Open Council

11th Meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee

Open Council

11th Meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee

July 14, 2025, at 1:00 PM

Original link

The meeting was called to order at 1:01 PM.

1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

2.   Consent

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That Items 2.1 to 2.12, with the exception of Item 2.2, BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

2.1   2nd Report of the Accessibility Community Advisory Committee

2025-06-12 ACAC Report 2

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That the 2nd Report of the Accessibility Community Advisory Committee, from the meeting held on June 12, 2025, BE RECEIVED.

Motion Passed

2.3   Affordable Homeownership Program Relaunch

2025-07-14 SR Affordable Homeownershp Program Relaunch - Part 1

2025-07-14 SR Affordable Homeownershp Program Relaunch - Part 2

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Housing and Community Growth, the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report dated July 14, 2025 related to the Affordable Homeownership Program Relaunch:

a)    the proposed by-law, as appended to the above-noted staff report, BE INTRODUCED at Municipal Council on July 22, 2025, to:

i)    approve the standard form Homeownership Loan Agreement, as appended to the above-noted by-law;

ii)    authorize the Deputy City Manager, Housing and Community Growth, or their written designate, to insert the relevant information regarding the Borrower and loan details into the standard form Homeownership Loan Agreement;

iii)    authorize the Deputy City Manager, Housing and Community Growth, or their written designate, to approve and execute Homeownership Loan Agreements based on the standard form Homeownership Loan Agreement authorized and approved above;

iv)    authorize the Deputy City Manager, Housing and Community Growth, or their written designate, to approve and execute amending agreements to the above-noted Homeownership Loan Agreements;

b)    the proposed by-law, as appended to the above-noted staff report, BE INTRODUCED at Municipal Council on July 22, 2025 to amend By-law No. A. -6971-187 being “A by-law to establish the Municipal Affordable Homeownership Revolving Loan Reserve Fund” by deleting section 2 and replacing it with the following section 2:

“The monies standing in the Fund shall be used by The Corporation of the City of London (the “Corporation”) for the purpose of providing loans under an affordable housing program (AHP) to eligible purchasers.”;

it being noted that there is no impact to the Multi-Year Budget and this program will be delivered using the Municipal Affordable Homeownership Revolving Loan Reserve Fund established as part of the Federal and Provincial subsidy guidelines with no additional funds from the Roadmap to 3,000 or other City sources. (2025-S11)

Motion Passed

2.4   New Temporary Traffic Signal

2025-07-14 SR New Temporary Traffic Signal

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Environment and Infrastructure, the installation of a temporary traffic signal at the intersection of Cheapside Street and Campus Drive (private street) BE APPROVED as a construction mitigation for the approximate duration of the 2025/2026 college school year. (2025-T07)

Motion Passed

2.5   Award of Engineering Services to Provide Design, Tendering and Contract Administration Services for Construction of a New Residential Drop-Off Depot as well as Other Ancillary Features as Part of the Expansion of the W12A Landfill 

2025-07-14 SR Construction of a New Residential Drop-Off Depot - Expansion of W12A Landfill - Part 1

2025-07-14 SR Construction of a New Residential Drop-Off Depot - Expansion of W12A Landfill - 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 July 14, 2025, related to the Award of Engineering Services to Provide Design, Tendering and Contract Administration Services for Construction of a New Residential Drop-Off Depot as well as Other Ancillary Features as Part of the Expansion of the W12A Landfill:

a)    WSP BE APPOINTED to carry out detailed design, tendering assistance, and contract administration in the total amount of $896,534 including a contingency of $116,939 (excluding HST), in accordance with Section 15.2 (g) of the City of London’s Procurement of Goods and Services Policy;

b)    the financing for the work identified in (a) above, BE APPROVED in accordance with 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 these purchases; 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-E07/F18)

Motion Passed

2.6   Community Energy System Green Municipal Funds (GMF) Application Support

2025-07-14 SR Community Energy System GMF Application Support

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 July 14, 2025, related to the Community Energy System Green Municipal Funds (GMF) Application Support:

a)    the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Green Municipal Fund application led by Century Centre Developments Inc., in partnership with the City of London, for grant funding to support the completion of a business case and feasibility study for outlining the design of proposed low-carbon community energy systems at the Century Centre Developments Inc. development at 1067-1071 Wellington Road BE SUPPORTED by Council; and,

b)    the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Green Municipal Fund application led by Old Oak Developments Inc. (Old Oak), in partnership with the City of London, for grant funding to support the completion of a business case and feasibility study for outlining the design of proposed low-carbon community energy systems at the Old Oak development at 850 Highbury Avenue North BE SUPPORTED by Council. (2025-E17)

Motion Passed

2.7   Federation of Canadian Municipalities Community Efficiency Financing Agreement for BetterHomes London

2025-07-14 SR FCM Community Efficiency Financing Agreement for BetterHomes London - Part 1

2025-07-14 SR FCM Community Efficiency Financing Agreement for BetterHomes London - 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 July 14, 2025 related to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Community Efficiency Financing Agreement for BetterHomes London:

a)    the proposed by-law, as appended to the above-noted staff report, BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting on July 22, 2025, to:

i)    approve the Agreement, as appended to the above-noted by-law, to be entered into between The Corporation of the City of London and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for the purpose of the provision of funding to support the development and implementation of the BetterHomes London home energy retrofit program; 

ii)    authorize the Mayor and the City Clerk to execute the above-noted agreement;

iii)    authorize the Deputy City Manager, Environment and Infrastructure, or designate, to be the Duly Authorized Officer to approve and execute any forms or documents on the City’s behalf necessary to fulfill the City’s obligations under the above-noted agreement;

iv)    approve the Service Agreement, as appended to the above-noted by-law, to be entered into between The Corporation of the City of London and the Clean Air Partnership for the purpose of turn-key development and delivery of the BetterHomes London energy retrofit program;

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

vi)    delegate authority to the Deputy City Manager, Environment and Infrastructure, or designate, to approve and execute amending agreements to the above-noted Service Agreement, provided that such agreements do not require additional funding or are provided for in the City’s current budget;

b)    the proposed by-law, as appended to the above-noted staff report, BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting on July 22, 2025, to:

i)    authorize the undertaking of energy efficiency and climate resilience works on private residential property as local improvements under the BetterHomes London Program, as set out in Schedule 1 as appended to the above-noted by-law, for the purpose of raising all or part of the cost of the work by imposing special charges on lots upon which all or some part of the local improvement is or will be located; and,

ii)    authorize the City to enter into Property Owner Agreements as provided for in the above-noted Schedule “1” hereto with such terms and conditions consistent with Schedule “1” hereon, such additional terms and conditions as required by the Ontario Regulation 586/06 and such additional terms and conditions required by the Deputy City Manager, Environment and Infrastructure, or their designate, and the City Solicitor and in a form acceptable to the City Solicitor and that the Deputy City Manager, Environment and Infrastructure or their designate be authorized to execute the Property Owner Agreements and such ancillary documents as necessary to facilitate the program described in Schedule “1” hereto; and,

c)    the Civic administration BE DIRECTED to report back on the final program details including the results of additional community partner consultation and recommendations regarding the implementation of the BetterHomes London home energy retrofit program. (2025-E17)

Motion Passed

2.8   RFT 2025-041 Bridging Supports - Housing Stability Services

2025-07-14 SR RFT 2025-041 Bridging Supports - Housing Stability Services

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Social and Health Development and the Senior Manager, Procurement and Supply Services, the staff report dated July 14, 2025, with respect to RFT-2025-041 Bridging Supports – Housing Stability Services, BE RECEIVED. (2025-S11/S14)

Motion Passed

2.9   Housing and Homelessness Dashboard Project Plan

2025-07-14 SR Housing and Homelessness Dashboard Report

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Social and Health Development, the staff report dated July 14, 2025, with respect to the Housing and Homelessness Dashboard Project Plan, BE RECEIVED. (2025-S11/S14)

Motion Passed

2.10   Information Report on Executed Purchase of Service Agreements for Housing Stability Services

2025-07-14 SR Executed Purchase of Service Agreements for Housing Stability Services - Part 1

2025-07-14 SR Executed Purchase of Service Agreements for Housing Stability Services - Part 2

2025-07-14 SR Executed Purchase of Service Agreements for Housing Stability Services - Part 3

2025-07-14 SR Executed Purchase of Service Agreements for Housing Stability Services - Part 4

2025-07-14 SR Executed Purchase of Service Agreements for Housing Stability Services - Part 5

2025-07-14 SR Executed Purchase of Service Agreements for Housing Stability Services - Part 6

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Social and Health Development, the staff report dated July 14, 2025, with respect to an Information Report on Executed Purchase of Service Agreements for Housing Stability Services, BE RECEIVED. (2025-S11/S14)

Motion Passed

2.11   Municipal Rental Assistance Program Allocation for Indigenous Led Housing Supports

2025-07-14 SR Municipal Rental Assistance Program Allocation for Indigenous Led Housing Supports

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Health and Social Development, the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report dated July 14, 2025, related to Municipal Rental Assistance Program Allocation for Indigenous Led Housing Supports:

a)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to allocate up to 30% of the 2025 municipal rent supplement increase (approved at $1 million annually) to Atlohsa Family Healing Services for the administration of portable housing benefits supporting Indigenous identifying individuals experiencing homelessness, to be delivered through Atlohsa’s existing Housing First and Rapid Rehousing programs;

b)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to engage with Indigenous-led housing providers, including but not limited to, Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services (OAHS) and the Native Inter-Tribal Housing Co-op, and Atlohsa Family Healing Services with the intent to support expanded partner-led delivery of Municipal Rental Assistance Program portable housing benefits beginning in 2026, and to develop appropriate administrative pathways for such partnerships;

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

d)    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. (2025-S11/S14)

Motion Passed

2.12   Update to Contribution Agreement with Chelsea Green Community Homes Society

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Planning and Economic Development, with respect to the staff report dated July 14, 2025 related to an Update to the Contribution Agreement with Chelsea Green Community Homes Society, the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to release funds attributed to the outstanding Roadmap grant with a remaining balance of $476,332, less 10% holdback payable upon occupancy, and amend the Municipal Contribution Agreement to reflect the change of affordable units under existing delegation.

Motion Passed

2.2   3rd Report of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee

2025-06-26 ESACAC Report 3 - FULL

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by J. Pribil

That the following actions be taken with respect to the 3rd Report of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee (ESACAC) from the meeting held on June 26, 2025:

a)    the 2025 ESACAC Work Plan, as appended to the above-noted report, BE APPROVED by the Municipal Council;

b)    the following actions be taken with respect to Green Development Standards:

i)    the Civic Administration BE INFORMED that the ESACAC will follow up on the anticipated staff report on these matters in July or August; and,

ii)    it BE NOTED that the communication from B. Samuels with respect to the Green Development Guidelines was received;

it being noted that a verbal update was provided by K. Edwards, Manager, Community Planning, with respect to these matters;

c)    clauses 1.1, 1.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 5. 1 to 5. 3, 5.5 and 5.6 BE RECEIVED;

it being noted that a verbal delegation from B. Samuels, with respect to this matter, was received.

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

Additional Votes:

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by J. Pribil

That the delegation request from B. Samuels BE APPROVED to be heard at this time.

Motion Passed (4 to 0)

3.   Scheduled Items

None.

4.   Items for Direction

None.

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

5.1   (ADDED) Request to Review the School Crossing Guard Program

That the following actions be taken with respect to the communication from Councillor S. Franke, dated July 14, 2025, related to a Request to Review the School Crossing Guard Program:

a)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to include a budget business case to increase the School Crossing Guard Program by $200,000 a year and find an appropriate source of funding;

b)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to review the School Crossing Guard policy and report back at a future meeting of CPSC to provide any suggestions for improvements, including but not limited to number of school crossing guards per school; and,

c)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to engage on the review of the standards of the School Guard Crossing Policy with all public school boards and private schools within the City of London to discuss the issues of school crossings at all London schools;

it being noted that communications and verbal delegations from M. Grimminck, A. Tate, C. Mitchell and E. Johnston, with respect to this matter, were received. (2025-C12)

Additional Votes:

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That the following actions be taken with respect to the communication from Councillor S. Franke, dated July 14, 2025, related to a Request to Review the School Crossing Guard Program:

a)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to include a budget business case to increase the School Crossing Guard Program by $200,000 a year and find an appropriate source of funding;

b)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to review the School Crossing Guard policy and report back at a future meeting of CPSC to provide any suggestions for improvements, including but not limited to number of school crossing guards per school.

Moved by P. Cuddy

Seconded by J. Pribil

That the delegation requests from M. Grimminck, A. Tate, C. Mitchell and E. Johnston BE APPROVED to be heard at this time.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

Moved by P. Cuddy

Seconded by S. Trosow

That the main motion BE AMENDED to add a new part c), to read as follows:

c) the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to engage on the review of the standards of the School Guard Crossing Policy with all public school boards and private schools within the City of London to discuss the issues of school crossings at all London schools.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That the main motion, as amended, BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by D. Ferreira

That the Committee recess at this time for 10 minutes.

Motion Passed

The Committee recesses at 2:49 PM and reconvenes at 2:59 PM.

5.2   (ADDED) Funding Request for Hamilton Road BIA and the Old East Village BIA

That the communication from Councillor H. McAlister, dated July 7, 2025, with respect to a Funding Request for the Hamilton Road BIA and the Old East Village BIA, BE REFERRED to the August 11, 2025 meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee in order to allow time to receive a list of the earmarked items for the remaining balance for the COVID 19 Relief Funding from the Hamilton Road and Old East Village BIAs;

it being noted that verbal delegations from C. Luistro, K. Morrison and B. McGlone, with respect to this matter, were received.

Additional Votes:

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That the following actions be taken with respect to the communication from Councillor H. McAlister, dated July 7, 2025, with respect to a Funding Request for the Hamilton Road BIA and the Old East Village BIA:

a)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to allocate one-time funding of $62,500.00 from the Community Investment Reserve Fund to the Hamilton Road BIA to allow them to continue their joint private security services contract with the Argyle BIA for 2026; and,

b)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to immediately allocate one-time funding of $34,179.62 from the Community Investment Reserve Fund to the Old East Village BIA to support private property clean-ups, graffiti removal, and enhanced safety and security measures.

Moved by D. Ferreira

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That the communication from Councillor H. McAlister, dated July 7, 2025, with respect to a Funding Request for the Hamilton Road BIA and the Old East Village BIA, BE REFERRED to the August 11, 2025 meeting of the Community and Protective Services Committee in order to allow time to receive a list of the earmarked items for the remaining balance for the COVID 19 Relief Funding from the Hamilton Road and Old East Village BIAs.

Motion Passed (3 to 2)

Moved by H. McAlister

Seconded by J. Pribil

That the delegation requests from C. Luistro and K. Morrison BE APPROVED to be heard at this time.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That the delegation request from Brandon McGlone BE APPROVED to be heard at this time.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

6.   Confidential

Moved by P. Cuddy

Seconded by J. Pribil

That the Community and Protective Services Committee convene In Closed Session for the purpose of considering the following:

6.1    Position, Plan, Procedure, Criteria or Instruction for Negotiation Purposes        

A matter pertaining to a position, plan, procedure, criteria or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality.

