Okay. Uh good morning everybody and welcome to the uh council meeting for Wednesday, May the 13th. Um I'd like to call this meeting to order. We are gathering on lands that have been home to First Nation people from time immemorial. We acknowledge that what we now call Richmond Hill is on the treaty lands and territories of the Missosagas of the Credit First Nation and the Missaga and Chipua nations of the Williams Treaty. We also recognize that we are on part of the traditional territories of the Hodnachoni and the Hiron Wendat. We would also like to acknowledge all First Nation Inuit and Matei people from across Turtle Island who now reside in the city of Richmond Hill. We are committed to building to rebuilding constructive constructive and cooperative relationships. So, at this time, if you can, I'd ask you to stand for the national anthem. Hallelujah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. time. Uh, we do not have any public forum uh, folks. I don't think Mr. Clerk, uh, council announcements. Anybody for council announcements? Councelor Thompson. >> Uh, thank you very much through you, the chair. I'd just like to uh let people know that we're not that far away from uh our third annual Eco Family Fest which is on May 30th which is a Saturday. It'll be over at Elgen Barrow in Town Park. Uh go to my website for more information and to sign up. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Anybody else? Uh regional council deputy mayor Godwin. >> Thank you very much uh Mr. Chair, Mr. Mayor and uh good morning. Um, in 10 days, the fourth uh, spring fair that I've been hosting at Richmond Green Park from noon to 3:00 p.m. uh will be taking place and uh, invite everyone to uh, participate and come and I hope you come early. Um, that uh, one of the features I want also to share. I am very pleased. I think I I mentioned it last time but also mentioned again uh we have um Richmond Hill local brothers earthly brothers would be there to collect uh used it personal items such as um the um the use cell phones laptops and so on. So we are also doing the collection collection of that and that would be with the help of the recycling electronics association. So, come one, come all. Uh, Saturday, May 23rd from noon to 3 at Richmond Green Park. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Oh, sorry, Local Counc. I said yes and then I forgot. Sorry. >> No problem. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay. So, I just want to make a couple announcements. Uh, one week from today on Wednesday, May 20th, right at the Sheridan Parkway Hotel is the Richmond Hill Prayer Breakfast. And there still are tickets available if anyone wants to attend that. And on May 23rd, Saturday, May 23rd, I'm having a life-saving seminar with CPR training and AED awareness at the Algen West Community Center. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, uh, Councelor Selvitz. >> Thank you, uh, Mr. Mayor. Uh, good morning everybody. Um, I would just like to also make a plug uh for my council event which will take place next Sunday, May 24th at the Richmond Hill Center for the Performing Arts in the Lexus of Richmond Hill Hall. Uh, once again, um, Songs from the Hill presents Voices from the Hill and we will have two amazing coral groups with us, uh, Chorus York and the Beverly Street Group. So, I look forward to welcoming everyone there and um have a great rest of the week. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Anybody else? >> Okay. I've got a couple of things. Um first of all, I uh May is uh multiple sclerosis awareness month and um that is observed uh in the world MS day is observed internationally on May the 30th. um between 3,500 and 3600 people in York Region live with MS. And uh this is uh all about raising awareness and support in our community. And uh later today we will be raising the uh MS flag um here at city hall later this afternoon. Um I know my family was touched by MS. My uh uncle had that and um ended up passing away from it. It's a it's a horrible disease. they've made very good advancements um in in um quality of life and and delaying it, but there's still some some room to uh to go here on that. So, we we would hope that everybody would be uh aware of that. Um the other thing is that yesterday was the 7th annual provincial day of action on litter and I know that our staff has rolled out a really great uh communication campaign in support of uh educating people about uh why they shouldn't be littering up their community. And I have to say that, you know, after we have had so many people uh in our community volunteer over the last few weeks um to clean up litter and and to make our community look really good, uh it is an absolute shame to see anybody uh you know undoing that work by uh needlessly tossing litter out of car windows, dropping them on trails, uh not putting the uh the little dog poop bags where they're supposed to be and so on. So, um, we, you know, I think there really is, um, uh, an an ability for us as, as community leaders to kind of help to spread that word. So, I hope that we would do that. Um, May 14th is Moose Hyde Campaign Day, and it began as a a BC uh, uh, indigenousled grassroots movement to engage men and boys in ending violence towards women and children. Uh it's since grown into