Transcript: Council Approves Service Strategy - Council Meeting - April 13, 2026 | Summary 737

Good evening. I'd like to call to order um council meeting of uh Monday, April 13th, 2026. Everyone that can please rise for the playing of the national anthem. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat up here. Grimby is situated on treaty land. This land is steeped in the rich history of the first nations such as the Hadawender, the Hodnosoni and the Inishab including the Missosagas of the Credit First Nation. There are many First Nations, Matei and Inuit people from across Turtle Island that live and work in Niagara today. The regional municipality of Niagara and the town of Kinsby stand with all indigenous people past and present in promoting the wise stewardship of the lands on which we live. Are there any disclosures of Q&A or noninary interest? Councelor DeFlavio uh through you mayor. I did declare one at community services so I probably should declare the same conflict this evening. Uh, I submitted the paperwork last week, but just want to make sure. All right. Thank you. Yeah. And I also have a pecunary interest to declare from the BIA meeting uh last week as well. Uh, I would like to amend the order of the agenda to consider report TC26-09 immediately following the delegation from experienced adviserss. Can I have a mover and secondary to approve the agenda as amended? Moved by councelor DeFlavio, second by councelor Frank, resolved that the agenda for the April 13th, 2020 council meeting be approved as amended. All in favor? And that's carried. All right. Up next, uh, we will have the delegation. Tori, thanks. So, I'm pleased to introduce tonight Joshin uh from Experience Advisors. Uh ADI Experience Advisors or XA has been on this project since uh June 2025. Some of you may recall Matt from the council workshops and he's moved on to a different professional opportunity. So, we've been working with Josh um since uh January and of course uh Will as well has been on uh on our file since the beginning. So, uh, since the kickoff, there's been extensive collaboration and consultation with staff, with council, and the community. And, uh, we're excited to bring forward a strategy and implementation plan that's practical, measurable, and designed to improve, uh, organizational efficiencies while also supporting the town's long-term objectives. Uh and uh just before Josh starts his presentation, I just want to remind council the recommendations before you tonight are uh to endorse the plan in principle uh the strategy and the implementation plan to direct staff to proceed with implementation of phase one of the strategy and to include phase two for 2027 budget considerations. And you'll see that there are three phases to this strategy and staff are recommending that phase three be put forward um in the future. once better data and implementation experience are available. So with that, I'll turn it over to Josh to walk us through the presentation and the final customer service strategy. Good evening everyone. Um, thank you Victoria. My name is Josh. I'm here on behalf of experience adviserss and uh thank you for the opportunity to share our presentation on the strategic recommendations for the customer service strategy. Um before I head into the sorry I'm just logging in. Before I head into the report I just wanted to take the opportunity to um acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of the Ginsby staff. uh the leadership and the council. Thank you for your time and feedback. It's been extremely helpful as we've been progressing through in the past many months. And um one of the key call outs as you would have seen in the report is the u extreme professionalism of the GrimC staff and uh on behalf of experienced advisors we can vouch for that. Um in terms of the agenda for this evening, if you can move to the next slide. Um I'd like to take you through the executive summary, go through at a high level of what we um in terms of the current state where we are today and what we're doing and based on the data and our insights and findings uh take you through what our recommendations are and how we propose you can phase them through and then finally um next steps. All right. In terms of the executive summary, um, since the beginning of the engagement, we've been taking into consideration the strategic pillars that the council had put forward earlier. Now, as we see the numbers in terms of population, we know that the town is increasing in size and so with its increase in size, so are the expectations of the residents increasing in terms of what they expect from these services. Uh what we see from our findings is that they are expecting better and clearer service pathways, better digital access, uh timely updates and stronger followthrough. Uh it is important to once again note that the residents have indicated that the staff have been extremely helpful and professional. So the problem is not with service culture, it is with the service model in and of itself. Uh what's been happening is we've seen the data suggests is that the current model has evolved over time into a more decentralized model where now departments are functioning more so in silos and so that is the impact that we're seeing in the society itself. Now the risk with continuing in this fashion is that this is going to result in resident frustration from a staff and leadership point of view. It's going to result in limited visibility into what the actual demand and performance is. So in light of all this, what experience advisors are recommending is that we implement a practical realistic three-phased approach. Uh phase one would be strengthening the current operating model. Uh phase two would be targeting very specific technology investments and then finally uh moving forward with business cases based on the data that we've been collecting and then come back to the council with um better recommendations on how to move forward um in terms of the current state. Now this is where we've actually built out our evidence. So as Victoria mentioned, we've been meeting with staff, talking with residents and then speaking with council members as well. And what we've u gained as per insights um is that once again professionalism has been voted topnotch. Um but where the problem starts to arise is when there is more than one step involved in any c in any resident interaction. So anything that requires a follow-through, anything that requires interdep departmental coordination, that's where the uh confusion and the problems arise and that is obviously owing to the decentralized nature of our current model. Uh what we've also realized is that the town relies heavily unfortunately on a lot of manual processes uh shared inboxes which again results in delays in getting back to residents. Um we've gotten to this point by uh conducting a lot of working sessions with the staff. We conducted an in-person and online survey which lasted more than two weeks. We collected close to 170 responses uh to which I can explain in further detail and these are the insights that we have gained from all these interactions. Um just to double click into our staff and leadership and council conversations. Uh really what came out from the staff conversations was that as of today uh the staff they're balancing more than one obviously responsibility they're managing front counter phones emails and so there is a lot of gymnastics happening within their responsibilities from a leadership point of view. uh they have indicated that there is a clear need for a corporate standard or service standard framework to be implemented because right now as I mentioned every department is following their own respective standards. Um and then finally visibility into performance and data. Uh and this translates into what the council is seeking for as well into a more corporate view of what exactly demand and performance looks like uh in terms of the services. Um from a resident point of view, um what the resident survey really told us was that we got a four on five overall satisfaction. The caveat to that four on five is that most of those ratings were based on in-person ratings. So as long as the resident found someone in person to speak with, everything was