Sound check. Good morning everyone. We are just going to wait until we have quorum to start uh the joint meeting this morning. So we're still waiting for a quorum of committee members and then we'll get started. Well, good morning everyone. I would like to call us to order, please. This is a special joint meeting of the Environment and Climate Change Committee and Emergency Preparedness and Protective Services Committee. This is actually the second meeting uh that the joint committees have had. Um I do want to begin our meeting today and on behalf of Ottawa City Council, I wish to acknowledge that Ottawa is built on the unseated Anesa Alongquin territory. The peoples of the Anosa Alongquin nation have lived on this territory for millennia. Their culture and presence have nurtured and continued to nurture this land. City of Otto honors the peoples and land of the Anosanabi Alangquin nation and honors all first nations Inuit and Matei peoples and their valuable past and present contributions to this land. At this time I would like to ask our committee coordinator to take a roll call, please. >> Councelor Bradley >> here. Councelor Brown here. >> Councelor Curry. >> Councelor Dash >> here. Councelor Divine >> here. >> Cancer Judas >> present. >> Councelor Hubley >> here. >> Councelor Johnson >> here. >> Cancer Kavanagh >> present. >> Canceler Kelly >> present. >> Cancer King >> here. >> Cancer Low. Cancer Lulaf >> is up. >> Cancer Plant. >> Hello. >> Canceler Skolski >> here. Councelor Tierney >> present vice chair heel >> present >> vice chair carr chair brochington >> here >> chairman >> here >> your corn chair >> thank you very much and I do have a note from councel low and councelor curry that they may attend the meeting they just have uh challenges to arrive on time but hopefully we'll connect with them before the meeting adjourns Um, so are there any declarations of interest this morning? Seeing no hands. Thank you. Confirmation of minutes. The last meeting of the joint uh committee was on September 19th, 2024. That was some time ago. Those meeting sorry meeting minutes confirmed. Thank you. We have one item of substance on the agenda today. It's regarding the pilot of the extreme weather preparedness grant program. staff are here to present. So, at this time, I'll turn it over to you. >> Right. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair, and good morning committee. So, my name is Nicole Hoover Bash. I'm the director of climate change and resiliency services. And joining me for today's presentation are Beth Gooding, director of public safety services, and Sami Raymond, who's a project manager in our climate adaptation branch. So, as the chair had mentioned, we're here today to present committee with a recommendation to approve a new pilot grant program geared towards supporting community extreme weather preparedness. So, this is been a joint effort between uh both my team and Beth's team. And as we will share in today's presentation and as uh you would have seen in the report, this program is designed to help communities prepare before emergencies happen by strengthening local capacity. Next slide, please. So, the proposed program the proposed program direct directly delivers on council's direction to strengthen community level preparedness for extreme weather. It supports the term council strategic objective of strengthening community capacity for climate preparedness and emergency response. It also aligns with the strategic goal of community level preparedness in the 2024 to 2027 emergency management program strategic plan. And lastly, it was also a priority action um I identified within climate ready Ottawa, the city's climate resiliency strategy which was approved by council last November. Next slide please. So in terms of the report recommendations, we are seeking council approval of the pilot program. Um, we are seeking council's um approval to delegate authority to the general manager of emergency and protective services to implement and administer the pilot program and to direct staff to report back to committee and council within 3 years on pilot findings and recommendations for next steps. I'll now hand things over to both Beth and Sami. >> Thank you. So, I'll be presenting the next two slides and I'll be explaining how the grant was conceived and why it matters. So Ottawa is prone to uh severe weather. Over the past 10 years, we've experienced um riverine flooding, flash flooding, drought, uh datual windstorm, various tornadoes, extreme heat, extreme cold, uh ice storms, and severe winter weather. Um and what we know as well is that the negative impacts of severe weather are not felt equally. Um, people who are already struggling uh due to age, disability, income, social isolation, or other challenges are always hit the hardest. And I know that members of council are very empathetic about that because I've had multiple discussions with you over the years. And it's the number one question you always ask is how can we better find and reach people who need our support the most? And that really is the crux of this grant is that we are aiming to uh increase the breadth and efficacy of community groups who are already supporting um people in need. The city will always be there to help um but we'd like as many groups as possible to chip in after an emergency. Next slide. So one of the challenges of working in the field of emergency management is that some of our most important work is done when nothing is wrong. And so that's the challenge right of investing in readiness and preparedness. But we know it works. Um studies across North America and globally have shown that communities that know each other, trust each other, and work together uh always recover faster after an emergency. And I've seen it myself in Ottawa over and over again during the 2022 do uh windstorm. We saw community organizations open their doors for people who needed a place to go. We've seen community associations organize their own wellness visits to find and support neighbors in need. And a couple of months ago, I was at the main uh sandbagging station uh in West Carlton on Len Purscell Drive and I remember a man drove up and we thought at first that he needed help uh getting sandbags. Uh but he didn't. What he wanted to know was which houses in the community um were building sandbag wall so that he could go and lend a hand. And to me that's the definition of community resilience. ordinary people, community groups pitching in, helping their neighbors during emergencies. So, as I mentioned earlier, I'm very passionate about this topic. I could speak forever, but I want to make sure we continue with the presentation. I'm going to hand things over to Sumi to continue on. Um, but I do hope I've painted a bit of a picture of the why. >> Thank you. Good morning, chairs and committee members. This slide provide Oh, next slide, please. Thank you. This slide provides an overview of the proposed pilot program. The goal of the program is to enhance community resiliency to extreme weather. We'll support local community organizations helping residents to better prepare for extreme weather emergencies. We'll provide funding to support community emergency planning and the acquisition of essential equipment and supplies. Staff worked with grants and contribution team to ensure we satisfy city policies and procedures. The Office of Emergency Management will administer the pilot program with support from climate change and resiliency services as required. Next slide, please. Staff are proposing that the program be eligible to local nonprofit community organizations that demonstrate governance and accountability practices and deliver projects and services to Ottawa residents. We encourage applications from organizations serving equity deserving and priority populations. Only one application per organization will be accepted each year with a maximum grant of up to $50,000 per year. Projects are completed within one year of receiving funds. Applicants must demonstrate sufficient liability and property insurance depending on the project and associated risks. Staff worked with legal and insurance services to ensure our program requirements align with city practices. Staff are proposing to launch and promote the program before the end of the year. Next slide, please. Eligible projects are grouped into three categories to support practical on the ground preparedness. Proposed eligible equipment balances safety while optimizing funds for greatest community benefit. Further, the proposed project types are designed to support community organizations at different stages of emergency preparedness. Some organizations may be early in their preparedness work and would benefit from support to bring community members together, build awareness, and develop community emergency plan. Other groups may already have established plans and instead focus on funding for equipment and supplies, training on safe use of equipment or wish to test and practice their plans through exercises. To help illustrate a potential outcome scenario of the proposed program, here's an example. In a prolonged power outage, a community with an emergency plan, trained volunteers, and access to backup power can coordinate support, check on vulnerable residents, and provide local assistance before emergency services can reach everyone. Next slide, please. So, my last slide provides an overview of the steps we took to develop the program. The proposed pilot program was informed by an online engagement survey, an environmental scan of comparable municipal and provincial programs, as well as a review of other current city of Ottawa grants and contribution programs. The scan of other comparable programs confirmed that Ottawa's pilot program is an innovative approach that is not widely used in other North Americans municipalities. Most municipalities deliver prepared preparedness education and training rather than offering direct grants to community organizations. Engage Ottawa survey respondents expressed strong support for the program and the proposed project types. Survey responses confirmed a community gap. Fewer than onethird of respondents reported having a community emergency plan. Respondents also identified training, planning, coordination, public education, and maintaining communications and power during outages as priorities. The proposed program was developed to respond to these gaps. So, I'll pass it over to Nicole to close the presentation. >> Great. Merci Sammy and Beth. And as Beth and Simmyi had both spoken to, um extreme weather events are becoming and and they're certainly also more are predicted to continue to be more frequent um and severe. So making community resilience and building that capacity um within the community more important than ever. So this grant program is intended to help communities better prepare for emergencies uh for when they happen and position them to better support neighbors throughout extended emergencies. Empowering residents uh our neighborhoods and community organizations um before emergencies um as Beth had touched on um helps protect health and safety, strengthens that local response capacity and supports uh faster recovery during extreme weather events. So what staff are proposing today is intended to be a practical community focused initiative uh that helps advance council priorities and the city's uh key strategies including the emergency management strategic plan as well as climate ready Ottawa. So thank you very much for your time today and I'll hand things back to the chair. >> Well, thank you very much for your presentation as well. The pilot certainly looks interesting and there are a number of hands already raised. So we'll start with councelor Kelly. >> Thank you very much Mr. Chair, I'm sorry. Yes, I'm so eager to get to questions. You're right. So, uh, colleagues, we do have one delegation this morning. We have not received any written submissions to date from the public on this matter. So, we will hear our delegate first. And following the delegation, then we'll get to questions. Um, so you can keep your hands up. I uh I'll ask if anyone has questions for our delegate. So, Miss Keller Herszog, please come forward to the delegation section. Good morning to you. As you know, you have up to five minutes at the one minute mark. I'll remind you have one minute left. >> Okay. Good morning. Um, as always, it's a pleasure to be here. I see my PowerPoint is uh is up and I hope that's been circulated. It's a pleasure to be here at this joint committee and have the collaboration between the departments. Um that's absolutely critical. Next slide please. Um I think most of you know cafes so I'll go on. Next slide please. Um so the cafet's position on this is that we strongly support um this program and are very pleased to see it and urge you to um recommend to council to approve it. Um this pilot um invests in what matters a lot and that's the base the community that will be hit by these um emergencies. Um