January 10, 2023, at 12:00 PM

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The meeting was called to order at 12:00 PM with Councillor C. Rahman in the Chair; it being noted that P. Van Meerbergen and P. Cuddy were in remote attendance.

1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

2.   Consent

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That Items 2.1 and 2.4 BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

2023-01-10 SR - East London Link and Municipal Infrastructure Improvements Phase 2 - Full

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Environment and Infrastructure, the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report dated January 10, 2023, related to an award of contract for the East London Link and Municipal Infrastructure Improvements Phase 2 project; it being noted that in accordance with Section 13.2 of the City of London’s Procurement of Goods and Services Policy Request for Tender (RFT) contract awards greater than $6,000,000 require approval of City Council:

a)    the bid submitted by Bre-Ex Construction Inc., at its tendered price of $16,897,237.39 (excluding HST) for the East London Link and Municipal Infrastructure Improvements Phase 2 project, BE ACCEPTED; it being noted that the bid submitted by Bre-Ex Construction Inc. was the lowest of four bids received and meets the City’s specifications and requirements in all areas;

b)    Archibald, Gray and McKay Engineering Ltd. BE AUTHORIZED to carry out the resident inspection and contract administration for the above-noted project in accordance with the estimate, on file, at an upset amount of $1,501,150 (excluding HST) in accordance with Section 15.2 (g) of the City of London’s Procurement of Goods and Services Policy;

c)    the financing for this project BE APPROVED as set out in the Sources of Financing Report, as appended to the above-noted staff report;

d)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all administrative acts that are necessary in connection with this project;

e)    the approval given, herein, BE CONDITIONAL upon the Corporation entering into a formal contract, or issuing a purchase order for the material to be supplied and the work to be done, relating to this project (Tender 2022-238); and,

f)    the Mayor and the City Clerk BE AUTHORIZED to execute any contract or other documents, if required, to give effect to these recommendations. (2022-D04)

Motion Passed

2.4   Request for Proposal RFP-2022-271 Contract Award of 2023 Cured In Place Pipe (CIPP) Sewer Lining Program

2023-01-10 SR - RFP-2022-271 Contract Award of 2023 Cured in Place Pipe (CIPP) Sewer Lining Program - Full

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That, on the recommendation of the Managing Director, Environmental and Engineering Services and City Engineer, the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report dated January 10, 2023, related to the contract award for the Request for Proposal RFP-2022-271 for the 2023 Cured in Place Pipe (CIPP) Sewer Lining Program:

a)    the bid submitted by Insituform Technologies Ltd, at the tendered price of $5,808,074.00 (HST excluded), BE ACCEPTED; it being noted that the bid submitted by Insituform Technologies Limited was the only bid that met the technical criteria and City’s specifications and requirements in all areas;

b)    the financing for this project BE APPROVED as set out in the Sources of Financing Report, as appended to the above-noted staff report;

c)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all the administrative acts that are necessary in connection with this project;

d)    the approval given, herein, BE CONDITIONAL upon the Corporation entering into a formal contract, or issuing a purchase order for the material to be supplied and the work to be done, relating to this project; and,

e)    the Mayor and the City Clerk BE AUTHORIZED to execute any contract or other documents, if required, to give effect to these recommendations. (2022-E01)

Motion Passed

2.2   Updates: Blue Box Transition and Next Steps

2023-01-10 SR - Updates Blue Box Transition and Next Steps

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Environment and Infrastructure, the staff report, dated January 10, 2023, with respect to updates on Blue Box Transition and Next Steps, BE RECEIVED;

it being noted that the communication as appended to the Added Agenda, from B. Brock, with respect to this matter, was received. (2022-E07)

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

2.3   Neighbourhood Connectivity Plan - Engagement Strategy

2023-01-10 SR - Neighbourhood Connectivity Plan – Engagement Strategy

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by S. Trosow

That on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Environment and Infrastructure the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report, dated January 10, 2023, related to an Engagement Strategy for the Neighbourhood Connectivity Plan:

a)    the above-noted staff report BE RECEIVED; and,

b)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to continue this trial engagement strategy into 2023;

it being noted that the communication as appended to the Added Agenda, from B. Brock, with respect to this matter, was received. (2022-T04)

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

3.   Scheduled Items

None.

4.   Items for Direction

None.

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

5.1   (ADDED) Delegation - B. Samuels, Chair, Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee - 1st Report of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee

2023-01-10 Sub - B. Samuels - ESACAC Letter

Post-Meeting Minutes - Environmental Stewardship_Dec07_2022 - English

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by S. Trosow

That the following actions be taken with respect to the 1st Report of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee (ESACAC), from its meeting held on December 7, 2022:

a)    the full 2022 ESACAC Budget expenditure of $1,500 BE ALLOCATED for the purchase of bird-friendly window collision tape; and,

b)    clauses 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1 and 5.1 BE RECEIVED;

it being noted that the communication, dated January 10, as appended to the Added Agenda, as well as the verbal delegation from B. Samuels, Chair, ESACAC, with respect to this matter, were received.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

