Sound check. 1 2 3. Sound check. 1 2 3. Good morning everybody. On this cold, wet, dreary, fallike day, I'd like to welcome everyone to the May 6th, 2026 general issues committee. As we have quorum present uh for today's meeting, I'll call this meeting to order. A reminder to everyone in the room with us here, please if you could check your electronic device, make sure it's not going to make any sound during the meeting. In chambers with us today, council Francis, Tatis, Bey, Paul's Clark, uh, Moren Wilson, Nan Wang online, councel Cretch, and we have regrets from the mayor who is away on city business and council McMe who like many of us lately is under the weather. Uh we'll go to approval of the agenda. Madame clerk, can you advise of items included in the addendum? >> Yes, deputy mayor. All items listed as to be distributed have been added. There's one withdrawn delegation and one two added pieces of correspondence. >> Thank you very much. May I have a mover and second to approve the agenda as presented? Councelor Nan, Councelor Tison, any discussion? Seeing none, show of hands to approve the agenda. And that carries. Thank you very much. Declarations of interest. Are there any declarations of interest from members today? Seeing none, we'll keep moving. Item five, 5.1 is approval of the minutes of the previous meeting GIC 26-6 from April 15, 2026. May I have a mover and second to adopt the previous minutes? Councelor Way and Council Nan. Any discussion on those minutes? Not seeing any. Show of hands, please. And that carries. We're on now to section six and delegations. Uh before we begin begin our delegations for today, members are reminded that questions of the delegations are for clarification purposes only and not for debate. And to our delegates, you will have 5 minutes to complete your delegation. And in 4 minutes in, you will hear a ding. It's just a reminder that you have one minute left and you can start thinking about wrapping up. So we'll move along to item 6.1 is Anthony Kelchi respecting the ongoing negligence regarding 461 King Street East. Anthony is in chambers here with us and is making his way down to the podium. Welcome Anthony. >> Good morning. >> Good morning. Go ahead. >> All right. Uh good morning members of council. Uh thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Uh my name is Anthony Keelchce. I am the owner of 2835772 Inc. uh which holds the property at 461 King Street East. I am also the owner of Vertical Staffing Resources Inc. a staffing agency that operates out of 461 King Street East and once had a strong presence here in Hamilton. Beyond my business interests, I am also a resident of Stony Creek. My family lives here, my children attend school here, and I am uh contributing as a taxpayer. I'm here today to address a significant financial and operational harm that I have experienced as a result of the city's actions and inactions related to the property of 461 King Street East. The staffing business we operated out of 461 King and the adjacent properties 455, 457, and 459 King Street East. On January 20th, 2025, I received an order to comply under subsection 15.9 of the building code act. This order was based on reports prepared by Element Forensic Engineering retained by the city which concluded that my building was structurally unsafe and required immediate action. The order required that within 7 days I retain a professional engineer, confirm the structural independence of the building, obtain permits, and cease occupancy potentially. The timeline was extremely difficult to meet. Yet, I acted immediately and in good faith to comply. My engineer's findings were clear. Uh the first first the building at for Can I move this down? >> Thank you. I'm I'm on my tippy toes. Um so my engineer's findings were clear. Uh first, the building at 461 King Street East is structurally connected to the neighboring buildings through shared beams. This is consistent with its construction in the 1930s, well before modern building codes required independent structures. In other words, this is a legacy condition inherent to the entire row of the buildings. Second, the neighboring properties had not been adequately stabilized. This lack of stabilization caused physical damage to my building uh including brick displacement and the need for repointing. Third, a critical beam supporting the front facade of my building had significantly deteriorated. This deterioration was accelerated after it was exposed during investigations required by the city, leaving it vulnerable to the elements for many months. Despite these circumstances, many of which were outside of my control, I was issued a cease occupancy order and required to complete extensive repairs at my own expense. I com uh I complied. I acted quickly. Uh but the financial consequences have been severe. Uh the initial uh structural concern stemmed from conditions linked to the neighboring properties which the city had. >> Sorry, if you could just step away from the microphone just a little bit. Sorry. Creating some distortion. It's hard to hear. >> I apologize. Is this better? >> Yeah, that's good. >> Okay. Should I start again? >> No. >> All right. The initial structural concern stemmed from the conditions linked to the neighboring properties which the city had failed to properly stabilize for approximately 29 months following the facade collapse on August 2022. Uh this delay is documented in correspondence from the city staff. I also have reason to believe that this entire situation stemmed from an LRT drilling um that caused the facade to fall of the neighboring properties. Um, as a direct result, I incurred $160,000 plus HST and repair costs to restore the facade and the interior of my building. Additionally, the cease occupancy order issued on February 11, 2025 displaced two families, forced me to halt operations and vacate the property, uh resulting in about $90,000 in lost revenue to date with ongoing monthly losses of approximately $2,500 as I remain unable to lease the commercial space due to an ongoing safety concern and obstruction that is caused by the neighboring walkway structure that is now creating a pinch point at the front door of the building. Furthermore, my business, Vertical Staffing Resources, Inc., was forced to shut down its Hamilton operations. Uh, what once was a thriving recruitment office, has been reduced to a fraction of its former capacity, resulting in estimated losses of approximately $400,000. Uh, in total, the financial impact across both entities is substantial and ongoing. I stand before you today not only to outline these damages, but to seek a fair and reasonable resolution. The total compensation being sought uh for the direct uh cost, revenues, and general damages is approximately $1 million. My goal is to resolve this matter collaboratively without the need for legal proceedings. I believe there is an opportunity here for the city to acknowledge its role and work toward mutual and acceptable resolution. Thank you for your time and consideration. If you have any questions, thank you. >> Thank you very much for your delegation, Anthony. Uh we do have questions. Uh, Councelor Brad Clark, you're up. Go ahead. >> Good morning, Chair. Just a couple of questions of the delegate. Thank you for appearing today. I'm looking at um the front view of the properties at 461A and 461B and C. Those are the properties that you're referring to. >> Correct. >> You indicated um that you ordered to basically get out of the building and fix the building. paraphrasing. Um, who inspected the building inside? >> Inside? >> Yes. >> Um, so I was ordered by the city, the building, uh, uh, department, um, to have an order to comply. I was told to get my own engineer. Um, this stemmed from the, uh, element forensic, uh, stood in front of my building, looked at it, noticed that there were gaps in between the two buildings. On the one side it we don't share a party wall right so it is a standalone on the left side uh we share we share a party wall with 455 457 and 459 and there was a gap because the buildings of 457 was moving away because of improper stabilization so therefore my building was deemed unsafe >> but nobody ever entered your building >> no you guys entered yeah multiple occasions I provided uh access. >> So, the inspectors went inside the building to see the structure, >> correct? >> Inside the building. >> Yes. >> Okay. And uh can you just provide clarification? You said something about a drill causing a collapse. Yeah. How did you come to that conclusion? >> So, through conversations I I've had with u you know, building um city city workers. Um you know, I was told that this stemmed from the LRT drilling. I've actually put in a freedom uh request for information to the city to get access to 19 different uh element forensic reports. Um the you guys never responded and never provided it. And I believe that in those 19 reports it does state that the LRT drilling caused this. >> I have reason to believe. >> Thank you. Thank you for appearing today. >> You're welcome. >> Okay, I'll just do a last look around and see if there are any other questions for our delegate. Uh, not seeing any. So, thank you very much for providing this information for committee to consider, Anthony. Appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. >> Oh, councelor Clark. >> Yeah, >> there you go. >> Thank you, Chair. Stemming from that delegation, is it possible that we get a report from staff on this situation at a future meeting? Yeah. So I believe that there is an outstanding direction to staff that was uh in camera back last year and if there are further questions on the matter just due to the nature of it, it is it would be possible or would be possible to deal with that in camera today if you'd like. >> Just interested on the timing. >> Yeah. So to LC McCrae, I think that is something that we need to talk about in camera. >> So uh through the deputy mayor, um what we could do, we have a couple of options. we can take the information from an Anony's delegation and receive it and refer it to staff for a report back to the next general issues committee or a future general issues committee meeting for the timing on that as far as staff goes that we could see when staff would be able to report back on an update on his delegation. Some of it could be in camera, some of it might be in open session. >> Um, yes. Uh, councelor Nan, would you like to move the motion then? >> Okay. >> Okay. Okay. So, >> and I'll second that. >> That's a motion moved by councelor Nan, seconded by councelor Clark. Is that direction clear enough? Do we need to have anything in writing or is that understood? It's understood. I'm looking at GM Prasad. That's understood. Okay. >> So, sorry through the deputy mayor. It's not clear with me. So, is it the next general issues committee meeting? >> Okay. Great. Thank you. >> Okay. So, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion on that motion before we go to a vote? Not seeing any. So, that'll be an Eastcribe vote. And we're just going to take a moment to get that up and then the vote will be before committee. The vote is now up. Sorry. >> Okay. And that carries unanimously. Thank you very much everybody. We have a next step on this file. Okay. Moving along. Item 6.2 is Dr. Zobia Javeed, Clean Air Hamilton to present the 2022 and 2023 progress report for Clean Air Hamilton. And that is a virtual delegation. Welcome. >> Thank you so much. Good morning everyone. I hope you can hear me fine. Um I'd like to share my PowerPoint slide deck. Um, I'm not sure if you're sharing from their end, but I'm going to try to see if they can do it. Uh, it's my first time on the WebEx here, so please, my apologies if it's a little bit delayed in my end. >> Okay. Yeah, go ahead. Okay, we can see. There you go. We can see the notes, so you probably want to have the presentation screen shared instead. >> Yeah, I can see. Um, sorry. Give me one second. I have double monitor. I can see it. It's a full screen in my end. So, I'm going to try one. >> You just want to switch switch the screen. You're sharing, I think. Let's try this. >> Is that better? >> And there we go. Go ahead. >> Thank you everyone uh for having me here today. Uh, my apologies. I couldn't figure a last delegation. I was supposed to be here in April to do this. So great, I I was able to connect today. Um today I'm here to just present this information for 2022 and 2023 progress report for cleaner Hamilton. Um and and the goal here is to just share this information with you and uh and for the council to receive this information. Um I am the chair for the cleaner Hamilton. Um and um those of you who are not very well familiar with Cleaner Hamilton, it is an armslength non-for-profit organization under city of Hamilton. It is a multistakeholder community-based initiative. Um altogether we were established to implement recommendations from the 1997 Hamilton air quality initiative. Um altogether the website for cleaner Hamilton is as follows. um that you can see here on the link al together. Our work is grounded in science-based decision- making. We have diverse perspective in consensus building. We u meet monthly with our members and we bring together representations um from industry, government and NOS's um and other community members all together. there is a very collaborative structure to cleaner Hamilton and our goal here is to really work together to address complex air quality challenges uh within Hamilton altogether and these are just some of the names of the members who are attending our monthly meetings al together and some of the members pictures that you can see here as well uh moving forward um I'd like to talk about some of the slides around Hamilton's air quality trends that we have gathered uh from this progress report. The slide highlights trends in particulate matter, specifically total suspended particulate tsp uh particulate matter uh 10 and particle matter 2.5. Overall, we're seeing long-term improvements reflecting regulatory efforts and local initiatives altogether. There are still localized variation especially near industrial and hightra areas. We have monitoring. We suggest that continue monitoring is essential to understand neighborhood level exposure and protect vulnerable population altogether as well. Um here we're focused on toxic pollutants such as benzene and benzil