January 27, 2025, at 1:00 PM

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1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That, pursuant to section 27.6 of the Council Procedure By-law, a change in order of the Community and Protective Services Committee Agenda BE APPROVED, to provide for Item 5.1 in Stage 5, Deferred Matters/Additional Business, to be considered after Stage 1, Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest.

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

2.   Consent

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That Items 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

2.1   1st Report of the Animal Welfare Community Advisory Committee

2024-12-05 AWCAC rEPORT 1

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That the 1st Report of the Animal Welfare Community Advisory Committee, from its meeting held on December 5, 2024, BE RECEIVED.

Motion Passed

2.2   London Fire Protection Grant 2024-25 - Transfer Payment Agreement

2025-01-27 SR London Fire Protection Grant 2024-25 - Full

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Neighbourhood and Community-Wide Services, the proposed by-law, as appended to the staff report dated January 27, 2025, BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting on February 11, 2025 to:

a)    approve the Ontario Transfer Payment Agreement between His Majesty the King in right of Ontario as represented by the Minister of the Solicitor General and The Corporation of the City of London for the Fire Protection Grant (“Agreement”), as appended to the above-noted by-law;

b)    authorize the Mayor and the City Clerk to execute the above-noted Agreement; and,

c)    authorize the Deputy City Manager, Neighbourhood and Community-Wide Services, or their written designate, to execute any reports required by the province under the above-noted Agreement. (2025-P16)

Motion Passed

2.3   Appointment of Consultant Engineer - OVHL Thames Valley Corridor Parkland Improvements Construction Administration

2025-01-27 SR Appt of Consulting Eng. - OVHL Thames Valley Corridor Parkland - Part 1

2025-01-27 SR Appt of Consulting Eng. - OVHL Thames Valley Corridor Parkland - Part 2

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Environment and Infrastructure, the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report, dated January 27, 2025, related to a Consulting Services Contract for the Old Victoria Hospital Lands (OVHL) Thames Valley Corridor Parkland Improvements Project (Federal/Provincial Infrastructure Project funded under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program):

a)    the price submitted by Dillon Consulting for Contract Administration and Site Inspection Services for the OVHL Thames Valley Corridor project of $589,105.00 (excluding HST) BE ACCEPTED; it being noted that the price submitted by the Consultant meets the City’s specifications and requirements in all areas;

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

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

d)    the Mayor and the City Clerk BE AUTHORIZED to execute any contract or other documents, if required, to give effect to these recommendations. (2025-A05)

Motion Passed

2.4   Whole of Community System Response - Q4 Quarterly Report

2025-01-27 SR Whole of Community System Response Q4 Report - Part 1

2025-01-27 SR Whole of Community System Response Q4 Report - Part 2

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy Manager, Social and Health Development, the staff report dated January 27, 2025, with respect to the Whole of Community System Response Q4 Quarterly Report, BE RECEIVED. (2025-S14)

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

Additional Vote:

Moved by J. Pribil

Seconded by S. Trosow

Motion to approve the delegation request from N. Stuckey to be heard at this meeting.

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

2.5   Unsheltered Homelessness Encampment Initiative and Incremental Reaching Home Funding Allocations

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Social and Health Development, that the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report, dated January 27, 2025, related to amending existing contracts to implement the Unsheltered Homelessness and Encampment Initiative (UHEI) and additional Reaching Home incremental funding to support those living in encampments and experiencing homelessness:

a)    an amendment to the existing Municipal Purchase of Service agreement with The Ark Aid Street Mission to a total estimated increase of up to $767,087 (excluding HST) for the period of January 1, 2025 to March 31, 2025 BE APPROVED to continue 70 emergency shelter spaces to utilize the UHEI and Reaching Home incremental funding as per The Corporation of the City of London Procurement Policy Section 20.3 e);

i)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all administrative acts which are necessary in relation to this project; and,    

ii)    the approval given, herein, BE CONDITIONAL upon The Corporation of the City of London entering into new and/or amending existing Purchase of Service Agreements with agencies identified through the City’s Procurement of Goods and Services Policy to deliver the approved services;

b)    an amendment to the existing Municipal Purchase of Service agreement with The Ark Aid Street Mission to a total estimated increase of up to $3,068,348 (excluding HST) for the period of April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026 BE APPROVED to continue 70 emergency shelter spaces to utilize the UHEI and Reaching Home incremental funding as per the Corporation of the City of London Procurement Policy Section 20.3 e);

i)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all administrative acts which are necessary in relation to this project; and,    

ii)    the approval given herein BE CONDITIONAL upon The Corporation of the City of London entering into new and/or amending existing Purchase of Service Agreements with agencies identified through the City’s Procurement of Goods and Services Policy to deliver the approved services;

c)    an amendment to the existing Municipal Purchase of Service agreement with The Ark Aid Street Mission to a total estimated increase of up to $282,913 (excluding HST) for the period of January 1, 2025 to March 31, 2025 BE APPROVED to continue day drop in space to utilize the UHEI and Reaching Home incremental funding as per the Corporation of the City of London Procurement Policy Section 20.3 e);

i)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all administrative acts which are necessary in relation to this project; and,    

ii)    the approval given herein BE CONDITIONAL upon The Corporation of the City of London entering into new and/or amending existing Purchase of Service Agreements with agencies identified through the City’s Procurement of Goods and Services Policy to deliver the approved services;

d)    an amendment to the existing Municipal Purchase of Service agreement with The Ark Aid Street Mission to a total estimated increase of up to $1,131,652 (excluding HST) for the period of April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026 BE APPROVED to continue day drop in space to utilize the UHEI and Reaching Home incremental funding as per the Corporation of the City of London Procurement Policy Section 20.3 e);

i)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all administrative acts which are necessary in relation to this project; and,    

ii)    the approval given herein BE CONDITIONAL upon The Corporation of the City of London entering into new and/or amending existing Purchase of Service Agreements with agencies identified through the City’s Procurement of Goods and Services Policy to deliver the approved services;

e)    the Civic administration BE DIRECTED to find a source of funding for an estimated total of $1,156,201 which includes the $360,285 annual shortfall for the day time drop in space, the Ark Aid Street Mission to provide 12 women’s only beds at the CMHA My Sister’s Place location at a total estimated cost of $638,056 and the Ark Aid Street Mission to provide 10 spaces at their Oxford street supported housing location at a total estimated cost of $157,860;

f)    an extension to the existing Municipal Purchase of Service agreement with Atlohsa Family Healing Services at a total estimated increase of up to $33,750 (excluding HST) for the period of January 1, 2025 to March 31, 2025 BE APPROVED to temporarily expand indigenous led outreach supports and services using the UHEI and Reaching Home incremental funding as per the Corporation of the City of London Procurement Policy Section 20.3 e);

i)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all administrative acts which are necessary in relation to this project; and,

ii)    the approval given herein BE CONDITIONAL upon The Corporation of the City of London entering into new and/or amending existing Purchase of Service Agreements with agencies identified through the City’s Procurement of Goods and Services Policy to deliver the approved services;

g)    an extension to the existing Municipal Purchase of Service agreement with Atlohsa Family Healing Services at a total estimated increase of up to $135,000 (excluding HST) for the period of April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026 BE APPROVED to temporarily expand indigenous led outreach supports and services using the UHEI and Reaching Home incremental funding as per the Corporation of the City of London Procurement Policy Section 20.3 e);

i)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all administrative acts which are necessary in relation to this project; 

ii)    the approval given herein BE CONDITIONAL upon The Corporation of the City of London entering into new and/or amending existing Purchase of Service Agreements with agencies identified through the City’s Procurement of Goods and Services Policy to deliver the approved services;

h)    the use of Housing Stability Services budget for a total amount of up to $1,400,000 BE APPROVED to support costs associated with the provision of Transactional outreach and provision of basic human needs using the UHEI and Reaching Home incremental funding from January 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026;

i)    the use of one-time funding of up to an estimated $876,441 BE APPROVED to support Ark Aid’s Cronyn-Warner and day drop-in locations from one-time 2024 surplus in the Housing Stability Services operating budget resulting from anticipated reimbursement from the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP) for January 1st to December 31st 2024, and that the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to contribute up to $876,441 from the Housing Stability Services 2024 operating budget surplus to the Operating Budget Contingency Reserve to facilitate this funding;

i)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all administrative acts which are necessary in relation to this project; and,

ii)    the approval given herein BE CONDITIONAL upon The Corporation of the City of London entering into new and/or amending existing Purchase of Service Agreements with agencies identified through the City’s Procurement of Goods and Services Policy to deliver the approved services;

it being noted that a verbal delegation from S. Campbell, Ark Aid, with respect to this matter was received; it being further noted that the delegation request from N. Stuckey was withdrawn at the meeting. (2025-S14)

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

Additional Vote:

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

Motion to approve the delegation request from S. Campbell to be heard at this meeting.