fine. But the moment they reached out via email, phones or other channels, that's where the process faced a little bit more of a challenge. As you can see on screen, only 57% of residents were clearly informed of next steps. only 59% of them had their issues resolved. Uh there's another stat um that you will find in our more detailed document is that only 35 35% wants more selfservice tools available. So the clear takeaway from the survey is that they uh the residents require four things. better self-service tools, clearer communication from the staff, stronger coordination between the staff and then obviously faster responses. Um based on where we are today in terms of the current state, these are the three phases that we are recommending in terms of um a future state for customer service or resident service strategy. Phase number one is strengthening the current operating model. And again, this is taking into consideration budgets and current staff capacities. And we are not recommending uh extensive um investments. What we are speaking about in phase one is establishing a corporate service framework across all the departments, improving our service pathways across the channels that we have be it the website, phone or emails, uh strengthening our staff tools and then finally improving consistency uh whenever we have handoff situations. Phase number two is where we have recommended two specific investments. Uh investment number one being an online tax um and utility billing tool. Uh and then um item number two is to really assess the front front counter uh redesign at the town hall. Phase three is where we move towards a more structured customer service structure be it in terms of um organizational restructure or even um IT investments but this is the phase where we bring in the data that we've collected over phases one and two and come in with stronger business cases for the council for approval. Um I just wanted to bring to your attention some of the things that we've called out for phase one. So we've called out six uh sorry six recommendations um in phase one. So recommendation number one is as I mentioned establishing a corporate service framework. This is where we call out what can standard responses be across different departments. Obviously there might be um unique cases that we have to take into consideration but what can the town of Grimby do overall as a corporate structure uh strengthening our service tracking. So right now we are using access 11 E1 as the common intake layer for many of our departments. What we are recommending is that rather than investing in a new tool altogether is that we use the existing one that we have and slowly expand that across the rest of the departments. Obviously considering any u implementation of integration requirements. Recommendation three is really the website. Um what we have noticed is that the website has a lot of the information that residents are looking for but it's not um serviceoriented. It's a lot of information pasted onto the pages. So we would like it to be more easier for the residents to navigate through. Um sorry to the next slide. Recommendation four is actually to strengthen how we approach the different channels. So how we uh monitor phone calls, logs, how we um look at email responses. Uh recommendation five is how we start using shared knowledge tools. So this is what we talk about having shared scripts that each department can have. So if someone calls mistakenly um every department knows what the routing is and what are some common answers that they can provide to those questions. And then finally once all these initiatives have been approved and are in place is to really strengthen the training for the staff uh considering all these initiatives in terms of as I mentioned the targeted investments. This is in response to what we have heard from and seen in terms of from the staff perspective and also more importantly from the residents point of view. As I mentioned close to 40% uh want better selfserved tools, better digital access. Uh many of them commented on having a finance tool uh to easier see their dues and notices. So what we are recommending is implementing an online tax and utility tool and also considering uh a restructure for the town hall town hall front counter. Uh and again this is based on navigation challenges that we've heard from residents. uh and we believe these two targeted investments would uh immediately bring in uh better satisfactory responses from the residents and again to Victoria's points these initiatives would be brought forward as a 2027 budget considerations. Um finally for phase three is really looking at assessing a more structured customer service uh staffing model. So right now as you probably already know um each of the departments are handling their own customer service challenges as the number rises in terms of residents. This is going to be stressed more in the coming months and years. So as the data flows in from phase one and two that would provide council and leadership better insight as to whether we need a dedicated staff or even a dedicated team to start addressing resident or customer service um as its own domain and then finally broader digital integration. Now again what we are recommending is to use access 11 as our common intake layer but based on how we progress through that system that system will tell us how much pressure that can handle and if there is a need for a more integrated and wider IT tool that we can leverage going forward. Um in terms of the road map what we have considered is a three-year road map. So phase one would last for the first 6 months. So where we're really strengthening the current model. Uh from months 6 to 18 is where we start to get in uh for the business case and then the actual implementation of the finance tool and the um front counter redesign. 18 month 18 all the way to the end of year three is when we actually start to investigate and confirm if needed those wider phase three initiatives. Um in terms of the governance model, XA has intentionally proposed a light governance model uh for the current time. What we are recommending though is to install a customer service champion network. So each of the departments can nominate a senior staff to be a customer champion for that respective department. those customer champions can meet at a uh periodic cadence that fits well. What we are recommending is bim monthly and someone within that network can be designated as the lead and that staff can be responsible for um cascading some of the information that we can get uh from different departments. Obviously the execution of said initiatives would uh flow through the champion network. Uh the department leads and the IT department. Coordination between uh would be done through the leadership and then finally oversight from leadership and council. Um how do we measure some of these initiatives? Now what we've recommended is only a sample set of key performance metrics. Once we have say for example the framework in place, once we have um access 11 functioning as a more holistic intake forum, then we can actually start to track how fast are we responding to residents? Um how fast are how many calls do residents have to make to actually reach staff. Um so these are some sample KPIs that we are recommending but obviously it would be fine-tuned uh going forward based on what is exactly approved of and put in place in terms of some of the risks and mitigation considerations that we've called out considering the staff capacity today. Um we've called out staff capacity constraints as risk number one. Uh installing a champion network, having all these customer service frameworks installed, there is going to be added responsibilities to a certain extent on current staff. So staff fatigue is something that we've called out on and the mitigation approach is to actually phase out how we implement said initiatives. Um in terms of how fast we move, change fatigue is also called out. Uh some of the other risks that we've called out is actually technology integration challenges. Can access 11 be broadly used across departments because we know as of today certain departments have their own software. So how easy would those integration uh efforts