Sound check. 1 2 3. Sound check. 1 2 3. Good morning everyone. My name is Moren Wilson. Today is September the 28th. We are at the general issues committee meeting. Um it is 9:30 start time. We're just waiting for quorum. So I will advise attending members accordingly. Hold tight. Thank you. Good morning. We're back. My name is Moren Wilson. Uh I will be chairing this meeting today. Welcome to the general issues committee meeting of September the 28th. I will call this meeting to order. We have quorum present joining me in council chambers. Councelor Mark Tatison, Councelor Rob Cooper, Councelor Ted McMein, Councelor Cameron Crutch, Counselor Nurender Nan, Councelor Alex Wilson joining me online. I did see councelor Brad Clark. Uh we Okay, councelor Clark, are you present? Okay. Do we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven? We're short one of quorum. So we do um we do need eight for quorum uh these days having received the formal um notice from the former counselor Bey. So we have eight to make quorum. We cannot make decisions in the absence of quorum as a deliberative body. Anybody have a good joke? Sing us a tune. >> Okay, we will recess for five minutes and we will await some warm bodies to arrive in person or cold bodies to arrive virtually. Thank you. Good morning. I'm calling this meeting to order. We've had a short recess. Thank you for being here and to welcome the wonderful month of September. Um, a reminder to committees, uh, to committee members. Um, we we have a a a meaty agenda. Um, so I would appreciate your focus and your diligence and your attention. Um, I'm going to look to the approval of today's agenda. Clerk Kelsey, are there any items included in the addendum? >> Yes, chair. All the addendum items have been published and are available online. >> Okay. on the approval of the agenda. Moved by councelor Tatterson, seconded by councelor Nan. Any discussion on that agenda? Seeing none carried, we're on to declarations of interest. Are there any here today? Seeing none, thank you. On to the approval of the minutes of the previous m um meeting 51 and 11.1. Please note 11.1 are the close session minutes. A moder uh Nan, seconded by councelor Cooper. Any discussion on those minutes? Seeing none carried on to delegations. Before we begin our delegation for today, members are reminded that we are asking questions of the delegates for clarification purposes, not for debate. A note to our delegates, welcome. You have five minutes to complete your delegation. You will hear a tone at the 4-minute mark. That's just a gentle, polite Canadian reminder that you have one minute remaining. your de and your delegation. Our first delegation is virtual this morning. I'd like to welcome Rand Alabed, respecting advocacy for federal and provincial funding infrastructure partnerships to bridge the regional drinking water disparity impacting nearby indigenous households. Welcome. Morning. >> Thank you so much for having us. >> We're just going to share our We can see the presentation. Thank you. >> Good morning, mayors and members of council. My name is Sophia Ali and I'm joined by my co-presenter brand aid. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. Last winter through the seeds of leadership program, we stayed overnight at Six Nations of the Grand River for a retreat. We couldn't drink the tap water. We had to bring in our own bottled water for the whole trip. And that really stayed with us because it's not something most of us expect to encounter in Canada. And that's part of why we're here. We have one request that Hamilton formerly calls on the federal and provincial governments to fund the pipes that bring clean water to indigenous households in our region. And first a brief acknowledgement. Hamilton sits on land covered by the dishwithan spoonwamp and the 1792 between the lakes's purchase with the missaga of credits first nation. Both agreements about sharing and caring for the land and its water. We're not speaking for any First Nations today. We are just residents of this region speaking as allies. So here's the problem. In Hamilton, we turn on the tap without a second thought. But halfway half an hour away at Six Nations of the Grand River, the most populated First Nation land in Canada, most families cannot. So Six Nations has a water treatment plan, but the pipes don't actually reach most homes. In 2018, only 9% of residents were connected. And as of 2024, about 70% of onreserve residents still weren't. And this July, the community was under a boil water advisory after a water mane break. So the problem isn't the water, it's the pipes and funding to build them. Now Rand will explain how this can be fixed. >> Okay. Now we believe that this is a solvable problem and we already know what works. In 2019, Six Nations and the Missagas of the Credit extended a water man to connect homes to the hell demands country water system. The federal government contributed about $4.7 million. That's First Nations, federal governments, and a municipality working together. And we believe this model works. Now, the money exists, too. This June, the federal government announced $4.6 billion for First Nations water and waste water. Ontario has also Ontario also has a water infrastructure fund already supporting projects in both municipalities and First Nations. What's missing? It's the pressure um to direct those that money and to direct that fund into homes that are still waiting. Six Six Nations isn't in Hamilton, but it is our neighbor on the same treaty land and Hamilton is the largest city in the region. When Hamilton speaks up, other governments listen. So, we're asking two things of city council. one to pass a motion uh that's calling the federal and provincial government to jointly fund water connections for nearby first nation households working with these nations sent to the federal minister of indigenous services on's minister responsible for indigenous affairs and Hamilton's MPs and MPPPs and secondly we wish to include this in the in this issue in the city's advocacy to other levels of the government to be clear we are not asking Hamilton to pay for this or take over federal responsibility we are asking Hamilton use its voice. Clean drinking water in our region shouldn't depend on which side of the border we're on. Thank you for the for your time and we're happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you both for your delegation. Looking to my colleagues for any questions. >> Thank you. I appreciate uh the time you have taken from your day and your continued involvement in the local democratic process. Wishing both of you very well. Thank you. >> We have a another delegation here. Oh. Um we're going to uh I'll seek a mover in a second upon the conclusion of all the delegates today to receive uh 6.2 James Kemp, respecting housing and homelessness agency funding outcomes and value for money review. Good morning, Delegate Kemp. >> Morning. Uh good morning, Deputy Mayor and members of the general committee. Thank you for taking the time to hear from me today. I just have a few brief remarks on this this particular delegation. Uh I'm here to briefly talk about concerns that I have when I read the motion 9.1 regarding a value for money review of agencies involved in homelessness response. Uh I saw red flags when I read this motion. I understand it is an election year and people want to be seen doing something about the homelessness file, but I'm concerned about its direction. Uh most of these groups are here uh doing a holding action essentially keeping people sheltered and fed while we wait for housing to become available or built. Uh I see nothing wrong with wanting to ensure that money is being used wisely or consolidating all the groups into a single file that can be reviewed at a glance. Though some of them may be comparing apples to oranges. It should be noted though that these agencies are not having a truck of money driven to their door and dropped off with no oversight. They already have to jump through a lot of hoops to maintain funding levels. But if you feel more screw is warranted, then who am I to say otherwise? Where I run into some difficulty is the requirement of providing outcomes or value for money. Uh these these organizations are not building housing or operating the social services. They're merely working with the tools at their disposal to stop more people from dying on the streets. Uh these are not easy to measure goals. Uh tying funding to outcomes is worrisome when they have no ability to affect those outcomes. uh tying it to value for money is also subjective. The problems of homelessness can only be fixed upstream of these agencies, not downstream. Housing first requires exactly that, housing. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Delegate Kemp. Any questions of clarification for the delegate? Seeing none, appreciating your time on that delegation. I have you next for a second delegation if Yes. Okay. Um, your second delegation is respecting HSR 2027 annual service plan. Please proceed. >> Thank you very much again. Uh, again, good morning, deputy mayor and member of the I guess I could have done something, but members of the general committee, thank you for taking the time to hear from me today. I'm here today to discuss PW26030, specifically the 2027 HSO annual service plan. Uh, there's a section of this report and presentation that refers to improved communication. I'm here to discuss that in more detail as the current plan is short of communication. I'd like to talk to you about detours. With us in full construction season, it seems like every bus is on a detour, but nobody knows what those detours are. It just says detour on route, nothing more. The HSR has gone full in on social media for its sole communication platform, but that leaves many of us behind and confused. It is what what is happening on our bus routes. Let's break this down into two different types of detours. First, let's talk about the impromptu unplanned detours. These occur occur when the police are handling emergencies like the individual barricading themselves on King Street last week or the pedestrian being killed on Main Street at Dundurn a couple of years ago or the fire in the sewer at last week's James Street detour. These are unexpected and and the operator should be telling people on the bus that this is happening or letting them out as close to the stop as possible, but they don't. So people are forced to travel much farther to reach their destination with little information. It's just confusion. For those trapped inside the detour zone where the buses are not getting to, uh they're often left waiting at stops for buses that will never come as supervisors do not travel the route as best they can to inform them that the stop is not in service and where they can catch their bus. For those with disabilities, there's often no way to reach the detour and this should be planned for. Many people do not have data and so cannot receive route updates. We cannot leave people behind the digital divide. Uh we should have fully accessible supervisor vehicles available to shuttle people where they need to go or put some of these promasters into use for on demand service. We need better communication and action plans for the unexpected because the unexpected happens every day. The second aspect I want to talk about is plan detours. This usually has to do with construction or special events. Let's briefly discuss special events. Most recently, we had major detours around Supercell. As happens every year, it was chaos on the ground. Regardless of whether HSR actually planned for the detour, it was not adequately explained to the operators. The first couple days at least of the detour, it was a complete free-for-all. Different operators were taking different paths on the same route and stopping at different stops, confusing everyone trying to reach their destination or catch a bus out of there. It happens every year, and it is the same scene of chaos every year. Why? There should be maps posted downtown letting people know where to go and the drivers should be better informed. Construction detours seem to have taken over the city as well. We need solid planning to address these to address the issues caused by redirection. Let's discuss the Wilston Street detour, for example. For the past year, the cannon has traveled off the route and detoured at least a dozen blocks in a slowmoving detour creeping across the lower city. Anyone inside the detour zone now has to tr struggle to reach the nearest bus stop and to return home. There is still no plan to shuttle people that are unable to travel the extra distances caused by the detour. We have suggested having supervisors fill this gap with accessible vehicles or as I also suggested, we could put some of those new HSR ProMaster fleet to use and assign them for this purpose. That way, someone could call into the HSR and ask for a special pickup or let the operator know they need a shuttle when the bus returns to its route and then call it into dispatch. We are going to experience some heavy construction seasons and we need to be prepared for it in the service plan. Once again, relying on social media for all public communications will leave many people uninformed. Not all of us have access or the desire to actually use it. Nothing about us without us. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you again, Delegate Kemp. Are there any questions seeking clarification? Seeing none, I always appreciate your advocacy and your engagement. Thank you. We're on to 6.4. We have Jesse Elders, the Bay Area Climate Change Council, respecting the Bay Area Climate Change Council partnership and funding request. Good morning and welcome, delegate elders. Okay. Good morning to >> you. If you'd like the table to be moved up to a level that suits you best, we have a magic button. You have to say the magic words. >> I am tall. Yes. Thank you. >> So, good morning, Chair Wilson and uh members of the general issues committee. My name is Jesse Elders. I'm the program manager for the Bay Area Climate Change Council or BACK, responsible for the day-to-day operation of the program. I'm here today to delegate in support of the staff report at agenda item 8.3 relating to the back program. The back program is a product of a long-standing partnership between the city of Hamilton, city of Burlington, and Mohawk College to work together to accelerate climate action across the Bay Area. It is rooted in the recognition that the city cannot achieve its emissions reduction targets alone. It needs to work together with other regional partners who share our airhed and it needs the community to work collectively to act on recognized decarbonization pathways. I'm here today as program staff to share about the initiative's recent successes and strategic plan. Katherine Flynn from Mohawk College is also delegating today about the college's role as the program's host secretariat. And several of our members, including the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, the Hamilton Industrial Environmental Association, and Hamilton Health Sciences, have submitted written delegations in support of the program and staff's recommendations. Over the past year, the three supporting partners together with BACK members ranging from industry to grassroots environmental organizations have co-designed Bach's next chapter, building on the lessons learned since the program's inception in 2017. Back's next chapter will mark a deliberate refocusing and investment in the program's unique strengths. In particular, its capacity to call leaders who can significantly reduce emissions to the to a collective table to work together to decarbonize. The back program has always facilitated cross- sector working groups, which we call implementation teams. But now the goal is to move those groups from advisory tables to accountable action teams with work plans that include timelines and defined deliverables. Our emerging strategic plan for the 2027 to 2031 period is expected to focus on opportunities to accelerate the local energy transition and in so doing to support local industrial decarbonization and the growth of high performance lowcarbon buildings in the region. For example, last week, BACK hosted a workshop that engaged local builders and developers, building professionals like architects, engineers, and planners, suppliers, and the skilled trades in a dialogue about the opportunities to accelerate more sustainable new construction in Hamilton and Burlington. participants prioritized near-term opportunities to work together and the next step is for back to invite participants to reconvene in an ongoing implementation team to advance identified opportunities with the goal of reducing regional emissions in the building sector even in a policy constrained environment. Recognizing the important role of other levels of government in climate action, Bach has a plan to engage with higher levels of government, local utilities, and other important partners who have not been previously directly engaged in our work to develop a shared vision and objectives for advancing climate action. Importantly, back has demonstrated success in moving from discussion to action. Our previous implementation teams have produced t have produced actionable reports foundational to both Hamilton and Burlington, including among others a greenhouse gas emissions inventory that formed the foundation of both municipalities climate action plans and a home retrofit policy analysis developed together with one of our cross- sector implementation teams which empowered both cities to implement better homes building both cities to implement a better homes building energy efficient C pilot um in Hamilton. City staff were able to leverage our analysis to obtain additional funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for the detailed program design. The back program offers unique benefits for the municipality, including economies of scale by working together with other regional partners. And importantly, as a trusted armslength collective, the capacity to facilitate constructive dialogue between industry, community organizations, and government. We're primed for our next chapter and ready to build on the momentum generated to date. So with that context and on behalf of the BACK membership and the program, I re reiterate support for city staff's recommendations so that BAC can continue to advance this important work. >> Thank you very much. Right on time. >> Right on time. Are there any questions of Delegate Jesse? >> There are none. Thank you very much for your time and attention today. We're on to item 6.5. Um, someone who's not a stranger to these chambers to this chamber rather. Carl Andress from the Hamilton Community Benefits Network respecting CBPS 260002. Good morning. Sorry. With respect before I begin, uh, chair, I'd like to ask this committee for an additional 6 minutes of speaking time due to the complexity of the topic I'm bringing forward today. I understand you've you're on a tight timeline, but I would appreciate that being extended. I'll look to the members of the committee. Moved by councelor McMin, seconded by Mayor Horvath. Uh, a show of Is it show of hands, please? Okay, 6 minutes. Good morning, everyone. I could not be more excited to talk to you about item 811, the July 24th Community Benefits Protocol Subcommittee meeting. So much hard work has gone into it that I don't have the time to thank everyone but city staff, HCBN partner organizations, city labs, our partnerships with Mohawk, McMaster Redeemer, especially McMaster's research shop, McMaster's Discruit School of Business, McMaster's Art of Change course, and a great many students and professors have all contributed much needed data research and support for the protocol framework before you. This protocol framework has been years in the creation. There we go. Mostly I really though want to thank this term of council. The work of the community benefits committee began in 2018 but stalled due to COVID and staffing constraints. It was this term of council that passed the term of reference that let this work move forward. who diligently read student and staff research reports on social procurement, community employment benefits, and the community benefits movement in general, who accepted my presentations and graciously extended me additional time as I explained this topic and came out to delegate on behalf of the subcommittee as well as the HCBN itself and who on March 19th, 2025 allocated 75K from the tax stabilization reserve to fund a city of Hamilton staff member to aid in the development of the community benefits protocol. As many of you know, municipalities across Ontario have been trying since 2015 to to find ways to smarter and more equitably spend their valuable dollars to advocate or I'm sorry to move forward the concept of community wealth building to keep dollars in our local economies. Previous reports presented to you this term have shown that municipalities from as big as Toronto to as small as Wood Buffalo Alberta are working towards implementing some form of community benefits. They like you see the value in using the money already spent on capital and operations as a force magnifier for our local economy to encourage job growth and cycle valuable tax dollars back into the hands of Hamiltonians. as many of Oh, sorry. Um, community benefit policies are as diverse as the communities undertaking them. Despite starting as a movement in 2015, not even Toronto has fully implemented its community benefits framework. It's why I'm so proud to speak about the the protocol before you today, which is measured, guided by data, and embedded at its core with checks and balances, timelines, and regular reporting back to this committee. It's interesting to note the community benefits work is often already being undertaken in the city of Hamilton in many departments without being labeled so as happens today on your agenda. Item 8.5 HSC 2658 uh regarding the redevelopment of 34 Mistywood Drive is one of those community benefit opportunities that this protocol could perhaps help reinforce a solid policy for. And it's one of the many projects that happen behind the scenes but do not have an established verified or consistent policy. Staff have established this policy before you not as a protocol not as a policy today for you to approve but rather a sandbox a framed testing ground and a reasoned set of protocols to test pilot prove or disprove before implementing citywide. Most cities looking at social value per human or community benefits um end up aiming to cover at least one of the three core pillars presented here. They are implemented either by consulting a consulting report that sets a particular policy, a motion from councelor staff to invent a framework or a series of fumbling steps to define what community benefits mean for that community. Hamilton's plan is unique. It aims to pilot, innovate, and shape with future council approval a community benefits framework around these three core principles before you. The social procurement pillar aims to test social procurement policies that support spending locally, encourage local business, and support Hamilton entrepreneurs and social enterprise. The reports passed at committee uh don't dictate any procurement policy changes today but outline a reasoned steps um for the procurement department to test and undertake to prove the value of social value procurement before implementing any actual changes to procurement policies. The community employment benefits pillar sets out a series of policies that could be added to large capital infrastructure projects to encourage workforce development, job creation, and moving folks off social assistance and into construction opportunities on City of Hamilton projects. But again, it doesn't change policy. It suggests to test, pilot, contract, report and test a a second time, a third time, and connect with local service, employment agencies, trade schools, unions, stakeholders, contractors to test what changes in Hamilton can be made to procurement without dramatically increasing production costs. In British Columbia, they created the BC Infrastructure Benefits, Inc., a crown corporation established in 2018 which has had massive success in in incorporating women and indigenous folks into the unionized building trades dramatically uh through their infrastructure spending and there are great many