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

3.   Scheduled Items

3.1   2nd Report of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee

2025-01-08 ESACAC Report 2 - FULL

Moved by J. Pribil

Seconded by H. McAlister

That the following actions be taken with respect to the 2nd Report of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee (ESACAC), from the meeting held on January 8, 2025:

a)    an expenditure from the 2025 ESACAC Budget BE APPROVED, up to $375.00, for speaker gifts and refreshments for its Green Development Standards Information Session; it being noted that the ESACAC has sufficient funds in its 2025 Budget to cover this expense;

b)    the 2025 ESACAC Work Plan, as appended to the above-noted report, BE APPROVED; and,

c)    clauses 1.1, 2.1, 3.1 and 4.1 BE RECEIVED;

it being noted that the delegation request from B. Samuels was withdrawn prior to the meeting.

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

4.   Items for Direction

4.1   Bob Hayward YMCA at 1050 Hamilton Road

2025-01-27 Sub. YMCA - 1050 Hamilton Road - Councillor McAlister

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to explore affordable housing development opportunities with the YMCA of Southwestern Ontario regarding their property at 1050 Hamilton Road; it being noted that these discussions and any partnerships or property acquisitions that come from them would be incorporated into the subdivision planning of the former Fairmont Public School; it being further noted that the communication from Councillor H. McAlister, as appended to the Agenda, was received. (2025-S11)

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

5.1   (ADDED) Framework for the Provision of Overnight Warming Centres and Resting Spaces for Cold Weather

2025-01-27 Sub. Warming Centres - S. Trosow

The Civic Administration BE REQUESTED to investigate and report back to a future meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee with a framework for the provision of overnight warming centers and resting spaces for cold weather emergencies; it being noted that this framework should include the following:

a)    a review of climate conditions required for opening additional emergency overnight warming centers and resting spaces during circumstances such as extreme weather events and consider alternatives to community centre spaces with respect to types of facilities that could serve as spaces for overnight warming centers and resting spaces, such as churches, or other faith community, charitable or not for profit spaces as well as opportunities to utilize community volunteers where appropriate;

b)    process for quick implementation with service providers, other city departments, and emergency services for assistance with the staffing and monitoring of overnight warming centers and resting places in cold weather emergencies; and,

c)     sources of funding for the provision of such overnight warming centers and resting spaces, including engaging in discussions with the province around municipalities’ ability to access “disaster relief” funding similar to what would be accessed in the event of other weather events such as a tornado or flood. (2025-C01)

Motion Passed

Additional Votes:

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by S. Trosow

Motion to amend parts a), b) and c) to read as follows:

a)     a review of climate conditions required for opening additional emergency overnight warming centers and resting spaces during circumstances such as extreme weather events. Consider alternatives to community centre spaces with respect to types of facilities that could serve as spaces for overnight warming centers and resting spaces, such as churches, or other faith community, charitable or not for profit spaces as well as opportunities to utilize community volunteers where appropriate.

b)     process for quick implementation with service providers, other city departments, and emergency services for assistance with the staffing and monitoring of overnight warming centers and resting places in cold weather emergencies; and,

c)  sources of funding for the provision of such overnight warming centers and resting spaces,  including engaging in discussions with the province around municipalities ability to access “disaster relief” funding similar to what would be accessed in the event of other weather events such as a tornado or flood.

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by S. Trosow

That the motion, as amended, BE APPROVED

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

6.   Adjournment

That the meeting BE ADJOURNED.

Motion Passed

The meeting adjourned at 2:33 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 (1 hour, 56 minutes)

Okay, everybody, I will be calling this meeting to order. All right, so welcome to the third meeting of the Community Protective Services Committee. I’ll read the Council Chamber’s statement. So please check the city website for additional meeting detail information.

The city of London is situated on the traditional lands of the Anishnabek, Haudenosaunee, Lina Peiwok, and Adawandran. We honor and respect the history, languages, and culture of the diverse indigenous people who call this territory home. The city of London is currently home to many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit today. As representatives of the people of the city of London, we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and live in this territory.

The city of London is committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats and communication supports for meetings upon request. To make a request specific to this meeting, please contact CPSC@london.ca, or dial 519-661-2489 extension-2425. I’d like to recognize members of the committee and chambers today, I have Councillor McAllister, to my right, Councillor Cribble, to my right, Councillor Troso, to my right, and visiting members, I have the deputy mayor, also to my right, and Councillor Raman, also to my right. Looking to committee for any disclosures of interest.

I’ve seen none. Okay, so we have just a message from the Clerk E-Scribe at the moment is not streaming, but YouTube is at the moment, so you should be able to watch the meeting on YouTube from online from home. Okay, so no disclosures of interest. I am looking to committee for a change of order.

We have, on deferred matters, additional business. We have an item there, and I do understand that the city manager is here today, and the city manager is going to provide a brief, okay. Deputy city manager, Mr. Dickens, will be doing that brief today.

So I am looking for a change of order to be able to provide that brief, and then we have a motion that’s been put on the added for the deferred matters in additional business. So looking to committee for a change of order to change section five, moved by Councillor McAllister, and I’m looking for a seconder, seconded by Councillor Pribble. Okay, let’s put that to a vote on E-Scribe. Closing the vote, the motion carries four to zero.

Okay, so on deferred matters of additional business, I’m gonna go to the Deputy city manager, Mr. Dickens, to give us a debrief on the warming center, and then I’ll go to committee. So first I’ll go to Mr. Dickens.

Thank you, Chair, and through you. Last week, the Middlesex London Health Unit issued a cold weather alert, an extreme cold weather advisory, which triggers our city of London cold weather protocol. That occurred on Monday of last week where all organizations were advised that all the homeless serving organizations were advised that the cold weather alert was in effect, and asked to scale up all of their spaces, and do whatever they could to bring more folks indoors. Part of that cold weather alert is also the notice out to the community through a number of social media channels, as well as to our community center staff that they may be receiving people coming in into the cold during their regular operating hours.

On the Monday of last week, there was a significant number of spaces added to our system. Well over 40 beds with close to 40 additional individuals welcomed in there to the cold, just into general meeting spaces, cafeteria spaces, and provided that space overnight. Despite adding over 70 individuals to the system and making space indoors on the Monday, recognizing the prolonged cold weather event, the city initiated what we would typically do in a community disaster event as we initiated our emergency reception center protocol. This is the emergency reception center or the emergency social services protocol, something that is managed in partnership between Ms.

Smith, Her area, My area, and emergency management and corporate security. On Tuesday, we decided to initiate a temporary emergency warming center by following our reception center protocol, which is to activate Carling Heights Optimus Community Center, that is our home location where supplies are kept on a regular basis for those reception centers. We activated chalk in the late afternoon of Tuesday, welcoming the first individual through the doors at 8.30 pm. We originally set up around 50 cots, which increased to just over 60 by the time the night grew late.

This space remained open throughout the week through to Friday morning. We peaked on Thursday evening of 132 individuals accessing the space at Carling Heights and the numbers on the day prior were just below that. We did see a large number of people stay throughout the day, accessing services or just staying warm and resting. But as the week went on, quite a few people left and came back later at night.

So the numbers would dip quite low during the day and increase throughout the night. The space, in order to access that space for such a prolonged period, all programming at Carling Heights Optimus Center had to be canceled. Notification went out in rapid succession through social media channels through robocalling and through direct emailing. Understandably, that facility has a lot of drop-in programming.

So city staff were on site to engage with folks that showed up that did not receive the message and were notified that the programming was canceled. At the completion of the temporary emergency warming center on Friday, the work began to change over the site and do a thorough cleaning and inspection for health and safety measures. So that programming could resume by the end of the weekend. Through that process, throughout the Tuesday evening, through to Friday afternoon, we tapped into a large number of city staff from a number of different service areas across the corporation.

And we were supported by a number of community agencies who were able to dedicate one or two staff across different shift times. We ended up running three shifts throughout the day to cover the 24/7 period. So we benefited greatly from some experts in the community that were well-skilled at serving a very high acuity population. That type of support and services not typically provided by other service areas in this communities or in this city.

So while we appreciate their help, we do know that we benefited greatly from community organizations assisting as well. So individuals were provided a space for sleeping on one of our cots that are at Carling Heights. We were able to provide warm drinks, fresh fruit and meals throughout the week. And then again, wound it down at the end of the day Friday and returned it to normal activities for this week.

So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Dickens. Okay, we have an item also on the Deferred Matters Additional Business, so I’ll be looking to committee.

Councillor Trussell. Thank you very much and I don’t know if it’s time for me to talk about my motion yet, but before I do that. Councillor, I do need a motion on the floor before anything. I would require a motion on the floor.

Oh, okay. In which case, I would like to put on the floor the item that I caused to be placed in the added agenda and about the warming centers, the framework for the warming centers, I would like to move that to the chair. Okay, motion moved by Councillor Trussell about the framework and conditions for the warming centers that was added on the added looking for a seconder. Councillor McAllister, question?

Thank you through the chair. No, just procedurally, don’t we have to receive the staff report and then we can maybe ask questions and then when we get to the Deferred Matters? ‘Cause it is a separate item or did we reorganize to have this item dealt with first? Yeah, it was a verbal update.

