Open Council

14th Meeting of the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee

Open Council

14th Meeting of the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee

October 11, 2022, at 4:00 PM

Original link

The meeting is called to order at 4:00 PM; it being noted that the following members were in remote attendance, Councillors M. van Holst, M. Salih, J. Helmer, M. Hamou, A. Hopkins, P. van Meerbergen, S. Turner, S. Hillier.

1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

2.   Consent

Moved by M. Hamou

Seconded by J. Fyfe-Millar

That Consent Items 2.1 and 2.2 BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (13 to 0)

2.1   2022 Service Review Initiatives Update

2022-10-11 Staff Report - 2022 Service Review Initiatives

Moved by M. Hamou

Seconded by J. Fyfe-Millar

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Finance Supports with the concurrence of the City Manager, the staff report dated October 11, 2022 regarding the 2022 Services Review Initiatives Update BE RECEIVED for information.

Motion Passed

2.2   5th Report of the Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Oppression Community Advisory Committee

2022-10-11 DIACAC Reprot

Moved by M. Hamou

Seconded by J. Fyfe-Millar

That the 5th Report of the Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Oppression Community Advisory Committee from its meeting held on September 26, 2022 BE RECEIVED.

Motion Passed

3.   Scheduled Items

3.1   Not to be heard before 4:05 PM - Public Participation Meeting - Amendments to Consolidated Fees and Charges By-law

2022-10-11 Staff Report - Amendments to Consolidated Fees and Charges

Moved by A. Hopkins

Seconded by J. Helmer

That, on the recommendation of the City Clerk, with the concurrence of the Deputy City Manager, Finance Supports, the following actions be taken with respect to Fees and Charges:

a)    the proposed by-law as appended to the staff report dated October 11, 2022 as Appendix “A” BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting to be held on October 17, 2022 for the purpose of repealing By-law No. A-57, as amended, being “A by-law to provide for Various Fees and Charges”, and replacing it with a new Fees and Charges By-law that adds and adjusts certain fees and charges for services or activities provided by the City of London;

b)    the proposed by-law as appended to the staff report dated October 11, 2022 as Appendix “B” BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting to be held on October 17, 2022 for the purpose of amending By-law No. L.-130-71, as amended, being “A by-law to provide for the licensing, regulating and governing of vehicles for hire, including cabs, accessible cabs, limousines, private vehicles for hire and accessible vehicles for hire, owners and brokers” to delete all occurrences of the phrase “Schedule 5 of this By-law, and to replace it with the phrase “the City’s Fees and Charges By-law, as it is amended or repealed and replaced from time to time”; and,

c)    the proposed by-law as appended to the staff report dated October 11, 2022 as Appendix “C” BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting to be held on October 17, 2022 for the purpose of amending By-law No. L.-131-16, as amended, being “A by-law to provide for the Licensing and Regulation of Various Businesses” to delete all occurrences of the phrase “Schedule 1 of this By-law, and to replace it with the phrase “the City’s Fees and Charges By-law, as it is amended or repealed and replaced from time to time”;

it being noted that no individuals made a verbal presentation at the public participation meeting with respect to this matter.

Motion Passed (14 to 0)

Voting Record:

Moved by A. Hopkins

Seconded by S. Hillier

Motion to open the public participation meeting.

Motion Passed (13 to 0)

Moved by P. Van Meerbergen

Seconded by S. Hillier

Motion to close the public participation meeting.

Motion Passed (14 to 0)

Moved by E. Peloza

Seconded by J. Morgan

That the proposed fee of $1.85/hour, associated with Electric Vehicle Charging, as included in Schedule 1, BE REMOVED.

Motion Failed (5 to 9)

3.2   Delegation - Steve Pellarin, Executive Director, London Small Business Centre - Annual Update

2022-10-11 Submission - SBC Annual Update

Moved by S. Lehman

Seconded by J. Fyfe-Millar

That it BE NOTED that the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee received the Annual Update from S. Pellarin, Executive Director, London Small Business Centre.

Motion Passed (12 to 0)

3.3   Delegation - Christina Fox, CEO, TechAlliance - Annual Update

2022-10-11 Submission - TechAlliance Annual Update

Moved by J. Fyfe-Millar

Seconded by S. Lewis

That it BE NOTED that the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee received the Annual Update from C. Fox, CEO, TechAlliance.

Motion Passed (12 to 0)

3.4   Delegation - Kapil Lakhotia, President and CEO, London Economic Development Corporation - Annual Update

2022-10-11 Submission - LEDC Annual Update

Moved by M. van Holst

Seconded by A. Hopkins

That it BE NOTED that the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee received the Annual Update from K. Lakhotia, President and CEO, London Economic Development Corporation.

Motion Passed (12 to 0)

4.   Items for Direction

4.1   Consideration of Appointments to the Striking Committee

Moved by M. Hamou

Seconded by S. Hillier

That the following individuals BE APPOINTED to the Striking Committee:

Paul Seale - Pillar Non-Profit Network

Morena Hernandez - Urban League of London

Patti Dalton - London and District Labour Council

Graham Henderson - London Chamber of Commerce

Zeba Hashmi - Former Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Oppression Advisory Committee

Anoushka - Citizen-at-Large

it being noted that the Striking Committee will proceed with the above-noted membership, notwithstanding the vacant citizen-at-large positions.

Motion Passed (12 to 0)

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

None.

6.   Confidential (Enclosed for Members only.)

Moved by S. Lehman

Seconded by E. Peloza

That the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee convenes in Closed Session to consider the following:

6.1  Personal Matter/Identifiable Individual 

A matter pertaining to personal matters about identifiable individuals with respect to the 2023 Mayor’s New Year’s Honour List.

Motion Passed (13 to 0)

The Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee convenes in Closed Session from 6:14 PM to 6:19 PM.

7.   Adjournment

Moved by S. Turner

Seconded by M. van Holst

That the meeting BE ADJOURNED.

Motion Passed

The meeting adjourned at 6:24 PM.

Full Transcript

Transcript provided by Lillian Skinner’s London Council Archive. Note: This is an automated speech-to-text transcript and may contain errors. Speaker names are not identified.

View full transcript (2 hours, 32 minutes)

[13:43] Colleagues, I’ll ask for lights on, please. As we do that, when we’re set, I’ll ask the clerk to confirm quorum.

[14:22] I can confirm quorum for you, Your Worship. Thank you very much. Welcome to the 14th meeting of these strategic priorities and policy committee. We’d invite individuals to check the, pardon me, city website for additional meeting to tell information as meetings can be viewed via live streaming on YouTube and the city’s website. Good to call and Councillor Palosa for the land acknowledgement, please. Thank you. The city of London is situated on the traditional, sorry.

[15:18] The city of London is situated on the traditional lands of the Dishnabek, the Haudenosaunee, the Lindemannocke, and Adawandran peoples. We honor and respect the history, languages and culture, the diverse indigenous people who call this territory home. The city of London is currently home to many First Nation, Métis and Inuit people today. As representative of the people of the city of London, we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and live in this territory. Thank you very much. I’d like to advise colleagues that Councillor Cassidy is not attending tonight’s meeting. So with that, I should also share that the city of London is committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats and communication supports for meetings on requests and make a request specific to this meeting.

[16:03] Please contact SPPC@london.ca or 519-661-2489, extension 2425. Colleagues, I’m going to look for any disclosures of peer interest. I see none. So with that, I will move us to the consent agenda, of which there are two items, the 2022 service review initiatives update in fifth report of the diversity inclusion and anti-oppression community advisory committee.

[16:38] And I’ll look to see if anyone would like to vote separately on these two items or whether you’re comfortable with dealing them altogether. Anyone else should have them pulled. I see none, therefore, I’ll look for a motion to accept the consent agenda. Councillor Moo, seconded by Councillor Fyfe Miller. Thank you, comments, questions on 2.1 or 2.2. Seeing none, we’ll call the question. Okay, first, Ollie.

[17:13] Thank you, Councillor. Yay, for Hamoo. That could be a cheering line for Councillors. So they’re very nice. Councillor Van Halst, Councillor Van Halst, closing the vote, the motion’s passed, 13 to 0.

[18:14] We have four scheduled items. The first is a public participation meeting dealing with amendments to consolidated fees and charges by-laws. So to open up the PPM, I will look for a mover, please. Moved by Councillor Hopkins, seconded by Councillor Hillier. Thank you very much. We’ll call the question on that. Yeah, my answer, Ollie. Thank you. Councillor Hamoo, Councillor Van Halst.

[19:14] Your mind’s broken, so I’m a yay. Thank you. Closing the vote, the motion’s passed, 13 to 0. Thanks very much, I invite all members of the SPPC to ask questions of staff as they choose with regard to the items associated with the consolidated fees and charges by-law. However, first I’ll ask the clerk if we have anyone available to participate in the public participation meeting.

[19:54] Through the chair, there is nobody online participating virtually or pre-registered. I wonder if there’s anyone that might be then in the gallery or in the committee rooms or online that has a comment they wish to make. Would you please speak up, come forward. Security, I see you up there. Is anyone in the gallery that I haven’t seen? No one in the gallery.

[20:28] So with that then, and we have no one online, or looking to make a comment, I’ll look for a motion to close the public participation meeting move by Councillor Van Mirberg and seconded by Councillor Hillier. Thank you very much, we’ll call the question. Yeah, ma’am. Thank you. Thank you.

[21:07] Housing the vote, the motion’s passed 14 to zero. Thanks very much. Now I’ll invite members if you have any questions of staff with respect to item 3.1. Councillor Hopkins, go ahead, please. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair and through you to staff. Thank you for the report. It appears that we do not have too many changes in our fees going forward.

[21:42] And I do like the report sort of being divided with what the new fee changes are and what is increased and what is decreased. I do have a question around our parks and recreational passes that we offer to people. And I’d like to know, do they need to be used up within that year? Is there an expiry date? For instance, if you buy 10 passes to a program, does that have to be used up within that year?

[22:20] Through you, Chair. Thoughtful question, let’s ask staff. Would that be you, Ms. Smith? Here we are. There you go, go ahead. Thank you, and through the chair, no, for example, if you buy a swim pass of 10, it extends until those 10 passes are used. Thank you, Councillor Hopkins. Good to know, thank you. Thank you, any other comments or questions? Councillor Palosa, please. Thank you, Your Worship. In regards to page three, been the environmental services climate change environmental stewardship, looking at putting in a per hour fee of $1.85 being a new fee, looking through you to staff to ask if other charging stations charge an amount within the city, regardless if you see them at the TD Bank or the Tesla charging stations, are they normally free of charge?

[23:07] Let’s go to staff for that. I don’t know if Mr. Stanford would be the one to answer that. Thank you, and through Your Worship, across the city, we do see different fee structures based on who put the charging station in. We’ve seen prices in the range of $2.15. We have seen some lower pricing. In this case, the fee that is before you tonight is for three locations. It is for what’s at City Hall in the lower level, the basement, and our stations that are located over at A.J. Tyler Center.

[23:49] Thank you, Councillor Palosa. Thank you, through you to staff. How much are those charging stations currently used for vehicles that are not city vehicles? Mr. Stanford. Through Your Worship, our numbers, because of what’s occurred during the pandemic, it’s where all over the map usage has begun to increase as people have started to return back to these locations. It’s very difficult to tell right now what usage will be like in the year 2023. We do hope it returns to where it was, where we saw pre-pandemic levels where these charging stations, which were free at the time, were increasing in numbers.

[24:31] So if more details required as to what percentage increase we had in the past, I can easily get that for the council meeting. I just don’t have that at my fingertips right now. Councillor Palosa. Thank you, Your Worship. For me, this is one of the fees I don’t know through the clerks. It would be easy to pull out and vote separate, realize we declared a climate emergency. People aren’t downtown yet back in the numbers that we had hoped that this would be one more incentive to drive that vehicle into the core and recognizing the core is very walkable.