and also the pilot approach is smart policy design. We can test, learn and adapt. And we urge you actually when administering the program to have an annual cycle of adaptation and learning. Um next slide please. Um so that's the presentation overview. I'll get right into it. Next slide, please. I think that we all understand the context of increasing hits from intense and extreme weather. Um, and these events place increasing pressure on residents, community supports, and emergency support systems, especially when the extreme weather is combined with the power outages. Next slide, please. Um, as the staff presentation pointed out, fewer than onethird of organizations surveyed at the grassroots level, at community level, have a community emergency plan. And that's that's serious um a serious gap. Next slide, please. So in terms of what are some possible concerns with the proposed program and put forward in in a very constructive intent um in terms of the coordination um we find that there is an artificial separation um between the cityowned facility emergency preparedness for the community centers and the community organization preparedness. um we see there's and and we think that the community center should be the hub of resilience for the community organization. So if there's equipment, maybe it should be stored at the community center and not at Joe's house. Um so we see there's three distinct roles that need clear definition. one is the community centerbased preparedness to the community organization preparedness and then there's also the counselor's role during emergencies and the report is also quite silent on that. Um so that also bears some thinking although of course counselors would not be receiving grants for that. Next slide please. So the issue of power outage comes up throughout and we feel there should be a structural point of contact at Hydro Ottawa and Hydro 1 so that as communities are coming up with proposals they have a place to become informed what are the emergency protocols um at their utility company and that would I think save some confusion. Next slide please. Um, we've talked a lot, I think, this term of council about rural realities and that one size doesn't fit all. So, we would like to see a little bit more how the grant call and assessment criteria could address rurally based proposals a bit um in a more tailored way. Um, next slide. Um and lastly in terms of the administration we read the documentation carefully and there was this um narrowing of criteria for in full quotes um professionals um and we feel that um like the the staff report requires that the service provision and training be conducted by full quote professionals or certified experts but it doesn't really um define what is a professional. So, is it someone with 10 years hands-on training or is it someone with a certification in training from Alongquin College? Um, and that should be made very clear so that people do not get disqualified and waste their time and that would cause frustration. Um, last slide please. So our recommendations then are better like opening the door for collaboration between community center as hubs and what the community organizations are doing. Two, iterative year-over-year learning from this program. And thirdly, that the program launch should have a structured interface with hydro explicit accommodation of rural realities and a clear definition of this professional training and service delivery requirement. Um, last slide. Thank you very much >> and thank you very much for your delegation. I'll just see if there are any questions for my colleagues. Go ahead, Chair Manard. >> Thank you uh very much chair. Thank you, Angela, for uh the presentation. Appreciate um some of the the uh recommendations there and the insights. Um oftentimes when emergencies have hit in the last several years, we see community members on the ground, it's kind of ad hoc, but community centers, community associations, uh individual community members help out. They they immediately kind of spring to action. I remember the power being out for seven days uh in in in old Ottawa South for a period of time. The DECO had hit and I remember going to the OC building there and all the lights were out. Even the backup uh power lights were out. But community members went there and they distributed um uh somebody came with a an EV vehicle to charge people's uh devices. They gave food out. This sort of thing. The community association also organized uh some help during that time. and we've seen lots of power outages and and storms where they've done that. I guess the reason I'm getting at this is there there's kind of an informal thing that happens now. This program I think could could help formalize that a little bit more, but that informal stuff will still go on. So, what's the best way do you think given the role that you've got in community associations? What what is the best way to interface with existing community associations and our emergency preparedness staff and climate staff uh to to to get this everywhere all over the city to all community associations so that they're prepared regardless of whether they get a grant or not for uh for for some machinery or or otherwise. What's the best way that they could do that now uh with the existing context within the city of Ottawa? Um, okay. That's that's a good and fairly broad question. Um so first of all I think that readiness um means like when you know when an opportunity comes your way like there's like a great new job and if you are not mentally ready to take that opportunity then you don't it passes you by and I would argue that in the same way if the leaders ers at the community organization level have that readiness um in in their mindset. um then that is like a really important step and having this program will will actually help right because it incentivizes and people start thinking hey we don't actually have anything in our wellorganized community association to step up what if and it's very natural for all of us to basically hope that the power will not be out during a heat wave or a long freezing spell and like we kind of cross our fingers and I I would say most people in this room probably would not be able to survive for you know more than 2 days in bitter cold like we would basically plan to go to a hotel. Um so having that state of readiness and I think that the community emergency plans at very local level that I've seen um I've been excited to oh here's a document but it tends to really lack definition. Um, so you really need to get people in a particular locality to come together and then for someone to step up and say, "Okay, if there's an emergency, I'm going to be ready. I'm going to step up. You can call me. I'm going to have communications ready. I know how to contact the counselor." Like that readiness is critical. is that piece is is how do you what what is the the best way to ensure that community organizations, community associations specifically because again you're on the environmental sustainability but community associations have this information and can do this at you know on a regular basis so that every year or two years there's training baked in. Is it their own valition? Do they need support? like what's what's actually uh got to go on to make sure that they're uh getting the information they need so that say those sessions can happen on a regular basis. Um I I think because right now I think if it's a little ad hoc, right? So like when uh there was flooding uh in councelor Kelly's ward last term, uh I remember being out there sandbagging, but it was just an ad hoc thing. People the call went out, people went out there. But this this is just kind of an ad hoc piece. And so I'm sure the community association was was organized in some way, but I'm trying to get at that we're going to see more and more emergencies. We need to see some coordination, I think, between community groups who are most likely to do this type of work. And I'm wondering if you have any recommendations, doesn't have to be now, maybe in the future about how best to make sure every single community association, regardless of their their insurance, anything else, has some information and training they can share with community so that when they jump to it, they're doing the right things with with our staff. I'll obviously talk to staff about this, too. But if you've got advice on that just given your own role there, I think that's a really important formalization of of this piece. So uh thank thank you chair. >> Let let me just say one more thing like if we think in terms of like sticks and carrots. So this program is an incentive for people to think about it. But in the middle between and we're not going to have like a requirement like you community association are legally required to da da da da da. Um but in the middle there could also be like proactive outreach. So if each counselor in their ward invites the community leaders in their ward to have a conversation and starts planting the seed about what this could look like. I think that would be very helpful and then in turn maybe staff would like to also provide training to counselors about what to talk about and what kind of framing. >> Thanks so much. Thank you chair. Thank you, chair. I know um councilors Kelly, D Ro, Skolski, and Dudas, your hands are up for staff. >> Okay. And councelor Kavanagh for the delegate. Go ahead. Oh, >> counselor Kavanagh >> and she's back. I just wanted to point out that um we we did exactly what you were talking about in Bayward and you know the unfortunate thing is is that people get have an experience and get scared because we had floods. We had floods in Bayward. Um and this year looked like it was going to be a flood. Um so it motivated people and we did have a session. I want to thank um city staff. We had uh Chris Harsbos um who was excellent and gave a session and what we did is we invited community leaders to come to it. So it wasn't an open public meeting. We could do that but we made it smaller so that we could have the leaders bring it back to um to their communities. But that's what piques the interest is the fact that um something did happen. Unfortunately um because people have realized you know that there has been close to an emergency at times then it you know like datio that all of a sudden people get motivated but I think the one thing we discovered is that we need a system to check on vulnerable people. That was the one thing that um was asked about was the checking on on vulnerable people probably all the time I guess but during a situation where there's extreme weather that was important. And I don't know have any comments about that, but that's that's what we discovered that was still um something that the communities really have to, you know, get to get to do themselves. And it's as informal as knowing your neighbor and um and uh checking on them. But um anyway, I just wanted to point that out that uh we did have that and it worked well and I would recommend it to anyone any council. >> Okay, that's more of a comment than a question. We'll just leave it there. We'll just we'll we'll leave it there. Thank you. >> All right. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. >> Thank you very much for your delegation this morning. >> Okay. Now we'll transition to questions for staff. So, uh, now I'll recognize councelor Kelly. Go ahead, please. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Uh, I want to start by thanking staff for bringing forward this report. Um, I think we can all agree that being prepared for an emergency puts us in a much better place to ensure best outcomes for for everyone that is affected. And as the counselor for West Carlton March, I can say that preparedness for extreme weather is not theoretical discussion. Um, not my ward. Over the past decade, we've experienced repeated flooding, uh, major tornado, duro, I think we need to standardize the pronunciation of that word. uh frequent prolonged power outages, dry wells, um and other things that pop up um over the years. And unfortunately, we've had plenty of opportunities to learn uh what disaster relief really means. Um and an ongoing joke that uh that happens in my ward is that we're just waiting for the locusts to come cuz we seem to have experienced pretty well everything else. But one of the more um or most important lessons we've learned, I think, is that community resilience makes all the difference. uh local volunteers, community organizations, and neighbors are uh often the first source of support for residents long before any official uh recovery efforts are are initiated by uh the province or uh the city. In Ward 5, uh we've seen organizations like West Carlton Disaster Relief and many volunteers step up um during these times. And and what makes those efforts successful isn't just equipment. Um, I think it's and most importantly, I think it's the relationships and community trust that have been built up long before an emergency occurs, which I think that's why this program is so important. Um, and why I appreciate the approach the approach of this report. Um, so I I I certainly support uh support the recommendations and and I have a couple of questions for staff. Um, so this one is in regards to the insurance. Uh so the the report identifies insurance requirements as a potential barrier to participation for some organizations, but the city already administers community partnership insurance program to help community groups access affordable insurance. Have staff explored whether that program uh could help organizations meet the insurance requirements of this grant program and whether or not um there are opportunities to align those two programs. Hello uh chair thank you for the question. uh staff did have initiate discussions with the CPIP team and um while it it seems to be a good route, there are some challenges. The direction that's been given for the CPIP is very specific in terms of who the eligible um organizations are and the activities that permitted. So, the way this program is moving forward, we're expanding. We're going beyond just community associ community associations or organizations that are um placed in a specific geographical area. So we're looking for a broader organizations and secondly uh most of the program or the activities that are permitted in that program are around greening as well as community gardens and now some stewardship. What we're proposing in terms of preparedness activities is beyond the scope of that. So it it didn't it didn't align. Okay. Um, so I think also the report appropriately prioritizes organizations that have completed uh community emergency plans uh in West Carlton. We've also seen organizations develop significant preparedness capacity through real world experience uh responding to floods, tornadoes. How will the evaluation process recognize demonstrated history and emergency response capability um and existing community partnerships in addition to formal emergency plans? >> Thank you Mr. Chair um for the question. So um counselor as you had highlighted within uh within the staff report certainly we'd be looking as part of that evaluation criteria to um certainly also consider kind of that readiness based on the community environmental plans but as you had recognized too we know there's a lot of that direct lived experience um within the community. So certainly um considering those pieces as part of the the community envir or sorry as part of the um sorry just give me one second. I think at the time of although at the time of the application I think we will be looking at certainly experiences and as well as the feasibility of what they're proposing and so if they have experience and they have that that skills that they can demonstrate in their application I think that will um be considered. >> Thank you. Um certainly appreciate the the responses from staff and I know that uh I will echo uh what what has been said uh in the presentation is that preparedness doesn't start when the emergency begins. It start months and years before uh beforehand through planning and and training and communications and and most of all partnerships and relationships. So I'm I'm happy to see that this pilot program recognizes the reality and uh provides communities with tools to strengthen that capacity. Thank you very much, Mr. Ch. >> Thank you, Councelor Kelly and Councelor Delos, you're next. >> Uh, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I will support uh the plan that's on the table today. I think it's important as um many of us unfortunately have seen situations where we need to pull together to respond to an incident and the the aftermath of that. Um I do see and uh you know I know we have a lot to say about the federal and provincial governments uh at this place. I will say that they've stepped up uh over the last number of years to enhance um the strengthening of community-based uh emergency preparedness both at the provincial level and at the federal level. They have grant programs. they have uh you know machinery that they're trying to pull together to make sure that uh communities are ready and I and as such I wonder if staff feel that there's a is there any redundancy between existing programs that are in place with the federal provincial government and the pilot project that you're proposing. >> Thank you for the question uh Mr. Chair. It's um it's a it's a really important one. So, um, we've assessed the other grant programs that exist and we don't think we're duplicating in any way. Um, the most important one is the province of Ontario's um, they have a community emergency preparedness grant, but most of the organizations that support uh, residents in Ottawa during an emergency are not allegible to apply. And the main reason is because their mandate is not emergency management. Their mandate is food security or they're a faith-based group or they provide a social service first and foremost. And so what we'd like to do is recognize the diversity of the groups in Ottawa that step up and help out during an emergencies um by providing a grant program to which they would be allegible. >> Okay, that's great. And I know you'll do the due diligence and stuff will do the diligence that there's no stacking that if they apply to one program and they apply to ours that uh um you know we're managing that to ensure that uh you know there's prudence there in terms of what we're investing in and we're not um you know we're not uh stacking as they call it in in contribution lingo. >> We will. Thank you. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. As I said, I'll support this. it uh goes uh uh it's an important step forward for really strengthening the the safety net and the safety quilt of our city that often involves uh community groups and neighbors helping neighbors as well as emergency services. Thank you. >> Thank you councelor counselor Skolski and then >> thank you chair. Um, I just have a well I I want to start by saying that I think this uh program is really important and particularly in rural Ottawa where residents face disproportionate impacts from disasters when they do strike. Um, as someone who was a community association president for for a long time, um, I was we were particularly seized with emergency preparedness and and management. We met with the city staff who came in and talked to us about and and many other community associations across the ward. Um, but one thing that sort of struck me quickly right away was how much um you really you do get seized with some of the logistic stuff right away. Where where is this going to be stored? You know, how are we actually insured to prop like if it was me to go into someone's property and use a chainsaw and cut down trees? Like is that something that we're covered for? So, I know uh councelor Kelly had already asked about the insurance component, but I think we need to actually do some of that work and see how we can support community associations and being properly insured. Um, and as an add-on to what they get now perhaps under the C uh the CPIP program. Um, I do have a couple of questions uh whether Yeah. Is it do you think that this program would would enable a partnership with the city to enable storage at a community facility? So, specifically for things like I'm thinking generators or you know water and supplies and equipment to not have it be at um as as the delegate had described you know Joe's shed but being able to leverage uh facilities that we have here at the city. >> Mr. Chair, thank you for the question. Um, so counselor, um, we we did as part of the development, uh, of the grant program, um, certainly that was one of the areas that was flagged. Um, part of the criteria assessment that staff are recommending is that, um, applicants be able to demonstrate, um, proper storage requirements. Uh, certainly through our conversations with our colleagues in facility services, um, that storage can be quite a premium as it exists. uh just being able to manage um our own uh service needs within the community centers, but certainly something that would not be off the table uh for us to look at depending on the the nature of the application. So something that we'd be looking at uh with our colleagues on a case-by case basis. >> Okay. Okay, that's helpful. So what I heard there is there's a possibility, but maybe it would have to be arranged in advance and not something that would be enabled through the application process. Is that a fair way to take that? >> That is correct, counselor. >> Okay. Um, I read here that there would be restrictions on higher risk equipment such as vehicles, chainsaws, and so on. I'm just wondering if you can elaborate a bit on on the higher risk equipment in specific or sorry, on the restrictions themselves. And I'm I'm thinking specifically about chainsaws because that came up a lot during in our time because of all the trees that were were taken down as something that would we would want to have um you know some additional well-maintained chainsaws ready to help support tree removal. >> Thanks for the question chair. I think the what we're approaching this program with is it's a pilot program and so we're approaching this that we want to approach it with safety and due diligence and be prudent but also trying to do it in a way that uh enables communities as well. So we have decided that projects that uh or equipment that has higher risk is going to be removed and ineligible during this uh pilot program. What we will also though offer is uh recommendations for training to how to safely and properly maintain and operate those uh types of equipment. >> Okay, thanks for the clarification there. So, it's not it's not restrict it's restricted entirely. It's not just you have to be trained in order to apply. So, that's helpful um helpful additional information. Um and one last question, will you be able to accept joint applications? So sometimes we have several communities working closely together or a community, you know, working in partnership with a church maybe to just leverage their facility. Is that something that you've contemplated and um would support? >> You Mr. Chair? Absolutely, counselor. Um and that will be something that we're encouraging as part of the uh the pilot grant program. >> Great. Great. Thanks very much. Yeah, this is a a great program. I'm excited to see the details come out here and I'll certainly be supporting and appreciate your your answers to my questions. Thank you. >> Thank you for those questions. Councelor Dudas and then Kavanaaugh. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Actually, my colleagues have asked some very pertinent questions. One that I wanted to ask as well. I also wanted to mention that uh in speaking to some of my community members who are very involved in emergency preparedness, they had mentioned the aspect of storage as being one of the biggest obstacles. Uh, and I'm happy to hear that that will to be taken into consideration. Um, some of our community groups are literally just running out of their own homes or are accessing city facilities that don't have, you know, amen um, available storage and to develop partnerships or find alternative places would be beneficial. I also wanted to know uh how involved will the staff panel be in terms of advising maybe uh preferred say generators or things like that. How much handholding will be done? Some groups will be very knowledgeable about what they might need and others may not. >> Um thank you for the question Mr. Chair. Um, we believe that most of the groups who are requesting this equipment know exactly what type and model they want, but where there may be some confusion, we're happy to um provide some highle advice. That kind of segus into my next step because I see this we're we're talking about a pilot. I love that word and I love the fact that we're going to to be testing this out over time. My hope is is that if we extend this pilot, if it's successful, whether it's grant focused or just more educational component, that we'll see almost all communities across our city in some format, small, large, very active, little bit less active, be involved in emergency preparedness, neighbors watching out for neighbors. So, do you see this as part of that natural progression and that you'll be able to learn from this experience and then maybe use it to to um establish deeper roots within other communities that might not have as active, they may not have a community association established, but we can work with that. >> Uh Mr. Chair, maybe I'll I'll start with that and actually ask my colleagues uh to dive in a little bit for uh further. Certainly um that is the intent and and that that is the intent behind setting this up as a pilot and really allowing us that opportunity to to have those conversations and understand from the community where some of those gaps and needs are. And what I'll do is maybe ask my colleague Sami to be able to speak to some of the