be? And then finally, cross department challenges and rising resident expectations. Um if put into practice and this is our recommendation that all these initiatives are being are put into practice. U there are four questions um that residents inadvertently asked or answered through the survey is if I have a problem or if I have a question where do I go um once I ask the question or once I submit my question what is happening in that process will it get done how fast will it get done and can I actually trust the system right and so the initiatives that we are proposing answer these very important and resident concerns. So with better access, the resident knows where to go. Navigation is easier. With predictable and clearer calms, the resident is aware of what the process is and when it will be done. And then finally, this will uh instill greater confidence in the town. So um to Victoria's point um proposed next step for the council is to endorse the direction of the recommendation report. Uh what we are recommending is that you would approve the implementation of the customer service framework because this is imperative and this is the foundation of any improvement initiatives that we take forward because without a framework we cannot track what the baseline is. Um and then finally to direct staff to implementing phase one and then confirming the advancement on feasibility studies for the implementation of the online tool and the front counter redesign. Uh and obviously with this data to come back to the council with more structured and better business cases for wider and more holistic improvement initiatives. Um, I think I'm at time, but uh that's all I have for for you this evening. Thank you so much. Uh, thank you very much, Juken. Um, uh, council, we will address questions for the consultant and comments about the strategy under the recommendation report. Can I have a mover and secondary to receive the delegation? Moved by councelor Frank, second by councelor DeFlabio. Resolved that the delegation from experienced adviserss be received. All in favor? That's carried. Can I have a mover and second to get the customer service strategy report on the floor for discussion? Moved by councelor Sharwa, second by councelor Costani. All right, questions from council. Councelor DeFlavio. Thank you, mayor. Through you. Um, so I'm trying to understand what this is going to look like when it's implemented. Yeah. So are we talking a ticketing system, you know, where everything becomes a ticket? Uh butcher. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean like a butcher council is to to simplify. Yeah. So it doesn't matter if it's an email, front desk, phone call, a ticket is created. Uh it's given to the appropriate department, followed through to the end. So if a customer calls and says, "I called about this and I'm following up or I emailed about this." Uh uh it was ticket number 4781 and can you tell me what's happening with that or so that's so you're saying yes so that's what it's going to look like. Yes. So right now it's in practice to an extent. We have that on the website. So if you go to the website you've got submit an inquiry. You have that to an extent but what we're not doing right now is we're not actually tracking how we manage these tickets. Like what's the performance rate? How fast are we responding? So what the team is doing right now is they've started the process of the ticketing system. It does not encompass all the departments. I think it encompasses close to 80%. So there's still further departments that this system needs to cover. But yes, to your point, um a holistic ticketing system would help. And and I think it's important for accountability as well because you talked about staff burnout, but honestly I I think it's the opposite because I think people get burned out when inappropriate questions are being asked of everybody instead of the specific person who needs to answer that question. Uh and when it's kind of a a blanket approach rather than a you know going to the to the person that needs to go to. Um so I you know I I appreciate what you're saying. So what can residents expect to see after phase one for example? So phase one what they can expect to see would be um a more easier wait a a a website that's easier to navigate so they know exactly what to do if they have any questions where to submit their claims or their tickets. Once this ticketing system is implemented fully they know what the response time is going to be who's handling it who to call. So it's better accountability, more visibility, um, and then better confidence in in the system in and of itself. Okay. So through you, mayor, uh, has, you know, a a chat bot or anything like that been considered for the for the homepage, for every page. So people are it might take people away from having to make a phone call or having to send an email because it it's answering questions because and sorry to interrupt you but um sometimes you get a better answer from AI than you do from the website because it's kind of it's it makes some assumptions for you and try and figures out what you're trying to get to whereas an oldfashioned search on a website might give you a hundred different answers. Uh, so have we talked about, you know, putting a few thousand dollars into a chatbot that that might answer some of those questions and take away some of those questions? Thank you for the question. It's a fair question. To your point, we haven't discussed AI in particular. So in phase one, we've tried to stay within the constraints of the existing budget. Um, but to your point, what we have recommended is better FAQs. So when you go to the website, you've got your commonly answered questions, better framed. Um, and then to your point, you don't necessarily need to pick up the phone. So, we're trying to take people away from reaching out to staff. And so, if it's an email, it's fine, but we're trying to keep residents as much away from the phone unless they need to call. But to your point, an AI has not been specifically discussed, but it would be in their purview when they actually start to look into a more holistic approach for an IT system. Okay. Through you, mayor. I I think that it could be an approach up front uh that will help to solve some of those down the line problems. So I think it's uh a sharpening the saw situation where if we if we do something up front, it'll keep us from having to do things in the back. So I think it's something that we should really consider. I'm going to give other people I've got lots of questions, but I think I'll just up I'll send I'll send an email to you, Victoria, with with my questions rather than I just we're having this discussion. No, that's a fair point and it's something that we can bring back to the leadership and talk about it if required. No, thank you for that. Uh through the chair, I just want to add a couple more things. So, we did um Philip, director of IT and myself and and Sarah Kim and Sarah Sweeney have met with um St. Catherine's who have their Catherine AI system on their page. Um so we have been exploring those in the back end not not connected to this but it was something we saw across uh some Niger municipalities. The thing to keep in mind with uh platforms like that is it's only as good as the information available. So um on our website we have a lot of PDFs. We have a lot of attachments and the AI is not necessarily pulling from that. We need to do a pretty big website overhaul, which is why that's one of our um items in phase one about clarifying our website, making sure that the information that's in our community guide is getting pulled from um for the AI and is is accessible. So, that was a big uh risk we saw was that our information isn't always up to date. So, the AI isn't always pulling the right things. So, thank you, Mayor. I just I thought it was a way of reducing the volume immediately if we put it on the and then deal with the other issues that we're talking about. So, that was the only reason I brought it up. Councelor Frank, thank you, Mayor Jordan. Uh, thanks for the presentation. I up front I'll say I'm thrilled I'm very encouraged that we are addressing customer service in the town. I mean it's long overdue. Uh so I'm looking forward