opyene. These pollutants are important due to their potential health risk specifically carcinogenic effects. While the trends are showcasing here on these slide uh that there is progress over time, levels can still fluctuate depending on industrial activity, seasonal variations and so forth. This again reinforces the importance of ongoing monitoring and targeted mitigation strategies to address some of these toxic pollutants. Um moving forward we also have um nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone. These pollutants are linked to respiratory health impacts and smog formation. We have seen improvements in some pollutants partly due to emission control. However, um ozone remains a challenge as it is influenced by regional and transboundary sources and not just local emissions altogether. Um in addition to this uh we are focusing on several other key priorities within cleaner Hamilton. We have an upcoming 2026 upwind downwind conference. The theme for this year's upwind downwind conference is addressing environmental racism and and inequity issues in urban air pollution. It is scheduled for May 26th um from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will be taking place here in Hamilton David Brily Health um sciences center. Please feel free to attend if you have the availability. We're expecting bright speakers, vendors, student posters in a lot of networking to really become familiar with Hamilton's air quality and find a pathway to move forward al together as well. Um, in terms of our future action, we'll continue expanding education and outreach efforts through cleaning Hamilton to improve public awareness. Um we have a major priority enhancing air quality monitoring especially especially at the neighborhood level through partnership. We're also uh looking to apply a land use compatibility lens to better inform planning and decision-m. Ultimately all of this work supports our goal of protecting the health and well-being of Hamilton residents altogether. Um so we hope to continue our efforts towards better air quality within Hamilton altogether. On behalf of Clean Air Hamilton, I'd like to say thank you and happy to take any questions. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Dr. Jav. Uh we do have a speaker list. I'll go first to Council Wang. >> Thank you for your delegation, Dr. Javid, and thank you for your work on the Clean Air Hamilton team. I know that uh you've just been kind of put into that space uh recently. Um I just wanted to answer a quick qu quick answer was we're looking at the 2022 and 2023 data. We're in 2026. So why the lag? >> Um again shift that was happening internally as you pointed out. So there were delays in terms of finalizing the report and and obviously there was no chair on this role. that we were just waiting for that role to get filled in and eventually um but now the report is completed and I think we're not at a good stage to take cleaner Hamilton forward. So one of the key things that we wanted to do was obviously present um this was historical data and I have nothing to do with this data. This was all beyond my time but I wanted to make sure that we're moving forward and present some of this in our upcoming upwind down conference as well while we're setting up the new strategy for cleaner Hamilton and how we move forward. So it's always going to be um you know lag but yes this is this is a long gap alto together. >> Thank you. Uh just another question around um the information between 2023 and today is going to be vastly different I think um than what we saw in 2023 given that for example has had their sight specific standards lapse. Uh if you look at the ham ham and air network uh we are seeing um rises in benzene and benzoap pyrene. So what are as you're moving into a new direction what is that direct? What can you give us a sense of how you want to um try and tackle some of these big problems given that they are really um specific to the MECP um and keeping businesses accountable. So, how does Clean Air Hamilton see itself as you're developing this new strategy? >> Great question. And I think one of the key thing that we start to do, and I think this just happened last month, we are setting up our three-year strategy for cleaner Hamilton. Uh we are trying to work in a more collaborative fashion. We want to hear all of the various different voices around the table, including, you know, we want to have MECP, we want to have other partners, we want to hear from everyone. So again, that's one piece that we're trying to do. Really put that that vision together and and and sort of setting that strategy in terms of what are going to be our priorities. What are we going to be focused on? Where's the funding going to come from? There's a lot of those barriers that we'll have to kind of address right now. Um obviously we don't have much we don't have any funding for cleaner Hamilton which is obviously very problematic if we're trying to move forward. We also have started certain working groups under cleaner Hamilton and one of the working group is specifically looking at education and outreach group. Another one is specifically looking at sort of datadriven decisions. So we're now forming very specific sort of working groups that are going to be addressing some of these sort of key uh sort of questions in terms of how should we be going forward all together. So again we're we're starting literally from from scratch if I'm if I'm not mistaken in order to really set that vision for cleaner Hamilton and obviously to make sure that we have all of the right data and an up-to-date data all together as well. >> Okay. Thank you chair. Just a quick um sort of comment back to the delegate is that I am hopeful that we will continue to work very closely together because in ward 4 DeFasco has had their um sight specific standards lapse and then we are still waiting on an industry standard. These are problems and challenges that are far beyond my role as a city councelor. So, my hope is that we can lean on the Clean Air Hamilton folks with all of their academics and their industry professionals to help us with um solidifying the messaging to ensure that we are um living in a healthy uh clean air environment in definitely W 4, but in Hamilton in general. Thank you. >> Okay. Thanks, Councelor Wang. Next, we have Councelor Clark. Go ahead, Council Clark. Oh, >> my apologies. Sh. I'm not sure why it popped up. I didn't have a question. Okay. >> Second time my name popped up. >> Okay. We'll keep moving. >> Kind of spooky. There's a ghost in here. >> Okay. All right. Well, we'll keep an eye out for the ghost. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, councelor Ned, >> thank you through you, uh, Deputy Mayor, uh, to the delegate. Thank you so much, uh, doctor, for your overview and presentation. I noticed that the presentation wasn't attached to uh your delegation. So if that could be shared with committee that would be helpful. Uh we have a lot of interested residents across the city for whom this data is so very important. Um I was curious though doctor if you could comment on I appreciate that the work of clean air Hamilton focuses on the particulate matter in the air. Has there been any discussion about that particular matter settling and the impact of that particular matter settling on the quality and health of our local city? >> Um no I I don't think we've gone that far yet. um we have started to have discussions around more around emerging pollutants and started to think around yes we're focused on some of these historical um pollutants or toxic pollutants in parkland matter are there other gaps that we need to start filling al together and I'm going to be very honest I think one of the barriers right now for us is um as much as we have you know great partners right now who are willing to work with us to collect this data we are going to have gap when it comes to funding we're going to have gap in terms because we don't have a you know per se staff that is direct like yes we have one person who's supporting with administrative task for cleaning Hamilton but I think if we're really looking forward to advance the work for cleaner Hamilton um you know at some point I'd like to come in to the council to be requesting certain funds in order to um in order to support some of the work that we can do through cleaner Hamilton because I think there's so much potential for this uh for us to do more data collection do more education more more advocacy see more information sharing with the public altogether as well. I think that requires all funding and and I think right now that's our biggest barrier. >> Thank you so much. I look forward to that scope clarity coming back to general issues committee and continuing the conversation. Certainly is a critical issue for W 3 residents. Um I it's shared I think between the entire lower city as the impacts kind of drift around in terms of the way that the air moves but more also very importantly from a public health perspective as uh the board of health continues to uh do what we can within the municipal realms authority to push for stricter provincial regulations but more importantly ensuring that we're building a future Hamilton where the health quality um isn't so inequitable. Uh and currently the inequity between the quality of air and its associated uh diseases is u profoundly uh disproportionate. And that depth of inequity really needs resolution and that resolution is only possible if we have every single significant contributor and stakeholder across the city working from the same song sheet. So really looking forward to uh what you're able to bring back. Thank you. and and please feel free to come to the upwind downwind conference and I think all of the things that council you mentioned I think you know I think it's going to be a great conference addressing some of those topics that you just mentioned around environmental racism inequity issues here for for Hamilton but generally around what what are the trends we're seeing across as well Ontario as well so I think great learning for everybody >> okay thank you next on our speakers list councelor Moren Wilson >> uh thank you Dr. Jav um councelor Nan was uh asked my question about if we can get a copy of the presentation and if you're keen on forwarding that to the clerk's office if you could also advise on who should we contact when we have subsequent questions about the presentation >> definitely um I I I can do that I can I'm happy to share the presentation again and uh we do have an air quality uh corer email address I'm happy to prov provide that. I'm also happy to provide my email address as well. Um where you you can contact me and we can find you the answers. If it's related to trends, we can go back to MECP because they're the one who collected this data and did the trend analysis as well. >> Okay. Thank you. Could you just speak Thank you. Could you just speak a little bit more in what we might anticipate um in the future? You mentioned compatibility of land use and air quality. Would you care to just elaborate a wee bit through the chair? Um definitely I I think there's so many different directions cleaner Hamilton is kind of as I said we're still in the early stages to put the new strategy together. Um based on some of the um upwind down conference and some of the feedback we're going to be getting from that and some of the workshops that we just completed last month. Our goal is really to put something together that is going to be meaningful for for city of Hamilton altogether. But again it needs to be something meaningful. Uh so again we want to be looking at um transportation sector. We want to be able to look at um you know wonderful communities altogether as well. We want to be looking at industries. We want to be look at land use planning. All of those various different aspects that can impact air quality here in Hamilton and how we need to start working together in a more collaborative fashion rather than working in sort of silos al together and putting you know duplicating our efforts all together. So I think through cleaner Hamilton we're trying to bring different voices together. Um, I'm not too sure how it was done historically, but that's really my aim now is to really bring that lens together of hearing different voices and really bringing innovative solutions together. We might not be able to tackle every single thing through cleaning Hamilton, but again, at least we can bring that education and awareness pieces and bring voices together and start having dialogues. Maybe not everything is done by cleaner Hamilton. It's done by our industry partners. So for them to understand that this is going to be um the actions are not going to be just taken by cleaner Hamilton. We're bringing people together. It's going to go back the accountability is going to go back into industries accountability is going to go back to others who have you know who have the resources who might have the the funding and who might be able to take some actions on some of these items al together as well. >> Thank you very much. I um I have some follow-up questions from some of the slides uh but I'll do that offline uh when your contact information is provided. Thank you for your delegation. >> No problem. Thank you. >> Okay. Thanks, counselor. Next, Councelor Tatterson. >> Good day, doctor. Um, in looking at your slides, I I see that we're trending down in many of the areas, and I'm just trying to I'm just wondering in layman's terms, what does that mean? Have we gone from very bad to not so bad? Have we gone in in terms of health effects, have we gone from bad to to good? Where are we standing as of right now? Uh that's a very difficult question because I think it was pointed out very nicely before that the data itself is a historical data that we are looking at based on now I think we start to compare 2026 um or 2025 I think we might have altogether a different story al together um again what we're seeing alto together it's going to be as good as the emission controls we're going to have the different types of regulatory efforts there needs to be in place And I think we're still at the early stages where we're trying to link all of these various different toxic pollutants and their direct impact on health quality and mental health. I know there's a lot of discussions now on these air pollutants