Sound check. 1 2 3. Sound check. 1 2 3. Good morning everyone. >> Uh as we have quorum present for today's meeting, I would like to call this meeting of the board of health to order. uh reminder that all electronic devices are to be switched uh to a non audible function during board meetings. This is uh my first [clears throat] time chairing this uh but I have a guide so don't worry. And also not to worry there's no insert joke here moments in the document which might render things a little too a meal for everyone but I'm sure it'll go fine. Uh the first item may I have is the approval agenda. May I please have a mover and seconder to approve the agenda? Moved by member Kirkby, second by council Wilson. Are there any amendments from board members to the agenda? Councelor Wang, >> thank you. Just a question on some of the correspondence in item 7.1. A lot of them kind of sound like they're they should be um attached to item 9.1. Uh so just asking the clerk uh how how do we um is this correct? and two, do we need to change them? >> So through the chair, the correspondence listed under item 7.1 were received prior to the notice of motion being put on the agenda at the last meeting. >> And when committee deferred that item to this meeting, they kind of went with it. So that's why they're placed there. Um, if the board would like to move it, they could refer it when we get to that item. Oh, >> okay. Thank you. So with no amendments, all those in favor to approve the agenda as presented. That's everyone. Is there anyone opposed? I don't see any. So that's carried. Uh item three, declarations of interest. Are there any declarations of interest? I see none. Uh, our next item is the approval of the minutes uh from the May meeting. May I have a mover and a seconder to adopt the minutes of the previous meeting? Moved by councelor Wang. seconded by member Denko. Um any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none. All those in favor to adopt the minutes as presented. That's everybody. Uh no one opposed. So that's carried. Our next item uh is uh delegations. Before we begin our delegations for today, members are reminded that questions of the delegations are for clarification purposes only, not for debate. And uh note to our delegates, you have uh 5 minutes to complete your delegation. You'll hear a tone after four minutes and and then you'll have an additional minute uh to finish up and let that be no indication of uh the importance of the topic you speak to. [snorts] Item 6.1 delegations respecting uh black soot sampling and community engagement feasibility. Uh our first delegate is Miriam Sager. >> Welcome. >> Good morning, chair, members of the board and of the public and staff. Um my name is Miriam Sager. I live in Ward One. Every few days, I wipe a layer of black deposits off my white mailbox. And imagine a similar layer deposited in my lungs. But still, I can only imagine the impacts of pollution on the people who live much closer to the source. Ever since I've been involved in environmental issues locally, I've heard we can't do anything about industry. It's under provincial jurisdiction. So, I'm grateful that the city has undertaken to sample the black suit. I can't speak to the technical details of it, but I can speak about equity and public public engagement. Uh speaking someone who's participated in public engagement, I have been a trauma counselor and I have some experience of both educating um conducting and participating in qualitative research. I'm also grateful for the intention to apply a health equity lens which is important to the decision to invest adequate resources in a rigorous effort to understand and move towards rectifying a profound injustice towards the residents of the north end northeast end in wards 2, three and four. These areas have been treated as a sacrifice zone. residents exposed to the compounding compounded environmental impacts of air and noise pollution, vibration, noxious orders, heavy truck uh traffic from both big and small, old and new facilities, sometimes allowed to pop up without even notifying the neighbors of the dangers they're exposed to. To quote from page 12 of the report before you, descriptive statistics alone may not fully reflect community health experiences and should be combined with research lived experience to gain a deeper understanding of health inequities. I'm concerned that the public engagement piece as described is not designed to learn from the residents about their lived experience. It looks like a space for one-way communication with the residents invo invited at best to ask their questions. Such a one-way exercise is unlikely to be effective. You are hopefully aiming to not just talk at but learn from people who in addition to any physical health impacts have been living for a long time with worry, anxiety, and fear about what the air they're breathing and the soot their children are exposed to are doing to their health with frustration and anger that no one's doing anything about it. A profound feeling of powerlessness to effect change. And to add insult to injury, there's a tendency to blame the victim, as in why don't you just move if you don't like it here? Of course, there are many reasons people don't move from proximity to work, children's school and friends, family and community, the cost of housing elsewhere, and moving is a huge undertaking. Not many people uh may have the wherewithal to handle that under these conditions. No one deserves to live in such unhealthy conditions. It will likely be much harder for people with such stories of neglect and abandonment, shaming, and blaming to engage with a city in a dry and impersonal online process. To be more than a performative exercise, you will need to find a genuine connection with them. There must be real humans, not a website demonstrating willing to demonstrate willingness to really listen without defensiveness inviting people to share their lived experiences in their own words, not in multiplechoice form. So those can be then factored into the final report. I always find that actual quotes provide the richest and most insightful material. In particular, these city representatives must be willing and perhaps first be trained to listen to the residents feelings, concerns, anxieties, and anger, whatever it is they need to unload so that they can then be open to hear what the city wants to convey to them. When people's cup is full, there's no room to add in anything else, no space for them to really absorb any new information. You must listen first. Recently, I've had an opportunity to meet with a few residents of this area who are exposed to relentless industrial vibration and noise. They said over and over again how grateful they were that someone cared enough to simply listen. Please make the sampling and engagement as effective as possible. It's a rare opportunity that we don't want to miss by aiming low. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, are there any questions for the delegate? >> Councelor Nam, >> thank you. You chair uh Miriam, thank you so much for your delegation. if you could speak a little bit to I think what I've heard essentially drilled down in your beautiful delegation this morning is um the value of qualitative experience being captured versus just a quantitative survey. Could you share a little bit more knowing the depth of your years of community engagement? It's very clear you're talking about the need to make sure people don't feel powerless in the process of community engagement, but instead we use this as an opportunity to document the lived experiences of Hamiltonians. Could you speak to a little bit of qualitative versus quantitative? Thank you. So quantitative as the word says is about numbers and it is really important to know what the stuff is and how much of it there is and what the actual physical health impacts are but the mental health impacts can be measured through those numbers. Um and they are huge. Um and that's that's what you capture in qualitative research. to capture people's lived experiences. Uh as I said, um I I've been thinking about the powerlessness, the profound powerlessness that's imposed on uh people who are low income. Everybody there is low income obviously, but I think a disproportionate number of residents are um but it's even reflected in the city's attitude to industry like powerlessness. No, there's nothing we can do about it. It's provincial um and it's true it is not under the city's jurisdiction to deal with those issues but they are our neighbors and the city is like our closest parent that we have uh and the board of health responsible for our health uh including the physical and the uh mental health impacts which these people are not responsible for what is happening at all and not even making much um I mean they get perhaps their salaries is from working for the profit of these industries. Um I guess I'm not directly answering your question. Uh the qualitative research uh actually touches also us as humans which numbers don't really unless you're um an expert in certain fields and you understand the meaning of what you're looking at. All these gobbledegook names of chemicals that are there for people to breathe. Um and as health professionals, some of you will understand the health impacts. Uh thank you. >> Thank you so much for your response. >> Yeah, >> thank you. Uh any additional questions for the delegate? Seeing none, thank you. >> Thank you. Our next uh delegation is from Sarah Styler. Welcome Sarah. Hi everyone. My name is Sarah Styler. I have a PhD in atmospheric chemistry and I am as of this July an associate professor of environmental chemistry at McMaster. But more importantly, I'm a resident of East Hamilton and the mother of a three-year-old boy, Garnet. I'm always worried he's exposed to the dust that falls on my backyard and the chemicals that comprise the burning tire order I smell when I open my patio door. I'm speaking here in this latter capacity on my own behalf rather than on my academic or institutional role. Although what I will say is of course informed by my expertise in this area. This is the first time I've ever attended, let alone delegated at a municipal meeting. I want to share with you why I'm here. First though, I want to say that I fully support the black soap monitoring campaign and I really want to commend the members of the community and the city councilors and staff whose advocacy has moved this plan forward. Given the extent to which our provincial regulatory bodies have failed the residents of the lower city, the need for independent monitoring is really clear to me. In my expert opinion, though, the work plan proposed by the engineering firm is critically flawed on the most basic of environmental monitoring principles. I'll explain. The proposed air sampling campaign involves short and longerterm air canister sampling at a number of sites around the city. In this method, a vacuumed out evacuated cylinder is gradually open to capture a snapshot of the air composition. This can happen really quickly over 10 minutes as they propose or over 8 hours. Canister sampling is used for determination of gasphase contaminants like benzene and other volatile organic compounds or VOCC's. It is completely unsuitable for particulate matter sampling which is what is proposed here. This is for several reasons. First, typical particulate matter or PM sampling uses active samplers. It operates at about 20 L per minute often over 24 hours. This takes us to 24 cubic meters of air sampled in a day. If our total PM levels are 50 micrograms per meter cubed or something like this, this means that sampling for a day yields 1200 microgram or 1.2 millig of PM. Canisters are the size of a bottle of pop, more or less. Let's say five liters. In five liters, we'll have a total of 250 nanogs versus 1.2 milligrams of particulate matter. More importantly, this 250 nanogs of PM is not just hanging out waiting to be analyzed. It would be coating the internal workings of the canister, the valves, and the walls. How would we remove it for analysis? And the canisters are made of metal, which is obviously incompatible with performing metal analysis as proposed. The firm states that the analysis will be carried out by accredited labs. The problem here is that environmental sampling operates by a garbage in garbage out principle. All that the analysis protocol can provide us with is a number and the usefulness, correctness and overquality overall quality of that number depends on how we obtain it. If all that the engineering firm is offering us is coordination of the sampling itself, then demonstrating expertise or at least competence in this area is especially critical. This is my major concern. But I see a bunch of other issues as well. In the interest of time, I'll just discuss one here because I know that Environment Hamilton has already expressed concerns with the representative representiveness, excuse me, of samples um taken just a few times given variability in wind direction, time of day, day of week, etc. that doesn't seem to have been taken into account here. My team's work in this area started with the What's the Grime campaign where we worked with Environment Hamilton and 50 amazing community volunteers to collect and analyze dustfall across the city from November 2024 to 2025. And we've just submitted a major granting application to a federal granting program to expand this project substantially, including a major qualitative community engagement component and sub projects that speak directly to community questions, concerns, and hypotheses. Um this um proposal is is in collaboration with um u members of Hamilton public health as well. So in our pilot study we see a whole bunch of different phes not just benzoapyne. The fact that benzo apirne is regulated however poorly by the province doesn't mean that it provides a complete picture of toxicity or uh carcinogenicity. One way to do this is by measuring a bunch of other phes and then using potency equivalent factors to calculate a benzoapyne equivalent. For our samples, we don't just see benzoapyne. We see other toxic conjunctioners as well like benzo ah ananthroine, benzo floranthines, etc. So the conjunction profile can also tell us about pH sources. And in Hamilton, it's clear from this profile that the source is coal combustion. All of this information is completely unavailable if we focus only on one pH. I'd like to p a I'd like to end by saying that I think that one of the most important things in community- based research is trust. And I personally on a personal level do not trust this engineering firm to competently perform any sampling campaign related to Hamilton air quality given on the quality of the sampling pan they've proposed for me and my community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh questions for the sorry councelor Nan. >> Thank you chair. Thank you Sarah. Um, I'm just appreciating that you had to rush through your presentation there in order to get everything in. And I just wanted to take a moment to say now that you've got a chance to catch your breath, is there anything else that you were hoping to have included in your presentation? You mentioned that you're going to narrow down your focus on what you shared with us this morning, but there were any other aspects in in terms of what's in front of Border Health today that you feel is important for us to hear. And also, thank you so much for your delegation. Really appreciate your expertise. Um, thank you, Chancellor Nan. Um, I I don't know if I have much else. I I mean, I could talk about the technical aspects at great length. Um, but I don't think that we should have to talk about the technical aspects at great length because the point is we're supposed to hire someone to do this. Um, and I guess I'm just really angry that my community's money, which was took tons of effort to put forward and and do, has been has been put into this report and this plan, which I think is fundamentally unsound. And so, like, I'm really worked up about it. Not on a professional level because, you know, as as Miriam very um uh clearly stated, it's not about the numbers here. It's about listening to the the community and to doing something that's that's useful. The community has been advocating for this kind of stuff, you know, since the 70s, since long before I moved here, since long before I was born. And I think that what's missing is um is that community engagement part. Um and that needs to be prioritized, I would say. Um I think that's what I would say. Yeah, >> thank you so much. That's my question. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, we have councelor Wang and then councelor Wilson. >> Thank you. I wonder doctor if you could just give us a quick little synopsis on the what's the grime and where you're at with that now and then that way we can map that to all of the other work that we would like to do with that. So then that way we're not competing with each other but working off of each other. Sure. Sure. Thank you. Um I So the what's the grime project, we worked with environmental Hamilton to do sampling at 50 sites around Hamilton. Um concentrated in WS three and four. Um and the goal was to sample dustfall in people's backyards using a method that's accessible um easy for residents to understand. And we've been trying although we're under sort of limited budget constraints to really remain in contact with people um to convey their results to them in sort of personalized reports and things like this. So what we have is a a library of um pH analysis samples. Um so we've done um every four months um over November 2024 to 2025 and then we have two cumulative samples as well. And what we're finding is that um the um conjuner profiles so the specific makeup of the phes in all the locations via just essentially any metric you look at is consistent with coal combustion. It's not from traffic, it's from coal across the city. Um and also um the um variability between seasons is large. So the levels were much higher in the winter than in the summer and in the spring. And so we are still trying to figure out why this might be. But I think the important thing is that um and this was actually raised by um one of the PhD students in my group. It's important to get samples during the winter as well when we have sort of um a restricted circulation of the air. So things get really concentrated and gunky. Um we've also found that community members are really engaged and want to do sampling. Um and we've been talking to them about expanding the project further. And again this is in collaboration with um researchers at Hamilton um public health including Sally I believe who I've not met in person but just electronically. Um and the idea there is to look at their different hypotheses. So they want to know how to clean their house. They want to know how far these contaminants get into their house as well. um you know because you it's not just an issue of outside if people are at home 90% of the time and then they can't open their windows that's a problem as well. So I would say we have numbers and we also have kind of buyin from the community is is what I would is what I would say we um did this work uh on you know for under 15 thou I don't even know 15 20 30,000 something like that um and this was through a funding from McMaster. Um, I want to say though that I'm not dunking on um analyses by accredited labs. They certainly have their place and I don't want to imply that we could take any of that place because they provide certainty. They provide certainty that um things are done according to specifically accredited methods. So the EPA methods etc etc for sampling etc. Um we have little shoe boxes more or less that we put on people's yards. Um the point is that it's still providing us with valuable information and it's a complement uh to the kind of information you would get from a professional accredited laboratory. This is not to imply that we're a bunch of chumps who don't know what we're doing. It's more just we are not operating under those sort of ISO accredited conditions. And I think for a community that hasn't been listened to. I think that that accredited data is super important. So I I I want to say that I think the the work is potentially complimentary. M >> um >> okay >> I think that cover oh and also sorry we will have metals analysis um but our collaborator has been chronically overwhelmed with every single other analysis she's doing so we do have samples that are ready for metals analysis as well. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. So given your expertise then um can you give us a sense as to where you think we might need to head in whichever direction? Um because again I don't want to impede on the work that you're doing but I want to make sure that we're that any work that we want to take on is complimentary to the work that you're doing. >> Yeah. I mean I think that's a really good question. And I think that I think that the goals of the project um the scientific goals of the project and the sort of community engagement goals of the project um maybe it's that it would be helpful to really clarify what those are because I think a lot of the goals have to do with people not feeling listened to and the reason why they're not feeling listened to is because they're not being listened to, right? Um so I think it's more about figuring out you know within some certain budget what can we find out um and I don't know what that is from the specific budget that the city will have but I think it's important to you know keep in touch with the people who have pushed this forward um at the different counselor's offices and community um community groups etc to make sure that whatever data is getting captured is is what people want to know. I think I I think it's difficult with you know the limited funds to have some sort of cross city um you know comprehensive idea of what every single location is you know especially if you're using accredited labs and the associated fees for analysis. But if the goal is more of a community engagement thing to to say that yes we have this data and we're listening to you then that has a different sort of um like uh what's the word? Plan of attack I suppose right? Um, so I'm not the expert in that. I guess I think that's a community question. >> Excellent. Thank you so much, Dr. Styler, for your delegation. >> Thank you. Uh, next up, uh, member Denko. >> No, >> sorry, you came off the list. >> Yeah, that's all very fine. And I I'll be very quick because frankly where you were finishing off answered a lot of my questions with respect to what were you suggesting in terms of kind of next steps or I thought you really clearly laid out some of the concerns. Um, and then I heard what your values were in moving forward, but just maybe looking for some of those operations. And I one of the things I heard from you and I'll seek kind of confirmation and then maybe go forward is that having a clear list of goals, whether those be goals from the community, whether those be uh goals for public health reasons like um what are the health impacts of this or whether it's just like a what is this goal, but having those being really transparent about what we're do what we want to do and how the work we're doing goes back to those goals. Um you also spoke a lot about values um ter whether those be you know community feeling trust uh whether those be um some of the other values in terms of how this is done so reporting back to people making sure they're in the loop who has ownership over the results some of those types of things. >> Are there any types of methodologies or kind of action steps or the how piece uh that you'd recommend uh that can kind of answer some of those questions or how who do we ask how do we get through that? I you've looked at a report that gave three options for how that could be done. I think you've you've provided some criticism. If you were to suggest an option four or five, I guess um I've heard from you getting those questions as a maybe a clear first step. Could you maybe just take me a little bit further as to what else would happen? >> Um well, what I will say first of all is that this is not my area of expertise. It's not scientists area of expertise. Um it's people's area of expertise who uh you know the people who have PhDs in this area or the people who have lived experience in this area with community organization etc etc. So what I would say is um we are collaborating with um Dr. Alex Hall who's at the school of inter interdisciplinary science at McMaster in our revised budget proposal which is asking for essentially 2.4 million over 5 years to do a really comprehensive crime investigation for a whole bunch of different factors that you know I could talk about this for forever but I won't. But what I will say is that he has excellent ideas for events to bring the community together. Um focusing on um you know pride in everyone's community rather than just you know sort of being an endless downer. Um, we are going to be collecting um, sort of oral histories from people in the community if we're awarded funding. Um, and just generally listening to what people are looking for. I mean, I spent an hour on the phone with one of our volunteers. Um, listening to our frustrations and and you know, I think people need to be validated because from the scientific end of this, you know, our project is called what's the grime? But we know what the grime is. These articles have been in the spectator since the 70s. Like basically what we need to do is like every other place just filter the stuff that's coming out of the smoke stacks. This is not complicated. This is not a scientific problem. This is a equity problem. So, you know, I'm not the person to speak to any of this. I'm just giving the data, but the community already knows this stuff. I'm speaking very off the cuff here. It's one of those warnings. [laughter] But, you know, the point is like you can get the numbers, but the community is going to be like, "Yeah, no right? I mean, like I have garbage covering my house. Like, I can see it. You know, I have it at my house, too. It's unacceptable. It needs to change." So, whatever data can make that change, I guess, is what we do. even though you know the community screaming it from the rafters for the past infinite amount of time hasn't helped. >> Thank you. I think what you're talking about highlights a contra or maybe a difficulty here like uh community members this is meant to be empowering or you're meant to be able to learn some answers but if at the end of the day there's not an outcome from learning that knowledge or going back to your goal statement is what is the path in terms of answering this question. Um really do appreciate your delegation this morning and highlighting I think what you see value in in the recommendations and what you'd like to carry forward as well as where you'd like to see some changes as we can kind of continue in a scope of work. I think that's really helpful. Thank you. >> Oh, thank you. Um maybe just to say one tiny little thing as well is that I think one thing that the data can provide is um additional um spurring of you know people going to these whatever these meetings are called where people go up with um Ursler Mattel or whatever and you know sit there you know cuz you can go and you can say I'm mad about my house being dirty infinitely and that doesn't seem to be working. Um, but what you could do is if we have sort of a steady spill out of data that is showing I don't like what's falling on my house in A B C D or E or F ways and we organize and build a group of community members that's um that's larger and more empowered by the data they're getting then that is an outcome I think as well. So the data shouldn't be necessary but unfortunately I think it is right. Yeah. >> Thank you. Uh, next uh up is member DO. >> There we go. Thank you so much for your delegation and uh >> sharing important information as we consider the best next step to take. Um you mentioned with the project that you're doing that you know you already have relationships with people in the community and so that there's a sense of trust. Uh you talked about people needing confidence in process uh for sampling the data results. Um but you also talked about some of the concerns around the proposed um sampling methods in the report. That was pretty quick. Could you just help me understand some of the concerns around the the sampling process that you have? Sure. um and what you would recommend to that we do or consider doing differently um to address those. >> Yeah, sure. I mean, I think you know there's some of this like kind of detailed stuff that I could spend a while talking about, but the first is that you don't sample particulate matter using canisters. Like that is my concern. This is just not how it's done. Um and you just it just this is just not how you do it, I think. And if you Googled what are canisters for, you would see for volatile organic compound gasphase analysis, benzo pyrene is associated with particles, you just this is just not how you do it. Like it's just wrong. And so it's less to do with the specifics and more that this does not give me confidence in anything that is being proposed. So it's kind of like disqualifying as far as I'm concerned. Mhm. >> Um, you know, if you look up how to get particulate matter, it's through active sampling. It's the way that the, you know, the EPA is the way that the, you know, the different sites in Hamilton, the MECP sites, the NAP sites, they pull air through a filter and they extract the filter. This is just how it's done. So, I think like I it's it's very fundamental my issue, I guess. Yeah. So, there's a bunch of other smaller things, but to me, that is the thing that makes me super concerned. >> Also pretty mad. >> Yeah. As a resident, I mean, not as a scientist. Thank you through the chair. Just uh to follow up and you mentioned we already know what's in the grime. Um so but but having a validation through an accredited lab process would be helpful in your view. >> I mean I guess you know we we do have all of the you know various MECP analyses at various times. We have the NAPS analysis. We have etc. It's not it's not that those things don't um exist. It's whether I guess the value of having that accredited information is useful um in some way to the communities that are involved in the project and I feel as though it is from my sort of brief discussions on this kind of thing um you know because it says that you know we have these analysis that are done this way but the key point I think is that it's the environmental sampling is um a is not just the um method of analysis using a you know instrument that anal analyze this stuff is what are you analyzing? And so a holistic um um demonstration of like yeah I mean if essentially if you just pick something up off the ground or something and you analyze it you'll get a number but then the problem is with the sampling I think. Um and there's lots of different environmental sampling companies um I don't work for AGOT for example but they're like an environmental sampling company that advise on sort of the sampling methods and things like this how to get the results the quality assurance quality control etc. That's just not clear here, I think. So, the issue I guess I have is with the sampling, the method of sampling, not the analysis method. Like, how do you get the stuff? Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, and our next question for the delegate is from councelor Tatson. >> Thank you. Um, you basically just answered my question that I had. It was from councelor or not council, sorry, from um, member Denko. Basically, what I was going to say is you your critique of the method methodology. It um, it alarms me and uh, so what you're basically saying is the validity of any data collected is suspect and the study will not be reliable. So I guess I want to take that a little bit further. Basically, what you're saying is the money, and I think you said this earlier, the money spent by the city for this consultant is basically wasted. Is that how you feel? >> I mean, I don't want to I don't know. I feel like I'm being very I don't know what the word is um open here. I guess, you know, there's certainly, I'm sure, aspects of it that are valid, but I think if the proposal is to do air sampling using canisters, that's just objectively wrong. And that should have been caught by somebody because we're supposed to trust the recommendations. That's that's kind of what I'm saying. >> And and I and I guess that's that's my concern then. And I think that's I will be doing some more research, I guess, into our consultant and asking why are they using this methodology. So, >> well, I don't I think the thing is they're not going to use it because what would happen is they would take the canisters to an accredited lab and the accredited lab would be like, "What are you doing?" Like, you don't do this this way. Like, it's not like you can just take a canister and stick it into an instrument. This is just I mean, you can, but it's for a different type of analysis. So, they wouldn't they wouldn't accept it. They wouldn't be able to do it. It's not so much that it's I mean, it's just it's just not how it's done. >> You know what? I I just want to thank you for your for being candid and for uh putting it out there. I appreciate your delegation today. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, any further questions for the delegate? >> Seeing none. Thank you very much. >> Thank you everybody. >> Um, so our next item is 6.2. uh delegation from Evan Beine from Environment Hamilton respecting item 7.1 the report on black set sampling and community engagement feasibility uh and item 9.1 reaffirming opposition to extensions and special permissions for contaminants by the Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks. Evan is here in person. Welcome, Evan. >> Hi, everyone. So, natural hat-trick of uh board of health meetings delegating for me, I guess. Um, yeah. So, I don't know if I'll be able to add much more to what Dr. Styler mentioned for item 7.1. Um, and then I'll talk about item 9.1 for a little bit and happy to take any questions on that. Um, so yeah, everyone knows this, you know. Um, in 2024, community members reported black fallout. Uh, so the MECP, Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks sampled this fallout in 2024, and 16 out of 54 were found to have detectable concentrations of certain uh, compounds. And then last month we got the report back and uh the third party contractor report. Uh so these were some of the clarifying questions uh raised last time that uh upon reading the report from the contractor, you know, these would be some good things for uh staff and the board to clarify in terms of how were the locations selected? Um how will sites be constructed? So the samplers themselves um how is the testing period selected? What specific analysis and method will be used? What compounds will be tested both for the air and the soot? And then for air quality sampling specifically, I I think Dr. Styler went through a lot of that stuff. Um the main red flag that I had when reading this report was how was the air quality sampling time chosen? So to kind of illustrate this further, we have two Hamilton Air Monitoring Network stations uh 29667 and 29180 that conduct benzoapyne sampling. [snorts] And for 2025, the results at these stations found that 24 out of the 31 samples, so they sample for a 24-hour period every 12 days or so, 24 were above the MECP air quality guidelines. So quite a quite a large number. I also illustrated that at both stations, actually 10 out of 31 samples were above 10 times the 24-hour guideline. Um, and then I just put Powell Park on the map too because that's where city staff have flagged uh the community garden cannot operate currently because of concerns about benzoapyne contamination. Uh, it's within 2 km distance of those two stations. So yeah, it's pretty I think it's pretty easy to make an inference of where that contamination is coming from. And then so this is why um three samples of air quality is not enough. So you can't see the numbers themselves, but the circles that I've highlighted um there are seven of the 31 samples that actually meet the ambient air quality criteria. So So if we sample and say we got three of those uh instances that meet the criteria, we're not we're going to we're going to come to the wrong conclusion here. Um, so that's why I had concerns upon reading the report that there were only going to be three samples taken at each location. Uh, Hamilton Air Monitoring Network conducts 31 per year. Um, and then yeah, so comments moving moving on to the testing period. The MECP samples that were taken in 2024, they were point samples. So what that means is staff went into the community, took a sample from somewhere and analyzed that sample. The what's the grime analysis that Dr. Styler just spoke to is longitudinal sampling. So they take results over a 3 or 4 month period. I think that tells us a little bit more information than just going out one day and getting a sample from somewhere. And then it's also important to get a sample collected in the winter months. Um, we had a couple air quality warnings in the winter this year and that's because the temperature gradient and the cooler air can kind of change the dispers dispersion patterns of the air. So yeah, I mean recommendations I think it's for the board to discuss but as maybe something can like approve up to this amount to conduct some kind of analysis or maybe it has to be even broader than that. Um I think it's important to conduct engagement sessions. Maybe community members can provide input on where the sampling locations could be and also document some of their concerns and lived experiences. And yeah, maybe um there can be some kind of uh sampling plan determined by members of the community. And then yeah, like I said at the start of my delegation, if anyone has questions on motion item 9.1, I can definitely speak to those. So, thanks. >> Thank you. Uh, do we have any questions for the delegate? >> Uh, first up, councelor Wilson. >> Thank you through you, Chair. Um, thanks Evan for coming out. Really appreciate that. This might be blending between the information report and the motion later the two topics there but uh my understanding is in order to get a sight specific exemption or sight specific standards from the ministry there has to be benchmarking to best available technology. So the conversation about kind of monitoring what's coming out of the stacks. Um we also heard you know there can be maybe some work done at the stack itself at the point of pollution to maybe reduce some of what's happening there. Um there's advocacy happening around sight specific standards. Uh all the work that you're doing on monitoring regimes and trying to this community monitoring regime. Have you come across uh information kind of on the other at the going upstream if you will about are we maybe meeting those scientific standards in your opinion around benchmarking that the province has kind of that jurisdiction over making the determination on? Um is that an area where there's other jurisdictions because it's not just um maybe the science of kind of community monitoring or the science of that but there's also other jurisdictions kind of regulating the industry itself. not just regulating the pollution or regulating the testing regime. Um have you come across any kind of other jurisdictions that are regulating kind of the pollution itself differently? >> Yeah, so through the chair that is something that we're looking into further is a comparison of what are the environmental protection agency standards for example in the states and comparing that to the ministry of environment conservation and parks in Ontario. There are unfortunately some examples of uh where and you wouldn't think this to be the case but the regulations in the US are actually stronger than what Ontario's regulations are especially from a like best available technology perspective. What the Ontario ministry has historically done is say you know here's the air quality standard you have to meet and we don't really care too much how you meet it. Um whereas in the states in some regulatory um you know on the state level some of them have said like no actually this is the best available technology for your plant so you should be using that um piece of equipment and so because of that doing it that way can sometimes yield better results. Um so that's something we've been looking into. I don't have like a comprehensive you know here are specific examples but um from a general perspective like that is the case and yeah you know if residents are complaining about soot and we have a pretty good idea of where it's coming from I think motion 9.1 is a good way to support something that could address those concerns for sure. >> Thanks so much. >> Thank you. Uh, next up, Councelor Wang. >> Thank you, Evan, for your delegation today and thank you so much for all of your hard work on helping me draft this motion for 9.1. I want to speak to 9.1 and in particular ask where we're at with that because I do know that there were several obviously timelines that have lapsed. There were things that were happening in the background. Um so perhaps you can give us an update from where you understand it where where these um site specific standards are in the process right now. >> Okay. So I'll try to be quick with this summary. Um so the motion 9.1 deals with what's called an environmental compliance approval. So if a large industry is operating in Ontario, they need an environmental compliance approval which says they're allowed to operate while meeting certain conditions. So one of those conditions historically for DeFasco has been they have to uh they can't emit pollution above a certain limit which is above the regular limit because they get what's called a sightsp specific standard or an exemption from the regular limit. Those sightsp specific standards expired in 2023 and were never renewed. So technically they're out of compliance with Ontario air quality regulations right now. So in our view um asking for an update on their environmental compliance approval when they're currently out of compliance with Ontario air quality regulations doesn't make sense. And that's kind of the uh motivation behind passing a motion like this. >> And in your opinion uh the ministry has also said that they are working on an industry standard that industry standard is so far out of uh time and place at this point. So I wonder could you also to your understanding how you think the industry standard is rolling out at this moment? Yeah, it's kind of a double-edged sword because I just I literally just spoke about how some regulatory bodies in the states mandate certain technologies. So, in Ontario, they have been discussing something to that effect since you can find it in meeting minutes of some of these community meetings with these industries since like 2019. So, like even 7 years ago, they've been saying they're going to come out with one of these and it there's no timeline for when that might happen. Um, and then the other concern is if they do come out with it, are they actually going to mandate the best available technology or is it going to be some kind of weak weak guideline for that? Uh, will the community be able to have input on that? Um, also the Ontario technical standards are implemented in such a way that they don't get reviewed every certain number of years. That's maybe something that could be improved on from a provincial level in their technical standards. At least the sight specific standards are mandatory to get reviewed every 5 years. They're supposed to be. Um, so yeah, not sure when the technical standard is going to come out, but it's been at least seven or eight years that they've been saying it will come out. >> Excellent. Thank you so much. I think that that's uh helpful when we