that would be subject to the wording in the motion uh being to the satisfaction of the mayor and the counselor uh and the timing would be a subsequent AFNA or um GIC meeting. >> Appreciate that. Thank you. Thanks councelor N. Uh, councelor McPacin, please go ahead. Oh, you know, we have to have a vote for uh that to happen. Councelor Spaphoras, councelor Morin Wilson, please go ahead. Oh, all those in favor? Any opposed? Please go ahead. Councelor McMin, >> thanks. Your worship. Um, a very wise person I crossed path with with years ago said something that's always stuck in my mind. He said, "Once you put your foot in the river, the river is never the same." Um, this is a process that we're on. We talk about dealing with the cards we have, not the ones we wish we have. But it doesn't mean we stop wishing for new cards. You know, that's part of the journey as well. There's another dynamic here too that I think really needs to be articulated. Probably u maybe the most important one of the most important dynamics. Um last week I had a major builder uh come to see me. We spent about an hour together and his um his his business came to a standstill because the bank would not provide lender money because of a lack of confidence in the uh the industry and and I had heard that anecdotally from some of my other development friends in multiple municipalities. you know, the cost of land, the cost of government regulations, um, and, uh, can I access lender capital? Um, by doing this and moving forward in this way with some initial, you might even describe it as tentative support from the two senior levels of government, but with an awareness of the need for us to cut the deck and reshuffle the deck and keep working at it. Um doing so enhances the confidence of the banks to come to the table when uh when their credit is needed. There's a big outlay initially as this builder I spoke with said um that is um he described his words as frightening to banks. um they build and then he you know a big a huge sum of money you pay it all back ideally um on on credible and and good terms banks need to be confident about the indust and lender other lenders the industry as well and I think by moving forward in this way uh we're affirming that dynamic and uh and being um helpfully more inclusive around who partners ers with respect to the industry. Thanks viewers. >> Uh thanks councelor Mcmakin. I don't see any further uh requests to speak. We've had a wholesome discussion on this and so we are now uh going to u move to the uh there's been a call for separation of this out for a separate vote. Uh that's been moved by do we recall who that was moved by? Was it moved as a separate vote? >> Okay. Moved by councelor. That was moved by councelor Nan and seconded by do you remember councelor Nan who seconded that? >> We don't need one. Oh I'm sorry. Okay. So it's uh on this minute then that's separated. Can we uh have the vote up please? carries 13 to three. Thanks very much everyone. Now on the balance of those minutes, uh are there any further items that people would like to uh have voted on separately or spoken to? Uh not seeing any. We'll go to the balance of those uh minutes then. Have those up for the vote. That carries 16 to zero. Thanks everyone. Uh, if I'm not mistaken, we're on to 7.5. Is that correct? ESC26-003, Emergency and Community Services Committee meeting, May 7th, 2026. Councelor Clark, may I please have a motion to receive and approve the recommendations within the Emergency and Community Services Committee's open minutes of May 7th, 2026. >> Thank you, Mayor. I moved by myself, seconded by councelor Robert Cooper, that ECS26-003 be in the minutes of the emergency community services committee from Thursday, May 7th, 20126. Item 7.5 be received and recommendations contained there and be approved. >> Uh, thanks very much. I'm now going to go to uh, councelor Jackson for an amendment to the motion contained in item 8.1 respecting improved enforcement of snow removal bylaw to assist seniors and persons with disabilities. Uh please uh vice of your uh seconder and and go ahead councelor Jackson. >> Thank you uh Mayor Horvath. I believe city clerk Trenum is going to put it up on the screen. Um I asked if there would be hard copies but he said he would be uh putting it up on the big screen shortly. It's more of a procedural housekeeping as he is doing that. Let me explain uh especially to half a council that are not members of ECS. and it'll be seconded by the chair, councelor Brad Clark. Um, this is an outstanding research motion. There it is. Thank you, city clerk Trenum. Uh, and there in bold type uh caps is uh the change uh from planning committee to the general issues committee. Uh hopefully that stays there so my colleagues can absorb it. Um anyways um this has been Mayor Horvath an outstandingly researched uh topic by the seniors advisory committee led by chair Penelopey Petri and most of the research of this motion to improve in enforcement of snow removal of the bylaw during winter operations. Uh the research was done by a longtime member David Broom and was unanimously endorsed at the uh last senior's advisory committee meeting. The thrust of this for my colleagues not on ECS is to do greater enforcement on nontransit major arterials. In other words, where there's problem areas on your residential side streets, there's those problem properties that for whatever reason, residentially or commercially, Mayor Horvath, are just negligent and are just lazy in terms of creating a safe space for people and in this case for seniors and those with disabilities traverse during the winter um snow falls uh safely and securely. So, the thrust of this was greater enforcement and to look at greater enforcement. However, there's a complexity in here that will now bring in the healthy and safe communities department besides MLE because from if you if you recall the um seniors snow clearing program we have that we give seniors $450 a year per address to hire someone to clear their snow during the winter time. It may impact that also. Thirdly, it may impact the public works uh snow removal city sidewalk snow removal program that the council of u 2022 passed. Um, not unanimously, Councelor Maren Wilson, but I was one of the original four from last week that you went out of your way to highlight, but then it got reversed in a affirmative majority way, and I was one of the nine uh at council that ultimately approved it. And I must give a shout out to councelor Nan because this isn't just seniors advisory. A mother's advocacy group that she's strongly involved with advocated for this as well. Of course, she let me know that during my speech last week, but anyways, I missed that, so I'm saying it now. So, all the complexities, Mayor Horvath, to conclude, to wrap up, it'll bring in various departments if we're going to maybe expand the city sidewalk snow removal program beyond major arterials, if we need greater MLA enforcement, how can that more proactively be done, and maybe do we bump up the eligibility for seniors that are currently getting $450 to hire someone to remove their snow? So, this was just procedurally to say, you know what, it just doesn't belong at planning. It belongs comprehensively at GIC, hence the procedural change. Seconded by councelor Clark. Thanks, Mayor Horvath. >> Uh, thank you, Councelor Jackson. We have a speaker list on the go. Uh, councelor Craig Casar, please go ahead. >> Thanks. And my comments were generally not on the amendment. So, do we need to deal with the amendment first or >> Okay, this is just on the amendment. Are there any are there any other speakers to the amendment that's on the floor because that's what's before us right now. Uh councelor Clark, were you I thought I saw you on my list, but >> separate it. >> A separate item. Okay. I don't see any um any further speakers. So, let's uh dispatch with the amendment uh as it's put before us and we'll go to that vote. votes up. that carries 16 to zero. Thanks very much everybody. Uh and now we're on to the balance of the minutes. Uh we have uh councelor Casar. Please go ahead. >> Yeah. So my comment was about this item but not on the amendment. >> Okay. >> Yeah, that's okay. Okay. Thank you. Clarify. Yeah. uh very supportive of of the motion and uh the work to come back. I think it's very important for folks to have access and understand that this is coming from the perspective of seniors and uh those with disabilities. Uh so I just want to expand our thinking on that. Um like I said very fully supportive but it's also about kids getting to school and as many know I've been working very closely with the daily school route this year and we there was a mention of arterial roads and expanding clearing beyond arterials. Well, there's something that in the DSR language around student arterials and these are the neighborhood streets that kids take to get to school. So, if you picture an arterial road, a student arterial is where the majority of kids or a lot of kids are walking through the neighborhood to get to school. It could be on a sidewalk, it could be through a park, it could be through a passageway between houses, it could be anywhere, but this is just how kids get to school. And even in war 12 in Lancaster where there is sidewalk clearing, there are still challenges with the city process piling up snow and blocking student arterials and making things dangerous. So all I wanted to say is very supportive of this uh seniors, those with disabilities. I know the motion references vulnerable users and all users. I just wanted to put on the public record that it's um children as well. And the more we center around children and those that are vulnerable, the better we're all going to be, including those that are senior and and those with disabilities. So, let's just keep that in mind, too, as we're doing this work. And that's all, Mayor. Thank you. >> Uh, thank you, Councelor Casar. Councelor Clark, please go ahead. >> Mine's on 10.1. >> Okay. Uh, so, Councelor Cooper on this, please go ahead. >> Thank you, Chair. And just further to what uh councelor Casar was saying when one of the big impacts this winter my ward was uh where we've had snow uh delivered by the city back on the sidewalks and it's taken an inordinate amount of time to get there and to clear it. And so one thing we have to do is really make sure that we have alignment with our various departments on these policies because uh you know for residents to clear their their sidewalks and have it deposited back on their sidewalks and not to be addressed in a expedited way. I really think it almost needs to align with our expectation of our residents. So I look forward to that alignment as we go forward this policy so that we do have the access we need in our neighborhoods. Thank you. >> Uh thanks uh councelor Cooper. Um so we will actually dispatch of this uh through the voting process the amendment please. Uh >> can we have that up? Is that correct? That's my understanding from clerk Trenum. >> Yep. We can do that mayor. So we'll put up a separate vote on 8.1. as amended. carry 16 to zero. Thanks very much. On the balance, I know that we had a couple of speakers wanting to uh speak. Councelor Clark, please go ahead. >> Thank you, Mayor. I like to address item 10.1.2. And I'd like to ask your latitude so that I could move the motion here at council and to be seconded by councelor Spataphora. Councelor Spataphora uh was the one that initiated this program last year and I think it would be appropriate to have him on the motion at council if that's permitted. >> Uh I'll look to clerk Trenum for any procedural issue. >> Uh no issue with that. I just the uh wording of the amendment is all we need. So there's no amendment. I'm just wanting to move it and to be seconded by council sphapor. >> Apologies. So no, it's already on the floor through the minutes. Um so it's already open for debate. We don't need another mover in seconder for item 10.1. >> Okay. It's not necessary to do that. It's already on. >> I I understand it's not necessary to do that. Um, so if the clerk's saying that we don't do that, then I want to acknowledge before I begin that councelor spider was instrumental in starting this process last year and I thank him for that work. Um, if I can have the latitude mayor, I'd like to wear read um the pertinent whereases into the record and the motion into the record and then provide my comments. Is that >> Thank you. Um whereas Interville House of Hamilton's women's emergency and rural support wares program pilot expanded rural service delivery through centralized rural hub and mobile outreach model establishing 15 rural safe zones and delivering traumainformed and community-based