January 29, 2024, at 4:00 PM

Original link

The meeting is called to order at 4:04 PM; it being noted that Councillors P. Van Meerbergen and S. Hillier were in remote attendance.

1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

2.   Consent

None.

3.   Scheduled Items

3.1   Public Participation Meeting - Not to be heard before 4:00 PM - Budget

Moved by A. Hopkins

Seconded by S. Franke

That the following written submissions for the 2024-2027 Multi-Year Budget 2024 Public Participation Meeting BE RECEIVED for consideration by the Municipal Council as part of the Multi-Year approval process:

  • a communication from S. Turner;

  • a communication from J. Paterson;

  • a communication from G. Genereaux;

  • a communication from M. Does;

  • two communications from C. Butler;

  • a communication from E. Yi, Executive Director, London Arts Council;

  • a communication from C. Cadogan, Chair, London Black History Coordinating Committee;

  • a communication from N. Blanchette;

  • a communication from P. Free Cooper, Interim Marketing Project Manager, Grand Theatre;

  • a communication from L. Davis;

  • a communication from N. Kearns, Head of Props, Grand Theatre;

  • a communication from P. McIntyre;

  • a communication from the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee;

  • a communication from T. Burnett;

  • a communication from the Ecological Community Advisory Committee;

  • a communication from M. Quinton;

  • a communication from B. Morrison and M. A. Hodge;

  • a communication from D. Stanford;

  • a communication from R. McDowell;

  • a communication from L. Karidas;

  • a communication from Peter;

  • a communication from J. Kraehling, Associate Director, Michael Gibson Gallery;

  • a communication from K. Pagniello, Executive Director, M. Laliberte, Staff Lawyer, T. Kiefer, Housing Support Worker, Neighbourhood Legal Services, London and Middlesex;

  • a communication from B. Maly, Executive Director, Downtown London and S. A. Collyer, Board Chair, London Downtown Business Association;

  • a communication from A. Shah;

  • a communication from S. Lewkowitz, Doctoral Candidate, Geography and Environment, Human Environments Analysis Lab, Western University;

  • a communication from AM Valastro;

  • a communication from C. Kennedy;

  • a communication from M. Miksa, Executive Director, London Cycle Link;

  • a communication from London Collective Action; and

  • a communication from D. Szpakowski, CEO and General Manager, Hyde Park Business Improvement Association;

it being noted that at the public participation meeting associated with this matter, the following individuals made oral submissions regarding this matter:

  • P. Moore;

  • N. Judges;

  • N. Branscombe, Member, London Police Services Board;

  • S. Hall, Vice-Chair, Ecological Community Advisory Committee;

  • J. Idsinga;

  • T. Mahoney;

  • M. Walker, Vice-Chair, London Police Services Board;

  • M. Cassidy, Chief Executive Officer, Pillar Nonprofit Network;

  • S. Regalo;

  • R. Higgins ;

  • E. Yi, Executive Director, London Arts Council;

  • P. McIntyre, London Downtown Condominium Advocacy Group;

  • D. Pasquino;

  • S. Ratz;

  • N. Gilby;

  • M. Denver, Amabile Choir of London, Canada;

  • C. Smith;

  • R. Cress;

  • E. Klassen, Executive Director, Grand Theatre;

  • R. Peake, Artistic Director, Grand Theatre;

  • W. Lau, Chief Executive Officer, Leads Employment Services;

  • D. Koontz;

  • B. Mejia, Executive Director, Argyle BIA;

  • R. Graham, Chairperson, Argyle BIA;

  • J. Guilfoil;

  • C. Beynon,  Amabile Choir of London, Canada;

  • Z. Habib, Director, Sunfest;

  • H. Edge, Chairperson, Forest City Gallery;

  • M. Miksa, Executive Director, London Cycle Link;

  • L. Derikx, Interim Executive Director, London Environmental Network;

  • T. Cull, Antler River Rally;

  • J. Dunn, Executive Director, London Abused Women’s Centre;

  • V. Da Silva;

  • M. Hodge, Climate Action London;

  • B. Morrison;

  • M. Wallace, Executive Director, London Development Institute;

  • J. Hamm;

  • M. Rowe, President and Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Urban Institute;

  • D. Stanford;

  • A. Voth, Executive Director, London Symphonia;

  • C. O’Neill;

  • D. Szpakowski, CEO/General Manager, Hyde Park BIA;

  • B. Samuels, Chair, Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee;

  • N. Nadea;

  • E. Poirier, VP External Affairs, Western University Student Council; and

  • B. Couto.

Motion Passed (15 to 0)

ADDITIONAL VOTES:

Moved by A. Hopkins

Seconded by S. Lehman

Motion to open the public participation meeting.

Motion Passed (15 to 0)

Moved by S. Franke

Seconded by S. Trosow

That pursuant to section 33.8 of the Council Procedure By-law, the Committee BE PERMITTED to proceed beyond 6:00 PM.

Motion Passed (14 to 0)

Moved by D. Ferreira

Seconded by P. Cuddy

Motion to close the public participation meeting.

Motion Passed (15 to 0)

4.   Items for Direction

None.

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

None.

6.   Confidential 

None.

7.   Adjournment

Moved by S. Lewis

Seconded by S. Stevenson

That the meeting BE ADJOURNED.

The meeting adjourned at 7:05 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 (3 hours, 30 minutes)

Sound check from Peter room five. We can hear you in chambers. Sound check from Peter room three. We can hear you in chambers.

Can we unmute committee room five to do a test? Testing. Thank you. Good afternoon everybody, welcome.

I just wanna let you know we’re just working on one technical issue and then we’ll commence. And if you’re in the gallery, you’re welcome to eat or drink. And if we are filling up our committee rooms and they are welcome to eat and drink in there as well. And welcome.

Hey, if we can all just come to order, this is the first meeting of the budget committee, held in council chambers. We are streaming live on YouTube and the city’s website. The city of London is situated in the traditional lands that is Noshbak, Honoshone, Lamok and Adwandran. We honor and respect the history, language and the culture of the diverse indigenous people who call this territory home.

The city of London is currently home to many First Nation, Métis and Inuit today. As represent as the people of the city of London, we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in live in this territory. The city of London is committed to making effort to provide alternate formats and communication supports for meetings upon request. To make a request specific to this meeting, please contact 519-661-2489, extension 2425.

And the email address is budgetcommittee@london.ca. Joined virtually with us tonight is Councillors Hillyer and Van Merbergen. All the Councillors are in attendance in person within chambers, just for everyone’s aware of where we’re at. Looking to committee for disclosures of security interest.

Seeing none, there’s a comment to be made by Mayor Morgan prior to our commencement. Yes, colleagues. I know we don’t usually do recognitions at committee, but given today’s National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque attack and action against Islamophobia, I just wanted to say just a few quick words. ‘Cause today, January 29th marks a day of tragedy and great sadness on this day.

Seven years ago, six individuals lost their lives and 19 others were injured. When a gunman walked into a Quebec City mosque and inflicted unprecedented violence upon the innocent members of that community. These victims were targeted simply for being Muslim. This heinous act was motivated by hate online disinformation and blatant Islamophobia.

We know all too well from our own community that many Muslims still do not feel safe, continue to live in fear of attacks based on the basis of their faith and faith-based practices. That is why today is also a day of action. Across the country, the province and the city members of all walks of life on January 29th, recognized today as a National Day of Remembrance of the Quebec City Mosque attacks and a day of action against Islamophobia. And with that in mind, I wonder, Madam Chair, if we could entertain just a moment of silence for the lives that were lost on that day.

Yes, certainly a moment of silence. Thank you everyone for observing that. Mayor Morin, you’ve completed. As we have no consent items, what’s before us tonight is our public participation meeting.

I will need a motion to open the public participation meeting moved by Councillor Hopkins, seconded by Councillor Layman. We’re in eScribe tonight, it should be logged in for a voting. Closing the vote, motion carries 15 to zero. Thank you, that’s the start of our public participation meeting.

I realize that some of you are prequince at committees, some of you, this is your first time. So just a welcome to everyone, regards if you’re with us before, this is a first for you. I’ll let you know that chambers is the gallery is full and we’re filling out the second committee room. So not everyone that we see is in chambers and there’ll be some people joining us virtually as well.

We stay until everyone has had their opportunity to speak. So don’t worry that we don’t get to you right away. It’s just a process and time. You are welcome to eat and drink in the gallery of the committee rooms to make yourself comfortable.

And there’s washrooms just outside doors on all levels. We ask that there’s no booing or clapping and applauding from the gallery, realizing sometimes we have different opinions and we wanna make sure that everyone feels respected and heard within this space. You’re welcome to speak for up to five minutes. You do not have to fill the whole five minutes.

If someone says something’s similar, you’re welcome to say I agree with this place or this organization or this person and I have a couple of comments to add. The public participation meeting is our opportunity to hear from you. We will not respond directly to you tonight, nor will staff. So you’re welcome to pose questions but know that those questions are for us to ponder that you will not get a verbal answer back.

When you speak, you’re welcome to say your name. You do not need to give your address. You’re welcome to say if you’re from London and we do collect your last name for the public record. If you could spell that, that helps us for that we’re not guessing how to spell your names.

The next public participation meeting after tonight will be on February 27th. So from tonight, we hear your feedback. Then we get the mayor’s budget. We go into our deliberations every Thursday and Friday until we’re done with that.

And then on the 27th, we’ll be the next opportunity to come back and speak before us at any point along the way. You’re welcome to send a long correspondence for all of our considerations. I think that’s about it for you. And I do rotate between microphones, realizing there’s some mobility issues as well with some of our guests tonight in various capacities, both seen and unseen.

For our members of council tonight, my intention as chair is to proceed throughout the evening without a break, which means as you need a break, please take one whenever you need one. And there is light refreshments available in the councilor’s lounge. So come and go as you will. My intention is to make great use of our time and not put a full pause on the evening.

Any other questions or comments about tonight before I get started, realizing some of you, it’s your first multi-year budget. Okay, with that, we will get started. I will start in the gallery. And like I said, we’re here, so you don’t need to rush the microphone.

There’s four to choose from, two on each side. So happy to start. I’m not sure if our friends on the top left, as IT will, I’ll start with my lineup there. I will also note that, as you know, we have a new, you don’t know, we have a new sound system in the gallery and new microphones.

But at some point, you can’t hear what someone’s saying. If you just show me that you can’t hear, I will ask the IT people to turn us up ‘cause we wanna hear what everyone has to say. Everything’s being recorded and streamed, so if you wanna speak and then leave, you can always log back on later and watch the rest of the proceedings, you do not need to stay the entire evening with us. Okay, if you wanna just state your name and we’ll begin.

Okay, I’m planning more and my last name is M-O-O-R-E. I have two issues here and hopefully get it in five minutes. First point is paratransit. Transportation is a essential service.

We live in with disabilities to pay non-specialized transport to get to jobs, school, shopping for necessities, and other items, appointments, socialization, and participation in the community, and sensitivity long in the community. Paratransit is requesting funding to enhance and improve transportation and accessibility. Without the funding for improvements to phones, bookings, buses, and the new buses right now are very limited to the type of mobility that they can handle and they’re also smaller. When you call first thing at seven o’clock and you’re doing 200 read dials and your call gets dropped, like when you get to your caller number two, I have to start all over.

It takes about two to three hours to get through the phone lines and a lot of times we cannot get a bookings to get to the appointments and have to take a taxi, which have to take money from our basic needs. Producer to be long in the community, not to have to be isolated, which increases depression and medical issues. Also, I would like to see them with some of the money and prove the number of places to get bus tickets, ‘cause I know by the Western Fair, I have a friend there, there is no access to get bus tickets, even at the variety store there, the closest places are gone. So, she’s isolated.

The other issue I have is extreme cleaning. Extreme cleaning is a extension of VHA, which works with persons facing possible eviction, leading to homelessness. And it’s requesting money to continue their program, to support people, to keep them in their homes. And prevent homelessness.

And if this is a central service, there’s approximately 100 persons on this that are being supported by this program, by coaching and by helping declutter. I hope you look at both of these and give your consideration to these, both important and central services. Thank you for letting me talk. Thank you, Penny, and well within your time.

Excellent job. I’m gonna go to the microphone top gallery on this side. Natalie, are you speaking? Yeah, if you can’t reach the microphone, I’m sure security can help you get it.

Thank you. And I guess I have a bell this evening, that when you get close to your finance, I’ll ding it. It’s a little bit less abrupt than me saying, you’re almost out of time. So we’ll try that and if you don’t hear or you know it, I will remind you that you’re almost out of time.

So please proceed when you’re ready. Hello, my name is Natalie judges. Also, I’d like to… Sorry, Natalie, just a second.

We’re just gonna need to be a little bit louder. I just wanna make sure that the counselors online that was watching can still hear, okay. Hi, good afternoon, everybody. My name is Natalie judges.

And like my friend Penny over there, paratransit is a broken system. The booking system is horrible. I’d like to also state that this morning, I woke up at 7.01 a.m. and realized, oh no, it’s past 7 a.m.

in the morning and I’ll never get through on the paratransit lines. It took me 708 times this morning to get through on the paratransit lines for redialing. That’s ludicrous and uncalled for and also really on humane. I’d just like to share a couple of experiences of during the Christmas break, I had a specialist appointment that I had to be attended to.

And due to the lack of getting a bus, my appointment was missed because paratransit was solely getting me there, that I had to rebook my specialist appointment, another six months in advance. Paratransit is broken and we deserve to have equal and humane treatment just as well as everybody else. Thank you. Thank you for sharing such a personal story.

I’ll go in the gallery to the microphone on the bottom of the side. If you can please just come to the microphone and state your name and your five minutes will commence. Thanks, Chair. Nancy Branscombe, I’m Mayor and Councillors.

Thank you for the opportunity today. My name is Nancy Branscombe. I’m a resident and former two-term city councilor from 2006 to 2014 in ward six. I currently service chair of the Forest City Film Festival and also serve on the Police Services Board, which I’m gonna discuss tonight.

I mention all of these because I sat where you are, struggling to prioritize spending to properly serve the taxpayers, while being keenly aware of the cost they will have to bear in their tax rate. I also regularly chat with my neighbors in the university and hear their alarm and concern about the deteriorating police service they are receiving. In fact, many have given up calling it all because 911 service seems to have evaporated. We have no more officers deployed as part of the community-oriented response unit, core units, which provided an important presence in ward six and elsewhere because we don’t have enough officers to do this any longer.

The Film Festival operates in the downtown core. Some of our patrons do not feel safe coming to the festival. Clearly, there are layers of problems downtown, which all of you are trying to address in a comprehensive way and which everyone appreciates. But again, the current 911 service is not adequate and we don’t have enough officers on the street, both to keep patrons safe and ensure people who are struggling get the help they need.