to seeing the results of it. However, looking I just I'll just pick a few things. There's a lot of information in there and I'm just going to suggest or make an observation of a few things. First of all, I think from my own background and experience that your KPIs, the targets are too low. For example, a 10% increase in, you know, u addressing missed calls is too low. 10% is very little. That is, I mean, that's one. I mean, I I could go into some of the other KPIs here, but that that one stood out for me. Uh I was surprised when you said that the community feedback, there's one thing missing out of there that the community comes to us all the time about, and that's the cost of their taxes. What is this going to do for our cost base? Is it going to help? I'm assuming it will because this should this study, this particular project should flush out some efficiencies. And again, when you have more efficiency, you should have less cost because things more move more efficient. Things aren't done twice, three times, four times, etc., etc. Things get done faster in the community. So, I'm surprised that they didn't note that as a key concern. Um, so was it talked about? I mean, it's it's it's a it's a really important point. Um, no, it wasn't talked about. Um, and to answer your question, we'd love to provide you with what that percentage would look like, but because we don't have a baseline um, and we don't know um, the data enough to come back to you and say these are the efficiencies it would require because right now to be honest the strategy is a little high level to an extent um, and we don't know exactly what efficiency. So we can say efficiencies in team structure. You could reduce overheads by x%. But we don't have that level of detail um to come back to the council and say these are uh some of the efficiencies that the residents can benefit from. And just to answer your point on the 10% I completely understand. The only reason we left it there was because again we don't have a baseline. We don't know if the call rate is really good right now and we just don't see it. Um, and so once the baseline's there, that's why we kept it as sample KPIs. The team can fine-tune it based on what the actual situation is, if if that makes sense. It kind of does, but I'm sure there are case studies out there. I think to Victoria just mentioned St. Catherine's has gone down this road already. So maybe there's some information they have that can give us an idea of where we should have those KPIs, uh, what level they should be at. So I I encourage you and I I to look at that and find because those KPIs are just too low in my mind. Um when I assume that you know with customer service good customer service uh we should find some efficiencies. I mean that's normal in the corporate world where I live and most people around this table have been you find efficiency efficiencies you find cost reductions whether it be in staff time whether it be in material whether whatever the case might be so did you not look at that in some detail because I feel that you know we every time we hire consultants to come in and they tell us we should we're inefficient and they suggest more efficiencies they always end up telling us we got to spend more and that we don't want to do. So, can you address that? I mean, if we're going to find efficiencies, we should be able to find cost reductions. It's just one kind of goes with the other. You're a consultant. You know what I'm talking about. Can you can you talk to that? I I do and I appreciate the sharing the concern about how consultants always want money to be spent. Um, again, it's unfortunate that I don't have um an efficiency breakdown for you. We we regret we don't have that level of insight. But what we've tried to do with this is our recommendation for example phase one does not come with required investments. Uh what we have recommend is something that's practical and realistic for the staff to go ahead with tomorrow. Um and so again we we would love to have baseline data. We would love to have the metrics and then that would give us a more informed insight into what those efficiencies. But off the top of the hat, we could say there would be efficiencies in terms of staff structures. We would see efficiencies in terms of how time is managed across if all these responses are made through. But those would still be hypothetical assumptions that we make at this time. And and to your point as a consultant, it wouldn't be fair that we make it without any data to support. Well, it's it's an important factor in this. Really important because costs are something we're trying to bring down. And with all the money we're spending on consultants and efficiencies, we should be able to find something in there. However hypothetical it might be, there has to be something. Having said that, I'm really thrilled that we're going down this road of customer service. I think there's a lot in there and I think we're in the end we will gain something out of this. But don't forget at the end of the year when budget time comes around I look to my right over here. Uh we're going to be looking for places we don't where we can save money not spend money. So um but anyway this is great. There's a great report. I mean there's some some great ideas in here and um I look forward to seeing it in place. Thank you. Councelor Corani. Thank you through chair. Um so just a couple quick questions. Um I understand when somebody we're going to track we have measurable objectives when people uh report an issue through the website. Do we have something similar that's going to be in place for when people come in person? Because if most of the feedback is better service in person then I would imagine more people would be coming in person. Yeah. So that's a good question. Our recommendation for in-person interactions is that if there is a process that requires more than one step or multi-coordination between the departments, the staff is recommended to log that in into access 11. Um, if it's a simple interaction, you don't need to do it because it's additional work. But if it's something that requires a multi-step process, document it into access 11, then we can track it. Okay. Thank you. Um, I think actually it might be beneficial to track uh one step as well just to see the volume that the front desk is doing and how some things could be more efficient and only be one step. Um, but I do realize that would be more work for that front person. Uh, my other question is, is there going to be like a marketing communication strategy? Because um, if we're going to improve the reporting process, we need people to know that. I'm concerned that we had only 167 resident surveys. Um, which means a lot of people a lot of people and I know struggle using the reported issue and sometimes a lot of people will uh come to a counselor first or or use other steps and that's creating more steps as well. So, um having a way to track that, but also getting a marketing communication out that hey, we're improving the website and um then my second question will be um follow up for resident feedback on how it's working. Um thank you. We've we've called out marketing um comms as a highlevel strategy. So based on what is actually going to be implemented to let people know that this is something that's implemented, you can go here. this is what the steps would be like. So we've indicated that in our more detailed report. Um sorry, can you ask a second question again? What um in terms of followth through? Yes. So just if we have residents that are using the system now um how do we measure the improvement that they feel has happened or has not happened? That's a good question. Uh one of the metrics that we laid out on the slide was how many people will start using the selfserve tools. how many people are now going through non-inperson channels and that would be a good indication of how people are actually doing things themselves rather than going in person and asking a question. Councelor Sher through May through you mayor Jordan. Thank you. Um so councelor Candi and I share awards so she actually hit a lot of the same questions and comments. Um the I and I I I'm think this is wonderful that you're doing this. Um and I although we don't have