Open Council

9th Meeting of the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee

Open Council

9th Meeting of the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee

July 17, 2025, at 1:00 PM

Original link

The meeting is called to order at 1:00 PM; it being noted that Councillors S. Stevenson, P. Van Meerbergen and D. Ferreira were in remote attendance.

1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

2.   Consent

Moved by C. Rahman

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That Consent Items 2.1 to 2.3 BE APPROVED, with the exception of item 2.1.

Motion Passed (14 to 0)

2.2   Letter of Resignation - Hyde Park Business Improvement Association

2025-07-17 Submission - HPBIA Board Member Resignation

Moved by C. Rahman

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That the resignation of Terryanne Daniel from the Hyde Park Business Improvement Association Board of Management BE ACCEPTED; it being noted that the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee received a communication from D. Szpakowski, General Manager/CEO, Hyde Park Business Improvement Association with respect to this matter.

Motion Passed

2.3   Letter of Resignation - RBC Place London

2025-07-17 Submission - RBC Letter of Resignation

Moved by C. Rahman

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That the resignation of Sara De Candido from RBC Place London BE ACCEPTED; it being noted that the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee received a communication dated May 19, 2025 from S. De Candido with respect to this matter.

Motion Passed

2.1   2nd Report of the Governance Working Group

2025-07-17 Submission - GWG Report 2

Moved by E. Peloza

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That the following actions be taken with respect to the 2nd Report of the Governance Working Group from its meeting held on June 26, 2025:

a)    the following actions be taken with respect to this matter:

i)    the MNP – London Housing Development Project – Lessons Learned Review report, BE RECEIVED; and,

ii)    the Civic Administration BE REQUESTED to report back to a future meeting of the Governance Working Group with a full list of the current tenant placement policies;

b)    the Civic Administration BE REQUESTED to report back to a future meeting of the Governance Working Group with additional changes to the Amended Policy - Appointment of Deputy Mayor to provide clarity around the appointment process; and

c)   clauses 1.1, 2.1, 2.2 and 4.1 BE RECEIVED;

it being noted that the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee received a communication from Councillor S. Trosow with respect to the Appointment of Deputy Mayor.

Motion Passed (15 to 0)

ADDITIONAL VOTES:

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by E. Peloza

That part b) be approved to read as follows:

b)    the Civic Administration BE REQUESTED to report back to a future meeting of the Governance Working Group with an environmental scan of comparable municipalities regarding the selection process and role description for the position of Deputy Mayor as well as additional changes to the Amended Policy – Appointment of Deputy Mayor to provide clarity around the appointment process; and

Motion Failed (5 to 10)

3.   Scheduled Items

None.

4.   Items for Direction

4.1   Delegation - Kelly Paleczny, General Manager, London Transit Commission (LTC) 2024 Annual Report

2025-07-17 Submission - LTC 2024 Annual Report

Moved by P. Cuddy

Seconded by S. Hillier

That the London Transit Commission 2024 Annual Report BE RECEIVED.

Motion Passed (14 to 0)

4.2   London Transit Commission Governance - Councillor S. Franke, Chair, London Transit

2025-07-17 Submission - LTC Governance

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by S. Lehman

That London Transit Commission Governance BE DEFERRED pending the outcome of the external governance review and report back to the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee.

it being noted that the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee received a communication dated June 24, 2025 from Councillor S. Franke, Chair, London Transit Commission with respect to this matter.

Motion Passed (14 to 1)

ADDITIONAL VOTES:

Moved by S. Franke

Seconded by A. Hopkins

That the following actions be taken with respect to the London Transit Commission (LTC):

a)   the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to amend the current by-law in section 3 to:

i)    change the Board composition to four (4) Council Members and three (3) citizen appointees; and

ii)   provide for the LTC to conduct interviews for the Citizen appointees and the nominees be submitted to Municipal Council for consideration;

b)   the City Clerk BE DIRECTED to advertise for the three (3) citizen appointees including seeking expertise in the areas of Legal / Human Resources, Finance / Accounting, Engineering, Transportation Planning and / or Information Technology; with preference to be given to a conventional and/or specialized transit rider, in order to solicit applications for appointment to the LTC with nominees to be brought forward to the September 16, 2025 meeting of the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee for consideration; and

c)   Civic Administration BE DIRECTED that, at the time of appointment of new Citizen appointees, that the Council Member complement be repopulated with four (4) members of Council;

it being noted that the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee received a communication dated June 24, 2025 from Councillor S. Franke, Chair, London Transit Commission with respect to this matter.

4.3   Mobility Master Plan Notice of Completion

2025-07-17 Staff Report - Mobility Master Plan Notice of Completion

Moved by E. Peloza

Seconded by S. Lewis

That, the followings actions be taken with respect to the Mobility Master Plan Report:

a)    the Mobility Master Plan Report BE APPROVED;

b)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to file a Notice of Completion and make the Report available for the statutory 30-day public review and comment period to assist in guiding implementation; and

c)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to undertake a traffic study to evaluate the need to widen Pack Road to four lanes, if by the time Bradley Ave West is extended from Wonderland Road South to Bostwick Road, an update to the MMP is not yet underway;

it being noted that the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee received a staff presentation with respect to this matter.

ADDITIONAL VOTES:

Moved by S. Trosow

Seconded by S. Lewis

That the motion be amended in part b) to add the following wording “statutory 30-day public review and comment period to assist in guiding implementation”

Motion Passed (15 to 0)

Moved by E. Peloza

Seconded by S. Lewis

That parts a) and b) of the motion, as amended, BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (13 to 2)

Moved by E. Peloza

Seconded by S. Lewis

That part c) of the motion, as amended, BE APPROVED.

Motion Passed (15 to 0)

4.4   2024 Climate Emergency Action Plan Progress Report

2025-07-17 Staff Report - (4.4) 2024 CEAP

2025-07-17 Staff Report - 2024 CEAP-Appendix B

2025-07-17 Staff Report - 2024 CEAP-Appendix C

2025-07-17 Staff Report - 2024 CEAP-Appendix D

2025-07-17 Staff Report - 2024 CEAP-Appendix E

Moved by S. Hillier

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Environment and Infrastructure, the following actions be taken:

a)    the presentation and staff report, providing a summary of progress and policy implications and opportunities pertaining to the Climate Emergency Action Plan (CEAP) as well as the appendices, BE RECEIVED for information;

b)    the report contained in Appendix ‘E’, titled Pathways to Prosperity: Climate Action and the Energy Transition in London (prepared by Sustainability Solutions Group) be forwarded to Deloitte LLP, the consultant hired to undertake the development of the City of London Economic Development Strategy; and

c)    the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to report back on CEAP progress once per year as opposed to the current twice per year frequency now that a comprehensive public CEAP dashboard is available and can be periodically updated throughout the year as actions progress;

it being noted that the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee received a presentation from staff and Y. Herbert, Consultant and presentation from M. Sye and M. Shannon, Enbridge Gas Ontario with respect to this matter.

Motion Passed (13 to 2)

Moved by E. Peloza

Seconded by C. Rahman

That the delegation request from M. Shannon and M. Sye, Enbridge Gas Ontario BE APPROVED to be heard at this time.

Motion Passed (15 to 0)

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

None.

6.   Confidential (Provided to Members only.)

Moved by P. Cuddy

Seconded by S. Hillier

That the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee convenes In Closed session to consider the following:

6.1    Solicitor-Client Privileged Advice / Personal Matters About Identifiable Individual / Labour Relations/Employee Negotiations

A matter pertaining to advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose, personal matters about an identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees and labour relations or employee negotiations with respect to the Councillors’ Office.

6.2    Solicitor-Client Privileged Advice

A matter pertaining to advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose and directions and instructions to officers and employees or agents of the municipality; a proposed or pending acquisition of land by a local board; a trade secret or scientific, technical, commercial, financial or labour relations information, supplied in confidence to the municipality or local board, which, if disclosed, could reasonably be expected to prejudice significantly the competitive position or interfere significantly with the contractual or other negotiations of a person, group of persons, or organization; and 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 or local board.

Motion Passed (15 to 0)

The Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee convenes In Closed Session from 4:04 PM to 4:34 PM.

Moved by S. Lewis

Seconded by P. Cuddy

That the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee convenes In Closed session to consider the following:

6.3       Litigation/Potential Litigation / Solicitor-Client Privilege Advice

A matter pertaining to litigation or potential litigation and advice that is subject to solicitor-client privilege, including communications necessary for that purpose.

Motion Passed (15 to 0)

The Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee convenes In Closed Session from 1:21 PM to 1:59 PM.

7.   Adjournment

Moved by P. Cuddy

Seconded by A. Hopkins

That the meeting BE ADJOURNED.

Motion Passed

The meeting adjourned at 4:37 PM.

Full Transcript

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

View full transcript (2 hours, 45 minutes)