a nationwide movement committed to taking action to end violence and as a council I know that we have uh consistently strongly stood against all forms of inter intimate partner violence um declaring it an epidemic um in our province and uh so I I would uh bring that to everybody's attention. And then the the final thing I'd mention um yesterday I had a um an invitation by Premier Ford uh to go down to TMU to um attend the the the kickoff of a campaign that the Ontario government and a number of other entities including the the uh city of rich uh sorry city of Toronto are uh spearheading to bring the defense security and resilience bank to uh Toronto. And I have to say that uh in my mind there there is no better place in Canada for this institution than the city of Toronto. Um I mean there's other really great cities in Canada for sure, but we have all of the things that uh that we that they would need uh to make that uh institution successful. But the reason that uh I've been supportive of that and uh and have signed a letter with a number of uh GTA mayors uh in support of that bid is the spin-off jobs and the spin-off uh benefits of that uh for communities like Richmond Hill will be significant. Um it is projected to create about 3,500 highly skilled jobs in in uh particularly in areas like finance and defense manufacturing. And some of the the um businesses in Richmond Hill uh are kind of in the high-tech uh industry and and would be very well positioned to uh help out with uh any of those spin-off opportunities. So um those are that's it for me. Uh so anybody else on council? Seeing none. All right. So moving forward then uh we have I needed a motion sorry I introduction of emergency or time sensitive matters. Seeing none I need a motion to adopt the agenda. Councelor Tree Councelor Shu all those in favor opposed that carries. Thank you. Uh disclosures of pecuniary interest or the general nature of thereof. Seeing none Mr. Clerk. Uh adoption of previous council minute minutes. We have one council meeting held on April 22nd. I need a motion to adopt that. Councelor Davidson, councelor Thompson. All those in favor oppose. That carries. Thank you. Okay. Items requiring separate discussion. Uh we have an agenda before us which we did cover pretty heavily at the committee of the whole meeting. Uh I think items 15.1 to 15 uh 2.11 uh could all be carried on consent if that is the will of council. If it is I need somebody to put their hand up to move all of that. Councelor Davidson, councelor tree. All those in favor oppose. That carries. Okay. So that means um everything from 151 to 152.11 has been carried on consent. Uh I need uh we have no public hearings, we have no presentations, we have no delegations and we have two um member motions which we now can deal with. So the first member motion is uh 16.1 by councelor Thompson uh integrated living and participation model for adults with developmental disabilities. So councelor Thompson the floor is yours. >> Uh thank you very much uh through the chair. Uh over the past number of months I've had conversations with families in our community who have adult children with developmental disabilities. And one of the biggest concerns they've raised is what happens when parents age out and are no longer in a position to provide care for their adult children. So this motion is really about whether there's an opportunity to take a closer look at how we support these individuals over the long term. As many of us know, Ontario made an important shift over time away from large institutional models of care toward more community-based living, which I believe was the right move for improving dignity, inclusion, and overall quality of life. What replaced those institutional models was a range of supports and housing programming and funding delivered through different providers and systems. The challenge though is that those supports, you know, even though those supports exist, they're not always brought together in a way that provides a clear and stable path forward for families thinking long term. Many adults with developmental disabilities continue to live at home, relying on parents for structure, routine, and day-to-day support. As those parents age, there's a growing concern about continuity. where their children will live, how will they be supported, and how they'll maintain a sense of purpose and connection. So, what we're seeing is not necessarily a lack of services, but a gap in how those services come together. There isn't really a model today that consistently brings together housing supports and meaningful daily participation in one place over the long term. We are seeing emerging ideas in other areas. Things like campuses of care uh on the senior side as well as organizations like RENA that are doing important work in supported housing and community integration. But even those models don't fully bring everything together in a shared integrated environment. What this motion is asking is fairly straightforward. Is there an opportunity to explore a more integrated model? Something that brings together housing support and opportunities for meaningful daily participation in a way that provides stability, routine, and a sense of purpose? And could that potentially be explored through partnerships or colllocation