[25:06] And that’s where people are out and about and enjoying patios and nightlife. And it is more pleasurable to do so without Eileen vehicles while enjoying a beer on a patio. That is my concern of this one. If we want to encourage the climate mitigation and lower emissions, that this would be one that I’d be in favor of us for going the small fee right now while we still emerge from the pandemic and welcome people back into the core. You’ve asked a question or at least made a comment and I think it’s appropriate that we let the clerk respond to that because this is a new direction of a by-law.

[25:39] So let’s just get some feedback from the clerk, please. Thank you. Go ahead. Let me ask my power. I’m blessed to have two clerks, both with wisdom. Why don’t we start with Ms. Westlake Power and then Mr. Clerk Schrodice, if there’s anything else for us to do after that, we can certainly hear from you as well. I sure hope we have the same answer. So the recommendation before you is associated with the introduction of the by-laws. So what would be required is a separate motion to remove it from the by-law and then we would prepare a separate by-law without that if it was approved by the committee.

[26:24] So at your pleasure, Councilor Plosa, if that’s your wish, then you would require a motion. We’ll see if it’s got support or not. We’ll open that up for discussion. That’s your pleasure. What would you like to do with this? Thank you. I assume that Mr. Schrodice guidance aligns with Ms. Westlake Powers. I have a lot of confidence in Ms. Westlake Power, but Mr. Schrodice, clerk, if you have another comment, that would be helpful for this process. We would certainly engage that. Through the chair, I concur with Ms. Westlake Powers suggestion.

[26:57] Thank goodness. So okay, so back to you, Councilor. Thank you. Knowing that we have clear direction from the clerks, I would make a motion that the climate change and environmental stewardship vehicle, electric vehicle charging rate of $1.85 be removed from this bylaw before us this evening. Would you have a seconder somewhere for that? I see the deputy mayor seconding that. Comments or questions? I think we can make questions or comments fairly tight. I hope so if there’s any comments or questions, I’d invite them now.

[27:30] Oh, speaking of which, clerk Westlake Power, not to be confused with the other guy, I would like to make a comment. Through the chair, if you can indulge me, please as to the exact location of the fee so that I can prep the motion properly. I would appreciate it. Thank you. Good Councilor. It’s page three of this one report or page 13 of our overall agenda for SPPC this evening. I think we’re looking for an item numbers.

[28:04] 2.2. 2.2 on page 13 or three as you prefer. And it is that whole section on environmental services. Would you like to pull it out? In regards to electric vehicle charging, yes. Okay, we’re picking a little bit at nose hairs I think only because I think that’s part of a broader piece in this. So I’m just a little bit sensitive to how we do this in a way that makes it clean and simple.

[28:37] I’ll look to the clerks for any wisdom they can offer. Go ahead Ms. Westlake Power. Thank you through the chair. I don’t have any additional wisdom, but I will touch base with Mr. Stanford who I’m quite confident can reference it in the bylaw for me. Other comments or questions from colleagues? Deputy Mayor. It’s page four in the bylaw. It’s its own separate item because it’s new. I think it’s probably pretty easy to pull out of the version that goes to Council.

[29:09] So I think the motion will work. All right, I don’t see other comments right now. Deputy, would you take the chair please? Sure, I have the mayor. I’m not gonna support this and here’s why, you know? We get to the stage where there’s no such thing as a zero sum game as in nothing for nothing. And these are modest, modest expenses associated with electric vehicle charging. Just suggests that it costs nothing because people don’t pay for it. There’s a real cost and that’s something that we absorb.

[29:46] So I am not comfortable as much as I support the spirit of where the Council wants to take this. I think then the notion of assuming that there’s not an obligation to pay for what we use, these are not onerous expenses from my perspective. And while it’s a new fee, it’s because it’s a new service. And I would say to you that is not inappropriate for this purpose, I hope Council will look at this, defeat the suggested withdrawal or withdrawing of this particular component. And then we get on with the by-law at large.

[30:21] Thank you, back over to you, Deputy Mayor. Yeah, I’ll turn the chair back to the mayor. Thanks, I have Councillor Hopkins, please. Oh, sorry, I have Councillor Vanholst first, please. Good, if you wanna speak to the amendment, Councillor Vanholst. Thank you, I’ll share a question through you, your worship to our staff. Just in terms of the magnitude of the cost related to these, how much would we be for going or could we expect before going, if we took the action suggested by Councillor Palazzo?

[30:58] Let’s. I don’t think there’s a great number of these content. Councillor, Mr. Stanford, go ahead, please. Through you, your worship. This particular item is in the $10,000 to $20,000 range. Once again, depending on how the pandemic and the recovery and the usage was going to occur, that was our best estimate at the time. Thanks, Councillor Vanholst, anything else? I’m not sure if you’re frozen in time, but Councillor Vanholst just gives us a wave.

[31:41] Good, Councillor, please. I can hear you, I’m not sure if you can hear me, there seems to be. Yeah, we hear you fine now, go ahead. That’s great, okay, that’s, that’s, that’s, thank you. And how many charging stations do we have available to residents who might wanna come downtown? I don’t know, most of your connection comes through, it looks like you’re in the Amazon forest there, but assuming that you’re not, it’s a little bit of a quagmire trying to hear all of your, your communicate, but I think we got through it.

[32:28] So, Mr. Stanford, did you get the question? Mr. Chair, I did. The ones available to the public would be on the lower level at City Hall, and that represents six charging locations. Councillor, can you follow up Councillor Vanholst? I’ll allow my, my colleagues to go, let me see if I can troubleshoot what should have been a new connection for, you know.

[33:06] Thanks for my chair, Councillor Hopkins, please. I think Councillor Turner was ahead of me. But I’m recognizing you first ‘cause I saw you first. So that’s the, that’s the prerogative of the chair ‘cause he’s very fair that way. And then we’ll call on Councillor Turner after that, please. Well, thank you for that. I think Councillor Vanhol sense it. Ask the questions about what, how much money we’re talking about, and I heard between 10 and 20,000. I was curious to know a little bit more about best practices here.

[33:42] What other, do other municipalities charge? Do we have some comparators, Mr. Stanford? Your worship, we do, we find that it ranges. Some, some municipalities offer them at their public locations like City Hall without charge. And we’ve seen more moving to the full charge type program. The initial is of free is offered usually during the one or, the first one or two years of the program.

[34:15] And once things become established, it tends to be the goal of the municipalities we’ve chatted with to want to move at two full cost recovery, no different than other similar type services after the initial sort of incentive period is over. Thank you, Councillor Hopkins. Yeah, and just to follow up with those comments and thank you, Mr. Stanford for that. Is it fair to say that we’re really not sure exactly what the costs are going to be to us right now, is we’re coming out of recovery, having to go through COVID, are we really, do we have a good feel for what the rehab, how this program is going to move forward?

[34:59] And right now we have a motion on the floor to change it. Do we have a good handle on the program? Let’s ask Mr. Stanford. Through you, Your Worship. I wish we could say we had a great handle. We don’t, the recovery varies right now and how many people are returning to downtown. I’d like to think it’s increasing right now. These locations at City Hall, we’re seeing more and more people return. We have not started a new advertising program to say that these ones are available.

[35:36] These are all parts of what we’d be doing in 2023 as we begin our continued recovery. So at this stage, there remains a lot of uncertainty. We do have a growing network of charging stations in London. Many of them now are level two and we’re actually starting to see our first few fast charging stations. So there’s a lot of positive activity community-wide with the growth in these. And as we see the use of electric vehicles increasing, as more and more are made available, these will become more and more important.

[36:10] So for 2023, we’re gonna have to deal with that level of uncertainty, unfortunately. And I hope in six months, I’m reporting even stronger news, but right now I can’t do much better than that, unfortunately. Councilor Hopkins. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Turner, your turn. Your Worship, just really quickly. I’m not inclined to support this one. I recognize where the Council is coming from on this. And I think we could do a pretty comprehensive electric vehicle strategy, but we haven’t done that yet. We didn’t include it in the climate emergency action plan. We haven’t done it in the parking site plan requirements that just came through.

[36:48] We really need to do it. But there’s infrastructure costs associated with the charging stations. I think we do need to recover those costs. But I think there’s opportunities to provide incentives for electric vehicles. One, I think we could probably do the same as we do for the veterans plates and provide two hours of free parking for those who have green-plated vehicles. And that’s parking revenue for gone. Not the infrastructure costs associated with the electric charging stations, and which doesn’t bear as much of a cost for us. The second would be for us to actually compel site plan requirements for a certain proportion of electric charging stations for every parking spot so that they’re required to provide.

[37:34] Those would be the things that we need to do. But I think if we’re just pointing this out separately, it kind of gets us a little bit further away from the goal of being able to make some sustainability on our environmental initiatives, such as placement of these charging stations. But for going the revenue, it might actually hamper our ability to increase the number of charging stations we put out there. Thank you, Kastra Loosh. Thank you, Your Worship. And I will, for brevity’s sake, say Councilor Turner just touched on a lot of the points that I was thinking of, including the veteran’s plate option and the green plates as a consideration to incentivize moving forward.

[38:15] I guess through you, my question to staff is a bit of a process one in that, if we were to remove this tonight, because we do eventually need that revenue coming in, I agree with Your Worship in terms of nothing is free. But when would another recommendation to start including this potentially come back to the next Council? Like if we remove this tonight, how far down the road would we really be kicking the can in terms of imposing a fee here? I’m not sure if that’s conjecture, but Mr. Stanford, you wanna take a run at this one?

[38:53] Your Your Worship, we typically bring before Committee and Council fees on an annual basis. So if there was a change tonight, we would definitely bring this back forward one year from now and at that point in time, we’ll have completed further work on our electric vehicle action plan. It is something that is written right into our climate emergency action plan. We have had some initial discussions with London Hydro, as well as the London Electric Vehicle Association. There are many interested parties that wanna begin work and to see that growth continue to occur in the city.

[39:33] Thank you, Councillor Lewis. Thank you, Your Worship. And I do appreciate that we were definitely asking Mr. Stanford to project into the future a little bit there. But again, I come back to Councillor Turner’s point about a comprehensive plan. And I’m not sure that just removing this is really going to be an effective incentive. The fees vary modest and it does need to be collected to do the things like advertising, the fact that they’re there in the first place, promoting the network. I’m not decided on this.

[40:06] I’m leaning towards not supporting it, but I look forward to hearing what other colleagues, if anyone else is going to weigh in, have to say, ‘cause I’m kind of on the fence on this one. I see the opportunity for us to incentivize in the short term, but we can’t do that forever. So what the appropriate steps are, I’m not quite sure. Thank you. Any other commentary I see, Councillor Van Hoss, but I want to make sure that any other person who is not quite yet spoken, who wishes to can do so, a deputy mayor. Yes, first question from Mr. Stanford. How many of the charging stations that would be impacted are behind some other fee, like a fee for parking to get into the lot in the first place?

[40:45] Mr. Stanford. Through your worship, for the lower level, you would have to actually pay for parking as well. So this is a fee in addition. This is a fee to plug in. Deputy Mayor? Yes, so given that answer as well as Mr. Stanford’s earlier answers about the uncertainty on even measuring what the usage is on these, I think the argument can be made both ways. The arguments that Councillor Turner and I think part of Councillor Lewis’s argument to say, we certainly need to recover the costs, but this is also a new fee, like an introduction of a fee.

[41:22] This is the change to the fee by adding it. And I’m comfortable with not adding it this year, but certainly considering it next year, I think Councillor Palose’s motion is fine. I think we get more data, more information, and maybe a more comprehensive electric vehicle strategy through Mr. Stanford. And so that’s why I seconded the motion. And I think the question and answer tonight has reinforced my support for this motion. Anyone else wishes to speak before I recognize a previous speaker? Councillor Bevelle, let’s go ahead. Thank you, worship. So my question through you now to staff is, in terms of collecting this fee, is the infrastructure, the card swiping, however that is going to take place?