specific numbers, I I do see this being a financial benefit with the efficiency. So I'm happy to see this through. Um I would I would like to see an improvement. Same thing with the report and issue. So whether that's rejigging the website um for councelor Christi and I, I would say a lot of times we're the first point of contact. Um, and we want residents to know, you know, this is where you go and and normally when they do say they have an issue, then we guide them through that to where to find report a link, uh, report an issue, we link it. But there needs to be something more clear on the website for people to know this is where it's going to go. Um, have a resolution and then a follow-up was was this um, issue resolved kind of thing. But uh I definitely would like to see staff being the first point of contact rather than you know it just creates frustration for everybody. And to be honest that was some feedback that we received during our staff interactions and council interactions as well of how residents might feel it's more productive to go through the council uh at some point if they need a resolution. Um and yes that's the whole point of the website and the channels being strengthened. We've also recommended that staff use use access 11 or you know go to this site as submit an inquiry as part of their signature. So we enforce this idea of go to this one place you will find a place where you can enter your complaints tickets and that reference number can be used by councilman going forward as well to see the progress of that one particular request. Great. Thank you. Uh any further questions? Seeing none, moved by councelor Charwa, second by councelor Gorst Stani, resolved that report TC26-09, customer service strategy and implementation plan implementation plan dated April 13, 2026 be received in one that council endorsed in principle the customer service strategy and implementation plan. And two, that council direct staff to proceed with the implementation of phase one of the strategy. and three that council directs staff to include phase two recommendations in the 2027 budget for consideration. All in favor? That's carried. Thank you very much for uh your presentation tonight. Joken, have a good evening. Thank you for your feedback. Have a great evening. Up next, we have chairs reports. Councelor Shawwak, can you please give your chair's report? Thank you, Mayor Jordan. I am pleased to provide council with a report on the community services committee meeting held on March 24th, 2026. The key item on the agenda was a delegation from Matthew Dawson of Studio Dawson regarding the cultural services strategic plans phases one and two, followed by consideration of report DCS 2611. This project will establish updated 5-year strategic plans for both the Grimby Museum and the Grimby Public Art Gallery while also considering the broader cultural landscape in our community. The presentation summarized the first two phases of work, including background research and community engagement through a public survey and a series of workshops with residents, stakeholders, and staff. Overall, the findings highlighted strong community pride in both institutions, but also identified the need to broaden reach, particularly to a new and younger audiences. There was also an emphasis on partnerships, improving accessibility, and increasing attendance while maintaining community value. The work will also result in a cultural a strategic considerations document to identify broader gaps and opportunities across Grimby's cultural sector. Committee members provided a number of comments following the presentation. Councelor How commented uh commended the consultant on delivering a clear and easy to understand presentation. Councelor DeFlavio noted considerations around how we support volunteer recruitment for the art gallery and museum. He also asked about measurable targets including whether success will be defined through increased revenue and retentance and noted it may not be realistic to rely heavily on revenue generation from these institutions. He also uh emphasized the importance of setting realistic measurable goals and the consultant confirmed that the goal setting will be addressed in the next phase. I also raised the importance of better connecting residents in Grim on the lake area to these cultural assets and encourage consideration of ways to introduce and engage uh that growing part of the community. The committee received both a delegation and report DCS 2611 for information. The next phase of this work will include the development of draft strategic priorities and recommendations. The committee also received an annual green initiatives report which outlined ongoing efforts to support environmental sustainability including enhancements to green spaces, tree planting, and continued integration of environmentally responsible practices across operations. I ask that this be forwarded to our community um through our town communications through the community services department information update. The committee was provided with several updates on current initiatives. This included a grant received to support um a fragmitees removal and management plan using Lakeong Park as a pilot site for invasive species control. An update was also provided on the upcoming request for proposals for concession services at the major refrigeration Peach King Center, which will aim to engage local vendors. The committee heard that the uh tennis club project, the tennis clubhouse project is moving into the construction phase with installation of the new building expected shortly followed by demolition of the existing structure. An update was also provided on fencing improvements at the major refrigeration Peach King Center where work will proceed following consultation with neighboring residents. Staff also highlighted the launch of the spring and summer leisure guide and upcoming registration dates along with an expanded range of programming. This includes new fitness classes, youth STEM programming, additional 55 plus activities, and upcoming leadership and certification opportunities. Finally, the committee was advised of strong community participation in recent initiatives including the active living fair and was provided with preview uh with a preview of upcoming events such as community safety day in May. In addition, the committee received the March museum information report and a re review of community special events for 25 and 26. Uh the committee also consider report DCS 2615 regarding the 2026 community services rates and fees under schedule M. And for transparency, as councelor DeFlavio noted, he declared a conflict of interest with respect to the item um due to his involvement with Grizzly Grimby Grizzly Basketball Association and recused himself from discussion and voting on the matter. Um that is all. Our next community services committee meeting is scheduled for April 28th, 2026. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Shara. Um councelor DeFlavio, can you give Thank you, Mayor. uh public works committee meeting met on March 25th and received the 2025 the the major item was a 2025 drinking water quality management system infrastructure review report. Overall, the town continues to meet provincial drinking water standards with strong performance across most service and operational indicators. That said, there was a discussion uh around unaccounted for water loss which remains above target. It's always a concern because as we know, water treatment and water delivery is very expensive. Uh staff outlined ongoing efforts including leak detection, water main replacement, and a more proactive systemwide approach to reduce that even more. Committee also reviewed long-term infrastructure planning, including the replacement of approximately 10 km of remaining cast iron water man over the next 10 years. As you know, those who've been paying attention, we've been replacing the cast iron water manes for uh almost two decades now. There were several kilometers uh throughout the town, and we continue to, for lack of a better word, hack away at this year to year. Uh in terms of operations, members asked for uh additional mapping of cast iron infrastructure and discussed water meter life cycle