6.2    Personal Matters About Identifiable Individual        

A matter pertaining to personal matters about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees, with respect to the Awarding of the 2025 Queen Elizabeth Scholarships.

Motion Passed (5 to 0)

The Community and Protective Services Committee convened In Closed Session from 3:50 PM to 3:58 PM.

7.   Adjournment

That the meeting BE ADJOURNED.

Motion Passed

The meeting adjourned at 4:01 PM.

Full Transcript

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

View full transcript (3 hours, 22 minutes)

[31:00] Okay, I will be calling the 11th meeting of the Community Protective Services Committee to order. Please check the city website for additional meeting details upon information. The city of London is situated on the traditional ends of the Anishnabek, Haudenosaunee, Linda Paywalk, and Otto Onderin. We honor and respect the history, languages, and culture of the diverse indigenous people. 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.

[31:37] The city of London is committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats of 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 welcome everybody in the gallery. Thank you for coming. Delegates who will be speaking on this meeting today. Thank you to staff for all being here with us.

[32:11] And I’d like to recognize members of the committee. I have the wonderful counselor, Haudenosaunee, and Callister Ward 1, to my right. And the super awesome counselor, Jerry Pribble, Ward 5, to my right. And Councillor Sam Trasso will be in chambers, I believe you have to step out for a second. And visiting member, Councillor Skyler Frank, Ward 11, to my left. For I get started, I will look for any disclosures of pecuniary interest. And Councillor, budget chair, the fabulous Elizabeth Palosa is online as well.

[32:50] So no disclosures? OK. All right, so I have a few consent items. I have a poll request for item 2.2 for delegation. And that’s a motion to approve the delegation of Mr. Samuels, who is not the chair of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee, but he’s been requested by the chair to speak. So I’m going to need a motion for that once we get there. But I’m pulling that item. And I’m just looking to members of committee for any other poll requests. 2.2.

[33:28] OK, last call for polls. None. OK. I will look for a motion for 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 2.10, 2.11, and 2.12 to be put on the floor. Moved by Councillor McAllister. Seconder, per seconder. Seconded by Councillor Pribble. OK, we are going to go through these items one by one. So I’m going to start with 2.1 to see if there’s any comments or questions.

[34:07] Councillor Trosso, go ahead. It’s simply going to ask if we could have the delegation during consent without having to make them wait for the whole meeting to be. But that’s 2.2. Yeah. Never mind. Yes, 2.2 has been pulled for the delegation. So they’re going to be right after the consent items. OK, so no one for 2.1. OK, so 2.3. 2.4?

[34:42] Oh, 2.3. Go ahead, Councillor Pribble. Thank you, sir, the Chair to the staff on this report on page 16 when it says financial considerations. In the first paragraph, it states the applicant would pay back the loan plus 5% of the capital gains. In the new one, or that potentially we will be introducing, is this the same direction we are heading towards the 5%? Thank you, Councillor. I’ll go to Ms. Espinoza. Through you, Mr. Chair, yes, it would be the same. Thank you.

[35:14] Go ahead, Councillor. OK, thank you for that follow-up. It states that 20 years, 2008 to 2028, what would happen in 2028 is these funds are either not used or whatever the balance is, what would happen in 2028? Thank you, go ahead. Through you, Mr. Chair, we would have to notify the province and either ask for an extension or a business case of what we’d like to do with the funds. But still, so there would be an opportunity for us not to lose the money, we would start prior.

[35:46] And I see the nods from both of you, thank you very much. And no more questions from 2.3, thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Just looking for members of committee first. Councillor McAllister, go ahead. Thank you, through the chair. Now, I just wanted to comment on 2.3. I’m interested to see this come back, I think, in terms of what we previously had running. I think it’s an interesting program. I do recognize affordability challenges. At one point in time, this would have been something to be beneficial to me.

[36:21] I know a lot of people who are still in the same position. And I think in terms of having a home ownership program relaunched, I think this is absolutely something we should have. And I think a lot of lenders would benefit greatly from having that. And we’d like to see more people move up the ladder. A lot of those pegs have been knocked off the ladder over the years, so if we can put one back on, I think this will help a lot of people on their journey to property ownership, thank you. Thank you, Councillor. All right, no members of committee. I am going to look to Councillor Frank, please, go ahead. Thank you.

[36:53] I just wanted to say I was really excited to see this. I think this is a really great opportunity. I have friends that used this when it was available, I guess, a decade ago, and they were able to purchase home. They both worked in nonprofits. They wouldn’t have been able to afford down payment themselves. And I think it’s a really exciting opportunity for people who can’t put together a down payment but can make the monthly payment. So thank you for bringing it back. Thank you, Councillor. And I am going to make a comment myself, or maybe a question. I do understand that the Ontario Provincial average is, we’ve just got some information back for the purchase, or for the average price of a home.

[37:27] And for the average income, I just wanted to go to staff, see if they can comment on that. Certainly, Mr. Chair. So we just received a bulletin from the province for 2024. And they’ve identified that at the 60th percentile of income, the average is 111,500. And the average house price in London is 687,000 in change. So this program is quite a bit underneath of that, and is actually targeting a different demographic than what the averages would be in our city.

[38:03] Thank you. And I agree with the comments from colleagues here, that this is definitely something that’s gonna help, and it’s something that’s needed. So I really appreciate staff working on that. Thank you. All right, last calls for comments or questions for 2.3. Okay, I will now go to 2.4, looking for any comments or questions. It’s 2.4. Okay, let’s go to 2.5, comments or questions from members of committee.

[38:39] Super Bowl. Thank you, Chair, Chair, to the staff on 2.5, 3.2 operating budget. There will be an increase in the annual operating budget cost will not be known until design work completed. What is the timeline for that? Because again, I did read it, that it’s gonna be implemented into the next multi-year budget, but what is the timeline for that? Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. I’ll go to Mr. Stanford. Thank you, and through the chair, we plan on going to tender later this fall, and the idea is to hit the spring construction season of 2026.

[39:20] With about a one-year project, it’ll be operating in sort of the mid to later part of 2027. I do have some preliminary numbers if those are helpful for the Councillor as well. Thank you, Councillor, thank you. I’m sorry, did I understand, right? Do you have the numbers now? Through the chair, I have some sort of preliminary estimates that we’re working towards, if those would be helpful, or your next question, happy to share what we have.

[39:58] Thank you, Councillor. I don’t know if it’s me, sorry. Sort of chair, yes, if you could share it, and it’ll be great. Thank you. Other members of the committee? Do you have that information for the Councillor right now, Mr. Stanford? Mr. Chair, I do, or I can send that directly to the council, whatever the preference is. Okay, my apologies, I thought you were done, but go on, Councillor Pribble. If you’d like that information. Actually, do you know what, if you can please send them to me, that’s going to be fine, and I do have to follow up though, that there will be additional operating costs.

[40:33] And, but I also, I would imagine that there will be also additional revenues. The ones that we are operating right now, what is the ratio in terms of city of London, in terms of the client, in terms of the revenue, and the ratio, thank you. Through the chair, there’s two projects at the new and viral deeper area. One’s dealing with household special products that are brought there. Right now, the costs are in the order of about 340,000, and we recover about 50% of that through producer responsibility organizations.

[41:07] We anticipate a potentially an increase in that amount with a newer and larger facility, but there will also be increased costs. These are the items that we don’t have quite worked out right now, but we assume that the ratio will be around 50%, if not a little better in favor of the city. For the other portion of the viral deeper, which is more the drop-off area, the only item that we really recover any money on is scrap metal. And that is still just a small amount, about $6,000 a year. So any costs associated there is really with the hollowing of materials from that deeper location to the end markets.

[41:43] And that amount in 2024 was about $75,000. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you very much, no other questions. Thank you, Councillor. Just looking for members of committee before I go to Councillor Palosa, who’s got her hand up online. Okay, Councillor, please go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for recognizing me as a visiting member to committee, realizing this is within Ward 12. I appreciate the preliminary numbers. Questions for you to Mr. Stanford, realizing that the budget update would come back, potentially even through the MYB process, looking to see if part of that information that would come back to us would be also some things to consider for cost recovery opportunities.

[42:28] Thank you, Councillor, Mr. Stanford. Through the chair, thank you for the question. We’re doing our best to understand the relationship with the producer responsibility organizations. This is set up under provincial legislation. They’re the ones that basically pay for the full cost of certain materials. The challenge that we’re seeing is some of those materials are, the list is becoming a little bit shorter of what the producers are actually paying for right now. So we have some work to do with the provincial government over the next six months to really help iron out what the future looks like for these materials.

[43:02] So that is information I just don’t have at this point in time. Okay, Councillor. Thank you. I appreciate that as it’s a changing landscape that we are not the controlling voice in. Looking to see if this drop off location will have, realizing it’s an opportunity to expand what the person would take there, an opportunity, or if they currently do have a bike drop off giveaway, realizing we have community partners who refurbish them to get them back out to the community and at this location, correct, collects the ceramics. Thank you, Mr. Stanford.

[43:35] Thank you and through the chair. The depot will basically be the same service level as the in-town Enviro depot. So we’ll be able to items like ceramics dropping off bicycles. They will all be part of that. What we’re really doing is we’re moving it from the internal location inside the landfill site, bringing it outside. It provides more space to actually bring on additional materials and to serve more customers. So that’s all part of the growth of the city and why we’re moving it from inside to outside the landfill. Thank you, Councilor.

[44:07] Thank you, I did see that noted within the report and I appreciate the enhanced ease of operation and visitor experience as residents come to use the facility and protecting the residents and staff alike who work in that proximity. My only final question through you to Mr. Stanford again is looking to see if the publicly is on committee the W12A landfill was made aware of this report and if so, if there’s been any feedback either way from them. Thank you, Councilor.

[44:38] I’ll go back to Mr. Stanford. Through the chair, with respect to more administrative type reports such as this one, where they are part of a larger project, this was all work that was approved as part of the environmental assessment and the environmental compliance approvals, the publicly is on committee is aware of the high level activities that the city is aware and undertaking. We have not brought to their attention the administrative type reports as the one in front of you today. The types of reports we do bring to their attention are those that deal with odor and odor management and anything to do with mitigative measures.

[45:17] So a project such as this, we would not normally bring it to their attention knowing that though that all the information of course is available online in the committee members of the PLC are aware of how to access report should they need to. Thank you, Mr. Stanford. I’m just going to go to Councilor Pose. I know she said that was a last question, but just any other comments for that. Thank you, I appreciate, thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. I know it might be on the outskirts of the mandate of the PLC, but they are aware of it.

[45:49] And there’s a lot happening out there with this expansion. I know they appreciate being kept up to date and just things would be an opportunity that if we want to just even attach it or highlight in one of the upcoming minutes or agenda items that they’re made aware of it as it’s an ongoing conversation with all those residents. So just the final comment, I don’t need to hear from staff. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor, I’ll go to Mr. Stanford. Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is a important comment that has been raised here and it’s not that we’re trying to keep information away from the PLC, we’re actually trying to share the right amount of information. What I’d like to do is actually our next PLC meetings in the middle of August is to actually raise this particular question and ask them if they wish to receive all these types of reports just as information.

[46:30] And if that’s the case, we are happy to send a link at any time. Thank you, Councilor. That’s got a thumbs up. Okay, I’m gonna look for any other visiting members or members of committee, it’s last call. Okay, I see none. Next is 2.6 before I go to members of committee. I just wanted to give a update. There is it gonna be a change on the recommendation. Part A, it says Drulo, it’s not Drulo, it’s Century Center Development’s Inc.

[47:04] So if you notice on your vote that the recommendation for that entity has changed, that is the correct entity now. Okay, going to first committee for any comments for 2.6 comments or questions. Okay, Councilor Perbault, go ahead. Thank you, sir, to check to the staff on the financial impact. It states that there’s no financial implication to the corporation, but I have a question. It states there, it would not be accessed the funding and the work to explore the feasibility and business cases for community energy system implementation may no go ahead.

[47:43] So if this funding through FCM, if it’s not received, what are the options? Is this a potential that we will still go ahead and there would end up being participation from the corporation or would we be asking the two developers to still do it? Thank you, Councilor. I believe this is Mr. Stanford as well. So I’ll go to Mr. Stanford. Thank you, and through the chair, at this stage, the request of the city is to support an application into FCM. We are keeping our fingers crossed that with Council’s support on something is important is community energy systems from two, in fact, three major developers in London, it will be successful.

[48:24] Should it not be successful? That would be another item for discussion. The city does not have its portion of financing approved in any budget. Should there be a desire to bring something forward at that time, we would deal with that. But we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will be successful. Thank you, Councilor Perbal. Thank you, no more questions. Thank you. Okay, members of committee, visiting members. Okay, that will take us to 2.7, the Federation of Community Municipalities FCM, Community Efficiency Financing Agreement for Better Homes.

[49:01] I will look to members of committee for any questions or comments. Now it’s the purple, please go ahead. So to check the staff, it states there about the loans, three and a half million, and it says access to low interest loans, paybacks through the proper tax payments. What do we consider low interest loans? Thank you, Councilor, I’ll go to Mr. Murray. Thank you, and through you, Mr. Chair. So I would say, first and foremost, the program designed for this program is still ongoing.

[49:34] So the parameters have not been finalized at this point. However, the expectation would be that we would charge the same rate of interest to property owners that we would be incurring on the FCM funds that we are borrowing. Those rates are somewhat dependent as well on prevailing interest rates at the time that we actually take that borrowing. So there is some degree of flux at this point in terms of what that will be. What I would say though, as of today at least, it would be about a 2.5% lending rate.

[50:09] So if you compare that to other financing options that might be available to homeowners, such as lines of credit, certainly a much, much lower rate than they could achieve on other forms of borrowing. Thank you, Councilor. Thank you, so you mentioned if it would be, today it would be probably 2.5%. What is actually the prime today, Mr. Murray? Through you, Mr. Chair, I believe 4.95%. Thank you, Councilor, perfect. Thank you very much, no more questions. Thank you, Councilor. I will make note that the deputy mayor has joined online, and I will look for other members of committee, okay?

[50:48] Visiting members, online, okay. May I quick second just a second? Sorry, I do have one more follow-up for this. It states there and with the financials, 424,000 funding and FCM considerations, 375,000. And my question is if I assume that we would budget the entire amount 425, because at that time, we would probably not assume that we will get the 375.

[51:30] If we do get the 375, does that mean there would be savings in our budget of 375? Thank you, Councilor, Mr. Murray. Through you, Mr. Chair. So just for clarity, that 375,000 that you see referenced, that’s not a contribution from FCM, but that’s rather their acknowledgement of our contribution to the project, which is a requirement to receive the funding. So no, the 375,000 is not FCM funding that we were receiving, and therefore not savings, it’s part of our kind of plan and budgeted costs of administering the program. Thank you, Councilor.

[52:05] Thank you, and I just wanna clarification on this one, then, which says, it’s clearly says, would you do FCM consider 375 as an eligible contribution towards the project? So the knowledge, but again, it’s our contribution, it’s not theirs, is that correct? I see the knots, thank you very much. Okay, thank you. Any other members of the committee, this is the last call on visiting members? Okay, let’s go on to point eight, the RFT 2020, 501 bridging supports, housing stability services. I will look to members of committee for any questions or comments.