get to the motion to have your uh comments there and as well uh I think that there's there's a lot to be discussed when the motion comes to the floor. Thank you. Thank you. Any further questions for the delegate? Seeing none, thank you. >> All right. Thanks everyone. >> Uh may I please have a mover and seconder to receive the delegations? Moved by councelor Wang, seconded by member Kirkby. All those in favor? Seeing no one opposed that is carried. Next item uh is the report we've been hearing about 7.1 the black set sampling and community engagement feasibility report. This is an item for information. May I please have a mover and a seconder to receive this report and correspondence? Moved by councelor Wilson, seconded by councelor Wang. Now are there questions on this report? First up, councelor Wang. >> Thank you. Um through you chair just a couple of questions on perhaps through the team to perhaps the consultant that we have online. uh some of the questions that were raised by delegations were around the sampling methods. So I wonder if the the consultant could potentially give us an overview as to why they came up with those particular sampling methods uh for this particular report >> through the chair to councelor hang [clears throat] um in response to that question I would uh like to ask uh Mr. Mahabu Balam from Peter McCollum if he could share thoughts on um the uh critique related to the air sampling uh using canisters uh that was highlighted during one of the delegations comments. Uh if you can please Mr. Lam. >> Uh good morning. Uh this is Mahab Alam calling from Pedo Macallum. Can you guys hear me? >> Yes. >> Yes. Uh okay. So thanks uh Dr. Styler for her input and detailed comment on the uh sampling methodology for the air quality. Uh in general when we do the air quality that is that particulates that we are going to take that one that I'm going to discuss in twofold. One is that air quality and the other is the uh particulate uh material deposit which is the soot. uh the air quality I I agree with her suggestions that uh definitely that cartage or filter will give a uh better understanding about the PM2.5 or the particulate site materials. uh but uh the canister is is definitely going to give you more of a volatiles and semi-volatile materials uh semi-volatile materials which are the phahs are in the semi volatile materials but defin we can revisit that which methodology we should be employing for this one if we are interested in getting all these particulates uh if you are interested in getting all the particulates material only uh Then definitely filter and cartis will be much better much better options and then we can also decide that uh what will be the time length of these uh materials that we are going to collect for the air quality and uh and also I agree that yes the phs was the only one one one target compounds but it's we can add other phahes like benzoflloranine and then cd pyines which are also of uh nesty stuff uh that can add into the those air quality testing. In general, I believe that the air quality the canister uh is okay for if we are going for uh semi volatiles and volatiles and then uh uh but definitely uh curtises will give give us a better options and the filters will give us a better uh better results and uh doing the testing in that we can we will be we are proposing to do the test in either in agot lab or in SG GS lab which all are accredited uh here in internationally also here in Ontario and in Canada. Uh that's what uh that and I would like to have an open discussion with uh Dr. Styler and anyone from the community that what kind of and their opinion in written forms that what kind they would favor and then why they would favor it and also I thank again Dr. Styler for her uh deep insight and comments. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much for that answer. Um just a question though because it sounds like you're changing the some of the options which might actually change the price tag might also change on the time frame. So it feels as though there might be a little bit of flexibility and wiggle room here. Uh so [clears throat] then the question is um I guess to staff so perhaps to director McDonald. Uh where are we at in terms of the payment to this consultant? Are we have we concluded on their um work or is it still open because of the how how this motion is structured? just just help me understand where we're at in terms of how our engagement with the with Peter McCllum is >> through the chair. Thank you very much councelor Wang for the question. Um I'll confirm with Matt Wil Matt Lawson, pardon me. Um but my understanding is that um the work that was commissioned towards producing these options and again these are options. We don't have recommendations. This is an information report um has concluded. So I'll just throw it to Matt to confirm that >> through the chair to councelor Hang. Thank you Kevin. Um Matt Lawson, manager health hazards vectorbor disease program. The purchase order that was originally opened as per the motion passed by the board uh was for contributing up to $5,000 from wars 2, three, and four. >> Uh that full amount was not spent on the generation of the consultants report. And I could give an approximation. And I don't know if it's appropriate here to do so of what the remainder is, but approximately I would say half of the value or just under half of the value of the PO was spent on the report. >> Okay. All right. That's really good to know. Thank you so much. Um, chair, I am interested in hearing any of the other questions and lines of questioning from my from my board of health colleagues. I think for me my comment is that I would like to receive this report and uh really have a little more of a more wholesome conversation about next steps uh because I don't want to leave it hanging. I don't want to leave this report hanging on our agenda. So I do want to look at um just receiving this report at some point in the future after after all of our board of health colleagues have asked their lines of questioning. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh our next question from council Wilson. Uh thank you. Um just maybe like procedural very high level just to seeking confirmation that essentially we gave direction as a board to give us some options for an improved sampling regime and what came back was um I guess a list of three options four if you count the combined everything together option and they all had different price points and it's kind of this is the value for money this is what you get seeing a lot of confirmation from the bench so I'll kind of keep going there. Um, we also have the opportunity at this moment in time to change the original direction before we, you know, before we go to the grocery store. We have the opportunity to edit our grocery list to use that metaphor and say, "Oh, actually, this isn't what we actually need. We need this. We've we've talked to people about what their plans are for meals this week. We need to change what we're thinking about. We could also have conversations about who is advising on what those standards are. We may want to have conversations with community." And so, I'm just kind of trying to seek understand that at this point in time, the existing direction is kind of exhausted. the options have been reported back. But if there was additional information, this is the kind of piece I'm getting to is this is always a budget ask. There's not a budgeted category. Even this existing ask is a recommendation to council. If we picked one of these options, it's an ask to council to budget for these things. And maybe I'm seeing the nods, but I'll just ask that that's that's kind of the pathway forward in any option >> through the chair. Thank you very much, councelor Wilson, for the question and for the summary. that's accurate um in terms of the approach and I would say that characterizes sort of the trajectory of this item from its point of germination in terms of an ever evolving uh understanding and trying to reach a consensus amongst those who uh proposed the motion uh as well as uh working with the certified professional consultant to bring back some options for consideration. So if further um modifications, changes, um you're bang on in your assessment. >> Thank you. And those don't have to happen now. Those could happen after conversations with technical experts or community members before a future meeting if or they could if someone was ready to go today. I heard from councelor beside me that there was maybe an intent to receive the option today, do some work and bring something back, but just kind of seeking that clarity that there could be additional direction. It would follow the same process where we'd have to ask council for here's what we're trying to do. The what's may be changed slightly. The budget may be changed accordingly. Um but then it comes forward as a financial ask to be included in the 2027 at this point likely uh program budget through the chair. Uh thank you counselor. That's correct. Uh in terms of uh the financial resourcing for this type of work um can't speak to whether it would be 2027 or in year 2026, but we're in the board's hands in that regard. uh through you very generally. I'm interested in if there's experience working with a research institution um or community groups in community advised research from a public health setting. I know there's been kind of maybe the occasional partnership. I'm just wondering if that could be discussed a little bit. I think we looked at an external partnership or an external contract. Um some of the concerns were about well how do we relay information to community or how do we do and so I'm just wondering maybe as a health organization have we partnered with Mohawk or McMaster some of our research institutions previously what have those partnerships looked like generally speaking did they kind of meet that community um maybe technical standards uh moving forward on kind of clear goals or were there issues with that how did the funding work just trying to get an understanding of how how does that maybe kind of come together at a general level if we have examples >> through the chair counselor I will throw that to Dr. Wilson. Uh, doc I keep saying Wilson. Dr. Richardson. I I must have watched uh Tom Hanks's movie too much this weekend, [laughter] but Dr. Richardson for a response >> through the chair. Um, so just to ensure I'm answering the question that you're asking, I'm going to offer you a bit of an answer and then you can tell me if I'm hitting the mark. So, we have a history in Hamilton Public Health of across the community and with industry in different ways. And so Clean Air Hamilton is one of the key ways that we collaborate with both McMaster University and um others around air quality issues and you know advocating for changes and whatnot which that that group does. Um we also have work that we do with Hammond the Hamilton Air Quality Monitoring Network that Evan displayed the data from as well. Um and so uh there are collaborative projects that go on and the one that Dr. Styler spoke to the what's the prime as you heard is one that we collaborate with as well. So there's a a number of pieces of work that we do. Um the challenge is of course finding somebody who wants to collaborate on the work that we might want to do and so we can look for uh people to do that. We did have and I'll just remind challenges um with this particular project in finding a uh professional firm to engage with on it which is a a different uh sort of uh initiative than doing those kinds of collaborative investigations from an academic perspective which may or may not involve money changing hands versus for example going for grant funding from outside organizations such as the type that has been done with the what's the crime study. So, I'll just pause there and see if I'm going in the direction you were looking for. >> And I'm hearing the ding. So, I'll just clarify what I heard, which is we do have examples of partnering with community members, including in the realm of air quality. Here's what those partnerships look like. This is maybe my editorial that I'll I'll seek just if it's okay. Um, the examples I heard are maybe when there's a specific outcome or project in mind, it's a little bit easier to collaborate, but when it's maybe a move, an end goal is maybe a little bit more opaque. Um, I'd be curious to maybe hear if there's examples of partnership like that or if if our partnership is is easier to do a partnership when there's a clear goal in mind and a clear activity that's kind of constrained. Um, and so it's easy to work around what that looks like. So for example, the air monitoring network or other types of things like data sharing is a key activity that happens at air clean air Hamilton for example. >> So I might frame it uh through the chair slightly differently to say that you know if we're working with academic researchers it needs to be an area of interest for them. you know, they are they are focusing on a particular research agenda, following something along those lines. When we're looking for a specific outcome that matches, you know, are looking to address an issue that matches, that that's great. Um um when it's something more specific that the the board of health seeks to do, then that's when we get into the realm of professional consultants, which are a direct, you know, cost to the board or to the city depending on how it moves forward. So um there are ways to do the work um but we would have to you know again it would depend on exactly what was wanted to be pursued and um whether we could find academic researchers who wanted to collaborate. >> Uh thank you. I really appreciate that. >> Thank you. Uh next up councelor Nan. >> Thank you through you chair. Just picking up where councelor Wilson left off. Um, I'm curious to hear a little bit more about the ability or perhaps even thoughts from staff on the potential for a new community advisory that's project specific. Um, that could also help address some of the how-tos when it comes to community engagement, some of the level setting of expectations in the community of how to garner and gather those lived experiences as well as then the technicality pieces that we heard today. Um, not very I'm not interested at all in kind of collab like the the existing tables because those existing tables don't center lived experiences of our residents. they center um industry and academics and so I'm curious about in other aspects and realms of public health's work has be has there been an incident of creating a new community advisory and recognizing this one would be very project specific >> through the chair. So generally we've worked with community advisory groups that are already constituted by others and um you know there's a number of for example community advisory groups that are specific to situations um in that exist in the community. The only one that I'm recalling is one that happened in a in a different domain of our work and around um around healthy growth and development and uh you know was very specific to that particular initiative. So I can't think and I'm just turning to Kevin and Matt. I can't think of a specific example that we have done in the in area of environment and health. >> Thank you. Councelor Nandy, you have a followup. >> Oh, I I just I thought there was something specific there in terms of a follow-up from from staff from what Dr. Richards would send. Um, yeah, I think I would agree with Councelor Hang that at this point all we can do is receive the information report. chair. Um I'm happy to [clears throat] sidebar with uh fellow board members as well as staff and of course the community to figure out how we might lift up this work and deliver it based on um outcomes that our community is expecting. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um if I can pass the chair to council Wilson. Okay, please proceed. >> Great. Um, I will get to a question. This is part of a question. I've been thinking, you know, uh, as we morphed into this semi-autonomous board, part of it was about how community speaks and how they are heard. And I understand that part of the process, including what happened today, is initial steps in community engagement. We have people who read the report who see flaws and point them out to us. I think there's a bit more that we can do beyond receiving the report uh to address the the occurrences that happen today which is our consultant agreed with the critique that more has to be done in terms of methodology that it was inadequate. Uh we also saw live that a community engagement process is fruitful and useful and that the uh consultant received uh information from community and that changed their mind in terms of what needs to be done and how it can be done. We heard about anger and uh mental health concerns for community members that need to be voiced in qualitative ways that value lived experience. The report itself doesn't do that work as yet. we can receive it. I think we would have to note at least that our next move or uh maybe mine will be to draft a motion that asks for uh something more, a more detailed community engaged approach that that takes uh this moment and mobilizes it in a way that acknowledges and respects the way community knowledge has helped us here. uh and that we can respond to the critiques of methodology and come up with something else to go forward with. Uh and that will come with asks and that's what needs to be. Uh [snorts] otherwise we just go through the the process um that leaves things as they are which is both kind of the old way where we trust the process and acknowledging that we are part of a body that can change this process. So my question is is it possible to receive this report? We will uh of course acknowledge these critiques in the minutes and uh my question is what would be a way that would be helpful to staff uh from the board in terms of generating the motion and you don't have to comment on the generation of the motion but the kinds of things that would be helpful to you given the critique and the discussion and the questions proposed today um going forward to respond to those critiques. and and to do the work uh that you would see as as required uh for an amended uh project for sampling. So through the chair uh to the vice chair uh Joseph um I I think an offline conversation amongst the principles to better understand um respectively we've had these conversations um and we've had them in one-on-one scenarios and so to see specifically um from a goal perspective um where the group would like to see us engage with community towards what end um and what that ultimate goal would inform. What I'm hearing today is that it would inform uh future adaptations of the methodology. Um and uh certainly from my perspective from where this item began, we are into a much larger scale than I think we initially uh were confronted with. Um so with that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Richardson if she has anything further to add >> through the chair to the vice chair. Um, as Kevin said, uh, I agree. I think this there's not a motion that could be made today or or something from today that would help us move forward and support the work that the board wants to do. I think that that meeting with the principles that have been involved is key to understanding, you know, where they want to go from here and look at what is possible and what would be needed to do that. um you know I'm still racking my brain about examples for that focused on community engage [clears throat] engagement in relation to an environmental problem and you know for example that's a piece where we could look at other probably larger health units who've done that kind of work uh for example and what might have been done or where other groups have done it we know for example has done and had some community engagement processes in the past that have uh helped move for work forward um so I think that meeting to really talk about where does the focus lie, where do they want to go? Um would really help in terms of uh informing what might be needed and quite frankly the magnitude of that project. >> Any followup? Uh, Vice Chair Joseph, >> I um I thinking unrelated to environment and kind of uh of the vaccine readiness network and uh I was part of that group and I thought it was incredibly useful and helpful. I think a similar kind of model might uh assist in this one and I concur the the magnitude of this uh has to match the magnitude of its impact and environmental consequence. Uh so yeah bigger um I'll take back the chair and >> yeah and just flagging for you that uh member Deno's added to the speaker list as well. >> Thank you. Uh, next up, councelor or sorry, member Denko. [gasps] >> Uh, thank you through the chair. Just a a question on a procedure or process in terms of how this gets reported up to council uh from the board of health given our semi- autonomous autonomous nature. uh as we're talking about this issue, this strikes me as not something that solely rests with the board of health and as mentioned this would be funded through uh and and funds would be approved through city council. Um given the the discussions and the the nature of the project seem to be shifting so that we are actually meeting the needs of residents uh in terms of the the information we collect, the way we engage. um what what's the mechanism and what does that look like uh in terms of how this gets reported to city council so that we're bringing them along as we're having these discussions here at this table um so that there's there's awareness and and a real buy in when the ask comes for funding. Thank you. >> So through the chair maybe I'll quickly start and then if Dr. Richardson wants to add on she can do so. Um, so the board is semi-autonomous now. So nothing that the board does gets sent up to council unless the board directs us to circulate that to council. So if the board wanted to, they could ask that this report be circulated to council for their information or any other report on an agenda. >> So through the uh the chair, I'll add on to that. Um, so as Matt says about communication, that's the way it flows or rather doesn't flow. Um but on the funding matter as well the in this particular case the idea was to look at um board specific funding uh board specific budgets and so the approvals for that funding do flow through council. However that's not the only source of funding that can be pursued um for a project like this. As we've talked about there could be other granting agencies who are interested we have been fortunate in the past to get funding from other sources. Um I hate to even mention them but in the past ministry industry they have funded projects as we've g gone forward and so I don't think it necessarily means a request to council for funding but council uh would be one of the potential uh funders that uh the board might seek to approach. >> Any followup? >> Oh, sorry. Thank you. Uh, and just hearing that is very helpful. Um, I think referring this report to council isn't necessarily the next best step because we've identified issues with the report and I think that wouldn't then uh accompany the report. So, I'll leave it to maybe council members to consider how best to uh share this information with their council counterparts. Um, but I do think it's important to be [snorts] establishing uh a method to ensure that that we're communicating uh information as we move through this process with council. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, any other questions on the report? Uh so seeing none, may I have uh mover and the seconder to receive the report and the correspondence? >> We already did that. Sorry. >> Yeah. Council, >> thank you. Um, I can we split up the receipt of the of the report and the correspondence because I'd like I think we should move the correspondence down to 9.1. So through the chair we can do them separately or if the mover being councelor A Wilson and the seconder being yourself if are willing to just refer the correspondence be treated as friendly. >> So one motion so all those in favor to receive this report and refer the correspondence and that's a vote. by hand. Everyone's in favor. No one opposed. That is carried. Thank you. Item 7.2 is correspondence from the city of Hamilton respecting jurisdiction of board of health and city council. Uh this report contains a confidential appendix. Um [snorts] so if a member of the board would like to discuss the confidential appendix uh we'll need to defer consideration of of this report to after close session. Does anyone um would any member like to discuss the confidential appendix? Seeing no one, may I please have a mover and a seconder on the following at report BOH26026. uh dated today respecting the correspondence from the city of Hamilton respecting jurisdiction of board of health and city council be received and that the confidential appendix A to item 7.2 memorandum BOH26025 which is correspondence from the city of Hamilton respecting jurisdiction of board of health and city councelor be received and remain confidential. Moved by councelor Wilson. Have a second. Second by member Jansen. All those in favor. That's everyone. No one opposed. And that's carried. Next item 7.3. Uh Hamilton opioid information system semianual update. May I please have a mover and seconded to receive this report? Move by councelor Wang, seconded by councelor Casar. All those in favor to receive this report. Oh, sorry. Questions first. Any questions on the report? Member Denko is up first. Thank you through the chair. Um I'm just scrolling to the right section. Uh one of the the risks that were con reviewed I think um and I may be looking at the wrong section here. Uh one of one of the challenges I think is always getting information out to the community. And I was wondering um while there's a lot of work and there's there's statistics around uh 20 and above in terms of um use and and um access to paramedic calls and whatnot. I was wondering what the work is what work is being done uh at the school level um particularly high school and um university level [snorts] to make sure that we're getting information about the risks of opioid drugs um the the risk of the toxic drug supply. Uh what is the work that's being done to make sure that that information is communicated out to youth um before they engage in risky behavior? Thank you >> through the vice chair to member Danu Denko Melissa Vexa director epidemiology and well-being. Uh thank you so much for the question. I'm going to start and then um might hand it over to Dr. uh Dr. Director uh Prito uh for any further comment. So, great question and I would say substance use in general, whether it's um continuing to discuss uh opioid related harms or other substance use such as alcohol and cannabis is a collaborative effort that's discussed at the schoolboard level and also a keen focus of our school program that works with individual schools to help identify issues. Um, historically we have also supported the school board in development of curriculum resources that was of a previous initiative of the Hamilton drug strategy. Um, as well as uh continuing to address harms or respond to uh local data um that comes out through our um annual um odes or student drug use uh survey uh which uh is a collaborative provincialwide effort. and I'll hand it over to director Prito for further. >> Uh thank you Julie Prito, director of the healthy families division and chief nursing officer. Um so I think the only thing I'll add to that is that certainly we appreciate and understand the importance of um uh early healthy growth and development and the impact that that has on uh subsequent uh substance use. And so some of the work of the school program uh is really on some of those uh addressing early adversity um talking about uh protective and coping factors. So looking at building resiliency uh sense of belonging uh connectedness and social connectedness. So just flagging that some of the work uh really around substance use prevention starts really really early on uh and again is about addressing that early adversity and protective factors. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um, next up, member Kirkby. >> Thanks so much. Um, thanks so much for the report. Um, so it was really solid on like mortality surveillance and the policy analysis which is really appreciated. Um, but there were two areas of the report that I just think require a bit more information um, to really provide the full picture um, of this crisis and how it's being addressed. Um so one piece is just really the need to make um more visible the large population of people um who survive but are living with serious ongoing and underserved um health and social consequences of the toxic drug supply. Um it's still not clear you know through this support report the extent of the opioid related health and social impacts um beyond death. So the report lists some additional harms on the page seven I believe um but does not really explain the full impact that extends into a number of different areas like mental health coorbidities um violence accidents uh prenatal and neonatal impacts housing and homelessness um child welfare and family separation criminal justice caregiver impacts um just to name a few. Um, so I think we really need to be clear and find some data points um to demonstrate the complexity of the issue and really just to better inform the approach and response. So I think the complexity needs to come out through how this crisis impacts a number of different um aspects of people's lives. Um, and then another piece that I think that can benefit from more information is um the equity analysis. So really having a better understanding um of not only um who's impacted by death or um emergency room visits but again the health and social impacts. So who's facing the greatest barriers to support? How are different um groups or populations impacted differently. Um yeah so really just to understand the crisis uh more clearly and again then we're able to um really tailor prevention and our response um accordingly. So I guess my question is um does public health have access to the data or research that can support this kind of deeper analysis um to create more wholesome picture and um can it be analyzed kind of moving forward so we can really have uh the full scope of the crisis to inform response >> through the vice chair to member Kirkby. Thank you very much for your question and um and for highlighting some of those key areas um where you would appreciate further information. So, a a couple pieces to that one. Um, and I think uh I was quickly trying to thumb through the report and and find the section um but can't um can't locate it uh currently. But um some of those ongoing um lasting impacts uh say for example post overdose there is a section noted in there that has been a discussion that we have uh continue to have internally of like is there a primary researcher in the province looking at uh this type of uh study or data. Um is there pieces that we can glean from ours? Again, that continues to be a a conversation regarding some of the equity pieces and and some of the other health and social pieces. What is presented um in the equity analysis right now is data that is available to us. Um I remember um majority of our data sources are are collected for us. Um however uh being said uh really appreciate the feedback today. We'll take that. um this is a semi semiannual report so we can take that back in consideration for the December report and then um use the opportunity to add what is available but then also um where it's not clearly outline some of the current limitations and data that we have so it's so it's available. >> Thanks so much. >> Thank you. Um next up, Councelor Wilson. >> Uh thank you. I really appreciated the policy analysis section that looked at different jurisdictions since the closure of consumption treatment sites as well as um the just that entire section talking about the work done to kind of validate those findings or local findings, what other folks are finding across the pro. Like I thought that was very thoroughly done. Um we often talk about uh mortality as kind of one of those key metrics. I appreciated member Kirkb's question to think about what some of those other metrics are. um one of the ones when I'm looking in the appendix at the first chart there which has the various hospitalizations um drug related death suspect drug related deaths etc er visits paramedic calls um I'm seeing that there's been a substantive change since um around March of 2025 uh with respect to paramedic calls and emergency room departments and that seems to almost be a reversal of a trend previously speaking I think we can all assume what might be happening there, but is our analysis right now that when folks don't have a place to go um that's maybe targeted to um emergency consumption treatment. There's not kind of those services available for folks, the ER is the only place to go. And so that's what we're we're seeing right there. Or is there actually maybe changes in terms of the severity like people are getting more acquired injuries or other types of things are happening? How do we understand is that place people have nowhere else to go um or there may be more um adverse effects that are causing injury that are increasing >> through the vice chair to councelor Wilson. Thank you very much for the uh question. I would say the easiest answer to all of that is is what I would attribute is all of the above. And so we do know um the uh ongoing unpredictable nature of the unregulated drug supply um does continue to um drive adverse re uh adverse reactions, adverse responses. And so really when we're looking at rising paramedic responses and subsequently ED visits, it it may reflect again where individuals are using substances and the UNC [clears throat] increasing unpredictability in the drug supply. um you know reductions in service uh access or the impact of service closures and also the emerging substances um that um um in the drug supply that is locally continuing to cause complex uh uh medical responses. >> Thank you. And in terms of a response at the ER or in that emergency room, do we get uh data after the fact where it maybe it not be isn't available right now, but just trying to get a sense of what the data regime is where we'd be able to understand that um in this quarter there were some of those instance of say toxic drug supply and we're able to uh look back maybe four quarters isn't enough data per se but just kind of we're able to do that at work with ERS to say hey which of those factors might actually be corresponding or is that not the level of data that kind of comes from uh the emergency room and it's just a number in terms of this is the admission rate for example and it's not necessarily what was happening with that individual or some of those causes that you spoke to that may be influencing that >> through the vice chair to councelor Wilson I'm actually just going to hand it over to Katherine Holtz our manager of epidemiology and evaluation uh just to speak to the data sources a little further thank you so much for the question Katherine Holtz manager of the epidemiology evaluation program through the vice chair. Um yes, so we do have uh available uh detailed data from hospitalizations including emergency department visit uh that is available to us through data sharing agreements. It that does come to us with some uh data lag. However, typically around the 9month mark. Um so one thing that we have uh begun to consider uh considering this issue around multi-or uh multi- coorbidities is looking at what are some of the uh other diagnosis or secondary or tertiary or third um diagnosis that are accompanying these uh opioid related uh ED visits and hospitalizations. >> Thank you. I really do appreciate that. I'm just drawing attention in a 4-month period. I think one of these metrics whether yeah I think it was the um emergency department visits has tripled um and paramedic response calls has uh quintupled and I think just seeing that trend line continuing to get steeper not not plateau not change um I'd certainly as reports come forward if that continues to be a trend would be interested in maybe getting a better kind of piece of we're seeing a trend line it's been continuing for a period of time um can we understand what might be happening there in the same way that when we've had huge spikes in mortality data or other types of there's been maybe interest in what's going on with the trend. Um I appreciate that I may not on this side getting the report know when we've got to a trend versus when we have a couple months of data and there's the lags but just would appreciate um in the same way that there's been a big policy analysis based on previous discussion when these reports have been uh raised in the past would appreciate kind of a similar discussion in future reports if this continues to be the trend that we're seeing. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions on this report? Seeing none, all those in favor to receive this report. I think that's everyone. Um, anyone opposed? That is carried. Uh item number 7.4 is uh BOH26024 the blasto micosis inquest. May I please have a mover and seconder to receive this report. Moved by councelor Wang, seconded by councelor Casar. Are there any questions on this report? Seeing none, all those in favor to receive this report. That's everyone. Seeing no anyone opposed, I'll just ask a question. That is carried. Next item 7.5 is the BOH26020 program update series. This one on infection prevention and control. I'd like to call upon Kyle Snooks, manager, infection pres prevention and control to uh provide the board with a presentation on this item. May I please Oh, wait. Not there. Let me do the presentation first. So just >> so Dr. Richardson's doing this presentation looks like. >> No, I'm not quite. I'm going to turn it over to Kyle because he is certainly um our lead when it comes to infection prevention and control, but I did just want to take one second before we uh before Kyle launches into ask the board. Um, you know, this was a series that we started 3 months ago to respond to the input that we'd had around wanting to understand better depth across our programs and services that we provide to have more performance information come forward um and to also have some more financial information to understand where those investments are being made. So, I just did want to ask the board just before Kyle begins if you can think about this one and the ones that have gone before, it would be very helpful to have your feedback. We're going to continue this these series for um the uh through to September until we go into the break for the election. And so please do email any feedback, you know, whenever it comes up to you after this meeting today or a one that comes forward in the future, please do email me any feedback that you might have, good, constructive, whatever it might be. It really helps us to understand whether this is meeting the needs that were expressed during those consultations and how we might continue to improvement them as we go. So with that, I will turn it over to Kyle. Thank you, Dr. Richardson. [clears throat] >> Good morning to our board of health and those tuning in. My name is Kyle Snooks. I'm the manager of the infection prevention control program. It's my pleasure to be here today and present an overview of the program. I'll walk through our mandate, key population health trends, how the program operates, and highlight our 2025 activities and outcomes. Next slide. The infection prevention and control program works to reduce the risk of communicable disease transmission in community and institutional settings through inspections, investigations, education, enforcement, and outbreak management. Our work is guided by the Ontario Public Health Standards and Associated Protocols under the Health Protection Promotion Act, which establish mandatory requirements for all boards of health to ensure consistent delivery of public health programs across Ontario. The program operates primarily through the infectious and communicable disease prevention and control standard and is responsible for activities such as outbreak management, infection control investigations and inspections. Boards of health are also responsible for ensuring compliance with key legislation including the personal service setting regulation 136 and the food premises regulation 493. In practice, we deliver this work through inspections of personal service settings like hair and nail nail nail salons and tattoo parlors. education, outbreak management in institutional settings such as long-term care and retirement homes, investigating infection control complaints at facilities operated by regulated health professionals such as dental clinics, and entic case and contact investigations such as lab reports of E.coli. Together, these activities allow us to identify risks early, implement control measures, and reduce the spread of illness in the community. Next slide. The program helps to reduce the risk of transmission of infectious disease in community settings where vulnerable populations, close contact, or high-risisk procedures results in a greater risk for the spread of infection. Long-term care and retirement homes support some of Hamilton's most medically vulnerable residents. Community indicators show that approximately 1.5% of the Hamilton population live in these settings. Ongoing infection control and outbreak support are critical to protecting resident health and safety. Personal service settings such as tattoo and piercing establishments involve procedures that may expose clients to blood and body fluids if appropriate infection control practices are not followed. Provincial data show that these services are widely used among younger adults, reinforcing the importance of routine inspections, education, and enforcement. Licensed childcare settings are also an important focus due to the nature of these environments and the potential for transmission of infectious diseases among young children. Hamilton has approximately 23,000 licensed childcare spaces representing an estimated 3.5 to 4.2% of the population accessing licensed childcare services. Next slide. The program f is focused on reducing the risk of spread of infectious disease in high-risisk community and institutional settings. This includes supporting outbreak management in places like long-term care, retirement homes, and childare centers. In this role, public health provides guidance and public health recommendations to facility operators and staff to support implementing outbreak control measures such as precautions, cohorting, testing, and cleaning and disinfection strategies. While facilities are responsible for the day-to-day outbreak operations on site, public health plays a consultative and oversight role to help reduce transmission and support outbreak safe outbreak resolution. The program also includes inspections of licensed childcare centers and personal service settings such as tattoo parlors, nail salons, and hair salons. These inspections help ensure safe infection control practices are being followed, and inspection results are shared publicly online on our Hamilton Health Inspection Disclosure website to support transparency and informed decision-making. The program also responds to infection control complaints, including those regarding facilities operated by regulated health professionals such as dental clinics. and we provide ongoing ongoing infection control guidance and education operators. Lastly, the program completes entic case and contact investigations such as lab reports of E.coli. Overall, the program takes a prevention to response approach by helping prevent outbreaks before they occur and responding quickly when illness is identified. This work helps reduce the risk of spread of impact of infectious diseases, protects vulnerable populations, and