the enhanced communications that we're working on, especially within some of those um uh equity secret or disproportionately impacted communities where we may not necessarily have those those established groups or relationships. Um we do have some concurrent work that is happening on um initiatives that um were identified through climate ready Ottawa. So maybe Sami if you'd like to add a little further detail there. Certainly. Thank you. Um, in addition to what we're proposing, OEM is also looking to uh proactively enhance the uh education and and uh communications with this program. So, it's complimentary to their existing program, but they're also looking to move that become more proactive on that front. In terms of um equity deserving groups, we are going to be working with uh OP as well as CSSD and to promote this program in the priority neighborhoods. And we're also going to be looking for um um communications uh that are going to be targeting those disproportionately impacted communities. We already have a program underway where we're reaching out and trying to co-design uh communications and engagement with equity deserving and disproportionately impacted communities as part of CRO. >> And I just wanted to add one more thing, Mr. Chair, because I want to make sure we address the council's question. Our vision is for as many individuals, as many groups in Ottawa to um be prepared to support their neighbors during an emergency. And part of that is learning through best breast practices. We already know that there are some very strong community associations who are doing wonderful things already on the emergency preparedness front. And so as part of our engagement, we want to share those stories, inspire other groups, and help them get to the same level. That's incredibly I'm very pleased to hear that. I have one such group in my community, the Blackburn Hamlet Community Association, Don Kelly, Brad Hamson. I just want to shout them out because they've been on the forefront of this. What I would say too is is that leveraging those stronger groups to help support, educate and you know enhance the knowledge of other entities across the city. So it's not always the city who's the provider of support and information. It's them helping each other which we know they do already. So it's that would be beneficial. How um how are you going to gauge success on this pilot? like at the end of it and in our delegation it said you know annually how do you know that this is working and where we go from here. >> Thank you for the question Mr. Chair. So there are some sort of output performance indicators that are easy to gauge. So for example how many um community uh organizations developed a community plan? how many uh purchase the equipment they saw within the 12-month period uh that they've been allotted. Um and then there's some less tangible performance indicators. Uh that includes um our observations of their level of engagement. Uh their ability to support um preparedness activities including training and exercise. and then during emergencies, their ability uh to uh uh um support as many residents as possible. So there's a range of indicators that we're considering right now and there are mix um of quantitative and qualitative. This is excellent. I see this as the next step in the evolution of the city's engagement and partnership with our community partners in terms of emergency preparedness. And I I only see that this strengthens our ability to adapt to anything. And we will be hit with anything. It's not when, it's if or it's not if, it's when. Um, but I will say I want to thank staff for all the work. I know that over the years we've seen that progression from the city's engagement with our community groups, our own uh, you know, enhancement of our emergency preparedness. And at the end of the day, the more boots on the ground, neighbors watching out for neighbors, that means that our emergency services are freed up to do the heavy lifting and what they need to focus on. So, thank you for all the work you've been doing, all the outreach. And Beth Beth in particular, thank you for working so closely with my communities. I know you've been available anytime they needed you. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you for that, counselor, councelor Kavanagh, and then Divine. Thank you very much, chair. Yes, thank you very much for the work and as I've already pointed out, we've uh taken advantage of uh the services and um had a session in our ward and it was uh it was great. I would definitely do it again. I think it needs to be done on a regular basis. Um these were communities that were somewhat organized and um you know, it's already been mentioned about you know u more um disadvantaged areas that don't have leadership. Um, and I wanted to know also about um your your work with Ottawa Community Housing and uh the communities there because uh those those are neighborhoods we can reach through staffing, but I just wanted to know what's being done there. >> Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. So, um, Ottawa Community Housing would not be allegible, uh, to apply, but we have existing and very close relationships with them on the emergency management front. Um, born partly through previous emergencies, including the 2022 Dicho. Um, so we view them as a um, client to some of the services that these organizations will be providing. For example, uh one of the um faith-based groups that we work with regularly during a power outage adopts um buildings like uh an OC building or a retirement home and they go in um assess the needs of the residents and then provide the necessary supports and so that's the kind of uh sort of client relationship that we envisit envisage and like I said on a broader sort of city to OC front, we maintain um uh a good relationship and regularly strategize on how to better work together during emergencies. >> Okay. Thank you. So, it's possible a third party um group such as a faith-based or or other um could be working with OC buildings. Okay, that's that's good to know. No, I appreciate that. Um, I I do worry about the silent emergencies and I called it that because I'm talking about power outages where you just don't know um how people are doing. It's one thing when somebody's a tree falls on someone's house, you know, or or if there's a flood, it's obvious, but um power outages are silent and we don't know what's going on at each house. Um so I appreciate the you know, we we need that ability to get to people's doors and have systems where people are checked on. So, um I don't know how you can do that through a grant, but um it's it's still a concern. I think it's about training at the community level, all communities, but I don't know if there's anything that can be done via the grant on that kind of checking in. >> Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. Uh and it's an excellent one because wellness visits are so important. We do envision the grant helping in this regard because um we think that uh some of these uh recipient organizations will use the money to do uh training and exercise and to get their members up to speed on how to deliver proper wellness visits. And um I see that councelor Dudas has stepped out for a moment but she mentioned the Blackburn Hamlet Community Association. they have already organized themselves in this fashion including up to uh naming block captains and so that's the kind of best practice that we hope other organizations will adopt. >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you counselor counselor Divine and then King. >> Thank you chair. You can hear me? Okay. I don't usually do my meetings remote. Uh thank you. Um so um hello staff uh colleagues. So, having been a community association president myself um when we responded to a tornado in 2018 and a do in 2022, I am definitely supportive of this program. But I do have some questions about scope and process. Um I am keenly aware of the impact that local organizations can have in the face of emergency, but I am also aware of their limitations. Um, Councelor Dudas made reference to supporting getting more community boots on the ground so that the city could continue focusing on the heavy lifting. To that effect, um, what kind of training incentives, sorry, what kind of training initiatives or equipment acquisition initiatives might this program be fulfilling that could otherwise be the city's own responsibility or addressed through a city-led process? Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. Um, it's another really important one because we want to make the distinction here in that this grant and the work that these organizations are doing are never meant to replace the work the city is doing. Um, particularly when it comes to emergency services. Some of you have heard me share this story before, but the first night of the DAT show, every single fire truck in the city of Ottawa was out on multiple calls. And so the city will be always owning that life safety space um including um some of the more dangerous debris management work. Where we see this program filling gaps is really at the neighborhood um level. So, neighbors helping neighbors to clean up their yards, wellness visits, um, uh, neighbors, um, you know, opening or community organizations opening centers for people to go to, things like that that complement the city's efforts but don't replace them. >> Thank you. Um, I want to echo a question that was raised by councelor Skolowski on encouraging joint applications. Um, which I I I completely agree with. Whether it's on uh a training initiative or uh equipment acquisition, I could envision a scenario where three small uh communities might apply for funding for the same professional to offer the same training. Um it could be much much more beneficial and get a whole lot more value for money. um if those three communities were to submit one application, they could also benefit from, you know, networking and building their plan together. In addition to allowing joint applications, will the city be encouraging or incentivizing joint applications, let's say you get an application from a community, from an organization, and you can measure that the impact will be small. Is there a way that you can proactively um steer towards something where there'll be a better impact? >> Mr. Chair, thank you for the question. So, and it's a great point that you raised. So, in addition to um in addition to encouraging those joint applications, that's certainly something that the uh the the team that will be evaluating the different applications will be looking at and assessing those opportunities. And if we are seeing those opportunities, at the end of the day, we're wanting to help support the highest uh potential impact um as we're assessing those grant opportunities. So, it's certainly something um that the team will be well positioned to do as we are reviewing those different applications. >> Thank you. Um my next questions have to do with measuring impact. And if I am correct, this program is launching in Q2 or Q3 of 2026. Correct, >> Mr. Chair? Um if uh council does approve uh approve the pilot program, we'll be working towards launching in Q3. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. So um again supportive of the project, but $1 million over three years over an entire city covering such a wide breadth of eligible activities. That is not a large funding envelope to play with. Um I have worked for a grant funding organization where when we had small envelopes the way to achieve objectives was to be very very specific about those objectives and very specific about the uh assessment process. Um so I've got a few questions on that. What kind of measures will the city take to ensure that these limited funds go to areas of the city that are most susceptible? For example, has there been any vulnerability mapping so that we can launch this program knowing where uh the flood risk zones are or the heat island zones are or zones prone to more extended outages? Is there any way that the assessment criteria will be tied to areas of um already uh identified gaps and risks? >> Chair to you. That's a great question. Um the selection panel will be reviewing and trying to balance uh across projects, project types, um organizations and as well as the geography of of Ottawa. So certainly we'll be keeping in mind those areas of the city that are vulnerable and have demonstrated a pattern of vulnerability. >> Thank you. There's always a risk when you try to achieve the objectives by spreading it across all of your categories, across project type, across risk, across geography, there's always a risk that in trying to spread equitably, you don't necessarily meet the the the most pressing gaps. I've been in that process before. Um, in the report's comments on risk mitigation, it says that one risk is that the program will be overs subscribed, which I I can guarantee you're going to run into that, especially with a limited budget. To address that risk, it says the selection panel will will review all applications against selection criteria. Preference will be awarded to projects with the greatest impact. So, if this program is launching in Q3, are those assessment criteria already complete? And are there clear guidelines for how you will be scoring the grants based on those criteria in order to properly measure greatest impact? chair. Um the the criteria that we've established right now are the or the guidelines we have for selection are about the eligibility, the completeness, the alignment of what the program or what the proposal is in terms of how it aligns with the program objectives and as well as their ability to reach equity deserving disproportionately impacted communities and as well as then the feasibility and as well as a a work plan. So in combination, I think that's what's we're going to be looking at. Uh or the selection panel will be looking at. I hope that answers your question. >> Uh it it does. For example, um is there anything in the application process where the applicant has to demonstrate um a history of risk that they are looking to address? >> We can certainly take that into consideration and uh for our criteria when we finalize them. >> Okay. Um I might try to have some offline questions about the assessment criteria and the process for measuring them. Um my last question is about how you're going to assess organizations and their ability to successfully deliver these projects. As I understand um one of the criteria is whether or not they have liability insurance which is good but will an organization's mandate or their governance structure or their history of program activity or as I said even their experience in serving residents during emergencies will any of those play a role in assessment criteria? We would encourage all applicants to demonstrate all of those things that you have mentioned in their application in order to convey that they are capable and ready to deliver the proposal they're putting forward. I appreciate that you'll be inviting them to demonstrate that, but if you have an assessment criteria that you're going to be using to measure greatest impact, do you have a scoring rubric whereby you can assign scores to every criteria so that you can arrive at a number that tells you which applicants um can measurably by the application alone deliver impact. >> Mr. Chair, thank you for the question. So in addition to what Sami had mentioned um next steps if council does um does approve the pilot project that is the next step um in the work that the team will be undertaking is developing that more detailed criteria assessment based on kind of those parameters that we've outlined within the staff report that SE just walked through >> and councelor Divine that is your time if you have further questions you're welcome to uh go back on the list but I am going to take the next uh colleague and that's councelor King followed by councelor Johnson. >> Uh thank you so much, chair, and I do want to thank staff for this report and we'll definitely support the plan. Um I'm also uh pleased that uh we're having a general discussion about balancing standard operating procedures um with an ad hoc community approach. though I do appreciate the comments that uh council uh chairmanard made there because uh as you might remember I had uh made inquiries uh into even the previous term about how we're going to move ahead with standard operating procedures and I think that this pilot moves uh towards that. I'm also pleased that this pilot is occurring in conjunction with the establishment of a comprehensive uh emergency food security response plan uh with a focus on equity deserving uh communities and more rapid response uh that emerged uh from um one of the directions that I had provided uh during uh the last budget cycle and I think that's very important for us to uh consider uh the needs of equity deserving populations uh based on my experience during the direct Echo in in Overbrook. Uh the program as proposed targets equity uh deserving populations, but the report acknowledges that fewer community organizations may exist in equity seeking neighborhoods uh with the capacity to apply. And I know that you've uh discussed working uh with Ottawa Community Housing, but I'm also wondering if you will go above and beyond and work uh with other organizations such as Ottawa Public Health, our community health and resource centers, as well as settlement agencies uh in in order to reach newcomer and racialized communities. >> Um thank you for the question, Mr. Chair, and thank you, counselor, for your advocacy. Uh we always say over and over again that the emergency management program at the city of Ottawa exists to help those most in need. We are always expanding and looking to partner um with more groups including those that are serving equity deserving populations. A good example is a meeting we had a couple of months ago uh with United Way uh Ottawa. And the reason that we met with them is because they serve um a newcomer to Ottawa population and they understand the needs of that group. And so it was uh like I said there's a good example of a new relationship that we're developing and leveraging including um we'll be sending them our extreme heat brochure for their distribution with their network of social services providers. So, um, we're going to continue to build our network of partners across, uh, as many groups as possible, um, both inside and outside this grant program. >> I appreciate that. Uh, the survey also found that fewer than onethird of respondents have a community emergency plan, yet the program in a sense prioritizes applicants who already have one. So, how will staff balance this priority while also supporting organizations that are starting from scratch? Will there be a clearer pathway for groups with no existing plan? >> Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. Um we want to make sure that we support both types of groups because the development of community uh emergency plans are so important. But at the same time um there's confidence um that the money will be uh distributed redistributed within the community when um it's uh when the grant goes to an organization that has a history of supporting during emergency responses that already has an emergency plan um and that has the governance and other types of um requirements in place. And so as Si mentioned before, we're finalizing the criteria. We're taking this feedback um and we'll be making sure that we um uh create an environment where a balance is possible in terms of the distribution of money. >> I do appreciate that and I'm looking forward to that plan. Um my last set of questions uh really revolve around uh the implementation of equipment. Um, I have consistently advocated for installation of transfer switches at field houses and community facilities so that they could serve uh neighborhood for neighborhood resilience uh during emergencies. And in New Edinburgh, uh, the local community association successfully worked with the city to install a a transfer switch at the uh, fieldhouse as a pilot using community dollars. However, the process required significant coordination around electrical upgrades, approvals, and ensuring a generator would be available during an extreme weather event. Uh given that this program would fund transfer switches and generators for community organizations, have staff identified lessons learned from the uh new Edinburgh Fieldhouse experience? And what processes are being put in place to ensure future transfer switch installations can be implemented uh efficiently and that organizations have clarity regarding generator access and deployment uh during an emergency. Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. Um, I I think that uh and in partnership with our colleagues in uh RCFS, uh we definitely have a lot of experience um assessing which locations would be prime targets for transfer switches and doing the installation where it makes sense. I I want to caution though against um uh the concept that emergency center uh reception centers are the be all and end all. And this kind of comes back to councelor Kavanagh's question about wellness visits. What we find is that as a first step most people during an emergency, during a power outage want to shelter in place, want to stay home. And so we're always trying to balance those two needs. Um, and I think that's what you'll see in the distribution of grants is that they'll be supporting some projects including transfer switches, mobile generators, and supporting others that focus more on the boots on the ground wellness visits. >> I appreciate that. I know during the DECO uh in Overbrook, the uh community center was utilized as a hub. Uh we had to obviously work together to ensure that the ad hoc network uh worked. uh but uh there was outreach but of course it was coordinated from a specific location. Uh so that's why I think it is important for us to ensure that uh you know both are working hand inand um indeed during the Durkco uh communities such as Overbrook experienced prolonged power outages and a lack of readily available local supports leaving residents to rely heavily on neighbors and my office and informal community networks. Um, how will staff ensure that communities facing those kinds of challenges have the capacity to access this program and build the community preparedness networks needed before the next major weather event? >> Uh, thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. So, um there are um a wide range of community associations serving different types of neighborhoods in Ottawa, including equity deserving um areas of the city that we hope uh and will encourage to apply. But we also know that there are faith-based groups and social services providers that serve broader regions of our city and that we believe uh based on past performance will continue to show up will deploy beyond their immediate neighborhood um and are looking for those most in need to support. and we appreciate uh their efforts uh because we've seen them unfortunately uh broadly applied with uh the emergence of so many emergencies uh that are besetting the city. Uh but uh you know we also want to commend uh I want to commend you for bringing uh this program forward. Uh this is exactly the kind of program that we should be doing. It's practical, community grounded, equity conscious and evidence-based. And I think unfortunately with the number of of natural emergencies, disasters that we're seeing uh you know we will need to ensure uh that we can leverage uh volunteers uh in kind contributions and community capacity and I think that uh this program and this pilot uh really works towards that. Thank you chair. >> Thank you councelor councelor Johnson and then lulaf. >> Thank you chair um and thank you for this report. It's really exciting to see the progress that the city has made on several emergency preparedness fronts including you know the notification system which was a big deal for residents and now this I think that uh you know when I was door knockocking in 2022 it was during the DTO and and um seeing the the the investment um and the attention paid to community experiences during those emergencies puts us in goodstead. Um just a couple questions quickly. So counselor involvement, I think that's actually a very interesting question. I think there is, you know, undoubtedly probably an unevenness or a difference in our approaches given that each of our offices are independent from one another. Um I I I would like to see a stronger relationship between community groups and the city of Ottawa. Um in the same way that Hydro Ottawa now also uh you know tries to communicate directly with residents in these moments instead of going through a counselor um communication channel um which you know I we still share it but we're less of a an expected intermediary which of course creates vulnerabilities. So can you help me to understand whether this program is intended sort of in that same way to strengthen those relationships between the corporation and community groups directly or is there still a role to play that you think is unique to counselors that we should all understand? >> Thank you for the question Mr. Chair. Um I'll answer it in two parts. So yes, we do believe this grant will help strengthen relationships between these community organizations and the city and we want more of that. Um we're actually reorganizing our internal processes to better accommodate liaison during emergency situations. So when we activate the emergency coordination center going forward there will always be a community liaison rep from the city who is able to um directly engage with the community associations and other groups. We did this uh during the spring fchet um but only three uh areas of the city were impacted. So there was only three community associations we were doing it. What we're trying to do is scale up so that we can do it citywide. to