Transcript: Business Recycling Ends, BIA Review - Business Improvement Area Sub-Committee - April 21, 2026 | Summary 767

Business Recycling Ends, BIA Review - Business Improvement Area Sub-Committee - April 21, 2026

Sound check one BIA subcommittee April 21st. Sound check one. Good morning. We have corn present. I'd like to call this meeting of the business improvement area subcommittee to order for Wednesday, April 21st, 2026. Please be reminded that all electronic devices are to be switched to a nonaudible function during committee meetings. We'll commence with a roll call. Councelor Tammy Wang. Councelor Esther Paul's. Councelor Moren Wilson, excuse me. Present. Susie Braithweight from International Village. Here. Tracy McKinnon from Westdale and Stony Creek. here. Jennifer Matter from Ancaster. Present. Adrienne Meckley from Hes Village. Susan Penny from Waterdown. Here. Doris Sanchez from Concession. Here. Betina Shoreman from Lock Street. David Taylor from Dundas. I'm here. I'm here. Emily Walsh from downtown, Stephanie Wiler from Ottawa Street, present. Uh myself, Naen Yubel from Barton Village. That's everybody. We just see councelor Paul's join us. Okay, I'm going to read the land acknowledgement. The city of Hamilton is situated upon the traditional territories of the Eerie neutral Hiron Wendat, Hodnachon, and Missagas. This land is covered by the dish with one spoon wampom belt covenant, which was an agreement between the Hodneson and the Anishabek to share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. We further acknowledge that this land is covered by the between the lakes purchase 1792 between the crown and the missagas of the credit first nation. Today, the city of Hamilton is home to many indigenous people from across Turtle Island. And we recognize that we must do more to learn about the rich history of this land so that we can better understand our roles as residents, neighbors, partners, and caretakers. May I have a mover and seconder to approve the agenda as presented? Moved by David, seconded by Stephanie. Are there any amendments from committee members to the agenda? Seeing none, uh please indicate your vote now. All in favor? The motion is carried. Are there any declarations of interest? Seeing none, let's move on. Um, may I have a mover and seconder to adopt the minutes of the March 10th, 2026 meeting as presented? Moved by Susie, seconded by Councelor Paul's. Is there any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none, please indicate your vote now. All in favor? The motion is carried. Uh, I see Betatina from Lock Street has arrived. Betina, in order to be counted towards Cororum, you'll need to have your camera on. Okay. We're going to move on to items for information. Um, for those providing presentations today, please remember that presentations are limited to 10 minutes. Um, we have Ryan Kent, manager of waste policy and programs. Please begin your presentation. Thank you, chair. Just setting up the presentation now. Great. Thank you. And good morning. Yes, I'm here today to provide an update on recycling collection from non-eligible sources. And I am uh joined this morning by my uh colleague Joel McCormack, manager of waste collections. First, I'll start with a little bit of a refresher on the blue box regulation uh that lead leads us here to today. So, the Ontario bluebox regulation governs the blue box program in Ontario. Uh starting on January 1st, 2026, so this year, uh we transition to a provincialwide bluebox program. uh which means basically there's one program against across the province, one uh group of acceptable materials and all municipalities have transitioned to this particular program. Uh one note of this of the blue box program is that it does only include residential properties. Uh so any non-resident residential property which includes businesses um are not included and are referred to as non-eligible properties. Hence the uh the title of this presentation. So under the blue box regulation bluebox collection at these said uh non-eligible properties must either be paid for by municipalities or property owners. Um this is uh the same as what has done uh what was done previously. Um however uh based on program changes such as the blue box program in in its entirety being run by municipalities um that's the big change that we've seen now because of the blue box regulation. We do have some uh decisions that were made by council um to react to these uh these changes. The first was um last year uh in July where uh council did approve for the first three months of 2026 um that this service would continue. So curbside collection of recyclables that were previously collected by the city at an annual cost of $2.84 million. Now part of this uh decision was that collection days uh recycling collection days were changed and this was based on pricing that was provided to us by our contractor uh as a as a reduction. Um we also um the sorry determining the service level moving forward through 2026 uh budget budget deliberations. So, uh, first 3 months, as I said, was approved. Um, but for the balance of the year, these this still needed to go to council. That went to, uh, council in February as a motion to the general issues committee to fund the service, uh, for the remainder of 2026. And that was approved. However, uh, no service has been approved for 2027. The the service will be starting at the end of this year with the last service day being January 2nd, 2027. Uh the first day when private recycling will be required by non-eligible properties that are currently serviced by the city of Hamilton is January 4th, 2027. Now I'll speak to a little bit of the uh transition uh challenges that we have seen um with this program change. Um the first I did speak to already which is um the collection day changes. So um to reduce the cost on the city of Hamilton um the non-eligible sources that we did provide service to had their collection days changed. Um now this has been a somewhat of a a challenge for us to to manage um but things are are improving greatly. So obviously this was a big change for a lot of um the properties that we service um but staff have been working hard to to try and alleviate that. I'll also say that our list of non-eligible properties being serviced has been updated weekly to refle reflect properties not originally included. So um that list was generated by staff and our contractor going out on collection day to