5.2   (ADDED) 1st Report of the Integrated Transportation Advisory Committee

2022-12-21 ITCAC - Report

Moved by P. Cuddy

Seconded by H. McAlister

That the following actions be taken with respect to the 1st Report of the Integrated Transportation Community Advisory Committee, from its meeting held on December 21, 2022:

a)    the Municipal Council BE REQUESTED to direct the Civic Administration to establish a hybrid meeting process for Integrated Transportation Community Advisory Committee meetings;

b)    the Municipal Council BE REQUESTED to direct the Civic Administration to investigate and provide a report back to the Integrated Transportation Community Advisory Committee (ITCAC) with respect to Zoom license purchase(s) for the ITCAC, for sub-committee meeting use;

c)    clauses 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 and 6.1 BE RECEIVED; and,

d)  the Municipal Council BE REQUESTED to direct Civic Administration to develop a Hybrid Meeting Process and Standing Delegation at the appropriate Standing Committee for all Community Advisory Committees.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

6.   Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 1:01.

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 (1 hour, 19 minutes)

Hello everyone. I will call this meeting to order as it is noon. I’ll start with the land acknowledgement. The city of London is situated on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Lene Lenape, and Atawandran peoples.

We honor and respect the history, languages, and culture of the diverse indigenous peoples who call this territory home. The city of London is currently home to many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people today. As representatives of the people of the city of London, we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and live in this territory. Seeing that we have all members of the committee present, I’ll look to move to item number two, which is our consent items.

Please note there are some, oops, excuse me, sorry. I’m going to start with disclosures of pecuniary interest, sorry, skipping item one here. Moving to item number one, disclosures of pecuniary interest. Looking to the committee to see if there are any disclosures.

Okay, thank you, we’ll move to item number two, our consent items. We have an update on the blue blocks transition and next steps. You’ll note that there were some added to your packages as well. Before we vote on those items, were there any questions, or was anyone looking to pull anything from the consent agenda?

Councilor Troso. Did you want to pull those items? Just a moment as we get the other items on the screen. So we’re just setting up for consent our item 2.1 and 2.4, and pulling out item 2.2 and 2.3.

Three each year, just to confirm you are pulling out 2.2. Yes, we’re going to pull 2.2. Thank you. Okay, Councilor Troso, if it’s okay to vote by hand on this item, when we get to it, thank you.

Okay, so we’ll look to vote on item 2.1 and 2.4. I’m looking for a mover for this item, these items. Thank you, Councilor McAllister. And seconded by, we’re going to be the seconder for 2.1 and 2.4 to put it on the floor.

I so moved. Thank you, Councilor Cuddy, and it will open for voting in a moment. So, Troso, can you vote or do you want to vote by hand? I will vote, yes.

Thank you, closing the vote. The motion carries, five to zero. Okay, so we’ll look to deal with item 2.2 next. And I know there were some questions or concerns, so I’ll look to members of committee to provide their concerns or comments.

Thank you. So you chair. Go ahead, Councilor Cuddy. Thank you, and through you chair, I’ve had a number of constituents in my ward voiced some concern.

And while they are all in favor of the recycling program, they have some concerns because they’re a little older and maybe mobility is an issue and they are concerned about the size of O-Box. They’re concerned about how they’re going to clean it. There has been some question or maybe some comments about inserts that go in the boxes or special bags that are available. And I was just wondering if we could maybe get some guidance on that so that I could relay that back to my constituents.

Thank you. Thank you. I’ll go to Mr. Stafford.

Thank you. Thank you and through the chair. I believe if I’m understanding correctly, Councilor Cuddy, your reference is not to the blue box. It would actually be to the green bin.

I’d just like to confirm that first. Yes, my apologies, Mr. Stafford. Thank you.

Through the chair, previous discussions on the green bin have highlighted that there will be opportunities for liners to be placed inside the green bin. We’ve talked about the possibility of paper bags being in the marketplace. There are also some compostable bags that are used in the marketplace as well. Those decisions will be a homeowner decision to be made and it is something that we have covered off in previous information and quite happy to share that information with you directly.

It was part of a previous Council report. Thank you, Mr. Stafford. I’m sorry, through you, Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Stafford. I appreciate that. And I would, if you wouldn’t mind, maybe we could meet or we could just forward the information to me and I could forward my constituents.

Thank you. I’ll go to Councilor Trossa next, please. Although others might want to hear that information too. So would you proceed with answering his question directly through the chair?

Yeah, please speak through the chair and please, Mr. Stafford, anything additional to add to that? Madam Chair, the whole idea of the green bin and there’s a lot of complexities behind it that we’ve gathered information from other communities. I’d be happy to find the appropriate way to make the previous work available.

We will be bringing forward to Committee and Council some update reports specific to the green bin. Those will be coming possibly as early as February or March. At that time, we’ll include additional information. But because of what’s occurring with the media and the information requests that have been made available, I think I’m very open to conversations with individual Councillors to help through that.

We do have information that is online right now. We have a Get Involved website where we do keep information up to date. So there are a variety of opportunities to bring the community up to date if they’ve not already received information. And the idea that of new information coming forward, Civic Works Committee will be the first place that we bring forward any new details.

