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Council Approves Key Expansions, Celebrations - Council meeting of March 30, 2026 at 6:30 p.m.
Oakville · March 31, 2026
Hello and welcome to this meeting of the council of the town of Oakville, uh, which I'm calling to order. Uh, please rise if you're able for our national anthem. Oh Canada, our home and native land. True patient love. In all of us command with glowing hearts we see the rise the true north strong and free from far and wide. Oh Canada, we stand on God for thee. Lord keep a land. Glorious and free. Oh can we stand on God for thee? Oh, we stand on thee. Thank you everyone. Please be seated. Um, the town of Oakville is located on treaty lands and territory of the Missagas of the Credit First Nation. We thank the Missagas for being stewards of this traditional territory. By 1820, the Missagas began welcoming settlers from all over the British Empire. Soon, Oakville was welcoming black people fleeing the United States. Our indigenous white and black residents created a community of harmony that makes us proud. By 1857, Ontario recognized Oakville as a municipality. At town hall, we fly the flag of the Missagas with the flags of Oakville, Ontario, and Canada to acknowledge our origins. The vibrant livability we are creating for all attracts people from across Canada and the world. We feel sorrow for acts of racism and intolerance suffered across the world and in Canada and here at home. We want our future to be equitable and inclusive for all. We believe the path of truth and reconciliation can unite us all. Please keep well, stay safe, and tell us on council if there is any chance for us to be helpful to you and yours. And please let us also know anytime that you can help increase Oakville's harmony, prosperity, and livability. Mr. Clerk, are there any regrets for this meeting? There are no regrets, Mayor. Thank you, Council. Are there any declarations of conflict of interest? Mr. Clerk, I see none. Uh, council, I would ask for a mover and secondary to approve the minutes. Councelor Shia and councelor Nanda. Thank you. Any objection? There being none, the minutes are confirmed. Um, we have no public presentations and there are no committee minutes uh to to consider, but we do have the advisory committee minutes and that's the accessibility advisory committee minutes from March 12th, 2026. I need a mover and secondary to receive those. Councelor Giddings and councelor Mcnes. Thank you. Any objection? There being none, those minutes are confirmed. Um, now when we go to consent items, are there any requests to pull one or may I have a motion to approve the consent items? Councelor Lchenna and Councelor Longo. Thank you. Uh, any objection? There being no objection, the consent items are consented. Uh, we have um uh no confidential consent items and we are now at our discussion items. Our first item is the Oakville Enterprises Corporation quarterly update. And uh we will uh we will call on Rob Listister, the CEO, and Sean McCann, the uh vice senior vice president of Oakville Enterprises Corporation to provide a presentation. Mr. Listister, we're looking forward to this. Thank you, Mayor Burton. Well, good evening, Mayor Counselors. Great to be here again this evening. Uh with me from OEC tonight I have Sean Mcccoan who will be coming up and giving a more uh wholesome presentation. Jeff Mocha, Annie Petran, Laura Wilson, Mary Caputi, Bethy St. Pierre, Andrew Elnazir, and Suzanne Hillier. So, we have a different approach to tonight's presentation in that we're going to highlight the success of OEC compared to EPCOR, a large and very successful municipallyowned utility in Western Canada. With Embridge as its partner, the town of Oakville has accelerated the growth of its own municipallyowned energy and infrastructure leading organization. Now on the top right hand side of the slide which you may or may not be able to see um it uh indicates the the lines of business that have been mailed to our growth possible and that's electricity, natural gas, telecommunications and asset management. This photo shows a high voltage power line that we installed to supply farms a pork producing operation in Acme Alberta and Acme Alberta is northeast of Calgary. This past evening was Earth Hour. During the hour, the town of Oakville reduced electricity consumption by approximately 11.3 megawatt hours. That's a 6% reduction. And this reduction is equivalent to turning off 755,5 watt light bulbs for an hour. And this reduction is actually an increase over previous years. This evening we'll cover four topics. How OEC has achieved its growth and scale. OEC's growth rate compared to EPCORS. National expansion and innovation leadership. And an update on Oakville Hydro's infrastructure delivery and operational resilience. This photo illustrates staff using virtual simulation to view infrastructure conditions through the goggles. I will now pass it over to Shawn Mcco who will provide the larger update. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you, Rob, Mayor Burton, members of council, and town staff. Thank you for the opportunity to be here with you this evening. Um, as Rob mentioned, I'm going to go through some material on on OEC. Um, I'd like to say that I'm very pleased to be up here, very pleased to be up here representing our greater than 3,000 team members that help make OEC a success every day. I'm going to begin by speaking about our progress and that progress is what has allowed OEC to become a national energy and infrastructure platform today. In my next few slides, um I'm going to touch on uh certain elements of of where OEC is today. From a from a high level perspective, uh you'll see on this slide, we have done uh many things to make OEC the scale of an organization is today. But three items that stood out to us are certainly the performance of the organization and what we've been able to deliver on over the past 10 years, the strategic choices the organization has made to position it well for upcoming critical trends and la lastly I would say an unre a relentless focus on delivering shareholder value through increasing dividends and financial performance. In this photo that we have on the screen here, um this is uh this is a recent project we actually conducted in the state of Illinois where a crew uh was was down uh for a short period of time uh doing a pipeline inspection depth of cover uh project that uh that was quite a success. Moving on to the next slide. If we if we expand further into the drivers of the progress of OEC uh and creating the market position that we have today um three advancements are highlighted on this slide that I'll just touch on briefly. One is we've worked diligently over the past several years to add technical capabilities to build out critical infrastructure through proving ourselves to stakeholders and customers. We've built a reputation for specialized builds that you'll see in that second picture in the middle of the slide. And then what's pretty neat on the third uh picture of this slide is a demonstration of innovation and our innovation journey at OEC. Here we have a robot that our team used to conduct a pipeline inspection underground. So just another example of how OC is pioneering innovative solutions. As Rob mentioned at the opening, we wanted to touch on EPCORE and um and note some similarities and differences between the organizations that being EPCO and OEC. Uh EPCO for those that don't know is a widely is widely regarded as a very successful en energy and infrastructure utility that is owned by the city of Edmonton. EPCOR runs a diversified group of services across water, wastewater, electricity, energy services, and natural gas. Today, EPCOR has a scale of three billion in revenue with operations throughout North America. Comparatively, OEC has approximately 1 billion in revenue. When we start reviewing the similarities and comparisons between the organizations, what we found rather interesting is that OEC has demonstrated a 10-year net income growth rate that has exceeded that of EPCORE, which I'll touch on in a minute. So, as I just mentioned, the growth in net income performance over the past decade for OC has been rather strong. This slide provides some detail on this point. If we look at the left hand side of this slide, we have a chart that illustrates the performance of OEC over the past 10 years where OEC has achieved a 16% compound annual growth rate. If we then move to the right hand side of the slide and we look at the chart on the right, we do a comparison of EPCOR's growth rate and net income of 7% compared to OEC's performance of 16% over that same time period. I speak for the team when I say I'm very happy, we are very happy with the success of this performance and a key takeaway is OC has produced consistent long-term shareholder value. to illustrate the breadth and depth that has occurred to support the growth that the growth that I just spoke about. This geographic map is an illustration of how we've grown the organization geographically. It highlights the progress we've made in Canada as we move west and most recently it also highlights certain areas within the US the organization has started to provide services for. Moving on. To achieve this type of market position that OEC has today, you have to do many things right. And at OEC, one of the things that we believe you have to do right consistently is innovation to demonstrate value. Tonight, we wanted to highlight a recent innovation success story at OC. Recently, our team completed an online data tool for the Ontario Energy Board called the centralized capacity information map. This powerful tool brought to life by OEC provides transparent and accessible data about Ontario's electrical grid capacity. It displays both current load capacity and the potential for connecting distributed energy resources that helps stakeholders make informed decisions about energy planning, infrastructure investments, and sustainability initiatives. Now, I have a 20 second video here that I'm just going to click on just to give you a quick uh snapshot of of this tool. So, we're going to begin, and you can see the map of Ontario here. And what we're going to do is we're going to drill down into the GTA and then further zoom in on Oakville and the surrounding areas. And as we do so, we start to see different shades of color that illustrate the electrical grid capacity in each region. And those range of colors illustrate different pockets within a region of how the the the amount of electrical grid capacity that that exists. Whether you're a municipality, a developer, an investor, or a customer, this this publicly accessible tool gives you insights that can make planning more easy and and efficient. I'd like to move on and uh and drill into the town of Oakville on this slide. Specifically, I'd like to speak about Oakville Hydro. Oakville Hydro has another strong year planned in 2026 for strengthening its grid. Up on the screen in front of you, we have a nice map of Oakville highlighting many of the large projects that are occurring in various wards this year. A large share of the a large share of the work that is on the screen is scheduled in response to external drivers, including road widening schedules, transit expansion, and regional infrastructure programs. Now, so far this evening, I've talked about growth. We've talked about the scale OEC has achieved and we've talked about innovation. But growth only matters if the system works day in day out, especially when the conditions are at their worst. This slide brings it back to the fundamentals of reliability, responsiveness, and accountability to the community. This past winter, crews responded to multiple snowplow related incidents that impacted core electrical infrastructure in Oakville. What's important is not not just that these incidents occurred, but how they were handled. Crews were mobilized very quickly, sites were made safe, and service impacts were addressed with minimal disruption to residents. To summarize the material that I've just run through, um I simply wanted to close out and say that we are proud of where the organization sits today. We're proud of the scale in the energy and infrastructure business in Canada. And specifically, we think the organization is positioned to capture the next wave of energy and infrastructure growth. So, thank you for your time this evening, and we'd be pleased to take any questions. Well, thank you very much for the presentation. It it makes a boy proud. Um and I hope uh girls as well. Uh you've got a a line of questions. Let's start with Councelor Adams and then we'll proceed from there. First of all, thank you for everything you do. Those are amazing results. Very, very impressive and the community is both proud of you and thankful um to the results because um every dollar that you guys create is a dollar that we can use locally to do stuff. So, we appreciate that. Um, my question for you though is with respect to the projects that are upcoming in 2026. You showed a map. I can't remember which slide number it was, but um, one of the projects was the Lichfield Road rebuild. I wondered if your team could provide me uh, further details about that project, what it entails, uh, the timing of it um, and how that process will look to the residents through you, Mr. Mayor. Uh certainly uh we can um at a very high level it's a voltage conversion project on some cable and transformer replacements but we can we can follow up with more more information. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you councelor councelor Longo. Thank you worship. Thanks for the presentation. Sean uh amazing growth as councelor uh Adams mentioned. I had just a question about with all of the investment that the federal government provincial governments are doing. Are there opportunities for OEC and diversified companies that you have to actually get some of that work if you will uh across Canada? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um yeah, the uh the magnitude of nation building infrastructure investments is is interesting. Our teams have been uh reviewing those. Um some of them immediately stack up with some of the areas that we're involved in such as uh pipeline work and inspection work. Um uh several of our engineering companies also have opportunities through that. So we are uh we are following those closely. Thank you. Fantastic. Thank you, Councelor Omera. Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um and thanks for u for coming here tonight. Um, one one uh question that continues to come up to me on which is it's quite odd but it's it's a consistent question is just the possibilities of a capital call in order to maintain the infrastructure that that that OEC has but Oakville Hydro has and and as we grow what those are and I know there's a lot of concerns that other uh other LDC's don't have that and other LC LDC's aren't ready for that and there there's a fear that there's a tsunami coming with with what infrastructure upgrades and even asset management plans uh are going going to need to be funded. And I'm wondering if you might be able to speak to a minute uh about that and about where we are uh and about and about what what we've got planned and how I'm hoping and from my conversations with in the past we don't have those concerns with other LDCs have. But I know that regular people are coming up to me asking about what's the tsunami coming with our our asset management and and what we're going to have to do to maintain the growth that's ahead of us. Thank you. Through you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, great question, topical question. Um, uh, this is this has been something many LDCs have been reviewing and discussing. Uh, and it's certainly something Oakville Hydro spends a lot of time on. Um, a couple points. I I think, uh, we're fortunate at Oakville Hydro in that the organization for a very long period of time, um, has been quite advanced in planning, um, and investing in in its grid. like we have a very advanced grid within Oakville um that has allowed us to um have capacity. Um when the organization looks 10, 20, 30 years out, layers in electrification, layers in electrical vehicles, um lots of analysis goes through that cycle and and in that analysis um you know Opville Hydro at this point in time is not planning uh for uh an example like you've heard from some other organizations where there is a a need for an immediate uh capital call situation. So, we're um we're in a relatively strong position from that perspective. Thank you, councelor. Uh councelor Giddings. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Through you, um on your map showing projects across North America, it appeared that one was southern California and one was Texas. What were those about? Sure. Through you, Mr. Mayor. Um both of those were engineering work. Um uh in California uh some of our teams have begun doing some fire hardening work for a large California utility. Uh whereas in Texas uh again engineering work where uh uh some talented people on our side are helping build out data centers from a a design perspective. Have the uh has our current relationship with the US slowed some of those possible projects down in terms of having a Canadian company uh perform it for them? We um you know like any organization we're monitoring uh the political atmosphere and and any implications from that. But so far any of the projects that we're taking on, we haven't seen a direct impact. Even when we brought over people into the state of Illinois in the fall, um uh I think we're we're certainly watching for any implications, but none none thus far. Thank you for that. And my second question, the centralized capacity information map is that propri proprietary uh in terms of what uh you have done or is that well we yeah we've we've we've built that tool for for the Ontario Energy Board. Um I think the the skills and capabilities that were used to design that are are inhouse. Um uh I wouldn't say we have a patent on it but uh but it's certainly in-house capabilities that that built the tool. Would you be leading in that in terms of the other uh similar companies across Canada? Is that something that you could take to market? Yeah, it is. And in fact, the organization that did that within the OEC enterprise has um implemented tools like this before in Ontario. So they have a bit of a brand name with Infrastructure Ontario and other arms of the Ontario government. So it is uh it is replicable. Great to hear. Thanks so much. Thank you councelor Giddings. Councelor Null. Thank you for your presentation and for the fine work that you folks do. I have a question with respect to the political landscape in Ontario. Uh I know that um since I've been here we move from commission to corporation and uh I know over that period of time there's been lots of rumbling about consolidation of LDC's and purchases and acquisitions and such. Where are we right now politically in terms of the world of electrical regulated electrical distribution in Ontario? Is are there any risks or rewards or anything uh that are uh that we should be keeping our eyes open for uh from Queens Park? Uh thank you through your Mr. Mayor. Um yeah, that the topic of uh reviews of LDC's and consolidation in this sector comes up every every so often. Um we've continued to see a little bit of consolidation uh with LDC's every a few a year over the past several years. Um uh with uh you know the Ministry of Energy and Mines, they've been a big supporter of the industry and and the distribution partners within Ontario. Um so we haven't seen anything official uh from from the government on this front. uh what I can say is they've been very active engaging with the associations with the LDC's uh to understand uh the distribution the LDC's perspective uh but nothing uh nothing official so far nothing official but is there I guess what I'm asking are you monitoring anything that is of concern to the LDC sector at this point anything that might be percolating in the future consolidation etc the um certainly monitoring it and um elements uh sorry through you Mr. there uh elements that that have come up are u for example the the previous question about uh pinch points that some LDC's may have with respect to capital so that's been a topical uh a topic of discussion over the past 6 to 12 months um so I would say that's that's trending um uh I think the government is looking to uh support the sector as growth to the sector is coming and How do they ensure that LDC's are not hitting uh a limitation on being able to to fund that and and build it out? Uh it's probably the biggest theme that I've heard. And last question is um in the eventuality or if if it were ever to come to pass that there was a consolidation of LDC's, are our non-regulated entities uh uh separate and apart so they could be carved off of that so that Oakville could continue to enjoy the benefits of our entrepreneurial enterprises? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah, structurally uh within OEC, we we have we have a structure today and we've got um a series of structures that have been evaluated, continue to be evaluated that allow for optionality uh through any of those series of events. Thank you for your answers. Thank you, worship. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Chisum, thank you. Uh congratulations on on the report and moving forward. And it's always nice to see uh the benefits coming back to the municipality in dollars. So, thank you very much to all of you. Um the question I have is this trend that's happening is with data centers and the amount of energy these these data centers are going to take. Can you comment on where we're going with that in the future? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um yes, the the the the the volume of data center buildout in North America is is is here. Uh there's there's a lot happening. Uh there's a lot happening south of the border there and increasingly there's more and more happening within Canada uh in Ontario in the GTA. Um uh they do consume they do consume energy uh as as you you noted. Um and uh as Oakville Hydro and OEC monitors Oakville and and uh Ontario, we we're looking for when those projects are coming up. Um it there's been many that have been in the news whether in the city of Toronto or other areas. Um uh I think planning and and reaching out having discussions with those projects and those project proponents to understand the volume of energy needs uh and building that into long-term plans by the utility are are what's going to be required to facilitate that. My last question with respect to the the power um the discussions of having their own power sources within their footprint is that is that definite or or are they going to be going on the grid? I think all options have been discussed. A lot do plan to go on the grid um through you, Mr. Mayor. Um but um there are some discussions I think that where people are trying to uh look at perhaps a hybrid approach or some sort of backup power as well. Uh but many are planning to access the grid. Another question. So if if it they go on the grid, is it really going to impact our daily lives with our households and our businesses in any shape or form uh in the future or do we have to build bigger in infrastructure through you, Mr. Mayor? Um when in in neighboring utilities that we've um we've seen where this is occurring um uh what results from the conversations is um an an establishment of the amount of power that's available today and in the coming years. Uh and that can curtail or limit the amount of development from from uh storage projects about uh etc. Um and then it gets into long-term planning like well if we want to support that type of growth what kind of infrastructure is required and by when. So those are ongoing discussions. Thanks. Thank you councelor Chisum. Councelor has a deal. Thank you through you mayor Burton. Um so a followup to uh councelor Chisums in terms of uh data centers interested in developing specifically in Oakville where in the development pipeline is OAC in terms of they they desire to do it. Um uh do they connect with you before they submit an application? um are they is are you a go no-go in terms of the uh as you said the available power? Can you just give us a little bit more of an understanding of um when we would get a signal that it's coming in and when you uh your voice is heard around the implications of what they're planning? Most definitely through you, Mr. Mayor. Um we do look for those signals like uh the our organization Oakville HydroC would like to know any pending projects that are on the horizon from a from a developer. Um uh we we've worked on assessing already where there is capacity uh within Oakville for projects uh of various size of data centers. Um but getting an early lead on when a project is coming is is important to Oakville Hybrid obviously. So um we've um had a few reachouts from proponents over time uh and then in merely gets into a conversation of what's available in what part of the municipality. Okay. Can can you get any insights into how the data center uh organizations uh address the fire concerns that come from it or is that out of your scope? I think through you, Mr. Mayor, um those organizations uh have um realized that there's information and education to be done uh completed on that topic. Um and uh I I've seen or heard of organizations spending time whether that's with um municipalities or in this case utilities uh educating them on on those risks um and how that's mitigated um that's probably the extent of my knowledge on that topic. Okay. So thank you for that. My last question is just around um that terrific video that you showed us that you could narrow in. Is that like available on the website if if people were saying hey I'd like to understand that more can we direct them there through you Mr. Mayor? Yes it is it is available we can we can make that uh link available and uh so people can be directed. Absolutely. Thanks very much. Thank you, councelor. Um, Mr. McCullen, before you leave, u uh perhaps you'd like to explain our capacity in um in terms of how much power is available through the transformers that ring our our town. And uh I wouldn't mind if you pointed out the fact that uh we uh we did very well when it came time to build a new transformer station to bring additional power into our local grid. That I think would give the public and council a better sense of how uh infrastructure rises to meet demand. Thank you through you, Mr. Mayor. Um, yes, we um we're fortunate that we've got a grid that has a very large amount of automation in Oakville that allows us to move power around. Um, so even if we have an area within Oakville that uh may not have as much capacity at any one point in time, we have a lot of functionality to address that in time uh in real time to move power around. Uh as as the mayor noted, there was quite a significant investment made plus or minus 10 years ago on a new TS station that has uh that at the time and and we've continued to benefit from excess capacity. Um we're in a position today when we look out in our long-term asset management plan for Oakville Hydro. uh we don't have an immediate need to uh add more significant capacity like a transmission uh station at this time but certainly are uh are planning for it so we always have our one step ahead 10 years ahead etc. Just a couple of numbers that might help people would be if you could say what our uh total ability to receive power was and how much capacity our new transformer station added. I may have to get back to you on those exactly. I think Jeff knows. Let's just I'll just check with my colleague. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Sean. Yes. Through you, Mr. Mayor. Um our our overall system before the station could handle around 300 megawatts and the system added 150. The station added 150. So, we got about 100 still to go. There's plenty of capacity right now for the foreseeable future. Thank you for a home run. Please brag about how we didn't have to pay as much as Hydro One wanted from us and we built it ourselves. Yes, absolutely. Yes. All right. Thanks very much. Appreciate all the information. I hope you've I hope we've together given the public even more reason to be proud of Oakville Enterprises and Oakville Hydro. Council, is there a mover and secondary received the information? Councelor Hazit deal. Councelor Chisum. Thank you. Any objection? There being none, that carries. Um all right. Um we now come to uh the agenda item called alternative options for relocation of Canada Day. And uh and what we're going to do is uh uh I have entered a motion to reconsider the decision of February 23rd that that ruled out the use of Bronny. This is seconded by uh councelor Null. And um if that reconsideration motion passes, uh the terminology might confuse unless we go very slowly here. We're moving a motion to reconsider. If it passes, then we will reconsider that. And we'll do that by uh by going to that very motion from February 23rd. and uh it will be as if it had never been passed. There are there is one part of that motion which was um uh an amendment that was added by councelor Omira and councelor Lchenna according to the minutes uh that that removed Bronny as an option for Canada Day. And the other parts of that motion are uh good ones which produced work that is here today. And so we will uh take uh the February 23rd motion in pieces and we'll vote on each one. Um it will be uh it's important to pass again all but uh part number three of that motion which is the one that took Bronny off the table. Um assuming success for that uh then we have a motion from councelor Omira and councelor mcnes uh to authorize the use of bronny and to top up the funding for that by $75,000. At that time when that motion's on the floor, questions would be in order of um uh two uh delegations. one from uh Chief Tanner of the Halton Regional Police Service and the other by our commissioner Paul Damaso. Uh following those questions, there would be a vote on the motion to use Bronny and top up the funding. And if that were unsuccessful, uh then we would we would turn to any motion it may please council to adopt, including any option in the February 23rd report or in tonight's report. The process would stop upon adoption of a motion. For example, if the motion to use Bronny and top up the funding passes, then the process ends at that point. I hope everybody is clear on that. And uh we have uh we have a delegation. It's not in order unless reconsideration uh passes. And uh uh so uh well actually we don't really know what they want to say, do we? Um your worship. Yes, it's Natalia. I'm I I recall la in the February meeting that I wanted Bronty as one of the options. So you just said that I seconded a motion to remove it. I think it was the opposite. Um, in the minutes of of uh council that are in tonight's meeting, that's what it says. I um earlier called for corrections or adoption of the minutes. Um, and uh my apologies, I missed that, but I'm pretty sure Okay. I I'm I mean no offense. I only, you know, I'm your servant. I'm just here to guide you through the thick of the rules to get what you want and um uh uh we will at the appropriate time we'll we'll look at going back to correct the minutes for you. Uh and I don't know when that will be, but the clerks will obviously have to go consult the tape and and see what why they put it that way. So I don't mean to leave the clerks hanging, but we can't resolve that right now. So, um, uh, is there any objection to the reconsideration motion? Counselor, can I speak to it briefly? Um, I gosh, I will be very brief. Well, there's going to be lots of opportunity to speak. I know this is just relevant to the reconsideration and I'll I'll reserve the rest for after. Uh really all I want to do is I just wanted to emphasize the fact that I've presented a petition to the clerk's office which is on the reconsideration just for so it's on the record that's in order later I think I think u let's let's not complicate things here please. Okay. I just want but this this petition it's 922 signatures respecting the reconsideration. So that's why if it's later it's it's sort of moot and the folks that signed this I think council go ahead I just did did actually very smooth council China your hand is up so I'm calling on you all right um okay I I would ask the clerk to call the uh the gentleman who wants to delegate on this item because I don't know whether he wants to uh speak to the alternatives or to the reconsideration which he might not have been able to know about. Thank you, Mayor Juman Qua. Welcome. We look forward to your information. Thank you. Sorry, who am I looking at? Good evening uh mayor and council. My name is Juman and I'm here tonight with my peers uh Omar and Ma from the seeds of leadership program. We wanted to come tonight to share a quick youth perspective on item 11.2 regarding the relocation of Canada Day. Like many residents uh we have grown up going to the waterfront at Bronty and we love that tradition. But when we read the staff report um we wanted to step up and express our support for moving it for for moving the celebration to Sheridan College. We do not claim to be experts on city planning. Uh but from our view as young people we see three really positive opportunities with this move. Firstly we see this as an opportunity to connect the youth the local youth in this community. connecting them, bringing it to children college kind of connects us as high school students with postsecary and it makes us feel more proud of the community that we always reside in. So the second reason is simply about safety and feeling comfortable in crowds. So we really appreciate that staff did a thorough risk assessment and we as young people who who have been in those massive crowds and Bronty, we know how tight and overwhelming the space can get, especially when trying to leave late at night. So while change is hard, we think prioritizing public safety is a really smart and caring move by the town. Having a having wide open spaces at Sheridan to accommodate everyone safely sounds like a great improvement for families and youth alike. Thank you very much. Sorry. Sorry. For our final reason, um we are genuinely excited to see a new tradition being built. Uh we know there might be some potential push back from people who uh love this tradition and love this venue. Um but we as youth are always excited for innovation. We would love to to see how modified fireworks or drone show would look like at the campus and we are absolutely confident that the festive spirit of Oakville would shine just as bright uh at the Sheridan campus as it did at the lake. Thank you so much for listening to our perspective tonight and thank you all for your hard work in the community. Thank you for your delegation. I would invite you to stay and hear the discussion because council's about to consider um returning the candidate celebration to Bronny as uh you earlier enjoyed and uh there will be information from the police and from the staff around trying to deal with safety. So, um uh uh if you have the time, we would really uh like I'd like to be able to talk to you after the meeting and see if you what you think of the where we go. Uh now, you have questions from several counselors. So, uh this is a fairly normal part of delegating to council and they're all friendly. You needn't be afraid. I know you're you're first- timerrs and you may have first timer feelings. Um, councelor Dunick, thank you through your worship. Thank you very much for coming out tonight. Really appreciated hearing from you, especially given the youth component. I think that's extremely important. I just wanted to provide you and I think as the mayor had indicated, it'll probably come up in other presentations as well. We are going to be considering um the town looking at different options, drones, um different venues because we've identified instead of being just in one area, we have to have it townwide or as best we can in other areas, north, south, east, west, whatever you want to take a look at. But I think the one thing that we um zeroed in on and I know councelor Adams uh had an email today that he addressed on behalf of him, councelor Lischa, that was that the people in the area around Sheridan College like our residents in Cornation Park felt they needed to be consulted before they went through that process. But I think that's what's going to come out of the um decision in terms of going forward that we look at getting out to the community and saying what would you like to see? Would you like changes? Would you like a different area, different venue? So, thank you. You raised it well. Thank you, counselor. Uh councelor Hletil, thank you. Thank you for coming out. So, in reading some of the past report and and perhaps some of the things you might see online, um some of the concerns have been about some behaviors of youth, obviously not yourselves. Um otherwise, you're very brave being here. Um from from your perspective, did you mention the crowds and the tightness and that there's there's some excitement from you that that another location Um would you have any additional advice if we ended up staying in Bronte that you observed or as youth you might give us in terms of deterring um maybe some of the uh the negative behaviors that we've experienced in Bronte and I see somebody's got a big smile so go for it. Uh well, I'm a high school student in a public high school. So, obviously, this is one of one of the main things that I was uh thinking about and I even called a few of my friends and asked them how their experience was. I didn't get much of a response from my friends. Uh I'm hoping that's a good thing, not a bad thing. But from what I've talked to my parents and what I've seen from my friends, it's mostly from what people have seen, it was just like groups wandering around, maybe being a little bit loud, but that I didn't see or like hear of anything personally that was particularly negative or illegal. I did see that there was considerations at some point of having supervised um supervised youth areas for for the youth in these events. And I feel like it would be a great idea, especially because of the substance abuse and things that happen within communities and my friends. And I feel like that would even make other youth that don't participate in those much more comfortable. And I feel like honestly I I think it was something that was had to do with police. I don't particularly remember when it was mentioned the supervised uh areas for youth, but I feel like if something like that could be done, that would make a lot of youth much more comfortable with attending. Thank you. Thank you for some of that advice. Any other advice? And so I guess my final question is did you get to the park uh the waterfront by transit or car? Uh for me it was transit so I got dropped off like 15 minutes away where the road closed and then I walked the rest of the way. Okay. Uh I've had a similar case to Okay. It was also by transit. Okay. And and getting on and off. That that was fairly seamless for you in terms of getting to and from the park. Okay. Thanks very much. Thank you, councelor. Uh councelor Grant. Thank you. I'm glad to hear somebody and I've had a few people tell me Sheran would be a great place to have Canada Day. Uh we're probably not going that way today. But one thing that uh councelor null and I can't get past is the fact that there are lush fields at Bronty and as much as we would love love to host candidate in our area, the Sheram parking lot does not offer the same kind of comforts. So, I'm wondering when you're expressing your interest in hosting an event there, what would you do to prevent that kind of, I don't know, disfavor? The how would you correct the area or or suggest to people they can get better comfort in a parking lot that would probably be sweltering hot in the middle of summer? I was honestly thinking of this looking at the campus of Sheran College. It's not the most interesting place, I have to say, but I feel like with the vendors, uh, like being in a parking lot with lights and vendors around it, it kind of gives it that festive vibe. The concern I feel like with the previous place was how tight it was. And we honestly just did this in hopes that there would be more exits and more places for people to either also like commute and people to move a little bit easier. And I feel like a lot of the vibe comes from that. If you watch fireworks and you have to go go all the way to the back because of the huge crowd and you feel like you're squished within a few a lot of people, I feel like that takes away from the experience even if it's a nice face. if you have anything to add on. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh councelor Nola is next. Thank you, worship. Uh thank you for your presentation, your delegation. White Oaks, right? Where all over the But you Okay, that's great. I just I just wanted I wanted to brag about W five for a second now. You totally blew that opportunity. Thank you. I do want to say though that uh I appreciate your your your your presentation tonight. Um, Councelor Grant and I and and the other Northern Oakville counselors are always excited about finding ways to activate the North Oakville community. So, we appreciate that. Um, my question is probably kind of a crass commercial. Uh, are you aware of the ribfest that takes place uh the week prior to that? Because that is an activity that actually takes place at Sheridan College and doesn't just serve ribs, it serves all sorts of different delicious foods and has lots of activities. So, um, are you aware of that is my question. So, I'm following procedural uh the procedural bylaw. Are you aware of the festival the fest? Okay. 26 27 28 at Sheridan College a few days before and you're certainly welcome to uh visit and even participate if you're interested in joining our our organizing committee to get it organized. But we do I appreciate your spirit and and your delegation today. Thank you. Thank you counselor for the very smooth advertisement. Thank you very much for your information and your candid answers. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I hope it was habit forming for you. All right, council. Um, first thing we need to do, uh, councelor null and I are moving and seconding that we wave the procedure bylaw to allow reconsideration. Is there any objection to that motion? Uh, councelor, your hand is up. Is that because you're objecting? Work with me here. Work with me. All right, Mr. Clerk, there's no objection to that. The next motion by Councelor Null and by myself and councelor Null is to move that we reconsider the the uh decision on February 23rd on this matter. Is there any objection to reconsideration? Uh Mr. Clerk, there is no objection. That carries. The uh the the next uh the next requirement is that um Let me just call up the the motion from then. That motion said number one that council not approve the relocation of the town of Oakville's Canada Day celebration to Coronation Park. And I uh for the ease of understanding I would ask for a mover and seconder to adopt to adopt that again and that I'll recognize councelor Dutk and councelor Chisum. Is there any objection? Mr. Clerk, there's no objection. That's carried. The second part, same situation. It um I'll just read it. that staff report back to council on options for alternate locations or arrangements for Canada Day this year other than Bronny Waterfront Park. That's been done and so to justify the work having been done, let's read that. I need a mover and secondary for that. Councelor Giddings and Councelor Longo. Thank you. Any objection? Mr. Clerk, there's none. So that carries. The next one is the problem one. That's uh part number three. that the town of Oakville's Canada Day celebration for 2026 not be held in Bronny Waterfront Park. So for this one, we need to defeat it to make the po to make it possible to uh once again contemplate Bronny Park. Um and uh councelor Omira and councelor Mcnes, would you like to who wants to move it so that we can vote against it? Good of you. Thank you very much. Um is there any objection? If so, raise your hand. Mr. Clerk, that's unanimously rejected. Part number four is that staff report back in March of 2026 and that HRPS be asked to attend. This has been done and so for consistency, we need to read that. Could I have a mover and second for that? Uh, councelor Adams and uh, councelor Grant. Thank you. Any objection, Mr. Clerk? There being none, that carries. And then fifth, that staff report on drone show options for future Canada Day events for 2027 and beyond for locations including Bronny with good transportation and amenities for further consideration by council. This has been done and so we need to uh you know agree that we still wanted that to happen. Uh councelor Adams and councelor Shia, thank you. I'll recognize you to move and second. Council, is there an objection? Mr. Clerk, there's no objection and so that carries as well. We now move to the motion uh by councelor and councelor Mcnes which I have here somewhere which is that because Halton Regional Police Services operational plan has provided sufficient reassurances to council regarding the safety of residents, visitors and businesses. and having provided a commitment to work with the town of Oakville, council approved the use of Bronny Heritage Waterfront Park as the location for the town of Oakville's 2026 Canada Day celebration and part two that funding in the amount of $75,000 be transferred from the tax stabilization reserve to offset the incremental unbudgeted cost for the town of Oakville's Canada Day Celebration and Bronny Heritage Waterfront Park. Uh this is moved by councelor and councelor mcnes. Counselor the chair recognizes you for any remarks. Thank you worship. I was I was all warmed up to read the motion but thank you for uh for taking that on for me. Um and and I don't want to presuppose any comments from um our Halton Regional Police uh force who are are here today to speak with us because we have had a great conversation with them over the past week I think which has been expedited very quickly um and and and respectfully and I thank you very much for that. Um, I I do want to uh just preface this um with with a a a comment that I said at the public meeting at the Legion last week is that there are two things that I think we all agree on at the room and Bronny. Obviously, not tonight. Maybe there's some other sentiments on that. Um, but everybody uh uh that we have spoken to wants a Canada Day. They wanted it in Bronny, but they want it to be safe. And that is really something that has been councelor McNiss and I's focused over the past uh uh few weeks since since the motion was there. So, we've been listening closely to residents and businesses, hosting community meetings and bringing those concerns directly to the Halton Regional Police Board uh and uh and to our staff as well, just to to underline where we have been over this over over the past 3 to 5 years uh in Bronny. Um we appreciate and and thank the understanding of council colleagues for their consideration of what we have had to go through, what our residents in Bronny have had to go through to host Canada Day, what our businesses have had to go to to host Canada Day. um and and what many people have have literally feared every single year for that. So, I I appreciate the the the concern and the courtesy that that's been extended to the Bronny residents and and and to our community to host this. Um so, again, it it this motion put forward tonight builds on the Police Services Board's designation of Canada Day and Victoria Day in Bronia as major events and it gives the police tools they need to respond to extraordinary situations. Um and it's it's simple that it will be managed differently with a stronger, more proactive approach to safety. Um and again, if it's supported by council tonight, um we move forward planning uh this important celebration in our community knowing that um this is serious and and it is something that the police and the community and town staff and hopefully in April bylaw are going to take very seriously uh um for for our community. And as was stated uh many times and by the chief himself, uh these times are it's more important than ever that we come together and celebrate what makes our country and community so special. Um so I do want to thank the chief for his statements on that. Uh, and I know it meant a lot to the community um when you and Joe and and uh and chair the the police board councelor Noah were there um in solidarity with the residents and and what they've gone through over the years and and we appreciate that and look forward to a time when uh the community in Bronny and across Oakville can celebrate uh uh Canada Day safely. So uh we all look forward to a safe and successful Canada Day hopefully uh and and just as important a safe Victoria Day uh in in Bronny and and we really appreciate that. So, uh, with that your worship, I'll, uh, I'll I'll close my comments. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Councelor Mcnes, thank you through your worship. Uh, councelor Marin pretty much covered it all with a great speech, but I just want to echo everything he said. And, uh, we've certainly come a long way in the past month. I think we've, uh, we've heard from thousands in one way or another, and I think we've directly, Sean and I engaged with hundreds in in just the past couple weeks there. Um, and I want to give a special thank you to our local legion, the Bronny Legion, which many of their leadership are here tonight. Um, we soon realized after thinking about the relocation of Canada Day, it impact our Legion the most. And, uh, that's that's critical and I want to thank them for opening their doors to a public engagement session where we had over 150 and thank the police chief and inspector Bar for coming and staying as long as we needed to to make sure everyone was heard. and I really felt the spirit of not pointing fingers but lending hands and uh everybody sort of said how can I help make sure that Canada is as successful as ever. So I think with the improvements that are being suggested with the police board's major event designation um a preventative engagement uh strategy or comm or communication strategy um we can mitigate some of these risks. It might not go perfect, but I think we're doing everything we possibly can. And one thing I heard loud and clear is, you know, with everything going on in the world, now is the time to be more patriotic, not less. So, it's important that we make sure Canada is a success and and we all do our part um to make sure it's the most successful it's ever been. So, uh we hope that this passes and and that this is now a sustainable model for Keeping and Bronny for years to come. We've we've had it for decades, mostly consistently, and it's certainly part of our heritage and culture. So, uh, we hope that we have support for this motion. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Mcnes. We're now going to hear from the police chief and commissioner Damaso uh so that members of council can reassure themselves that uh the necessary arrangements are in place to to, you know, achieve the objective that we all share, which is a joyous and safe celebration. and councelor No, I'll recognize you first after the chief and the commissioner. Uh Chief Tanner, welcome to our hall and uh we look forward to your information. Thank you. It very feel much feels like coming back home. But uh first I want to do two things to the youth leadership group. We are hiring every year. Uh so keep us in mind recruiting is a big thing for us. But uh it's it's great to be here today. Good to see all of you. Some of you I see more on regional council a police services board but uh and some more often in Bronty as of late. Um I am here with Inspector Joe Bar who's a part of our command team in Oakville and Lama Na Nicholas who's also here as our uh senior director of communications. So I'm only here because she's allowing me to speak tonight and she's uh she won't put the words in my mouth but she'll be watching me from behind. So, we're very lucky to have Lama here and she'll be working along with your communications people here at the town of Oakville. Actually, we had a meeting this afternoon with the CEO and a couple of other senior staff on some of the proactive communications that we will be able to do. Uh, so also thank you to the police services board who have designated this as a major event which actually means it makes more work for me and uh more on the reporting side. So there is more of a responsibility and line of communication uh back and forth. And if for some of you and a lot of you have been around uh since the G20 happened and when the G20 happened and there were some things in Toronto uh that had to be dealt with when the riots were happening much different than what we face here. Uh but there were some decisions made there that in retrospect later the Mortyn report commented on in in major incidents where there should be more of a line of communication and responsibilities for our local police services board. So that was that part of the process after the counselors uh attended and spoke at the police services board meeting last week on concerns that had come forward the night or two nights before at the Legion. I would say the comments at the Legion really were mixed and uh I would certainly stand by the things that I was saying that night and I do think that now more than ever we need Canada Day. Um despite who may be in charge of another country close to us, uh it's important that we celebrate Canada. We do that on the 24th of May as well as July 1st. And I think they're both important dates to this nation. Uh I actually became a Canadian citizen and a a resident of Oakville the same day on September 17th, 1960 just because I was born here. Uh but I think we need to celebrate it and I personally as a resident of Bronty feel that Bronty is the best location for this. So I thank the uh council for reconsidering decisions that you made and considering all the different uh details and information that have come before you at that meeting and since that meeting. Uh we will as I I said we will undertake some more proactive communication try to get the message out where we can to the youth where we can to the parents of the youth. There are some things that police can do and there are some things that legally police cannot do. Sometimes that's some of the reasons that we celebrate being Canada. Uh because right or wrong, we have a lot of rights in this country. And when people uh stand up at the Legion and just, you know, demand that we just arrest every youth that's down there and search them without any grounds, uh guess what? It doesn't happen that way. But we can do some things differently and we can deploy resources differently so that I believe they'll be more effective this year and more early intervention if required. Uh the other thing I think there's two major things that uh you should and I know you will keep in mind. One is that there are really two events in Bronty if we're talking about July 1st. There's the sanctioned event or the town event if that is where it goes on on July 1st 2026 and there's this other event that has started to take place and has grown over the last couple of years on Lakeshore Road in Bronty. And we also have to remember that even there whether the estimates are 500 or a thousand really doesn't matter. Uh it's all relative. But 95 or 97% of those kids are just there to watch what's going on. And yes, they all run in the same directions and they do crazy things when they're 14, 15, and 16. I think everyone here was that age. And uh so they are going to make some mistakes, but there are also going to be problem people in that group that come purposely uh to wreak as much havoc as they possibly can by setting off fireworks and sometimes very large scale fireworks along the streets uh of Lakeshore or the neighboring side streets perhaps sometimes towards houses or towards residents or towards police officers. And while there have not been a lot of reported serious incidents to the police over the years and we did a report in a summary of the last three years, it doesn't mean that there were not things happening there that caused concern for the citizens of Bronty or people who were attending the fireworks either going down to Bronny Park or leaving from Bronny Park afterwards when the kids were still milling about. Uh we've talked about doing some things in cooperation along with the town and we were talking about lighting uh as one thing that I think we can do differently. I think we can deploy some cameras differently down there and we can deploy some different levels of staffing from our end and some probably visible deterrence if I put it that way. Uh I won't talk about how many officers we'll have there or how many civilians we'll have there but we will have adequate numbers there. I'm confident in the men and women and the command team and Joe and others who will command the situation that night and address the situation as it develops. And this could I hate to use CO as an example, but this could come and go in much the same way. Uh five or six years ago, there was no problem on Lakeshore Road and it developed over time. And some of these things do not go on forever. Let's hope. I don't want to hope for rain because it's not good for the other the sanctioned event, but rain did help a police force in Kingston not too many years ago dealing with Queens University. But another thing that I think from the perception side is we are often not used to seeing some things in Oakville. Not that there weren't some really bad behaviors uh there on Lakeshore Road in the last two or three years especially, but we're not a university town either where this would be a smallcale event in many ways. So, I'm not going to downplay that at all. We will do our job and we will make Bronty as safe as we possibly can. But we are also dealing with citizens who are sometimes uh more often elderly in the neighborhood, frail at times. We heard from a woman, elderly lady at the Legion who is fearful during the day because there are five or six kids hanging around Shoppers Drug Mart and they're probably not going to do anything, but people are fearful these days and we have to respect them for that too and make them feel as safe as we can. In the future, I think we'll have a lot more CCTV and some different things that we'll learn from uh capabilities of other regions and other countries in the UK and otherwise, but we will will certainly deal with the resources that we have, a visible presence uh throughout