with existing regional services, including long-term care or community housing? What's important to note here is that it's not about replacing existing services or displacing workers in any way. It's about building on what already exists in a way that better supports individuals over the long term. I would also note that this is very much aligned with the city's 2023 to 2027 multi-year accessibility plan where council stated that Richmond Hill is committed to being an accessible and inclusive community for everyone and for identifying and removing barriers for persons with disabilities. This motion is consistent with that commitment. It's about looking at barriers that may exist in the system today, particularly around long-term living and integration, and asking whether we can be part of advancing solutions. At the end of the day, this motion is simply asking in the region to take a closer look at where there's an opportunity here. And given the region's role in housing, community services, and long-term care, they are well positioned to explore this further. I feel this is a reasonable and measured step and one that reflects concerns we're hearing directly from families in our community and I appreciate the council's support in this regard. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Uh councelor, you'll move that obviously. Councelor Thompson and councelor Tweed, you want to um second this? >> I'm going to support it as well. So I cannot acknowledge um um uh councelor Scott Thompson's motion here. So past in the past few years we had the chance to meet with different communities. Uh Reena is one of them large break also autism northstar uh special needs kids also the gay people services also breakth through. So look at our city our region around us there are lot of kids now under 18 they do have support but after pass 18 they become adults. So from different angles of community they are looking for jobs. How support those adults not kids anymore adults when the p mom daddy passed away how or what we can do from government perspective support those kids they have no custodian anymore so this is going to be a long strategy uh uh solutions as well I I I fully support uh this motion I hope uh if Ontario government shifting that duty to municipality level or region level what going to do from our side to support those people especially after become adults and most of them a lot of them they don't have ability even for talking for for walking and some of them do have a more high functions they can do a little bit of things but how at government can support those adults which has uh more challenges than normal population that I fully support the notion thank you >> okay thanks very much uh regional local counselor Chan Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, first of all, thank you, Councelor Thompson, for bringing this forward. Uh, I too have over the years have heard from parents uh who have to take care of the uh uh the children um that with the uh uh but again um the children uh do go up and I think it's very well um articulated by council Thompson the mover. I fully support the motion and on top of that I'm also looking at uh yes one of the uh where statement uh appropriately cited u is yeah regional uh municipality of York is actually uh does provide those services human services um and I'm um actually uh as the co-chair of York Region Human Services uh uh planning board is something I certainly like to uh bring up to the secretar's staff it was going to York Regional Council anyway and speaker of York Regional Council. Um I'm also sit on as a director of the Housing Y Inc. And I think the suggestion of looking at the particular um well at the moment about 3,000 units over 3,000 units uh for 5,000 um residents uh uh by the operated by the housing y uh for the future projects could potentially look into the opportunity of collaboration. So uh to the extent I can help to lend a voice I'll be happy to do in both um the housing law incre as well as at the uh collaborative initiative at the uh uh human services board. So I fully support this and I hope it does get as uh council sh as uh uh uh true as well talking about um getting provincial support. uh but I'm also thankful that actually locally in our community is a number of serviceoriented organization and I think some of us have attended one is called coco's wish uh foundation which is actually uh a group of parents uh who have see the need to try to get together to raise money so they are willing uh uh organizations and supporters there and u Mr. Mayor, uh, thank you for, uh, I give an opportunity to share my comments and the thoughts and I think more can be done and certain to the extent your region can help. Um, I would be more than happy to, uh, also um, play a role in it. Thank you. >> Okay, councelor Silvitz. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I fully support this motion by councelor Thompson and I thank him for bringing it forward as the chair of the accessibility advisory committee. This is a matter we discuss many many times have discussed it through our through we're in our fourth year now of this particular term of of committee and this is something that is discussed um all the time. So thank you very much for bringing this forward. I I urge our regional uh council representatives on uh Richmond Hill City Council bench to please support this and ensure that the word is is moved around uh York region in order in order to make this um a reality. Housing York is the entity that is responsible um for any uh type of um housing um in this in this regard. I've been working also with um a number of organizations about assisted living um with regards to family members, adult family members who have mental, psychological and and emotional disabilities. So these these two gel together very very well and I look forward to the region's um the region's response. Thank you, Mr. Chair. >> Okay, thanks so much. Anybody else? Okay, I I've got just a couple of comments. Um, so thank you uh regional coun or sorry regional counselor uh councelor Thompson for uh for the work on this. I know that I've reached out to the region to get some information for you and um and you've certainly done your homework on this and I think uh there is a willingness at the region from what I see to be exploring uh solutions to to uh present and upcoming needs that we have in our community and this certainly is one of them. Um there there are a a number of um young people who are getting older and the parents are increasingly worried about you know how how do I provide care for the these grown-up now children u once the parents are not able to or they're not with us anymore and I think this is a really emerging problem and I I see that particularly um with the rise in in uh particularly like with autism where, you know, we're seeing a lot more kids that uh have been diagnosed with autism over the last number of years and these kids are getting older and they're going to age out of the the system and we we we need to be able to find a place for them to live and and uh be able to live the best their best life and I think that um you know uh organizations like Lars, Autism in Mind, Home on the Hill, Reena just to name a few and there's lots of others are already doing things within their own uh circles to provide uh that type of housing, but it won't be enough. And I think there is a real need for the um the region of York who provide social services to Richmond Hill, of course, uh to be able to create an integrated and supportive model for housing for people with various uh needs. So, I I fully support this. I appreciate you bringing this forward. But I think it is a a a good idea and uh I I suspect that this will pass unanimously. But um anyway, I appreciate uh having the discussion on it today. All right. So if that's it for that uh we will vote. All those in favor oppose. That carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Okay. The next uh motion on the agenda is a member motion from uh regional local counselor Chan for the Elgen Mills uh east overpass. So the floor is yours. Uh thank you Mr. Mayor. um over the uh years and uh well from time to time that I I think that myself including probably my colleagues particular maybe more so in war two uh including uh other council members may have received um uh residents uh sending in messages say about the long wait on traffic in terms of flow and so on on Elen Mu's road because of the CN track there. Uh actually my personal experience just last Saturday after uh um visiting one of the site of the doors open on Saturday. Uh actually I did get stopped over there on Elgen Muse uh row east between Young Street and um and the nuclear row and for a um well um it may be only a five to u seven minutes but uh the train doesn't take long to pass but it's also the then the um the um uh backup traffic that it goes. So uh the long and short it is and uh the region of York also uh certainly noticed that and I'm sure our past uh terms of which council also have been articulate uh for that and York region actually back 10 years ago in the transportation master plan uh did recommend to u have a uh what they call overpass or under the train traffic on Elgam's road uh in this particular case And uh in particular the uh there has been incidents that uh we uh posing risk for both uh drivers and also in addition to traffic uh congestion and pedestrians along the stretch of Elvin Mro and I just share with you my personal hands-on most recent experience last um particular Saturday. Now um in the past uh couple of years I've been uh along with my uh visual colleagues have been really uh really watching uh with our regional staff on this particular uh project which is uh going to alleviate traffic congestion and also um helping the uh rural network and um as I understand it and I reported back in my newsletter of last November uh regional staff work very hard on this project and have been working with the Toronto and region conservation authority as well as our city staff because they have to look at the modeling uh for potential uh with the overpass or bridge will be built the um there may be potential for flooding so they have to look at the mitigation alternative and the good news is uh the TRCA give the clearance and therefore now the project as I understand from the commissioner of public works at the region is in the project is now in detail um design phase Having said that, and we just talked about regional council uh I mean uh city uh comm budget committee yesterday. Um part of the