There was nothing on the added agenda. We were notified that the staff would like to be giving us a debrief on the warming center. So there is no item on the agenda attached to this and we moved it. We did the change of order to bring this right at the top just because I do know that staff have other obligations soon with some things coming up later today.

So that’s why we did it this way. So there’s no agenda or there’s no report for this item. It’s just on its own. So just look, I’ll second it to put something on the floor.

Okay, we have a seconder. Okay, Councillor Trussell, please go ahead. Before I address the, through the chair, before I address the merits of my motion, I would like to really express my gratitude to the staff because I know that you were called on short notice to do a lot of additional work. And by all accounts, in terms of what I heard from people, what I heard from people who are still on the street, what I heard from the press, this was an overwhelming success.

And you really did a good job making people feel comfortable. And I don’t know if there were any difficulties or incidents, but I didn’t hear of any. And if there were, I’m sure you would let us know about it. But I think this was the city at its best.

And I know a number of you were involved and I’m not even gonna try to mention all the names ‘cause we were getting updates from a number of different people. So just great work. And I wanna make it clear that by me putting this motion on the table, I am in no way questioning the ability of the staff to deal with this professionally and competently as they did. However, I do think it’s important for the city council itself to be more involved in these matters in terms of coming up with a framework.

I think this went well and I think it could go better in terms of everybody in the community knowing exactly what is gonna happen. And therefore, I’ve put together a motion requesting staff. And there’s no timeline on this because I know you’re working on it anyway. And I know that there is some degree of duplication here and I know you’re working on it anyway.

So I don’t think that I think this is something we’ll probably get back pretty quickly. You can tell us. But I’m calling this a framework. And I would like to see the framework include, first of all, a review of the conditions that trigger the opening of a warming center.

In my opinion, based on things I’ve read about other cities and the feedback I’ve gotten from residents minus 15 is too low and it needs to be. In my view, I would like to see it raised and I’d like to get a report in terms of the feasibility of raising it, not just in terms of the temperature, but all of the environmental conditions in terms of the amount of snow, the wind and other things. In terms of the part B, the process for quick implementation with service providers, it sounds like you’ve already worked through a lot of those issues. I would like to regularize this, including other city departments, the emergency services, and certainly our service provider partners, also in terms of where these would be located.

And again, I don’t think this motion is asking you to do a lot of additional work, because I think these are things that you’ve already well considered. And finally, I would like a very brief report. This does not have to go into costing detail at this point, but I would like an idea of the sources of funding in terms of what accounts, what reserve accounts, if appropriate, this might come from. And I didn’t ask a follow-up to Mr.

Dickens’ presentation in terms of what the costs were. If you’d like to discuss that, that would be fine. But I do think it would be useful for council to have this included in a report that comes to us. So with that, I put this motion on the floor.

I have a second, and I would ask my colleagues to support this. I think it’s important for the city council to be involved at some degree, which is not to say that certainly staff and staff’s partners or other departments are leading this, but I would like to see council in the loop a little bit more. So thank you very much, and I’ll yield to other members of the committee. Thank you, Councillor.

I did hear a question there about the costs incurred. I wanted to know if I could just, if staff might have that information, if not, we can come back to you. Okay, let’s wait for staff on that one. All right, looking to other members of committee, Councillor McAllister.

Thank you, and through the chair, I wanna echo Councillor Trosto’s, thanks. I know it was kind of all hands on deck last week in terms of pulling together multiple departments, multiple agencies, and getting something open to get people off the street. So I really do appreciate that. And so our thanks go out to the staff and the agencies for being able to do that.

I’m happy to support this. I know there’s some duplication. I’d also like to get a better understanding in terms of the process and the costs associated with running the centers. I do think it warrants a discussion in terms of the threshold that we’re using.

I think maybe having discussions in the Middlesex Health Unit, comparator in terms of what other municipalities are doing, I think that would be helpful for the public to understand that too. One of the things I will say upon reflection of last week is I wish we hadn’t been in this position. I really think we need to look at what happened, lessons learned, I think moving forward. It would be nice if staff, the agencies could meet.

The threshold, I believe, had already been met. When council convened, I felt it was inappropriate in terms of how things unfolded. I think we had already entered an emergency situation. And personally, I think those conversations should have happened offline.

I do not think we needed to charge an issue, which is already very politically charged. So I think we all learned some valuable lessons from what occurred at the warming center. I’m happy to see a report come back with more details, costing, we all care about this issue. That is not in question.

I did not like having to deal with that at council. I’m happy to deal with that at committee, which is where I think of the appropriate places. We have the time to ask questions, to think through things more thoroughly. And so I just want to end by, again, thanking everyone who was involved.

And I know it was very much appreciated. So thank you. Thank you, Councillor. I have Councillor Pribble next.

Thank you. And once again, Kudos and thank you to the staff and to the agencies that really came out last week and addressed this incredibly high issue that we need to address. I have a couple of questions though, sort of chair to the staff. And if there were any safety security issues concerns that happened during that week, inside the facility, there would be one.

And the second one, I do realize it was only a few days, but did we do any analysis in terms of the individuals that were inside, in terms of low, medium, high-accuity individuals, if we give any data, or the fourth kind of the four days weren’t enough to make such qualifications. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. I will go to Mr.

Dickens regarding safety analysis and analysis of who we assisted. Thank you, Chair, and through you. I think as we identify here that this was not a, we did not activate a homelessness response, or I guess we’re discussing what is our typical emergency response plan and an emergency homelessness response plan. What we opened up was a temporary emergency warming center, which we were pulling staff from storybook gardens to CIR and everybody in between, to come and just help us facilitate.

So we did not prioritize, nor was it the intent of the warming center to start doing client assessments to figure out acuity. To lead into your other question about safety and security, I would hazard a professional guess that a lot of folks were moderate to high acuity. While we didn’t have a high number of escalations and safety concerns, safety was paramount. At one point Thursday night, the team and I had set up 130 cots in a gymnasium.

You’re putting a lot of people in a small area with cots six to 10 feet apart for a prolonged period of time. And while we avoided any significant escalations, if it wasn’t for the work of organizations like the ARC and London Cares and city staff and security being on site to prevent that from happening, it certainly could have led to some significant escalations. We benefited from emergency management and corporate security having staff in the building at all times for the entire 64 hours that the site was activated. We also leaned on contract security guards as well.

And at the late night and overnight periods, we doubled that staffing just to make sure we’re managing the entrances and managing the washrooms. And there’s a lot that goes into a space when there’s over 100 people there. You need to make sure you know who’s in the washroom and how long they’ve been there and you’re doing safety checks. When you’re dealing with high QD individuals, you wanna make sure that you’re doing significant and numerous rounds to keep eyes on folks and make sure they’re doing well.

Some folks had not been in out of the cold in quite some time and needed a long period of time to rest. Someone started sleeping for excess of eight hours. You start to get a little nervous and you’re doing regular checks on them. So yes, we had some escalations.

Yes, we’ve had, we called paramedic services. Yes, we benefited from foot patrol making regular rounds to check in on the space and check in on individuals. And we’ve tapped into their service once or twice throughout those 64 hours. So it was not without its issues, not a high volume of issues, but certainly a situation that doesn’t come without significant risk.

And I think the other piece here is that we also, we used our designated reception center, emergency management site for this initiative. Sunday afternoon, we were alerted to the possibility of having to open up a reception center for an event and an evacuation that occurred at a retirement home downtown. In the event that the warming center was still operational and we had to enact our emergency management reception center protocol, we would have been in conflict with without having access to the significant number of cots needed, nor the facility, nor the on-call staffing team to be able to do that. So there are other challenges associated with this for sure.

Thank you, Mr. Dickens, councilor Permaume. So thank you once again to the staff and to the agencies because it was a successful week and I’m quite sure that there were life saved, which is again the most important thing and just repeat work. My fellow councilor Hadley said, I really think this is the appropriate time to discuss it, to talk about it.

And not that the council, so I’m glad it was moved and we are discussing it now. And thank you for the update and the report. And again, the update, the regular updates we received over the four days were incredibly valuable to all of us. Thank you.

Thank you, councilor. I do have the deputy mayor on the list, but I do wanna make some remarks myself as a member of the committee. So I’m gonna pass this over to my vice chair, councilor McAllister, and just let me know when I’m ready to go. Okay, recognizing councilor Perma, go ahead.

Thank you, presiding officer. So I guess I’m gonna start with great big thanks to staff. I thought you guys did wonderfully, just winding things up and getting things moving as fast as you did, that is very, very happy to see and very impressive. So I just wanted to put that thanks out to everyone who did that.

All the staff members who came in with a whole bunch of items on their desk and went in to operate the warming center themselves. And I really appreciate the updates that continually came through to council, letting us know what the status was, what the update was and where we were at. Greatly appreciate it. I also would like to say thank you to councilors who are working on this behind the scenes.

I know who you all are, and I really appreciate the work that you were doing. There was a lot of work that went on behind the scenes, and I’m just really grateful for that. Also, recognition to the mayor. The mayor came out and he also pushed this with us, and we saw this warming center open, so there’s recognition there as well.