supports across wards 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15. Whereas Interville House is recognized by the Ministry of Children Community Services as the lead agency for the provision of rural domestic gender abuse services in Hamilton. Whereas between May 1, 2025 and March 31st, 2026, the war's program delivered 2,366 direct service interactions, including counselor and emotional support at 65%, advocacy at 18%, system navigation at 12%, and completion of 124 individual safety plans, demonstrating both the high demand and significant complexity of the need among among rural survivors of violence. Whereas during the pilot period, the war's program provided direct and or brief support to more than 850 women, including 575 uniquely identified women, many of whom would not have accessed urban-based services due to transportation, safety, cultural, and financial barriers. Whereas the investment in three full-time outreach pro uh sorry, three full-time rural outreach workers enable consistent presence in rural communities, reduced rate times, increased service accessibility, strengthen safety planning, improved coordination with local partners, resulting in measurable improvements in survivor safety, housing stability, and system navigation outcomes. Whereas the war's program in pilot evaluation confirmed that the mobile outreach based service delivery is an effective and essential approach to address GBV and IPV epidemic in rural Hamilton and the discontinuation of municipal funding would significantly reduce access to life-saving supports and undermine progress made to date. And whereas stable short-term funding is required to ensure continuity of service delivery while enabling the city to consider long-term sustainability through its multi-year financial planning process. Therefore, be it resolved, city council approve a one-year funding agreement in the amount of $250,000 with Interville House of Hamilton for the continuation of the wares program for the period of April 1, 2026 to March 31st, 2027 period subject to the execution of a funding agreement satisfactory to the general manager of healthy and safe communities and the city solicitor. On condition, the following funding sources are approved. One, the remaining $40,319 surplus from the existing Interval House Agreement be utilized to continue service. Two, that the 175 be granted from the block funded human service integration program ID uh 6502553101. And three, that the remaining balance of $34,681 be funded from the Children's and Community Services Reserve uh early system reserve. that the approved funding support the continuation of rural outreach staffing uh mobile service delivery safety planning, counseling, advocacy system, and navigation services for women in gender diverse people, experienced gendering based violence, and intimate partner violence in rural areas. that funds be exempt on a onetime basis not to be uh counted towards any formula that restricts regular funding from the city including the city enrichment fund 30% formula and that the ongoing funding for interval house of Hamilton to provide rural gender-based violence outreach services be referred for cons consideration of the 2027 budget. If I may speak to it um just relatively quickly. Um in the last year when this program was was running and uh quite candidly in the years preceding that in my ward and many of the rural wards and I'll let my colleagues speak to that there has been an increase in intimate partner violence, family violence, uh violence against children in the homes. Um, and it's very challenging for the rural folks because they live out in the rural area. They can't hop on a bus to get to safety. Um, and some of them are kept pretty much captive because there's no landline and they don't have a cell phone because the male partner holds all the cards and they live literally in fear. It is an incredibly challenging situation for families when they're experiencing violence. And the violence um can be life-threatening. The violence is predicated with anger, with rage. Um and that violence against both the intimate partner, but also the children that live in the house is all too real. It can result and we've seen it result in murders. And the challenge in the rural component is they really don't have much help. If you travel the rural areas like I do, your next neighbor is not a block away. The block is a mile, two miles down the road. Um and it's a it's an incredible situation um that these folks are really truly struggling with. You know, um during the COVID pandemic, we saw an increase in violence in the homes. A lot of that was from the stress, a lot of that from being contained in a home. You can't excuse it, but the reality is the pandemic heightened the amount of violence. The statistics show that increase in violence happens during economic downturns, during layoffs, during families who are experiencing significant fiscal pressure. Um consumer credit proposals, potential bankruptcy, they can't pay their bills. Um and then of course um um alcohol and drugs become an issue. It it's a real problem. Um, you know, it's always challenging for me to talk about the topic because I can remember as a child. My father once hung me outside a window two stories up, demanding that my brother admit that he was lying about something. And he wasn't lying. My mother stood by and watched for fear that she would be next cuz she's the one that did it. Until you experience it, you can't understand how it impacts your life 60 years later. It never goes away. So I ask that we do this notwithstanding that the province is not providing the funding that I would suggest is their responsibility and I think they only give about $15,000 to rural violence in our community. But you need to understand this is real and lives are at risk and we have to do something about. So that's why I met with indwell house or not sorry interval house with all of the rural resident or all of the rural counselors present and we talked about all options and council makin and the counselors were all looking at using whatever funds that they have available in their wards. It's not a ward funding issue. It's a city funding issue and I thank councelor McMon for using $250,000 last year to fund this program. But this needs to be a part of our base budget and so I ask you to support it. Thank you. >> Uh thanks Councelor Clark and uh thank you for for sharing your story with us. It's very difficult. Um we appreciate it. Uh we have a speaker list to continue on this subject. We have uh councelor Spataphora next. Please go ahead council badaphora. >> Thanks Marin. Obviously, I'm fully supportive and I thank uh Councelor Clark, McMeek and Bey, uh Alex Wilson, Councelor Casar, all the rural counselors that um I hope are also supportive of this. I It's weird when I say I have the pleasure of um having the Interval House in my ward. Um it's a pleasure because I get to know the people that work there every day and the work that they do. But when you think about what that place does, um, what it's there for, saying it's a pleasure is kind of kind of weird for me. But Sue Taylor is amazing. Her entire team is amazing. They're bored. Um, the work that they do uh, inside Ward 14 for people that come from everywhere is is unbelievable. And they do it with not a lot. Um, they do it with very little. They're mostly at capacity or over capacity all the time. Uh the rule component is definitely something that I heard about from the beginning of of my term here as a counselor from them about their challenges with the rule component. Councelor Clark touched on why um the rule is um challenging with just the the geography of it. So fully supportive. I'm uh happy that Interval House can continue to do this work. It's super important. They're amazing at it. and Sue Taylor and her team need um need all the help they can get. Um but they are the best team for the work that they have ahead of them. So I'm uh fully supportive and thank you to everyone for bringing it forward. >> Thanks Councelor Spataphora. Councelor McMin, please go ahead. >> Thank thanks worship and God bless you. Council Clark, you um and our our real colleagues gathered. We heard some very challenging news and um we struggled with how we could do this and and you offered to take the lead on it and I was so impressed. then and I I told you that um I understand your story. I won't go into the personally but um this um is a very specific outward invisible sign that this horseshoe takes seriously the fact that we declared gender violence a crisis. D I say sometimes we declare things a crisis and there's not a lot of evidence that we're we've responded but um um you know this this response is very very necessary. the the number of uh of um instances where people are genuinely fearful in the rural areas where you can't even hear the screams for the length of the roads um is amazing. And out in my beloved Flambor, uh the there were some initial steps taken with the Flamborough women's support group and um Council Partridge and others who uh um sounds corny, but we're founding mothers on this. And it's really looking back at at the last year. I can't think of anything that we did that was more important than the initial funding. And friends, I can't think of anything right now that's more important than supporting council require counselor's patter. Thanks your worship. >> Uh thank you councelor McMin. Counselor Tom Jackson please. separate item. Mayor, my apologies. >> No problem. Uh, we have councelor Morin Wilson and councelor Chison on this item or another item. >> This one. Uh, councelor Wilson, please go ahead. Thank you. There is an epidemic of violence against women and people who identify as women. I'm going to read it into the public record that it is absolutely unacceptable that the government of Ontario is not funding this service particularly in this area where most government members represent rural areas. sit in that discomfort and that this uh integral house is recognized um by the Ministry of Community and Social Services as the central agent and there's no funding provided by the government of Ontario for the city's community uh safety and well-being plan. Uh so we're using rightfully so because it is a crisis property taxes which were never designed for human to fund human services and so if we're going to keep that refrain these things have impacts when we have discussions about that principle uh I'm not trying to be political but violence against women is political >> and it's not acceptable. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Wilson. Uh, just to confirm councelor Tison on this item, please go ahead. >> I just want to say that this is an excellent, excellent motion. I wanted to thank councelor Clark for coming on board and leading this rural initiative. The group of rural counselors, um, we met with Interville House staff. We heard the need. We understood the ask. And we also saw the dilemma of trying to gain funding year after year in a sort of like a sporadic way. Um, Interval House was forced to lay off staff to get by on less than adequate funding. What was happening was that was severing relationships between counselors who supported very vulnerable people in very desperate situations. And imagine trying to come back to that as a new counselor because that former counselor had to leave and go get another job. So again, that that continuity of funding that councelor Clark has alluded to here that we're looking at needing it to be as part of the base funding. I think that's important to note here. So again, I can't say enough about councelor Clark's willingness to lead on this motion. Those efforts and his expertise um bringing this forward are totally appreciated by this rural counselor and uh I want to thank you counselor for sharing and being courageous to tell your own story here today. Um it means a lot to me and I think it means a lot to the people around the horseshoe. Thank you. >> Thanks councelor Tatterson. uh councelor bey on this please go ahead. >> Thank you mayor and through you. Um not to sound like I'm heaping on praise but I will heap on praise uh for the work that councelor Clark did on this. Uh councelor McMe came to myself and a number of my rural uh colleagues. Uh W 10 still has a very large rural component. Um and we were we were brainstorming. We were trying to find a way uh to come up with the funds necessary to continue this program. We sat and we met with uh those folks from Medville House. They outlined the truly dire situation um in terms of really the ability of the program to continue at a time when demand was increasing when instances of violence were increasing in rural areas. uh