[52:45] Councilor Permott, please go ahead. Mr. Chair, to the staff, given the demands, several hotels providers were used to allow for a lot of access to spaces at fixed cost. Can you explain to me, kind of clarify the fixed cost, what it’s meant by that? Thank you, I’ll go to staff. Thank you, and through you, Chair, I’ll start this answer and pass it to my colleagues, if required. The fixed cost piece is for us to lock in at a fixed rate for the rooms, understanding that rooms, the cost of rooms can fluctuate from time to time and throughout the season.

[53:23] What it does is it gives us the advantage with this operational roster of providers to ensure reliable room availability and the flexibility for any family preference, including the room or city location. So the fixed rate allows us to control those costs. Thank you, and Councillor, you have about a minute left on your time for all the items for consent. Just a second. Thanks for clarification. I wasn’t sure if the fixed cost was total amount or per night, families one room limit or potentially more two or three, how many is there a limit per family?

[54:00] Thank you, Mr. Dickens. Thank you, through you, Chair. Most hotels have their own rules regarding occupancy and what that looks like. Our main focus is ensuring that we follow those hotel rules when it comes to occupancy, but also ensuring that we match people to appropriate room size. So typically a ratio of four to one in terms of adult and children, but family rooms are typically held to one unless the hotel has a policy that if there’s a certain number of people you must rent more than one room.

[54:36] Thank you, Councillor. Thanks our residences over summer only through the chair. Keep, go ahead. Thank you, Chair, through you. That is correct. It’s typically May through to the end of August. Thank you, Councillor. To save some time, if I can have the four hotels, the budget’s only 2,500 divided by the room nights, if you could provide me with that later on, to save some time, thank you. Thank you. Other members of committee, busy members, last call for comments or questions.

[55:11] Councillors, Deputy Mayor online. Okay, next item is 2.9, housing and homelessness dashboard project plan. So I will look to members of committee for any comments or questions. Councillor, yeah, we’re counting all of them for the consent, I just broke them up so we can make it easy. You have 15 seconds. Go ahead. This part, we also discussed that drop down, drop down option to add additional information.

[55:49] Is this drop down still included in this project? Thank you. Through you, Chair. So while the particulars of the dashboard haven’t been designed in terms of the physical appearance of them, we can say with great confidence that yes, the information will be included, included and available online. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, no more questions. Nice, thanks. It’s not taking my time, right? I did not count that towards your time. Members, visiting members. I’m gonna make some comments from the chair.

[56:23] Really appreciate seeing this. I know this is gonna help clarify things for the city and for Councillors at large. I really appreciate the timeline of projected dates that we’re gonna see things come up online. So I’m looking forward to that. I just want to say thank you very much for the great work staff. All right, I’ll go to the next item, which is 210, information report on executed purchase of service agreement for housing stability services. Looking to committee for any questions or comments? Your five seconds, Councillor, go ahead.

[56:58] City chair, question regarding the payments and the agreements date time and because they are from 1st of April, so I just want to update on these organizations receiving their payments. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor, Mr. Dickens, I believe. Thank you, Chair. Through you, one of the organizations has already received their payment. The others are in processing right now and should be open at the end of the week or at the beginning of next week. And typically our process is two installments throughout the year.

[57:35] Thank you. And Councillor, you are out of time for your comments. So if you do want to speak more, you can ask committee to extend your time. Okay, I’m just going to say thank you to the staff. Thank you. All right, so that was item 210. So now we are on item 211, the Municipal Rent Assistance Program allocation for Indigenous Lead Housing Support. So I’m going to look to members of committee first for any comments or questions. So go ahead.

[58:07] Just briefly through the chair, I’m very glad to see this back. I don’t think there’s a lot that’s changed, but now there’s a staff report. So let’s do this. And thank you to everyone who’s worked on this. This is a very important component of policies that we have already put into place as a council and it’s really good to see us implement something. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Any other members of the committee? Visiting members, members online.

[58:43] Okay, I’m going to make some comments myself. Comments are very close to the council trussles. I’m glad to have this report back. I’m glad to have the answers to the questions that were posed by council members. I hope that we can continue on with this work and I hope that we can get this up and running as soon as possible. And I appreciate Ed Losa for the quick turnaround time bringing this information back and I appreciate staff. I know that you guys went above and beyond for that. So hoping to get full support at council and thank you. Okay, I have the deputy mayor who’s put his hand up online.

[59:18] So please go ahead, deputy mayor. Thank you, Chair. I hope I’m coming through. Okay, video has been a little bit choppy on this end. So I’m seeing your thumbs up there. I just want to echo what you just said. Thanks to Ed Losa and thanks to the Ed Losa staff. I had reached out to offline as well. They provided some great information back to me, which I really appreciate having more information this time around. I’m much more comfortable pursuing this and seeing it move forward. And I also want to take the opportunity to thank you, Chair, for moving the referral when it did come to council so that we could get this additional information.

[59:57] I was certainly sitting on the fence before, but as a result of that patience and getting this report back, I’m now able to be supportive. Thank you very much, Deputy Mayor. And I agree. And I think there’s another example with the great work that we’re doing here, but also just showing how council can work together in the collaboration we can make when we all talk with each other and work together. So I appreciate that very much. Okay, that was 211. So on to 212.

[1:00:31] This is the update to the contribution agreement with Chelsea Green Community Home Society. I will look to committee members for any questions or comments first. New members, members online. Grab some comments, but I just need to grab my notes here. Okay. So I’ve been discussing with staff on this one. And I do see that there is a reduction from the 41 affordable units to 30, but we get all 30 on our housing wait list.

[1:01:11] I am going to be supportive of this at this time at this committee. However, I’m going to come to council with an amendment on the motion. I don’t want to do anything last minute and I don’t want to rush anything. I want to make sure we do this right. But to that amendment that we have at council, I’m probably going to be asking for some type of memorandum of understanding to ensure that Chelsea Green still has the target of 41 affordable units. And however that looks, I would just like to see that. So that might be that they are going to provide in that MOU, they’re seeking out of that property tax exemption and maybe a renegotiation with CMHC for the lending for the underwriters so they can do that.

[1:01:49] I’m also going to be bringing in that motion a wait list cross check between Chelsea Green’s wait list and our city’s wait list just to ensure that we have everything in order there. I’m looking also in that motion, I’m going to have included any of the financials or performance of Chelsea Green for that so they can provide that to us with the release of these funds. And I would establish that as criteria for the hold back for the 10% hold back for that. So I don’t have the motion now, just because like I said, I don’t want to rush anything, but I’m going to be speaking with staff and I’m going to be bringing an amendment to council.

[1:02:25] Like I said, I’m hoping to get council support. I will have a preamble explaining everything in that as well. But I will be supportive of this committee recommendation at this time with the intent of bringing something forward and I don’t want to hold anything up ‘cause I do know that the construction is ongoing and I don’t want to hold up any of the partners. So just letting committee know to expect that, but I will be supportive at this time. So I’m going to go back to members of committee if there’s any other comments or questions that you may have after hearing me say that. And members online, okay, feel free to reach out to me offline before council, I think we have two weeks.

[1:03:04] Thank you, or next week, next week. Okay, so that’s less time than I thought I had. Okay, so that’s all the consent items with the exception of the poll item. So I’m just going to give one last call for anybody on committee who has anything that they want to speak to, you can speak to all items if you have time or visiting members online. Okay, let’s call the question. Supposing the vote, the motion carries four to zero.

[1:03:53] Okay, thank you, committee members. So that brings us to scheduled items, we have none. So next would be items for direction. We have the poll request from item 2.2, that’s the third report of the environmental stewardship and action community advisory committee with delegation status. So we are going to need a vote from committee to approve of the delegation and just letting the delegate know to get ready. So you’re moving that? Okay, moved by councilor Trusso, seconded by councilor Pribble, let’s call that question. Supposing the vote, the motion carries four to zero.

[1:04:40] Thank you, Mr. Samuels. As usual, please state your name, even though I just said it and then you have five minutes. Brendan Samuels, member of the environmental stewardship and action community advisory committee. Good afternoon, members of community and productive services, visiting members, city staff, folks in the gallery. This should be a pretty brief update. I’m just here on behalf of the committee, our chair and vice chair, unfortunately, had work obligations and weren’t able to attend today. I think it’s generally good for members of committee to show up and speak to standing committee. And in particular, our report this time includes our work plan for the remainder of the calendar year.

[1:05:16] When the advisory committees were updated a short while ago, it was requested that we produce an annual work plan. And so this is just following from that. And I just wanted to make sure that if there were any questions or comments from members of the standing committee about the work plan that we could address those in a prompt fashion that allows us to move forward. At our meeting in June, we held a brief discussion about a number of items. I won’t spend too long on all of them, noting that we have an ongoing working group looking at the urban growth boundary that will be providing some feedback in the next couple of months.

[1:05:50] There was interest from community and a recent outbreak of the parvivirus affecting some dogs in London. Being that the animal welfare community advisory committee was combined with the environmental stewardship committee, we’ve struck a working group to look at that file and engage in the community. So we’ll have some information to report back to you shortly. We received a brief update from city staff regarding the voluntary green development guidelines, understanding that the impacts of Bill 17 are still being interpreted. And we’re looking forward to that report coming back to you over the next few months.

[1:06:23] And finally, we passed our draft work plan for the remainder of the calendar year. You can find that included with our report. And I would be happy to take any questions if you have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Samuels. All right. All right, looking to members of committee for any questions or comments. I’ll also look to visiting members for any questions or comments and anyone online. All right, see none. Thank you, Mr. Samuels. I appreciate it. Oh, oh, sorry, stand back up. Councilor Pribble, please go ahead.

[1:06:59] No, I’m sorry, Councilor Pribble, you actually— I have time now. Nevermind, you do have time, go ahead. No, actually, I’ll give you a very brief. I just want to let you know, and I just want to thank you because what’s in front of us that’s a really good working plan. And it’s, as you know, when I attend to your meetings, it’s always say that it’s not that I always agree with everything the recommendations are made but when I look at your plan, it does make sense. And it’s great to see this, the plan for the next nine months. It’s in front of us.

[1:07:30] So thank you in the committee for being so professional and president doing it outside this time. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor. Any other members, visiting members? No? Okay, all right, thank you. So that would be it for the items for direction which puts us on to deferred matters. Oh, right, correct. Thank you, Councilor Tressel. We need a motion to accept the delegation or accept the report.

[1:08:04] Sorry. Moved by Councilor Tressel, seconded by Councilor Pribble. Less. Supposing the vote, the motion carries for zero. Okay, now we’re on deferred matters of additional business. So I have two items. The first one is from a letter from Councilor Frank. So I’m just going to canvas the committee to see if anyone would like to put down a motion for the Councilor.

[1:08:39] Okay, moved by Councilor McAllister, which motions both? Okay, both motions, I need a seconder. Seconded by Councilor Pribble. Okay, before I go to members of committee, I would just like, and Councilor Cuddy has just arrived. Thank you, Councilor. I’ll just put the record show. Okay, so before I go to committee, I just wanted to ask committee if it’s okay to allow Councilor Frank to speak to her motion beforehand. I’m not going to ask for a vote. I just want to, if anybody is opposed to that, just tell me now. Okay, Councilor, you ready?

[1:09:13] Sure, glad to. Thank you for the time and the opportunity to speak. I know I’m not a member of the committee, but appreciate the opportunity. I’m here today to request some allocations to the school crossing budget, as well as a review of the policy and program itself. I’m joined today by members of ward 11 and other folks in the gallery, but some members of ward 11 who have seen firsthand some of the frustrations and near misses that are happening across old South, and I’m sure across the city, specifically in areas close to school zones, and hearing regularly from my residents of their concerns that there will be soon a collision with a child and we have seen this happen across the city at various locations as well.

[1:09:57] So in that vein, they are here today to speak from that firsthand experience to explain what is happening in their neighborhoods and what they’re seeing day to day, and as well again, the motion that I have circulated and I’m looking for support on specifically is trying to address some of this issue that we see. Of course, if the roads are built properly, a good road design is one of the number one things we can do to prevent collisions and to ensure safety. In absence of that, then looking next to enforcement, and I do know that the police over the last couple years given the sizable budgetary increase have been adding officers to their traffic management unit, but it still seems to me at least based on what I hear from residents.

[1:10:36] It’s not sufficient. They’re not regularly seeing the ticketing happening. And then additionally, the third area that we can always address is trying to add traffic calming or trying to increase safety with school crossing guards. So today, I’m looking at more of the school crossing guard improvements. I think some of those other areas we deal with at other committees, but today I’m looking for your support on that and look forward to hear what the residents have to share. Thank you, Councillor. And before I go to members of committee, those two motions have been dropped offed into one motion at part A and part B.

[1:11:10] So just to make sure that’s okay with the mover and the seconder. And I will go to members of committee first, Renny. Could we hear the delegates vote on the motion? Oh, that’s correct. Okay, looking for a motion to open for the delegates. Moved by Councillor Cudi, seconded by Councillor Pribble. Let’s call that question. Councillor Cudi.

[1:11:44] Pretty votes, yes. Closing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. So I’m looking for the first delegate who is M Gremen. Okay, that’s you. Please come to the mic right here. State your name and then you got five minutes. Please go ahead. Matthew Gremen is the name. So good afternoon on behalf of my family and neighbors. Thank you for letting me speak today. I’d like to thank Councillor Frank for facilitating the process here.

[1:12:19] My name is Matthew Gremen. I’m an educator with the Thames Valley District School Board and a proud resident of the old South neighborhood. But today I’m here in a role that I’m most proud of, and that as a parent. I have two boys, age five and nine, who attend one of the neighborhood schools. And I’m beyond concerned with the traffic safety in our neighborhood. My wife walks her children to school every day. In this five minute walk, they see drivers charging through the intersection at Emery Street East and Wortley on a daily basis. Myself, Ms. Tate, Mr. Johnston and Dr. Mitchell have banded together to speak to you on this matter.

[1:12:55] We all have young children that attend the school and have the same concerns. The amount of careless driving, particularly during school hours is appalling. I’m aware the intersection of Wortley and Emery can be confusing. Emery is disjointed and can be difficult for drivers to navigate. Whoever, the behavior that I see goes beyond that, drivers consistently speed down both streets. They consistently charge through the intersection, even with pedestrians crossing the road. And I want to emphasize that it’s during school hours as well. I’ve been illegally passed by another driver on Emery Street.

[1:13:30] I’ve seen drivers pass another driver and run the stop sign. I’ve called out drivers for running the stop sign only to be sworn at in front of my children. And I want to remind you there are five and nine. Myself and my wife have been called, have called the police numerous times notifying them of this behavior. This isn’t a once in a while problem. This happens multiple times a day. And the people at that intersection could speak to it. They hear the horns all the time. Councilor Frank met with my wife and Mr. Johnson and she witnessed how unsafe that intersection can be during morning commutes.

[1:14:06] Myself and fellow neighbors take immense pride in our community. We love that our neighborhood is one of the most pedestrian, friendly areas in the city. And most of the people who live there have young children and dogs. But if you were to ask them their least favorite part of this area, they’d say road safety. And that is almost unanimous. As I went from home to home asking neighbors to sign the petition, they unanimously agreed that something must be done about careless driving in our community. My oldest son will be turning 10 this year. He’s starting to gain independence and he’s allowed to hang out with friends and go to the park on their own.