[5:30] which of the delegation is this do we usually so you guys were you guys invited to sit down there we you guys present here don’t know if we were given no directional that’s Megan and Mary from emberchgas remember okay thank you so right here anywhere okay okay we’ll just sit there and then we come thank you thank you right here it was still yeah we can good afternoon everyone I am going to call the ninth meeting over the strategic priorities and policy committee to order as it is 1 p.m. as always I will begin by acknowledging that the city of London is situated on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek the Haudenosaunee Lene Peiwak and Adewanderin and we honor and respect the history languages and culture of the diverse indigenous people who call this territory home the city of London is currently home to many First Nations Métis and Inuit peoples and as representative of the people of the city of London we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and live in this territory the city of London is also committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats and communication supports for meetings upon request to make a request specific to this meeting please contact sppc@london.ca or phone 519 661 2489 extension 2425 colleagues I will advise that we have Councillor Stevenson and Councillor Ferreira joining us online and we with the balance of council in chambers although we’re missing a couple at the moment we do have quorum so we’re going to begin looking first for any disclosures of pecuniary interest seeing none we will move on to consent council trust I was put in added so 2.1 will be pulled and dealt with at the end of the agenda looking for we were in a seconder for 2.2 and 2.3 I’ve got Councillor ramen and Councillor Cuddy and these are with respect to the letters of resignation from Hyde Park Business Improvement Association and our BC Place looking for any discussion seeing none I will ask the clerk to open the vote also votes yes more good answer of Stevenson votes yes Councillor Stevenson votes yes Councillor Ferre votes yes and I’m having a little bit of issues with the E-Scribe on my end closing the vote motion carries 14 to 0 thank you colleagues moving on we have no scheduled items but we do have four items for direction today our first item is 4.1 this is the delegation from Ms. Pletchney general manager let in transit commission with the 2024 annual report so we will invite Ms. Pletchney to join us at the podium so she can present Councillor Palazzo I’ll move that we see for delegation for five minutes at this time as she does not need ten minutes I asked and do we have a seconder Councillor ramen thank you clerk advises because this was on the agenda as an item we don’t actually need a motion to prove the delegation it’s simply there welcome Ms. Pletchney I appreciate the conversation with both Councillor Palazzo and I ahead of time to let us know five minutes is sufficient for you so when you’re ready I will turn it over to you thank you very much I’m here today to present the 2024 annual report for London Transit which represents the first year of the 2024 through 2027 business plan that plan was developed based on the known priorities of municipal council as set out in their strategic plan as well as the approved multi-year budget covering the same period the report before you provides an overview of LTC performance against initiatives included in the 2024 work program all in support of the overarching goals of the plan some of the highlights include improvements in the labor force and supply chain issues that had plagued us kind of throughout the COVID period we’re starting to see some relief from that continued supply chain unfortunately we are still still seeing continued supply chain delays predominantly in with the delivery of buses we were able to implement the 18,000 hours of growth on the conventional service and in 2024 that related to frequency improvements on a couple of routes a modified routing and an extended service to O crossing we implemented the 10,000 growth hours on specialized which resulted in the provision of 24% more trips than what were provided the previous year and we started the implementation of the new scheduling system on the specialized service which is now very close to complete and finally we also completed an update of our asset management plan consistent with required legislation looking forward the focus over the horizon of the business plan is on improving the overall customer experience as it relates to public transit use in London some of the key initiatives that we’ve got obviously improvements on the conventional service will continue to be focused on addressing crowding and schedule adherence issues on existing routes as well as making the entire network more efficient the bus rapid transit projects are continuing to to progress and with the anticipated launch of the service on the East leg in 2027 and the South leg in 2028 our service plan is contemplating the required frequency improvements on the routes that support those legs in order to ensure that we’ve got we’ve got appropriate frequencies in place improvements on the specialized service will be focused on adding service at the times of day and week where trips are in most demand and in addition to the service related focuses we’ve got a number of transformational multi-year projects that are continuing into 2025 including the project to demolish and rebuild the hybrid hybrid facility and the zero mission bus project which the joint procurement RFP is now out and is expected to close this fall and with that I’d be happy to answer any questions thank you miss Polashny and you are well under your five minutes that’s we really appreciate it when delegations are able to do that thank you so we have the report on the floor I’m going to look now for a motion to receive doesn’t mean that we can’t and we will have questions and comments but moved by Councillor Cudi and seconded by Councillor Hillier so the motion to receive the annual report is on the floor and now we can open the floor for questions and comments. Thank you sir Chair to miss Polashny I just want to ask you about the capital budget 24 and 25 there were 17 buses I think it was 1540s and 260s ordered I know you already mentioned about the delays but can you update us on that if they have been some of them or when will they be received all 34 of them miss Polashny through the chair the the 34 buses began arriving about a month and a half ago we’ve got three of them in service now I believe we’ve got 12 on site and we’re receiving kind of one or two a week depending on on the schedule but we’re expected to continue that until we see the the end of the 34. Councillor Pribble any approximate time for all 34 by when do you expect them all of them to be in miss Polashny again as we don’t have it we don’t have an end date we’re assuming that things will continue but as I mentioned earlier with the supply chain issues it takes one component part to all the sudden shut down a line and then and then we’re into delays so I don’t have a date we do anticipate we’ll have them all by the end of this year. Councillor Pribble thank you for that as the capital budget if I remember correctly it’s still 2034 and there are quite a few numbers to be purchased are you already thinking in advance in terms of ordering for the other future years as we are being delayed miss Polashny. Through the chair the Commission has already approved the 2026 replacement bus order they did that early in this year and in addition we ordered 12 expansion buses which will which are anticipated to cover the 2026 and 2027 growth we ordered them all together again in an effort to mitigate any issues that we might have with trying to implement service if we were short buses. Councillor okay thank you for that just one question for conventional and one for specialized under conventional satisfaction level congratulations on time performance travel time is up congratulations in terms of real time timeliness info and service delay info diode down so both are the information part can you let me know or can you let us know what is the reason in behind it miss Polashny. Through the chair we believe that the that the dissatisfaction with the the real time info is the fact that it’s not an app it’s a web based product we are looking into that and looking into the opportunity to work with an app provider that will be able to provide that information in it in another format but that’s what we believe is is the issue with that dissatisfaction. Councillor Pribble thank you and last question specialized on time performance is up but trip trip availability sorry the other way around trip availability availability is up congratulations but on time performance is down by 7% reasoning behind it miss Polashny through the chair the the on time reliability on both conventional and specialized declined in 2024 we believe tied in large part to the nature and extent of construction that’s happening throughout the city and the fact that vehicles are getting bogged down in that traffic and that’s resulting in in on time performance issues because they’re mirrored that’s that makes us believe that even even more firmly and again we we do everything we can to mitigate that but unfortunately when when there’s traffic we’re we’re part of it Councillor Pribble thank you very much no more questions looking for any other speakers Councillor Hopkins thank you Mr. Chair and thank you miss Polashny for being here with us this afternoon I represent award 9 it’s a fast-growing and development ward there’s very little opportunities for transit in that area and I get a lot of requests from residents wanting to say we need a route here and we need a route there if you could just speak to the public engagement that LTC does and about that process thank you miss Polashny through the chair so just last year we completed a five-year service plan for both conventional and specialized which included significant public consultation we did that in partnership with Dillon Consulting we inventory obviously all of the feedback that we gather through that we also keep an inventory of any requests that we get and as part of our annual service planning process those requests are all reviewed and you know and we look to identify ones that we can implement within the hours that were allocated so certainly you know encourage anyone who’s looking for service to let us know because that’s all part of that inventory and that you’ve heard me talk about the number of outstanding hours we have requested that’s all part and parcel of that so we do keep an inventory of that and make every effort to you know to address those as we can with our budget also Hopkins I will pass on that information thank you for any other speakers seeing none and seeing none online and just for the colleagues online just a reminder I can only see you on my screen if you have your camera on so if you put your hand up digitally I cannot see you unless your camera is on but I’m not Councillor Ferreira thank you chair I just have one question I guess it’s kind of following up on the other ones regarding I guess acquisition of new buses just wanted to see if the LTC is considering the community bus services that we used to have the 30-foot buses I do have residents in retirement age homes that have been requesting that and I just want to know if there’s any discussion on that at the LTC well let’s ask Miss Polishney through the chair at this time no the the fleet of four 30-foot buses that we did have reached their end of their use for life we retired them and made the decision not to replace the 30-foot buses primarily because it’s such a small number and it’s essentially an orphan fleet that’s a requires different maintenance and and they were they were just problematic it’s also getting increasingly difficult to procure 30-foot buses systems are not in that business so they’re either doing the the vehicles that you see providing our specialized service which is more of a cutaway type of vehicle or they’re going to 40 30-foot buses are are getting more difficult to to receive we’ve certainly heard the you know we’ve heard the the commentary with respect to the community bus we’ve made every effort to keep the stops as close as we can to properties but unfortunately there are some locations that a 40 bus 40-foot bus just cannot get into safely so we’ve had to move some of those stops Councillor Ferrera no other questions thank you thank you and I’ll just let colleagues know that Councillor Van Mirbergen has joined us online now as well and looking for any other speakers before we call the question seeing none I’m gonna ask clerk to open the vote Councillor Stevenson votes yes Councillor Van Mirbergen Councillor Van Mirbergen can you absent closing the vote motion carries 14 to 0 thank you colleagues and thank you Miss Polishny for joining us today moving on colleagues our next item on the agenda is 4.2 this is the London Transit Commission governance and we’ve got a communication from Councillor Frank and her capacity as the chair so I’m gonna look to Councillor Frank to introduce this thank you and this is a motion that comes from a governance subcommittee of which Councillor Hopkins and Raman are also members and actually actually Councillor Raman is the chair but this came from a discussion where we decided that we wanted to review what it looks like moving forward at Council when we originally made the decision to reconstitute the LTC Commission with Councillors there was discussion about trying to only keep that for a time limited capacity and looking into the fall trying to reconstitute the Commission with new members for governance and this motion essentially outlines what we arrived at at the meeting which is reconstituting by September with four members of Council and three members of the general public and happy to have discussion about how we arrived at that and perhaps as well my colleagues on that subcommittee will want to discuss their their thoughts and the rationale is how to we arrive there but essentially being we did want to ensure we had some more voices from the community at that leadership level as well as there was a general sentiment in the spring that people would not be serving for an extended period of time on the the Commission so recognizing those two priorities we wanted to provide an alternative pathway forward for that matter. Thank you Councillor Frank so and colleagues are aware I’ve circulated to items both a motion on this one to go into confidential session as well as a perhaps an alternate that recommends five members of Council rather than what the governance subcommittee has provided through LTC but to make sure that we’re following a good order of operations Councillor Frank I’m going to ask if you want to move your motion now and we’ll get a seconder and then the confidential session deals with this motion so then I will turn the chair over to move the confidential session if that’s in order Mayor Morgan just a point of order I know