Transcript: Milton Official Plan Review - Town of Milton Council Meeting - 04, 13, 2026 | Summary 465

Members of uh council, ladies and uh gentlemen, the clerk confirms me that it is now 7:00. So I will officially call this meeting to order of April 13, 2026. And I would ask you please to stand and join with me in a moment of silent reflection, our national anthem. And I will read the traditional land acknowledgement. Oh Canada, our home and native land. True patriot love in all of us. Fore God keep our land glorious and free. Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee. Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee. We acknowledge that the land we gather on is part of the treaty lands and territory of the Missosagas of the Credit First Nation. We recognize the traditional territory of the Hiron Wendat and the Hodn Shaune people. We also acknowledge First Nation Matei and Inuit people who live on these lands today. We commit to working towards reconciliation. Thank you. Madame uh clerk, are there any agenda announcements andor amendments? Uh yes, we have a few announcements this evening. All written submissions received by the town related to this agenda have been circulated to members of council in advance of this meeting. A member of council has request that consent item 5.4 regarding staff report DS2826 regarding notice of intention to rename existing portions of Tmaine Road be moved to items for consideration for further discussion. I've confirmed with the chair that the order of the agenda will be revised and consent item 5.4 four will now be listed on this evening's agenda as item for consideration 910. We have two procedural motions this evening that will need twothirds support from members of council. We have two delegations, Hishan Muhammad and Donna Denelli that have registered to speak to this to this evening's agenda item notices of motion agenda item 9.9. In order to add these delegations, council would need to first approve the procedural motion in item 9.8 8 to wave rules so that 9.9 can not only be introduced but also can be discussed and voted on at this meeting. Following approval of that procedural motion, council could consider the procedural motion to add the two delegations. And both of these procedural motions have been prepared for the chair. Later on in today's agenda, we have one statutory public meeting scheduled regarding we make Milton official plan consultation. Members of the public in attendance will be given the opportunity to speak to this application either in person or remotely for anyone wishing to connect remotely. The dedicated phone number is 18665110021. These instructions will be provided again at the point in the agenda where we will be holding the public meeting and how to connect will be scrolling across the live stream video. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any disclosure by any member of council this evening? Not seeing any. Uh, councelor Kulkkey will be assuming the chair in just a very few moments uh this evening and it'll take us a couple of minutes to turn things around and uh councelor uh Kaui has informed uh not only myself but the clerk as well. Items numbers nine six, seven and nine. he is either moved and or second and wishes to speak uh to those items. So I'll be assuming the chair from uh down on the floor at that particular point in the agenda. So just in case any anybody is wondering why it's happening that's the reason for it. So I think uh madame clerk I think we have uh concluded this portion of the council meeting. So, councelor Coffee, if you would assume the chair, please. All right, good evening everyone and thank you to members of our community for participating in a a decent number. It's always nice to see uh people join and participate in uh our council meetings. Uh before we get into the consent section of this agenda, we have two procedural motions to consider with regards to tonight's agenda, which will need twoth3 support from members of council, which is six out of nine members. We have delegations that have registered to speak this evening to notices of motion in agenda items 9.9. We need council to approve the procedural motion in the agenda item 9.8 8 to wave rules for item 9.9 to not only be introduced but to also be considered and be voted on tonight uh in order to add the related delegations. So I have a motion here moved by councelor Best and seconded by uh the mayor CR uh which states whereas procedure bylaw 014-2024 provides that notices of motion shall not be discussed or debated upon introduction but shall be included on the next regular council meeting agenda for consideration. And whereas section 7.8.3 8.3 of the town of Milton procedure bylaw as amended permits the notice of motion to be considered upon its introduction by an affirmative vote of twothirds of members present and whereas it is deemed impractical or not in the best interest of the town of Milton to delay that consideration. Therefore, beer resolved that the pertinent rules contained in section 7.8 of procedure bylaw 014 2024 be waved to permit the introduction and consideration by council of the notice of motion on the council agenda pertaining to local governance. Any questions for members of council? All those in favor? That's carried. So now we have a procedural motion to add delegations of Hisham Muhammad regarding item 9.9 which is a motion to consider local governance support and uh Donna Delli regarding item 9.9 which is a motion to consider again local governance support. This motion is moved by councelor Ali and seconded by councelor Marshall that be it resolved the pertinent rules of procedure bylaw 014-2024 be waved to permit the addition of delegations for item 9.9 Hisham Muhammad from seeds of leadership and Donna Denelli. Any questions? All those in favor? That's carried. The next is a motion moved by councelor Chaliner and seconded by councelor Jazzaz that consent items 5.1 to 5.3 be approved. Are there any questions in relation to this? Councelor Chower. And I'm assuming that's as amended. That that is correct. It has the removal of 5.4 which is now in items for consideration. Anybody else? Okay. All those in favor? And that's carried. Okay, we'll move on to consent items. And as a reminder, we have been asked to move consent item 5.4 to items for consideration. So now it'll become item for consideration 9.10. Okay. Now we'll move on to the delegations component for item 6.1 uh from Ham Muhammad. And this delegation is regarding item 9.9 which is the motion to consider local governance support. Uh Mr. Muhammad if you could attend the front over here and we can begin your delegation. All right. Good evening. Welcome. Uh, you have to push that red button to speak. When you're ready, just a reminder, state your first name and last name. And as a reminder, you have five minutes to do your delegation. Yes, sounds good. Good morning, mayor and members of the council. My name is Hisha Muhammad. This is Ali Bahawan. And we're speaking on behalf of Seeds of Leadership, which is a youth leadership program made up of students all across or all across the GTA, including Milton. I'm a grade 12 student at CRA Craig Kilberger Secondary School and Ellie is a grade 12 student attending Elsie McGill secondary school. We're here to support agenda item 9.9 which is the motion brought forward by councelor Best regarding the importance of locally elected schoolboard trustees. Schoolboard trustees do incredibly important work for our education system and for schools across Milton. They create long-term plans to improve student achievement and well-being. They also make important decisions about how resources are allocated and which issues are tackled first. As students, these are decisions that affect our daily school lives. Locally elected schoolboard trustees are valuable because they're from the local area and understand the unique needs of our community. They're aware of local issues like overcrowding at schools in Milton. Like for example, last year at my secondary school, we had over 20 portables in the fields near the parking lot that acted as classrooms because the school simply did not have enough space to accommodate all the students. Additionally, they know about the other problems like transportation issues that the HDSB has had due to the low numbers of bus drivers. These issues are real problems that we have experienced as students. Having decisions made by local trustees elected by local Miltonians who know our community and have actually lived in it make sure that decisions are made by people who are aware of what's happening and not made from a distance. An extremely important role within the school board is student trustees as they give students a voice in this decision-making process. They allow us to bring forward our perspectives, concerns, and ideas. Schools exist to support students and equip us with the skills we need to succeed and student trustees are very important people on the board as we are the ones who are most affected by the students the board makes by the decisions the board makes. In other areas where where school boards were put under provincial supervision, student trustees were also included in the discussion of being replaced. Removing or weakening the role of trustees removes very important student voices from the decision-making process. An example of school trustees tackling relevant local student issues is mental health. For example, here in Halton, the student voices healthy choices program was recently introduced which pairs students together to help each other with with self-care and resilience. And peers we know have attested to the efficacy and the benefit of this program. Additionally, school trustees are responsible for promoting equity within the school system, including by presiding over the multi-year uh strategic plan of the board, which includes initiatives such as truth and reconciliation and embedding that within the school curriculum. And through this, the experiences and education I have received as a result of this have played a huge part in widening my perspective as well as the perspectives of all my other peers and students. For all these reasons, we strongly urge council to support this motion 9.9. And we ask that you formally express your support for locally elected trustees, advocate for provincewide consultation process that includes student input, and share Milton's position with local MPPPS and relevant schoolboard associations. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you both for your delegation. Are there any questions for the delegation from members of council? Mayor CR. Yeah, thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, of course, you're probably well aware that there was announcements made today and I just wondered how familiar you are with them. And uh by the way, I support uh your request and at least in my opinion uh the Halton school boards in my opinion and Halton has worked very well over the last number of years. So, do you have any speculation as to why the province is advocating what they're advocating in today's announcements? And I'll be asking the same uh question of course to all the ones that are addressing this issue. Mr. Chair, yes. So, we did recently like read about like the news outlets reporting on what the province has announced. Specifically, we saw that they decided to cut down on the number of like the number of uh trustees on the school board. I think it was from 12 to 6, which we think is quite concerning because this like decreases the amount of like like like decrease the amount of like attention basically paid to the decisions being made. Like we're concerned that like this decisions that will be made by the board won't be as detailed or like as thorough as it potentially could be. As for potentially why the board might be choose or why the province might be choosing to do this, we're not entirely sure. One option is to cut costs. like the trustees are paid a decent sum by the government but this isn't a major amount so we're not entirely sure about that aspect. I'd also like to add that yes uh fiscal cuts and deficits are deficits are a major part of this decision by the province but in fact most school boards across the country uh across the province including Halton are not in a state of financial mismanagement as some school boards in Toronto are. Thanks Mr. Is that all? Okay. Anybody else? Question for the delegation. Okay. Thank you both. We'll move on to the next delegation from Donna Danieli. Donna, feel free to come on up and uh if you could just state your name there. And uh I know everybody knows who you are, but uh you you as well have five minutes to present your delegation. It's always so hard to follow such eloquent young people, so I'll do my best. Donna Danieli, uh, Milton resident and Milton public school trustee, wards one and two. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak to you tonight in support of the local governance notice of motion from councilors and the motion points to the role of publicly elected trustee as one that the residents of the town of Milton rely on to advocate for students and reflect the priorities of the town's diverse communities. Trustees are responsible for maintaining accountability, transparency, and local representation for parents and students in the publicly funded education system. The legislature tabled this in the house today reflects this role placing responsibility for advocating for students and parents directly on the trustees. It does not call for the elimination of trustees, but rather sets a beginning framework which can be built upon. It contains a number of other changes regarding collective bargaining, budget preparations and more. The beauty of the motion that you have before you tonight is that it's calling for a widespread public consultation seeking input from parents, students, employees, stakeholders, and more. As mentioned in the report, the role of the publicly elected trustee predates Confederacy in this country. And I don't have the hubris to stand before you and say that everything is currently perfect and nothing should change. I know from my own experience as a five-term trustee first elected in 2006 that there has been significant evolution in our society and our school system just in the past 20 years. In 2006, cell phones were not as prevalent. Artificial intelligence was something seen more in movies than in real life. And the growing issues around mental health supports were just beginning to really emerge. A widespread public consultation such as the one that the motion is recommending could bring us up to date on a variety of emerging issues and prepare us even better for those still to come. It would allow many voices to work together to create an even more effective and robust public education system that best serves our students and families. I sincerely hope that you will consider passing this motion this evening and I would like to extend my thanks to you for considering it and for allowing me to speak with you this evening. I do really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much, Donna. Is there anybody from council? Mayor CR. Again, Mr. Chairman, as I mentioned, uh the same question to Mr. Delli that I asked the previous delegation there. Of course, the uh stuff just come out today and it's reasonably reasonably new. So, I just wonder your thoughts as to where the province is going and why they're going in that direction, how it may or may not affect not only the Halton School Board, but all school boards across the province. Well, I wouldn't want to presume to speak for the thoughts of the minister. Uh, but my understanding, what I'm seeing is um across the board from this government, a move to ensure transparency, accountability, and I believe that's what this has been. They're looking very solidly at the school trustee role and uh where it is most effective and where is not. That's why I do believe the taking away collective bargaining and budget preparation and things like that that may be something we can build back on. I'm personally thrilled that they have taken away the threat to eliminate trustees because it is so much harder to build back from nothing than it is to build back from something. And my hope is that your public consultation that you're calling for would demonstrate to the province the different role that trustees can play in the accountability and transparency to our communities. Are there any other members of council with questions? No questions. Thank you, Donna. Thank you. Okay, we will move on to our public meeting portion of this uh council meeting. We have one public meeting this evening. It's in relation to item 7.1, which is the we make Milton official plan consultations. For this public meeting, I will call on uh madame clerk to review the procedure for this public meeting. Madam clerk, uh thank you. So, as stated, this public meeting is with regard to the we make Milton official plan consultation. Council will consider related bylaws at a future meeting. If you wish to be notified of the decision about this public meeting, please sign the attendant sheet which is located at the back of council chambers um as you enter into those doors or you can make a written request uh to the town clerk at 150 Mary Street or email town clerk@milton.ca. Following a brief presentation from staff, there'll be an opportunity for public comments from inerson and remote meeting participants. During the presentation, a phone number will be scrolling across a live stream video for anyone wishing to connect remotely. As a reminder, the phone number is 18665110021. And we will now ask for town staff to provide an overview presentation and this is going to be Gail Anderson who will be uh completing this presentation. So, good evening, Chair Cowi, Mayor CR, and Council. My name is Gail Anderson, and I'm a senior planner at the town of Milton, and I'm also the project manager uh overseeing the We Make Milton official plan uh project, but it has been a uh definitely a team collaboration with lots of hard work put in by many staff and multiple departments at the town. The purpose of tonight's meeting is to hold a statutory public meeting that is required under the planning act. And this meeting gives uh members of the public an opportunity to speak to council regarding the current uh draft of the official plan. We're doing thanks. So the we make Milton official plan project has been a multi-year project and it's involved numerous um releases of information as well as community engagement and consultation events and we are in the final stages of the project. In December of 2025, so late last year, we did release a draft of the official plan and that draft did contain uh the policies that were adopted through official plan amendment 92 as well as some detailed implementation policies. We did receive feedback from many community partners and we made amendments to the draft uh to address those comments. In January, we held a series of consultations. And then in March of this year of 2026, we released the next version, the final draft version of the official plan that incorporated the results of those consultations with the community members as well as with the public. And that is the draft that is the uh subject of this tonight's statutory public meeting. The notice of the statutory openhouse and the statutory public meeting have been distributed in accordance with the Ontario Planning Act. But in addition, we did work with our our colleagues in the communications department to use other um methods of communicating the notice of the information. So we use things for examples such as digital screens that are available in town facilities as well as social media. And the purpose of this was just to reach a broader audience in order to provide more information and opportunity for engagement the statutory information. So the draft of the official plan as well as all the schedules have been posted on the town's website. So this information is available through the project web page as well as on the let's talk Milton engagement platform. Hard copies of the updated draft are available in the planning department also to be available to be viewed by the public. Consultation has been a key uh part of the preparation of the official plan. Uh we've had we've tried to host a variety of formats both in person and online as well as a variety of locations in order to provide opportunities for members of the public to be able to uh see the information but also to engage with staff. As a result of the consultations and the the um the feedback that we've received, we haven't made um overall the structure of the plan has remained um pretty much the same as you would have seen in the December draft. The main changes to structure have come in chapters 7. But throughout the plan, we have updated various policies as needed based on feedback to either provide further clarity to correct um an inconsistency or an error or also just to clarify the policy approach that we were trying to communicate through the various policies. In addition, we've updated some of the schedules. For example, some of the feedback that we received was it was unclear how the Niagara escarment plan was applicable in the rural area, particularly when it over overlapped with the prime agricultural lands. So we tried to make amendments to clarify the information that was being communicated in the urban area for example the schedule was also updated but in this case it was updated because the policy approach was updated. So based on the consultations that we had uh we received feedback on how we were approaching some of the employment lands along the 407 um corridor there and so we adjusted the policy approach and adjusted the mapping as a result. We are aware that uh last week on April 6th the province did uh release a series of proposed legislative changes to the planning act. staff have reviewed the changes and as we do we will review and we will respond and but we are continuing forth with our um official plan review and update um as as we have provided to council just in terms of the next steps then this is the statutory public meeting we are asking for uh comments to be received by May 15th and that just gives us an opportunity to review them to analyze them to make any uh final changes that we may need. We are anticipating coming back to council in June, June 22nd. At that time, we'll be asking council to make a decision. Uh this is not council is not make being asked to make a decision tonight. The purpose of tonight's meeting is to receive information following approval by council. The material would be submitted to the province and the province through the minister of municipal affairs and housing would be the final decision maker. And that concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to take any questions. Thank you very much, Gail. Are there any questions for Gail in relation to this plan? Council manakus, I have a a comment and I'm going to say that we councelor Bess and I attended a number of public meetings. I want to tell tell you that staff did an amazing job uh greeting greeting the residents, sharing feedback, collecting it. Um it was phenomenal. Thank you. And I attended because I wanted to learn as fast as I could and it did work. Excellent. And I I'm sure I asked dumb questions too but not at all. Um, but it was uh very very revealing that staff have put a lot of work into this. And Mr. Chair, if I may, can I just have a slide put up there if you don't mind? Indeed. Just give us one moment for our staff to do that. There you go. Okay, council. Go ahead. Y and I just I'm just sharing this because it it supports what staff have been doing with the official plan. You know, it's building an a local economy, building a community, affordable housing. All this is important. I collect data. I've been doing it for 40 years and building economic reports for companies. This report actually shows just how challenging affordability is um in across Canada. And if you look at just for the sake of reference, look at average family incomes and single family income earners that includes um singles um seniors you know low-inccome earners in here. And if you look at how much they their salaries have increased relative to house prices and affordability there, it's significant. And then but these are nominal numbers. These do not include inflation. But when you add back in the CPI, average incomes drop dramatically in terms of buying power. So when you look at affordability as an issue, for me, it's a long-term issue. It's been growing for decades. And I'm I applaud you for what you're doing in terms of bringing that in because you're targeting I think around 25% of rentals to of houses to be rentals and low-inccome as well. We're going to need that that variety in order to meet the needs of every community. So thank you. Thank