management with replacement programs continuing on regular cycle because uh the water meters deteriorate, they stop working properly. They need to be replaced. So they do get replaced occasionally. Under other business, staff provided an update on some major projects. You might have seen there was an email sent out. was on our social media that the downtown reimagined project has been tendered with construction anticipated to start in June. Hopefully, fingers crossed, that will continue and we'll get that project started by the end of June. Uh there was also discussion about Casablanca Boulevard in the GO station area, including the need for things like pedestrian connections and uh infrastructure improvements in that entire area to meet the needs of the future users of any GO station that goes in there. Um, finally, we reviewed traffic calming measures on Kit Avenue. That's uh where Central French Immersion School is now, including school uh zone signage and speed limit considerations. Uh, I want to thank staff and the committee for their responsiveness to the committee's questions. Um, and I'll do my best to answer any questions if people have them. Thanks, Mayor. Thank you, Councelor DeFlavio. Um, Councelor Dvoli, can you please give your chair report? Thank you. My chair's report covers the finance meeting of March 26th. So, after we get through the standard uh approval of previous minutes, including GDAX, there were four primary uh reports that were brought to the committee. The first one had was a summary of our 2025 tax write-offs. And um we just to clarify, we do not make judgmental decisions about them. Um there are processes in place as to when we can actually amend taxes and actually write them off. And so you'll see within the report that came to finance if a property is damaged by fire for example or if it's demolished um then there can be an application made to adjust the property taxes. So in 2025 the total taxes and you and I do ask you to remember that as a lower tier municipality we collect taxes on behalf and and then remit also to the region uh we collect for wastewater for education and so on. So the total write offs were 28,000 um of which the town share is about 6,700. Uh so very very minimal but it is a required report that must come to the finance committee every year. The second report is our tax arars update and my favorite name for this one is always that I call it the canary in the coal mine. Um but the report that you see in front of you um is always an update for us as to how well we are collecting our taxes receivable and our finance department also gave us a comparison as to how well we're doing compared to other municipalities. And so our taxes receivable continue to be in what we call the low range. Um, basically our rears are currently for 2025 some 5.4% of the of the levy. Um, but we are within the I'll say it sounds bad to say it, but maybe I'll word it another way. We're we're within the top three municipalities in terms of having very low outstanding taxes. Um, and you'll see the chart on page two of that report. and we continue to do very well in terms of um collecting. So, thanks to all the rateayers who faithfully pay their property taxes all the time. The third report is probably more of interest to um all of my fellow counselors, but that's the required statement that has to be produced by finance on the statement of remuneration and expenses for members of council and for our boards. And so I will let you read that at your leisure. And um and then the last report that was considered was the finance department's 2025 year in review. And this report goes on for some eight pages. Um our finance department and our finance committee have been very very busy. And I think we didn't really realize until we sat down and started sort of, you know, listing all the things that we'd been able to accomplish in this last year. Um, and I'll just mention a couple of them. Uh, so to start with, our budget cycle was advanced by a number of months. So we actually did our budgeting in the fall and had it approved before Christmas, which is something that we have never done before. So, um I think our staff probably felt like they just finished doing budgeting and then in the very same calendar year, we're working on the next year's one as well. Um we are working on modernizing our water and wastewater billing and I know there's been a lot of consternation um as the new bills have been coming out. We've now gone to a bimonthly billing as opposed to a billing every four months. Um but all the bills have gone out that cover up to December 31st and now the new bills are coming out for January and February for example. They came out in March and um are due in April and so that has been a major project and as you heard from the customer service one we still have some other steps to take along this regard namely to even making this more uh digital so that our residents can be able to access this online. Certainly when it comes to water and wastewater billing, that has always been in the plans. But um first we needed to update 2,000 aging water meters and that was done last year and get the software in place and migrate from the old system over to the new system. In 2025, we also appointed new auditors and so they now have one year under their belts and are working on the next second year with us. Um we did a user fee review, we updated payroll processes. Um, and you'll recall that we had a number of postal disruptions, too. Um, and so that's only taken us to page three of the report. I do encourage all of you to uh keep reading the report after that as there are a number of things within it. And that actually covers the finance committee report. Thank you. Great. Thank you, councelor Dvoli. Um, councelor Bradzy, can you please give your vice chair's report for planning? Yeah, Mayor Jordan, through you. Um, pleased to step in for you on for the April 8th planning committee meeting where we received the minutes from the February 4th meeting as well as the Grimsby Heritage Advisory Committee meeting of March 10th. Uh, we saw some comments from Ontario's archaeology program. Um the town made some comments in the arrow submission in response to some amendments made by the province. Um we have received the 2025 building division accomplishments as well as the 2025 planning and development services annual report which highlighted all the major work that's been completed and currently ongoing in the department. Uh the committee was uh unanimously extremely happy to see the building division has completed the implementation of cloud permit for building permit applications uh which will surely streamline our permitting process as well as all the improvements made to the town website to include a streamlined uh user interface integration with cloud permit. Uh it's a tremendous job and it'll surely improve our response time to applications. As well as staff uh are also currently working on a building bylaw modernization to ensure consistency with the building code act town to town in collaboration with with other local municipalities uh which is projected to be before council here sometime in Q2 2026. Uh as well as the uh ongoing fee study. Uh the committee also received a revised draft official plan which had a numerous amount of changes which are all redlined and highlighted for your review. Thank you mayor. Thank you very much for your report. Um can I have a mover and seconder to approve the previous minutes? Councelor Vardy moved by councelor Vardy. Second by councelor Corani resolve that the following minutes be approved. Council, March 23rd, 2026. Community Services Committee March 24th, 2026. Public Works Committee March 25th, 2026. Finance Committee, March 26, 2026. And Planning and Development Committee, April 8th, 2026. All in favor? And that's carried. Can I have a mover and second for the council endorsement package? Moved by councelor Vardy, second by councelor Dvoli. Resolve the council endorsement packages to be approved. Ginsby Heritage Advisory Committee March 10th, 2026. Ginsby Downtown BIA March 11th, 2026. Question. Oh, Councelor Devoli, you have a question? Yes. I'm not sure whether it's in this section or the next section, but I did just want to highlight