Thank you, Councillor Purple. Sorry. - Sorry, I didn’t realize you had a follow-up. - No.

Go ahead, Councillor Tross. I’ll go to you in then too, Councillor. Okay. - Okay, Councillor Purple.

So the chair, thanks for the information. I know the green bin wasn’t on the agenda, but more importantly, and I know there are more details to come. But in terms of the trucks, as far as I don’t know, the 16 trucks where we were hoping by end of January and start in June or July, is this still feasible? Are we on track with these two dates?

Through the chair, right now we have confirmation of 13 trucks arriving in the City of London this year. Those will begin to arrive about February, and they’ll actually be coming in at about two to three per month. So we will not have the first 13 available until May. When we have those vehicles, that is still not an opportunity for us to start the green bin program.

The best available information rehab right now would be a start-up in about the October timeframe. We still require the firm delivery dates of the next 13 trucks in order that we can actually roll out the entire program. So part of that will be detailed in our upcoming report, but information right now, our best information available, would be a fall start-up somewhere in the October, November timeframe. Okay, thank you.

You’ll go to back to Councillor Trossaou. Yeah, first of all, I don’t want to do the chair. I don’t want to seem negative here. I very much appreciate that this is moving forward, but this goes out to the public.

There were a number of news stories, and what ends up happening is we get a lot of, I’ll speak for myself. I get a lot of questions from people in my ward about not just the blue box, which is actually what’s on the agenda today, but also the green bin and also the trash pickup. And I’ve represented the people that I’m going to ask the questions that are coming into me, because I think that these are questions that are on people’s minds. And that is, has the decision about whether or not, with respect to trash pickup, has the decision about whether it’ll be every week, every other week, been made by a previous council, or is that still something that’s to be determined?

Thank you, Mr. Stafford. Thank you, and through the chair, that decision has been made, and it was based on the funding that was allocated for this particular program. So the proposed program going forward, and the one that has been funded by Council right now, is based on a weekly green bin system, a biweekly garbage collection system, and that is consistent with the majority of other municipalities that have these types of services in place in Ontario.

And then a final decision will be made on the weekly recycling service. That is something that is seen as desirable, but as our report indicates today, that is an item that we’ll be discussing with a group called Circular Materials Ontario, that is the Purdue Server Responsibility Organization that will be leading and paying for recycling services, starting in London, July 1st. Okay, well that’s helpful, thank you. So this question about weekly trash pickup, which is generating a lot of the questions that I suspect other people are getting, is off the table, it’s a decision that’s been made, and it’s not something that we’re going to be addressing.

Is that correct? Thank you, I’ll go to you, Ms. Chair. If I may, Madam Chair, certainly Council can direct us to make a change to any programs or previous approvals, but with a budget that is available, there is no opportunity to continue to provide a weekly service for domestic trash.

That would have to be a budget increase, and they would have the lead times to redevelop that program, staff it and acquire equipment. And I would advise that would be quite an expensive change and multi-year budget. Okay, that’s helpful, continuing through the chair. It’s been represented that there would be a approximately $500,000 annual, if I understand it, savings by the transition to the producer responsibility.

And I’ve seen that in a number of reports. My question is where or how is that saving being reflected in either the current budget documents that we have or other past budget documents? ‘Cause I’d like to just get, I just want to take the opportunity to get these meetings to really get as much information as I can out to the public, because these are questions that are coming in. And I guess the other part of that is, would that $500,000 be sufficient to offset those costs that you were just talking about?

Are we talking about something much bigger? Thank you, open to Mr. Stanford. Thank you, and through the chair, our report today identifies that when extended producer responsibility fully rolls in, and that’ll be by January 1st, 2026.

At that point in time, in excess of $4 million per year, will be saved for the London taxpayer. That money will be paid for by industry. During the transition period, which starts July 1st of this year and moves on for about a two and a half year period, we anticipate increased savings each year. For 2023, the amount we believe will be saved will be about $500,000.

We’re still waiting for the final details and our report refers to the negotiations that have to occur. The official start date, the decision of whether it’ll be 42 pickups for recycling or whether it’ll be moved to 52 pickups for recycling. These are all details that have to be worked out when we presented back to Civic Works Committee later this year. The notion of the money that comes available from extended producer responsibility will be an item that will be tackled from staff’s perspective during the multi-year budget and obviously between committee and council, any decision on how that money might be allocated in the future will be determined at that point in time.

Thank you, that’s all I have. Thank you. Are there any other questions related to item 2.2? Okay, seeing none, I’ll look to for a seconder on that item, Councilor McAllister, or sorry, and I’ll need a seconder, sorry.

I’ll second that chair. Thank you, Councillor Cuddy, and we’ll open the vote. Closing the vote, the motion carries, five to zero. Thank you, I’ll move on to item 2.3, the Neighborhood Connectivity Plan Engagement Strategy and open it up for discussion with committee.