you very much councelor councelor Best. Yes. Just three quick questions I shared with Gail earlier. On page 261 of your report item 6.4.5 4.5.7 it mentions onfarmm uses that would need res resoning. It could you highlight exactly what that means and what would trigger reszoning application because it's concerning for farmers that you know they'd have to go through the expensive and possibly lengthy process. So on farm diversified uses, it's a term that's defined in the provincial planning statement and it's meant to define uses that are in addition to the primary use, which is an agricultural operation that provides um an additional income or support to the overall agricultural operation uh within. So it doesn't include things such as like the roadside stands or so forth. It's meant to capture a a major use such as for example having a restaurant facility associated with the production of what is produced on the on the operation or a store so forth. So the purpose of then having a zoning bylaw amendment is just to ensure that uh the use is meeting the definition but as well as compatible with the surrounding and not the opportunity to then mitigate any potential incompatibilities or mitigate any potential adverse impacts that may be happening to neighboring operations in order to ensure that they're still a able to carry on and thrive and not be adversely impacted by something that is happening on the neighboring property. Thank you. Thanks for clarification. On page 268 or section 7, it mentions the town trying to reach to the provincial targets. My concern is that the provinces is telling us what to do, but I don't seem to see the funding for the next 25 years. Could you highlight what the challenges are and how we can mitigate that? Because uh my concern is that we're being told and I think the mayor always says if you say you pay and we're not seeing much paying right now. Yeah. So that section, section seven is our monitoring section. And what we've done is we've um put in place a series of policies to help us to monitor how the town is doing at meeting the targets that are set out in the official plan. And really what that allows us to do is then to collect quantifiable data so that we can engage uh with the province using actual numbers that show how we are reaching our targets and our growth and population targets. And that really helps us to advocate then for provincial funding or ensuring that the province is also aligning with the targets that are based on actual factual data collected through monitoring of growth. And last question regarding the medium and high density uh applications. It's mentioned about three-dimensional mapping. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a standard in terms of applications. Are staff working on something that's accessible to everyone? because it's very hard to visualize especially when you're looking at any from 6 to 36 story buildings what the effect is and I sent you a picture earlier that basic neighbors didn't realize that you know hey they're looking in my backyard and they say it was a 45 degree angle shouldn't affect me is there any way acceptable way that across the planning association that we can use that other municipalities use already we can certainly request and ask for those and for the most part we work really well with our development community and many are are um very amendable to providing 3D renderings or additional drawings as needed. More and more we are finding that there are more restrictions coming down in terms of complete applications and what we can ask for in complete applications particularly as it relates to architecture and architectural drawings and so forth. But uh staff do ask and in most cases because we have such a good relationship with our building community uh it can be provided. So we do try to work with them but there are restrictions on what we can ask for. See the other question I'll have some comments after the public delegations. Thanks councelor. Anybody else from council for questions for Gil? Nobody else. Okay we will now move on to the Thank you Gail. Again we'll move on to the speakers list and then we'll ask members of the audience who aren't registered in advance if they would like to comment on the uh official plan. So I do have a first uh person that's going to be delegating remotely to this matter. Uh, it's Mitch Morawitz. Um, I apologize if I said that incorrectly. And, uh, I understand that he wishes to speak to this matter. So, if we could please have him connect Sir, if you could please uh say something so we can ensure that we can hear you. Hi there. Yes. Uh can you hear me, Mr. Chair? Excellent. You're loud and clear. If you just a reminder, if you could just state your first name, last name, and you have five minutes to do your uh delegation. Uh certainly. Uh my name is Mitch Morowettes. Uh Plan Farm, Inc. is my uh planning consultancy. And um I'm here this evening uh with respect to uh some farmland that is on number two side road uh and uh just uh in the vicinity of Bell School line. Uh I did appear before you in December of 2024 and um I just wanted to speak with you briefly this evening. I'd like to start off by saying that I've appreciated the effort uh that staff has put in. Uh Gail Anderson in particular. Uh I've had the opportunity to me meet with Gail um uh both uh in person and online on a few occasions and uh she's been quite helpful. So uh thank you for that. Um I not sure if it's possible for me to uh share my screen or not. I did have a uh a slide, but uh uh perhaps I could just ask that and then I'll carry on. Yeah, Mitch, we won't be able to accommodate that unfortunately. Not a problem. You can email that. You can email that to Madame Clerk and we can have it distributed to members of council and the right staff so they can intake it. Certainly. Yes, it's not not a problem. So uh essentially the matter that um wanted to address is the uh enhancement uh areas and uh and linkage areas. The overlay that appears um on uh uh the uh draft official plan schedules. Um it's u uh schedule uh uh six in the uh appendix one to uh the public meeting report. And uh specifically uh as it pertains to uh these properties, we had struggled to understand uh the reason why uh the subject properties on number two side road near Bell School line. uh were um were covered by this uh enhancement areas overlay uh in an earlier draft of the official plan uh schedules. This area was also shown uh to have key features. Uh that mapping has been updated uh in recognition that uh there uh the key features on this property are are limited to the very north end where there's a creek valley. The rest of it is uh simply open farmland. Um in discussion with with staff, it uh became apparent that uh the uh reason for uh one of the reasons for inclusion of these lands within the enhancement areas overlay is due to the trfalgar marine uh which um is in that uh general vicinity. been able to do a bit of research into the Trafalgar Morine and based on the mapping that I have located. Uh the lands north of number two side road uh generally appear to not be uh within the trfalarger marine area. Uh the morine appears to be uh further south and so I would appreciate uh the opportunity to uh continue working with staff uh perhaps to refine the enhancement areas uh overlay as it may pertain to lands in the number two side road and uh Bell school line tain road uh area uh such that if the trfalger marine uh is the uh reason for uh the enhancement area uh overlay that uh perhaps uh with available information uh that uh that overlay could be uh provided a bit more accurately in the uh what would be the final official plan schedule and uh I'll uh leave my uh comments there at this time. Thank you. Well, thank you very much for your delegation. Our planning staff have made note of that. Are there any members of council that have questions for this delegation? I don't see any. Thank you very much. Our next Yep. Our next de delegation is also going to be appearing remotely. It's going to be uh Jennifer Lawrence. Um and just uh in relation to our delegation, I understand that she has provided staff with a presentation in advance which will be shared on the screen during the delegation. Jennifer, if you could please uh say something so we can see or hear make sure we can hear you. Good evening. Good evening. We're just going to get your presentation up over here and I'll let you know once uh everyone can see it. Okay. Thank you. Okay, Jennifer, if you could just state your first name, last name, and just a reminder, you have five minutes for your presentation. Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Jennifer Lawrence. I am a registered professional planner. I specialize in environmental planning, and I'm the president of Jennifer Lawrence and Associates. I was retained by the Hans family to represent a property they own on 8th line. Now, many of you are likely very familiar with the Hans family, but perhaps under the name of Tiger Jeet Singh. The property is located on the west side of 8th Line between Bratannia Road and Lower Baseline Road, and it was purchased several years ago with the intention to build a family home. However, the haunts have since become aware that these lands are within an area of future urban development. So, it is important to ensure that the land use designations are appropriate and accurate. Our concerns tonight are related to the delineation of the natural heritage system or the NHS in the OP schedules. As you can see here on slide one, the official plan identifies the majority of the Hans property as natural heritage system. That is the green hatching. However, if you flip to slide two, you'll see that there is only one natural feature on the property. It is a small wetland near 8th line and it is outlined in green and this is from conservation halton's mapping and it's also based on a wetland staking that we did with them a couple of years ago. So other than this wetland as you can see on that air photo, the remainder of the property is an agricultural use and has been for many many years now. Notwithstanding the lack of natural features, the remainder of the property has been included in the NHS as part of a linkage. And we've been working with Gail and David and we really appreciate their approach to working through our issues. Uh we do however have two concerns. First, if you can go to slide four, uh you will see that schedule six identifies a sizable key feature which is shown in light green towards the rear of the property where no such feature exists. Now, it's my understanding that town staff are continuing to review the background mapping materials provided by the region to more accurately identify key features, and I am hopeful that this is an issue that can be resolved through additional review and dialogue. However, it is very important that the mapping be updated to reflect that there are no key features on the Hans property. Our second concern relates to the width of the linkage. At 440 meters wide, the linkage is far in excess of what would be necessary to provide a viable linkage through this area in post developments in a post-development scenario. As an environmental planner, I am fully supportive of identifying and implementing a defensible NHS. But in my professional opinion, the NHS is shown through this area is not defensible and should be refined now at the OP level. The region created a definition and implementation guideline when the NHS was created many years ago. And within that document, there are two types of linkages within the NHS. A local linkage that ranges from between 60 to 100 m wide and a regional linkage that ranges from 300 to 400 m wide. At 440 m wide, the linkage on the Hans property is larger than the largest regional linkage width. A regional linkage is exactly what it sounds like. It's a linkage that connects the NHS throughout the region across municipalities. Example of regional linkages in Halton would be the 16-mi Creek and Bronty Creek Valley systems which extend from the lake to above the Escarment. The linkage that crosses the Hans property, however, provides no such regional connection. It is a linkage between the green belt NHS shown in the dark green hatching to the south on that slide to a tributary of 60-mi creek located just north of the Hans property. This linkage extends approximately 700 m less than 1 kilometer and cannot reasonably be considered a regional linkage. The Hans family is not disputing whether a linkage belongs in this location, but rather requesting that it be sized according to the region's home guidelines. Through discussions with Gail and David, they have provided a slightly refined linkage width through this area. We appreciate that and we believe this acknowledgement that modifications to the NHS are appropriate at the OP level is appropriate and it is appreciated and we think we are close to reaching a resolution with staff with the understanding that the OP policies would allow for even further refinement at the next planning stage. So our request to council this evening is that they direct staff to continue to work with the Hans family to ensure that key features are properly mapped on schedule 6 and to identify an appropriately sized linkage width through this property. Thank you. That's my presentation. Well, thank you very much Jennifer. Are there any questions for Jennifer in relation to this presentation? I don't see any. Thank you again. Thank you. The next delegation is going to be from John Oakstein. Apologies if I said that incorrectly. And I believe uh John is in person. Good evening, sir. If you could just state your first name, last name, and just a reminder, you have 5 minutes to speak. Yep. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh my name is John Ostein. I live and farm at 9636 Second Line in Camelville. I'm here representing the Halton Regional Federation of Agriculture. The HRFA is a farmer-led grassroots organization uh that represents 431 farmers in Halton uh which about 45% would be in Milton and we are also the local affiliate for the Ontario Federation of Agriculture which represents 38,000 farm families across the province. As a director on on the board, I'm currently the co-chair of our Milton committee working on the uh the working on the official plan. Our committee has been engaged with Gail Anderson uh and her team uh in the planning department for quite a while. The discussions have been fruitful and mutually beneficial. Do we absolutely agree on everything in the draft plan? Uh not exactly. We have some concerns. Agriculture is an important industry with the local agra food sector accounting for employing over 28,000 people in Halton. Milton being the biggest share of that. So it's cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr cr critical that we consider the impacts of official plan on farmers and the agra food sector firstly in planning just like life words matter so some definition definitions and their interpretation give us a bit of pause one example is the definition of a tree simple enough but the definition states that it's a woody perennial that has reached or can reach 4.5 m at maturity so technically in in the plan where no tree removal would be allowed. If a farmer cultivates a field beside a wood lot and you know plows up a tiny tree, technically they're going against the plan. Now I don't think this is the intent of the plan at all. But I believe uh but I think that we need to make sure that normal farm practices uh on agricultural land need to be protected. But words matter. So we need clarity to ensure that what is intended is what will be interpreted for many years down the road. Another key uh key issue we're concerned about is mapping. Uh we fully realize mil the planning is difficult especially in a rapidly growing town like Milton. Majority of the time and resources are needed for the urban area. A rural area is large and planning is based in aerial photography. And some of these snapshots don't give a true representation of the landscape, soil, etc. The region has a portal. There had a portal that was quite extensive and you can just put your address in and it came up. It was great. Now, I know the town has a portal, but I've used it. It's just not as good. It's hard to navigate. Uh it's some of the information is incomplete or incorrect. Uh I would request that we improve the portal much like the region's old one. And also, when it comes to mapping, if a farmer feels a designation is inaccurate, then there's no real avenue for appeal. A simple appeal process based on ground truthing should be created to ensure accuracy. Many things I mentioned uh been part of our discussions with the town and Gail's leadership has been uh appreciated. We've had good dialogue. The history of the partnership between the town and agriculture is well documented. Moach raceway the inquin industry for one community fund community events all the job creation also farmer market bringing excitement to downtown. It's a great thing. I I feel it would benefit to to to the town and the egg community to formalize this relationship with an egg uh rural advisory committee instead of just ad ad hoc discussions. The timing is right for an advisory committee to assist staff to shape good policy because of the changing of planning moving from the region to the municipality level. The uncertainty of f future of conservation authorities, international issues that may affect food sovereignty, climate change mitigation among other things. The Halton Agriculture Advisory Committee uh served the region and helped shape policy in both planning and economic development for over 40 years with minimal cost because of volunteerism volunteerism among the farming community. Halton Hills has established committee. Milton can and should do the same thing. Agriculture is an ever evolving improving industry. Farming is much different than it was in the past and will be very different in the future. food, fuel, fiber, horiculture, flowers, tourism, entertainment, environmental protection, carbon sequestration, and I said it right this time, and wildlife habitat. Agriculture provides it all, and a systems approach to agricultural planning. Um, and planning for its success will pay dividends for the town of Milton, far beyond this official plan. It's not about protecting the land. It's about fostering the environment of innovation that allows farmers not just to survive but thrive for many generations. I look forward to our continuing open communication. Thank you for your attention and I'd be happy to take any questions with 4 seconds to spare. Thank you very much. Thank you very much councelor Best for our question. Yes, thank you for your presentation John. Couple of questions. You mentioned about agricultural system approaches. Could you uh define what that is or clarify so everybody can understand? Well, I've actually been quite involved with that. Uh this I was actually at a hack meeting when they first brought up the natural heritage system where they went from a uh what you call it a features approach to a system. So they looked at you know there's wood lot here, wetland here and we got to look at the linkages and figure out how it works. And I went okay why don't we look at agriculture that way. We look at it as a features approach. Farm here, farm there, farm there. But we don't think about how it all interacts about the transportation uh of all the products all the uh equipment dealers that are necessary uh the the the processors the further processors the the retailers and how it all mixes together. So if we look at it from a systems approach then I think we're looking at this in a stronger way. the province really wanted to do that and I was actually one lucky to be selected as one of the farmers who was on their initial committee and I we worked a lot and then it kind of got put on the back burner and that was sad for us but uh it's still around and I think if we look at it's it's more difficult than the natural heritage is basically just a biological system but ours the agricultural system would be biological economic social which is very difficult But I know it's difficult, but we do things we don't do things because they're easy. We do things because they're hard because the hardest things are the things that get us further ahead. So does that kind of help you? A greater definition because not everybody understands agriculture. Just last question. You mentioned a correspond about edge planning. Could you clarify what that means and how planners can assist you? Okay. Well, edge planning, it's a concept of because we have the natural, we have uh the Nagasarment, the green belt, we are going to have parts of Milton that will always be rural and if there's an urban and rural line, there will inevitably be conflict. So edge planning, we're going to try to avoid the conflict. Now, how do we do that? Now if we're saying to the farmer and that land you shall be farming forever in you know theoretically then we have to allow them all the opportunity to evolve and be good. So we have to look at our urban planning just on the other side of the edge. So what are things that maybe are less conflicting with agriculture? You know we have different things in urban area. you have uh you know you have residential, you have commercial, you have industrial, you have warehouse. Some of those things are more suited to be beside agriculture than others. So maybe we plan that on the inside of the urban urban shadow in the urban area and that will help those agricultural areas thrive for the future. That's great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other members of council? Councelor Challenger. Uh John raises a really important point uh that that created uh quite frankly a great deal of concern back in the uh the mid 90s when the province decided to uh to map um all of the rural areas and u I think they borrowed a plane from the Wright brothers. Um Peter is here and were you here in in the late 90s early 2000s when that project was finished? Uh I remember it. Anyway, it was school wasn't paying attention. It was a disaster. So, um, Halton, unlike just about every other upper tier level of government in the province of Ontario, heard the concerns from the agricultural community in in Halton and uh received a grant from the province of Ontario to properly map Halton region. And the issue was very plainly uh there were areas of of farmers properties, agricultural lands in in Milton and elsewhere that were included in wetland when they shouldn't have been. Okay? And so and this is what essentially you're getting to with our official plan. And that's why it's so important this this work be done accurately. Now, I can't believe I think I know for a fact the land hasn't changed since, you know, 25 years ago. Uh, probably hasn't changed for 250,000 years. But the point is that where is that data? It was paid for by by the region. It was used to properly map our 97 official plan as well as official plans that followed as well as the region's official plan. It was quite accurate. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on it. Where is it? So, I don't know, but I wasn't at the region. Uh, but it's needed. And, you know, to to properly, I think, assuage the concerns that John has and uh the agricultural organization has, that information is required for us to ensure that our OP properly reflects what is wetland, what is not because he's right. uh there are linkages and those linkages have to be accurate otherwise there's productive land that is no longer in production and anybody who's close to agricultural knows right now um every acre counts. Yeah. And I and I think one thing that agriculture has done we've actually been a victim of our own success. We we produced more food on less acreages all the time. So everybody kind of thinks oh well we we don't need that as much farmland because we're feeding everybody. But we see uh as international relations have gone on lately that uh food sovereignty is something we we have to take very seriously and and consider. So uh you know every every inch counts. So we'll go from there. Thank you very much. It's possible, Mr. Chairman, that that conservation Halton has has it as well because they've been undertaking some mapping activity. It's been funded by the province of Ontario. It may be in their possession, but I think it's pretty important that we get that data. Yeah. And to that there is soil mapping. I remember I there was reading about a plan in the 30s where they got a army of students to go and test every field all around across Canada. So there's soil mapping and that didn't change that much to be honest. Indeed. Thank you councelor councelor manakus. John um thank you for telling educators on how important farming is. I drive by it every day. Um and you have your at a glance just with some stats there too that table. you add a little more color into what does this advisory committee look like and what's what's the ultimate goal? Well, I I look at uh the the hack the Halton Agriculture Advisory Committee which had some staff time. It had a lot of farm farmer volunteers who who went forth and and they kind of went from all different sectors of agriculture. So, we had a lot of expertise there and unfortunately because planning kind of went away from the region and come to the label, they didn't need that anymore. And so I I think that we had that opportunity to bring, you know, we put it out to the the farming community. They kind of the way hack was set up was different organizations would send somebody and then a few were citizen appointees and they kind of and we all worked together to come with policy and it was just really I look at it like planning staff does a great job but I know at planning school rural planning is not the number one issue. That's not the they look at urban planning like hey when I was in high school I played Sim City and it was all about it was all about building the city and as I got older I realized I really should have been worried about the white outside part you know because that's what I'm dealing with. So uh that's how I would see that advisory comm meeting quarterly something like that but just looking at the agendas coming forward the policies you're looking at and I think we can give some good input to help planning staff come up with things that you'll have less people angry here. So that's the way I look at it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any other members of council with questions? Mayor CR. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I just don't want to leave the uh the question that councelor Chandler raised there. Very very important one with regards to communications with or without the region of Halton Mandor Conservation Authority. So, I know we're still in the uh you know public portion of this meeting, but at the appropriate time that may be now uh to hear from staff if any of that has been pursued, if not, why not? And should it be? Indeed, Commissioner Hogan. Uh thank you for the question, uh your worship. Yes, we actually have all of the mapping that councelor Challenger has referred to. So, we'll take another look at that with the team up against what Mr. Obststein has been saying but yes we do have all of that mapping. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions for the delegation? Seeing none. Thank you very much sir. The next delegation is going to be from Mr. David Hoo. David if you could come on up. Good evening. And just a reminder you have five minutes for your delegation. If you could just state your first name and last name as well. Thank you. Okay. Hey, my name is David Hull. I was uh born and raised here in Milton. Lived here my whole life. Um to do with the draft official plan. The concerns I had were to do with animal kennels. Um in Milton, we for the last 12 to 15 years, we haven't had any new animal kennels come in or be built considering that 60% of the households have a dog or cat. So for those who don't know, to have a kennel in Milton, you need three main things. You got to be in the rural area. You got to have four hectares, which is 9.88 acres, and you got to be 100 meters off the property line. Uh, our neighbors in Burlington, you only have to be 30 m off the property line. In Hamilton, you have to be 60 m off the property line. Well, that makes it very tough in Milton. Um, the other part is the zoning. So provided everybody with a map. Currently, right now in the rural area, there's lots of areas to build a kennel. This is the yellow map we're going to look at. But under the new official plan, animal kennels are not permitted in the prime agricultural area. So the map really changes. So all of a sudden you go from a big area to a small area. So basically the prime agricultural is now the dark purple. So the only way a kennel can get built is in the light purple. And which page are you referencing there? So everybody's on the same page. Page five. Page five of the document. This was handed out by Madame Clerk earlier. a map up top. I don't, but that's the map there. So now when we get to the official plan, map five or page five, the dark purple is all prime agricultural. So kennels can only be in the light purple area, which you see there's very few. Most of the properties in the light purple are going to be a house with one or two acres or three or four acres. So they wouldn't qualify because again, you need 10 acres or greater. So you have to be rural, you have to have 10 acres, and you have to have 100 meters. A lot of those wouldn't qualify. So looking at that map right now, you probably couldn't build a kennel in Milton, but 60% of the households have a dog or cat. So that's something that's needed. Um many municipalities do allow kennels in the prime agricultural area if they uh as long as it's located on land that's not uh prime agricultural like productive land. So if you got a field that's 50 acres of corn or soybean, they might not want a kennel there. But if you have a 10acre property that's bush and swamp and full of rocks that you're not getting a tractor in anyway to farm, kennels should be allowed on that area because when you look at the mapping, not everything here is prime land. Like there's actually a gas station at G Line and 15 Side Road that's considered prime agricultural right now. So we're not growing anything on an Ashwa parking lot with fuel tanks in the ground. So that's really where I want council to talk to staff. It's really about uh allowing these in the prime agricultural area if it doesn't take on or affect the crop land. Well, thank you very much. Is there anything further? You still have some time left here? I got a minute. Yeah. So I've left a list at the back, a bunch of recommendations. I'm an animal lover. I got I've been, you know, farming in Milton for 30 years. Got horse. Um, so I've left some recommendations on the last page for council and staff to consider. Um, but I think it's needed. You know, Milton's growing, but the math doesn't add up. You got all these homes, all these people moving in, but you got no land where you're going to allow them to keep their animals when they're sick or when they go on holiday. I think that's it. Excellent. Long five minutes. No, absolutely. And if you haven't already, you might want to email that to town clerk@milton.ca so it can be shared digitally with the planning department. I know you provided a hard copy, but okay, it might be worth emailing at town clerk@milton.ca. I could do that. Councelor Best for a question. Yes, thank you Dave presentation. Maybe just for everyone's information, you could go over what your recommendations are so that everybody here because we may have people watching online as well because I agree with your position because uh it seems everybody has an animal especially when you're canvasing doors that everybody seems to have a dog or cat that comes to the door. So they're going to need more kennels, not less. Yeah, good question. So three of the recommendations I made were kenno should be per permitted in all rural areas in prime agricultural areas. They must be located on non-productive parts of the property. Uh kennels are to be located 60 m from the property line. 100 is really tough in Milton. Uh Hamilton is 60, Burlington is 30. I don't know why Milton's at 100. That's very tough for one of the fastest growing cities. And the third recommendation I made was um maybe to limit the amount of dogs that could go into a kennel. Right now, Milton has no limit. There are kennels in Milton that have 80 to 100 dogs, boarding dogs. Uh some municipalities limit it at 25. So, that's something to consider. Um in talking to staff, it's not the kennels that are giving you noise issues. Uh, most, you know, all kennels are staffed, the dogs are exercised, they're kept busy. So, you're not getting complaints from kennels. The complaints the town's getting is somebody who lives in town has one dog, they get home from work, they let the dog outside as they're cooking dinner, watching TV, playing with the kids, that dog is barking, but typically the complaints are not from the five kennels in Milton. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any other questions for the delegation? Seeing none, thank you again. Okay. Thank you very much. Oh, councelor Chaliner. Uh, my question is of staff. I'm assuming that uh the areas that are approved today in our our current official plan are grandfathered under the new official plan. Commissioner Hogan, that would be correct. Okay. Thank you. Um, that concludes the delegations that had registered in advance. I've confirmed with Madame Clerk that there's nobody else waiting online. This is a public meeting. Is there anybody in the audience that wishes to speak to this presentation? Yes, ma'am. Come on up. Did you need that brought down by chance or we go? Okay. Excellent. If you could just state your first name and last name and just a reminder, you have five minutes for your delegation whenever you're ready. Sure. Okay. Um, great. Uh, I'm Lori Foster. I've actually lived in Halton Region all my life except for seven years in Missaga. I've been in Milton for the last 20. So, I've seen the changes. Um, I was reading the official plan and I noticed there's a lot of buzzwords like sustainability, livability, stuff like that. And but none of these things are actually defined. Having lived in Missaga, I grew up in Halton Hills rural rule. I can tell you one thing, living on the escarment, a different world than living down here in Milton. Um, the city country thing, it is real. And part of what I guess the town staff needs to understand when they're trying to define the new areas is specify what does it mean to be livable? What does it mean to be walkable? So, walkable in a community hub or the very dense area will be very different than walkable in the subdivisions. Um, when I lived in Oakville, I was at the end unit of a uh townhouse community. We had a pass through and there was a crosswalk there, so I could just walk across the uh supertore like to the uh grocery store, which was great. I didn't need my car. So, when you're doing the planning, think of the user base. So, that's kind of key. So define that now in the official plan. So the families who are going to live here, these are the needs. These are what we're going to do for the path. Uh the people who are living in the high density medium destiny, who are they going to be? Are they going to be someone who has accessibility needs? How are they going to be addressed? We won't go into my pack my issues with sidewalks. Um but things like that needs to be addressed because we're building new. We can learn from the lessons of the other cities how they've grown massively and put that in the plan. So when we do grow, people can consult the right people and like, "Oh, this is right." Um, ask anyone who gets around with a mobility device. They can tell you the different places where you're playing in traffic, trying not to get killed. So that's the nice thing when we're building new fresh staff can plan these are the rules we need to live by. And it's cheaper to do it now. And when we're redeveloping like the hubs, we can readress them. It doesn't make sense ripping them out now, but as we change things. So, we just need a solid plan. These user groups, we need to provide this for them. This is what they need. So, it's just that needs to be addressed in the plan. That was my main concern. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. And our planning staff have definitely taken that away. Councelor Ali, for a question. Uh more more a comment. Thank you so much, Lori, for those really necessary insights. Uh they're very important as we continue to grow and plan our communities. I know that this is a lens our our planners are always looking through to make sure everything we have planned for our future accessible and um also attainable and I I love how you have asked for proper definitions because we need to know what is walkable. Yeah. Like for um the people who are in the hamlets like Campbellville MAD they want a different lifestyle their livability, sustainability, walkability is very different than those down here. Um I lived up in Balipad for a while. Halton Hills and they have a nice little general store and all that stuff up there. It was great. You could kind of walk or bike so and like like Hambleville Moffet those places if you allow a little store. So that's where which is very handy. So it's kind of planning that and allowing it and just organically growing. Understood. So, as you can as you can tell, the the condo industry is really not doing well, and they are now reverting back to the six-story models, and that gives me some hope that, you know, we can have those walkable really commercial plazas that are so important to build a community in a neighborhood. So, thank you so much for your thoughts. And the same thing goes with when you're doing development as far as far as businesses and offices. Not everyone wants retail, not everyone wants manufacturing. So that needs to be those spaces need to be included. Thank you so much. And I know that my our staff are keenly taking notes and we'll definitely include your thoughts. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Any other members of council questions for the delegation? Thank you again, ma'am. Yep. The floor is still open for any members of the audience to participate in the public meeting. If anybody else wishes to speak, feel free to come on up to the podium. Thanks. Hi, good evening, ma'am. Once you get up there, if you could just state your first name and last name. And just a reminder, you have five minutes for your delegation. Thank you. Thanks. Uh, my name is Ellen White House. Um, I just had questions. there are like commercial plazas being built with all of the houses to make it livable and walkable. Um, but I'm wondering where places like auto repair places go. Um, I know that we had difficulty finding one. I worked for a business and it was difficult to find places that were actually zoned for something like that. So, if you're talking about light industry or some kind of dirty work, if if you believe in small businesses, you need this variety. Um, there's so many trucks that go by this place. And we were never able to find a place that had a truck height. Uh, and unless you're a big business and want to go into the warehouse, if you have product that, you know, the truck backs up to a door, you could not find a unit to rent that's singular. Um, it's just um it it's it's all where's room for the little guy? That's what I'm asking. Um, still looking for a lot of three-bedroom apartments. I think they would be instead of the single very very small things. I hope those will come in. I'm wondering about um I saw that there was a plan for a potential LRT. I think you need to do the transportation. Build it and they will come. I mean I know so many people that moved here from Missaga and Toronto and they had to get their driver's license because they couldn't get around. And I will say that I tried transportation for running errands when I was my child was young and I gave up. So I don't even know how to use transit anymore. And I think most people don't. And I would encourage if we still have trustees um and a shortage of bus drivers that they merge the high school students working onto the um is so that our young people learn and accept and and ride transit. Um I'm wondering where there is room for the scooters and e ebikes. You don't really want them on the path with the pedestrians and the kids cycling. So all these new fangled energy efficient um but I know there's not a lot of space. How do you fit the road and the ebikes and the walkers? So um I would hope that there would be some planning for that. Um, sorry. I'm also wondering um about communication in this town. I don't know whether that's part of the planning, but I feel like we are becoming a whole bunch of little areas that are those people never go into that area and those people never go into that area. But how do you communicate that this is happening there and that's happening there? There is not a strong means of communication. Um I have no idea how that's done, but I'm I feel it very strongly it needs to be done. Um I think that's about it for me. No, no, thank you very much for sharing that feedback. It touches a variety of different departments and uh it'll all be considered as part of the the technical process later down the line. Do have a question from councelor Best. Not actually the delegation and possibly you had some very you know quick questions there also your staff could just highlight some of the answers that they may have at the ready for you. Uh okay. So from councelor best um like I said it touches a variety of departments. I'm not sure if a member of staff from Commissioner Hoken certainly I can I can talk speak to a couple of your of your questions. The three-bedroom apartments um that is very much coveted in the town of Milton and I couldn't agree with you more. And what I can tell you is the industry, the development industry is seriously looking at that and um I'm very hopeful that we're going to get in some proposals very soon that have three-bedroom familysized apartments. So fingers crossed that's coming. We've certainly laid the groundwork and set out the permissions for that to happen. Um you also asking about um the small guys like the auto repairs. We've we've been um really advocating um for what we are calling small bay industrial. So it's basically creating industrial buildings that have individual small smaller bays in them that can be leased or sold to a smaller operation. Um just please consider the height. Yes, AB. Absolutely. Yes. Um you were asking about LRT. I I'm not familiar with any LRT plans for Milton, but certainly there is future bus rapid transit plans um along Trafalogar Road. Um but LRT not quite yet. Yes, that's right. I read that you were doing future bus plans and I thought why aren't you doing LRT? But um uh I think that's that's really it in terms of what I can offer right now. You did mentioned scooters and ebikes. That's a bit of a a question mark in terms of their they're not going away. The I I agree but in terms of their legality. So we're working through that uh with some partners. Um, apart from that, uh, communications, I know that, um, our communications division does, uh, uh, post information quite frequently and perhaps we could get you on one of those lists that talks about everything that's going on in the town. So, there there are resources out there, but thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Thanks again. Uh, one moment, Councelor Best, is there any follow-up? Okay. Thank you again, ma'am. Floor is still open for any members of the audience if anybody else wishes to delegate to this. It is a public meeting. This is where you have your opportunity to have your voice heard. Is there anybody else that wishes to speak to this from the audience? Okay. Seeing none, I do have a motion here in relation to this moved by councelor Chaliner and seconded by councelor Aaz that report DS02926 regarding the Milton official plan review be received for information for the purpose of a statutory public meeting. Councelor Best one request and if you're taking comments now I've asked staff to to put up the slide I requested earlier indeed. Give us one moment. Well just give everybody some preamble that Lori Foster hit upon uh part of my concerns. Uh this is something that's not really addressed in the official plan but uh I'd ask staff in the refinement and also in uh future reviews which are every five years is to look at the population trends and this is for Halton together. This is from the uh older adult advisory committee which advises uh the region as one that I attend a number of the meetings because I do have a conflict unfortunately. Uh but uh it is uh getting to a position where we're having people living longer, they're healthier, living uh independently. I know one lady at my ward that's 103 years old. She's still living at home and she has services that we didn't have before. So this is what we call in real estate the fourth generation. Usually the first generation is the students, second is the parents, third is the grandparents. Now we have great-grandparents. They're living longer and longer and fortunately planning and uh urban. Yeah, I'm not not saying anything. Uh uh uh uh it doesn't take in account. It's just it's not just long-term care. It's all the services in keeping people in their homes and keeping them viable. So it ask the staff to look at that in future. Well, thank you, councelor. Uh, Mayor CR, no, you're good. Okay, chairman, that would definitely put me in conflict. Let me assure you of that. Any other members of council before we vote on this motion? All right. All those in favor? And that is carried. All right, we'll move on to items for consideration, starting with item 9.1, uh, which is in relation to the year-end capital variances. The motion's not going to be read verbatim here. There'll be as in the agenda. It's moved by councelor Chaliner and seconded by councelor Best. Are there any questions for members of council in relation to this? No questions. Oh, councelor Cher, just a quick comment, Mr. Chairman, to Glenn, just to thank him for the report. He had me concerned when I when I first read it, but at the end he told me what happened to the seven million, so I was a lot happier. But so, thank you for that. Thanks, counselor. And and Glenn, would you like to add anything to that? Uh, no. All good. Okay. Any other questions, comments? All those in favor? Okay, that's carried. Item 9.2 is in relation to the 2025 operating variance and journal entries. uh moved by councelor Chowner and seconded by councelor Ajaz that the 2025 financial statements be prepared on the basis of year-end transactions set out in report ES-01626 and that staff be directed to transfer $1 million from the legal and insurance reserve to the WSIB reserved and further that staff be directed to prepare accounting entries to transfer the surplus estimated at 4.1 plus million for the operating fund to the following 3 million to growth capital of the reserve and 1.1 million to the tax rate stabilization reserve uh CFO, would you like to provide any comments on this? Happy to answer any questions council may have. Uh, you'll see the resolutions are related to rebalancing reserves based on where the current balances reside in target balances and the distribution of the surplus is really related to areas that we saw some pressure both in 2026 and that we expect in the future as well. So, uh, happy to answer questions council may have. Any questions for members of council? No questions. All those in favor? That's carried. Next is a motion moved by councelor Challenger and seconded by councelor Best that report ES017-26 be received for information. Are there any introductory comments Glenn in relation to that? No. Okay. Any questions? Councelor Challenger. Just light-heartedly, Mr. Chairman, can I put my personal pension plan into the one fund? Any comments on that? All those in favor? Carried. Next is item 9.4 in relation to the tax and assessment base management policy update. I have a motion moved by councelor Chaler and seconded by councelor Aaz that the updated tax and assessment based management policy policy number 111 that is attached as appendex A be approved. Any introductory comments, Glenn? Just quickly, most of this is housekeeping in in the policy, but there are a couple elements in there that relate to our new property tax system and some advantages that it offers, especially in the way of offering um smoother and more readily available intake to the autopay pro uh programs for residents. So, we're looking forward to those. Thank you. Are there any questions for members of council? No questions. All those in favor? That's carried. Item 9.5 is in relation to a lengthy resolution regarding purchasing various as written in the recommendation. Uh I have a motion moved by councelor Chowner and seconded by councelor Best. Uh any introductory comments on this one? Glenn, the April and May reports tend to be a little lengthier as we get into a more uh active part of the year. So, there are a number here I can answer questions on if there are any. Um, and yeah, happy to to take it from there. Excellent. Any questions for members of council? No questions. All those in favor? And that's carried. Okay. At this point in the meeting, I'm going to be vacating the chair over to Mayor CR for items 9.6 to 9.9, and I will resume the chair for item 9.10 onwards, which has been moved uh from the consent item earlier in the agenda. Um, Mayor CR, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. This deals with the