supports safe operations in these important community settings. Next slide. The program focuses on supporting populations and settings that are at increased risk of transmission of infectious diseases and severe health outcomes. This includes infants and young children in licensed childcare centers who are more susceptible to communal diseases due to their age, developing hygiene habits, and close contact environments. It also includes older adults and individuals living in congret living settings such as long-term care who are at higher risk of severe infections, complications, and hospitalization. We also prioritize individuals receiving services in personal service settings such as tattoo and piercing parlors where certain procedures can increase the risk of exposure to blood and body fluids as well as workers in these settings. Across all these groups, the focus is on strengthening prevention practices, reducing barriers to infection control resources, and supporting safer environments. Next slide. These next two slides on the program activity highlights showcase the volume, scope, and impact of this work and practice, helping to illustrate how these core functions translate into meaningful public health outcomes across the community. The program continues to play an important role in reducing the risk of infectious dis disease transmission in both personal service settings and licensed child care centers through routine inspections, reinspections, education, enforcement, and complaint investigation. The program supports compliance with infection control and food safety requirements and promotes safer environments for clients, children, and staff. In 2025, the program completed 1,260 routine inspections and 135 reinspections across personal service settings and childcare centers, achieving a 100% completion rate for the required routine inspections in both program areas. Inspection activities in personal service settings are also becoming increasingly complex due to the evolving complex evolving cosmetic and aesthetic procedures, emerging technologies, and specialized equipment requiring enhanced risk assessment and technical expertise from public health inspectors. In addition, 198 complaints and service requests were investigated and resolved. These may originate from members of the public, parents, operators, or partner agencies, and include can include concerns related to infection control practices and illness reporting or service requests related to City of Hamilton licensing requirements. These activities provide opportunities to identify and address infection control risks, ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, and support operators in implementing best practices. Next slide. In 2025, the program supported 255 outbreaks in long-term care homes and retirement homes and hospitals involving respiratory and entic illnesses that can spread rapidly and significantly impact vulnerable populations. Public health supports outbreak management through early detection, rapid response, and infection control guidance on measures such as precautions, cohorting, environmental cleaning, and testing. Working closely with the facility leadership and IPAC teams helps limit transmission, shorten outbreaks, and reduce impacts on residents, staff, and the healthcare system. The team also provided 108 support interactions with long-term care and retirement homes, including consultation, outbreak guidance, education, and participation in professional advisory committee meetings. These routine in inter interactions help strengthen infection control practices, build facility capacity, and address issues early before they contribute to larger outbreak issues. In addition, 359 laboratory confirmed interic disease cases, including illnesses such as E.coli, were investigated in 2025. Public health follow-up includes identifying potential sources, providing education, and implementing measures to reduce further spread. This work helps identify outbreak signals early and reduces the burden of entic illnesses in the community. Next slide. This slide highlights the key partnerships that support our public health work. We collaborate with provincial partners including public health Ontario and the Ministry of Long-Term Care to align with provincial guidance and infection control standards. Locally, we maintain a strong collaborative relationship with the Hamilton Niagara Norfolk brand hub. This key partner supports infection control capacity in in congregate living settings through consultation, education, outbreak support, and interpretation of evolving infection control guidance and best practices. This partnership strengthens our ability to provide timely evidence informed support and promotes consistent infection control practices across congregate living settings. We also maintain strong working relationships with city of Hamilton departments, including licensing and bylaw services and childcare services, as well as other municipal and community partners. These collaborations support coordinated inspections, information sharing, compliance follow-up, and consistent application of public health requirements across the settings we support. Next slide. In 2025, the program made up 3% of the gross expenditure of Hamilton Public Health. Most of the budget was allocated to employee and employee related expenses. The program operates with a budget of approximately $2.02 million and an incredible team of 15 full-time equivalent staff made up of public health inspectors, an infection control practitioner, program secretary, program supervisor, and manager. These resources support inspections, investigations, education, and enforcement activities across the city. Next slide. With this context in mind, I'll move into impact and outputs. This slide presents 2025 routine inspection findings for childcare centers and personal service settings and provides an overview of compliance with infection control and food safety requirements. While these are output measures, they are important indicators of the scale, consistency, and responsiveness of the program. The majority of inspections, 71% or 898 inspections, identified no infractions, indicating strong overall compliance across both sectors. Non-critical infractions were identified in 17% of inspections or 214 cases. These are lower risk issues that still require correction and provide opportunities for education and improvement. Examples might include minor gaps such as inadequate lighting in a work area, improper storage of items, or inadequate cleaning of floors. Critical infractions were identified in 12% of inspections or 153 cases. These are high-risisk violations that could lead to illness or infection and require immediate corrective action such as improper sterilization of equipment or failure to follow infection control practices during invasive procedures. These situ in these situations, inspectors identify measures that must be corrected immediately. Where immediate correction is not possible, services may be directed or ordered to discontinue or close until compliance is achieved. Follow-up inspections are then conducted within 48 to 72 hours to verify that corrective actions have been implemented and the risks of the public have been addressed. Overall, these findings demonstrate strong compliance with re while reinforcing the importance of ongoing inspection, education, and enforcement activities to support safe practices in these settings. Next slide. This slide highlights key outbreak management outputs for long-term care and retirement homes during 2025. The program achieved 100% compliance with outbreaks being declared within 24 hours of notification with 255 outbreaks declared. Early notification and declaration allow for the rapid imple implementation of outbreak control measures and timely public health support to reduce transmission in these settings. This slide also shows that 85% of outbreaks representing 122 outbreaks were were resolved within the target time frame. The target time frame of less than 18 days for respiratory outbreaks and 14 days for entic outbreak duration was developed using historical data from previous year's outbreaks across Hamilton, creating an evidenceinformed benchmark for timely outbreak management. This reflects the effectiveness of collaborative outbreak management between facilities and public health. In addition, 100% of homes received infection control preparedness interventions focused on outbreak prevention and management. These supports include annual education sessions, participation in professional advisory committee meetings, indivi individualized consultation to reinforce best practices, and strengthen facility outbreak preparedness plans. The program also supports the safe return of residents from hospitals back to long-term care through outbreak assessment and infection control guidance. Together, these activities help reduce illness transmission, support facility operations, and reduce pressures on the overall healthcare system. Next slide. This slide highlights several quality improvement initiatives that were undertaken and are underway to strengthen outbreak management processes and support for long-term care and retirement homes. A key initiative was our end of year end of season evaluation during the 202526 respiratory outbreak season. Through engagement with homes, we gather feedback on an on our outbreak management processes, communication, public health supports to identify strengths, challenges, and opportunities for improvement ahead of the next respiratory season. Findings from the evaluation along with emerging evidence from provincial guidance informed out updates to our outbreak management resources, materials, and internal processes. These changes are intended to improve consistency, responsiveness, and overall effectiveness of outbreak management activities. We also strengthened our partnership in collaboration with the infection prevention control hub to enhance coordination and provide more tailored supports to homes based on their specific needs and challenges. During the respiratory season, we increase staffing on our program intake line to improve timelines to outbreak notifications and consultations, helping ensure more timely assessment and support for facilities. Collectively, these initiatives support a more responsive and evidenceinformed approach to outbreak management and help strengthen preparedness for future respiratory seasons. Next slide. This final slide highlights the impact of the program through the perspective of one of our community partners. The quote from a local long-term care home infection control lead reflects the importance of public health support during outbreak preparedness and management. It reinforces the value of strong partnerships and ongoing infection control guidance in helping protect vulnerable residents and congregate living settings. While this quote's been slightly edited for clarity and readability, it reflects the real experience of our partners and the role we play in supporting safe, effective infection prevention and control activities. And next slide. And with that, thank you for your time today and I'm happy to take any questions. >> Thank you. Uh before we take questions, may I please have a mover and seconder to receive this report and the presentation? Uh moved by member Jansen, seconded by member Denko. Are there any questions? Councelor Tatterson. Sorry, I I fear this might be a very ignorant question, but I'm just curious about um when we're looking at outputs for infractions in childcare centers, are we comparing um private daycare versus public funded daycare at this point or is it just an overall sensor? Can you give me any understanding of that? So our program is responsible for inspections of licensed childare centers and by that I mean um daycarees that are licensed by the ministry of education. Uh so that could include childcare centers such as those routine daycarees uh that I think most people are familiar with as well as uh programs such as before and after school programs uh at schools um are are the ones that are routinely inspected by our program. So I guess what isn't in scope would be those notlicicensed homebased daycarees if you're looking for what would be considered out of scope is those are not routinely inspected by a fire program. Yeah. So I'm saying I I guess what you're saying is that the the ones where you know a parent might take three or four kids in on a day. That's not what I'm asking. I'm just like asking do we are private daycarees I guess are they monitored under your program like that would have you know up to you know 20 kids in it or something like that. >> So through the sorry uh through the chair uh thank you for the question. So any any private daycarees whether they're privately privately funded or publicly funded if they are licensed child care centers through the ministry of education they would fall in scope for our program. um the the data that was provided in terms of the breakdown of sort of the compliance rates is not separated by privately funded nor uh publicly funded uh but is just an overall uh assessment across those Senate uh centers. >> Okay. Thanks. And just curiosity, were there any outbreaks in in child care centers? I know we're looking at the long-term care, you know, facilities mostly for outbreaks, but what about the what about child care centers? uh through the chair in 2025. I I don't have those numbers at my fingertips, but uh based on recollection, no, there were no outbreaks declared in licensed childcare centers in 2025. Uh we do provide uh support to those facilities. When they identify say clusters of illness of children reporting illness, they'll uh frequently call us looking for um direction and recommendations on how to minimize transmission within those settings. and that support that we provide. >> Okay, thank you very much for those answers. >> Thank you. Next up, um member Safi, >> thank you. Uh my question is regarding these outbreaks and infection the the presentation you have just done is it purely related to uh outbreaks related to COVID and flu or it can be any kind of outbreak like in the city relate for example like STDs as an example. So uh through the chair chair uh Jordan Walker, director for the communical disease control division um we would investigate outbreaks be so this the the presentation spoke specifically to outbreak response in in uh institutional settings which as you as you highlighted is those sort of typical respiratory season the covid influenza neurovirus etc. Um however uh not this program specifically but uh within public health we do investigate all diseases all um reported diseases of public health significance which would include outbreak management of those diseases as well. >> Thank you. and and would you also track for example soft tissue infections related to needles injections uh and how the impact of closing sites would affect the city in general? Plus the fact that uh these uh kind of infection might also be uh very serious uh have will have a serious effect on our hospitals because it will create more of a resistant uh antibiotic resistant types of uh of infections especially that people with these kind of infection uh without their primary care uh they will end up at their severe case at the hospitals which we see many at that community pharmacy. we see this always at the end of it. So I'm not sure if that's something is trackable and is reported for the coming uh for this year and the year before and see the track on it. That's my last question >> through the vice chair. Sorry, just to clarify um uh member uh you're asking about tracking of uh soft tissue infections >> like needle like soft tissue infections, skin infections, bone infections related specifically to needles uh uh uh contamination and if that's something that has been observed or will be observed in terms of reflection on the reality that these sites are closed and if it's affecting it positively or negative uh or the same uh just as a way to see how this is affecting our city and our institutions >> through the vice chair. Uh so our our programs are built around surveillance for diseases of public health significance. And so when we're talking about wound infection, soft tissue infections and the like um as the member has pointed out um there are many that can relate to uh injection drug use. So there is a specific grouping of those infections that we do track and those are infections that are due to invasive group A streptococcus. And so other infections that could be due to other organisms are not tracked by us. Um and it's even for those that are in caused by invasive group A strep, they have to be severe enough to as you pointed out have a person go to seek care. Uh the person has to be tested. That test has to show that it's due to invasive group A strep and then it gets reported to us and followed up. And so there is a um tip of the iceberg if you will um element of those infections that we do track and indeed we do see many related to injection drug use which then you know as you pointed out go on to severe complications whether it is necroizing fasciitis in the arm or it is um uh heart valve uh disease with endocarditis that we see but as I said that's just a tip of the iceberg of what happens in relation to soft tissue infections from injection drug drug use. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions on this report? >> Seeing none, all those in favor to receive this report and presentation. That's everyone and that's carried. Next item is item 7.6 6 Hamilton Public Health 2025 annual public report. I'd like to call on Dr. Richardson Medical Officer of Health to provide the board with a presentation [clears throat] on this item. >> Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Demi, for uh doing the slideshows for both Kyle and myself today. It's much appreciated. Um we've really gotten used to presenting from the um the row up here, and so hopefully that's meeting your needs. If not, please also send that feedback along and we'd be happy to go back to presenting from the podium. Um, so each year we uh produce an annual report that um uh is designed to give the public more information on our performance and our fin our our program performance and financial performance. The basis of this report goes as well to the Ministry of Health and is reported back so that they have awareness about our financial and program performance. Next slide, please, Demi. So 2025 of course brought a number of uh of issues from a public health perspective. We had re-emerging infectious disease threats, continuation of the drug toxicity crisis and more extreme weather due to climate change. So all happened of course within an environment of socioeconomic challenges and spreading myths and disinformation. This report uh that I'm presenting today shares highlights of our work to help people stay healthy and safe by preventing illness. promoting healthy habits and protecting the food, water, air, and spaces that people rely on. It provides a snapshot of the everyday services that people interact with and the special accomplishments that we carried out in 2025. Things from reviewing immunization records to responding to emergency emerging health threats and trying out new initiatives to better serve our community. In 2025, there's a particular theme in us working to increase access, especially for those from equity deserving populations by moving our services closer to those who need them most. And I will say our communities in turn taught us a lot about uh through these pilots to help us better serve them even uh even further going forward. This report can only of course outline a sampling of our efforts to promote and protect the health of Hamiltonians in 2025. reporting on performance occurs throughout the year through multiple channels and includes the new program update series which you just heard about from Kyle. Next slide, please. So, this first section of the report gives examples of those services people rely on every day to support their health and wellness. Every year there are about 5,000 births to Hamiltonians and through collaboration with partners who provide prenatal care. In 2025 we screened 18% or 900 of these families uh for using the healthy babies healthy children screen which is our target uh to do each year. 70% of those screens were completed by clients who had risk factors for poor health and development. That's the group that we're trying to target with these screenings. This prenatal screening is a critical first step in supporting families early. It helps identify challenges during pregnancy and staff then can work with families to connect them to supports and home visiting um through our healthy babies healthy children program and through our u nurse family partnership program. This leads to a healthier start for both the babies and the parents and caregivers. In addition, in 2025, more than 3,000 parents and caregivers accessed trusted breastfeeding and infant feeding support through our website and through community partnerships. We ve closely with our community partners such as birthing hospitals, midwives, and primary care to make sure that we together support families with evidence-based consistent infant feeding information. Working together to reduce the spread of misinformation. On the dental front, we provide both restorative and preventive dental care, and we help people navigate the system. Um, especially focusing on low-income residents of all ages. In 2025, we provided over 7600 clinic visits for children, adults, and seniors. [snorts] The dental program also screened over 15,600 school-aged kids in the schools in 2025. These screenings help identify oral urgent oral health issues and the dental program then works with the families to connect them to treatment and then to prevention through publicly funded programs like Healthy Smiles Ontario and the Canadian Dental Care Plan. Hamilton Public Health also recently introduced a school-based mobile