um reports available online on that organization. I would encourage you to look at them. The public realm and community supports pillar. The final pillar provides the space to test other elements of community benefits that are not covered by the other two pillars. It will establish hopefully a documented process for producing community benefit agreements on major civil projects supported by meaningful public engagement, transparent monitoring, and binding community commitments. As counselors, I'm sure you've all heard from residents about public realm improvements or neighborhood projects or ward needs that could have been delivered alongside another project. Well, some of this this pillar proposes to test ideas on how better infrastructure can be delivered in this city. How better community de community and public realm developments can be provided. how we might work voluntarily with developers on a framework for private for private uh development contributions that don't uh touch the planning act or exceed the planning act, but rather work alongside it to establish better policy to to implement greater community benefits. We live in increasingly uncertain times. Pressure from south of the border deepens gaps in political ideology. There's an increasing hostility to good governance and civic service. Uh, and that hasn't made any of your jobs easier. Despite the often widening gaps that appear, I believe every counselor here ran for office out of a strong sense of duty and love of this city. It's why I believe this term of council has seen the most movement on this file. This this framework is a collective reflection of your choices. It brings forward strong monitoring and reporting oversight for staff, deep accountability to council for any policy choices or changes, but also outlines a potential roadmap that I think everyone in this room understands that this city needs, policy change. Ultimately, I believe the framework protocol will help the city of Hamilton adapt the community benefits movements goals to city policies and provides success in creating those changes. It deliberately sets up an iterative step-by-step process that regularly comes back with pilots, successes, failures, costbenefit analysis to this body. Year one staffing is already paid through through two um approvals that this group has already voted on. Now, just with my last few minutes, I did want to take a quick second to show you this. Absolutely. I don't know if I can play it. Oh, I can't. >> Hamilton is a city on the rise. New developments, investments, and infrastructure are reshaping how we live, work, and grow. As the city evolves, so does the opportunity to think differently about how we plan, build, and invest. There's momentum, and with it, the chance to create long-term value for the community. That's where the Hamilton Community Benefits Network comes in. Founded in 2017, HCBN is a community labor coalition working to ensure public investment also builds community wealth through local hiring, inclusive procurement, and neighborhood infrastructure improvements. This approach is called a community benefits framework. It's about using public dollars to deliver more than just roads and buildings. It's about building opportunity. Cities like Toronto and Vancouver are already doing this. At Toronto's Woodbine Casino, a community benefits agreement led to a $5 million child care center. And Vancouver now requires large developments to include measurable community benefits from job creation to public spaces. The result, more impact, stronger partnerships, and greater return on public investment. And they benefit companies, too. In Toronto, Ellis filled skilled labor gaps on the West Park Healthcare Center redevelopment by connecting with local pre-apprenticeship programs through a CBA. The Eglinton Cross Town LRT project helped its contractors meet Labor. >> I never like to talk about the Egington cross town. So, with the last few seconds that I have, um, I'm obviously not as slick as the wonderful students from Grit at the Groot School of Business that created that video for us. So, with my last seconds, I also want to thank the Hamilton Community Foundation, the Atinson Foundation, and the United Way, which fund HCBN's work. I'm proud of the support and advocacy we were able to provide to get to this point, and their funding allowed HCBN to advise staff, criticize, and oppose staff, and focus our time on advocating for the best possible framework for the city of Hamilton. as vice chair of the committee and the executive director of HCBN. Thank you counselors for your leadership in advancing this project. I look forward to continuing this work over the next term of council with staff and all of you when you're reelected. I'm happy to dive into any questions that you might have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Delegate Andress. We do have a question. Councelor McMakin, please. >> Not a question so much, just a quick comment. you we talk a lot about complete streets uh and sometimes a little bit less about complete communities. So I I really value your work and I just want to thank you for that and uh any guidance you can give us on how we can better uh better deliver memorable community investments. So um this this city especially this term of council has made a lot of strides in terms of engagements and in terms of understanding um the community's wants and needs. The problem I uh I personally believe and what I hope one of the pillars will will help address through this community benefits protocol and perhaps bring creative ideas forward to this body to explore is the intersecting um the intersecting needs of different communities and different projects. We have a stack of capital projects that need to be done that are approved years in advance. At the same time, we have neighborhood and resident goals that every counselor around this table gets emailed about constantly. We sometimes have capital projects that have been planned years in advance. Get go ahead at undo potentially undoing a project that needs to be done or not being intersected or done at the same time. A speed pump that needs to be installed on a street that needs to be repaved is one of those community benefits that could be done. There are all kinds of these little moments for change. It could have something to do with a procurement contract that goes out to a new upand cominging enterprise as we know. Um more than 65% of any dollar spent locally are returned to the local economy as opposed to leaving the local economy. So it just makes sense to spend our tax dollars in this economy when possible on certified businesses that are capable of delivering. And so that's what the social procurement pillar proposes. And lastly, what I'll say is I believe this system was designed this way with three pillars because many municipalities have implemented at least one of these pillars. It doesn't have to mean that you know come a year from now or two years from now that all three pillars need to be adapted or that everything in the proposed framework needs to become policy or needs to become the rule of of the city of Hamilton. But it is an opportunity to expand ideas, to test new new frameworks, and to potentially change the way that the city does some critical critical infrastructure delivery, critical social delivery, and critical spending. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Thanks very much for that intentionality. I appreciate it and for your good work. Keep it up. Seeing no further questions, thank you very much. On to delegate 6.6, Kate Flynn, respecting the Bay Area Climate Change Council Partnership and Funding request. Good morning and welcome. Please uh feel free to adjust the podium to a height. Um you just have to say the magic words which is abbercadabra. Horvath and members of council. Um, my name is Kate Flynn and I'm here today representing Mohawk College. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of the staff recommendation report on the Bay Area Climate Change Council partnership and funding request. Mohawk College values its long-standing relationship with the city of Hamilton to work together to address the opportunities and the challenges that our community faces. Today, I'm here to share our continued support for the Bay Area Climate Change Council, a collective impact initiative for which Mohawk College acts as the host secretariat in partnership with the cities of Hamilton and Burlington. The local effects of climate change are fast revealing themselves. the growing number of extreme heat days, the floods that threaten our lives and livelihoods, and the terrible wildfire smoke that causes us to reconsider daily activities like walking the dog or taking our kids to the park because of unsafe air. These are tremendous challenges, and they're putting additional strain on our communities during an already uncertain times. While we need to address the very real problems of climate change, we at the college also recognize that the energy transition, moving away from our reliance on fossil fuels that are causing climate change to economies run on abundant clean energy, will provide tremendous opportunity here in our region. The transition to clean energy, clean manufacturing, electric vehicles, and more energyefficient homes and buildings will provide good jobs, cleaner air, and and homes and buildings and institutions that are more resilient to the effects of a changing climate. As such, Mohawk College is dedicated to supporting meaningful action on climate change through education, applied research, and collaboration. Our support and participation in back is one important way that we are collaborating to make a meaningful impact on climate and our cross and we recognize that cross- sector collaboration is essential and that our investment in this collaboration can realize larger gains for the community. Through our participation in the Bay Area Climate Change Council, we have been able to connect and work with industry, community, and government partners on addressing system level issues while taking responsibility for the actions that our own home organization can undertake to support the transition. One example is that through our participation in the implementation team focused on home energy retrofits, the college has been better able to understand the skills gaps and emerging markets for lowcarbon construction and retrofits. This information has been then relayed back to our academic faculty and curriculum specialists in the skilled trades, construction and architectural technician programs as part of the effort to investigate ways to adapt our existing curriculum, offer upskilling uh programs to workers already in the field and train specialists on the emerging technologies that will soon become standard. It will also help us it oh sorry it helps us act so that our local workforce is not only not left behind but we can enable our learners alum and local businesses to get ahead. This is just one example of the value of this partnership to us and why we continue to support the barrier climate change council and are proud to act as a host secretariat for this program. Collective action is an important and ultimately cost-effective tool for meaningful change. Mohawk College values the opportunity to continue serving as partner and host of this initiative. We remain committed to contributing our expertise, our institutional research or sorry resources and research I should say and relationships to supported the next phase. We appreciate the council's continued partnership um or and the city's continued partnership and support recommendation to refer the proposed funding to the 2027 operating budget to enable the renewal of our partnership. Of course, subject to uh required approvals. Thank you. >> Thank you, Delegate Flynn. Any questions? Counselor Alex Wilson, please. >> Thank you. I think just as a faculty member at a college or university, I think able to talk about a little bit about how when you're doing enabling work, so you're doing education, you're understanding best practice sharing, you're creating resource guides, it's about how to do work differently, how to think about things differently. there's not necessarily a clear tangible outcome or KPI at the end that says we got this many things done or this happened because it the product was knowledge being generated but then there's also the outcomes of that that come later on um with respect to this is how many people were trained in a course or those types of things as well in terms of the $40 to $50,000 in terms of funding. Can you talk a little bit about what are the metrics that kind of we should be looking for as one of the one of the governance organizations one of the funders of this organization? what does accountability around those priorities look like? But also in terms of value for money, can you provide a comment on, you know, in terms of both the enabling conditions and some of those hard outcomes? Is there do you believe strong value for money or could you maybe expand on that a little bit? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, the way that we're trying to structure the which governs the partnership between the three partners is that we will have a a set of strong KPIs that don't necessarily measure the direct impacts of like how many emissions we've reduced or how many dollars have been able to be reinvested. um but will speak to is there alignment and value coming from the partners. So when we um basically say the implementation teams does this actually have value we can capture that and then um report it back to the cities. Um so every year we're going to be looking at those KPIs and basically trying to evaluate does this actually have like a multiplier effect. Um and what we're really looking for there is did you actually find alignment value and then what kind of projects and success were you able to find through those partnerships. Um again a little bit difficult to measure like year-to-year but we definitely have a program in place in thatou to make sure that we can evaluate that as a city. We will be providing reports back to um an annual report back to the city to try and um basically demonstrate that value. >> Yeah. Any further questions? Seeing none. Thank you very much. I appreciated the both comments about um even when things are outside of our our policy jurisdiction, conversation is extremely important. Um thank you for your delegation. >> Okay, it is moved by councelor Alex Wilson and seconded by councelor Tatterson to receive the delegations collectively. Show of hands, please. That carries. We're on to 7.1. Hamilton's biodiversity action plan progress update. We do have a presentation and we would welcome staff to attend the podium please And please adjust the desk at your wish. Okay. Good morning, chair and members of committee. My name is Thomas Verichok, the senior program coordinator of Hamilton's biodiversity action plan or BAP. Today I'll be providing an update on the implementation of the BAP highlighting partner and city-led progress and on the ground action achieved between June 24 and December 25. I would like to acknowledge many contributions from our partner agencies and community groups and city staff especially colleagues Jonathan Vandreel who's behind me and Shauna Hasselman from public works uh whose collaboration have been instrumental in advancing this work. So council adopted the BAP in June 2024 as a collaborative roadmap to protect, restore, connect, and better understand biodiversity across Hamilton. The action plan is being delivered through a partnership involving the city, conservation organizations, academic institutions, and community nonprofits. As mentioned earlier, today we're talking about implementation between June 24 and December 25. This is the first year of implementation. It's uh the early stages but important foundational work uh that included overall governance and coordination work and impacts through partner and city-led restoration initiatives, public engagement and relationship building. So biodiversity is more than just protecting plants and wildlife. Healthy ecosystems are essential services that Hamiltonians rely on every day. Natural areas improve air and water quality, reduce erosion, mitigate flooding, capture carbon, and support climate resilience. Biodiversity also contributes to residents health and well-being by providing opportunities for recreation, learning, and connection with nature. As Hamilton continues to grow, maintaining and restoring biodiversity is an important priority for the city uh to ensure healthy, resilient, and sustainable communities across all wards. So, the BAP is built on collaboration. Our partners include the Bay Area Restoration Council, Green Venture, Hamilton Conservation Authority, Hamilton Naturalist Club, McMaster University, and the City of Hamilton. Each organization brings different expertise and resources to the tent. Uh we're collaborating on stewardship, research, and monitoring, restoring habitat, engaging residents, and generally improving biodiversity across the city. The program allows us to leverage existing work and expertise while improving coordination and collective impact. BAP is made up of 68 actions and as of December 25, four of them have been completed, 42 are in progress, 16 are pending the completion of other actions and six have yet to be started. I mentioned earlier but this uh period focuses really on governance structures building partnerships and strengthening that internal coordination initiating projects and conditions for future success is key as well. So overall twothirds of our actions are underway and I think they demonstrate some strong momentum across all partners that where we're taking some action against long-term uh biodiversity conservation. Some specific highlights one of our main priorities is ensuring that our governance and coordination is transparent inclusive and effective. In our reporting period, uh we've been able to bring on a dedicated coordinator. Uh in October of 25, we advanced the formal agreement to strengthen accountabil accountability and uh we uh worked on a communications and branding guide with city staff. Also beginning to develop internal working groups to improve internal collaboration across departments. These are foundational pieces uh to deliver meaningful biodiversity outcomes over the long term. I will also note that since this reporting period, we have completed the formal agreement which was before council earlier this year and uh communications uh strategy and we have launched the internal working groups as well. It's in early 2026. So community engagement uh on the ground participation is essential for achieving the plan's objectives. Uh a good example between this reporting period is green ventures work with over 5,000 community members uh through workshops, events, presentations and consultations with with directly with land owners. Uh they worked with over 50 community organizations and provided lots of support for for for land owners as well. Ark Bay Area Restoration Council distributed just under 500 classroom mini marsh kits over 80 schools. They reached 10,700 students uh across all wards and are fostering really good environmental literacy among uh young folks across the city. Hamilton Conservation Authority engaged more than 50 rural land owners with agricultural best practices and connected more with more than 1500 residents through their community outreach program. These initiatives are helping build that culture of stewardship across the city. Several actions of the BAP have resulted in tangible on the ground habitat improvements in this period. For example, Hamilton Conservation Authority created 14 hectares of uh wetlands in Stony Creek. An additional four acres of uh wetland habitat was uh created by and restored by Green Venture. The Hamilton Naturalist Club secured 3.6 hectares uh at the Pinehill Nature Sanctuary and more than 20 hectares uh at Hazeland Swamp, permanently protecting valuable natural areas. McMaster and other BAT partners planted over a thousand native plants and removed over 11,000 invasive plants uh within the lower Ancaster Creek wershed as well. Uh Green Venture coordinated several planting events uh including 3,500 native plants and tree installations. 2400 square meters of low impact development features were also part of that programming. City staff also identified 26 parks and open space locations about 12 hectares uh as potential candidates for reduced mowing and naturalized initiatives. So these efforts collectively improve habitat connectivity, support wildlife populations, increase climate resilience, flood mitigation uh controls and erosion control. On the policy side of things, uh an important objective is making sure city planning and operations consider biodiversity. Hamilton completed its watershed action plan which identified 10 watershed priority actions. We also have a yard maintenance bylaw that was updated to better support naturalized gardens and biodiversityfriendly landscaping. The Hamilton Conservation Authority with other BAT partners are also working on a natural areas inventory which is strengthening the scientific foundation for future conservation effort and actions. City staff work on dune habitat management planning along the Lake Ontario shoreline and overall this is helping ensure biodiversity considerations become routine for municipal and partner decision-m. So looking ahead, our priorities uh finalizing the partnership agreement, completing the branding guide and communication strategy, starting to work on biodiversity indicators to support annual reporting, uh bigger picture, aligning those monitoring and indicator efforts with a Montreal pledge and the Canada 2030 nature strategy, supporting the natural heritage system review, and continuing to expand our private landowner outreach and general community engagement. As noted earlier, uh a lot of the stuff was also completed in early 2026. Uh partnership agreement, the branding guide, um and notably, so uh in closing, uh the first reporting period I think it we think established some really strong foundations for the long-term implementation of the biodiversity action plan. staff, partners, and the community has made meaningful progress across governance, community engagement, lots of habitat restoration across the city, and uh we're working on policy integration and really look forward to continuing this great work. Thank you. And we're happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. Would you like to introduce your partner in crime up there? >> Good morning. John Vanreal, senior project manager, parks operations. >> Thank you. answer any questions. >> Yeah, thank you. Just in case there are any questions directed your way. Thank you. We have a number of uh questions coming your way. So, hold tight. We'll start with Cameron uh councelor Cameron Crutch. >> Thanks very much. My questions really are around the gaps that exist and closing the gaps and trying to understand how this plan is really working seamlessly with the rest of city departments and operations. I'll give you an example. So, and I might call on director Cynthia Graham about this if she wants to add something, but parks and natural spaces of which there are sparingly few downtown and so they're very important. So, in parks, for instance, we deal with a lot of garlic mustard, bo, those kinds of things, invasive plants that are pushing other plants out. Um, and we have had a lot of, for instance, in Shamrock Park in Corktown, I've been part of cleanups there for about a decade almost, going back trying to get them out. Um, they're feisty. Um, so I'm trying to understand that. And then if I look at um parts of the North End where we're close to naturalized spaces in our bay, we have let tree of heaven, Japanese notweed, and these other things take over. and they've created this kind of strange I guess you'd call it our residents have been told by some that it's called a for it's not a forest but it's been called a forest area and it's not um and it's making things worse in the area in terms of biodiversity but also for so many other reasons that I don't need to explain to the two of you how are we going to deal with that when we have these established rooted plants uh can we remove them can we rehabilitate the area because right Now residents are being told no but I think the plan is yes. So