they were really facing some perilous situations and I say uh my thanks to councelor McMe uh also for bringing this forward and and at least trying to get the ball moving but I want to just um to highlight for colleagues that we sat in that room and and councelor Clark basically just said this is what we're doing and he followed through on that and as a result this program will continue. So, I wanted to be very very uh deeply acknowledged my appreciation for uh councelor Clark's work on this. Uh I know that it um it it's deeply personal to him as is evidenced here today. Um but turning that life experience into something actionable that has incredible benefit for those in our rural communities. I think that the um the payout on this uh is going to be hopefully a method of healing uh not just for himself but for all. Thank you. >> Thanks councelor Bey. Uh councelor Nan on this item or something else. Okay please go ahead. >> Thank you Marin. Uh just want to say thank you to all of our counselors around the table representing our rural community. Uh gender- based violence is an epidemic across every single ward across every single neighborhood or down a rural road, an urban street, an apartment building, or a lonely home um miles away from any contact. And so thank you to the colleagues for collaborating in the ways in which you have uh steadfast supporting this motion and continuing our efforts on the part of the city of Hamilton to recognize the epidemic and make sure that the supports are in place for survivors as well as for the prevention of violence. Um and councelor Wilson is absolutely right. Gender- based violence is political. It's political in so much that this issue has been going on for millennia and uh every level of government subsequently has failed to put in place the substantive funding that is required to ensure that victims get to a path towards healing and recovery. We know that when those supports are put in place that women, folks in the LGBTQ2A plus community, other folks who are targeted, um when they receive the supports that they need, they can heal and re-enter our communities as leaders. They're not just survivors of violence. They are leaders in our community that help transform health care, that help transform housing, that help transform child care. And it is that legacy that is so imperative that we continue to do everything we possibly can at every level of government to ensure that uh yeah that survivors are believed and supported. Thank you. >> Uh thank you councelor Nan. I appreciate uh the comments from everyone around the table. Um important move forward here. Uh, I think that there's a secondary list now for other items on this uh on this um uh set of minutes. I I guess I'd just look to the group as to see whether you you want to um have a separate vote on this one or or >> Okay, can we put this one up for a separate vote, please? >> Absolutely. And that carries 15 to zero. Thanks everyone. Um I'm sure councelor Spataphora regrets that he wasn't here for the for the vote, although I really shouldn't say that, but uh I'm sure he would have been very supportive. Um we're now on to the balance of the minutes, and I think there's a list starting for that as well, which starts with councelor Jackson. Please go ahead. Thanks, Mayor Horvath. Item 9.2, uh, the operating maintenance agreement for Bernie Arbor Stadium with Spear Sports Group, Inc., majority of, uh, owner of the Hamilton Cardinals Baseball. I just want to say, Mayor Horvath, up on the East Mountain in W 6, we love partnerships. We can't get enough of them. Mayor Horvath, this will be the fourth one. If other members of council want to emulate and use this as a template and model, this will be if approved today, Mayor Horvath, the fourth private public notfor-profit private public partnership up in Mohawk Sports Park with this leasing agreement for 10 years with the Hamilton Baseball Cardinals and the new owner Eric Spearan along with the Hamilton Olympic Club with the Ray Lewis track and field complex, new stadia at the Leuna Force Center and the Hamilton Hornets Rugby Club at Mohawk Sports Park and the partnerships mirror Horv sincerely all light-heartedness aside sincerely for me they're a win-winwin scenario these groups bring dollars to the table for helping to offset taxpayers cost for maintenance and capital improvements they bring a pride of ownership of course throughout though they the city ownership of all of these facilities and amenities at Mohawk Sports park is retained and remains in public hands, never ever to ever be sold off. The partnerships are just a valuable opportunity to bring engagement and to bring organized groups into the play that offers more opportunities and in this case at a sports park for greater activity of youth and those that wish to participate in sports. And we always ensure Mayor Horvath that in these partnerships where traditional groups were using facilities, they either will continue to use them, there'll be no displacement whatsoever, or through the leadership of director Steve Seavore and his team, accommodations across Mohawk Sports Park, 100 Acre Plus Park will be accommodated for all these groups as well. So none of these are exclusive users, but they're primary users. and the leasing agreements starting with new stadia 20 years ago with the 4 ice center has been enormously successful. Obviously I'm triply proud that it's up in the east mount community but it's benefit for all Hamiltonians hoping to get council's ratification here today. Thanks Mayor Horvath. >> Uh thank you councelor Jackson. May I just say that if I'm not mistaken the home opener for the Cardinals is happening this Friday at 7:35 at that very facility. So apparently Kitchener is who uh Cardinals are playing. So looking forward to that game. Um I don't see anybody else uh on the speakers list. So uh we will go then to the um balance of the minutes. That carries 16 to zero. Um, okay. It's it's 12:30. We have a required stop at 1, but considering where we are in the agenda, we have motions next, and it's been a bit of an emotional conversation for the last little while. Would it be uh okay with folks if we break now for our our required break and then come back for the remainder of the agenda? That that's great. I'm seeing a lot of nods around the head. So, we're at uh 12:32 now. We'll be back at >> 105. 105. Uh we're back for the balance of our agenda. Thanks very much, everyone. Okay, good afternoon everybody. Welcome back uh to our city council meeting. I hope everybody had a nice little uh break and um we're going to continue on with the agenda uh and uh just with confirmations with the clerks. we left off before going into um motions because there are no items for consideration. Is that correct? Excellent. Thanks very much. Uh so we are on then to 9.1 uh which is uh amendment to item three of the emergency emergency and community services committee report 21-013 respecting striker power load conveyance equipment standardization HSC 211038 citywide which was approved by council on December 15th 2021 revised councelor Casar would you please present your motion and advise of your seconder Sorry. >> Thank you, Mayor Horvath. My seconder is councelor Alex Wilson. So, this is a housekeeping administrative amendment just correcting the name of the company in the motion. So, I won't read all the details, but that's the essence of it. Okay. With you. >> That's fine. Everybody good with that? Okay. Are there any uh any any discussion debate on this motion? Seeing none, we'll go to the vote then, please. That carries 12 to zero. Thanks very much. Uh on to item 9.2 2 under motions uh which is Oh, was that the one that was No, that's still fine, right? Uh 9.2 Centennial Enhancement uh project Royal Canadian Legion Battlefield Branch 622 Stony Creek. Councelor Francis, would you please present your motion and advise of your second? >> Thanks, Mayor Horvath. >> Sorry, that was my fault. >> That's all right. Moved by myself, second by councelor Beatty. Centennial Enhancement Project, Royal Canadian Legion Battlefield Branch 622. Whereas July 17, 2026 marks the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Legion, which has played a vital role in supporting veterans, promoting remembrance, and strengthening communities across Canada. Whereas the Royal Canadian Legion Battlefield Branch 622 is a long-standing and highly visible community hub located in the historic downtown core of Sony Creek serving as a central gathering place for veterans in the broader community. Whereas city council has previously demonstrated leadership in commemorating veterans through initiatives such as a remembrance day crosswalk dedicated to veterans which was amongst the first of its kind in Canada and has since been replicated in communities all across the country. Whereas the proposed Centennial enhancement project includes exterior cleaning and painting necessary to preserve the building, prevent further deterioration, and avoid more costly repairs in the future. The project also includes a future mural dedicated to veterans, creating a lasting tribute to service and sacrifice while enhancing the character of downtown Stony Creek. Whereas a 100th anniversary represents a significant milestone and an opportunity to visibly support veterans and invest in key community landmark in Stony Creek. Therefore, be it resolved a that funding in the upset limit of 44,500 be approved from the Centennial Enhancement Project at the Royal Canadian Legion Battlefield Branch 622 funded from the Stony Creek Compensation Royalties Terrapure Landfill Reserve number 117036 and B that the funds be transferred to the Royal Canadian Legion Battlefield Branch 622 to complete the exterior cleaning, painting, and veterans mural. And I'll just speak to this very briefly. This building is the old Fox Theater, uh, built in the 1930s, later converted to the Sony Creek Legion. If you've spent any amount of time in downtown Sony Creek, you realize really quickly, uh, this is not just a building. This is the heartbeat of the community, and it's located right on King Street in the middle of the BIA. It acts as a hub for the community. And it's not just a an important gathering point that um supports many events and gives back to our community in so many ways over the decades, but it also serves as a broader community hub. We do have a lack of community space and meeting rooms in the core of Stony Creek and this building helps to fill that gap in service that we simply do not have publicly available. Uh the building hosts a wide uh variety of events from stag and doe's to community meetings to election debates. Even supports our democracy as a polling location. I I do want to take this time to congratulate Stuart Jones on what I believe is his fourth consecutive uh election victory now as president. He's doing a great job fundraising not just to keep the lights on and create a more vibrant Legion and community hub, but to chip away at the upgrades that the nearly 100-year-old uh structure requires. It's not always easy for them to raise uh this kind of funding. So, um and they've already uh renovated the washrooms. They've replaced the HVAC. I know the roof is coming. That's a very large expense in the future. Um and there's concern that if this building isn't painted and the facade facade is not addressed on the building, it could deteriorate further with uh further expensive repairs down the road. So, I'm just asking for community support using the GFL reserve with no tax levy impact uh to not only support necessary maintenance, but also uh help make this community hub more vibrant and continue to attract visitors to our community. Thank you. >> Uh thank you, Councelor Francis. Uh Councelor Bey, please go ahead. >> Did somebody hit Councelor Bey's? Uh >> okay. I actually can't I actually did it first, Councelor Bey, and then somebody undid it. So I I >> I won't get the practice if you guys keep jumping around. >> I won't uh I I won't be offended that you keep my mic. Okay. Uh thank you for um bringing the motion forward, Councelor Francis. Just uh wanted to lend my support to it as seconder. Uh council colleagues will recall that we do have a pretty stellar track record in um trying to support our veterans to the very highest level in in our Stony Creek community. You'll recall that as councelor Francis made note uh the first remembrance crosswalk was installed at the Stony Creek Senate Taff in War 10 uh just down the street from the Stony Creek Legion and uh we are uh going to take a page out of our our mountain colleagues who cooperatively supported the some renovations at the Mountain Legion. So I think that there's good precedence on this and uh