dental service which we we took out to four priority schools reaching children who might not otherwise have access to regular dental care. On-site services included dental sealants, topical fluoride applications, cleanings, and oral hygiene education. You've heard a lot, if we turn to the next slide, Demi, you've heard a lot from us about food safety. You heard Richard in his first uh program update. Um, but also important is looking at food from a health promotion perspective. You're the Chef is an EV evidence-based food literacy program which has been adapted by Hamilton Public Health and delivered through recreation through their afterchool programs. In 2025, it was offered at five sites with 35 children participating. Facilitators of the program saw increased food literacy and the participants based on their engagement and their skill development. This partnership with Wreck builds foundational food literacy skills which can contribute to improved nutrition outcomes. And based on the positive feedback from both facilitators and the participants, the program is going to continue to expand within Wreck and into additional community sites. On the school front, you heard about the screening we do prenatally to identify and follow up with families and babies at risk of poor developmental outcomes. And in earlier reports, you've heard us talk about the about 30% of kids who start school and are vulnerable across one or more developmental domains. In the spring of 2025, we collaborated with both the public and the Catholic school boards to pilot a social emotional screening initiative for children entering kindergarten in the fall of 2025. The goal was to identify developmental concerns, support early intervention, and connect families to appropriate services. Screening was conducted at four priority schools during the welcome to kindergarten events that the schools hold and followup was then done with parents and caregivers according to the screening score that was uh that was found. Those at the lowrisk end of the range received a letter in follow-up and those with moderate or higher risk scores received a follow-up phone call from the public health nurse. When we did the evaluation, about 60% of parents reported increased awareness of supports and about 50% planned to use community resources after getting the screening results. So this first pilot showed us that it was feasible to do the screening, it was acceptable to the families to have the screening done and it showed the potential of early identification of social emotional concerns at the time of school entry and plans are underway to scale this up in 2026. Next slide. So I'm going to take us back to infectious diseases and respiratory sensitial virus or RSB as it's known is a significant cause of ill health and hospitalizations particularly for young children and older [clears throat] adults. During the 2526 respiratory virus season, we worked with hospitals, primary care, long-term care, and retirement homes to promote RSB immunizations for eligible infants and high-risisk adults 60 years of age and older. By focusing on early distribution and equitable access, we helped ensure the most vulnerable were protected before and during the peak of RSV season. indicators showed there were reduced hospitalizations uh due to RSV in 2526 and we know Ontario health has been talking that up recently as well. It was also a year of course of resurgence for measles across Canada. While there was a significant increase in cases and outbreaks in Ontario, they particularly were focused just to the west of us in our neighboring health units. However, here in Hamilton, we had only four cases and no local outbreaks. It speaks to the ongoing work with our community to keep vaccination rates high and to my colleagues efforts investigating every case of measles and identifying and following up with their contacts. To limit transmission, all contacts received health teaching on symptoms to watch for and the importance of avoiding high-risisk settings. I'll just note there can be a hundred contacts related to one of these cases. Further, for those exposed but who are not fully vaccinated against measles, we quickly stood up clinics to administer vaccine within 72 hours after their contact and supported those at high risk to of severe outcomes to get immune globulin at community healthcare providers. Next slide, please, Denny. So immunizations are indeed one of the most impactful and cost-effective public health interventions protecting both the individual who's vaccinated and providing protection at the community level. High rates of vaccination which are known as her immunity reduce the risk of disease for those who cannot receive a vaccine because of their age or a medical condition. Our vaccine program provides advice about immunizations to the public and we distribute and monitor the proper storage of publicly funded vaccines to ensure their effectiveness when given by healthcare colleagues. We offer public health catchup clinics for those behind in vaccinations with a particular focus on improving access for equity deserving populations and for those who don't have a primary care provider. Each year, we review over 90,000 school vaccination records for all kids in schools to ensure they are up to date by supporting and promoting vaccination uptake and if necessary enforcing the reporting of vaccination records as required by the immunization of school pupils act. During the 2425 school year, we saw an increase of 8.9% in twod dose measles immunization immunization coverage in students who were born in 2017. So that represents seven-year-old kids. Measles requires high levels of herd immunity to prevent spread. So this increase is very important. It also represents the impact of distributing 25,000 doses of vaccine to primary care and giving almost 1100 doses in our own public health clinics. On the rabies front, after Ontario's first human case of rabies in 57 years, in 2024, there was an understandable surge in concern in our community about exposure to animals and animal bites. In 2025, colleagues conducted 2330 uh rabies investigations involving human exposure to mammals, including 363 bat related exposures. And yes, bats are mammals. Um this was an increase of almost 500 investigations over the prior year. [snorts] 89 animals were submitted for testing leading to the identification of 10 positive bats. And in all staff supported 274 individuals from those investigations with timely access to postexposure prophylaxis to reduce the risk of rabies. But of course infectious diseases aren't the only threats to that public health addresses. So Demi, if you could change the slide once again. The continued response to the ongoing toxic drug supply in 2025 uh focused on expanding access to life-saving harm reduction supports. For example, here distributing 19,619 kits across Hamilton, which was a 24.8% from 2024 following the closure of the local consumption and treat treatment services site in March of 2025. These this of course is due to the strong partnerships with community organizations who enable broad distribution of this life-saving medication across the community. Staff also supported implementation with the community of $2 million in funding from the federal emergency treatment fund providing increased access to harm reduction outreach services as well as beginning the work on an improved service coordination initiative that launched in 2026. On another front, we worked with 11 schools in 2025 to develop active school travel plans, helping more students walk, bike, and travel safely. 36% of priority schools now have action plans in place, and we're on track to reach 80% of priority schools by the end of 2027. This is just one part of supporting student physical and mental health as well as academic outcomes and is done in partnership with city transportation planning and planning and economic development and the transportation division in public works. Together we address both the built and social environments that influence active school travel. Next slide. Climate change continues, of course, to turn up the heat in Hamilton as well as contribute to wildfires across Canada that impact our air quality. In 2025, we developed and tested a heat related illness dashboard that now has been launched publicly for the 2026 heat season and is supported by heat vulnerability mapping to better identify and target at risk populations. We also distributed 505 cool kits to vulnerable individuals. Cleaner air spaces were expanded to four locations across the city. Each of them equipped with high efficiency, which are MV 13 or higher, filtration systems to improve indoor air quality during wildfire smoke events. Collectively, these efforts supported resident safety during both extreme heat and wildfire smoke. I want to to uh wrap up the uh the program side of things by again looking at the community level of changes as well. And I would uh be remiss if I didn't remark on the July 2025 transition of local public health governance um to this semi-autonomous board with its inaugural meeting on July the 7th. This of course was several years in the making and shaped by several delegations and community consultation. And it does remain ongoing with staff continuing to work through many elements of the semi-autonomous model. For example, continuing to develop and refine bylaws and policies for your consideration and establishing and strengthening our ad administr uh sorry, next slide, Demi, our administrative systems and processes to support the new governance structure. significant developments occurred in the area of primary care as well as we began to see a new emphasis there and we've been partnering with our primary co care colleagues to do the planning for the expansion of primary care and to help residents access care as well. In another example, the tobacco program expanded cessation services into more clinic locations, increasing outreach in priority communities. We strengthened referral pathways and built new partnerships to connect people to support sooner, including access to virtual cessation support groups that meet people where they're at. And together, these efforts reduce barriers to care and improved access to quit supports for those individuals who are most affected by tobacco and vaping. Next slide. We also launched a a local access site pilot project at Eva Rothell with a dedicated public health nerds providing weekly one-stop access to a variety of public health programs, information, and support. We're going to continue to work with clients and do data collection to refine service delivery as well as look at other sites that uh that might be uh might benefit from that sort of expanded programming. Our child and adolescent services as well has been prioritizing getting out into the community with timely and easy access. Their walk-in single session counseling which is also called brief services continues at the clinic location on Main Street. But they have now partnered with several community organizations to offer this service in the community including the Eva Rothell Center, Good Shepard Hamilton, Neighborto Neighbor, St. Joe's Youth Wellness and Lynwood Charlton Center center. Next slide. 2025 was also a significant year for advancing the indigenous health strategy. The need for an indigenous health circle was identified by the indigenous community during the development of the indigenous health strategy. The community has had numerous requests to engage from various health organizations and identified a need to organize these consultations more effectively and more efficiently. The circle now meets monthly to provide advice and consultation to health and other health service providers in in Hamilton. The membership consists of indigenous community members and indigenous representatives from education both public and Catholic boards as well as Mohawk College and McMaster as well as other health and social service providers. The next slide has a quote from Kelly Gordon who's a circle member and she speaks to the impact of the circle. And I just want to read it out. Through its ongoing work, the circle embodies the principle of nothing for us without us by honoring indigenous self-determination and ensuring that indigenous people are active partners in shaping the policies and services that impact their health and well-being. We thank Hamilton Public Health and the Hamilton Board of Health for their continued commitment to indigenousled governance and accountability. And we look forward to continued collaboration in support of indigenous indigenous health equity and communitydriven solutions. So with the next slide, I'm going to turn to the financial part of the report. And we have been working uh my colleagues and I to provide more details on the public health investments here in Hamilton. You saw us work on this initially in the 2026 budget presentation where we gave you some more information about program budget and you also see of course more information come forward in the program updates that uh that you've been receiving. In this report we take a it a further step breaking down the over overall $64.1 million 2025 investment in Hamilton public health programs and services into specific areas of focus that align largely with the Ontario public health standards. You'll see here the largest investment is in infectious disease control at $ 8.56 million or about 13% of the total budget. Administrative costs and facilities come in next at 7.89 million or 12% of the total budget. These include clinic and office rent costs as well as both public health staffing and chargebacks from the city related to things like human resources, finance, IT, and the like. Rounding out the top three is healthy growth and development at 7.77 million or 12% of the budget which if I were to combine that with healthy babies healthy children would indeed rise to being first overall or 19% of the budget at 12.3 million. This of course aligns with the impact of the early years in building the foundation for lifelong physical health, mental well-being, emotional regulation, healthy relationships and academic success. This next slide continues on to show you um the remaining categories that were outlined. I do want to flag for you that the health equity investments here do not represent the total efforts that go to address health equity across Hamilton as is reflected in the updated uh 2026 priorities. Health equity is really a um embedded as a foundational principle across all our programs and services. And these costs are reflected in the reporting by program areas that are that are listed there. The $900,000 investment um here on the health equity line reflects the centralized resources that have been focusing on new initiatives in health equity such as the local access sites. Next slide. From a revenue perspective, the largest source of funding for Hamilton Public Health is the province at 43.1 million. Federal grants in 2025 made up 1.3 million. fees 1.9 million and of course the second largest source of funding for Hamilton Public Health Services is the city at 17.7 million. So that's a wrap then on our 2025 annual report. Thank you for um listening to those uh accomplishments from this past year and I'd be happy to take any questions. >> Thank you Dr. Richardson. Uh so before we take those questions, may I please have a mover and seconder to receive this report and presentation? Moved by councelor Wang, seconded by member Kirkby. Um are there any questions on this report? I see um councelor Wang up first. >> Thank you. I always appreciate this report. It gives us a good sense as to all of the different um business activities and public health activities that uh you guys get up to. Question around um the healthy eating perspective. So I think that that's the slide four. I recently had an opportunity to connect with Sir Winston Churchill their high school program and it was super interesting to see how much need there was in the high school community about food security. So, I wonder how does that sort of play in? How do we work closely with our district school board? Because I do know that there's two separate pots of funding there, but they don't necessarily talk to each other and the need is so great, especially in Ward 4. So, how can we um tease out some of those inner workings of how how that works together >> through the chair? Thank you very much, Councelor Wang, for the question. Um so this is work that's done across uh Hamilton public health between our division and chronic disease as well as uh the school program uh within healthy families. What I can say in terms of uh food nutrition environments uh we do work across a span of uh areas around strengthening community action, supportive built environments, supportive school environments, and healthy public policy. And to that end, I'm certainly happy to follow up with you offline before I turn it over to my colleague Julie Prietto uh to talk about specifically what we're doing uh in those high priority schools visav um these areas um in terms of different resourcing types, different programmatic types. I I don't want to do it a disservice by just skimming over it. So I'm happy to follow up offline and circulate it to uh the board for their consideration as well. Um but really our goal here is to increase access to nutritious food within the city of Hamilton and in to increase positive relationships with food uh among children and youth um recognizing uh the inherent challenges um particularly uh among the communities most vulnerable. So with that I'll turn it over to Julie to talk about uh the school program specific role in this work given they're in those environments D. >> Uh thank you. So Julie Pto director of the healthy families division chief nursing officer. So certainly um as uh uh Kevin indicated we recognize that this is a significant need uh and certainly at some uh within some wards or within some schools uh versus others. Um so some of the work is being done specifically with the nurses in the school programs um to identify where there may be opportunities to have uh you know food brought into the schools for example or starting up uh like breakfast clubs or um [clears throat] uh opportunities for healthy snacks within the schools as well. Um, so it's a little bit of an ongoing sort of relationship with our schoolboard partners at the local level within the schools and certainly with any community organizations that are, you know, surrounding the schools that may be able to provide some support around providing healthy food. >> Okay, thank you for that. That's really good to know. Um, so then that leads me to a supplemental question through you chair is around food security in general. Uh, because again W 4 is has a higher significance in terms of vulnerable populations. we have a fairly large income disparity gap. So I wonder what are some of our thoughts around food security and is that something that hits your radar at all? >> Yeah, through the chair. Uh thank you uh councelor Wang for the follow-up question. Um so that crosscuts um much of what we're doing in terms of uh those core banners around strengthening community action, building uh supportive built environments, supportive social environments as well as healthy public policy and they're stratified across different sections of the community whether it be at the school level, the community level, uh even uh what you heard from Dr. Richardson in terms of at the recreational level of the city. And so some of examples with that of that would be um for instance at the healthy public policy level uh around community uh the work that we continue to do around food costing using the Ontario nutritious food basket and all of that data that we share with partners to inform uh different forms of community action, different policy initiatives, uh infant formula affordability monitoring uh as well as uh looking at overall healthy uh official plans um as it concerns healthy public policy in the built environment uh around um its intersection uh with uh food security. And so for us, some of the work examples include food literacy for youth, uh the York Chef program that you heard about earlier, data to support financial and physical uh food access, uh the Ontario uh nutritious food basket and infant in infant formula costing and mapping food food assets across the jurisdiction. Uh creating supportive food environments in schools, which Julie spoke to a bit, uh but also recreation centers and uh within the community. And then community to support uh community action to support this work um includes other vulnerable sectors such as working uh with older adult uh food access workshop groups as well as uh the group focused on our Hamilton food strategy renewal which we spoke to at a previous meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. One more question chair. I know my time is up but I wanted to ask it very quickly. uh around the pilot project around Eva Rothell and bringing services closer into the community. How closely do you work with say Santae or any of the other sort of medical providers and as well what is the what is the growth plan for something like that? I think that it's an excellent way to really bring community in without them making the big travel into some of our specialized centers. So perhaps a little more information on that particular pilot project please. Uh thank you through you chair to the uh counselor. Um so there is actually on-site primary care there through the family health team and so we have a close connection with them to ensure that um certainly uh when we connect with individuals and they need uh referrals in uh we're able to do that because the service is directly on site there at the clinic. Um we also as Dr. Richardson noted we do have a public health nurse on site there. Um and there's been lots of lessons that we've learned. Uh I think one of the most important is around uh having a presence there and really building uh trusting relationships with the