and how these could potentially directly link not just with the respiratory health but mental health altogether as well. So I think we're in still very early stages and I don't want to comment at this point where we are at this stage u because the data itself you know it's it's historical data and I think it might not be fair uh to say something that we might not be true for for Hamilton residents that um in terms of air quality. I think we're still we're still progressing but the the progress needs to be faster. Um obviously it needs to be more resources needs to put in place here. more funding needs to be put in place. I think those are are bigger challenges for us right now. And I think, as I said, Cleaner Hamilton will look to have some financial support in order for us to, you know, um, stop some of those delays because now we're relying on partners to contribute. We're relying on partners to provide their support, which is great because we want this to be collaborative, but I think there are certain things we could potentially do it as well from Cleaner Hamilton side, too. >> Okay. Listen, thank you. I I I see this for it's a it's a more in-depth conversation going forward. Um one last question, the ozone issue, it kind of was stable. Can you just make some, you know, some comments about that and and why why you think that's so? >> Uh, again, because this is historical data and and this was done bit way before my time, I I would rather take this question back and I can potentially respond to that question in terms of why we saw what we saw in historical data and where we stand today. if that's okay with you. I I can I can take this uh data back to MECP because they might have the 2025 data or 2024 data as well to add on to that. >> Okay, no problem. Thanks for that and um carry on with the good work. >> Thank you. >> Okay, thanks counselor. We don't have anyone else on the speakers list. So, thank you Dr. for your delegation. Uh we can look forward to your presentation and contact information being shared through the clerk and any follow-up questions can happen from there. So, thank you very much. Have a good day. >> Have a good day everyone. Bye-bye. Okay. So, I'll need a mover and seconder to receive the delegation, please. Council Wang, Council Nan, all those in favor, show of hands. That carries. Okay. Item 6.3, the delegation there has been withdrawn. So, we're on to items for information. Uh, there are no objections. May I have a mover and seconder to put items 7.1 to 7.3 on the floor, all three of them, as they are all subcommittee minutes to be received. Councelor Clark, Councelor Pauls. Is there any discussions on any of these items? Seeing none, we'll need a show of hands to receive them. All those in favor? And that carries unanimously. Okay. 7.4 management update on Red Hill Valley Parkway inquiry. Could I have a mover and seconder to put the item on the floor? Councelor Wang, Councelor Moren Wilson. Is there any discussion on this item? Please populate the speakers list. I'm not seeing any. Okay. So, we just need to receive this report. Uh that'll be a show of hands. All those in favor? Any opposed? Seeing none. Okay. That carries. 7.5. Uh report CM250007B, Build Back Better Project Portfolio Update. Uh Patricia Leechman, director Enterprise Portfolio Management Rebuild and Transformation will provide committee with an overview of the report. Director Lean is the director here. Okay, I'm just going to pause for a moment. >> City Manager Clunky. >> Uh through you, Mr. Chair. I know she was planning on attending, so I'll I'll get her here now, but I propose moving forward while we we gather her. >> Okay. So, do we uh >> Okay. So, we will defer this report to after the next item if that's okay with committee. We'll need a motion for that. Councelor Nan, Councelor Wang. Okay. Show of hands to defer that to the one spot. Okay, that carries. So, we'll move on in the meantime to 7.6. That is report PEED26072, innovation and planning approvals, Bloomberg Harvard innovation track and Bloomberg implementation accelerator program updates. So I'm going to go right back to city manager Kucky uh to introduce the presentation >> through you Mr. Chair. City manager Marne Kucky. Thank you. As city manager, I'm pleased to share the progress that we are making uh to improve how development applications are reviewed and approved in Hamilton. And through our participation in Bloomberg Harvard innovation programs, we are testing and advancing practical changes that are already helping to speed up timelines, improve communication, and make the process easier to navigate. This work supports council's commitment to enabling 47,000 new housing units by 2031. with a focus on improving our customer experience and timelines to support businesses, developers and residents. Uh this is also complemented by work that is being undertaken with our new permitting, planning, licensing and building software that is going to be launched in June of 2026. So, lots of hard work being done by staff to advance this and respond to the feedback that we're receiving from the community. So before I turn it over to GM Prasad, I just want to acknowledge the work of GM Prasad and the whole planning and economic development team as they're advancing initiatives like the Bloomberg Harvard innovation and um software systems development and implementation. So thank you to that team and I'll turn it over to GM Prasad to introduce. >> Yes, thank you very much city manager and Mr. Chair. Thank you. I'm Arvin Prasad. I am the general manager for planning and economic development. Today I am pleased to introduce item 7.6 on the agenda and this is an update on the city's participation in the Bloomberg Harvard Innovation Track Program and the Bloomberg implementation accelerator program. The city participated in the Bloomberg Harvard innovation track program in 2023 and 24 where we developed a portfolio of initiatives and chose two pilot programs for further development that staff are going to update you on today. So to help further develop other initiatives, the city was chosen to participate in what's called the Bloomberg implementation accelerator. Now this allows Bloomberg to train more staff on the use of innovation and design thinking. Uh and that so this is more training that what they would have learned through the innovation track program. Through that two additional initiatives were developed that staff have been working to advance over the past year. The initiatives have emerged from the two Bloomberg programs and it demonstrates the city's commitment to continuous improvement and the use of leading technology. All of which aligns with our work and our work is simple here. We want to simplify, we want to clarify and we want to speed up planning approvals processes. So today I am pleased to introduce the staff who will be presenting the update on these Bloomberg initiatives. We have Eric Heinbecker. Eric is a planner too with our site plan team and Mark Keller. Mark is the program lead also in the site plan team. So I'm going to provide uh send it over to our staff for these exciting initiative updates. So Eric and Mark. >> Thank you GM Prasad. Welcome gentlemen. >> Good morning through the chair. Oh thank you. and we'll move the desk up there. >> Good morning to the chair. Uh my name is Eric Heimbecker and I'm a planner with the site plan team in the planning and economic development department. I'm joined here today by my supervisor and program lead for the site plan team, Mark Kaylor. Um today we're here to present to you an update on the Bloomberg Harvard. Today we're here Gotcha. Today we're here to present to you an update on the Bloomberg Harvard implementation program uh which was originally presented to you in April of last year. In 2023 and 2024, the city participated in the Bloomberg implementation Harvard implementation program after the mayor put forward an application to the Bloomberg Center for Cities with a challenge to staff improved the development planning process. Through consultation with staff, developers and consultants, external stakeholders, staff selected two ideas to become pilots under the initiative, the all for one site plan pro pilot and the first wave application pilot. The city was also accepted into the Bloomberg implementation accelerator program in 2025. Through this program, staff were coached to accelerate design, development, and implementation with two themes in mind, the quick win and the big bet. In alignment with these themes, staff selected the minor variance application brochure as a quick win and the planning application information website as a big bet. The first pilot under the initiative is all for one which builds on the challenge to improve development approvals process by setting setting accelerated review timelines for affordable housing projects and by promoting increased collaboration between city stakeholders and applicants. Specifically, the pilot commits to providing preassessment within 14 days, conditional site plan approval within 30 days, and committing to reduce the commenting deadline from 28 days to 14 days for all technical submissions. Currently, the average municipal processing time for files under the Alpha 1 pilot have been reduced by 46% from the application for preassessment through the second technical submission. The pilot has also exceeded its own goal by 2 days providing conditional site plan approval in an average of 28 days. Next few slides I'll provide a brief overview of the applications under the pilot that have received conditional site plan approval. The first application that has received conditional site plan approval under the alpha one pilot pro program is 2800 Library Lane. The proposal consists of a three-story 111 unit seniors building which includes 55 affordable units. The city's all for one processing goals have been met for this file. The next application under the pilot is 95 Denduran Street South, a five-story 14-unit building designed for indigenous students and their families attending McM McMaster University and Mohawk College. Similarly, the 2800 Library Lane staff have met the processing goals. The third application received through conditional rece that has received conditional approval through the site plan all through the all for one site plan process is 120 Wentworth Street North a four-story building consisting of 50 affordable dwelling units. While 120 Wentworth Street North has not received did not meet the processing goals of the pilot, staff have been able to take the lessons learned from the from the file shortfalls and apply and apply it to the pilot as a whole. In February of 2026, we circulated an anonymous questionnaire to all individuals involved in the all for one pilot to receive feedback on the pilot and its objectives. Responses from owners, applicants, and agents were generally agreeable that the pilot has met the has met the objectives while city staff who responded provided a more neutral response to the same questions. In addition to the questionnaire, we offered an opportunity to provide feedback on the pilot. Included on included on the slide are key themes of the comments that were received which have been generally supportive of the initiative. The second pilot under the Bloomberg Harvard implementation initiative is the first wave application pilot. The pilot included AI technology to review lowdensity zoning applications for conformity against the city's zoning bylaws. Results on how designs may not conform were provided back to testers in a clear and easyto read report. Through participation in the first wave pilot, staff saw many potential long-term benefits of implementing the AI technology and as a next step are investigating the expansion of the pilot into different types of applications with the eventual goal of allowing customers to use AI to check their applications before submitting to the city. Mark Kaylor again, I'm a program lead for site planning. I'm going to walk you through the initiatives that emerged from the Bloomberg Harvard or sorry just Bloomberg Bloomberg implementation accelerator program. So the first uh initiative under the program is called the big bet. Uh this is um an initiative to develop a public facing planning application information website. So currently planning division makes all planning application information available to the public on request through email, phone or at the planning counter at city hall by providing application information on a website. Residents, business owners, real estate agents, investors, they'll all be able to access this information on their own uh computer or mobile device. So through the implementation accelerator program, we developed a wireframe or a mockup of the website. It's shown on your screen. The website, it would include a map and search tools that would allow the public to um search for development activity occurring in their neighborhood. Uh it would also have application specific information on a page that would include timelines, uh contact information, uh description of the proposal, and then also links to all the documents that were submitted in support of the application under the planning act. And then there would be an archive function. So the last page you'd be able to look at applications that were approved previously, look at the documentation. Um, and that information we anticipate would stay up there for approximately 2 to 3 years to allow residents to know kind of again what was approved, what's being built, uh, in their neighborhoods. So staff anticipate a number of benefits of this website. We see it improving access and transparency for residents, allowing them to better participate in the public consultation process. There'd be better access to development information for development uh developers, business owners, investors. We heard from economic development that they're often asked for this type of information. Uh they would now have an opportunity to just find it online. And uh another kind of spin-off benefit is staff currently spend um some of their time responding to requests for information, putting them emailing links, emailing documents, responding to phone inquiries. That should this should cut down on that, giving staff more time to focus on processing development files. The second initiative, it's uh called the quick win under the program. staff were uh tasked with developing something that could be implemented very quickly during the the time frame of the program. Um so staff chose a application or sorry as a minor variance information pamphlet. Uh it was designed to be very userfriendly plain language. It gives residents, staff the information that they need to understand the m variance process, how to navigate it, um where to find more information and that again is shown on the screen and was distributed by the clerk. Our next steps for the Bloomberg initiatives for the all for one, we're going to extend this pilot until the end of 2026. We're also expanding it to include some pri priority economic develop development projects to get more um applications through the pilot. We're also investigating the expansion of the first wave application pilot to include review of of zoning compliance for low density and medium density residential building types. We're further developing that prototype for the application information website using software that we were able to purchase through funding from the Bloomberg Center for Public Impact. Uh and finally, we're looking to complete more brochures for other common application types similar to the minor variance information brochure that can be distributed to public and uh staff. And that concludes our presentation. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much for that. Uh I don't think it's a surprise that your presentation has generated some interest. We do have a speakers list. First up is councelor Wang. >> Thank you for your presentation. Uh question around the um big bet planning application information website. Um the mockups that you made look a lot like eztory maps. So what's the difference between what you're developing the prototype for and an eztory map for example? and why would the big bet be better than what we currently have available >> through the chair. Thank you for the question. Uh I'll start with the the software that it's kind of based on. The city currently uses an engagement platform. Uh it's through a company called Granicus. >> So through part of our process through the Bloomberg was to do a municipal scan of of other municipalities. Many already have websites like this. and we found that granicus was one of the tools they were using. So we have access to that software already. It was kind of it made sense that we would use that. So um there is no component of eztory maps. Currently we have mapping online um where you can search for development applications but you can only find very very generic uh descriptions of what's being proposed. there's no kind of application um specific page that I was showing you where you could access all the the status updates and files. Um so there will like I said be a mapping component likely based on EZRI but the software used to to build those pages is uh is is the engagement platform that city already uses. >> Okay. Thank you. My follow-up question then is um how would the public be able to scrape data out of this new big bet um prototype? Uh how will it feed into say our open data platforms or anything like that? Because there is a lot of information on planning development um documents that could be used to for research purposes. So how do they talk to each other? uh through the chair to the counselor. I I think that was something that we heard through our engagement on it that it should be very searchable and used for research purposes. So that's something that we're aware of and we'll work with it on. Um yeah, we did receive feedback about how we can kind of optimize the pages to to allow easy search through Google or or um other kind of tools like that. But yeah, it certainly would be a very powerful research tool for for many people. >> Thank you. I think another question is what did why did it take so long to get us here? Because other municipalities have been doing this for a really long time. So why did perhaps that's left for the report but not sure >> the chair? if anyone else wants to take a crack at that, but I can take kind of give my perspective. Um, at a staff level, certainly this is something that we've wanted for a long time. People who've worked in other municipalities know that these tools exist. Um, I think there's probably a number of of uh factors, COVID and cyber attack certainly being some of them. It has been on kind of the work plan for a while, but um Bloomberg was an opportunity to really give it some momentum and and get something developed. uh using their unique kind of project management style. Um again with everything else that we're implementing, new new PPLB software, new process changes, uh provincial legislation, all that. But this has certainly put it at the forefront and we're getting some momentum to hopefully get something very soon. Okay. >> My last question through your chair is a question on this beautiful handout. This handout looks great. It really does give the amount of information that I think uh just regular public that's kind of going through the COA process that may not be professionals would understand. But what's our plan on how we educate and socialize this because uh what we're also hearing is that sometimes what happens in a pre-conultation doesn't necessarily line up with how COA actually delivers the the actual result. So how do we educate? How do we um evaluate the effectiveness of this? Like how are we taking this beyond the prototype here and actually implementing this in a way that will make it better for customer service. >> So it looks like Ken would like it or Sean uh our manager would like an opportunity to answer >> through you to the chair. Sean Kenny, manager of site planning. Um, I was the uh the lead um on this uh aspect so I can answer some of your questions. Part of it was this is just a starting point. Um and I have vast experience in committee of adjustments spending 12 years in it and also being a on the board of directors of the Ontario Association of Committee of Adjustments. It is a simple process but it is a complex process. Um, so we started out um with a simple pamphlet to explain um to staff who are not used to commenting on applications to the general public who have to make an application because they went to the building per uh department to build a deck. They found out that their deck did not meet the zoning and they're now in a bit of a freak because they have to apply for yet another process. So we tried to build this thinking of what the general public needs and simple staff. So this is just a start. Um there is definitely more information that we um can and need to provide. Um so I wouldn't look at this as being the be all and the end all of this is just the first item. Uh the intention is to roll this out and provide further information um on whether it be in a pamphlet or on the website for committee of adjustment, but also to include all the other planning applications that you as counselors or your council staff get uh asked um so that you would be able to provide a link to a website or a pamphlet to somebody who wanted it. So this is really just the start. >> Thank you. Those are all my questions. Chair. >> Okay. Thanks very much. Next, I'm going to go to Brad Clark. Council Brad Clark and the ghost to see which one of you pressed the button this time. Councelor Clark, >> it is I. >> Okay. Very good. >> Um, chair, in our package with relationship to this, there's a letter from the West End Homebuilders Association. And in that letter, they praise the work that has occurred to date and happy to see the improvements. But there's one paragraph. While the pilot program shows improvement is possible, the efficiency gains seen are not yet reflected in the broader system, current system continues to be characterized by excessive documentation requirements, fragmented review processes, and prolonged timelines that add cost uncertainty and risk to a housing delivery. I can tell you in my experience, this has been the continuing complaint that we receive not just from larger developers, but from all developers that when they're filing an application, they're told they need these reports. They submit those reports and it's deemed complete and then there's a request for another report and there's a request for another report and it just seems to drag on endlessly through that process. Those are the things that I hear from the community. So, how is what we're doing here going to fix that? because it seems to be an ongoing problem to the point now where the premier is intervening and changing planning rules and changing processes ostensibly because some municipalities allegedly can't get their act together. >> Thank to the chair. Thank you for that question. I think Sean Kenny wanted an opportunity to answer that as well. >> Uh through your chair Sean Kenny again, manager of site planning. uh the whole entire planning department and the management team, we recognize um that we need to make changes um and that the status quo um that we have been used to over the last number of years cannot continue and that is reflected in the numerous changes that the province is making. So what can we learn from the lessons learned from the all for one? the alpha one will feed back and we'll report back to you on what we found. Um it will be a full report back on the time timelines that we spent the timelines that the applicant spent um where we see that improvements could be made um the uh general manager's office also just to add to this. So this will the all for one will feed into there's a process review going to be happening um in the planning department site planning is one of them um based on my experience in other places that have done this the all for one will actually help feed into um that process review because we've already started looking at how do we improve our timelines um as far as the um number of studies um the continual um churn um I think is what uh a lot of the development industry said. We we've already started working on that internally. So we are looking at again it's about continuous improvement through the site plan process. For instance, we are now asking the site plan team after the second submission if there's still further information required. um we're having a meeting with whoever has asked for changes or hasn't been able to clear conditions so that hopefully in that third submission we can get things cleared off. Um, we're also have implemented uh items like redlinining plans and studies. If it's just a minor change, um, there's always been a what they call a redline revision that is allowed to plans and studies. Um, it is something that over the last number of years, and I don't know why, and I'm a planner and I was probably just as guilty, we stopped redlinining and we just went, we'd like you to submit a perfect plan for us. So, you know, these are some of the um, items that we're already doing. Other improvements that we've also made to this is for conditional site plan approval. We now issue a site plan approval that is colorcoordinated. So we give items with red lines that need to be changed such as compliance with zoning bylaw. And then we give other changes that are just suggestions so that applicants know um that this is something that we're asking you to make. You don't have to make it's it's a consideration. So the timelines that some of this stuff will not reflect on our overall timelines um because these are items that have just been done in the last 3 to 6 months. Um and again this stuff is coming out of stuff that we improvements that we have learned through Bloomberg Harvard through the all for one and just our commitment to overall continuous improvement. >> Uh thank you chair. I have two more questions but my one question took me over the five minute mark. So can you put me on for a second time? Yeah, we'll put you on a second time. Definitely. On to councelor Nan. >> Thank you deputy. Thank you for the presentation and the overview. Um at yesterday at planning committee there was a lot of discussion about the importance of public participation but also public awareness and education in order to participate in the process. And this is really leaning on when the public is the applicant, which I think is really really important um and helps address I think something that every ward counselor has had to deal with uh in terms of complaints from residents submitting their planning applications. Um on the big bet specifically, uh excited to see the information website using Engage Hamilton, so using an asset we already has a as a corporation to increase public access to the description and status updates of files. Um, I did want to lift up a com comment made by a W3 resident in the correspondence on this report. Um, emphasizing that the public's access to timely information about changes proposed to their city and neighborhood is critically important to the planning process and to a strong local democracy. Um, another point that Pierre mentions in the correspondence is about the public notice that goes up on a site and whether or not there's any plan to upgrade the standard of public notices on sites to include links to this public information digitally. >> Yes, through the chair that's an important part of this. So this will allow a link to be provided on the sign and on the public notes that are mailed out to the information directly whereas right now they have to send an email to a planner or or get on the phone and ask them for that information. >> Excellent. And then I think uh the manager had mentioned that there are future iterations to come in terms of ongoing improvements on the portion that's around the quick wins to help residents know what to expect in the entire application process. So uh looking forward to more of those details to come. But some of the stuff that we've heard in the ward office definitely is like at which point and how often are different divisions commenting on a file. uh just like really pulling off the veil I think on the entire process and making it publicly available. Is that what I heard you say is like those pieces is the iterative work that's to come later. Thanks >> again through the chair Sean Kenny man of site planning. Uh yes that's correct. So really this was just a start what we've learned. um we worked with uh some of the counselor's assistants on this to fine-tune what the questions that they get asked so that we could build on it. So the intention is as we move forward there will be a line of just similar pamphlets to this like this for every planning process and then we can have provide further information whether it's in a pamphlet or just through the website um depending on the best um way to get that information across um so that people um can understand where what the process is and to make it transparent. >> Thank you so much. And then finally to the two of you through the the chair. Um can you just emphasize when this is going to be implemented? Thank you. >> Through the chair to the council. Are you saying specifically the website >> to both the big bet and the quick win aside from the pamphlet that we see here today? >> So the the quick win in terms of the the program I I think the the quick win was the pamphlet, but again there was some um the next steps were to try to develop more of those uh pamphlets. I don't know that we have a timeline at the moment. Um, but we can yeah follow up or or I can check in with the staff working on that side of it. >> And then the >> and then the the website as I mentioned we did get some exciting news. There was some additional software we needed uh that ties into Granus that allow would allow us to build this website specifically for planning applications so that it can be separate from all our other engage items. um that was recently went through uh just last week. So our next step is um the team that worked on the the big bet is to continue to build the a prototype of the website that's actually functions. So kind of play around with the tools. We need to do some consultation with it and um and uh the accessibility office, but I'm hoping we can get something that we can show the public by by the end of the year. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thanks, Councelor Ned. Next, we'll go to councelor Cooper. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, I think this is terrific. I think we really need to be embracing technology process um, refinements. Um, so I I'm I'm received your work very well. I think it was great the presentation today. My question to you is when you start looking at the various kind of applications we get, there's profit, nonprofit, all the various scenarios. Are you confident as you go through the pilot that you're modeling these various different scenarios to make sure that we have a sense of the impact and where there might be some challenges if we rolled this out right across the entire enterprise >> through the the chair of the council. That's a good question. I think the pilot up until this point has been only for nonprofit affordable housing developments. We recognize that that was a priority for this council to get as much housing built as possible. uh we are expanding it to priority economic development files because that's another application type that has very quick turnarounds. They have funding deadlines and they want to get their business up and running as does the city. Of course, it brings economic activity and and jobs. So, that is another thing we can report back on on how the um the pilot has assisted with those types of applications. Um but I think the lessons learned are applicable to any application. Uh some of the other changes we've made that Sean didn't mention was uh we've brought back in-person meetings for every file. We found through the all for one process that the roundt discussions a lot got done things could get kind of resolved quickly um at the beginning rather than kind of popping up at the end which is something that we often hear as a concern. Um so yeah I think the the lessons learned should be applicable. We are are testing out on more application types to to learn more and and find more room for improvement. >> Thank you. I would just encourage you to make sure you cover off as much of the universe as possible. So once we do go live, we aren't into the the surprises. Um I I know similar to my colleagues, I've heard uh comments about how long things take. Um my ward has a lot of development going on in it. I've heard stories of up to five years just going through the city hall processes and comments like if I can sell my land I get it at Hamilton tomorrow. So this is this is this is needed and and and I think it's excellent. Now there's two kinds of costs this drive. Of course there's the application costs and the fees going back and forth every time there's a resubmission. There's also carrying costs on the land. So we go 5 years that just makes homes more expensive because you know developers are paying the banks and trying to keep that uh land in play. Uh my question to you is when you bring this back again, could you translate this into a unit of measure called dollars? Because I know we're talking about time, which is excellent. Okay. But in time is money, but it'd be nice to see like how much are people saving here as they go through the process because I think uh going back to what councelor Clark was mentioning about Weston Homebuilders, you know, that's kind of the question there's what this really saving us, what's this doing? We have all this back and forth. What does it mean to us? It would be very helpful if it's possible to give us a sense of what that would translate into dollar savings for these folks. Would that be possible going forward? >> Uh through the chair. I think Ken Quite would like an opportunity for that one. >> Ken quite director heritage and German design. Thank you for the question and through the chair. Thank you for the question. Counselor. Um in planning we typically don't get too involved in an an applicant's financial situation or information. That being said, we'd be happy to, as we noted, we do surveys as we run through this and and talk to applicants. So if we can find a way to survey them to provide that information and a little more context around carrying costs. Uh I can say the one thing that we have heard a lot and that we have tried to accommodate is we can require some very large securities for site plan and what we've tried to do is come up with different tools to try and delay the payment of those securities to the very last minute before permit so that it's minimizing their carrying costs as much as possible. >> And thank you for that. And and I guess if we could just even just focus on the the costs that we control being the application costs and those fees, the carrying costs, you know, we can leave that to the development community, but if there is anything like you said, shy, things like that, just what that impact might be over the costs that we control and the fees that we charge. So as we start to refine these processes, maybe there's a less back and forth. uh maybe you know sometimes I hear the the term we're just doing cost recovery which means that if staff time is being employed then less staff time would meaning our fees would come down and so those are the kind of things that the city of Hamilton controls and how this translates into savings whether that be application fees uh anything else in terms of cost recovery that would be helpful to know how that's translation translating for folks as well >> Mr. Chair just on that last point um I've done and thank you that's Arvin Pursad general manager planning economic development. Thank you for that question. Uh, councelor Cooper, I've done a number of lean reviews in my career uh, specifically related to development applications. And the interesting point here is we're doing a lot of work here for improvements were, um, as as we mentioned earlier, uh, to councelor Nan's point, information sharing, the website, the pamphlet, um, access to the status of applications. We're trying to limit the number of submissions. Um we're looking at even potential for as escalation in terms of to senior managers and managers and so forth. Um we're working uh one uh aspect of the number of submissions is we're working with the consulting industry. I had a meeting at 8:30 this morning with the with the developer and the first thing he did to me is admit that his consultant doesn't get it right most of the time and apologized. So it's there's two sides onto the coin on this one that I really want to stress. Um so we're trying to work with the consultant ind consulting industry and let them know what our you know requirements are and so forth. We are changing requirements um in terms of the standardization of terms of reference. So one of the things that happens in precon a developer comes to the table and they have no idea what studies are required but not only that they have no idea what the scope of the studies are. So we're standardizing all the terms of references for the studies, growth management planning studies to give confidence to the developer that investing in Hamilton, they know exactly what they're getting into. Um we're um creating a culture of consistency in the planning department and growth management uh section. Um technology AI enablement, you're going to see more on that uh this year. I think that's going to be a gamecher. but also implementing our planning permitting system. We're going to continue to implement this Bloomberg initiative, but we're also going to do a lean review. So, there's there's a lot happening here um in terms of um the the information and and the work of of my team to move all of this forward. But I just want to say I've done a number of these lean reviews in the past and one of the things I found out is that uh onethird of the delays that are associated with the planning process is with usually within the municipality which leads you to conclude that 2/3 is somewhere else whether it's in the developer or with consultants or so forth. So, if we're going to make a real dent here and we're we're going to really make make change here in terms of improvements, it's got to be a partnership with the with the development industry. And I think we've we've developed a solid partnership with the homebuilders and we're going to continue that partnership and work together to address these issues and report back to you. >> So, I'd like to say thank you. That's exactly the model I love to see. It is a partnership and everybody comes together. Sometimes there's communication issues. So this is uh this is exactly the model we should be using. So I look forward to these updates going forward. It's going to be a very exciting year. Thank you. >> Thanks Councelor Cooper. Next is Councelor Tison. >> Oh wow. Jumped the gun there. I thought Councelor Pauls was on. >> I was but on the ghosts. >> Okay. I'll just um just want to say thanks for the presentation. Um, I think one of my frustrations coming in as a new counselor three years ago was a case that came forward in terms of where what where I represent the rural areas. One of my farmers, one of our farmers from uh Mount Hope was waiting 9 months for an application to to have a barn edition done. Um in response to that there was recognition that you know that expertise didn't exist with nuances that are involved in building in a rural area as opposed to the urban area. Um so we set up a meeting with the then director in planning promised us that I sat with um two representatives from the farming community. We um we set up a meeting and we were told that two employees would be given the opportunity to develop expertise with rural building applications and that they would be available at the counter and so forth so that that first experience with people coming in um that would be the person those one of those two people would be directed to them. So for me the the frustration was that director then left the city and I haven't really heard any follow-up with the rural section. So for me two questions. First question is is there succession planning involved in this new plan that we don't lose that expertise um in certain areas um once say somebody leaves the organization. And I guess the second question is, is there still a plan for rural applications that need to come forward and and need to be expedited? Thank you. >> I think we're going to go to director Fayback for that. >> Uh good morning, Anita Fay, acting director of planning and chief planner through the chair. So in terms of succession planning, absolutely. Um you know it uh when we look at training staff, it starts when they join the organization or join the team in terms of onboarding. Um and then succession planning occurs throughout um because the reality is with planning applications, they're never the same. They're always different, right? Different policies apply, different processes. So it's important that um as those unique files come forward that staff are prepared to be able to deal with them. In terms of uh the rural area, the team is divided uh the development planning team is divided into east and west. And what that allows is staff on both development teams to develop expertise related to both urban files and rural because both of those teams would have uh rural areas uh within them. Um and so that allows the staff to develop that expertise to be able to process applications. So it goes beyond just more than one or two staff having that expertise where the team in terms of that onboarding and training are able to have um that experience in processing applications in the rural area that we all know are a little bit challenging uh and just different from processing applications within the urban area. >> Okay, with that I thank you for that answer. >> Okay, thanks Councelor Tison. Back to Councilman Clark for a second time. Uh thank you chair. So just to follow up to councelor Tatison's question because it's 83% of my ward is rural. Um so how many planners do we have with experience in rural affairs right now >> through the chair to the council? I don't have the staffing uh numbers in front of me but as I mentioned there are two development planning teams and then there is the site planning team. So within those three teams, the staff would have um the opportunity and the experience of processing rural applications. >> Uh I would really appreciate if we could get the number of planners that we have and the numbers that are doing urban and the number that are doing planning that have planning experience in the rural area because it's still a significant issue in my ward. Um, can I get answers to the qu it was mentioned AI that somehow you were going to use AI in a short statement. Can