can you clarify that for me because I think there's lots of work to be done in this area especially in war two through the chair. Yes. Invasive species particularly is a really mammoth undertaking as part of this biodiversity action plan set of actions that we're going to be looking at in years to come. Um right now um it was mentioned in the presentation but um the natural areas inventory is an assignment being led by the Hamilton Conservation Authority and they're going around and mapping where these hot spots are with respect to what invasives lie in our parks, in our grasslands, in our shorelines, in our woodlands. Um, and so that inventory work is happening right now and really understanding what's there will help us determine how we can best manage these spaces going forward and where we can prioritize those hotspots when it comes to invasive species management and treatment going forward. We really need to establish that foundation of inventory mapping first. And so that work is happening as we speak and it will um continue in through 2027. It should wrap up. Um but I'm gonna offer um my director Cynthia Graham if she has any other thoughts on that >> through the chair. Thank you. Uh Cynthia Graham, director of environmental services. The only part that I would add to what John has um talked about is uh all of a sudden we now have staff that have expertise and the ability to take on this work and that really hasn't been in place in the past. And the collaboration that I have seen with all of the different partners on this particular um plan has really helped with making sure that when these areas become um you know that we become aware of them. We we can all of a sudden start take steps to to start to address them. It it's not going to happen overnight. These invasive species have been with us for a long time. But at least we have an ability to start to action some of the removals. >> I'm grateful to hear that we're going to start turning some of those nos into yeses because for some residents this has been a really really big issue. What I will say too is that I do think there's too much territorialization in all this. And what I mean by that is that we tend to think of things like waste services are a great example. Certain types of garbage cans belong to the parks folks and certain types of garbage cans belong to waste services folks. And this is not isolated to these this toy services. It also when we talk about land, who the asset owner is, all this kind of stuff ends up playing a role and frankly creates in its very structure many gaps. I urge you to please consult with counselor's offices before you make this inventory public because we are the gap catchers. Uh we see the things that no one else see. Uh and I'll give a shout out to things like Carol's Point is a great example. Carol's Point is a place that um is kind of not maintained. Um, for many years it was a great little beach area. You could go hang out with your dog and and sit and look at the high level bridge and and interact with the water. And now it's just an overgrown catastrophe, but I don't know that anyone owns that asset. So, I think really it's important that we have those conversations with counselor's offices and so please do that. I encourage you to and thank you for your work. >> Councelor Tison. >> Oh, >> I thought counselor N was up. Nan was up. Sorry. Okay. No, your your light was green first, so that's what I'm going with. >> Okay, thanks. Um, again, is it okay, counselor? I'll defer to you. Okay. Well, here we go then. Um, I just want to say thanks for the bio action biodiversity action plan update. Great work. Um, in looking at your partnerships, um, I saw Bay Area Restoration, Green Ventures, Hamilton Conservation Area, Naturalist Club, but I didn't see Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority, which takes stewardship over the watershed in most of Ward 11, the repres the area that I represent. Um earlier this year I did bring forth a motion that encouraged partnership for fragmmites control which would support biodiversity I believe because the fragmitees are impinging upon um are the bio the biodiversity because they are not natural to the area and they are causing issues with lots of different animal habitats. So is this a missed opportunity or is it just the fact that you negated to mention them in your presentation? Yeah, maybe I'll hop in here. And so the BAP is made up of of the six core partners I highlighted and also several supporting partners. Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority is one of those uh supporting partners. They've been involved with several of our meet and greets. They were involved in identifying the actions early on as well. So, so they are at the table. In terms of the specific fragmitees, maybe I'll leave that for Johns. >> Thank you through the chair. We are working collaboratively with other conservation authorities beyond just the HCA. Um and through the fragmitees motion that was put forward earlier this year. That's one prime example of that collaborative effort. Um though the MPCA, the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority is, as Tom mentioned, a supporting partner, we still collaborate and it still doesn't um infringe any type of collaborative works that the city engages moving forward with the other other conservation authorities. So, we are working to strengthen those collaborations um as we move this this this program forward. >> Okay. Thanks for that. And knowing that several of our local conservation authorities will be merged together, that will probably help with forging better partnerships in the future. Thanks, >> Councelor and now. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor. Uh thank you both for your presentation responses to date. I would agree with director Graham uh what a difference it makes for the municipality to not just have a strategy but to have dedicated staff to begin the implementation work. So congratulations and getting the ball rolling. Um in the presentation there was a review of some good work that's happened with the schools around the mini marshes and then with the with McMaster University specifically 11,000 invasive species plants being re removed is quite a quite a task. I imagine that's because McMaster brought it to the table. Were they a partner I in so much that they're taking care of their own land? And what does that partnership look like in terms of being able to identify those invasive species, best practices that are emerging for removal? How are we benefiting from learning as a municipality when it comes to that kind of extraction for our public lands? >> Okay. Um through the chair, we we certainly like to learn from one another. um our steering committee which incorporates the core partners, the six partners. We meet on a monthly basis to talk all about how we can share information between our partnerships, between our organizations. Um constantly learning from one another with respect to how to bridge those those organizations together um and and and kind of help each other where our boundaries lie specifically as well where the city-owned lands meet McMaster lands in your um specific example there. Um we're working very closely in and around that cooch drive area to help understand how ecosystem restoration can happen um more wholesomely between our two partner groups and the steering committee is just one avenue to allow that to to further develop and strengthen that between um the and and us as city staff between planning and economic development between public works. We're acting as kind of that liaison between the larger staffing audience as well um to try and bridge the the different groups that work at the city together to to to to bring that biodiversity and ecosystem restoration portfolio ahead as well. >> Excellent. And then um could you speak a little bit to through you chair the partnership with the school boards, the two school boards? Um where is that at currently? Where are you hoping to take it? And uh I you know from a W three spec perspective there are some sites in the um public school board for example where there may not be as much invested in yard maintenance that really does play a big role in invasive species continuing to come back up. And then we've got neighborhood groups doing their part as a community building effort to weed out those invasive species over the summer and then do the planting in the fall. and those coordination efforts become very labor intensive and repetitive in terms of trying to tackle the same issue and it continues to emerge year after year after year and it's starting to drain some of our volunteers and deplete their uh their spirit in terms of the the work that they're doing in the community. So if you could speak to that a little bit please. >> Uh thank you. Yes, through the chair. Um, schoolyards are a really great opportunity for, as Tom mentioned, that education component to our youngsters within the city, but then also that on the ground large swath of land that they occupy in our urban neighborhoods. Um, and so how can we try and collaborate those best those partnerships between school board and and bat partners? Um, something we're really trying to work toward in enhancing in the future. Um some of the work that Green Venture and that the Hamilton Naturalist Club do is really that deep paving on some of the city properties um in W 3 for example, Adelaide Hoodless and a couple others. So they're that they're really trying to do it in in not just in um in in the already existing um natural environment, but areas that we could see could could bring nature back into those already kind of concrete urban environments. And so that's one way of of of our strengthened collaboration. There is still work to be done when it comes to coordinating efforts um from an invasive species management perspective going in and treating removals. Um and then how do we set that up for a for more um rigorous um native plantings that we can then incorporate to help um uh bring that ecosystem restoration piece back. Um as as um my director Cynthia mentioned, we are now as staff on hand to help assist with that and so our coordination efforts will ramp up in the years ahead. >> Excellent. Thank you. No further questions. >> Councelor Alex Wilson. >> Thank you. Just given all the conversation around um collaboration and kind of getting getting more mature as we go and building that practice, I'm focus interested in focusing in on land acquisition. We've I think had some incredible success in recent years led by lots of the partners, but that's something that I see as very disperate right now. So each partnership um has their own priorities, their own funding sources. Some of them are public, some of them are donor-based. Um you know, the RBG might be clustered around their headquarters, for example. The conservation authorities at present are looking at um priority areas within their wersheds they represent and then they're going through an administrative process that will likely slow down at least um large scale acquisitions in the near term. Um the city sometimes has money but we're typically looking at acquisition from a parkland perspective. Um but now we are a natural heritage commenter and we have new responsibilities that have changed there. So there's all this structural governance change going on um that's impacting organizations mandates, their budgets, how they make decisions so far. Organizations have been able to I think despite that pull out some pretty big wins. My read and I guess it doesn't have to be everyone that the city may need to pay a bit more this team may need to be a bit more of an administrative coordinating role as some of those governance changes are going at least in identifying citywide or regionwide priorities for limited funds to be directed to. Um can you talk a little bit about from land acquisition how that's working? Is each BAP partner asked a comment say if there's um a potential acquisition internal city department's weigh in is parks kind of taking on the role um and how are they kind of taking that feedback? I'm just curious about what that looks like or what are the goals in terms of that collaboration to make sure those perspectives are actually getting forward and then even if it's council making the decision, we have the right information when we're making that decision >> through the chair. Um right now parks does a lot of the commenting with respect to land acquisition and any type of surplus properties that may come up. Um environmental services staff have the opportunity to comment and so we um will bring forward those comments. Um if there is opportunity there for any type of natural area enhancement or or land acquisition from a from a natural areas lens. Um I should also mention too that there is in staff work plans forthcoming um a natural areas um acquisition strategy similar to the previous parks master plan that um was put forward a couple of years ago. Um looking more holistically at natural lands from a citywide perspective is something that's on staff's work plans um forthcoming. um and that will help us um be better at prioritizing where we can invest our monies in any type of land acquisition going forward. Um I'm going to just offer Cynthia's um my director's uh take on this as well if she has any other comments. >> Yeah, through the chair. Um so the one of the other ways that the city can acquire natural lands is through the development application process. And so we have been um as always commenters on uh those uh applications as they come in and um identifying where it would be beneficial uh for the city to assume ownership of natural features. uh working with our partners in Hamilton Water and also flagging if um you know maybe uh because of adjacent land uses or adjacent property owners that those lands might be better suited to go to a conservation authority. We're trying to be um open and collaborative and um uh identifying opportunities early uh when those opportunities come up. >> Thank you through Oh, apologies if there's more. Maybe just really quickly, this is a tease for the next year of annual reporting, but one of the tasks of the overall BAP coordination was to initiate our natural areas acquisition fund conservation organization working group. It's a really long acronym, but it's it's there. Um we had our first meeting earlier this week or this year um that brings together various landowning agencies like RBG, Bruce Trail Conservancy, uh conservation authorities um and start having those larger strategic discussions about priority areas for for natural area protection and land securement opportunities. >> Thank you. That last piece was the I think the the piece I was looking for in the interm. You know, if you have a privileged product, say RBG for example, it's priority areas aren't public. That's a privileged kind of confidential idea to its specific organization, but they're also science and evidence informed. And so to not have that information sharing makes sense um because it's private information. But if we're all trying to work together towards shared goals, understanding how we're going to start breaking down those barriers so our parks team can comment really effectively and say, "Actually, citywide this is a priority area. Like this this is of a better consideration." Um, I really appreciate kind of where where we're going on that and that does reassure me. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any further questions? >> Just exercising uh the chair's prerogative. I'll never give up an opportunity to highlight the good work of the Hamilton Conservation Authority and its partnership with you um who have been on the forefront of land acquisition, stewardship, and um the making of wetlands. And I I see our chair is active here virtually. So kudos to all of those members. Um could you kindly just speak to the interface between the Montreal pledge with which uh this council signed on to and this work and their intersecting nature, please. >> Sure. I think uh a program like the Montreal pledge um really helps sets the outcomes for our biodiversity action plan um and it enables us to have discussions around how are we going to measure biodiversity progress those biodiversity indicators uh it's a conversation we'll be having rather shortly when we get our first management committee together in October 19th um so it's it's really setting that north star and helping us report on our our impact. >> Thank you. Um my last question is the um it's been alluded to, but the um sometimes the collision between urban public space and the need to do things and build things and shape things differently because of these uh real consequences that have arrived some time ago. uh if you could uh give us your professional counsel on how we can collectively get to a yes while making people feel part of the solution and that they're not taking away from any of um things that perhaps bring them joy through the ch through me >> through the chair. I'll do my best to answer that. Um I think it really comes down to how we frame this discussion going forward. um how we frame biodiversity and how we frame talking about the importance of biodiversity going forward with our own staff with um the members of the public with organizations that we work with on the regular like the core partners um like educational institutions. How can we frame the discussion that biodiversity is an asset within our city and that other elements within our parks, open spaces, um private spaces can also work to enhance these the biodiversity portfolio as well. So I think it's really about framing the discussion and we're working really hard on our as Tom mentioned communications and branding strategy. We're also really working to educate city staff internally on how we can how we can identify things like invasive species. How can our park staff go out and and identify in invasives so that they can report it to us so that we can do something about it to address it on the ground. Um, that's just one example that we've been doing this year internally now that staff have been hired and we can go out and kind of um, educate our own forces and and really that piece is is is helping bring that connection and that buyin and that will really shape the program going forward as well. when we have collective buyin on what this portfolio is all about and where um that intersects with all these other different portfolios that's how I think we can move forward in advancing this so that it becomes almost second nature to insert biodiversity elements within our public spaces I hope that answers your question >> thank you very much uh thank you both for being here and giving the presentation um to receive any are there any thank you uh please um I I don't see any further questioners. Are there any discussions on the report? If I can see none. Okay. Moved by councelor Tatison, seconded by councelor Cooper to receive the report and the staff presentation. A show of hands in favor or opposed. Thank you. That carries. We are on to 7.2. Tax sale properties. Um there is a confidential appendix A uh if you would like to hold off on the discussion until we have that discussion. Um looking to committee members for any direction. Hold off. Okay. We'd like to defer this uh consideration of this item which is just an item for information uh but we'll return to it following the in in camera portion. Thank you. It's moved by councelor Crutch and seconded by councelor Tatison. All those in favor or opposed? That carries. Thank you. 8.1 Revised Board of Management for the Ottawa Street Business Improvement Area, which includes WS three and four. Moved by Councelor Wang, seconded by Councelor Nan, to put the item on the floor. And any discussion on it? Seeing none, it requires an electronic vote, please. That carries 10 to zero. Thank you. 8.2 Environmental Re remediation and site enhancement redevelopment grant application for 290 Fennel Avenue in Ward 8. A mover and a seconder put the item on the floor. Councelor Cooper, seconded by councelor Alex Wilson. Any discussion? Seeing none, it's up for an electronic vote for your consideration. The vote is up. Bundber carries 100. Thank you. 8.3 Bay Area Climate Change Council Partnership and Funding Request. Moved by Councelor Nan, seconded by Councelor Cretch to put the item on the floor. Any discussion? >> Councelor Alex Wilson. >> Thank you. Just a governance question about the organization. So, we both sit as a funer, but we also are part of the board and setting priorities. Um, who kind of takes on that role as the city's kind of rep on the governance side of the organization. um in terms of having conversations about the strategic plan, the priorities, just getting a sense of how the voice of kind of council is both a funer but also um operationally involved in the organization as well. >> Uh through the chair, acting general manager of planet and economic development, Brian Hollingworth. Um it it crosses a number of different divisions and departments in in the city but um by and large it's our climate change office led through Lind Lucassic who is that key point of uh liaison. >> Thank you very much. >> Any further questions on this item? Seeing none, we'll move to the electronic vote, please. That carries 10 to zero. Thank you. On to 8.4. Climate ready Hamilton grant program peed 26190. Dr. Director Lucassic, you are here to give us a brief overview, please. >> Yes, I am. Thank you through the chair. Um, thanks everyone. appreciate the opportunity to be here today with this report. So, I'm very int pleased to introduce report PED26190 climate ready Hamilton grant program. Excuse me, sorry. Um, it's a pilot initiative and we're proposing to administer it through the office of climate change initiatives and we will be utilizing an already approved $100,000 allocation from the city's climate change reserve. Uh this pilot is proposed to offer small grants to enable Hamilton residents, particularly those most impacted by climate change to undertake what we're describing as hyperlocal actions to build community climate resilience through mitigation and adaptation efforts. Uh and support through this small grants program will range from as little as $500 up to $7,500 for more complex um initiatives to facilitate simple first steps like community network building which we're learning more and more is essential for building climate resilience and learning about neighborhood level climate impacts and how to address them. Um, so for instance, this could include building what we describe as neighborhood networks of caring to organizing emergency 72-hour kit workshops or neighborhood workbes to increase energy efficiency at home or to green up a street. Um, and these are just a couple of examples. Priority is going to be placed on supporting those most impacted by climate change who are least able to respond effectively due to lack of resources and other necessary supports. And I just want to say the funding framework has undergone extensive internal vetting by staff in finance, privacy, legal services and we thank them for their support with the development of this initiative. And I also want to acknowledge that on the WebEx today is Office of Climate Change Initiatives project manager Amy Angelo and Amy has been um the lead staff person on the effort to develop the the program framework and we are happy to answer any questions if there are any. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Lucasik. Looking to the members of the committee, I'll I'll recognize councelor Brad Clark. >> Good morning, chair. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> Perfect. Thank you. Just some questions. Um there is under the def under um the heading who can apply it has the following groups are not eligible to apply. So trying to get the rationale and understanding as to why for example not for-profit corporations, charities and other registered incorporated entities cannot apply. >> Okay. Uh Director Lucassic, would you like to direct that to Amy or how would you like to deal with that >> through the chair? Yes. I'll let Amy jump in and provide um a response to the counselor >> through the chair. Good morning. Um, yes. So, the the reason that we are prioritizing the reason is that we are prioritizing providing funding directly to residents, folks who would not have access to traditional means of acquiring funding. Um, and that includes pool, you know, pools of money or funding opportunities that nonprofit organizations um often have the most means to apply and to receive funding for. We want, we know that we need to be doing more to help residents to prepare. And so the goal is to make sure that we're providing funding directly to residents to to to prepare and to prepare to collectively to build on social capital and existing networks in their neighborhoods or their communities. >> Similarly, in the notation, it indicates that religious organizations cannot apply. Why is that? uh for a very similar through the chair for a ve through for through a very similar reason. Uh we really do want it to be residents who know each other or who want to get to know each other to prepare directly together. Uh that does not prohibit a group of folks who know each other through their faith community for to apply together. Um and so very similarly, we want to make sure we're getting funding to folks who just have a very hard time accessing pools of money otherwise. We're really trying to create this opportunity for residents So, can you help me out here because I'm trying to understand exactly what you're trying to accomplish by this program >> for residents >> for residents through the chair. We would like to provide funding directly to residents who can get together with other residents other and that they don't have to be folks who are homeowners. Anybody living in the city of Hamilton can apply. They need to have two other people who are leads of the application with them that they uh have have agreed to apply together for a project idea. And as director Lucassic mentioned, that could be preparing uh their homes by doing air sealing or making them more energy efficient through small energy retrofits. It could be getting together to learn about what the climate impacts are for Hamilton in their particular area. um neighborhood asset mapping and preparing 72-hour kits. It could be making um the box filters for uh poor air quality and wildfire smoke. The idea is to build on that that on that social capital to make sure that we're meeting neighbors because we know that communities who are most resilient to climate change are ones where they've prepared together. So, they're going to meet their neighbors. they're going to uh pick a project idea that allows them to uh connect with neighbors to take actions to prepare um and to involve other neighbors. And so there will also be resources on collective decision-m on how to make equitable decisions as a group and how to host equitable and accessible events where people can learn and prepare together. >> Is there an income test? There's no means testing, but we will have an attestation on the application form where folks who are on the front lines of climate change from equity deserving groups may choose to uh check off that they are they are project led by groups that are on the front lines of climate uh the climate emergency. Um but they may also they may choose not to identify and that will be a free choice for them in the application process. Uh, last question, chair, if I have time left. Um, I was under the impression that there was already a program with the climate change office for people to retrofit their homes and I have heard you indicate that that could be a grant under this application as well. Can you explain the redundancy? >> Absolutely. Through the chair. So, this would be a much smaller scale. This would be folks that are maybe putting in furnace uh whistles to know when they have to change their furnace filter. It would be air sealing around doors. Um, this is a at a much smaller and more um a skill that you can do yourself with your neighbors. And so, the idea would be to have folks connecting and helping each other out to make these, you know, one it would take maybe one day or half a day for one person's house and they would move on to the next person's house and do it collectively. they could bulk bulk purchase together. Um, but the scale is is very different and um and I maybe will hand it over to director Lacassic to to touch more on that that difference in scale. >> Sure. >> Sure. Through the chair. Um, just very quickly, councelor. Yeah. The better homes Hamilton home energy retrofit pilot has also involved loans. So, so these are homeowners who've applied for for a loan to make a significant change in their home. So, I guess fair to say very different scales. Um, and in the case of the Better Homes Hamilton program, it it is a loan that that homeowner is repaying to the municipality after they've made that investment to put in an airsource heat pump and and deal with um building envelope sealing. Um in in the case of this initiative as as Amy has described, these are much smaller um efforts and opportunities and and they they are very much rooted around that critical importance of community building to to start to realize on on the ground that that climate resilience that we know we need to see moving forward. So I hope that helps to explain. >> Yeah, I I have many more questions. So at this time chair I'm just simply going to vote against that project. Thank you >> councelor Alex Wilson. >> Thank you through you chair. just a couple of the same comments that I had um at the climate change committee and I think a question because I don't I don't think the rationale for this program's been brought up here um and I actually find myself really echoing a lot of councelor Clark's questions and thinking about it and so just wondering if are we doing this program because we think that the you know 50-ish micro grants that are going to happen are going to be the key to adaptation or are we trying to do something and other cities are trying to do programs like this for a reason like why are we doing this is it to have those 50 small projects and that outcome or is there a reason why we want to try 50 small micro projects. Does that lead us somewhere else? What's what's the rationale behind the program? Because I think lots of folks are going, "Well, that's not going to go very far. That's not going to do a lot. Wouldn't it be more effective to do something else?" So what so why are we running a microrant program through the chair? Um so the reason we're running the micro grant program um is because we believe that there can be uh there there can be measurable impact through resiliency measures. um when we when we allow people this small amount of money to can you I'm so sorry can you hear me? Um >> yes. Okay. Um so we do believe that there can be a measurable impact in terms of resiliency. So both the education we know that there are folks who are not aware of the impact that it will have on their community. Um in terms of resiliency in terms of connecting people so that they can prepare together um making actual 72hour kits or making these small changes to their home um planting a pollinator garden. There's a lot of examples that I think can have that resiliency impact. Um, and then there's the potential for this to to demonstrate that that lasting impact and then to be scaled up. So there could be a group that applies one year to to learn um about climate change and then the next year to do a preparedness project together. Um, and the whole point of the pilot is to really test out uh what is working to make sure that um we're seeing whether our promotion uh whether the application process to test all of these procedures to make sure that we're learning from them and adapting to make sure that it is reaching residents and having that impact. >> Thank you through the chair. Maybe director Lucas, I think you framed it really effectively at committee and maybe I could just borrow your framing and say is that is that part of it? We don't know how to do this work. So, we're trying to understand how. Like, that was so simple when you said it at committee. And I thought that was just effective. There's too much work to do. We don't know what types of programs our community needs. We're going to trial things out at a low dollar amount and scale up. We might not offer this program in the same way two years down the road, three years down the road because we might find a need and build a program specifically to that need. Can you just maybe like in the strategic how is this program going to grow and evolve? I just I heard that answer really clearly at committee and I haven't heard that framing today and I think for me it's the whole point of the program is not because the goal is to do the grant. It's the goal is to learn how to do the work via the grant which might also mean that we don't do it the same way after we've learned how to do it. Can you just comment on the how are we going to learn while we do this work? >> Sure. Through the chair thanks for that council. Yes, absolutely. That's a big part of what we're trying to do here. And as Amy has described, we have a vision of, you know, if this pilot is successful of of of creating opportunities for people to build build on their efforts at the local level. So, so I should should add too, you know, big part of what we've heard just sitting around that climate change advisory committee table is we've heard from community that they want to see the city offering more supports for these very hyper localal kinds of measures. So yes, for sure this is a very important first step in in creating those opportunities um in trying to be a little bit prescriptive too in what we're offering. So we've got modules in development that'll really provide guidance to people because we're also acknowledging not everyone knows where to start. So so we'll be triing some of those modules. Um, we'll also be trying to create space in the program for those who are maybe a little bit further along to propose more creative uh projects that they might want support for. So, thank you for that that this is a this is a lot about testing and and iteratively trying to make improvements moving forward. >> Thank you. Really appreciate that. Just I think folks understand $100,000 divided across multiple grants like yes it can have those impacts but if we wanted to say get pollinator grounds pollinator gardens off the ground a targeted program might be more effective. And so just understanding that we've heard from community to increase our service levels when it comes to adaptation beyond where they currently are. Um and that's comes with a lot of different potential costs, potential programs, finding out which ones are the right for our community right now and how to do that work. This is a bit maybe of a shotgun approach into what can we do, but it's at the beginning of the journey and that's why it's why it's that approach and why it's the right approach for right now is kind of the rationale. I really do appreciate that being offered. Thank you. Thank you. There are no further uh questions. Thank you, PM Angelo and Director Lucassic for your assistance. Um a mover and a secondary. Councelor Wang, Councelor Tatterson. Uh an electronic vote, please. I can't can't see Thank you. That carries 9 to1. We are on to 8.5. Service manager consent for Stony Creek Community Homes, Inc. redevelopment of 34 Mistywood Drive. It's moved by councelor Clark, seconded by uh councelor Cooper uh to put the item on the floor. A discussion on the item. Councelor Clark is at hand for discussion or is it legacy from seeking to move? >> No chair, it's for discussion on this item. >> Okay, please proceed. >> Thank you. I just wanted to thank Stony Creek Community Homes and our staff for working through this process. Um I know it's been challenging especially for residents in terms of um fears and trepidations of being um moved to another home. Uh but they are working it through so that the residents stay on site which I think is fantastic. they are working to free up the capital uh from the equity that they have to build more affordable housing and and more attainable housing. So uh chair I fully support this and I just wanted to thank all those involved including the residents who worked through the relocation plan with me and uh Stone Creek Community Home. Thank you. >> Thank you counselor. The item has duly been been duly moved and seconded. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, it's up before your consideration. Six. Thank you. That carries. 9 to zero. We're on to 8.6. Service manager consent for city housing Hamilton to sell 10 social housing units. Moved by councelor Nan, seconded by councelor Wang. The item is on the floor. Any discussion? Seeing none, it's been duly moved and seconded. Up for your consideration. Thank you. That carries 11 to zero. On to 8.7. Enterprise asset management project update in implementation partner standardization extension. Say that 10 times. Okay. Uh Pat Leechman who is the director of enterprise portfolio management rebuild and transformation uh has a brief overview. Um if you will get the item on the floor. Uh Mayor Horvath uh councelor McMakin over to you Director Leeman. >> Yes. Good morning. Uh Pat Leechman, director of enterprise portfolio management and transformation. Um here to introduce report CM26020. The report before you provides an update on the enterprise asset management project and seeks the approvals required to continue implementation and ongoing enhancement work. As a refresher, the project was established to consolidate asset management functions supported through 11 systems into one single integrated platform for public works with the objective of improving the management of infrastructure, information, and service delivery. The report outlines some of the challenges the project has experienced that have affected its implementation including the pandemic, cyber system interdependencies, resource constraints and organizational challenges. These factors have contributed to increasing project timelines and costs as outlined in the report. In response, the project team revised aspects of the delivery approach, resourcing model, and future support model. Following cyber, the project shifted shifted to a minimum viable product approach with incremental releases to support continued implementation. To date, core functionality has been implemented across several public works service areas and approximately 60% of the public works assets are now managed through the EM solution, but additional implementation work remains with this complex project. We've also identified lessons related to governance, resourcing, and delivery of major enterprise initiatives. These lessons together with the project outcomes and remaining implementation requirements are already informing the city's approach to current and future enterprise technology initiatives. The recommendations before committee today are intended to provide the resources, continuity, and approvals required to proceed with the remaining work and support the ongoing operation of the solution. The numbers being requested this morning are 650 um excuse me, 650,000 to finish 26 and 2.3 million for Q1 of 27 to get us to the budget process after which the remaining numbers would be requested through the budget process. I welcome opportunities to answer your questions. >> Thank you, Director Councelor Nan. >> Thank you, Deputy Mayor, and thank you, director, for that overview. um really appreciative and you know having been in the journey for this work to be completed over the last four years at this table I can appreciate the ongoing reports in terms of understanding what some of those delays are but deputy mayor I'm concerned as there's been a lot of misinformation circulating in the community about cyber security being used as some sort of organizational excuse for this kind of important work that helps us govern our decisions when it comes to finances, but also from an asset management perspective. Uh we're hearing it, but I think it's important to deep deepen that understanding publicly. So, if I could, director, could you just unpack a little bit of the truth there? Um we're hearing it at the doors. We're also hearing it out in the community. It's being mentioned in public debates. If you could just take this opportunity on behalf of the corporation to really help um unpack that, please. Uh thank you for the question through the chair. Uh I'll start and then perhaps uh CIO Tranu may want to jump in after me. But just speaking in terms of the EM project and and actually from my role as director of enterprise portfolio because my role came about after post cyber I hate excuses. I really do. Excuses are not how I function. Uh to me it's all about root cause and how do we prevent things from happening again. But let's look at reality. >> Thank you. Because at this point in time when you look at something like the the EM project, we totally the project lost the SharePoint site with all of our work output. That was years of of work uh to to build use cases to build all of the project documentation required in order to ensure a successful implementation. It was gone and unreoverable. That was huge. uh when we when we look at moving forward and we look at the fact that EAM enterprise asset management the system has to handshake with procurement and finance and then look at the fact that given the band or the interim solution that was put forward it wasn't able to actually do everything that we needed to do so for example the EM system requires inventory management which wasn't able to appropriately handshake with the interim finance solution uh that caused a greater upset and the decision to put procurement functionality into EAM. That's not where it should live long-term. It should live in the in the future state uh finance and procurement system. So that caused additional work to be able to go and and and make sure that we have that handshake uh that sorry that we built additional functionality into EAM in the interim as well as the handshake with the current interim finance and procurement procurement solution. So that's just an example there of of the the heartache and the pain and the uh it's not an excuse, it's reality. Um, and so at the end of the day, there's there's been a a ton of of upset and work required by staff, and I I applaud our business units and our our information technology teams who have gone way above and beyond in order to to get things across the finish line. >> Thank you. And Deputy Mayor, thank you, director, for that response. And deputy mayor, I just really wanted to give staff the opportunity because it can become really challenging because as a corporation, the only opportunity we have is these public forums of our public meetings to make sure that the public record is correct. And I really appreciate the director being very uh direct and forthright with their response. Thank you, >> council clerk, please. >> Thank you, chair. just um so can I >> go to the first item >> if if I may interrupt my apologies. Are you uh able to put on your screen your um camera rather? We do see a lovely picture of you but >> sorry I'm having it issues and it keeps so I'm trying to lower the bandwidth. >> Oh, >> can you hear me? If that yes, my apologies. If that happens, I will interrupt you again um and ask perhaps or suggest you turn off your camera, but we can uh see you now and we can hear you. Well, >> thank you. Feel free to interrupt me anytime. Okay. Um just the question if I may. Um, we're doing another non-competitive procurement and I'm trying to understand how I can say to the public that we are getting best value for dollar when it is not a competitive process. >> Director Leechman, is that one for you, please? >> Yes. Uh, thank you through the chair. Thank you for the question, counselor. We're asking for an extension of a standardization. What exactly is a standardization? In the case of computer software, it's the opportunity to continue a vendor arrangement where we need that consistency and compatibility to support operational requirements, integration and continuity and over to bring overall value to the city. Uh so yes, the initial procurement was done through uh council approved through a policy 11 some some time ago, but given the um expertise of this vendor and the the partnership that we have with them and the expertise that they bring regarding our configuration and our our deep um uh customization and configuration requirements, it would be highly detrimental to the project to change that implementation partner at this time. >> I understand that and I understand that risk. What I've not received an answer on how are we assuring ensuring that we are getting a competitive price. If we're extending this and they know they've got it sewed up, that the contract is there, they're not going anywhere. So, what stops them from increasing the costs to this municipality if we're not testing the price framework >> through the chair. Thank you for clarifying the question, counselor. So looking at it from a couple different angles, given that the project has been uh struggling um with uh timelines and schedules, we've looked at external resourcing to be able to help augment this uh and we find their pricing more expensive uh than who we're currently using. Uh the other piece here is that things are we already this is not about their contract. Their contract is already signed and in place and so we know what their costing is. Uh so through this standardization, it's allowing us to extend using them. It's got nothing to do with their contract being expired. So we already have negotiated pricing and negotiated uh an understanding of of their negotiated costs. That's already in place, >> but we're extending that contract without knowing the value for money for another five years. Uh, so we're extending through the chair. Sorry. We're extending being able to use them. Um, >> it's a contract for another 5 years. >> Uh, sorry. No, counselor. The contract is a separate document. Uh, the standardization allows us to go to Sorry, through the chair. The standardization allows us to go to them um in order to support the project, in order to support the software implementation. Uh if we needed additional work that's currently outside the scope of this contract, it would allow us to be able to go to them and and negotiate. We're not asking for just this one implementation partner either. We're also asking for the original implementation partner to be included. >> Councelor, you have 30 seconds. Um, yeah, I'm still struggling to understand how we verify value for a dollar. So, I'll let it go at that. I I don't support this. We We need to be able to tell the public that when we're spending this kind of money, we have verified that the dollar that we are spending is reasonable and competitive with the marketplace. and I've not received an answer to satisfy that question. Thank you, >> Mayor Horvath. >> Uh, thanks very much. I think that this is something that um is concerning to lots of folks around the table because what what we don't what I don't understand is how we got here. And the report really doesn't explain I mean it talks about the cyber security attack but it doesn't really give us a sense of why we ended up where we are in terms of not only the uh you know the the 650,000 but then also the next trunch if you will of funding before the budget process is completed. Am I understanding that right? That the there there's the 650,000 now from the tax stabilization reserve plus more uh prior to the budget process and then there will be additional f funds required through the budget process. Can I just get a clarification of that? >> Certainly, director Leechman. >> Yes, through the chair. Um, Madame Mayor, it's 650,000 for to allow us to finish 26 and then 2.3 million uh to be able to initiate purchase orders um through to when the budget process will be approved. There are additional requests coming in through the budget process that you will see. >> So that's a yes 650 now 2.3 before the budget is approved and then more in the budget process. >> Yes, correct. And again, I uh I have some discomfort uh I have to say I'm very supportive of course of the ENT uh enterprise asset management uh project. Uh this is something that was started in 2020 if I'm not mistaken. I've spoken many times about being uh at Queens Park uh hearing that uh uh that uh that there are things that Hamilton needed to do to be more um uh kind of on top of their asset management uh piece. And I'm I'm very supportive of it overall, but I just don't feel like there's enough understanding of how how the numbers can be so uh divergent from what the