individuals uh who are accessing the service. Um we've uh tried dental services there for example uh and what we learned is really it's more about the need around navigation for dental versus the actual service itself. Um we do have child adolescent services there as well um and providing a brief service as well as sort of workshops during PA days that we're now seeing uh good attendance. Um but again I think our greatest lesson is around the importance of building those relationships and really listening and understanding and appreciating um what the needs are for the individuals accessing depending on you know where they are within the city depending on what sort of their uh needs are. Um as far as expanding so we are looking at other uh locations or opportunities to expand this service. Uh we do recognize that uh there it's really important that we are out in the community um particularly when working with our most vulnerable individuals that may have troubles accessing or going to uh multiple different services. Uh and so it's really meeting that need. Um the other piece uh that we recognize is the importance of warm referrals. uh the importance of sort of warm handovers and having a general sense of how we can help support individuals access other services within public health or other services with the community as well. >> Thank you. Next up, Councelor Tison. >> So, everyone knows I'm a former employee of the public school board and um [snorts] the 8.9 increase in twod dose misel vaccinations um and helping parents to come into compliance. This gives me a bit of a pause when I see that number. So, can I just ask um is that number similar to former years or is it different in any measurable amount? Um if we're comparing historical data, are we seeing a decreasing trend in voluntary vaccination compliance due to misinformation and disinformation? >> Uh through the vice chair. Thank you for the question. So certainly um post pandemic we did see a significant decrease in vaccination coverage rates across our community um for a number of factors. There was barriers to access during the pandemic of course as folks remember um in for our own programs and services. Likewise we had for instance stopped doing the annual screening as our resources were deployed responding to the pandemic. So really this was a resumption of work that had been had been occurring prior to the pandemic up until 20 uh 2019 and then much of that work in terms of our work with the uh enforcement of the immunization of school pupils act resuming the uh annual screening and sending notices homes to parents so that they are aware their children are um are overdue for certain vaccinations that really began in earnest following the pandemic in 2023 and then as as uh Dr. Richardson had mentioned that was the first year in uh in in 2024 25 when we had resumed the enforcement of the immunization of school pupils act. So certainly we did see a dip um following that pandemic particularly amongst our younger individuals. The older cohorts who would have already been primarily up to date on their vaccinations prior to the pandemic occurring um those rates rates within those cohorts remained fairly high. Um this was I think it highlights the the critical importance of this work as you know for instance with measles uh very you know highly infectious uh very easily uh spread particularly in settings like our school settings and so very important that we um were able to resume this work and see these positive results that we did through this process in terms of increasing those rates. >> Okay, thanks. And just can I um get a question answered about compliance? So is that compliance that you're talking about is that through the suspension program? So if kids aren't vaccinated, they get a notice from public health, they're told through the schools basically that they are suspended until they come into compliance. Uh so through the vice chair uh the the compliance refers to the immunization of schools pupil immunization of school pupils act. So that is an act in Ontario which requires all students attending school to be up to date on nine um to be up to date on the vaccinations for nine particular vaccines. Um and so as part of our work in public health we have a role in enforcing the immunization of school pupils act. And so of course we work to promote vaccines in the community. We work to promote vaccines through the school. We do offer uh both ketchup clinics in community as well as our vaccines in school both the grade seven grade eight vaccines but then also in our high schools offering ketchup for those who may be behind on vaccines as well. And so through that um through that work yes they the the that is where um each year annually we would screen the records of all students attending oh sorry didn't mean to hit that mic of all students attending schools and letters are sent home to parents to inform them where their students are uh overdue for vaccine records. Now this is this is very important. It's vaccine records are not received. So an individual can be in compliance either by providing a record to indicate that their vaccination for for particular antigens is up to date or they could seek a medical exemption for individuals who are unable to obtain vaccines or they can seek what's called a conscientious objection uh exemption as well and there's a process for that all all done through our website and so when I'm speaking of compliance it really is that compliance with the immunization of school pupils act and each year since we've uh begun this or resumed this work I would say in 202425 Um we've uh just because of the volume having not done it for a number of years we started by prioritizing about half of the cohorts that that were in school at that time. This current school year we've we've worked through or I guess we're now at the end of the school year have worked through all of those cohorts that we didn't get the previous year and are now at a place where all cohorts in our schools have been through at least one round of having the records assessed and that enforcement completed. >> Okay. Thanks. And last question, it'll be a quick one. What's the percentage of compliance that's not gained through vaccination? So people whether are conscientious objectors or come into compliance through another method other than vaccination. How big is that in our population currently this year? >> So through through the chair I don't have that number in front of me. Um I can I I'll have to get that number and get back to No problem. We'll follow up offline. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Next up, member Denko. >> Thank you so much. And through the chair, just to follow that line of questioning on im immunizations. Appreciate the work that's been done to catch up uh with prior cohorts on their vaccination records. I was wondering if there was any uh moves that we've made to streamline communication um particularly when uh a family might need support in demonstrating compliance or they they perhaps have a vaccination that wasn't quite on the approved timelines. Um you know just recognizing that when students can't go to school or we're we're creating other challenges. Uh so wondering about the the communication tools that we've been using and what's been successful or where there's maybe gaps >> through the chair or through the vice chair. Thank you for the question. So we've adopted a number of approaches over the last couple of years uh to improve our communication. So I would say we've uh certainly strengthened our communication and collaboration with the school board. So beginning with providing um earlier and more advanced notices, providing reminder notices through the school boards as well um I think has been particularly impactful in some of our um what I would say our priority schools where we have nurses from our school program working they have been doing more direct follow-up particular where we've identified or the school has worked with us to identify uh individuals or families that may have barriers. So for instance whether there's language barriers working through to support with those communications as well. Um likewise we have worked to translate um a number of our materials as it relates to the immunization of school pupils act work and uh FAQs to kind of explain the process and what it looks like how to report those been translated into a number of languages. We have made those both available on our website but also available through the school board so that they are able to provide those to families uh to support those as well. >> Thank you for that. Uh on another topic, I really appreciate hearing that we are uh continuing to focus on having active school travel plans uh for safe and active travel to school. Uh you mentioned that we're at about a third of the priority schools having been reached with a an active school travel plan with the goal of reaching 80%. Um, but the use of the term priority school, I was wondering if we have any um clear metric on the number of schools that we're targeting versus the number of schools in Hamilton >> through the chair. Thank you very much, member Denko, for the question. So, uh, as was included in the, um, report, um, the focus is on priority schools, but I'm happy to get you the broader number in terms of, uh, how we're monitoring that. And I think the key point and metric for us is aiming for the end of 2027 in terms of being 80% complete with all of the identified priority schools. >> Uh, thank you so much. And then I think I had one other question. Uh with regards to extreme heat, I'm been very grateful that we haven't had uh periods of extreme heat so far this year. Uh but I'm sure you've all heard in the news that a number of schools are not uh cooled or air conditioned. Um, this is an ongoing discussion and I I think we've talked about it before, but does public health have recommendations for organizations such as schools in terms of optimal temperatures and risks when we're above a specific temperature um, in terms of heat, just recognizing that we often do have learning spaces that that are certainly not ideal in terms of temperature. Thank you >> through the chair. Thank you again uh member Danko for the question. Uh we do and we do provide um both council and uh recommendations to the boards which we have done in the past as you are likely aware uh to help them uh best serve their populations during those periods of extreme heat. Um they follow their own protocols uh in that respect uh particularly those uh facilities where uh universal air conditioning is not provided. Um the more recent I think audit and assessment uh of the boards that are operating in the same in the city of Hamilton, pardon me, was encouraging to see that uh we're seeing um a number of schools. I I think it's principally around capital new builds and things like that where uh this is a uh you know serious consideration um as they're designing these schools. Um but in our conversations with the uh facilities folks uh at each of the boards in this jurisdiction uh we continue to have those conversations um and um provide assistance where where it's possible. >> Thank you. >> Thank you um member Jansen. >> Yeah, thanks and really appreciate the annual report on the whole just as a great opportunity to brag about the wonderful work that's being done across public health. Um I was just wondering in so far as later today we are going to be speaking about mitigating uh some of the risks um particularly in terms of uh the broader public's understanding uh understanding of and trust in Hamilton public health. I wonder is this annual report going to be um promoted or communicated to the broader public um in any way outside of uh just here at board of health? My apologies uh through the chair. Perhaps you could repeat the question for me. >> Yeah, thanks. Um the question there is, is this annual report going to be uh made available to or communicated to or or um made open to uh engagement with the broader public. again just from this lens of enhancing the broader public's understanding of and trust in uh Hamilton public health as one of the risks that we're mitigating or working to mitigate >> through the chair. So this year the you know the focus was on what could we do a little bit differently as we actually historically did these annual reports in paper copies and distributed them to libraries and to those sorts of of places and didn't really find much uptake of them as I'm sure you're familiar with from other products that go uh that route. And so as we had, you know, we didn't do the reporting as we went through the pandemic and then we came back out and we're looking at at web- based ways to do uh to make it accessible. Um we've now focused actually on AODA compliance with this one. And so making sure that there the presentation is um easily read and understood uh from that perspective. But in terms of reach, in terms of it getting out there to members of the public, I would say um you know there haven't we haven't had a focused uh piece of work done on that piece uh that aspect of it. We've tended to rely on the more passive um elements of the website as well as this pres presentation per se um and of course our colleagues in the media for picking up aspects of it and putting it out there. So, at this point, there isn't a dedicated piece that would point to um increasing public access to the information that's in this report. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Uh any other questions on this report? See none. Um all those in favor to receive this report and presentation? Any opposed? That's carried. We're on to items for consideration. The first being 8.1 BOH26021, the 2026 Hamilton Public Health Organizational Risk Management Plan. May I please have a mover and seconder to approve the report. Moved by councelor Wilson, seconded by councelor Casar. Is there any discussion >> speaker's list? Uh, councelor Wang is first up. >> Thank you. I just wanted to piggyback off of member Jansen's last question because of public perception and that sort of thing. And I know that Dr. Richardson did say that everything is still under evaluation, but um how are perhaps just putting a finer point on it? What is our risk mitigation for something like this in terms of public perception >> through the chair? Sorry. Was there a particular risk of those that you're pointing to? >> I think that when it comes to building back trust and transparency, uh there's a variety of different ways in which we can go about doing this. So perhaps um I don't know what if there's a matrix or or even like um a go forward action plan in terms of how we are going to build back that public perception um trust and transparency because as you said there's been a lot of tried and then kind of failed or maybe tried and somewhat succeeded um but there's still um a a market sense of uh apprehension or trust and transparency especially because we're trying all these different pilot programs too in terms of like pushing the access to services out into the community. It just feels as though we're trying a lot. We're we're throwing a bunch at the wall and then just trying to see what sticks. So, what is the what is the real um mitigation plan here to try and figure out because throwing stuff at the wall costs a lot of money. So, just trying to think through what are the the most effective ways in which we can go about doing this >> through the chair. So if you look into the report, there is um uh not just a stick to the wall type approach to uh to rebuilding or to building um public trust. Um and that occurs in table two that's outlined in table two, page four of six. Um that talks about the actions that are being taken to address uh those perceptions. So engaging our priority populations in a meaningful way to help shape our practices using culturally safe anti-racist and anti-pressive approaches. And so you see that work that we're doing on a number of fronts. The work we've been doing with the indigenous community for example with the indigenous health strategy and the indigenous advisory circle. It is a wonderful environment in which to get feedback on our programs and services and our plans and uh and um respond to them and uh and lead to better programming. We're looking um similarly in data collection and um uh I'm just looking to see she's still here. Katherine is still here. Katherine Holtz is leading for example an initiative that is also going on within the indigenous community in terms of data collection, data sovereignty, those sorts of issues and moving those forward. >> [snorts] >> uh the work that we're doing and and you heard Julie talk to it in part with Eva Rothwell and going out to the community and you know we had some ideas about what to do but you know what was really really important as we know we knew this you know learned this during the vaccination campaigns of co and whatnot building those relationships first is absolutely key and then talking about what's needed what um what is wanted by those communities our TV initiative that we're doing as well trauma and violence informed um approaches happening in all of our offices and service settings have been important as well to make sure that they're safe uh environments for care. So, um we are looking at uh the communication strategy as well and looking at how do we continue to put forward effective communications, looking at, you know, social media, those sorts of of initiatives. AODDA has been a strong um emphasis for us this this year as we look forward as well. and then looking at how we do that with other forums because of course this isn't something we do on our own. This is something we do in collaboration with others like the Greater Hamilton Health Network, the work that we're doing with hospitals, with primary care. that RSB initiative that we worked about. We were the ones that worked on service coordination across all of the uh healthcare providers with hospitals with pediatricians with uh primary care to look at how could we have aligned communication? How could we you know look at what the the misinformation uh issues were? Where is the trusted leader who can can support those initiatives? Um and as well it it does also come down to priorities and making sure that we identify priorities. You know the most strategic word is uh is no and terms of the things we can't do um and explaining why and why we're focusing resources in certain areas but also then following through on those priorities to make sure that we develop those. Um, so there's a whole range of initiatives as is outlined there in that table and Kevin I know um over to the right of me could continue to go on from a communication strategy perspective but I think overall that sort of gives a sense of the of the non-stick tothe-wall approach that we're taking to [laughter] to uh looking at continuing to build trust with our community. >> So I'm very thankful for Dr. Richardson's answer. I think that uh I think what my comment was meant to say is that we are doing a variety and a lot of different ways in which we're trying to reach out into the community. Um could you expand upon is there even a data management data sovereignty sort of aspect to this because we are pushing out a ton of communication that could change very quickly and then on top of that when you're leveraging so like channels like social media where again the the attention rate is like almost on a 30- secondond sort of attention grab where you end up losing that information very quickly because it's so so passed through. Uh what is our opportunity with like managing and saving this data? So then that way people can refer back to it at some point um in the future. >> So it's a it's a very good point and I think 30 seconds is is probably about three times as long as if people actually spend and flipping through and swiping over and whatnot in social media. >> Um and I think this is where our current strategy, you know, sort of is twofold. one is web- based and so having information there, you know, making sure that people are aware when it does change, when it changes because evidence evolves or providers evolve or that sort of thing. The other thing is being out there frequently and often. And so making sure that when we're, you know, focusing in an area like our SP immunization, I'll use that one again. We're out there, we have um our campaign like reaches out to the specific populations at risk through providers for example or through agencies that work with them, but also on social media to reach out doing um you know press releases, media releases uh when that's uh an important part of the campaign as well. So a multi-prong strategy is also a significant way in terms of how we do it. I'm thinking as well that sort of you know maintaining those those banks of information that's where we rely on the staff who do that work. So Adele Bard for example in uh communications who does our social media work you know maintains those things and as I said where appropriate puts them up as well in other places. So I'll just turn once again to Kevin who might have a comment or two. through the chair. Thank you, uh, Councelor Wang, and thank you, Dr. Richardson. Um, just picking up on Dr. Richardson's points, um, I think an important part um, for the board's consideration is this organization communicates a lot and often, and we're looking at uh, how we do that, to whom, and why, what's the purposefulness of doing that? And so that informs a more proactive approach to communications. Um, we're working across the spectrum of our programs and services so that each program has uh a articulated communications plan for 2027. We already have communications uh plans for each of our identified um term priorities. So those three core areas that you've heard a lot about plus the principled areas uh core principal areas, pardon me. And so um on that front um you know within our existing capacity uh because I've heard the terms uh miss and disinformation thrown around a lot um