The Police Services Board, which as you know, is a cross-section of the community, was unanimous in support of its large budget ask and we appreciate that many of you have spoken to Chief Trong with your questions. We and the Chief have committed an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability to you and the community in return. With respect, the time is now to make London a safer city. We cannot wait.

Our rapidly growing city needs a modern well-trained police force to match. Our women and men in the force work hard every day to keep us safe, but we are also failing them and falling further and further behind. Together, let’s make London a safer city now. I implore council to support the Police Services Board budget and in its entirety.

Thank you for your time today. I will be emailing this letter out to counselors as well for your records. Thanks for your time. Thank you and as noted, if anyone wants anything circulated for the next public agenda, it’s budget committee at London.ca as well.

I will next go to the lower microphone on this side. Welcome. Thank you. Hello, my name is Susan Hall, H-A-L-L and I’m the Vice Chair of the Ecological Community Advisory Committee.

I’m here on behalf of the committee to support business cases 61, 62 and 63. In business case 61 and page 721, I want to say a few words about the environmental management guidelines. The city of London’s EMGs were developed for the effective, consistent and streamlined implementation of city policies and legislation related to the natural heritage system. This framework works well for both planners and developers.

They were first developed in 2007, extensively modified in 2021 and time wise, they are now up for another review. Council direct in 2021, Council directed a biennial review following the update. 50,000 is proposed in each of 2024 and 2026 to undertake the biennial reviews. Please give this budget case careful consideration.

Business case number 62 on page 725 deals with the environmental significant areas management. ESAs aren’t parks. Instead, they are natural spaces that require special protection to preserve their environmental significance and are considered jewels of the natural heritage system. ESAs occur across the city.

An ESA could be within an urban or an agricultural setting and feature a wetland, forest, meadow, river, corridor, or wildlife habitat. Collectively, they support a vast range of plant and animal life that includes species at risk. Starting in 2002 with the first signed agreement, ESAs have been managed by the city of London through the Upper Thames Region Conservation Authority. In 2014, due to municipal budget constraints, the ESA management team was reduced by one person, and since then has remained at that level.

Currently, the team manages 1,923 acres of city owned lands, and they do that in 7,300 hours annually. This business case reviews the special scale set of the team members, the four team members, and also reviews their activities. They do monitoring and enhancing enforcement of regulations, overseeing and implementing hazard tree policies to keep trails safe, developing and maintaining the trail system and community education. ECAC, as it’s known, is interested in restoring the staffing level to 2024 to the level that it was in 2014 before by adding one new member of the ESA team, and increasing by another staff person in 2026.

The budget impact is outlined in the business case. It’s worth noting that over this four year period that this amounts to a total of $1.32 per taxpayer household. ECAC recognizes that there are many asks and a limited pot of money. Given this, we ask as an alternative that you accept business case number 62 and move the higher dates by one year, so that one person is added in 2025, and the second person is added in 2026.

ESA’s are popular in London. They provide a first-hand opportunity for residents of London to witness ecological gems, appreciate and learn about nature, and experience the serenity of the wilderness right on our doorsteps. As such, they offer a positive contribution to the diverse fabric of living in London, Ontario, and business case number 63 is on page 731, and it looks at Silver Creek ecological enhancements. The Silver Creek Revene is located within the Coles ESA, downstream from an older urban neighborhood developed without substantial stormwater infrastructure.

This has resulted in large water flows that are causing impacts to revene woodlands and siltation of the Coles ponds. This impacts fish habitat. The Council approved Conservation Master Plan approximately 10 years ago, recommended enhancements to improve its ecological condition. And enhancements also include building a pedestrian bridge that will provide an accessible link between the South Crest Revene and the Houston Park Trail on the east side.

The budget impact is outlined on page 731. The total expenditure for the period covering 24— Sorry, 10 second morning. Okay, is $2 million or $2.24 per average taxpayer? Thank you for considering these requests.

Thank you, and to all presenters tonight, you’re welcome to make comments in general, or reference a specific business case, just let us know and we can make our own notes of it as we work our way through it. I will go to the top gallery microphone on this side. They might need a little bit of help getting the microphone down. Good afternoon, Honorable Counselors and Budget Committee Members.

My name is Julie Zinga, J-U-L-I-E. And the last name is I, D as in Diamond, S-I-N-G-A. I’m a 47-year-old lifetime resident of London, Ontario, and registered user of London Para Transit. I’ve been advocating for improvements to Para Transit along with the growing group of us since early 2023.

Although improvements have been vastly needed and advocacy efforts have been made already decades ago. I could share some stories that illustrate needed improvements, but I feel that this has been shared by many and thankfully also acknowledged and understood by many here today, including our city council members. I thank you all for your efforts so far in hearing us and committing to helping us improve this crucial and often overlooked service. In March of 2023, I spoke here at a similar city meeting and read out a list of 91 names of Londoners, voting Londoners, each personally in strong favor of seeing improvements to Para Transit.

Had I had more time, the list would likely have been much longer. These were not just Para Transit users, although a few of them were. These were friends, professional colleagues, family members, faculty and teachers who see their students and classes being affected by lacking Para Transit service. Healthcare workers whose appointments are sometimes arrived at late or canceled due to lack of rides.

This causes the healthcare system time and money with rescheduling efforts. Personal support workers who see their clients struggling daily to find rides to and from appointments, work, school, medical appointments and whose schedules are also then often affected by late Para Transit bus arrivals. I urge you, Budget Committee and the following City Council to stay true to the commitment to support improvements to Para Transit as presented by Dr. Jeff Preston to the Civic Works Committee on February 22nd of 2023.

The goals stated at that point were by September 2023. Same day booking options, smart card access in every bus, sensitivity training for drivers. By January of 2024, online app and booking option, live bus tracking, increased efficiency to reduce times on buses and most importantly to me and many others is the four year goal of a 10% increase in ride capacity per year. This last goal is the most important to me with all other improvements we have the same booking problems if capacity is not greatly increased.

In 2023, a London news article reported that there were 11,000 registered Para Transit users here in London, yet only 32 buses on the road on weekdays, less on weekends. That means that if every bus had four passengers on it headed to a nine am appointment, only 128 of all 11,000 of us would be able to arrive at our nine o’clock class, day program, workplace, volunteer position or medical appointment. The rest of us would have to be exceptionally early late or find other ways to get there or miss it altogether. We need to see this crucial service improve and now in considering the upcoming four year budget is the opportunity to make that happen.

Thank you very much for considering. Thank you Julie for joining us this evening. I’m going to the top gallery on the side if there’s another speaker who would like to be next. Oh, yes.

Okay, well come on up and tell us your name and— My name is Tom Boney, M-A-A-A-O-N-E-Y. And here I go, good afternoon, as I said, my name. I’m a Londoner, I’ve been doing this. I’m a advocate, I’m a owner and I’m city employee from the city of London, value to city, but the city does not value me.

And I had to be valued in the nine proper service, right for a sensible transportation service. I did nine proper transportation service for my house, my own for seven years and this is gone up. What, I miss work, I miss medical appointments, you take place all the opportunities to take place in my city that I love. Oh, yeah, I got stuck in this now, let’s send it and even get by a car, thank you.

About the whole time. My peers and I, I was left in a stream cold, he’d eat to allow to cross the road to get our bus because then they won’t come to my house. My transit is very broken, I’ve broken. And he learned about my stories, struggles, as the TV news, as front as I think there was a CBC.

Anyway, I don’t know to be, because it’s so terrible to be that counted as a person. And I feel that it needs to be fixed. So Tom finishes by saying, the people who, my stories have been, my stories have represented in the news multiple times, the stories and struggles that me and my peers have all had facing paratransit issues. The people who hold power for change, the people who I put my faith in to keep me safe and allow me the equal opportunity that we all deserve.

It’s your choice today. How blessed you must all feel, not have to utilize the service that you’ve all created. I come here today by my own means of transportation because I couldn’t rely on yours to plead to you to do the right thing. I ask you, will you finally put the empty promises to rest and allow us the opportunity to enjoy each and everything that you do yourselves?

Thank you. Thank you, Tom, for joining us this evening and sharing your story. I’m going to go to the microphone on the lower level on the right, please. I think I’m okay, thanks.

Good evening, Chair. Thank you. Just one second, is that my con? Try again.

Hello. Perfect, please. Good evening, Chair and members of council. Thank you for the opportunity to come and share some of my views with you today.

My name is Megan Walker and I first, I’m a lifelong Londoner who first became involved in my community in 1990 when I fought for a little old library in Old East London to remain open. I’ve served two terms on council and worked at the London Abuse Women’s Center for many years before retiring. I now sit on the London Police Services Board and I’m actively involved in the issue of human trafficking and so it’s a pleasure to be here to share some of my views. During the London Police Services Board, public consultation meetings last year, the board heard from many Londoners, they came forward with numerous suggestions about what needs to be done to make their lives and lives in the city safer and better.

They shared their concerns, among those concerns where police response times, homelessness, impaired driving, street racing, a heightened sense of feeling unsafe and grave concerns about mental health and addictions. The murder of the AFSAIL family was a tragic reminder our city is not immune to hate crimes. We need to address racism, discrimination and Islamophobia. The police budget addresses the consensus from the feedback received that London needs to rethink policing.

We know that the community, sorry, that community safety is a top priority for Londoners. The board also heard from council members, the input you gave highlighting break-and-enters, road racing, the need for more effective service, downtown issues and homelessness is built into the new budget. The board is unanimously committed to creating a safer city now. We will work to move London from the third most dangerous city in Ontario to the safest city in Ontario.

With the addition of 97 officers, Londoners will be able to call 911 and get help quickly rather than waiting a day, a week or longer. Pass this budget and police will soon have the capacity to create safer neighbourhoods now by protecting our homes, our communities and our downtown. Pass this budget and your investment will protect and help those who are victims of male violence against women, sexual assaults, human trafficking and hate crimes. Pass this budget and you will pass a future of hope for not only today’s Londoners, but for those who will return to London, your children who will be the future of London and police officers who today struggle to make London the place it should be.

We are filled with gratitude for the support we have received and we hope you will continue that support. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Walker for being here this evening.

I’m gonna go to the microphone on the lower level. Please state your name and proceed. Thank you, I’m Maureen Cassidy and I’m here representing Pillar Nonprofit Network. So thank you all for the opportunity to speak to you tonight about our business case, which is included in your package as business case number 40.

So Pillar is an incorporated nonprofit and registered charity with a diversified revenue stream that includes membership fees, grants, sponsorships and private donations. Pillar is also a successful social enterprise with fees for service business models for coaching, training and customized learning plus leasing of co-working, meeting and event space at InnovationWorks. This multifaceted revenue generation approach has supported our long-term sustainability for over 21 years in this community. Through our development and training programs, we reach hundreds of organizations every year, providing London’s nonprofit sector with capacity building support and learning opportunities through paid membership and registration fees, all of which we’ve kept as low as possible with the help of sponsorship and donations, excuse me.

But now our community needs us to do more. It needs the city to do more while recognizing this challenging fiscal landscape. This is why we’ve kept our request relatively modest. The city of London already supports the nonprofit sector through a variety of means.

As much as possible, you need to ensure the success of those investments, and for that to happen, the sector must be well-governed with strong leadership and solid business fundamentals. For the city to meet its goals in areas like child care, local sports programming, and especially in delivering on the health and homeless whole-of-community system response, the sector must be capable of working at optimal levels of effectiveness. This investment will broaden Pillar’s programming reach into the community of grassroots and nonprofit organizations, which provide critical frontline services in our community. The foundational strength of the nonprofit sector will be enhanced with high-performing boards focused on oversight, strategy, and innovation, and with leaders equipped to lead effective organizations capable of delivering the services the community needs.

The organizational capacity of the nonprofit sector will be enhanced by providing essential tools, resources, and knowledge, and organizations will be better equipped to focus on delivering mission-oriented frontline services to the people and the communities they serve. By creating resilient and strong organizations, you will be making existing and future city investments go even further. From an economic development viewpoint, this investment will help foster job creation and contribute to London’s overall prosperity. When you consider that the sector is responsible for approximately 14% of jobs in this country, and with nearly half of all immigrants having been employed in this sector, it’s clearly a pathway to employment for many newcomers.

Workforce development will be enhanced as volunteers gain new skills, which can be carried over to their paid work. And this investment will further contribute to local economic development, as Canada’s nonprofit sector contributes almost 9% to national GDP, surpassing other sectors like mining, construction, and transportation. Finally, this investment will help strengthen the social fabric of our community and contribute to community wellbeing by helping London rebuild its volunteer base, which leads to a sense of belonging and personal growth, which in turn leads to greater retention of students and newcomers, and by helping to create diverse and inclusive organizations reflective of the communities they serve. The investment we’re seeking through this business case is not a grant, but rather a fee-for-services approach, which will work through pillar to provide direct programming aimed at strengthening and building capacity in the nonprofit sector.

This proposed collaboration with the city is nothing new. We’ve partnered with the city many times over the years, delivering programs on a small scale through ad hoc funding or a community grant. The sector has always been an indispensable partner to government. London needs the sector now more than ever to deliver vital services to our community.

And the sector needs access to capacity building programs to ensure they have the organizational strength to deliver. We know the city isn’t solely responsible for the viability of the nonprofit sector. All three levels of government must come together to support a sector they have to rely on to deliver crucial services. And we will continue our conversations with other levels of government about the absolute necessity of a thriving nonprofit sector.

We currently are pursuing funding opportunities with other levels of government, and we will leverage this investment from our city whenever possible as we engage in those conversations. Thank you very much. Good luck in your deliberations. I know it will go late tonight, so thank you for your time.

Thank you, Ms. Cassidy. Technology I’ll go to the top microphone on this side. I’ll also note as we’re hearing that there’s issues with paratransit and we have some friends from paratransit with us this evening.

When we get back to this corner, if I don’t want anyone who has a ride coming to miss it on speaking, realizing it’s so hard to get service. So when I come back, just to flag that for me if you can just wait for the rotation or if you’re an urgent dire need of missing a ride and I’ll make that happen. So like I said, we’ll come back around. I’ll also make everyone aware that there are people on Zoom waiting and committees room three and five are currently full.

So just as we start moving to different spaces as well. Okay, I’ll do the gallery mic on this side of the top if there’s somebody else. You don’t have to speak, you’re welcome just to join us. Or if you’re ready, not ready yet, I will come back around.

(speaking in foreign language) So thank you to the chair for allowing everyone to speak and acknowledging the fact that paratransit everyone may need to leave and that would be the only way of getting home. So that’s a testament to what everyone’s trying to speak on today that there is so much limitation, limitations to speak and to be present. And so thank you for acknowledging that you’re right. Most people do need to leave now based on the restraints of paratransit.

So a testament to the struggles that everyone’s having. Thank you and just two quick things. You thanked us for the opportunity to speak but thank you for the opportunity of hearing what you have to say. And I did miss your name if that could just be— Sorry, my name is Ryan.