[42:05] Is that already installed on these charging stations? Mr. Stanford. Your worship, yes, it is already in place. Councillor. Well, thank you very much. I think that’s my last question about this. Okay, I’ve got no other speakers, but I will, as a final comment, ask the deputy mayor to take the chair. I’ll go to the mayor.

[42:39] Thanks very much. Listen, we’ve heard comments of both sides sincerely well intended to inspire and encourage you. Can I understand that? What I struggle with is a ready-firing approach that I don’t think gets us to where we want to be. I think we want to do this properly. We recognize that there’s some real costs involved. I think there are some options that you’ve heard various Councillors suggest. I would hope that we defeat this and then pass the by-law and move forward. That’ll be my final comment on it. Back over to you, Deputy Mayor.

[43:12] Yeah, and I’ll return to the chair to the mayor. Thanks. Councillor Palose, please go ahead. Thank you, Your Worship, and thank you to colleagues for the conversation tonight. We seem to be on the same page of wanting to encourage different habits within our residents in absolutely use of the downtown core and people coming down. Some excellent ideas put forward of alternate solutions, green plates and whatnot. And as we’ve said, those aren’t in place right now. Happy to revisit this in 2024 with secure numbers, proven numbers with Mr. Stanford’s team coming in.

[43:49] ‘Cause this already is in place. We’re already doing it. We’re still recovering from COVID and we put other money into the downtown area of wanting to bring people back down, hoping to encourage that people had two vehicles to choose from that they would take the one as an incentive that was electrical vehicle charging into downtown, realizing we have many patios and other things up and going. Also, we have our bike storage lockers up that people can use as well. So just hoping to keep that change of mindset and mode going and asking for support of removing this from the by-law this year, realizing we can certainly and stayed it next year.

[44:27] As the fees, yes, they are 10 to 20,000, though minimal, and giving staff an opportunity to bring forward with the climate emergency screening tool and action plan ideas to replace this program with something that could even be better being green plates or whatnot. Thank you. Thank you, but I just want to be clear. Are we still, are you withdrawing? I wasn’t sure, it wasn’t 100% clear whether you were looking to withdraw this and address it again in another year. No, absolutely not. I want to take this out of the by-law and what’s on the floor. Okay, totally understood, Councillor, thank you very much. We know what is at stake there.

[44:59] It just seemed slightly ambivalent, but it clearly is not. It’s the hearing of the chair. So, and I don’t mean a hearing hearing. So with that, colleagues, Councillor Helmer, I see you have your hand up, go ahead. Thank you. I don’t want to believe or the issue much more, but I recall when we dealt with this issue, so it was three years ago. The fee was recommended at the time to be included in the fees and charges by-law to take effect in 2021.

[45:35] And we actually had a motion at that time. I think it was from Councillor Close-up to take it out of the by-law and refer it to staff and have it come forward with the future report about climate action and what we’re going to do on that front. So, I think what we’re noticing is that we haven’t really had a report on that issue specifically and still a desire to hold off on implementing a user fee for charging remains. I’m a user of a electric vehicle and I have one of these things and it’s pretty cheap to charge it.

[46:13] You know, it costs, if I charge it at home, I think it cost me $4.50 or something to charge it from zero to 100. And so, it’s a lot more cost every day just to charge it at home than it is to charge it at any of these chargers in the city. And so, I think, you know, people have different usage patterns. People who are coming from out of town and maybe can’t get back to a home charging or they don’t have home charging available to them. These charging stations that are at locations like City Hall where the public is going to be coming in to do business, you know, I think it makes sense to provide the charging infrastructure for people.

[46:51] But I think if you can afford a electric vehicle, you can afford to pay to charge it. And I don’t really see the value in saying, well, you’re going to charge it and we’re going to pay for it with property taxes, right? And I think, you know, user fees are designed for services like this, services that can be metered where you want to encourage people to use less, to think about the cost of these things and when they’re going to decide, do I want to drive somewhere or do I want to do something that uses no energy at all, like walking, maybe jump on the bus instead of drive it all. And, you know, making it seem like it’s free, I really just encourages people to drive more whether they’re driving a gas car vehicle, they’re driving an electric vehicle.

[47:36] So, you know, I’m not in favor of user fees for everything. I think there’s some things that need to be provided by taxation and that there’s a very strong case to be made that that needs to be subsidized. And so I understand some things could be a split, you know, some user fee and some public support. This is one, right? I’m comfortable having a user fee. We did hold off for three years. I know that the pandemic has disrupted everybody’s mobility patterns and it gets made it hard to judge whether it’s helpful or not. But the rest of the world has kind of moved on in terms of user fees for these kind of vehicles.

[48:13] We’re now approaching almost 5% of vehicle sales are electric vehicles now in Canada. It’s starting to come much more widespread and the destination type charging where it’s free, it’s really starting to become just tourist locations and areas that really want to attract tourists to those locations. So I think from the city’s perspective, a user fee makes a lot of sense. I’m going to vote to keep it in the bylaw. I think it’s just as easy to have at the end and keep an eye on usage as it is to leave without keeping an eye on usage. And certainly we should monitor it and adjust it as appropriate in the future.

[48:49] Thank you. I have no other speakers. So with that, we are talking about the issue on page 13 of your agenda, which deals specifically with environmental services, climate change and environmental stewardship. And this is a motion that has been moved and seconded to remove this portion from the bylaw. So with that, I will call the question. Yes means, to be clear, yes means it will be withdrawn from the bylaw, no means it will not be.

[49:22] Thank you. Councillor Soleil. Yeah, yeah, my apologies.

[49:59] Using the vote, the motion is lost five to nine. Thank you. So with that, we have a recommendation put on page 11. And for that, I will look for a mover and a seconder. Moved by Councillor Hopkins, seconded by Councillor Helmer. Thank you very much. Comments, questions? Councillor Van Holst, is that a question for you? I see your hand up. Go ahead, please. Yeah, thank you very much, your worship. So I wanted to ask staff just a little bit about the street closing fees. So there’s two and appraisal fee and an application fee.

[50:36] And both of those have jumped substantially. Councillor, can I apologize only because it’s a fairly extensive report. When anyone around council cites a particular item, could you reference page and or item number, just to make it easier for the chair, please, at his age? Thank you very much. So I’ll say this is on page 19 of the written agenda, page nine at the top of page nine of the report itself. And just before 3.0 financial link access, it’s really the last of the list of things.

[51:14] Thank you. Which is appearing 2.2. Go ahead, your question, please. Right, so I noticed that the street closing fees have both jumped quite substantially. And I wonder if staff could just elaborate a little bit on that. I wonder if that’s made sure that would deal with that question with regard to street closing costs. Go ahead, please.

[51:45] Thank you, Your Worship. It’s actually Mr. Mathers. I’ll turn it over to him. For your wisdom, please, Mr. Mathers. It was your worship. Yeah, we’ve had to modify these rates, of course. They are fairly substantial, but we think that they do are more likely to reflect what our actual costs are for going through these processes. So we’ve updated them to be able to reflect our true costs for providing these permits.

[52:19] Councillor and host? Yes, thank you. So closing a street, I know that we had that done not that long ago for an event over on Sacral Street. There’s a little flex street beside the Crouch library. And there was a question about those fees. Is there appraisal fee needed every time that a street is closed? Mr. Mathers.

[52:57] Your worship, I’ll need to check up on that one. If you could leave that with me for a moment. Any other questions, Councillor Van Halst, while Mr. Mathers is confirming that? No, your worship. I just wanted to find out if that was required every time. And then along with the application fee, because for instance, for the Crouch library or the Crouch neighborhood resource center, they’re likely to use that amenity often or certainly hope to.

[53:35] However, the C, these are pretty substantial fees to close a short section of street. Well, we’ll see if Mr. Mathers is able to come back to us. If you don’t mind, then if your questions have concluded to that stage, wonder if anyone else, okay, thank you. Any other questions or comments with respect to this report? That’s a close one. Question through you to staff, realizing that on page seven, it’s a general question that we’re talking about parking lots in their fees.

[54:14] Just an update from staff. If we have the core password for the honk app in the downtown area, looking to see when that’s expected to go back to a fee structure as well, if it’s not in this by-law. Would we look to you, Mr. Mathers, for that answer? Go ahead. Absolutely. So as part of the Korea work that we’re doing, we are assessing whether that should be moving forward. At this point, we haven’t made a decision to bring a recommendation back to Councilor Committee, but that is something that we’re currently working on.

[54:52] Pastor Flushman. Thank you. Just I heard from many colleagues that things should pay for themselves and definitely parking, there’s a high cost or free parking. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member. Thank you. I just wanted to ask about overall across all these fee changes, especially, I guess, the ones that have not changed for quite a few years and would therefore be seeing more substantial updates. We’re confident through the chair to city staff that these are recouping the costs of delivering the service and not more than that.

[55:35] I’m sensitive to some of the ones that are pretty significant increases that these are still cost recovery. I just wanted to ask to confirm that. Shall we try to just borrow one for that? Thank you, through the chair. I’m just trying to confirm, are we talking about a notice? The question related to overall are all the fees? In terms of review, I just wanted to clarify, he’s not referring to a specific fee in my draft. I think it was broad, but Councillor Hummer, go ahead.

[56:09] Yeah, I’m mostly asking about the ones that are increasing fairly substantially because, and there’s often a note that says, this has been a few years and that’s why it’s more than, normally I just want to make sure that it’s still covering the costs and not more than the more than the costs. So through your worship. So essentially through the reviews, as part of the multi-year update, we do a much more in-depth review to look at that. Some have had, and we know that through some of the fees and charges reviews that we’ve done throughout the last number of years, where we’ve taken a very targeted approach to look at those, we’ve done a more in-depth review.

[56:47] Generally based on the amount of the fee in relation to the budget, they are definitely not more than what the services are reviewing, many of them are at a certain percentage and some are set to be in relation to that. So there are a number of fees that I believe, as we look at the multi-year budget, we will be taking a deeper dive into the look at what the percentage is of the overall cost recovery. But as a whole, they are definitely not, they’re not approaching what the total cost of services are. We do look at that in terms of also looking at reasonability from an increased perspective year over year to ensure that they are not one going exceeding the cost, but also is an increase from one year to the next reasonable in terms of what inflation is and what the consumer can ultimately bear as well.

[57:40] Coach Trauma? - Yeah. I guess a related follow up there, this is a very targeted list where there’s not many, a lot of fees are staying very similar to what they were on last year. As we’re rolling into the next multi-year budget is the idea that we’re going to have a bit more of a comprehensive set of changes that come in to make sure that we’ve caught up with the cost of delivering the services in all those other areas. I know we’ve had in the past ones where we have a much more comprehensive range of fees that are being updated up and not every single year.

[58:19] Now, do we take that kind of approach? So will that be happening in the lead into the next multi-year budget? Ms. Berbon? Thank you, through your worship. So yes, as part of the multi-year budget preparations, we will definitely take a very, very detailed review of all of the fees to ensure that they’re in line. I mean, one of the challenges we have is trying to provide that balance between what the ultimately the public can bear from an increase in user fee, even though the costs may have gone up. We also have had a number of changes throughout the course of the pandemic, where we look at participation levels ‘cause there’s usually a component of how much we expect to recover through the volume, as well as through the fee itself.

[59:02] So certainly through monitoring, we have not identified a significant number of changes throughout the 2023 updates as we’re looking at it, but we will definitely, as we look at the next four years, and in terms of what the anticipated budgets will be, that detailed review will definitely occur. Councilor? Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other comments for questions? I wonder, Mr. Mathers, did you, were able to locate the answer for Councilor Van Holst? Through the chair, we’re still working on it.

[59:38] So we’ll get you something before Council. We’ll just take a little bit more time to do this. So I’ll ask you to proceed unless you do it forward. Thanks very much. Any other comments or questions that Councilor Van Holst? Thank you, worship. I did want to point out a change. I thought it was a great idea. And that’s on page 13 of the written report three in the staff report on economic development, Dundas Place, the rental of a 10 by 10 tent is gone down from $78.43 down to $20. So I think that’s a great incentive to get small business owners, sorry, micro business owners out and sharing their wares.