you know our core goal is to be uh proactive uh consistent reliable and that takes time uh in terms of um going forward so that the reader uh local residents or the consumer of that information um trust uh the source of information where it's coming from and what they can uh interpret from it. So I don't know if that helps with the response at all. Um but um from our perspective having a more aerial view of the totality of the communications that uh are coming from the organization again uh it's an organization that communicates a lot. I can say that after stick hailing communications for the co 19 pandemic response. Um but on an everyday basis we're fielding media queries. Uh we're doing proactive communications on a number of fronts on a wide array of uh program and service portfolios. So how we tighten it up uh so that it contributes to uh safeguarding uh that community trust uh and transparency is important. >> Thank you uh member Denko. Thank you and through the chair. Just following on that particular risk item, the stakeholder and public perception risk. Um I was wondering if you could help me understand where youth fit in the action plan. Are they one of the priority populations? And uh what is the the plan to engage youth as as you um work to enhance the communication strategies that you've been uh rolling out over the the past number of years >> through the chair uh to member Denko. Thank you. Uh so you will be aware that uh a number of our programs have a long history of engaging youth both through schoolboard at the community level. that work continues to go on uh and is largely program centric uh as opposed to organizationwide. And so uh our practitioners and our colleagues who work in each of the respective programs, specifically those that have a prioritization and a focus on youth um are applying those youth engagement principles uh and working with um young people and young adults in our community uh to refine messages, to focus test messages, to do all that kind of work. Um we had a focus group going on the other week uh around a particular topic area with uh young people between the ages of uh 17 and 28 29. Um uh so that is just core business for us in terms of what we're doing. Um I don't know if I can pick up any further on that for you. >> Uh thank you. And I it, you know, when we talk about the dynamic social media uh sphere and where youth get their information, um are there opportunities to not just promote programs but promote public health as a trusted source of health information in the earliest years so that uh it becomes sort of entrenched that this this is a place that students as they move up through the school system and beyond into the community um they they would turn to public health uh for for information. >> So through the chair, it's a very good question. Um it's a challenging technology environment uh trying to keep current with the uh latest approaches and u most popular utilized forms of social media or other forms of communication. I would say yes, we're uh inherently dialed into that. Uh I think there are some capacity and technology limitations if I'm being honest. um that would uh limit us in in that sphere. Um but we've seen some really good examples where uh young people helping to inform and guide uh programming have really turned an issue on its head. So tobacco control is a great example of that. We've seen other examples uh within the school program. Uh and I know substance uh use is looking at this as well. Um that you know refining certain aspects of our communication will go a long way. Um, I think really what we're talking about more broadly is just that consistency and uh maintaining the high ground, evidence-based information, um, clear, concise communication at appropriate levels, uh, at an appropriate time uh, and, uh, a combination of both proactive and reactive uh, as necessary. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, member Kirkby. >> Great. Thanks. Um I just have a question about the risk rating for the strategic policy or the political risk category. Um so we've discussed quite a bit around this table and you know recent studies and data have shown what happened when the provincial legislation shifted away from harm reduction Ontario and we're seeing the consequences and how um municipalities and public health are able to respond to the toxic drug crisis. This is even mentioned today in the Hamilton opioid information system semiannual update. um in terms of changes to the approaches municipalities can take uh to address this ongoing um toxic drug crisis. Um so we've seen how these changes limit um the work public health can engage in and I can see how this um contradicts public health's kind of core commitments to evidence-based practice and harm reduction. So my question is whether it was considered to include this specific risk um in the strategic policy or the political category um since substance use is a priority area of um Hamilton public health and public's health's ability to kind of achieve I think the desired results will be impacted by and is being impacted by this legislation and kind of policy changes. Um and if it hasn't been considered, I wonder if there's an opportunity to um consider it and to ensure that you know there's a mitigation strategy um that's implemented and monitored and we keep it kind of on on the agenda through the chair. So the the risk categories are quite interesting because they use terms that are interpreted in different ways um within this setting than they might be interpreted in other settings. And so the way that um we've come to interpret this one really more is about uh the way the auditor general's office does it, the province who are the ones that trained us on this. Um and so it's really more about um the leadership around the table and changes in the political leadership than it is around um particular legislation or policy initiatives that are undertaken. And so it's a broad swath um review of what those impacts could be. And so that's where you see the analysis, the risk description there, which is about changing membership for the board after an election um leading to a redirection of priorities as opposed to a something that is at another level of government or about particular legislation or policy. um at that level. We did note that that the standards provide some stability when it comes to um the impacts of changes, but um at the time we wrote this report, the finalization of those standards was anticipated was kind of more murky in terms of when it would actually come about. Now we're hearing that those likely will be settled by um uh August and that we're they're not anticipating much change from what we saw in terms of drafts. Um, so I think it's being assessed in a different manner perhaps than looking at a specific issue such as substance use. >> Okay. I just have two follow-up questions. I'm just curious. I think that the um the framework that was provided and then the um risk management strategy kind of um guidelines I guess that were also attached seem to be different. Like there's a that's why I said like political or the strategy policy one. I didn't see the strategic policy um category carried over into the risk um mitigation plan that was presented. So I don't know why there's a difference in the um kind of the guidelines and then what was provided cuz I I just think and where the strategic policy one does talk about like uncertainty around strategies and policies achieving required results or that old andor new policies, directives, guidelines, legislation, processes, systems, procedures fail to recognize and adapt to changes. So that's just where I was I was interpreting it more as like what kind of big shifts in legislation might impact the outcomes and the work that we're doing through public health. That was just my interpretation. Um yeah, and then I just know I guess this is a comment. I'm guess I'm very curious to see what does come through the Ontario public health standards. Um because I I also interpreted some of the commentary I know at the alpha conference that we were just at around um really focusing on kind of treatment recovery. Um so we'll be curious to see how you know harm reduction is um threaded throughout the the new standards. >> Thank you. Uh any other discussion or questions. All right. For this one, we're going to require an electronic vote. So, it should be on escribe. Member Safrey, are you in favor? Opposed? In favor? >> Yep. councelor Nan, are you still with us? I'll mark her as absent. And so that is carried. Uh the next item is 8.2. Uh amendments to the outstanding business list. Um so in the agenda uh the amendment was to uh remove or consider complete and to re remove the uh Hamilton public health impacts of black sip residue in the lower city. um that was addressed as 7.1 on today's agenda given our discussion and so forth. Yeah, this is also an electronic vote. Um but we we can have some discussion if anybody has any questions. >> So through the chair we just need a mover and second. >> All right, we got to start there. Move and second. Moved by councelor Casar, seconded by councelor Wilson. Now we can discuss. >> First up, council Wilson. Thank you, chair. Just following up on your point earlier about kind of follow up and accountability. I think I heard uh from councelor Wang earlier in the discussion that there is an intention to bring direction at a later date. I heard some other folks um share that. And so maybe just to use this opportunity to say something. I don't think staff have any other business at this time like with the direction that's been provided um that's been completed. But I think to to the point earlier about what's the public accountability or there's been some community engagement. How do we follow through on that? Maybe to answer that question explicitly here. I think there's been a commitment shared by some members to do some work. I think you also highlighted yourself maybe being willing to do that to provide potentially either whether it's additional direction on what information we would like or narrowing down towards maybe a decision or what's the pathway to get to a decision. I think we heard different approaches today and so I'm just maybe lifting up the fact that I heard several individuals say that they they felt personal accountability to bring future direction. Um but I don't think there's anything for staff at this time until that direction's brought. So removing it from the OBL makes sense. But to your point about where does this go or how do we track it? Um maybe just taking this opportunity to name that folks have made that commitment publicly. >> Any other discussion? I'll uh pass the chair to councelor Wilson. >> And please proceed. >> Thank you. Yeah, I feel uh strange about taking this off as completed uh and also get the procedural stuff uh that uh acknowledges both what we're talking about now. So I also want to acknowledge it which is uh the the naming and appreciation that um there was some agreement by staff to reach out to the principles uh and think about how to uh respond to the critiques raised today around that item and uh that uh I am going to stay on top of it in terms of thinking about um a kind of amended motion that respects the community engagement uh recommendation. and values uh that were considered today. >> Happy to give the chair back to you. >> Thanks. [snorts] >> All right. So, this one will require uh an electronic vote. Member staff, are you in favor? Thank you. And that carries. Next item we're on to is motions 9.1. Motion is reaffirming opposition to extensions and special permissions for contaminants by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks. Councelor Wang, please introduce your motion. Thank you. Moved by myself and seconded by councelor Casar. Uh as committee will see this is a fairly lengthy motion. It is uh if it were up to me I would have said just uh one single sentence of like come on MECP come on DeFasco let's get her done kind of deal. But um I'm thankful for the work of Environment Hamilton on helping me draft this in a much more technical sense and being a lot more forthright in terms of how we want to see that change happening. If you will make note in some of the whereas statements in particular the number four it says arser middle defasco site specific standards have expired for suspended particle matter and then ero0192297 which were issued by the ministry of environment conservation parks in March of 2015 due to expire 20 December 2020 and then given an extension of June 23rd 2023. This again goes to show how committee I mean sorry community has been keeping on track of all of these different sight specific standards. So I'll just move directly to the therefore be it resolved that the board of health affirms its oppos opposition of further extensions or continued special permissions by the MECP for contaminants including benzene, benzoate, pyrene, manganese comp compounds, particulate matters and sulfur dioxide above provinially regulated air standards that the board of health and this has been slightly changed to say request that the MECP colon one reject the pro proposal to renew limited operational flexibility within Arser Middle Defasco's environmental compliance approval and add the following conditions to the environmental compliance approval. Sub one is at least 12 continuous fence line and open path monitors to measure the concentration of benzene particulate matter and sulfur dioxide with real-time data posted on a public publicly accessible website. Two, at least 12 passive fine line monitors to measure the concentration of benzene, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide that takes continuous samples over periods of 14 consecutive days with the results posted to a publicly accessible website within 30 days after the completion of each sampling period. Three, at least 12 fence line monitor monitors to me to measure the concentration of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, Pahes, including benzo pyrene that take samples over a period of 24 hours for 14 consecutive days over two every two months with results posted to a publicly accessible website and 30 days after completion. Four, quarterly reports with summaries and cost estimates of construction, alterations, extensions, enlargements, or replacements that may or may not fall within the limited operational flexibility conditions that happened in the previous quarter and are planned in the next four quarters and should be communicated publicly through the community leaison committee. Five, quarterly reporting with summaries and cost estimates for the maintenance of uh equipment with specified maximum rates of production including coke evans and KOBM furnaces that happened in the previous quarter and is planned in the next four quarters and should be communicated publicly at community lesson on committees. Then two, apply its community effects uh cumulative effects assessment policy for the emissions generated by the entire AMD facility in the review of ERRO uh 0260039 by requiring the facility to adopt pollution control methods to achieve the lowest possible emission rates and point of impingement contaminant uh concentrations and three provide the board of health with an update on the status of these integrated iron and steel technical standard and expected publication dates. Chair, I again as you can see this this motion is very specific. There are very specific asks within this. Not only is it to just flat out um refuse the exemptions, but it is asking a coordinated solution set that would go with these with with that uh flatout um exemption. Sorry, uh refusal of the exemption. I'm uh I'm also very thankful to uh Pascal in my office who has been working very closely uh and is in is our resident expert within this because she also sits on the arser middle defasco CLC and so she has been very very active with working with Arselor Middle Defasco on a lot of these things and trying to ensure their um continuous movement and continuous partnership in this. So again happy to uh try and bring this forward to try and see some change and as you can see from the correspondence a lot of community also believes in this. Thank you very much committee and thank you very much chair for this latitude. >> Thank you. Um discussion first up is councelor Wilson. >> Thank you. Just some quick comments from me in support of the motion. uh five companies get sight specific exemptions in Hamilton, Ontario for 14 different uh pollutants. Uh so for those 14 things, uh those five companies are given permission basically to go above and beyond what the health standard would otherwise be. People are right to feel angry about living in a sacrifice zone. Like that is quite literally what is happening. Um most of them are clustered in our industrial north end. There's also one in the large quarry in the Greensville rural Dundas area that folks have recently been concerned about some of the development and some of the pieces going on there with respect to the sight specific standard renewal in 2022 2023 that occurred with that location. We've heard today the importance of when community members can get clear answers, understand what the health risks um and the senses of kind of how that powerlessness or inability to influence things has impacts that go well beyond just the impacts of the pollutant of concern or the chemical of concern but start uh influencing how neighbors see their neighborhood, how they feel safe at home, uh whether or not they're you know life is chronically limited as well. um and those also have their own in turn mental huge mental health and familial impacts um on people living across the city. So I'm really really supportive wherever we can find uh the ability to use our voice to stand up with Hamiltonians with neighbors to tell the province no um that the lives of Hamiltonians actually matter just as much as anyone else's life in this province and that health standards are health standards and should be in place for everyone. I think uh often times when these things happen and we have to ask to do the obvious uh it can find be really demoralizing as a moment when we as a lower level of government or as a community uh representatives are finding our asking a higher level of government to you know keep people safe follow basic health standards when it comes to regulating our air quality. don't allow for people to die decades apart based on their postal code in one of Ontario's uh largest cities, uh one of Canada's largest cities. You know, about 5% of the country lives in Hamilton, Ontario. How is this acceptable? Uh so, not only is that all going on, but I think for me it's not uh necessarily a hopeless moment because this isn't new. And I think that's part of it is this is the same province where indigenous communities have had lands and waters poisoned for industry for hundreds of years. Uh Grassy Narrows is maybe the most prolific example of what is happening in terms of legacies of pollution that we just don't care about in this province. And I think that helps is that that's the needle we're trying to change. It's not that we live in a province that always cares about our air quality and that these 14 exam exemptions exist. I think this is a conversation where we're trying to raise the bar for everyone. And I do find a lot of hope in that. That our stakeholders are not just the folks who uh live within 500 meters of our industrial north end. They're not just folks in Greensville. They're not just folks in Hamilton, Ontario, but everyone in this province has a collective stake in making sure that you can breathe clean air. Um and so I think it is really demoralizing and really really frustrating when we kind of come to this collision. And we have those moments of realization that, you know, things aren't set up maybe the way we think they are or some of those burdens to keep folks safe are not being enforced in the ways that we would maybe assume they were if we didn't pay attention or didn't know more. Um, I think it it can be a moment of hopelessness, but it can also be, I think, a real moment to say, "Wow, if we're all impacted and this is so clear, then this should also be a moment that we can really make a change." And I think that's also instructive here. So, appreciate that we're raising our voice. We're joining the voices of hundreds of community members who have been raising it for decades. We're finding new ways to keep doing that. Um, and I hope more and more folks will continue to do the same because we're all impacted uh when we can't breathe clean air. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other discussion? >> Seeing none, let's vote. Uh, this will require an electronic vote. Thank you, member Safi. And that carries. Motion is passed. Uh so as a separate item 9.1A um is to is on the correspondence. So may I please have a mover and seconder to receive the correspondence moved by councelor Wang seconded by councelor Casar. >> Sorry and through the chair that would also include the correspondence from 7.1A. >> Right. all the correspondents respecting reaffirming opposition to extensions and special permissions for contaminants by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks. So all those in favor, that's everybody seeing no one opposed. That is carried. Item 10 is notices of motion loosely related to um drafting one in relation to responding to uh the discussions around black set. [sighs] Any other notices of motion? Seeing none, item 11. This would be the close session that we would have engaged in that we saved a place for earlier which no one needed. So we'll move on uh to item 12 which bylaw. Um so may I please have a mover and secondary to approve >> [snorts] >> uh the bill. Moved by councelor Wilson seconded by councelor Wang. This one's an electronic vote as well. >> Thank you, Member Safi. And that carries That's it. As there's no further business, the board of health is adjourned at uh 12:46 p.m. Thank you. Thanks, everyone.