We have to give credit where credit is due. And I would also say, I agree with the motion for a look at the conditions. I think just knowing how the cold weather emergency management policy is structured and with the issuance of cold weather alerts from Lenna Middlesex Health Unit, and then the cold weather emergencies, and where we’re exactly opening up new capacities on the cold weather emergency side, I do see that there was an ad hoc component here, and we did open up the cold weather, or sorry, the warming centers at a critical point just to help those in need. And I really know that the community is very grateful for that, I am grateful for that.

And the people that we were serving are very grateful for that too. Speaking to those conditions, I think we do need to make a look at those conditions and maybe reassess, I don’t know where exactly they will land, but I think it’s a good idea to maybe look into that because negative 20 degrees is quite frigid, negative 15 degrees is quite frigid as well. So just trying to see if we can find a better balance that works with our operational side on the staff side and what really works. For the framework section itself, I feel like there probably is capacity out there, whether it’s in the basement of churches or centers that are open to the public, or other city assets possibly that we could use before we use a community center.

So that’s why I think looking into the framework and seeing if we can identify those locations and would be a good way to go. Also with looking at agencies or other outreach agencies or anybody who can actually help us maybe operate some of these emergency warming centers would be good as well, so we don’t have to be requesting staff to leave their desks and help us with that. Maybe there would be a good way. Maybe there’s something there that we can find out.

And going with supplies, cots, provisions and goods like that, just kind of streamlining that and seeing if we can kind of have a process that we can turn on automatically at a certain set threshold that the community can expect to know that we will have that open once we hit these conditions. I think that would be a good idea too. So with all that, I would be supportive of this motion. And again, thank you to the great work that we saw from everybody who was involved.

I thought what we saw here was a very wonderful thing to come about, and I know the community is very grateful, and I know the people that we were assisting are very grateful as well. The thing is, it gets cold in Canada when there’s come every single year, so we know that this is potentially gonna come again if not this year, so just to look into that and see if we can have that streamline process so we can kind of have that plan ready to go, and we know that we can have it work in a way that works best for the city and for just the operation of it all. So I’ll go back to the Vice Chair. Hopefully you can turn it back to me, and then we can go to Deputy Mayor who is next on the list.

Okay, I will return to the Chair to Council for noting that you used three minutes, three seconds. Thank you, Councillor. Deputy Mayor. Thank you, Chair, and I’ll start as well by echoing all the thanks to our municipal administration, all of those who stepped up and gave their time and took time away from their other duties to mobilize and enact our emergency operations protocols.

I want to thank Mr. Dickens for pointing out that should we have had a situation and we nearly did, but if we had a Woodman ab situation or something of that nature, we would not have been in a position to do both. This is not sustainable for the city to respond to these situations. And I’m gonna go back to the summer and we had a discussion with agencies and we had a whole of community response table talking, and we were told we can’t keep ramping up and down, we can’t keep ramping up and down, we need an all-year response.

So we chose to fund an all-year response, and we contract those services out because we do not have the ability in-house to do it. So to get a letter on the day of Council, from the agencies that we contract to do this work, who told us they cannot ramp up and down, was to me, particularly when additional beds were mobilized the night before, we heard from our city manager at the Council meeting, 44 were mobilized the night before. To me, that is an unacceptable situation to be in. For the agencies, the date after the mobilized extra beds, the contracted agencies who are supposed to help us find solutions to these problems, who told us we can’t ramp up and down, we need an all-year response, to then come and say we need to ramp up.

It’s not sustainable. And so frankly, a discussion is gonna be needed, that is going to raise the question again, do we need to ramp down in the summer? So we have resources for the winter, because resources are not unlimited. And if that is the question we have to ask ourselves, that is going to be the question we have to ask ourselves.

If that means fewer overnight beds in summer, so that we can operationalize emergency things in the winter, we’re gonna have to have that tough discussion folks. You know, I’ve heard some comments in the public about what Toronto does. And I think it’s really important to know, Toronto runs their own shelter system. They don’t contract it out.

And honestly, there are a city that is two thirds of a billion dollars in the red financially. So I’m not sure that we wanna be looking to Toronto. However, I will say that conversations I’ve heard about, well, what about extreme snowfall events? I think that’s a reasonable conversation for us to have.

We know that extreme snowfall events tend to be two or three day events too. So is there something we should look at there? I’m willing to entertain that discussion. I get really concerned though, when we start getting into discussions about is the Middlesex London Health Unit setting the appropriate temperature range?

Because I recall in the last term of council, some councilors who wanna do second guess, the Middlesex London Health Unit’s COVID mask policies. And that was shot down by this council. We decided to follow the expert advice of the Middlesex London Health Unit. I think we need to continue to keep that in mind.

But for me, in general, I understand the council’s desire to have a framework. I think we have to be very careful about the fact that we are a governance and not an operations body as a council. So I think we wanna be careful about that. I will also say with regard to clause B in this, if it’s not changed here, I’m probably gonna look for an amendment at council because as was alluded to by Councilor Ferreira, I think that we have to look at alternatives to community centre spaces.

We cannot continually look to shut down community centres to do this. I think there has to be an alternative to community centre spaces with respect to the type of facilities that could serve this use as a warming centre on an emergency basis. Not a permanent ongoing warming centre, but an emergency basis warming centre. Places like churches, charitable, and not-for-profit organisations that have spaces that might be available, as well as opportunities to utilize some of those community volunteers who help out at some of these agencies as well.

Because we cannot rely on pulling our city staff for an unknown period of time to staff these things. Finally, I wanna wrap up by saying with respect to potential sources of funding, I think there also needs to be a direction and perhaps it’s a direction to the mayor or to civic administration. But I think we really need to have a discussion with the province around municipality’s ability to access disaster relief funding. The same as we would in the event of a flood or a tornado or something of that nature.

If we are going to put this in an emergency operations category, then we should be looking to the province to help come forward with some emergency disaster relief funding to assist with the resourcing of these. So I’ll wrap up and end my comments there. Thank you, Deputy Mayor. That was exactly five minutes.

I will recommend, well, I’m not, I don’t know if Councillor Palosa has her name up, but Councillor Palosa has showed up as a visiting member. I will just look to Councillor Palosa. Okay, Councillor Palosa, you got it. Thank you.

Thank you for recognizing me, Mr. Chair. Councillor Roman also has their hand up. Just wanted to thank staff and the community partners and the community who use the space.

I did have the opportunity to go out and see the space as it was shutting down and recognizing that we were able to accommodate many individuals, some with pets as well. And I will say that what a nurse who took use of that space were really grateful from what I saw. And staff was coordinating taxis, next needs, blankets, and people are still accommodating their mental appointments coming up and just a good touch point for people. Just wanted to follow up on, I had the same train of thought as Deputy Mayor Lewis that if this is a polar vortex or a weather event affecting a decent portion of the province and not just London, it would be lovely if there was parameters that to access emergency relief funding, realizing it’s just not us and there is a large cost.

That’s going to be associated with this. I’m sure we’ll see those numbers come out as it was staff being pulled from across the corporation to assist. And as we know, their work waits for them upon their return. In addition to the community space that was used and the cleanup that was done and residents looking forward to their programming coming back into that space as well, as I did see comments online, Aquafit, and that end seems to be the thing, whereas other areas of town, it’s pickleball.

So just as we stand that’s up and having those open and transparent conversations with the health unit as well, realizing it needs to be policy-based and driven, just for we know where we’re going and what to expect. And then that plan is clearly communicated to council and Londoners at large. And for anyone still looking to help, those partners that we use are still collecting donations throughout the winter of socks, blankets, jackets for humans, jackets for dogs. And just to please continue, the needs still there, council by any means is not saying the needs not there.

It’s how do we move forward with clear policy that’s well-informed by the professionals who do this work. So thank you. Thank you, Councillor. And I have Councillor Ramen next.

Thank you and through you. First my thanks as well to city staff, to agencies, to volunteers and to concern Londoners who were very invested in making sure that there were places for people to get warm and preserve life in a very cold and dire situation last week. I think what we saw last week was London at its best when our community comes together to solve a problem and to look for solutions and think outside of the box where needed and really lean on each other and the strengths that we have in organizations and agencies and the strength that we have here at City Hall with our staff. I’m very appreciative of my council colleagues for having this discussion today.

I do think it’s timely. It’s something that I’ve been looking for as well and have been looking to meet with the health unit about. I’m wondering if my council colleagues on this committee would consider potentially amending their motion to include in part A where it says a review of climate conditions required for opening additional emergency overnight warming centers and resting spaces during circumstances such as extreme weather events if that could say with recommendations from the Chief Medical Officer of Health. Because I think ultimately what we’re coming down to is the need for an opinion.

Because this, when we declare an emergency, we do so because the Middlesex London Health Unit has declared that the weather is so significant that we need to open up and find indoor spaces. And right now we have a established number of indoor spaces within agencies and I’m just wondering, I know we post them on our website but I’m just wondering if staff can comment on what’s the difference between that threshold and the threshold to open an emergency warming center. Thank you, Councillor. I will go to Ms.