[1:00:23] And often they’re talent in craftsmanship out at the events that we have there. Maybe my question through you to staff, is that the only fee that’s related to the kind of events that we might see at a Christmas market or some summer event? Is it just the rental of the tent or are there more fees involved for somebody who wanted to sell their wares? I know all the details as we know them are there, but I think if Ms. Barbone, did you want to take a shot at that or would we refer that accordingly?

[1:01:09] Through your worship, I’m not sure I’m the right person to answer that in terms of the very specifics of the fee and which ones tie specifically to the core. All right, well, then I wonder if I could ask if there’s another staff member that would like to take take a crack at responding to the councilor’s question. Mr. Mathers, go ahead. Through the chair, I’ll just take a crack at this one. So it can be very specific to the event that’s being held. So we would ask anyone who is looking at an event like this to work with the clerk’s office and then we’ll help to be able to define those fees.

[1:01:46] Thank you, Councillor and host, any other questions? I don’t have any more. Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? We have an item that’s been duly moved and seconded. With that, we’ll call the question. Paul, you’re just having my issues at voting a.

[1:02:26] Thank you. Closing the vote, the motion’s passed, 14 to zero. Thank you, and it’s being done on this particular item since early appreciated as well. We have three delegations which are annual updates, as is our want. And the first is from the executive director of the London Small Business Center, his annual update. We know that these are opportunities for us to have thoughtful questions as they occur.

[1:03:01] So, Steve Peller, and if you’d like to go ahead, please, your time is on. Thank you, and through your worship, good afternoon, and thank you for this opportunity. I can’t see the screen you have in front of you, but I’m assuming the presentation is up at this point. I’m Steve Peller, and as has been said, the executive director of the London Small Business Center, and I’m accompanied by our chair, Frank Snyder’s, who is observing this online. So, a lot has happened since I presented here last November, and I’m excited to share some of the highlights. But first, I want to draw your attention to slide number two.

[1:03:37] Although we are known as the organization that serves small businesses, it’s actually people that we serve. This is much more relevant and pertinent today than it has ever been in the past. As people reflect on the past two years, many are looking for new beginnings and opportunities. They want more balance in their lives and a career they can be passionate about. Despite the fact that we are in the midst of the best job market in years, we are seeing more people than ever exploring self-employment as their chosen career preference. It is our goal to remain a resource for everyone and anyone who is thinking about business ownership.

[1:04:14] Slide three, excuse me, shows a cross-section of the people we serve. Women continue to be the most active demographic. 10 years ago, that number sat at about 50% for the longest time, and it’s now been rising steadily since then. It reached its peak during the first year of COVID and has settled there for the past year. Slide four indicates the stage of business development when people first contact us. The line between investigating and starting can be gray, but it’s fair to say that combined 70% of the clients we serve have yet to start or are within the first two years of their launch.

[1:04:54] On slide five, you can see our most active business sectors, food related and retail or the busiest by far. And while this may be skewed by the type of programming we deliver, it’s also a bit of a chicken and egg thing. We direct our resources to where we see demand and opportunity. And then it kind of becomes self-perpetuating at that point. I’ll skip by slide six. Hopefully you know by now the services we offer. Slide seven is a very high level summary of our activity and touch points.

[1:05:27] If we compare this to other business centers across the province, and there’s over 50 business centers across the province, I can tell you that we’re in the top 5%. Although I’d be cautious about interpreting that as a positive thing, because what it means is we’re spending less time with more people. And I don’t see that trend slowing down anytime soon. Slide eight, there’s been another trend across all levels of government when it comes to entrepreneurial supports. And that is a shift to very targeted programs away from core funding.

[1:06:01] And while this adds some strain to our role, our goal of remaining a resource center accessible to everyone, there is no question that the programs are a huge benefit to those people who are fortunate enough to participate. We have five such programs, but I don’t have time to share some highlights from a few, slide nine, the Food for an Advantage program was first introduced to you a year ago, shortly after it launched. Since I last presented, we have signed new MOUs with Chatham Kent and Sarnia Lanton. It’s just hard for me not to get excited about this program.

[1:06:37] It has quickly become a flagship program for us, and there is still plenty of room for growth. Slide 10 illustrates the total impact in London, and also gives you an impact for across the region. It’s important to note that this is a four year project, and we’re just getting started. And we also hope because it’s been going so well with these collaborations with other municipalities and small business centers, we’re hoping this program can be a model for future regional collaborations. On slide 11, you’ll see a progress report, a six month progress report on the local business accelerator program.

[1:07:15] Last November, we were fortunate that this council approved a $57,000 investment from the LCRN fund, which helped to leverage a 630,000 provincial federal program into the city. London was awarded four of the available 65 designated main street areas with each area eligible for up to $10,000, $10,000 grants for small businesses, total of 400k. At six months, we already have 67% of our grants approved. Again, this is well above the provincial average.

[1:07:48] This will hopefully put us in a desirable position if there is an opportunity to renew once this one year project is complete. On slide 12, you can see we’re helping main street businesses in other ways as well. We’ve presented 59 customized market analysis reports and made 120 referrals to other financial programs. Perhaps the biggest impact comes from having boots on the ground. Actually being able to walk into businesses, letting them know we care about their future. The response we’re getting has been phenomenal.

[1:08:22] You can see a testimonial there from one of our merchants. Slide 13, the final program slide that I have time for today. We have been delivering starter company plus for seven years. The program offers training, mentorship and small grants of $5,000. As you can imagine, the demand is far greater than the 21 seats per year that we have available. And consequently, it’s a competitive process that leads to some pretty impressive results that you can see there.

[1:08:55] Slide 14 is the aggregate total impact from our five programs. 176 new businesses launched or businesses expanded and 296 new jobs reported. It’s also important to note this does not include the impact from people who access our services a la carte and who do not get the full level of service provided from our program. We just don’t have the means to track those individuals. As always, I like to conclude with the final two slides, which are some of our client profiles and testimonials.

[1:09:31] But I also encourage you to visit our website where you can see many more client features and testimonials. And I think that’s my five minutes or more. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pelerin. I’ll invite colleagues if you have any questions for Mr. Pelerin. Perhaps I could ask from the chair to you, Mr. Pelerin. I note that so many, I appreciate the success for those small businesses where we give them a hand up and I think that’s critically important.

[1:10:08] But my question to you relates to moving them from home-preneurs to being able to run a business out of any of our BIA’s offices, sadly too many that are big. What’s your sense of conversion from home-preneur to an office location or a retail setting outside of someone’s home?

[1:10:49] Through your worship, that’s a question that directly relates to the programming that we’re offering at any given point in time. I mean, if we take a look at the general number of people who show up at the door and start a business, I mean, we can clearly probably 75% or 76% are gonna be home-based businesses forever, that they have no desire to go beyond being a home-based business. But many of the programs that we offer are actually targeted to those individuals that do plan to go into a bricks and mortar or office space.

[1:11:24] So you’re gonna have a much higher conversion ratio there. So for instance, even the my main street program that I talked about, of those grants have already been approved. There’s been two new businesses that have opened up in OEV, two new businesses that have opened up in Dundas Street, two new businesses that have opened up on Richmond Row. I don’t know if any of the ones on Hamilton Road have come to fruition yet, but we’re certainly working with businesses that are opening up on Hamilton Road. So again, if I look at the programs, most of those featured in the programs are going to be employer businesses or businesses with bricks and mortar.

[1:12:05] I ask that and then I’ll relinquish the microphone because the concern that you have from businesses that to your credit that have gone and the way of outside of one’s home is then the requirement that you have to be licensed and legal. And the challenge for entrepreneurs, I think there’s an incentive to not necessarily do that. Landscaping could be part of that. Baking and food supplies, catering, could be another limited skills work.

[1:12:43] And I think it becomes an issue. And I recall when the past, the general manager of the Chamber of Commerce talked about the billion dollar plus loss of economic benefit to communities and lost business to, I’ll say legitimate businesses. So when you encourage people to be homepreneurs without being registered, I don’t mean you specifically, but registered or licensed, frankly, that’s a problem. And frankly, I would like to declare a challenge to any homepreneur and those who support homepreneurs that you are, in fact, homepreneurs that are not licensed, I should say, to be very, very clear.

[1:13:27] ‘Cause then ultimately you’re promoting a business that is taking away business from other ones that pay WSAB and pay plus minimum wage environments and don’t have a cat crawling around the counter and don’t have, and basically not having to pay the usual expenses. And I guess I get challenged by that. So that’ll be the opportunity I suppose as you go forward. I see Councillor Vanholst, I wasn’t looking for a response beyond that, Mr. Fone. Councillor Vanholst, you have your hand up. Thank you very much, Your Worship.

[1:14:00] So I’m really excited by the leverage that the small business center is able to get. And for instance, the 57,000 that the city invested 10,000 times 10 businesses on the Hamilton Road, I know that one of your ambassadors is working with on that program is already covered itself almost by twice. And I see there’s other opportunities here with the starter company plus that 21 times $5,000 is a 100,000 grants dispersed but it’s leveraged to a million dollars.

[1:14:45] What do we see the possibility of expanding some of these programs where that leverage is possible from other levels of government or do you see other programs on their way? Mr. Feller. Through your chair, there is nothing on the immediate horizon to answer that question. The starter company plus program in my opinion has actually moved in the opposite direction. We have fewer seats available than we did five years ago.

[1:15:20] And that’s a provincial policy that there’s not a lot we can do about that. As you know, governments like to announce new programs and sometimes from where we’re sitting, it makes more sense to expand or build on programs that already exist, but that’s not always the case. So although we’re optimistic that there may be new programs coming down the pipeline in a year or so, I can’t say that any of the existing programs are going to be expanded. Thank you, any other questions, Councillor?

[1:15:55] No, just my thanks and my acknowledgement that a small business is very important, especially for the likes of a corridor such as Hamilton Road, where we’ve got very small storefronts that someone who might be moving from a home business to a bricks and mortar might want to make use of because of the lower costs. And we do have a number of empty, empty places still there and storefronts that are boarded up.

[1:16:31] So it’s very important to see these, this kind of assistance available in that area. And later this year, perhaps I’ll be looking to council for some more assistance along those lines. It’s great to see some of the new businesses there and doing work on these properties and making them look good. And looking towards hiring other people to help with them because as we know, small businesses, one of the biggest drivers of new employment.

[1:17:14] Thank you, I have Councillor Roberts. Yeah, thank you, Your Worship. And thank you, Mr. Palloran for your presentation. I always look forward to it. I was a former business owner. So I know the challenges that small businesses and medium-sized businesses have even before COVID. And as we go into recovery, I’d like to know a little bit more how you and the business center sees what you see are the challenges as we go through recovery.

[1:17:55] We know small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our economy here in our city. But I would like to hear a little bit more how you, what you see the challenges are and how you are changing to accommodate the changes in our economy as we cover. Mr. Palloran. Through you, Your Worship, thank you for the question. Councillor Hopkins, as far as the challenges go, I don’t think it’ll be a surprise to anybody when I say that the number one challenge that our micro enterprises are facing right now is labor.

[1:18:37] Many of them are in the service sector or light manufacturing production. And it’s proving very difficult for them to recruit and retain employees. And it’s easy to say, well, they need to adjust wages accordingly, but often these business owners are barely taking an income home themselves in the first few years. So that continues to be a challenge. You know, what our role is in providing a solution, you know, we’re still trying to evaluate that, but certainly we’re working more closely with our partners that are in the labor market and workforce development.

[1:19:18] Other challenges that we see as part of recovery, it’s more about certain sectors than it is about businesses in general, because for every business that has a challenge caused by COVID, there’s other businesses that are seeing opportunities. And, you know, and I think it’s more about what we see maybe as a community and where we want to focus our energy on the recovery. So for instance, nobody’s scrambling to open up new restaurants and such, but if we want to have a vibrant downtown, we need to start thinking about that.