Boulevard uh maintenance and the recommendation uh from staff. You can read that. But I have a motion moved by councelor Kulkkey and second by councelor Best that the necessary bylaw amendments regarding Boulevard maintenance regulations included on the April 13th, 2026 council meeting agenda be considered for approval. And uh I'm going to go to you uh first uh councelor Kulkkey and then uh councelor Bess and then uh commissioner Scott can provide introductory comments as well. So if you want to go first go ahead or I think the commissioner would like to go first. Scott, thanks for your you worship. Um just quickly the report essentially is in response to a notice of motion. Um and staff does recommend introduction of a bylaw requiring um maintenance of boulevards. That's been included for council's consideration and either Megan and I are happy to answer any questions councelor may have ki. Yep. Thanks Mayor CR and uh you know I really appreciate the work staff have done on this. I know this was as staff mentioned a motion that was brought forward by myself and councelor Best um a few months ago and it does address you know issues that residents had raised in relation to community upkeep and and standards of properties uh particularly the boulevard and the maintenance of that or the lack thereof in some cases. So really appreciate the work staff have done on this and uh this is an example of how uh resident feedback through a motion through an eventual staff recommendation can help resolve a concern or concerns that residents uh bring to our attention as uh their representatives. So thank you to staff and uh I hope everybody is supportive of the recommendation. And one more caveat here is that uh I like how staff prioritize education before enforcement. I think that's very important and uh this will be included as part of the response to any future complaints. Uh the immediate response won't be a bylaw officer going and giving a fine to somebody who's in violation of this. It'll be pro providing that education to gain compliance before proceeding that way, which is uh something the uh spirit of the motion captured at the time it was introduced. Thank you, Council Best. I agree with everything councelor Kelki said. Hey, very good. Are there any uh questions by any member of council? Uh councelor Hijz. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh everything councelor Kauki said and councelor Best said, but I would just ask that as this is implemented, staff monitor how it impacts residents, particularly when it comes to fines and enforcement and report back if adjustments are needed. Thank you. Thank you. Any other question or comments? Councelor Marshall, just a quick question for staff with respect to the be a good neighbor program and how the community is going to be educated. Um, is it primarily focused on social media platforms or are there other mechanisms that the word will be spread? Uh, through the chair um just in response to that question, thank you. It will be updated on our website and any communications through social social media and we will be updating the doorner. That's been really helpful as part of this program. Thank you. That's what I was hoping for. Councelor Lee, M. Mr. Mayor, just a just a note for staff. Um, many times the the resident is not the owner of the property and sometimes the the um notice goes to the owner and then the renter does not know about it and it creates a lot of roundabout complexities. So, if we can please sort those out, iron those out before we implement this program, I think that would be great. Are there any other questions or comments? Seeing none, you've heard the motion. Those in favor of the motion that's carried. This is your next motion to consider for the amendments. to be done. Thank you. Uh the uh and I know members of council has the uh motion here. It's quite lengthy and I'm not going to uh read it there, but uh it's moved by councelor Kauki and second by councelor Marshall. So councelor Kulkkey if you want to address that request. And it's a motion to consider outdoor maintenance subsidy program for eligible seniors with low income and persons with with disabilities and low income. Councelor Ky, go ahead. Thank you very much, Mayor CR. Thank you to councelor Marshall for uh being supportive of this as well in terms of seconding it. Um this is obviously you know a motion as provided everybody on their desk as well to look at the feasibility of creating a subsidy program for eligible seniors with low income and persons with disabilities with low income that uh may need some assistance for the uh cost associated to private uh services to upkeep their residential properties from the outside. So that could be maintaining their lawn or the exterior of their properties in the front or back, but also work year round for seasonal issues like snow removal and other landscaping matters. Uh this program isn't novel to Ontario. There are other municipalities nearby that provide this type of uh initiative and uh to councelor Minakus' point earlier in the meeting we did see a slide in relation to affordability and the challenges that that brings uh and will bring in the coming years. uh all the more reason I feel to ensure that we're providing care and support for those individuals who need it. And uh quite frankly, I think the individuals who need that support in times of affordability crisis are those that are vulnerable in nature or have low income already on top of potentially having disabilities and being senior. Uh the program is very specific. uh the cost associated to implementing a subsidy is obviously a consideration and uh I've had some good conversations with our CFO in relation to possible funding mechanisms and I discovered that the OOLG reserve uh does have the opportunity there to fund this program for about 10 years uh without impacting any forecasted expenditures and without impacting the operating budget uh as it currently presents for the next 10 years. um that would provide a subsidy and would not impact any any of those things. Uh at the same time providing the support that people in that category might need. Uh it's asking for a staff report and uh I hope that council can be supportive of this initiative. Uh when that report does come back and obviously supportive of the motion as written for now. If there's any questions happy to answer those. Council Marshall. I think councelor Kauki's covered it all. Okay. Hey, as he indicated, are there any questions of councelor K? Uh, councelor Lee. Thank you, councelor Kau. Certainly support the intent and the uh direction of this resolution. Um, I was looking at the number 250 applicants per year and just wondering where the number came from. Thank you, C. Go ahead. Thanks, uh, Mr. Chair, and great question. Uh, I had conversations with Commissioner Sano as well. Uh the 250 number comes from um an estimate of how many potential applicants we might get based on the current number of applications we get for our window removal program uh which this year was about 209 individuals who signed up but that number fluctuates. So the 250 was chosen uh to accommodate a little bit more than what we recently saw in application to our window row removal program. Notwithstanding, this would be a new program and it could exceed the demand or it could be lower than the 250. Um, and and the amount there as well, the 500 uh may not necessarily be fully distributed to those eligible. It could be less than that as well. Lee, any further? Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just a follow-up question as um if the demand is more let's say will that in any case affect um the financial impact or we can continue to source it through the OLG maybe staff might be the most appropriate to respond to that we'll come back with information in the report about options ultimately it'll be council's choice as to how to manage any sort of potential pressure on an overall envelope but we will bring back alternatives in that report. Okay. Thank you. Is there any other uh questions or comments? Council Chandler. Yeah, I just have some comments, your worship. Um I look at this as kind of policy adventurism. Uh and let me let me explain. Uh this is a social program and today this program is is funded partially by the province of Ontario and some community organizations that are nonprofit in the province of Ontario and and so if we enter into this program essentially everybody who's a property taxpayer is going to be double taxed. So they're not only going to be paying for this program through their property taxes, but they're already paying for such a program through their income taxes. And there's been this convention in our country for a long long time where social programs are not funded from property taxes. And um and I think that we have to to pay attention to that. I'm all in favor of having staff do their due diligence and take a look at it, but I'm not likely going to support it because I think what staff is going to come back with is that there are other alternatives to this that are already in place that people have the option of considering. And this is a lot different from the windrow program. Uh the wind row program is paid for by those who use it. This we would fund and the OOLG uh revenues are not sustainable. uh that program could be cancelled at any time and if it is then that changes the the dynamic of that fund and it changes the dynamic of everything that that fund currently supports including our community fund and it has been under threat in the past as his worship knows. So I I caution council uh this is this is ground that has not been trotten on before by this municipality in terms of paying for social programs through property taxes. Um and again this is a group that does have alternatives to consider whether there's they're disabled or they're senior. There are programs out there to help them with this issue. And I think as well I think we would all acknowledge that somebody who who can't afford to get their grass cut and as a property owner has some deeper issues as well. Uh and certainly I can understand that today given our current environment. So I would caution and I'll I'll express reexpress that caution when the report comes back. I'm going to support it. But um I think we need to remember the conventions and the fact that our taxpayers are already paying for this service across the province of Ontario through their income taxes. Thank you, Councilman Mikakis. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So um at the risk of contradicting my previous slide um first I will support looking at this report I would ask that we have a good scope of just how many people would that be would we be qualify for something like this that give us some sense of cost. At the same time, I want to point out because I pulled this out today, the long-term financial planning, and I looked at the forecast for the tax levy for 2027 and 2028, 7.8% and 9.8%. I'm just sensitive to affordability that trickles down is a trickle down effect that we need to watch for. So, thank you. Thank you. Uh, councelor Malbuff. Yeah, very briefly. I agree with the comments made by councelor Chalnar and Minakus. Uh my concern is what's the benchmark? Who's going to set the benchmark? It says here lowincome seniors. Who's going to set who's going to set that level? So that's something that staff's going to have to come back and it'll be a a budget item for 27. So I look forward to the report, but that's some concerns I have. If I if I might, Mr. uh your worship, two things that came out of from councelor Malbou and councelor Mikakus. So, you know, the second part of the financials are you're going to have to pay for somebody to provide the information that councilor Malgo has identified and that's probably at least $125,000. So now it's not a $125,000 program. It's a $250,000 program. That's one quarter of 1% tax increase. Councelor Minakus for the benefit of how many people that is already being paid for by other other taxpayers in in the town of Milton who have income tax payments to make on behalf of the province of Ontario. So I agree. Let's do our due diligence, but let's be clear-headed about what we're looking at. Okay. Uh Councelor Kau. Yep. Thank you, Mr. Sure. And uh really appreciate those insightful comments and it's definitely something that the team can take away and uh take a look at as part of the staff report. I just do want to emphasize uh because