something within the Grimby Downtown Business Improvement Association minutes that that when we are approving this, we are actually approving a special request from them. And so I I take your guidance as to where we should talk about that through the chair. So we are in the council endorsement package which is specific to the levy amendment. So that now is the time to talk about if that's what I'm assuming that's what you're talking about. Yes, now is the time to talk about that. All right, so go ahead. Thank you. Um, and Mayor Jordan, both you and I sit on this particular board. So, um really just um to for in case anyone has not really read these minutes in detail is to highlight um that the downtown business improvement area board is asking that their budget be amended for 2026 um to include an additional item in there and that um increases their levy and and I would like to echo for them on a one time basis um to increase their levy for 2026 in the amount of $22,515 and and change um to cover the costs associated with the integrity commissioner file in the billings related to that. All right, seeing no further questions or comments. Resolved at the following or moved by councelor Vardy, second by councelor Dvoli. result of the following council endorsement package to be approved. Ginsby Heritage Advisory Committee March 10th, 2026. Ginsby Downtown BIA March 11th, 2026. All in favor? That's carried. Can I have a mover and second to receive the board minutes? Moved by Councelor Frank, second by councelor Vardy. Resolved that the following board minutes be received. Ginsby Heritage Advisory Committee, March 10th, 2026. Ginsby Downtown BIA March 11th, 2026. All in favor? That's carried. Are there any announcements for this evening? Councelor Vardy. Uh, thank you very much. Um, I would just like to let everybody know uh the Harmony Jewelers Shine On campaign which was raising money for uh the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital and uh McNal House. Um they had their second auction and they raised in the second auction $37,000. It it just uh finished last night. So between auction one and auction two, uh they have raised $613,000. So I think that's really quite um an accomplishment. And I'd like to let people know that there are still some tickets available for this Thursday night's suare, which uh is being held at a winery, I think Megalomaniac. Um it's a black Thai event. It's going to be great. There's going to be prizes and silent auctions and uh it should really be a wonderful evening. There are still a few tickets left. They're $250 and uh uh that money raised uh again will go to the uh the shine on campaign. So, I would just like to uh congratulate Harmony Jewelers on this amazing campaign and all they've all the money that they've raised for the uh town of Ginsby. So, thank you uh Kevin. I'm not going to attempt your last name. Uh but I think we all know who you are. Uh so, thank you very much, Kevin. Good luck. Councelor Shaw and through Mayor Jordan. Thank you. Uh last week I had the pleasure of attending a very informative and well uh attended talk at the Grimsby Public Library on our spring hawk migration and local wetlands. Each spring Grimby particularly the Beamer area becomes something truly special and our unique location along the Niagara escarment creates a a vital migration corridor giving residents a front row seat to thousands of hawks passing through the region. The presentation offered a fascinating look at the species you can spot and highlighted the importance of protecting and appreciating our natural spaces in especially as the wetlands um come alive again after winter. I'd like to extend a sincere thank you to Bruce McKenzie uh for sharing his knowledge and passion and to the Grimsby Rotary Club along with Azam FOD for hosting such an engaging uh evening as part of their speaker series. Um and it was also uh very nice that uh Dr. Andy Lamb had donated the uh very comfortable lounge seating for all of us in the library and it certainly made for a very comfortable and enjoyable experience. So uh thanks for that donation because it is being uh very much appreciated by the community. Uh the second event I'd like to highlight is an upcoming community event, the annual ways goose book arts fair at the Grimby Public Art Gallery taking place on Saturday, April 25th from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This free event has a rich history dating back to 1979 and has grown into one of the longest running and most respected book arts fairs in Canada, drawing visitors from across Ontario, Quebec, and the northeastern United States. Attendees can enjoy live demonstrations from skilled artisans showcasing traditional techniques like letter press printing, book binding, paper making, and calligraphy. There are also opportunities to purchase uh unique handmade works directly from artisans uh from artists and to engage with them to learn more about their craft. A highlight of the event is the annual ways goose anthology, a limited uh edition handbound collection of original works and serves as both a keepsake and a way to support the event. Ways Goose continues to be a vibrant celebration of creativity, craftsmanship, and community connecting generations through the enduring art of the handmade book. I encourage residents to come out and support this wonderful event. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Shaw. Um, seeing no further announcements, can I have a mover and second to get the Niagara governance review public feedback memo on the floor? Moved by councelor Dvoli, second by councelor Kstani. Uh questions from council. Are there any? Councelor Costi. Thank you through chair. Uh not really a question, just some comments. I'm really happy to see this and I'm really happy that so many people participated in this. Usually when we have uh public information or surveys or stuff, we don't get such a great response. I think uh this data is fantastic um right down to the way that you've presented it to us. So, thank you for that with the grass and all the comments. Um it's it's really nice to hear real feedback from residents. So, um I hope we can continue. I know this was a bigger topic, but this is the kind of feedback I'd like to see on a lot of different things if if maybe we can, you know, take what was successful from this and use it in the future for for other things going on in the town. So, Just just wanting to add to that. Uh yes, it's I'm really glad that we were able to get such um feedback from our residents because because of the way this rolled out, it was very difficult for us to to to be able to fit this feedback in. Um, and let's face it, the we're at as a municipality, we're at the provincial government's whim. Uh, they can um come down at any time and and change the way um we uh operate both at uh the municipal level and the regional level. And unfortunately, it's slightly frustrating because uh they have um several mixed messages. So you hear one thing one day, a different thing in it next day. and we're trying to do our due diligence here in Niagara, but unfortunately getting um uh mixed messages from the province has been uh really a difficult road and and we were really happy that myself and seven other mayors could could meet together and uh with our CIOS and come to a consensus that that moves Niagara forward, but without um with looking at the municipalities and the smaller municipalities and keeping us uh keeping us relevant and keeping uh everything that we do value as residents of smaller municipalities intact. Councelor Dvoli, thank you. Mayor Jordan, um I guess my question uh now is, you know, what do we do with this information and this feedback that we receive from our residents? Um I think they were fairly clear about their concerns. Um, and we've all echoed those comments around this table. Um, and you know, it it truly falls within your role, mayor, as our regional representative to um continue to push this at the regional table. Um, and there's not, I guess, a whole lot we can do as municipal counselors around this table in terms of, you know, passing re passing bylaws or, you know, changing things. And we're rather limited that way. But, but what we can do is still, I would