Hey, you’re Ryan and our last speaker. Haggins, H-A-E-G-E-N-S and Sandra. Sandra, perfect. Thank you, Sandra.

G-E-L-O-A-L-O. Perfect, thank you. Go to the microphone on the next level. For the chair, thank you very much for providing me this opportunity to provide additional information and rationales to support business case P8 and P38.

My name is Andrea, I’m the executive director of the London Arts Council. Today I’m joined by colleagues from local arts organizations who have committed their lives to enriching the souls of our community, instilling creativity and vibrancy and cultivating diversity and inclusion through artistic expressions and participation. On behalf of the London Arts Council and the local arts sector, I would like to thank the council for your time, hard work and dedication to the community of London. The business case number P38 under economic growth, culture and prosperity requests additional investment of $345,000 to gradually expand the capacity of our arts, community arts investment program, arts funding streams.

Imagine that you have never received an increase in your salary or your contract rate for 23 years. This is the situation of the local arts sector. The Cape budget of $700,000 has never seen an increase for 23 years since its inception in 2001. And as you can imagine, the demand has grown tremendously and Cape has reached its financial allocation capacity with over $2 million requests and only 41% of applicants receive the funding through Cape in 2013.

Without a healthy budget for the Cape program, we will lose our artists and our arts organizations in our community and such loses would be devastating for the community of London. The Cape program is the only local arts funding program providing direct financial support and investment for the local arts sector and its diverse artistic and musical talent for creation, production and presentation. Business case number P8 under reconciliation, equity, accessibility and inclusion requests a graduate increase to expand the capacity of arts in communities program to $500,000 by 2026. Professional artists are significantly disadvantaged financially and are often ones that below the poverty level.

According to Statistics Canada 2021, the median personal income of a professional artist in Ontario was 41% less than that of other workers. What is more, artists with a different, different racial, gender, sexual, religious and social identities have experienced added barriers and have not been able to meaningfully participate in our community. The expanded arts in community programs such as artists and residents, London Arts Live, cultivating a relationship through arts and youth arts incubation program will provide adequate support and equitable opportunities for Indigenous artists, equity deserving artists and future arts professionals for their growth and development and encourage their cultural, social and economic participation in the London community. London Arts Live itself supports hundreds of diverse artists of all artistic disciplines with paid live performance and presentation opportunities throughout London while providing accessible and inclusive artistic and cultural experiences for all Londoners and visitors.

These curated activations contribute to the vibrancy, safety and well-being of Londoners, London’s core area and neighbourhoods by bringing people together and enhancing the atmosphere and landscape in conclusion. The arts and cultural sectors support multiple segments of London’s workforce, diversifies the economy and brings economic prosperity to London. According to a creative exceeding network of Canada culture’s consortium data, London’s arts and culture sector is comprised of approximately 7,000 arts and culture workers and the GDP contribution is over $607 million annually. Our request is not about something nice to have.

20 seconds. It is about the critical support that is required for the arts sector for the artists, organization and the community of London. As a UNESCO city of music and a member of UNESCO Creative Cities Network, London must prioritize creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable development and recognize participating in arts and culture activities as basic human rights. Given the growing demand for the arts sector.

Sorry, that’s five minutes. Okay, thank you. Yeah, so our request is being minor. So compared to significant impact, that will break.

Thank you very much. For technology, I’d like to go to committee room five first. So that microphone will have in a moment. And then ideally on Zoom, we have David Pascino with us.

They would be next. So if David’s online, you’re gonna be next after the gentleman in committee room five, please proceed. Thank you very much for this opportunity. My name is Peter McIntyre and I represent the London downtown condominium advocacy group.

We have nine condominium corporations in our group at the moment. And we’ve had overtures from several more. So we look forward to expanding the group, the advocacy group. Our document is representative of the concerns expressed by excuse me, the condo boards and our brief indicates strong support for the London police services budget directed to improving safety and security in the downtown.

Security and safety are major concerns for residential property owners. To that end, we appreciate the continuing efforts of the London Foot Patrol and Sergeant Mike Pontress. We welcome additional and innovative programs to enhance security by London police services. We are also supportive of efforts, ongoing efforts to beautify the downtown area, visually attracted downtown.

We’ll attract more residential owners and to attribute it to the overall revitalization of the downtown. We suggest that the forest city brand be leveraged to a greater degree. We are concerned, however, with regard to the premature termination on October 4th, 2023 of the ambassador’s program. We are concerned that a program that garnered overwhelming support from individuals working, visiting and living in the downtown was terminated.

At the mayor’s breakfast, the mayor understandably was distressed that 200 people had died on London streets. Council will know that the number of deaths would have been at least 229. Had it not been for interventions of the ambassadors working in the downtown. Councilors will also know that ambassadors were involved in by law enforcement, assisting owners to recover from the effects of vandalism and in nonviolent crisis intervention.

Was also to be a training employment opportunity for marginalized individuals. This program was to be developed in conjunction with the department of anti-racism and anti-oppression. And yet there is no evidence that the department was consulted prior to the termination of the program. We wonder where the application of the equity tool was in this decision.

There is also mention, no mention of evaluation of the program by the London police services. We understand that return on investment was one of the reasons that this program was canceled. And yet there seems to be more than sufficient evidence that the city of London was receiving significant benefits and return on investment by way of the involvement of the ambassadors. We understand that there may be some procedural issues involved in reversing a decision.

However, Roger’s rule should not stand in the way of revisiting a decision that perhaps needs a second look. We understand that the proposal has been made to replace the ambassadors program with a core business contact. While that may be marginally helpful, that in no way will replace the benefits accrued through the ambassadors program. We strongly support the development of a department to devoted to simply, not simply, but exclusively— 30 seconds.

The strategic plan that the city council has developed, one department should be much more efficient than what we already have. I want to thank council very much for your attention. And we were pleased to meet with our counselors and staff to further expand on our presentation. Thank you very much for your efforts.

Thank you, Peter. Do we know if David’s available on Zoom? I am, can you hear me? Yeah, just one second.

David, you’ll have five minutes. But then I’m going to go to committee room three after you, just so we can get line up on our side. Thank you, and please proceed, David. Thank you very much.

I’m David Pasquino, and I thank you for the opportunity to speak to council. I have three points I wish to share. Number one, on January 27, 2000, by 2024, I received the New York Times, Canada, and letter, an email newsletter, which was titled “Spending More Money on Police” shows no clear link to lower crime. This article analyzed a Canadian research paper published in December, 2023, called “Police Funding and Crime Rates, 20th Canada’s largest municipalities, the Longitude and Study.” For the study, the researchers collected and examined the published, quote, “data on municipal police services expenditures from 2010 to 2021, and 20 of the most populous urban municipalities in Canada.” This included London.

The researchers concluded that their analysis, quote, “revealed no consistent correlation between police funding and crime rates across many municipalities,” end quote. As such, I cannot fully endorse the business cases regarding the spending, especially some of the items in business case P29, such as the second light partner vehicle, a remote piloted aircraft system, and a remote piloted aircraft system dedicated vehicle, the cost of which totals $958,650 over the four years of this budget. These and other items seem to be nice to have this, not made to have this. However, I do fully endorse adoption.

We have body cameras. I think those should be adopted as soon as possible for the greater good of the community, too. I am dismayed at the city’s lack of support for the arts. While business cases P8, P38, P39, and P45 are good, they did not go far enough or ask for enough.

As demonstrated by the London Art Council’s case for community arts and investment program, CAPE, which clearly shows the need for increase funding. In 2023, the total request for support was three times the amount to invest as well. The amount of CAPE invested per capita has been decreasing, apparently, over the last 23 years. I only had to, as the city has grown, the amount available to CAPE has not.

This case also makes it apparent that the city is not investing in the arts and culture of our community to the exact same extent that many other municipalities in CAPE are. I couldn’t express the importance of the arts better than an article I read, Daily Garden, Tripp T. Bush, on July 14, 2023 entitled, “The Impact of Art on Society.” She concludes that, quote, “Art possesses the extraordinary ability to transform society, challenge norms, and foster human connection from its role as a reflection of society, to its potential as a catalyst for change. Art shapes our perceptions, inspires dialogue, and empowers individuals and communities.

It reflects our shared human experiences, challenges social and societal norms, and drives social change. Through its ability to unite communities, foster creativity, and stimulate economic growth, art enriches our lives and contributes to the development of a more vibrant and inclusive society. As a theater artist myself, I asked the city for more support than what was asked for the arts project, the Palace, Theater Arts Commons, the Grand and Museum London, as we need more of the arts and more than use for community theater performances. Number three, I think that a spring bank dam should be repaired and reinstated as I believe this one quarter cost as an intended partial removal.

I would be more than happy to discuss these and other term items further now or any time in the next few weeks. Anyone have any questions? Thank you for your time. Thank you for being with us, Committee Room 3.

The mic is on in Committee Room 3. That would be the other Committee Room that didn’t just have a speaker. If someone in there wanted to come to the lectern, feel free. And just need your name, and then we’ll start your five minutes.

Yes, hi, my name is Susan Ratz. I’m a resident of Ward 3, represented by Councillor Peter Cutty. To start, I’d like to thank the staff for their ongoing efforts to improve communication and encourage community engagement, both for the current budget and many other projects. I especially appreciate the get involved website, the onsite planning application signage, and the public meetings.

This evening, I’d like to highlight a handful of business cases that deserve high priority, in my opinion. I have chosen these business cases primarily for their environmental focus. Depending on the individual business cases, they offer a variety of benefits, including the ability to leverage funds from other sources, cost savings, and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. I especially appreciate when a business case provides an opportunity to educate the public, and increase community involvement in environmental initiatives.

For example, I have been an avid outdoor composter for over a decade, and I have also done indoor composting with worms for approximately eight years. Neighbors and friends may know this and think this is interesting, or in some cases weird, but that would be it. I think I’ve had only one person take me up on my offer to share composting worms. Now the green bin program has rolled out and poof, with the city support, hard work, and yes, costs, involvement in composting has increased exponentially.

This is what makes my heart sing. When I see city programs take an environmental issue and lead on solutions, getting thousands of people involved. With this in mind, here are my top seven choices for business cases. Coming in at number one is business case P32, the naturalization of boulevards and reduced roadside cutting.

This business plan will result in cost savings. It builds on past experience with naturalization projects. It includes a strong focus on public education. My next choice is business case P56, climate emergency action plan implementation support.

As noted, the climate emergency base budget only represents about 15% of the total base budget for climate change and environmental stewardship. Subsequently, further investment through business case P56 is absolutely necessary. With climate change, the city of London will face increased risks, including flooding, heat mortality, extreme wind, vector-borne diseases, and poor air quality. It is imperative to take strong action towards climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Specific aspects that I most appreciate of business plan P56 are the ability to leverage additional funds from the FCM and CEF programs. If I understand correctly to a possible total of 4.5 million, strong communication initiatives, community involvement, the accelerated use of the climate lens framework and the establishment of the climate change investment fund. Other business cases that I feel are important include wastewater one, sewer flow monitoring program, wastewater two, sewer overflow investigation and mitigation program. Wastewater eight, sewage bypass and overflow elimination increase, plus P33, River Road Park, stabilization and phase one investments, and P62, environmentally significant areas management.

So to review, my top choices are P32, P56, WWT1, WWT2, WWT8, P33, and P62. In closing, I do very much value the services the city provides, and I look to the city to be a leader in environmental initiatives. I do recognize that a tax increase will be a serious hardship for some property tax owners, but I do personally support a tax to increase and expect a property tax increase myself. Thank you.

Thank you, Susan. I’m now gonna go into the gallery on the lower level, on my left and then the top one on the left. Welcome and please proceed. Thank you.

I’m off a bit of a call, so hopefully I get through this. My name is Nigel Gilby, G-I-L-B-Y. And Madam Chair, Mr. Mayor and City Council members, thank you for the opportunity to talk.

I come here today wearing a number of hats. I have worked and continue to work in the downtown core for over 40 years. I have, I live downtown in the core at Talbot and Dufferin and have for over four years. I volunteer at the sanctuary Mondays and Wednesdays, helping to feed homeless people, people living in shelters and low income housing.

I sit on the board of directors of my condo and hear the concerns and issues from its 400 occupants. I am president of Dale Brain Injury Services and we have a supported living center on Albert Street between Talbot and Dufferin in the city’s core. I can’t in five minutes address everything I would like to, but we’ll highlight what I think are the most important issues. The city center is dying and doing so rapidly.

People are not coming downtown. Businesses are dying or leaving the downtown. The city center has lost its identity. We were once a financial insurance center.

What are we today? Downtown for the most part is a mess. There’s litter all over our streets and green spaces. Drugs are being openly used on our city center streets like Dundas, Richmond and King streets.

When I walk those streets, I see people using needles, crack pipes and other forms of drugs and consumption in doorways right out in the open. Some solutions are harder than others and yet we will have to pay more taxes and I acknowledge that. But if we don’t fix the problem now, we are gonna have to pay even more taxes in the future as the downtown tax base shrinks from both business and residential properties. We need safety and security and we need it now.

I’m not usually one who supports hiring more police, but when I read the police chief’s report, I was shocked that our system is so out of date and there was even more shock to learn that we have the third highest crime rate in Ontario, not something to be proud of. I support the police budget. There as one of the speakers said, maybe some bills and wrestles to be looked at, but I think there needs to be very tight oversight with expected goals and results acquired or sorry, required. There needs to be a department within the city hall created to ensure that the master revitalization plan is carried out and for citizens to direct concerns and complaints rather than being shuffled from department to department.

I think there should be a non-paid advisory committee made up of people who live and work downtown and members who deal with those that require help, such as the homeless and those people that are addicted to drugs. Those are the people that are on the streets and see things every single day. A singular top down approach doesn’t work, in my opinion. I don’t profess to know how to solve the homeless problem, but know that it includes housing and to some extent, mental health.

Look at some of the inventive approaches that are being taken in parts of Eastern Canada. The number one complaint that I hear from the residents in my condominium is security. We’ve had a condo complex broken into on several occasions every year. Smashed car windows, slashed convertible tops, stealing things from vehicles, sleeping in stairwells and lobbies.

Our single most expensive cost for our condo every year is security. 30 seconds. We have concerns about the value of our units going down because nobody wants to buy into a place that they don’t feel safe. Garbage is another issue.

Solutions, simple ones to start, more garbage cans. Don’t know if it’s a union issue, but wider garbage people not pick up garbage if cans get spilled over or the wind topples over garbage can. They just leave it laying there. And I see only one poop bag station on Richmond Street.

I’ve not seen any in all the other streets that I’ve walked. Yes, people should pick up their poop and they should have their own bags, but we know that doesn’t happen. Thank you, that’s your five minutes. The last thing I’d like to say.