very thankful for the leadership of councelor Francis and bringing forward this motion. Uh, thanks Councelor Bey. Uh, councelor Clark, please. >> Thank you, Mayor. I'll be very brief. Um, thank you to Council Francis for putting forth the motion. Um, in my mind, this is a capital paint job that is required um to maintain that building. Uh, that building is a central part of downtown uh uh Stony Creek, downtown Stony Creek. um and uh you can't miss it when you drive by. So adding that mural and and having the paint job done um it's appropriate to come out of the capital uh funding that we use with the um um landfill royalties. Uh and so I I fully support it. I think it's a good idea. Thank you. >> Thanks, Councelor Clark. Uh my screen shows a second time for you, Councelor Francisco. No. Okay. Okay, that's great. I don't see any uh further speakers on the uh on the list. So, we'll go to the vote then, please. I'm not seeing the right thing here on my screen. Got it. Thank you. And that carries 15 to zero. Uh, thanks very much. On to item 9.3, revitalization and reinvigoration of the Barton branch of the Hamilton Public Library, 571 Barton Street East, Ward 3. Councelor Nan, would you please present your motion and advise of your second? >> Thank you, Mayor. Uh, it's a sec a move by myself and seconded by councelor McMaken. This is the third Barton booster initiative that my office is bringing forward to help expediate the revitalization of key public assets to enhance the quality of community life on this vital corridor of our city. This motion is directing to allocate $190,000 to the Barton Street Library. Um this will enhance the children's area with furnishing and interactive components, technology supports, and public use items. It'll improve washroom accessibility, flooring, shelving, ceiling tiles, and exterior improvements as well. Um, these were all items that were identified in partnership with the Hamilton Public Library staff, as well as community input over the years. Um, this Barton, the Barton branch has seen a decline in attendance, uh, especially over the last two years. Um, and we'd like to reinvigorate the space with much needed improvements and bring people back into the beloved Barton branch. Thank you. Uh, thanks Councelor Nan. I don't see any other speakers on this motion, so we'll go to the vote, please. That carries 15 to zero. Thanks very much. Uh 9.4 is placemaking decorative crosswalk at Emerald and Barton and new street signs in the Barton Village BIA ward 3. Councelor Nan, would you please present your motion and advise Oh, sorry, that one was withdrawn. That one was withdrawn. Okay, apologize for that. We'll go to 9.5 then. Councelor Nan. Ward three, community resilience grant spring 2026 allocations. Councelor Nan, would you please present your motion and vise of your seconder? >> Certainly. Thank you. Merritt moved by myself and seconded by councelor Crutch. Um, this is a total allocation of just over $38,000, ranging from $400 to $2,500 to a total of 24 different initiatives being led by W 3 residents and organizations that lift up programs to improve the lives and resilience of W3 residents. Earlier today, we talked about the um diversity of approaches that we need to take in our communities to make sure that we foster a sense of well-being, uh a sense of belonging, but also a sense of connection. It's in that source of that sense of connection that we have with each other that we can actually take care of one another. So in keeping with the tradition that uh the W3 office has done over the last several years, eight years of directing investments in these micro allocations to those organizations and individuals who've been doing some pretty incredible work in the ward. Uh this is the final of those grants. Uh 24 different initiatives, all of which have been vetted through a screening process and scoring process as well built from the best practices of our grants committee. Thank you. Uh, thank you. Any speakers to this one? Seeing none, we'll go to the vote then, please. Uh that carries uh 12 to two. Thanks very much. Uh we're now on to uh item 9. Oh. >> Oh, we have to receive that first. Okay. Uh can I have a mover and seconder please uh to receive the correspondence concern concerning motion 9.5 uh moved by councelor Nan seconded by councelor Bey. Show a hands vote please for that correspondence. Any all in favor? Any opposed? That's carried. Thanks very much. Now 9.6 councelor reimbursement for the Ontario Heritage Conference. Um councelor Cretch uh please go ahead and present your motion and advise of your seconder. Second councelor Morin Wilson, this is very thrilling everyone. For $33785, I was told to send off a receipt to someone at staff when I registered for the conference and then I was told afterwards, no, as councelor Jackson would say, this august body was required to um approve this expense. So, it's before you. I'll be attending the conference from June 18th to 20th on behalf of council as its heritage representative. >> Uh thanks very much. Uh speakers on the list. Councelor Spataphora. I I just wanted to confirm with GM Zaric that this is the proper process for this expense through you mayor. Thank you >> Jim Zar. >> Through the mayor. Yes. >> Well, we're all very relieved. Thank you for that due diligence. Councelor Spora. >> I don't see any further members on the list. So, we'll go to the vote, please. Uh and that carries 16 to zero. Thanks very much. Uh we're now on to I think the motion that I'm bringing forward. So I'll pass the chair on to uh councelor Casar uh to um give me the opportunity to uh bring forward my motion. Um it's it's a long one and it's going to be seconded by councelor Clark as the chair of the emergency uh services and committee uh uh committee and wanted to um I'm going to read it because I think it's a really important motion. Uh and um it's long so you'll have to bear with me. Uh it's collaboration and advocacy for a Hamilton youth wellness hub. Whereas in November 2025, the mayor's community safety summit brought together local organizations, frontline workers, educators, law enforcement, community leaders, and residents and heard overwhelming concerns related to youth mental health, youth violence, youth gang involvement, and access to supports uh and and the growing need for safe, welcoming spaces for young people. And whereas participants at the summit identified significant gaps in prevention focused integrated youth services particularly mental health supports, trauma-informed care, addiction support, education and employment pathways and culturally responsive programming. And whereas Hamilton has experienced a deeply troubling high-profile incidents involving youth violence, gun violence, and suspected gang gang involvement, including the 2025 shooting death of Belinda Saroti, whose alleged killer was 17 years old, the 2025 shooting death of 21-year-old Mohawk College international and international student and innocent bystander Harmat Randawa, the 2026 shooting death of 16-year-old Nabil Escape, whose alleged killer was 14 years old and the recent 2026 fatal shooting of 19-year-old Talon Williams Parkin in downtown Hamilton. And whereas these tragedies have highlight have heightened public concern regarding youth mental health, trauma, social isolation, gang recruitment, addiction, and the lack of accessible integrated prevention focused supports for vulnerable youth, sorry, vulnerable young people. And whereas of uh whereas as of March 2026, Hamilton lost federal building safer communities fund support impacting nine youth serving agencies focused on violence prevention, youth uh outreach, mentorship, uh intervention and gang prevention programming, creating additional strain on an already overstretched community organizations at the time of the growing need. Whereas since 2020, the province of Ontario has launched 32 youth wellness hubs across the province, providing walk-in low barrier youth friendly spaces where young people aed 12 to 25 can access a wide range of mental health supports and substance use counseling, primary care, peer support, social services, and skilluing programs. And whereas at the 2024 Association of Municipalities of Ontario's conference, Mayor Horbath initiated discussions about the possibility of a youth wellness hub in Hamilton with former associate minister of mental health and addictions, current associate attorney general, Michael Tabolo. And whereas Mayor Horvath fur further discussed the youth wellness hub model with the affforementioned minister again at the April 16th, 2026 Ontario big city mayors meeting in Pickering. Whereas Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario offer integrated onestep one-stop access to supports that address the uh broad range of youth needs including uh mental health and addictions, counseling, primary healthcare, employment and education support, social and recreational program c programming, cultural and community based activities and peer navigation. All of which align directly with the needs raised at the mayor's community safety summit. And whereas Hamilton is home to a large and diverse youth population with tens of thousands of residents between the ages of 12 and 25, including many racialized indigenous newcomer to us LGBTQ plus and low-income young people. And whereas Hamilton youth experience lower self-rated life satisfaction and self-rated mental health outcomes, including higher stress and loneliness compared to their provincial peers. And whereas Hamilton is home to numerous dedicated youth serving organizations that with the support of Hamilton's child and youth network have the capacity, commitment, and governance structures to collaboratively design and implement and sustain a youth wellness hub tailored to the unique needs of the city's young people. Whereas Hamilton's child and youth network has proactively convened a working group of youth serving agencies to examine what a Hamiltonbased youth wellness hub model looks like could look like. Whereas Hamilton's community safety and well-being plan has identified integrated community hub models as a proposed solution to addressing broader community safety concerns. Therefore, be it resolved a that children's and community services staff be directed to collaborate with Hamilton Child and Youth Network, Hamilton's Child Youth Network, which includes local community- based youth organizations, youth services providers, public health partners, school boards, healthcare institutions, the re and relevant community stakeholders to support the development of a Hamilton youth wellness hub model tailored to local needs. and B that staff reach out to the mayor and counselor's offices uh to identify other stakeholders to engage that may not currently be connected with the uh child and youth network to ensure broad community awareness of and involvement in this important initiative. See that the mayor formally requests that the province of Ontario, specifically the minister of health, the associate minister of mental health and addictions, and the associate attorney general, support the establishment and sustain provincial funding of a youth wellness hub in the city of Hamilton as part of a coordinated response to growing concerns related to youth violence, youth mental health, addictions, trauma, and gang involvement. And D copy of this motion be circulated to local members of provincial and federal parliament, Hamilton school boards, Hamilton Health Sciences, St. Joseph Healthcare, Hamilton, Hamilton Police Services, Hamilton Police Services Board, Hamilton Child and Youth Network, local youth serving organizations, and a broad cross-section of relevant community stakeholders as identified by counselors in the mayor. Um, first of all, I want to thank uh councelor Clark for uh for seconding this motion. Um, and I want to thank our city staff for the work that they've done uh thus far and and uh and their uh uh preparedness to move forward on this uh this model. It's um it's something I'm very grateful for. Uh I brought the motion today because I believe that we're at a moment in time where our city needs to respond uh to the growing challenges facing children and youth with urgency, with compassion, uh and with coordination. Over the past year, uh, as as I I've identified in the motion, there have been many incidents, uh, and and tragedies that have shaken families, schools, neighborhoods, and our entire community. And while enforcement and accountability are important parts of the conversation, we also know that we cannot arrest our way out of out of this. prevention matters, early intervention matters, mental health supports matter, safe spaces, me mentorship, connection and