[1:14:41] As a parent, my biggest concern is his safety. We’re beyond the days of warning children about not accepting candy from strangers. Our biggest concern is drivers of much more tangible fear. We’ve spoken to him numerous times about watching out for other drivers. This is sad state of fear when children can’t explore their own communities without risking their own safety. And this isn’t out of the realm of possibility here. I’m not making this up. This is in fiction. A child was struck in our neighborhood last year. So this does happen in our neighborhood. Traffic safety has been a persistent problem in this community.

[1:15:14] I reached out to Councillor Turner in 2016. And I know residents have been reaching out to City Hall demanding action since then. I’m aware the city has implemented traffic calming measures in the form of speed bumps down Wortley Road. But we all feel this has not stopped the problem and more can be done. Today I’m here to humbly request positive action from this committee. I know I’ve seen, I know I’d love a crossing guard on the section of Emery in Wortley or some other traffic calming measures. One of my greatest professional accomplishments was teaching law and civics at Moncom.

[1:15:51] The most important lesson I imparted to my students is that we have the responsibility as residents to make our communities a better place. And one way to create positive change is holding our elected officials accountable. So today I’m practicing what I preach. I want to affect positive change in my community. It’s beyond appalling that we’ve gone this far in order for our children to safely make it to school. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Grimek. I have another delegate request from an A Tate. So please stand up at the microphone.

[1:16:27] Please state your name and then I will begin your five minutes. Please go ahead. Ailish Tate of Old South. Good afternoon, Chair and Councillors. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I’m Ailish Tate, a grade 56 teacher with Thames Valley District School Board. For the past 11 years, I’ve lived at 360 Wortley Road. Steps from the intersection of Wortley Road and Emery Street East. Each school day, my 11 year old daughter navigates that crossing alone on her way to Wortley Road Public School. Twice this year, she has narrowly avoided being struck by a vehicle.

[1:17:03] The most recent on June 2nd, when a unated cab rolled through the stop sign while she was already in the roadway. I asked my daughter to write down how it feels each morning to simply cross the intersection she writes. The intersection is confusing. Sometimes the drivers use signals saying they’re turning, but they don’t turn. Sometimes they don’t use signals, but they turn. I don’t know when it’s safe to walk, but if I don’t cross fast enough, they all start driving and then they all ignore me. So I feel like I have to take a chance. Her words echo a common complaint in our neighborhood.

[1:17:37] The Wortley and Emery Junction is offset. Wortley continues straight while Emery jogs South, creating uncertainty for both motorists and pedestrians. Drivers approaching on Emery often hesitate over indicator use. Some using them when they should not and others failing to use them when they should. This requires pedestrians to guess the drivers intentions. Rebecca McKee of 355 Emery Street East writes, “My son is going to grade three. I walk him to school every morning and dread the crossing of Wortley and Emery. We rarely cross the offset four-way stop without incident.

[1:18:14] Cars enter the intersection as we begin to cross stop or do not stop. Roll through the four-way, use indicators when they should not or forget to use them when they should. It is making it difficult to not only trust we can get to school safely, but also to teach him broad safety. I’m fortunate that my work schedule allows me to walk him to school. But as he ages, I want him to enjoy the independence of walking to and from school, which is part of the reason I chose this neighborhood. However, that corner gives me pause. I cannot trust drivers who seem more concerned with speed than with pedestrians.

[1:18:49] I feel that the addition of a crossing guard would really help. Thank you, Rebecca McKee. Chantal and Anthony Villanove of 370 Wortley Road ad, I’m writing to express my concern regarding pedestrian safety at the intersection of Wortley Road and Emery. This intersection is used by many children walking to and from school. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that vehicles often travel at high speeds and do not always stop for those trying to cross, creating a dangerous situation. Given the high volume of foot traffic and the current lack of supervision at this location, I believe a crossing guard would make a significant difference in ensuring the safety of all pedestrians, especially young children crossing alone.

[1:19:30] Traffic calming measures were put in place farther from the intersection, but they have not helped. In fact, they seem to encourage vehicles to drive faster and more erratically. I respectfully urge the city to consider assigning a crossing guard to this intersection as soon as possible. I believe this simple step would prevent accidents and greatly improve safety in our community. Thank you for your time and attention if this matter Chantelle and Anthony Villeneuve. These urgent requests reveal a persistent safety gap at the intersection. The city cannot expect children, many of whom are by themselves, to safely navigate an intersection that routinely confounds and frustrates adults.

[1:20:11] I therefore respectfully request that the Community and Protective Services Committee recommend allocating operating funds to station a dedicated crossing guard at Wartley and Emory for the 2025-26 school year. This targeted evidence-based measure would advance the committee’s traffic and public safety mandates and uphold London’s Vision Zero commitment by transforming a confusing school zone intersection into a place where children can walk safely to and from school every day. Thank you very much.

[1:20:45] Thank you. Okay, next on the target list, I have a C Mitchell. Thank you, please state your name and then I’ll begin your five minutes, please go ahead. My name is Carrie Mitchell, counselors, staff, delegates and other viewers, thank you for this five minutes. My name, as I said, is Carrie Mitchell. I am a mother of a six-year-old in Wartley Village and I’m also an urban planning professor at the University of Waterloo, specializing in urban resilience and the social impacts of infrastructure.

[1:21:26] So I come today, almost in all three roles, to share with you my own personal experience at this intersection as well as a little bit about what the literature says about how we can rectify this for the future. So as we know, the city of London is growing and we have more vehicular traffic. Anybody walking around in Wartley Village will tell you that the volume and speed of traffic has increased significantly. I’ve been living there for 10 years off and on and I’ve seen this personally over those 10 years.

[1:22:02] And in fact, it’s even, we’ve seen it in press as well, the director for Western Center for Urban Policy and Local Governments talks about this as well. And the fact that infrastructure, particularly road infrastructure, just hasn’t really kept pace with this growth. So I see that we are moving towards a mobility master plan, which is a really great step in that direction prioritizing all people’s safety, particularly pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users, and to share the road, which we don’t have in London at the moment.

[1:22:39] This might be out of order chair, but I’m just wondering if I can just ask everyone on the floor if you’ve been to the corner of Emery and Wartley Road. It is out of order. And if people want to give their thumbs up, that’s fine, but that’s as far as I’ll let it go. So if you spend a few minutes there as I do, because I’m a bit of an urban planning geek, and I love to just kind of wander around the city, you will immediately see exactly what Eilish’s daughter saw and sees every day, which is confusion and speed and driver error.

[1:23:14] And this happens. We’re in a rush as parents is going to work, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of our children’s safety. So we know from the literature that when we have a crossing guard at a pedestrian crossing like this, it will increase the perception of safety for students, for parents as myself. As a parent, I will not let my daughter walk to school ever in this neighborhood, as it stands right now. And what a shame that is, for many reasons, her own health and well-being is part of that.

[1:23:50] This is something that we can fix. We have that power as counselors, as staff, as parents to fix this for the city. And that starts in the short term with crossing guards. They’re visible. This intersection is really hard to navigate as a motorist, and especially as a pedestrian. Even just standing there, I have to kind of crook my head around the corner to see cars coming at. If you’re in a hurry, it’s entirely possible to miss children. So the perception of safety will be able to allow parents to send their kids out.

[1:24:24] And there is safety in numbers, as the old adage says. In the long term, some of the content of the mobility master plan is right on target with what we know works in urban planning practice. So I’m really excited to see that hopefully go forward. But in the meantime, my request of this committee is to approve Councillor Frank’s petition to explore the crossing guard fund and hopefully to have crossing guards on that intersection and others in Whortly Village and around the city of London for the 2025-2026 school year.

[1:25:01] Thank you. Thank you. All right, I have one last delegation here from an E. Johnston. Oh, OK. E. Johnston is online. So he’s ready to go. OK, please, Mr. Johnston, state your name, and then I’ll begin your five minutes. You can start now. My name is Eric Johnston. I’m a resident of Whortly Village and I’m at 314 Emory Street East. I wanted to thank Council for giving us this opportunity to speak to you guys about our concerns with respect to the safety in our Whortly Village.

[1:25:41] I want to thank Councillor Frank for the motion. And I want to speak in support of our motion to review this school crossing guard program. My wife and I, Bonnie Johnston, our father are two daughters. Like Mr. Grimick spoke to, we are very concerned about the safety of our daughters walking to school. They shouldn’t be concerned about their safety when they’re walking to school. They should be able to do that without fear of being injured in the course of walking to school. Like children should be able to do in a community such as Whortly Village.

[1:26:18] Our family’s gone to the extent to request her daughter when she is walking, school independently, to walk to beyond where her school is, to where there is a school crossing guard, because we feel that’s the only safe option we have at this time. My neighbors are much more eloquent in speaking situations like this, so I have to echo everything they’ve said. We really would appreciate your thought and consideration to this, to make our community safer for not only our children, but for everybody who lives there, so thank you very much. Thank you.

[1:26:54] And that is it for the delegation list. So, all right, I’m gonna look to members of committee for any questions or comments they’d like to make. And then I will also look to visiting members to continue on with comments or questions that they have. So let’s go to members of committee first. I got Councillor McAllister. You can go ahead. Thank you and through the chair. Appreciate Councillor Frank bringing this forward. I appreciate too that it’s not limited too widely. I think reviewing the policy as a whole is very important.

[1:27:29] I’ll probably run out of fingers if I talk about the number of intersections where I see issues. I’m sure staff will take that on board. We have a number of measures, obviously, trying to address safety issues, things like red light cameras, having crossing guards, crosswalks. There are a number of things we regularly review, so I think this is an important step. I mean, another one that I see quite frequently that drives me crazy is when I see people blow by a school bus with a stop sign out. I have a school bus that stops outside of my house and I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve seen things like that.

[1:28:05] So I hope also LPS is listening, takes that on board. We obviously need those traffic infractions dealt with, but I do think that from the concerns we’ve heard from the community in Wardley, but not just there across the city, that we should absolutely explore this. Crossing guards is another tool in our toolbox. We should deploy that as we have to do everything we can to protect the safety of our community members. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Cuddy, please go ahead.

[1:28:39] Point of order, Chair, do we need to close off the public? No, I checked with the clerks on that one too. I was wondering myself. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for allowing me to speak on this subject. First of all, thank you to the delegates who came today and spoke so eloquently. Last week, I spent two days on Guinness Way, which is in my ward by the Cedar Hollow Public School and gathered signatures for traffic calming because they have the same problem around there.

[1:29:13] And primarily, and you’ve probably experienced this, it’s the parents. It’s people dropping off their kids and picking them up that are causing the issues. Last fall, Chair, I also went out on Cedar Hollow Park, Cedar Park Drive and did the same thing. So, this isn’t an isolated case in my ward, nor is it an isolated case in Councillor Brake’s ward. This is happening all over the city. And when I was a school board trustee, Chair, we saw this all the time.

[1:29:46] And we were always out and we promoted safety, children safety first, always. That’s the first thing. Above student achievement, we promoted children safety. The issue I have here, Chair, is that we have a school board. We have the Thames Valley District School Board. Despite its issues that it’s serving right now, it has a role to play here. And it should be involved. And the director of education should be involved in this decision. I don’t know where the 200,000 is going to come from, quite frankly, when we’re trying to cut back our levy and our taxes.

[1:30:18] I don’t know where it’s going to come from, and I’ll ask Councillor Frank later. And it’s well spent. It truly is well spent money. Right now, I would like to see Thames Valley District School Board involved in this decision. And one more thing I might add before I go on, if it’s an issue of people speeding, which it seems to be, and careless driving, then maybe it’s a time for us to go out and do an immediate study on traffic calming. Just as I’ve gone out to get petitions, I think this one would be accelerated, Chair, because it’s in a school zone.

[1:30:53] And anything in a school zone gets accelerated. You don’t need a petition for it. So in closing, as much as I’d love to do this, I just don’t see where the money is coming from. If somebody can tell me that, that would be great. I think it’s a great cause, but I’d love to see Thames Valley District School Board going to be involved. And I would take it upon myself, Chair, because I know the director of education to work with him, or to work with a member of his staff to see if we can achieve something. Or alternatively, encourage Councillor Frank to speak to traffic and safety, and see if we can go and get some traffic calming measures done immediately, thank you.

[1:31:31] Thank you, Councillor. Councillor Pateros, Councillor Pribble had his hand first, but you’re next on this. Go ahead, Councillor Pribble. Thank you, Chair, and I would like to receive a feedback from the staff, and again, thanks to all the delegates, their points, but for example, I have two schools in my ward that for the past two years, I’ve been hearing from the parents, same thing. And they said they will never let their kids walk to school by themselves because of these issues. So I really think that, and I certainly am not disagreeing and agreeing with Councillor Frank and all the delegates, but again, this is throughout the entire city.

[1:32:09] And when I presented the two schools to our staff, we did a traffic study, and then I was told that the traffic study showed there is no need for any additional traffic calming measures, sorry, crossing guard, or, so I just would like a feedback from you, how are we gonna address it, because again, we have this group here today, and next month, it could be another ward, a month after another ward, and it is an issue, no doubt. Then I see, then I also see a crossing guard on the intersection where there are actually lines.

[1:32:46] So I would like just a feedback, just kind of both, global in terms of city of London, and also your feedback on what we just heard from the situation and to Old South, thank you. Thank you, Councillor. I will go to Mr. McRae. Yeah, thank you through the chair. The school crossing guard program is request-based, so staff respond when requests are received. Studies are done, which involves counting students, children crossing an intersection, also evaluates the conflicting moves, so the amount of vehicles going through the intersection, and then it calculates what’s called an exposure index, compares that to different criteria.

[1:33:38] So there’s a criteria for all-way stops, it’s a different criteria for a two-way stop, pedestrian crossover, or a traffic signal. So it compares to the criteria, and so this is the rationale to apply the program consistently across the city. And we’ve received these requests fairly frequently, studies are done consistently. Currently the program is set at about $1.55 million, and that pays for 106 crossing guards across the city, and that budget level has grown 10 years ago, it was approximately a million, so it’s grown by 50% in the last decade with the growth of locations.

[1:34:29] But currently we’re not aware of any locations that are warranted, that we’ve studied that require a crossing guard. Thank you, Councillor. So as I mentioned, there was a study done for the two schools that are in my ward for this intersection, and my ward has the study been done, and if it has, what were the results? Thank you, Councillor. I guess I’ll look to Mr. McCray, if he does have that information on hand, if he doesn’t, I would ask if he could submit that offline, but I’ll go to Mr. McCray.

[1:35:05] Yeah, this is right, I didn’t catch the location, but if it’s a different location than being discussed, oh, it’s, sorry, it was Woorley Emory, yeah, okay. So the results at Woorley Emory, it was studied in September 2024. Observations were, so that in the hour before school starts, 11 students across the intersection during the lunch hour, four students, junior students, sorry, and then in the afternoon, the hour after school, seven junior students crossing the intersections.