to record um who had recycling out um prior to the change. Uh so there were a few gaps, a few properties that maybe when when these checks were done didn't have their material out. Um however, properties have informed us uh since January when the collection dates have changed um that they would like to be added to the list because they were um previously serviced. So again, only properties that were previously serviced. Um staff have uh gone out and visited some problematic areas to hand deliver notices to inform of new collection day. Um and that has gone fairly well. This next slide I'll just show um what we have here is um missed collection uh calls that have come in to us um on a weekly basis um from the start of of January to um middle of April. And you can see that even though we did have a and I will also say that this is for roughly 2,700 properties in the city of Hamilton obviously in you can see the peak there early February but has dropped down to um the last week on the table to about four cases. So great improvement from from what we've seen and staff are diligently working to make sure that um service is provided to these properties. Today I also wanted to talk about uh what we will be doing moving forward, what staff will be doing to to notify um non-eligible properties of the end of service um at the end of this year. So, uh notices are going to be mailed to non-eligible properties uh April, uh July and November. Um, I would say that the the mailing has already been prepared for the April mail out and um, businesses should start to see these later this week or at the latest early next week. Um, and these notices will will inform properties that the service is uh, ending in 2027 and that properties need to use private recycling services either for drop off or collection. Um these letters also in include um information on where some resources can be are provided to businesses. Um we're also hoping that for the notification we can we can use a couple other resources. We're hoping that we can um uh maintain a good communication channel through the BIA offices to let their um members know um and also providing information graphics to counselors uh that can be shared on their social media. Um so to get the word out that way to businesses that perhaps are not in BAS. Moving along to resources um city of Hamilton business waste web page. There's actually uh two web pages um that have been updated with first a map of service properties with collection days. So, um, property owners can go on there, uh, and they can check to see, um, you know, what their collection day is for recycling if there happens to to be any confusion there. Um, on the other web page, there is a a list of private companies that can provide curbside collection service as well as um, a private transfer station that can accept uh, recycling. Um staff will be reviewing these uh lists uh on a regular basis from now to the end of of the year to ensure um that it is accurate and to make any updates that are needed. There's also on our website uh our what goes where tool to assist in storing recycling. Um staff are also currently working on information postcards um that will be provided to municipal service centers, counselor offices. Um, we can also provide them if it's helpful to uh business improvement offices uh with recycling information for non-eligible properties. Um, basically saying, you know, where they can go to get uh resources on the city uh website. So, we want to make sure that uh this group was aware of what we're doing to try and assist in the transition of this uh this service ending. Um again, we we happy to um listen to any suggestions um that um the group here has that we can take under consideration. Um but we really want to make sure that um this group knows that staff is trying hard to to make this transition as as easy as possible and to provide whatever resources are needed to to make that transition uh as easy as possible. And with that being said, I am happy to take any questions from the group uh any comments and um listen to what the the group has to say if if if anything. Thank you. Thank you, Ryan. Are there any questions? Uh Susie, thanks Ryan for your update. We're finding a lot of um residents are dumping in the alleyways now on a daily basis as well as putting stuff out on Tuesdays and then the the contractors aren't picking that up until Friday. So, we are having to report in more dumped garbage than we were prior, just to let you know. um in certain spots. It's not everywhere, but the alleyways specifically are are a bit difficult for us. Hello. Uh through the chair, Joel McCormick, manager of waste collections. Uh thank you for that, Susie. Yes. Um we appreciate the additional information and your team uh providing us this info so that we can action it. Uh we do have our staff doing uh monitoring on a weekly basis and noting the addresses that are putting waste out at the curb on uh on the opposite on the wrong day for the Tuesdays as an example. Um we have our staff and our bylaw officers going to these addresses to inform them of the change in the proper collection day um through any issues with the contractor from a collections perspective. We're in very close communications with them as well. And about the illegal dumping, um, we have our staff in there on a regular basis from a, uh, collections and cleanup aspect, but also from a uh, bylaw perspective to see if we can find any identifiers within the waste so that we can action it for the property owner or the tenant. Okay, great. Thanks. And I guess just my second question through the chair would be, you know, we can all see what's going to happen when this hits January 4th. So what is the city doing to prepare for the exorbitant amount of dumped garbage that we're going to find all across the city that's uh through the chair? It's something absolutely that we are looking into. We can't necessarily um identify or uh conclude that it's going to be a significant amount of illegal dumping across the board. But we do have our um our actions in place whether it be from a bylaw perspective where we can action uh illegal dumping or a cleanup perspective through the various different departments in the city who take care of illegal dumping throughout the city. But it's definitely something that we'll keep our our eyes open for and um action as we need to. Thanks, Julie. You guys are always great to us. I'm just very worried because we're already seeing an increase in dumped garbage on on uh different days. So, I think there needs to be some proactive measures in place that maybe there's an increase in bylaw for when this does hit because we're all going to be calling you with dumped garbage. So, just to red that red flag, we're we're very concerned about this, but I know you're doing what you can. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. Okay, Tracy. Thank you. Uh through the chair, I have a few questions. So, uh first a comment though, uh thank you very much. Generally, pickup has been very good. There were a few hiccups um as you see on your map on your graph there, but uh generally it seems to be working well in Westdale. Um and I see you are actively notifying people um that put it don't put it out correctly. So there is one business outside our BIA that just puts a massive pile out Sunday night and it stays till Thursday. So I guess maybe I'll just share that address with you guys because they're not getting the message. Um, and it just blows all over the place. So, uh, and it hopefully it's not, like Susie said, a sign of what's to come. I just had I'm just I just struggle with the whole commercial pickup, uh, changes, uh, and sort of how it's happening in Hamilton. So, I I'm just wondering when did uh like Hamilton Waste Management first know that, you know, commercial properties would be non-eligible properties and would not have pickup because it all kind of came at us quickly at the end and we're very thankful that council jumped on to, you know, give us a band-aid and to help a transition phase. But I'm I'm just wondering, you know, when this all started. The more I research it, it's seems to have been years in the making, but I'm just wondering when we actually knew here. Yes. So, through the chair, um yes, the blue box regulation was approved years ago. Uh that is not a new piece of regulation. It has been amended several times. Uh one of the things that um municipalities were hoping for was late last year uh mid to late last year um there were some amendments um that were under consultation right through the the erro but one of the pieces was that the minister had asked uh producers to look into how uh business recycling and uh residential recycling could be combined. Um and so they spoke to um they asked Circular Materials, which is the uh the producer responsibility organization responsible for the basically the blue box program, the residential bluebox program to work to figure out how um this could probably this could work, right? So, the big reason why the cost is so high for us to collect the non-residential recycling is because prior to um January 1st, 2026, um we were allowed to put the material in the same collection vehicle as the residential recycling and uh then we were uh charged for that for that service. But because you have that scale of economy, the economy of scale there where um you know the 2700 properties are included in the um what is it 180,000 stops that we have here in City of Hamilton. It's a small drop in the bucket. Now that we're doing it separately, the costs obviously go up quite a bit. So we were really hoping to answer your question that late last year that circular materials could work with the producers as per the minister's order to work to get a solution to do this. Um I believe it was September or maybe October last year when we were informed that that would not actually happen. So it was pretty pretty late in the game. Um I think the the minister asked for this late in the game and that's one reason why it didn't come to fruition. Um, so that's one reason why we were really hoping for that to to happen. Um, but the blue box regulation, you are correct, the non-eligible sources was defined when that regulation came out several years ago. Um, but um, we'd been told several times that maybe a solution would come, maybe it wouldn't, and that's what we were really hoping for to to come. Hopefully that answers your uh, your question. Okay. Thank you for the chair. Just some follow up on that. Um, okay. because I remember when you guys came last summer, you kind of said, "Oh, there's nothing more to be done." And that was it. So, um, but I know I had I had to go out and work separately with the provincial government to try and make some change and thankfully our counselors uh came forward, but I'm just wondering like when you know that all kind of came on us late, but I'm just wondering it would have been great to have known more information sooner so maybe we could have helped in that communication. Um, so I guess it's it's back in 2018 when it started. Is that when um like this the city knew? I'm just I just wish we could have done more sooner and now we're not at this spot where we're going to now have a big dump on us probably in January. Um and then you you mentioned letters being sent. I know when I understand you guys had sent some letters last year. So I know a number of our businesses had no idea, never received any communication. So is that just being are letters just being sent to the property owners and not businesses? I'm just wondering who any communications being sent where where it's going. Is it just going to the property owners? So through the chair uh I would say one of the issues we had with the uh there were two issues I would say that we had with the with the letters that went out um previously in 2025 to to let everyone know about the collection day changes. Uh the first which I spoke to a little bit earlier was that the list of addresses there were a few gaps. So we didn't have a wholesome list and and that's because if some property didn't have their recycling out when uh staff or our contractor went out to confirm who was receiving the service then they weren't added to the list. Um that was problem one. um that problem is being rectified by you know as of January properties saying how come I'm not getting recycling letting us know us adding them to the list. Um so we have we have fixed that quite a bit. We've had quite a few uh properties that have told us about that and that has been that has been fixed. The other prop um issue that we had was some of these were mixeduse properties. So the mixeduse properties being residential units above the commercial properties on the on the bottom. Um, we think that that has been fixed a little bit more by making sure that the the letter and the envelope that uh the letter has