opportunities, opportunities matters. Uh through the mayor's community safety summit, we heard clearly from frontline organizations, educators, healthcare uh partners, law enforcement, and residents uh that there are significant gaps in accessible integrated supports for vulnerable youth in our city. I've heard directly from provincial partners like Minister Tibolo that the province is ready to help. Um, as I've said in the motion, 32 youth wellness hubs uh across uh communities throughout the province are already in place recognizing the value of integrated youth focus supports. Uh I believe it's time that Hamilton uh has one too. Uh and this motion basically asks us to collaborate with the child and youth network, the very robust one that we have already and other community partners to explore exactly what this is going to look like. Uh because they are the experts um but also to connect with all of you because you're the experts in your wards and you have um knowledge of and connection with uh community organizations that may not be uh traditionally connected uh to this sector. uh but having that grassroots um uh liaison opportunity, having that grassroots outreach through your offices would be very very beneficial. And so I would ask that you um that you start thinking about organizations that might be able to be approached should this motion pass. Um you've also noticed in the motion the uh issue around the uh the ministry the federal uh uh federal funding that's been cut. Um it's also extremely extremely important that that funding be reinstated uh and not only for in a temporary way uh but in a permanent way because that loss of funding for those nine organizations really does show um that there's a disconnect uh between what's happening on the ground and what the federal government is uh is doing and that's that's not a good thing. Uh we need to see uh more supports not fewer. Uh, and so I'll be working on trying to get that um funding reinstated. Um, but I want to also say we have a an event that's coming later this week with the Hamilton Police Service leadership um uh next week as well. We have one, sorry, we have one uh local community one as well. is one with police service next week uh to continue these discussions around uh what we can do as a community to um to help our young people uh with their journey to adulthood in a way that is beneficial uh and positive for them uh and of course the rest of our community as well. So on that note, I want to uh again thank Councelor Clark, thank the staff and all of those folks and agencies that are engaged and involved in trying to uh do whatever we can to support our young people in this community. Thanks very much for your indulgence. I appreciate that. >> Thanks, Mayor Horvath. We do have a speakers list. First is councelor Wang. >> Thank you for this very important motion, mayor, and thank you to uh deputy mayor for acknowledging. Um I have a couple of questions. Uh, as the mayor had had mentioned in her in her whereas statements, there are 32 other youth wellness hubs, but they all range in size, scope, look, feel. Um, so perhaps I'll ask the mayor, what was the intended outcome of your motion? Do you expect it to be a large sort of facility like a purpose-built facility or do you envision that it would be um sort of tucked into the same sort of um commercial uh community supports because those are two very different models and so I was wondering what's the what's the expected outcome here? >> Uh thanks very much councelor Casar. I did not want to presuppose what the experts and community um members would um want to see. Uh I think it's incumbent upon us uh to engage them uh and uh and follow with the conversation follow up with the conversations that we've already been having. Uh I know our staff have been doing that already since the summit in November. Uh but it is not I don't believe for me to prescribe uh an outcome. I think that the entire uh process of engagement is going to be enlightening. Uh and some gaps as I've mentioned have already been identified through the November uh summit. uh but there is much more work that needs to be done and that was I think acknowledged by everybody that participated and so this is why I have not put a specific outcome in place because I respect that community voice and the expertise and experience of the agencies involved and also what um other grassroots community organizations uh might be able to bring to the table as well. It's an important dialogue and one that I don't believe should be truncated by presuppositions about model. Okay, >> back to you. >> My second >> my second question through you uh deputy mayor is around the report back. So um as this motion is moving forward uh we're in a weird time with it being election time. So what is the expected report back here and when can we see like a bit of a closing of the loop or or the next decision point? Uh well, thank you very much through you uh uh uh deputy chair uh deputy mayor Casar. Uh again I think um by putting specific timelines in place without first having some engagement uh we are setting ourselves up for a problem. Uh and so I I I think the uh the timeline will be uh informed by the decisions around the model and and so that's something I think that we have to be cognizant of. Uh I I don't I think that I I would respectfully say that regardless of of who uh is going to be around this table uh in uh you know post election uh the crisis that our youth are facing in the city will not end. Uh and so if it's so if it is such the case that the uh the finality of all of this uh doesn't occur until a new council is in place uh then we will entrust that work uh to to that group of people. Um I would can only hope that uh that that the work that gets done by uh the community organizations, agencies, groups and young people uh to get us there will be respected. >> Okay. My last question then through you deputy mayor is a question around process and procedure. Um, so clerk, I'm not really sure how do Obls work in that sense because I do know that we've had several Obls that might be multiple years old, but then they don't really get pulled forward or they might they might not get um shown. I mean, today we dealt with one that was from 2021. So, what's the what's the opportunity here to keep this front and front and center? Because again, I worry about like this being an election year that we might have a new council that this might get lost. So, what's the what's the process here around keeping this top of mind? >> Um, if I can through you, Deputy uh uh Mayor Casar, I would maybe look to staff to Jessica Chase to respond to that. But I what I would say is the the process is already started uh and it will continue. There's a commitment there. Uh and as I said, there's a dialogue happening this week. Uh and the um there is further work that's going to be done next week through a different process with a different lead organization. But I'll send it over to um to Jessica uh Chase for a response if if that's okay. >> Director Chase. >> Thank you. Through the chair, uh Jessica Chase, director of children's and community services. Um so this, as the mayor said, is work that has already started. It's been a conversation that's been going on at our child and youth network who continue uh to support this and advocate for a youth wellness hub model here in Hamilton uh for the better part of a year or more at this point. So it has already started and will continue to be ongoing work. Uh the other opportunity I would say is that this um aligns very closely with our community safety and well-being plan work. So certainly there's an opportunity for staff to continue to have those conversations through those planning tables as well as to report back to council as part of the regular reporting that we do tied to community safety and well-being. So we could certainly embed um any progress that we're making related to the hub model through that reporting mechanism. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Those are all my questions. >> Okay. Thanks, Councelor Wang. Councelor Clark. Um, thank you, Deputy Mayor. When I look at item B in the recommendation that staff reach out to mayor and counselor's offices to identify stakeholders to engage that may not be currently connected with the child and youth network to ensure broad community awareness and involvement in this important initiative. That's one of the key lines that pops out at me. Um, we have many organizations that are trying to help the youth, uh, who are dealing with challenges at home, who are dealing with, um, gangs that are trying to put peer pressure on them to join the gang and pick up a gun and off you go. Um, and we have people who are are taking advantage of young people because they fall under the youth justice umbrella. And so it's important that we as counselors um try to talk to the different groups that are trying to help where they have youth groups in their neighborhood or whatever the case is and connect them through to the system. Um, it's not just a downtown issue. It is happening across the city. >> In my ward, there have been several shootings and and we've had um deaths from those shootings. And I get that the police say, "Well, it was a targeted shooting." But the reality is those targeted shootings, and I've always had an issue with that phrase. Um the people who are shooting the gun are not marksmen. And they miss. And when they miss, that's when we have those horrible tragedies where a transit user standing at a bus stop gets killed by a stray bullet. And it's happened on the mountain. It's happened downtown. And so we need to do what we can to try to to help young people find other ways um of of being involved in and and sports events and and other groups to keep them away from that nonsense. It's a real challenge. It's a challenge right across the city. Um, I I have spoken with a couple of mothers in my own ward who are quite concerned about their children because they are being uh her words, not mine, lured into drugs and gangs. And it's incredibly challenging to try and convince a teenager not to do that if on your own as a parent. You get that back and forth between parents. um and the kid. Um it's really difficult and and we've had situations where people have gone kids have ended up in jail, come out of jail, end up back in jail again all because of they got connected with guns and and drugs in the very beginning. We need to help prevent that. And so I think the mayor's motion is timely. Uh we have been working on these things to try to get this done and and this will help us open the doors to communications with groups right across the city um as well as our staff in the province. Thank you very much, Mayor. >> Thanks, Councelor Clark. Councelor Cooper, you have the floor. >> Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Um I also support this motion. And I mean, when I do the ride alongs in the mountain, when I go in the station, it's all pictures of kids on the wall. And uh it's it's uh it's sad. I will say this, uh Councelor Clark's nailed it. I mean, when you go across uh the mountain and into the suburbs, you you see uh number one issue is youth violent crime. Uh we got gangs in our schools. It's a reality. We have gangs in our schools, and if you don't have something good for kids to do after school, they're going to do something. So, I support this. I think it's excellent that we are thinking in this way of like how do we engage kids? How do we get them on a good path and and catch them early? Because you really got to catch them early before they get too deep into this. And so I I think it's an issue right across our city, but it's really prevalent. I know in our mountain ridings, I know in the suburbs as well. So, um I'll be supporting this. >> Thank you, Council Moren Wilson. Thank you. Um I have a question through the acting chair to staff. Has council ever been in receipt of a comprehensive report which shows um the level of various government spending on uh for example uh h uh supportive housing um community uh children community and social services um ministry of education um and income in Ontario through the chair. Who was able to answer that question? >> James Zaric >> through the chair. Um, I don't know of any report that speaks to any of those uh funding commitments from provincial andor federal governments to the city of Hamilton. Um the only report some time ago uh addressed some of those issues in part uh when it reviewed the who pays what exercise uh as it relates to social services and education. >> Councilman, >> thank you. I I um not now, maybe at the end of the uh uh agenda. I'm not sure. Just to give an example, in the 2025 