um support for the capital project are from the vamboo charges and as we all know uh the deferral uh is imp on the development charges and um is impacting on all levels of local governments. So potentially potentially that may be adjustment to be looked at all capital projects under 10-year plan or region. So it um in my view this is a um critical moment for uh local municipality like us Richmond Hill to um ensure our message is heard loud and clear at the regional level. Uh this is a capital project that the city of Richmond Hill considers high priority and we certainly wish that and expect the um regional um council at York would be uh certainly uh not looking at potentially delaying the construction or in any form of shape or reducing the um um capital dollars to go to this project. So all these are for the improvements in our city's um traffic as well as um to be safer for the petitions as well as drivers. So um I submit a motion for my colleagues consideration. I hope that I get your support and uh unanimously so that the message is loud and clear. uh we want the overpass done soon and uh please um ensuring that from the region perspective this is the capital project uh go ahead as planned. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much and you'll move that and then uh region local council depo you're next. >> Thank you Mr. Mayor and um well I thank my colleague for bringing this motion forward. Um, it certainly won't won't hurt to just emphasize that this council strongly uh strongly insists on the region York following through with its with its capital plan uh project. So, it it it really doesn't hurt. This is the one major infrastructure project in from the region that affects Richmond Hill. I've been following closely since since 2018. um each and every 10-year capital uh plan. I've uh I've I've questioned York Regional staff and it was originally in at 2025 um with the flood mitigation necessary when they when they went they went to do preliminary um design and analysis. uh it ended up having it moved to 2027, but um for at least 4 years now. It it's been um planned for detailed design in 2026 and construction in 2027. Um I have no reason to believe anything's changed there. I'm as we go through the process every year, I'm going to make sure that that project is um you know is still included and um we'll be strongly advocating. I I I guess this this motion will assist with that effort. Uh you know, if Richmond Hill Council takes this position, but it uh you know the this this motion alone if if we could just make a motion to get it done, we would have would have passed this motion 10 years ago. But um it it doesn't hurt. It certainly sends a good message that this is you know this is our key priority. This is the one infrastructure project that we expect the region to follow through on and um you know if if um if if if anything does change, we'll be coming back to this council. We'll be we'll be fighting very hard. But uh I've I've been given every assurance that this is uh capital project plan for 2027 and we're going to see it happen. Thanks. >> Okay. Thanks very much uh councelor Thompson. >> Thank you m very much uh through the chair. I just wanted to uh echo some of the same comments that have already been made. Um, however, I I do want to mention that we do recognize uh through our budget committee update yesterday the difficulties that the region has uh uh I'll say um absorbed uh over the number of years uh from a financial standpoint due to a number of different well let let's just call it what it is offloading from the province onto the municipality. So and and particular the region definitely identified what they're looking at in difficulties. So I know that uh you know when you have to deal with those difficulties then you have to start doing some reassessments of your capital plan pl plans what what is priority what isn't priority. All I can say is that, you know, because I see this every day being in Ward two, um I I do see it from a lens of safety in that uh presently. Uh if you have emergency services that need to get uh through right now, you know, the only places that they can in my ward are at Major Mack and it's Stoville Road. So, anything in between in Ward 2, it's all surface crossings. If you have trains that are stopped for whatever reason, um that to me becomes a safety concern. So, I support uh this. I would certainly like to see that uh this remains a priority with the region and that it uh you know doesn't fall further down the the chain due to some of the impacts that the region has to deal with. So, those are my comments. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. I got a a few different things to say about this. Um first of all, I mean this is something like I agree with uh regional counselor Paulo that you know we we would have done this a long time ago had we been able to do this a long time ago because frankly this is this uh bridge has been needed for a very long time. Um when I was on uh ward counselor, you know, we approved the Bernard KDA and one of the caveats that I got put into that motion was we need to look at um the traffic flow around that area to make sure that it's functioning properly as the area gets built out. And I would argue, and I argue then, I'll argue now, as bad as it's getting, it's going to get a lot worse if the Bernard area uh KDA area started to build out in a big way, which it it's been slow to happen. But when that starts to happen, that bridge infrastructure is not just going to be a nice to have, it's going to be an absolute imperative. And I I believe that then, I believe that now. And I think it is up to the three of us on regional council to make sure that that uh concept is always on the forefront of the the staff at the region's mind. Um I do agree with councelor Thompson that you know I do understand as a regional counselor the the significantly heightened concerns that the region now has because of the serious reduction in DCs that have been collected due to government provincial government changes in regulation and with the provin what the uh because of that we have less DCs and because we have less DCs it's less money to build major projects like this and this will be you In fairness, it will be an expensive project. The the challenge that I'm seeing is that um you know there will be a real push in the next little while at the region with regard to the diminished amount of DCs that we have to fund growth related projects. And the definition of that that's most understood is is uh infrastructure that it directly deals with the ability to build houses. So that's like water, wastewater, and and I get that. That's fine. I mean, there's lots of parts of the region where um they can't build out if they don't have that type of infrastructure in the ground. But I think what needs to be better understand better understood in the next little while is that this particular piece of infrastructure is growth related infrastructure. We can't be doing growth in a city like Richmond Hill and taking on the number of uh buildings and and new residents that we're supposed to be taking on and not having the transportation system to match. It's imperative. It's it's very inconvenient right now and it's frustrating for all of us. And I swear every single time I come up to that level crossing and a train goes by, the length of the train is commensurate with how much of a hurry I'm in. and the the more of a hurry, the longer the train. And if you're really in a hurry, another one comes the other way at the same time. So, it is very very frustrating and we need to get this on the radar. The good news though and and it it is listed in um the motion. Uh we are moving forward on it. There have been a number of frustrating um points of friction as that project has moved forward. CN uh insisted on having no um pillars within their rightway, which means, you know, the engineers had to do some really, you know, creative engineering to make sure that the the slope came down on the east end and met uh Newkerk Road. So, we didn't have a situation like we have at 16th Avenue uh with the overpass there. It it's much better infrastructure if we can do that. Um so, that happened. there's been, you know, that whole area is a bit of a floodprone area and we've identified that. So, we need to make sure that the the by building a bridge there, we're not building a dam, you know, in in the time of a big flood and and we've taken care of that. So it is now in detailed design and you know we certainly will make sure that that gets uh built it we continue moving the ball as it's moved and get that thing built within the next uh few years because it absolutely is necessary for our community and um you know while I wish it was built yesterday um we really need it to be built in the very near future um and particularly as we continue to grow uh it's going to become very very important. So uh those would be that would be my rant for the day and uh so we have a motion before us all. >> Sure. >> Thank you very much and I'm glad to hear the mayor my regional colleague and also local counselor and I just share with my just most recent just last Saturday's personal experience. So uh obviously it uh affirm that the need their need is now. Uh but just to be very clear because I don't want anyone to be misled. Um I have um had a numerous conversation with the commissioner of the art region. Um the earliest time the and they call ambitious for completion of or construction is to begin in 2028. So that's the uh the latest information. I just want to ensure that's on the record. Thank you. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh we have a motion then before us. All those in favor, all those opposed. That is understandably unanimous. Uh okay. So this is that's it. I our our time together is coming to a close. Who wants to move a motion? Oh yeah, we have to do All right, that's fine. That's fine. Let's do that. Let's do uh let's have a motion to Which bylaws are we talking about? Oh yeah, look at that. On the other side of the sheet, there's a whole bunch of bylaws. Okay. Local council deputy mayor Chan, uh, Councelor Thompson, all those in favor opposed. That carries. And now we need a motion to a confirmatory bylaw. Who wants to do that one? Okay. Councelor Davidson, regional local councelor Depalo. All those in favor. And now finally, the fund bylaw, which is the motion to adjourn. Oh, not a bylaw. It's just a motion really. I I got so excited there. Motion to adjurnn. Councelor Shu, Councelor Tree. All those in favor opposed.