address your other question about counselor's role. Um we've really appreciated the relationship with counselors during emergencies and um there are a couple of core functions that we'd like you to continue doing. Uh number one, amplifying the city's messaging, guidance, advice. Um number two, continuing to feed us intelligence. you know your wards the best and we've really benefited um from your direction in terms of which neighborhoods may need the most assistance and also being a being a great connector to the community associations and groups with whom you have relationships. Um so uh going forward it's a different role um between what the city does and what counselors do but it's a it's a direct relationship that is really important. I appreciate that distinction. College Ward has had various relationships with their city counselors over the years and uh you know we want to make sure that they have the best understanding of where they can find the best information. Um so following up on a couple questions so you know the the storage issue. So my understanding was in city facilities that there was a cost recovery for when community groups used storage space that there was a there there's an expectation that there's a rental fee associated with that. Otherwise, community groups do not get to store things for free. So, when you're talking about uh a new model is the is the understanding from parks and wreck that that will be um adapted uh given the context because I I do anticipate a conflict. >> Mr. Chair, thank you for the question. And so that's certainly something counselor that we'll take offline for for further conversations, but we would work in alignment with existing uh policies and approaches. >> Okay. I'll be interested to know what that means because I do think that there's a uh a financial risk to another department um and an unevenness in maybe some of the other groups who have tried to use storage in city facilities for a variety of reasons that have been told no at this point. I I I know that there's a difference, you know, between emergency preparedness and sports. Um but, um I think it will be something we'll have to look at. Um so, uh and to follow up on some of my counselor colleagues uh describing the idea of of joint applications. Um in other uh granting scenarios, you can sometimes get bonus points if you do it if you apply with another group. So maybe that's something that you can do um to encourage folks to look across their communities and think about who they might offer um or extend a branch to. That would be probably maybe a more you know uh teach the person to fish kind of approach and puts less pressure on you. Give them additional uh scoring opportunities for that kind of relationship building. Um there I believe is a list of of buildings that don't have backup generators, is there not? uh with fire services. Uh I'm looking at my other council colleagues, I believe we did that um 3 years ago. So, will we be using that list for our outreach um for communities that obviously have a a deficit when it comes to backup power? I I think that would be a really good resource for us here. >> Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. Absolutely. We use that list all the time, including when we organize our own wellness visits for extreme weather events. >> Okay. Right on. Yeah, definitely. I have some vulnerabilities in my ward that I'd like to know that have a direct relationship with you. So, that's always good. Um, when it comes to the 50,000 uh the actual allotment, is is is the idea that the community group is uh awarded that in one year or do they have to spend it within one year? >> Mr. Chair, thank you for the question. Um the the grant whatever is is uh submit or given awarded to the the association or the applicant will be given at once at once the agreement once they've been approved and as well as once they've satisfied uh the requirements and sign the agreement. Um but they have one year to complete the uh project. >> Okay. So, so it is it is that they have to spend it within a year. >> Correct. >> Okay. And um if there is an emergency at the time that they have, you know, a relationship with you, is there a pivot a possibility of pivot if they find that there's something that they could use uh that they didn't apply for >> you, Mr. Chair? I think it's a it's a great point and something that we'll take away um and consider allowing that flexibility. And the other thing that I'll add counselor with respect to to the grants while while the conditions are in and around a year or sorry not in and around but uh to spend those funds within a year similar to other grant programs that we administer of course if there there are extenduating circumstances we will we will contemplate um extensions on a case-by case basis. >> Okay very good. Thank you for this fabulous report. Looking forward. >> Thank you, councelor, for those comments. Councelor Lulov, and then Chairman Menard. >> Thanks, Chair. I really appreciate that we're having this discussion today uh because many of us uh in our communities have been having versions of this conversation uh since the ice storm in 1998. The question of how neighborhoods can better prepare for and support one another during major emergencies is not a new one, but it's becoming increasingly important because over the past several decades, communities across our city have experienced ice storms, flooding, tornadoes, prolonged power outages, severe winter weather, and more recently the mezzcale convective system that caused widespread damage across our city. And since we can't seem to agree on how to pronounce datio, I'm happy to use that technically accurate alternative. The reality is that regardless of what we call these events, their impacts on residents have been significant and longlasting. We still have forest cleanup happening across the city uh even years later. These experiences have demonstrated that emergency preparedness cannot exist solely at the citywide level. It needs to exist at the community level um with local organization, volunteers, and neighborhood networks equipped with the supplies they need to support residents when normal services are strained. So, I very much support the intent of this p uh this pilot program and I really appreciate the work that staff have put into it. My focus today is on ensuring uh that it is accessible to the organizations that may be best positioned to help their communities including smaller community associations, rural groups, faith organizations, condominium communities, and other volunteer-led organizations that may not have significant administrative capacity. So my questions are many of the organizations uh that know their communities best are run entirely by volunteers and do not have dedicated staff, grant writers or administrative support. How will we ensure that the application process is accessible and that smaller organizations are not unintentionally disadvantaged compared to larger, more established applicants? Um I can thank you for the question Mr. Chair and I can start off my colleagues uh can join in if they want to add more. I mean I think that um through these discussions what's been highlighted to me is a couple things including the need for very clear uh uh application instructions which which we we will make sure we absolutely post. We can also encourage some of these smaller groups as has been mentioned by others to apply together to expand their reach and to potentially reduce the burden of the application. Um and um we're happy to um you know in the leadup to when this is posted um make additional resources available including um uh you know town hall sessions where we um provide Q&A about the grant and help people understand it better. Do you mind walking us through the eligibility criteria in practical terms and explain whether there are any types of organizations that may provide important community support during emergencies but could find themselves excluded from the program? I think you've already mentioned OC for um for the question. I think is the question are we potentially excluding someone given our um eligibility criteria? Can can you walk us can you can can you walk us through the eligibility criteria in practical terms and explain whether there are types of organizations that may provide important community support during emergencies but could find themselves excluded from the program. >> So the criteria is about groups that have some level of um uh governance and as well as uh administrative capabilities. that they have a decision-making body, that they are follow nonprofit principles, and that they offer services to uh the city of Ottawa or City of Ottawa residents. And that the last one is that it's organizations that are less than $1 million annual budget. So your question is uh does it exclude some potentially exclude some groups that could be helpful? I think it I think the city already works with some of the larger organizations. Um and what this program is is as you had pointed to is to reach those smaller and medium-siz organizations. And while they might not have the capabilities right now or to write, I think part of what this program is is to build capacity and over the years. And so I think once we've learned lessons and perhaps there are some successful applicants and some leaders, community associations or other community groups, we can do some social learning and and sharing uh successes. >> That's fair. Uh communities across Ottawa face different challenges depending on their geography and circumstances. Rural communities, for example, may experience longer response times and greater dependence on local volunteers, as we've seen, while other communities may face very different vulnerabilities. How will staff ensure that those differing realities are reflected in the evaluation process? >> Mr. Chair, I'll start with answering that question, then I'll ask my colleagues if there's anything to add in. Um I think just first noting that the way we've intentionally designed uh the grant program to be relatively flexible to recognizing the fact that as you mentioned every single community um is unique in terms of their level of preparedness. Um, so we're wanting to make sure that we're maintaining um that flexibility and that will certainly be something that we're considering um as we're evaluating those those different um the applications. I'm just looking to my colleagues to see if there's anything else that they'd like to answer there. I would just add that uh the rural residents have been identified uh as uh as a group within our equity policies and as well as disproportionate impacted populations in climate ready Ottawa. So we will have targeted outreach to uh those groups. >> Okay. I I think that it's important um to realize uh that a disaster is a disaster whether it happens in the suburbs, downtown or in a rural community. And so the lens should be the disaster frankly. Um although the needs will be different uh and the supports will be different I don't think that it I don't think that we should be limiting um the scope of what we offer uh based on anything but the specific need of that community. Um this this program contemplates funding equipment such as generators, radios, emergency supplies. What do we see as the biggest implementation challenge uh around we've discussed insurance, storage, maintenance, training, and ensuring that equipment remains available and serviceable to the community over the long term? >> Uh thank you for the question, uh Mr. Chair. Um, it's it's a really good one and I think that in some respects we're going to learn as we go. What I will say based on my interactions with these groups is one of their biggest internal challenges is something that we've discussed earlier is making sure they maintain an appropriate roster of volunteers and that they mainstream emergency management into their meetings, into their activities, um into uh the work that they're doing. Um because it's a people first approach. When staff report back at the end of the three-year pilot, uh what specific outcomes uh are you looking for to determine whether the program has improved community preparedness and resilience rather than simply distributing funding and equipment? >> Uh thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. So we will be um looking at some of the measurable um outputs such as the number of community plans that community emergency plans that were developed um the uh numbers of training sessions and exercises that were held. Um but we'll also be um and what we discussed earlier is um observing through our engagement with these groups um you know their ability to um to show up when we need them to to engage with us and to um demonstrate that they're in the community on a regular basis. >> I suppose the the intent is to ensure that we um free up city resources to be able to respond as well. So, I mean, you you spoke about the um the duratio um and how every single fire