Ontario budget, the province projects that the Ministry of Child, Community, and Social Services spending will decrease an annual rate of 0.5%. So, um, that's a much slower pace than previous years. I think to inform however these conversations are to unfold, I I do think we have to have a line of sight on all the variables that may or may not be affecting um um child uh health, mental health, social health, and the like. Um so, thank you for answering my question. >> Okay, Councelor Pauls, >> thank you. And of course, I'm not on yet. >> I haven't spoken today, that's why I don't know what I'm doing. >> Thank you. And of course, I support this big time. Um, like I said this morning, uh, even with the International Children's Game, children, our kids need purpose and they need a dream. And whether it's sports, whether it's arts, like I said, whether it's music, whatever it is, they need to dream. They need to dream that the life is so much better, you know, than uh going with gangs. And it was interesting on Saturday, I went to the McDonald across from the mall, and it was coffee with a cop. >> You would not believe how exciting it was to have even the our deputy chief being there. uh and uh all the engagement kids were coming in. I would say, "Hey, come and talk to a cop." It was so exciting to see that we could be at the level saying, "It's so great that we could show you the dreams and the purpose instead of getting into gangs." And you know that uh around Limebridge Mall, we've had shootings. So, this is important. This is important because we want to direct our children the right way and I think this does it. This uh given an opportunity to maybe have a center with more sports or a center uh for the kids to go there and learn. So I want to thank the mayor for bringing this forward and uh thank you. >> Okay, we have exhausted the speakers list so we will go to the electronic vote. The vote is up. And that carries unanimously. Congratulations, Mayor Horvath. And with that, I'll give the chair back to you. >> Uh, thanks, Deputy Mayor Casar. Appreciate that. And thank you all for the, uh, support on the, uh, motion. Uh, we are now on to notices of motion. Uh, let's see. I'll call in councelor Nan, who has a notice of motion that's included in our private and confidential. So, are you seeking to dispense with the notice provision and consider your motion today? That's definitely the case. Do you have a second or then to dispense with the notice? I'm seconded by councelor Cretch. Okay. Um, any discussion on the motion to dispense? Seeing none. So, we'll go to the vote on that, please. And that carries 16 to zero. Uh so just procedure-wise, we're we're going to then consider your motion in close session. Councelor Nan. Uh thanks very much. Uh I'll call on councelor Tatison who also has a notice of motion for a private and confidential. Uh are you seeking to dispense with a notice provision and consider your motion today? Councelor Tatterson. Yes, you are. I see you shaking your head. Yes, you are. Do you have a seconder for that? >> Councelor Spataphora. >> Okay. Um, so is there any discussion on the motion to dispense? Seeing none, we'll go to the vote, please. That carries uh 15 to1. Uh thanks very much. Uh we will consider your motion in close session. Uh Councelor Tatison, I'm going to call on Councelor Marine Wilson for a notice of motion respecting intergovernmental requests issued this term of council. Uh please provide your notice, councelor. Thank you. That staff be directed, this is my notice, I'm serving. It'll stay as a notice. That staff be directed to report back with a complete account of all intergovernmental requests issued by this term of council, including information respecting the status of each request, how each request is being advanced, and how these advanced how these requests are being prioritized. Thanks very much. Uh we are now on to statements by members uh members of council. It's uh as our custom if you want to populate please the uh the list um of folks who may want to speak speak to this unless councelor Wilson you had anything else to add. No. Okay. Uh so we we'll then go on to the um statements by members. I don't see anybody requesting. Is it going to be a short statement of my members today? Oh, councelor Pauls, please go ahead. >> Oh, okay. I'll be councelor Jackson, I think. Is that's a good thing? >> Yes. >> I just want everybody to be aware. Uh I first of all, on May 5th, I had pulse in the park and it was a miserable day. It rained and I thought, well, surely nobody's going to show up. And uh 12 brave people showed up. But but I want to thank Mike Field from uh the public works department. He was there and he answered every question and I was so proud and people left satisfied. Even though the weather was terrible, uh they showed up. So I'm proud of that. The next post in the park is June 9th and it's at Inch Park. We will have the topic police safety. And this Thursday though at Limebridgeidge Mall besides Second Cup, I will have my table there and anyone that comes by whether you're W seven or not, could I come and uh ask any questions and I'll be there. So, uh this Thursday, May for uh May 14th, is it? No. No. Yeah. May 14th from 1 to 3 at Limebridgeidge Mall. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor Jackson, please. >> Thanks, Mayor Horvath. Uh, three quick announcements. Picking up on your wonderful announcement that this Friday, May 15th, 700 p.m. at Bernie Arbor Stadium, Hamilton Cardinals, uh, home opener, and you're, for those attending, uh, now with the new ownership, they've been averaging 2,000 uh, per game. Stands are at capacity. Uh, come out to cheer your Cardinals of the OBL, the Ontario Baseball League. Um, again, thanks to owner Eric Spearin and his entire executive for what they've done to turn the team around, both on the field. They made the playoffs last couple of years and especially the attendance in the park. Brand new lights that have been installed and lots of improvements. So, come out to support your local professional uh baseball team. Um on Tuesday night, May 19th, uh my Brouttonese Park community longsuffering. Well, I'm finally having my town hall meeting at Michelangelos's at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 19th after the long weekend. I'm hoping for a darn good turnout and city park staff are going to join me, recreation staff, facility staff. And just to explain uh the wonderful successful conclusion after the 11-year journey and moving forward more importantly now with redevelopment plans setting up a new citizens committee to engage them uh in what they want in the new uh park the 9 and a half acre park that they own uh Mayor Horvath and also to see in the interim this summer uh what can we do to possibly have a supon site to activate some of the amenities that are still there so that at least is usable as we're redeveloping a brand new park down the road. And lastly, uh about 3,000 homeowners over the next week or two in the Rexford Drive neighborhood called the Randall neighborhood should receive um a letter from me, traditional Canada Post mailout of the new playground and pathway that's going to replace what's been existing there for years at the heart of the Lincoln Alexander Elementary Public School. And this is a great collaboration between the Hamilton Wet District School Board and City of Hamilton. I'm providing the $375,000 funds supported by you, mayor, and this council. Deeply grateful. And but it's on their land uh in a wonderful collaborative um agreement. And so I'm just alerting the neighborhood that they'll be receiving a letter with details from me hopefully over the next two or three weeks. Thanks, Mayor Horvath. >> Uh thank you, Councelor Jackson. Uh, councelor Tatison, please go ahead. >> Just wanted to give a shout out to uh, Rob and Sherry Kioli in Mount Hope who for the past 15 years have run an event called Puddle Day. And uh, Puddle Day is in honor of a young boy uh, in Sherry's kinderg. And so this little boy used to love to jump in puddles and this is how we honor him and we raised money for Bereieve Families of Ontario and it's quite an event. Hundreds of people came out. First responders were there. Um the Hamilton sod company was there. Many volunteers running uh events. So it was it's a great it's a great time. They fill up a field with water from I guess like a tanker and then the kids just go crazy and get in the mud and they have a lot of fun. And so that's how we honor that little boy. So, thank you. >> Thanks. >> Thank you, Councelor Tatterson. Councelor Spataphora, please go ahead. >> Thank you, Mayor. Just a couple announcements for me. Uh May 21st at Terry Library, 5:30 to 7:30, there's a public information uh session that's going on regards to road road classification and right-of-way study. This isn't just for Ward 14. It's for um the entire mountain and I believe Ward 11 as well, but thought that'd be important to mention. And then something extremely exciting that I think everybody would love to come to. And you're all invited, staff, everyone. This is going to be a great event um on Tuesday. Let me just get the date here because you won't want to miss this. It um it's a town hall uh in Ward 14. I think >> you guys don't seem that excited, but that's fine. My residents will be super excited. It's at People's Church Tuesday, May 19th, 6:30 to 8:30. And it's a uh term in review. It is not taking place in the library. No, we're going to skip the library. Councelor Wilson. Anyways, that's all I have. So, if you want to come, make sure you purchase your tickets. Uh, all funds will go to a charity of your choice. It's just a joke, people. It's fine. Relax. Don't worry. Don't call the IG. It's fine. >> Thanks, Councelor Spataphora. Hi, Councelor Makin. Please go ahead. >> Europe can't come. >> Can't go. >> No, it'll be in Europe. >> Councelor McMin. >> Yes. Thanks. Uh, your worship. Um, uh, Councelor Jackson mentioned the Cardinals a couple times and I just like to share that they're the sponsors of the under 12 baseball tournament that's taking place this weekend in at Joe Sam's Park in Watertown. uh be lots of kids and lots of parents and uh I as the uh ward counselor will be dropping by to cheer them on. Anyone else is welcome to join us. Um on uh Thursday we have um our next uh community council meeting and uh we'll be dealing with some of the emerging concerns in Waterdown. Always exciting. We have a special guest coming. A MP Dan Muse is coming to uh uh to join us and we're looking forward to that. Also doing a three-hour tour on Friday >> with uh yeah why you don't know the why with Vince our new director of transportation of some of the traffic issues in Waterown which is are quite uh substantive. And uh tomorrow morning, McDonald's uh at 8:30 on Center Road is hosting a uh how do we make water down better coffee ga gathering. I'll be there and and at 9:30 Weeks Hardware will be celebrating their 100th anniversary. And I he was a friend of mine, Ernie Weeks, uh passed away at 101. Wonderful man. And uh those were the days when you could go into a hardware store and you could buy one screw. Those those days are gone. Anyhow, I look forward to that. So those are some some exciting things that are happening in uh fun friendly Flamborough and Waterown. Thank you. >> Thank you, Councelor McMin. Councelor Clark, please go ahead. >> Uh thank you, mayor. So, just a couple of items that are coming up. On uh June the 10th, we are have a town hall on traffic management and parking enforcement. Uh this is going to be held at the Winterberry Heights Salvation Army Church at 300 Winterberry. Uh there's lots of room in there. I know residents um this seemed to be one of the biggest issues, traffic management and parking enforcement. This includes pedestrian safety. This includes crosswalks. all of those things. So, I encourage residents to attend that in-person town hall on June the 10th. On June the 11th, there's a virtual open house that the city of Hamilton is running. Now, this is in relationship to a private secondary planning application that has been submitted to the city and our planning staff are now reviewing it. In the past, folks will recall that when we did secondary plans, we had these uh community committees that worked with staff and and and the developer and and literally worked through a secondary plan that the community would be willing to accept and and work with. Uh that doesn't happen uh now that there are private u secondary plan options. And so in this case, um this is the one that's going to confuse you. the Alfrida urban boundary expansion which is at the OOLT and likely won't have a hearing date until January or 2027 January 