um or that the letter is contained in um notifying that it this is for the business properties and we also think that we've corrected those those addresses as well. Um, however, we also know that there are some areas in the city that are um cause us a little bit more issue and we we may have staff go out there and hand deliver to some of these businesses to make sure that they get them. Oh, okay. Great. And and through the chair in response, so a friendly suggestion, all the BAS, 12 BAS, probably 2,000 businesses collectively, we could probably help you in getting the list right from the get-go and getting people notified. So again, even in the, you know, the part about uh helping to lobby the province uh and helping to notify members, I'm all BAS, I I can't speak on behalf of all of them, but I see most of them nodding. We're happy to help and at at no cost. So um just want to put that out there. And then last question, when did um the city of Hamilton start uh doing commercial recycling pickup? So I we did residential first. So, and do do you know that information when Hamilton City of Hamilton started picking up commercial recycling from all the small businesses who were eligible? So, through the chair um first of all, thank you for the offer of um helping uh staff get those letters out. Um we have historically you know um uh gone through Christina to kind of coordinate some of that and we may do that in uh again or we will uh do that again if she is uh able to do so which which I'm sure she is. Um to answer your question about when was business recycling started here in the city of Hamilton when the collection started I don't have a absolute answer for you but I can say that it's probably 10 15 years at least. It's been a long time. So, we have been um I I would say for those that don't know um we've had to report on our recycling collection to um to get funding prior to this this new full producer responsibility program um to get 50% funding. And part of that was we had to claim um that a certain percentage of the recycling that was taken um was from um businesses and it was around 2%. Um, so we've been claiming that for for a number of years. Um, but I don't have the number off the top of my head right now, but I'm going to guess it's at least 15 20 years, probably since the blue box program started that we've had to do that reporting. Appreciate it. Thanks. So, it's been a service the city's been providing for at least 15 years roughly. That's great. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? I'm going to pass the chair to Susie because I have some questions. Um I'm one of your problem areas down on Barton. Um I I do have um my first question is around um you know we we do have an incentive program that has been changed to include um permanent waste infrastructure and I'm wondering if there's an opportunity to work together to identify some properties where this infrastructure can be built out to help support this changeover. Um, in Barton Village, we have a relationship with some property owners and the city where we do our Daves. And it's a a partnership between the property owner, the BIA, and the municipality where on certain corners the property is shared between the municipality and the property owner. um and the BIA signs a lease for the municipal portion for a period of five years where the infrastructure can be changed and it is uh maintained by the property owner in the BIA. I'm wondering if there's the potential to work with the municipality to identify some of those areas where permanent waste infrastructure could be installed to help support the transition. Yeah. Um so through the chair I'm assuming you're talking about u more permanent waste um containers like on these corners correct that would be shared between uh number of different properties. Correct. Okay. So through the chair um we know that there are other municipalities that that have looked into this same type of system uh specifically the city of G. Um, one of the barriers that they're seeing with that is that um, with these shared um, containers, an environmental a provincial approved environmental compliance approval is required to do these because what they're considered at that point is a depot, a waste depot as opposed to just a litter bin that's on the side of the road. Um, so I do know that there has been some issues surrounding that and trying to get that type of infrastructure set up in the city of G. Um, we are looking into it though to see what comes out of it. Um, I just know that they're they're having some challenges with that. Specifically, they're looking at um, a bin that goes underground a little bit so it's larger so you can put more in it, but you can't see as much on on top, which I think is what you're speaking to. And so, um, we'll certainly look into that more. Um, we have colleagues that work for the city of G that we can we'll be talking to on a regular basis to see what comes out of that and see if they're able to get around these challenges that the the province is the ministry is um the barriers that the ministry is giving them. Um, and maybe there is an opportunity in the future. Um, but we'll see how that I think we'll see how that goes first. You have anything? No. Okay. Thank you. Um, that leads me to my next question, which is, um, I'm I'm curious about the working relationship with the province to either amend the regulations or make changes to other regulations that will allow us to address this in a a more effective way through the chair. um municipalities both individually um as well as through industry organizations such as the regional public works commissioners of Ontario and the municipal waste association um have uh sent letters to the ministry environmental conservation parks um to try and get um regulations amended to allow for this. Um we this is not the only amendment we would like in the blue box regulation. It is certainly um one that we feel is is needed. Uh one of the reasons because um the diversion rate from the residential stream is so much higher than the commercial stream. It just makes sense for the province to look at that um if they are truly serious about diverting waste from landfills. So we are continuing to advocate for for that among as well as several other uh regulation changes um not just in the bluebox regulation but but in other um extended producer responsibility legislation. So we will continue to do that. We understand