you provide me where you're going to use the AI? >> The chair to the council. I'm going to ask Jan Hohal to answer that. She was the the lead on that initiative. Good morning through the chair. John Hoha, manager of strategy and continuous improvement in the planning and economic development department. Um, so in terms of where we will use AI, we did do a small pilot as part of this uh early first uh part of the program. um where we reviewed uh we used the AI to review existing zoning compliance applications and uh compared use the AI tool to compare um whether they were accurate with our zoning and then compare it to a staff kind of um review. So the AI the application the AI2L actually reviewed um what the the application and what the staff had reviewed. So it would be zoning compliance is the short answer. Thank you. And so can I ask globally for the city? This won't be for you, sorry. Um, have we established an actual art artificial intelligence policy for the city of Hamilton? >> Through you, Mr. Chair, and I I see we don't have our uh CIO or acting here, but yes, we do have a policy. And does that policy set out the scoping in terms of how far AI can go? Because AI can do some tremendous things. Um, but it's not a human. And so it it doesn't have the same subjective discretionary tones that humans have in making decisions. >> Three. Mr. chair. Um, we can bring a report back actually in terms of the AA policy and where we're at with it. >> I I would appreciate that. Um, and finally, um, what do we say to the developers who are sitting here waiting for site plan approval at this moment that are finding that it's going on far longer? um that I would deem it to be acceptable. Um and waiting for the Bloomberg pilot to expand is not solving their problem in getting approvals to start building houses >> through the chair of the council. I'd certainly agree that um the continuous improvement we're doing is not kind of held back or or waiting for the results of the Bloomberg pilot. We're doing it continuously. Um I, as the GM had mentioned, there's going to be a lean review. We're also constantly um trying to update our process to make it more seamless, address issues that we hear from from the development community. >> Um thank you, um chair. Just quick comment. I appreciate everything they're doing in terms of trying to find solutions to to the issues. Um, but we're sitting in an economic downturn now and we need to deal with some of these things with applications that are before us sooner rather than later. Thank you. >> Thanks, Councelor Clark. I'm going to pass the chair to former deputy mayor, Councelor Tatterson. I have a couple questions. Uh, thank you. Make sure your mic's on. Okay. So, yeah, thank you. I really enjoyed this report. a lot of good work happening. A couple questions just kind of tying some of the things together here. Uh maybe first of all uh what was referenced about the 31 months average processing time in one of the correspondents um is that through your chair measuring the same thing that this pilot is measuring or is that a longer process different process? I'm just curious if that's we're measuring the same things if you know >> through the chair the council. So are you referring to the Altist benchmarking study that was referenced in the West End Homebuilders? >> Yeah. So it was the Yes. the West End Homebuilders correspondence where it said average processing time in Hamilton is 31 months and we're measuring things here which of course are a pilot and they're much shorter but are they measuring the same things through you? >> So through the chair of the council my understanding that benchmarking report was it was for all planning application types and this um all for one is specifically for site plan. So it is not an apples to apples comparison. >> Yeah. Thank you. I understood that through you chair irrespective of the different application types but the application process is it the same scope of application process that's being measured >> uh through the chair of the council. No that study included plans of subdivision zoning by amendments official plan amendments. Um this this pilot was is site plan only. >> Got it. Okay. I thought that was just important to understand for everyone. It's measure The pilot is measuring a subset of the whole planning process and not all types. Okay. Thank you. So then I think coming back to maybe what councelor Cooper was talking about uh we have a pilot. It's going well. We're doing things we want to do more work. So the question would be do we have a high level plan to hit milestones to incorporate more and more and eventually all of our our work plans. Um so we're doing nonprofit now. we're doing priority economic development projects and then expanding that whatever those things may be until we get to now this is standard process understanding that's that's a bigger thing but do we at least have a line of sight at a high level that it's a one year two-year 5year plan because I think when we're talking about development and predictability and confidence in Hamilton uh that can help generate confidence especially if we're setting the milestones and then delivering on them so through you chair maybe that's a question for the bench Yes, Arvin Prasad, general manager, planning and economic development. I mean, I I I don't know. Um, from my perspective, my timeline is this year. I want to see significant improvement in our development approvals process and I'm seeing it already to with all due respect to staff. I'm I I have seen incredible improvements in the development processes led by our acting chief planner and staff. We're seeing um you know like I mentioned I gave a couple examples earlier standardized terms of references. That's a gamecher for any developer to come in here and know exactly what they're dealing with. But there's many other things we're doing counselor. So my goal is by the end of this year to report back to you and say you know what we're x% there and hopefully it's a high number but but that's my goal. >> Okay. And then I appreciate that. I'm looking forward to that and through you chair. Then will that have measurements on application timelines and showing improvement so that we can see that we're actually measuring it and it used to be 31 months or whatever and now it's reduced by x%. Yes, that's absolutely what we want to do, Mr. Chair, is uh have metrics associated with our improvements. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. That's encouraging. Okay. Um there are no other counselors on the speakers list. So, we are going to receive the presentation, right? A show of hands, please. Move and second move by councelor Wang, councelor Nan. Show of hands. And that carries. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Okay. Now we need to uh >> Yeah. So now it's just receiving the correspondence. So mover and second to receive uh the two correspondents we have on this item. Mover and second please. Councelor Twang. Councelor Nan. Show of hands to receive the correspondence, please. And that carries. Thank you very much. Yeah. So now we uh we took a little detour. We're going back to 7.5 which is CM25007B build back better project portfolio update. Uh we have director Pat Patricia Leechman here enterprise portfolio management rebuild and transformation to provide committee with an overview of the report. Director. >> Yes. Good morning. Uh Pat Leechman, director of enterprise portfolio management and transformation and my sincere apologies for my lateness earlier. Uh I'm here this morning to give an uh an introduction to this report uh the build back better project portfolio update. Um it's an exciting time uh as we as we work with the 21 projects. Uh so this is a the third report. So we actually were in front of council in July and November of 25. Uh and here we are in in May with the third report. Um it's just focuses our continued commitment to provide council with regular reporting on the progress of the 21 build back better projects until they are all fully completed. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the high level of collaboration between the enterprise portfolio management and transformation office, information technology staff, um finance, planning and economic development, uh public works, all really the whole city as we work collectively on these 21 projects. the the status of the projects uh you can see in the report five of them have been completed and this status is as of the end of December uh five completed 10 are in execution five projects are in the planning phase as of the end of December 16.4 million of the 30.4 4 million funding has been spent or committed and 95% of the projects are beyond the initiation phase. I can now again that's as of the end of December I can now safely I can now say that 100% of the projects are beyond the initiation phase. We have seen some projects fall a little bit behind schedule. Um so while while 12 of them are on schedule, four of them are tracking uh a little bit behind primarily due to resource pressures and interdependencies between projects. You can imagine when an organization undertakes such a large volume of complex projects um there are some interdependencies that need to be carefully managed. Customer benefits both internal and external are numerous for these uh for these systems and it's exciting to see the changes that are coming and some of the things that we're doing to create more efficient pathways for resolution of issues for residents uh as well as for staff to creating uh more efficient and enhanced processes and greater automation support. I do want to quickly mention two issues that we've been working on since our last report to council in November of last year. That being better forecasting and the opportunity to bring um better business benefits to to council. So, just as a very quick update, we've put in a lot of effort and a lot of work since last fall uh building out budget trackers which include forecasts, actuals, committed and planned spends. uh we are in our final stages of training everyone on those and bringing greater visibility to that information to be able to bring that back to council in our next report which we are planning for in July on quantifying business benefits. There's been a lot of work done in that area as well to establish and and put actual where we can hard numbers to these projects. We've developed a business benefits calculator that's intended to be used for CI and enterprise projects and training it will be completed on that tool in Q2 uh of this year and then we'll be training the project leads after that. So uh looking forward to bringing back both better information around forecasting and quantified business benefits as we move forward. Uh excited to bring you this report this morning. Thank you. >> Thank you Director Leechman. We do have a speakers list. First up, Councelor Clark. Thank you, chair, and I appreciate the update on the build back better. Um, can we speak to the f finance portfolio and where we stand with the build back better in finance? >> Just cl through the chair just to clarify the question please. When you're talking about the finance portfolio, are we referring to the rebuild of Netswuite or I just wanted some clarifying >> the finance department? We don't have audited financial statements yet. Last time I recall hearing a report, it was about still populating the charts and the numbers so that we could actually get financial statements and there was software in involved just trying to understand where we are on that because I was I think we were told that that was also part of the build back better. >> Council, I'll have GM Zerk respond to that question. >> Thank you through the chair. appreciate the opportunity to provide an update with respect to our 2023 uh financial statements. The external auditors uh have uh been on site and are working towards a targeted completion date and reporting to to committee and council in June. Um the dates June 18th comes comes to mind, but that may be wrong. Uh and that's as it relates to 2023. uh then we would work with our external auditors with respect to 2024 and we are targeting completion of our uh audit of 2024 financial statements Q3 of 2026 and then finally proceeding with our 2025 audited financial statements in 2027 and uh we haven't set a particular target date that would be subject to the work uh workload and capacity of KPMG with respect to 202 uh5. Uh I do want to recognize staff. Staff have done a tremendous amount of work in accelerating month ends and we're currently closing December 2024 uh month end. They went from a 14day typical effort for closing month end to a 5-day typical effort to close month end. So, I'd like to just take this opportunity to thank all of our finance staff as it relates to this body of work to get us where we're at and to ultimately get us to a more normal and typical reporting period. Thank you. >> Thanks, James Garrick. Councelor, >> um thank you for that. Um chair, um back to GM Ziggger with a supplemental. When I'm looking at the dates that you just provided, they seem to have slid a little bit from what was proposed earlier. What's the rationale why it's now taking longer than the original projections >> through the chair? Uh, one contributing factor is the complexity of an audit coming out of a cyber event. Uh, our external auditors, KPMG, as presented to council Bailey back in November of 2025, have an expanded scope and are doing more sampling and uh more analysis. uh understandably coming out of an audit process. That's uh the principal contributing factor to the slippage in terms of dates. Uh we've also been working with our external auditors with respect to um their staffing and their ability to move the work forward. uh and we've collectively arrived at a June date, target date for 2023 and the uh reference to Q3 for 2024. >> Uh thank you. A follow-up question if I may. As staff have been going through 2023, which is the one that they're they're dealing with right now, and then 2024 subsequent to ensure Q3 of 2026. Um, have they found any challenges in terms of the city meeting their budget obligations or exceeding their budget obligations because during that time frame we did not have the software. We did not have the system to assist us. So spending was continuing without that um oversight >> through