the event, prior to the event, communications well before the event and after, and we'll certainly discourage the type of negative behavior that we've seen there. And uh I'm open to any questions when that time comes. Thank you, Chief. Uh there are questions. Councelor Duck. Thank you through your worship. Thank you very much, Chief, for attending and for all your work and the team's work in regards to addressing and giving some suggestions on how we can resolve it. Um given that we're about working collectively, what can we do to assist you in terms of some of the laws that have your hands tied in terms I've heard south of the border um where some are suggesting uh charging the parents of some of the underage uh children or youth shall I say. Um is there something we can do to advocate behind you to ask for those changes? I I think probably the easier things through the mayor um that we can address in more the immediate future and we talked about that today uh with the meeting with your CIO are some of the bylaws and perhaps more prohibitive wording in the bylaws uh that for example prohibited any youth from possessing fireworks uh because that would be a little more black and white for officers to deal with. The other thing that we talked about today is um over the last number of years when I have been down there, I think we have an opportunity to work along with your municipal bylaw enforcement officers who are perhaps not used to being in that environment, but they enforce the bylaws and with our assistance and people working in teams, we can maximize the visible side of people being there in uniform and we can use some of the Oakville enforcement people to do some of the actual charges. There may be some technicalities around youth under 16. I think we might be able to address some of those and probably wording that would come to council at the April meeting. Uh so prior to May 24th uh and we'll also look at what they're doing in other regions of Waterlue. Uh St. Patrick's Day, I know it is in Kingston has become a big issue in uh some of the university towns. So they're looking at that as their day of need for uh enhanced bylaws and we can do the same here. But I think that partnership uh along with some lighting and some different things that the town I think can can help Bronty out that night. Okay. And uh one additional uh question, you have your communications person here this evening. Um is there going to be some sort of communication to the residents who as you identified might be um concerned safety wise? And yes, there's a certain perception sometimes. Um, but just to reassure them and I'm sure the counselors and others will be advising, but I think it's a good loop for them to know that, you know, there's additional work being put in. Do not be fearful and uh just sort of reassure everyone. No, absolutely. I agree. And I know Lama is on top of that with her team at the office now. So, thank you. Thank you, counselor. Councelor Chisum. Thank you. Thank you, Chief, um for spending time with our counselors to look at uh Bronny and how we can be secure and safe with our residents in the area. However, um what I think what we really need to uh zero in here, the youth are here and they'll tell you a test. They've got their chat lines and they've got their um textes and they're they're very versed in moving moving uh youth around very quickly and and avoiding the police. So they do have a communication u network and that's something that it's almost what happens it becomes a mob type thing where they're all connecting up and meeting somewhere and that you know that's youth uh I understand that but you're like you said there's always somebody in within that crowd uh or the bad apples and and causing problems. So I don't know how we could deal with it with the chat lines or or or the texting and so forth. I'm not I'm not privy on that kind of stuff but I'll leave it up to you guys. Now mees um I think in a un municipality in BC has uh put in an an option whereby the noise bylaw comes into effect they target they can target fireworks uh when students or youth are and they can be charged at that time. So I don't know if that's something can we work into the bylaw is very targeted uh for that that to happen. I know we have the noise bylaw, but maybe that's something we can uh amend to our bylaw with specific targeting uh for that to happen. So, thank you very much and good luck. Thank you. Thank you, counselor, for your advice. Uh councelor Nando, thank you to you, Mayor Burton. Thank you so much, Chief Tanner, um for you and your team and all the hard work you do and you know, you're putting a lot of work into this. Um, you made an interesting point earlier that we're not a university town and I do recall from the past that we were told a lot of youth come from neighboring municipalities. Have you had conversations with name neighboring police about the issues they've had as well with youth and some of the things they're doing um to preempt or be proactive to stop this behavior? Well, I think uh through the the mayor, every town has some youth issues. Ours just happened to be in the Bronny case centering on May 24th and July 1st. So, um in both jurisdictions, east and west of us, I would say on a daily basis, they have far more serious youth issues uh than we have for a number of different reasons. But that's not to lessen what we're dealing with in the on these two dates. There are a number of youth who come from out of town, but a lot of the youth that we actually dealt with over the past two or or three years uh I think eight out of 10 in in some of the numbers were Oakville as well. And some of the youth that I spoke to when I was out there with our officers each of the last couple of years were from Oakville either driving their driving their own cars or their parents' cars and uh whole different issues. I think there is an opportunity to try to get the message to the parents, not just to the youth. I think we have to do both and we'll certainly target both and the town of Oakville can work along with us on that too. Yeah, I agree. I think that's what it and I think what it was councelor Chisum was saying earlier that these chats go far and wide. So when youth want to collectively get together, they can come from any area. Um but it's a year that it's mostly here and we can try to work on the issues that we had here. It wasn't that many years ago that Facebook was new. Um but there are a lot of ways for kids to communate communicate very quickly these days including Kingston 15 years ago. Thank you counselor and councelor Hazard Teal. Thank you, Chief, for coming out and thank you for your care and concern for for everybody's uh well-being. Um the region supported a budget to put a public order team together. Um and I've heard mixed comments about whether that can be deployed or if it's going to be deployed later in the year. Could you just give us an accurate reflection of where we're at with it? Yeah. No, absolutely. Thank you for the question and through the mayor. This the $600,000 that was added by the police services board into the budget and then brought to regional council largely is for equipment which is mandated by the province that we must have if we are going to have this entity called a public order unit. Here we're choosing to call it a public safety unit. But it takes time not only to get the equipment here but to train the officers. So they will have to be sent elsewhere to train with, for example, Toronto Police Service public order units or PE or Hamilton. We'll do some training during homecomings uh in the university towns. Most of the university towns will already have public order units. Um we will not have that unit in place and trained in time for May or July 1st. We do have we've started to train the commanders. So even the command staff, if you think of the the hierarchy that has to oversee any specialized entity in a police service these days. So you have a command team that oversees our tactical unit or our marine unit or search capabilities. We're already training the command staff, the inspector level or one of them has just got back from a week's training in Toronto deal uh training with the Toronto Police Public Order Unit on the command level. So, we're going to have uh enhanced expertise internally when it comes to working along with Inspector Bar and Superintendent Albano and others to plan for this event. What when we actually get to this event itself, I would say that it has not been at the level where you would deploy a public order unit. If you think of a public order unit in full deployment being the old riot squad type of situation uh which we had in Ottawa uh not too long ago, although it should have been brought in much sooner than it was to uh deal with the freedom convoy and and other serious protests. So I we're not at the level that they would be fully deployed, but what we will do when they are trained is do the best that we can to ensure that more of those higher trained officers are deployed to, for example, Bronte on July 1st because they'll have a different sense in being be able to read a crowd differently than an officer who doesn't have that type of training. So, there are enhancements coming with that, but you're right, it's not uh not here in time for this event, and it wouldn't be a call out of a public order unit for this event at this point. Thank you for that detailed explanation, and thank you for correcting me that it's called public safety uh team or or or group because um I think that was a conscious decision by by several people. We are we are Halton. Thanks for that reminder. Um uh my colleagues have asked most of my bylaw questions. I do have a question about detaining youth. So you know you don't physically see somebody. You don't know that it was them that person who deployed the firecracker or the Roman candle or what sometimes worse. Do you have the authority to detain to at least question during during this occurring or is uh because that seems to also be sort of a friction point for folks is could you at least like make them stop ask them some questions which then distracts them from perhaps joining into something that maybe they shouldn't. Yeah, I think you know as different officers with different experience levels can do things differently sometimes with youth or with adults. And there is uh there's something that we sometimes refer to as investigative detention. Really, you're talking to the person which might delay someone leaving. But to actually have the grounds to put your hands on someone and take them into custody, that's something where you need reasonable and probable grounds to make the arrest. And that comes back to where if you have 20 or 30 youth come together in a tight circle and somewhere in the middle someone lights off a firecracker, you don't know who did that. And so you don't have those grounds to make an arrest for that offense at that time. Because in that situation and you could have it where someone's standing on the street and fires it towards an officer at a cruiser or a citizen and we see that then we can clearly arrest that person for assault probably assault with a weapon reasonably and that that would be a criminal charge and they could be arrested at that point in time held in custody released to parents and all sorts of different things. But if it's simply the fireworks has gone off and no one knows who did it that's more complicated. I think we did have um a situation a couple of years ago where we identified someone who had actually fired the firework later because of some uh camera footage that we had. Uh and we certainly will be deploying drones and different things uh on on both of these dates as well. Okay. Well, you went to my next question already, which was drones. So, thank you for covering that one off right away. And so I guess my final questions are just around um Victoria Day is not that far away. Um and so I'm not sure what bylaws would be changed by uh in time for Victoria Day, but the public also has concern about Victoria Day. So, um, in your conversations earlier with town staff, do you have a sense that we can we can take action, uh, quickly enough to support, uh, a safer Victoria Day as well? My sense was that we can, but, I'll leave that to uh, the CEO and and staff. Uh, through you, Mayor Burton. Uh we did have that discussion today and uh and so the discussions with the police over the next couple of weeks uh in order to understand how we can coordinate and mesh the uh two powers together or the two solutions together I think um gives us time to also prepare those bylaws so we could have them in front of you on the 27th of April which would mean they'd be in effect for uh the May time time frame. Thank you very Thank you both. Thank you very much for your time and thank you. Uh, Godspeed. Thanks. Thank you, councelor Councelor Ramira. Thank you very much, Chief, for your comments. And um I'm, you know, I know it's a police officer's job to deescalate um all the time. Um but I'm I'm I'm on a bit of a roller coaster with with the conversation we've been having because it feels like a lot of the comments you're making are minimizing what's going on here. It's not a riot. It's not Ottawa. It's not we wouldn't deploy a public safety unit. Um, you know, there's really not been that many. There's it it seems like a lot of of of sort of minimizing what I think the community is not getting the same sense with maybe what the police officers are saying. And we have heard that for 3 to four years now. And I think it came to fruition the other night. So I I think there's a lot of residents out there who don't feel the same way you do that it's just kids being kids. You know, we've had seniors trampled. We've had strollers hit. We've had fireworks shot inside buildings. We've had cars go off the road. We've had numerous events that were not reported. And you heard that at the town hall. They don't report them because they said the police are right there. They didn't do anything. Why am I going to report it? So, I think I think what I'm what I'm I guess I would like to ask you is is can you assure the residents here that you're treating this as serious as they feel it is because it doesn't feel like it's coming across that way. To be to be very blunt, I I apologize for that. No, no, absolutely. And I appreciate the question and it was not my intent to downplay it to that level. This is a concern to us. This is a concern to me. This is a concern to the citizens and I know it ought to be a concern to council. So, we will deal with the situation. Councelor Mcnes, thank you through your worship uh and thanks for your delegation and and uh thanks for uh collaborating with us on trying to find a solution here. And I know you're right you're right down the street seeing it happen in your neighborhood as well. Um so you know one thing that sort of you know Sean and I are we're kind of out there every year and we spend our Canada Day and Victoria Day on Lakesure Road instead of you know down in the park with our families but we're you know we've just been very concerned and our phone rings off the hook the next morning but and like you said it's a couple percent of a large group that's growing in size that are the agitators or troublemakers and they seem to be in plain sight. you know, they've they've got these bigger and bigger, more sophisticated fireworks in a backpack because it doesn't fit in their their pockets anymore. They typically got face masks or Bellaclavas on, you know, and they're in the middle of the crowd there. But is there anything we can do to proactively search some of those uh folks that are have the backpacks, they kind of got their face covered, they're disappearing into the crowd. It's quite sometimes you even see a firework sticking out of their backpack, but I understand we're hesitant until we actually see them in the act. But, you know, speaking about being proactive, I mean, if we can disarm these maybe one or two dozen kids that are ready to drop those on the ground and make everybody scatter, then it's a group of kids that are horsing around, and I think we can deal with that. But is there is there any hope for sort of disarming them before they light the match? Well, I mean, I think I'll I'll gauge that and say I think there is hope of doing that. I think early intervention is probably going to be beneficial this year. Um, sometimes seeing one or two of your co- youth arrested or taken away will have a different impact on some, not all. Um, we can't stretch totally our grounds to search people. Uh, we'd be another country if we did that. So, we I do wish some of the rules were different because uh if we think that someone has a firearm in a backpack, we need grounds to be able to search for that, too. And I think there's there needs to be some changes at some point. But there are limitations under the charter uh for search and seizure, but we will search whenever we can. And if we think that there's grounds to believe that there's fireworks in that backpack, that's different, too. So, we will look at any possibility. Okay. Thank you for that. And just one other question, you know, as far as sort of going into the crowd, and I don't blame your officers for considering their safety when there's, you know, literally fireworks being shot right at them. Um, so I understand, you know, you're getting protection um through the public order unit has has some equipment and I I can appreciate it's maybe not a full deployment, but would there, you know, once the equipment's in store? I guess we're talking next year or so, like would it be limited deployment so you can go in the crowd and get that person in the middle? cuz otherwise we got to send Shawn in there every year and he's uh I think he got shot last year in the side of the face trying to figure out who's the agitator. But uh it so that would there be partial deployment? Is that sort of what we would expect so that they can get in there safely and try to get the person in the middle of the crowd? Yeah, I think what you need to see is a stage deployment of trained personnel so that you can they can switch into being more of a full public safety unit officer if they have to be. Okay. But that might not be the first image that you want to portray. Sure. Um because with 98 97 or 98% of the kids, there are reasonable rappors there. It's the 2% that we're all after, right? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, Chief. Before we turn to Commissioner Damaso, um, and picking up on the remark about the Bronny counselor's u attempting to participate in, uh, behavior, uh, control or crowd control? Uh, do the police have a preference about um, uh, where counselors should be in this picture? Should should they be on the street trying to uh help the police uh as I don't know cadetses or volunteers or what's what's the police uh preference? Well, if I talked about another municipality close to here, I would say it'd be preferred to be observers as opposed to actively guiding traffic or doing other things. So, it's uh I I think we certainly I I we need to along with the town of Oakco look at volunteers as well as uh uh perhaps there's a different way that we could have other people be eyes for us at these events. Uh but we certainly prefer not to have people getting directly physically involved. Okay, thanks for that. So, the counselors uh are probably relieved to hear that they they no longer need to get out there and be junior police. I I I think that's the message. So, thank you, sir. And uh and now we'll hear from Commissioner Damaso. Thank you, Mayor Burton, members of council. Uh firstly, we'd really like to express our sincere appreciation uh to the police board for designating uh the Bronny area Victoria Day and Canada Day as major events. Also like to thank Chief Tanner and his team for their commitment to support the safe delivery of the Canada Day event. Perhaps the most important message I'll share with you this evening is that the town staff are committed to supporting HRPS to deliver a coordinated and unified enforcement, safety, and communications plan for Victoria Day and Canada Day. To support that effort, we'll be scheduling a meeting with town staff and HRPS leadership in the coming days to confirm the details of our joint planning effort. Now, should council approve a reconsideration of the Bronny Canada Day, event staff will be engaging an external event safety consultant to assist with implementing an enhanced crowd management and egress plan for the event site. We'll also initiate plans for enhanced on-site staffing, increased volunteers, and increased presence to support the event. With respect to the unsanctioned activities that Chief uh referred to on Lakeshore, as outlined in the memo that council received earlier today, town staff will be exploring additional measures to support HRPS with their efforts. These initiatives may include the implementation of any new amended bylaws, temporary restrictions on park amenities and traffic, improved lighting, signage, and proactive communications to businesses, residents, and targeted audiences. Municipal enforcement staff will also work jointly with HRPS to maintain an enforcement present on on these two dates. Uh that they will take a lead role in responding to any bylaw related issues that might arise during the unsanctioned activities. Lastly, to deliver the town's portion of enhanced safety measures for the candidate event, we will require up to $75,000 as mentioned in additional funding which we're recommending comes from the tax rate stabilization reserve. In addition, if council proceeds with directing the event back to Bronty, staff will immediately proceed with procurement efforts to ensure that the the traditional evening fireworks performance will remain a part of the Bronty waterfront event. And with that said, turn it back to you, Mayor Mayor Burton, for any questions that council may have. Thank you, Commissioner. Council, do you have questions? Don't be shy. Councelor McNiss, thank you through your worship and and appreciate all the work you guys have been doing the the past couple weeks there and uh I think we've we've really turned things around and are setting ourselves on a path for a sustainable future of keeping it in Bronny which I think everybody we we've heard loud and clear everybody wants. Um I just want to touch on the volunteer opportunity. I mean I think we'd much rather be volunteers there than having to be eyes on the street but we're the ones that get the calls and complaints so we have to know what's going on. Um, is that sort of envisioned like Santa Claus parade, you know, put out a call for volunteers, uh, you know, vests and clipboards and walkie-talkies to help where we can or what are you thinking? So, through Mayor Burton, to councelor McNiss, that's exactly what we envision and and we're really focused in our minds having volunteers in the event site and leaving the policing to uh our partners at HRPS and to support from our enforcement staff. But we'd appreciate any support that council can provide and we'll work through our staff to help you get the word out for call to volunteers which would be very beneficial. Okay. I think that's a great idea and and we heard that loud and clear from our community that people are willing to help. So if there's uh there's a way they can help. I I I think that uh I think that'll work out well. So thank you councelor Adams. Thank you very much for the report. And you mentioned briefly uh the purpose of the extra $75,000. Could you provide any uh further details or a more itemized description of that just so we all understand how those extra resources are being deployed? So you mayor Burton to councelor Adams appreciate that question and I do appreciate the opportunity for transparency. What we're requesting is an upset limit of up to $75,000 that would be applied to the hiring of an event consultant to specifically assist with our planning around the event egress. um additional barricading and and fencing. Uh there would be additional dollars for staffing to enhance the safety and security of the site. Um there would be additional dollars to support signage and all of the additional uh incremental uh safety measures that we would implement onto the site. If there's any unused funds, we would obviously return those, but it gives us the latitude to really develop the detailed plan, which we're in the midst of really launching into along with our partners at HRPS. Thank you very much. And councelor Chisum, thank you worship. Um, first of all, I would like to thank the staff and and Paul for all the time you've put into this and the quick turnaround uh looking at alternate sites. But that just brings back and reminds me of uh way back when we've been looking at for a a special event park in Oakville and it still eludes us uh for all these type of events because the town has grown and uh it makes it very difficult uh to accommodate some of these events based on on our limited size of our parks. And anyways uh again thank you very much for the quick turnaround and all the work that staff done. Thank you. Thank you councelor Chisum councelor null. I wanted to speak to the motion if uh we're done questions. I'll stand down until the questions are done. That would be an idea. Councelor has a deal more questions. Just um a followup. So, in terms of uh the town's resources um and deployment, um what I heard you say is that you'll focus on the event and that the police the policing would be on the other. So from a volunteer perspective, have we been uh deficient in volunteers on Canada Day in the past? So through Mayor Burton, perhaps I should clarify that statement. We will have a focus on the event, but we will also actively be supporting uh Halton Regional Police along Lake Shore. Where most of our efforts will come is not only in bylaw enforcement, but in supporting the crime prevention through environmental design aspects that would benefit their work. And what I mean by that is the additional lighting, lighting fields, removing things like benches, uh supporting areas that might uh be areas of congregation, so with fencing and barricades. There'll be additional support perhaps around road closures. All of that detail will come out of the meetings that we're planning in a couple of days, but if I misspoke, I apologize. We are partnering on both aspects and we'll be very active partners to that degree. I really do appreciate that clarification. Thanks very much. All right. Thank you. And not seeing any more questions. I'm going to confine uh this to table and uh councelor null uh you're first. Thank you worship. I'm going to attempt to keep this to five minutes or less, but I have a bunch of things I wanted to just raise. First of all, um I just wanted to uh uh validate the concerns that were raised that got us here in the first place. Um I've been working hard on this as well. Um especially through the police board. I just want to acknowledge uh that every concern raised by the counselors from W one are totally valid as with members of the community. So uh I appreciate their concerns. I appreciate their cooperation as as we've been doing our police board work. Um and certainly the uh the willingness to reconsider their positions. So thank you very much to our Ward One colleagues for that. I want to say thank you to the staff for the incredible amount of work that they turned around in no time to come up with the suggestions for other locations. Um, and that should be certainly noted because it it's not being acknowledged very well tonight because we're going in we're going it's back to the future tonight and but I don't want the evening to go by without acknowledging the work they did because it was pretty incredible. That report was a lot of really good work. Um, uh, I want to also say thank you to the 922 people who signed our petition or my petition today. It was presented to the uh, uh, police board last week and again it was delivered to the clerk today. So, thank you to the 922 people as of noon today that has signed it. Um it's uh also a thank you big thank you to the chief and uh of course uh Jobar and Llama Nicholas who came by today to uh to address a lot of these issues. I know that a lot of the concerns were uh dropped on the feet of the police and that's what I really want to talk about tonight and that is the fundamental reason why I inserted myself to such a degree. Well, first of all, of course, recognizing the fact that if if there's ever a time that we need Canada, it's right now. uh in our history. You know, there's never been a time that we've had to be able to celebrate our country and what it means to be Canadian. And I think that that uh um fussing about that in other locations this year was was going to be a mistake. But I'm glad I'm so happy we seem to be moving in the right direction. But on the on the police board situation, my colleagues and I on the Halton Police Board really couldn't accept the premise that this major uh community event would be cancelled due to the misbehavior and the social disorder that were being conducted by a very small minority of our citizens and maybe some visitors from out of town. I also deeply regret that this cancellation could potentially would have potentially been thrust at the feet of not only the police but the teenagers of our community. 97 98% I'm not sure what the number is. The chief said 98. I'm guessing 97. We'll split in the middle. It's 97.5% of the kids that just went to have fun um shouldn't be vilified for this. It's not illegal to be a teenager and uh we need to recognize that at all times and be respectful of the fact that they're members of our society. They are the future and uh that the 2.5 or 3% that cause trouble are the ones we're really focusing on tonight. Now, the chief mentioned that there are two events uh at this at Canada Day in particular, and there's one on Victoria Day. Of course, it's the sanctioned event, which generally goes off without a uh uh a hitch, and then there's of course this nonsanctioned event. The police board is really the message that we've sent out there loud and clear is that the unsanctioned event is hereby canceled. Period. And we have to find a way to enforce that. And that's really what the next thing I want to talk about. and that is that that that design designation of the Victoria Day and Canada Day unsanctioned events as being major events. Now, uh the chief alluded to the fact where this emanated from. It's it's a result of the G20 riots in 2010 and to a certain degree the convoy occupation in Ottawa during COVID where police boards and police services were disconnected when it came to planning and executing uh safety initiatives within their communities to keep uh these major events under control to make sure that the resources are there, the reporting is there and the civilian oversightes there. Our board last May um put put forward a new policy uh in fact two new policies. one called policing m designated major events and matters of immediate significant strategic significance. These are two new policies that we've established. It's it's significant to our board because this is the first time they've ever been deployed uh in in Halton. One of the first times in Ontario um since the Morgan Commission as well as the uh community safety and policing act coming into force in effect uh last year on on April 1. So we are very anxious not only to see that come see this be deployed this time but also being able to use it as a test case to see how well uh this aspect of of community policing works. So um the chief identified some of the reasons why that's important and we're certainly watching very carefully and please know that your police board is going to be as vigilant uh in in providing the resources and the supports that the service needs to get this job done. It's absolutely essential for our community. Um trying to see where I left off here, chief. I think those are my primary points that I wanted to make today except to except to really state that um you know, we've heard, the police service has heard. Um the chief is here tonight, and that is a significant piece of business in and of itself. The chief is responsible for four municipalities. Canada First takes place on on July 1 in every community and he has to provide the services and the supports to every community. But he's taking time out of his schedule to demonstrate to the town of Oakville and to this council how important this particular issue is. And I want to say a big thank you to the chief, but also put that back to you as a demonstration of the significance and seriousness that uh that the police service and the police board uh put on this particular uh uh issue and the desire to keep this in our community. So with that, I want to thank everybody for their consideration. um really hope that this is unanimous decision this evening because I think it really sends a message um both to the community as well as to the police service that this is really important to us. But then also we're watching we're watching to make sure that the police deliver and we're watching to know that the community is going to be supportive uh and particularly watching and and asking the parents if your kids are going out on Canada Day or Victoria Day, ask them where they're going. Ask them why they're going there. Check their backpacks. Let's take some social let's take some responsibility for our kids as well. So with that, Mr. Chair, thank you for the time. Thank you for the courtesy that you've allotted me to participate this evening uh in this matter and uh I will turn it back to you. Thank you councelor. Thank you very much for the the time you gave us to express all those thoughts. Uh councelor Howlet deal. Thank you Mayor Burton. Well, I want to start um by thanking councelor Omira and councelor mcnes. uh for the last 3 years they've tried to raise this as uh uh an increasing safety concern and I for one am very appreciative they drew the line and said we need a safety plan in order to keep it in Bronte they did it for their residents and they did the right thing so this was a catalyst to make sure that we have a collaborative approach and that we're all on the same page to achieve achieve the kind of celebration during and after that everybody uh wants to experience. So I start with my thanks to them uh for having the courage of their convictions and for bringing us to where we are today. And I do agree with uh counselor null that um there are lots of teenagers who are just good good young people who want to just have um some fun. And we heard from some young people tonight um who um you're now being recruited by the chief of police. So feel good about that. Um and I also agree that celebrating Canada Day has to be a priority and doing it well in Oakville is all we know is to make sure that we celebrate and stand tall and proud. Um, I do want to emphasize the decisions last at that the prior meeting in no way reflected that people didn't want to celebrate Canada Day. It wasn't about saying no to Canada Day. It was about saying we need a solution. Um, and so with that, I'll be supporting the motion that's on the floor. I'm appreciative of the chief's time and and thank you uh Chair Null and Councelor Null for ensuring that we have uh all the resources available that we possibly can have uh to celebrate Canada Day safely and Victoria Day. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Um I uh I'm going to I intend to call the vote and I'm asking the clerk to call a roll call vote. Mr. The clerk, would you conduct the vote? Thank you, Mayor. Councelor Omira, yes. Councelor Mcnes, yes. Councelor Dudick, yes. Councelor Chisum, yes. Councelor Hazitfield, yes. Councelor Giddings, yes. Councelor Elgger, yes. Councelor Longo, yes. Mayor Burton, yes. Councelor Null, yes. Councelor Grant, yes. Councelor Adams, yes. Councelor Lucenna, yes. Councelor Nanda. Yes. Councelor Shei. Yes. Thank you everybody. That carries unanimously. Um thank you. Um all right. We're we're now going to move on to the next item which is 11.3 the veterans commemorative options. Uh we have a report regarding veterans commemorative options and I'd like to call on Jennifer Trimble, acting rightway manager to provide a presentation. Uh, and I would like to alert council that as you know, you've received a uh an enhanced uh motion uh from councelor Hlett deal uh to go beyond just receiving the information to establish uh some action on this on the basis of this report. Councelor Null, do you have your hand up for Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Uh we'll go to Miss Trimble now. Thank you very much. uh uh to the mayor if you can if the council would indulge. I would just like to do a short introduction before we start. So uh good evening Mayor Burton and members of council. We are pleased to report back on the veteran commemorative options as requested by council. Joining me is uh Jennifer Trimble who is the acting manager of right-of-way management who will be presenting this item. Jennifer has been serving as the acting manager role since January and has been with the department since 2022 as the supervisor of survey and construction. This will be her first time presenting before council and we are pleased for her to have the opportunity to present the work she has been leading in this portfolio. With that, I will turn to uh turn the presentation over to Jennifer. Um, sorry about that. Uh, uh, good evening, Mayor Burton, members of council, and members of the public who join us tonight. Um, we're here this evening to present this report in response to council's request to staff to report on options on how the town could honor veterans in our community. Today's presentation outlines options for commemorating veterans through public displays in Oak. And, excuse me, I'll provide an overview of existing initiatives and present three new commemorative options to council to discuss. Um, excuse me. The purpose of this report is to present options for commemorating veterans through public display approaches within the town. Council directed staff on December 4th, 2025 to explore options to commemorate veterans through public displays such as banners or pull-mounted displays and to report back to council in Q1 of 2026. Um, the recommendation today is that the report dated March 17th be received. Currently, the town has several initiatives to commemorate veterans, including permanent commemorations such as the Senate Memorials at Georgia Square, Trafaloger Memorial, and Chris Vokes Park. There's the veteran honor rolls lists. Um there's veteran memorial walls. We also have the Poppy street name program to honor deceased veterans. Um there's special street name signs across the town. The town also supports annual ceremonies at the three senate house and provides all veteran related information on oakill.ca. As directed by council, staff have outlined three options to commemorate veterans through public displays, including commemorative banners, traffic cabinet wraps, and interpretive display signs. These options provide both seasonal and permanent display opportunities. Capital costs, timelines, locations, and installation types vary