expectation was. Uh, and I don't know whether there's an I mean I all I can say is this. I feel uncomfortable voting on this without further explanation as to how we ended up in this situation. And if that explanation can be provided be between now and the final vote at council, I'll be satisfied with that. But I do have some discomfort of uh in terms of in terms of voting on it now. I I just don't know that there's enough information here to understand what happened, why, and how we prevent it from happening again. >> Director Leechman, is there anything that you would like to add? And I'm not sure if the mayor is uh considering a deferral to council. Uh please proceed >> through the chair. I would I would appreciate the opportunity to just speak to the mayor's concerns because I I do understand uh it it is um it's a big project and it's a complex project, but I I think it's an important question, right? Should we already continue or should we continue to put money into a project that's already experienced delays and increased costs? I I can't I'm going to go all the way back to the pandemic. I I I can't, you know, I'm going to start there because that pandemic uh halted the project for a period of time and we had resources already on staff. So, we we were halted for about 9 months. Uh when we finally did launch the project, um we were delayed, efficiency wasn't as high as possible because of the pandemic because staff were busy uh having to support pandemic related work while still trying to do the project. uh as you continue through uh there's been numerous resourcing challenges. Uh we were unable to have the endstate fully and properly in place at the time that it was supposed to which meant that the capital project was was consuming those additional costs of the support model uh in the end state. So it it those resourcing costs have just continued. There's been numerous resourcing issues. uh when we look at the impact of the cyber uh it was massive as I explained uh for councelor Nan's answer there was a huge amount of effort that was required in order to restore the work post cyber so when you look at uh and and I can talk about you know previous governance and and previous leadership um where perhaps wasn't as supportive as it could have been not not leadership sitting in chambers today uh but there were issues There were detriments that that caused significant delays to this project as the project tried to stay resilient, tried to flex and keep moving forward. I cannot underestimate in in my long in my long career and being involved in many projects of this type. Uh this has been probably the worst project I've ever seen in terms of being hit with every possible challenge. Who would have thought a global pandemic? Who would have thought a major cyber incident? But on top of those uh at times lack of senior leadership, at times lack of of resourcing, it's just been challenge after challenge after challenge. And I am happy to provide more detail if if it's required beyond what I've just explained, but there is extensive challenge and delay here associated with everything I've rhymed off. Can >> I just finish off then? >> Yes, please. Uh so, thank you very much for that. I I appreciate the explanation which we've heard here, but people out there are not necessarily going to understand this either and that's what I'm also concerned about. So, we get a certain amount of information around this table. We make our decisions based on that information. Uh but but the public then scratches their head to say why would they approve something like that? Because there's there's lack of of um I don't know whether it's communications. Uh I mean we c we believe there's transparency because we're talking about it publicly around this table, but it doesn't necessarily translate out to the community who are the ones that are footing the bill. So I would say uh first of all, I would what I would like to see and I I don't uh I think defer deferring it to council would be a good idea. Uh, and what I'd like to see is the um that detailed explanation in terms of the bumps in the road that occurred and and made uh made this situation uh before us um uh what what we're left dealing with, but also a communications plan because the people of the city of Hamilton who put the bill need to understand, you know, what it is uh that has caused this to happen. And I I clearly see the the explanation that was provided and I very very much appreciate it. I think that the people of Hamilton deserve to understand that as well. And so what I'd like to do is defer it and uh a final decision on this until the council next week. Uh because I understand I I totally I read the report and I do understand the um requirement to have a decision made on this to prevent us from moving even further backwards. I understand that completely. But I do also understand that this is uh a lot of money uh and it's a big variance and and we need to make sure that we're providing our public with uh an understanding uh of what uh what has happened. So what the bumps in the road have been uh as well as a communication plan to help people understand why council is uh in this situation right now to uh uh to to have to perhaps uh make a decision to to go forward. So, I'll leave it at that. That's what I would hope for. So, I don't know, chair, do I move a deferral or a referral? >> Um, I I would ask if we can get through uh firsttime speakers just because they've been on the docket. If I can beg your indulgence as chair and then if you could move uh that will be your uh your right, council Gretch. Thanks. I do think that there is some more information that's necessary here just from the questions I have about the kind of variance we're looking at. So when we look at the chart that's there, it doesn't give us information about whether or not those costs are all totally isolated to 2026 that $19 million at the top of the chart. I don't believe so. I believe those are costs up to a certain period. Unfortunately, it doesn't say that. And so in terms of breaking it down for 2026, we don't have a sense of what the scale is. So, if I look at that from a cost overrun, right, it's only 3.2%. If I look at it for just 2026, I don't know what that cost overrun number is. Then, when I look ahead to next year, I'm seeing two different numbers, a $2.3 million number and a $2.37 million number. That's about $4.67 million, right? I don't understand the context for the rise of $4.67 million over the projected cost for 2027, for instance. Right? So I think that information is actually pretty crucial for an understanding of exactly where the costs are going, exactly what's happening. So I support this deferral to get that information. I think it's crucial we have a public works enterprise asset management system. I I can't I can't overemphasize that enough. We are absolutely not able to function as a city without one going forward. And if we play around with this, it means we're going to make our infrastructure deficit worse. We're going to make it harder for staff to deliver projects. We're going to make our entire asset management system go through a backlog. But at the same time, I agree that we need to understand what that means because I think a part of the difficulty here is in the report which says that if we move, if we don't do this, then this project is delayed for 2 years. I think we need a lot more daylight inside that conversation. What does that mean and why? Meaning, if we haven't entered into competitive procurement up to now, would that look like us stopping this project, going out for competitive procurement, trying to find someone else to do that project to take over from the current people that are procuring it? Then we may incur costs that are the same and incur a two-year delay. What is the delay of that? What does a two-year delay mean in terms of costs to the organization? Right? I think quantifying that as much as we can is really important because right now what you're saying, I think, makes perfect sense. We're with someone. Also to councelor Clark's inference I think and I hope I'm not inferring too much here is the idea that the vendor does know that right like the vendor can the vendor does know that uh they know that we're in a situation where we have a non-competitive procurement process and for us to go do a competitive one would put us in a in a bad state and so we need to have confidence that the cost increases are due to something really really specific what those cost increases are due to then we receive more information about that, right? I think that we're all here wondering uh what's layer 2, 3, four, five, and six there in terms of oh, it's because we had to um migrate this system from here to here and rebuild this whole thing. We didn't anticipate that would have to happen. That's where the extra costs are coming from. We didn't anticipate this would have to happen in 2026. This is where the costs are coming from. So I think in a more plain language way if it's possible to provide that information by council we can make a much more informed decision because to me I don't want to spend another hour asking questions I think I just want to understand at a little bit more of a granular level granular level and as plain language as possible exactly why you found ourselves in this exact situation and what we're looking forward in the future what does it mean for 2028 2029 what do you think right um because if it's going to go like this right it may mean that it is worth re-evaluating the cost for this project even if it puts a city in in a competitively uh weird place. Last thing I'll say is I do think we need some from public works to weigh in to say what is the cost overall to this organization and that cost might be if we delay this right that cost might be financial but what is the actual cost um morale-wise, psychologically um you know there there's an actual person cost to this too. We have people every day here who are trying to deliver work at the city of Hamilton in a system that doesn't function and every single day we leave them in that space and put them in that prolonged space we erode their ability to do their job that erodess their morale and so on. So I think we have to have that discussion as well about what's the people versus the um financial cost. Thank you. >> Thank you. We have to um go through first time speakers first. Uh, councelor McMakin, >> I haven't spoken. I was I'm prepared to move a deferral motion. So, in your hands, chair, at some point. I'm assuming the others will want to speak before we do that. >> Thank you. I've been advised by the clerk that would be a referral to council. It's moved by yourself and seconded by the mayor as I'm hearing. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, so that is now on the floor. Can I just say in a couple words >> on the only on the instructions as I've been advised >> the instructions needed. >> Yeah, we need them we we need the more wholesome information we've flagged. That's that's all I want to say. >> Okay. So, we have uh the place where it's being referred to that's the next council meeting and the rationale is looking for more wholesome information. I think that is all that is needed. Okay, I'm seeing an okay from the the bosses here. Okay. So, um in terms of outstanding first-time speakers, uh because we have a referral motion that has to and it's on the floor that has to be entertained. I'm looking to the clerks if people are following along here. >> So, any discussion at this time can only be on the referral. Thank you. Thank you for for Thank you for that road map and that council. Okay. Thank you, councelor Cooper on the referral. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, so I know it's under the idea of wholesome information. Uh, under that fullsome information, I'd like to see some confidence in what the final number is. I'd like to know that all these issues we're talking about, including resourcing, which comes up again and again and again on our projects, that this is properly resourced. We have absolute sure absolute assurance that we're going to be fully resourced what exactly it's going to cost us to get to done on this job and that's the fullome information I'm hoping for. Council, thank you chair. >> Thank you councelor Clark on the referral. >> Thank you chair on the instructions. So I'd like also to have clarification. Item B in the motion shows 650,000 for 2026, then 2.3 million for Q1 of 2027. Then item C says an additional 2.37 million be considered as part of the So I'd like to have a better understanding of all of the costs that are going to come forward for this area in the budget process itself. And lastly, the uh item I'd also like to have a better understanding on is this enterprise asset management system. How do we verify the confidence in the estimates that will come forward? Because the estimates are multigenerational uh for the most part. uh many generations will be paying but how do we ensure that we have confidence in the numbers that are created through the program? Thank you. >> Okay. So, I'll look to Oh, I was going to look to the mover, but on the instructions, please. Uh Mayor Horvath. Thank you, councelor Clark. >> Just on the >> Just on the instructions. Thank you, Chair. a communications plan in plain language to help Hamiltonians understand what's happening here. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Are there any further questions or comments on the referral? So, in summation, if I'm looking to the mover and the clerks to ensure that we have clearly uh we're clearly understanding what the referral is, the referral is to the next council meeting which I believe is October the 9th, 7th. Begy pardon. Thank you. Uh the content of the referral is a communication plan, a clear articulation of um how close we are to the estimates and what is going to be exactly forthcoming in terms of that third piece of the stool, the budget ask. I'd like to know if I have that correctly. I'm looking up at staff to make sure they uh understand. Thank you. I'm seeing a thumbs up. It's on the floor for your consideration with an electronic vote. Thank you. The referral carries 13 to zero. Appreciate it. Okay. Up next, we're on to 8.8, which is HSR 2 2027 annual service plan. staff have requested an additional five minutes for their presentation. Um it is moved by councelor Cooper and seconded by councelor Pauls to extend the time to 15 minutes. Please and thank you. A show of hands in favor or those opposed carries. Joining us this morning is director Nancy Perer of the HSR. Good morning. >> Uh good morning. Uh this report is going to be presented by our manager of strategic planning uh Nick Shalo. Uh it's uh an overview of uh what we would request moved to the 2027 budget for the uh HSRNX service enhancement uh for year 1. Um and we've had an opportunity with the pause for the year to do further analysis um and consultation with customers and Nick will take us through u some of those details. Thank you, director. Again, my name is Nick Shaloo. I am our manager of transit strategic planning for HSR, and I'm pleased to walk you through our review of service for 2025 and our proposal for 2027. So, just to start with, transit connects people to opportunity and to their communities. Every trip is helping folks access workplaces, recreation centers, and Hamilton's key destinations like waterfalls. We play an important role in how the city moves and how the city acts. Our annual service plan is based on a lot of the corporate frameworks we have in place. That includes our official plan which is calling for significant growth over the next 30 years with intensification as our key strategy. our transportation master plan which is calling for more transit use um as we grow and we've completed a number of actions under that already and through our annual service planning we'll be completing the remaining actions for transit and of course HSR next which is our growth plan that was approved last year and calls for significant service expansion delivery of our blast x routes my ride zones and preparation for the Hamilton LRT you'll see throughout this presentation that we've connected back to our guiding principles throughout grounding the recommendations we make for service and what matters to our community. It's also worth noting that when we invest in transit, we're investing in Hamilton. Transit is called for across a number of our strategies in the city. We are the single most effective action a household with a car can take by choosing transit instead of driving. We contribute to our tourism strategies and the waterfall destination master plan that was just passed with transit as a key way to get to these destinations sensitively. We are a canvas for public art uh whether on our stops or our bus stop uh buses itself. And we help people connect to recreation centers as a key customer journey from the start of boarding a bus to the rec center to getting home. So to start with, every time we look ahead for the next year, we will be looking at the year prior. How did we do? What service did we put in place? And how are we performing for our customers? So in 2025, we had approved service increases really targeted to evenings and weekends. What that did was introduce a standard service span across the city on each and every route. We brought a few more buses in service. We increased our service hours and total kilometers by about 4%. And we added new stops and shelters across the city. As a result, today we have about 88% of our population and employment within a 400 meter walker rule to transit and we're continuing to grow that through HSR next. Some of the data we do have for 2025 is focused on our customer satisfaction. We've averaged a very high level of satisfaction through 2025 at about 87%. And you can see how that improved relative to the cyber incident when our real-time information was taken offline. Similarly, we have customers who strongly recommend us. Our net promoter score, which is how likely somebody is to recommend our service, averaged plus 48 percentage points and peaked at plus 59 percentage points in November. It's great that our customers are happy. We have seen slightly fewer of them last year. Our ridership declined by 2.6% primarily in September onwards as federal immigration changes adjusted our post-secondary enrollment. Uh you can see uh there's a chart in our report. It starts from September on. One of the other things we've done as part of our annual service review is we keep comparing to our peers. Uh we have updated our peers this year to look at who we are growing towards. So these are cities of around 800,000 folks with an LRT system or similar at their core. And the key message here is that we are the most cost effective system among these peers. We are however less productive in terms of ridership and trips per service capita. And that is what the HSR next plan is driven to do to get more people on board across the city using the basis of a very cost-effective system. And I'll leave you with the overall appendix report. There is a lot of details in here grouped by our guiding principles from boardings to our access levels, our customer demographics. There are a number of metrics that we cannot report yet as we wait for our automated passenger counter systems to be restored. Fortunately, as of August, we are starting to get data rolling and are working on processing that. So, I hope that next year I'll be able to share a lot more detail about how our system is used. But what that leads us with heading into the annual service plan is a system that is ready for growth. We have high levels of customer satisfaction, support, and uh satisfaction on safety. We have roots that are being well used throughout the day with consistent service from early to late regardless of where you are. And we have low operating costs relative to our peers and a reasonable cost recovery ratio. So pivoting to the service plan for next year as mentioned this is based on that review and we bring in all of the thoughts we have in HSR next for the future routes we can implement as well as where our system may have deficiencies today for 2027 we are recommending three key service changes. Two of these are around my ride zones. We are recommending to replace and upgrade our existing transc cab service in Mount Hope and Stony Creek with new myide on demand like we have in Waterdown. We are also proposing to realign the 27 upper James to serve Hamilton General Hospital directly as well as the waterfront and alongside that change are recommending to retire 12 Wentworth service because of its overlap. You can see the full details for the evaluation within the annual service plan report. I'm going to summarize the key benefits of these changes here. So, first, the recommended service changes strongly support growth. When we review our development pipeline for development applications, the myide zones in particular support economic development in Stony Creek and Mount Hope. These are already used by our transcending what those workers and employers can get through this investment. We are creating new connections for our frontline service workers at Birch Transit Center through the realigned route 27. It's important when you're introducing hundreds of people into a new community that we have a sustainable option for them to travel to and from work. We completed significant public feedback on the proposed changes and heard generally positive support for the realigned route 27 and strong support for the myide ondemand expansion, particularly relative to transc. And in terms of our promise to delivering service, we know that these changes will see cost recovery improve over time with myide in particular acting as a launch pad for future fixed route service as demand grows. two more parts of our analysis. So, one of the key ways we look at service is how it connects, where people can actually access the service, and then what they can access once they're on it. With the recommended changes, we are bringing about 24,000 more people and 10,000 more jobs within walker rolling distance to transit. And we're increasing the number of jobs that the average Hamiltonian can incre can access by about half a percentage point. That does not seem very dramatic, which is why if you look at the maps, you can see that that access increase is highly spatialized. We are bringing a lot of increase in access to Stony Creek and Mount Hope in particular, but in terms of access to jobs, the entire city benefits. And finally, as part of our review, we also look to see who benefits from these changes. When we increase access by transit, who gets those benefits? Who is able to take transit more? Our system is still oriented towards lower income and car-free households who have the highest levels of access on the system. And the changes this year in particular benefit seniors, students, youth, lower income, and car-free households. We are recommending that the third bundle that we studied be deferred into the next year's service plan. This was a service bundle focused on the Mohawk corridor on the mountain. There were significant concerns from technical and engagement um particularly where that service change would have broken a direct connection to downtown and increase commute times for most residents. So we are proposing to take that back. We have three actions specifically noted that we're going to work on for the 28 plan which includes maintaining a connection to downtown on a revised route 32 fennel, maintaining service on Queensdale which was previously recommended for removal and prioritizing an express service on Mohawk earlier than called for in HSR next as we prep for LRT. And before I get into numbers, we also have actions proposed um that are within our existing resources. These are actions across the transit team that are focused on doing more with what we have today. And we've clustered them into four main groups. We're looking to improve our service offer to customers as we review our routes and HSR next. That includes making sure stops are located efficiently while maintaining accessibility. We're looking to demonstrate a headway based schedule pilot in the coming year. What that means is that the route arrives every 10 minutes or 15 minutes instead of on a clock face, which improves reliability and consistency for customers. And in 28, we will have a one-time adjustment from the opening