[1:35:42] Traffic volumes are also factored into this, as mentioned. So that exposure index calculated at that location, had Woorley Emory, compared to the level four, and always stopped, identified that a school crossing guard was not, you know, that criteria was not met for Woorley Emory. Thank you, Councillor. I’ll leave it to my fellow Councillors, but I just want to make a comment that there’s the, it’s not that I wouldn’t want to support it, but again, I have two schools in my ward, exactly in the same situation.

[1:36:18] I spend there quite a few days in the morning drop off and pick up in the afternoon, and it is very dangerous, and again, not very much different what I heard from the parents from the gallery. So I’ll leave it to my colleagues, but I would just like, again, certainly no doubt that a master mobility plan would be a perfect tool to revisit this, however you’re going to move forward. Actually, one quick question. Can you explain to me why we have a crossing guard when there is an intersection with the lights? Thank you.

[1:36:51] Thank you, Councillor. I’ll go to Mr. McRae. Yeah, as mentioned, school crossing guards, they’re very much related to the perception of safety and enabling active and safe routes to school. So enabling school children to walk to school, all crossings can be intimidating to junior students in their own ways. And the different exposure index criteria for the different types of intersections are set such that there’s a recognition that the crossing guard can be more beneficial at different locations.

[1:37:31] So at a traffic signal with the full lights, that criteria that that bar to meet is set a little higher because of that. Thank you, Councillor. Thanks, Elba. No more questions. Thank you, Councillor. I have Councillor Trussel next and then Councillor Frank. So go ahead, Councillor Trussel. First of all, through the chair, I want to thank you all for coming out ‘cause I represent Ward six, which is Old North. And this is exactly the type of thing that I hear from my residents persistently.

[1:38:05] My question is not to the need for action to address your very legitimate concerns. My question is, what’s the proper remedy for this? Technical things like what committee should be looking at the broader question? How does this fit in with the budget? So I just wanna start by saying, yes, I’ve been to that intersection. It’s very dangerous. In my ward, we just had a situation where a crossing guard on duty was struck.

[1:38:41] I’m not gonna call it an accident ‘cause I don’t like to call those things accidents. I’ll call it an incident. I don’t call it an accident because I think the drivers are being inherently unsafe and the design of that intersection is inherently unsafe. And there’s currently a petition pending at that intersection. There are currently petitions pending on a variety of other intersections. And I understand now, and I wasn’t really clear on this before, but I am now, that if you want to add a crossing guard to a particular location, and Mr. McCray can correct me if I’m misreading this, you just go through the same process that you would for other traffic mitigation requests.

[1:39:25] Is that right? Thank you, Councillor. I will go to— Could I ask my question without being interrupted? Oh, I thought you would finish your question. No, I’d like to ask Mr. McCray if he could just confirm that that’s correct. You have a point of order? Okay, okay. Yeah, could I just ask Mr. McCray to— Yes, yes, you can. And I will call the points of order. Mr. McCray, please go ahead. Through the chair, a petition is not required to prompt a request for a crossing guard.

[1:40:04] That would be a service London request. Would it enable that? But it’s still something that’s initiated directly by the residents. So I guess my question is, and I think, I think with respect to the $200,000, my concern with that number is not where are we gonna get the money. My concern with that number is, they’re 14 words. So how much does it cost to add one traffic card? Thank you, Councillor.

[1:40:39] If we have that information on hand, I will go to staff. The approximate cost for a school crossing guard is $15,000 per year. Thank you, Councillor. Okay, so basically, at best each word would get one. I’m not sure how that would be allocated. My problem with this is, I just saw an intersection where there was a traffic guard, and the traffic guard ended up in the hospital.

[1:41:17] So I’m not really sure that putting another traffic guard at peril, at another unsafe intersection, is the best way to go. It might be, and I really like what you said about having a traffic guard at least creates a visual that it’s being watched. Just like having a police guard creates a visual that maybe you don’t wanna be speeding past the police car. My question isn’t about the $200,000, it’s, we need to be spending more than $200,000 on traffic safety throughout the city.

[1:41:50] Now, I have been persistently contacted by my residents throughout my entire term, but particularly since the incident in June happened, and people are fed up with the behavior of the drivers. They’re just fed up. And without doing an infiltration study, a cut-through traffic study, which would involve more obtrusive measure of taking people’s a gas, you would have to take the license plates, or you could stop people and say, “Oh, can you tell me whether you live in this neighborhood?” We need to do something about the cut-through traffic.

[1:42:30] And we shouldn’t be surprised that the cut-through traffic is getting worse and worse and worse, because when I look at the development sort of environment in this town, and I see what’s going on in Sunnydale, and you can flip it and do it on both sides of town. Old North and Old South have a lot in common, and that we’re both grids, and we’re both the next sort of established urban neighborhood before getting into downtown. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there’s a lot of cut-through traffic in Old North and Old South.

[1:43:05] Now, I’ve asked the traffic department and the police department if they would be so kind as to attend a neighborhood meeting next week, where they’re both gonna be speaking. They’re going to hear a lot, and I have two other experts coming. They’re gonna be hearing a lot from the residents. Okay, they’re gonna be hearing a lot from the residents about the need to have some type of overall plan beyond just filing your petition or your service London request, having the numbers run on that.

[1:43:38] And I know how hard the traffic division works, but we need a better way of doing this. I think that if we take this to the budget committee right now, I would prefer to do that on something much larger, and I would like to see it go through the infrastructure and corporate services committee. So as much as I wanna support this, I think that we, I think it needs a little bit of work, and I’d really like to see this referred to the other committee for more discussion, and I really think $200,000 is on the low side of what we need, and I’m gonna stop right there.

[1:44:14] Thank you very much, and again, thank you for coming, and thank you for putting this on the agenda. Thank you, Councillor. You went over time there, but I was just gonna let you finish. I wasn’t gonna cut you off. I have a growing speakers list. So next on the list is Councillor Frank. So I am gonna go to Councillor Frank. Then I have Councillor McAllister, Councillor Cudi, and then myself. Councillor, you have, go ahead Councillor. I’ll find out how much you have in a second.

[1:44:46] Thank you. I want to ask a couple of staff through you to a couple of questions to staff before I enter some comments, so through the chair to staff, what role does the school board have in the school crossing guard program? Thank you, Councillor, to staff. Please go ahead. Through the chair, it’s very limited oftentimes. Well, before we do the study of the type that I mentioned, we’ll get in touch with the local school administrator to find out the times of the school, but that’s the limit really.

[1:45:20] Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, and to comment on some of the comments heard from Councillor Cudi, I’d be okay to let the school board, various school boards know specifically this one is the Thames Valley School Board of these issues. I’d be happy to have a conversation with them, but specifically for the school guard crossing program, the money is from the property tax base. It’s funded through the municipality, and that’s where that source of funding would come from. And again, we are staff kind of decide where they go. So I just wanted to clarify that. Additionally, through the chair to staff, the provincial guideline document that we use to decide where to put school crossing guards, that is a guideline document and that we could do better than the minimum guidelines.

[1:46:01] Is that correct? Thank you, Councillor. I’ll go to staff. Through the chair, yes. Civic administration uses the 2023 school crossing guard guide produced by the Ontario Traffic Council. There is flexibility within that guide for municipalities to set their own parameters. Thank you, Councillor. You have two minutes and 30 seconds, just let you know. Thank you, yes. So I just wanted to get that out on the floor so that everyone knows there is some flexibility in choosing what standards and metrics we’re using and where we want to put crossing guards.

[1:46:38] I am also very open. I heard some comments directing LPS and requesting that they allocate more officers to traffic enforcement. I do think receiving sizable penalties, financial penalties for bad drivers is probably actually the ideal solution. Again, this is just one of the tools we have in our toolbox that I was hoping to move forward because it seems that the enforcement that’s currently being done is not sufficient. And then just in regards to supporting this motion, some of the reasons why I think that we could use more crossing guards across the city, but specifically in the Wartley and Emory area.

[1:47:13] We have seen a 46% increase over four years of distracted driving in the city. This is from the London Provincial Offences Court reporting. A year over a year jump from 2023 to 2024 was 83%, which was among the highest Ontario. And now London rakes fifth in all Ontario municipalities for distracted driving charges. So I think when we are talking about people going to work, people, children walking to school and almost getting hit, we have seen worse drivers in the city. I’ve seen it.

[1:47:44] I don’t know if other folks can agree anecdotally, but there is also actual evidence that we have become more of a dangerous city to walk around from a distracted driving perspective. And we already know that the budget, we have the 1.55 million for crossing guards is 102% and 99% spent in the last couple of years. So it is being maxed out. More funding would need to be available if we were to hire any more crossing guards across the city. And I’ve also heard concerns from people at Emory and Wartley, Emory and Warren Cliff, Carfrae and Grandav, Ridgewood and Kernahan, Langley and Tecumseh, Heine Tecumseh.

[1:48:19] And those are areas that I believe most of not all of those have received a review and none of them are warranted despite probably getting an email once a week, once every other week from residents in those areas reporting near collisions, near misses. So again, I’m really hopeful that we can at least move this along and people can add amendments if they’d like to change any parameters. But the more people are afraid to walk, the more we’ll have cars on the road and the less people. And that’s not the direction I want to head in. Thank you, Councillor. You have 10 seconds left for your speaker’s time.

[1:48:52] Next, I have Councillor McAllister and you have three minutes and 44 seconds. Please go ahead, Councillor. Thank you and through the chair. And apologies for when my hand goes up. That’s more because I’m on the corner and I’m trying to get your attention. So apologies to Councillor Trussa. That’s not what that was. That was just me trying to get the chair’s attention. Again, I want to thank the Councillor Frank for bringing this forward. I think there might have been some confusion just in the conversation I’ve been hearing. I think there’s broad agreement that we all have issues in our awards in terms of crossings. But I think the value in this is reviewing.

[1:49:28] This is one of those things where I hear a lot of the time, obviously we have a petition based for traffic calming. But I do think that this is something that should be regularly reviewed. As Councillor Frank indicated, we can go above the provincial minimums if we deem it necessary. And we have seen a marked decrease in terms of just driving standards in general. So I’m personally in favor of looking at this. I think we should review it. Even if you aren’t in favor of A, I still think there’s a lot of merit in having this come forward and reviewing how the 200,000 would be spent.

[1:50:04] I’m always in favor of looking at business cases. I think we all have areas that we’d like to see. As Councillor Trussa said, there might not only be perhaps one per ward, but I’d still rather have one than none. And I think we obviously are looking at safety. And this is something we absolutely should prioritize. So I would be interested in seeing this move forward. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. I have Councillor Cudi next. You have two minutes and 18 seconds. Please go ahead. Thank you, Chair. I won’t use all of it. I wanted to touch on a couple of things. When Councillor Trussa mentioned that we have an inherent problem in this city around the school zones.

[1:50:38] And I absolutely agree with that, sir. We do. And Councillor Prill will touch on a number of schools that he has issues with that have similar problems. We can all talk about the problems that we have around our schools. And again, it’s distracted drivers. And Councillor Frank quoted some numbers that I have no doubt are true, that we have a high percentage of drivers who are distracted, who are paying attention, and we need to deal with it. I would like to add an amendment, Chair.

[1:51:13] If I could, I’ve sent it to the clerk. With the Council Procedure By-law, a standing committee member who has already spoken cannot actually move a motion. Okay. Yeah. So how would you like to proceed then if I have an amendment? Let me consult with the clerks on that one. Okay, Councillor, it is out of order.

[1:51:57] We’re trying to find a way forward. Is there not withstanding, Chair? Not withstanding the procedure of by-law? We need consensus from the committee. There’s a couple of options. We can bring amendments to council. We can, I guess a referral to ICSC wouldn’t be appropriate ‘cause this is within the mandate of the CAHPS committee.

[1:52:34] So I guess a way forward would be for you to- What point? Okay, State your point. Most of what we’ve heard today is within the jurisdiction of the infrastructure committee in terms of all the other traffic-related issues in the neighborhoods that is not within this CAHPS committee that goes to the infrastructure formerly the Civic Works Committee. And yes, the funding for the enforcement personnel would be within the jurisdiction of this committee. But Mr. McCrae’s department, the traffic department, deals with these issues. So why would that not be within the jurisdiction of the infrastructure committee?

[1:53:09] I would rule that it was because it would be focused on a safety component, but I will look at this year. Mr. Chair, my understanding when we resolve- dissolve the Civic Works Committee is that traffic safety-related matters would come to CAHPS along with associated infrastructure, snow removal policy, pedestrian safety, all of those are now under the mandate of the CAHPS committee is my understanding. Thank you. So I would take that as my ruling. It is within the safety component, so it is for CAHPS.

[1:53:45] I’d like to move then to over roll the chair with respect to Councillor Cudi’s request to make an amendment. Okay, just a second. Just to move this forward. Chair, if there’s broad agreement, can we not just would not withstand the current policy? ‘Cause that’s what I’m looking into. Just give me a second.

[1:54:39] Okay, there’s two ways we can do this, and both are gonna have to have you go against my ruling as chair. So I’m gonna look to consensus of the committee if my ruling should be sustained or not. Sure. - Hold on, hold on. And that would be in order for Councillor Cudi to bring a motion forward. So I’m gonna look at committee, and I’m gonna say if you would like to challenge the chair against my ruling, just put your hand up.

[1:55:19] Three, four, okay. Just a second. Okay, Councillor Cudi, let’s hear it. So we’ve overruled the chair. You have. Thank you. With all due respect, that was actually a lot of fun. Okay. Chair, thank you. I’ve sent the amendment to the clerk. I have a seconder in Councillor McAllister. Okay, well, the clerk, spring that up online. I would like you to read that amendment and just read it a little slow to give them some time.

[1:55:56] Thank you, Chair. It needs some wordsmithing, so I appreciate that. But it’s the amendments to read that city staff would engage with Thames Elementary School Board administration to look at all city schools crossing. Acrosswalks and work together to find some solutions. And I will mention, I really like what Councillor Frank has done. I want to support it.

[1:56:29] I just want to augment it a little bit so that we have a little more strength than we do need. I think we need the cooperation of the TV DSP. Thank you, Chair. And before I go to the clerks and then I’ll go back to the Councillor. And I’m not counting this as your time ‘cause we are doing a little bit of smithing on the floor. Your motion would preclude any other sources of financing and only go to TV DSP or is it TV DSP plus other areas of financing funding? Thank you, Chair. No, it wouldn’t preclude it. We just see if we can get additional fine-sancing from TV DSP.

[1:57:02] Okay, thank you. Before I go to Councillor McAllister, just give me just give us a second. The clerks are just drafting up from what was just said on the floor and what was emailed to us. Go ahead, Councillor. Oh, sorry. I wanted to go ahead. Councillor McAllister. Yeah, just as we were speaking, sorry.

[1:57:34] The addition, just language in there to say that they would be engaged on the review in terms of the standards. That was the part I wanted to see. Okay, thank you. Okay, so just bear with us for a second. So just comments, I guess.

[1:58:23] We’re looking at TV DSP, but we do have another school board, a couple of, three, four, four school boards. Should we include all of them? Okay, so I put all school boards, or however you wanna do the language. All right, bear with us a little bit longer. clerks have some language.