[1:19:56] And what spin can we put on it? I mean, do we need to put more emphasis into things like culinary tourism, for instance? Do we need to find a better way of marrying, you know, the food industry with the music industry? So I think, you know, there’s never gonna be a shortage of people who see opportunity, and there’s never gonna be a shortage of people who are starting businesses, even during the pandemic, we didn’t slow down. But I think it’s more a question of what we want as a community and the type of businesses that we want to lend our help and our support to. I don’t know if that answers your question, but, you know, we’re still figuring it out.

[1:20:33] Yeah. Any other comments, Councilor? Yeah, I really appreciate the thought from us in answering that question. I know recovery is not easy. We don’t have a map in front of us, but I think it’s fair to say we are all trying to see how it’s gonna look going forward. So good luck and thank you for the work that you do. Thank you, Councilor. Any other comments or questions for Ms. de Bon? Seeing none, I’ll look for a mover and seconder of this report, moved by Councillor Layman, seconded by Councillor Fife Miller.

[1:21:15] With our thanks, we will call the question. Councillor Sillie. Closing the vote, the motion is carried, 12 to zero.

[1:21:59] And thank you, Mr. Preller, and we since early afternoon, you can tell the interest by the questions that we’re asked. So thank you. Our colleagues, just to let you know that, as we have our want, I always advise when I’m aware that someone has left that Deputy Mayor is no longer in the meeting just to make you aware. So with that, welcome, Christina Fox from Tech Alliance. We look forward to your report, your annual update. We’ll invite you to please go ahead now. So staying on my cover slide, we’ve earned a reputation for fostering a vibrant and equitable tech community providing value to industry leaders, driving economic growth and propelling ambitious entrepreneurs in tech talent.

[1:22:41] So today we’ll look at the incredible results that we’ve achieved from April 1st, 2021, to March 31st, 2022. In the next slide, Tech Alliance empowers world-class ventures and feels growth in Canada’s innovation economy. And we champion and coach entrepreneurs amplifying and impacting businesses. The Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade deems us to be a regional innovation center hub, which means we’re at the big kids table with community tech Mars and invest to Ottawa. Ontario is the second fastest growing technology ecosystem in the world with more than 60% of the Canada’s highest performing technology companies in Ontario.

[1:23:18] And with CBRE’s annual scoring tech talent report, London was named in the top 10 North America’s emerging tech markets. Our city boasts a comparatively high tech talent employment rate with over 13,700 tech jobs in 2021. We continue to see tech Alliance companies like paystone, mobiles and waste solutions on lists like Canada’s top growing companies. Next slide. For the place for dreamers, innovators and world-changing ideas and I’m joined by members of our board and staff who are watching live stream. Together we forge strong connections with this council and city staff.

[1:23:52] And because this will be the last time I presented this particular council, I’d like to take a moment to thank each of you for your deepened appreciation for London’s globally competitive innovation economy. Over the course of my last three years as CEO, I’ve worked side by side with many of you to strengthen our economy, deliver exponentially increased results against the city strategic plan and was a partner to many minster visits advocacy opportunities and celebrations for London. Tech Alliance has evolved in so many ways and I thank the city for your continued investment in the work that we do for London’s most promising startups and fastest growing technology companies.

[1:24:25] Next slide. The numbers from this fiscal year are remarkable and honestly the KPIs for our current fiscal continue to shatter our own records. We have created new opportunities for innovation to materialize and wind pathways to critical resources for talent. Since I joined Tech Alliance, our jobs created, posted and promoted has increased 584% overall with 141 unique employers just this year posting on our job board in this particular fiscal. You’ll see from this slide that we’ve had student and newcomer talent interactions and ecosystem referrals like never before because we prioritize talent in the innovation sector.

[1:25:02] Next slide. I’m putting businesses first. We saw in excess of $1 billion raised in capital by tech companies in London. In fact, capital raised by innovative ventures has increased by almost 5,000%. Since we began measuring when I arrived. It’s a unique role. All the tech clients for pre-seed and late stage raises by scaling ventures in the region. We were in front of all ranks of government showcasing the forest city. Perhaps an easier thing to do in a year with federal and provincial elections but we measured a 1,300% increase in our advocacy efforts over the course of the past three years with a significant amount this year.

[1:25:35] Working with 91 collaborators this past fiscal up from 72 last year. Plus focusing on the bank strength of 30 different industries related to innovation has met a significantly diversified pool of funds for tech clients, including another round of LCR and funding from you. We are grateful, thank you. Next slide, fostering an entrepreneurial culture and natural industry collisions with more than 8,000 advisory hours up from 4,500 the year before that and 2,700 the year before that demonstrates the value of our mandate as a place for entrepreneurs. We’ve seen 2,200 more bums and seats from three years ago to now but we fully expect to see that number cool going forward.

[1:26:14] All in all, we bring people together. We facilitate connections. We deliver education, we amplify and develop compelling stories and we truly foster a vibrant technology community that has been noticed with an 18% increase over last year on brand exposure and during media. Next slide. We hosted key initiatives and launched new experiences for high potential ventures, industry leaders in tech talent. Next slide, excuse me, the good news is here are a couple of stories highlighting tech clients companies that we’re really proud of. We’ve made good on our brand promise and London has been amplified while strengthening connections to policymakers who will keep placing bets on our innovators.

[1:26:50] Next slide. Continuing to build a momentum as a vital resource looking straight across the street from City Hall. My final few slides display our active community collaboration engaging over 5,000 innovators, entrepreneurs and industry professionals in the fiscal. Next slide, putting a spotlight on groundbreaking innovation. We hosted our second annual limit list with the slate of incredible award recipients. Join us on February 8th for another unforgettable limit list. Next slide. In the spirit of addressing inequity, there are barriers still to smash for women in tech. Alongside four ecosystem partners, we called 200 women and allies to action on International Women’s Day.

[1:27:27] Next slide. In partnership with the Chamber, we launched Stay Safe, delivering 254,000 rapid screening tests to more than 2,200 London businesses. Next slide. The London Innovation Challenge accelerated six London developed solutions with the goal to address LCRN’s priority areas. Next slide, designed for Indigenous Black and women led ventures, we co-created with four key partners, and we delivered Elevate Entrepreneurship, Microcidification, Incubated for 52 entrepreneurs. Next slide, we developed work and integrated learning placements for more than 1,000 liberal arts students at Western who developed ideas to impact gate local industry partners’ day-to-day operations.

[1:28:06] And the next slide, enclosing tech clients. We have a common belief that in pursuit of creating spaces where innovation thrives, we are focused on creating meaningful economic outcomes for London, members of council. Our connection to you remains very important to us. Thanks so much for giving me the time today. Well, thank you very much, Ms. Fox, and I’ll look to colleagues if you have comments or questions with regard to tech alliance and Ms. Fox report. Councillor Turner. Thank you, Your Worship, and thank you, Ms. Fox, for your presentation.

[1:28:38] It’s always fun to try and cram it all into five minutes, isn’t it? So much good news. I’m wondering, so this is all the good news. I hate to be there on the other side, but I’m curious what barriers have been faced, specifically with access to industry, access to government programs, things that have been roadblocks for success, things that we might want to keep our mind towards as we develop policy to try and help support the work that you’re doing. Ms. Fox.

[1:29:10] Sorry, through the chair, thank you for that question. I would say, you know, there’s two sides to this. One is for us specifically. We feel like we’re a pension above our weight class every single year. And I think the more that’s invested in us as an organization, the more that we can do. And in thinking so, you know, we regularly speak first about our companies and then about ourselves, but that’s sort of leading with, you know, us accessing government programming has helped us to actually diversify. Elevate entrepreneurship is a great example of that. In this current fiscal year, which is not what I’ve reported on this evening, we are working in collaboration with other regional innovation centers and secured a significant amount of money of which many of us flow through directly to companies, similar to the LCRN in a London Innovation Fund, where we, or an innovation challenge where we floated money to companies to have the opportunity to build up their product, challenges that will remain, I think, for our companies.

[1:30:12] Now and in the near future, whether it’s recovery related or just some of the changes that have happened in the economy, like Steve Talent is certainly a concern. We see a lot of activity, we see a lot of movement. There has been a lot of wage voting that we certainly saw in the US and the Valley and that transition to Canada very quickly and easily considering how fast Ontario’s ecosystem is working or evolving. So talent will continue to be a challenge for companies in Canada and including London. And the other that we’re seeing overall is investment. So while there’s still a lot of activity, through VCs and angel groups, there is less investment or not as much investment, which means companies are running through their dry powder more quickly and burning cash more quickly.

[1:30:57] And so when we think of innovative companies and the way that they grow and how quickly they grow, they do continue to need investment. So I would say we have our eye on both of those things and continue to work towards solutions to support companies so that either one of those obstacles isn’t too much in the way for them the best that we can. That’s your turn. Wonderful, thanks. Just on that, you touched on funding sources, government versus VCs versus angels and stuff like that. How does that mix go? I guess predominantly it sits looking at VC funding, but with some on the angel and the government side, does do programs, especially at the municipal or provincial level, are there focused targets that we need to be contemplating as we work through whether that’s the LCRN or anything else to that matter?

[1:31:52] How do we make sure that our investments are targeted and as successful as possible? Just Fox. Through the chair, I think the interesting thing is there is a bit of a dichotomy. We have to continue to invest in early stage startups. It’s like saying, we’re only gonna educate kids in primary and secondary school. We’re not gonna do kindergarten. We have to still have the basics of people who are dreaming and innovating and perhaps haven’t left the nine to five. Often we see those companies do take advantage of government programming and that’s really important to get their businesses set up and for them to get going.

[1:32:26] And often it can be an innovation with a commercialization strategy that could be really long if it’s a long sales cycle. So that’s one piece. Another is really large businesses that have access to different kinds of grants through the government. Some non-dilative and some debt financing where they can increase their talent, increase their innovation, Canadian IP, Canadian Made IP, et cetera. And that helps them to grow. So think about the difference between a company like, oh, I’m trying to think of one just off the top of my head, XR Studios, who was an early stage company two or three years ago really got their legs, began to actually drive recurring revenue and actually was less reliant on grants, but they were reliant in their early days.

[1:33:13] Smart founders, Western graduates who got their business in London versus like a paystone, for example, who might qualify because they’re on the run to a billion dollars in revenue might qualify for a different kind of a grant. The mix in between is what’s kind of curious because often when it comes to angel investing and VCs, they want to see recurring revenue. So they need to see AR on the books for companies for them to be able to invest in those companies and know that they’ll get a return. The other thing about angels and VCs is they want to know that there’s a liquidity event. They want to know that there’s intangible assets like IP.

[1:33:47] And so the companies they invest in will be different than, you know, really early stage and maybe later stage. Of course, we see the later stage companies that get a lot of investment through VCs in angel networks, but some of that starts after the pre-seed round. So government grants continue to be important for companies that are at idea stage, right through to efficiency and scale stage and depending on key to the levels of government or if there’s specific to, for example, women-led or black-led indigenous-led companies. For example, we have an experience right now that cover all three of those identifying groups, including the queer community and people who identify with a disability.

[1:34:27] So grants can be really specific and can be something that companies regularly ask for. I will tell you in representing our venture growth team, it’s one of the most often asked questions of, can you help me to access funding? And that looks like a lot of different things. It could be again debt financing, it could be grants or it could be investment. Thank you, go ahead, Councillor Turner, or are you done? Thank you very much. I really appreciate the answers. Thank you kindly. I’ll now look to Councillor Lehman, please. Thank you, Ms. Fox for the presentation.

[1:35:01] And congratulations to Tech Alliance for their part that they’ve played in getting London to be into the top 10 emerging tech markets in North America. It’s kind of following up on this line of comments and questions that we’ve heard, particularly impressed by the $1 billion in capital raise by innovative companies. We know raising capital can be almost some more of a full-time job than the actual business itself or these new tech companies are coming on board. I’d like to ask you, first of all, what percentage of capital raise is local, coming from local sources versus outside of London and outside of Canada?