2027. The land owners are already proceeding with a secondary plan. So a secondary plan is being developed without knowing the outcome of the OOLT hearing which kind of sends a shiver down my spine. Maybe they know something we don't know. Um, but I'm encouraging residents to participate in it. If they don't want to do the virtual one, there will be an in-person um open house on that same secondary plan uh at uh once again Winterberry Heights Church at 300 Winterberry. Um, and the last comment that I I have, I've I've been having some discussions with general manager Zageric, and I am working on some kind of motion to see if we can have an interim financial statement that is unawited of the 2025 numbers. the challenge that I have in I suspect many of us going to an election without having anything um it's going to raise a lot of questions. So the more information that we can have the better and um hopefully I can have a motion come forward uh next month that that we can deal with. Thank you. >> Thank you councelor Clark. Uh councelor Nan please go ahead. >> Thank you Mayor. I just want to take an opportunity to thank staff on two uh separate items. One is uh thanks to director Seavore as well as the recreation um staff team who supported both Adelaide Hoodless Elementary School and Prince of Whale Elementary School who um were challenged to put in place the swim to survive program. As you recall, mayor, we moved a motion at this council um advocating to the provincial government to make that program more robust after two former W3 um children residents uh who unfortunately did not participate in the swim to survive program uh passed away from drowning in Dryden, Ontario after they moved uh a summer ago. And so for these two school communities, having access to this program is quite essential and critical for grade three children. And with the closure of Jimmy Thompson pool, uh due to some emergency repair work that's going to take a longer time to see that pool reopen, staff were able to work with both school communities and find workarounds. uh Adelaide kids will be able to access the program through the Bernie Morelli Rec Center pool which was cleared for the program and then Prince Whale community will um continue receiving support from the recreation division. So just big thank you to the recreation staff team for solving that community concern a real lived one. Um the second one I wanted to thank director Lucas as well as project manager Angelo um who both met with the Powell Park community garden group. Um council members and community will be aware that the community garden had been closed due to uh discovery of some contaminated soil at those at the community garden. And uh recognizing that the soil sampling is at agricultural grade compared to our regular parks grade. Um out of an abundance of caution, city staff have closed that garden. But the meeting took place this week really quickly with the group and there is a plan of foot with our public works uh department in terms of being able to restore access to the community garden this growing season with a solution that hopefully uh everybody can get behind and we can mobilize in time to make sure that the 40 families that are participating in that garden get an opportunity to continue their connection in the community, growing in the community and having uh the ability to support food security both for those who garden there but also the adjoining community as well. So just wanted to say thank you to staff for on those two emerging issues that had pretty big impact on my community from food security to safety around uh survival uh just tangible ways in which our city staff do incredible work to make sure public service is at an excellent standard even when facing unplanned circumstances. Thank you. >> Thank you councelor Nan. Councelor Cooper, please go ahead. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, just to, uh, give an update on what I've been up to in the last month myself. Um, able to come and join, uh, other counselors at the youth town hall. It was a wonderful opportunity myself and counselor Nan to host a group of young people, which absolutely powerful when you get engaged in those conversations. And so, I I thoroughly enjoyed that. Um we attended the sport volunteer awards and happy to report uh one of my W 8 residents uh John Ross was the recipient. So I just want to recognize John for all his great work. Um we had the opportunity with many council colleagues to um celebrate uh uh Polish Heritage Month here with Polish Congress here in in council chambers. And that was very exciting. It was also very exciting to join councelor Jackson for the Polish Constitution Day and that was absolutely tremendous. Um just um wonderful day. Uh we attended the 48th annual Hamilton community prayer breakfast and I was excellent to hear uh councelor McMin talk about the eighth wonder of the world. I really enjoyed that. It was excellent. Um Omar doors open. This is this is the Dunder Castle on the mountain that's in my ward. And um you know the friends of Amar has really done a great job preserving this and uh illuminating this in our ward. It's sad that it's only open 2 days a year. Uh but those two days it really sparkled and shine. So a lot of people that came out to join us and uh really see Omar for the first time. Happy to say that we're going to open up the park behind Omar, the 10 acres of forest and and green space for for the community to enjoy this summer. I thank Lisa Abbott for all her work on that. um the Hamilton Maloi Salmon Jam talent show uh was able to u inaugurate that and uh it was just tremendous to see the uh the talent that's coming along and uh just the great performances from the community. Was able to go to Compassion Ministry in my ward. This is a group that uh feeds clothes and uh provides furniture for over 3,000 families every month. And uh just a tremendous work that this group of volunteers is doing. uh was also able to um uh be hosted by the West End Homebuilders to really understand what's happening with the jobs in our community and how things are being impacted. We talked about that earlier today and the 1900 jobs that have been lost. So that was really helpful to hear that firsthand in terms of what the impacts are. I was able to join the Ugandi uh celebrations the at the Telero and that was that was impactful as well and uh just a wonderful opportunity to join join um that community group. uh friends of Akmar spring meeting. We had a great spring meeting or AGM and uh just so great to see everybody come together there and like I say that group's done a powerful job in keeping Arkmar alive. Uh Flamro standing business awards was able to join them and uh and some people I know there were able to uh win awards and it was just a great event with councelor McMicken as well. So uh it was absolutely tremendous. Mohawk College. We sponsored the Hamilton High School girls all-star volleyball game and uh just absolutely incredible to see the talent that's happening and the engagement and these are the kind of afterchool programs I think our community needs more of. Uh able to host the uh Greek delegation here in Hamilton and we had a tremendous uh get together with the community. Um participated in St. George's Day with the Assyrians in my community and this is a big event in uh with that group as well. uh also was honored to uh join the Salvation Army for a tour across Hamilton of the services they provide and it's just amazing when you start to see what impact organizations like the Salvation Army provide. I was also able to do a similar tour with mission services and another powerful organization in our community just doing so much for so many. So thank you for this chair and thank you for the opportunity to update everyone. >> Uh thank you councelor uh Cooper. Um I don't know that we go for a second time, but I do uh want to know if there are any other speakers who are wanting to or any other members who are wanting to uh share any of anything with the rest of council. Uh seeing none, I'm going to pass the chair over to councelor uh sorry, deputy mayor Casar uh to uh add a few things uh myself uh to close out this part of our agenda. Uh and so um want to start of course with the LRT announcement that came on April the 30th. Uh the Hamilton Transit Alliance was selected as the development partner for package 1 civil and utility works. Uh it was a great day. Uh really thrilled to be joined by the Minister of Transportation Premiar. Lots of advocacy work being done over the last couple of years on this project. Really happy uh that we got it to this point. It's quite a success for all of us and so um really really pleased about that. uh provincial and federal partners and Metro links were there to announce the alliance having been awarded the contract uh for the first package of civil and utility work. Um another major milestone for the Hamilton LRT of course making it clear that this long awaited project is moving forward. It's a transformation that we know will impact our city in in excellent ways. And there were a number of um city councilors that attended that um that event include and and in fact our former colleague JP Denko was there as was uh now now MP as was former mayor Eisenberger. And so I just want to say I'm grateful to everybody who was there. We have some work to do on some of the pieces that remain outstanding, particularly affordable housing, but that work uh is something that um I think we're all very very uh concerned with and we'll see uh some movement on as we continue to to push for some details around that. Um spring pothole blitz was a lot of fun. That was on May 2nd and actually just when we broke for lunch, somebody came up the stairs and said, "Mayor, thanks for all the great road work you're doing." So that was a good news story. We get a lot of complaints about the potholes, but uh really uh pleased to see the staff that uh participate in that. I think it was councelor McMahon mentioned uh Vince Verasa, our new director that's kind of doing that work with us. And so it was really great to get to know the team, a couple of teams actually, 21,00 potholes in a single day, using over 40 tons of ashvalt. I can tell you from experience that a shovel full of ashvalt is a lot more heavy than one would expect or than I expected. Uh but it's part of our continued investment in safer, smoother roads and the infrastructure that Hamiltonians rely on every day. Uh I have a number of things but I'm going to try to pair it down. Uh Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative annual conference hosted here in Hamilton. Again, something that I was working on bringing forward uh and we were able to host mayors from across uh the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence region uh on both sides of the border uh if I'm not mistaken the latest figure is uh in the neighborhood of 12 trillion dollars in terms of economic impact of that uh region uh third largest in the world. Third largest uh economic uh region in the world. Uh and so it was great to see those mayors. It was not only about uh economy though. It was uh seeing some uh some conversation, some leadership around uh freshwater protection, yes, trade, infrastructure, harbor revitalization. Uh excellent series of uh discussions uh and workshops uh with that AGM that was hosted here. People said great things about our city. Again, just so folks know, lots of positive uh the Hamilton team really supported this event um a great deal. uh not like Hamilton water uh government relations there's just so many people uh on the city side my my team city manager team um it was really really clear that we were all in on this one and it showed we were uh labeled by the um uh by the group as thus far the best and most well attended conference so far or AGM so far of this group uh so economic development was also uh very involved communications I'm just really really grateful to everyone. You put on a great uh event uh in collaboration with the Great Lakes uh St. Lawrence Cities Initiative folks. Um May 8th was Sucroan Canada's refinery opening and expansion at Pier 15 in Hamilton Harbor. Another uh great initiative from uh from HOPA. Been happy to work really closely with uh with the uh the port and uh bringing forward a number of new investments and initiatives in our city. uh $135 million investments uh meaning more jobs, more economic activity, more opportunity for Hamilton. Uh we're seeing a transformation at the port in terms of cargo that's moving out, believe it or not. A lot of grain, agra food. Uh it's it's quite an exciting thing. It's always been a part of our important part of our city's economy and the expansion