Smith. Thank you, enter the chair. So when the Middlesex London Health Unit and through the environment, either it’s extreme heat or extreme cold when they alert us and that then triggers our response. And that’s when we go on to our social media and to the city website.

When, as you know, our community centers are open 364 days a year. So we’re very particular on that site, which ones are open 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. We try and get it through the geographically across the city.

We also work with our partners at the library and include that on the city’s website. And then that’s when Mr. Dickens and his team looks to the community and what else they can offer. And we also post that so that the community is aware.

Thank you, Ms. Smith. Councillor Ramen. Thank you.

My understanding is Mission Services has indoor spaces that they operationalize at the time when a cold weather alert is issued. I’m just wondering if there are other places and how many beds that includes? Thank you, Councillor, Mr. Dickens.

Yes, that’s correct. So all of our funded organizations open up new spaces when there is a health unit cold weather alert issued. The notice goes out to them. Typically, it’s not a lot of beds, but folks convert chapels or meeting rooms or cafeterias into spaces for people to sleep.

We also saw a number of organizations given the significant cold just opening their spaces for people to stay overnight. And they brought in staff to work overnight as well. So no beds, but just indoors. So on Monday, we had 44 known beds in terms of people logged in to HIFAS, 44.

But we had a number of organizations that just opened up additional space. And our best estimate is that was more than 70 spaces total. Thank you, Mr. Dickens, Councillor.

Thank you. So what I’m unclear on is do they have to wait until that alert from the health unit? Or are these ongoing spaces where those agencies that have those emergency spaces can open them? And what would be the criteria to do so?

I know we’ve closed chalk at this point. Are those other spaces still open? Thank you, Councillor, Mr. Dickens.

The contracted agencies that we work with, they follow the cold weather alert as the protocol. For them to do that, it often means like decanting the space from typical activities that would happen there. It also means bringing in additional staff. So if they were to do that outside of the cold weather protocol, it would require some significant staffing investments and planning on their part.

So what they typically tie it to, and I know they can be mutually exclusive, is they typically tie it to a protocol where the cold weather alerts issued, they then go and call on relief staff and extra staff or ask staff to work extra long hours to come in and turn over those spaces to create additional spots. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, that’s helpful to know. So again, I support what’s in front of us.

I think we need more parameters to better understand what the conditions are. In a subsequent report that’s provided to us today, it says that year over year, we’re seeing about a 5% increase in homelessness in our community. One of the things I’m thinking through is have we planned accordingly for those increases as we see them in the winter months. And so when I think back to the conversations that we had this winter, and I know into November, we were talking about some additional indoor spaces that were daytime-only spaces.

And I know my comments of the time were concerned around not having enough spaces for overnight as well. I do think that there is more discussion that’s needed. We need to establish more of a protocol, but I need to better understand what the threshold is. I don’t think an extreme weather event is the only threshold we should be looking at as a community.

We know that people suffer from frostbite, that they lose limbs, that they lose fingers at less than minus 15. So why is that the threshold? At this point, I’m not sure. And I would look for the Chief Medical Officer of Health in our community to provide his input into this matter, to tell us whether or not that’s the right place to be opening up additional supports and shelter spaces if needed.

Even those 44 temporary, one of the other things I did here, and I’m wondering if staff might be able to speak to it, but when the letter that we received from agencies, we heard that the hospitals were also looking for spaces. So they were releasing folks that were treated and looking for spaces. And I’m just wondering how that’s possible, that we’re in that circumstance where the hospitals are releasing people who have had potentially in some cases of what I heard frostbite and other health issues, and were released because there weren’t enough beds at the hospitals, but there weren’t enough beds and shelters. So again, this goes back to a provincial issue, and we need to look at other solutions and sources of funding, thank you.

Thank you, Councillor. I am gonna go to Mr. Dickens. Your time is up, but for that last question, I’ll look to you.

Thank you, I wouldn’t be able to speak on behalf of the hospital, what their protocols were. We know that they often work with shelter providers to discharge folks so that they don’t discharge the streets, and they’ve done a lot of work on that front, but as far as that, I wouldn’t be able to comment on what they do, thanks. Thank you. I have Councillor Preble next on the list.

You have three minutes, 46 seconds. I’ll let you know when you’re at 30. Thank you, I sort of shared to the staff, and we were talking about the additional spaces. If the staff can make a comment, these additional spaces, if they were adequate, and if we need in such emergency cases, plan for more.

Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Mr. Dickens.

Thank you, and just for clarification, there was no emergency declared. We have an emergency response plan as part of Mr. Latiser’s and Cheryl and I’s responsibility, and then we had this urgent cold weather. We must do something because all of the system capacity has been stretched to its maximum.

As far as adequate goes, I think that honestly lies in the eye of the beholder. I think the people that access some of those indoor spaces overnight Monday felt it was adequate because it was warm and dry. There are probably people at Carling Heights over the last couple of days that felt we were adequate, and some that probably felt we weren’t. But I think honestly, it’s these agencies are doing what they can to flex space, whether it’s four beds at men’s mission or a dozen beds through the arc or tables and chairs and warming spaces and other organizations.

Everyone was doing what they can to just get people indoors and keep them warm and safe overnight. Thank you, Mr. Dickens, Councillor. Thank you, nothing right now, thank you.

Okay, thank you. I have Councillor McAllister next on the list, and I believe Councillor Trusso, did you have your hand up? Okay, your next on the list, Councillor McAllister, you have two minutes and 51 seconds. Okay, thank you, and through the chair, I’d like to put forward a number of amendments, I just emailed them to yourself and to the clerk.

I’ll read the amount, if that’s appropriate. Okay, just give us a second. Okay, Councillor, while the clerk is putting the additions in the motion, just wanted to look at you and the mover to see if you have shared the information to the mover yet, and just to see if the mover is okay with that, would you like to see it on e-scrab or can we send you the e-mail? We would read it, that would be.

Councillor, actually, that’s a good idea. Do you mind reading the motion with the amendments? Yeah, thank you, I was waiting for that opportunity. So, in terms of A, I’m just adding at the end of it to, say, consider alternatives to community center spaces with respect to types of facilities that could serve as spaces for overnight warming centers and resting spaces, such as churches or other faith community charitable or not-for-profit spaces, as well as opportunities to utilize community volunteers where appropriate.

And then, in B, the only change I’m making is to strike the specific services, and all it’s changed is to emergency services, just because it encompasses more than just police and fire, it could be paramedic, it could be, just as a whole, just to clean that up and say emergency services, and then C, this is just adding, again, to the end to have, including engaging in discussions with the province around municipality’s ability to access disaster relief funding similar to what could be accessed in the event of other, like, tornado or flood. Thank you, Councillor. So, you’re willing to move that amendment? Okay, looking for a second here.

Councillor, this won’t go to your time, but if you could repeat, B, for Councillor Trussell, please. B, so all that’s changing. Sorry, I’m just getting at the motion. So, right now in B, it says emergency police and fire services, I’m just striking that and having it read and emergency services, because it’s not just the two.

Councillor Trussell, and Councillor, you have 14 seconds. Well, through the chair, these are very welcome amendments. I accept them as friendly, and what I was gonna say after he was done speaking was, I’d rather do this now at committee rather than do it at the council floor. So, thank you very much.

These are all great suggestions. I liked what the 14, I’m done. You are, Councillor. Okay, I do agree.

Committee works is a committee. So, I have a seconder in you, Councillor Trussell. Okay, now to the amendment starting a new speaker’s list. Since I have more time, I think I’ll just finish what I was gonna say.

I really appreciated what Councillor Ramen said about including the recommendations of the medical officer of health. And I would have questions to medical personnel in terms of what happens to skin, what happens to extremities at minus five, minus 10, et cetera. So, that would be a useful part of the discussion. And in terms of what Councillor Lewis, the deputy mayor, said, yes, absolutely, let’s be bringing other nonprofits and churches and others into this.

So, all great ideas. And I was just trying to keep this as simple as possible. So, thank you for flushing this out a little bit. Thank you, Councillor.

I will go back to Councillor McAllister. You have a full five minutes. Thank you to the chair, I’ll be brief. Yeah, I think, you know, committee work, we can clean this up a little bit.

I think these are good additions just based on the conversation we’ve had today. Just to the point about including other places and including others in the conversation. I know last week I received a number of suggestions while things were going on. I think we, you know, if we could perhaps have a registry in terms of like locations that could be authorized and spooled up quite quickly.

I think there’s a lot that we can take away from this. And I think, you know, if we can mobilize multiple agencies and locations in extreme weather events that would be greatly appreciated by the community. So, thank you and I look forward to the support hopefully on this one. Thank you, Councillor, looking for any other speakers to the amendment to the motion.

I see none. Last call, I see none. Okay, let’s call the question for the amendment. Supposing the vote, the motion carries four to zero.

Okay, I’m looking for a motion to move the motion as amended. Move by Councillor McAllister, seconded by Councillor Trussell. Okay, just a second. It’s coming up in E-Scribe in a second.