[1:35:45] And secondly, how is Tech Alliance going to leverage that recent designation of being top 10 for London to assist local companies in gaining visibility and access to VC money and others, not just locally, but in Canada, but also down into parts of the states, for example, Silicon Valley is Fox. True, that’s good.

[1:36:20] Two very different questions. I’ll try to answer both the best I can. The percentage of capital raised, it is a mix. We don’t necessarily encourage our companies to look for local investment. We have local investors that we certainly put in front of our companies and that’s important because having an ecosystem that’s thriving with Londoners who invest and they can invest in companies across Canada or anywhere else in the world, that is really important as is the importance of having companies look for a diversified funding, whether that’s from the Valley, from Ottawa area, even over in the UK.

[1:36:55] The key for us is to make sure that I keep protection and that opportunity when the exit happens is that those companies couldn’t very well sell to another Canadian company. Again, those are things that we can’t necessarily control and Tech Alliance, but we certainly know that we encourage our founders to be seeking investment from lots of different places. And we host experiences that are typically invent. Invitation only exclusive experiences for founders and investors actually get to know one another to see whether or not there’s a matching criteria. So for example, we hosted an event a couple of months ago with two of our founders and one had investment from the US and one had investment from folks in Ottawa that we regularly call the Shopify mafia.

[1:37:40] So people have done really well there, but people who have also gone on to run their own companies and have connections to some of the other significant ecosystems in the world. So the exposure that we’ve given to our companies over the last couple of years in particular, and this is an area where we have focused, has grown exponentially. And the more relationships that we can garner and the more discussions that we can have with investors and angel networks, on behalf of our companies creates a lot more pathway for our companies and less friction. So the percentage of that 1 billion, it’s hard to say how much of that is Canadian, how much of that is American or otherwise, but I think there’s a pretty decent balance.

[1:38:18] There’s a genuine interest for investors locally to invest in local companies, but we often find that they go in other places because they can find criteria that matches or they have expertise in those VCs that can help them grow and sit on their advisory board. For the second question on the top 10 in North America, it’s really focused on the tech piece. So that’s really music to all of our ears because in knowing that we have continued to grow tech rules in London that are typically well-paying rules to the tune of 13,700 of them, that says something really significant to companies who are looking to found their companies, whether they’re choosing to be in Waterloo, choosing to be in Toronto, choosing to be in London, or in other hubs, Calgary, West Coast, Canada, and even Halifax.

[1:39:04] What we’re finding though is having that moniker of in the top 10 really allows us to continue to bolster the brand of London and talk about an opportunity to locate. I mean, I have companies that reach out to me pretty regularly about locating their headquarters here or diversifying either the production facilities or having a remote team that’s centralized here. And so it’s an opportunity for us to continue to speak about London and the Forest City and all of the good things that are happening here, but having that top 10 on the talent suggests that that challenge that they are often facing could actually be found here.

[1:39:39] So great questions. I hope I was able to answer them with the depth that we’re looking for, Steve. Councillor Layman. Yeah, thank you. We’re reaching a critical mass, I think, of labour for sure that is allowing us to become one of the hubs that you referenced. And with that comes access to capital. It becomes a virtuous cycle, which I think we’re on the path to. So I want to hear, it’s good to hear London, I think in the future will be mentioned as a hub in the same breath as Waterloo, Ottawa, Toronto, et cetera.

[1:40:16] So well done, thank you. Thank you, next I have Councillor Moo, please. Thank you, Your Worship. This is a question for Ms. Fox. Ms. Fox, thank you so much for your presentation. It was great. I’ve been speaking to tech companies in London and they’re telling me how there’s a huge shortage of coders in London. And I was wondering if you or your organization is doing anything in order to train coders or holding workshops or matching people to education facilities.

[1:40:54] So that’s through the chair. Go ahead, Ms. Fox. Thank you through the chair. That’s a great question and you’re absolutely right. Software developers continue to be in very short supply everywhere in the world. And we have actually given a lot of thought to, are there, you know, recertification, retraining opportunities to expedite their learning? And while that could be a solution that other communities are certainly going down, we still honor the fact that we’ve got Western and Fanshawe here who are turning out computer science graduates, folks with both university and college diplomas.

[1:41:37] And so one of the things that we are attempting to do, and you could see both with our Fanshawe College partnership and a partnership with Western University that emerging professional talent is really important for us to keep an eye on. And so in addition to actual partnerships where we’re working together on things like the work integrated learning experience with Western and with Fanshawe where members of our venture growth team, I feel like are in a classroom like once a week through the school year, talking about and supporting and hosting classes here even at Tech Alliance.

[1:42:11] One of the key things that we do do is the Tech Talent Exchange, which is like a uncareer fair, if you will, where it’s a reverse pitch from technology employers to student talent and students spend their time with employers to understand a little bit more about the opportunities that are available to them. And in addition to that, we host a Tech Connect in partnership with Will Employee where we connect newly new Canadians and newcomers to Canada with who are professionally trained with employers who are seeking those skills.

[1:42:48] So software developers, coders, it’s a tough go around the world and so everyone’s competing. So we’re also seeing kind of that wage float that is coming as a result of that in-demand skill. Know this though, that is something that we regularly talk about with our university and college partners. It’s what we regularly talk about with even through the skills training, ministry that covers skills training, to see what are the ways that we can actually improve upon that situation. And so between myself and our vice president or our people and operations leader, it’s a constant conversation.

[1:43:22] And probably something I should have mentioned earlier when we were talking a little bit about talent, more specifically on software developers, but also when I was mentioning investment. So good intel by you. And I appreciate that you’ve raised that. Councilor, I’ll move. Thank you. That’s it for me. Just trying to look over the tech companies as well. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor Van Holst. Thank you, Worship. So exciting news. I noticed that when you quoted the growth in the number of your consultations over the past few years, it’s pretty much doubled.

[1:43:56] And so we’ve got some exponential growth. Do you have the capacity to continue that? Ms. Fox? Through the chair, it’s a tough one. I will be honest. We have evolved the way our team supports our businesses in that the way that we hire our folks for our venture growth team are typically former entrepreneurs, failed entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs between businesses, entrepreneurs who have recently exited folks who are fractional CFOs or investor scouts.

[1:44:33] So the folks that we hire in our venture growth team are very different complement to tech lines of about three or four years ago. And what that means is they can focus holistically on the challenges of the business. And we always find that the companies, they find comfort in the conversation because they’re speaking to other entrepreneurs. They’re difficult to hire. So when we think about capacity and the demand now for our team, it does grow. The way that we’ve been able to combat that is to continue to evolve just, you know, outside of our venture growth team who are staff on our team and are part of building our culture and having connections to tech talent and industry leaders.

[1:45:13] We also have something called an entrepreneur in residence, which is a person who’s like a vendor or contractor that is typically a serial entrepreneur or someone who’s grown and exited big businesses and they can act as generalists to companies. And so we will actually support our founders with their advisor, their venture growth advisor and then they often will speak with an EIR. So we’ve been able to really expand our talent pool in that way. And the other new thing that we’ve done over this last fiscal year is really grow our growth coaches. And the growth coach is someone with a deep expertise in a particular vertical.

[1:45:46] So for example, we were seeing a lot of companies who, you know, needed some support with their pitch, their pitch deck so they could, you know, garner investment or companies that needed help with public relations or press release or media or people that were getting their first sale, but maybe not having the recurring sale. So they needed to develop a strategic sales playbook. We have brought on contractors who are incredible London leaders who are in those specific areas to help again augment our venture growth team and by expanding the venture growth team with former founders as well as growth coaches with area of expertise in our EIRs, the bench strength is phenomenal.

[1:46:26] And for that reason, we’re able to deliver as many hours as we do because we got really serious about making sure that we had a culture that was founder first and to make sure that we could support founders with each obstacle and that they could still, you know, continue to book a call with the next obstacle that they might be facing. And then the word of mouth has really spread to actually grow in new prospective clients to the organization. Councilor, I’m sorry, Councilor Van Holst, let’s keep going with you, I apologize.

[1:46:59] That’s fun, your worship. And I appreciate the question. Exciting to hear how Tech Alliance is evolving to be able to serve more people better. So great, great strategies, wonderful leadership coming from your office, thank you. Thank you, Councilor, any other comments or questions from Ms. Fox? I see none, but then I will look to accept a motion to receive her report moved by Councilor Fife Miller, second by Councilor Lewis, let’s call the question.

[1:47:48] Closing the vote, the motion’s passed, 12 to zero. Ms. Fox, please accept the appreciation of our council answering completely the questions that we’re asked of you. We certainly appreciate that as well. Thank you and good luck to you. Colleagues, we now have the third delegation that we will receive. Bill Locodio, president, CEO of the London Economic Development Corporation for his annual update.

[1:48:25] Mr. Locodio, welcome and please go ahead. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for this opportunity to share some updates with you this evening. Flight two, we talk about what LEDC does to contribute to the growth of our economy through a faction of new investments, retention and growth of local companies, workforce development and business engagement. These functions are guided by detailed strategies such as providing access to space, talent, training, capital and much more, as well as measured by key performance indicators that are available on the LEDC website and shared regularly with the city as part of the strategic planning process.

[1:49:01] Our work focuses on developing industry clusters that generate the highest level of economic activity in our region. These clusters not only create direct jobs and investments but also drive spinoff activity through construction, supply chains, retail, hospitality and much more. We also have referral mechanisms in place so that companies outside of these core sectors are also supported by other local agencies. On slide four, you will see so far this year, LEDC has facilitated over $220 million in new expansions and attractions. Companies making these investments have reported over 1200 new jobs being added to London’s workforce this year.

[1:49:39] In addition to that, we have helped companies secure close to $50 million in government grants and subsidies to support this activity. On slide five, you will see the investment portfolio that seeks to attract new investments while accelerate portfolio helps our established London companies scale up their operations. And we do this by connecting them to infrastructure, funding sources, regulatory and permitting processes, R&D as well as assistance with workforce recruitment and retention. This year, we saw major growth in advanced manufacturing, food processing and life sciences industries. In addition to this, we also keep a pulse on companies that may be at risk of closure or layoffs due to trade issues, loss contracts or changes in their industry.

[1:50:20] Despite the pandemic, our pipeline of active attraction and expansion files was quite strong through virtual trade shows and lead generation activities. On slide six, you will see some examples of companies that are new to London or grown significantly by making capital investments, space acquisitions and increasing their workforce throughout the year. Similarly, on page seven, you will see some recent examples of companies that have added new jobs and investments in food processing, life sciences and advanced manufacturing that have helped further diversify our industry cluster. Moving on to slide eight, our workforce development portfolio held regular job fairs this year, along with several presentations to assist employers in their hiring needs.

[1:51:04] We also assisted both Western and Fanshawe in understanding the needs of local employers so their training programs can be designed accordingly. For instance, we work with Kings University College on their new Kings Promise initiative to better match students with local career opportunities. Similarly, we’re also working with Western to support the new film, television and creative industry space. On slide 10, we talk about business engagement, which is at the heart of all our programs. Throughout the year, we used webinars, social media, newsletters, the COVID-19 Business Hub and other tools to engage with our local and external audiences.

[1:51:41] You will see some examples in slides 11 and 12 about our Don’t Tell Toronto ad campaign, which resulted in increased visibility to attract skilled talent in hard to find areas such as technology and health. And finally, film London. Throughout 2022, film London has attracted eight productions with a value of close to $2 million. We also partnered with the Forest City Film Festival to run a nationwide campaign to attract independent productions to London. Results of this campaign would be announced next weekend when the film festival takes place.