unit was in use. I can imagine that what you're looking to ensure is that those resources are freed up um while empowering communities to do some of that work themselves. Correct. >> That's right. Um thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, the city will always focus on um critical emergency response. Um but for uh non uh life safety calls um including uh help with the you know uh getting debris uh off of someone's driveway. We hope that these neighborhood groups can support some of these tasks thereby freeing up city resources to focus on the uh more challenging or uh life safety um calls. >> Thank you Beth and and good work uh to staff on this. Looking forward to seeing uh how this rolls out. >> Thank you councelor uh chair manard and then conc plant. >> Thank you very much chair. Thanks so much to staff for the report. I'll I'll try to be quick with my questions. So, I'm going to focus in on the caf's recommendations um that they that they made to committee. Uh the first is around the collaboration with community associations. Um and uh I wanted to to zero in on the um the report said staff will will provide complimentary support to applicants through the office of emergency management. Um just just wondering more what what you mean by that. Do you mean on the actual application process or do you do you mean um extra support in terms of like training ready use tools that sort of thing outside of the uh the application process? >> Uh thank you Mr. Chair. It's a bit of a combination of both. We want to make sure that people understand the application process and so we'll be providing supports in that regard. And then um we will be uh supporting groups through advice and guidance uh in terms of the development of um their community emergency management plans. >> Okay, that's good to hear that that second part in particular. Just there's so many questions here today. I think there's so much interest in this because of what we've we've all been through in the city of Ottawa and we know this is coming again. climate change is is affecting our our daily lives. Um, and so we need to adapt to to what are inevitable issues that will come our way. Uh, and obviously it's more than just a million-dollar grant program. There this is a is there's obviously huge interest in in response and obviously your your response goes much further than just the the grant the grant program. um the the training sessions for community members. Um I think right now a lot of people are not prepared in Ottawa, whether food or battery backup, the the heat um component. So just outside of the the grant, um can can people just work with you? Is there are there resources in that way that people can work with with you for regular events or sessions that that people I know this has been held already and people have been doing this already but h how do we proliferate that I suppose all across the city? >> Thank you for the great question Mr. Chair. So we are uh always available to engage with communities uh community groups in terms of uh our you ready program. Uh we encourage preparedness at both the individual and community level and we have resources on ottudawa.ca uh under emergency preparedness including checklists and other guides uh to help people get prepared. Um, we've had this discussion in other committee meetings and I want to highlight here that we're always help happy to meet people where they're at. We know that um having uh a 72-hour kit can be a a difficult things for people who are struggling to get by every day, especially under the cost of living, but we encourage even um the most basic preparedness, which is knowing who to call um to receive help, including in some cases city resources. And so, um, we have a range of supports available and we're always happy to, um, show up at any kind of, uh, community engagement session. >> Okay, that that's great to hear the cafe's point around a community access for equipment storage, emergency use, uh, the community organization preparedness in addition to the sort of city-owned community um, center preparedness uh, is I think an important point and I'm hopeful that uh, we we take that that point that cafes has made as part of the uh, the program roll out. The second point is around um the um the adjustments. So it's a threeear it's a three-year uh pilot uh with a review. I guess I I'll just ask you if uh if you'll take direction to um to simply report back in a year's time after the launch of the pil pilot project to to these two committees uh as part of a memo just the uptake of it. Uh if there are any little tweaks you're seeing if there if we're fully subscribed or not. Uh it'd be helpful if you could report back in a year. uh the cafe recommends, cafes recommends just to see if there are some adjustments potentially needed uh within that year. Hope you can take that direction, >> Mr. Chair. We can take that direction. >> Thank Thank you very very much. That's appreciated. And then just last one last one on the Hydro One uh Hydro Ottawa collaboration. Um I just wonder your thoughts on on that on that recommendation uh from from cafes. Um just that that interface with the two for for applicants. um the accommodation of rural realities in in the grant call and the and the published definitions of the professional training requirement are all things that they mentioned uh in that third point. Um just a staff response on on those uh recommendations. >> Um thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. To be candid, I'm not entirely sure I fully understood the recommendation. Both Hydro Ottawa and Hydro1 um are excellent emergency uh partners, emergency management partners for us and they have also learned a lot through multiple power outages. Um in addition to the city having an are you ready, you know, preparedness program, they both have their own as well and do a lot of community engagement. Um so I'd be happy to unpack the recommendation a bit more but right now we view them as part of our uh immediate ecosystem and a direct partner during um uh power outages. >> Okay. And then on the rural the rural realities piece in the grant call just different uh some of our colleagues have spoken to this too and then the clearly published definitions for the for this quote unquote professional training recovery. I think the point here is that there are there are potential people that are um experienced in this and they're not necessarily um I don't know what kind of accredititation you you would need to be quote unquote professional, but I think the point is just that you know we want as many people as we can working in conjunction on this uh in a in a good way um with good information. So just maybe more information on that would be helpful. Um >> thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. We thought that was excellent feedback and we're very happy to tighten our language, provide a bit more of a definition and um make it more useful for applicants. Yeah. >> Okay. Look, thank you so much for this. It's it's excellent to see and uh obviously the interesting amount of questions here uh goes far beyond this this program and I'm excited to see um you know what we can do to make sure we're prepared in the future. Thank you so so much. Thanks, Chair. >> Thank you, Chair Councelor Bla and then Hill. Um yeah, I just wanted to kind of piggyback on something you guys said and then um councelor King sort of addressed it as well in his comments and you were talking about equity seeking communities and giving them more capacity to deal with these issues. Um I I I do want to sort of temper those expectations a little bit because uh these we deal with a a thousand mini emergencies a day in Ward 12. Um, you know, just a couple months, a couple weeks ago, there was a lockdown at the University of Ottawa because of a suspected shooter. Um, you know, the school routes have been deemed these hazardous zones by the school board. So, kids can now be bus literally a 100 meters to school because it's not safe for them to walk. Um, so ask, you know, the average income in lower town is $32,000 a year per family. So asking those people to sort of take on more capacity when they're already working multiple jobs, they're already low-inccome, they're already dealing with a lot is is I think um you know, you're going to have to be a I I suspect the solution will be to sort of be prepared in those communities already, not asking them to take on more when something does strike because they already deal with a multiple challenges, both personal and environmental, every single day. And I I do uh want to give a shout out to cafes too because we did have a discussion with them about our um and in virus center as well about our sponge park that we're putting up in Vanet because we deal with things like electrical outages which when you know you you deal with shift work for example something like that can be really really devastating. So these kinds of collaborations I think will be helpful in the future and I would you know I'm happy to chat with you guys about it. I would just be really really mindful of what you're asking low-income communities to do and to take on because they already deal with multiple multiple challenges every single day and and it is quite overwhelming for them. Thank you. >> Thank you, councelor. Uh Vice Chair Hill, >> thank you very much uh chair. Thank you for the report staff. Um um I recall I think it was a couple years ago that I had a meeting with uh cafes and they presented me with a report talking about resilience in the community and uh uh the importance of that topic. I appreciated that and I think that's probably a hefty part of where this came from and certainly from the uh the uh the motion that we saw a couple years ago talking about the importance of community uh weather resilience issues. Um, I saw I think the preamble to this uh out in West Carlton in the spring, right, with Team Rubicon and the $60,000 uh mass sandbag machine uh that was getting tested out there. Um, and I think that's exactly what we want to be spending this kind of money on is uh the types of equipment that will help our local community groups be resilient. Uh, and I think that was a textbook example. I am a little concerned uh with some of the debate this morning because I'm starting to think that this might be turning into um a bit of open funding for organizations to to get investments in the community as opposed to um established mandated organizations with known governance structures, vision statements that talk about crisis operations, emergency response, you know, the Respond Ottawa, the Team Rubicon, those types of organizations who day in day out have a volunteer board that look at the governance of crisis response and they have the knowledge base and the experience base and the operational uh knowledge in order to look at what the community at large Ottawa needs in order to be able to uh to do good in that community Ottawa. Uh I would share the comments I think made by councelor Lulof about you know the group that needs the support here is the group affected by the crisis. that's the group we should be focusing squarely on. Um, and I just want to make sure that we're not starting to go down the road of opening up a fund that, you know, perhaps could start turning into peripheral um, funding expenditures as opposed to core investments like what we saw with a $60,000 sandbag machine, which clearly has a emergency response component to it. I just want to make sure that that funding is safeguarded. So the money that we're spending is actually going to core crisis operations emergency response investments. >> Uh thank you for the uh question and comments, Mr. Chair. So I think that this um links very nicely with councelor Manard's uh recent request for us to report back on a yearly basis. It will give us an opportunity to share with you uh where the grant funding has been distributed to what types of organization, what types of projects and it sort of provides an additional check and balance against the valid points that you raised. I share the interest in the eligibility criteria and the jury process. Um I would like to get an update on that perhaps offline um if possible. Um, are we going to be looking to establish um some type of formalou or expectation contract with successful uh grant applicants um in terms of the expected outcomes and uh and uh management of the process. >> Mr. Chair, thanks for the question. Uh we certainly will be working with legal and we have uh we'll have uh contribution agreements that all applicants will sign that will also include some requirements that they have to demonstrate as well as uh deliverables and budgeting. >> Okay, thank you for that. I I would be interested to look at that process as well offline. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Thank you, Vice Chair. Councelor Tierney. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. clearly not driving. I'm a passover. Uh just to uh get that out of the way. Uh oddly enough, I'm going to a green municipal fund announcement. Uh at the same time, uh to staff, obviously, we see the green municipal fund as some accessible federal funds. Obviously, it probably doesn't apply in this situation. I will continue to advocate for it. um with with this I think um I I like the approach. I think it's it's good. We have to think of a lot of the groups similar to what we do with the uh you know our outdoor rink operators uh that also um you know receive funding to do the job that frankly as a city we can't do because it would overburden a lot of the stuff that we we take care of. Um but to uh some of the other council colleagues points, we will have a rigorous process obviously to ensure that they are actually who they are and will there be regular audits to ensure the money is being uh granted out to the appropriate people. >> Mr. Chair, uh thank you for the question. So in addition to what Sami had confirmed like certainly we can confirm that counselor that our evaluation and how we're setting up the criteria will align with the grants and contribution policy. >> Great. Thank you. And one thing I always like to continue to bring up and I think uh one of the other counselors had raised we all operate very differently from a communication shop perspective. We have 24 different communication shops in the city. Uh, I think um I make no bones about it. We're very aggressive in ours and I've created my own texting feature for emergency situations, snowplowing and everything else. I see the city is getting up in the game. My one concern I continue to raise is we have access to so many email addresses because of the vacant unit tax database. And I asked this question before about emergency services since this is all kind of turned into this larger discussion. Uh have have we been coordinating? Uh how far along are we to being able to use those email addresses? Because last discussion we had is we weren't allowed to use those email addresses for for anything except for the vacant unit tax at the time and we were looking to modify that. I just want to make sure if we're we're doing things for through a couple of emergency funds and and all these great things that we're actually coordinating and going to make a real effort and change. Is this something on the radar? >> Thank you for the uh question, Mr. Chair. Um it sounds like you're asking if we can uh augment some of the city's um communications with emergency management guidance. I'm not aware of those discussions related to piggybacking on the comms for vacant uh property taxes uh properties for pardon but um what we are encouraging is for people to subscribe to our public emergency notification system Ottawa alert um as a as a good first step um and uh they can find that on ottawa.ca. >> Oh yeah, absolutely. And what is the number of people that have registered there? Now, I bet you it's a pittance compared to the over 200 300,000 email addresses we've collected for the vacant unit tax. And that's my point is I keep raising this. We have access to all these email addresses, but for the emergency one, how many people have registered to date now? >> Thanks for the question, Mr. Chair. So, you're right. It's it's not comparable to the amount of email addresses we have access to. I think it's about 10,000 which I know seems low um but uh we're on par with subscriptions in uh other cities including Vancouver. >> Yeah. And again, this is where I think we really have to if we put people through the pain of an annual check-in on their vacant unit tax uh with updated email addresses on a regular basis. I keep raising this uh we need legal focus on this to get a descriptor out there if there has to be a box for them to check to be able to allow them to join this list. 10,000 should in my mind should be at least 50,000 or greater knowing we're at 300,000 email addresses for the vacant unit tax. So just something to think about and I hope uh you know I'll continue to press on that because I think it is important. >> Thank you councelor Tney. I was going to offer some thoughts, but councelor Kelly >> back on the board. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, sorry to do that. I just feel compelled to uh to address this. Um, something I've been hearing a lot throughout this meeting is just the, you know, importance of community uh, associations. And I'm after, you know, experiencing several emergency responses in my ward, I I am acutely aware of how important the community centers are in terms of um, you know, coordinating responses, having areas where people can come and and pick things up and get information. I am a little bit concerned though on their ability to or and willingness quite frankly to to be the organization applying for these grants and administering these programs. I and I will point once again to um West Carlton disaster relief and I think this goes back uh to what uh uh councelor Hill was was addressing in in his remarks is just ensuring that the the organizations that we're offering this to have the capacity um and governance structure to do this. I'm when I look around uh in my ward uh one challenge would be if if community associations were to be the vehicle for this um and I can't speak on behalf of other wards but I assume it's the same in other rural wards is that I have five or six community associations in my ward across a very large area. And so if one community association was to apply and get a grant, then my assumption would that their focus would be on their catchment area and and that would be it. And so I'm not sure that that that model would would be equitable or or work in in rural areas. But but one thing that I wanted to highlight is that West Carlton Disaster Relief has many people on its board that are also involved in community associations. So there's the overarching body that kind of takes care of the whole ward and work with the community associations themselves. But again, not sure our community associations um have the capacity or desire to uh to take this on, nor do I think they would be the the best uh group situated to do that, but certainly um need to be involved in the conversation and and just felt uh compelled to uh make those comments. Thank you, chair. >> Thank you, counselor. That's appreciated. Just thought I'd offer my own thoughts if I may. I'm certainly going to support this, but um I don't think the public or even city staff fully appreciate the breadth of subject matter issues counselors deal with. And I don't mean around the committee or council table. I mean in our neighborhoods. We try and mitigate people with severe mental health challenges who are walking around in the communities causing challenges. The community looks to us to solve those issues. I get calls at 4:10 on a Friday afternoon from people who say, "I'm being evicted tomorrow. Help me." We're the only stand left within the city before they're evicted to help them. Um or people who lack very basic necessities come to us. We are asked to mitigate heated disputes between community association members or community members. We have the worst neighbor disputes in Riverward per Ottawa bylaw that were asked to not asked by bylaw but asked to be intervened by community members. And I've sat in people's living rooms who have lost family members due to homicide or very regrettable accidents and we're the only ones from the city who show up. And it goes to I'm not trained for this. We lack training as members of council on how to deal with the most significant challenging cases whether it's disaster relief or some of the other examples I've listed. So when the tornado literally spared me in 2018, went over the building I was in, saw it coming, went over the community center, hits the Corey Co-op, absolute disaster. It had hit West Carlton. It had hit Arlington, Trent Arlington first, then Hunt Club. Get on the phone with the city manager. Had no idea that Hunt Club had been hit. He's like, "All our resources are in West Carlton right now." I became the de facto traffic controller that night. There were people whose homes were decimated. We had to arrange housing. We had to arrange busing to get people to the Canterbury Community Center to stay the night. And that was my weekend trying to coordinate what does my community need? What resources are available? Who do I need to speak to? And then the direct comes and that's the next level because now it was significantly more people uh in multiple wards but without power uh damage to uh power lines down Hunt Road that for days were untouched. Trees everywhere. People who did not have the tools needed to address their property issues. homes without roofs literally for years because of insurance challenges and that I had more support for. But in the in the early hours and early days, it the community looked to the local counselor to try and direct the needs, align those with what the city could offer. Again, without training, you just do with what you think is the right thing to do and you listen to what your community needs and you try and act. But we absolutely need better coordination. We absolutely need to be able to take stock of what assets are available in communities and who is available to step up and help. To the point about checking in on the most vulnerable people, that that's an excellent point. It was COVID that underscored that for me in my office where we had uh taken upon ourselves to contact who we thought were the most vulnerable just to check in with them. Uh and then uh other services, city services we're checking in the most vulnerable. When I've got 2,500 3,000 people who live in Ottawa community housing, if our family houses, which are the true hubs of these communities, are without power and the employees themselves are trying to deal with their own challenges at home and unable to get to family houses, then we have some some significant problems. People who can't uh address some of their most basic needs. what happens. So, I fully support being prepared. This is truly about being prepared. Looking at how are you able to take care of yourself within the first 72 hours, but how do we as a community get better prepared and organized and trained to help each other? So, we have a lot of people in this city that want to help out. One, we have challenges coordinating all that goodwill. And secondly, we need to take stock of who has what that is able to to help out. So I feel very strongly about this. I think that you know a new term of council is coming and not just for new members of council but for all members of council think about some training that can be provided that when we're in these situations, what is our true role? How can we refine that better? And um you know I know we we as a city plan for I think 30 critical events. The two that keep me up most at night are when we have ice storms. We know that eastern Ontario is going to get hit with more ice storms. That is absolutely predicted. But the big ice storm that comes and then we have minus30 for two weeks and pipes break and people have no power. That's what keeps me up at night. And the other one is severe summer weather. We know tornadoes are going to get worse. We know power outages are going to continue in frequency. I'm not saying all the other emergencies aren't important, but these are the biggies that are most probable to happen. So, how do we prepare our residents for those types of events? So, I strongly support this. It's a pilot. It's not going to be perfect. We're going to refine it. We're going to get updates every year. We're going to reflect on worked well. We're going to make it better. assuming it works, we're going to put more funds in, assuming a million dollars is not enough, but we have to start from somewhere. So, I certainly appreciate uh the comments and questions today and the fact that we had uh 13 speakers uh demonstrates the interest uh and support ultimate support that we'll have for this. So, um, Councelor Manard had a direction. If you just want to formally read it onto the record, chair, that would be great. Thank you very, very much. Sorry about that. Uh, direct staff to report back to the two committees uh, following the one-year pilot project to see if adjustments are needed. Thank you, J. >> That's okay with staff. Yes, Mr. Chair. >> Perfect. Okay. Does anyone need the staff recommendation read? Is everyone aware of the recommendation? Okay. Is that recommendation carried? >> Perfect. Okay. Thanks again to staff. That was the substantive item that we were to deal with. So, just before we adjourn, we have another standing committee meeting that follows and if you could just give us an update, Chairman Mannard. >> Yeah, thank you chair. So, we'll meet uh immediately after this meeting in 15 minutes. So at we'll reconvene at 11:40 a.m. for the environment and climate change committee meeting. Uh in this room staying in this room. >> Thank you. >> The joint committee now stands adjourned. Thank you.