through the chair. Uh the external auditors have not flagged to date any uh issues with respect to the city's expenditures relative to budget or are uh have not flagged any concerns with respect to the city's um ability to meet our financial obligations either with respect to vendors on projects or where we've exceeded um our expenditure relative to budget. Uh that may come out through the external audit but to date that has not been flagged by external auditors. Uh but again they are still in the midst of the audit and I haven't had a meeting with the external auditor with respect to their findings. >> Thank you. Um one last question um to to Pat Leechman. Um in this report it kind of indicated that you know we spent this amount of money so the spending of this money is indicating roughly where we are in the process. The spending of the money doesn't really indicate where we are in the process per se. Um so my question is what tensions are in the system to ensure that we are not spending more money than we are required to do what we need to do with regards to our build back better program. These are significant budget numbers. How are we protecting the taxpayers from not spending more than is required? >> Uh through the chair and thank you for the question counselor. There's a number of mechanisms in place to safeguard uh to safeguard the city from that happening. Uh it starts with a proper governance process. So we have uh a structure in place that starts with our portfolio leadership team which is our city manager, our CFO and our CIO. and we have regular meetings with them to review the status of projects and the um um risks and any any issues that have come up as well as the financial spend. Um underneath that is a a further governance structure that includes the project leads and regular monthly reporting. Outside of that, counselor, there's uh regular I mentioned the budget tracker earlier and the new the new tool that we've introduced in terms of of um budget and forecast and financial management uh which as we finish the training on that tool will become a robust tool to allow us to understand the the spend and and the current uh progress on that spend. Uh when I when I look overall, there are there's also our procurement policy and all of our standard city processes which protect us from ensuring we don't overspend. Um finance ensures that and procurement uh that our contracts are are well managed to the point where um and and POS are put in place and managed so that we can't overspend on them. Um, and there's a there's a good system in place that alerts uh the project lead when they're getting close to that spend limit. So, I I think all in all, we have a um a reasonable governance system recognizing uh recent issues with Bart and Tiffany and other areas. We're putting things in place to prevent to ensure that that doesn't happen anywhere else. And uh I I am confident that on the 21 projects here, given the oversight that's on it, we will not see that happen. >> Uh thank you, chair. Thank you to staff for putting it in perspective in terms of what we have recently dealt with and our concerns about not repeating that that situation. So, thank you. >> Thanks, Councelor Clark. Next up, Councelor Wang. >> Thank you. I'm looking at uh appendix B. So to director Leechman, I do see that in that bar chart, approximately one quarter of those projects are in phase one, phase two, so initiation and planning phases. But the ones that are in those phases are really big projects. ERP system, uh corporate uh CRM platform. Oh no, that's not it. ERP system is in its uh sort of first initial phase. So, how are we um prioritizing something as big as an ERP system because that's corporatewide. So, what does how do we um how do we get that um going as quickly as possible? >> Yeah, through the chair and thank you for your for the question, counselor. So, the ERP system uh is specifically focused on three areas, finance, procurement, and uh human resources. At this time in the next report you'll see that we are moving forward with the HR piece of that as we continue to stabilize finance and procurement processes uh through the Netswuite implementation and we are still working to finalize the date with which they will come in and join the long-term ERP project. uh at this point um giving priority to HR made sense. Uh there the existing Peopleoft system is at end of life and uh in as you can imagine in order to ensure success on any of these projects we need to sure ensure we have the proper resources available and we recognize the tremendous tremendous effort that finance team as as general manager Sigeric just referenced is putting in to to create and and finish off the year-end reporting. uh so those resources become critical to help implement an ERP. So we are carefully moving forward and monitoring and prioritizing and determining the right time to start. >> Okay. >> The finance and procurement piece. >> It's just cuz uh fresh off of council clerk's questions around finance, I think procurement is also in dire need. Um and those are some of the two biggest systems that we as a council rely upon in order to uh make better decisions. So I I don't know how best to um how best to share with the public that these are fundamental foundational pieces that we still are at the initiation phase of what we're working on. So I think that that's where I just want to share my concern here. Um, on page five of nine on the report, you talk about effective change management and I'm really glad to see that as part of the report because with all of these applications coming online, I'm also mindful that we're bringing stuff that's online as an interim deployment and then they're not the final solution. So you're already kind of sharing with staff here you can do this as the interim but then actually eight months from now you're going to have a final so guess what you're going to have to learn how to do that. So how how are we really being much more effective with this change management piece considering that um staff are likely learning to build the plane as they fly it. So what's what does that look like right now >> through the chair? Uh great analogy and it's one that we're using all the time. uh as we talk about uh building the plane as we fly it. uh so from a change management perspective we're using the cotter model with some of the pro tools as well which brings us a very structured and organized approach to ensuring that key elements of change are being addressed at the project level as well as the enterprise level. We've also developed a um a change management plan that is citywide that is focusing on how do we ensure that as we move forward as an organization we're all on the same page. Um, I'm proud of the the change team, particularly on the their their focus right now on PPLB and about to uh to move that to ERP as we as we move forward there with the the structured approach that they've built at the project level. Uh, following some some work that's been done in other municipalities. We've built on that and created a a sound set of tools to help take us forward. there are for the most part um other than finance and procurement staff will be going into their final solutions. Uh so there's there's less upset there but still a change and we still need to manage our way through that as we work closely on transitioning finance and procurement into the long-term ERP. We'll be we will be um paying particular attention to ensuring that that staff understands the roadmap the changes and that we're supporting them with the right uh role roles and responsibilities training and understanding of the future. >> Okay. Thank you. As supplemental chair through you um how are staff fairing through all of these changes? Um I know that we do a our people survey every year um which is a bit of a point in time but this is again building the plane while flying it and so how are staff what's the what's the feeling or what is the um motivation within staff as they are navigating these changes with us? morale. Yes, morale. >> Uh through the chair, there is a degree of change fatigue. Uh as we move forward though, part of change management is ensuring that staff fully understand the need and the path forward. Uh for the most part, people can see the future. They can see the betterment that's coming with these systems and the changes in our processes. and given that they are in some pockets still dealing with manual processes, they're excited for that. >> Uh so there's an a level of excitement mixed with just a lot of fatigue. >> Uh so it's uh I I appreciate um our recent extended leadership team meeting where we were really talking as a leadership team about how to ensure our staff are supported and and coached through difficult times. And so I really appreciate our senior leadership team for bringing that to us and helping to bring the support that that brings and our um our HR team, Laura Fontana, executive director Fontana and her team. Uh I'm getting amazing feedback from my staff on the recent modules that they've brought to help with um just managing this sort of a situation. So I applaud our senior team. >> Thank you. Those are all my questions. Chair, >> thank you councelor Wang. Next, councelor Spataphor who's with us on the big screen. Go ahead, councelor. >> Thank you, chair. Um, first question I think is for director Leeman, but I'll let you uh decide where it should go. Um, with the build back better process, are we still uh using consultants to help us through this like deote or any other consultants >> through you chair? >> Director. >> Uh, through the chair. A traditional um large system implementation involves an external implementation partner. So yes, counselor, we are using external implementation partners where required um for the ERP project that was recently communicated to council that the successful and we and we've talked about it in chambers here many times that the successful implementation partner for the future uh ERP is Deote. Um we are also using for example on our on our ppl project the implementation partner there is computronics the vendor that actually owns the the product is assisting with the implementation that is standard practice in terms of large system implementations. >> Thank you director follow-up question on that. So um the finance system uh went down we lost it. a decision was made to create an interimm system. I think that took a while to get up and running and we're going to have that and then we're going to put in a new system. So Deote Deote would have helped us put an interimm solution in and then at the same time is the same person that's going to help us put in the I guess permanent solution. Is that correct? Who would like to answer that question >> through the chair? Uh I can uh apologize I should have introduced myself previously. Mike Garrett general manager finance corporate services. uh through the chair. Yes. However, there are different teams and so uh while it's uh deote uh different teams with different roles uh different responsibilities with respect to the interim solution. Uh Deote is working with finance team. It's not entirely Deote who's performing the function. Deote is managing the interim solution which is Netswuite and finance staff to uh all of the journals and journal uh preparation and POS and then Deote supports the city with respect to entering that information into the interim solution and then as uh director Leechman identified Deote is our implementation partner with respect to the uh permanent ERP solution. Thanks for that chair. Um and thanks Jim. Um I just my only comment on that would be it beneficial for Deote for taking those systems longer to implement because they're on both sides of them. But um moving on to appendix C the project forecast. Director Leechman just uh your comfort level. Um on that slide it shows 30.5 million in 2025 and then I think 26 million I guess for 26 and 27 for a total of 56 million or something around there. I'm rounding out numbers. Um your confidence level that um we're going to be able to meet the project completion on that money or do you feel that there's a chance that that money won't be spent because we won't be able to complete all the work? looks like a big task. So just wanting your comfort level on on that >> through the chair. Uh I have a high comfort level on on the the vast majority of the portfolio. Uh the one area that we continue to review and we haven't started the scoping and discovery yet is on the long-term ERP project. So I'm going to put a little uh that that is the best number that we know today. uh we need to do more work and we're just about to start that work uh scoping and discovering the HR system uh and that will give us more information moving forward. >> And just a followup chair um and that the costing on that the ERP is part of this um whatever this number is the 56.4 million >> through you chair that is correct. >> Okay, that's it for me chair. Thank you. >> Okay. Thanks, Councelor Spaphora. Next, Councelor Cooper. >> Thank you, Chair. Um just to um uh Director Leechman. Um when when we're looking at the um closed out projects, of course, that gets us the end of the projects closed projects defined as um a certain activity has a beginning and end to it. Once it's ended, it goes into operations. So, and it's in operations where we really harvest our benefits. And so those five projects that we've closed out, have we harvested benefits from those five projects so far? >> Uh so as I uh sorry through the chair uh so thank you for the question. As I mentioned earlier the quantitative side of that we are continuing to work through uh qualitatively yes uh we understand very clearly qualitatively the benefits that that that brings to the residents as well as internal staff. um we've been working to report those uh either through these updates or through other uh communications updates that are coming out on the portfolio. >> Okay. So, there is activity to harvest the benefits after we close up the project. We're just not closing all projects, operationalizing it, saying we're done. >> Uh through the chair, no, we are not. We are we are working hard to look at what those benefits are and the opportunity that that brings to um our our future budget process. >> Thank you. Thank you. And through the chair, that's that's the piece that we'll have