that it's a service that should be provided especially to small businesses um throughout not just Hamilton but other municipalities. Um, I would say that maybe not all municipalities have as many um uh as many businesses that are provide this service or have been provide this service as the city of Hamilton has. Um, just from looking at other municipalities, 2,700 properties is a lot compared to our mun municipal comparators. But we will continue to advocate for it. uh we will continue to um hopefully hopefully um work towards getting that that amendment hap uh changed but uh or the regulation changed through an amendment but we hear you and we are we're trying our best to try and get that that change put in place. Thank you. Um I think again um I can speak for myself uh that I'm sure that the other BAS um would also be happy to participate in whatever way we can to ensure that we can throw some weight behind that. It is a lot of businesses 2700 is but small businesses big business in Hamilton. So if we can figure out a way to make this work. Um, last question for you is around Sorry. Um, madame uh uh chair Christina Gesler um staff has some comments about the last question. So, uh if she could uh perhaps respond. Uh yes, through the chair. My apologies. My hand to speak wasn't showing so I wasn't sure. Anyways, um for your question uh regarding the waste um or recycling enclosures, yes, I can confirm that this is a new eligible expense under the commercial district's revitalization grant, also known as the facade improvement grant. That's how most people know it as. The only caveat for that funding um is that it must be done on private property and it must be applied by the property owner if that is helpful. That's all it is. Thank you, Christina. Um I maybe I'll take the the rest of that conversation offline. there specific properties that we're looking at in Barton Village for that. Um but thank you for the clarification. Um my last question is around the um mixeduse properties. Um that's a particular challenge that we see in Barton Village. I'm wondering if there's an opportunity to look at a very simple change that might help the drivers to identify residential um recycling from commercial which is to change the commercial to clear bags. Sorry through the chair. So, um, the commercial to clear bags from using blue boxes, um, they're not currently using blue boxes. They're using blue bags just like the residential. So, now there's confusion about whether the recycling that's on the curb is residential or commercial. and that if we make a change that's easily identifiable for the drivers that say commercial recycling goes into clear bags then they'll know for sure that that is commercial versus the residential. uh through the chair. A a program change like that can be pretty significant and just based on the amount of time that we have left in 2026 for this program, I don't think it would be useful from that sense. But we can approach it from a different perspective. Um, if we're having that type of issue, for example, in the BIA, uh, the Barton BIA, we can have our staff review what is out at the curb on that time and then reconcile whether or not it's a residential or commercial uh, property and then approach it from that angle and have the conversations with with the uh, residents or the property owners. That might be uh the approach more of a um sightsp specific approach like we've done this in other BAS. I'm not sure if we've done this in your BIA uh but we've done this in other BAS to help uh alleviate the confusion from the residential and the commercial aspect of it. Okay, thanks. We'll take it offline um and we'll talk about specific areas that are problematic. Um, next, uh, yeah, I'm going to take back the chair from Susie. Thank you. Um, and next we have, uh, Councelor, uh, Wilson. Good morning. Uh, thank you for all this really invaluable, um, information and experience. Mine is is just a comment and forgive me if I've I've said this before. I believe I have shared it with my council colleagues. Uh I was privileged to attend for the second year in a row the Roma conference which is the rural uh Ontario municipal association with over 1,600 rural delegates who uh while I have to be careful about broad ideological strokes I would say overwhelmingly they would probably be um more in line with the government of Ontario agenda. And at one portion of the meeting uh it was the bear pit portion. So you had 12 Ontario ministers at the front taking questions and the one question that overwhelmingly galvanized the entire uh ballroom uh was the issue of this recycling change. So there was uh expressed unhappiness um from far and wide. So I in terms of what we can do or say politically uh perhaps there is some soulless in the fact that nobody is happy. So I'll leave that with you. Thank you. Are there any other firsttime speakers? Uh Susan uh just quickly I appreciate all this information that you're providing and the nuances of uh how this all works. when you talked about a shared space being considered a depot and requiring um several different layers of of approvals at the ministry level. Does that apply if we have a group of businesses that are trying to work together to set up a central site on private property through the chair? I would have to confirm that. Um, sorry. I'm I'm not sure about that because I think what I was thinking about before was public property kind of on the curb. I think it still would, but I can cl I can confirm that for you and and and bring that back to because that is potentially one of the most cost-effective ways some of our businesses will be able to move forward on doing this um where they can't afford to do it on their own. But if there's a a quadrant or an area within within their their section of the BIA, I think that's going to be the way that some of them would want to proceed. So, but if there's a lot of red tape involved in doing that, then that would be useful to know. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Ju just want to go back to that question that um what I was speaking to before was more like permanent infrastructure which I thought what we were talking about if you were speaking to something like a um for lack of a better term a dumpster or front end bin um that's in an alleyway I don't think this the same would would apply. We were talking more about what we were saying like a inground bin that would be more permanent infrastructure as opposed to something that would just be a a dumpster. I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to in that and you're nodding so I'm assuming it is. Um, but no, that level of approval would not be required for that case. I thought you were still speaking to shared collection. Perfect. Thank you very much for that clarification. Y um just as a note on that front, I know that there is a challenge with zoning specifically. Maybe another conversation that needs to go offline. Um any other first-time speakers? Uh nope. So we'll go to Tracy as a second time speaker, please. Uh thanks Madam Chair. I just had a couple clarifications on comments made um by Ryan. Um so just clarifying so last year we were told that the what waste I'm not sure the exact title waste management organization group that association that you guys were were done. You weren't lobbying anymore. The city the province had decided non-eligible and then you guys were were just done. So you guys are as an organization are trying to still lobby amongst other things but commercial recycling pickup. That's one of the things you guys are lobbying for through the chair. Uh yes that's correct. We are still we will continue to lobby for that. Um whenever bluebox regulations go out we will continue to advocate for that um because it is a need. Yes, that's correct. Okay. A great thank you. So then I if the province did suddenly decide RIPRA decided to mandate it pick up you guys would help us and continue the service into 2027 if that became a reality if the government reversed the mandate sorry to to sorry if sorry do I have a delay that's fine so I think your question is if the blue box regulation were to be amended to accept uh commercial recycling. Um I think your decision or your question was about what the city would do. Um how I would respond to that is what we would be lobbying for is for the provincial bluebox program to include commercial properties which would mean it would not be done by the city. It would be done by um the provincial um administrator of the bluebox program. Um, so the city would not have to operate the program. We would not pay for the program. The goal here is to lobby for a bluebox program that in that includes um small businesses like that that that is a goal so that small businesses have that. We understand that it's a cost to small businesses, right? Just in the same way that it's a cost to the municipality to run that program. and and so our goal is is to make it so that um those small businesses would be included in the provincialwide bluebox program which includes residential properties. So um it would not be something that we would change what we do here at the city of Hamilton. It would be something that would be done at a provincial level. Correct. Sorry I I miss I think I misordered my thing is be obviously you guys would be supportive of that. Right. I would hope. Obviously. Right. Obviously. Okay. And then um my other question was about I just wanted to clarify those in the ground um uh you know they've got the bin for recycling for garbage and is those are the ones G is looking at because and you had mentioned maybe there's some the province is putting some environmental regulations on it. I just wanted to clarify because I've seen some in Hamilton and I know there's one church in Westdale that installed it. Is is there big red tape to put in those underground ones? Uh, and is that what you're referring to? G wealth is doing in the province is is is looking at barriers to it or or regulations or something? Can you just clarify that, please? Yeah. So, through the chair, what I was speaking to uh in G specifically was on public property in their downtown area having a container um which is you can see it. It's it's at there's an opening at the top. Um and then it leads into an underground um a larger underground container, but it's on public property. So maybe this answers the question previously that was about public versus private property. There are uh many residential properties um in Ontario that have inground containers for waste and it's shared. Um, but because it's on private property, that's maybe what the uh what the reasoning is for for why they don't have to go through and consider it a depot um and and have to require what's called a um environmental compliance approval. That's really what we're talking about here, what G is is dealing with. It's basically an approval to do something and it's required when you deal with a depot. So if the um Ministry of Environment Conservation Parks thinks that it's depot like then that's what that that would be required. If you're speaking to in certain areas throughout the city in residential townhouse developments for example that have an ingground container um that would not be uh that would not be the same and they don't have to go through um the same level of approval. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um looks like Christina has some comments with regards to that. Um yes uh through the chair. Um so I have had um this kind of a request in the past uh for these underground containers. And there's a couple of factors to keep in mind. There's two different kinds of underground containers. There's ones that are much much larger um that require special machinery to actually empty empty them to collect the waste. So that's something to consider. There are other ones that are smaller and can and the GFL trucks can actually empty um with more ease. Um but it also is very sight specific as well. So it depends on what the infrastructure is under the ground. it can get very costly to actually create the actual digout to be able to put these these sunken containers into the ground. So, um if anybody would like to talk a little bit more offline with me um on that one, happy to share. But just at a very high level, those are some of the things to keep in mind if that is something that an area would be looking to pursue. Thank you, Christina. Any other comments or questions? Seeing none, can I have a mover and seconder to receive item 7.1. Moved by Susan, seconded by Susie. Um, please indicate your vote now. All in favor? Motion is carried. Thank you very much. Okay. Uh we have a an expenditure request. Susan Penny from Waterdown, please introduce your motion. Uh there are expenditure requests to be funded from the 2026 contribution to operating budget program from the Waterdown, Hes Village, and International Village BAS. I'd like to move that. It's moved by Susan, uh, seconded by myself. Are there any questions on the motion? And let's uh indicate our vote. All those in favor? Motion is carried. Okay, updates from the business development office. Christina Gesler, business development and business improvement area officer is here with an update for the committee. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, okay. So, just a few updates. First of all, um, I just wanted to offer my congratulations again to all of the BIA award winners. Um, I do have to say I was very happy to see all of the BAS represented this year at the awards of excellence. Um, and it's always wonderful to celebrate the individual contributions that small businesses make to make your BAS so wonderful. So, congratulations to everyone for that. Um, on a next point is uh more business related. So, the audits, I was just advised from corporate services that all of the June audits have been submitted to KPMG. Yay for those that were in that batch. Thank you very much. Um, so just a heads up for the second batch for the September audits. Um, the due date to get your materials submitted to corporate services is May 13th. So, please gold star that in your calendar. that would be applicable to Concession, BIA, Hess Village, Lock Street, Stony Creek, and Westale. Um, so just a friendly reminder that that date is rapidly approaching. Make sure you have all of your financial stuff all gathered and let's just keep this momentum going. Um, I will be circulating as well to all of the BAS the BIA annual reports for 2026. Um I'll be doing a updated uh criteria list um and the option to either um upload everything to the sync the secured document sharing portal or it can be emailed directly to me. Um I don't care either one. Um it just gives me an opportunity to sh to save all of this valuable BIA information on our city records for city records. Um, and then finally, the uh the vacancy support funding grant, the new initiative. Um, I'm hoping I'm just waiting on some BAS to finish their vacancy audits as soon as we have those updated commercial ground floor commercial vacancy numbers. I'll be able to recalculate um all of the allocations to each BIA and uh and then we can open up the um the process for you guys to advise me how you would like those monies to be spent. Um once vetted, then I will be able to um issue you your funds to be able to get going on your wonderful initiatives um to see what you can do to counter um vacancies within your commercial corridors or if your vacancy numbers are not high, at least what retention initiatives you'll be taking on to um keep your members happy and keep eyes and feet coming to your street um um so to speak. And that is all I had for now. Thank you, Christina. I see Susan has a question. Just very quickly on that, Christina, um, does that mean that the the less vacancies we have, the like is the grant proportionate to more to those that have greater vacancies? Yes, correct. Through the chair, that is correct. Okay. And will you be able to provide a list just so we have a general idea for our boards where we sit on the overall vacancy? Of course, once uh yes, through the chair, uh we have our research and marketing team that's um correlating all of the data, all of the um audits that have been done. So, I will be able to have updated vacancy numbers um for each of the BIA. So, happy to share that with all of you. Perfect. Thank you very much. And I don't Is there another business category? Naen if I have something that Christina didn't cover on that I just want to ask you. If it's a question for Christina during her update, you can ask it now. Um, I don't really know if it's a question for Christina, but in light of some of the the news, um, we are starting to get some questions within our BIA, and I'm just wondering, um, we have a board meeting tonight. I know my chair is, uh, is on guard because, uh, the incidents that we're talking about involved a chair and another BIA. I'm just wondering if there will be some information coming through this process through these meetings or uh through email that or through the audit process. Um we're just getting a lot of questions about how did that happen and you know if we know we have protocols in place and we have very stringent uh uh processes to to guard against that then I'm just wondering what kind of oversight there's going to be from the city and if anything's going to change from our perspective. Okay. Thanks Susan. If we can, can we can we put a pin in this and um just allow anybody that has questions about what Christina has already brought up and then we'll we'll bring it up after the statements by members if we can go back to to chatting about it. I'm sure there's more questions. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions about what Christina has already brought up? So ma madam chair just to be clear like so I'll be able to provide a response because I can provide a response to that but that'll be further down the meeting. Okay. Correct. Um I do have a question Christina with regards to the vacancy support grant. Is this a spend by December 31st situation or will this carry over? It's an annual grant. So it is a spend by December 31st initiative. Okay, thank you. Any other questions for Christina? Um, may I have a mover and seconder to receive the update. Um, moved by Jennifer, seconded by Susan. Um, please indicate your vote now. All in favor? Motion is carried. Um, okay. Statements by members. Um, members of committee, do you have any updates or items of interest? Um, if so, please indicate by raising your hand. Susie, I may have mentioned this before, but I just wanted to invite everybody to our 50th uh birthday party on May 30th at Ferguson Station. So, it runs from 11 till 4, but we'll be having um like birthday cake and giveaways and music all day. But 11 o'clock there'll be some speeches. If anyone's in town, feel free to come up. I won't be at the next BIA meeting, so that's why I wanted to bring it up here. Uh well, you had me at birthday cake. Anyone else have anything they wish to share? Okay, let's uh get a mover and a seconder to receive the statements by members. Moved by David, seconded by Steph. Uh, please indicate your vote now. All in favor? Motion is carried. So before we adjourn, we'll go back to the conversation around uh the challenges that are happening in terms of governance