Now that we have a motion that has been amended, I have a whole new speaker’s list. So considering we did speak to both items as well, I would like, if you do decide to comment, keep them brief, but I am just looking to committee first for any comments or, okay, looking to members, visiting members. Okay, let’s call the question. Supposing the vote, the motion carries four to zero.

Now that leaves us to consent. We did do that change of order. So we’re going back to the agenda, as usual now. I have two delegation requests for two items.

That’s item 2.4, the whole community system response, fourth PQ-4, quarterly report. And for 2.5 unsheltered homelessness encampment initiative in incremental reaching home funding, delegation requests for that. So I would look for a mover and a second or a move, or someone to request to pull that so we can put that on the items for direction. Well, can I move 2.1 to 2.3 first?

And then we can deal with 2.4 and 2.5 separate. I’m happy to pull those. Yeah, we should be okay with that. The reason I ask is ‘cause we just have some time constraints, but yes, we can do that.

So let’s go with the consent items, 2.1 to 2.3, and you are willing to pull 2.4 and 2.5 and put them on items for direction, is that correct? You’re looking to move 2.2 and put that on items for direction as well? Just looking for anybody who wants to pull any consent items on the microphone, Councillor. I’m sorry, through the chair, did you intend to pull 2.2 or leave 2.2 in consent?

Thank you. Okay, so I’ve pulled 2.4, 2.5. That’s gonna go to items for direction. So left on the consent items is 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3.

So looking for first to committee members for any comments or questions. The clerk has just informed me that we didn’t get a seconder for that. So looking for a seconder for those three consent items, council approval seconded. Okay, looking to committee for comments or questions on those three consent items.

Okay, visiting members, last call. Okay, let’s call the question. Closing the vote, the motion carries 4-0. Okay, that leaves us to schedule items next on the agenda.

I was informed by the clerk’s office that the delegation, the delegate was not able to make it today. So looking for a mover to put the item on the floor, moved by Councillor Pribble and seconded by Councillor McAllister. Okay, looking to committee for any comments or questions. Meeting members, I see none.

Okay, call the question. Closing the vote, the motion carries 4-0. Okay, now we’re on items for direction. I have three items.

I have a motion brought by Councillor McAllister and then the two consent items that we pulled from consent. So looking to the Councillor for a motion. Yes, thank you through the chair. I did circulate my motion.

So I’d like to put that on the floor and I believe the chair had indicated he would second that. I will second that motion, thank you. And I’ll go back to Councillor McAllister for remarks. Thank you and through the chair.

I’m excited for this project. I was a proponent of acquiring the former firm on public school right next door. Unfortunately, the why did close. I know it’s a place that has a lot of meaning to people.

Community really felt that when it closed. A lot of fond memories of people going there, learning to swim, using that facility. So it was a loss in the community. And ideally, if we had the money, it would have been great if we could have done something in terms of refurbishing a rec facility, but that’s unfortunately just not in the cards.

So thinking in terms of what else we could do with the site, looking at a partnership perhaps with the why to do affordable housing, we are currently in the pre-planning phases of the subdivision for the former Fairmont school. The site is currently secured, fenced off and ready for demolition. In conversations with Mr. Felberg, I know his team are able to look into this in terms of what the why could potentially do.

If they want to do a partnership, if they want to get rid of the land, really I want to put all options on the table to explore any opportunity we can to get more affordable units up and running. We know the need is great in the community. We need more affordable housing. I think this is a great plot of land that we could do a lot of good with.

Just as a note, there’s also still plans to have a bit of a park behind there, so we’re not losing all the green space. And I know people in the community always ask me about that, but really I’m trying to respond to a need that we hear all the time in London to get more affordable housing built. So I’m hoping my colleagues will support this. I don’t know if Mr.

Felberg’s available, but if he wants to give some more information in terms of where we’re at, and perhaps the nature of the conversations that can occur with the why. Thank you, Councillor. I’m unsure, oh, Mr. Mathers is right here.

Okay, let’s go to Mr. Mathers just for some comments on the motion. Through the chair, yes, absolutely. We don’t have any concerns with having those conversations.

We are, as mentioned, having those conversations currently, and we are reviewing the planning work that’s being done on the other adjacent property, so there’s no issue. We are concerned and incorporating, considering the YMCA property at the same time, so no concerns with the motion is provided. Thank you, Mr. Mathers.

I will look to committee for any comments. Councillor Trossa. Through the chair, just to briefly say, thank you to the ward, Councillor, for bringing this forward. I think it sounds very promising, and it’s always wonderful to hear something like this come directly from the neighbourhood and from the ward.

So very good, and I hope this works well for you, for all of us. Thank you, Councillor. Deputy Mayor. Thank you, Chair, and through you, I’ll say to colleagues, normally, I wouldn’t be terribly supportive about directing realty services to investigate things, but in this case, given that we have acquired the Fairmount Public School next door, and there’s an opportunity to acquire adjacent properties and recognize that it’s an existing community use that has fallen out of service.

This is one of those exceptions to the rule for me, and I appreciate the council bringing it forward, and I’m willing to support this one. It does get to council. Thank you. I am going to pass the chair over to the vice chair, ‘cause I got some comments I’d like to make as well.

Okay, and I have the chair and recognize council for air. Go ahead, you have five minutes. Thank you, presiding officer. I just want to make some comments.

I’m one of those members of the community that have went to that, the Bob Hayward Y, since as long as I can remember, it was where I went to my preschool, it’s where I learned how to swim, it’s where I’ve met some of my longtime friends. I’ve went to the gym there, I’ve been all over that building, so I have a very deep connection to this building as well, and I do know that from my family and my friends that still live in the area, that location and that building itself has a lot of fond memories. So the fact that we’re bringing new life into this building and we’re ensuring that it exists is something that I am fully supportive of, especially that we’re tying this in with our strategic initiatives, bringing housing, affordable housing, hopefully whatever it is, an acquisition or a partnership. I’m glad to support this, and I hope that staff, does the good work, as you usually do, and brings something forward with us to bring that online.

So I am fully support of this motion, and I appreciate the Councillor for doing the work. Okay, I will pass it back to the chair, and I don’t have any other speakers on my list. Thank you, I’m just gonna look to all Councillors here, members of committee visiting members for any comments that they might like to make. None, okay, let’s call the question.

Opposing the motion carries, four to zero. Okay, we’re almost there on the homestretch. We have two more items here. Those are the two consent items that we pulled.

We have delegations for both. So the first item on the items for direction now is 2.4, the whole of community system response. Q4 quarterly report. I have a delegate here who’s wishing to speak.

I would lead to look to a member of the committee to move to open the delegation, Councillor Pribble, looking for a seconder, Councillor Trussell. Okay, let’s put that to vote. Opposing the vote, the motion carries, four to zero. Thank you.

Okay, Mr. Stuckey, this microphone right here. Just please state your name, and then I will let you know when your five minutes begins. So I have delegation’s status on two items, but I don’t need to speak on both.

If you can choose to speak on either one that you want, the only difference is information or content that you have in your delegation now, if you decide to speak on the next one, cannot overlap. So if you can have new information on the next one, and you must tie it into the— I only want to speak on one delegation, but this one speaking to homeless response. It says the appropriate one. This is the one for the Q4 quarterly report.

So it would be the whole of community system response. So this is the appropriate time? I would believe, I don’t want to tell you if it’s the appropriate time. Let me just tell you both.

One is for the unsheltered homelessness encampment initiative, reaching homes fund. That’s the federal dollars going in for some recommendations to the ARC. The other one is for the Q4 quarterly report. I’ll talk on this one.

Okay, so you’ve stated your name. Please just state your name really quick. Yeah, my name is Nigel Stuckey. Okay, thank you, Nigel.

You have five minutes starting now. Thank you. I’m a retired police sergeant with London Police turned documentary filmmaker. I’d like to thank you for the time today.

Councilor Troso, I’d like to thank you for your motion that you made today. And I’d also like to acknowledge that council members, thank you for the work you’ve done. I understand the issue of homelessness is complex, difficult, overwhelming. And I don’t think anybody entering into politics felt that it would be so substantial as it is becoming right now.

My first documentary was called “Atrocity.” And I understand that is a very harsh name. The reason I chose that name was because of the amputations that I ran into. People in the city who I saw who had lost fingers and one man in general who I’d run into who lost his leg due to frostbite. A year earlier, I had filmed him and his leg was fine.

Then the next year I saw him in a wheelchair downtown without a leg. I asked him what had happened and he said it was frostbite. For my police background, I understand these situations can be complex and there can be a drug use involvement people pass out. So these are more complex than just weather.

There’s also a drug component to that. My second documentary, which I’m filming right now, is looking at the life of Cheryl Sheldon, a woman who died from femicide and who suffered years of homelessness on the streets of London. She was an outspoken woman and I hope today I can represent her well in her passing. I wanted to share with you what I have observed so far this year.

These are simply observations, things that I am observing and filming for my next documentary. On Christmas Eve, I filmed a woman in a wheelchair. She was next to a public utility where she could plug in a hairdryer. She was under a tarp and she was using that hairdryer to stay warm.