[1:59:01] They’re gonna read it out. Tell me if it’s good. Through the chair that the motion be amended to add a new part C to read as follows. That city staff engage on the review of the standards of the school guard crossing policy with all school boards within London to discuss the issues of school crossings at all London schools. I’m getting a thumbs up. Okay, I need a seconder. Seconded by, I’ll go to Councillor Trussle on this one. Mr. Chair, a point of, sorry, it’s Councillor Ploza.

[1:59:36] Just respectfully, the clerks wording kind of contradict each other, that you’re gonna engage with local school boards about all the schools in the area, but we do have some private schools that also have students within London, and they’re being missed. That’s a good point to order, just a second. Sorry. Okay, I’m gonna read some language here.

[2:00:33] So it’s the motion be amended to add part C to read as follows, but city staff engage on the review of the standards of the school guard crossing policy with all school boards within the city of London to discuss the issues of school crossings at all London schools. I’m getting thumbs up over here. How about the budget chair? Thumbs up over there, budget chair? It’s still just, I believe, nice language, but I don’t see where it encapsulates the private schools that aren’t part of a school board.

[2:01:07] Okay, just say public and private. Okay, we’re just making some changes. We are gonna put public school boards in private schools, and I’m gonna read this again.

[2:01:46] The motion be amended to add a new part C to read as follows, that city staff engage on the review of the standards of the school guard crossing policy with all public school boards and private schools within the city of London, discuss the issues of school crossings at all London schools. Sounds good, thank you, Mr. Chair, and to staff. Okay, and just everybody, okay, with that language? You think I’m gonna look at Councilor Frank? I have a mover and a secondary, I believe, on that.

[2:02:27] Question, okay, just a second. That’s up on E-Scribe. I have one question from Councilor Pribble. Now I have Councilor Pelosa on the list. This is just a quick question on the motion. Then I will hear it now. If it’s some comments or questions, I gotta go to Councilor Pelosa first. Okay, Councilor Pelosa, you’re gonna be first, so please go ahead if you still have some comments or questions, go ahead. Mine was on the main motion, not the amendment, so I’ll hold mine, thank you. Okay, thank you, Councilor, Councilor Pribble.

[2:03:01] So, Chair, I’m gonna go back to the staff. When I read this, it looks like a very complicated, long project and we are trying to resolve a situation. You heard the concerns, what we have, Councilors. We all have it, and now, what is your recommendation? We do have certain guidelines that we’ve been doing. I just honestly don’t see what’s in front of us, how we are gonna speed up, address the issue, except, yes, we did something with it, but when it’s coming back, what’s gonna happen?

[2:03:37] And I’m just thinking that we are just delaying this. Can I have some suggestion from the staff? Just what’s your recommendation? We have an issue in our wards with this. Is it the standards we look at within the city because the boards, they’re not gonna, they don’t have these instruments as we do to do the count, to do this. And I really think that, I think it’ll be much better if you have some better recommendation. Seeking our wisdom. Thank you, Councilor, I’m gonna go to Ms. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[2:04:08] I’ll start perhaps, Mr. McCrae, we wish to add to that. Staff have no concerns about reviewing the policy. It’s been some time since we’ve done a review of the criteria that apply to school crossing guards. And no, nor do we have any concerns about engaging schools in that policy review. This is not an intersection by intersection location where every single person might be crossing to school and have concerns that would be an impossible feat. This still is many months of work. There would not be something likely back on that this year, but certainly the review and the engagement with the school boards and with appropriate private schools, we certainly can undertake a staff.

[2:04:45] Thank you. And if Mr. McCrae has anything to add, I will go to you. Yeah, I’ll just add, so in addition to what Ms. Chair said, in a broader sense, road safety is a common theme that we heard through mobility master plan engagement, compliance with traffic control devices. We know that stop sign compliance that always stops is dismally low and similar for all sorts of traffic control devices like pedestrian crossovers. As an early action out of the mobility master plan, we’re going to be launching a smart mobility action plan.

[2:05:25] And that will take both a data driven approach to road safety, but it’ll also have an engagement and consultation piece with Londoners and so that, it’ll very much try to hone in on both perceptions safety and also data driven at real safety outcomes. And there’ll be probably a variety of recommendations coming out of that that we’ll aim to improve this, what we all find frustrating, aim to make improvements citywide. Thank you, Councillor.

[2:06:00] Nothing right now, thank you. Thank you. Okay, on the amendment, Councillor Truso, you have run out of time on the amendment. But the amendment’s on the floor, so there’s— Oh, that’s right, okay, you’re correct. You have five minutes, go ahead. Thank you, so I’ll take my time. Thank you. No, I’ll try to speak quickly. I’m still, I like the amendment, and I think it’s good policy. I just, I’ll comment that I wish we had school trustees we could be working with, they’d be very helpful. But I like the idea of including the private schools, and I appreciate your amendment.

[2:06:35] I think it’s a little bit inconsistent though, if this process, this process is going to strengthen any subsequent budget ask. So should the request to have a business case come after this, or should it be concurrent? And I guess I’m looking at the Councillor Cudi. I’m looking at the Councillor Cudi since it was your motion. I’m just trying to say keep it in scope with any amendment. Amendment has to be read in conjunction with the rest of the motion, and I just wanna make sure that when we read A, D, and C, we know exactly what we’re doing and when.

[2:07:20] That’s all, but I’m in favor of the amendment. I’m still not sure about the main motion, but I’m in favor of the amendment. Thank you, anybody, visiting? Let’s call the question on the amendment. Opposing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. We are now on the main motion as amended.

[2:07:59] First on the list, I have Councillor, Budget Chair, Palosa, and I have some of you have some time, some of you don’t, but I’m gonna go to the Budget Chair first. Please go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Question through you to staff. Looking to see as we review this program, and if we currently recognize some potential underutilized shifts, sometimes it’s the one-time shift, lunchtime shift, kids get to school in the morning, they come back at night, but not everyone leaves for lunch. Do we currently have some schools that don’t have lunchtime coverage, but just the morning and the evening?

[2:08:34] Thank you, Councillor, look to staff on that one. Miss, Mr. McCree, please go ahead. I’d have to confirm that. I think most are three, like morning, lunch, and afternoon, but I’d have to confirm to be sure. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. I assume if this is Palisis here and at committee and council, that that could be part of the review of looking to see if even some budget allocation could be changed, that lunchtime coverage isn’t as necessary, perhaps, based on numbers and traffic volumes.

[2:09:08] And a question through you to staff hasn’t been proven that the Tropping Guards have the intended safety impact that we hope to reduce with collision, realizing the law, the concerns I’m hearing at committee, is really a matter of police enforcement. Thank you. I will go to Mr. McCree. Thank you, through the chair. You are correct that the enforcement, like police enforcement, is unfortunately the necessary solution for a lot of the complaints we’re hearing about a lack of compliance.

[2:09:45] The correlation to the presence of school crossing guards to actual safety is an item that we would research for as part of the directed review. Thank you, Councilor. Thank you. You know, as it’s been said, we all have schools in our areas with concerns, parent issues, traffic, flow of studies and safety measures that we’re looking to put up. I appreciate it. I know staff is working with one of my schools. That’s had a few issues just looking at, then site design the flow of traffic as an entirety, not just the crossing garbage they already have.

[2:10:27] My only concern with the wording is that as staff is gonna review the policy and come back to us that we’re inherently seem to be assuming that crossing guards is gonna fix the solution or be a big part of it, knowing that police enforcement and traffic monitoring and ticketing is probably what we need. That’s where my concern lies that we might actually still not be getting to the root cause. Though crossing guards are a welcome community presence, getting to see the children and the family and helping them be greeters throughout the day, it still lacks the enforcement piece that we need.

[2:11:06] Thank you. Thank you. All right. Well, I haven’t said anything yet. So maybe I should speak to this one. I guess, you know, first thing I’m gonna point out is that, you know, I appreciate the work that Councillor Frank has done in bringing this to committee, speaking with your members of your award and Londoners at large. I do know that there’s a need. You know, myself, I have been kind of hitting this issue in an ad hoc basis, one by one.

[2:11:40] And I know that’s not the best way to do things. And it’s always much smarter and wiser to do a full on city-wide policy approach. So thank you for that, Councillor. We all have our own hotspots and intersections and traffic volumes throughout the city and just listening to this conversation at committee. I’m not the only one. I know, Councillor Frank is not the only one. I can clearly see that other councils are dealing with the same issues. So I do believe that this motion and the work that we’re looking to do is appropriate. You know, when it comes to the safety of children specifically, that is kind of where I really get fierce and show my teeth because kids, you know, they’re the ones that we protect the most and they’re the ones that we wanna make sure have a safe environment, especially when we’re not around.

[2:12:23] So I’m totally in support of that. I do see that we have made some changes here, but some changes that I think are good ones, ones that I have been writing notes as I’ve been hearing the committee members speak, questions that I was gonna ask, the potential amendments that I was gonna put forward, but I do appreciate the work that we’ve done here. So another good example that we’ve seen here is the collaborative work that committee can do in front of you all. So I really appreciate that. And I think we landed somewhere good. With that, I’m gonna fully support this. I do appreciate the work that has been done.

[2:12:58] I’m gonna look to the delegates and say, “Thank you for coming, thank you for speaking today.” And I hope that we can get some positive resolve for this. Now, one last point that I do wanna make is I do understand that we’re asking for a business case, but I also know that this business case and the work that it lies there in may not fall within the next budget update. So before I go further on that, I do wanna confirm with staff, I’m like the realistic, the realistic likeliness of where would this business case fall? Will it fall on the budget update for next year?

[2:13:31] Or will it come to a multi-year budget cycle? Mr. Chair, certainly the business case could be prepared to add the funding this year and identify a source of funding. There will be no content from the review accompanying that business case. Okay, thank you. So just to clarify that, just so committee is aware and council is aware that if we wanna do good work here, it’s not gonna happen as fast as we’d like it. But it is coming. So with that, I appreciate the motion. You’re gonna see me fully support this here and at council. And again, I appreciate the work from Councilor Frank.

[2:14:05] Appreciate the comments and the discussion and the work we had here at committee today. And thank you to the delegates for coming and thanks for staff. And thanks for helping me on my ad hoc basis. I will stop harassing you now once we get that motion in place so we can have the more city-wide approach. So thank you very much. And I will pay fine, go for it. Thank you. I forgot to say thank you to the residents as well. And you guys all said thank you. So I just wanted to make sure I said thanks for the work and all the emails and the follow up and coming and taking time under your days to do this.

[2:14:39] So I really appreciate it. Thank you. I will call. Okay, Councilor Perbault, great questions through the chair to the staff. If you approve a $200,000 and let’s say the business case comes through. And as Mr. Chair, she said this will not be accompanied by any study. How would we approach it in terms of the 200,000? So we approve it and then what are we gonna go by? Whoever is speaking the loudest or how are we gonna get to the fair towards the entire city? How would we approach it? Thank you, Councilor. I’ll go to Ms. Chair.

[2:15:11] Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ultimately, the budget request should come after the review. And that would certainly be my best advice is to let us finish the comprehensive review and provide a business case next year with that information to potentially advise on right sizing the program. If there’s a desire, however, to increase the funding now, we would be in a position where we continue to use the process we have in place, which is request driven, evaluation to see if it meets criteria. We have not said no to a location that meets the current criteria and those criteria would remain in place until something is approved after the review is complete. Thank you, Councilor.

[2:15:45] Thank you. So to be fair, to the entire community, to all the wards, we would be still considering the study and maybe the levels we would decrease to get to the spending, the 200,000. But again, it would be that we have certain data. It wouldn’t be whoever is the loudest would get the money. Am I, is my assumption correct? Thank you, Councilor, Chair. Mr. Chair, the current program is fully subscribed. So we are spending all of the money we have each year. This would expand the current program under the current criteria until such point as those criteria were changed when the review is complete.

[2:16:20] So loudness isn’t only a factor for that. It would still be evaluated based on the geometry speeds, pedestrian and traffic volumes at that location. If it meets criteria, this would provide us an additional envelope in which to provide crossing guards until we’re able to report back later next year or later this year early next with the results of the review. Should this all proceed to Council? Thank you, Councillor. Thank you very much, no more questions. Thank you, Councillor. Okay, I am going to make one last call. Members, busy members, let’s call the question. Opposing the vote, the motion carries five to zero.

[2:17:04] Okay, thank you. So I know we have some delegates here from the BIA’s and I would just ask for your forgiveness on this one, but I need a 10 minute biobrake if that’s okay. Is that all right? Okay, thank you. I’m looking for a motion, 10 minute biobrake. Councillor Tresser moved, seconded by myself. Okay, let’s call the question. All hands, all in favor, all those opposed? Thank you. I will be calling this meeting back to order.

[2:28:14] Come on, committee. Okay, so we’re still on deferred matters. Additional business, our next item is 5.2. It’s an added from Councillor McAllister and a couple of delegations for the funding request for Hamilton Road and Old East Village BIA. So I will look to Councillor McAllister. He has an amended motion, or I guess not amended motion, an alternate motion from the one that we saw in our package. So I’m gonna go to the Councillor to present the motion and then we will ask for committee to, we’ll need a seconder actually before you can put that.

[2:28:55] So moved by Councillor McAllister. We’re gonna need a seconder for it and then we’ll go to the delegations to speak. So before anything, I do need a seconder for the motion. Well, can I read it out first? Yep, you can. I do have a seconder in Councillor Cudi though. Okay, thank you. Go ahead. Just so there’s the updated language and everyone’s aware. So this is that the following actions be taken in respect to communication from Councillor McAllister dated July 7th, 2025 with respect to a funding request for the Hamilton Road BIA and Old East Village BIA. A, the Civic Administration be directed to allocate one-time funding of 62,500 from the Community Investment Reserve Fund to the Hamilton Road BIA to allow them to continue their joint private security service contract with the Argal BIA for 2026.

[2:29:40] B, the Civic Administration be directed to immediately allocate one-time funding of 34,179 and 62 cents from the Community Investment Reserve Fund to the Old East Village BIA as reimbursement for property cleanups, fee removal and enhance safety and security measures for nonprofits within the boundaries of the Old East Village BIA. Thank you. All right, I will need the motion. Should be up on East Scribe now.

[2:30:12] Okay, so if you just refresh your page there, I’m gonna go to committee to request a motion to move to hear the delegations. So move by Councillor McAllister, seconded by Councillor Perble. And let’s call that question. Posting the vote, the motion carries five to zero. All right, we have first level list, Ms. Luis Joe from the Hamilton Road BIA.

[2:30:49] So please step up to the mic right there. Please state your name. And once you do, you have five minutes. Thank you. Great afternoon, members and members of council. My name is Carolyn Luis Joe, and I’m the executive director of the Hamilton Road Business Improvement Area. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today, regarding our request for additional support to continue and strengthen safety and security initiatives in our business district. On behalf of the Hamilton Road BIA, we express our strong support for Ward 1 Councillor Hadley McAllister’s motion to approve additional city support to East London’s business improvement areas.

[2:31:28] This motion directly addresses safety concerns, raised by our business members, and highlights the ongoing need to maintain safe, clean, secure, revitalized, and welcoming main streets, especially during the challenging economic times. As outlined in the city of London’s most recent neighborhood safety and security strategic plan, creating vibrant, inclusive, and resilient neighborhoods requires a proactive, collaborative approach to community safety. The Hamilton Road BIA is committed to these principles, and our ongoing work reflects the city’s focus on prevention, partnership, and place-based solutions.