you’re about to ask Councillor Frank to move the motion that was submitted the actual language loaded in the ascribe has the composition backwards it says three members of Council for citizens that’s it’s actually should be the other way so just before that gets on the floor I should just be cleaned up and corrected that’s a great point of order and we will get the clerks to correct that Councillor Frank with the language that you had circulated not the language that was in the ascribe are you prepared to move that I’m prepared to move the language that was to include in our submission I’m just looking and it’s not entirely covered by the motion that’s an ascribe and notwithstanding just the switch there’s a couple kind of it being noted that are not included in the one that’s an ascribe okay the clerks not have been indicated that they’ll include those in the actual ascribe motion so we’ll consider that moved as submitted rather than what’s an ascribe is there a seconder for that Councillor Hopkins okay so that’s been moved and seconded now I will ask Councillor ramen to take the chair other than as a member of that governance subcommittee are you comfortable taking the chair you are so okay I have the chair please go ahead thank you so colleagues I circulated this in advance I’d like to move that we go into confidential session for client solicitor privilege advice regarding matters pertaining to litigation as colleagues are all aware and there is a matter of litigation that’s currently active with respect to former public members on this Commission and I think it pertinent that we get advice from our solicitor on the potential reconstitution of some public positions before we move ahead so I’m looking to that motion to be moved thank you I’ll look for a seconder okay a Councillor cutty and when the clerks are ready if they’d like to open that vote I need discussion sorry before before you open the vote okay seeing them when that’s ready yes closing the vote motion carries 15 to 0 okay thank you with that we will move in close session I assume we’re staying here for a closed session thank you will prepare the room for the okay thank you we’re returning from our closed session Deputy Mayor Lewis you have the floor shall I go back to you or are you sure I’ll take my opportunity now then to speak against the motion that’s on the floor in front of us I think that changing back to a mixed or blended Commission of Councillors and members of the public at this time is not in our best interest I think we made a change for a number of different factors different Councillors had different factors that weighed into their decision but I think ultimately with a governance review already out and expected back in Q1 of next year that we are best served by retaining of council full council representation on the Commission until we get a recommendation back on the governance of the LTC as I said earlier I’ve got an alternate motion I’m not trying to amend or put that on the floor at the moment we’ll see where this one goes and depending on where this one goes the folks are happy with the status quo I may choose to not even move something will whatever that happens to be but for me right now with an audit under way a governance audit underway I think our best course of action is to stay the course with council oversight of this Commission until such time as as we get some professional recommendations on on what me serve Londoners best so that doesn’t preclude in my mind LTC having some its former advisory committee or something like that that involves the public but I think when it comes to the fiduciary responsibility of the board to the Corporation of the City of London and all the many complicated things that are happening with transit in our city right now that it’s best left to members of council thank you I will return the chair to you and I’ve got Council trust on the speakers list okay and since I wasn’t in the chair I was Council trust I would just give me a moment I get my time reopened and I have it now Council trust I’ll go ahead thank you to the chair I’d like to make a motion to defer further action on this matter until such time as we receive a report back from the external audit external audit and that no further action be taken until then okay so I just want to confirm you are looking to refer this recommendation defer this recommendation until the external audit returns to council is there a seconder there’s a seconder and Councilor Layman okay so we now have a deferral on the floor looking for any discussion on that proposal I appreciate that I know there’s a few reports of the government’s working group this being one of them waiting on I know when we did the council appointments to the to serve as the commissioners that our intention was to be a little bit quicker than this but this is where the workload takes to get you to wrap it up I know my intention originally was to serve for that shorter period of time but willing to stay on that committee until this report comes back as there’s other motions we have a LTC meeting on Monday I have other stuff I’m working on to bring in anyways and still working through some things there in that space so I will stay on and I think the reports do back Q1 2026 I have some nods so a few extra months and we’ll wait for that report I’m happy to do that any other speakers air Morgan yeah on the referral I’m happy to report the referral I just want to ensure that given this motion is about constituting a commission with a composition my understanding of the the work that’s being done by the review is that it may suggest or could suggest not having a commission like other municipalities have an integrated transit system as a department some of them have a commission so I just want to ensure that referring this doesn’t like this is I guess my question is through you to the clerk or whoever to say if we refer this we’re not we’re not binding councils hand to say we have to consider this motion again in the future it’s just we’re not even going to think about it until we get the results of the commission but it may it may be irrelevant if we go with the we go with a model that I again I don’t want to presume what’s going to be suggested it could be a commission it could be this I seem they’re going to suggest a governance model that’s the whole point of doing it but they were not bound in any way like is referral the right move or is take no action on this now thank the LTC for their submission and and you know and then just wait so I’d actually conferred with the clerk on this for two pieces rather than external audit we need to we should have the language reflected the external governance review so I’m seeing a thumbs up from council trust on that councilman you’re okay with that language change so seeing that unless there’s any opposition we can deem that consensus change seeing no opposition so we’ll get the clerk to change that to external governance review I can also say in the conversation with the clerk in response to the mayor’s question nothing in referring this to being looked at when the governance review comes back binds council this would just in fact nothing would prevent the LTC commission from bringing forward another alternate recommendation alongside this one and alongside what the external auditor brings back in the governance review so there’s no nothing binding in sending this to will revisit it when the governance review comes back looking for other speakers seeing none I will ask clerk to open the vote closing the vote motion carries 14 to one so that has been referred just before we move on to the next item on our agenda I will just say I’m just going to take a little leeway here to say I know I had circulated an alternate motion given the council’s overwhelming support for referral I’m not going to put a second motion on the floor at this time although I had circulated in advance I’m gonna respect the will of of the majority of my colleagues here for for those who may be watching I had just suggested perhaps we could reduce it to five if there were counselors that felt that the work was was too much it would allow for a smaller group but then nothing prohibits a member of council from resigning from the commission and being replaced with another member of council so I’m comfortable with this referral I’m not even gonna look for a second or I’m not even gonna table another motion I appreciate the discussion we had and that will move us along to 4.3 the master mobility plan notice of completion we do have an added staff presentation so I am going to invite Ms. Grady to do her presentation for us thank you I will share my screen purpose of this report is to request council approval of the mobility master plan report and direction of file and notice a completion to initiate a third-day public review period development of the mobility master plan or MMP commenced in April 2022 and continuous engagement with the community has been a foundational component of the development of the plan over the past three years some of the MMP engagement metrics are illustrated on the slide beauty feedback has helped inform all aspects of the plan at the top of the MMP structure is the vision for mobility in London which was developed based on existing city plans and policies and was confirmed based on community feedback in the first phase of the development of the plan to achieve the vision eight areas of focus were identified based on the needs and opportunities also developed in the first phase of the plan based on community feedback and technical analysis looking to the bottom of the MMP structure we have is the foundation of the plan the comprehensive interconnected strategies and actions which were developed based on community feedback as well to achieve a series of expected results which are organized by area of focus the expected results describe various aspects of the future where the vision has been achieved other aspects of the plan informed by community feedback include the guiding principles project evaluation framework and the mode share targets as mentioned the plan includes a comprehensive list of interconnected strategies and actions which when implemented along with the infrastructure recommendations will support achieving London’s mobility vision for the future engagement and consultation on the strategies and actions commenced last year and included posting pre-recorded videos online feedback forms numerous pop-up sessions and meetings with interested parties consultation continued through to the end of January this year in parallel with the development and consultation on the infrastructure recommendations following council approval of the infrastructure recommendations the draft strategies and actions were further refined and the full list is included in the MMP report the MMP actions include efforts currently underway as well as newly identified and recommended actions some example actions are shown on the slide the infrastructure recommendations were approved by council on April 1st of this year and they’re actively being used to prepare a transportation development charges or DC growth master plan there is rapid growth happening in London we’re seeing it revealing it excuse me and it’s forecasted to continue these infrastructure recommendations have been developed based on that growth that’s can forecasted to continue as per the council proved population and forecast growth from now to 2050 initial estimates of the total capital cost based on the council proved recommendations between now and 2050 has been undertaken to provide an approximate magnitude of investment required the detailed cost estimating and identification of financial sources for most capital projects will occur through the 2028 DC background study and will influence project prioritization the MMP report also includes a framework and monitoring plan to ensure and measure the success of the plan using key performance indicators or KPIs the monitoring flamework will enable the city to evaluate the success of the MMP infrastructure recommendations strategies and actions and identify areas for improvement some example KPIs are shown on the slide monitoring the implementation and success the plan also will help build trust in the community by try providing transparency and accountability council approval of the report and direction to file a notice of completion to put the rip will allow us to put the report on record for a three-day public review period community input collected through the review period will help further influence implementation of the plan once approved the MMP will serve as a long-term strategic planning document to inform a variety of capital and operational programs and the plan will regularly be reviewed and updated as per the London plan as previously mentioned the infrastructure recommendations are currently being used to prepare a transportation DC growth master plan and will inform the multi-year budget and GMIS at GMIS thank you thank you miss great so colleagues before we move to any questions or comments we’re going to get a motion on the floor and Councillor Palosa and I did actually work on a planning issue that can be tied to this and circulated an amendment earlier this morning the clerks have prepared all those one motion so I’m going to go to Councillor Palosa to you move that and if you can just include the addition that we’ve made so I don’t think we’re going to put it on the on the big screen it got into your inbox at 1058 it wasn’t through staff further wording and massaging of language and then through the clerk’s office just for you know the only change is that we added in part C that civic administration be directed to undertake a traffic study to evaluate the need to what to what impact road for to four lanes if by the time the Bradley of West is extended from Wonderland Road south to Boswick Road and updated to the MMP is not yet underway this came over a conversation at Peck I was going to do an amendment there was told it’s not the place this is the place so here I am there’s the amendment and it’s been staffed just trying to respect the residents out there and the development happening their concerns to make sure that there’s already something in the pipeline regards of where the next MMP update is that they’ve been considered so I’m putting on the floor and I believe I was seconder in the deputy mayor yes as I committed to planning an environment committee to work together with you on this I’m happy to second this so now we’ve got this on the floor for discussion it’s the entirety certainly we can call clauses separately if people want them called separately but we’ll go now to Councillor Frank to start off the discussion thank you yes through the chairs it’s hoping to hear staff’s comments on this and if in the reference to widening it that includes adding active transportation infrastructure like cycling and sidewalks as well and if that language needs to be included or somehow if that’s just always assumed when we’re looking at widening roads now can go to mr. McCrae mr. McCrae mr.