Sorry, you’re at your five minutes. And anyone today is welcome to send already a correspondence that you had for we have an inviting. I’m gonna ask IT that we go to the top microphone. And then next, I’ll be looking for a Chelsea Smith who’s baby on Zoom.

Welcome top microphone, please proceed. Good day, Madam Chair, city council, and my fellow community members who have voiced compelling requests. My name is Miranda Denver, D-E-N-V-E-R. And today I’m here to discuss funding for the arts, something that makes life worthwhile.

The Amalbley Quires of London, Canada is a not-for-profit organization that provides an enriched music education program for people age seven to 99. Sadly, funding for our music programs in schools is being cut. Many of you will know that funding for the arts is always a struggle. And there is no exception in our school boards.

This is where Amalbley steps in. We are a world-renowned coral organization that provides the countless benefits of musical education. Music involvement in groups creates a sense of belonging, fosters collaboration, improves memory, and strengthens communication skills. We offer our coasters the ability to foster their mental health and well-being through music training, discipline, and pride in individual and group achievement.

Our nine quires present local, national, and international performances at the highest level of artistic excellence. And we celebrate and embrace our diverse cultural heritage through the songs of Canada’s many peoples. We are able to provide lifelong learning for children, youth, and adults through the support of the Community of Arts Investment Program, which is of the London Arts Council. We require the ongoing support to reach as many people in our community from coasters to concert goers.

In the words of Gourd Downey, music brings people together. So, my function in anything I do is to help bring people closer in. I ask all of you here today to help the Amalbley choirs of London Canada to continue to grow London’s musical community. Our arms are open and welcoming to bring all of you closer in.

Thank you. Thank you, Miranda. We have a Chelsea Smith available on Zoom. Yes, good evening.

Perfect. We can hear you. Please proceed. Good evening, Chipulosa, Your Worship, Mayor Morgan, and members of the Budget Committee.

My name is Chelsea Smith, and today it is my pleasure to speak in support of the London Public Library and increase to its base budget and its six business cases. P10, P30, P48, P58, P59, and P69. I grew up benefiting from the London Public Library’s wonderful free programs, collections, and services. My home branch as a child was the Pond Mills Library as I grew up in the Pond Mills neighborhood in Ward 14.

That branch has played a very important role in my life as it was essential in developing my love for reading and my sense of belonging in an attachment to the London community. It helped make me the proud lifelong Londoner I am today. Although it is no longer my home branch, the Pond Mills Library will all this hold a special place in my heart, and I still enjoy visiting it when I can. My mom still visits it weekly.

The staff greeting her by name and the free programs and collections make her life at the retiree less lonely and more affordable. When she visits, she feels as though she is part of something bigger. In 2018, my husband and I purchased our first home, also our forever home in downtown London. We have been downtown Londoners residents of Ward 13 for over five years now.

When we first told people that we were moving to downtown London, some voiced concerns about what our lives would be like living downtown. They said it wouldn’t feel like a real neighborhood or community where you know your neighbors, where neighbors become friends and look out for one another. They said that downtown London was just offices, empty buildings, bars and restaurants. Thankfully, they couldn’t have been more wrong.

My husband and I love living downtown and we have found a great community here. The Central Library branch is a huge contributor to this. I’m an avid reader and by borrowing books from Central. A library I can walk to in minutes.

I can live a more minimalist and environmentally friendly lifestyle. Walking to the library to pick up my holds or attend an event also gets me out of the apartment and into the community. On my walk there and back, I might stop in to support local small businesses along the way. The Central Library means a lot to me, but it also means a lot to the people I care about.

My husband is not a reader, but he enjoys making use of the labs at Central, especially the 3D printers. My elderly neighbor down the hall attends almost every concert put on at the Wolf Performance Hall. Another neighbor further down the hall enjoys attending author events there with her friends and another neighbor not on my floor, but in the building started a book club for all residents in my building using the library’s book club in a bag. It is so great to meet and connect with my neighbors through our shared passion for this branch, this place where we can gather, where we can just be and that isn’t a commercial space.

It’s clear to all of us that a vibrant and healthy downtown cannot exist without Central. Desiring to give back to the library, I’m both a donor and volunteer. I recently completed my fifth year of volunteering in the Read program at Central Library. For this program, I’ve worked one-on-one with several children who struggle with literacy to build up their confidence and inspire a love of reading.

One child I was paired with for two years was new to Canada. When I first started meeting with her, she was very shy, had very little confidence, and knew very little English. I only managed to get a couple of words out of her the first time we met, but after working with her for a couple hours each week for two years, she now loves reading and is very talkative. Her English literacy skills and confidence have improved so much.

From 2020 to 2022, I was fortunate to serve on the London Public Library Board and its executive committee. Having served on the board, I am aware that the library operates very leanly and that the library doesn’t have or ask for extras. I’m also aware of the importance and uniqueness of each of the library’s 16 branches, having visited all of them and seen each of them buzzing with the activities of Londoners of all ages and backgrounds. I hope that the words I have shared with you today help you understand just how loved the library is and just how much it means to Londoners like me.

In 2023, I paid $5,421 in property taxes. I would happily pay more property taxes to support an increase in the library’s based budget and its fixed business cases. Thank you. Thank you, Chelsea.

Going to the gallery on the right side, top microphone first and in the lower. Is there someone at the top microphone who would like to speak? Okay, please approach the mic and then just state your name for us. I’m Megane Kress.

I’m just moving to London about 11 years ago in transit. But when I book, see, I have to really watch what I’m doing. It’s some of the, not the driver, but the money book parajens it. They really relate to their customers.

And I, and I had a couple incidents because of that. And I don’t want to go on. That wasn’t the way that wasn’t the right place that I had. But I had to deal with it in my own.

He is trying to say that she has had many experiences with paratransit where she has been dropped off at wrong places than where she originally booked and has had, you know, a lot of struggle trying to navigate her way to the actual place that she was trying to get to and just everything around that. Like there’s just a lot of miscommunication in regards to where to be dropped off or picked up. That’s everything. Thank you so much.

Thank you for sharing that personal story, Regina, and welcome. Welcome, please proceed. Good afternoon, Chair Palosa, your worship and fellow Councillors. My name is Evan Klossen, KLA SSEN.

I’m the Executive Director at the Grand Theatre here in London. I am joined by George Kahulis, President and Chair of our Board of Directors. And by Rachel Peake, our new Artistic Director. We are grateful to be able to speak with you this afternoon regarding our business case, P39, which is on page 571 in your hymnals.

And with your permission, I will share my time with Rachel this afternoon. So the grant has prepared a compelling business case to increase our annual operating grant from the City of London. But I would just like to add a few additional remarks. The Grand Theatre operates currently on an annual budget of 9.3 million.

And our civic funding really only represents 5.3 percent of our annual revenue budget. Our requested increase would bring our city funding up to only 8.1 percent, which is a 2.8 percent increase for the grant, but is far less than the current rate of inflation. And especially when you consider that there hasn’t been an increase in 23 years. It really is not accounting for historical inflation over time.

That grant was established in the early 2000s at the same time alongside the CAPE program. And it really has not matched inflation or increased since that point in time. Though our operating budget has gone from 4.2 million to 9.3 in the same amount of time. That buying power of the 500,000 once represented 12.8 percent and now is far less.

The role the grant plays as an economic driver in the City of London has never been stronger than it is today. Using the province’s own tourism regional economic impact model, we calculate that we contribute approximately 4 million to the city’s GDP in tourism spending alone based on the 5.5 million of ticket sales that we generate per year. We are an economic driver for downtown. We induce spending to our local restaurants, our parking and shopping in the downtown core.

We bring 100,000 people to the downtown every year outside of business hours, making a real difference to the quality of life in the downtown area. We are a strong contributor to the quality of life in our city. We create belonging and inclusion for all. And with thanks to the city’s past support for things like our renovation project, our new and inclusive spaces, our places for all Londoners to gather as well.

Some of our supporters have shared some additional letters of support to this effect speaking broadly to our impact in the community. But I would like to turn this over to Rachel Peake to speak, provide a few additional remarks. Rachel? Hello, I’m Rachel Peake, P-E-A-K-E, the Artistic Director of the Grand Theatre.

So 25 years ago, the Grand Theatre produced our inaugural high school project. This project has grown greatly over those 25 years, now serving nearly 100 students from all across the city. Since becoming Artistic Director last fall, I’ve heard time and time again about how this project changes lives. It helps young people to find people like them, to find a place they belong, to find their voice.

The timing of the creation of that project lines up fairly closely with the 23 years the Grand is receiving funding from the City of London. And while the high school project and its effects on the city, its impact on a generation of young people and the expenses that go along with it have grown exponentially during that time, the city funding has remained stagnant. The Grand has many vital community programs that deeply affect the people of London. We’re looking to revive the highly successful 100 schools program to bring plays into elementary schools across the city, bringing the arts to young people without the barriers of travel or ticket price.

We are looking to expand on some of our vital community outreach programs, such as our tea talks that speak to the elderly in our community, helping combat loneliness and isolation. The Grand Theatre is the most beautiful producing theatre in the country. We produce professional theatre at the highest level. Having that standard of arts is a badge of honor for Londoners, one that deserves your investment.

Thank you for taking the time to consider our application to make an investment in the quality of life in London. Thank you Evan and Rachel. I will note that you still came in with a minute to spare and a brilliant strategy splitting time to help facilitate this evening. I’m going to go to committee room five and then three.

So committee room five. There’s someone in a really bright friendly pink outfit. If you just want to play state your first name, then you have your five minutes to start. Thank you.

Perfect. You can hear you wonderfully. Hi, thank you for allowing me this opportunity. Speak to the council.

It’s Wendy Lau, W-E-N-D-Y. Last name is L-A-U, the CEO of Leeds Employment Services. I’d like to put a special thanks to the council and the finance team of putting the specialized transportation service in the draft budget. We’re an agency that provides people with disabilities to achieve employment and life stabilization.

I don’t need to go through all the evidence you heard from the last year and a half of the barriers and the struggles that the Londoners would depend on the power of transit. So they’re able to access employment and then daily life needs. My hope is that you will approve the budget and that you would ensure that the budget is dedicated to the specialized service as proposed and then not to be deployed in other transit services or other areas. Another hope that I’m asking is that there is oversight and possibly an audit to ensure this funding goes to the specialized services and that there is valid and reliable data to ensure there’s meaningful and gainful impact on those riders.

Thank you for listening to me. Thank you for appearing before us today in committee room three. I see someone at the lectern, please proceed. Okay, just one more time, a little bit louder.

My name’s Dennis Coons, resident of Ward 8. Can you hear me? Is there a way to make that a little bit louder or can you just get close to the mic or just bend it towards you? I’ll try to get close.

I think all that’s wonderful, thank you. Okay, my name’s Dennis Coons, I’m resident of Ward 8. I’m not advocating for anything, I have a question. Are you entertaining questions right now?

We won’t answer it. You could state it and we’ll ponder it. It’s more of you talking at us this evening. Okay, so new to this multi-year budget is the requirement for business plans or cases to incorporate ESG, environment, social, and corporate governments.

My question is, where is this requirement coming from? Is it provincial? Is it federal? I just want to know who is directing this city to implement these considerations.

Thank you. Thank you, I’ll note if you have a specific question that you would like a city report on. You’re welcome to email in as we do have a climate emergency plan and some environmental aspects that are in business cases. That’s where it’s coming from.

So just drop us a line and we’ll get you an answer that way. We don’t answer them in the public forum tonight. Thank you, Dennis. I’m going to go to the lower microphone on this side and then I’ll be looking for a Jeff Guilfel on Zoom.

Hello, hi everybody. My name is Bethany Mejia and I’m the executive director of the Archile BIA. I am here today with the chair of the Archile BIA Rob Graham and we’ll be speaking today in support of business case P42. This is the five-year community improvement plan review.

For the last two years we have been strongly advocating for funding from the community improvement plan financial incentives program. The businesses in the archile area would appreciate the financial incentives to improve facades and internally upgrade buildings that would assist in the continual beautification of Dundas Street. In the strategic plan that the BIA developed this summer from the members who replied to the survey, 80% of them said that streetscape improvements were important to them and a priority. Thereby we advocate for these financial incentives and we think that they would be most welcomed by BIA members and they would be heavily utilized in the future to better the look of our community.

We appreciate any financial or economic support provided to Archile and its business community by the City of London. As a representative of the businesses in Archile, I strongly suggest this business or I strongly support this business case. In addition to the financial incentives, the security audit grant program will benefit business owners in our strategic planning. Safety and security was also taught priority for our members.

Some business owners have already reached out to the BIA for this grant support. The grant program would also complement our existing services in the BIA that exist in our current community wellness strategy. The strategy includes mobile patrols and the non-call security service that responds to community issues. The proposed program however is unique because it would cover an existing gap in our services.

This gap is providing a proactive approach to safety rather than retroactive. Thank you for taking some time. We appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Also, why is your time spending your time? Is Jeff available on Zoom? That’s good to hear me. We can hear you perfectly.

Please proceed. Wonderful. Thank you. My name is Jeff Guilfoyle and I’m a long-time resident of London.

I live in Ward 3. I would strongly encourage council to fund the environmentally sensitive area business case, P62. I think there’s obvious environmental reasons for funding ESA’s, but I think we also need to consider the role London’s amenities play to shape the perception of London as a high quality place to live. Outdoor recreation is increased in popularity, which means higher maintenance is needed.

London’s are literally voting with their feet. These are multi-purpose city features that are particularly valued by the sought-after, higher skilled workers out there who are more likely to be interested in outdoors and fitness. As we all know, we’re in a global and regional competition for talented workers. ESA is going to attract higher skilled workers that in turn have higher job creation spin-off multipliers, a grower economy which in turn helps address socioeconomic issues.

Statistics from the National Recreation Parks Association confirm that interest in hiking and similar activities increases with educational attainment. Younger adults are more interested too. In other words, higher potential young people are particularly interested in these types of amenities, and they also view the environment as a critical issue, as we all know. Other NRPA studies indicate that businesses involved in R&D and tech place a higher emphasis on quality of life factors when locating a business.

And the reason for that they identify is because they want to retain high skilled talent. As well, we’re obviously the forest city, and thus we’re somewhat obligated to live up to our name by providing a positive natural area experience. Outdoor recreation of course provides physical and mental health benefits. When people are healthier, it means Londoners will have more opportunity over their lifetime to contribute to the local economy.

In summary, ESAs are important for the city economy, which can in turn make London a better place. It’s an important sensible investment with a good probability of return on investment. The second thing I wanted to address was Upper Thames Conservation Authority. They have a levy in front of you to fulfill legislative requirements.