[2:32:11] Our request today is for a one-time allocation of 62,500 from the Community Investment Reserve Fund to allow us to continue our joint private security contract with the Argonne BIA through 2026. This funding is not just an operational necessity, it is a strategic investment in the well-being of our business community and the broader neighborhood. Over the past one year and a half, our partnership with Argonne BIA, including dedicated security services, has delivered measurable results.

[2:32:45] Incidents of property crime, vandalism, and response to homelessness were recently recognized by the Ontario Business Improvement Area Association, affirming that targeted safety, investment yield real, positive outcomes for local businesses and the communities we serve. This would not have been possible without city funding. Our partnership with London Coffee Houses created a meaningful and visible impact in our neighborhood. Though this collaboration participants come out once or twice a week to help clean along the Hamilton Road Corridor and nearby streets in hotspot areas.

[2:33:28] This initiative isn’t just about cleaning the streets, it’s about neighborhood revitalization and community pride. These volunteers removed litter, including hazardous waste such as drug paraphernalia, helping to make our streets safer and more welcoming for everybody. And that’s including the mixed use that we have in our neighborhoods, our homes, the young families, and the school zones that we have in our catchment area. This approach is to safety and beautification. It’s not only supports vulnerable individuals, purposeful work, but also fosters the sense of ownership and care within the community.

[2:34:05] Programs like this show how partnerships can drive real change when we come together with a shared purpose. These investments are critical, not making them, not making them would not only undermine the progress we’ve already made, but can also lead to greater costs in the future, both financially and socially. When safety and cleanliness begin to deteriorate, businesses lose customers, commercial vacancies, increases, and the cycle of decline accelerates. We are proud of the resilience and determination shown by the Hamilton Road’s business owners, but we cannot do this alone.

[2:34:48] The support of council is crucial to sustaining the momentum we have built, to ensuring that Hamilton Road remains a welcoming, vibrant, and economically viable corridor for all lenders. I respectfully urge you to improve the requested funding so we may continue to deliver on the city’s vision for safe, thriving neighborhoods. By investing in safety and security now, we are investing in the future’s success and vitality of my entire city. Thank you for your time and consideration.

[2:35:22] Thank you, okay. To the right side, Mr. Morrison, you know the drill. Oh, I don’t know. Through some of the initiatives that we’ve been doing at Hamilton Road. Okay, just a second. Good. Okay, so because we see one delegation, you actually only have, actually, he has to continue on with your five minutes, so he’s got about 41 seconds.

[2:36:00] However, I’m just gonna look at committee and see what the consensus is. But I want a motion for five minutes for the other delegate. I’ll make that motion, but I would encourage people in the future, if there are gonna be two people, just ask for separate delegation so we know from the beginning that you each got your five minutes, but I want to hear his presentation. Okay, move, we’ll get your name in a second. We’re gonna need you to spell it out to once we get there. I just am looking for a seconder.

[2:36:32] Okay, seconded by Councillor Cuddy, so moved by Councillor Trussell, seconded by Councillor Cuddy. Do you mind coming to the mic and just spelling out your name? I’m Brandon McGlone, so B-R-A-N-D-O-N. McGlone, M-C-G-L-O-N-E. Looking for a vote for this delegation. Can we do this by hand or should we do it on e-scrap? Okay, it’s gonna go up in the system, so call on the question. Closing the vote, the motion carries five to zero.

[2:37:11] Okay, you have five minutes, go ahead. Thank you, going off of what Carolyn said. So I’m Brandon McGlone, I’m the safety security coordinator for the Argyle BIA, as well as the Hamilton Rope BIA. My main duties are to oversee the security team with what we are speaking here today, managing day-to-day operations for our contractor security team, ensuring visibility, responsiveness, and community-oriented conduct, regularly meeting with business members, communicating, addressing safety concerns, offering tailored advice, and building trust with our community.

[2:37:48] One thing we’ve done is, we’ve created a safety and security package that we’ve been able to do outreach with door-to-door with all of our members in East London. This package maintains important information with our Dominion security on call, what to call for, who to call, and kinda just follow up, as well as myself, to have access to reach out to me whenever they need to kind of guide them through any situations they’re dealing with in this context. Another things we’re teaching our businesses is bringing awareness and education around using the CIR services, the City of London service portal, as well as just teaching them how to use the security package in general.

[2:38:35] Another duty of mine is managing the Hamilton Rope cleanup crew, supervising cleaning and welcoming public spaces. As a connector between businesses, city service, and social supports, we promote proactive informed and dignity focused to safety, approach to safety. So, thank you. Thank you. We have our next delegation, which is Mr. Morrison for Police Village BIA, standing up on the right.

[2:39:15] Please state your name, and then I’ll start your five minutes. Please go ahead. Good afternoon, my name is Kevin Morrison. Thank you, Mr. Chair and to the committee members. I thank you for the opportunity to speak to you here today. And as the general manager of the old East Village BIA, I am here to strongly support Councillor McAllister’s motion, specifically when it comes to part B. I also wanna thank Councillor Hadley for changing the wording somewhat to make it a bit clearer. It kind of brought back memories to my former political days because it makes it more specific as to what’s actually being requested here.

[2:39:54] Councillor McAllister had approached us some weeks ago about looking at private security services and possible funding that we would be interested in. However, this request of course is, as you can see, it’s clear now, is not for funding for security services because we have found in the old East Village that were actually beyond that point. And we found that private security firms were well-intentioned simply lack the authority necessary to do what’s required to be done in the old East Village, not saying they’re not effective in other areas because they actually are, but it’s just right now we need the support of the police services which we are getting.

[2:40:32] We’re getting a little bit more support now with CIR. So we are getting there. What’s happening is starting to work. So basically what we’re asking for is being reimbursed for the funds that have already been spent from January 1st to April 30th to support the not-for-profits, non-Levy-paying organizations that we have already paid out the funds to. While the non-for-profits specifically Banting House, which is a national historic site, the Palace Theater and Aioli and Hall may not contribute directly financially through paying levies, they absolutely contribute to the fabric and the function of our district.

[2:41:11] And they generate significant foot traffic, to activate our public spaces, and they bring economic spin-offs that benefit our local businesses. And that being said, with us spending these additional dollars to non-Levy-paying organizations within our district, the sustainability of our BIA is under increasingly, you know, increase in pressure. And as more small businesses are forced to close due to ongoing safety and maintenance issues, we’re seeing these spaces now are transitioning into social service providers, again, organizations that don’t pay a levy.

[2:41:50] And I just wanna point out to this committee, and I hope the council will realize this as well, that our levy has remained unchanged in the city’s budget for a number of years at $42,000. This year, once again, we will be returning approximately $5,000 to the city for write-offs and rebates because of non-Levy-paying organizations. If the city’s going to continue supporting and allowing the expansion of social services and the providers in the oldies village without simultaneously addressing these issues, then I think it’s time for the city to increase the direct support to the BIA.

[2:42:28] And that’s what we’re asking for today. We’ve already spent the money. It’s only $34,000, you know, when you would take a look at the grand scheme of things, for the funding that goes to social services, this assists us because it’s taking away from the funding that was intended for our levy-paying businesses and property owners. So we ask you to approve the request at funding and acknowledge that way the unique needs and the problems that we still have in the oldies village. Our businesses and organizations are resilient, they’re collaborative and they’re committed.

[2:43:01] And all we ask is that you as elected officials here at this committee and at council continue to do the same. Thank you. Thank you. All right, I will, I guess I’ll go back to Councillor McAllister. So please go ahead. Thank you and I’ll try to be brief with my time ‘cause I wanna hear from my colleagues as well on this. Appreciate the BIA is coming out. I just wanna give some context in terms of how this came about.

[2:43:34] A few weeks ago, it might’ve been a few months ago, somewhere kind of bleeds together. But I wanted to bring the East End BIAs together to discuss a number of issues. This was one of the things that came out of that meeting. I’m a believer in being good neighbor. These are all BIAs to feed into one another. We do share some similar challenges. But as Ms. Morrison said, we’re all at different places in terms of how we’re dealing with those. I wanna start off by saying I appreciate the good work. Argyle has already done. Our joint part, our security partnership with them has been very successful.

[2:44:09] Argyle is further along in terms of their ability to sustain their own programs. We are currently not at that level, but some further context so my colleagues are aware. We have already started engaging and exploring with city staff in terms of Hamilton Road, increasing our levy and border expansions, recognizing that staff time is being taken up with Hyde Park currently. It will take a bit of time for us to get to that level. So this is recognition, in part A at least, that we need that runway to be able to build up the capacity to sustain these programs for our business members.

[2:44:48] So just recognizing that, we appreciate the support we’ve received to date from the city. It’s been very successful as Carolyn indicated. The Ontario BIA recognized our efforts in partnership with Argyle. So that was greatly appreciated. And we hear repeatedly from our business members and even community members, I have heard from, see a lot of success in terms of our security patrols, but also the cleaning component, which Carolyn also touched on, which is the CMHA Coffee House, which does the weekly cleanups.

[2:45:20] It’s a great partnership to engage with one of our social agencies within the BIA, and they’ve been great partners in terms of cleaning up, building those relationships with businesses, and we’ve seen a lot of success. With part B, thank you to Ms. Morrison for coming, recognizing the challenges that OEV have. I thought it was appropriate as Hamilton Road asks for the support that OEV also be part of that conversation. We have all heard the challenges. They are in a position where they are footing the bill for a lot of services that they can’t with their business members currently sustain.

[2:45:59] We all hope OEV gets to that place in the future, but in the current climate, we do need to support them. And so I think it was appropriate to have East End BIAs come together in this collective ask. So I hope my colleagues that provides you with some context, happy to answer more questions, but that just to start off the conversation, looking for your support. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor. Councillor, please go ahead. Thank you, thank you very much. And thank you very much for the amendment. It’s really clarified for me, some of the things that are going on here.

[2:46:38] If I understand the situation, this is sort of a question for the Councillor, am I correct in understanding that part A is asking for sort of ongoing recurring costs like the ones that have been recurred, but part B is asking for reimbursement for costs that they’re already out of pocket for most of which are one account of nine members, is that right? Yes, you can ask if the Councillor is willing to ask that question, it’s a question that I had as well.

[2:47:16] Please go ahead. So with part A, that is for 2026, that is the projected impact in terms of the services we’ve been providing to date, but that’s for the future costs. So ours as a future ask, this would be going into 2026. For part B, you are correct, this is for costs already incurred, and they are looking for the reimbursement of what they’ve already paid out. Thank you, Councillor, please go ahead, Councillor. Thank you, and that’s very helpful. I suspect in the long run, what I would really like to ask about, and it might be beyond what’s on the table today, is expanding your area all the way to Highbury, so you pick up the incremental value of the many new businesses there going in.

[2:48:02] Can I ask about that? No, okay, that was a no. All right, so I’d like to request then that A and B be called separately, and thank you very much for that clarification. Thank you, Councillor. Members, Councillor Perbaud, go ahead. Thank you, I have a question, I know if any of my colleagues who may be delegation can answer it. The first question for actually, for the Hamilton BIA, and it’s the amount, it’s gonna take us to 2026.

[2:48:40] So are we defunding that currently the BIA has, will take us to the end of 25, and what’s in front of us is for the 12th month of 26? Okay, so asking delegates out of the way. I see a nod from all the end, so I’m good with that. And the second question, I heard that so far, it’s been positive recognition from Ontario, et cetera, et cetera. Is there actually data that you can share what was happening before this initiative was introduced, and what is how it actually truly helped us?

[2:49:20] Okay, so before we go to questions for the delegate, you can stand there for just a second. That is out of order, so we’ve done this before. I’m just looking for consent from committee, if you are okay to have the delegate answer questions. So anybody opposed, put your hand up, please go ahead. Thank you, in terms of data that you’re asking, no. What was prior to the whole security initiative, I was constantly at the hotspot areas, just identifying some of the safety issues that was reoccurring.

[2:50:00] And hence, my conversation with McAllister and the board members, it was a constant issue. So prior to the data, we don’t have it, but we do have data for the year 2024, which was presented to you in that support letter. Would you want me to review the data? Sorry, just to further clarification. Sorry, I’m sorry, maybe I missed it because I actually thought in my package there was only your request for delegation, and there was a letter from Aldi’s village.

[2:50:34] No, we do, in that support letter, it supports the data for the year 2024. I’m sorry, and it’s in the package of today? I think the support letter came after, is that something we need to have added in? Just a second. We did not get any added from the Hamilton Road BIA other than the delegation request. Okay, well, that’s something we can have added in if the counselor wants that data, Brandon, I was just gonna say, if you wanted to reach out to Brandon, he has the current data.

[2:51:10] I do have the data here, if you want me to present it. No, did you know, okay, okay. Everybody, wait to be recognized by the chair. Please go ahead, counselor. Thank you, no, if it’s already existing, I will look at it, I will seek an aid, but I think that it’s really helpful to us to see, and I’m actually happy, I wanna see it, because if you are investing, it’s great to hear the positive, but it’s nice to have the data accompanying it. So, no need to, I will seek it, I will look at it, and if I have any questions, I will follow up directly with you.

[2:51:43] Thank you. Thank you, counselor. And I do have for the old East Village, and my question is, and again today, you did a counselor or the delegation. We did award the $500,000, and if I remember, please correct me if I’m wrong, but it wasn’t specifically, it was for the area. There was no kind of specifically levy non-leaving paying organization. It was $500,000 to improve the area. Now, it’s coming back, the ask for this additional money for the non-levy paying, and I have a couple of questions.

[2:52:17] The first one is, I would imagine the $500,000 has been spent, and the second one is kind of a similar thing, and I do hear, and I’m very happy to hear in your letter, the programs we have implemented are working. They are directly addressing the visible and economic impacts of the ongoing street crisis. I’m very happy to hear that, because again, it’s very positive for coming from old East Village. But same thing, do we have any data to supporting these two sentences? Can you please answer those two questions? Thank you, thank you, counselor.

[2:52:49] Please go ahead. Thank you. Just so you know, the $500,000 in funding was for direct business support. It was not for profit, non-levy paying members. Well, they’re not members, they’re in our district. They function in our district. For instance, if a social service that has a drop-in were to request funding, it would be refused, because they don’t contribute to the area. These organizations contribute, and that’s why we’ve sort of said, okay, because they do contribute, it’s kind of a gray area in a fine line. We’re gonna provide assistance.

[2:53:22] A good example, and it’s not private, I mean, they’re more than happy to share the information. We’ve replaced windows on the Palace Theater. Palace Theater is struggling financially, even though that’s not under our mandate, as a BIA, because they are non-levy paying member, they are a contributor, and that’s why we have support of them, and that’s why we’re looking at reimbursements. When it comes to the 500,000, it was upgraded. If you remember, at budget time that we have until the end of 2026 to spend those monies, I’m being very careful because things change within the hours in the old East Village still.