[55:12] whichever one of you wants to to field that one through the chair there’s actually planned improvements a two lane world urban upgrade planned in the near term which will add that active transportation infrastructure it’s currently on the books for 2032 but as noted in a pec report I believe from June we’ll be looking at moving that up I think is early as 2029 just in consideration of the the growth and the needs we’re seeing in the area so that that active transportation will be put in for that project but of course when we do come back if and when we do come back for that for laning we would still be making sure that there’s active transportation include as part of that project as well. Councillor Frank you’re good thumbs up from you on that one so I’ve got Councillor Hopkins next and then Councillor Layman. Yeah thank you Councillor Frank for confirming that there will be other modes of transportation in this area because that is also important I have no problem supporting the motion here we usually do reviews and updates and look at alternatives when we redesign roads so good to see that that’s going to happen on Pack Road. I do want to make sure though that the project on Boswick Road the roundabout in particular at Pack Road and Boswick will continue I just want confirmation that’s an important project that no matter when we make these changes I always do have concerns that other delays and projects may may come about and want to confirm that Boswick is on schedule and just to confirm the timelines as well for that roundabout in particular there is a school going opening up in September and I movement in this area is going to be needed to be done many many years ago and I know our infrastructure always lights behind development that’s I want to make sure Boswick is on course and we’ll go to staff Ms. Grady through the chair yes absolutely the Boswick detail design is underway we’re currently working towards construction starting in 2027 which will include that roundabout the exact timing of everything and how we face still needs to be determined but we are very aware of community desires to have that intersection at Pack and Boswick improved as quickly as possible so we certainly have that on inter considerations as a priority and in that we’re also working on getting the the self-dil road project going as well as as was a committee earlier this week and that one’s currently planned for 2028 but we’re trying to get that one 2027 ready as well so if we can make all the staging work and everything come together is quickly as possible thank you Ms. Grady and Councillor Hopkins I can also just share as well because I looked it up as part of this this motion that the pull through between Wonderland and Pack is scheduled in the GMIS at least right now for 2033 so share that with you as just a bit of information I pulled up as we were working on this I appreciate that Mr. Chair there’s a lot of construction going on and I know it will be managed and as we move around this area as well if I if you can allow me I just like to make comments to the motion as well I want to say thanks to staff for the extensive public engagement that came about with this master mobility plan I think it was very extensive I think it was when I think the public for being engaged to as we figure out how growing city will move in the future so many thanks to staff for your engagement with the public thank you Councillor Hopkins Councillor Lehman thank you chair and I just want to comment on the added item from Councillor Palazzo second by yourself yeah this came a result of a PEC meeting we had earlier in the week and and I was mowing in my head how we were going to handle this I thought probably might have to be with some sort of added motion at council when we deal with this item however I think this is more appropriate and I thank you to Councillor Palazzo for for putting it in here because it addresses more than just this one particular subdivision development application and there’s a lot of work being down being done down in this area and I think to have this recognized in the master mobility plan is prudent at this time and it you know the concerns we heard from from the gallery I think were very relevant when they talk about the future even though it’s in 2030 years down the road now is the time we have to start start thinking about this stuff and so thank you again to Councillor Palazzo and yourself Deputy Mayor for for getting this include I will support it Councillor Trust I have you next thank you to the chair my question is with respect to part B and that’s the 30-day comment period look looking at this it would appear I think and it would appear to members of the public that were approving this today and now we’re going to have a 30-day comment period about it and I’m just wondering out loud whether or not the 30-day comment period should happen before we approve this or is there something special about doing a 30-day comment period after you approve something because otherwise I would rather I would rather see the comments come in and see what they see what they say what if the comments indicate that there’s a change we should make is great through the chair the 30-day review period is required through the municipal class EAAC we have done as mentioned extensive consultation on this so you know we’re hopeful and optimistic that you know everything that the community is concerned about and would like to see has been incorporated to the plan so this 30-day review period will help us you know provide more information to to Londoners if they if they don’t understand her more questions about anything in the plan and it will also help further influence how we implement the plan as well but we certainly wanted to get council approval on the plan before we put it out to the community for final approval council trust out thank you that’s fair enough in terms of the order I’m wondering though if we could add a few words to this just to make it more clear to members of the public what it is the comment period is about and I think you just said it the comment period is to help us guide the implementation plan could we could we say that or in comment period for purposes including is great to the chair yes we can absolutely provide more clarity on the purpose of the the review period and include that in the notice of completion when we issue it for the community councilor could it be could a few words be added here today with respect to the implementation looking towards the implementation I think councilor what I’m hearing is you just want clause B to read that civic administration be directed to file a notice of completion and we make the make the report available for the 30-day public review and we could even say the statutory 30-day public review if you want public review and comment period to assist in guiding the implementation if there’s a seconder okay well I’m just going to check with Ms. Grady to make sure that’s I’m seeing nodding of heads that that’s acceptable so I’m happy to second that for you councilor I seconded the original motion for councilor closed and I’m happy to second that one for you too okay so that’s been moved and seconded I’m just going to look to see if there’s any discussion on that I’m not seeing any so we’re just going to give this clerk a moment to get the updated language in the e-scribe then we can call the vote on that amendment that is now an e-scribe and we get the clerk to open the vote housing the vote motion carries 15 to 0. Okay so we are now back on the main motion as amended councilor flowsa you’re fine to stay on as the mover and I’m fine to stay on as the seconder back to the main motion as amended councilor mccallister thank you through the chair now I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank staff for all the engagement I found the sessions very informative I saw you had a bunch of events in terms of you know getting the input from the public so I really appreciate that and I just also want to take the opportunity to express my thanks for some of the roads that I often hear about being added in commissioners I know that’ll probably help ward 14 as well I think a lot of time people forget Hamilton feeds into commissioners and that section’s seen a lot of growth and a lot of inquiries about that even though that’s word 14 also appreciate Adelaide and of course Hamilton Road I know we had a lengthy discussion about that those are some roads which I know the community will really appreciate seeing improvements on so thanks again being for any other speakers Mayor Morgan yes I’ll comment on the plan as a whole I’m not saying that I don’t appreciate some of the changes that were made but I just want to comment the masterability plan is is a significant document and I know there’s a lot of work with implementation but this is like years in the making I even remembered in the election one of the things I said I’d try to do is speed it up and finish it the first year after well I know council wanted to slow it down do some more thought look at some more projects and so although I would have liked to have done this a little while earlier I think what we’ve actually got here is probably better for this the input that the new council has given it and and the work the staff has been able to do and the extensive consultation with the public this this is going to be a significant document to guide our funding asks and our capital planning over the next number of decades it is an advocacy piece it’s also a financial piece and and it’s a really important piece for us to explain to Londoners how they will be able to move around the city over the next number of decades how we will be accommodating growth in the city over the next number of decades and I think it is a strategic combination of smart road widening in areas where we know that we have significant traffic congestion it’s a significant expansion over multi decades of the transit and rapid transit network in areas that we know we will have growth in and we’ll need to connect people to it’s a combination of not just dedicated lanes and road widening but queue jumping lanes and and all of the tools that we have at our disposal to try to make both automobile traffic and transit efficient across the city also addressing the needs of those in other modes of transportation whether that be pedestrians or cyclists or those who get around in other ways so I think it is a it’s a comprehensive document that although I think you were we’re passing it today we we’ve had another piece of this motion we’re probably going to be talking a lot about this particular document over the next number of decades again a lot of this we will require support from other levels of government to bring to fruition as we always have at the municipal level with major transit and road upgrades but this is timed pretty well with the bringing on of the permanent transit fund federally the way that the new federal government is talking about nation building projects and investing in high growth cities the provinces desire to expand and invest in road networks and hard infrastructure I think this is a well timed document to have before municipal council that will assist us in the immediate and short-term advocacy framework to try to meet our needs there’s a piece I want to address though having been on council for a number of terms and that is it is true we did not proceed with all the legs of the rapid transit network as it was originally contemplated at the time and I still fully support that decision because we are in a much better financial position today with those asked them we otherwise would have been as you know with the two existing legs in the downtown loop municipal governments would have locked into an agreement with the federal and provincial governments in 2016 and been responsible for every single dollar of cost additional costs that have that has occurred over the last decade that’s why we had to put in much larger than a third a third a third share because we actually had to invest in that in this multi-year budget by having these projects ready to go and by asking for the federal and provincial contributions closer to when we can actually build the things we’re going to have partnerships with the federal and provincial governments at closer to the true costs of these infrastructure projects so that we can have a better balance between municipal provincial and federal funding than we otherwise would have should we have proceeded with a whole ask you know almost a decade ago so I’m really happy to see that we have a much more comprehensive network than we otherwise would have a balanced network maybe more balanced than we otherwise would have but ultimately something that we can actually engage with federal and provincial partners with at a time when they’re willing to fund these sorts of projects at a time where we can actually pitch them at a truer cost because the way things cost today is fundamentally different than the way that they cost a decade ago so I’m happy to see this document the way we executed over time will be critically important but uh but I’m pretty excited about having this plan come to fruition and that’s not to say that we won’t adjust it over the next number of decades like all of our plans there will be check-ins there will be places where the city grows differently than others there will be timing and phasing there’ll be different federal and provincial opportunities to fund things at different paces but having a structure to work from I think is it’s been a critical piece that has been missing for us for all of the questions that we get in a fast-growing city about how are we going to move around the city for the next couple of decades so I want to thank our staff for the work they’ve done I want to thank the public for participating in this process both now and in the future as we ensure the implementation is right and of course this council for the work that they’ve done on providing the inputs over the last couple of years to make sure that we slowed it down at the times we need to slow it down to ensure that we got it right but still proceeding at a pace that allows us to have a plan before significant new federal funding streams come online so appreciate the work on this and I look forward to the other dialogue that counselors might have thank you mayor morgan okay i’m going to go to councilor ramen and then i’ll turn the chair over to councilor ramen uh councilor ramen thank you and through you so first I want to say I appreciate the mayor’s comments on on this item i think it does help to frame overall the importance of the mobility master plan um and very grateful to staff for the work that’s been done um i do have some questions and comments though as we move forward um one of the things that i’m finding challenging with the mobility master plan documentation is its relationship to previous iterations of other plans and um whether or not there can be greater clarity on how those those plans are now and in the report it says for instance on the cycling master plan from 2016 that this report kind of now encompasses the cycling master plan uh the challenge that i’m finding is that in order to understand some of the projects that are going on in my ward i have to then go back to the cycling master plan to see what that 2016 plan uh then outlined or envisioned in order to understand and to convey to my residents what’s being done in my ward um as it relates to cycling projects so looking for some clarification on how that map for the cycling master or sorry the cycling map map that’s included in the mobility master plan could perhaps be better um clarified in order to make it more clear for residents what we anticipate going forward and i can give a few examples you know uh right now we’re doing some surveying work on gainsboro and i’m hearing from residents that are saying what’s happening between gainsboro road between wonderland and coronation what’s the plan and i see in the cycling master plan that we’re proposing buffered paved shoulders uh at gainsboro road from wonderland to about um close to coronation but then from the rest we’re proposing a different setup of of bike lanes and and improvements i i just i worry that it will be difficult for me to communicate these things to residents um when i don’t have the documentation to go to to say here is clearly defined and laid out for you as to what you can expect and so i think that that would be really helpful just wanted to share that feedback um and flag that for those that may be listening uh with respect to our ongoing um requirement request for more input um within the sidewalk map as well it looks at sidewalk gaps within the urban growth boundary um and i’m wondering if that is connected to the current uh conversation how it connects the current conversation about the urban growth boundary and the expansion of the urban growth boundary thinking particularly about the northwest part of the city and where all the growth is projected we are saying that we would only uh continue with two lanes on Sunningdale from Wonderland Road to Hyde Park yet we have in the urban growth boundary um a conversation that we’re having about expansion uh a lot more density going in that area so i’m hoping that as we continue this this is a guide this is a plan but we will be more able to be nimble where we need to as these areas are built out and so that we avoid some of the challenges that we currently have in Ward 7 and in the northwest part of the city about moving around so i’m going to ask staff if they can provide any clarification i know there wasn’t necessarily a specific question about a specific project but in general i’m going to see if staff want to uh provide any clarification and and i know miss McNealy’s here too so if we need some comment on how the London Plan develops new subdivisions and things with active transportation and sidewalks and stuff i’m sure we can invite her into the conversation as well but as great as you want to comment on how the the old maps interact with the new maps through the chair for the cycling master plan you’re correct and i know we we state it in the report that this builds on the previous cycling master plan and the maps that are in the mmp um don’t show facility type but show where we’d like to implement facility facilities um this is somewhat purposeful because um design standards can change over time and we didn’t want to be overly prescriptive we are in the background working on and confirming the facility types that we prefer to see on some of these corridors um and that information can be shared with the community as we start looking at implementing these facilities along those corridors and consideration of the various constraints which might be along that corridor at that given time um as well as what the standards are at that that current point in time so uh we will be able to share more information on what those facility types ideally would be along those corridors um we just wanted to put it to ultimately up as a separate document not as part of the mmp um because it will be subject to change over time again like i said subject to whatever the design standards are at that current time and other constraints we might be dealing with along that corridor thank you miss grady and i think just just before i go back to council roman um i am going to invite miss mr. McNeely i know this is more of a planning committee discussion uh but because the sidewalk map was referenced and where new areas of growth were i wonder if you just want to provide all of council uh at the very high level um what the london plan speaks to in terms of uh sidewalks in new in areas of new development sorry i know i’m kind of throwing you into uh the pool um unannounced but i i think that might be helpful to share with respect