So I recognize that it’s not optional, but I just want to draw attention to the fact that Upper Thames has been put in an extraordinarily difficult position with new legislation. They are a key part of the development assessment for home developments and economic growth. London needs Upper Thames to do a great job with development applications, but also to ensure that flooding and other issues don’t affect Londoners. Lack of housing causes a big impact of costs to Londoners, which impacts the ability of our economy to grow, and again impacts socioeconomic issues.

Environmental and floody costs are kind of a pain hour pay later in other ways. When they’re passed on to Londoners through higher insurance, taxpayer bailouts potentially, or direct loss costs. I recently received home insurance quotes for flood insurance, and multiple insurers identified London as a high risk insurance area for flood, significantly reducing or increasing costs to all Londoners that are in this situation. And it also of course is going to hurt the low-income disproportionately, but it also hurts the overall economy by diverting spending to non-productive insurance costs rather than to the local economy.

Upper Thames also has a critical role in improving the environment, which again as I’ve alluded to earlier with the essays is important for attracting talent. I personally feel up that Ben Shaw Conservation Area is a crown jewel, but entities that London has to offer. London has had many improvements to our private sector amenities over recent years, but many people both inside and outside London don’t truly recognize a lifestyle that’s available within London with both the ESAs and Fanshawe Conservation Area. And then in summary, I’d like to say Upper Thames again needs your support, make sure they can do what they need to do to help us, and they could use your help in advocating to the profits.

Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for joining us, Jeff, microphone, top left of the gallery. Welcome. State your name and please proceed.

Thank you. My name is Carol Bynan. I’m senior artistic director with the immobile acquires of London, Canada. We are here to support the request for increase in funding to the London Arts Council programs, which have supported us for the last number of years.

A number of points have already been made by my colleagues, but I’m going to pick on four points to say. And the first is what brings leadership and community and value to us in the city of London. One point is in education as we work with our people from age 7 to 97. We work with people in a term of lifelong learning so that they work about all aspects of life and diversity that is happening.

Next year, our focus for our 40th anniversary is on aspects of truth and reconciliation. And we can use singing for our people to become aware, internalize, and act positively to become community leaders. And that also impacts the audiences that we have. We focus on accessibility.

We have accessibility for people of all special abilities that come to us. And especially those who have financial difficulties. So the London Arts Council helps us make our programs accessible to all regardless of their financial or any other aspect that goes there. Our third aspect is health and well-being.

And we’ve watched as the mental health deteriorated through many of our singers through COVID and through the pandemic. And we’ve watched as they’ve become revitalized through the power of singing for that. Such that this year, we’ve begun a seniors choir for seniors of all abilities at this point. Our singers involve people with dementia, with Parkinson’s, with all sorts of aspects.

And we’ve watched people come in without the ability to be able to sing. But after a number of rehearsals to be able to sing a few verses at that point. Amabale has brought a national and international reputation to the city of London. And that vibrancy in our community is something that we need to continue to share.

So we want to thank you for that. Thank you. I’m going to go to the microphone, top on the side of the gallery, and then I’ll do committee room five. So top gallery, please proceed.

Hello. Thank you to the Council for opening up this space. And as well, thanks to everyone here who has been listening. Thank you for your undivided attention.

I know we’ve been speaking a lot about different problems and issues which face us here. But hopefully I’m here to maybe touch on what can be a source of light in this city. My name is a Habib. I am a community builder.

I am an artist and I’m here representing Sunfest as a member of their board of directors. So as you may or may not know, Sunfest will be turning 30 years old this year. And as someone who has grown up in London for most of my life, I’ve lived in cities like Montreal. I’ve lived in New York.

I’ve spent a lot of time working in Toronto. But when I come to London, what makes me so proud of the city is Sunfest and the work that Sunfest is doing. Sunfest is one of the strongest ambassadors of the city to the region, to the country and to the entire world. Last year, I had the pleasure of traveling internationally for a music conference and seeing the worldwide respect amongst agencies, music festivals, promoters, even diplomats that they had for our Alfredo Kasha, as well as his daughter Mercedes, was just astounding.

So Sunfest really leads by example. It wouldn’t be possible to have a festival run for 30 years, which is a free festival, mind you, for 30 years consecutively non-stop without sacrifice, without hard work, without dedication, without a true and real passion for the arts. And as many of my colleagues who have been here asking for more funding and more support from the city who have been representing the arts, and I don’t think it’s ironic at all that we gather here on a day out, which is such a horrific human rights tragedy had occurred, to which the mayor had brought to light at the top of the meeting. Music and the arts is without a doubt the main universal unifier of people.

It’s the one way that we can really come together, share space without prejudice, without hatred, experience joy together with complete strangers. It’s not about what you think, where you come from, what your skin color is, what you believe. Sunfest is doing that work and has been doing that work tirelessly for the last 30 years. As I said, I grew up in London, Ontario.

I grew up with the festival, and I remember being in elementary school. That was the first time that I saw Alfredo Kishaw before I had ever met him. He was coming to my school and doing a series of programs with various different elementary schools and high schools throughout the city to introduce the students there to music from around the world. This is extracurricular work that schools are losing the ability to do, and this is a little while ago.

Today, the arts have even less of a prevalence in schools. Again, this is work that’s extremely important. I could go on and on and on about the importance of it, but I also recognize the setting which we’re in. I would like to share with you some numbers from our sports and tourism report that we received from last year’s festival.

Very quickly, and please do let me know about my timing because I want to make sure that I get these points across. I think they’re very important for us to know. One minute and 20 seconds. Thank you.

Of all of the participants who came to, it was their first time coming to London, which was to come see Sunfist, 84% of them said they were very likely to recommend Sunfist to two people who are from out of town. 73.5% of them said they were very likely to recommend London to people who are not experienced here. I would say what’s very interesting about this is that the majority of our demographics, which was about a quarter, 25% of participants in Sunfist, were under the age of 18. The second highest number at 21% was 25 to 34, and the third highest was 55 plus at 18.2%.

So universally speaking, not only is this a free festival, but this is a festival which draws in people of all ages, of all genders, of all backgrounds. 15 seconds. And because again, numbers really do tell, the GDP that Sunfist brings in for the entire country of Canada is $5.7 million, Ontario $4.9 million, and London, this is out of town spending, so not people who live in London. People who are coming from outside of London to come to Sunfist spent $4.1 million in this city over the course of four days.

Thank you. That’s your five minutes. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Committee room five. I see some on the microphone. Please take your name and proceed. My name is Hayley Edge.

Last name is spelled E-D-G-E, like the edge of a cliff. And I am the current chair of the board of Forest City Gallery, but more importantly, I am just generally a very proud Londoner. So I’m here today to advocate specifically for business case P38 submitted by the London Arts Council, Community Arts Investment Program, which I’ll be referring to as Cape throughout this expansion. So I’d like to draw attention first to the fact that the arts and music sectors are integral to the health and well-being of our city and region.

There are countless studies that show the benefits and social and economic impacts that visual and performing arts bring to cities. It’s vital that our municipal leaders work to foster long-term sustainability of the arts and cultural sectors. At present, we’re seeing continued budget cuts, such as recent and significant cuts to the arts and Waterloo, as well as more broadly at a provincial level. Forest City Gallery receives operational funding from the London Arts Council, and we believe that the LAC’s request in case P38 is both reasonable and representative of a significant boost to artists, art collectives, and organizations in London.

With rising inflation and increasing funding requests, the LAC’s Cape program requires more support from the city. LAC representatives have informed us that the Cape operates with a similar similar budget to the Kingston’s Art Council, which is a city with one-third of the population of London. So we feel that this is a dire comparison for the city of London. An increase to the LAC’s Cape funding will have a significant effect on our communities encouraging artists and arts organizations to continue the practices and programs that make our city vibrant, healthy, and inclusive.

We recognize that there are numerous social issues requiring fiscal support, but we also affirm that the present moment is not one in which the arts and cultures must be set aside. It’s our city’s challenge and the duty of our local representatives to steer municipal funding responsibly and effectively. Ultimately, municipal funding to programs like Cape keeps access to the arts accessible to the general public and largely free of charge. It allows organizations like Forest City Gallery to operate in a location with high foot traffic or easily reached by different modes of transit.

It allows us to employ enough staff to have our doors open to the public year-round, and more importantly, it allows us to bring exciting and interesting arts programming to London while paying artists fairly and not requiring an entry fee. Although I came here today to speak to business case P38, I also want to draw attention to a few other business cases. P8 also submitted by the London Arts Council, P39 submitted by the Grand Theatre, P40 submitted by Pillar Nonprofit Network, and P70 submitted by Museum London. All of these business cases are requesting funds because the arts and cultural administrators in this city are eager to enrich the lives and lived experiences of Londoners.

They just need that additional boost to make that happen. Please consider making a business case P38 part of your multi-year budget, and thank you so much for listening today. Thank you, Ms. Edge.

I’ll need a moment. I will go to me room three next, but for council, I need a motion to extend to past 6 p.m. as per our council procedural by-law. Moved by Councillor Frank, seconded by Councillor Trousa.

I’m not going to take questions or comments on this. It’s available in eScribe, so please, it’s open for voting. Closing the vote. Motion carries 14 to 0.

I’ll just remind Councillors that snacks are available as you need them, and for a bio break, I wasn’t playing on stopping our public participation meetings, so please stretch your legs, paces you need, or do what you need and come back. We will now turn our attention to the other committee room. Welcome, please state your name and proceed. I think that’s me.

It’s Molly Mixa. I’m the executive director of London CycleLink. We are a member supported nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Londoners ride bikes more through education, advocacy, and community building. I would like to say thank you, council, for considering the whole community needs of Londoners both today, for the next four years, and for the decades following.

Investing in safe cycling infrastructure, often in conjunction with safe walking and public transportation ensures a more livable, more inviting, more equitable city, and step with a booming population and a recognition of the escalating climate emergency. I ask you to support business case P53 road safety enhancements. This business case includes one more targeted road safety projects and programs, two improved on-road pavement markings and three maintenance of boulevard bike lanes. Notably the third, as it has come to my attention that provincial standards and by extension municipal standards do not require that boulevard bike lanes be maintained in winter.

To quote from an email from Councillor Ferreira’s office, the provincial minimum maintenance standards distinguish between on-road bike lanes must plow and boulevard bike lanes, no snow plowing requirements at this time. P53 would include funding to plow some boulevard bike lanes, those named as part of the winter cycling network. The city of London has started to step up its game in installing and maintaining safe cycling infrastructure and we appreciate this very much. But if it is not maintained year-round, what’s the point?

Cyclists will not be able to use the infrastructure that has been built in inclement winter weather when they are most vulnerable. The winter cycling network includes 18 kilometres of the 35 kilometres of boulevard bike lanes that we currently have, so roughly half. And an additional 4.5 kilometres of the 58 kilometres slated to be added over the next three to five years. This business case doesn’t even mean that all of our bike lanes are maintained in winter at all, just the ones that have been prioritised.

So please give us this much, I mean maintain all of the bike lanes all year, but at least this much. Please support business case P53 for road safety enhancements. Another important business case is P56, the climate emergency action plan implementation support. We support this in all its parts, notably growth of the Transportation Management Association, which will support Londoners in reducing their reliance on single occupant vehicles, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and urban congestion.

Secondly, community led action investment, which will allow nonprofit organizations to support sustainability efforts. And third, corporate investment, especially through the acceleration and the use of the climate lens framework. We also support P51 and P3 for public transportation. And I’m aware that there are several issues which will be addressed in another year or so through the Mobility Master Plan.

And we anticipate those those items eagerly. Council, if you want to give more money to the London Police Service, I would suggest investing in walking and cycling officers and community police officers. Let’s build our community from the ground up and we will have less crime. More people supported in supporting each other.

Spread the money around some to let us support and service our community in all ways. I wish you luck in coming to consensus on budget priorities. Appreciate your time and attention and the opportunity to share London Cycling’s priorities with you. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Molly, for being here. I’m going to the microphone, lower gallery on this side, then I’ll do the lower gallery on the other side. Welcome, and please proceed. Hello, everyone.

My name is Leah Derricks, last name spelled D-E-R-I-K-X, and I’m the Interim Executive Director at the London Environmental Network. The LEN is an environmental charity that aims to make London one of the greenest and most resilient cities in Canada. We are a network-based organization that represents and serves 42 environmental nonprofits and community groups across the city. We also run our own programs that help to reduce emissions, waste, water, and enhance green spaces in our community.

Today, the LEN is requesting the city to fully fund Business Case P-56 Climate Emergency Action Plan implementation support in the multi-year budget. What we like about this case is that it tackles three major areas where funding is desperately needed to ramp up climate action in London. That is household and business, community, and corporate. The city declared a climate emergency in 2019 and approved the SEAP in 2022.

Since then, additional resources have not been allocated to implement the recommendations that were outlined in the SEAP. We are experiencing climate change in London here and now. We must allocate funding in the multi-year budget to enable effective climate action strategies across the city and meet our climate action targets. The SEAP is closely tied together with the city’s climate action and sustainable growth priority and we strongly believe that this goes hand-in-hand in achieving the greater vision for London, which is to become a sustainable city.

Additionally, SEAP implementation will create benefits and alignment in many other areas of the city’s strategic plan, such as urban green space, sustainable growth, diversity and inclusion, public transit, well-being and safety, affordable housing, and urban planning. It connects to everything. I hope to see your collective support for Business Case P56 and when the mayor’s budget is presented that you will continue to advocate for SEAP implementation support funding in the budget. I also want to add that I am a 27-year-old and I feel that my perspective is very representative of many of the feelings that the younger generation face.

And lastly, if you want to, I know you’re very busy, but if you have time, you can check out our website. We’ve summarized all the environmental business cases that intersect with the environment for your consideration. And we also have summarized many of the cases that our members have prioritized and some of them have spoken to you here tonight. Thank you so much for your time and good luck with the budget.

Thank you very much. Lower gallery, Tom. Good afternoon, counselors. My name is Tom Call, let’s spelt C-U-L-L.

I’m the director of Antler River Rally, a grassroots organization that works to restore and protect Doshkon-Z-B, also known as the Thames River. Antler River Rally supports the city’s ongoing and considerable efforts to reduce untreated sanitary flows, which in 2023 amounted to over 140,000 cubic meters of raw untreated sewage being released into the river. In particular, we ask that you include in the wastewater budget business cases WWT two sewer overflow investigation and mitigation and WWT eight sewage bypass and overflow elimination. Those can be found on pages 823 and 849 respectively.

These are projects that will help to more quickly reduce the untreated overflows from the sanitary system sewer system into London’s waterways. These are also capital projects that have no direct impact on the wastewater rate. The projects in these business cases are good for river ecology and will help reduce nutrient loading that can lead to harmful algae blooms downstream and in Lake Erie. These efforts are also crucially important for repairing our relations with the land and neighboring First Nations communities who have inherent rights to their traditional territories, which includes access to clean drinking water.