across the three options and will be detailed in the following slides. Two design approaches were explored for illustrating and costing. One general theme design, which is on the right side of the image, or a custom banner honoring deceased veterans from within the community. I'd like to um just take a moment and note that the customized banner would be challenging to implement for Remembrance Day 2026 as the process to establish a criteria fees and outline the submission process and review. The submissions will still need to be established with finance heritage Oakville and our community partners. Please note that the image is shown here for visualization only um and is the proposed proposed templates, excuse me. Estimated 2026 capital cost is $9,000 and includes a contingency of $800. Annual maintenance costs are approximately $3,600 due to wear and fading. The option installs four banners at each of the three Senate locations for a total of 12 banners. banners would be displayed for about four weeks from mid-occtober to mid- November each year. Option two, the veteran um commemorative traffic cabinet wrap program. This option includes the implementation of commemorative wraps on three traffic cabinets near key intersections. We should know that the design and location still need to be determined. The intent is to have the locations as close to the senate locations as possible. However, there are no signalized locations directly adjacent to the Santa. The cabinet's wraps would be permanent and visible all year round. The estimated 2026 capital cost for this option is $14,850, including design, supply, installation, and it includes a contingency of $1,350. Mainten maintenance is expected every seven years at a cost of approximately $3500 per cabinet. the veteran commemorative interpretive display signs. This option involves the installation of three permanent interpretive display signs near the town's sanit sites. We should note that the design location still need to be determined. However, installation is planned prior to November 2026 and would be permanent and yearround. The estimated 2026 capital cost is $16,500 without which includes a $1,500 contingency. Maintenance is required every seven to 10 years at approximately $5,000 assigned. For further engagement, staff will reconnect with our with the Royal Canadian Legion branches and local BAS prior to implementing any option. Capital costs will be funded through the tax stabilization reserve with maintenance costs to be included in future budget processes. Roads and Works Operations will lead the implementation supported by corporate communications to consolidate veteran related information online. That concludes my presentation and we um we would be very happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. Uh council, any questions? Councelor Mcnes, thank you through your worship. Uh just a quick question to staff. Um so I was uh just on my way in. I was looking outside of uh the Bronny Legion just to see if there's any appropriate spaces for banners and it seems that uh different setup than on Lake Shore and the light posts are actually have electrical wires going across them too. So uh is that an appropriate uh location for additional banners or can we not do it if there's electrical wires on the leg post as well? So through the mayor, we have uh consulted with Oakville Hydro with respect to banners and locations that are adjacent to wires and they had suggested that they uh be uh the setback be uh abided by. So it would be just the lamp post similar to Bronny Road where we would suggest in order to maintain that setback. So you mean Lakeshore Road? Lakes Shore, sorry. Okay. Okay. So side streets like Jones uh would not be appropriate for uh banners because of the wood post configuration. Correct. I see. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Uh councelor has a deal questions. Yes. Thank you very much. Um, so, uh, I'm in receipt and I've just forwarded it to members of council, uh, from the commissioner, uh, a suggestion, uh, in regards to, um, options for the banner. So, first of all, um, I'm appreciative that of, you know, your thoughtful work around different options for consideration. Um in my view uh our veterans uh a banner reflects truly the spirit of in Flanders field about sacrifice, remembrance, responsibility. Um and um I'm so what I'm understanding from the commissioner is from a time constraint perspective you would prefer the banners uh with the poppy be first installed um by and and and you could achieve that by remembrance for 2026. Um, and then you have a uh you've sort of rephrased where councelor Chisum and I were going, which is to broaden uh the program to include the provision and installation of design B banners in the downtown Oakville Heritage District, all the Oakville League Legion locations, Kur Street and Bronte, and each comm community center during a four-week period leading up to Remembrance Day and around D-Day. um and that you then provide us with the additional cost uh later in June of doing that. Um, so respecting the commissioner's uh suggestion and perhaps yours as well, um, Lind, um, I think what's really important is that we take I'm I'm I'd be comfortable changing the motion that I circulated, that Ray and I circulated, um, to, uh, recognize, uh, that we start with the poppy. Um, but I do have some clarification I'd like on uh the uh the process for uh the option uh design B because I heard something about a fee and I'm I'm not sure what you meant by a fee. Uh sure. Through the mayor. Uh just to clarify the report back for bud uh for the costs associated with broadening the program is suggested to go through uh and be considered through the budget process this year. Um with respect to the fee aspect uh it was included there because there are other municipalities that have a similar veteran banner program that have an associated fee. We're not suggesting perhaps but just to consider the different options and present that back to provide a comprehensive uh uh review for council just so that they are aware of so that you are aware of the different municipalities that participate in a veteran banner program. Um so I won't speak for my uh my council my seconder. Um uh I I could accept and understand the first part of uh your uh changes to the motion um and uh and and support sort of point one and two of what you circulated. But I would prefer that uh the final point u be more definitive that staff broaden the program to include the provision and installation of design B banners in downtown Oakville. I won't read it all out to you again um through that period. I just I understand that we may benefit from some of that additional experience, but I I think given how we just talked about celebrating Canada Day, given how we we recognize the importance of recognizing the sacrifice of um our our veterans and their families sacrifice, I I I wouldn't want a a fee and b I I would really like to move it. I can accept that it has to be in 2027 budget, but is it not possible um to use um my our second bullet in our motion? How would you So through the mirror, uh if I understand correctly, the second bullet Councelor, could I offer to assist the the item you've just circulated from the commissioner? Um, there's a bold-faced title that says item 11.3, veteran commemorative options, alternate motion, and there are four bullet points. And the third one appears to me to be identical to your second one, except for the addition of the year 2027 to it, which I thought I heard you just say was fine by you. So, is it not the case that these four bullet points here are are perfect for you for your purposes? Thank you for for catching that, Mayor Burton. I was looking up at at an earlier paragraph. Yes, I would be fine with uh and and councelor Chisum is nodding as well. Um, so, uh, the alternate motion would meet with what we would like to table as the motion tonight. Super. Um, let me So, at the appropriate time when I can find it to table anyway, that'll be the motion that's on the table. Um, but we have a lineup of questions. So, um, just in the interests of procedure, let's get your motion on the table. This is moved by councelor Hlett deal and seconded by councelor Chisum that the implementation of option one design a in consultation with the Oakville Legion locations and other stakeholders for the recognition of veterans in Oakville for November 2026 be approved. Secondly to support the veterans commemorative banner program in the amount of $9,000 funded from the tax stabilization reserve be approved. Third, that staff consider broadening the program to include the provision and installation of design B banners in the downtown Oakville Heritage District, all Oakville Legion locations, Kurr Street and Bronny, and each community center during the four-week period leading up to Remembrance Day and around D-Day for 2027 and fourth that staff report back with broadened program costs through the 2027 budget process. And uh councelor uh hazatil and councelor chisom that's your motion your worship just a one word smithing can we take out consider and two take consider to consider take just the consider out oh so for the third point you'd like to be that staff broaden the program broaden the program correct thank you um will you accept a bit of an effort at humor oh that's what I read that's what it'll All right. Now, we have a lineup. Um, councelor has a deal, are okay, councelor Adams, you are next. Thank you very much. Um, I'm really glad for the motion. I fully agree that option uh one is the the right way to go. Um, I just had a and now that we've got this u alternate motion provided to us, it's really helpful. I think it clears up a bunch of things. I just had one uh word smmithing question for you which is in the first bullet it says in in consultation with the Oakville Legion locations and other stakeholders. So I just wanted to clarify are we talking about in the first year doing the three locations um because the the use of the words in consultation with the Oakville Legion locations is confusing. Is it do you mean to say in consultation with the Oakville Legions uh through the mayor? That's correct council Adam. So maybe we could make a word smithing correction there. Um I believe the mover and secretary would be happy to remove the word locations and make the word legion plural. Perfect. And um and thank you very much. And I want to thank all the uh the various members of council who have had a part to play in this. Uh I know that councelor Grant next to me here uh brought the discussion to my attention uh last year and so I thank him for that. Thank you, councelor. Counselor Grant, Speaker of the Devil, and he appears. Um, one small thing with number three, we're mentioning Kur Street Bronty, we don't include the Uptown CPS, and I missed that earlier when we were passing notes back and forth. I'd like to make sure that Memorial Park and and the Uptown CP do get included in this. Um because again the original discussion where this all started with with myself and councelor McNiss talking about crosswalks and we moved up from crosswalks and banners are so much better than crosswalks but I would still like to have those areas represented. Let me ask the mover and secretary if they um would be happy to add after Kur Street and Bronny and the third bullet and Uptown Core through you your worship to the council um what park are we talking about is that Oak Memorial Park or Memorial Park. Yeah. But what's the what's the official title? Tofula Memorial Memorial. Thank you with that. So, Uptown Core, right? Okay. Sorry, Worship, but I think it's very being uh Council Grant is being specific to the location. Is that correct? I'm trying to be more specific. It's We've covered Kur Street, we've covered Bronty. There's really nothing in this third point that talks about north of the QEW specifically as far as the street goes. So he's councelor he's hoping to use the word uptown core for parody with mentioning Kurr Street and Bronny and uh the Oakville Heritage District and so I have I have no issue with that. Thank you. All righty. It's wonderful when we reach uh consensus on these things. Council Grant, anything else? Uh I think we've clarified then with one and two. We are still looking at having banners at least at the three areas where people worship. Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Perfect. Uh councelor Giddings, your turn. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh I don't know whether I heard it or not, but when you mentioned a fee, just could you specify what the fee would be for? So through the mayor again the intention of including in the report was to replicate what other municipalities have done associated with their veteran banner programs. Uh taking this back we would review whether a fee would be applicable. It's not the intent to say there would be a fee but just to review that to provide staff with or sorry to provide council with a wholesome review of what uh we are proposing but as well as what our partner our um our municipal partners are doing as well. So the intent is not to uh necessarily impose a fee, but So are you are you able to share were those fees from the Legion or individuals wanting to celebrate a a grandma or grandpa or so through the mayor. Some other municipalities have a fee associated with the nomination process. Um depending on how the banner program is established, it is sometimes through the veterans or legions associations or sometimes through the municipality. Again, there are several veteran banner programs within Ontario and within uh Canada itself. So, we would look to those examples and provide them to council as an overview. But again, suggest what would be most appropriate. All right. So, you'll be bringing that back for consideration. That's correct. All right. And my second question is in terms of uh the historical groups, we could reach out to them now, could we not? because there I know there's a lot of research that has been done and so we could include them in the first wave if you will. Could we follow up on that one with them? So through the mayor with respect to the historical groups it would be um with uh associated with customization and with uh particular individuals. Um so again the time to do and that process in terms of um uh reviewing what the process would be like uh the um consultation with not just the historical society but with the veterans themselves. It it is quite challenging to do that for November 2026 which is why the alternate motion provides us the opportunity to put together that framework for uh the review and nomination and vetting process. Um and then like I said provides us an opportunity to put forward uh some commemorative banner for this year in an expedited way. I appreciate that. I understand. Is it possible if that research has been done that uh it would could be considered? So uh through the mayor if I understand correctly you're asking if we could research that. No. if it were done by the historical uh groups and then you could vet it or go through it or see if it stands up to whatever standards you have uh through the mayor. Yes, we can definitely include the historical societies uh and uh we could look at what the framework is for the street naming process as well with our heritage group. Great. Thank you. So, um, following up on that, um, Councelor Hazatil and Councelor Chisum, um, would you be comfortable adding to the first bullet and the third bullet, uh, in the appropriate spot, uh, Oakville's historical societies as those being uh, consulted with in the possibility that they may already have this work in hand? Uh, yes, May. I believe they may. Yes, Mayor Burton. In fact, our original motion did say in consultation with the historical societies um and it should include the region as well. So, um if we need a moment to word smith it, but I would agree with you. It does need to it it does to need to be in consultation and I mean real consultation. I'm a little worried about this this nomination process you're talking about. I'm sure that you'll help us understand it better. Um I think it's much more important that we have in consultation with them and use their expertise and as you said the veterans. So Mayor Burton my short answer is yes. Thank you. The clerks will make that happen in the using their bylaw for you know amending and adjusting. So I'm confident that they'll catch this on the fly and please plus you know we're recording this. Councelor Mcnes. Thank you through your worship to staff. Um, is it easy to pull the presentation back up just that visual you had of the um banners? Um, I just wanted clarity on one thing here and uh I'll as it comes up I'll specify my question. So just the image uh you had sort of a rendering of the um what the banner could look like on a on a light post there. Oh yeah. So, uh, so I'm see typically at least, uh, in Brownie and I think all the BAS, we sort of use one side of the light post. Um, and I was sort of thinking just based in the staff report on design A, design B, but I would say this is quite striking the way you've you've uh grabbed a picture from uh somewhere there or Siri, I guess it is. Um, is there a possibility because I think that would really stand out if it's uh sort of time-sensitive displays and uh with kind of this shortterm being design a with the poppy longer term coming potentially the following year where we'd add it on the other side. It would really really stand out from other sort of stuff that's up and down the street. But is that a possibility or I think Sam's got the answer. So through the mayor uh thank you for the question with respect to uh the details and uh respect to the banners that are being proposed. Uh what was uh proposed here in option one as well as the capital costs associated with it is just the one side as we already have the hardware uh that is there. Um we would have to review uh whether that is possible in terms of the hardware and the feasibility of it to add. There are again setbacks with respect to wires etc uh for hydro. So we haven't done that review as of yet. But I would um say that if we were to review it and it is feasible we would have to increase the capital cost in order to do that but um again we would have to review that as we haven't done that to date. Um, okay. And my understanding, if I remember correctly, through the streetscaping that's happening in Kerr and uh Bronny, and I think you're right that maybe right now the hardware doesn't really work on the existing lights because otherwise we'd be doing it. Um, but I think with the new fixtures we're getting in Bronny and Kerr, there's potentially an opportunity to have the double-sided signs. Um, if unless correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's if I remember correctly, that's what I recall. So through the mayor, we can look at that through the streetscape study. But I would also suggest we could include that as part of the broadening program and looking at how to uh do double-sided uh banners so that again we can expedite the the banner the poppy banner for this year and then again look to broaden it in terms of double siding uh each uh street lighting pool. Okay. Uh would that need to be in the motion or would that um operational detail? Okay, great. Thank you. That brings us to councelor Chisum. Thank you, worship. Just a couple things. Um I know that the devil's in the details and we're not there yet. And uh just through experience in my past past world when we get into this is going to be what the terms of reference what the what the committee composition is, what's