to the sidewalk discussion thank you through the chair the expectation and the london plan is to have sidewalks on both sides of the street with the exception of certain uh criteria exceptions um having said that we are through the customer service reference group uh reviewing that and that evaluation of what those conditions would be thank you for sharing that with us council roman thank you and just to clarify this actually has to do more with like sunning dale and hide park area where we don’t have sidewalks on sunning dale and hide park not within the subdivisions but where we’re building out the community but we’re not putting in the infrastructure that goes along with that unless it’s in the subdivision and the developer in some cases are doing them um within the MP it also states that neighborhood connector streets that show on roadmaps are not including cost estimates because they’re developer implemented i think that still remains an issue for me um i have heard from developers with concerns around costs on having to uh cover that that cost and what that cost can mean um in some some subdivisions and i do think in some cases we need to consider them um as potentially uh i think just take them as a consideration within that plan in some subdivisions it may be in the case in some my ward uh where there’s extensive trail systems that the developer is involved with uh having the the cycling infrastructure on the street as well um may not be entirely uh desirable in that area in order to connect best with the trail systems that are there so i think they’re that i’m worried a bit about being overly prescriptive in some of those areas and i just wanted to to flag those but i appreciate hearing from the community on this in the next 30 days thank you councilor ramen and now i am going to turn the chair over to you uh and then councilor truss i’ll put you on the list for a second go i have the chair please go ahead thank you madam presiding officer so um i i’m supportive of where we are today i’m supportive of moving forward with the reef um with the approval notice uh so that we can get that statutory comment period dealt with and move forward um i will say that i think once this document is approved in public it is really important uh where we make this available to the public that the links exist to those other plans because i share councilor ramen’s frustration with i’m going to go back and find a plan from 2016 or even earlier in some cases uh well before either of us were on council um to to figure out what the recommended facility type at that time might have been um i also just want to take the opportunity and i’m going to build on the mayor’s comments here a little bit i think um i i said this uh on the radio yesterday and i’m going to say it again today for those who might be watching um this is a guiding document but it gets reviewed every five years um things will change along the way as the mayor referenced the bus wrap transit is a good example um where the original plan was five legs and we did three because that’s what made sense to the council of the day um and the same is true here this is a guiding document things will change over time none of us have a crystal ball uh to project what 2050 will really look like um heck uh none of us had a crystal ball when i arrived in these chambers in late 2018 to know that in 2020 the world was going to be flipped upside down by a pandemic and supply chains and cost things and everything changed um to add a lead street underpass the brt projects like so many changes in terms of what was anticipated happened and in no way does this bind future councils to approve every single one of these projects as they come forward they will still be dealt with on a project by project basis as timelines develop and i said this publicly yesterday the mayor touched on it um these cost estimates there’s no way we’re going to be able to cover all of these on the property tax base it’s a giant number and senior levels of government are going to have to partner with us uh just as they did on the Adelaide Street underpass on bus wrap transit on heck on the Wayville bike lane in my ward that was largely federal government funded um and so when those opportunities exist what i think this plan does do is give us a map of potential projects where when those funding envelopes open we can say hey this is a good fit for that we’re going to go and ask the feds for money or we’re going to go and ask the province for money and for everyone who who loves to say there’s only one taxpayer that’s true but there are different forms of taxes and property taxes are one of the worst ones so they’re the most regressive because they don’t take into account people’s ability to pay so when we can transfer some of these costs to the federal and the provincial levels uh where the revenue is coming from income tax and consumer taxes where people do have some say over what they’re paying based on their career choices and based on their choices at the cash register uh i think that that’s a more fair form of funding these sorts of projects as they move forward um i also do understand and and i will say i i appreciate miss cradys comments about um the facility types um the design guidelines change and we need to be flexible moving forward um we see that very clearly with bike lanes in the city there are like i don’t know eight different designs out there depending on the time that those they were installed and everybody says well why aren’t they all the same well they were built at different times and we follow different guidelines i know even in conversations with mr mccray um about some roads in my ward over time well the lane width used to be this and then the province changed it to that and so you know you’ve got somewhere it’s three point one meters and somewhere it’s three meters and then those kind of things so knowing that those sort of standards change over time i think some flexibility there is important um i appreciate a lot of work has gone into this from staff um i appreciate the community engagement that’s happened uh i know we had a large community engagement of these clients community center in my ward there was an opportunity for residents to engage there there’s been the get involved online um you know for folks that say um and we do hear this oh well when did you ever ask us well we actually asked you multiple times two years ago three years ago four years ago you did have a chance to weigh in we don’t ask you the day before we’re tendering a project um so we’ve got another 30-day comment period where people can provide some input there um but i think on the whole this is a good base to guide our transportation future thank you returning the chair to you with uh council trust on the list and council trust out if you’d like to go ahead yes thank you very much this will be very brief uh through the through the chair one of the questions that i’m getting from people is there was a project that we thought was almost done two or three years ago with respect to the intersection of of sarnia western and philippis ease yet that seems to have stopped and people just want assurance people want assurance for me that what we’re doing here with this new mobility master plan doesn’t supersede any race or that that’s something that’s already on the books that we’re finishing and maybe there would be a link to it mr i saw you nodding your head did you want to comment on that or do you want the pass that to mr mccray this time okay mr mccray yeah through the chair we recognize the importance of improvements to the sarnia western area the near term improvements are proceeding on philippis ease there are new recommendations in the mmp for uh for western road in particular so we are currently reviewing that and figuring out the best way of considering uh road user disruption cost effectiveness the best way to uh to move forward with improvements and we’ll be uh formulating a plan and bringing that council and future report council trust out thank you and i could pass that on to my residents who are asking me about that intersection and and assure them that um that’s still that’s still happening thank you councilor trussow looking to see if we have other speakers not so van mierbergen importance of road widening in the city of london and particularly in the southwest cannot be overstated um given the population pressures it’s just a matter of complete necessity um i would like to call see separately uh the amendment the amending motion from a and b if that’s possible that is absolutely possible councilor we’ll make sure that the clerk arranges that uh did you want to offer any other comments nope this is all dead thanks okay looking for other speakers and seeing none uh so we are going to ask the clerk to call this we can do a and b together and then we will do see separately so just bear with us for a moment while the clerk separates those and then we will open the votes okay so the first vote is open and this is on parts a and b was in the vote motion carries 13 to 2 now we will open the vote on part c was in the vote motion carries 15 to 0 two colleagues so that completes 4.3 our next item for direction is item 4.4 this is the 2024 climate emergency action plan progress report uh and we have a staff presentation we also have a request for delegation status so i’m going to look to see if we can just get a mover and a seconder for the delegation from n bridge once we deal with that we will then receive the staff presentation and then we will go to the delegation uh for their addition and then we can move to questions and comments so i saw movers and councilor plowsa and ramen for the delegation clerk will just get that ready to open uh the approval of the delegation morkin closing the vote motion carries 15 to 0 you colleagues uh so uh miss shannon and miss sai we appreciate your patience with us we’re going to hear from our staff and then we will come to you uh i know uh n bridge sometimes has to present to legislative committees at queen’s park i hope we’re not quite as as long and getting to you as those can sometimes be um but we’ll hear from mr stanford and then we’ll come to you for your presentation uh so mr stanford uh the floor is yours if you would like to uh present to us your twenty twenty four climate emergency action plan progress report well thank you mr chair uh this is thank my third progress report i’ve presented on the client emergency action plan so i’m very grateful to be doing this i’m also doing it though on behalf of many here at the city who are involved in this production as well as many in the community online we also have mike fabro and james skimming two key architects of this report when we bring this to your attention it comes with a lot of information um in that information of course for many appendices there’s a report that we’ll be touching on shortly with a colleague that’s online as well but always consider a day like today is the start of unpacking the information uh it’s designed for you it’s also designed for the the community that is why it is a long presentation from a slide perspective but each of us will take five minutes to go through and just highlight some of the key aspects we report out on outcome areas there are six altogether in your report of course i refer to different appendices that are key as well as a very important report that’s coming forward today uh he’ll herbert who is a director at sustainability solutions group will be presenting for five minutes pathways to prosperity climate action and the energy transition in london report as you know seep has got about 200 actions that we report on 99% of these are actually initiated we are pleased that 94% can be reported as either on track or complete big for this year is we’re introducing a performance dashboard for seep this is modeled after your strategic plan that is also online it covers the 10 outcome areas and this is our opportunity to have more information available for the community on a regular basis of what’s going on it also allows us to we believe to not have to report back to you as often because in fact in many ways we’ll be providing more information more frequent frequently when we talk about the community a lot of action is occurring there’s room for growth of course business community a lot of action occurring and in fact we’ve been done doing some excellent work with the london chamber of commerce recently when it comes to other levels of government we deal with the provincial government federal government we track other provincial governments as well some of these items conflict but all that information is brought in and it influences what we do here in london in our progress reports we make sure that people are aware of what other levels of government are doing with their programs and how we access them as well when it comes to energy use which of course is fundamental for understanding greenhouse gas we report both separate documents for corporate and for community when it comes to the corporate energy we’ve actually seen an increase in the last year about a 5% increase and that is due to actually more gasoline being used and a new wastewater treatment pumping station coming online when we look at the community we’re actually seeing a reduction in energy being used a small reduction about 1% however the community continues to grow so when we look at that 1% reduction and we translated into energy use per person we actually have reduced that 4% in our three major categories residential the business sector and the transportation sector so we we are trending in the right direction when we look at greenhouse gas of course how that translates from the energy use we’re also up against a grid that actually uses more natural gas now so it does influence greenhouse gas and how we use that not only in our operations but how the community uses that what we are seeing basically is that corporately we have more greenhouse gas produced about 4% compared to 2023 and you can see how comparing one year over another can be influenced by everything from weather and events elsewhere in the world so it’s all tight and it’s all part of our long-term reporting and you left a look at the trends over a long period of time when we look at the community we see that we have had a about a 2% reduction in greenhouse gas but you as you look at what really comes across that rollercoaster line you can see how each year is a little different but it’s looking at the big term the longer term which is just essential in all of this and that’s all part of how we report out our stats and our metrics we keep track of the weather not us our colleagues up at western university the specialist we rely on them for information for local weather regional weather across Canada and even global patterns of what you know what we can expect now and how it impacts us and potentially into the future all part of our outcome areas in the information we report in our report we also highlight a couple of our bigger initiatives we’re working on our climate change adaptation plan we’ve reached an important piece after community input where we’ve just done a separation we’re creating a climate change adaptation framework that is community and business focused and developing a separate plan just for the corporation just to have that separation very similar to what we do with energy use right now that is on the timeline is in your SPPC report today we also provide a very quick update on the climate change reserve fund two projects have got funds that are allocated to from that fund right now and with the remaining dollars we have a number of tentative projects we produced a report earlier this year that talks about how we’re going after FCM and other grants and opportunities out there and essentially the funds that are available and the amount that does come available each year well we can easily allocate that to projects that produce meaningful results what i’d like to do right now is i’m going to bring down the slide my portion here and ask you all to jump in place very pleased to be here today i’m going to give you a short overview of the study that we did called Pathways to Prosperity Climate Action and the Energy Transition in London and the purpose of this project was to evaluate how London can achieve its greenhouse gas emissions targets which are described on the screen we used a very detailed model to explore future scenarios around energy use greenhouse gas emissions and financial implications and we looked at four different scenarios the business is usual scenario which explores what happens if no actions are taken a current measures scenario which looks at the impact of current plans and policies and then a net zero scenario which looked at how to actually get to or as close to as net zero as possible by 2050 rely on carbon capture technologies as well as other low carbon actions and then finally a zero carbon scenario which looked more strongly at electrification i’m going to focus on net zero it included a number of actions in every sector which emits emissions and the big conclusion is that we can actually get there the emissions reductions are decline are declined to just under 400,000 tons by 2050 so we don’t quite get to zero so additional actions will be required later in the subsequent decades this is what the pathway looks like greenhouse gas emissions on the y-axis and time or years on the x-axis the no no additional action scenario is the dotted line along the top and each of the colors represents reductions from different activities the black action is the net zero scenario and that’s what looks like i’m just highlighting some of the actions and so i’m going to focus a little bit on what the financial implications are we track the capital and operating costs of each of the actions and all the related equipment and activities within the model the blue line is capital in this case the pink is avoided carbon tax the dark blue is avoided energy costs and the yellow is operations and maintenance cost savings and the point at which net annual cost becomes savings is 2035 so this is the point in which savings exceed capital expenditures the on average the the investments are approximately 2.3 percent of London’s 2021 GDP which is just over 30 billion dollars here’s what happens when you sum up those investments over the period from 2025 to 2050 for the net zero scenario there’s about well billion dollars of investments and it results in overall net savings of 7.2 billion dollars so that’s a big finding investing in climate action results in net savings for the community and this is all investments by businesses households governments at all levels so it’s not just the municipality it’s it’s everyone and the low carbon or the zero carbon scenario actually does even better it has lower investments and results in 14.3 billion dollars in savings so that that’s a significant financial benefit from taking ambitious climate action all of these investments also generate a lot of jobs approximately 112,000 person years of employment over 25 years which averages to about 5,000 per year that’s on average of course so investments vary from year to year and a person year is one year of employment so it’s not 112,000 jobs in total it’s it’s about 5,000 per year so the conclusions are that the pathways which achieve London’s GHE targets save money stimulate investment and economic development and create jobs and for that reason London’s climate action plan is as much about economic development as climate action and that is the presentation. Great thank you very much we’re going to ask you to stay with us online as counselors may have some questions to direct your way but we’re going to move next to our presentation from our representatives from Enbridge Gas and so welcome Ms. Shannon and Ms. Sei when you are ready.