councelor Challenger brought up the property tax levy and the base there. Uh if this program is implemented, it is going to be funded potentially through the OG reserve without impacting the property tax base for approximately 10 years. But absolutely there may be a caveat there of at some point council of the future may need to make a decision of how we continue funding this program if it's implemented which potentially could end up in the operating taxpayer uh base and and that could be something for a future council could to consider. uh by then obviously we would also know the uptick of this potential program if it's implemented whether it's a few people applying a lot of people applying if if and and all of the answers to those questions including possible administrative fees of what it would look like and uh the other item I wanted to mention in relation to um programs that are social in nature uh we we already have a financial assistance program that supports about $300 for those that need assistance both youth and adult to seek programs and services through our recreation program. We have a subsidy in place that's funded through the operating budget and we also fund 50% of our split transit program which provides that free transit in conjunction with Halton region. So those are two or I guess one and a half examples of how our municipality does provide some form of a subsidy for those that need that support. But this is great discussion and I do feel that all these answers will be in the staff report at that later time. So, I appreciate the comments. Are there any further speakers uh to the motion? Heard the motion. Those in favor of the motion as carried here. Pain 9.9 uh and again it's quite a lengthy resolution. I know all members of council has it in front of them and it's a motion to consider local governance support by councelor Best and councelor Kolki. So councelor Best go ahead please. Yes. Thank you worship and thank you councelor Ky for seconding it. This motion came from the chair uh Marvin Doherty of the Halton Catholic District School Board and as you saw with the trustee Don Denelli and the tr the student trustees. This is of specific concern and as the mayor highlighted uh very pertinent to today's announcement, but two weeks ago we had a similar motion regarding conservation authorities at the region. And I for one also endorse having local representation as a former parent council member. I've seen what happens with schools and one's concerns and uh trustee Daniel highlighted some of the issues that they deal with. I don't think the province wants to take on. So I request that uh council support this motion and and push it out to all the affected agencies because we have to think these things through. If the province is going to make changes in local government, they should be able to hear from local government and school boards. You councelor Kauki. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I echo everything councelor Best has said and what what I'll add is that whenever uh another level of government in this case decides to, you know, impose uh changes that uh limit the ability for people's voice to be heard uh through an election process, through an elected position. I think that's a very slippery slope and uh possible you know uh threat to our democracy. So I think this motion is timely in nature and we need to make sure that uh we do our best to advocate for people's voice to be heard and that includes the maintenance of the trustees and that position that currently exists and uh I would encourage everyone on council to support that uh that that the motion before us. Thank you. Thank you. Are there councelor Chner? Thanks Mr. Thanks worship. I am supportive of the motion. Uh but I'll tell you that we're on the thin edge of the wedge here. Um education is it falls under the education act which is not in our billy wick. uh we are the municipal act and knowing of the of the relationship we have with uh with Halton Board of Education and the Catholic Board of Education and the trustees who represent Milton, I'm in favor and I'm particularly in favor of the motion because what is proposed uh in terms of the kind of discussion the province should consider. Um there is no parallel to me to be made between what we're proposing to do tonight in terms of this support and what Halton region did with the conservation authority two weeks ago. Conservation authorities are funded by upper levels of government primarily. So the region of Halton had an obligation uh to let the province know how it feels about uh the amalgamation of conservation authorities across the province of Ontario. Although, as you would know, um I'm satisfied with uh what is proposed with the Grand River Conservation Authority and in terms of amalgamation. I've made that clear. Um it was a lot of work on the part of of GRCA, but we we got what we wanted. So, I'm satisfied with that and and I hope Halton Region is as well. Um the mayor made a comment a long long time ago uh when we were both much younger um about various levels of government and and councils and how they should operate and u it it's it's along the line of uh be careful what you wish for and the decisions that you make you will be held accountable for And I don't think when I look at what is happening today across the education center, what is happening today across upper levels of government, what is happening today with lower tiers of of government in municipalities that you know, have we have we been the best we can be? Do the results support the decisions that are being made by the province? I think you can argue I think with clarity about how the province is proceeding with respect to uh boards of education. very clearly Colin is right. Uh they need to spend more time listening to uh trustees, the bureaucracy and the public who receive uh uh education support. They have listened very carefully to conservation authorities. Um I can I can assure you that uh and quite frankly they you know Queens Park is is wallpapered with resolutions with respect to regional government. Um, and quite frankly, part of the change that was made to regional government came as a result of the concerns of this council about the planning process and how we were being treated through that process. And had we not shared our concerns as a council, perhaps we'd be in a different world right now when it comes to planning. So, you know, be careful what you wish for. Um, but I will be supportive. But we're in the thin edge of the wedge here, guys. Let's be as constructive as possible because Queens Park, quite frankly, is in no mood to have more wallpaper. Okay. Uh, Council Chandler, I'm not going for the bait. Let me tell you that. So, but certainly I always say be careful what you ask for, you might get it. So, be very careful of that. So, and again, my uh crystal ball over the years have not let me down either with those sentiments. So uh are there any any other questions or any other comments on this resolution? If not, those in favor of the motion that is carried unanimously because I think it's very important and uh just one small editorial uh and councelor Chner is absolutely right on his uh observations there. So we at the uh local level and uh we at the regional level in Halton have played a fairly important role on making know our views with regards to the province. Not so much a federal level but certainly the province. So I thank my colleagues for that. Thanks. So uh councelor Kulki, Mr. Chair, that concludes my portion of it. So back over to you. Thank you Mayor CR for filling in for me. Um, we'll move on here to item 9.10. It's going to be a motion moved by councelor Chower and seconded by councelor Ajaz that staff report DS-02826 entitled recommendation report notice of intention to rename existing portions of Tmaine Road to Gayen Road and Troop Point be received and that council approve the street name change from Tmaine Road to Gaten Road and Troop Point. And further that once the 20-day objection period has expired and if there are no objections, a road renaming bylaw will be brought forward for council adoption. Now, my understanding is that councelor Best would like to have uh an amendment added here to to to be moved, and I need a secondary for this, but the wording is that the motion be deferred until all parties, including the town of Halton Hills, are consulted and that there is a consensus. Councelor Ch, are you seconding that? Okay. It'll be moved by councelor Best and seconded by Councelor Chner. Now, we're dealing with that part of the motion at this point to defer. Questions? Councelor Best? Yes. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you staff for making this amendment. Uh regarding this report, this actually came from the region in terms of the road renaming. And uh I have no problem with Gaiton Road for the Milton Heights portion south of the 401. It seems to be almost unanimous uh uh name, but almost went for CR, but uh yeah, we we missed on that one, but it is well accepted. I haven't heard any objections, but to the north of the 401, which includes both sides, south of Campville Side Road and north of it, which is a boundary road between Milton and Halton Hills, I've been corresponding with the two written submissions that we received on that as well as councelor Manakus and councelor Chner through his heritage background. Uh the name Troop Point really seems to have no connection with this area and asking council and staff to defer this for consultations with the immediate. There's about 13 homes on this section including the Milton Heights campground which uh is you know the owner is not too sure what to go because they're looking at some significant costs in terms of changing the address because I went through this on my street and it's not fun. I'm still getting stuff 15 years later addressed as Main Street. So I'd ask that we work with the town of Halton Hills there. Also councelor Somerville there who's award counselor has asked for a deferral there so they can consult with residents on their side of the street so we get this right because once it's changed it's changed. There's a lot of great names there including carton uh carton lane I believe was Mayor CR called it as well as Tmaine Road North. I want to get some consent from the residents who are going to be affected by it. Thank you councelor Best and councelor Chner as a seconder. Go ahead. I I don't really have anything to add to it. Um I I think that uh the public deserves the opportunity and and we've got to obviously work with Halton Hills on this most carefully. Thanks. Thanks, Council Mayor CR. Mr. Chairman, uh it comes under the heading for what it's worth. I guess uh councelor Best alluded to it. I was born and raised in that area back then. It was never even known as Tmaine Road. Uh it was known as the uh the first line. I'm supportive of the uh the resolution for sure, but uh I'd never heard of troop, believe it or not. Uh Hill of course uh know there was a lot of Hill families in that area as well, but it was always always referred to as Cartons Lane, not Cartons Road, but Carton Lane. Anybody that's been around for a day or two will know that. So, I have no problems calling it Carton Road, but if you really want to know the true history and heritage of it, it was always known as Carton's Lane for what it's worth. Thank you, Mayor CR. Any other members of council wishing to comment or a question? No. Okay. All those in favor? That is carried. Okay. Okay. Are there any updates from regional counselors? No updates. Are there any statements by members? No statements. We have one We have one item in confidential session. Does any member wish to go into confidential session? Okay. We'll deal with the motions now. Is it the one? Okay. Motion moved by councelor Challener and seconded by councelor Aaz. The recommendations contained in staff report com 00326 be approved. Any questions? All those in favor? It's carried. Next is a motion moved by councelor Chower, seconded by councelor Jazz that bylaws number 0172026 through and to uh including bylaw 02026 be read, passed, and numbered and that the mayor and the town clerk be authorized to sign the said bylaw seal them with the seal of the corporation and that they be engrossed in the bylaw book. Any questions? No questions. All those in favor? It's carried. That's it. Okay, we are at the end now. We are ajent.

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