Councilor McAllister. Madam Chair, if it pleases the committee, Ms. Dan does have a few introductory comments, it might be helpful in terms of framing the questions and discussion around the procedure that you should expect to see related to this report in between now and the next Civic Works Committee meeting and at Civic Works. Sure, thank you.

And to the chair, good afternoon, members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to introduce the Neighborhood Connectivity Plan Engagement Strategy Report, which provides an overview of initial outcomes for the trial engagement and what to expect when we present the first three recommended plans, next cycle at the committee on January 31st. So sidewalks are a critical piece of infrastructure that increase safety, encourage active travel, improve accessibility, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and benefit all ages and abilities. Planning for sidewalks on both sides of most streets has become standard practice amongst many Ontario municipalities.

Walking is an active mode of transportation that has been promoted in London, dating back to the early 2000s, and active mobility will remain a priority through the mobility master planning process. 2021 was the first year in which London Plan policy came into effect requiring sidewalks to be included on both sides of most streets. So that means that when a street is due for reconstruction there, if there’s no existing sidewalk, it should be rebuilt with a sidewalk on at least one side of the street. And as we’ve moved forward, trying to install sidewalks in this way, it has sparked some considerable debate in communities and resulted in some inconsistent application of the policy.

It also highlighted for us the need to improve the way we engage with residents and community partners to determine where sidewalks make the most sense while still meeting the goals of the London Plan. So after 2021 saw some considerable street-by-street debate, Council directed civic administration to develop a neighborhood connectivity plan or NCP for short. This approach would implement a community engagement strategy on a trial basis in 2022 to inform our 2023 reconstruction program. By elevating sidewalk discussion through an NCP approach, it provides a mechanism to look beyond individual streets and identify safe travel paths to key neighborhood destinations, services, transit, and active spaces.

And by reviewing neighborhood connectivity holistically, sidewalk options can be considered where they will provide the greatest benefit without automatically assuming a sidewalk on every street. The first three neighborhoods to undergo the trial NCP engagement process were Glen Cairn, Grenfell, and White Hills. Feedback from local residents is vital to help us understand each neighborhood’s priorities and our NCP engagement strategy provides multiple ways for community members to participate in shaping their plan. Last summer, we hosted a virtual webinar for residents in each of the neighborhoods, offered a drop-in consultation session, and created a Get Involved website for each neighborhood where people could provide their input through either a survey, general comments, or by dropping pins on an interactive map.

We had really robust participation this last past year, and that allowed us to gather details on residents’ priorities around accessibility, connectivity, and pedestrian infrastructure. Participants from each neighborhood helped identify important community amenities, destinations, and features. They also let us know how they use their neighborhood today and how they’d like to use it in the future. The recommended NCPs, our neighborhood connection plans, have been tailored to each community based on community feedback, our own available technical information, input from local agencies, and London Plan policy.

So staff will be presenting those first three NCP recommendations and those trial communities at individual public participation meetings on January 31st at our Civic Works agenda. Email notifications will be sent to the residents, giving them details on how to participate, and we’ll also be promoting the PPMs on the neighborhood websites and social media. Our goal is to provide residents ample opportunity and notice to comment on the recommended outcomes of our engagement process. Staffs also recommending that we continue this trial into 2013 to allow those first three NCPs to complete the full process, go through their public participation meetings, and also further develop our approach for street level engagement.

It’s our hope that an NCP approach to sidewalk implementation is one that results in sidewalk connections that make sense for the communities that they serve, while offering an opportunity to learn more about pedestrian experiences and the value of providing safe, convenient, and accessible mobility choices for all residents. So I wanna thank you for your consideration of the report, and I’m happy to answer any questions. Thank you, I’ll go to Councillor McAllister. Thank you, and through the chair, I just wanna applaud the staff so far for the work done.

I really do appreciate the NCP, especially the community engagement component. It’s very important that we encourage as much public participation and even promotion of the opportunities the public have to participate in this process. And from my point of view, and from the feedback I’ve received, the sidewalks are incredibly important just from a safety perspective. A lot of the time, and I’m sure some of the other Councillors receive this as well, we’re not necessarily going to have traffic calming measures on every street, but especially within the older neighborhoods, a lot of these were designed without sidewalks.

And it’s really become a safety concern over the years in terms of location of schools. And I’ve heard from a number of parents specifically that it’s very important that we get this work completed because in terms of safety and children being able to walk to and from school, it’s very dangerous to just walk on the streets. And I look forward to seeing more on this in the future. So I just want to say thank you so far and express the concerns that I’ve heard.

So thank you. Thank you, Councillor Schrasen. Thank you, through the chair I should echo, I should echo everything that was just, I should echo everything that was just said. I really do appreciate the extreme amount of work that you’ve undertaken in this engagement.

One question about sidewalks. Is there a way of constructing sidewalks that while they’re solid enough to have wheelchairs, for example, on them, have some kind of porous materials that would improve drainage? Thank you, Laker, too, Ms. Chair.

Absolutely, thank you, Madam Chair. Certainly porous materials for concrete and parking lots are commonly used in certain applications. Bit challenging for sidewalks because of the nature of the maintenance of those sort of permeable materials, they actually have to be regularly vacuumed out so that they don’t silt up and that that drainage through the structure works well. So we have been looking at whether or not there’s good application for those types of materials in certain locations, particularly around plazas, open spaces, parks.