the responsibility of the town, what's the responsibility of the community with respect because we seem to getting everybody involved in this. So, it's it's got to be very clear and concise on articulate what what the what this is all what the this is all going to happen and how it's going to work. For example, right now we have this community spirit awards. We have the Opal Arts Council grants. We've got the Opal Sports Sports Hall of Fame. All of those have had ups and downs over the years. So, we have to be clear and concise with respect to how this is going to to uh be administered. Now, the fee that I could still see a fee happening and I'll give you my my uh opinion on this is that there's going to have to be a lot of research on this uh from staff and uh I think you know just putting an application in because it has to be verified and you're going into federal pro federal and provincial um information on on some of our war veterans and so forth. So, I think there's going to be a lot of work on so don't disregard the fee. I understand uh you know we don't want to charge but there's an administrative cost. However, if we can absorb that I would I'd be happy with that too. So um good luck on this. I think this is great. Okay. Thank you councelor Chisum. Just to make sure I'm not confused. Um the motion that we're considering passing here doesn't require a fee. Uh the work for the future may recommend one. All right. and you've declared in advance that you might maybe support a fee. Counselor has the deal again. Mayor Burton, so my final comments are really that it sounds like everybody is supportive of us uh taking a first step and then taking and then broadening it uh so we can have an even greater impact. Um, thank you to my council colleagues for uh making sure that it's a holistic approach across all of Oakville. Um, that was its intent. Um, and it always takes a village. Um, I I do think it's really important that we uh we keep this remembrance visible. Our our young people seeing it will benefit from that. And in this time of absolute conflict around the world, um reminding people about the courage and sacrifice it it took um is critically important. So I'm appreciative of everyone's support. Thank you, councelor. Uh when I get a chance, I'm going to ask the clerk to I'm going to uh request a roll call vote, recorded vote, and uh I'm going to be asking the clerk to call a vote. Councelor Null, you're next. Thank you. A question to staff, and I'm sorry if I missed this during the presentation. I was trying to uh I was reading ahead a bit and I just want to clarify the consultation that would take place between the town staff and the legions etc. That's relation that's in relation to the location uh and design not necessarily to the uh to the veterans. Am I correct bec and the reason I'm asking that is because a lot of work was done uh about a decade or so ago um to uh research and validate the veterans from Oakville and Trafalog Township. Um, uh, that was painstaking. I know cuz my wife did the Trafalogar piece. Uh, and I got sucked into that. Um, but it was also I just know that there was a lot of back and forth, people wanting to see demonstrations that this person was definitely from Oakville, not from Port Credit or whatever. So, that work was done. I'm just want to make sure that we're not invalidating that work or that we're not going to recreate the uh the wheel again on that piece of it. So through the mayor with respect to uh the first step of phase one if we're calling that it wouldn't invol it would involve just the locations etc as you mentioned in terms of broadening the program we would build upon the existing work that's already be done and see again if there are names that aren't there there's the administrative process that councelor Chisum had mentioned to see and validate those but again we'll provide that with our reporting back through the budget process to identify that framework adding is great but I just when when uh Ry was mentioning valid validating through federal government and such. I had this vision that we'd be going back and doing that all over again. And it was a lengthy um and uh um timeconuming and expensive process. So I make sure we don't um undo what we've done in the past. Well, we don't want to take any names that we've validated off of the wall of recognition either, do we? Um I see no more questions and so I'm going to quickly ask the clerk if he would uh call a vote. Thank you, Mayor. Councelor Ramire. Yes. Councelor Mcnes. Yes. Councelor Dick. Yes. Councelor Chisum. Yes. Councelor Hazel. Yes. Councelor Gettings. Yes. Councelor Algar. Yes. Councelor Longo. Yes. Mayor Burton. Yes. Councelor Null. Yes. Uh Councelor Grant. Yes. Councelor Adams. Yes. Councelor Luca. Councelor Nanda. Yes. And councelor Shei. Yes. It's carried. Mayor. Thank you everybody. That carries unanimously. We'll turn now to 11.4. four where um you have the report regarding a global economic, cultural, and tourism engagement committee. Um and uh I'm looking for questions andor a motion to endorse councelor null and councelor she counselor null. Not councelor Shia councelor Shia thank you Mr. Mayor. So uh I don't have questions. So I just want to express my support for this creation of a global economics culture and the tourism engagement committee and thanks for mayor's office and staff for bringing this forward. So in today's changing global economics environment is important for Oakville to stay connected with international partners and explore new opportunities in business, culture and tourism etc. As a global diverse and economically strong community, Oakville is well positioned to building partnership that support our local business, attract investment and strengthen our economics resilience. So this committee will provide a focus and collaborative platform for council to identify opportunities, support key sectors and align with Canada and entire government effort to expand international engagement. It will also help raise Oakville's global profile and create new opportunities for our residents and the business community. So I can tell you there's are several cities in Asia lining up to seeking opportunities to build relationship and collaboration with us. I really honored and uh to be serve as the chair of this committee and looking forward to work with Mayor Burton and fellow counselors and staff to advance this important work. Thank you very much. Council Shia, just to make it official and get this on the floor, can I take your vote of your expression of support as uh being the mover of this? Councelor Nandanda, would is there a chance you'd like to second it? All right. Uh it's on the floor. Councelor Omeira and then councelor Dunik. Uh thank you very much. Just a couple of questions. Um, so where what is the what is the FTIR strategy that has launched this? Where where is that information that has said where we're pointing and where we're going with this strategy? Where what's the what's the the background study here that that has launched this? councelor, the uh the rationale for this is in the report where we discuss the role of cities as the implementation layer in Canada and we're we're showing our support for the initiative by our prime minister and our premier to open up uh our economy to expand our our trade uh and uh cultural opportunities around the world as well as at the same time trying to increase our business with the with our traditional main trading partner, the United States. As you saw earlier, OEC is already uh well on the road to establishing that. The uh uh when when FDI happens, it winds up happening at in concert with the work of the local municipalities in the country. So, uh, this report establishes that our municipality is seeking to be a leading municipality in, uh, being ready to do the implementation work of, uh, securing, uh, uh, businesses on the ground here in Oakville. I I I get the high level what why it's important to have FDI, but I mean, I'm I'm again, I'm wondering, you know, I don't Are our sister cities involved in this? Is there a mongulization committee being formed like this? I'm I'm not I I get I I read the prime minister's quotes that he took out of some speeches when he was away, but I didn't know that those quotes form a strategy. I mean, we had our economic development strategic plan in 2025 just launched. And it didn't mention any countries we should be targeting. It didn't mention uh specific sectors. It didn't really go into the specifications of what I think now we've launched into here. So I'm just wondering what's the what's the more detailed strategy that's that's that's springboarding this other than well we need to do more trade which everybody gets but what what this is going we even got towns we've got staff pointed out for their connections with certain countries. So what has led to that that detailed of where we're going? Like what's the what's the underpinning strategic plan that we've got here that has launched where we're going with these with with with what seems to be a a very far progressed committee here. The uh the detail of uh specifying China and India arises from the prime minister's selecting of them as the main targets for Canada. Uh and and and counselor, I I gather you have reservations and and that's all right. Um uh we but but those are the answers to your questions. Okay. So um what has the Oakville Chamber of Commerce said in terms of their involvement with the committee? The Oakville Chamber of Commerce will be invited to work with the committee as will all the the uh the committee's main job as it says in the report is to identify the resources and those interested in in in being the implement the implement for Oakville of this federal and provincial series of initiatives to expand trade and economic growth. So I guess we've appointed only council members to this committee. Why would we not try and appoint business leaders in this community to the committee? We haven't appointed anybody. I'm looking for endorsement by council of this uh proposition. The uh the committee will be able to work with other uh all the people that you might name and uh the committee will be able to form subcommittees uh that may include others. Uh but this is the way to start it in my opinion. Have we engaged the tourism board as well on this? It's a tourism engagement committee. So are are they involved on the committee or or have they been have have their there's position been known about what their thoughts on the committee are? They will be invited to participate if they wish. Okay. Councelor Dick. Thank you. Um I too have um concerns regarding this committee. Um, I think it's a noble effort. I think it's very timely in one respect, but it's not timely in another. We're less than a month away from nominations being received for um candidacy for the um next term of council. And there may very well be some people who don't return. Some people who will be new coming on to the comm uh the council who may have a beneficial skill set that they should be appointed to this committee. And so my point would be maybe we and I don't know you would know procedurally. I don't want to tie the next council's hands but recommend that this committee be struck in the next term of council. What I have a problem with is the timing of this. um why were not some other people canvas to see if they wanted to participate in this committee cuz up until now you've been very good about getting broad consultation around the table and I don't see it but my biggest concern is the timing. The timing is poor and if it goes ahead as it's currently written I cannot support it. Thank you, counselor, for your advice. Um, this council continues as council until the end of its term. This council can do the groundwork that time permits as a gift or a transfer to the next council and the next council will decide whether it wants to have the committee or not. Um, I uh those are the answers that I can give you to your questions. I accept that you don't like it and and that's fine. Can I can I ask your worship given that it comes from your office? Did you canvas people to participate or did you solely appoint your recommendations? I haven't appointed anybody. I asked those individuals if they were interested in it. I tried to um focus on the town counselors because the regional counselors have twice the workload of the local town counselors and uh they don't get as as much opportunity to uh to make an extra difference the way the uh town and regional counselors do. And so in a spirit of fairness, I thought we would give them an opportunity that they might not otherwise get. Well, there's some other local counselors who might have appreciated being asked. That's my point. Um, very well. Uh, these are the the nominees I'm putting in front of you, councelor Elgar. Yeah, thank you. Through member Burden. Yeah. Uh, I appreciate what what you're trying to do here, but I'm just when I look through I realize you couldn't do it as a regular mayor uh what what you're trying to do, but through the strong mayor's act, you clearly can create and dissolve a committee. You can uh mandate set the mandates and functions. You can uh appoint the chair. You can appoint the vice chair. But I looked everywhere and I couldn't see where you could actually pick the committee. So I would like to ask the clerk exactly where uh it states that you're you are allowed the statutory provision in the municipal act to appoint all the members. That's that's all. So if the clerk can tell me where that is in the regulations, I would appreciate that. Counselor, it's inherent in the word established to the committee. establish contains the meaning of appointed to members. But I I will defer to the clerk. Mr. Clerk, thank you. I would echo the mayor's sentiments on that comment. Um, as well, this motion and recommendation is going to all of council. So, ultimately, it would be all of council that would be agreeing to the terms of the appointments and appointees to the committee. Well, wait a minute. That's not that's not what I was asking. I agree with you what you just said, the Mr. clerk, you said that once we agree to it, once we vote on it, we've agreed to it. And I agree, but I don't agree to this motion based on the fact that the it only says the mayor can appoint the clerk or or can appoint the chair and the vice chair. So that's where I need to uh I want to see the succinct clarification where that is that is approved based on the municipal act and the strong merit powers. That's all counselor. It's in the word establish the committee. It is that's what established means. Oh I well that's not what I was I'm reading anywhere I drill down. So council that is news to me. I'll I'll I'll put you down for no if you like. But the uh yeah, that's fine. No, I I it's just to get clarification on what's happening because I can't find anywhere where that state that what you just stated is in fact the fact based on the rules and regulations and Ontario. Well, councelor, you have my answer. Okay. Thank you. Um councelor has the deal. Thank you through you, Mayor Burton. Um, well, we have a lawyer in the room. Could uh could you possibly uh address counselor Elgar's question? Um, yes. Thank you. Uh, through you u uh Mayor Burton to the counselor. Uh, the provision of the municipal act I think that the counselor was referring to uh is section 284.8 eight uh which provides uh that subject to the regulations the following powers of the municipality with respect to prescribed committees um and prescribed in this case refers to committees that are comprised entirely of members of council um are assigned to the head of council namely u one the power to establish or dissolve committees two the power to appoint chairs and vice vice chairs of committees and three the power to assign functions to the committee. Um I I take it the uh the counselor is questioning whether or not paragraph one the power to establish or dissolve committees includes uh by definition the power to name all the members of the committee. Um the section doesn't really give us any uh direction one way or another on that point. Uh the the member is correct that the section is silent on that. Um, and so the mayor and the clerk have offered an interpretation that the power to establish includes the power to to name the members. And I have no um authority or uh um direction that that is an incorrect interpretation. Um so I I could uh support the interpretation that you're being provided by uh the mayor and the clerk on that point. So, thank you for that, solicitor. Um, uh, I have a question for economic development. Um, uh, and I see Rebecca is here. Um, so there's no doubt that the world, uh, and, uh, trade organizations and, uh, our ability to support, uh, business growth is important. Um my question to you is what are your expectations of this committee in comparison to what the economic staff uh will um deliver on a foreign direct investment strategy through you may to the counselor um the way that I'm looking at it so our economic development plan um identified a need to look at FDI and determine what our role and scope is and so I see this committee as giving us sort of a new way to identify and act on international opportunities and so we'll work together collaboratively um going forward on what that looks like. Um, as a followup, are you looking for expertise around uh business investment or are you simply looking for um what I w what I would have used in my other life um you know focus group kind of discussions around this is a good contact, this is a business that uh you know has some level of interest. Is it more of a relationship piece that you're looking for or is it business expertise? through you, Mayor Burton. I mean, it could be both. Um, I think one of the things we'd be looking for with this committee is as we have recommendations, being able to take it to the committee to get their feedback. As Mayor Burton had mentioned, the committee can engage with other groups like the chamber and visit Oakville. So, all of that collaboration can help us determine our next steps and and work together. Okay. Thank you for that. Um, you know, my council colleagues have raised a point that that when I read it, I Mayor Burton, I have to admit it struck me as well. I mean, in the past, um, you know, every year you ask who we poll who would want to be on what committee. Um, and, uh, uh, that wasn't done in this regard. Um, when we, uh, had to form a committee for Midtown, we formed it as a committee of the whole. And so I I guess I'm just asking what what made you decide that this is the approach versus a holistic approach that enabled all of us to contribute um uh in this regard. I wanted to keep the committee um small uh just the right size so that it didn't constitute a majority of council and uh all council members are free to attend meetings as you know under our procedure bylaw and uh the committee will make its recommendations to council. Okay. My last couple questions are, is there an anticipation that this will include uh committee trips uh across uh international uh boundaries in support of or is that uh outside the scope of this committee? Um, I anticipated that this committee would lay the groundwork for a future council to uh uh target any FDI trips. Uh, if opportunities arise at no cost to the town or minimal cost to the town, uh, the committee doesn't have the authority to mount such a trip, but it can recommend uh support from council for it. Okay. So, so this so this committee is one vote short of a majority. That's right. And could make recommendations for themselves to