This is a woman who told me that her feet had been infected or sorry, impacted by previous frostbite and her mobility was affected by that. Prior to that, I interviewed a woman and filmed her who was huddled in a bus shelter in the middle of a snowstorm. She was reliant upon a walker. As you can imagine, her ability to navigate the streets of London would be severely interrupted by the snow and by the difficulties brought on by the temperature.

And then just a few days ago, I filmed a woman when it was minus 14. It was 4.30 in the morning. She was homeless because of a domestic violence situation and had to flee her home. She was frantically trying to get into any open business she could find.

She was panicked and there was no way she could find anything open. These are the realities of what I am documenting and filming. I thank you for the response that was given by counsel in regards to and also your staff in regards to the emergency work that was done. But for me, a threshold of minus 15, how different is that from minus 14 when I see somebody else?

And that’s why I’m talking to this and the importance of finding a number that’s appropriate. After that winter response, I went back to Carling Heights last night. There was a man hoping to get in unaware that the services had ended. I spoke to a woman on the street who was offered a cab to get there.

But because she was by herself and with a partner, she told me they wouldn’t allow her to get there because they needed three people in the cab. I understand these are the consequences of things that will happen when something is done quickly. There’s no judgment here on that. I’m just pointing out that when something is done in that situation, instead of a more robust response, then ultimately those are things that fall through the cracks.

After the winter response, I again filmed the woman in the wheelchair back on the street huddled under a tarp. Again, I understand the complexity and normity of the situation. I also understand that government moves slowly. And but every day that this winter continues, I’m observing and filming people in what I deem to be crisis situations.

I am filming a level of suffering and this may speak to some of your conversations that I never observed before during the summer months. What I’m observing during the winter is horrendous. It is nothing compared to what I see in the summer. The winter has been far, far worse on people.

And I would say that it’s almost at a level of depravity. Though I’m asking for a winter response, I know there’s been a motion, but I would ask that that would be something that would be moved quickly, something that would be helping to enable people who tonight will be facing difficult circumstances up to minus 11, 12, 13 degrees. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr.

Stockton. Thank you to the delegate. Thank you for your comments. Looking to committee for item 2.4 to put that on the floor and a seconder.

So we can have comments or questions. Counselor McAllister moved. Seconded, seconded, seconded. Counselor for a second.

Counselor, you are a visiting member. So I’ll just look to members of committee and I will go right to you when I have the members of committee. So just looking to members of committee who wish to comment or ask questions. Counselor, please.

Thank you. Just thank you to staff for the report and just to the delegate. Thank you, Mr. Stockton.

He was kind enough to give me my ride along in the beginning of council and opened my eyes throughout the city at that time and that professional capacity that he held. And it’s interesting to see what people do in retirement. So thank you for not retiring and still serving Londoners as you always have. And for anyone who would like to learn more about his work on February 7th of Friday night, our atrocity that he spoke of and what he’s more witness to is playing at the Wolf Performance Hall and there’s still tickets available and it’s also a fundraiser for Inwell.

So I look forward to learning more of what you have to share with us as it relates to these committee reports and that capacity. Thank you. Thank you, Counselor. Look into members of committee or visiting members.

Okay, I’ll just from the chair, I’d like to make some comments too. I really appreciate Mr. Stuckey coming here and making his remarks. I’ve had conversations with you as well.

I think that the journalism, the level of journalism that you’re doing is definitely showing the truth on the ground and I would encourage anybody, if they haven’t seen it yet, to watch the film atrocity because it is a very good vivid look into the realities that people are facing here in London. So thank you very much. And I’ll now call the question. Supposing the vote, the motion carries four to zero.

Okay, that leaves us to our last item on items for direction. That’s 2.5, the unsheltered homelessness encampment initiative and incremental reaching home funding allocations. We also have a delegation request. I just wanted to see if we have our delegate online.

So looking to committee to open the delegation, moved by Counselor Pribble, looking for a seconder, seconded by Counselor Trussell. Okay, let’s call that question. Supposing the vote, the motion carries four to zero. Okay, let’s just give us a second so we can have the delegate online ready to go.

And once you’re ready, please state your name and then I will let you know when you have five minutes. This is Sarah Campbell from Arcade, can you hear me? Yes we can, Ms. Campbell, thank you.

You have five minutes. Okay, I can’t make the video go on. The host has to do that, just so you’re aware. Thank you and through the chair, it’s nice to be meeting with you this afternoon.

I am joining you, it’s okay. Hi, I’m joining you from Calgary this afternoon. So thank you for accommodating the time as well. I wanted to come before council through the committee today, just to be available for questions more than anything else.

It’s been quite a journey to get to the point of funding the spaces for Arcade Street Mission. There’s been the budget process followed and prior to that, there was direction that we could not offer resting spaces at our 696 Dundas Street location. So our proposal that was passed through the budget had to be changed and there was some very specific questions asked at the time of the budget, which was, can we in fact deliver those 90 spaces? And I did assure council that yes, we would be able to find a way to deliver the services, but that there would be budget impact since we could not use our own building.

And so the attached letter outlined some of those costs. And I just wanted to make sure I was available for any questions and wanted to thank the specific administration for working with us on this report, certainly understanding how the funding works has been complicated. And I’m sure you’ll have some discussion around that. But I think what’s important given the conversation today is making sure that as many spaces as possible are available for people who are in deep struggle in our community.

And though there is an incremental cost increase because we can’t use our own building and the direction of our board has been to take donated funds from the original proposals and put them towards services on our own expense, which would be the night services at 696 Dundas Street, those resting spaces. I think the good news for the community is that in fact there are, if you approve this by February 6th, 123 spaces available through arcade in this moment. And as we said during our proposal time that if we stabilize services, we are able to look at improving or adding services up to 30% and I wanna continue to make that commitment to council that stabilizing organizations to be able to deliver good stable services does allow us to consider how we might serve our community more in moments of need like winter responses. So I just wanted to remind you of that as well as you look at this.

That’s all I have to say sort of at the upfront and otherwise I’m available to you for questions or responses to any concerns. Thank you Ms. Campbell. Okay, looking to committee to put 2.5 on the floor looking for a mover and a seconder by Councillor Trussle.

I will second that. Okay, looking for speakers list, Mr. McAllister. Thank you and through the chair.

I’m probably gonna have a lot more questions going into council ‘cause this is probably one of the largest motions I’ve seen. I appreciate probably all the work behind the scenes that went on Mr. Cooper and Mr. Dickens.

So I’m gonna try to bundle my questions to maybe a larger, but I understand the complexities of this, but one of the things I’m trying to get a good handle on is we’re mashing together multiple sources of funding. That’s what I gather after reading this multiple times. I get that, it’s great. We had that funding come in at the last minute.

What worries me, and this was spoken to earlier in terms of we now have this year round response, which is great. I’m hoping obviously those higher levels of government that funding stays stable for the time that we’ve included here, but my concern is the municipal portions. So I understand they’re coming from some reserves, and I’m just trying to understand in terms of where our reserves are, kind of in the social service realm, which is included in this motion, how are we looking with those funds? Sounds like there’s some reallocation going on, but I’m just trying to understand how those departments are operating, and if this puts them in a tough spot, or if this is feasible within the current budget.

Thank you, Councillor, I believe Mr. Cooper might be the one I look to. Yeah, Mr. Cooper.

Thank you, and through you, Mr. Chair, I can’t really speak to our finance team and the operating budget contingency reserve, but I do know our social services reserve fund is, I won’t say adequate, but there is some funding available there that we’re utilizing to pay for some of our non-eligible costs for the hubs, and I do know Mr. Diggins has some money available in that fund, I don’t know the exact amount at this time. Thank you, Mr.

Cooper, Mr. Councillor. Thank you and through you, and thank you for that. I’m just, for me, I was just trying to get a handle on in terms of your department and the surpluses, so this, just to confirm, is not putting you in a situation where you’re gonna have to choose in terms of services provided, Mr.

Cooper. Thank you, and through the Chair, so as noted in the report, this funding and these programs are funded till the end of March, you’re looking to be funded to the end of March 2026, at which point, obviously, we would be looking to come to council for extension or reconsideration of a different proposal. We have a number of our services that are contracts and as of March 31st, 2026, so there is some work to do in 2025 on next steps. But any surplus in our housing stability services budget, usually the municipal sites, we don’t run a surplus in our provincial and federal dollars, does go into the general reserve, which then, I think it follows the reserve apportionment agreement where you, I think 50% goes to that and then 25 and 25%, so that funding would go in there for council to make decisions with.

Thank you, Mr. Cooper, Councillor. Thank you, and through you, I appreciate the answers. I’ll just make some comments now.

Understanding that originally we had the 90, an understanding in terms of the restrictions that have been put in place and not being able to provide all of those at the RxDundouts location. I do appreciate the conversations that clearly have gone on and the agreements that are being put forward in terms of being able to get some extra spaces, which, as we just heard, gets us up to about 120, 123, and recognizing 122, sorry, was it a 100, roughly that, and 120 range. So, for me, anytime we can get some more beds, very much appreciated. But again, I think this speaks to some other discussion we were having earlier in terms of, we recognize that getting people inside is of grave importance, right?