[2:53:58] So what we are doing is working in that we have the increased foot patrol, you know, monitoring the area, we have, you know, more safety and security measures that are in place. We are getting a better response time. So those services that we are implementing, absolutely, have shown a significant positive change, where we still have our struggles, is that we’re still playing catch-up, and a lot of the businesses that close are being replaced once again, as I mentioned earlier, by the not-for-profit non-levy paying, so it puts us in that financial crunch again.

[2:54:34] So some of that $500,000, as though it was allocated for direct business supports, we really have to sometimes take a look, is beautification a direct business support? Because otherwise, we would have no planters. And, you know, so it’s hard to answer the question specifically, I mean, I can certainly, you know, find the data for you that, you know, I mean, I can tell you, right down to a penny, what we have spent this year. And I’ll try to tie it into what we’re looking at in the future, because I know that Councillor Trussa wasn’t allowed to ask me the question, but I believe that you should support the cause that you believe in.

[2:55:13] And I believe that our BIA should be self-sustainable through levies. When we approached the city months ago to look at an expansion that will take us from Adelaide Street to Highbury, which then crosses over to Argyle, the railroad tracks to the north, and the railroad tracks to the south, that takes in Kelloggs, it takes in a number of business, it will quadruple the amount of our levy paying members. And that’s where we won’t need the additional funding from the city when it comes to the revitalization funding that you provide on an annual basis of $141,000.

[2:55:49] But we were told we can’t even help you until the end of 2026, we have no allocated staff. We’re hoping that that’s going to change shortly, because I think one of the other BIA’s is now off the table with substantial increase they were looking at. So we’re doing what we can, Councillor. I know you visit the area often, I know you and I talk quite a bit. And I’m being very cautious for what we are spending directly at this point until we get into the new year, because you have budget talks coming up.

[2:56:23] And I’ve been in your position before, and you’ve got some tough decisions to make. So am I going to spend $500,000 like I was, it was recommended by someone else, just you know what, you’ve got the money, spend it? No, but I don’t also want to be punished for being fiscally responsible. And that’s why we are very cautious to get the biggest bang for the buck, as they say, when it comes to the funding that was generously provided by the city of that half million dollars. And I think we have been very fiscally responsible by it. I mean, I took a look, you know, to be right up front.

[2:56:56] And I just wanted to keep within the question of the Councillor just for time purposes. Okay, go ahead, Councillor. No, thank you. Thank you for answering my questions. It wants the data, and again, on a regular basis, we don’t hear very positive news from all these villages. And in your letter, you’re actually stating positive. And the data what I was looking for, actually, is the positive, the positives that are happening there. So I wasn’t the data, you spent $5 for this and that. No, the data in terms of the positiveness, because I do still think, I do realize in both, or all three BIA’s, there are challenges, like all the other ones, I do realize that.

[2:57:39] And it’s something that I want to help. And I think that we need to help, absolutely. But on the other hand, if we make an investment, I want to hear the feedback back. And especially, actually, both, if it’s positive or negative. So we don’t, we are honest with each other. But if it’s positive, let’s, let’s, let’s, let’s, let’s, not celebrate maybe, but let’s inform everyone of the positiveness as well, not just negativeness, and I do believe it is. And I think it’s time to look at the positive side of the coin as well, so that’s, that was my concern, or sorry, my question regarding the data.

[2:58:14] Thank you, Councillor. So any other questions we have to the BIA’s are gonna be questions and answers moving forward. Members of committee, anybody else? Visiting members. Okay, I have some questions. I think these are gonna go to Mr. Murray. So my first question is the 2024 audited financial statements. Could you tell me, between the two BIA’s, which ones we’ve had submitted to us, and which ones are complete? Certainly, Mr. Chair.

[2:58:47] So I’m happy to report actually for 2024. Both BIA’s have submitted their audited financial statements. You may be recalling the challenges that we had as part of the 2023 year end, and the delays than the challenges with receiving some of those financial statements. I’m happy to report though that we have seen significant improvement for the 2024 year end, and we have audited financial statements for both organizations. Thank you for getting me that information. For the 2023 grant COVID-19 recovery money, I think we called it, that we issued in 2023.

[2:59:26] I do see there is $107,000 remaining balance for the old East Village that’s been earmarked for broad initiative categories, I guess. I do see some of the requests in this motion that I would think would fall within that 107,000 unallocated amount. So I guess I will ask a question to the old East Village BIA. Could you tell me what are the earmarked items for that 107,000, and when will they be spent? $107,000 was the audited number for 2024, correct?

[3:00:04] It’s for the grant 2023 monies that we gave you. That’s right. I think you got 500,000. That’s what was left at the end of 2024. We are now into 2025. So we have done the direct support through our safety and security measures. We’ve done it through window replacements. We’ve done it through the property cleanup, which is approximately $49,000 for a private property cleanup that the city will not do. The city will not pick up human feces off of private property. The city will not pick up drug paraphernalia. The city basically will not clean up anything on private property.

[3:00:39] The struggles we have had as well is that we have actually paid our private contractor to pick up human feces off of municipal the own parking lots as well because the city staff won’t do it. So that’s been earmarked there. Special event funding we have given to businesses that are attracting foot traffic to the area. But most of the measures have been when it comes to safety and security, when it comes to promoting. We do business spotlights. We have our downtown gift card. That took a substantial amount as well.

[3:01:13] So right now, I don’t have the figures in front of me chair, but I would say that out of that 107, right now we have about $35,000 left of those allocated funds. Okay, thank you. - Thank you. And for that $35,000 that are remaining, you have those earmarked for other items. We have two events coming up that we are sponsoring in a minimal way. There’s two events, the Fringe Festival to attract people to the oldies village as well as the Aeolian Halls Music Festival, which is both are taking place in August.

[3:01:55] And then we’re carrying funds over because we’re told by finance that we could until 2026 to actually put planters and banners up throughout the whole district. Right now they only go as far as Ontario Street. So it doesn’t even cover the whole district. So those efforts are going to be direct support for all of our business district now. Thank you. So that earmarked those funds. I do see with the COVID-2023 grant monies, there’s like a core area or I should not, maybe I should use that word.

[3:02:27] There’s like critical areas that that money goes to. And then there’s more, I guess, away from the critical spots where that money goes to too. And I do see that this is for reimbursement of property cleanups, graffiti removal and enhanced safety and security measures for nonprofits, which are not members of the BIA. But I’ll get to that in a second. I wanna know why we or why the BIA has not used that unallocated funds for this reimbursement. We have used them, but is that fair to those that pay levies? That’s not a question for me.

[3:03:00] I want to know just because this is a reimbursement for monies that have already been paid out. And I would like to know why that grant money cannot go to this. It already has, sir. That’s what I’m trying to explain to you. It’s already gone to not for profits that don’t contribute financially to the BIA as an organization. They contribute to the district with foot traffic. I mean, we have a national historic site. If we were to say there’s no funding available because you do not pay a levy, can you imagine what that property would look like when people come to this fine city to visit a national historic site?

[3:03:35] So the monies have already been spent. So if it has gone here, why do we need the extra money? Okay, I think we’re missing the point here. The funding was intended for direct business support. If you’re saying that our non-for-profits are businesses, then I guess that’s where the money should go. But every other not-for-profit can come to us now and say we’ve got a broken window as well. And we’d have to support them as well. We’d have no money to even operate. I’d be working for my kitchen table.

[3:04:09] The money going to the non-profits is a decision by the BIA. I would just like to know this reimbursement, how come it wasn’t used for the grant money? If I were to be support to support something like this, I would need that those earmarked funds for the 107,000 or for the 35,000. And I would need to know about the reimbursement and how there is no overlap between the two. Those would be the two things that I would ask to bring back for the BIA, would you be okay? Oh, absolutely, okay. - Absolutely. So I would look to the mover and ask for a referral, if we could go back to the BIA before we approve this to see if we can get that information.

[3:04:49] Or I would amend it myself. I’ll put an amendment down. I can’t do that from the chair. Councilor McAllister, can you take the chair? Yeah, I have the chair recognizing Councilor Ferrer. Okay, that’s the amendment that I would like to put forward. A referral for the BIA to give back the monies that are earmarked for the remaining 2023 grant monies. And I guess a letter to show us that there would not be any overlap between the two before we would, I guess, give that money out to the BIA.

[3:05:26] And obviously this would be a discussion at committee and at council when it comes back. So I’m just clarifying your referring part B. Part B is the old East Village BIA, that’s correct. I do need to ask the Hamilton Road BIA, actually the same question. So I will go to you in a second. You would need a seconder, by the way. Okay, Councillor Cuddy, for your second, we just want to read out the motion, just so you’re okay with it.

[3:08:05] So at this point, and I don’t want to change anything, but I am going to have to ask Hamilton Road of the same questions, that the motion be referred to a future meeting of the community and protective services committee in order to receive a list of the earmarked items for the remaining balance for the 2023 COVID-19 grant money from the old East Village BIA. Okay, he’s okay with that. So just quick questions to the Hamilton Road. Same thing for the COVID-19 grant monies that we, the 2023 grant money that we provided.

[3:08:43] How much of that is unspent? 58,665 and 55 cents, which will carry over earmarking for this year. Sorry, actually the chair is Councillor McAllister. Can you just recognize me for a second? Recognize and Councillor Ferris, go ahead. Okay, thank you.

[3:09:14] Those monies, they’re going to be fully dispersed by the end of the year 2025? 100%, yes. Okay, I would be sending, I guess, the referral to you as well. So I’m going to include both the Hamilton Road BIA and the old East Village BIA for that list. So I just wanted to look at my seconder to see if you’re still okay with that. Okay. So just to let you know that’s a ballpark of 58,000 that I’ve equated to you.

[3:09:49] I’m aware of that. You can provide the list. So I understand that you weren’t ready for that question. So once the list comes back, that would be okay. Okay, so that’s the referral I have on the floor. My intention is just to ensure that we allocate these funds properly. I’d like to see them spent before the end of the year. When the lists come back, I’m hoping that we can meet those thresholds and those targets, ‘cause I see that both BIA’s are looking to have those monies dispersed by the end of the year.

[3:10:28] It is 26. Okay, so I may decide to bring in a sunset clause then as well for that money, but I will work with you on that. So if it is 2026, you’ll hear from me. I’ll speak to you offline on that. For the Hamilton Road, you can still meet that 2025 threshold. If the same things apply, I’ll talk to you as well. Okay, that’s my motion. Okay, looking for speakers lists, Councilor Proville, go ahead. Just make a quick comment to the Hamilton BIA and if there is 58,000 remaining, I don’t know if 64, looking at six months left for next year, 62,000.

[3:11:12] If you can look at your numbers and just to make sure that there will be enough for 2026, because right now what’s in front of us is that 62,000 will take us to the end of 2026. Thank you. Councilor Troso, go ahead. I’m just wondering, instead of doing a full referral back to this committee, would we be able to get through the information that you’re looking for by the Council meeting? I guess I would have to go back to the executive directors.

[3:11:49] Can you comment whether you could do it by next week? Okay, I’m not sure if I can amend a referral, but I’m gonna look to Councilor Ferrara as though his motion. I have no intention of delaying any funds when it’s not necessary. I wanna find a reasonable path forward. I just want the information so we can make sure that we have responsibility, fiduciary responsibility. So if we need to amend this to have that information back by next week, as long as both BIA’s are able to do that, and I’m getting nods, so just give me, you think so?

[3:12:23] Okay, well, let’s, I’m okay with changing that as long as my seconder is as well, and I’ll make that as a friendly amendment, or I can make that amendment myself. Okay, so Councilor Ferrara, in speaking with the clerk, I know you want to not delay, but it would make the most sense to refer it to our August meeting, to allow the BIA’s time to provide that package.

[3:13:06] We can’t refer it to Council, that’s just not possible. So if you want your referral, I would suggest referring to the next, have this come back and give the BIA’s time to present that. I am okay either way, I just heard the same information from the clerk on my left, Ms. Bunn. So if you guys need the time, then we are gonna bring it back to the August meeting. So just, I don’t want to delay, but I do want to ensure that everything is in order before we disperse funds to the BIA’s additional funds.

[3:13:38] So I am okay with continuing with the referral. I will work with you both on this to make sure that it’s an easy transition moving forward, and if I get that information, then you’re gonna see me fully support both. Okay, are there any other speakers on the referral? And just want to make sure the language does say referred to the August capsule, go ahead Councilor Ferrara. Okay, so before anything before the language, I want to see if we can go to Mr. Murray, just to ensure that we have the language in order.

[3:14:25] I, off the top of my head, called 2023 COVID-19 grant money. I just want to make sure that’s correct. Three Mr. Chair, the official title that was placed on it was COVID-19 relief funding, fairly similar though, to what you have noted.

[3:15:08] Okay, I’ll ask the clerk to quickly amend that, just to make sure that the language is good. Fender, seconder, okay. And I also, ‘cause I still have the chair, just want to look to the BIA’s to ensure that they understand what is being asked of them, like nods is good.

[3:15:42] Okay. The essentially what the chair is asking for is how the monies that were previously allocated were spent and how the remaining balance will be spent. Thank you. Just letting you know, the clerk has the language and he’s grabbing, are there any more speakers? I have the chair, so I guess I could speak from the chair.

[3:16:46] I understand the desire of the Councillor. I mean, I guess I just have different knowledge, so I won’t be supporting the referral, just because in terms of what I’ve seen my BIA that’s capable, I can’t really split this out as it has been presented, having both of them lumped together, ‘cause I’m just speaking from my own BIA’s experience, being on the board, understanding where we spent the money and the feedback we’ve received to date. I am confident in terms of what we spent it on, in terms of our security, our cleaning services, the partnership with Coffee House.

[3:17:22] I know the money is being spent. I know the value, I don’t need it referred, so I won’t be supporting the referral. Thank you for the reminder that I’ve still the chair, so I will call the vote. Opposing the vote, the motion carries, three to two.

[3:18:14] Okay, I am handing the chair back over to Councillor Ferre. Thank you. So that’s it for items or for deferred matters in additional business. I will contact both BIA’s very shortly. And I will also be working with Councillor McCallister on this one as well. Thank you. All right, so we have some confidential items to go into camera for. One is 6.1, a position plan procedure criteria or inspection for negotiation purposes, a matter pertaining to a position plan procedure criteria or instruction to be applied to any negotiations carried on, or to be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality.

[3:18:56] And 6.2, personal matters about identifiable individual, matter pertaining to personal matters about and identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees with respect to the awarding of the 2024 Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Program. So I would look for a motion to go into camera, moved by Councillor Cuddy, seconded by Councillor Pribble. That’s, we’ll do that on E-Scribe, okay? Councillor Trosto.

[3:19:38] Councillor votes, yes. Opposing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. Okay, we’re just going to lock up the doors for our in-camera session. Recording stopped.

[3:21:51] Okay, we are back into open session. I just wanted to make a correction from the reason we went into camera. I said 2024 Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Awards. It was the 2025, so just make that correction. I’m going to look to my vice chair to report out. Thank you, through the chair, just confirming that we went into confidential session from 351 to approximate 358, and that progress was made for the items in which we went into camera. And that leaves us to adjournment. So looking for our motion to adjourn. Moved by Councillor Pribble, seconded by Councillor Cudi. All those in favor, hand vote.

[3:22:26] All those opposed, adjourned. Thank you.