Right now, the technology for full-scale sidewalk implementation is probably not going to give us the right return and investment. There are opportunities, however, to look at low-impact development and other drainage improvements related to sidewalks and also to minimize the impact on mature street trees, which does help us with retaining water in the area as well. Continuing, when will we be able to ascertain when the next set of neighborhoods is going to be looked at? Because people are just sort of sitting there pressing refresh when wondering what’s coming up next.

Do you understand? Through the chair. Our intention was that we would look at each year to the year ahead and say, what are the neighborhoods where we have works planned anyways that would trigger a sidewalk and try to get ahead of that by doing an NCP in those neighborhoods? So one of the things I was planning to do ahead of our January 31st meeting was as part of my 2023 sidewalk list report, propose some areas that we would do as our next three that’ll then help inform projects that’ll happen in 2024.

Some of the neighborhoods that were selected this year for our trial NCPs were because we’re doing work on those neighborhoods in 2023. And we wanted to use this process to inform whether a sidewalk would be included or not. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor McAllister.

Thank you, through the chair. You did mention it just a moment ago in terms of the mature trees and preserving those. I did notice that I think obviously these plans were, maybe there was a bit of a disconnect in terms of the planting of the trees and now the sidewalks. But in terms of the plans for preserving as many of the trees as we can, especially in the older neighborhoods where there are more mature trees, the curbside sidewalks, is that something in terms of an approach you would take to minimize the removal of as many trees as possible?

Or how does that process go in terms of protecting as many as we can? Thank you. I stand through the chair. So this is actually stage one of our engagement where we’re looking at the neighborhood and creating that blueprint for where sidewalks will go.

And we’re kind of looking at it at that level. But the intention is to have stage two level engagement. So when the street is identified for receiving a sidewalk, in advance of doing the construction and the design, we would actually re-engage with the individuals on that street to talk about the options and what our different design constraints are for that street. So depending on you put it on the east side versus the west side, it would be the impacts to driveways to trees.

What are our options in terms of the benefits of having a boulevard or do we do a curbside sidewalk and help the people in the street understand the options that we have to mitigate impacts when we go into design that. And so we’ll look at all those different options as ways to be able to reduce our impacts to trees, to driveways. We also look at our impacts to on-street parking and how that works. So there’s a lot of things to consider.

And a big part of that is educating the members of the street on the design choices we’re making so they understand. Thank you, looking at my colleagues online, see if there’s any questions. Yes, thank you chair and through you. I’d also like to reiterate what my colleagues have said and thank staff for the fine work that you’ve done in this area.

As the chair and I both know, we’re both former school board trustees. We saw a lot of schools in the east end that didn’t have sidewalks. One in particular was Evelyn Harrison and I was very pleased recently to announce to the constituents in the area that they’ll be getting sidewalks in 2024 and if first the parents are thrilled with that. But I do have a question for that to staff.

And is there a way for us to move forward, to move ahead sidewalks that are scheduled? And just in that example, on Cukesbury, they’re scheduled for 2024. Is there any way to move that ahead to 2023? I think that’s a fairly critical area out there because the streets are busy and there are a lot of students.

I say students, Fanshawe students on that street, traffic’s moving quick. Is there a way to move it ahead from its scheduled relation to 2024? Thank you. Thank you, Ms.

Stan. Great, through the chair. I can speak to sort of how we are going to be looking forward to scheduling the works that I recommended and then I can maybe pass it off to Mr. McCray to speak to this year’s construction program in the neighborhood sidewalks.

So in terms of what you’ll be seeing on the 31st will be a recommendation in each of the neighborhoods of the streets where we are suggesting that a sidewalk be going forward. And it actually will include the approximate timeline of where it currently sits on our infrastructure for a new project. Is it within the next 10 years? Is it 10 years plus?

Or is it even further out? And so that’s an opportunity for us to hear feedback if there’s priorities from Council that we can take back and look at our future planning for our individual streets. We do have some flexibility in moving some things around. In terms of the 2023 construction year and we do have our program pretty much set but I will pass it to Mr.

Cray to see if there is any opportunities. Mr. McCray. Through the chair, thank you for the feedback.

We’re certainly interested in that as part of the consultation process. We do have a long list of priorities. Unfortunately, there’s a backlog and the time to deliver each project means that the ones that are planned for 2023 are already underway. Typically, for example, the surveying that needs to get done before the snow covers the ground is done in the fall prior to the year.

So it would be challenging to accelerate a project up into the 2023 timeframe. But certainly, our ears are open as far as priorities. We currently have a point system that recognizes things like access to transit in school and origins and destinations, street lighting, other conditions on the street. But your feedback is in other consideration for us.

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for cutting any follow-up? No, thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Councilor Ben Mirbergen, go ahead. Thank you, Chair and through you to staff. I mean, I think we can all agree that in general terms sidewalks are highly beneficial and indeed desirable.

