Community Services Committee Meeting - May 26, 2026

The Community Services Committee on May 26, 2026 heard end-of-term presentations from the Grimsby Green Advisory Committee and the Age Friendly Advisory Committee, discussed tree canopy, climate resilience and stormwater planning, reviewed youth and community programming updates, and approved several event road-use items.

Topics Discussed

1. Green advisory committee end-of-term report

George Bodner presented the Grimsby Green Advisory Committee's end-of-term report, focusing on tree protection, sustainability and natural asset planning. He said, "Bob, who is here today, is our primary tree champion, pushing for more robust a more robust tree protection bylaw. An increased tree planting to offset the ashevalt desert of the new Peach King Center parking lot."

Bodner argued Grimsby is behind neighbouring municipalities on environmental planning. He said, "So other municipalities and I would say unanimously I believe have already done a lot of the natural asset stewardship tasks like taking the inventory and having some kind of climate action plan... by every single metric Grimby is behind all of Niagara municipalities."

Jennifer Korstanje also challenged efforts to assign a dollar value to natural assets, saying, "When you want to think about the value of a natural asset, ask yourself what is your monetary value? The value of a human being. you'll quickly grasp the futility of these lines of inquiry."

2. Climate planning, tree canopy and flooding

Tree canopy and stormwater capacity were recurring issues throughout the discussion. Annette said, "In order to meet the accepted canopy coverage, which is 30%, that is ideal for health, social well-being, etc., we would need about a million trees and approximately 3,000 acres of land."

Bodner tied tree planting directly to heat mitigation, saying, "The more green we can get in the better because we have to reflect more sunlight back into space. That's the key goal."

Councillor Nick DiFlavio said the town needs stronger long-term planning for climate impacts: "We need more robust planning because eventually we are getting more rain. We are getting more winds. This will affect the residents of this town."

Councillor Reg Freake said current development standards are still based on required stormwater rules for major storms, even as extreme weather appears more frequent. He said, "I agree with what you're saying about the fact that we're seeing those five-year storms and 50-year storms and 100-year storms every two or three years every 5 years now rather than every hundred years. But the planning is based on what we're required to do."

3. Age Friendly Advisory Committee report

The Age Friendly Advisory Committee presented its end-of-term report on programs and recognition for older adults. Leanne Wallace said, "Grimby is one of 12 municipalities in the Niagara region to join the global age friendly movement and we are an active participant in the region's Niagara Older Adult Alliance."

The committee recommended stronger public communication about the initiative. Its presentation said, "We recommend enhancing public awareness of actually what is age friendly through branding and updating the town's website, social media platforms to showcase the work of the committee and all its volunteers."

Lianne Vardy said volunteer capacity remains limited after the committee's dissolution: "So, we had to push the social social prescribing into the this next year. And because age friendly has ended as a committee has dissolved, we've passed the baton over to the 55 plus group, but there's just a handful of volunteers that can run programs."

The committee also reported growth in participation among older residents. A speaker referencing seniors advisory committee information said, "The membership has doubled since January... we believe that most of the new members are in the 55 plus range."

4. Youth programming and community centre updates

Staff outlined a pilot youth room program at the Major Refrigeration Peach King Center for ages 12 to 18. Trevor said, "youth are definitely one of our more underserved groups in our community and definitely have a really hard time finding opportunities that they can engage within a way that they want to and on their terms."

Sarah said the program is being treated as a pilot and will be evaluated: "I think as Trevor said what we're hearing is we're we're responding to a bit of an an over demand for it... we are treating it as a pilot not ongoing and certainly we'll gather feedback from the outcome of that."

Vardy suggested adding sports options to draw more teens into the space, saying volleyball and basketball could help connect the gym and youth room.

5. Museum, events and community services updates

Committee members reviewed community services updates including museum work, seasonal events and road-use requests. Sarah noted shoreline impacts in a broader discussion of parks and infrastructure, saying, "I did throw a photo in there of Casablanca Waterfront Park. Uh high lake water levels have had some impacts on our beaches uh quite significantly."

On event operations, Sarah said staff notify police in advance of road-use events: "We do um send the police all of the route information ahead of time as well. So at least from a proactive nature, they also are aware of when those events do occur."

The committee approved road-use related items for the Peach Bud Race, Niagara Triathlon, Women's Triathlon, Remembrance Day procession and Santa Claus Parade.

Motions

• Community Services Department Information Update (File DCS 26-28) — received for information
• Road use permits for upcoming events (File DCS 26-25) — approved for the Peach Bud Race on June 30, Niagara Triathlon on July 18, and Women's Triathlon on August 8
• Remembrance Day road closure (File DCS 26-23) — approved, to be forwarded to Niagara Region for final approval
• Santa Claus Parade road closures (File DCS 26-22) — approved

Attendees

• Mayor Jeff Jordan
• Councillor Nick DiFlavio
• Councillor Reg Freake
• Councillor Jennifer Korstanje
• Councillor Lianne Vardy
• Leanne Wallace
• George Bodner
• Trevor
• Sarah