of Birch Transit Center and a review of customer travel patterns that we hope will help reduce HSR next costs. We're working on improving information for customers with a wayfinding program that is proceeding alongside other city divisions. We've also launched a new dedicated team for construction and diversions across Hamilton within our operating group and real-time digital display pilots are still advancing on the network. as well for our employees. We are relaunching an operator mentorship program um knowing that if our operators are confident in their new job, they're able to provide stronger and more courteous service to our riders. And finally, we are working on growing relationships particularly with customers with disabilities as we work on our integrated myide project and are working with Presto and Smart Commute on an employer transit certification program that helps employees um communicate transit alternatives to getting to work. Particularly for shift work industries, the commute to work can be very difficult. So on finances, we are asking for 18,000 additional service hours into 2027. There are more hours going out on street. However, we've been able to reallocate hours from the year 9 investment to support year 1 of HSR next. That requires about 18 new FTEEs, of which 80% are frontline or frontline supervisors. And the 28 through 2030 projections reflect the original years two through four of HSR next. And finally on capital, a reminder that our bus purchasing is advancing ahead of service changes. That's due to the lead times needed for buses. So those are already advancing. on our capital side of hub and stop infrastructure. However, um we have found another $3 million in savings through adjustments to our hub strategy, particularly at Ancaster Gateway, which is now advancing as an on street hub and favorable lease conditions at Stony Creek Gateway. So over the next 2 3 years, we do have further capital asked to ensure that the budget is available to deliver those hubs, but we have brought down the overall cost. And on that note, we are happy to take any questions. Council for Wilson. >> Sorry, I'm the substitute here. >> Oh, it's all good. Thank you so much. Uh just two quick questions. So one of them is about the >> um detours, delays, and some of that data there. I think just if there could be a comment specifically given that we're in a um a data poor year. I think the evidence reason for that has been explained, but just some feedback or commentary to some of the delegates questions around that. Um I think there was a commitment to doing more, but maybe some specific details regarding, hey, why don't we get to this point that we're launching the new structure? We've heard that only having it online is a concern and here's what we're approaching to do about it. So, I'm understanding we're we're at the specific point in time we are, but just wondering if there could be a response to any of the questions or feedback raised in the delegation. >> Sure. I I can start from the service planning perspective and I'll pass it to the director for our communication side. Um, one of the pieces of data that is missing is our service delivery target. So how much service actually gets out on street that will be restored with our automatic vehicle location and passenger counter data and typically there's a high level metric 99 95% there's also an ability to report that down to route level and see specifically which trips are missed hoping to restore that for next year. >> Thank you. uh specific to that. Um so switching switching gears a little bit but on the same topic of trying to understand um whether it's a detour or whether it's just say bunching or delays on route etc like that I'm a west ender um have been for the whole time I've been in Hamilton except for a couple of years and so I'm familiar with the east west routes especially you're trying to get a bus around Mac um between the 403 through the rest of our city even though buses run perfectly on time um west of that 403 when they get sorry east of the 403 when they get west of the 403 for whatever reason traffic patterns, the lighting, etc. Bus m bunching becomes a really, really big issue in that chunk west of the 403, even if it's not along the route. Overall, when we get data restored, is there an ability to understand um how segments of a route may have a really poor score um in a specific um metric, but the overall route may actually be performing, say, within the service standard. Um, I think it's just, you know, particularly for folks who experience that bunching there, even though there should be some of the best frequency in the city, every five minutes a bus should be coming by on schedule. What it ends up happening is every 15 minutes four buses come. Um, and so while that's variable on lots of things, I think just getting that ability to understand those trends uh would be so helpful because that's my experience, but I imagine things like that happen across the city where there's those um bunching um because of limited routes or whatever it is. Um, can you comment on how when we have more data we'll be able to do more? Is that part of the plan? >> Yeah. >> Uh, through the chair, Nancy Per, director of transit, there is um a lot of work happening right now to improve how the buses are running. Uh, we just uh completed our uh new updated CAD AVL system um that we're still working on getting the data from. Um we're also focusing on um processes in our control room to look at um uh bunching as you refer to it. Um and the the programs that Nick referred to earlier um putting together our own um uh detour and service disruption team to help uh focus when that happens, especially when um LRT construction um really rolls out. and um uh with along with um trying to change our headways to um more timebased as opposed to clock-based can also help assist with all of those things. So, we're we're looking at a number of continuous improvement activities to improve just that. Thank >> you. Really appreciate that. Could you just expand on what time based versus clock-based means in this context? And that's my only other question. >> Uh, in this case, um, clock base is referring to a bus is going to leave every on the 15 or the 20. So people can kind of know, oh, it's going to arrive on the 10 and I'll plan around that. Um, going to a time based or cycle based is now the bus is going to come every 10 minutes regardless of when on the clock that happens. Um, with the move to people using a lot of the time their phones or tablets to see real time information, it's easier to do nowadays than it was about 15 20 years ago. >> Thank you. uh question then just to build upon that is that um when it comes to technology we have control over our own HSR but what about those that are pulling from say Google maps or um trans the transit app or anything like that how well do we work with that because as we do see that customer service is actually not in our control but it is absolutely getting lumped in with our customer service targets >> uh through through the chair, we work closely with um the transit apps that are out there. They actually pull our information to build their trip planning um apps. So, they're using um the GTFS feed that we provide that's both scheduled time and real time. Um and as part of that, we launched um last year where we can um update for detours in real time. So, uh, when people are using those types of apps, they can see when a stop is out of service, um, and when a route may be on detour. Thank you. My next question is actually relating to slide 18 where you talked about the dedicated team for detours and construction. I know I work very closely. By closely, I mean I probably harassed you a lot, Nick. Sorry about that. Um, and in particular, it was around the main and Ottawa closure, which actually caused a lot of concern within residents. So what have we learned from that and how will that how will those learnings be um allocated to this new team given that in the coming years we will have more of them. So what have we learned from particularly that main Ottawa closure if you could? >> Uh so definitely for Maine and Ottawa that was a large investment in the community and trying to bring the community along and treat create a detour that supported everyone's needs while keeping transit local. Um, we also heard this morning that when a detour is too far out of the way, it really creates a barrier for folks to use transit. And one of the key goals with Maine and Ottawa was to try and keep it there. Um, the construction detours team is starting predominantly with more regular business. Um, the strategy team still has a direct representative in the LRT office and LRT related closures are going to be coordinated between the teams. Um there is a little bit of I think a shift to a more reactive approach for the future LRT1s um with the alliance partner determining the schedule. We won't necessarily have as much of an ability to do what we did for Maine and Ottawa in future. Um but I think our commitment to keeping it local and working with communities is still there. >> Okay. Thank you. A supplemental then um how does that comm strategy work I think for this construction team? Because one of the things that I've learned about throughout this, not only is um timing so incredibly crucial on how we put uh communications out, but also the ongoing communications either via signage or via um door drops and mail drops. Like what what does the comm strategy look like for this new potential c like construction team? >> I'll start and then Nick can jump in to clear um uh through the chair. uh we are we will plan especially as we move through HSR next and changing routes um as well so not just detours um it's really um making sure that people in the direct area that use those routes are aware so um actual mail drops in that you know those that were within the 400 to 800 ft radius is going to be something we will consistently look at um whether it's a a service enhancement or a detour requirement. >> Thank you. Thank you. Those are all my questions. >> Mr. Cooper, >> thank you, Chair. Thank you for the presentation today. Um, as I've gone across the city, uh, I've heard people that asking you about when they're going to get service. And I think some of this is where we have um maybe established service network and demographics start to change and then people are all a sudden you know demanding or requesting HSR service. How do you stay on top of that? Because the areas I'm hearing coming up is some I guess it's called the newer built areas maybe last 15 years and so you people move in and then there's some turnover and and now there's this request and I would say it's probably like a younger demographic probably between 20 and 40 sort of thing and it would be place like water down bin places like that like how do you go and reassess that just to make sure that you know you're meeting the moment when when these uh requests are coming up and and your service model's uh being adjusted >> uh through the chair. There's a couple of answers. Um I'll start and Nick can finish. Um we we have looked at where the growth is happening. Um it's uh the question is that the investment and the growth are not necessarily aligned. Um and so we can only start adding service as quickly as the investments are available. >> Thank you. And so how do you know when those two things meet? like like do you constantly go and survey people? Do you wait for people to reach out to you? Like how do you know when you have enough demand to extend the bus? >> So through through the chair um I I'm going to start. Sorry Nick and then he will jump in. But this is about understanding where the development um applications are coming from which Nick talked about as part of the presentation. Um and generally having transit there before the people are there uh so that um uh when they move in they're not coming with four cars. They know that they have access to transit um and and it's available. What um also happens is that we are late in our investment and it takes a generation to get people on transit as they move away um from their car. But Nick, can you fill in some more gaps? >> So, I'll speak a little bit to specifics on how we do demand projections and try to plan it out. Um I will throw in that one of the key things we consider is the transit service area. There is a taxation related policy here. um it makes it difficult for us to bring a service out to an area that is not currently paying into transit. That's one of the first lenses. Um when an area is in our transit service area, we work with planning to have our development pipeline and understand when that growth is happening. Um part of HSR next, the reason why so much of the growth is targeted to kind of the peripheral communities of Hamilton is knowing that there has been significant growth here. There's going to be even more and we want to be ready for it. Uh, I do think to your point, as the urban boundary expansions go, we're very interested in figuring out how to time that with the phasing of development. So, to the director's point, we actually have the service ready when they move in. >> So, essentially, you're doing business cases as you go along in terms of cost, tax impacts, and demand. And when those things come together, that's when you decide to move and uh engage some of these areas. >> And just very quickly, as an example, um we've done two rounds of surveying in Binbrook to understand interests there. And at this time we're still not moving ahead with it. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Your worship. >> Thanks. >> Thanks very much. Appreciate the opportunity. We're in the process of putting an age friendly plan together for this city or renewing it. I've heard from seniors uh concern about not having the kind of transit accessibility in parts of the existing service area who want to give up their cars. So, it's kind of the opposite of the conversation we just had. We have an aging demographic in this city as we all know uh with the you just the the way it works with the baby boom etc. And I've talked to a number of seniors who want to be able to give up their car, not only because of safety issues and the feeling uncomfortable driving at night, for example, in those kinds of pieces, but also the costs of owning a car and insuring a car and paying for repairs for a car and gas for a car at a time when incomes are fixed or or less flexible, less elastic in terms of paying for the everyday costs of life, especially now as affordability. has become very difficult for folks. Does the HSR work with our uh uh safe and healthy and safe communities folks to look at the demographic shifts within our existing service areas to determine whether there are uh demand issues on the other side of the age spectrum. So for for seniors etc. How does that work and and how can we uh respond to to that factor? >> Uh we do one of the key metrics we have uh we use modeled customer demographics to understand who's using the service and where and one of the specific lenses for that is older adults. Um we are also a member of the age friendly committee. So we're directly involved in both bringing recommendations forward and then implementing it. Um one of the strategies through HSR next is root hierarchies. So we have everything from a rapid route which is really try and get across the city quickly to a local route which is maintaining localized access for folks who maybe can't walk as far to a bus stop but still need that service there. Um so I think in bringing in those two different kind of networks we're supporting different needs in the city in how they travel. And the other thing I will just quickly say on the fair side, we have both fair assist and then the golden age pass to try and keep transit affordable for folks on fixed incomes. >> If I can just a follow-up question, I I I understand all of that, but as our demographics continue to age and it's it's upon us right now. Uh how do we capture that group of folks who are not customers right now, who who are not uh HSR customers? are are there ways that we're reaching out uh to hear from them as to where they think there might be an opportunity for them to give up their cars and use transit if the service was available. So, it's not quite what you're talking about in terms of existing service. It's rather how do we how can we uh grow our grow our service to seniors uh through uh some kind of engagement uh that gets information around where there may be an opportunity to uh uh to increase access for seniors who want to give up their cars >> uh through through the chair. Um our uh community experience team is um always out doing uh outreach in the community to find out what the needs are. um and who is looking for transit. That also helps feed into um you know the services that we are um developing and and presenting uh to add which is you know the um the services that we are adding for on demand in Stony Creek and in Mount Hope. Um both address um seniors in those areas and help support them to use transit. Can I just >> Sorry. Sorry. That's great. Thank you. Can I just uh one one followup would be just a request to to really engage thoroughly with the with the with the seniors kind of project that we're doing now because we're talking not only what's happening now but in the future with the with the senior friendly plan and I I just believe there's an opportunity to um to engage whether it's through existing seniors facilities in caster sackville hill uh or whether there are other ways to to get feedback from seniors who aren't using the HSR now. Not HSR now, but you know, you know what I'm saying? Not using it at this point in time, but may want to become customers of HSR for all the reasons we talked about. Something more proactive. I don't know if it's engage Hamilton uh but I would really hope that considering that we're in that phase right now of that consultation the HSR and and the capacity to uh serve more seniors I think is a opportunity lost if we don't take advantage of it. So thank you. >> So through through the chair um our customer experience team has connections through many groups in the city and we will be sure to be at those tables um whenever possible. Thank you. Your worship councelor Tatterson. >> Thank you, chair. Um, I'll say I too have worked closely with transit, probably not harassed, but pushed them a little bit uh for the survey in Bimbrook and then some answers. So, I have some observations and questions. Again, I'm very very supportive of the My Ride on Demand coming to the Mount Hope expansion area where it can support, like the mayor just said, the 20 Roads senior adult living communities and helping more of those folks age successfully in place. Um, if it's passed, what's the communication strategy? How soon will these people learn about this? Many questions that I'm getting when I'm out door knocking are like, does it come straight to our door? Do we have to go to the clubhouse? Do we have to go over to 20 road things like that? Is there any um direction I could give right now since I'm actually actively um working with those people? >> So, uh quickly I can answer it is a stop to stop. So, it most likely will not be right to your door unless you happen to live right in front of the stop. Um but the stops are placed so it's about a 200 or 300 meter walker rule to it. Um, typically once we have service changes approved, um, we bring communications forward in the summer prior to the change launching. Um, that typically includes town hall events, outreach on the network as well as social media, um, led by our customer experience team. >> Okay, thanks for that. And we'll stay in contact with that. Um, in terms of Bimbrook, it says based on the service survey results, expansion to Bimbrook will remain deferred to the next transit growth plan cycle. Can I get a more definite timeline of when that next phase will be? >> Of course. Um, typically our growth plans are 5 to 10 year documents. We brought this one forward as a seven-year and it's looking increasingly like a 10-year. Um, so most likely the next growth plan will be about 2035 to 2044 as an approximate time frame. >> Okay. So, thank you for that. That gives us some clarity and knowing where we're going up there in Dimbrook. Um, general question based on this. I I I know that many of the buses run every 15 minutes. Can I just ask in my ignorance, is there really a difference in service if we extended that to like 20-minute runs, couldn't we then lessen the need on, you know, extra hiring of FTE and maybe, you know, cover more of an area? you would have a trade-off in terms of coverage, but typically when you reduce or increase, depending on how you're looking at it, your weight times, that is a key driver of whether people are going to use transit or not. The time waiting at a bus stop is perceived to be the longest time in your trip. Sometimes it's measured at up to three times the actual value of time. So, when we take it from 10 or 15 to 20, that is really experienced by the folks waiting there. There's also a capacity issue because now I have three instead of four buses in an hour depending on the rout's usage. I may be introducing crowded buses when I extend frequency that way. >> Okay, I can appreciate that at at certain times. But is there um are there reduced schedules like during the day? I'm not an active transit user. So like so so in the morning rush in the afternoon rush and then and then during the time during the day is it do we go to like you know once every 20 minutes once every half hour at those times because is it adjusted accordingly based on ridership >> correct through the chair that is exactly how we schedule it we have an AM and a PM peak period on weekdays where the service is often 10 or 15 minutes we still have a lot of routes that aren't as frequent as that and then through the day when demand drops we bring our service levels down to meet that demand. Typically in midday it'll be 20 minutes on a 15-minute route and even further into the evenings. Right now though, our minimum span is 30 minutes. >> Okay. I have one last question. So, one of my friends was a former operator in Halton and he had shifts where he had 4 hour shifts, then he had a break and they had another 4 hour shift. Is that something that's um considered here viable? >> Pass it to the director. uh through through the chair. It's it's the nature of our business because most of our service goes out in the peak period. So you we have more uh demand for bus drivers um in the AM peak and the PM peak. So that's why we have what we call split shifts. Um and so they'll drive uh some hours in the morning and some hours in the evening. >> Okay. Thanks. And I think I'm out of time. >> Thanks, counselor. Councelor Nan. Thank you um acting deputy mayor and thank you for the presentation and the responses to date. Um I was curious from the other age spectrum so thinking about young people and young writers and the impact of our transition to fall schedule so repeatedly you know it does time right at the time that we have our students going back to school. Um is there has there been any um evaluation of that in terms of impact to a specific age demographic and any thoughts going forward in terms of being able to perhaps start that transition a little bit earlier so that we're not dealing with the um transition impact right when students are going back to school >> through the chair. It's still too early for us to see any data on if that had an impact or not at the beginning of the year. Um was unfortunate that um >> yeah for this year >> for this year it's not um our normal practice. Uh as you know normally we are adding service. So that was kind of a blessing that that didn't happen this year. And we're generally very prepared. So, um we should know probably by early November if this has had um a negative impact on our on our ridership once we have a few months um under our belt seeing what happened with the fall service. >> Um thank you. So that that speaks to this year and I appreciate that. And there's other um factors as well which we've had the opportunity to talk about at at uh previous opportunities but also coming up at public works. Um, so generally speaking though, uh, when I was talking to a group of young folks in the ward, uh, there was a mom and a daughter who've both gone through living in Hamilton, exclusive users of