But there are streets, primarily local streets in older neighborhoods where they just don’t work when you try to retrofit into lots that were never designed for them, which are complete with big mature trees and causes a lot of distress in the neighborhood. And as staff have rightly pointed out, in 2021, there were eight individual streets that were removed from the sidewalk retrofit program because of this distress and the angst that was presented to us on council when trying to retrofit these older streets and older neighborhoods. I had one in my ward. It was completely, in net terms, it was detrimental to the neighborhood to slice through these older lots, which weren’t designed.

They didn’t have the size in many cases, as has been mentioned, big mature trees, slices, driveways into proportions, which make it very difficult to park more than one car. So these are the issues that flare up. And yes, in general terms, sidewalks are good, but as I’m stating, and as the points being made, and I see the point being made by staff, we have to be careful. There are a number of areas in London and a number of streets where a retrofit sidewalk, 50 years later, just doesn’t work.

And so I wanna confirm with staff that this is indeed a consultative process to allow the will of neighborhoods to be expressed and ultimately determined by neighborhoods. And that we’re not setting up some type of mechanism where this is the city more or less trying to go roughshod over neighborhoods. So I would just like confirmation on that. Okay, Councillor van Mirbergen, can you rephrase your question a little bit or make it clear what the question is?

Well, as I’ve just stated, I just wanted to confirm that what we’re talking about here and what’s being presented to us is indeed a consultative process where neighborhoods have the opportunity to hear the information, but still have the opportunity to push back if they so desire and ultimately, if council agrees, we don’t just necessarily automatically go with additional sidewalks. So that’s what I’m trying to determine here. I wanna confirm that we’re not setting up a mechanism where the city is ultimately going to try to force a sidewalk on a neighborhood which just doesn’t need one and doesn’t want one. Thank you, I’ll go to Ms.

Stan, yes, through the chair. And so you’ve pointed out in 2021, we had a very different experience and that was because at that time, the policy was being applied on every street and just following it as is. What we’ve been trying to do is we heard that a blanket approach, a broad brush approach wasn’t right for every neighborhood or for every street. And by using this approach of looking at the whole neighborhood, we can identify the streets that it makes the best benefit, it provides the most sense to the community.

So we look at things like, are there connections to pathways, to parks, to schools and other amenities? We look at the feedback from the communities, but if we have shorter crescents and cul-de-sacs with no connections to other things, we agree that maybe a sidewalk really isn’t gonna make a lot of sense and it will have a lot of impact on the streetscape. And so the intent is to be able to look at a community here from the public in terms of where they like to walk, where they feel not really safe walking, you would like to see sidewalk infrastructure and come up with a plan that’s gonna create those critical connections without just randomly putting sidewalks on every street. And the intent is to really kind of create a tailored solution for each neighborhood that’s suited to it.

The second piece is that we’ve gone with a public participation component for this, which then allows the public to see how the feedback they provided formed into a recommendation map and come here and provide their feedback to council and to the committee, so they have that opportunity to close the loop. So you will all here have the chance to hear from the public and hear their thoughts on what we’ve recommended and what we took away from our consultation process. Councillor Rimea, Van Mirbergen, did you have a follow-up? No, that’s fine, thank you.

Thank you, I’ll go to Councillor Privel. Oh, through the chair, I just wanna confirm what I was just stated by the staff because the experience in my ward is exactly what was said. They were all informed, they had the opportunity to speak out and some other neighborhoods agreed, some of they didn’t, so I do feel that the approach of the city is the right one and we are giving the neighborhoods the voice, so thank you very much. Thank you, Councillor McAllister.

Thank you, and through the chair, I’m just wondering also if there’s another stage to this where if it is determined that a sidewalk isn’t necessarily the best approach, but like I said before, safety is such a paramount concern that providing the neighborhood the opportunity to look at other options in terms of whether it’s a stop sign, whether there’s traffic calming measures, because I think the frustration lies in a lot of the older neighborhoods and especially when you have those children who are walking to and from school, a lot of the streets have become very fast and outside of the school zone, it’s a free-for-all and I think there’s some issues in terms of the grade, some of these properties are at an angle and I do understand the residents’ concerns about not having a sidewalk, but I do think it would be beneficial for us to have that conversation with the community afterwards to say, okay, a sidewalk isn’t necessarily suited, but maybe we could provide that neighborhood with something else to address the speeding and the safety concerns, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Stan. Yes, through the chair, that’s something that we actually spoke to community members about.

We were there to speak about sidewalks, but we know when you talk about sidewalks, you also end up talking about stop signs, traffic calming and other measures and it’s not that we’re gonna say, well, we’re not talking about that today. We listened to the feedback that we received in that regard as well in the reports that you’ll see next week, there’s a couple of places where we’ve actually said, this is what we heard in addition to these sidewalks. In the future, we will look at opportunities for potentially increasing traffic calming or other measures like that. So we did take a holistic approach and we’re looking at the whole neighborhood in all the ways that we can make connectivity better.

Thank you. Okay, thank you everyone for the discussion on this item and thank you for the outreach and the connection with the community on the neighborhood connectivity plan. I think that there’s been a really strong engagement from staff on this and making sure that it’s been very forward facing. So thank you for that.