is yet another step forward that's exciting uh for Hamilton. Uh May 9th, the youth town hall that councelor Cooper was talking about. But I want to say that I'm very grateful to all of the counselors that participated uh at that event as well as the staff uh and the organizing committee. Uh it was a really a wonderful event. It was the third annual and um we saw councelor uh Morin Wilson, councelor Kretch, councelor Nan, councelor Wang, uh councelor Cooper, uh councelor Casar, uh city manager Klucky, uh and again our staff who did such a great great job. I think it was the largest turnout of all three years obviously. So it's growing. it's having impact and I know that uh the young people enjoyed it. Um it's you know it's often said and I said this at the event that um young people are the leaders of tomorrow but I really believe that young people are the leaders of today and I think that was on full display in that room. Uh people are stepping up the young people of this community speaking out and helping to shape the um the city. So to everyone that showed up to that all the young people thank you so much. you made it a great event and hopefully it was uh as beneficial to you as it was for us uh to us. Um May 5th was uh Africa Day. Um and it's something that I've made a commitment to the community that the the diaspora here in Hamilton, the African diaspora that we would I would make comments about it uh when I had opportunities uh at council meetings. And so this being the first council meeting since last time I was at Africa Day, wanted to say that the event this year is being celebrated on May 23rd. looking forward to being there. Uh the Hamilton Black Health Community Leaders Forum uh will be happening on the um fifth annual celebration at Calvin Christian School um that brings together Hamiltonians to celebrate African culture, unity, and to highlight contributions of people of African descent here in Hamilton and around the world. This year's theme speaks to something very important which is access to clean water and safe sanitation and the global work underway to meet the goals of Agenda 2063. Familyfriendly friendly event, lots of fun. Uh it's really a great event. So please come out uh and join us uh at that event on the 23rd. Um May 16th Canadian Croatian Folklore Festival is happening. Looking forward to attending their 52nd annual festival. Uh it will be a wonderful day uh and um and and a lot of fun again and a lot of you know understanding and uh integration with the uh the culture uh the Croatian culture. It's it's going to be quite quite lovely. So I encourage people to join for that as well. May 18th, this is my last one folks. It's for all of us. It's the Victoria Day long weekend. So, I'm really hopeful uh that everybody across Hamilton has a great uh long weekend, a safe and happy Victoria Day uh weekend. It's um really feels like this summer's starting. Does it feel a little bit like that today? A little bit better, right? It's a little bit better. Um but it's going to be a chance to get outside actually and do some fun things. Apparently, rumor has it as I walked in this morning, somebody told me that it's going to be 25° on Victoria Day. So, that's going to be a a fun day for for lots of us. So, um but I do want to say um thank you to the the workers, the first responders, the transit operator, healthcare staff, and others who are going to be working throughout this long weekend uh to help keep our community safe and and operating uh uh in a positive way. But I do want to say to all of you around the table and to everybody else who's uh going to be celebrating a long weekend, I hope it is a safe, relaxing, and enjoyable time for you and for your loved ones. uh and that there's a lot of community space and community opportunity uh for connection and uh friendship building. On that note, um I will take the chair back uh and uh go on to the next item in the agenda, which is I'm sorry, councelor. >> Please be very quick because uh we will usually only do uh one opportunity for for members. >> I'm sorry, but um thank you. This Saturday there's going to be uh the Rwanda uh genocide memorial. We uh in 40 days a million people were slaughtered with the Tootszie and the Hootsie and Cassida and Charles they live in my ward and they've experienced that. So this Saturday at city hall right in this chamber we're going to have a memorial. So I hope uh you can come. I know councelor Maren Wilson will be there. So I just wanted to make sure I didn't forget that. That was very important. Thank you. >> Thanks. It was councelor Pauls. Appreciate that. Thank you so much. Uh we are now then on to the next section in our agenda. But before we go to the uh is there something councelor or sorry clerk trenum that you wanted to yes closed minutes. Uh the first thing is our the closed minutes um which uh are from the you'll see it on your agenda. The closed session minutes of council meeting held on April 22nd, 2026. Unless there's something >> so moved. Okay. Thanks, Councelor Nan. Thanks, Councelor Spataphor. Seconded. Uh, obviously no discussion on this, so please uh raise your hands if you're in favor. And uh any opposed? And that carries. Thanks very much. Uh we now need a motion to allow a two people that staff would like to um include in our closed session to provide uh information. The motion is up in front of us. I'll have that moved by councelor Spataphora, seconded by councelor Cretch that consultants Josh Horst and Janine >> Maurice be permitted to attend the close session portion of the council meeting for item 12.6 respecting a motion to reconsider the decision of council at its meeting held on Wednesday, October 29th, 2025. Uh so we've had that moved and seconded. We have a show of hands please on the uh inclusion of those experts. All in favor? Any opposed? That's carried. Thanks very much. We now need the motion uh to go into private and confidential. So please uh can I have that motion to move into close session to consider item 12.4 respecting memorandum CM2612 confidential staffing update citywide. Item 12.5 respecting public participation in land use planning processes. And item 12.6 Six, respecting a motion to reconsider the decision of council at its meeting held on Wednesday, October 29th, 2025, pursuant to section 9.3 subsections B, E, F, and K of the city's procedural bylaw 21-021 as amended and section 2392 subsection B of the Ontario Municipal Act 2001 as amended as a subject matter pertains to personnel matters about identif an identifiable individual including municipal or local board employees litigation or potential litigation including matters before admin administrative tribunals affecting the city or a local board. Advice that is subject to solicitor client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose, and a position, plan, procedure, criteria, or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried out or sorry, carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality or local board. That was moved by councelor Paul's and seconded by uh councelor Bey. Um can you please raise your hand? All those in favor? Uh any opposed? That carries. Thanks very much. Uh members of the public, the meeting will continue following the close session portion of the meeting. When you see the members rejoin the meeting, council will wait up to 5 minutes upon reconvening in open session before proceeding with the meeting to provide members of the public and the media time to return. I just I pray what your mic Oh my god, I don't feel like it. Let me know when we're ready. Angela Uh all right, thanks uh everyone. Welcome uh back to the open uh session. Uh we are now um doing exactly that. So uh you're back in the open portal of escribe uh please. Uh and um I believe that we will wait a minute or two. Are we ready just to keep going? Okay, let's just keep going then. I know the media have returned and any any uh folks who are online will know that we are back up and running. And so uh we are going to begin with the um uh with the declaration uh that uh councelor Wilson wanted to put in the in the on the table. So councelor Wilson please go ahead. >> Thank you Mayor Horvath. Um out of an abundance of caution I am declaring a disqualifying interest to items 10.2 2 and 12.6 of today's council agenda. Um yes, on 10.2 after the fact because I was not aware. Um the 12.6 Six was the motion to reconsider the staff direction respecting confidential report LS24020A respecting appeal to the OOLT for lands located at 9285 9445 9511 96125 and 975120 Road West and 555 Glancaster Road, Glen Glenn Brook for a lack of decision on urban Hamilton official plan amendment applications. Um and they're listed uh for the there in the public record. Thank you. >> Thanks very much. Appreciate that. We'll now go on to uh two 12.4 CM260 uh12 confidential staffing update. May I have a motion to receive the confidential staffing update and maintain the confidentially confidentiality of the matter. Moved by councelor Alex Wilson, seconded by councelor Casar. Uh can we have the vote on that please? Show of hands. All those in favor? Any opposed? That carries. Uh we're now into five 12.5 public participation in land use planning process motion. Uh the um may have a motion to proceed in accordance with the direction provided. Uh enclosed moved by councelor Nan, seconded by councelor Clark. Uh can we have a indicate indication now please? Uh this one calls for electronic vote. Okay, we're just going to We have a little technical issue here, so we'll wait for that. Councelor Jackson's thumb is not in technical in jeopardy. It's so >> Are we up? Do we have it up? No. Let me just take that. >> We're going to have to take it uh old school. >> So, um all those in favor, we'll we'll call them off. >> Yeah. Call them out, please. >> Councelor Chison in favor, councelor Jackson in favor, councelor Bey, Councelor Paul's, Councelor Clark, Councelor Cooper, Councelor Wilson, Councelor McMakin, Councelor Cret, Councelor Spataphora, Councelor Nan, Counselor Alex Wilson, Councelor Casar, and myself. >> Councelor Councelor Wang. Sorry, Councelor Wang. >> And that passes unanimously. >> Okay. Thanks very much all. Uh we are now on to uh 12 uh six. That's two 12.5s on my road map here. Uh 12.6 uh which is public participation in land use planning process motion. >> That's the wrong This is the wrong uh >> sorry that's the wrong title. So this was 12.6 which was the reconsideration motion. Um with regards to staff direction provided as response to LS24208. Uh I can advise that the uh motion to reconsider did not pass. So the motion before council is just to receive the information and that the matter remain confidential. Show >> hands. Appreciate that. Can we have a show of hands then? All those in in favor. Uh we have councelor Jackson, councelor Bey, uh councelor Casar, councelor Alex Wilson, councelor Nan, councelor spata, councelor Cretch, councelor Mc Oh, just the whole Okay, just Okay, >> it says electronic vote on my paper, which is again we've had Okay, I just want to say in my own defense, we've had problems with the road map today. >> So, show of hands. All those in favor, this is just to that acknowledging that the uh reconsideration motion did not pass and that uh it's to receive the materials and uh remain confidential. So all those in favor show hands. Any opposed? Okay, we have a couple of posts and that carries. Thank you so much. >> An abstension. Yes. No, we're though that No, it's just the in it's just a Yeah, it's just a kind of confirmation of what was done in camera. We're not doing it over again. We just we're just confirming that, right? >> Okay. Um >> so I would like some order, please, because we're going to finish off this agenda and uh start by uh our last item, which is the bylaws. So, councelor Casar, may I please have a motion on the bills? >> Go ahead. >> Yes. Moved by me, seconded by former uh deputy mayor Patterson that the bylaws from uh 13.1086 down to a list I can't see the bottom of 13.7092 be confirmed. And your seconder was >> councilor Tatterison. >> Councelor Tatterson. Okay. Uh thanks very much. The vote is in front of us. Uh so please uh indicate your vote. >> Vote is open. >> Jackson McMe councelor Nan Councelor Spaphora. Thank you already. >> Okay. That carries 150. And before I let you off the hook here, I just want to confirm uh that councelor Wilson did leave the room. Councelor Moren Wilson left the room for deliberation on the item uh for which she has declared an interest. So um just want to make sure everybody's aware of that. Uh and so now there are being no further business, the meeting is adjourned and we did it before having to extend. So thank you all very much.