transit. That's the way they move about the city. Uh the mom was sharing her story about making uh the transition to high school, taking the bus to the high school as well as the the daughter talking about her experience going to uh university here in college in the city and that they they just expect every year that back to school is going to be a time when getting on the bus is going to be going to have some impacts. there's you can't rely on it uh consistently because the transition is taking place and this is not about this year's experience. It's about previous year's experience. So can we talk a little bit about how we're how is the back to school transition and specifically the writership experience of young people as students being integrated into our evaluation on an annual basis? >> I'll start and then I'll have Nick um uh fill it in. Uh we do know that um we only we can we only have so many buses available per route. Um and that uh everyone tries to get the one that's most convenient to the closest they can get to school. Um so it is a transition in that you know everyone shows up for the 8:45 bus. Um but it can only take so many people. So they they start to learn I'm going to take the 8:30 bus. I'm going to take the 9 or you know the 9:00 bus. whichever one will still get them to school and it ends up um spreading out over the morning period um so that everyone is able. We are again through our outreach um trying to get um in contact with the the youth especially grade nines who are just starting um to help them understand how to use the bus um what it looks like, what they should be looking for. So we're continuing to try and reach and and and get to them um to help them have a better experience every year. >> Thank you. Further counselor. >> Okay. Councelor Pauls wants to speak. >> Thank you and through the chair. Uh I noticed that um the we had a decrease in writership 2.6. Um, and I'm just wondering, uh, I know it says because of the students, but as I look at the the chart who uses is mo mostly working people, 49% and not students. So, can you uh explain that please? >> So, students are still one of our biggest demographics. Working people, working age folks can overlap with that sometimes too. There are folks who both hold a job and attend school. Um but in this case, the reason we're attributing that primarily to post-secondary declines is the nature of the timing. So it started from September onwards last fall and it was visible most on routes like the 20 A line which serves Mohawk College. Um that has not been performing as well and that's one of the reasons we paused on increasing service this year. >> Thank you for that. I'm looking at the strategic content. City of Hamilton official plan 201 360,000 jobs 820,000 people. I hope all those jobs are in Hamilton. But anyways, we'll go to the transportation master plan. It says balance network to support 2031 growth. Can you tell me what the growth is from now to 2031? I know in 2021, that's a long ways from now, but what about the balance network to support 2031 growth? What is it? >> I don't have the 2031 interim targets for population and job growth uh directly available right now. Happy to follow up on that. Um I think that's more speaking to the different timelines for the plan. So, our TMP originally was for 2031. There's been a few updates, but we don't have a comprehensive 20 plan at this point. So, we don't have an estimated growth of our city from now to 2031. >> We do. I just don't have those available after >> you don't have Okay. Um, my next question, I agree with the mayor that more seniors probably would love to take the bus, but I've talked to seniors and uh I'm wondering uh sometime it's too far to walk from their house to to the bus stop, you know, so they would rather have more like a taxi uh strip. So darts, how does that uh work together? >> I think the key point is that they do work together. These are all complimentary services on our network across Hamilton. So if I'm thinking from the perspective of somebody who does have difficulty getting to a stop, um the first conventional option is a local route with a stop hopefully within 200 to 250 m. That's accessible um as all of our conventional services, but it still may be too far for some folks. Our my ride on demand system in those select zones will also offer that option of a bus that comes as close to your door as possible but still to a stop. If at that point um you do need more support and you're allegible, ATS is available for those folks who can get door-to-door service as well as taxi script. So you really have a menu of options more and more and you can choose which one is going to meet your needs for the specific trip. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. you councelor councelor Tadison did you have another question? >> I do. Thanks. Um just in returning to our survey that was done in Bimbrook. So I I see that we had 70% of the population no desire for buses and I understand that being a lifelong resident taking cars ever since I was a little child everywhere. It's just part of the way things are for us living in rural areas. But as Bimbrook grows, there were 30% that did show an interest in having buses. And I'd just like to note that that's up 200% from a survey done 10 years ago. So for me, I guess the question is what's the critical mass that will be needed to bring buses to Bimbrook based on our population growth? I think the the key question for us is if it's majority supported and if there's appetite in adjusting the transit service area and the associated tax changes. Um I think the main opportunity for Binbrook now that we have some of the urban boundary expansions getting cleared out maybe not in our favor. Um that will also create an opportunity as those are delivered to bring transit to Binbrook sooner. >> Hey thanks for that answer. I see councelor Paul is are you wanting to ask another question? >> You suddenly Okay. Um any further discussion? Can can I get a mover and a seconder to put the report on the floor? Council Wang, Council Dan. Any discussion? We'll have an electronic vote. Please vote. Yes. Thumbs up. Councelor Francis Clark have voted. Yep. So that carries. Uh 3 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 to unanimous. There you go, director. Thank you for your presentation. Okay. So the suggestion's been made that we could take a break now or we could go to one o'clock. And u what's the what's the will of council or of of the committee? Sorry. Go to one. >> Okay. Okay. We break down with some Okay. For we'll come back at uh we'll come back one o'clock. Okay. Thank you. Everybody set? So we we'll go we now have quorum. We'll go to item 8 n ensuring pedestrian access to Jackson Street West and McNap Street South in Ward 2. May I have a mover and seconder to put this item on the floor? Councelor Nan and her worship. Thank you. Any discussion? Hearing hearing done, we'll go to the electronic electronic vote. >> Yeah, this councelor, >> we've been waiting in breath with anticipation for your arrival, council. We're on item 89. Do you have anything you want to add? >> Councelor Crretch, >> I appreciate that you letting me catch my breath from rushing back here from lunch and sorry I'm a couple minutes late. I'd like to defer this to after the close session if I could. I was warned that was going to happen. All those in favor? >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Seconded by Cooper. Councelor Cooper. Moved by Yep. Gretchen. All right. We'll go to 810. uh storm water utility fill fee implementation review and funding framework reassessment. Can I get a mover and second her to put that on the floor? Councilor Wilson, Council Wang. Okay. Is there any discussion? your worship. >> Uh thanks thanks chair. I I will I would only like to say that the uh process that we are going to undertake to kind of review all of this should also include uh consultation with the the community particularly uh rural community and uh uh our local uh agricultural subcommittee etc. Uh there is lots of changes that have happened proincially um that have uh and our own utilities building that have put us in a situation where this needs to be pushed forward and I gives us opens up a door of opportunity I think to have further discussions with uh with those folks who were a little disappointed maybe in the the last time around but really appreciate the report and the strategy and look forward to uh hopefully being here to see what the next uh iteration brings. Thank you to staff. >> Thanks, Worship. I would just add if there's no one else to speak, a brief comment. This issue has a it's been a long and winding road that's got us here and my recollection was uh uh there were some uncertainties around correspondence from the province at the time. letter from the Minister of Agriculture urging us to exempt working farms environment Hamilton also urged us to do the same thing and um eventually we had to struggle through that and so your worship I I appreciate your comments about being um um particularly careful about uh circling back with the agricultural stakeholders. So thank you for that. Okay, this is an electronic vote. Councelor Tatis, go ahead. Councelor, sorry I missed. >> No, it's okay. I just uh I just I'm thinking that if this is the section that I was away for just now is with the phone. Um this is about the storm water fees and the and the schools and accommodating the schools. Correct. Okay. Thank you. So, I just wanted to make sure that the part of the this was this issue and I'm and I'm sorry I missed the discussion. This issue was raised with the liaison group and um or and and what had happened is there's a very synergistic relationship between the school board and the city and the city enjoys many recreational spaces that are accommodated by the school board and so uh for recreation and so forth. And so the issue had come forward that that's an issue because of um they don't have the school board doesn't have a revenue source to pay for the storm water management fee. So that's actually something that the province when they initiated the fact that we have to pay for a built system. They don't fund the school boards correctly. So that's an issue that came forward and they felt the school board felt that they needed to raise it. And I'm want to thank staff for looking at this and and I believe this is the deferral for one year. Okay. Thank you. So I will support this. Thanks. >> Yes, counselor. Thanks for flagging that uh for us. That's that's a helpful explanation. Okay. Okay, we'll go to the electronic vote. Yes. 36. Yep. 110. Thank you. That's carried. Okay. We'll move on to item 811, community benefits protocol subcommittee minutes July 24th. Can I get a mover and second to put this item on the floor? Council Kretch. Council Wang, any discussion. Okay, Council Cridge, thanks very much. I'll be brief. I appreciate the delegation earlier talking about the fact that we got to this milestone. It wasn't without a lot of work and a lot of creative management of this file trying to get an answer so we can have another iteration. So the whole goal of this committee in this term of council was to get a protocol. We have our protocols so the subcommittee can be dissolved now which is wonderful and now we're going to move to transitioning into how we implement that protocol, what that looks like. I'm actually especially proud of the work that was done around trying to define what it means to harness development for community benefits. That's the really the reason I joined this committee and agreed to chair it. That was kind of it. I want to be able to see a clear road map from someone comes forward with an idea. They want to propose something that's slightly outside the scope of the zoning or slightly outside the scope of what the community anticipated. And there's some type of negotiation that happens there between the community, the city, and the person doing that project to see something great happen. So for instance, well, we have this large parcel of land. We're really lacking park space in the Duran neighborhood. What we're going to do is we want to maybe build higher than normal, but we're going to sacrifice a piece of the parcel to provide a parkquette so that there's more park space in this neighborhood. These are the kinds of things people have been waiting for for a really, really long time in our city. And I'm grateful that we're finally starting to make improvements. This I hope will lead to eventually one day, I'm going to say this out loud, one day having a Cork Town Plaza with a grocery store in it. Right? I mean, I understand we can't mandate actually legally mandate that a grocery store goes in there, but we can certainly negotiate with the land owner to say that's going to be the preferred choice. That's going to be the priority and, you know, that's what's going to happen to benefit the community because cities don't have the levers right now to be able to ensure there are adequate community amenities for neighborhoods. This is finally, I hope, a way that we can start making some progress on that. So thanks to everyone involved and it was really really a lot of fun honestly chairing this committee. Thanks. >> Thank you counselor your worship. You want wish to comment? >> Yes. Very very briefly I just want to uh express my gratitude uh to the counselor who was uh the leader on this file but also to the people that participated on the subcommittee. It's it's pretty I think exciting stuff and pretty groundbreaking. uh and it really was able to um you know distill I think the presentation earlier was able to kind of distill for uh council and for the community what this community benefits thing is all about. It it really put some um uh some detail and some understanding I think uh in front of us that was very very beneficial but it doesn't come easy. It was a lot of hard work and I want to thank the staff as well uh for the work that they did and I look I look forward to uh being you pretty much on the cutting edge of the community benefits uh uh dialogue through the uh the work that's ahead of us. So just my gratitude. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Your worship. You're right about being on Okay. This is what the vote and I'm in favor. Very good. So, we'll move. Thank you. We'll go on to 8:12. Open for business subcommittee minutes. September 10th, 2026. Is there a move and seconder for that motion? Councelor Wang, Councelor Kazar. Any discussion? It's on the floor to put it on the floor. That's second. >> Councilor Wang, do you that was scratched out. Do you have an amendment? >> I do. >> Okay. Please go ahead. >> Thank you. Uh at the open for business subcommittee, we had some really great and robust discussion. Um but as part of that discussion, we came out with uh a slight motion that works upon building along the existing route. The idea too is that um we're trying to figure out how best to continue moving um supports forward for small businesses. So, if I could have the amendment up on the screen just to let people see it. uh just at open for business there was some really great conversation around customer journeys but also like just trying to further some of that work moving forward. So in the um during the meeting we had a conversation around bringing back some more information. So as you can see the amendment we were trying to finesse some of the language while we were in the subcommittee but the amendment includes developing a public-f facing dashboard tracking key performance indicators related to development applications and municipal business licensing processing times timelines including benchmarking against other municipalities where data is available. This was a um a recommendation from one of the adviserss to look at it from a benchmarking perspective. Part of where we're at for open for business is really looking at how are we making making it easier or at least that customer service aspect a lot more smooth and stream streamlined and then ensuring that we have the data in order to continue with that good work. So my hope is that uh GIC committee would accept this amendment and essentially ask for that further report back um in the next for quarter 2 2027. Thank you. >> Okay. Any discussion on the amendment? Seeing none, we'll go to the electronic vote, please. >> It was council Kazar. Yes. Thumbs up. >> Councelor Spataphora. Okay, 11 to zero. Thank you very much. Now, we need another electronic vote to receive the the minutes and approve the recommendations as amended. See mover and seconder. Okay. Yes. It's better for him. Okay, thank you. 11 to zero. Great. Thank you very much. Okay, we're on to 8:13 business improvement area subcommittee minutes September 15th. Can I have a mover and seconder? Okay. Wayne Casar. Wayne, any polls? Any discussion? Predictably, seeing none, we'll go to the electronic vote. I'm thumbs up. Excitingly. Thumbs up. 14 >> 11. >> Okay. 11 to zero again. Thank you. Um 84 Hamilton Wentworth District School Board on Committee minutes. This the kind of thing Councelor Tison was referring to a bit earlier. Yep. Can we have a mover and seconder? Councelor Tatterson. Councelor Pauls. Any discussion on the Yaison committee minutes? Yes, councelor Nen. >> Thank you. Um through you acting deputy mayor and on item 7.1 which is the Bright Side Park update and timing. If I could just it's great to see the target timeline uh with a huge caveat that it all is pending approval of the various um assessments that the municipality is submitting to the Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks. But if I could just for the public record. So the municipality identified this need back in 2012. We're now in 2026 and we're still um really hoping to get to a point of construction in 2028. Um if I could through you get a summary from doc uh director Graham about when we began this process with the ministry from you staff's best assessment what is constituting the delay with the ministry and what are we doing to try to work with the ministry to try and fasttrack this given that we have gone back and forth with a few reports already >> through the chair Cynthia Graham director of environmental services. So, uh, when we purchased the property in 2012, that's really when the conversations about, um, how to bring this piece of industrial property to Parkland standards began. And, uh, in consultation with the consultants at the time who are our um, uh, consultants of record on the project and the qualified persons with respect to the reports that then get submitted to the ministry. Uh they were our um window into what the ministry would be looking for when it came to um identifying what the contamination was on site. Uh looking for opportunities for remediation or capping or generally bringing the um the land to parkland standards. So it's difficult to say exactly um how many times we've had conversations with the ministry. It's been ongoing since then, since the beginning. um with more specific discussions in recent years with actual submissions for uh risk assessment um process to start. Uh so um the uh the reason for the lengthy um process is because every time there was additional samples suggested or additional reports to be done um more um more um details were discovered that then had to have plans in place to be able to manage them. So, uh, if you think about, um, you know, I'm going back to my youth, a money cake. And if you know, every time you hit like a penny or a quarter or something in the cake, that changes then what the report and, um, how the remediation then has to happen. So, uh, that was exactly what happened with this parcel. Every time we did a sample, additional information was garnered and so then additional studies and reports had to happen. So, it's been a lengthy period. We're at the point now where we think we have a good understanding of what the site is to move forward with the um formal risk assessment reports. And um you know, of course, we have to have the caveats because we don't have any control over the ministry review process, but we are hopeful and working with them since the beginning uh to be able to get this park completed. >> Thank you for that overview. So, um, acting deputy mayor, it's been a a long process, 14 years of trying to take a former industrial site into, uh, parkland standards to facilitate much neededed recreation facility, but also much needed green space um, to help alleviate the ongoing impact of industry in that neighborhood, but more importantly, uh, ensure that as a municipality, we're landing the recreational services and our overall master plan, uh, accommodating our population needs. needs right now. Um I would say perhaps with the support of uh future term of council uh certainly with our new MPPP at the uh Queens Park who prior served as the chair of the Hamilton district labor sorry school board liaison committee uh with councelor Tatterson very intimately connected to this project also as a former trustee for the school board. Uh I know that um MPPPBD is very clear about the trajectory of this project and the fact that it continues to receive these delays at the ministerial level. So hopefully we can uh work with our former colleague to fasttrack that. Thank you. >> So thanks for pointing that way forward. Appreciate it. And we'll keep our fingers uh well we won't keep them crossed. We we we know what's going to happen, right? Thank you. So, we'll go to the electronic vote, please. And I'm thumbs up. >> 10 to zero. It's carried. Okay. Thank you. We're moving to the light rail transit subcommittee minutes. Um, may I have a motion and second or to put the long-term, sorry, light rail transit subcommittee minutes. This seems like a long term. Um, on the floor, councilor Nan Councelor Crretch. Great. Now, before we begin Oh, let's put that to a vote or show. No. Okay. Before we begin discussion on this item, I'm I'm reading from the report here. Um, report PED26176, light rail transit agreement update citywide was referred from the general issues committee on September 2nd to the light rail transit subcommittee for a report back to GIC. The light rail transit subcommittee received a report with no further action taken on this item. There are recommendations in that report that require consideration and we will require a separate motion on minute item 71. I think that's correct. May May I please have a mover and seconder on the report recommendations? Okay. Yep. Nan Gretch. Okay. Any discussion? Okay. I thought it'd be more complicated than that, but that's good. Good news. We will require an electronic vote. Thumbs up. >> 10 to zero. That's carried. Uh we also require a show of hands vote to receive the minutes. All those in favor many hands make white work. Okay. Thank you. That's carried. Okay. >> Handbook. >> Yeah, it was. It was handy. Yep. Okay. Outstanding. 