[1:52:15] And with that, that’s it for my formal presentation. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Well, thank you, Mr. Locotti. Appreciate this and I will invite colleagues if they should have any questions for Mr. Locotti. Ms. Hopkins, Councillor, please go ahead. Councillor Hopkins. Yes, and thank you, Mr. Locotti for the report. Always interested in reading it. And congratulations for film London. To be honest with you, I was skeptical as to seeing how this was going to roll out, but congratulations on the work that has been done there with film London and looking forward to hearing more as well.

[1:52:57] I do have a question around the acceleration and obviously you mentioned about scaling up and looking at the numbers, retaining jobs tends to be that challenge there. Could you just expand upon that a little bit more and how you see the work that needs to be done or the challenges going forward? Mr. Locotti. Thank you.

[1:53:28] Through the Chair, talent attraction and retention is obviously quite complex with several dimensions to it. I think the biggest hurdle sort of universally facing London is our collective ability to attract a skilled talent to the city. And that comes in many ways, shapes and forms. People who are coming from Toronto, you know, this don’t tell Toronto ad campaign heavily focuses on lifestyle elements, affordability. And I know pricing has gone up quite a bit throughout Canada, over the pandemians coming back down.

[1:54:02] But at that time, affordability relative to Toronto was still a marketable feature, safety, natural elements. There’s so many different components that speak to different audiences, transportation, access to childcare, a number of other elements that make it very, I wouldn’t say difficult. It makes it interesting to be able to pull skilled talent from other communities. Access to talent is not unique to London, of course. This is something that companies throughout Canada and North America and beyond face.

[1:54:35] But from a growth standpoint, these campaigns, all our job fairs, job portals that are marketing to the rest of the world focus on positioning London in a way where we might be able to attract more skilled talent from other areas. Retention is very much the same challenge. You know, there’s a fair bit of concern about skilled talent being poached by other growing companies. So in order to minimize that, we facilitate active conversations between employers. So I’ll give you some examples. When new food companies come to our industrial parks, we ensure that there is proactive connectivity between senior leadership at all these companies early on.

[1:55:15] So there’s a healthy channel built in and try to minimize as much as possible people moving from one company to across the street. Councilor Roberts. Yeah, thank you for that. And thanks again for the report. I really do appreciate it. And good luck moving forward as we go through recovery. Thank you, Councilor Turner. Thanks again, Mr., Christian. So it just kind of picking up on Councilor Hopkins question there. The talent retention and attraction is going to be key.

[1:55:51] I think we’ve seen that starting to become very difficult to fill jobs, especially in specific sectors. The question I have about this is the balance between our work in terms of attracting new employers versus attracting new employees. And does LADC have the ability to flex and move to where the need is greatest? If we don’t have the employee pool, then it’s going to be difficult for us to attract employers. And there’s kind of this paradox of which comes first in all of that. But right now it seems to be really focused in that.

[1:56:25] Does your team rather float back and forth between that? I’d imagine your team is rather skill set specific to a talent acquisition and another team that’s focused on unemployment acquisition. Mr. Locoria. Thank you, through the chair. First of all, you’re quite right. We used to have a situation where companies would spend way more time upfront looking at infrastructure or other elements of the decision making process and workforce was kind of lower in the list. Now it’s essentially the conversation starter. We have to talk a lot more about our workforce capacity and what’s being done locally to improve that.

[1:57:03] I think the, so first of all, you’re quite right. We have professionals on staff who focus on the demand side of the equation, essentially prospecting and talking to companies about putting their new investments in London. At the same time, we have workforce development professionals who are also coming up with creative solutions to help build our workforce capacity in London. These are the folks who talked to Fanshawe, sit on their program advisory committees, work with Western and affiliated colleges to understand the needs of our growing employers and ensure that that talent pipeline can as best as possible be matched.

[1:57:43] The interesting elements within this is most of the companies that are in desperate need of skill talent are at the experience level. I think generally speaking, you’ll find companies are not really that concerned about entry level talent. We do have great student populations graduating from both Western and Fanshawe to help meet a lot of that need. It really comes in five years plus of experience where those professionals need to either move from other established locations, GTA being, of course, the easy target to pick from or other parts of Canada and beyond.

[1:58:17] I think in that respect, we’ve focused a lot in terms of providing London transit, the information they need for better route planning in our industrial areas. We’re trying to zone in on what barriers there might be for people to find employment in those areas. Industrial access for a transit has been well recorded from that standpoint. And there are several other barriers that people face and through these job fairs and the network of London agencies that serve both employers and job seekers, there’s an active approach to trying to eliminate as many barriers as possible.

[1:58:56] But you’re quite right, the war for skilled talent is very real and London, in order to continue growing, will need to continue paying attention to housing availability, transit, to lifestyle elements, safety. There’s a mixed bag of so many different components that talent would look at when they’re making these relocation decisions. Thank you, Casa, for your turn. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for your leadership, follow up to that. The metrics we have are predominantly focused on employer and employment attraction rather than employee size of that scale.

[1:59:35] What do we need to start looking at and what do we need to watch over the years to come so that we know that those efforts are being successful, especially in those areas, as you said, experienced workforce attraction. I mean, predominantly, as you said, that needs to be in terms of resettlement, rather than creating or developing the workforce domestically, if you’re looking for that skill set that’s already with experience coming into the job soon. Mr. Locaudio. Thank you, through the chair, you’re quite right.

[2:00:08] The metrics are heavily employer focused because as per the LEDC mandate, we’re more on the demand side, more the employer facing side, you’re quite right. I think London has some 40 plus agencies that are part of the ESC network, the Employment Sector Council, as it’s commonly known as. The London Workforce Planning Board, it’s London Middlesex, Elgin Oxford Planning Board, is the one that actually has leadership over more broader macro-level workforce planning initiatives. We’re part of the Employment Sector Council, and where we come in is we bring the employer perspective to the equation to help match as best as possible the clientele that’s being served by all of these groups within the Employment Sector Council to employer needs.

[2:00:55] In addition to that, we are able to better forecast what’s coming down the pipeline in terms of expansions and anticipated recruitment, such as Maple Leaf, Amazon, a whole host of new larger employers, so workforce capacity can start getting ramped up in line with what might be expected in a couple of years. In terms of what we might be able to do better is I think there’s an ongoing, this is not a sort of, it’s more of an evolution and refinement than a structural issue, but I think better alignment of training programs at post-secondary that are in line with where employment demand might be going, and that’s again something that’s been done fairly regularly, but there’s never a start or stop to this.

[2:01:36] Along with better resettlement programs for newcomers, refugees, and people who are coming to Canada with Ukraine is a good example. There’s a lot of technology skill set that comes from that marketplace. We’re trying to look at ways to engage them with local companies and bridge whatever connectivity gaps there might be. So I think that’s the kind of refinement and ongoing process that might get us to a better place in terms of building stronger workforce capacity, but by no means is this a one size fits all.

[2:02:10] There’s unique tweaks, unique approaches required in each of these industry sectors. Thank you, Casio. Thank you, one final question. The last one is, and thank you for continuing to report on this as the retention, and those that are having challenges and might be facing closure or downsizing, and seeing the work that you continue to do on that file is really helpful for us to know. How do I see that there’s almost been a tripling? It went from two to six retention files from 2021.

[2:02:45] How do you become aware of companies or firms that are at risk and are required to some retention interventions? Mr. Locaudio. Thank you, through the chair. We are made aware of this through a couple of different channels. One is our active business engagement program. So we have a calling program. Our staff calls on a regular basis list of companies in their portfolios. So through that interaction and dialogue, companies would mostly self-report that. Most of the times, if not all, these are very highly sensitive and confidential discussions.

[2:03:24] There’s usually employment impact and other things that are being weighed at the head office level. So we find out through those mechanisms, we also have sort of feelers on the ground, if you will, through our network of consultants and professionals we deal with that also pass on that intel from time to time as well. So a collection of those mechanisms helps us get close to that kind of information on the ground. Thank you. You’re good, Councilor? I was just gonna thank the team for all their work and to continue the good stuff.

[2:03:56] Thanks. We always make time for that. It’s very important. Thank you very much. Councilor Vanholz, please. Thank you, Your Worship. And you and I had the opportunity to attend very well, a filled room at the Manufacturing Matters Conference. And I was pleased when I asked there what the city could do to help, but certainly the companies didn’t think that the city’s completely responsible for finding talent or getting people out to industrial areas.

[2:04:31] But I didn’t wanna follow up on that to access by transit to industrial areas issue. Now, what do you see as the next step in solving that? We’ve identified that problem, and we know there’s things the city could do. We know the things, there’s things that businesses could do. Do you see some movement on that issue? Mr. Locodio. Thank you, through the chair. I think London Transit has spent a great deal of time and energy in understanding the various drivers of an open intended of this issue in terms of providing better connectivity to our industrial parks.

[2:05:16] They’ve also received a lot of data from various employers as far as even postal code level data of where their employees come from to allow London Transit to do better route mapping, aligned with the shift timings for all of these plans and whatnot. They also have projections on what kind of employment is expected to come in as the city develops more industrial lands in that corridor as more employers are projecting either growth or significant ramp up such as Maple Leaf and others. So all of that information is well understood.

[2:05:51] I think the challenges are sort of equally the same on London Transit side in terms of driver shortages and the impacts of COVID and so on. Many of our employers have offered cost sharing arrangements and various different partnerships in terms of, you know, Ubers and whatnot, the last mile as they call it. But to answer your question in a more succinct way, I think the balls in the London Transit Court now. Councillor Vanholst. Thank you very much.

[2:06:25] Maybe I’ll just ask you about film London. Kind of exciting to see that production is now being attracted here. I see we’ve done a bunch of work and covered some foundational things. So my question to you is what will we see that’s new next year and might one of those things be the publishing film industry strategy which I know is something that municipalities like Toronto have.

[2:06:58] Mr. Locodio. Thank you, through the chair. So we are just coming up on about 10 months of ongoing work within this film London portfolio. Over this time, a lot of effort has gone into building the foundations of having location database, database of talent, getting some preparatory work done on our own side in terms of getting the team ready and organized and just getting some bare basic preparatory stuff in order. Now that that’s all done, we’ve been able to buy advertising in Toronto, host a number of familiarization tours with production companies in Toronto.

[2:07:40] There’s been change in our industrial and zoning as well that allows for production studios to now be able to look at London for a physical studio location and so on. So we’ve spent a lot of time and energy laying down the groundwork. I think what you see now is some of the fruits of that labor are starting to pay off with Apple TV filming in London a couple of weekends ago. There’s been some other names that have come several times now looking at various sites. London offers that fresh perspective to many of these scouts that they haven’t found elsewhere in the GT and Hamilton area where locations have been somewhat exhausted.

[2:08:24] So I think going forward, you’ll see us building on that theme, getting more bigger level productions into London now. We’ve had lots of independence, lots of smaller scale productions in the three to $500,000 range. We’re now hoping to ramp that up into getting some more feature films and some larger value content here as well. Mr. Locote, if you’re looking for 15 quite talented individuals who would love to participate in your film industry, look no further than the horseshoe here. Councillor Vanholz, go ahead.

[2:08:58] Any other final questions? Or did I just kill it? Yes, just thinking about the production we could put on. Perhaps maybe there’s my train of thought. But I do want to inquire about your work with the Foreseen Film Festival ‘cause I think there’s a big expansion there. It seems like a good collaboration. So how are we attracting film using, that avenue?

[2:09:40] Do we have a tight answer to that, Mr. Locote? Yes, sir. Through the chair, we participate with the Film Festival in creating something called the Ontario Screen Creators Conference, which is more of an industry specific event that brings professionals from the film business together to talk about contemporary topics. We also at the same time offer tours of various locations in London that people are actively shopping for. There’s also a pitch contest that’s been developed in partnership with us to attract more independent productions across Canada.

[2:10:14] There’s a couple of other industry specific things we do with the Film Festival throughout the year. Any else, Councillor Vanholz? Sure, my last, or at least next question, might be what’s the biggest challenge that we face in our barrier in terms of attracting film? Something we need to work on. Mr. Locote? Thank you, through the chair. I think it’s just a time. We are so relatively new in terms of doing this. I think as the buzz about London picks up, we will certainly get on the radar for more productions.