say, lobby and advocate for the comments that we're hearing from the residents. And, and so, I guess my ultimate question is, you know, what do we do now with this information? Is this something we should um entertain sharing with our MPP? Is this something we should entertain sharing with our premier? You know, how do we go about helping our residents push this even farther? Uh Sarah, so in the memo uh we did recommend that this memo and the correspondence be forwarded to the office of the premier MMAH and Niagara region. So if you would like like to add more to that list, we could, but it is being um packaged and forwarded to those respective offices. I I'm just sort of thinking off the cuff here, but um does AMO share these same concerns? Certainly, there are changes being made to even the role of regional chairs, how they're appointed, um strong mayor duties for them. Is there any um any advantage to also sharing it with AMO and asking them to act on behalf of municipalities too? I I I think certainly think that wouldn't hurt. Um, and this this chair with um strong uh powers is a um it's a a point of contention with probably every single person in Niagara because uh um we know how the last government appointment how well that went and uh it's something that one unelected official should not be uh in control of 450,000 people and Uh and that's something that every every every person around that uh regional table will be fighting for that. And even the uh regional counselors who have been unfortunately eliminated for the the next uh election cycle, they will be continue to fight uh for the region as well as a comprehensive regional review uh that's going to take place. And Sarah, maybe you can um add a little bit to that just be as you're meetings with the uh regional CAOs on this subject through you mayor. Yes. I mean uh we are meeting collectively all the CAOs uh we almost have a reoccurring meetings every week uh to discuss these governance change. Uh we are talking about some specific uh processes that are to be implemented once the new change occurs such as weighted voting how that will look like how we can advocate for our small municipalities are properly represented at that table. Um we are also talking about the strong chairs power how that will impact our operations or how we operate things on our administrative level. So these uh conversations are occurring happening every week. So we are uh staying up to topic really uh regarding this governance change matters. Then I guess if I could just add an amendment to um the report, it talks about forwarding to the office of the premier, the minister of municipal affairs and housing in the Nagara region. But if we could include the MPP for our writing and AMO, I think those would be two other parties to keep in the loop. Yeah. And we can just do that administratively. So, councelor Shaw uh through Mayor Jordan, thank you. Uh this is just a question to our CEO and if you don't if you don't know, uh please just let me know. Um there's been lots of grumblings as far as um whether the pro the province is going to wait to see who the mayors are and who and before um deciding on the weighted voting and also who the regional chair is. Um so I'm wondering if you've heard that. Um if yeah if there's any information that you might have. See you Mr. Mayor. I I think there are a lot of information out there but right now as it stands from uh we get our communication from the province and we have not received anything in terms of timelines for the new chair appointment or uh how that weighted voting will look like and but they are they did give the CEOs and the mayor they did communicate that they are giving us kind of like an 18month to a 24-month period to kind of propose a recommendation to the province on how we would like to see some of some of these h things happening. So that is the conversation that we are having at our level but we have not received any kind of formal communication from the province in terms of those matters. Councelor Devoli, Mayor Jordan, my question is a little bit uh is related to governance but a little bit um off the topic of this report. just asking for um followup from yourself and our CEO on feedback from the province about the motion that we passed at the last meeting about reducing council size to six and so on through you Mr. Mayor, maybe you have more, but uh we have not received a formal kind of communication back regarding our motion, but we did we are strongly advocating that if any changes occur, it has to be before the May 1st deadline. And seeing that we are only two weeks away and we have not heard anything, I'm not sure how that will proceed. And and just further to that, uh I made it very clear to Minister Flack that that we wanted to remain a W system and and because um council had uh voted for the ward system to stay in in um in place, if if we were going to be reduced by the province to six six positions of counselor, we would have to do a peer review of that ward system again. Um and that was something that uh Minister Fleck definitely noted and he uh he still made it quite clear that uh um in what 2022 they they changed um the city of Toronto from 50 counselors to 25 counselors in the month of September. So it was right during the election. So, so the province has the ability to uh to strike down at any time. Councelor Shaw Dorne, thank you. I wasn't going to mention it, but since we are talking about this, um I I just wanted to say that I was a little disappointed that our motion from the last um council meeting was kind of miscommunicated um through the region. Uh our motion was to stay status quo that we wanted to keep eight counselors or award system unless mandated by the province. And the letter from um a number of our mayors including the Grizzly mayor had said that we voluntarily um passed a motion at council saying that we wanted to reduce to six. So um I don't think it it's really going to change anything at this point, but that was not the original motion. We spoke about this several times. Councelor DeFlavio had also said we want to make sure that we're communicating that it's status quo and it didn't come uh come through through that letter. So anyhow just my my two cents. Any further questions from councel? All right. Moved by councelor Dvoli, second by councelor Corsani. Resolved that the staff memo regarding Niagra governance review public feedback be received. All in favor? And that's carried. Can I get a mover and seconder to um approve the bylaws? Can I speak to it? Yeah, go ahead. Councelor Christi. Uh thank you through chair. I just um on the uh the bylaw to appoint animal control officers for the town of Ginsby. So just to confirm that we're going to give uh the powers of animal control to bylaw and if we do that okay I'll let you answer that first through the chair. Um the purpose of this is an administrative structure so nothing is changing. Um we they have been asked that they be formally delegated their authority through a bylaw and so we're just administratively doing that. Um it is not changing anything that's already in place. Okay. So service will stay the same. Okay, perfect. Um, and can we then uh have like a communication campaign since we're in the spring on the animal control bylaws and the fines and where the dog parks are because it's an issue every year and it's going to start and I'd like to get ahead of it so people are aware and just do sort of that education campaign. Yes, absolutely. All right. So, I have councelor Christi as the mover. We need a seconder. Councelor Shawwa. Moved by councelor Gstani. Second by councelor Sharwa. Resolve that leave be given to introduce bylaw 2621 and 26, 2022 and that same be read the first time considered and passed. All in favor? That's carried. Next council meeting is scheduled for April 27th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. Can I have a mover and seconder for the confirming bylaw? Moved by councelor Devaldi, second by councelor DeFlavio, resolved that leave be given to introduce bylaw 26-23 and that same be read a first time considered and passed. All in favor? That's carried. Good evening everyone. Uh meeting is adjourned. Have a good evening. Enjoy the warmth. Finally.

Full Transcript