[1:42:29] Thank you Mr. Chair. One moment Jay did you have one did you have something else that you needed to move here? Mr. Chair there was just one more slide but you know what it’s not important we’ll get to that at another point in time in our conversation. Okay sorry about that didn’t mean to get ahead of you but we will go to Ms. Shannon and Ms. Sei. Thank you Mr. Chair and through you on behalf of Enbridge Gas Ontario we will be highlighting our annual successes and possible DSM opportunities in your community in relation to this report. Please refer to the presentation that we sent you yesterday afternoon throughout our delegation and please note that slide 11 is a duplicate.

[1:43:14] So slide two we exist to deliver the energy that enhances people’s quality of life and have done so for more than 175 years. We safely provide the dependable energy our 3.9 million customers depend on to warm their homes, power their vehicles, and help produce and move the goods we use every day. Slide three we are a proud community partner and just want to mention that we’re pleased to have supported several initiatives in the city of London including London environmental network before us London, upper times river conservation authority, and more. On slide four at Enbridge Gas we’ve been focused on the transition to net zero future for some time and we’re innovating investing new lines of business and sustainable program offerings and conservation renewable gases and cleaner energy technologies and we also have residential commercial industrial low income and more programs for Londoners and London businesses and I’ll now turn it over to Mary.

[1:44:10] Good afternoon everyone. So the residential customers for London that are connected to natural gas is 124,389 customers. Total consumption for last year was 223 million and 96,474 m cubes that they used. So going on to slide five, sorry, slide eight, we’re just talking about the HER which is the home energy retrofit and the measure it updates. So basically what happens is we’ve sold amount of 71,165 heat pumps, attic insulation and roof insulation.

[1:44:59] We’re looking at 26,101 and windows and doors replacements was 206,422. We have on slide nine it has the numbers for the London participation. So back in 2022 it was called HER and then back and then now in 2025 we’ve moved it over to what’s called HRS which is a home retrofit. Basically the same thing but we partnered with the IES. So typically what these slides show you is the participation rate for all of Ontario is about 0.79 of a percent. London is just topping a little over 8% so kudos for you for that. Also looking at on slide 10 it just shows you about the residential program participation for the programmable thermostats and it goes over a year over a year and as you can see in 2023 we had a tremendous year 2024 not quite as much but there’s definitely huge opportunities there. Again slide 11 as Megan mentioned it is a duplicate slide. So if we go over to slide 12 we’re talking about what we refer to as HWP which is home winter proofing and these are income qualified program participation and year over year we’re going over it we have partnered again with the IES. So on this so what it is is just basically one phone call and the service organization will go out and they’ll look after the customers both for the natural gas equipment as well as the electrical so it makes it a lot easier. On slide 13 it just shows a little bit about your commercial and industrial customers and again on slide 14 we’re talking about the participation. So these are program participation where we’ve reached out to various different companies within London area and they have participated in reducing their GHGs and now I’ll turn it over to Megan. Two more slides to go. So slide 15 on this slide we’re highlighting the local successes in the community through our savings by design program and we know that the city of London is the first of first and reimagine Southdale was the first project to ever claim the 50% upfront permanent incentive in 2023. Slide 16 we’ll see what the AMOL conference come visit us at either our reception reception or boost you can’t miss us. And slide 17 thank you for listening we look forward to continuing our work together to support the community. We are proud to be a strong partner in London and with that we’ll answer any questions you may have.

[1:47:56] Thank you very much and again we appreciate your patience waiting for us to get to you today and for coming to present to us. So I am now going to look to council to because we had the earlier vote to receive the delegation. Can I get a motion to receive the reports and then we can move to questions and answers. So we moved by Councillor Hill here seconded by Councillor Cuddy thank you gentlemen and so that is on the floor now. Now we can go to questions comments and our delegations are here so you can direct them to our delegates from Enbridge as well as our consultant or Mr. Stanford.

[1:48:41] Councillor Trussa. Thank you thank you. There’s a lot to receive in this report so even though a lot of the reading was not text but on charts it there was a lot of good information here and I thank you for that. I want to go to page 14 on Mr. Stanford’s slides. GHC emissions community this is under subdivision five greenhouse guests CHG emissions and I’m looking at this chart and I noticed that the London’s targets are a little more aggressive than well they’re more aggressive than the federal governments and the federal governments are more aggressive than the province we seem to be on target for the province. I’m looking at that red line that takes us to 2024 and I’m wondering what else could the city of London be doing that would help us get get down by 2030 to that to to that green to that green line which is the CAP milestone for London it just seems as if looking at the trajectory for how that red line has been the emissions to date have been proceeding over the years I there would have to be something a little more I don’t know if the right word is drastic or aggressive or unusual or not not keeping with current practice. How do we get that red line to go further down because it just seems like it’s crept up a bit and we’re not making progress. Mr. Stanford. It is a challenge that we all have actually when we look at the trajectory there you can see as I’ve mentioned before the rollercoaster 2030 is five years away for the turnaround that’s required not only here in London but almost at every city in Canada they’re facing the same struggle it’s the movement is not occurring in the transportation sector or the household energy efficiency sector the way it needs to be there’s movement and that’s good and there’s good news it’s just not moving fast enough project though that we had before and discussion with the CAP’s committee are just two days ago said is setting the stage for improvements the mobility master plan which you’ve just had before today is setting the stage for improvements so we are improving upon our foundation but it will require Londoners businesses visitors and the corporation to do its share are to do its best to move on the target we do know that though if you don’t hit a 2030 target the way they’ve been outlined here is referred to as doing our fair share when we established this three years ago the world was a different place we have to be we have to reflect on that things have changed therefore as we look into the future there will be more heavy lifting in the future so as staff here I can speak for all we’re not panicking because there is a long runway we have to have the continued action and support at all levels of government and throughout the community continue I apologize that’s a little long but anytime I look at these targets I get nervous myself but then I do look at there’s there is a long haul to 2050 if we continue to do more counselor thank you and I’m I’m not placing blame any place and I’m not faulting particularly your your department I’m wondering if not today but I’m wondering if at some point in the near future it might not be a good idea to go through the particular provisions that are in the municipal act that grant the city of London powers to to to deal with environmental and health questions so we can better understand what would what would be within our purview as the city to maybe move these numbers ahead I’m not going to get in I’m not going to get into a number of legal questions today about at what point does it become actionable but I’m just I’m just hoping that at some point we can maybe do a workshop or just a presentation just running through those municipal act sections again and understanding how the case law has empowered or not empowered Ontario jurisdictions to be more aggressive on climate change my my review of of the case law especially the recent case law is we have a lot of policy space where we can be taking out though where we could be engaging in slightly more aggressive regulations which I know would be controversial and I’m not putting any on the table today but I just hope we can have that discussion in while this council is still here so we can set the stage for the next council thank you answer Frank thank you and given this is my favorite topic I have lots of questions so my first would be to you all from SSG I’m wondering I noticed on the chart it included the carbon tax so I was wondering based on that chart would we still receive net benefit in a couple years even though the carbon tax has largely been taken away history there through the chair yes in both cases this this work was done prior to the cancellation of the carbon tax which is why it is still in there and there is still an industrial carbon tax but yes in in both cases in both the scenarios there would be a net financial benefit for the community if these scenarios were implemented. Councilor Frank thank you just want to confirm additionally I really love that this will be sent towards the consultant who’s doing the economic development work if this motion passes I do think it’s really important to highlight the incredible economic benefit that comes along with doing green infrastructure and green development work additionally I was hopeful to hear based on the consultant’s report as well if London’s on track to achieve our targets by 2030 or 2050 just using the SEAP action plan and following that through I was a little bit unclear if we would be hitting our targets if we did everything that was in our plan by 2030 and 2050 both targets.

[1:55:39] I’m sorry were you directing that to Mr. Stanford or Mr. Revere or both? Okay let’s go to Mr. Revere first and then we’ll go to Mr. Stanford. Yes so the through the chair the the businesses plan scenario represents the policies programs that have been committed by the both the city and other levels of government and it doesn’t fully achieve the targets so additional actions would be required. Mr. Stanford. Thank you and through the chair I agree with the comment you heard the key part here is when we look at what is in SEAP right now and we look at the changes that are occurring in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada with the five years available no it will not be possible at the current level of activity that’s occurring here in London that has been further confirmed by the consultant in the modeling exercise so 2030 please I can only emphasize 2030 was a milestone target described as London doing its fair share at a point in time.

[1:56:47] I think any municipality and we’re in contact with many is they’re looking at that target of 2030 and looking and saying things have changed when we all wrote our reports. Now it’s a matter of bearing down and looking at the report and the economic opportunities that are before us but it will require a longer period of time. It will not be 2030. Councillor Frank. Thank you and fear not I share your optimism unlike perhaps David Suzuki as recently announced. This is actually a question if it is deemed fit to the mayor. I was wondering given as part of the report it’s demonstrated that London’s greenhouse gas emissions are 17 percent higher than they would have been if Ontario’s grid intensity had remained at 2018 levels as the province is adding more and more gas to the electrical grid. I’m just wondering given the direction I believe in January for the mayor to go and speak with the minister of energy how those conversations went and if they’re aware and making efforts to reduce their gas contribution to electrical grid.

[1:57:52] So I’ll allow the mayor to answer that if he wishes. I don’t think it’s too far outside the scope what’s in front of us meaning that that was only in January and I know that that seems like a long way away when it’s summer outside but as we all know the pace of the provincial government that might might not be a lot to report on but mayor if you want to answer. Yes well and I will say it’s always easy to access the provincial government when they have an election because they want to talk to everybody and there was one since then and I did have a chance to talk to the Ontario Energy Minister through engagements where we were both I believe it was I think it was at FC Amerimo and had a chance to talk about this particular item based on the council direction and did make the minister aware of the changes in composition of natural gas and the energy grid and how it impacted the targets that London had I believe the grid moved from slightly above 90 percent to is it down near Mr. Stanford at like eighty four eighty six or eighty four okay percent emissions free so obviously that has an impact on us and an impact on our numbers it’s clearly articulated in the report so the minister is aware of that now what the provincial government has said is their strategy in the short term given in in their documents they expect an increased energy man of I think 75 percent over the next 25 years they in the short term see natural gas as a component that they will invest in but as you’ve seen probably from the media they’re also investing significantly in nuclear and small nuclear reactors as well and and it is part of the energy plan that they at the time he said we were going to release but I think they have since released it that their desire is to move to a 99 percent emissions free electricity grid by 2050 based on their significant what they call is the most significant investment in nuclear technology across the continent so whether that comes to fruition or not I don’t know but in the short term natural gas plays a role in their the provinces energy needs based on the increase in demand in the long term they do have a commitment to moving towards more nuclear based technology and I think if that comes to fruition much like this put a negative upward pressure on on our emissions based on our electrification if they turn it around and actually make more of the grid zero emission then we would have the positive benefit the other way although that’s dependent upon other decisions of other levels of government I would say though the continued electrification of our assets is not necessarily a bad thing because it’s still although not 100 percent emissions free it’s it’s still a significant portion of the energy grid is is powered by you know nuclear wind hydro power those other things but yeah so long way to say he’s aware I made him aware natural gas is part of their energy strategy they have long-term strategies in nuclear they intend on trying to to grow that out by 2050 Councillor Frank thank you yes not the answer that I was hoping for but I appreciate that you spoke with him and then the next question I had was for folks from Enbridge who thank you for attending and also thank you for answering some of my questions in advance one of the ones I was hoping to direct towards you was just in regards to the work the collaborative work between the city and the folks at Enbridge and moving forward I’m just wondering if we can get a better sense of like how much of the demand side management funds are being spent locally I know you’ve listed projects and amounts of gas but I’m more interested in like how much money is being spent locally and how much GHG reductions are happening locally in London so that it can help our staff as well plan for those I didn’t really notice it on the the slides but I’m wondering if you have that specific information for the London area sure on the slides it should show you the GHG reduction as far as the money being spent the way the framework works is it has basically market transformation and another area would be like a coupon area so if you you know you you buy something the coupons back and the other ones are customized so it’s really difficult to give you a price or an amount of how much we spent on London simply because everything is done by project as opposed to looking at areas but as far as like we are in constant communication with Jamie and out of the city and anything that comes new comes through with the programs you know we make them aware and we’re also looking at doing a lot of a lot more social media posts so that your residents are aware of the different programs because really that’s really the number one obstacle with participation as awareness. Councillor Frank. Thank you I appreciate that information and then I had a follow-up from one of the questions that we exchanged via email so and again thank you for replying to those so understanding that it looks like the gas supply mix ranges from about 50/50 mixed between Canadian and American it sounds like you’ve got a strategy for procuring it when it’s cheapest I’m just wondering giving the ongoing trade war between Kennedy United States if there’s any risk of purchasing from the United States for that to significantly increase if you are aware of any of those kinds of issues? Through you through the chair not at this time thank you for your question Councillor Frank but we are monitoring the the ongoing discussion closely and we’ll be making those next steps if we hear any news moving forward.