As laid out in the United Nations, declarations of the rights of indigenous peoples are UNDRIP fully adopting and implementing UNDRIP at all levels of government, including municipal government, is stipulated in number 43 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action. Thank you for your attention and your time this evening. Thank you for being with us. Microphone top gallery.

Miss Dunn. Hi, everybody. My name is Jennifer Dunn, D-U-N-N, and I am the executive director at the London Abuse Women’s Center. And with me today, sitting over there, we have Jesse Roger, executive director of ANOVA, Alyssa Rose, executive director of Women’s Rural Resource Center in Strathroy, Tim Smock, executive director of Changing Ways and Ileus Faruki, managing director of the Muslim Resource Center.

We are grateful to lead gender-based violence and violence against women work here in London and Middlesex. We are standing in front of you today to reiterate the importance of the work our organizations do and the need for the City of London to be an active partner in making our city safer for everyone. The City of London is unique in our country. We are one of only a handful of municipalities in the country who is dedicated to becoming a UN-safe cities, an initiative that began in 2017.

We are also the only municipality to incorporate a pillar in its strategic plan that specifically talks about keeping women, girls, and gender diverse folks safe. In August of 2021, the City also launched its community safety and well-being plan. Alongside these three commitments, we were proud to see the City Council declare intimate partner violence in epidemic this past July. We stand here now as representatives of organizations who do on-the-ground work with survivors, their families, and perpetrators of violence, and ask that you back up your commitment with actions and resources.

We have reviewed the multi-year budget that is sitting before you today and we have paid specific attention to business cases P-9, P-19, P-36, and P-37. While these business cases do have our full support, we would say it is not enough. In our estimation, more needs to be incorporated into this multi-year budget to ensure that your hard work in the strategic plan, declaration of IPV as an epidemic, and safe cities work is not performative but action-oriented. We ask that you think critically about what other investments must be accompanied by massive increases to the London Police Service budget.

We remind you that this must be accompanied by investment in the community, in community intervention, and prevention. It is not enough to increase budgets to police, but a connection must be made to those organizations who support police and show up for community on a consistent basis, often underfunded and under-resourced. We do have several recommendations as you move forward with this important work. One, community grants funding.

We request that you consider allocating more resources to fund the multi-year community grants that have been submitted to the city that have a tie specific to intimate partner violence. Two, invest more in community led diversion programs that can work alongside police. This includes work with women, children, perpetrators of violence, survivors of violence, and marginalized voices and groups. While we advocate for work we do in our organizations, we would also point to the need to have well-funded public health, libraries, and recreation programming as important and a need to have if we are able to take community safety seriously.

Three, use a gendered and cultural lens when reviewing investments for the multi-year budget. You can do this by asking yourself the following questions. How does this investment support women’s growth and economic capacity? How does this investment ensure that we are following through on our commitments in our strategic plan and our city declaration?

How does this investment ensure the women’s cultural context is at the core of the supports? Four, when reviewing investments in the multi-year budget, consider the city’s anti-racism and anti-oppression framework. This work is intimately tied to violence against women and gender-based violence. Ask yourself how does this multi-year budget reflect the diversity and strength in our community?

How does this investment work to ensure that all voices, including those who have not been included or recognized in the past, are being considered and valued? And five, direct city staff to ensure that the community safety and well-being plan, declaration of intimate partner violence, and UN Safe Cities initiative are all interconnected, collaborative and working alongside community partners to achieve action-oriented measurements and impactful outcomes. Thank you so much for your time today and your hard work. Good luck moving forward.

Thank you very much for being here this evening. I’ll go to committee room five next and then I’ll have the microphone on the top right after that. Welcome and please proceed committee room five. Afternoon, my name is Victor de Silva, D-A-S-I-L-V-A.

I’m here to talk about river road servicing improvement strategy. I’d just like to start off with, I would like that council recommend river road area to be a priority in the 2024 budget. River road area aligns with council’s strategic areas of focus. This is to deal with climate emergency priorities.

We need an inclusive truck route and underground infrastructure. River road area has been a neglected industrial area and the opportunity is now while Scammon Street is in a construction phase. Make addressing the issues in river road area priority now for 2024 budget. We are all here to improve the environment and the safety in the river road area.

So London, let’s do the right thing. Thank you very much. Thank you for those comments and regards to a business case. Gallery top corner, please.

Thank you, Madam Chair, Mr. Mayor and members of the Budget Committee. My name is Mary Ann Hodge. I am co-founder of Climate Action London and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today.

We live in challenging times and as a downtown resident and supporter of Indwell, I am aware of the homelessness crisis in London. But want to remind everyone that according to the city’s annual resident survey, 75% of Londoners are happy with the quality of life in London. It is a great place to live. But how do we measure success?

I applaud the City Strategic Plan providing us a roadmap for the future. I am especially proud of London’s commitment to reconciliation. I participated along with 55 other Londoners in the London Collective Action Project, a community-led initiative to discuss priorities in the budget. Everyone in attendance agreed that supporting business case number nine, the Indigenous Strategic Plan was a top priority.

A desire to strengthen community was of utmost importance. Londoners, number one, concern these days is often affordability. Affordability can impact both time and money. How many of you could afford to spend an hour to get to work in the morning?

That is the reality for those who rely on transit. We spend millions to construct the Adelaide Street underpass to save a few minutes in commuting time. But what if you cannot even rely on transit showing up? I urge you to fund public transit growth and service improvements for both conventional and specialized transit.

Business case number 51, which was chosen the number one priority by the London Collective Action Team and endorsed by 12 organizations and 200 individuals in the short time that we had between the budget release and Friday’s deadline. Another focus of the Strategic Plan and my personal number one priority is climate action. Most Londoners want to see more climate action but don’t know what they can do. There are so many systemic barriers.

We have seen what happens when we have years of zero or low tax increases. It costs a lot when we have to catch up. People are concerned about affordability. As we have already heard, Londoners want an affordable city for us but also for our kids and our grandkids.

We are seeing increasing extreme weather like storms, floods and wildfires. These reduce productivity due to poor air quality, increase costs for insurance due to rebuilding after storms and how many of you have experienced a flooded basement. If we don’t start funding climate action now, we will see these costs grow in the future. I urge council to fully fund business case number 56, the city’s climate emergency action plan.

We have heard support from the London development community for the city to lead by example but I believe that people are willing to do more. You have declared London a UNESCO city of music. With this comes a responsibility to meet the United Nations climate targets. For only a dollar a week per household, we can fully fund the city’s climate plan.

Waiting until the next multi-year budget cycle will make it difficult, if not impossible, to meet London’s 2030 climate targets. Later is too late. Please support business case number 56. Thank you for joining us this evening.

Microphone lower gallery, please proceed. Hello, my name is Bob Morrison, M-O-R-R-I-S-O-N. I’m resident of ward six and I would like to talk about public transit. I’m highly supportive of public transit growth and service improvements along with the related infrastructure investments required to support that growth.

Improving the frequency and reliability of both conventional and paratransit options has many ties to the various areas of focus in the strategic plan. Addressing mobility poverty is included in the housing and homelessness and also in safety and well-being areas of focus. The mobility and transportation area of focus clearly requires improved reliability, quality, and safety of all modes of mobility, improved ridership, improved ridership satisfaction, and public transit that better meets the needs of our workforce. Additionally, in the climate action and sustainable growth area focus, transit is a key component to London meeting its emission reduction targets.

In the resident satisfaction survey released this past December, 26% of residents listed a transportation-related issue as top of mind. 11% specifically responded that inadequate public transit was top of mind. If we can get more people into buses than it improves the commute time for those that continue to choose to use their personal vehicles. Improving public transit service would go a long way to addressing the concerns of Londoners.

There are many examples of students returning to London who found transit an efficient option in other cities when returning they expressed they needed a car because taking the bus in London was difficult. We want students to choose to stay in London and one criteria for the youth in making that decision is a good public transit system. It will take time to increase ridership to where it needs to be. However, there are success stories such as Brantford that committed to a 20-minute service and recently reported that they were able to increase ridership by 50% over a four-year period.

Public transit is a key foundational item that we need to correct now. London is projected to grow by another 200,000 people by 2050. If we were to grow inward and upward, protect our farmland and natural areas, grow our economy sustainably and attract businesses. We need a well-established, reliable public transit system that people will choose to use.

I’m also highly supportive of the city’s recent focus on homelessness and housing affordability. Overall, affordability requires affordable housing measured by combined housing and transport expenses. Historically, London has been developed in a very car-dependent fashion. Without adequate public transit, we are leaving many Londoners with no options but to bear the additional costs of car ownership.

Additionally, a combined combination of fixed incomes, climbing rents and higher prices have caused an increased risk of homelessness among certain segments of our community. Providing a desirable and affordable public transit system has so many co-benefits. I hope you will choose to fully fund our public transit system in the multi-year budget. Thank you.

Thank you, Bob. I’m going to go to committee room five and then when I come back, it will be the lower gallery on the opposite side. Sure. Thank you, Councillors.

My name is Mike Wallace and I’m here on behalf of the London Developmentist 2D LDI. Normally, you did save my seat in the gallery tonight, so I’m back in the committee room five, but happy to be here. First of all, let me start with a congratulations to you as a council and to the finance staff and the staff of the city. Very few committees in Ontario do a multi-year budget.

They rely on an annual go through this process annually. I think it’s quite visionary and important that London is the leader in the budgetary process that they have here in Ontario, so I want to congratulate you first on that. Second of all, you haven’t received anything from yet, but over the next week or two, you, Councillors, will receive a letter from me on our vision of what the budget should be for the next number of years. In principle, we are in favor of a budget that reflects, I would say, what was in the public survey that you had in terms of satisfaction in the fall and the work that you’re done on both the, really, in two areas on the affordability issue, particularly with the, we are concerned as an industry and as members of the city on the homelessness and health issue that is there, and we are very supportive of the city continuing that support for those efforts to try to resolve those issues as best they can.

The city’s also been committed to providing an increased housing supply to try to make life more affordable here in London from a housing perspective going forward, and we are supportive of anything that’s in the budget that will help support that that effort says, you know, the city is committed to doing the 47,000 houses over 10 years. It is a very good goal and it will take some work and the city staff are working with the industry on trying to find ways to be able to make that happen, and there are some budgetary items in the budget that will help us go a long way on that. The overall theme is affordability for us. We want to make sure it’s affordable, and the one thing that part of affordability is property tax, and I know you have a chart in your presentation that the finances provider that evaluates what a house is worth and what the taxes it generates in one format, but the format that we’re used to is one where what do you actually pay?

What does the homeowner, what does the taxpayer, which, you know, you’re going to get 50 people here today, or whatever the number is, 40 people giving you a presentation of things they want, including myself, but the vast, vast majority of people are staying home and they’re the ones paying the tax, and if you look at what 500,000 of assessment does for you in Ontario and different communities, and of course the treasurer will say, well, $500,000 worth of assessment gets you a different house in Burlington than it does in London or in Oakville or in Windsor, which is absolutely true, but at the end of the day it’s the principal interest in taxes that people are paying through their mortgage, and taxes pay, I say, bring them out. If you look at 500,000, anywhere in the GTA from Brampton to Markham and that old GTA area, it’s anywhere from 3,300 to 5,300 in annual tax for 500,000 worth of assessment. For ones that are close to us, it’s in the 6,000, get your Waterloo, those areas, you might be surprised to know that 7,300 bucks in London, Ontario based on last year’s tax rate, and these are all based on tax rate multiplied by the assessment, and that’s what people actually start with through their mortgage or directly to the city, and I know it’s going to be a tough budget, I know there’s a tremendous amount of pressure and we recognize that, but we just want you to keep in mind that on the affordability side, property taxes do play a role on making London more affordable, and that gap that London used to have in terms of an attraction of being a more affordable place to live compared to other communities within Ontario as shrunk and has continued to shrink, and just to give you an example, 20 seconds, yep, just to give you the final example, when we praise out a lot, it’s basically how much is one foot a frontage of your lot, in London now it’s anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000 a foot, so that’s a 50 foot lot, it’s a half a million dollars, we very much cut up to our competitors and we need to be careful going forward, thank you for your time. Thank you Mr.

Wallace for joining us, I’m going to go to the lower gallery on this side and then I’ll be looking for Mary Rowe on Zoom. Thank you, first I was going to ask Council for a vote for Mayor Morgan to buy everyone dinner, but I see their snacks so you’re off the hook, thank you for your time, I know it’s getting late, my name’s Jeffrey Hamm, H-A-M-M, I’m in ward two but my focus extends citywide, the term healthy appears 25 times in your budget, yet there’s only singular reference explaining what contributes to it, that’s on page 531, healthy parks recreation lead to healthy society, marginalized youth term appears zero times, I know it’s covered likely in some of the plans, but it doesn’t appear at all in that entire book, so I’m standing here to advocate for a greater focus and increase funding for our parks and recreations, so keep a focus on that, I appreciate the ongoing efforts in maintaining and upgrading children’s equipment such as slides and climbers, it’s crucial to recognize the need for more diversified options catering to the older youth teens and adult demographic, now I was talking to Jennifer who spoke earlier from the women’s shelter on her way out, I wish she was here for this, I’m a coach for soccer, youth soccer at BMO, as well as East London Soccer Club, I’m also involved with the Argyle Community Center trying to get on the board just waiting for that, and Bethany spoke earlier from the Argyle BIA and I also met Carolyn and talking up here, she’s very eager to get working on a few things, the point is when we talk about marginalized youth, I took a vote at my practice with my team, which is coed, and this isn’t in the paper, I’m just kind of babbling off here, but I asked the players, I say, you know, we’re going to talk about bullying today, who’s been bullied before, who’s witnessed bullying, they all put their hands up, but there was one girl out of the entire team who did not raise their hand, clearly a minority, and she was a female, so it goes to show the efforts you’re putting in are working, and I was even set back by that, and I, you know, she’s an amazing girl, great a smile, so it didn’t surprise me. The long-term benefits for a well-rounded park recreation budget can bring our city together, let’s ensure that our community remains vibrant and inclusive by allowing resources to allocate in resources to activities that cater to the diverse interests of age groups. There’s a gap in facilities designed for those aged over six, so imagine yourself going to the park, one of the smaller parks, let’s say even Glen Caron, which is an area of concern in the north, kind of a northeast part, and I’ve been on the London maps, I’ve seen all the parks, there’s some beautiful parks, but a lot of the parks kids go to after dinner, or just slides, they’re four six-year-olds.

When you’re nine, you might be playing grounders or tag, but after that, it kind of fizzles out, and they have nowhere to go, you know, so I want you to ask yourself, this is a lame reference, if you build it, they will come. Ask yourselves, where are they coming from when they go to the park, why are they at the park, where else could they go, and what else could they be doing. Now I said again, as a marginalized youth, we know a lot of kids have access to sports and they can get involved with things, but it’s those who have parents are unsupportive and say, just get out of the house, go find something to do. Well, they’re probably going to end up at the park or some are worse, but when they go to the park, the age eight, it’s usually three-year-olds, four-year-olds playing on the climbers.