take uh international trips uh in the spirit of foreign investment. Have I understood that correctly? With council's approval. So it you know just speaking to the scale of the committee should it not be smaller so that it is not just one vote short? Uh I I see no logic in that. Okay. All right. Um I I I personally understand and hope that that's the the spirit and intent to to uh engage and you know bring forth uh a bunch of ideas and relationships and connections that benefit the community. I I am disappointed in how it's been approached. Um um and um I'm I am a bit concerned that there's a lack of clarity about what this committee would deliver and there's no evidence in here about the difference this committee uh would be uh you know held to in terms of how they would um deliver results um uh for the community. Well, I think you're prejudging their work. Um, and uh, that's your privilege, but uh, I think you should give them a chance. It's, may it's not about not wanting to give them a chance. I'm not saying that I don't see the e, you know, the benefits of an economic cultural tourism engagement folks. It's just the way you framed it doesn't really put any specificity on what is it we're really driving to get the result from. and nor did I hear that from economic development. So I, you know, it's it's in no means um the members on the committee I'm sure will bring their best game to it. It's just the approach to this has um has perhaps not been what you would normally have done. Thank you. Thank you, Councelor Councelor Longo. Thank you, worship. I think uh given the global climate, given uh the issues with supply chains all over the world, I think uh this is a a great uh start to a committee. Uh be it a committee that hands off to the next council. Um I think it's a great idea to start thinking about this to start thinking about the ability to have conversations with other jurisdictions with the help of the federal government, provincial government. Um so I think it's uh you know seeing around corners in a sense. Uh, I think I'm the only local counselor who's not on there, which uh two of us are not on, but I think uh at this point uh I think we can all give input uh and not necessarily be on the committee, but I think it's a great start. Thank you, councelor. Um Mr. Clerk, uh if there are no other questions, I'd like you to call the registered delegation. Thank you, Mayor Lean El Barasi. Welcome to the uh seeds of leadership group again. Thank you. We look forward to your comments. Thank you very much. Uh good evening, Mayor Burden and members of council. My name is Len Alvaresi. I'm a first year student at Toronto Metropolitan University. I've been living here in Oakville for about 10 years. I'm currently residing in the Lakeshore area. Alongside me are my friends and also my colleagues in the same program of seeds of leadership. Uh Maria Salahin and Aisha Ashar who are both grade 11 students at Irakqua Ridge High School and both have been living in Joshua Creek. Maria has been living in Joshua Creek for the past 14 years and Aisha has been living here for the past three years. We're here today to support the approval and the creation of the global economic cultural and tourism engagement committee. Now, we are not here as experts, of course, but rather just to share some of the thoughts that we had as youth who read over the report and why we think that this could be a good investment for the town of Oakville, specifically when it comes to the tourism aspect. We see Oakville changing every single day. And according to the town of Oakville, our current population is now 46% visible minorities from when it used to be 31% back in uh 2016. And this is a huge jump. We believe that this committee is a smart and necessary step to make sure that the town's leadership and policym actually reflects the global reality of the people who live and study here. We would also like to share certain aspects that we could um that we find important to consider and keep in mind if this committee were to hopefully move forward and be approved. Now, when we look at the numbers, it's clear why this committee is so timely. But we also have to look at exactly where that diversity is. We find that areas such as Joshua Creek have more visible minorities than Bronty, for example. And as this committee looks for international connections, we have to make sure we're looking at the whole town, not just one or two areas. Because Canada's identity isn't a melting pot where you lose your culture. It's a mosaic. And that's Oakville's biggest strength. According to 2021 Statistics Canada data, we have over 100 languages spoken here in Oakville and so many different places of worship. By endorsing this committee, you're acknowledging that our diversity isn't just a nice to have social trait, but it's actually our greatest economic and tourism asset. We want to make sure that every resident, whether they've lived here for three years like myself or lived here for their whole life, feels represented when Oakville reaches out to the world. I also want to talk specifically about the tourism side of this committee's mandate. We've asked our family, friends, and close circles about their concerns regarding tourism in Oakville. And there's the worry that tourism means Oakville will become loud, busy, or lose its charm. And we live here, so we have those same concerns. We don't want the town to feel overcrowded. But we see a different way to do it, a boutique model. Think of it like a dayrip destination. In Japan, tourists leave the busyiness of Tokyo for a few hours or the full day to visit quiet, beautiful towns nearby like Kamakura. Oakville can be just that for Toronto. We have a 30 to 40 minute GO train connection and people staying in Toronto can come here for the day, walk our waterfront, eat at our local restaurants and then head back for the night. This dayrip economy brings in global revenue and supports our local businesses without needing a 100 new hotels or changing the quiet charming soul of our town. Now I'd like to pass this back to Lean to speak about her personal experiences regarding this as she often goes between Oakville and Toronto. Thank you, Aisha. And you are completely right. I feel this potential every single week as I do live in downtown uh Toronto during the weekdays in an off-campus apartment to be close to my school and then I come back home to Oakville in the weekends. So during those weekdays, I spend a lot of time in the busyiness of Toronto, the high energy, the hustle and bustle. And it is an amazing city with a lot of opportunities of course, but it is loud. It's congested. It is definitely not as safe as Oakville is, I would say. And it can be really exhausting. And to be frank with you all, I feel this sense of relief and this breath of fresh air when I come back to Oakville. Uh makes me realize how much of a blessing that this town uh really is. Um and I hope that this sanctuary feeling um is something that we will be able to share with the rest of the world as well. We don't need to compete with the bigger cities or we don't need to compete with Toronto which already has 26.5 million visitors per year. That number only increasing. We should be complimenting it. If we position Oakville as a place to go to wind down or to experience a different side of the GTA where you can't find in other places, then we will protect that charm that we do have in this town while also having the opportunity to grow our economy. But we have to be honest that being a sanctuary is also a double-edged sword. As we support this committee's goal of global engagement, we have to recognize that as different communities mix and collaborate, that we also do gain diversity, but also a rising risk of intolerance. And we do see this risk in the data. In a report from the Halton Regional Police, it's reported that hate crimes have more than doubled recently from 8 to 20 in the past year. And these aren't just statistics, they are a warning. We believe that before this committee can safely use our diversity as a marketing tool for tourism or investment that we must ensure that our own residents feel like they belong no matter where they come from or how long that they've been living here in Oakville. If the very people who live here cannot that make it diverse don't feel safe in their own town, then Oakville could not become a worldclass destination for anyone who wishes to visit. Now, unfortunately, it's the same with our infrastructure. I'm sure some of us may know the ongoing bottleneck of weight times at our very own Oakville Trafaloger Memorial Hospital. And from the experience of volunteering at OTM myself, I noticed that ER weight times can reach up to the high of 4 hours long. And I understand some of us may still feel the loss of a 16-year-old boy who tragically passed away in 2024 because of this exact reason. Now although this was a rare case, if we want to attract global recognition and tourism, our services, safety, and health care have to be even more re reliable than we know of them as of now. Now, we understand that global engagement isn't just a switch that you flip and it doesn't happen overnight. It's a process and it takes time. We expect and welcome a slow, intentional growth that allows Oakville to adjust without losing its soul. But we also know that the national economic emergency and international shifts mentioned in your report won't wait for us to be ready. So by endorsing this committee, you are choosing to manage our future instead of letting it happen to us. This is a smart strategic decision because it builds a web of connections that protects our local stability. It ensures that we remain a town that is globally competitive but also locally connected. a place where the fresh air and quiet charm that we all love are preserved by the very same policies that bring us prosperity. We ask that as you move forward with this mandate, you keep our perspectives in mind. Our diversity is our strength and our safety is our foundation. Thank you so much for listening and for giving us the opportunity to be civically engaged in shaping the future of the town we are so proud to call home. Thank you. Thank you very much. I I can't tell you the number of times we on council have wished for delegations from young people and uh we've been rewarded twice and uh we really appreciate it. Uh councelor Shia has a question. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I don't have question. I really thank you for all of you to come to the delegation. I really like some good idea and suggestion for the tourism industry happening in Oakville. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, council, I'm going to call I'm going to have the vote uh by the clerk. Uh, a recorded vote, please. Uh, Mr. Clerk. Thank you, Mayor. Councelor Omira, no. Councelor Mcnes, yes. Councelor Dudik, no. Councelor Chisum, yes. Councelor Hazit, no. Councelor Giddings, yes. Councelor Elgar, no. Councelor Longo, yes. Mayor Burton, yes. Councelor Null, yes. Councelor Grant, yes. Councelor Adams, yes. Councelor Leenna, yes. Councelor Nanda, yes. Councelor Shei, yes. It's carried. Mayor, thank you, council. That carries. Um, we uh we have no confidential discussion items on the agenda. You have your staff memorandum and memoranda in section 13 of the agenda. Is there any new business or congratulatory condolence to uh observe? Councelor Giddings. Uh thank you, Mr. Mayor. I don't have congratulations or condolences. I did have a quick question on one of the staff memos. Go ahead, sir. Uh 13.3 Transportation Engineering Department. Boy, I just dropped down here. Great to see that we're getting increased funding uh as result of the cancellation of ASC. There's a big number there with 40 4.4 million possibly to come. I see there's a report coming in the end of April. Can you give us a uh brief look in terms of whether this will look after most of the areas that uh previously had ASSE in place? through the merits our intent to uh look at additional um initiatives to replace ASC. Uh yes, it is a considerable amount. We uh already have around $890,000 that have already been deposited to the town with an additional 3.5 million to use throughout the town. So that report in itself will identify the work plan for all of the locations that are eligible and outline again the framework to uh implement those Thank you for that. And I recall the statistics that came through in terms of the number of speeders and the average speeds and everything else. Uh are there any ASSE previous ASSE areas that stand out that are slam dunks in terms of uh receiving increased care? So through the mayor again, there are several options for us to look in terms of eligible costs from radar speed display signs to traffic calming initiatives. It would be our hope to spread the money through all the locations, but again, we'll do that exercise in the work plan to ensure that we try to address as many ASC locations, including those higher um uh speeding locations that we've identified through this process. Great. Looking forward to the report. Thank you very much, Councelor Giddings. Councelor Adams, thank you very much on that very same topic. Uh and thank you for bringing it up, counselor. Um, we recently received a email asking about the Irqua Ridge area, uh, the high school area on Glenn Ashton where we had, I'll say, a very successful ASC camera. Um, is that a is this funding that could be used to help implement some of those road corridor changes? Uh, that would be um both traffic calming as well as pedestrian cycling safety initiatives. So through the mayor again, all of the eligible costs will identify. So trafficcoming definitely is one. Again, as I mentioned, radar speed signs. We'll look at the um the specific request that you're looking at to see if it is eligible for those costs. Um in generally speaking, we do like to uh integrate all of our different initiatives in terms of again to minimize the impact to uh the residents, etc. But we'll evaluate that specific um when we come back. Great. and I look forward to our ongoing regular conversations about trafficcoming. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councelor Adams. Um, if there are no others, I have a few. Um, first I want to uh share with council, I'm not sure if you heard the late breaking news that the federal and provincial governments have combined to u reduce uh development charges by 50% with their own money. This is uh something that we have been advocating for ever since uh those levels of government began complaining about development charges and wanting us to cut them. Uh I I will remind you that uh earlier this year the the the fairly new only only a year in service minister of municipal affairs and housing gave a speech at the Empire Club in which uh uh we had a table of big city mayors and we we were happy to join a standing ovation when he gave a ringing defense of the necessity of uh development charges for the municipalities in order to avoid adding to the burden of the property taxpayer to support the infrastructure for new homes. And so this is I mean when you think about how long this battle over DCs has been going on, this is a wonderful move and it demonstrates a lot of sensitivity on the part of both the premier and the prime minister to come to this and I I can only thank them over and over again uh and appreciate it uh to the bottom of my heart and on behalf of all of our taxpayers and and I hope on your behalf. Um secondly, um uh earlier I hope everyone has already uh enjoyed the news that uh the uh federal and provincial governments have worked together to fund the uh rebate of the HST on uh new homes uh that are bought until March of 2027. uh to those of us who believe that that might not be quite enough. I console I offer this consolation which is they will have an opportunity to consider the impact of the measure uh before then and who knows they may extend it and uh and similarly to this development charges change. Uh these are these are very interesting developments in terms of meeting the needs of our uh many different sectors of our population who need uh housing. Uh and then uh uh tomorrow is the soft opening at 9:00 a.m. uh uh for the uh the uh the new community center and library uh at the 16 mile sports complex. Uh I intend to be there. I I'm very curious to see if the public who come to use the parts that will be open uh tomorrow because not all of it will be. But I I can't resist the opportunities to uh to see I hope uh smiles and happiness on the faces of our residents. I'd love for you to join me if you're able. The official opening ceremony celebration will take place Saturday, May 30th from 10 to 4 pm. And that will be the full launch of the new community hub, library branch, and all the outdoor amenities. And uh I do hope that everyone will put that on their calendar and that we'll all be there to uh join with the public in celebrating this wonderful new community center. In the meantime, tour bookings are available on the town website so that residents can get an early look at everything this exciting new facility has to offer. And then finally uh in the way of announcements this weekend the Canadian chapter of the Women's Federation for World Peace uh for their International Women's Day celebration in Oakville presented me with uh a certificate naming me as an ambassador for peace, their ambassador for peace award, saying that I was an example and that I am living for the sake of others through promoting a culture of peace, overcoming barriers and fostering reconciliation. Now, to be associated, as this does, associate me with uh personal heroes and leaders like uh Gene Augustine, the first black woman elected to Canada's House of Commons and uh and a great example to all of us. Uh makes this very meaningful for me. Like her, I will display this proudly in my study at home. I remain inspired by the organization's commitment to empowering women and strengthening communities at home and around the world. Um, with that, uh, councelor has the thank you and congratulations, Mayor Burton. Um, could you, um, have staff circulate to the council members, uh, the, uh, the details on the 50% reduction in DC's? We normally would get an email from them and I we haven't I'm sure we will. I I merely am quoting from late breaking headlines that I saw before council. Well, we'd appreciate it. Thanks very much. Oh, you're very welcome. Um, are there we then move to regional reports and question period. Are there questions regarding town boards or advisory committees? Thank you, Councelor Giddings. I'd like to thank uh councelor Grant and null for bringing forward the residential street lighting uh the request for report 16.1. Uh they've withdrawn that they have. Yes, I was I was coming to request for reports. Uh, councelor, I think you might want to stick to your original message to me all things considered, but you're that's only my advice. All right. Um, then we bring that brings us to consideration and reading of the bylaws and I would like to entertain a motion to consider and approve the bylaws listed in item 17.1 through 17.8. Councelor Longo and Councelor Shia. Thank you. Are there any objections to the bylaws? Mr. Clerk, seeing none, the bylaws are considered read and passed. And seeing no further business to discuss, that ends the meeting and our work together. It's been terrific working with you. I think we did a lot of good for our town uh and and our corporation today. And uh I thank you for the courteous way in which all of it was conducted. And I wish you a good evening and we'll see you again soon. Good night.