and BAS and what may be coming down the line. I know Christina, you probably have some information to share with regards to this. Do do we want to start there? Sorry, are you ask sorry? Are you asking me to speak? I wasn't sure if you were looking at me or or the legislative clerk. Oh, okay. If if you if you could um perhaps just start with a a response to Susan's inquiry. Sure. Um so, yes. Um this is uh currently under investigation through the city auditor and the integrity commissioner. So it's limited what I can speak to on this at this point. That being said um there is going to be um a wholesome review of existing governance policies and practices for the BAS. So there may be some things coming down the pipe depending on what is discovered. But what I would suggest to the BAS is as you are having your membership your board meetings that it might be this might be a really good opportunity and Susan you beat me to the punch because I was actually going to I'm drafting a an email to all of the BAS um just suggesting that um you just verbally talk about in review what your existing processes are relating to communication, financial governance and transparency to your membership. I don't think it's a bad idea to talk about that at your board meeting. Get it captured on your minutes. Um, and just do a review on kind of what your current practices are to provide assurances to your memberships. Um and then as well another big piece and I know that we've talked about this a lot with the audit uh workshop that was conducted um and in the BIA toolkit monthly reconciliation of of BIA um bank statements um highlighting all deposits and and withdrawals um in that month is a really good practice to get into. Um so when your treasurer or your bookkeeper comes to your board meetings and just talks about uh financially uh give your financial report just to give a quick overview. These are the expenses that came out of our account and these were the deposits that went in and it just shows that diligence in tracking all of monies coming in and out of BIA accounts um that we've talked about in the past. So I think that's not a bad idea to really put a a bigger spotlight on. Um and the u and the other thing is if you have petty cash, just have a petty cash log that should also be tracked um regularly with your bookkeeper um just so you can account for even if they're small expenditures um that there's a log that you just that you track. There's not always receipts that goes with petty expenses, but at least if it can be logged and can be justified, all the dollars can be justified. All this being said, there will be more things coming out of discovery of this of this investigation. So that is to come. Um but for now I would strongly suggest that you all have that conversation with your boards and just review what your existing governance policies are if that's helpful. Uh looks like Susie has a question or comment. It's a comment. I just want to say uh I find all of this really frustrating because there's a lot of us that are doing everything by the book. Our boards are very involved. Our staff are empowered to manage the money that goes in and out of the BAS and our board has allowed us to do that. Um, and I think when this hits the media, it's important for people to understand this was these were two bad seeds amongst dozens of us who are very very careful with what we do with the taxpayers money and the levies that we work with. And I find it absolutely despicable that this has gone on and I really want this to not be a reflection of how BIS operate in this city. Unfortunately, this has happened, but I know that those of us around this table take our rules really seriously. So do our boards, and I just wanted to comment on that because I don't want this narrative to get away. These were two bad seeds that uh have put us at risk. We're all happy to be transparent as we are. Um, and I can't stress enough, your audit is so important. Get it in on time. Get it done. Mine's already done. It's not that hard. uh that is your that is your insurance essentially to make sure that everything is up to speed and good. So moving forward, I just wanted to say uh this is a dark cloud over us right now, but I know that we are all working hard within our organizations and let's not let this get us down. We're doing good work here. Thank you, Susie. Betina, did you have your hand up? I did, but it's fine. I was just going to say that I don't think it's a like our I have the utmost respect for all the BAS and I've been involved with the Block Street BIA for a long time through tons of roller coasters and I was surprised to hear that it happened and I was happy to hear that it happened through an audit through like it didn't sound like it was going on for a very long time. It was the system that caught it. It wasn't a scandal. Like I I feel that that was like a good representation of how the BIA works. Like I don't think it's a I think we should look at it as like we are doing a very good job and we are quite transparent because it was caught quite quickly. Thanks, Patina. Any other questions or comments? Um, I'll just contribute to this. Um I just I I want to echo a portion of what Susie said with regards to the audit and the importance of it and and also um Betatina's comments as well. The audit exists for a reason. there's a a management review component to the audit that is very very easy to um glaze over but it's important to review those questions and ensure that those um those practices are in place uh the checks and balances are there um I know all of us in our roles as executive directors um we take it seriously and I hope that the board members of each BIA also take their role very seriously. Um, we have to work as a team at the end of the day. And for anybody on this call who is not sure what that role looks like, the resources are here and available for you. Um, you know, Christina has created a toolkit for board members. um and is always happy to answer questions and has also offered to attend board meetings for any board members who um might have questions that are beyond the capacity for an executive director to respond to. Uh the resources are here, so please reach out if you're not sure. All right. Uh, there being no further business, the business improvement area subcommittee is adjourned at 11:35 a.m. Thanks everybody. Thank you. Take care.

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