[2:03:43] Councillor Frank. Thank you and just one final one I believe again thank you for letting me know about the diverse portfolio of renewable energy projects that Enbridge is investing in. I’m just wondering if you do have the actual percentage of the portfolio that is renewable. Again I saw the financial numbers but I’m wondering what percentage of Enbridge’s portfolio is renewable given the efforts that London’s making to try and move towards a net zero area. We’ll go back to our delegates. Through the chair thank you. Yeah so as we mentioned in our response back to via email we just have on our website listed all the different projects that we have across Ontario as well as at our US utilities so we don’t have the percentage but we do have which projects are the renewable fuel source the name plate capacity as well as the jurisdiction and we’re also happy to share with that that with members as well. Councillor Frank. Thank you yes given that is it all right given that you had sent this all via email for me to circulate it to the rest of council because I exchange a couple more questions I do think it’s really good background for all of council to have. Through the chair yes of course and again please reach out to Mary and I if you have any further questions maybe forward. Councillor. Thank you those are all my questions for everybody but thank you for the update and the direction that we’re moving in. Thank you Councillor Frank looking for other speakers and I’ve got Councillor Pribble and then Councillor McAllister.

[2:05:19] Thank you. Through the chair I have a question for Embridge and our slide 14 and 15 where is the commercial industrial and the reduction of GHT and I just want to ask you for the builders the reduction in the cost would be for example through the rebates is that correct? Well let’s ask our our delegates. Okay as far as if it’s so if you’re talking about builders and developers yeah I mean you’re correct in that way but there also is incentives available for them as well. So depending on what program they participate like we’ve had a really huge success with our savings by design program both affordable and commercial so a lot number of London developers have participated so not only are they future-proofing their buildings and you know with any you know if it’s condos for the residents but also they do get incentives from Embridge as well.

[2:06:16] Councillor Pribble. Thank you so a couple of the last comments so they greatly appreciate it as the lowering the cost they actually can explore other more efficient technologies and they’re asking if there will be any way to decrease and streamline the paperwork and application they would appreciate it even more. Thank you. I’m going to take that as a comment so appreciate that Councillor McAllister. Thank you through the chair. I try once to take the question maybe Mr. Stanford, maybe with the consultant.

[2:06:50] I’m just curious in terms of I know obviously 2030 it’s aspirational but with the you know unprecedented growth like London’s experience have we factored that in? Are there you know mitigating things that we’ve had to work into the plan to adjust for the population growth? I’m just curious how that works into the plan as it moves along. Mr. Stanford. Through the chair that is all included in the plan and that is why we kind of report a couple different ways to bring forward those numbers because when we consider growth it suggests we’re not doing as well individually as we are.

[2:07:26] It’s just that collectively we have to always do that much more so by growing as a city which is the goal of council we just have to make sure we’re accommodating that. That was also in the projections of SG as they looked into the future for us especially from the economic situation. Councillor McAllister you’re good looking for other speakers. Councillor Hopkins. Yeah thank you Mr. Chair and first of all thank you to Enbridge for being here. I really appreciated the information and the updates. I want to thank staff for the report. I know there’s a lot of information here but I’m starting to look at this SEAP as an economic plan almost and the importance of this plan in our city and obviously what we get out out of that. Mr. Stanford you talked about the flexibility that’s needed and how things change.

[2:08:25] Things are very different too when this was implemented three years ago to what it is now. I know as a municipality we can be flexible. We learn that through COVID to be nimble and to react but I want to sort of as I follow this plan really want to understand the importance of where we need to be nimble and if you could just more or less share where we have to go now I know I heard transportation is something that is really considered we can improve there but as I look at this plan every year I want to be updated and want to know where we need to go now. I wonder if you can just delve into that a little bit more. Thank you. Mr. Stanford. Thanks and through the chair as I mentioned before and you referred to how we move around in the city and how we live in the city are really really key drivers and all of this.

[2:09:39] One of the key next steps for us now that we have all this additional information on the economic discussion. The idea that investment is required capital investment to get those returns on investment and the jobs that we heard about and the financial benefit. What we want to do over the next six months is to further unpack that report that has just come to you today and to look at those economic opportunities because those are the eyeglasses that we don’t normally look through right now and it’s going to require a lot of eyes looking on this because in many ways things aren’t perfect and we know that but the modeling often makes assumptions about perfect economies and when there’s not competition for capital and that’s not always the case sometimes it is sometimes it’s not that all has to be factored in and that has to be factored in by the right people economists who actually really understand how markets work.

[2:10:39] What we continue to do in our climate emergency action plan though is to create those opportunities for universities for businesses to realize that London is a place to continue to look at and to bring opportunities forward and that is what you see in the plan here today is that continued look at how do we look to the future by creating those opportunities and the report that you have in front of you today in Appendix E is exactly that report it helps to unpack some of those key areas. Council. I really appreciate that and I’m also reflective of what you said before about bearing down and I hear you loud and clear as we look at economic development and our city how we move forward and how we can get to our targets too.

[2:11:23] So thank you. Thank you. Councilor Hopkins can you see if there are any other speakers seeing none? I’m just going to take a moment if you’ll indulge me from the chair to say first of all to our Enbridge representatives again thank you for coming. Also thank you to the to you for the shout out to the reimagined Southdale project as a member of the LMCH board along with Councilor McAllister. I know we’re we’re very proud of that work and the partnership that we’ve had with Enbridge to make those energy efficient units as well.