So we’re talking about taking existing parks like Nelson Park, where there’s a lot of grass already, soccer nets, basketball court, pickleball, and I’ve talked to some counselors here before. I know pickleball is taking over tennis, so I’ll kind of leave it with that. It’s kind of one part to supporting our at-risk and marginalized youth, making sure they have somewhere to go, when they have nowhere to go, and no one’s offering to help them. We don’t know they exist.

We don’t know how to reach out to them, so at least give them that as a starting point. There’s a whole support circle that surrounds them by identifying them and supporting them. This is just one of them. I look forward to a lot more work.

This is one area that stands out. Thank you. Thank you for being with us, Jeff. Looking for Mary online.

Perfect. We can see you. Can we hear you? Hi.

Perfectly. Please proceed. Thank you, Madam Chair. It’s nice to see your worship there.

I am Mary Rowe, RWE, and I’m the CEO and president of the Canadian Urban Institute, and I’m phoning in from our not so sunny capital where it’s basically slush, but I am a born Londoner and very interested in keen to hear all the things that I think you’re doing so well, downtowns doubling down on investment. I saw the mayor stated the city last week, good for you, converting office buildings, looking at your parking lots. You’re doing so many of the right things in London, and I appreciate it’s not an easy time to be a municipal leader, either a council member or a mayor, and hats off to you. Art your staff, for that matter, for all the things that you’re trying to do that are the right things.

I just want to say that I’m here to endorse or support investments in your assets, particularly your public library assets, because we did a big study last year through the Urban Libraries Council looking. We work on cities across the country, downtowns, main streets, different recovery strategies, all the different components that allow cities to be able to enable the kind of flourishing and opportunity that we know that they can, and part of our emphasis was to, and we call this report overdue, if you want to Google it, you can find it overdue at counter.org, and we make the point that this is an infrastructure of hundreds and hundreds of civic buildings, and how important it is to invest in and protect those assets that we have that are often on main streets or in downtowns, and deliver such a wide array of services. And I think that I don’t, I’m sure I don’t need to make a case for anybody in this house, in the committee rooms, in the chamber, about how valuable your libraries have been, and prove to be through the pandemic. Now this is the tough point for people like you.

How are you going to decide where you invest the scarce resources you’ve got? And that’s tough. There’s hardly a petition. I listened to all of them this afternoon, fascinating, and there’s not a one that isn’t worthwhile.

So you’ve got to be really strategic about how you not only invest your own revenues, but how you leverage other revenues. And you can see through things like the housing accelerator fund that you can partner with government governments to create the kinds of amenities that you need to support the London population as it currently is, and what its economic future is going to be as you add population, which as you know, is coming. So I just want to stress how important is to work from the assets you’ve got? I went to the public library on Queen’s Ave.

That proves my London cred. I still say Ave on Queen’s and Miss Coates used to take care of my father who was a prophet Western. We would go every Saturday and she would be the person to find for him what he was looking for. I have a very rich memory of what that service felt like and what that experience was like.

You’ve got 16 branches and the dilemma we’ve had and we have it across all municipal infrastructure in the country, not just municipal, is we’ve neglected these assets and now we’re dealing with the repercussions of that. So you’ve got to not be afraid of of staking your claim, investing the resources you’ve got, leveraging the other orders of government to partner with you, and also look for new kinds of partnerships, new kinds of opportunities to create other assets in on top of what you’ve already got. So I just want I know there are several business cases in front of you. I know there’s a base case for what the library funding should be, but just remember Oliver Wendell Holmes.

I pay my taxes because it buys me civilization. The dilemma you’ve got is too much burden on the municipal tax base. We all know that we may have a window in provincial governments across the country. I see the time provincial governments across the country and with this federal government to look for new revenue tools, I’m sure Mayor Morgan is thinking about and her is thinking about that.

And the question now is going to be how do you together amongst all of you take all those all those proof points you’ve got and that you’ve been hearing for the last two hours and say this is what’s important that we invest in the assets that we’ve got. Thanks for giving me a chance and I appreciate being in front of the chair and Mayor Morgan. Thank you, Mary. Just for everyone’s information, phone lines are cleared, committee rooms one and three are cleared.

We still have residents in five. We still have someone remaining on zoom which I’m aware of and potentially some speakers in committee room five. So I’m going to go to the gentleman the lower mic on this side. And then I’m just going to ask if anyone’s committee room five who would still like to speak, they can go to that microphone.

We also have space here in chambers. You’re welcome to join us here or stay in that committee room. So I’ll let you plan your future while we hear from this gentleman. My name is David Stanford.

The last name is spelled S-T-A-N-F-O-R-D just like the university. Chair Palosa, Mayor Morgan, honorable counselors. I want to thank you for this opportunity to address you on the subject of the 2024 to 2027 city budget. I’m a retired professor of statistical actuarial sciences at Western and I’d like to take this opportunity about a minute of my time to set the context for my later comments.

While the climate emergency action plan was embarked upon by the city in April of 2022, it was just last year when we saw the most extreme consequences in Canada of the climate emergency. Fully 18.6 million hectares of our forests burned, representing about 5% of the total forest cover in Canada. This amount is more than two and a half times larger of not the average, but the most extreme of the previous 40 years of measurements of fire burn in Canada. In my career as a professor of stats at Western, I’ve never seen a data set with such an extreme variation.

In terms of getting our attention, this fact is the equivalent of nature screaming at the top of its lungs to do something about the crisis we find ourselves in. It’s motivated me to act and to share this unique perspective with you. Budget case 51 proposes an increase in service hours for London transit, both for regular and specialized transit services, as well as infrastructure to support the introduction of zero emission vehicles. P-51 is unique among the business cases I believe in that it addresses two goals, namely the environment and socio-economic equity.

Six depositions here today have endorsed it according to the agenda that you see in front of you, including the one from London Collective Action which was signed by more than 200 Londoners. Those same 200 Londoners have also endorsed business cases P-52 and P-56. P-52 supports the introduction of zero emission buses, and I only wish it were being done faster, but still not to support P-52 would in my view be a big mistake. P-53, as Molly Mickshaw from LCL has already spoken to, is the main item that supports cycling in London.

Some existing bicycle lanes that exist in the city have their lines worn through and they need to be redone, and bicycle boulevards need to be swept and plowed to support cycling around the year, and as I say, Molly’s report has already addressed that. P-56, as several people have said, is the main support for the climate emergency action plan, so I’m not going to spend a lot more time talking about it other than to point out three avenues. It has our home energy retrofits, publicity for environmental initiatives, and the climate change investment fund. I’d like to speak a little bit more generally and say that the draft city budget informs us that fully 27% of the greenhouse gas emissions in London are from personal car use.

Simply put, we need to encourage a lot more Londoners to resort to cycling and/or transit for some or all of their trips. The city needs to identify someday in the year to really encourage Londoners to get out of their cars. I would personally suggest the internationally recognized car free day, which is held every year on September 22nd, and I’d further like to be so bold as to suggest that that be a fair free day on London transit to further support that goal. In closing, I remember being in Kelowne in the Okanagan last August during a family trip, visiting our son, our daughter-in-law, and our only grandchild.

This was before Kelowne itself was threatened by wildfire, but already the smoke was so bad that residents were advised not to go outdoors for two days. I wondered at that time, and I wonder still, what sort of world we are leaving for our granddaughter’s generation and future generations. We need action on the climate emergency and a singularity of purpose, not that different than what was shown in the Second World War in fighting Nazi Germany. It’s that important.

Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Going to the microphone, lower level on this side, and then the upper on this side. Welcome.

Thank you. My name is April Volof, I’m the Executive Director of London Symphonia, and I’m here to support the request from the London Arts Council. I think it’s important for some of you, I know, have come to concerts, but I’m not sure that all of you have, so I wanted to share with you a little bit about what the city support has done for the orchestra over the last nine years. London Symphonia recognizes its role as a responsible leader within the arts community, taking a community-centered approach to artistic decision-making.

We recognize the cultural, ethnic, and indigenous communities that make up London and seek to create programming that inspires these communities to engage with and participate in the arts. We partner with other community organizations, both arts and otherwise, to deliver unique events that draw on the strengths and attractive components of all collaborators. We seek partnerships with other music education institutions to share expertise and enhance the delivery of their programming. We also seek opportunities for these participants to collaborate in London Symphonia performance and education initiatives.

We provide a broad range of musical experiences for the London community at venues that keep the arts accessible. These may include live performances, educational activities, and community-speaking engagements. We curate music education activities with age-appropriate content that increases engagement and collaboration. We present orchestral music in an engaging way that celebrates it as a living art form with a proud 400-year history that is continually being enhanced by Canadian composers.

London Symphonia builds upon this tradition, encouraging renewed interest by exploring how orchestral music interacts with other music and art forms. We invite guest artists, both Canadian and otherwise, who are exceptional at what they do, connecting London audiences with a mix of established performers and emerging artists. We take strategic artistic risks that position London Symphonia as a forward-thinking and responsive orchestral institution. We add attendance of 4200 during our last season, which consisted of eight concerts.

We’re halfway through our current season, and we’re already over 2,000 people who have attended our concerts. We have 800 seats in the refurbished renovated Metropolitan United Church, and we’ve sold out three concerts so far this season. We expect that to continue, and we look upon it as a testament to the fact that people in the city want this art form. They want to support it, they want to attend concerts, and we’re giving them something that they really enjoy.

So I would encourage you to support the London Arts Council request. I know that they haven’t received an increase in over 20 years. The amount of money that we receive is significant to us, but we recognize that there are many other people who are asking for funding from them as well. So we, I believe, should be supporting the arts in London, and I appreciate your time.

Thank you. Thank you very much. I’m going to go to the top gallery, and then I’ll seek out Donna on Zoom. Please proceed.

Good evening. My name is Catherine O’Neill, O-N-E-I-L. I’m going to speak very briefly about eight different topics, and I don’t represent any paid organization, just the struggling taxpayer. So my eight paragraphs, number one, show us the money.

We have a survey for public participation and organizations have been telling their groups to vote for certain cases without providing the costs. Land, for example, has a long list of recommendations totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly concerning what I consider exaggerated climate alarm. I suggest citizens do not vote for any measures that they have not seen the costs for. Number two, basic math to prevent cost overruns.

The four-year budgets, they have the possibility of annual cuts, but in reality, very little is done to substantially reduce expenses before adding new ones. The result, endless hikes until taxpayers can’t be squeezed further. The solution, if something’s to be added, something less important must be cut. Number three, DEI must die.

Our Canadian charter states that Canadians are to be treated equally. The term equity is questionable sources. Non-profits use the term DEI to get money for ideologies which many do not agree with, often in opposition to our charter when taken to extremes, such as excluding straight white males, as we saw in the HUD proposals. It’s not the business of city council to spend taxpayers’ money pushing ideologies.

So case P10, $200,000 for DEI instruction? No. Case P36, over 700,000 for anti-racism, anti-oppression? No.

Number four, the ESG lens that’s throughout the budget. We’ll pay attention to the environment properly, not just CO2, by the way, and ensuring fairness for all, the effect of the ESG focus is too narrow, ignores taxpayers’ ability to pay, and ignores needed growth of small business to replace those destroyed by the overzealous lockdowns. ESG investing is also riskier, as it’s based on opinions, not solid metrics. Number five, the SDGs.

Many London groups now use tracking of what they do using the 17 SDGs of the United Nations, the so-called sustainable development goals. These are a recipe for world government. Of all our resources, our health, our climate efforts, even our Canadian justice system. To believe this global unelected body has our best interests, you need to use some magical thinking.

It was an arm of the UN, the WHO, that suggested we follow the China model and have severe lockdowns, caused a lot of harm. Recently, we saw another arm of the UN, Umarah, found participating in the genocidal attack in Israel, so that Canada was forced to suspend their $23 million we send. The UN, in my opinion, is a failing body, and we should stop following the footsteps of failure. Number six, nonprofits.

I suggest council reduce monies to many of them, except worthy ones that can prove they are providing actual, essential services, not ideologies. Kalar, non-profit network, shut it down. It’s a middleman, and went from being over budget by $100,000 to now being over $300,000. Certainly, they don’t deserve another million as they ask for in case number 40, as they provide nothing of substance.

Number seven, case P8 and 38, almost $800,000 extra for London Arts Council on top of what they get, more as they are not so much arts-based as ideology-based and frequently advertised paid projects that exclude white people. I’m a trained artist. This city needs a new unencumbered group focused on arts, and another million for the Grand Theatre that just renovated with nine and a half million dollars. I’d say no to P39.

A very bright spark, case number P71, to give back an extra $15.5 million of taxpayer monies left over from COVID grants to be used as tax relief. That’s the kind of thinking we need. We need a robust look at cuts to the existing budget for all non-essential items. Londoners deserve only a rate of inflation increase, and that’s below 5%.

20 seconds. Councilors were elected to deal with the issues in London, not to be co-opted into global plans, such as the 2030 agenda. Again, the overarching UN. A must-have budget is what citizens want.

Thank you. Thank you, and I see Donna available on Zoom, if you could unmute yourself, and please introduce yourself, and you have five minutes. Hi, I’m Donna Spikowski with the High Park BIA. Just checking, can you hear me okay?

Perfectly. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Firstly, thank you to the chair, and to the mayor and council for giving me an opportunity to speak on this.

I’m speaking in reference to business case P42 as part of the five-year community improvement plan, or CIP. Since the BIA formed into 18-19, the High Park BIA has always placed a major thrust for the creation of a High Park Hamlet, or village, running across Gainesville Road, and we really need the city to help support us with that growth. A CIP is vital for proactively shaping the ongoing growth in High Park, aligning with the city’s strategic plans and major shared desire with residences and businesses for a strong sense of community and interactive business environment. The business case includes a funding ask of 100,000 in 2026 to implement incentives that will help build the Hamlet.

More than the investment is a channeling of resources into the High Park area to develop a streetscape plan contained within a CIP that will address deficiencies in physical infrastructure, commercial areas, traffic transportation, and parking with opportunities for improvement. A CIP will help us to create a strong local sense of place and identity. While we understand the inflationary budget constraints being felt by council, the poverty, policing, and safety, homelessness, and mental health pressures, along with so much more, we do feel it’s important for the city to find balance and supporting other areas in the city, such as Northwest London, especially when we experience exponential growth in the way that we are. Given the very low dollar amount being requested in the very high stakes for this area, we are hopeful and respectfully request that this will be included in the city of London’s multi-year budget.