8:16. Outstanding business list updates. May I please once again have a mover and seconder for the report. Councelor Nan, you're a regular today. Thank you. >> Oh, councelor Wang. Okay. Seconder. Councelor Wilson. All right. A Wilson. Yeah. Okay. Um any discussion? We'll go to the electronic vote. Thumbs up. >> Oh, councelor Crutch. >> The vote is cancelled and and we're waiting in breathless anticipation for your words. >> Thank you. First of all, good format. This is better, easier to read, >> clearer by equivalent with B2. >> The way B2 is written right now and my understanding of the original motion, which I didn't move, was with respect to improving snow removal bylaws to assist seniors and persons with disabilities. and it seems to have come about in to in order to make sure that we were ahead of the 2027 season with respect to these concerns. However, if it's moving to Q2 of 2027, then I assume that we won't get these concerns addressed until 2028. Like, however you want to understand that, we're moving it ahead by a whole winter season by changing it from July 31st due date, which is passed to Q2 2027. Can someone help me with that? I could just be misunderstanding, but my reading of that is now that we wanted something in place before this winter season came and now based on the new deadline, it'll be happening for the following winter season. If any recommendations come out of that report, >> who can help us with that? >> Through the chair, since it's bylaw enforcement, um I do believe Dan Smith is very close by. Uh but I would say your conclusion is is correct in that you know we we do expect snow between uh now and Q2 2027. >> Wait, what? >> Okay. Farmers. >> So my concern is that council's trying to get something to happen in time for this coming season and staff are saying they can't but there's no reason why staff are giving us that they can't do that or can't action that work. I don't have it all in front of me, right? The old reports and the old motions and things. I'm just again looking at this outstanding business list. uh through the chair. My understanding is it's it's right now between um by law enforcement and and public works and uh we may have to follow up on the status of that and provide a description of why that's been delayed. >> Yeah, if you could do so by council, I'd really appreciate it because I think one of the good things about this is that we're now be able to more clearly see when the current due date is. It also puts us in an awkward spot. I'll say this again probably for the fifth or sixth time this term of council. We ought to be able to see these things before they expire because then it puts us in an even more awkward position because the due date has come and gone and now we're having a conversation about it after the due date has come and gone and that's just weird. So yeah, if we can talk about this before council, I'd appreciate it. I also wanted to understand two more things on this list. the green building standards implementation plan which I understand for reasons that are probably provincial in nature. I just want to understand if that's why we've moved this to Q2 2027. Just trying to understand if that's why that's been moved that far in the future through the chair. That that's correct. As you know, there's been a few provincial regulations that uh we need to take into account uh in in updating that. But I I do believe that a large portion of that work has been done. So uh we are looking forward to bringing that report forward. >> Okay. And last, I'll say I think this was my motion number four is being moved out a little bit, which is not the end of the world, but right below it is obviously a motion from the previous term of council, which I don't really have a lot of sight to that is directly related to the the concert of motions around pedestrianization and relates directly to work being done to talk about how we pedestrianize streets downtown, more, how we close streets downtown. There's a public workers reports under the former director for transportation who brought forward a report I believe it was early this year or late last year about fees for closing streets. Like these things are all related to one another. So my concern is that they're being reported on different quarters. So if before council we could also have some clarity about that because there's a number of reports related to pedestrianization and waiting street festivals. Um, and also just as a note, it'd be very helpful to have as attached here appendices the actual information we're talking about here. So like you know instead of having to Google what this item 8.3 in the October 20th 2021 GIC agenda was, it could be provided so we can review it. That'd be very helpful like as an as some type of an appendicy to this report or a link. >> Yes, I was going to say maybe a link would be much easier and feasible. >> Thank you. >> Anything so we can have a little bit more information. So if by council we could have just more clarification and so then I guess I asked my colleagues if we could refer this to council and have some some more explanation. There should be a little section underneath saying why for each one. Thank you. >> So is that an amendment you're making? >> I can't because I've spoken to the item already. Refer or defer according to our procedural bylaws. I'll leave it to somebody else to do so. >> Council Wilson, you seem to be inclined to do so. Okay. Councilor Wayne as well. So I thank you for your insights there counselor that u we wouldn't want to proceed with a motion in any prejuditial way. So that that's helpful. >> Sorry >> and council wang. Yep. >> Electronic vote. >> Okay. Electronic vote and it's pending. It's coming up. Oh, sorry. You're up. Yes. >> Hand vote. Okay. All those in favor. >> Okay. >> No problem. Cameron Cretz always says nobody died. >> Okay. Um thank you. So that's carried. We'll move on to uh uh mo motions. um housing and homelessness agency funding outcomes and value for money review. We had a presentation on this earlier. Councelor Spaphora, please present your motion. Thanks, Chair. Moved by myself, seconded by Councelor Francis. Um I'm definitely not going to read through all this. First off, I want to thank staff Jim Mater, Director B, and their staff for helping um with this motion. Again, I think uh and I've said it publicly that uh our social services in this city are um vital, important um and do a good job. Uh but we need we need need to do I would say better job of um sharing the information the outcomes and tying uh funding to those outcomes uh in a more transparent and uh public way. Um so the motion was on the public agenda for a while. Um that's it. I'll leave it there. Okay. Councelor Nan, you wish to speak? >> Thank you. um through you just some questions to staff if I could please. So um appreciating the call and the motion fundamentally being about transparency of data and then being able to use that data to make decisions about what is and isn't funded. Um how much of the current motion speaks to information that we gather through hus uh through the chair general manager Grace Mater um healthy and safe communities. I'm going to ask uh um the acting director Danielle Blake to confirm that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh thank you Danielle Blake, manager of uh housing focus street outreach. Um I would say that a good portion of the data is is something that we do collect in Hifus. There are some things though that we do not and we will uh have to come up with a strategy to collect that information. But hi is our would be our our our first go-to. Um if we can collect it in Hifus and if there's a way to even adjust Hyus reports to collect that data that would be the preference. >> Thank you. And then would there be any concern through you um from staff in terms of a sense of um you know appreciating what the mover said right off the bat that you know we rely on our housing providers and the service providers to do the good work. um many of those organizations are not flush, right? They're they're working uh extremely hard and often in multiple shifts to provide the service. Um I'm concerned because this is this requires a level of evaluation that not all those organizations may have the capacity by which to perform that may require staff to be either reallocated etc etc. Could could I get a sense that's my sense anyway but if I could get that from staff please. uh through the chair to the counselor. Absolutely. We're well aware that these um these agencies are very, you know, play close to the vest when it comes to their staffing resources. And that's the part though that we we will work with them in order to accomplish this. All of those um organizations also want to ensure that they're providing the very best service and you know allocating their dollars in the most efficient and effective way. And so we will work with their teams to ensure that we're able to accomplish this. >> Okay. And then through you stuff, do you see the do you see the um do you see the direction as such that the municipality then would be potentially supporting the capacity of these organizations to fulfill the information to be gathered? Like would the city be working in partnership? What could that partnership look like? Would that also potentially include funding to enable them to have the capacity to roll this information out to the city? through the chair. Yes, that is something that we will be working with them each each of them. Some of these organizations are relatively sophisticated in on the under themselves already and so we'll work with them on an individual basis to determine how they're going to be able to accomplish this. >> Okay. Thank you. No further questions at this time. >> That's for Wilson. Thank you through you, chair. Um to staff, just trying to understand the format of the document that comes out. I think the phrase apples to apples or apples to oranges was used this morning. And so just given the focuses on external agencies, um I imagine that's quite a broad multi-programmatic scope. So for example, there's all of our shelter providing agencies which provide different services based on gender, age, family status. sometimes there are no two kind of programs offering the same service. So from sitting on other committees where we're looking at kind of the gender based data in this um shelter system I just I have a sense that where there are apples we'll be able to compare them. Those reports also exist to stand alone today. So this will be bring that up maybe there's also social housing providing rent subsidy provision. Can you help me understand I under from my recollection all of these at the program level are kind of reported already. Many of these datas exist. Uh the point now seems to be able to put all of these different things in one report. Um can you just help me understand what are some of those headings? Am I missing some pieces in terms of what is the size or scale of the report back? It sounds to me like there's shelters to supportive housing to housing development, the work of the housing secretariat. Am I missing things just so so we're all on the same page about what actually comes back >> uh through the chair and I'm not going to be able to give the exhausted list either. But right off the top of my head, the other things that we're looking at is, you know, RCFs. Um, also about uh the variety of things that we're doing with under the the housing secretariat as well as, you know, our accelerator, our housing accelerator um funding, our project stream, our affordable housing. Um those are a few of them. And I think you know to the point that this is a new direction in that I think that uh under under the uh counselor's original intent I think this helps us to formulate and make it formalize some of those processes in in a really good way that we'll be able to effectively report on. Thank you through the chair trying to understand um when we talk about uh gender- based data and some of the ongoing improvements that had been either recommended at subcommittee levels or staff were kind of uh pursuing already when it comes to data regime. My understanding is when it came to the shelter system specifically, there were already internal changes with respect to how we wanted to report and how we wanted to talk about program data. Um even though there's no mention of gender- based data in this um motion, but given the kind of existing focus on that, the existing understanding that that's valuable, can you maybe talk about what additional um pieces of data that it would be a priority for staff to also include? Um I I can imagine gender based data in the shelter standard just because everything is gender- based a lot of the time in service provision is relevant but maybe it's not relevant in every single housing um provider or housing service. Can you help us understand again what maybe in terms of social demographic data what else might be coming back >> uh through the chair? Absolutely. It would be embedded in it but you know the um part of the work that we'll do is try and just um determine what are those components that we do need to report on. So that will be part of the discussions that we will have with our partner agencies on on how we break that out and report back. >> Okay. Um thank you through you. Is there a timeline associated? Um apologies if I missed that in the the motion. Um but if there is a timeline associated or staff comfortable with it or how long does staff take? I just note that there's you know 40 sub clauses and dozens of programs just in one program field. And so I imagine, you know, 40 time several dozen like that's just in terms of data entry. Even if it's all quick or we already have all the information, it's just duplicating it. Um that's still thousands of data points to duplicate and to enter. Um is there a sense of how long this will take? >> Uh through the chair, we're looking at Q2 of 2027. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, councelor Councelor Cooper. >> Thank you, Chair. Uh actually my question just answered in terms of when it was going to be coming back. So thank you. >> Okay. Thanks. >> No further further discussion. >> Okay. Councelor Spatford, did you wish to add anything? This sounds like the BPC. >> No, I'm good. Chair motions there. I appreciate everybody's feedback and the answers from staff. Again, just looking to ensure we're getting the best uh which uh best service for the money that we've invested over the years here. So, uh thank you. >> Thank you, counselor. Okay. Electronic vote. It's coming up. >> Yeah. 120. Thanks, Councelor's Paphor. Okay, we're going to move now to her worship, the head of the wake, Ontario plan, protecting Hamilton workers and businesses from US US tariffs. Um, Mayor Horvath, please present your motion and your seconder. >> Thanks very much. Uh, Chair McMin, my motion is I sent it around on Friday. I'm sure everybody's had a chance to look at it. I actually don't I don't know if I have a seconder for this motion. I think councelor Spataphora might be interested in seconding it. Thank you, Councelor Spataphor. I appreciate that. Um, the motion's quite quite uh clear. I'm not going to read the all of the whereases. I I don't know that it's necessary, although it it is it's it's I think very descriptive in terms of some of the challenges that we're facing as a as a city uh with the new round of tariffs and counter tariffs and how that's going to impact our businesses, our workers, uh our workers families, our economy, uh etc. And so the motion tries to address a number of different things because, you know, we all know what our city is. It's a it's a city of builders, a city of makers, steel workers, trades people, farmers, manufacturers, truck drivers, small business owners. Um many of whom are facing uncertainty that uh that I don't think that they were necessarily uh expecting uh yet again. But certainly they didn't create that uncertainty and they cannot control it. Uh and neither can we. We can't control what's happening south of the border, but we can control how Hamiltonians uh are affected, how Hamilton as a city responds. And that's what this motion is all about. Using every tool available to us as a municipality to protect Hamilton workers, businesses, and families. I'm asking council to make it easier for businesses to get help with one dedicated local business support officer and one place online where they can find every available support. I'm asking us to bring business, labor, manufacturers, and economic leaders back around one table so we can respond quickly as conditions change. I'm asking us to put Hamilton first is the bottom line. To strengthen buy local, buy Canadian, and create a supply chain matchmaker that helps Hamilton businesses find Canadian suppliers, customers, and new opportunities right here at home. to strengthen our fair wage policy. Make sure that city-f funed construction projects support good paying local jobs, skilled trades and apprentices, apprentices, and I'm asking for staff to look at emergency relief where we can provide it locally. Uh again, this would be a report back. It's not something I'm specifying in the motion, but what I would like them to look at including things like flexibility on property tax payments, uh reducing, deferring, or temporary temporarily eliminating city fees and charges. uh fair share of counter tariff revenue so that if we are able to provide local relief, we don't put the cost of that local relief onto the backs of Hamilton taxpayers because what we are trying to do is help with affordability and weathering this storm. Uh and uh and simply putting the cost of those measures on on local taxpayers is very counterproductive. Um so that's why I'm talking about pushing uh Queens Park and uh Ottawa also for fast relief. Um, we also need to keep an eye on our role as a municipality, our opportunity as a municipality when it comes to the changing uh look of what our uh economic uh activity uh is uh is um is uh producing. Uh and so this speaks to the not only the Canadawide supply chains and and getting goods from one end of the country to the other, but in fact with our deep water port, uh we could become a first port of entry and therefore goods uh can be shipped in and out of Hamilton uh with the proper CSBA uh presence there directly to world markets. That's an opportunity we can't we can't um ignore. And so this is another piece of of that motion. At the end of the day, uh, every shift cut, every canceled order or delayed investment leaves Hamiltonians wondering what comes next. And and for an individual worker, that anxiety will follow them home to their kitchen table into conversations about the household budget, the grocery bill, the kids after school programs, and what a family might have to give up if things get worse. And that's why we have a responsibility to do what we can where we can right now. Folks will look at this motion and recognize some of these measures that we already talked about almost two years ago. Now, um so the update on by Canada, for example, by Ontario, by Hamilton, uh is simply to kind of make sure that we're doing everything we can with the current context. And of course, there's been some uh some initiatives by the Ontario government in that regard. So, how are we making sure that we're we're doing our part in terms of responding uh as uh they've requested? But as I said, tariffs are beyond our our our control, but uh protecting Hamilton workers, businesses, and families is work that we can do here together. And again, as I said in my um email that I sent around on Friday, uh I welcome any ideas or amendments that uh folks might want to bring. And I think that this is a work in progress as well. So if it is passed by committee and sent on to council, I don't think there's anything that prevents us from pivoting uh at any point in the future to uh implement other measures if they become uh identified and uh viable for us to respond. So on that note, thanks very much for the opportunity and I hope for uh the committee's support. >> Thank you your worship. Any any further discussion? And I I want to just say a couple words. uh your worship. I appreciate your your initiative on this and I've been following your your comments um with some considerable interest. Uh we I've grown up in a in a in an era where the catchphrase was think global, act vocal. Uh the situation we're in now is everything global is vocal. There's no getting away from that that connectedness. And given that that connectedness, the the very least we can do in this tariff terror driven reality is to make sure we connect with one another and stand in solidarity. So I appreciate your words. I think this is a u it's a good step. It's both symbolic and substant substantive. So we'll see where it where it goes and thank thanks for your initiative. Um, we need an electronic vote. We shall go to one. And I'm after having said what I said, I'm thumbs up. Okay. Thank you, your worship. Um, are there any notices of motion? None. Okay. Well, that brings us to that very special part of our agenda known as private and confidential. And I'm required by law, as I understand it, to read this this text. So, bear with me. Um, I took a a speed reading course, but I won't speed read it. I'll just have to go through it. One motion to go into close session for items 112, 113, 115, 116, and 114 >> and 114. May I please have a motion and seconder for the committee to move into close session pursuant to section 93 sections BE FG K of the city's procedural bylaw 211021 as amended in section 239 subsection uh subsections BCE FG K of the Ontario M municipal act 2001 as amended as a subject matter pertains Two, uh, personal matters about an in identifiable individual, proposed or pending acquisition or distribution of land for city or local purposes, litigation or potential litigation, including matters before administrative tribunals affecting the city or local board. Uh, advice that is subject to solicitor client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose. a matter in respect of which council, a council board, committee or other body may hold a close meeting under the act. Um, a position, plan, procedure, criteria, or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality or local board. We require a show of hands. >> Sorry, move second. Move her and second her worship and councelor Tatterson. >> Thank you. >> Show of hands. Thank you. Those who who who know they shouldn't be here should leave if there are anybody. >> We got more. >> Okay. More to read. All right. Okay. Um 112 beed 26158 application for approval. >> No no >> page 14 must be the crazy go here. Okay. Um right. Uh members of the public are advised that during the close session portion of the meeting, the live stream will broadcast a close session in progress screen. The broadcast will resume when the close session portion of the meeting is complete. As we are now moving to close session, I would ask all members of the public uh delegates and external participants to please now exit the WebEx meeting. Any staff that are not directly related to the in camera items are also asked to please exit the WebEx meeting. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Should read the rest. Okay, we're going to take a couple of minutes to So, we're back in session. Um, we're going to go start with 112 application for approval to expropriate property in the city of Hamilton. I need a mover and a second on the follow following that the direction given to staff in close session respecting confidential report PED26158 application for approval to expropriate property in the city of Hamilton be approved and B that this reported 26158 remain confidential save and accept for the portions that need to be disclosed for the purposes of completing the expropriation that the discretion of the city solicitor. Any discussion mover and seconder? Don't rush, folks. Ranging. >> Yeah. Yeah. And then Okay. Yep. Okay. Electronic vote. Thumbs up. Wait for Okay, we're going to move on to 113 PED26. 6187 acquisition of property ward 6. May please have a mover and second on the following. A that the direction provided to staff in close session respecting confidential report PEED 26187 acquisition of property be approved and B that the confidential report PEED 26187 and appendix A to report PEED26187 remain confidential until completion of the transaction and that the confidential appendix B to report PEED26187 remain confidential. Moved by councelor Wilson, seconded by councelor Tadison. Electronic vote. Thumbs up. Thank you. 8 to zero passes. Um now the 115 the GFL strategy update uh is now a referral to council council meeting on October the 7th. Moved by Gretch, >> seconded by Cooper. Okay. Show of hands. >> Okay. Thank you. Before we adjourn, we have to deal with 72. And I've been asked to read this. Please note that uh the confidential reasons for item 116 reflecting confidential appendix A to report FCS26078 bracket. Item 72 N bracket was originally listed as subsection B and has been corrected to subsection C uh as the subject matter pertains to a proposed or pending acquisition or disposition of land for the city of or local board. This is cleaning up. There was a an error so we're just fixing it. A hand vote. >> So then yeah. So this is the the exist. >> Okay. I move for a second to receive >> and remain confidential. >> And remain confidential. Wilson Wang. Okay. >> Hand vote. >> Okay. All right. Just this. >> Okay. 88 89. We're hopping around here. Ensuring pedestrian access to Jackson Street West and McNap McNab Street South. Need a uh It was deferred after. So, we're doing this now. It's been deferred to closed. Um we need a mover and a second for that. Okay, Rich Casar. No. >> Yep. >> We got a mover. Do we have a second or >> Yeah. Okay. Ner n. Okay. Electronic. >> Electronic vote, please. Yeah. >> Okay. 6 to2. Sweetie Gdiva once said, "I I come to our we come to our close >> and we're now in adjourment." Thank you. >> Thank you.