[2:12:01] I also want to note to colleagues it’s not the last time we’re going to have him in front of us but today does mark Mr. Stanford’s final community emergency action plan update report to us as he will be retiring later this year after decades of phenomenal service to our city and he’s taken on this job not only independent but also all the other work we’ve tasked him to do on the recycling and the agreement program rollout and everything else that he’s doing he has been the lead on the climate emergency action plan so I just want to take a moment to recognize that this is the last time he’s coming to us to provide an update on this portfolio we’re not letting you go just yet but as we can see from the detail of this report you’ve got a tremendous workload on your plate and we’re very grateful I think I speak for all of us here we’re very grateful for the work that you have put in to this on top of all of your other duties. Now we’re going to call the vote but sorry Councillor Bionmeer we’re going to miss your hand up on the video screen I’m going to go to you quickly sir I’m not quickly you can have your full five minutes if you want but quickly in terms of having missed you my apologies. Thank you sir yeah I too would like to thank our presentation today from Enbridge and thank the two individuals coming out speaking to us today and reminding us of just how important natural gas is not only to the Ontario and frankly Canadian economy but right here in London one of the main apparently there are four major underground storage units for natural gas in all of North America only four one of them is just down the street just outside of Sarnia so it gives you an idea of how much there is to tap into in terms of this ready supply when we hear the figures that were iterated to us for example 124,389 customers here in London it shows just how important to our local economy and this resource truly is and I thank them for reminding us of that fact and as far as the grid goes in the province of Ontario it is and remains one of the cleanest in terms of CO2 emissions of anywhere in the world given our God given hydroelectric power that of course runs on renewable water the nuclear component that we have the use of natural gas as a stop gap and increasing that use while more nuclear comes online is very responsible what would we do in the alternative have businesses shut down roundouts blackouts no I don’t think so again natural gas is one of the cleanest of the fossil fuels in fact it is the cleanest I look at the organization that I work with not dissimilar to hundreds of others certainly in the region we have to rely on the electricity grid and to maintain and attract more customers we have to prove the emissions that are coming out of our electricity grid that we are using to our customers and future customers and Ontario consistently comes forth with as I said earlier with the some of the cleanest in terms of CO2 emissions anywhere so again thank you to our presenters and thank you chair thank you councilor van mier we’re good so now unless anyone else wants to speak I am going to call the question and ask the clerk to open the vote Councillor Stevenson the vote no closing the vote motion carries 13 to 2 thank you colleagues excuse me and again thank you to our presenters before we move into our section six of our schedule with confidential we do have to you under deferred matters deal with 2.1 from the consent agenda this was pulled by councilor trussow with an added this the second report of the governance working group and so we’ll get that dealt with now so councilor trussow if you want to speak to your added yes thank thank you chair I’m going to try to keep this brief I’ve been I’ve been talking about this online on the media and in previous meetings what I’m asking first of all I want to make it clear what I’m asking for and what I’m not asking for I’m not asking for us to change our system by any vote that I’m planning today or at the next meeting I’m asking for us to better understand what our options are and the reason for that is it’s important for people to understand that with all of the new powers that we have under the strong mayor system which is extensive very broad the the selection of the deputy mayor and the determination of the role of the deputy mayor is not one of those strong mayor powers and I think that’s an important marker to to start with therefore it is it is it is within the scope and authority and I would say a responsibility of the municipal council to think about from time to time what we’re doing whether we could do things differently and what the other options are out there especially since some of the options are changing so the underlying the underlying amendment that I have here is with an environmental scan of comparable municipalities regarding the selection process and role description for the position of deputy mayor that’s all I’m asking for through this motion now I also want to say that I’ve done a lot of this initial work I don’t think this is asking Steph to take on a big burden because this frankly is very easy work to do because when you go to a city’s website it just jumps out at you and I’ve done a preliminary scan and I’m in the process of putting together a fuller report and spreadsheet but I know that the council prefers to get this kind of information directly from Steph so basically we have the status quo option we have rotating the position we have a selection more directly by city council and we have the direct election by the electorate but there’s one other new option that is on the table now that is very exciting and I’m not saying that we should enact this right now but it’s something we should think about and that’s the Burlington deputy mayor with portfolio option and what they do in Burlington which I think is very innovative is that those members of council who want to want to take on responsibility become the deputy mayor with the portfolio and those portfolios correspond to areas of focus within this strategic plan and one of the advantages of that and I’ve spoken to that people there one of the advantages of that is you start to think outside of your ward you start it forces you within your portfolio a portfolio would be housing it would be transit it would be it would be homelessness in housing it would be transit and mobility it would be the environment and climate change that we talked about today it forces you to think about things on a municipal wide level and I’m not saying we should do that but I think we should think about what the advantage is in terms of collaboration and capacity building among councilors is under that under that option so I’m not I’m not choosing one of these five today but I would like to have a report back from staff just just looking at what the other jurisdictions in Ontario are doing and I don’t mean all four hundred plus so councilor you you’ve been using most of your time so far sorry to interrupt you but to justify your amendment you have a minute left I need you to put your actual amendment on the floor yes and I will put the amendment on the floor and I will reserve the rest of my short short amount of time left to rebut anything that is said thank you thank you first of all is there a seconder for the amendment councilor palosa okay so that’s on the floor and we will start a speaker’s list now and I’m going to ask councilor ramen to take the chair because I’m going to speak to this thank you I have the floor and I’ll go to council palosa thank you madam presiding officer a question through you I did say I was not the governance working group I know there was a discussion there um and being a second term councilor we we’ve seen different deputy mayors and different mayors choose different layouts a question through you to mr. shelters or another clerk um is there currently anything the procedural by-law that would indicate how the terms of the deputy mayor go or the selection well I know the selection is always the mayor recommends and council as an entirety will say yay or nay um and if not is it procedurally in order to eventually create a something that would prescribe best practices always understanding it always do it notwithstanding flaws uh and change the appointments as we go I’ll go to the clerk thank you uh through the presiding officer so section 2.5 simply indicates that in the absence of of the mayor uh the deputy mayor may act instead of the mayor and the council shall appoint an acting mayor to act in the place instead of mayor it goes on to talk about various rights um powers and authority now the council procedure by-law is simply a required by-law uh that council passes and that’s distinct from any powers that may flow from uh municipal act or elsewhere and the municipal act uh is uh silent on uh much of the the deputy mayor um aspects now that depends on your interpretation of various parts of 6.1 and 6.1 deals with the strong mayor powers the mayor of course can delegate certain authorities so to answer your question uh is it procedurally in order to uh make changes to consider various options yes I would I would consider that it is uh council has the power to change its procedure by-law it could add uh definitions for uh various things within the procedure by-law and there are other municipalities that choose to do uh different things as uh one of the counselors has just mentioned councilor palissa thank you uh madam presenting officer uh fully aware of the the by-law for acting mayor powers uh when the mayor is unavailable and and appoints someone in his absence um I guess my my main point of interest is looking to see where the municipal act is silent if council does create something of best practices of this group of recommendations going forward for pre next councils to consider um having done an environmental scan and making recommendations realizing the next council at least have the information um and at any time could do not with standing and certainly do their own things um the motion before us wouldn’t address it but part of my other concern is also at our inaugural meeting we make these decisions that in this case is a full term of council when so many are also new to the table and learning the process that there would be a document that they could refer to um for a conversation of a prior council of what they had found out and left as information for them to potentially consider that just my overall comments more procedural and interest and that was why i seconded councilor truss house motion thank you i’ll look for other speakers about the deputy mayor go ahead thank you madam presiding officer so i’m new encourage colleagues to defeat uh this amendment by councilor trussow and return to the original recommendation of the governance working group um i won’t speak to all the specifics of the entire discussion we had uh councilor frank had a a very uh clear direction to have an alternate so that if council was not to support the mayor’s selection uh that the mayor would have to bring forward another name that’s why this was referred to a future meeting so that the uh in specific administration could bring that back to us for approval before it came here i think we should stay the course on that and i speak to this uh being in the role now but also having worked with two prior deputy mayor’s in my last term of council since the abolition of the board of control the appointment of the deputy mayor has been by bylaw the prerogative of the mayor to bring forward a selection it’s actually a good policy because it allows every incoming mayor flexibility we had a mayor who brought forward uh a recommendation to appoint two deputy mayors that didn’t turn out so well and then the next mayor decided to appoint a deputy mayor only for two years uh and then decided that he wanted to change course and appoint a different deputy mayor our current mayor chose to appoint a deputy mayor for four years all of those however would also be subject to the mayor deciding to go a different direction even mid-term um and change uh their recommendation for deputy mayor but i also think it’s really important to underscore a couple of things yes strong mayor powers don’t speak to the mayor being able to appoint the deputy mayor but you know what they do speak to the mayor whether it’s our current mayor future mayors mayors and other cities mayors control the appointment of chairs of committees our current mayor has chosen to use those strong mayor powers to make chairing this committee the responsibility of the deputy mayor the audit committee the responsibility of the budget chair the governance working group the responsibility of the deputy mayor those are in a strong mayor direction so the mayor can in fact dictate without council’s approval uh through a strong mayor direction what some of those deputy mayor duties are the mayor can also simply choose not to ask the deputy mayor to do anything and have somebody who’s nothing more than a ceremonial deputy mayor and does ribbon cuttings and speaks at events and and nothing further um our current mayor has chosen not to do that but to assign some specific tasks and and some work uh to my file as well as to counselor plosas file as the budget chair but i’ll tell you that flexibility of the mayor having the trust and choice of the person that he wants to assign with those specific tasks um is not only important for smooth governance but it is also important in terms of the fact that they can choose through their control of committee chairs to do those things whether they choose to exercise those powers or not depends on on who the mayor is and how they choose to use to exercise them depends on who the mayor is um but i what i honestly what i see here and i i say this with with all due respect um but i i see it as a solution in in search of a problem because every mayor has been able to make the role um according to how they want to lead the council as the mayor so i would encourage us to stick with what we’ve got whoever the next mayor is will make their choice and and shape the role around who they choose to appoint there um but i will also say that if you think that they there’s that a rotation works or there that there’s not a learning curve to this um that’s not true um there’s a significant amount of of work that goes into it a learning curve and it’s not something that you just pick up and do because every six months we want to change who the deputy mayor is or every year every two years um that’s actually a really good way to make sure that the role of really doesn’t do much um and just as uh committee chairs have some important responsibilities in those roles uh so too does this role uh and as i said i’ve worked with two previous deputy mayors in both cases thirty second the the expectations of mayor holder of deputy mayor helmer were even then different than the expectations of deputy mayor morgan so we need to let the mayor have the flexibility to uh customize the deputy mayor role because at the end of the day they’re the only ones elected citywide thank you returning the chair to you and i have no one yet on the speakers let’s have council thank you for recognizing me and i just want to make a couple comments here i’ve been on council i think this is 11 years every mayor is a little different the composition of the deputy mayor is is very different too i do appreciate this conversation though um i think from time to time we need to sort of have these discussions i you know i appreciate where the councilor is coming from um i in the past have encouraged um or brought four emotions to to look at the deputy mayor and and have a different composition or or look at um maybe even having a woman as a deputy mayor from time to time and and i agree with the deputy mayor it does change it’s different each time um i i won’t be supporting the motion but it it has made me reflect when we read the rationale behind this about strong mayor powers and how they work and how different they are and having a better understanding about strong mayor powers it just makes me want to uh understand a lot more uh on how we now govern here at council but i do appreciate the conversation thank you thank you councilor hockens any any other speakers? councilor paloza thank you um i appreciate the conversation as well and i’m content waiting for the report to come back out of gwg and we’ll also be a no on this today um just a question through you uh the clerk not starting a coup not over throwing uh the deputy mayor is you never want two banded parents to go head to head or um coaches and people involved um knowing that the deputy mayor position is not a strong mayor power as in a committee appointment that deputy that the mayor does have the power to do should a council choose that they partway through an appointment that they’re not pleased with the deputy mayor appointment is it just the simple one half vote of council should they wish to remove the deputy mayor and ask the mayor to appoint someone else not saying that problem in this just there are some wild municipalities across Ontario having some interesting issues so just procedurally since it’s not under the strong mayor powers is that the council procedural by-law how it be enacted should there ever be an issue at a council but not this one because we got it let’s have our city clerk answer that thank you through the chair a by-law that’s passed by council is within the control of council now whether the mayor chooses to then uh delegate certain powers that uh he or she holds that’s a different question councilor good looking for any other speakers councilor mccallister thank you through the chair just wanted to give my two cents on this um i appreciate what council trust i was trying to do with this um i remember when we had this discussion at governance got me thinking as well um so where i’m currently at with it and i appreciate the comments from the current deputy mayor but i do think this is one of those things where we have to think to the future um i personally think and we’ve seen this in the past that this role changes um how it’s split up you know sometimes you have two um in this case we have just the one deputy mayor but uh i i i think it’s important that we provide this information for future councils i think in hearing what’s being said i understand that the mayor can but i think it in terms of having a collegial council it’s important for the mayor to also take on board what council has to say and i think this is a decision that should be taken as the whole uh i understand in terms of the mayor having priorities and wanting to choose someone but i do think in terms of what other municipalities do we should afford future councils the opportunity to to have this information and if they decide to you know make changes um i think this is important work that should be on the table and they’re for reference for them to look at if they want to make a different decision moving forward thank you councilor mccallister councilor layman thank you i will support this we’re three quarters of the way into our term here in my experiences my second term every council and mayor has their own personality um and as such i don’t presume to uh direct or influence the next council’s choice this is something that a council should discuss uh at that appropriate time in their term i don’t need a staff report to tell me a little different different options uh in the surrounding communities i can easily look that up and and see what what there is our staff have got so much on their plate right now um this is one thing that i don’t personally think uh that i would like to see added to their plate uh if the next term wants to debate or discuss this more power to them um this council uh is operating on the direction that we’ve given it uh early on in this term and uh i see no need uh at this time to um to muddy the waters that exhaust my speaker’s list in order of process i’ll come back to you in a second councilor trussle just from a process perspective um so we’ve got a modified part b that councilor trussle brought forward so what we have in escribe is the governance working group report be received with a modified part b should that be defeated then we would revert back to the original language just so folks know so we’ll call part b first if that fails it reverts back to the original passes then we deal with the rest of the motion um so uh councilor trussle you’ve got about 45 seconds left yes okay um two things through the chair it’s exactly because we’re towards the end of our council term that i think that this is the appropriate time to do this that’s point number one otherwise the new council is going to start from scratch they’re going to have their strategic plan they’re going to have their budget next thing they know they’re going to be halfway through two-thirds through um i think that if we get this environmental scan at least it’s in the file and they’ve got that to look at and and yes we could we could all spend some time and uh and and look it up i’ve spent a lot of time doing that and it’s not it’s not really hard it’s not really hard to do um the next point i want to make is um the resistance to change is problematic we always have to be thinking forward ten seconds council in terms of what we want to do in the future this this amendment gives us information upon which we or a future council can make that decision so i think it’s good policy to get this information on the council table now thank you thank you councilor that’s your time i have no one else on the speakers list so i’m going to ask the clerk to open the vote on part b first and then we will deal with the balance forcing the vote motion fails five to ten thanks that will revert part b back to its original state uh can i get a mover and seconder councilor plosa councilor cutting this now is the entire governance working group report report be received with the appropriate actions this is the full report now councilor that’s just open but the voting is still open so you can still reopen it and change if you want sir for error losing the vote motion carries 15 to 0 thank you colleagues so we now move to section six of our agenda this is the confidential section uh we have two items uh for which to go in a closed session the first is client solicitor client privilege device personnel matters about identifiable individual labor relations employee negotiations the second is communications necessary for the purpose and directions of instructions to officers employees of or agents of the municipality proposed pending acquisition of land by a local board trade secret scientific technical commercial financial or labor relations information uh as outlined on the agenda itself so looking for a mover and a seconder to move into closed session councilor cutting and councilor hillier we will ask the clerk to open the vote for the closed session answer truss out closing the vote motion carries 15 to 0 thank you colleagues so we’ll just need a minute to get the appropriate people in the room and the chambers secured all right the clerk informed me the streams are back up uh we are ready to resume in public session uh and as councilor ramen did have the heavy lifting and uh chairing today and asked the mayor to report out from closed session yes i’m happy to report progress for the uh matters that were on the uh added agenda as well as the additional matter that we went into camera for thank you your worship that concludes our closed session report out and we are just looking now for a motion to adjourn else are cuddy and hopkins and we can do this one by hand all in favor Motion carries.

[2:45:44] Have a great rest of your day.