A few points that we believe provide further justification for our request include, we are the only CIP in the city and one of the few across the province without a CIP toolkit. Even given there are sections of Gainesville and Hyde Park roads with main street designations, with our significant growth challenges and the opportunities that can come with that growth, having a CIP for the Hyde Park BIA will offer the resources and streetscape planning with potential incentives for growth along with other possible grants in the BIA’s future. While acting as an important anchor for this corner of London, in looking ahead, we believe that being approved versus the IP to investigate the viability of the Hamlin and Gainesville Road, with those subsequent resources from the city’s planning department to create that streetscape plan as part of our new official community plan, for implementation, will lay the groundwork for a cohesive community in a proactive manner. A CIP toolkit will help us leverage private public partnerships, helping to increase our commercial tax rate base.

And should we be running in 2026 for the 100k that staff outlined in our request, the BIA would be willing to contribute 50% of that towards the CIP grant. Really noting that what’s important to the Hyde Park BIA are the resources and planning toolkit that come with a CIP. Last to note is that we have been asked on occasion why the Hyde Park BIA doesn’t create our own facade grants or other grants. Without an updated communities and streetscape plan, it would not be physically viable for the Hyde Park BIA to create such a grant.

Further is confirmed with staff. BIA’s and municipalities are not permitted under the Ontario Municipal Act to bonus or provide grants of any kind to private entities without the legal framework that a CIP provides. The other thing I miss noting I wanted to comment on is based on some statistics we received from city staff a few days ago while London is one of the fastest growing cities in the province. Hyde Park BIA is one of the fastest growing areas, if not the fastest growing area in all of London.

So the support a CIP can give us to help manage that growth would be very important to us in conclusion. I would just like to thank you very much for your time and review and consideration. Thank you, Donna, for being with us this evening. I’ll note that all committee rooms now are void of residence.

Anyone there has joined us in the galleries. The phone lines are clear and that clears up our Zoom attendees who registered for this evening so as just those who in chambers as our final speakers. So I’m going to start with the lower microphone on this side and then the next side of the gallery. Welcome and please proceed.

Good evening. My name is Brendan Samuels, that’s S-A-M-U-E-L-S. And I am the chair of the City of London Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee. I’m here today to speak on behalf of that committee and to share our committee’s recommendations with you.

I want to thank the chair, the mayor and members of council for your time. I also want to thank staff for organizing a really inclusive budget process. I know there’s a lot of problems facing our city and there’s a lot of people here today with competing interests and concerns. I think this is a reflection that we are invested in democracy.

People are showing up and participating. People are engaging with political decisions, operational decisions that affect all of us. So really grateful to be part of the exercise. You’ll see on your agenda item number M is communication.

It’s the recommendations from our advisory committee. They were passed along to civic works committee and then forwarded to you for consideration. I’m not going to go through all of the recommendations now, just sort of highlights for your information. For those of you who aren’t familiar with our advisory committee, we focus on remedial planning towards cleanup of contaminated areas, waste production, reuse and recycling programs, water and energy conservation measures, climate change mitigation, the development and monitoring of London’s urban forest strategy, the climate emergency action plan and other related policies and strategies, maximizing the retention of trees in natural areas and other environmental concerns.

Our report to you contains four sections. The first outlines are support for prioritizing business case P-56 for the climate emergency action plan. We recommend that that business case should be funded in full. We also provide a breakdown of components of that plan, some questions, concerns, suggestions related to those components.

We then outline some support for other business cases and then some overall feedback and questions raised by committee about the multi-year budget. We encourage the city to support the climate emergency action plan because since it’s been developed in 2019, we’ve not really devoted the resources to implementing it. The successes of this plan and the returns on investment for the city are linked to this budget funding that implementation. And I’d say if there’s one message for council to take from our submission, it’s that the medium to long-term costs of doing nothing and not funding climate change mitigation and adaptation at the scale that’s required will be much more expensive and pose major risks to the city’s finances indefinitely.

We’re already seeing effects of climate change in our city. You’ve heard residents talk about it today. We go into some of the priority areas of concern in our report. We also point to the province’s provincial climate change impact assessment, which was published last year.

There’s a lot of red on that chart. There’s a lot of areas where we are seeing high to very high climate risks that will be present in our city in the next 25 years, particularly risk to the population is rated as very high. And so if you go through our recommendations, we do talk about components of the climate emergency action plan. In addition, we recommend prioritizing funding for P-51, the LTC transit service hours growth.

If we’re going to drop community emissions, we need to get people out of their cars. They need to be able to trust that the bus is going to come and get them where they need to go. P-31, parks operations, service enhancements, ecological master plan funding, P-61, P-62, environmentally significant areas management. The community gardens grant program is a really important component for food security in our city and naturalization of boulevards and reduced roadside cutting.

It’s a really great opportunity to actually reduce costs of maintenance. Overall, our committee just raised a few points of concern about the multi-year budget. We appreciate the time of staff spent explaining things to us, walking us through it. However, we found in reading the budget, it wasn’t always clear where external funds were being leveraged towards these different business cases.

And even though this information is in the budget in certain places, it’s not really standardized. It’s not clear where you’ve got funding put towards one thing, whether that funding could be stretched to support other business cases. And so we suggest Council take a look for future versions of that budget process at communicating external funding more clearly. And we provide some other suggestions of potential avenues to improve access to external funding for the city.

We recommend taking a look at the Wonderland Road widening. So that’s business cases TS13481 to 13489. We’re a little bit unsure about the status of that given the mobility master plan work that’s in progress. So I would appreciate some clarification in taking a look at that when you have an opportunity.

Twenty seconds. And that’s all I have for today. Thank you. Well timed.

Thank you for joining us Brandon. Gallery on the side, please. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for having us here today.

My name is Naomi Nadia, N-A-O-M-I-N-A-D-E-A. I just wanted to thank the mayor and all you wonderful city councilors for having this open mic for us to speak and house our opinion. First thing I want to say is on behalf of the well bar, Mr. John Ribson would like to thank the city of London and he wanted to say that he’s very proud of his new location in downtown London.

That’s that two, three, eight then that’s and he looks forward to working with the city and all you wonderful council and so continue having a beautiful LGBTQIA safe space for the people of London and other people who are visiting. I don’t have much to say that’s what I wanted to just say just basically saying thank you so much for making London Ontario still a safe space for people who are at risk and a lot of the marginalized persons by pork community and you know we just wanted to say thank you. We’re not 100% where we need to be but we’re the lemon is comfortable for us and we just wanted to let you guys know we’re very proud to be Londoners and we just thank you all. Thank you so much.

I want to reciprocate. Thank you for being with us this evening. It’s been an evening. So we’re coming up to seven o’clock like I said we’re not done until you’re all done.

If I could just go to show a hand from the guy who just who would still like to speak tonight just helps me judge. Okay so a few more so for those who haven’t spoken who are contemplating it you’re almost done time contemplating it so I’m going to go to the microphone on this side then this side so you can judge your time of who wants to maybe speak after this. Welcome and please state your name and you have your five minutes. Thank you.

My name is Emily Poirier. I’m the vice president external affairs at the University Students Council at Western University. I don’t know if I get bonus points or following down the series in front of all the council but if I do I’d like to claim them. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak today.

I really appreciate it. So the USC for those of you who aren’t familiar is a nonprofit organization representing Western’s 36,000 students, undergraduate students their concerns and interests. The USC has worked for years to bring forward students concerns and feed back to the city including throughout the budget cycle and this budget cycle we are collaborating with our friends and colleagues at the financial student union and they feel like college students at councils in order to determine the issues that are most important for one than 70,000 students to see addressed over the next four years. Today we hope to touch on a few key points.

One of the cases we identified as being a benefit to students is case P-25 which is proactive and still compliance. This case would increase which fund increased staffing for municipal enforcement officers and allow for proactive inspection of rental units. An issue that students having increasingly had to face over the past several years is the quality and safety of their housing. I’m sure many of you have heard horror stories of overcrowding and students living in unsafe housing over a year-over-year due to lack of maintenance and repair especially for high turnover units issues may go years without being addressed.

Through proactive enforcement and inspection blitzes these issues will be addressed earlier and better. The problem is not limited to students either. Renters across the city often struggle to get their issues addressed or unaware of their rights and reliance on maintenance responsibilities. Even better this case has a 0% increase on the tax levy.

This means that this proposal which we believe will improve students living conditions will result in no additional cost of the taxpayer. The next case we believe will be improved student experience is case P-51 with the transit service hours growth which amongst other things will increase frequency and duration of current lines and expand services to underserved areas. Many students rely on transit to get to work school and other activities but adequate service leaves but inadequate service leaves many waiting on the side of the road waiting for her buses that may cannot pick them up due to capacity. By increasing the frequency of buses and expanding their reach we will also increase the student mobility in the city.

It will also increase the options for students with defined housing as increased connectivity will allow for students to live further from campus without increased in difficulty. Additionally when students struggle to navigate London they struggle to connect with London in a meaningful way in a way that makes them want to stay a long term. Many students never see London everything London has to offer and so don’t even consider staying after graduation. If London wants to retain the bright young people attending institutions and houses it must provide them with reasons and ways to.

Finally the last case we wish to highlight is case P-53 red safety. This case will support investments in more real safety measures and the city’s vision zero efforts. Many students use walking as one of their primary methods of transportation however many worry for the safety during the daily commute. Road safety rear traffic injuries are also the leading cause of death for people at shifting to 29.

I hear from students regularly who are hit or almost hit while going about their lives and who feel unsafe walking to and from school or even to their bus stops. Through investments such as pedestrian crossovers both pedestrians and drivers are able to feel safer while they navigate through London. In conclusion these two cases P-25, P-51 and P-53 will have a huge impact on the daily lives of students at Western and as a field of colleges as well as Fanshawe and I urge the council to incorporate them into its multi-year budget. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you Emily for joining us tonight on behalf of USC. Speaker on the side welcome please proceed. Hi I’m B last name is C-O-U-T-O. Since the Ward 4 meeting about the proposed city budget last week I’ve been thinking a lot about the burden of proof.

It’s defined like this. In a dispute one party has the burden of proof to show that they are correct while the other party has no such burden and is presumed to be correct. In a burden of proof fallacy one party tries to avoid their need to provide proof. They can do so by denying an event by pretending they’ve already offered the burden of proof or saying that it’s someone else’s duty to provide the proof.

I reviewed the business cases for the proposed London Police Services 672 million dollar budget increase ask the biggest line item in the four city year budget which is more than four times that dedicated to ambulance services more than four times of social and community support services more than eight times higher than neighborhood and recreation services more than five times that of library services and more than eight times that of London and Middlesex community housing. Why are these reasons so so poorly funded when there was actually needed to keep our kids, youth, neighbors and elders safe. I also read a study that was mentioned earlier from the Canadian public policy journal that concluded that higher police spending does not equal lower crime rates. The study used police budget data from across 20 forces including London from 2020 from 2010 to 2021 to compare police spending against the crime severity index.

The research found that police budgets were the largest expense for most of the cities included in the study but did not correlate to a decrease in crime. A similar US based study was done looking at 60 years of police budget to crime data and the research also concluded that an increase in police budget does not correlate to a decrease in crime. When I asked police chiefs strong about the findings of the study in relation to his ask for 672 million dollars his response to that study was incomplete and was not looking at enough of a big data set. Mind you the data researched was from an 11 year period and the only incomplete data was that was missing from our own eight government agencies.

Chief Trong told the London Supreme Press that his proposed budget will quote equip his officers with the necessary tools and supports to do their jobs more efficiently allowing them to spend more time on proactive policing and community engagement end quote as well as equipping officers with body cameras and a new police training center. In the ward 4 meeting Chief Trong did not respond to my asking to finding what proactive policing looked like nor did he detail how LPS can prevent crime. We did learn however that 120 million plus dollars of the ask will go toward building a new police training facility. If you haven’t heard about what’s happening in Atlanta, Georgia with regards to its citizens refusal to allow COP city to be built there you should before it’s too late for London.

This should not even be on the table for consideration. So I’ve been thinking about the burden of proof on us as voters and how we might ever satisfy the police with the research that we present or frankly even the sum to sum in the courage to ask for accountability from the police chief and his deputy when they attend public budget meetings off duty but arrive in uniform carrying loaded guns. So combined 71 years of data concludes that increasing police budgets doesn’t decrease crime as well as a multitude of research concluding that body cameras are ineffective because the technology is often turned off by police officers or the video was lost or unavailable. Where is the burden of proof for our police board and services?

Where’s the third party research that demonstrates spending $672 million will make London safer? When they won’t tell us how they intend to do so. Why are we building a light why are we buying a light armored vehicle? Urban militarization?

Ask yourself do proactive policing and preventing crime sound like taking care of our community’s needs or does it mean surveilling youth sitting around them all because they have nowhere else to go? Is it housing people with safe and affordable housing or just pushing people into a different doorway or encampment? Your gut knows the truth and research shows it’s cheaper to take care of our community’s basic needs versus policing us. Chief Chong that says that he hears that mental health addiction and homelessness are the biggest challenges our city faces then why are we not spending our tax dollars on those services at a much cheaper cost than $672 million.

We can make London more safe for all of us by funding ambulances, neighborhood and community supports, affordable recreation and housing or any of the myriad of asks you heard today. I urge you to vote down business cases P28 P29 and especially P57 and allocate even half of that money to the services that actually make our city safer. Thanks. Thank you.

That’s what it’s about. This is the last call so whoever’s interested please approach a microphone. Gentlemen on the top corner on the side of the gallery your microphone should be live please proceed. My time should be short just a quick question.

Am I right in my assumption that there is another PPM scheduled for February 27th? Yes. I’ll reserve my comments till then. Thank you.

Okay thank you. I’ll note that anyone interested who didn’t feel comfortable speaking tonight can always send in comments as well at budget committee at london.ca. This is it before I close the public participation meeting. I know some have already spoke if you’re still contemplating it.

This is your chance. Hey zoom is empty. Meeting rooms are empty. The phone lines are empty and I see no further speakers and a microphone are indicating the mics looking to counsel for a mover and a seconder to close the public participation meeting moved seconded by counselor cuddy.

That’s a vote in e-scribed. Voting is open. Voting the vote motion carries 15-0. Thank you to those who join us in the gallery that closes the official public participation portion of this meeting looking to counsel.

I will need a mover and a seconder to receive all the communications that were sent in for us moved by counselor hockens seconded by counselor frank. That vote will open momentarily. I vote yes. Oh yes.

Voting the vote motion carries 15-0. Okay we have no items for action. No deferred matters additional business. We have no confidential items to be discussed.

Budget meetings will commence on Thursday morning. I’ll send out a separate email about the procedures for that day. That brings us to adjournment this evening and that was 45 speakers in three hours. So thank you to the public and committee for rotating as needed.

The motion to adjourn was purple moved by Deputy Mayor Lewis. Seconded by counselor Stephen. Sorry Paul you’re too slow. Thank you Paul.

Motion carries. Okay good night everyone. Look forward to my email coming to your inbox as soon.