[2:10:53] I wouldn’t say there’s any significant barriers at the moment. In fact, just to share a positive experience with you, when Apple TV came here and shut down a major intersection for their production, they were very, very complimentary of city staff, of our policies and the ease of doing business in London. So as that feedback travels through the industry, we are very confident that we’ll get on the radar for more productions. Councillor? Okay, thank you very much. I do believe that is definitely something that will build confidence in my thanks to our staff for making it easy because that’s certainly what the production companies want.

[2:11:36] Thank you very much. I have no one else on the speakers list. Therefore, I will look for a motion to receive Councillor or Mr. Ocote’s report moved by Councillor Van Holst. Seconded by Councillor Hopkins. Let’s call the question. Just wanted to say thank you for your time and this opportunity and make that 16 individuals that might be interested in the film opportunity. You’re obviously speaking for yourself, Mr. Ocote, and you’re quite a handsome person in your own way.

[2:12:14] So I’m sure that will work very, very well. Perfect. Thank you. Closing the vote, the motion’s passed 12 to zero. Thanks Mr. Ocote, this is very kind of, okay. Now we moved items for direction. We have one and it’s consideration of appointments to our striking committee. I’m gonna ask the clerk to speak to this briefly just for the benefit of the community that understands what it is that we’re dealing with here.

[2:12:47] And then we’ll make some determinations from there. Go ahead if you would, Clerk, please. Thank you through the chair. This is to deal with appointments to the striking committee which is provided for in the procedure by-law. And the striking committee is appointed in the year of a municipal election and the purpose of the striking committee is to review citizen appointments to boards, commissions and advisory committees which would not be applicable in this year given the population of the committees earlier in this calendar year.

[2:13:21] The striking committee composition is outlined in the general policy for advisory committees and includes one past member of the diversity inclusion and anti-oppression advisory committee, one representative from Pillar Nonprofit Network, one representative from the Urban League of London, one representative from the London and District Labor Council, and one representative from the London Chamber of Commerce in addition to five citizens at large. You will note on your agenda that we only have one application from citizens at large.

[2:13:57] And if it is the pleasure of this committee to make the recommendation to council, we would work within the applications that we have rather than try and recruit more. I will indicate that this committee is set to meet week following next in order to review the applications for the boards and commissions. So if Hamade asked the clerk then, if we were to proceed with the candidates that have been presented today and you look within the citizen group that had shown interest previously, would a motion require not only to approve the individuals that are here, should that be the will of council, but then also to give the clerk authority to proceed with appointments up to four other citizen appointees?

[2:14:52] Is that what you are suggesting? Through the chair, that is not what I’m suggesting. We don’t have the resources to continue to recruit additional citizens at this time. I can indicate that we reached out to all previous members of the striking committee and we’re just a little strapped in the clerk’s office right now. So with that then, colleagues, we have all of the organizations with representatives and we have one citizen at large. I’m at the pleasure of the group.

[2:15:28] If you would like to move this particular, these bigger appointments to the striking committee, I’d look for a mover. I see Councillor Hamou, is there a seconder for that Councillor? Hillier, thank you, comments or questions. Councillor Lewis, go ahead. Thank you, Your Worship, and through you. I’m concerned about this item. I’m concerned about the lack of a citizen at large appointments to the striking committee. I’m also concerned when we talk about a striking committee for recommendations that we have these groups that are willing to step up and provide a representative.

[2:16:18] But what we don’t have represented here is actual representatives from the organizations that are impacted by some of these appointment choices. And I’m not sure, and this is a comment. I’m not sure how we would wanna structure this, but I think it’s something that the next council and the next governance working group needs to consider. We’ve seen a couple of times through this term of council. Recommendations come forward from the board or from the board chair and the CEO of organizations in terms of particular skill sets they’re looking for in these appointments.

[2:16:55] And the lack of any sort of representation from the actual organizations that appointments will be made to is a concern to me. So I just wanna share that thought with folks. And through you, I will ask to the clerk for clarification and for the information of those who may be sitting at this horseshoe in November, whether they’re watching or whether they’re here, that the striking committee will provide recommendations. However, council itself will still receive all the applications and be the final arbiter of the appointments to those boards, agencies and commissions, correct?

[2:17:36] You’ve asked the clerk, let’s ask the clerk. Through the chair, that is correct. If I may expand on that answer just ever so slightly, our office has also been working with the various boards and commissions throughout the term to provide them with the applications for review at the same time in parallel to in this case will be the striking committee and that will appear on the agenda for the strategic priors and policy committee meeting when these appointments are made at the same time as the striking committee report.

[2:18:16] Councillor Lewis. Thank you, worship. So one other question related to this item through you probably again to the clerks, again, I’m concerned if we don’t even have five citizens at large for the striking committee and you mentioned that the applications are already being prepped for the striking committee to look through, what is the deadline for applications to the board’s agencies and commissions? Can people still apply? And do we have enough candidates right now ‘cause I’m concerned if we don’t have enough candidates for the striking committee, that’s gonna be awfully hard to fill the positions on boards, agencies and commissions.

[2:18:54] That is a maybe yes, maybe no, but let’s find out from the clerk. Through the chair, I’m afraid I don’t have that information in front of me available at this time. I can certainly make sure that we have that available for council anecdotally. I can say that there has been considerably more interest in positions or applications to the boards and commissions than there has been to the striking committee. Any else, Councillor Lewis. You’re good, all right? Thank you, Councillor Hopkins, please. Yeah, I have some concerns about the citizens at large and maybe a question through the chair to staff.

[2:19:37] How was this sort of advertised this striking committee and what is the deadline for this committee to be set up and when will they be meeting? I wasn’t quite sure what I heard from the clerk. The deadline for new members just to be clear is done, but I will ask the clerk to give you fill in the rest of your question, Councillor. Thank you through the chair and I’m working mostly from memory.

[2:20:14] So please accept this for what it’s worth. This was advertised in the Londoner on all of our social media through our communications department. It was sent out to various organizations in addition to those that are specifically identified to be represented and I may be mistaken. I’m not sure if it was the striking committee advert or the boards and commissions was also done in the London Free Press.

[2:20:46] The striking committee was advertised to include the meeting dates so that it was clear. We have tentatively scheduled the striking committee to meet October 26th and or October 27th to review the applications which I believe for the boards and commissions are required by October the 21st. Councillor. So there is maybe a week or two before the striking committee meets.

[2:21:23] Would there be an opportunity with applications for the striking committee come in for citizens at large that they could be part of the striking committee or does it have to come back to us? Well, I’ve got some strong opinions about that in terms of why citizens if they had the option to participate did not, but I will ask the clerk to respond more thoughtfully than that. Thank you through the chair. The striking committee members are appointed by council through the strategic priorities and policy committee.

[2:21:58] And this is the last meeting currently scheduled for this committee to meet in this term of council. So getting the appointment completed could be problematic in terms of the meeting schedule. That’s right. Yeah, thank you for that. So we don’t have opportunities other than right now to approve the striking committee. And again, my disappointment here in how we have had and how we do community engagement is really, I know we can do a better job.

[2:22:37] I know the time limits and the constraints that we’re under, but community engagement is vital and how we can improve upon it. I guess we’ll be a conversation for the next council, but I just want to express my disappointment that we are at this point where we have to make a decision. And we still need members at large to be part of the striking committee. I know that thank you for that, Councilor. And I’ll recognize Councilor Turner in just a moment, but I want to be clear, this is not an issue about how staff have done community engagement.

[2:23:17] It’s how the community has chosen to engage. And I want to make that distinction between the two, because this is the process that we’ve used consistently in the past, perhaps as you suggest, there may well be another opportunity to do things a different way. But this is an issue of the community being engaged, not how we engage the community. Councilor Turner, go ahead, please. I thank your worship, just for a bit of context. The striking committee was recommended through the governance task force years ago, just after I believe it was the 2006 election.

[2:23:53] And the intent of this was for the community to make recommendations for who should sit on boards and commissions and advisory committees. So it was really taking a kind of deep politicizing it and putting it into the community’s hands. The agencies that are represented here are representative agencies of the community of all the different sectors of the community. And so when we talk about those boards and commissioners who are going to receive appointments from council, it’s made up of people in those sectors.

[2:24:30] And as the clerk has mentioned, there’s an in-streaming line consultation with those boards and commissions as well. So I think it’s really important that we move forward. I think we can ask questions. I think that’s fair for us to do, but even notwithstanding the fact that there’s one appointment nomination coming forward for a citizen at large where there could be up to five. You also take a look at our advisory committees where we have members at large and not representing sectors. We don’t fill all those positions all the time.

[2:25:04] Sometimes we do, but not all the time. And the other thing I think we need to ask ourselves is we’ve had a lot of debate and discussion about advisory committees and our representation and appointments over the course of this term. And it seems somewhat at times to seek less input through these formal channels, such as boards and commissions and advisory committees, rather than more. And the discussion I’ve heard from many in the community seem to be somewhat turned off by it. So perhaps that’s why we see a few people putting their names forward, especially as for something like this.

[2:25:40] But this one’s a little bit more obscure as well. So I’m not totally surprised that we haven’t seen a lot of people put their names forward. It’s not quite like a board or a commission. This is a striking committee. It stands for a very short period of time in order to make recommendations to the next term of council. But as you heard through Clerks at times of the essence, I really think it’s important. We just take this, we move on. And then we can take a look at process later and see, is there something we could do better to attract more people in the next round? Thank you and other comments for questions.

[2:26:15] I see none therefore we will call the questions and do we move in second? Councillor Hameau, closing the vote.

[2:27:01] The motion is carried 12 to zero. Thank you colleagues for matters or additional business to be dealt with. So we’ll be going into a closed session in a moment. And before we do, before I ask the clerk just to make reference for the benefit of the public as to why we’re going into confidential session, I would look for a mover and a seconder please to do so. So by Councillor Layman, seconded by Councillor Palosa. Thank you.

[2:27:32] So if I could ask the clerk please to advise why we’re going into confidential session. Thank you through the chair. It is one matter that deals with personal matters about identifiable individuals with respect to the 2023 Mayor’s, New Year’s Honors list. Thank you and with that, we will call the question. Councillor Sallier.

[2:28:23] Councillor Turner. Sorry, I thought I’d vote it. I’ll vote it. It’s not coming up for me. Thank you. During the vote, the motion’s passed 13 to zero. So just give us a moment while we’ll set you in just a moment. Recording in progress. Third thing I thought about was all the committee work that we do and the work that goes behind the scenes that no one ever sees.

[2:30:24] And that committee work is so critical for us to be successful in all doing what we do. The fourth is, and I was imagining this as I live downtown and that is, I know that Councillor Faifner was personally responsible for closing in all the streets for charity runs, but I will tell you, it was well done. And for the ones he didn’t do, obviously staff didn’t, we appreciated very much. The fifth involved clerks and as we know, we’re in a certain election period now. So my wife and I did go down to the Cherry Hill Library just ‘cause it was nice and easy and fun and had a coffee and at the same time voted in the advance poll, it was easy, staff made it easy.

[2:31:09] So to the clerks and all the folks that have put such significant effort into this, I thought it was important. It was also interesting we saw the former clerk hanging around Cherry Hill as well while we were there as well, but she would not buy me a coffee. But I know if the city manager were there, she would have, but that was not to be. So thank you all to our staff. Ms. Livingston, please pass it on to everyone that’s made the kind of committee, and I’ve only touched on a half a dozen items that everyone gets involved in, but it really matters for the well-functioning of our city.

[2:31:42] With that, I look for a motion to adjourn. Councillor Turner. I say I always look to Councillor Turner for this ‘cause he likes a journey. Seconded by Councillor Van Holst, let’s do that. And an honorary to Councillor Lewis. So with that, all those in favor? Show of hands, please. Motion’s carried. Meeting adjourned, thank you all.