I wish we could get more spots. We just have the proposal in front of us for the ARC. But again, to the point that’s being made time and time again about why is in the city have a winter response, we are trying to respond to what we have heard from the agencies, which is that they want year long response. And this is a reflection of that.

We are trying to create shelter spaces, not just for the winter, but year long. And so, this is what we’re in front of us today. I think that’s a larger conversation in terms of how council wants to move going forward. But I can’t say no more shelter beds, especially in light of what just happened.

So I will support it. I wish there was more, and I wish we could find more spaces. But again, we are trying to do a year long response, which is what has been asked of us. And as much as people keep telling us, you need to have a winter response on top of that.

Unfortunately, we cannot be everything to everyone, especially in a situation like this. The municipality is doing what it can with the funds it has, and leveraging those higher levels of government when they come to the table with funding as well. It’s a difficult situation to be in, and we’re trying our best in terms of what we can put forward. And this is a reflection of that.

I appreciate what the arts being able to put forward, and I will support it. Thank you, Councillor. Looking to Councillor Tressel. So the question I’d like to ask through the chair, probably to the clerk, is there any mechanism that would be available to this council to not reconsider, not abolish, but relax or amend the restrictions that we placed on the arc with respect to their ability to fully utilize the spaces that they have in light of the fact that they are on the main street of a BIA?

Is there any way, procedurally, that that could be done for limited purposes? And I’ll ask that through the chair. I suspect to the clerk. Thank you, Councillor, just a second.

Through the chair, the deputy clerk is advising me that that answer can be provided at council because the motion would, the previous motion would need to be reviewed in detail. Could you say that again a little louder? I didn’t catch that. Yes, Councillor, I’ll just go to the clerk.

Through the chair, the deputy clerk has indicated that that answer can be provided at council because the motion, the previous motion would need to be reviewed in detail. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, this is directed to the chair. My desire is always to avoid doing committee work, amending work at council.

And I think to the extent that we could raise some of the questions here at committee, it will expedite the council meeting. I understand what the clerk just said, so I will not proceed with this. But I do think that we might be able to save some money if we revisit, at least for the time being, that decision that we previously made. And I do recognize how difficult and burdensome it is to do a full blown request for reconsideration of a decided matter of council.

And I’m just leaving that question on the table and I will raise it again at the council meeting if need be. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. I guess remarks from the chair on that is, you know, regardless of what my position was in the past, it is a council direction, but I wouldn’t have any extra information for you at the moment for something like that.

Maybe perhaps a motion or something like that at a committee meeting in the future might be adequate. Hopefully that’s a sufficient answer for you. I guess since I was one of the dissenting members of that original vote, I’m still not happy about it. And just so everybody is clear though, if the chair could again reiterate perhaps, I know we received a lot of information on the added agenda.

But if it could be made very, very specifically clear to us what the cost difference is because of their inability to use their facility to the fullest extent that they could. Could I just get that number again? Okay, thank you, Councillor. The cost, the extra cost associated with the ARC having to find other locations other than the 696 Dundas, I believe was a million, 47,000.

But I’ll just look to Mr. Cooper. Thank you. And through the chair, it’s just over a million dollars.

It’s a million, 59,092 dollars. Thank you, Mr. Cooper, Councillor. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor. Looking to other members of committee, Councillor Purple. I’ll be very brief. Thank you very much to arcade organization.

Last year they came through for us for winter response. This additional 50 plus beds at Corona Warner. This year altogether, 123 beds. Thank you very much.

Very much supporting this what’s in for of us. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Raman, I did want to make some remarks first. Would you like to wait for me, you want to go now?

Okay, let me hand this over to Councillor McAllister. Okay, recognizing I have the chair, go ahead Councillor for area five minutes. Okay, thank you. I figured I might as well make some comments and later the question.

So, you know, the council direction in October was to not provide any municipal funding to resting spaces in a BIA area. And then we resolved that at council in the beginning of November. And then we had the multi-year budget or the budget update later in November. The discussion at the time at that budget update was if we were to get into a municipal agreement for services with the ARC, will the ARC be able to still provide us the 90 spaces?

And the ARC did say that they would, but there may be a point where they’d be coming back, potentially asking for additional funds because we don’t know where the capacity is. And the budgeted, what the ARC came with the budget on their original 90 beds, they had already said in paper, but looking forward, they didn’t really know what the extra capacity would cost. So this is why we have that. And we did see that at the budget update at the time.

I guess the way I see it is, you know, like obviously the record shows where I was on that. But regardless, I do see the silver lining here. I do see a quite very obvious silver lining. And that is the fact that we have the 90 beds still.

And actually we’re gonna get another 30 beds or 30 spaces on top of that. The ARC was able to reallocate some of their internal funding. So they can still work within the parameters that council has directed. And they were able to take the money that we have provided them with the budget update in 2025 and put it into the spaces that we are allowing to have resting space.

And then the ARC was able to reallocate some of their internal funding to the 696 Dundas location. So in the end, we went from 90 beds to 122 beds because this report does show that there’s an additional 32 spaces available with what we see on the report. And those are from various locations. One is at my sister’s place, I think 12 spaces at my sister’s place, an additional 10 at the Cronin Warner Church and an additional 10 at some various locations in On Oxford, I believe the report said.

So the silver lining here is we do actually, the way everything ended up is we have an extra 32 spaces because of how things have transpired. So I do see the silver lining there on that aspect. It’s interesting to see how we’ve ended up here, but in the end, we are in a better position, I believe, than we were originally. So because of that, I do see there’s an extra cost incurring with that, that extra of million 57,000, but we are getting those extra 32 beds as well.

So because of that, I would be supportive of the motion, but I just wanted to kind of clarify kind of how I see it from the questions that I got from the other committee members. But I was sure for a moment. You used two minutes and 45 seconds, and I’ll return the chair to you. And Councillor Ramen’s on.

Thank you, Councillor. I will go to Councillor Ramen. Thank you and through you, I have questions for Ms. Campbell if she’s still available.

Thank you, just a second. Let me just check comfort with the clerk. Ms. Campbell is online.

So is she ready to receive any questions? Yes. Okay, Councillor, please go ahead. Thank you.

I just want, I guess, confirmation. So if I’m clear on what we’re discussing today, the arc is still operating resting spaces at 696nd us. We’re just not using council money. That is correct.

Thank you. So I understand what’s in front of us today, and I appreciate that there’s an opportunity for more spaces, I really do. But I’m not sure that I guess I’m a purist in the sense that if council gives a direction, whether I support that direction or not, I think it’s important that that direction is followed, or that the parameters by which that direction was set out are satisfactory to council for what they intended that motion to be. And whether there are consequences, in which I understand in this case, there would be consequences.

My understanding of the decision point at that point was that there was a tone to be set about whether or not those spaces were still available. So the arc finding additional spaces is great because it satisfies the motion, but it doesn’t, I think in a way, satisfy the direction, which was that those spaces not be within the BIA. So I’m just wondering how, I guess, we, and this isn’t a question in Ms. Campbell, this is just a question here because it was our direction, how we will anticipate dealing with that conversation and criticism around one, we ask for the resting spaces to come out of the BIA, and two, now we have an additional cost because we wanted those spaces off the main street of the BIA.

So it’s important that we understand the decisions that we’re making as we’re making them. And it’s important that we understand what the consequences of those decisions are. And I agree with my colleagues, there may be a silver lining in the fact that other spaces have materialized because of the good work of agencies, but that was, I know, at some great difficult costs or in great difficulty for arc aid to have to go and look for those kinds of opportunities and spaces because of the direction that was provided here. So again, I see the silver lining, but at the same time, we have to, I think in a way, understand what we discussed here, the tone that was set here and what the implication is.

So those are just my comments for now. Councillor? Looking, Councillor Preble. Thank you, Mr.

Chair, to the staff. My question is that if my information is correct, arc aid currently has about 160 spaces by beginning, middle of February, they could move up to 123, in terms of the contract and funding. How is our staff in contact with arc aid? Is the contract already signed?

Will it be signed? How about the funding? So they do have the cash flow to operate these spaces. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor, Mr. Cooper. Thank you, and through the chair, we have drafted a contract with the arc aid. We’ve shared it out with them for some feedback.

We have some language and they’re limiting, obviously, any resting spaces on Main Streets of BIA’s, but also we have a payment schedule working with the organization. So we’ll ensure that cash flow for the organization on whatever is approved by Council that we can contract. We’ll meet the organization’s needs from a cash flow perspective. Thank you, Mr.

Cooper. Councillor. Thank you very much. No more questions?

Thank you, Councillor. Looking to committee, visiting members. Okay, let’s call the question. Building the vote, the motion carries four to zero.

Okay, that leads us to adjournment, so I’m looking for a mover to adjourn. Councillor McAllister, moved, seconded by. Councillor Pribble, hand vote. All in favor, all opposed?

Motion carries, we’re adjourned. Thank you.