I will look for a mover and a seconder for the motion provided for item 2.3. Councilor McAllister, seconded by Councillor Trozzo. Items open for voting. Using the vote, the motion carries, five to zero.

Okay, thank you. We’ll move on to item five, additional business, as there’s no item three or four. For item 5.1, we have not to be heard before 12 p.m. Delegation from B.

Samuels, Brendan Samuels, Chair of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee, sorry. The first report of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee. And I believe Mr. Samuels is online and you have five minutes to present.

And everybody hear me. We can hear you, thank you. Excellent. I can’t seem to turn my video on, but that’s okay.

I trust some of you know what I look like. Good afternoon, it’s nice to meet you. My name is Brendan Samuels. I’m the Chair of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee.

And I’m here on behalf of the membership of my committee to welcome you to your new rules and city council. Our community advisory committee reports directly to the Civic Works Committee. And over the course of the term, we hope to foster a collaborative, productive working relationship between our two committees. We’re prepared to receive and work on items that are handed down to us via civic administration, but we also hope to have your support when we bring forward ideas, suggestions and feedback related to our pretty broad mandate.

We’re committed to listening, to sharing our expertise, asking questions and supporting community engagement in environmental stewardship and action. The primary reason I’m here today is I wanna extend a standing invitation from the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee to all members of London City Council to attend our meetings moving forward. We meet on the first Wednesday of each month, beginning at 3 p.m. Our committee believes that direct conversations with members of council can provide mutual benefits, improve understanding of topics related to environmental stewardship and action, help to realize emerging opportunities and wards across the city and ensure that community voices are being heard.

We recognize that an environment and climate change lens may be useful for supporting decisions by council on matters outside the purview of the Civic Works Committee. Therefore, in addition to reporting to the Civic Works Committee via Civic Administration, our committee looks forward to acting as a resource to help advise members of council in general on reaching their goals wherever they see appropriate. Just for your information, our committee is comprised of community representatives with expertise in the following areas. That’s climate change planning, biodiversity conservation, sustainable building design, urban forestry, ecological restoration, low impact development, wildlife management, waste management and recycling, energy transitions, public education, engagement and consultation.

And so just recognizing that in the months and years ahead, city council will need to make important decisions to help London meet its targets under the climate emergency action plan. We look forward to serving city council and your committee to the best of our ability. With the remainder of my time, I just wanted to mention something on behalf of my advisory committee as well. At yesterday’s planning and environment committee meeting, responding to a delegation from the chair of a separate advisory committee that reports to planning, Deputy Mayor Lewis expressed tentative support for resuming in person advisory committee meetings, but said that the matter would have to be referred to SPPC.

Just to clarify, our advisory committee meetings have been occurring virtually since the start of the pandemic. And being that we’re a new advisory committee, a lot of us have never even had the opportunity to meet face to face before. And this I believe is a hindrance to the productivity of our committee. Many of our members are new to the municipal government and we have a lot to learn and to teach them moving forward.

And so I would like to reiterate our committee’s support for the delegation from Sandy Levin from that other advisory committee. We would like to have advisory committees resume in person if possible. And ideally, if we could facilitate hybrid meetings, just like we’re hosting right now, that would really promote accessibility. It would ensure that if people are continuing to get sick during the pandemic, that we’re still able to meet quorum.

The infrastructure for virtual hybrid meetings already exists at City Hall. And we hope we can use that to the benefit of the advisory committees that serve you guys. The last thing I’ll mention is, I think given our working relationship, it would be beneficial if the chairs of advisory committees could have standing delegation status for the committees that we report to. So for instance, if I have something to report on coming back to the your committee that I report to, it would be helpful if I didn’t necessarily have to get slotted into a later part of the agenda, but instead could simply be fulfilling that standing delegation status.

So I realize this is probably gonna have to get referred to SPPC for consideration and staff will report back. It’s really good to meet you all and I am looking forward to working together. Thank you. Thank you so much.

And I look forward to attending an upcoming meeting and for those dates to be shared with the rest of the committee as well. Councillor Chaucer. Yes, thank you for raising that last point because I was going to ask you to address that directly. The next delegation we have coming in from the Integrated Transportation Advisory Committee explicitly asks this committee to recommend that we have these hybrid meetings.

I think that our committee, Civic Works, has jurisdiction over certain advisory committees and each standing committee has jurisdiction over certain advisory committees. And I would be, I don’t wanna get too far ahead of myself, I’ll raise this when we get to 5.2, but I’m going to take the position that we can make that request for this committee without necessarily going to SPPC, which would be fine to do. But I think every month that the advisory committees do not have the opportunity to engage with each other and come down to City Hall is a lost opportunity and I feel as a former advisory committee chair, I feel it’s very important that we have these volunteers, these important volunteers come down to City Hall. And thank you very much for your invitation.