reported back in July, the quantitative assessment of those benefits. >> I'm sorry, I missed the question. >> Um, so uh the July reporting that you've mentioned, would that include these a quantification of these benefits coming back to council? >> Uh so at this time, we'll be going through training in Q2. Uh so we will do our best to bring back what we can but considering that training will just be done by the end of Q2 we will need some time to to create a more wholesome we'll bring back what we can in Q2 in uh July. >> Sorry what's what's the training for? >> We've created a business benefits calculator. Yes. >> Uh that I mentioned earlier and we're going to be using that on our CI projects and our enterprisewide projects. um it is a new tool and we're just going to be completing training for the transformation team in by the end of Q2 and then we'll be training all the project leads after that. So July may be a little bit tight counselor now that I think about that it's going to be probably the report after that. >> So so that's a reporting tool correct? >> Yes. Well, it's sorry, counselor. It's a it's a calculator to help staff understand the potential um qual quantitative benefits. >> Like, so thank you for that through the chair. So, do we know if there's, you know, more or less people we need to use in these processes? Do we know if there's more or less paper being printed and things like that? Like, like outside of a tool, do we have a sense of the impact of the processes? And are we using the same number of people, which maybe means we don't have benefits? Maybe in some cases we've got benefits and reapplied them to another area. Do we have a sense of what that looks like? >> For some projects, I have a very detailed sense of what that looks like. I'm going to use EM as the example, the enterprise asset management system. Um, for other projects, we are continuing to to train people and help them learn and understand how to look at that through the right lens. Um, I I heard general manager Prasad earlier talk about doing lean reviews in his area. It it it is a lens you have to look through. You have to understand what you're looking for, where there are opportunities, and what is value versus nonvalue ad versus nonvalue ad. But we have to do it. So, we need to train staff in that. We need to help them understand uh what that looks like both qualitatively and quantitatively. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Um in terms of our financial statements, and this is a question to the general manager of finance. Um do we have interim financial statements for 23 24 and 25 >> through the chair? Uh we did produce a 2023 variance report just prior to the cyber incident for 2024. We didn't as we were responding to the cyber incident for 2025 we prepared a variance report uh in 2025 and at tomorrow's AFNA is a further variance report year-end forecast for 2025 and with respect to again 2023 the final financial audited financial statements we are targeting June of 2026. So I'm so so what we're saying is that for 20 for example 2024 2025 we don't have a balance sheet or income statement right now >> through through the chair not a balance sheet or income statement uh we have variance reports which would forecast actuals relative to budget for 2025 uh so two reports uh the second one being on AFNA agenda tomorrow >> so so we could have those variance reports reported to council through the chair. Uh yes, they are reported to council. 2023 was reported to council again prior to the cyber incident. 2024 we were responding to the cyber incident. We weren't in uh we didn't have an ability to generate a variance uh report and uh again the second variance report for 2025 is on tomorrow's AFNA agenda. >> Thank you chair. >> Okay. Thanks councelor Cooper. go to first time speaker councelor Pauls. >> Thank thank you and through the chair just uh to clarify um some of our projects uh are not going through because due to staffing I'm looking at the staffing and it says approximately 47.75 FTEES over three years 2025 to 2027 and it says staff largely source from existing roles and redevelop position. I'm wondering are those then not new hire or are we just moving people around >> director? >> Uh thank you for the question and through the chair. Uh so that uh 2025 plan was to use existing resources and reallocate them through to primarily information technology who needs those resources to implement the projects. What about it says to 2027, do we need 47 uh new FTEEs? That's all I'm asking. In the next couple of years, >> so through the chair, the number for 2026 that was approved through the budget process was reduced to eight. >> Okay. >> And things are being re-evaluated for the 2027 budget process. >> Okay. So, we don't know if we need 47 then, right? We do need 47, but it's going to, you know, you're saying we hired eight for 2027. We don't know how many we need. Is that what I'm understanding? >> Yes. Thank you for the question. I hesitate to answer as this is CIO uh Tranni's realm and I don't want to speak uh on his behalf without his voice. Uh so I >> Oh, I understand that and no problem. I just wanted to make sure uh because I don't remember approving anything 2027. So I'm just saying approximately 47 FTEEs over 3 years. What have we hired since? Okay, let's take 2027 out. Uh how many do we have? Have we hired new ones or are these people rem moving around? >> So for through the chair for 2025 we are reallocating internal staff. >> Yeah. >> For 2026 I believe there were eight FTE approved by council through the budget process. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, councelor Clark for a second time. >> Thank you, Chair. And my questions will be short. Um, not sure about the answer, but the questions will be short. Um, I thought I heard um, one of our staff members indicate that we implemented Netswuite for finance. um coming right out of the cyber attack. So that's what we were using to rebuild our financial records. Did I hear that correctly? Through through the chair. Uh that's correct. I believe both uh director Leechman and I made reference uh that through Deote we are leveraging Netswuite. uh Deote has the license to Netswuite and it's a managed service agreement with net with Deote and uh the city prepares financial information submits it to Deote and then Deote uh utilizes Netswuite to assist the city with financial tracking and reporting >> and Netswuite would be best described as an account reconciliation program >> through the chair. It's a business solution. Uh it's a business solution that we're utilizing on an interim basis. It's not the solution that we're looking for as a permanent uh ERP solution. And then I heard subsequent to the response earlier um that there's an ARP solution that you're working with um subsequent to the repopulation through the cyber attack. So, we're migrating going to another system, another ARP system. Did I hear that correct? Through the chair. That That's correct. They're both Oracle uh solutions and it would be uh migrating to a Oracle solution as the city's permanent ERP solution >> and the both of these solutions are proprietary to Deote and Touch >> through through the chair. Uh I don't know that the final ERP solution is a Deote solution. Uh Deote is our implementation partner. Uh so I don't want to misstate uh Deoid's stake with respect to the permanent ERP solution. I don't know if uh director Leechman would have that information. >> Yes. Uh thank you Mike. Uh through the chair. uh the long-term final permanent ERP solution is an Oracle fusion product. Deote uh is only the implementation partner. >> So Netswuite is software. We've used that. The next one is an Oracle based product. Do we have the name of that product >> through the chair? Fusion. >> Fusion. Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Thanks, Councelor Clark. Not seeing anyone else on the speakers list. Okay. Uh we have a mover in second, right? Yes, I think so. To put on the floor. >> Did we have to move it? >> Yeah. Okay. Councelor Wang, councelor Nan. >> Yes. Okay, my fault. Okay. Uh so, uh show of hands to receive the report. All those in favor? And that looks like it carries. Thank you very much, everybody. Okay. We've already done 7.6. So, we're on to eight items for consideration. First is 8.1 DSCC 26-002 downtown subcom minutes from April 9th, 2026. Mover and secondary to put the item on the floor, please. Councelor Cretch. Councelor Wang. Is there any discussion? Not seeing any. So, it will require an electronic vote, please. Just waiting for a technology to catch up to the humans. And that vote is up now. Councelor Crutch, waiting for your vote. >> We need >> Okay, that carries 13 to zero. There we go. Thank you. Little hiccup along the way, but we got there in the end. Okay. Uh 8.2 2 B I A26-004 business improvement area subcommittee minutes April 21st 2026 I have a mover and second to put that one on the floor please councelor Paul's councelor Wang is there any discussion on this item not seeing anybody so that will also be an electronic vote the vote is that also carries unanimously. Thank you everybody. That brings us to 8.3 report FCS26024A tax policies and area rating request to amend bylaw 264. GM Ziggger is going to provide committee with an overview of the report through the chair. This is a housekeeping item before committee. The bylaw that was approved in adverly made reference to a July 2nd second installment date when in fact it should have read June 30th. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much. We'll need a mover and seconder to put the item on the floor. Council Moren Wilson, Council Wang. Any discussion on this housekeeping item? Seeing none, we'll go to leave the electronic vote. Vote is up. And that carried unanimously. Got to be quick to see that, but it was there. Okay, that takes us to motions. Uh, we have none on the agenda. Notices of motion. Do we have any notices of motion? Seeing none, we'll keep moving along to uh item 11, private and confidential. We can first dispose of the 11.1 the GISA minutes from March 25th, 2026. Could I have mover and seconder to adopt the confidential minutes and that they remain confidential? Councelor Nan, Councelor Bey, all in favor? Show of hands. And that carries. Thank you very much. Okay. We will now need a motion to go into close sessions for items 11.2, 11.3, and 11.4. I'll need a mover and seconder for the following. Pursuant to section 9.3 subsections A, CG, and K of the city's procedural bylaw 21-021 as amended and section 2392 subsection A CG and K of the Ontario Municipal Act 2001 as amended as a subject matter pertains to A the security of the property of the municipality or local board. C. A proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land for city or local board purposes. G. A matter in respect of which council or a committee may hold a closed meeting under an act other than the Municipal Act 2001. And K, a position, plan, procedure, criteria, or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality or local board. So, a mover and seconder, please. Councelor Wang, Councelor Tatterson. That will be an electronic vote. You should see that vote now. That carries 13 to zero. Members of the public are advised that during the close session portion of the meeting, the live stream will broadcast a close session in progress screen. The broadcast will resume when the close session portion of the meeting is complete. As we're moving into close session, I would ask all members of the public, delegates, and external participants to please now exit the WebEx meeting. as well. Any staff that are not directly related to the inc camera items are also now asked to please exit the Webbacks meeting. I'll also remind members of council that as per section 8.7 of the procedural bylaw, the use of personal electronic devices during closed meetings is strictly prohibited. However, the use of city electronic devices during closed meetings are limited to text communication only with the city's devices not being used as a telephone recording device or camera. Staff from the office of the city clerk are exempt from subsection 8.7c when using electronic devices for recordkeeping purposes. We'll now move in to close. Okay, welcome back everybody. We've just come out of close session and just want to note for full transparency that we were required to take a lunch break at 1:00. Uh we broke for 35 minutes, came back into close session at 1:35 and now we have a few items to deal with. So 11.2 2 PED242000A acquisition of land in W 10. Could I have a mover and seconder on the following that the close session recommendation respecting confidential report as mentioned uh be approved and that the complete and confidential report as mentioned respecting the land acquisition of land remain confidential until the completion of the real estate transaction and that confidential appendix B to confidential report PED242000A remain confidential. Councelor Bey, Councelor Tatterson. This will be an electronic vote. Thumbs up from Councelor Jackson, and Councelor Cooper, and the electronic vote is just about to pop up. There it is. That carries 9 to zero. Thank you everybody. 11.3 is report CM260008 cyber resilience update Q12026. Could I have a mover and seconder on the following that confidential memo CM2608 respecting cyber resilience update Q1 2026 be received and remain confidential. Councelor Wang, Council Moren Wilson. That will be an electronic vote. Thumbs up from Councelor Jackson and Councel Cooper. The vote is up. That carries 9 to zero. 11.4 is HSC26038A, sport training facility development update. Could I have a mover and seconder for the following? A that the directions provided to staff in close session respecting confidential report HSC26038A sport training facility development update be approved and remain confidential. B, that the entire entirety of the confidential report as mentioned um including appendencies remain confidential and C that the confidential report uh be considered complete and removed from the outstanding business list. That's moved by council Wang. I'll second that one. That's okay. And that'll be an electronic vote. Thumbs up from council Paul's Jackson Cooper. The vote is up. And that also carries 9 to zero. So with no further business, this meeting is adjourned at 1:52 p.m. Thank you everybody.