I also want to strongly support the notion of standing delegations at the beginning of each meeting. It might not be necessary for that to be exercised every month, but I wanna make it easier for the advisory committee chairs and for the City Clerk staff, the staff’s the advisory committees, not to have to go through that additional procedure each month and it’s just assumed. And I would look for guidance there in terms of how that could be done across the board, but I also think this committee can do that on our own. Today, we really did not have a very, very long agenda, but especially with public participation meetings, it might be that we would go quite a while.

So I’d like to give the advisory committee chairs the opportunity to come in early in the meeting. And I’m not sure how we legislate that, but that’s what I would like to do. Thank you. I’ll go to Ms.

Westlake Powers for comment on how we would go about looking at having hybrid meetings and then perhaps on the second question around standing committees as well, or standing delegation, sorry, thank you. Thank you through the chair. I’d actually like to begin with the request related to a standing delegation status on the agendas. And that’s why I had raised my hand to speak to the committee.

While on an agenda such as this, that’s not inherently problematic, it could be problematic. And what I would suggest is that if we look at the planning and environment committee, for example, where there are routinely many public participation meetings that are scheduled well in advance of an advisory committee meeting, it does become a scheduling problem to have placeholders that aren’t used. And then we have a standing committee that needs to recess because they have to wait to a specific time for a public participation meeting. So we have considered that in the past.

I will add that the chairs or their representatives from advisory committees do not require to seek delegation status from a standing committee in the same way that general members of the public would. They are afforded that opportunity by right of their appointment if there is a need for them to address the committee. So those are my comments with respect to that. And certainly we’re in council’s hands with respect to the resumption of in-person and/or hybrid meetings.

I will advise that we anticipate that there could be some resourcing conflicts related to the resumption of those meetings at this time, but if directed by council, that’s the avenue that we will undertake. I’m happy to answer any additional questions if there are any. Thank you, Councillor Shrassen. Okay, through the chair, I’d just like to ask, in order to get this done as soon as possible, should we ask the city clerk to put this, should we pass a resolution which would go to council?

Or should we ask SPPC to look at it? I just, I think this is a good discussion we’re having here. And I’m glad that this committee is taking leadership on this, but I really want to move this forward. Thank you.

So my understanding is that from watching planning yesterday was that Deputy Mayor Lewis is bringing forward to SPPC some of these concerns from advisory committees around meeting schedules, but we could perhaps ask the same around the delegation as well. If that’s satisfactory, we can pass that along from this meeting. Yes. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments related to item 5.1? Yes, and through you chair, I’d like to thank Mr. Samuels for coming forward in this presentation. And I have a question for him.

Are you in contact or do you work with the Upper Thames Conservation Authority? I might have missed it earlier if you’d said you were. I’m on that committee, that’s why I’m asking. Thank you.

We do not report or work directly with UTRCA. However, there is sort of indirect overlap between membership of our committee, various community organizations that are represented and the UTRCA, particularly their community engagement programming. However, we don’t have a formalized relationship. Thank you.

Any additional questions, Councillor Cuddy? No, thank you chair. Thank you. I’ll go to Ms.

Westlake Power. Thank you, through the chair. I just wanted to, as Councillor Trassel has indicated, there is a formal recommendation in the next item on your agenda related to in person and/or hybrid meetings. And it would be my opinion that if the committee so chooses to endorse that, they could add the additional direction that that be extended to all advisory committees.

And that’s probably the most straightforward way to address what has been raised in that formal motion as well as in the presentation. Thank you. Okay, moving back to item 5.1. So there is a motion in front of us with that item.

I’m looking for a mover and a seconder. Councillor McAllister, looking for a seconder. Councillor Trassel, thank you. Councillor Van Merebergen.

We got it. Using the vote, the motion carries five to zero. Thank you. We’ll move on to item 5.2.

The first report of the Integrated Transportation Advisory Committee. The report has been provided for you. And there is a motion included looking for any discussion and then a mover and a seconder. Mr.

Trassel? To the chair, actually. I think we’ve discussed that. We’ve heard a recommendation from the clerk.

I’m not going to repeat everything I said. I incorporate it by referencing 5.2. And I’ll move the recommendation as the clerk was helping us draft. Thank you.

So we’ll look to move that, sorry, sorry, microphones. Thank you. So we’ll look to move that recommendation with some additional language added. We’ll just give us a moment to add that in.

Councillor McAllister? Just in regards to this motion, just because it was presented by the Transportation Advisory Committee, whether we should have a, stay as it is, because they’re actually requesting it. And then b, have that as all committees, because I don’t want to take away something that this committee has specifically asked for, that we’re adding in. Thank you.

We’ll try to capture that. Okay, thank you. So 5.2, the motion has been updated and is available if you refresh your screen. And clause D has been added, looking for a mover and seconder.

To the chair, I’ll move that motion. Thank you, Councillor Cuddy and Councillor McAllister. Thank you. In the vote.

Councillor Van Meerbergen. Closing the vote, the motion carries. 5-0. Thank you.

Thanks for your patience, everyone, with that last addition to the motion. With that, we’ll look to adjourn. Looking for a committee, the way in on adjournment. Thank you, everyone.

I hope you have a great, a good rest of your afternoon, and I hope to see some of you in committee later. Thanks.